Non-Volatile Memory and Method Having Block Management with Hot/Cold Data Sorting
First Claim
1. A method of operating on units of data in a non-volatile memory, comprising:
- organizing the non-volatile memory into blocks of memory cells that are erasable together;
ranking each unit of data by assigning a temperature, where a higher temperature indicates a higher probability that the unit of data will suffer subsequent rewrites due to garbage collection operations; and
performing an operation on the unit of data in a manner dependent on the temperature of the unit of data.
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Abstract
A non-volatile memory organized into flash erasable blocks sorts units of data according to a temperature assigned to each unit of data, where a higher temperature indicates a higher probability that the unit of data will suffer subsequent rewrites due to garbage collection operations. The units of data either come from a host write or from a relocation operation. The data are sorted either for storing into different storage portions, such as SLC and MLC, or into different operating streams, depending on their temperatures. This allows data of similar temperature to be dealt with in a manner appropriate for its temperature in order to minimize rewrites. Examples of a unit of data include a logical group and a block.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method of operating on units of data in a non-volatile memory, comprising:
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organizing the non-volatile memory into blocks of memory cells that are erasable together; ranking each unit of data by assigning a temperature, where a higher temperature indicates a higher probability that the unit of data will suffer subsequent rewrites due to garbage collection operations; and performing an operation on the unit of data in a manner dependent on the temperature of the unit of data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A non-volatile memory for storing units of data, comprising:
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a memory array organized into blocks of memory cells that are erasable together; a state machine controlling operations that include; ranking each unit of data by assigning a temperature, where a higher temperature indicates a higher probability that the unit of data will suffer subsequent rewrites due to garbage collection operations; and performing an operation on the unit of data in a manner dependent on the temperature of the unit of data. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification