Mobile flash storage boot partition and/or logical unit shadowing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10146627-B2
Application number	US-201715726375-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 5, 2017
Priority date	Oct 28, 2014
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

Embodiments of the inventive concept include computer-implemented method for shadowing one or more boot images of a mobile device. The technique can include duplicating boot images to shadow partitions in a user area of a non-volatile memory device such as a flash memory. The technique can include detecting boot image corruption, and causing a mobile device to boot from the shadow partitions. The technique can include dynamically shadowing and releasing blocks used by the shadow partitions. The technique can include boot failure recovery and bad image preservation through firmware flash translation layer (FTL) logical to physical mapping updates. Boot image corruption failures can be recovered from and/or debugged using the shadow partitions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for shadowing one or more boot images of a mobile device, the method comprising:
storing, in a section reserved for boot partitions in a first non-volatile memory of the mobile device, the one or more boot images; and
shadowing, by a shadow control logic section, the one or more boot images to one or more shadowed boot images in a section reserved for user partitions in a second non-volatile memory of the mobile device; and
booting from the one or more shadowed boot images in the section reserved for user partitions.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, by the shadow control logic section, corruption within the one or more boot images; and
responsive to the detection, causing the mobile device to boot from the one or more shadowed boot images.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein causing the mobile device to boot from the one or more shadowed boot images further comprises:
updating, by a flash translation layer, one or more pointers from the one or more boot images, respectively, to the one or more shadowed boot images.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein causing the mobile device to boot from the one or more shadowed boot images further comprises:
preserving the one or more boot images having the corruption for at least one of subsequent root causing or debugging.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein:
preserving the one or more boot images further includes causing the one or more boot images to become inaccessible to a host section of the mobile device that operates in a logical address space;
the method further comprising updating one or more pointers in a physical address space from the one or more boot images, respectively, to the one or more shadowed boot images.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, by the shadow control logic section, an amount of available space within the section reserved for the user partitions; and
determining whether the amount of available space is less than or equal to a predefined threshold.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
responsive to determining that the amount of available space is less than or equal to the predefined threshold:
garbage collecting the one or more shadowed boot images; and
releasing space occupied by the one or more shadowed boot images to the section reserved for the user partitions in the second non-volatile memory.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
responsive to determining that the amount of available space is greater than the predefined threshold:
allocating space within the section reserved for the user partitions for the one or more shadowed boot images; and
shadowing, by the shadow control logic section, the one or more boot images from the first non-volatile memory to the one or more shadowed boot images in the section reserved for the user partitions in the second non-volatile memory.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
setting, by a host section of the mobile device, a first register indicating whether or not the one or more boot images are constructed;
periodically entering, by the shadow control logic section, a shadow routine;
responsive to determining that the first register indicates that the one or more boot images are not constructed:
counting, by the shadow control logic section, a number of initialization requests from the host section of the mobile device;
determining, by the shadow control logic section, whether the number of initialization requests exceeds a predefined threshold;
responsive to determining that the number of initialization requests exceeds the predefine threshold, determining whether a second register indicates that the one or more boot images are completely shadowed to one or more shadowed boot images; and
responsive to determining that the second register indicates that the one or more boot images are completely shadowed to the one or more shadowed boot images, comparing a first hash of the one or more boot images with a second hash of the one or more shadowed boot images; and

responsive to determining that the first register indicates that the one or more boot images are constructed:
shadowing, by the shadow control logic section, the one or more boot images to the one or more shadowed boot images; and
setting, by the shadow control logic section, the second register indicating whether or not the one or more boot images are completely shadowed to the one or more shadowed boot images.

10. A computer-implemented method for shadowing one or more boot images of a mobile device, the method comprising:
setting, by a host section of the mobile device, a first register indicating whether or not one or more boot images are constructed;
periodically entering, by a shadow control logic section, a shadow routine; and
responsive to determining that the first register indicates that the one or more boot images are not constructed:
counting, by the shadow control logic section, a number of initialization requests from the host section of the mobile device;
determining, by the shadow control logic section, whether the number of initialization requests exceeds a predefined threshold; and
responsive to determining that the number of initialization requests exceeds the predefine threshold, determining whether a second register indicates that the one or more boot images are completely shadowed to one or more shadowed boot images.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the shadow routine further comprises:
responsive to determining that the first register indicates that the one or more boot images are not constructed:
responsive to determining that the second register indicates that the one or more boot images are completely shadowed to the one or more shadowed boot images, comparing a first hash of the one or more boot images with a second hash of the one or more shadowed boot images; and

responsive to determining that the first register indicates that the one or more boot images are constructed:
shadowing, by the shadow control logic section, the one or more boot images to the one or more shadowed boot images, wherein the shadowing includes yielding to higher priority tasks while the shadowing occurs in the background.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein responsive to determining that the first register indicates that the one or more boot images are constructed:
setting, by the shadow control logic section, the second register indicating whether or not the one or more boot images are completely shadowed to the one or more shadowed boot images.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the shadow routine further comprises:
responsive to a mismatch in the comparison of the first and second hashes:
updating, by a flash translation layer, one or more pointers from the one or more boot images, respectively, to the one or more shadowed boot images; and
setting, by the shadow control logic section, a third register indicating that the mobile device should boot from the one or more shadowed boot images.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein the shadow routine further comprises:
determining at about a start time of the shadow routine whether or not the third register indicates that the mobile device should boot from the one or more shadowed boot images;
responsive to determining that the third register indicates that the mobile devic

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yu Yang
• Choi Chang-Eun
• Kim Kyung Ho
• Jun Walter
• Zoo Wonchuri
• Brennan Robert

Classifications

• G06F11/20

  using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements · CPC title

• G06F11/1666

  where the redundant component is memory or memory area · CPC title

• G06F11/1004

  to protect a block of data words, e.g. CRC or checksum (G06F11/1076 takes precedence; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorized activity G06F21/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/1417 Primary

  Boot up procedures · CPC title