GreenFlag: Protecting 3D-Racetrack Memory from Shift Errors

Abstract

Racetrack memory is an exciting emerging memory technology with the potential to offer far greater capacity and performance than other non-volatile memories. Racetrack memory has an unusual error model, though, which precludes the use of the typical error coding techniques used by architects. In this paper, we introduce GreenFlag, a coding scheme that combines a new construction for Varshamov-Tenegolts codes with specially crafted delimiter bits that are placed between each codeword. GreenFlag is the first coding scheme that is compatible with 3D racetrack, which has the benefit of very high density but the limitation of a single read/write port per track. Based on our implementation of encoding/decoding hardware, we analyze the trade-offs between latency, code length, and code rate; we then use this analysis to evaluate the viability of racetrack at each level of the memory hierarchy.