# Pathfinding Future PIM Architectures by Demystifying a Commercial PIM Technology

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.00846 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00846/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Aug 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [LLMServingSim: A HW/SW Co-Simulation Infrastructure for LLM Inference Serving at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.05499/) (2024)
- [PAPI: Exploiting Dynamic Parallelism in Large Language Model Decoding with a Processing-In-Memory-Enabled Computing System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.15470/) (2025)
- [Pimba: A Processing-in-Memory Acceleration for Post-Transformer Large Language Model Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.10178/) (2025)
- [PIM-Opt: Demystifying Distributed Optimization Algorithms on a Real-World Processing-In-Memory System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07164/) (2024)
- [PIMphony: Overcoming Bandwidth and Capacity Inefficiency in PIM-based Long-Context LLM Inference System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20166/) (2024)
- [PyGim: An Efficient Graph Neural Network Library for Real Processing-In-Memory Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.16731/) (2024)
- [Sparse Attention Remapping with Clustering for Efficient LLM Decoding on PIM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05772/) (2025)
- [SwiftRL: Towards Efficient Reinforcement Learning on Real Processing-In-Memory Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.03967/) (2024)
- [LOCALUT: Harnessing Capacity-Computation Tradeoffs for LUT-Based Inference in DRAM-PIM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04523/) (2026)
- [UpANNS: Enhancing Billion-Scale ANNS Efficiency with Real-World PIM Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23805/) (2024)
- [DCC: Data-Centric Compilation of Machine Learning Kernels for Processing-In-Memory Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.15503/) (2025)
- [LP5X-PIM Sim: A High-Fidelity HW/SW Integrated Simulator for LPDDR5X-PIM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00636/) (2026)
- [D-NOVA: In-Storage Retrieval Accelerator via Dual-Bound 3D NAND-Optimized Similarity Search with Vector Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.17538/) (2026)
- [PATTON: Enabling Commodity PIM for Production LLM Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.11392/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Processing-in-memory (PIM) has been explored for decades by computer architects, yet it has never seen the light of day in real-world products due to their high design overheads and lack of a killer application. With the advent of critical memory-intensive workloads, several commercial PIM technologies have been introduced to the market ranging from domain-specific PIM architectures to more general-purpose PIM architectures. In this work, we deepdive into UPMEM's commercial PIM technology, a general-purpose PIM-enabled parallel architecture that is highly programmable. Our first key contribution is the development of a flexible simulation framework for PIM. The simulator we developed (aka PIMulator) enables the compilation of UPMEM-PIM source codes into its compiled machine-level instructions, which are subsequently consumed by our cycle-level performance simulator. Using PIMulator, we demystify UPMEM's PIM design through a detailed characterization study. Building on top of our characterization, we conduct a series of case studies to pathfind important architectural features that we deem will be critical for future PIM architectures to support