DATA STORAGE DEVICE AND BAD BLOCK MANAGING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20120005451A1
• Filed: 07/01/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Joon-ho, KWON, Mincheol, WOO, Namyoon
• Application Number:
  US13/175,361
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005451A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/203
• 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 2212/7204 Capacity control, e.g. partitioning, end-of-life degradation

Abstract

A data storage device includes a storage unit, and a controller configured to control the storage unit, wherein the controller is configured to manage a mapping between a logical address space and a virtual address space of the storage unit, virtual address space of the storage unit being variable.

Claims

1. A data storage device comprising:

a storage unit; and

a controller configured to control the storage unit,

wherein the controller is configured to manage a mapping between a logical address space and a virtual address space of the storage unit, virtual address space of the storage unit being variable.

2. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the controller varies the virtual address space in discontinuous manner when a bad block is generated in the storage unit.

3. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the storage unit includes a user data area having a plurality of blocks and a reserved area having a plurality of blocks, and the virtual address space corresponds to the user data area.

4. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein when one of the blocks of the user data area is determined to be a bad block, the controller replaces the bad block with a corresponding block of the reserved area to the bad block and maps a virtual block address of the replaced block to a corresponding logical block address to the bad block instead of a virtual block address of the bad block.

5. The data storage device of claim 4, wherein:

the controller comprises;

a flash translation layer managing the mapping between the logical address space and the virtual address space of the storage unit, and

a virtual flash layer managing the bad block; and

the virtual flash layer provides a virtual block address of the bad block to the flash translation layer, and the flash translation layer maps the virtual block address of the replaced block to a corresponding logical block address of the bad block instead of a virtual block address of the bad block.

6. The data storage device of claim 5, wherein the virtual address space of the user data space is varied discontinuously by mapping the virtual block address of the replaced block to a corresponding logical block address of the bad block instead of a virtual block address of the bad block.

7. The data storage device of claim 6, wherein:

the controller does not manage mapping information of the bad block and the replaced block; and

when an access to a block of the storage unit is requested, the controller accesses the storage unit without determining whether the access-requested block is a bad block.

8. The data storage device of claim 7, wherein the storage unit has a plurality of planes each formed of a plurality of blocks, and the controller manages blocks in each row of the planes as a virtual block.

9. The data storage device of claim 8, wherein when one of blocks in a virtual block is determined to be a bad block, the virtual flash layer replaces the bad block with a block in a plane including the bad block and manages a mapping between the replaced block and a normal block of a virtual block including the bad block.

10. A bad block managing method of a data storage device including a storage unit, the bad block managing method comprising:

determining a virtual address space of the storage unit; and

varying the virtual address space of the storage unit in a discontinuous manner when a bad block is generated from the storage unit.

11. The bad block managing method of claim 10, wherein the storage unit includes a user data area having a plurality of blocks and a reserved area having a plurality of blocks, and the virtual address space corresponds to the user data area.

12. The bad block managing method of claim 11, wherein the varying the virtual address space of the storage unit discontinuously comprises:

replacing the bad block with a corresponding block of the reserved area to the bad block; and

mapping a virtual block address of the replaced block to a corresponding logical block address to the bad block instead of a virtual block address of the bad block.

13. The bad block managing method of claim 12, wherein the virtual address space of the user data space is varied discontinuously by mapping the virtual block address of the replaced block to a corresponding logical block address of the bad block instead of a virtual block address of the bad block.

14. The bad block managing method of claim 13, wherein an access to a block of the storage unit is performed without determining whether the access-requested block is a bad block.

15. The bad block managing method of claim 13, wherein the storage unit has a plurality of planes each formed of a plurality of blocks, and the controller manages blocks in each row of the planes as a virtual block.

16. A data storage device comprising:

a storage unit having a virtual block space and a reserved space; and

a controller configured to control the storage unit, to set virtual addresses of the virtual block space, the virtual addresses including a virtual address of a block of the reserved space to replace a virtual address of a bad block of the virtual block space, and to perform a request using the previously set virtual addresses of the virtual block space,

wherein the virtual block space is variable according to occurrence of the bad block of the reserved space.

17. The data storage device of claim 16, wherein, when the request corresponds to the bad block of the virtual block space, the controller performs the request received from an external device, without determining the bad block of the virtual block space and retrieving information on the virtual address of the block of the reserved space upon receiving the request.

18. The data storage device of claim 16, wherein the virtual addresses are not continuous by replacing the virtual address of the bad block of the virtual block space with the virtual address of the block of the reversed space, and the virtual block space are increased by including the block of the reversed space.

19. The data storage device of claim 16, wherein the number of original virtual addresses of the virtual block space is the same number of the virtual addresses including the block of the reserved space.

20. The data storage device of claim 16, wherein:

the storage unit comprises a plurality of sub-storage units each having the virtual block space and the reserved space;

the bad block is one block of one row of the virtual block space of the one sub-storage unit; and

the virtual addresses include a virtual address of one block of one row of the reserved space of the other sub-storage unit.