METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING ADDRESS MAPPING IN VIRTUAL FILE SYSTEM OF STORAGE UNIT HAVING A PLURALITY OF NON-VOLATILE DATA STORAGE MEDIA

• US 20090070547A1
• Filed: 03/10/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Min, Houng-sog, Lee, Dong-woo, JEONG, Seong-hun
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,573 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/10 Address translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1016 Performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/2022 Flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7208 Multiple device management, e.g. distributing data over multiple flash devices

Abstract

Provided are a method and apparatus capable of reducing a metadata processing time associated with address mapping performed to input/output burst data at a high speed in a virtual file system of a storage unit having a plurality of non-volatile data storage media. The method includes: determining a block group including a block included in each of a plurality of the non-volatile data storage media; determining an access unit including each page included in the determined block group; and mapping an address of input/output data to the determined block group and the access unit. Therefore, it is possible to significantly reduce an address mapping processing time in the virtual file system that may function as a bottleneck in high-speed input/output in a large-capacity storage unit.

Claims

1. An address mapping method performed in a virtual file system of a storage unit having a plurality of non-volatile data storage media, the method comprising:

determining a block group including a block included in each of the plurality of non-volatile data storage media;

determining an access unit including each page included in the determined block group; and

mapping an address of input/output data to the determined block group and access unit.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the block group includes a plurality of blocks having the same block number from among a plurality of blocks included in each of the plurality of non-volatile data storage media, and

wherein the access unit includes a plurality of pages having the same offset in the block group.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the block group comprises storing a block group map table representing relationships between the block group and the plurality of blocks included in the block group.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the block group map table includes the block group number and one or more of the block numbers corresponding to the block group.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the access unit comprises storing an access unit map table representing relationships between the access unit and the plurality of pages included in the access unit.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the access unit map table includes block offsets used to distinguish the block numbers included in the block group map table and page offsets used to distinguish a plurality of the pages in the block corresponding to the block number.

7. The method of claim 6,

wherein in storing the block group map table, a predetermined block group from among the block groups is selected to store the block group map table in a corresponding block group, and

wherein in storing the access unit map table, the access unit map table is stored in a spare area existing in the access unit in the block group.

8. The method of claim 7,

wherein the block group is a unit for erasing the input/output data and a unit for simultaneously transmitting an erase command to a plurality of the blocks from the virtual file system, and

wherein the access unit is a unit for reading/writing the data and a unit for simultaneously transmitting the read/write command to a plurality of the pages.

9. The method of claim 8,

wherein the plurality of the non-volatile data storage media are a plurality of flash memories, and

wherein the virtual file system is a flash translation layer.

19. A computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a computer program for performing the method of claim 1.

10. An address mapping apparatus in a virtual file system of a storage unit having a plurality of non-volatile data storage media, the apparatus comprising:

a block group processor which determines a block group including a block included in each of the plurality of the non-volatile data storage media;

an access unit processor which determines an access unit including each page included in the determined block group; and

a device driver which transmits a data input/output command to the determined block group and access unit.

11. The apparatus of claim 10,

wherein the block group includes a plurality of blocks having the same block number from among a plurality of blocks included in each of the non-volatile data storage media, and

wherein the access unit includes a plurality of pages having the same offset in the block group.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the block group processor comprises a first map table storage storing a block group map table representing relationships between the block group and the plurality of blocks included in the block group.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the block group map table includes the block group number and one or more of the block numbers corresponding to the block group.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the access unit processor comprises a second map table storage which stores an access unit map table representing relationships between the access unit and the plurality of pages included in the access unit.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the access unit map table includes block offsets used to distinguish the block numbers included in the block group map table and page offsets used to distinguish a plurality of the pages in the block corresponding to the block number.

16. The apparatus of claim 15,

wherein the first map table storage included in the block group processor selects a predetermined block group from among the block groups to store the block group map table in a corresponding block group, and

wherein the second map table storage included in the access unit processor stores the access unit map table in a spare area existing in the access unit in the block group.

17. The apparatus of claim 16,

wherein the block group is a unit for erasing the input/output data and a unit for simultaneously transmitting an erase command to the blocks from the virtual file system, and

wherein the access unit is a unit for reading/writing the data and a unit for simultaneously transmitting the read/write command to the pages.

18. The apparatus of claim 17,

wherein the plurality of non-volatile data storage media are a plurality of flash memories, and

wherein the virtual file system is a flash translation layer.

20. A memory device having the apparatus of claim 10.