Non-Volatile Memory Program Failure Recovery Via Redundant Arrays

• US 20140189421A1
• Filed: 12/27/2012
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: WERNER, Jeremy Isaac Nathaniel, COHEN, Earl T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,569,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6.21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1044 with specific ECC/EDC distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1068 in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk G06F11/1072 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/108 Parity data distribution in semiconductor storages, e.g. in SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2056 by mirroring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/52 Protection of memory contents; Detection of errors in memory contents

Abstract

Non-volatile memory program failure recovery via redundant arrays enables higher programming bandwidth and/or reduced latency in some storage subsystem implementations, e.g. a solid-state disk. Data to program N portions of a plurality of non-volatile memories is received at a non-volatile memory controller. The data includes particular data to program a particular one of the N portions. The particular data is stored in an allocated buffer associated with the non-volatile memory controller. Programming the particular data to a particular one of the non-volatile memories is begun. Redundancy information sufficient to recover from failures of M of the N portions is updated. The allocated buffer is freed. At least one of the storing, the beginning programming, the updating, and the freeing is in response to the receiving of the particular data. The freeing is prior to the particular non-volatile memory completing the programming.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a non-volatile memory controller, data to program N portions of a plurality of non-volatile memories, the data comprising particular data to program a particular one of the N portions;

storing the particular data in an allocated buffer associated with the non-volatile memory controller;

beginning programming the particular data to a particular one of the non-volatile memories;

updating redundancy information sufficient to recover from failures of M of the N portions;

freeing the allocated buffer;

wherein at least one of the storing, the beginning programming the particular data, the updating redundancy information, and the freeing is in response to the receiving; and

wherein the freeing is prior to the particular non-volatile memory completing the programming.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the redundancy information is first redundancy information, data has been received for a subset of the N portions, programming has not yet begun for the subset of the N portions, and further comprising:

delaying programming of at least some of the subset of the N portions;

beginning programming the first redundancy information to ones of the non-volatile memories;

beginning programming of the at least some of the subset of the N portions;

updating second redundancy information different from the first redundancy information and sufficient to recover from failures of M of the subset of the N portions; and

wherein at least one of the delaying programming, the beginning programming the first redundancy information, the beginning programming of the at least some of the subset of the N portions, and the updating second redundancy information is in response to detecting a failure of the programming of the particular data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the particular data is stored solely as encoded in the first redundancy information when the failure is detected.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data further comprises initial data to program a first one of the N portions, and further comprising:

initializing the redundancy information based at least in part on the initial data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory controller comprises the allocated buffer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocated buffer is comprised in a first chip that is separate from a second chip that comprises the non-volatile memory controller.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory controller is operable as a solid-state disk controller enabled to communicate with a computing host at least in part via a computing host interface compatible with a storage interface standard.

8. A tangible computer readable medium having a set of instructions stored therein that when executed by a processing element cause the processing element to perform and/or control operations comprising:

receiving, at a non-volatile memory controller, data to program N portions of a plurality of non-volatile memories, the data comprising particular data to program a particular one of the N portions;

storing the particular data in an allocated buffer associated with the non-volatile memory controller;

beginning programming the particular data to a particular one of the non-volatile memories;

updating redundancy information sufficient to recover from failures of M of the N portions;

freeing the allocated buffer;

wherein at least one of the storing, the beginning programming the particular data, the updating redundancy information, and the freeing is in response to the receiving of the particular data; and

wherein the freeing is prior to the particular non-volatile memory completing the programming.

9. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the redundancy information is first redundancy information, data has been received for a subset of the N portions, programming has not yet begun for the subset of the N portions, and the operations further comprise

delaying programming of at least some of the subset of the N portions;

beginning programming the first redundancy information to ones of the non-volatile memories;

beginning programming of the at least some of the subset of the N portions;

updating second redundancy information different from the first redundancy information and sufficient to recover from failures of M of the subset of the N portions; and

wherein at least one of the delaying programming, the beginning programming the first redundancy information, the beginning programming of the at least some of the subset of the N portions, and the updating second redundancy information is in response to detecting a failure of the programming of the particular data.

10. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the particular data is stored solely as encoded in the first redundancy information when the failure is detected.

11. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the data further comprises initial data to program a first one of the N portions, and the operations further comprise:

initializing the redundancy information based at least in part on the initial data.

12. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the non-volatile memory controller comprises the allocated buffer.

13. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the allocated buffer is comprised in a first chip that is separate from a second chip that comprises the non-volatile memory controller.

14. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the non-volatile memory controller is operable as a solid-state disk controller enabled to communicate with a computing host at least in part via a computing host interface compatible with a storage interface standard.

15. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the non-volatile memory controller comprises the processing element.

16. A system comprising:

an allocated buffer;

means for receiving, at a non-volatile memory controller, data to program N portions of a plurality of non-volatile memories, the data comprising particular data to program a particular one of the N portions;

means for storing the particular data in the allocated buffer associated with the non-volatile memory controller;

means for beginning programming the particular data to a particular one of the non-volatile memories;

means for updating redundancy information sufficient to recover from failures of M of the N portions;

means for freeing the allocated buffer;

wherein at least one of the means for storing, the means for beginning programming the particular data, the means for updating redundancy information, and the means for freeing is responsive to the means for receiving; and

wherein the means for freeing is operable to free the allocated buffer prior to the particular non-volatile memory completing the programming.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the redundancy information is first redundancy information, data has been received for a subset of the N portions, programming has not yet begun for the subset of the N portions, and further comprising:

means for delaying programming of at least some of the subset of the N portions;

means for beginning programming the first redundancy information to ones of the non-volatile memories;

means for beginning programming of the at least some of the subset of the N portions;

means for updating second redundancy information different from the first redundancy information and sufficient to recover from failures of M of the subset of the N portions; and

wherein at least one of the means for delaying programming, the means for beginning programming the first redundancy information, the means for beginning programming of the at least some of the subset of the N portions, and the means for updating second redundancy information is responsive to means for detecting a failure of the programming of the particular data.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the particular data is stored solely as encoded in the first redundancy information when the failure is detected.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the data further comprises initial data to program a first one of the N portions, and further comprising:

means for initializing the redundancy information based at least in part on the initial data.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the non-volatile memory controller comprises the allocated buffer.