APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ERROR CORRECTION

• US 20110314354A1
• Filed: 06/15/2011
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fusion-IO Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Fillingim, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1048 using arrangements adapted for a specific error detection or correction feature

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for providing error correction for a data storage device. A determination module determines an error-correcting code (“ECC”) characteristic of the data storage device. An ECC module validates requested data read from the data storage device using a hardware ECC decoder. In response to the requested data satisfying a correction threshold, a software ECC decoder module validates the data using a software ECC decoder. The software ECC decoder is configured according to the ECC characteristic of the data storage device.

Claims

1. A method for providing error correction for a data storage device, the method comprising:

determining an error-correcting code (“

ECC”

) characteristic of a data storage device;

validating requested data read from the data storage device using a hardware ECC decoder; and

validating requested data read from the data storage device using a software ECC decoder based on the ECC characteristic in response to the data satisfying a correction threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the software ECC decoder to validate the requested data up to a software correction threshold number of data errors in the requested data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

correcting one or more errors in the requested data using the hardware ECC decoder in response to a detected number of errors in the requested data satisfying a hardware correction threshold of the correction threshold;

and

correcting one or more errors in the requested data using the software ECC decoder in response to a detected number of errors in the requested data satisfying a software correction threshold of the correction threshold, wherein the software correction threshold is greater than the hardware correction threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the software ECC decoder corrects one or more data errors in the requested data up to the software correction threshold in response to a detected number of the one or more data errors falling between the hardware correction threshold and the software correction threshold.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the hardware ECC decoder corrects a portion of the data errors up to the hardware correction threshold and the software ECC decoder corrects a portion of the data errors between the hardware correction threshold and the software correction threshold.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the hardware correction threshold is selected to correct data errors expected during runtime of the data storage device and the software correction threshold is selected to correct data errors expected for a data retention time for the requested data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the ECC characteristic comprises an ECC codeword size selected from a plurality of supported ECC codeword sizes to satisfy a predetermined ratio between a level of data protection and a minimum read size, wherein the level of data protection associated with the ECC codeword size and the minimum read size associated with the ECC codeword size each increase with an increase in ECC codeword size.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring at least one of the hardware ECC decoder and the software ECC decoder to operate in compliance with the ECC characteristic of the data storage device.

9. An apparatus for providing error correction for a data storage device, the apparatus comprising:

a determination module that determines an error-correcting code (“

ECC”

) characteristic of a data storage device; and

a software ECC decoder module that validates requested data read from the data storage device using a software ECC decoder based on the ECC characteristic in response to the data satisfying a correction threshold.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a decoder configuration module that configures the software ECC decoder module to validate the requested data up to a software correction threshold number of data errors in the requested data.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising an ECC module that validates requested data read from the data storage device using a hardware ECC decoder.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein,

the hardware ECC decoder corrects one or more errors in the requested data in response to a detected number of errors in the requested data satisfying a hardware correction threshold of the correction threshold;

and

the software ECC decoder module corrects one or more errors in the requested data using the software ECC decoder in response to a detected number of errors in the requested data satisfying a software correction threshold of the correction threshold, wherein the software correction threshold is greater than the hardware correction threshold.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the software ECC decoder module corrects one or more data errors in the requested data up to the software correction threshold in response to a detected number of the one or more data errors falling between the hardware correction threshold and the software correction threshold.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the hardware ECC decoder corrects a portion of the data errors up to the hardware correction threshold and the software ECC decoder module corrects a portion of the data errors between the hardware correction threshold and the software correction threshold.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the hardware correction threshold is selected to correct data errors expected during runtime of the data storage device and the software correction threshold is selected to correct data errors expected for a data retention time for the requested data.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a decoder configuration module that configures at least one of the hardware ECC decoder and the software ECC decoder module to operate in compliance with the ECC characteristic of the data storage device.

17. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the ECC characteristic comprises an ECC codeword size selected from a plurality of supported ECC codeword sizes to satisfy a predetermined ratio between a level of data protection and a minimum read size, wherein the level of data protection associated with the ECC codeword size and the minimum read size associated with the ECC codeword size each increase with an increase in ECC codeword size.

18. A system for providing error correction for a data storage device, the system comprising:

a data storage device;

a hardware error-correcting code (“

ECC”

) decoder disposed in hardware of the data storage device, the hardware ECC decoder validating requested data read from the data storage device; and

an ECC module, the ECC module comprising,

a determination module that determines an ECC characteristic of a data storage device; and

a software ECC decoder module that validates requested data read from the data storage device using a software ECC decoder based on the ECC characteristic in response to the data satisfying a correction threshold.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the ECC module further comprises a decoder configuration module that configures the hardware ECC decoder to validate the requested data up to a hardware correction threshold number of data errors in the requested data and that configures the software ECC decoder module to validate the requested data up to a software correction threshold number of data errors in the requested data.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising a host device, wherein the ECC module is installed on the host device and the host device is in communication with the data storage device.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the ECC module is part of a device driver executing on the host device and the hardware ECC decoder is part of a hardware controller of the data storage device.

22. The system of claim 18, further comprising a second data storage device, wherein the determination module determines a second ECC characteristic of the second data storage device and the software ECC decoder module validates at least a portion of requested data read from the second data storage device using the software ECC decoder configured according to the second ECC characteristic.