Memory protocol

• US 10,585,624 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2016
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Walker, Robert M., Ross, Frank F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thammavong, Prasith
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kwong, Edmund H
• Application Number:
  US15/366,504
• Publication Number:
  US 20180157439A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/16 for access to memory bus G06F13/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/1626 by reordering requests
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4234 being a memory bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods related to a memory protocol. An example apparatus can execute a read command that includes a first chunk of data and a second chunk of data by assigning a first read identification (RID) number to the first chunk of data and a second RID number to the second chunk of data, sending the first chunk of data and the first RID number to a host, and sending the second chunk of data and the second RID number to the host. The apparatus can be a non-volatile dual in-line memory module (NVDIMM) device.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory device; and

a controller coupled to the memory device configured to;

receive a read command from a host, wherein the read command is assigned a host read identification (RID) number that is incremented by a value equal to or greater than a quantity of a number of chunks of data associated with a previous read command, and wherein the read command includes an indication that a first chunk of data and a second chunk of data are to be returned in a particular order;

execute the read command associated with the first chunk of data and the second chunk of data by assigning a first memory device read identification (RID) number to the first chunk of data and a second memory device RID number to the second chunk of data, wherein the first memory device RID number is the host RID number, and returning to the host the first chunk of data, the first memory device RID number, the second chunk of data, and the memory device second RID number in the indicated particular order.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory device is a non-volatile dual in-line memory module (NVDIMM) device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first chunk of data is sent to the host before the second chunk of data in response to the read command including an address of the first chuck of data.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first chunk of data is sent to the host before the second chunk of data in response to the read command including the indication indicating that the first chuck of data is to be sent before any other chunk of data associated with the read command.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first chunk of data is sent to the host before the second chunk of data in response to the read command indication including a register address to locate a register that indicates an order in which chunks of data associated with the read command are to be returned.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first chunk of data is sent to the host before the second chunk of data in response to the first chunk of data being ready before the second chunk of data.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second chunk of data is sent to the host before the first chunk of data in response to the second chunk of data being ready before the first chunk of data.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory device; and

a controller coupled to the memory device configured to;

receive a read command from a host, wherein the read command is assigned a host read identification (RID) number that is incremented by a value equal to or greater than a quantity of a number of chunks of data associated with a previous read command, and wherein the read command includes a number of chunks of data and an indication that the number of chunks of data are to be returned to the host in a particular order;

assign memory device read identification (RID) numbers to each of the number of chunks of data, wherein a RID number for a first chunk of data of the number of chunks of data is the host RID number; and

send, to the host, the number of chunks of data and the memory device RID numbers in the particular order as indicated by the read command.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the read command indication includes a register address used to locate a register that indicates the order in which the number of chunks of data associated with the read command are to be returned.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the memory device includes a number of registers that each indicate an order in which the number of chunks of data associated with the read command are to be returned.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the read command indication includes an indication that the number of chunks of data are to be returned in the particular order based on when the memory device accesses the number of chunks of data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the read command indication includes an indication that the number of chunks of data are to be returned in sequential order.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the read command indication includes an indication that a particular chunk of the number of chunks of data is to be returned with priority.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory device; and

a controller coupled to the memory device configured to;

receive a first read command and a second read command from a host, wherein the first read command is associated with a first number of chunks of data assigned a first host read identification (RID) number and the second read command includes a second number of chunks of data assigned a second host RID number, wherein a second host RID number is incremented by a value equal to or greater than a quantity of the first number of chunks of data associated with the first read command;

assign a first number of memory device RID numbers to the first number of data chunks, wherein the first number of memory device RID numbers start with the first host RID number;

assign a second number of memory device RID numbers to the second number of data chunks, wherein the second number of memory device RID numbers start with the second host RID number; and

return the first number of chunks of data with the first number of memory device RID numbers and the second number of chunks of data with the second number of memory device RID numbers to the host in a particular order indicated by the host.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the particular order includes sending a particular chunk of the first number of chunks indicated by the first read command before sending any other chunk.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the particular order includes sending a particular chunk of the second number of chunks indicated by the second read command after sending the particular chunk of the first number of chunks.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the particular order based on when the memory device accesses the first and second number of chunks of data.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the particular order is sequential order.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the particular order includes interleaving the first number of chunks with the second number of chunks in sequential order.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the particular order includes interleaving the first number of chunks with the second number of chunks based on when the memory device accesses the first and second number of chunks of data.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a first register address of the first read command and a second register address of the second read command identifies the particular order and wherein the first register address and the second register address are used to locate registers that indicate an order in which chunks of data are to be returned.

22. A method, comprising:

sending a read command to a memory device from a host, wherein the read command is assigned a host read identification (RID) number by the host that is incremented by a value equal to or greater than a quantity of a number of chunks of data associated with a previous read command and includes an indication that the number of chunks of data are to be returned in a particular order;

determining, via a controller on the memory device, a quantity of the number of chunks of data associated with the read command and assigning memory device read identification (RID) numbers to each of the number of chunks of data, wherein a memory device read identification (RID) number of a first chunk of the number of chunks of data is the host RID number; and

returning the number of chunks of data and the memory device RID numbers associated with the read command from the memory device to the host in the particular order.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein sending the read command includes sending a register address that is used to locate a register in the memory device that indicates the particular order in which the number of chunks of data are to be sent to the host.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein sending the read command includes sending an indication of the quantity of the number of chunks of data associated with the read command.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein assigning memory device RID numbers includes assigning the host RID number to a first chunk of data associated with the read command and then assigning memory device RID numbers sequentially to each subsequent chunk of data associated with the read command.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the method includes sending the memory device RID numbers to the host along with each respective chunk of data to which the memory device RID numbers were assigned.

27. The method of claim 22, further including sending another read command to the memory device from the host, wherein the another read command is assigned another host read identification (RID) number by the host that is incremented by a value equal to or greater than the quantity of the number of chunks of data associated with the read command.

28. A method, comprising:

sending a number of read commands to a memory device from a host, wherein each of the number of read commands are associated with chunks of data and host read identification (RID) numbers, wherein a first host read identification (RID) number of a first read command of the number of read commands is incremented by a value equal to or greater than a quantity of chunks of data associated with a previous read command; and

wherein sending the number of read commands includes sending an indication that the chunks of data are to be returned in a particular order;

assigning memory device RID numbers to each of the chunks of data; and

returning chunks of data and the memory device RID numbers associated with the number of read commands to the host sequentially as indicated by the read command, wherein a memory device read identification (RID) number for a first chunk of data of the chunks of data is the first host RID number.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein sending the number of read command includes sending register addresses with each of the number of read commands that that is used to locate registers in the memory device that indicate the particular order in which chunks of data associated with the number of read command are to be returned to the host.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein sending the number of read command includes sending the indication indicating that a particular chunk associated with the number of read commands is to be returned to the host with priority.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein sending the number of read command includes sending the indication indicating that the chunks of data associated with the number of read commands are to be returned in an order based on when the memory device accesses the chunks of data.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein sending the number of read command includes sending the indication that the chunks of data associated with the number of read commands are to be returned sequentially based on the memory device RID numbers assigned to the chunks of data.