Concurrent upgrade and backup of non-volatile memory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10025508-B2
Application number	US-201514957180-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2015
Priority date	Dec 2, 2015
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

An endurance parameter value of a non-volatile memory included in a non-volatile dual in-line memory module (NVDIMM) can be monitored and compared against a warning threshold value. In response to the endurance parameter exceeding the warning threshold value, a system alert can be generated, within a host system of the NVDIMM, to inform a system user that the NVDIMM is approaching its end-of-life. If the endurance parameter exceeds a replacement threshold value greater than the warning threshold value, an upgrade process can be initiated. The upgrade process can include copying data from the first non-volatile memory to a volatile memory of the NVDIMM and copying, in response to the first non-volatile memory being replaced with a second non-volatile memory, the data from the volatile memory to the second non-volatile memory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-volatile dual in-line memory module (NVDIMM), the NVDIMM comprising:
a volatile memory card including:
a first connector on a first edge;
a first socket on a second edge located opposite to the first edge;
a light-emitting diode (LED);
at least one volatile memory chip; and
a memory controller chip configured to:
monitor a count of program-erase (P/E) cycles applied to an at least one non-volatile memory chip;
illuminate, in response to the count of P/E cycles being less than a warning threshold, the LED to a green color;
illuminate, in response to the count of P/E cycles exceeding the warning threshold, the LED to a yellow color; and
initiate, in response to the count of P/E cycles exceeding a replacement threshold greater than the warning threshold, a non-volatile memory card upgrade process that includes illuminating the LED to a red color; and

a non-volatile memory card including:
a second connector on a third edge; and
the at least one non-volatile memory chip;

wherein the second connector of the non-volatile memory card is configured to plug into the first socket of the volatile memory card and the first connector of the volatile memory card is configured to plug into a second socket mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB).

2. The NVDIMM of claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory card upgrade process further includes:
copying data from the non-volatile memory card to the at least one volatile memory chip; and
copying, in response to the non-volatile memory card being replaced with a secondary non-volatile memory card, data from the at least one volatile memory chip to the secondary non-volatile memory card.

3. The NVDIMM of claim 1 , wherein the endurance parameter value is a failure indicator of the at least one non-volatile memory chip.

4. The NVDIMM of claim 1 , wherein the warning threshold and the replacement threshold can be modified by a host system containing the NVDIMM.

5. The NVDIMM of claim 1 , wherein the host system includes a light pipe configured to transmit light from the LED to an exterior surface of the host system, the exterior surface being visible to a service technician.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Chinnakkonda Vidyapoornachary Diyanesh B
• Kim Kyu-Hyoun
• Sethuraman Saravanan
• Tressler Gary A

Classifications

• G06F3/0655

  Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices · CPC title

• G06F3/061

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G11C16/349

  Arrangements for evaluating degradation, retention or wearout, e.g. by counting erase cycles · CPC title

• G11C5/04

  Supports for storage elements {, e.g. memory modules}; Mounting or fixing of storage elements on such supports · CPC title

• G06F3/0688

  Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays · CPC title