COP -VRAM

VECTOR RAM etc..
Goal
To explain the impact of the Vector RAM (VRAM) concept on COP design today.

Background
Mid-90s saw the good old RISC school (Berkeley) starting a new revolution: the VRAM . As given by patterson (2ts,1s), etc.. "the goal of Intelligent RAM (IRAM) is to design a cost-effective computer by designing a processor in a memory fabrication process(DRAM), and include memory-on-chip".
Already we can notice that memory-on-chip and processor in DRAM are two concepts which are a bit confused here.
Anyway by 1998 the concept became focused on VRAM (or VIRAM or V-IRAM or Vector IRAM).
It was a Vector Processor (VP) inside the memory Array  (krste Asanovic was the VP guy).
As of today the concept is frozen to 2002 (last look this morning) and it is a pity.

RAM coprocessor in DSP
(hmm.. this section relying on personal memory might not be 100% accurate)
Some of the first DSPs were hardwired dsp function (such as AMI FFT 1980, Motorola CAFIR 1986, Inmos Adaptive FIR 1988) which from the host perspective were just a memory map.
In other words it was the simplest programming model (write Xarray, write Yarray, write paras, run, wait a little, read Zarray.).
Now on the 3 levels of architecture, silicon and software,  implementing a block dsp function as a piece of memory is totally coherent (which is rare).
Note that the dsp function can be in series with the memory array (as to be totally transparent) but more likely is part of the memory map. 
Going back to the VRAM concept, from a 1980 dsp archi perspective, there is no doubt that it is a serious step forward. Hence it should be considered as such when designing a COP buried inside a memory array.
And obviously we have Matlab implementation in mind here.

References found in my garbage can 1998

1. "Brass/IRAM retreat" multiple papers including Christo Kozyrakis micro-architecture, June 24,1998
2. David Patterson etc.. "A case for Intelligent RAM: IRAM"  IEEE Micro, April 1997
3. Randi Thomas and Katherine Yellick "Efficient FFTs on IRAM" Berkeley, circa 1998? 

Google

1. wikipedia..search IRAM
2. Patterson (2t, 1s)
3. much easier .. krste Asanovic 
4. even better.. Kozyrakis ..it is not a name it is a trademark
5. and plenty of others