Stacked memory structure has the potential benefits for future processor design such as low latency, large capacity, and high bandwidth.Since these benefits can effectively relieve the problem of memory wall, stacked memory structure has recently received a great attention from processor architects.This paper first summarizes four important research topics for stacked memory structure: the memory hierarchy design, storage media exploration, the communication design, and new structures for emerging applications especially big data.Then, two different stacked memory structures are analyzed: stacked DRAM and stacked NVM (non-volatile storage).Due to the different storage characteristics, there are several differences on memory hierarchy, the data structures and management strategies.Afterwards, we choose two key issues for detailed discussion: the onchip communication network design and the structure optimization for the big data application.Finally, we point out possible future research directions based on big data applications.