MEMORY DEVICE AND OPERATING METHOD OF MEMORY DEVICE

• US 20100088467A1
• Filed: 01/23/2009
• Published: 04/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: SON, Min Young, LEE, Choong Hun, CHOI, Gyu Sang, LEE, Jae Don
• Granted Patent: US 9,852,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7205 Cleaning, compaction, garbage collection, erase control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7207 management of metadata or control data

Abstract

A memory device may include a non-volatile memory and non-volatile RAM. The non-volatile memory may include a data block and a metadata block. Metadata information with respect to the data block may be included in the metadata block. A portion of metadata with respect to the data block or the metadata with respect to the metadata block may be stored in the non-volatile RAM.

Claims

1. A memory device, comprising:

a non-volatile memory including a plurality of data blocks and one or more metadata blocks and storing first metadata corresponding to the plurality of data blocks in the one or more metadata blocks; and

a non-volatile RAM being capable of reading and writing in byte units or word units, and storing second metadata.

2. The memory device of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes an erase count of each of the plurality of data blocks.

3. The memory device of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes state information corresponding to each of a plurality of pages included in each of the plurality of data blocks.

4. The memory device of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes an erase count of each of the one or more metadata blocks.

5. The memory device of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes state information of each of the plurality of pages included in each of the one or more metadata blocks.

6. The memory device of claim 1, wherein:

the second metadata includes a mapping relation between a logical block address and physical address of a data page stored in the plurality of data blocks; and

the first metadata includes a mapping relation between a logical page address and a physical page address in the logical block address of the data page stored in the plurality of data blocks.

7. The memory device of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile RAM stores data corresponding to a write command and stores map information corresponding to the stored data, where the write command with respect to the non-volatile memory is a random write.

8. The memory device of claim 7, wherein the RAM selects eviction data from among the stored data based on the map information where a size of available space is less than a threshold, and programs at least one of the plurality of data blocks of the non-volatile memory with the eviction data.

9. The memory device of claim 8, wherein the non-volatile RAM programs the at least one of the plurality of data blocks with the eviction data and updates the map information.

10. The memory device of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile RAM outputs stored data as data corresponding to a read command where data corresponding to the read command with respect to the non-volatile memory exists in the non-volatile RAM.

11. A method of operating a memory device including a non-volatile memory and a non-volatile RAM, the method comprising:

verifying whether a write command with respect to the non-volatile memory is a random write or a sequential write;

storing data corresponding to the write command in the non-volatile RAM where the write command is the random write; and

programming data corresponding to the write command in the non-volatile memory where the write command is the sequential write.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the verifying comprises verifying whether the write command is the sequential write where a size of the data corresponding to the write command is equal to or more than a threshold.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the storing comprises storing map information corresponding to the stored data in the non-volatile RAM.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

verifying whether a size of available space of the non-volatile RAM is less than the threshold;

selecting eviction data from among data stored in the non-volatile RAM where the size of the available space is less than the threshold; and

programming the eviction data to the non-volatile memory.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

verifying whether data corresponding to a read command with respect to the non-volatile memory exists in the non-volatile RAM;

reading data corresponding to the read command from the non-volatile RAM where the data corresponding to the read command exists in the non-volatile RAM; and

transmitting the data read from the non-volatile RAM to a host or a controller.

16. A method of operating a memory device including a non-volatile memory and a non-volatile RAM, the method comprising:

converting a logical block address of an access command with respect to the non-volatile memory into a physical address based on map information stored in the non-volatile RAM;

accessing page map information stored in a metadata area of the non-volatile memory based on the physical address;

converting a logical page address of the access command into a physical page address based on the accessed page map information; and

accessing data stored in a data area of the non-volatile memory based on the physical page address.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

assigning the access command to any one of a plurality of channels of the non-volatile memory based on a remainder after dividing the logical block address or the logical page address of the access command by a number of the channels.

18. A method of a garbage collection of a memory device including a non-volatile memory and a non-volatile RAM, the method comprising:

selecting a first block from among a plurality of blocks of the non-volatile memory stored in the non-volatile RAM based on state information of each of the plurality of blocks, where available space of the non-volatile memory is less than a threshold;

selecting any one block from among at least one free block of the non-volatile memory as a second block;

programming the second block with valid data from among data stored in the first block; and

erasing the first block where the second block is programmed with the valid data from among the data stored in the first block.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the selecting comprises selecting a block having a smallest number of valid pages from among the plurality of blocks as the first block.

20. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program to operate a memory device including a non-volatile memory and a non-volatile RAM, comprising instructions to cause a computer to:

verify whether a write command with respect to the non-volatile memory is a random write or a sequential write;

store data corresponding to the write command in the non-volatile RAM where the write command is the random write; and

program data corresponding to the write command in the non-volatile memory where the write command is the sequential write.