Hardware

Seminar in Comp. Arch. - L7: Virtual Memory (Spring 2026)

Onur Mutlu Lectures
Onur Mutlu Lectures•Apr 2, 2026

Why It Matters

Virtual memory remains a linchpin for scaling performance and reliability, and emerging memory‑centric approaches promise to reshape data‑intensive workloads across cloud, AI, and biotech sectors.

Key Takeaways

  • •Seminar explores virtual memory fundamentals and emerging challenges
  • •Includes deep dives into processing-in-memory technologies
  • •Highlights security issues like RowHammer attacks
  • •Connects memory advances to genomics acceleration
  • •Provides extensive open-access lecture videos and papers

Pulse Analysis

Virtual memory has long been the invisible workhorse that abstracts physical storage, enabling applications to run larger than the underlying RAM. At ETH Zürich’s Spring 2026 seminar, experts revisited these core principles while spotlighting the pressure points that modern workloads place on memory hierarchies. By linking classic paging mechanisms to today’s heterogeneous compute fabrics, the lecture framed virtual memory as a bridge between legacy software models and next‑generation hardware innovations.

A significant portion of the seminar’s value lay in its focus on memory‑centric computing. The recommended readings—spanning a modern primer on processing‑in‑memory, recent advances in DRAM‑based acceleration, and comprehensive analyses of the RowHammer vulnerability—illustrate how re‑thinking memory as an active compute substrate can alleviate the "memory wall" that hampers AI and data‑analytics pipelines. Security researchers also benefit from the retrospective on RowHammer, which details mitigation strategies crucial for maintaining system integrity as memory densities climb.

Beyond theory, the seminar connected memory breakthroughs to real‑world applications, notably genome analysis. Papers on algorithm‑architecture co‑design demonstrate how intelligent memory systems can slash sequencing runtimes, a boon for personalized medicine and biotech firms. By offering open‑access slides, PDFs, and a curated YouTube playlist, ETH Zürich equips students, engineers, and investors with actionable insights to drive innovation in cloud services, high‑performance computing, and emerging bio‑informatics markets.

Original Description

Seminar in Computer Architecture, ETH Zürich, Spring 2026 (https://safari.ethz.ch/architecture_seminar/spring2026/doku.php?id=schedule)
Lecture 7: Virtual Memory
Lecturer: Konstantinos Kanellopoulos and Prof. Onur Mutlu
Date: 2 April 2026
Recommended Reading:
====================
A Modern Primer on Processing in Memory
Memory-Centric Computing: Solving Computing's Memory Problem
Memory-Centric Computing: Recent Advances in Processing-in-DRAM
Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Computing Systems
RowHammer: A Retrospective
Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer
Accelerating Genome Analysis via Algorithm-Architecture Co-Design
From Molecules to Genomic Variations: Accelerating Genome Analysis via Intelligent Algorithms and Architectures
RECOMMENDED LECTURE VIDEOS & PLAYLISTS:
========================================
Digital Design and Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:
Fundamentals of Computer Architecture Fall 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:
Seminar in Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:
Computer Architecture Fall 2024 Lectures Playlist:
Interview with Professor Onur Mutlu:
TCuARCH meets Prof. Onur Mutlu
Arch. Mentoring Workshop @ISCA'21 - Doing Impactful Research
The Story of RowHammer Lecture:
Accelerating Genome Analysis Lecture:
Memory-Centric Computing Systems Tutorial at IEDM 2021:
Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Machines Lecture:
Featured Lectures:

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