The memory system is increasingly turning into a bottleneck in the design of embedded systems. The speed improvements of memory systems are lower than the speed improvements of processors, eventually leading to embedded systems whose performance is limited by the memory. This problem is known as the "memory wall" problem. Furthermore, memory systems may consume the largest share of the system's energy budget and may be the source of unpredictable timing behaviour. Hence, the design of the memory system deserves an increasing amount of attention.

Fast, Efficient and...