Harnessing the Full Potential of RRAMs through Scalable and Distributed In-Memory Computing with Integrated Error Correction

Abstract

Exponential growth in global computing demand is exacerbated due to the higher-energy requirements of conventional architectures, primarily due to energy-intensive data movement. In-memory computing with Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) addresses this by co-integrating memory and processing, but faces significant hurdles related to device-level non-idealities and poor scalability for large computing tasks. Here, we introduce MELISO+ (In-Memory Linear Solver), a full-stack, distributed framework for energy-efficient in-memory computing. MELISO+ proposes a novel two-tier error correction mechanism to mitigate device non-idealities and develops a distributed RRAM computing framework to enable matrix computations exceeding dimensions of $65,000\times65,000$. This approach reduces first- and second-order arithmetic errors due to device non-idealities by over $90\%$, enhances energy efficiency by three to five orders of magnitude, and decreases latency 100-fold. Hence, MELISO+ allows lower-precision RRAM devices to outperform high-precision device alternatives in accuracy, energy and latency metrics. By unifying algorithm-hardware co-design with scalable architecture, MELISO+ significantly advances sustainable, high-dimensional computing suitable for applications like large language models and generative AI.