Method, apparatus, and storage medium for writing data into persistent storage device

• US 10,007,446 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2015
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Macronix International Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Macronix International Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Huang, Wei-Chieh, Huang, Li-Chun, Chang, Yu-Ming, Chang, Hung-Sheng, Li, Hsiang-Pang, Liu, Ting-Yu, Liu, Chien-Hsin, Kuo, Nai-Ping
• Primary Examiner(s): Mackall, Larry T
• Application Number:
  US14/703,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20160328161A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0238 Memory management in non-volatile memory, e.g. resistive RAM or ferroelectric memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1024 Latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7201 Logical to physical mapping or translation of blocks or pages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7203 Temporary buffering, e.g. using volatile buffer or dedicated buffer blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

A method for writing data into a persistent storage device includes grouping a plurality of data entries stored in a temporary storage device to form a data unit, such that the data unit has a size equal to an integer multiple of a size of an access unit of the persistent storage device. The method further includes writing the data unit into the persistent storage device.

Claims

1. A method for writing data into a persistent storage device, comprising:

collecting at least one modified data entry from each of at least two storage units in a temporary storage device, each of the at least two storage units containing the at least one modified data entry and at least one unmodified data entry, the at least one modified data entry being at least one data entry that has been modified in the temporary storage device;

grouping the modified data entries from the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device to form a data unit, such that the data unit has a size equal to an integer multiple of a size of an access unit of the persistent storage device; and

writing the data unit into the persistent storage device at one time as a whole unit,

wherein

collecting the at least one modified data entry includes collecting at least one mapping entry in the temporary storage device from each of at least two mapping units; and

the data unit includes mapping entries from mapping units at different levels of a mapping table.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein grouping the modified data entries to form the data unit includes grouping the modified data entries to form the data unit such that the data unit has a size equal to the size of the access unit.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein collecting the at least one mapping entry from each of the at least two mapping units includes collecting at least one mapping entry from each of at least two mapping units in a bottom level of the mapping table.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein collecting the at least one mapping entry from each of the at least two mapping units includes collecting at least one mapping entry from each one of at least two mapping units at different levels of the mapping table.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, before grouping the modified data entries:

reading data from the persistent storage device to the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device; and

modifying a portion of the data stored in each of the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device to form the at least one modified data entry.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein writing the data unit into the persistent storage device comprises:

writing the data unit into a continuous storage location in the persistent storage device.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a persistent storage device configured to store data;

a temporary storage device configured to temporarily store data;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

collect at least one modified data entry from each of at least two storage units in the temporary storage device, each of the at least two storage units containing the at least one modified data entry and at least one unmodified data entry, the at least one modified data entry being at least one data entry that has been modified in the temporary storage device;

group the modified data entries from the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device to form a data unit, such that the data unit has a size equal to an integer multiple of a size of an access unit of the persistent storage device; and

write the data unit into the persistent storage device at one time as a whole unit,

wherein

the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to collect at least one mapping entry in the temporary storage device from each of at least two mapping units; and

the data unit includes mapping entries from mapping units at different levels of a mapping table.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to:

group the modified data entries to form the data unit such that the data unit has a size equal to the size of the access unit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to:

collect at least one mapping entry from each of at least two mapping units in a bottom level of the mapping table.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to:

collect at least one mapping entry from each of at least two mapping units at different levels of the mapping table.

11. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to, before grouping the modified data entries:

read data from the persistent storage device to the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device; and

modify a portion of the data stored in each of the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device to form the at least one modified data entry.

12. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein:

the persistent storage device includes a main memory, and

the temporary storage device includes a translation lookaside buffer.

13. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein:

the persistent storage device includes a flash memory, and

the temporary storage device includes a random access memory of a controller.

14. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to:

write the data unit into a continuous storage location in the persistent storage device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

collect at least one modified data entry from each of at least two storage units in a temporary storage device, each of the at least two storage units containing the at least one modified data entry and at least one unmodified data entry, the at least one modified data entry being at least one data entry that has been modified in the temporary storage device;

group the modified data entries from the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device to form a data unit, such that the data unit has a size equal to an integer multiple of a size of an access unit of a persistent storage device; and

write the data unit into the persistent storage device at one time as a whole unit,

wherein

the storage medium further stores instructions that cause the processor to collect at least one mapping entry in the temporary storage device from each of at least two mapping units; and

the data unit includes mapping entries from mapping units at different levels of a mapping table.

16. The storage medium according to claim 15, further storing instructions that cause the processor to:

group the modified data entries to form the data unit such that the data unit has a size equal to the size of the access unit.

17. The storage medium according to claim 15, further storing instructions that cause the processor to:

collect at least one mapping entry from each of at least two mapping units in a bottom level of the mapping table.

18. The storage medium according to claim 15, further storing instructions that cause the processor to:

collect at least one mapping entry from each of at least two mapping units at different levels of the mapping table.

19. The storage medium according to claim 15, further storing instructions that cause the processor to, before grouping the modified data entries:

read data from the persistent storage device to the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device; and

modify a portion of the data stored in each of the at least two storage units in the temporary storage device to form the at least one modified data entry.

20. The storage medium according to claim 15, further storing instructions that cause the processor to:

write the data unit into a continuous storage location in the persistent storage device.