Patent · US Expired

Flash memory control method and apparatus processing system therewith

US6275436A · kind A · utility

131Cited by
36References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 23, 2000
Grant dateAug 14, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 23, 2020

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 comprises 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 dat…

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