APPARATUS USING FLASH MEMORY AS STORAGE AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME

• US 20090055578A1
• Filed: 08/21/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Ki-Yong, Woo, Kyoung-Gu, Kim, Hyo-Jun, Park, Hee-Seon
• Granted Patent: US 7,991,946 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1032 Reliability improvement, data loss prevention, degraded operation etc
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1036 Life time enhancement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1041 Resource optimization
• 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

Abstract

An apparatus usable with a flash memory as storage and a method of operating the same are provided, which can provide an optimized architecture to a flash memory through combination of a flash transition layer (FTL) with a database. The apparatus includes a flash memory, a device driver to manage a mapping table between logical addresses and physical addresses in accordance with a data operation in the flash memory, and a control unit to perform data recovery of the flash memory by requesting the mapping table through an interface provided by the device driver.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a flash memory to store data;

a device driver to manage a mapping table between logical addresses and physical addresses in accordance with a data operation in the flash memory; and

a control unit to perform data recovery of the flash memory by requesting the mapping table through an interface provided by the device driver.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interface provided by the device driver comprises:

a write, a read, a transaction start, a transaction commit, and a transaction abort.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the device driver generates a new transaction identification (ID) and returns the generated transaction ID to the control unit when the control unit calls the transaction start.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the device driver generates a mapping table comprising:

a logical page number field, a physical page number field, a transaction page number field, and a transaction ID field when the control unit calls the transaction start.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the device driver updates the physical page number field in the mapping table to the transaction page number, and deletes the transaction ID field, so as to generate and write the resultant mapping table in the flash memory, when the control unit calls the transaction commit.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the control unit performs data recovery in the flash memory by requesting the written mapping table.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the device driver returns a value of the transaction page number field between the physical page number field and the transaction page number field in the mapping table when the control unit calls the write.

8. A method of operating an apparatus having a flash memory as storage, the method comprising:

managing a mapping table between logical addresses and physical addresses by a flash translation layer in accordance with a data operation in the flash memory; and

performing data recovery of the flash memory by a database requesting the mapping table through an interface provided by the flash translation layer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the interface comprises:

a write, a read, a transaction start, a transaction commit, and a transaction abort.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the managing comprises:

generating a new transaction identification (ID) and returning the generated transaction ID to the database when the database calls the transaction start.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the managing comprises:

generating a mapping table including a logical page number field, a physical page number field, a transaction page number field, and a transaction ID field when the database calls the transaction start.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the managing comprises:

updating the physical page number field in the mapping table to the transaction page number, and deleting the transaction ID field, so as to generate and write the resultant mapping table in the flash memory, when the database calls the transaction commit.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the performing comprises:

performing data recovery in the flash memory by the database requesting the written mapping table.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the managing comprises:

returning a value of the transaction page number field between the physical page number field and the transaction page number field in the mapping table when the database calls the write.

15. An apparatus usable with a flash memory, the apparatus comprising:

a device driver to manage a mapping table between logical addresses and physical addresses in accordance with a data operation in the flash memory; and

a control unit to perform data recovery of the flash memory by requesting the mapping table through an interface provided by the device driver.

16. A storage system, comprising:

a flash memory to store a mapping table; and

an apparatus comprising;

a flash transition layer to manage the mapping table; and

a database to perform data recovery to the flash memory,

wherein the managing of the mapping table and the performing of data recovery is performed without a page table and generation of log records by the database.

17. The storage system of claim 16, wherein the mapping table corresponds to a mapping relationship between logical addresses and physical addresses.

18. A data recovery method, comprising:

requesting a mapping table from a flash memory by a control unit;

receiving the requested mapping table by the control unit; and

recovering data based on the received mapping table.

19. A computer-readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program to execute a method, wherein the method comprises:

requesting a mapping table from a flash memory by a control unit;

receiving the requested mapping table by the control unit; and

recovering data based on the received mapping table.