APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR MANAGING OPERATIONS FOR DATA STORAGE MEDIA

• US 20120203986A1
• Filed: 02/13/2012
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fusion-IO Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Strasser, John, Flynn, David, Wood, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,627 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/158
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing operations for data storage media. An adjustment module interrupts or otherwise adjusts execution of an executing operation on the data storage media. A schedule module executes a pending operation on the data storage media in response to adjusting execution of the executing operation. The pending operation comprises a higher execution priority than the executing operation. The schedule module finishes execution of the executing operation in response to completing execution of the pending operation.

Claims

1. A method to manage operations for data storage media, the method comprising:

adjusting execution of an executing operation on data storage media;

executing a pending operation on the data storage media in response to adjusting execution of the executing operation, the pending operation comprising a higher execution priority than the executing operation; and

finishing execution of the executing operation in response to completing execution of the pending operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting execution of the executing operation comprises interrupting execution of the executing operation such that the pending operation executes before the executing operation completes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the executing operation comprises one or more of a cumulative command and a multi-phase command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a higher execution priority comprises the pending operation comprising a shorter execution time than the executing operation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing operation comprises an erase operation and the pending operation comprises a read operation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing operation and the pending operation are each configured for execution on a plurality of storage elements coupled to execute operations in parallel such that a single operation executes on the plurality of storage elements at a time.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of storage elements comprise a single bank of non-volatile solid-state storage elements coupled in parallel.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically adapting one or more characteristics of a subsequent adjustment for a subsequent operation in response to a change in one or more characteristics of the data storage media over time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising readjusting execution of the executing operation prior to finishing execution of the executing operation in response to a subsequent pending operation comprising a higher execution priority than the executing operation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein finishing execution comprises finishing execution of the executing operation without readjusting execution of the executing operation in response to one or more subsequent pending operations comprising a higher execution priority than the executing operation such that the executing operation completes execution within a predetermined time period.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting execution occurs at a predefined periodic interval.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting execution occurs in response to detecting the pending operation.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing operation comprises a native multi-phase non-volatile storage media primitive command configured to allow execution of other operations between phases of the native multi-phase non-volatile storage media primitive command.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing operation comprises a data storage device management operation for the data storage media and the pending operation comprises an I/O operation for the data storage media.

15. A method to manage operations for data storage media, the method comprising:

adjusting execution of a first operation on data storage media;

executing a pending operation on the data storage media in response to adjusting execution of the first operation, the pending operation comprising a higher execution priority than the executing operation, wherein adjusting execution of the first operation comprises selecting operations from one or more queues of operations to be executed such that the pending operation executes prior to the first operation; and

executing the first operation in response to completing execution of the pending operation.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the first operation is inserted into the one or more queues prior to the pending operation such that the first operation and the pending operation execute out of a received order.

17. An apparatus to manage operations for data storage media, the apparatus comprising:

an adjustment module that interrupts execution of an executing operation on data storage media;

a schedule module that executes a pending operation on the data storage media in response to interrupting execution of the executing operation, the pending operation comprising a shorter execution time than the executing operation; and

wherein the schedule module finishes execution of the executing operation in response to completing execution of the pending operation.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the executing operation comprises an erase operation and the pending operation comprises a read operation received during execution of the erase operation.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the executing operation and the pending operation are each configured for execution on a single bank of non-volatile solid-state storage elements coupled to execute operations in parallel such that a single operation executes on the bank of storage elements at a time.

20. A system to manage operations for data storage media, the system comprising:

non-volatile solid-state data storage media;

a storage controller for the non-volatile solid-state data storage media, the storage controller comprising,

an adjustment module that interrupts execution of an executing operation on the data storage media;

a schedule module that executes a pending operation on the data storage media in response to interrupting execution of the executing operation, the pending operation comprising a shorter execution time than the executing operation; and

wherein the schedule module finishes execution of the executing operation in response to completing execution of the pending operation.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a host device and a data storage device comprising the data storage media, the data storage device in communication with the host device over one or more communications buses.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein at least a portion of the storage controller comprises a device driver for the data storage device executing on a processor of the host device.