Storage devices hiding parity swapping behavior

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11520660-B2
Application number	US-202117349438-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 16, 2021
Priority date	Apr 24, 2020
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure generally relates to methods of operating storage devices. The storage device comprises a controller comprising first random access memory (RAM1), second random access memory (RAM2), and a storage unit divided into a plurality of zones. By restricting the host to have a minimum write size, the data transfer speed to RAM2, RAM1, and the storage unit can be optimized. A temporary buffer is utilized within the RAM1 to update parity data for the corresponding commands. The parity data is updated in the RAM1 and written to the RAM2 in the corresponding zone. The parity data may be copied from the RAM2 to the RAM1 to update the parity data in the temporary buffer when commands are received to write data to corresponding zones. As the parity data is updated, the corresponding command is simultaneously written to the corresponding zone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage device, comprising:
a non-volatile storage unit, wherein a capacity of the non-volatile storage unit is divided into a plurality of zones;
a first volatile memory unit; and
a controller coupled to the non-volatile storage unit and the first volatile memory unit, the controller comprising a second volatile memory unit, wherein the controller is configured to:
copy first parity data for a first zone of the plurality of zones from the first volatile memory unit to a first location in the second volatile memory unit; and
update the first parity data with new first parity data in the second volatile memory unit.

2. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the first parity data is updated with the new first parity data in the first location in the second volatile memory unit.

3. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the first parity data is updated with the new first parity data in a temporary location in the second volatile memory unit.

4. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the storage device has a minimum write size based on a program time of writing the first parity data to one or more zones of the plurality of zones.

5. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the storage device has a minimum write size based on a transfer speed for copying the first parity data from the first volatile memory unit to the second volatile memory unit.

6. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the storage device has a minimum write size based on an amount of time it takes to generate the new first parity data.

7. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
copy the updated first parity data from the second volatile memory unit to the first volatile memory unit; and
erase a temporary location in the second volatile memory unit after the first parity data is updated with the new first parity data.

8. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
copy second parity data for a second zone from the first volatile memory unit to a second location in the second volatile memory unit; and
update the second parity data with the new second parity data in a temporary location in the second volatile memory unit.

9. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to copy the updated first parity data from the second volatile memory unit to the first volatile memory unit after updating the first parity data with the new first parity data.

10. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to copy the updated second parity data from the second volatile memory unit to the first volatile memory unit after updating the second parity data with the new second parity data.

11. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein a minimum write size is selected by the storage device to match a program time of writing data associated with one or more write commands to the plurality of zones to a transfer speed for copying previous parity data from the first volatile memory unit to the second volatile memory unit.

12. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the minimum write size is about 1 MiB or greater.

13. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller comprises an XOR engine configured to generate the first parity data and update the second parity data.

14. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the first volatile memory unit is a DRAM unit, and wherein the second volatile memory unit is a SRAM unit.

15. A storage device, comprising:
a non-volatile storage unit, wherein a capacity of the non-volatile storage unit is divided into a plurality of zones;
a DRAM unit; and
a controller coupled to the non-volatile storage unit and the DRAM unit, the controller comprising a SRAM unit, wherein the controller is configured to:
copy first parity data for a first zone of the plurality of zones from the DRAM unit to a first location in the SRAM unit;
combine the first parity data with new first parity data in the SRAM unit; and
copy the combined first parity data from the SRAM unit to a first location in the DRAM unit.

16. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein a minimum write size for the storage device is about 1 MiB or greater.

17. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein a minimum write size for the storage device is based on an amount of time it takes to generate the new first parity data.

18. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to calculate and determine a minimum write size for commands to write first parity data received from a host device.

19. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to erase a temporary location in the SRAM unit after copying the combined first parity data from the SRAM unit to the DRAM unit.

20. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive a second command to write first parity data in a minimum write size to the first zone;
simultaneously, update the combined first parity data for the first zone in the first location in the SRAM unit, and write the first parity data associated with the second command to the first zone; and
copy the updated combined first parity data from the SRAM unit to the first location in the DRAM unit.

Assignees

• Western Digital Tech Inc

Inventors

• Helmick Daniel L
• Grayson Peter
• Gorobets Sergey Anatolievich

Classifications

• G06F3/0619

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title

• G06F2212/7209

  Validity control, e.g. using flags, time stamps or sequence numbers · CPC title

• G11C14/0063

  and the nonvolatile element is an EEPROM element, e.g. a floating gate or MNOS transistor · CPC title

• G11C11/413

  Auxiliary circuits, e.g. for addressing, decoding, driving, writing, sensing, timing or power reduction · CPC title

• G06F3/0644

  Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools · CPC title