SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OBTAINING AND USING NONVOLATILE MEMORY HEALTH INFORMATION

• US 20130111298A1
• Filed: 10/31/2011
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Seroff, Nicholas, Fai, Anthony, Wakrat, Nir Jacob
• Granted Patent: US 10,359,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for obtaining and using nonvolatile memory (“NVM”) health information. Health information can include a variety of information associated with the performance and reliability of portions of an NVM device, such as the number of errors detected in a portion of NVM or the amount of time required to read from or program a portion of nonvolatile memory. During operation, address specific health information may be stored passively on a host device and provided as part of a command to a memory controller. The memory controller may extract the health information from the command and use the information to execute access requests. After an access request is completed, the memory controller can update the health information and transmit the information back to the host device.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

non-volatile memory (“

NVM”

);

a memory controller communicatively coupled to the NVM over a first bus; and

a host device having at least one storage component, wherein the host device is communicatively coupled to the memory controller over a second bus, and wherein the host device is operative to;

maintain a health information database for the NVM in the at least one storage component, the health information database storing address specific health information; and

provide commands to the memory controller over the second bus, each command including an access request, address, and address specific health information,

wherein the memory controller is operative to;

extract the address specific health information from the command; and

execute the access request in accordance with the address specific health information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile memory comprises NAND flash memory.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory controller is further operative to:

update the address specific health information; and

provide the updated address specific health information to the host device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the host device is further operative to store the updated address specific health information in the health information database.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the host device operates independent of any address specific health information stored in the health information database.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the host device does not independently modify any address specific health information in the health information database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the address specific health information comprises error correction parameters, program parameters, read parameters, or any combination thereof.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the host device is further operative to:

receive a file system command from a file system;

determine a physical address to be accessed from the file system command;

access the health information database to retrieve address specific health information for the physical address; and

incorporate the retrieved address specific health information and the physical address into the command provided to the NVM controller.

9. A method, implemented by a memory controller that communicates with non-volatile memory (“

NVM”

), the method comprising;

receiving, at a memory controller, a command from a host device, the command comprising;

an access request;

an address; and

address specific health information associated with the address;

processing the address specific health information to obtain at least one NVM operation parameter; and

executing the access request according to the at least one NVM operation parameter.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether a change was required in the at least one operation parameter in order to execute the access request;

updating the health information to include the change in the least one operation parameter if it is determined a change was required in one of the at least one operation parameter in order to execute the access request; and

transmitting the updated health information and the address to the host device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one NVM operation parameter includes an error correction code (“

ECC”

) parameter.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one NVM operation parameter includes a read parameter.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one NVM operation parameter includes a program parameter.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the access request is a read request or a program request.

15. A non-volatile memory package comprising:

an interface for communicating with a host;

non-volatile memory (“

NVM”

); and

a controller coupled to the interface and the NVM, the controller operative to;

receive a command from the interface, the command including an access request, address, and health information;

process the health information to obtain at least one NVM operation parameter; and

execute the access request according to the at least one NVM operation parameter.

16. The NVM package of claim 15, wherein the controller is further operative to:

determine whether a change was required in the at least one operation parameter in order to execute the access request;

update the health information to include the change in the least one operation parameter if it is determined a change was required in one of the at least one operation parameter in order to execute the access request; and

transmit the updated health information and the address to the interface.

17. The NVM package of claim 15, wherein the at least one NVM operation parameter includes an error correction code (“

ECC”

) parameter.

18. The NVM package of claim 15, wherein the at least one NVM operation parameter includes a read parameter.

19. The NVM package of claim 15, wherein the at least one NVM operation parameter includes a program parameter.

20. The NVM package of claim 17, further comprising an error correction code (“

ECC”

) engine coupled to the memory controller, wherein the memory controller instructs the ECC engine to use the ECC parameter.