Patent · US Expired

Method of driving remapping in flash memory and flash memory architecture suitable therefor

US6381176B1 · kind B1 · utility

54Cited by
2References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 15, 2001
Grant dateApr 30, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 15, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0246
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of driving remapping in a flash memory, which is capable of writing the status of a block and a unit by reducing the number of partial write cycles as much as possible, and a flash memory architecture adapted thereto are provided. The remapping driving method includes searching for a predetermined physical unit based on mapping information about a predetermined block, searching the found physical unit for another block, the status of which is free, if the predetermined block exists in a valid state in the physical unit; changing the status of the other block into a status next to the status of the predetermined block, writing new data and additional information such as a logical block number to the other block, and changing the status of the predetermined block to a deleted state. Accordingly, the write status of a block or a unit can be managed for a flash memory having a restriction on the number of partial write cycles.

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