MULTIPLE ENDIANNESS COMPATIBILITY

• US 20160154596A1
• Filed: 12/01/2015
• Published: 06/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Willcock, Jeremiah J., Wheeler, Kyle B., Finkbeiner, Timothy P.
• Granted Patent: US 10,073,635 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4013 with data re-ordering, e.g. Endian conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Examples of the present disclosure provide apparatuses and methods for multiple endianness compatibility. An example method comprises receiving a plurality of bytes and determining a particular endianness format of the plurality of bytes. The method can include, responsive to determining the particular endianness format is a first endianness format, reordering bits of each byte of the plurality of bytes on a bytewise basis, storing the reordered plurality of bytes in an array of memory cells, and adjusting a shift direction associated with performing a number of operations on the plurality of bytes stored in the array. The method can include, responsive to determining the particular endianness format is a second endianness format, storing the plurality of bytes in the array without reordering bits of the plurality of bytes.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of bytes in a particular endianness format; and

responsive to the particular endianness format being a first endianness format;

reordering bits of each byte of the plurality of bytes on a bytewise basis;

storing the reordered plurality of bytes in an array of memory cells; and

adjusting a shift direction associated with performing a number of operations on the plurality of bytes stored in the array; and

responsive to the particular endianness format being a second endianness format, storing the plurality of bytes in the array without reordering bits of the plurality of bytes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the particular endianness format is the first endianness format or the second endianness format comprises determining a state of a flag.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving the plurality of bytes from a host and setting the state of the flag based on an endianness corresponding to the host.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the reordered plurality of bytes comprises storing the reordered plurality of bytes so as to be bit-contiguous.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first endianness format is a little endian format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the bits in each byte of the plurality of bytes comprises ordering bits of each byte from a bitwise big endian format to a bitwise little endian format.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising performing a number of shift operations on the bits in each byte of the plurality of bytes.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the bits are shifted in a more significant bit direction.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the bits in each byte of the plurality of bytes are shifted:

in a rightward direction when the plurality of bytes are in the first endianness format; and

in a leftward direction when the plurality of bytes are in a second endianness format.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein:

each of the bits is stored in one of a respective number of compute components; and

performing the number of shift operations comprises shifting each of the number of bits from a compute component coupled to a memory cell storing a lesser significant bit to a compute component coupled to a memory cell storing a more significant bit.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of bytes are stored in cells coupled to a corresponding one of a plurality of access lines of the array.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, in response to receiving the bits in the second endianness format, the bits remain in the second endianness format.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a flag is not set when the bits are received in a big endian format.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising, responsive to receiving the plurality of bytes in the first endianness format, reversing an order of row addresses received from a sequencer when bytes are stored in rows.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising, responsive to receiving the plurality of bytes in the first endianness format, reversing an order of column addresses received from a sequencer when bytes are stored in columns.

16. The method of claim 1, comprising sending the reordered bits to a controller.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the bits of each byte of the plurality of bytes comprises reordering a most significant bit of a first byte from a most significant bit position to a least significant bit position.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein reversing the order of bits on a bytewise basis to the bit-sequential format comprises reordering a least significant bit of the first byte from a least significant bit position to the most significant bit position.

19. A method, comprising:

determining a status of a flag indicating an endianness of a plurality of bytes;

in response to a flag being set, indicating the plurality of bytes is received in a first endianness format;

changing a direction of shifting operations performed in an array of memory cells;

on a bytewise basis, reversing, via a controller, an order of bits of the plurality of bytes stored in a group of memory cells;

reversing an order of addresses on a bytewise basis; and

providing the bits with the reversed order and the corresponding addresses with reversed order to a host; and

in response to the flag not being set based on the plurality of bytes being received in a second endianness format;

providing the bits of the plurality of bytes stored in the group of memory cells to the host.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first endianness format is a bytewise little endian format.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the second endianness format is a bytewise big endian format.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the direction of shifting operations is toward a most significant bit direction when performing the shifting operations.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein changing the direction of shifting operations performed in the array comprises changing from shifting left to shifting right when the bits are stored in rows.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein:

when the flag is set, the shifting operations are performed in a rightward direction; and

when the flag is not set, the shifting operations are performed in a leftward direction.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein changing the direction of shifting operations performed in the array comprises changing from shifting up to shifting down when the bites are stored in columns.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a controller coupled to an array of memory cells, wherein the controller is configured to;

receive bits of a plurality of bytes, wherein;

when the bits are in a first endian format a flag is set; and

when the bits are in a second endian format the flag is not set;

reorder the received bits when the flag is set from the first endian format to the second endian format by reversing the bits in each byte as each byte is received; and

reverse an order of the addresses associated with the plurality of bytes when the flag is set.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the bits are received from a host and sent to the array.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the array receives the bits and stores the bits:

independent of altering an ordering of the bits and addresses associated with the bits when the flag is not set; and

after the reordering of the bits and reversing an order of the addresses when the flag is set.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, comprising an array of memory cells configured to perform a number of shift operations in a particular direction based on whether the flag is set.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the array performs a number of operations independent of knowing which endianness format a host in communication with the array uses.

31. An apparatus comprising:

a controller comprising an engine and configured to;

receive bits of bytes in a particular endianness format;

determine whether a flag is set, wherein the flag is set when the particular endianness format is a first endianness format and the flag is not set when the particular endianness format is a second endianness format;

when the flag is set;

cause the engine to reorder the received bits in the bytewise little endian format to a bit-sequential little endian format by reversing the bits bytewise;

reverse an order of addresses associated with the bits; and

store the bits in a group of memory cells of an array; and

an array of memory cells comprising the group of memory cells and configured to perform a number of shift operations on the bits.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the first endianness format is a bytewise little endian format and the second endianness format is a bytewise big endian format.

33. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the array configured to perform the number of shift operations comprises the array configured to perform the number of shift operations in a first direction when the flag is not set and in a second direction when the flag is set.