Nonvolatile Memory Modules and Data Management Methods Thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016357462-A1
Application number	US-201615096877-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 12, 2016
Priority date	Jun 8, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed is a nonvolatile memory module. The nonvolatile memory module includes at least one nonvolatile memory, a random access memory (RAM) and a device controller. Responsive to receiving a write request comprising sub-data from a host, the device controller accumulates the sub-data in the RAM and programs the accumulated sub-data in the nonvolatile memory. A size of the sub-data is smaller than a size of a default transmission unit provided from the host.

First claim

1 . A nonvolatile memory module, comprising:
at least one nonvolatile memory, a random access memory (RAM); and a device controller, wherein, responsive to receiving a write request comprising sub-data from a host, the device controller accumulates the sub-data in the RAM and programs accumulated sub-data in the nonvolatile memory, and wherein a size of the sub-data is smaller than a size of a default transmission unit provided from the host.

2 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 1 , wherein the RAM comprises a command area to store a write command about the sub-data from the host and a write area to accumulate the sub-data.

3 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 1 , wherein the write request comprising the sub-data comprises a sub-data write command comprising a size of the sub-data and a data offset indicating a position within the default transmission unit.

4 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 1 , wherein the write request comprising the sub-data comprises a sub-data write start command provided together with first sub-data and a sub-data write end command provided together with last sub-data.

5 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 4 , wherein at least one sub-data having a size the same as the first sub-data and provided within the write request between the first sub-data and the last sub-data is written at the RAM.

6 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 5 , wherein the sub-data write start command comprises a size of the first sub-data and a data offset indicating a position within the default transmission unit of the first sub-data.

7 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 1 , wherein the write request comprising the sub-data comprises a sub-data write start command, a sub-data write end command, and at least one sub-data provided between the sub-data write start command and the sub-data write end command.

8 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 7 , wherein the sub-data write start command comprises a size of the at least one sub-data and a data offset indicating a position within the default transmission unit of the at least one sub-data.

9 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 7 , wherein the device controller reads data from the nonvolatile memory, of which a logical address is the same as a logical address of the accumulated sub-data to be written to the nonvolatile memory, in response to the sub-data write end command.

10 . A data writing method of a nonvolatile memory module, the method comprising:
storing a write start command of sub-data, of which a size is smaller than a size of a default transmission unit from a host, at a command area of a random access memory (RAM); receiving from the host first sub-data corresponding to a write command to store the first sub-data in a write area of the RAM; receiving second sub-data from the host to store the second sub-data in the write area; and combining the first sub-data and the second sub-data from the write area to program the combined data in the nonvolatile memory.

11 . A nonvolatile memory module, comprising
a device controller communicatively coupled to a host and configured to receive a plurality of data transmissions having a default transmission unit size from the host; a nonvolatile memory coupled to the device controller and configured to be programmed with data from the plurality of data transmissions; and a volatile memory coupled to the device controller and configured to store sub-data having a size smaller than the default transmission unit size that are accumulated from respective ones of the plurality of data transmissions from the host, wherein the device controller programs accumulated sub-data data from the volatile memory into the nonvolatile memory when a predetermined condition is met.

12 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 11 , wherein the volatile memory comprises a command area and a write area,
wherein a write transmission of the plurality of data transmissions comprises a write command portion and/or a write data portion, wherein the command area of the volatile memory is configured to receive a write command from the write command portion of the write transmission, and wherein the write area of the volatile memory is configured to store write sub-data accumulated from the write data portion of the write transmission responsive to the write command.

13 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 12 , wherein the write transmission comprises a size of the write sub-data of the write transmission and a data offset indicating a position of the write sub-data within the write transmission.

14 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 12 , wherein a first write transmission comprises a first write command portion comprising a sub-data write start command,
wherein, responsive to the sub-data write start command, the device controller begins accumulating the write sub-data in the volatile memory, wherein a last write transmission comprises a last write command portion comprising a sub-data write end command, and wherein the sub-data write end command is the predetermined condition and, responsive to the sub-data write end command, the device control stops accumulating the write sub-data in the volatile memory and programs the write sub-data accumulated in the volatile memory into the nonvolatile memory at an address in the nonvolatile memory associated with the write sub-data.

15 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 14 , wherein, prior to programming the write sub-data accumulated in the volatile memory into the nonvolatile memory, the device controller is further configured to:
read locations of the nonvolatile memory adjacent the address in the nonvolatile memory associated with the write sub-data to recover merge data; and merge the merge data with the write sub-data accumulated in the volatile memory.

16 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 12 , wherein the volatile memory further comprises a read area,
wherein a read transmission of the plurality of data transmissions comprises a read command portion, wherein the command area of the volatile memory is further configured to receive a read command from the read command portion of the read transmission, wherein the read area of the volatile memory is configured to store read data accumulated from the nonvolatile memory responsive to the read command.

17 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 16 , wherein the volatile memory further comprises a status area,
wherein the status area of the volatile memory is configured to store a read status of the read transmission and/or the write transmission.

18 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 17 , wherein the write transmission further comprises an error parity corresponding to the write data portion of the write transmission,
wherein the device controller is configured to generate an error status of the write transmission responsive to a comparison of the write data portion of the write transmission and the error parity, and wherein the status area of the volatile memory is further configured to store the error status.

19 . The nonvolatile memory module of claim 17 , wherein a first read transmission comprises a first read command for a read size of read data greater than the default transmission unit size,
wherein, responsive to the first read command, the device controller is configured to:
read a first read data portion from the nonvolatile memory of a default transmission unit size and accumulate the first read data portion in the volatile memory,
store a fi

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nam Hee Hyun
• Park Jaegeun
• Seo Sungyong
• Yoo Youngkwang
• Lee Han-Ju
• Cho Youngjin

Classifications

• G06F3/0659

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title

• G06F3/0616 Primary

  in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF] · CPC title

• G06F3/0685

  Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays · CPC title

• G06F3/0613

  in relation to throughput · CPC title

• G06F3/0656

  Data buffering arrangements · CPC title