Memory wear leveling
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for wear leveling of a multi-block memory (10) containing data, usable in multi-block memory (10) activities, comprising the steps of:
- detecting (42, 42a) an at least one triggering signal (26); and
copying or relocating (52, 52a) the data of an at least one first memory block (17) containing an at least one memory element of the multi-block memory (10) to an at least one second memory block (18) of the multi-block memory (10) after detecting (42, 42a) the at least one triggering signal, wherein said at least one second memory block (18) does not contain said data before said copying or relocating.
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Abstract
This invention describes a memory wear leveling for reducing wearing of hotspots (deteriorated memory blocks used more frequently) in all memory types by rotating the memory blocks on the physical level with the help of at least one spare memory block using predetermined criteria during both read and write operations. The invention can be implemented e.g. by using constant memory pointers at a logical level and dynamic memory pointers on the physical level. The rotation can be implemented as a combination of software and hardware functionalities or using hardware or software alone.
87 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method for wear leveling of a multi-block memory (10) containing data, usable in multi-block memory (10) activities, comprising the steps of:
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detecting (42, 42a) an at least one triggering signal (26); and
copying or relocating (52, 52a) the data of an at least one first memory block (17) containing an at least one memory element of the multi-block memory (10) to an at least one second memory block (18) of the multi-block memory (10) after detecting (42, 42a) the at least one triggering signal, wherein said at least one second memory block (18) does not contain said data before said copying or relocating. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 33)
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20. An electronic device (11), comprising:
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a multi-block memory (10) containing data, usable in multi-block memory (10) activities;
a memory wear controller (22), responsive to a triggering signal (26) or to a further triggering signal (26a), for providing a data-relocation signal (30) to the multi-block memory (10) to relocate the data from an at least one first memory block (17) containing an at least one memory element of the multi-block memory (10) to an at least one second memory block (18) of the multi-block memory (10) wherein said at least one second memory block (18) does not contain said data before said copying or relocating, and for providing an update signal (32) after performing said copying or relocating; and
a memory pointer controller (24), responsive to the update signal (32). - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. An electronic device, comprising:
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means for containing data in multiple memory blocks, wherein said data is usable in activities of the means for containing data;
means for providing a data-relocation signal to the means for containing the data for copying or relocating the data from an at least one first memory block containing an at least one memory element of the means for containing the data to an at least one second memory block of the means for containing the data in response to a triggering signal, wherein said at least one second memory block does not contain said data before said copying or relocating, and for providing an update signal on a status of the means for containing the data after performing said copying or relocating; and
means for providing to the means for providing the data-relocation signal, in response to the update signal, a pointer signal containing a physical address pointer (Y) in means for containing data to be accessed for enabling an at least one further data relocation of the data located at the physical address (Y) and optionally an address of a first memory pointer (M).
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- 34. A method for wear leveling of a multi-block memory containing data, usable in multi-block memory activities, in which method said data is copied or relocated from an at least one first block containing an at least one memory element of the multi-block memory to an at least one second block containing an at least one memory element of the multi-block memory after detecting a triggering signal related to said data, wherein said at least one second block does not contain said data before said copying or relocating.
Specification