Patent · US Expired

Flash memory control method and information processing system therewith

US5973964A · kind A · utility

51Cited by
27References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 30, 1998
Grant dateOct 26, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 30, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2212/312
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A control method and system when a flash memory is used as a semiconductor disk or a main memory in an information processing system. A semiconductor file system comprises a first nonvolatile memory electrically erasable, a second nonvolatile memory not electrically erasable, a volatile memory, a controller which controls the memories, and a control section which controls the controller wherein a physical address corresponding to a logical address specified from an external system is accessed. The first nonvolatile memory stores data for the external system to perform operations, first management information indicating the correspondence between physical addresses at which the data is stored and logical addresses, and second management information indicating a state of the first nonvolatile memory. The second nonvolatile memory previously stores interface information required for inputting and outputting the data from and to the external system and read-only data of the data. The controller has a control means for determining a physical sector address forming predetermined high-order bits of the physical address when data is output from the first nonvolatile memory or when data is …

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.