Describing and querying discrete regions of flash storage

• US 20070239927A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rogers, Andrew, Patel, Sachin, Gopalan, Yadhu
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0616 in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0643 Management of files
• 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

A flash driver can be used by file systems and other applications to determine more detailed attributes and properties, such as region geometry, that describe the underlying flash component. This allows a file system, for example, to be made aware of each flash region and its properties. The file system may then be optimized to more efficiently utilize the flash component. These optimizations may lead to increased component longevity and better read/write performance.

Claims

1. A flash component querying system, comprising:

a flash driver that maintains data regarding a flash component; and

a file system or application that receives the data from the flash driver.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data comprises property information pertaining to the flash component.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the flash driver is adapted to receive the data regarding the flash component from the flash component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the flash driver comprises:

a flash media driver; and

a flash abstraction layer in communication with the flash media driver.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a system registry that provides low-level properties to the flash media driver, and high-level properties to the flash abstraction layer.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the flash media driver is adapted to provide the low-level properties to the flash abstraction layer.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the flash media driver is adapted to receive the data regarding the flash component from the flash component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data comprises characteristics of a plurality of discrete regions of the flash component.

9. A method of querying a flash component, comprising:

receiving data pertaining to properties of a flash component at a flash driver;

providing the data to a system file or application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving data pertaining to the flash component comprises receiving data from the flash component.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving data pertaining to the flash component comprises receiving data from a system registry.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the flash driver comprises a flash media driver, and receiving data pertaining to the flash component comprises retrieving data using the flash media driver.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the flash driver comprises a flash abstraction layer in communication with the flash media driver, further comprising providing the retrieved data to the flash abstraction layer.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing additional data to the flash abstraction layer from the driver configuration via the system registry.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the data comprises characteristics of a plurality of discrete regions of the flash component.

16. A flash driver comprising:

a flash media driver that maintains data pertaining to a flash component; and

a flash abstraction layer that receives the data and provides the data to a file system or application.

17. The flash driver of claim 16, wherein the data comprises characteristics of a plurality of discrete regions of the flash component.

18. The flash driver of claim 16, wherein the flash media driver is adapted to receive the data from the flash component.

19. The flash driver of claim 16, wherein the flash media driver is adapted to receive low-level properties at the flash media driver, and high-level properties at the flash abstraction layer, from a system registry.

20. The flash driver of claim 19, wherein the flash media driver is adapted to provide the low-level properties to the flash abstraction layer.