Monitoring entropic conditions of a flash memory device as an indicator for invoking erasure operations
US6621746B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 27, 2002 |
| Grant date | Sep 16, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 27, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG11C2216/18
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Erase operations are performed on a flash memory device by monitoring the entropic nature of the flash memory device. In one implementation, flash abstraction logic, tracks how many physical sectors are free to receive data; track how many physical sectors contain data that is dirty, and compare whether the physical sectors that are free to receive data outnumber the physical sectors that contain data that is dirty. A compactor performs an erase operation of one or more blocks when the physical sectors that contain data that is dirty outnumber the physical sectors that are free to receive data. In another implementation, the flash abstraction logic tracks how many physical sector addresses are free to receive data, and track when the physical sector addresses that are free to receive data are insufficient in quantity to receive write requests from a file system. The compactor executes an erase operation of one or more blocks if the physical sector addresses that are free to receive data are insufficient in quantity.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.