  Memristor-based logic-in-memory (LiM) has become popular as a means to
overcome the von Neumann bottleneck in traditional data-intensive computing.
Recently, the memristor-aided logic (MAGIC) design style has gained immense
traction for LiM due to its simplicity. However, understanding the energy
distribution during the design of logic operations within the memristive memory
is crucial in assessing such an implementation's significance. The current
energy estimation methods rely on coarse-grained techniques, which
underestimate the energy consumption of MAGIC-styled operations performed on a
memristor crossbar. To address this issue, we analyze the energy breakdown in
MAGIC operations and propose a solution that utilizes mapping from the SIMPLER
MAGIC tool to achieve accurate energy estimation through SPICE simulations. In
contrast to existing research that primarily focuses on optimizing execution
energy, our findings reveal that the memristor's initialization energy in the
MAGIC design style is, on average, 68x higher. We demonstrate that this
initialization energy significantly dominates the overall energy consumption.
By highlighting this aspect, we aim to redirect the attention of designers
towards developing algorithms and strategies that prioritize optimizations in
initializations rather than execution for more effective energy savings.
