Memory as a Temporal Resource: Lifetime Contracts for Multi-Retention Systems

arXiv:2611.09518v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Computers move and rewrite data whose useful lifetimes range from inner-loop iterations to years, yet memory systems usually hide retention as a fixed physical property. We argue that required lifetime should become a first-class resource across algorithms, programming systems, controllers, and devices. Building on prior lifetime-aware placement, we propose an event-based validity contract that links application completion events to retention-class selection and renewal of protection.