Bitmap Index: A Processing-in-Memory Reconfigurable Implementation

During the years, microprocessors went through impressive performance improvement thanks to technology development. CPUs became able to process great quantities of data. Memories also faced growth especially in density, but as far as speed is concerned the improvement did not proceed as the same rate. Processing-in-Memory (PIM) consists in enhancing the storage unit of a system, adding computing capabilities to memory cells, partially eliminating the need to transfer data from memory to execution unit. In this paper, a PIM architecture is presented for bulk bitwise operation mapped on the Bitmap Index application. The architecture is a memory array with logical computing abilities inside the cells. The array is a configurable modular architecture distributed in different banks, each bank is able to perform a different operation at the same time. This architecture has remarkable performance being faster than other solutions available in literature.