Testing and Reliability of Computing-In Memories: Solutions and Challenges

Various computing-in-memory designs have been proposed as a possible computing architecture for the data-centric computing applications. Existing memories such as random access memories, flash memories, and emerging memories can be modified as computing-in-memories (CIMs) to support computing operations. In CIMs, computing operations typically are more complex and have smaller sensing margin than the read operation. Furthermore, storage devices of emerging memories are more unreliable than transistors. Those make the testing and reliability of CIMs become worse. In this paper, we first review existing testing and reliability-enhancement methods for CIMs. Then, testing and reliability challenges of CIMs are discussed.