SHIFTABLE MEMORY DEFRAGMENTATION

• US 20150046644A1
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Hynix Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Karp, Alan H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,307 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/023 Free address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1724 Details of de-fragmentation performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/161 Portable computer, e.g. notebook
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/70 Details relating to dynamic memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 13/0007 comprising metal oxide memory material, e.g. perovskites
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 19/00 Digital stores in which the information is moved stepwise, e.g. shift registers
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 19/28 using semiconductor elements G11C19/14, G11C19/36 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1036 using data shift registers

Abstract

Shiftable memory that supports defragmentation includes a memory having built-in shifting capability, and a memory defragmenter to shift a page of data representing a contiguous subset of data stored in the memory from a first location to a second location within the memory to be adjacent to another page of stored data. A method of memory defragmentation includes defining an array in memory cells of the shiftable memory and performing a memory defragmentation using the built-in shifting capability of the shiftable memory to shift a data page stored in the array.

Claims

1. A shiftable memory supporting memory defragmentation comprising:

a memory to store data, the memory having built-in shifting capability to shift only data of a contiguous subset of stored data representing a page of data from a first location to a second location within the memory, the page of data having a size that is smaller than a total size of the memory; and

a memory defragmenter to shift the page of data using the built-in shifting capability of the memory, the second location being adjacent to another page of stored data.

2. The shiftable memory of claim 1, wherein the shift comprises a page-sized shift.

3. The shiftable memory of claim 1, wherein the shift comprises a shift of each page of a plurality of pages of data until all of the plurality of pages are adjacent to one another.

4. The shiftable memory of claim 3, wherein the shift of each page of the plurality of pages implements a sequential compaction of the shifted pages.

5. The shiftable memory of claim 1, wherein the memory having built-in shifting capability provides a plurality of different page sizes, the page of data having a page size that is a selected size of the plurality of different page sizes.

6. A shiftable memory system comprising the shiftable memory of claim 1, the shiftable memory system further comprising a controller to select the page of data and to implement the shift according to the memory defragmenter.

7. The shiftable memory system of claim 6, wherein the controller comprises an augmented decoder to assert an output corresponding to each memory cell of a plurality of memory cells of the page of data within the memory.

8. The shiftable memory system of claim 6, wherein the controller comprises the memory defragmenter.

9. A memory defragmentation system comprising:

a shiftable memory comprising a plurality of memory cells, the shiftable memory having built-in data shifting capability to shift a contiguous subset of data stored in the memory cells within the shiftable memory, the contiguous subset of data representing a page of data and having a size that is smaller than a total size of the shiftable memory;

a memory defragmenter to perform a shift of the page of data from a first location in the shiftable memory to a second location adjacent to another page of data stored in the shiftable memory using the built-in shifting capability; and

a controller to select the page of data and to implement the shift under direction of the memory defragmenter.

10. The memory defragmentation system of claim 9, wherein the controller comprises an augmented decoder to assert an output corresponding to each memory cell of the plurality of memory cells of the page of data within the shiftable memory.

11. The memory defragmentation system of claim 9, wherein the shift performed by the memory defragmenter comprises a page-sized shift, and wherein the shift performed by the memory defragmenter shifts each page of data of a plurality of pages of data until all of the plurality of pages are adjacent to one another.

12. A method of memory defragmentation using shiftable memory, the method comprising:

defining an array in memory cells of the shiftable memory, the shiftable memory having a plurality of memory cells with built-in shifting capability to shift a contiguous subset of data stored in the array from a first location to a second location, the contiguous subset of data having a size that is less than a total size of the shiftable memory; and

performing a memory defragmentation by using the built-in shifting capability to shift a data page representing the contiguous subset of data stored in the array from the first location in the shiftable memory to a second location adjacent to another page of data stored in the shiftable memory,

wherein when the data page in the array is shifted, the shifting occurs entirely within the shiftable memory and only data of the contiguous subset is shifted.

13. The method of memory defragmentation of claim 12, wherein the shiftable memory provides a plurality of different page sizes, the page of data having a page size of the plurality of different page sizes.

14. The method of memory defragmentation of claim 12, wherein the shift comprises a page-sized shift, and wherein performing the memory defragmentation comprises shifting each data page of a plurality of data pages until all of the data pages of the plurality are adjacent to one another.

15. The method of memory defragmentation of claim 14, wherein shifting each data page comprises performing a sequential compaction of the data pages.