METHOD FOR CONTROLLING OPERATIONS OF DATA STORAGE DEVICE, AND ASSOCIATED DATA STORAGE DEVICE AND CONTROLLER

• US 20190129629A1
• Filed: 02/06/2018
• Published: 05/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Silicon Motion Incorporated Taiwan (Silicon Motion)
• Original Assignee: Silicon Motion Incorporated Taiwan (Silicon Motion)
• Inventors: Lin, Sheng-Liu
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/02 Addressing or allocation; Relocation program address sequencing G06F9/00; arrangements for selecting an address in a digital store G11C8/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7203 Temporary buffering, e.g. using volatile buffer or dedicated buffer blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0634 by changing the state or mode of one or more devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

A method for controlling operations of a data storage device, the associated data storage device and the controller thereof are provided. The method can comprise: selecting a block of multiple blocks of a non-volatile (NV) memory element of a plurality of NV memory elements; receiving a data-writing command from a host device; generating a plurality of operating commands corresponding to the data-writing command, and sending the plurality of operating commands to the NV memory to perform data-writing on a plurality of non-reserved word-lines of the block, wherein the block comprises the plurality of non-reserved word-lines and a plurality of reserved word-lines, and each non-reserved word-line of the plurality of non-reserved word-lines comprises multiple pages; and writing user data into a reserved word-line of the plurality of reserved word-lines through a single level cell (SLC) writing mode, to make the reserved word-line comprise a single page.

Claims

1. A method for controlling operations of a data storage device, the data storage device comprising a non-volatile (NV) memory comprising a plurality of NV memory elements, the method comprising:

selecting a block of multiple blocks of a NV memory element of the plurality of NV memory elements;

receiving a data-writing command from a host device, wherein the data-writing command is one of a plurality of host device commands from the host device;

generating a plurality of operating commands corresponding to the data-writing command, and sending the plurality of operating commands to the NV memory to perform data-writing on a plurality of non-reserved word-lines of the block, wherein the block comprises the plurality of non-reserved word-lines and a plurality of reserved word-lines, and each non-reserved word-line of the plurality of non-reserved word-lines comprises multiple pages; and

writing user data into a reserved word-line of the plurality of reserved word-lines through a single level cell (SLC) writing mode, to make the reserved word-line comprise a single page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of reserved word-lines comprises two reserved word-lines, and the method further comprises:

using a first word-line and a last word-line in the block as the two reserved word-lines.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

writing an end-of-block (EOB) information of the block into the reserved word-line.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the block comprises a plurality of virtual blocks, and the EOB information is an EOB information of a virtual block of the plurality of virtual blocks.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

writing a backup of the EOB information to another reserved word-line of the plurality of reserved word-lines via the SLC writing mode to make the another reserved word-line comprise a single page.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

writing other user data to another reserved word-line of the plurality of reserved word-lines via the SLC writing mode to make the another reserved word-line comprise a single page.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying physical addresses respectively pointing to at least one portion of word-lines of the block to write a series of data to the plurality of non-reserved word-lines and avoid writing the series of data to the first word-line of the block, wherein the plurality of reserved word-lines comprise the first word-line.

8. A data storage device, comprising:

a non-volatile (NV) memory, for storing information, wherein the NV memory comprises a plurality of NV memory elements; and

a controller, coupled to the NV memory, for controlling operations of the data storage device, wherein the controller comprises;

a processing circuit, for controlling the controller according to a plurality of host device commands from a host device to allow the host device to access the NV memory through the controller, wherein;

the controller selects a block of a plurality of blocks of a NV memory element of the plurality of NV memory elements;

the controller receives a data-writing command from a host device, wherein the data-writing command is one of the plurality of host device commands from the host device;

the controller generates a plurality of operating commands corresponding to the data-writing command, and sends the plurality of operating commands to the NV memory to perform data-writing on a plurality of non-reserved word-lines of the block, wherein the block comprises the plurality of non-reserved word-lines and a plurality of reserved word-lines, and each non-reserved word-line of the plurality of non-reserved word-lines comprises multiple pages; and

the controller writes user data into a reserved word-line of the plurality of reserved word-lines through a single level cell (SLC) writing mode, to make the reserved word-line comprise a single page.

9. The data storage device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of reserved word-lines comprises two reserved word-lines;

and the controller uses a first word-line and a last word-line in the block as the two reserved word-lines.

10. The data storage device of claim 8, wherein the controller writes an end-of-block (EOB) information of the block into the reserved word-line.

11. A controller of a data storage device, the data storage device comprising the controller and a non-volatile (NV) memory comprising a plurality of NV memory elements, the controller comprises:

a processing circuit, for controlling the controller according to a plurality of host device commands from a host device to allow the host device to access the NV memory through the controller, wherein;

the controller selects a block of a plurality of blocks of a NV memory element of the plurality of NV memory elements;

the controller receives a data-writing command from a host device, wherein the data-writing command is one of a plurality of host device commands from the host device;

the controller generates a plurality of operating commands corresponding to the data-writing command, and sends the plurality of operating commands to the NV memory to perform data-writing on a plurality of non-reserved word-lines of the block, wherein the block comprises the plurality of non-reserved word-lines and a plurality of reserved word-lines, and each non-reserved word-line of the plurality of non-reserved word-lines comprises multiple pages; and

the controller writes user data into a reserved word-line of the plurality of reserved word-lines through a single level cell (SLC) writing mode, to make the reserved word-line comprise a single page.

12. The controller of claim 11, wherein the plurality of reserved word-lines comprises two reserved word-lines;

and the controller uses a first word-line and a last word-line in the block as the two reserved word-lines.

13. The controller of claim 11, wherein the controller writes an end-of-block information (EOB information) of the block into the reserved word-line.

14. A method of data writing, which is applicable to a data storage device, the method comprising:

selecting a block as an active block, the block being selected from a plurality of blocks comprised in the data storage device;

dividing a plurality of word-lines of the active block into at least one reserved word-line and a plurality of non-reserved word-lines;

programming a first type of data to the non-reserved word-lines in a preset writing mode; and

programming a second type of data to the at least one reserved word-line in a non-preset writing mode, wherein the preset writing mode is programmable with more data to any word-line of the word-lines than the non-preset writing mode.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one reserved word-line is a last word-line of the word-lines.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one reserved word-line is a first word-line of the word-lines.

17. A method of data writing, which is applicable to a data storage device, the method comprising:

selecting a block as an active block, the block being selected from a plurality of blocks comprised in the data storage device; and

dividing a plurality of word-lines of the active block into at least one reserved word-line and a plurality of non-reserved word-lines, wherein a data storage volume of any word-line of the non-reserved word-lines is higher than that of any word-line of the at least one reserved word-line.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one reserved word-line is a last word-line of the word-lines.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one reserved word-line is a first word-line of the word-lines.

20. A data storage device, comprising:

a non-volatile (NV) memory, acting as a plurality of blocks of a storage medium, each of the blocks has a plurality of word-lines; and

at least one of the blocks, designated as at least one data block, wherein the word-lines of the at least one data block are divided into at least one reserved word-line and a plurality of non-reserved word-lines, and a data storage volume of any word-line of the non-reserved word-lines is higher than that of any word-line of the at least one reserved word-line.