Storage device employing a flash memory
DCFirst Claim
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1. A storage device employing a flash memory, comprising:
- a storage area comprised of (1) a plurality of data memory areas for storing data, each of said plurality of data memory areas being identified by a unique physical address, (2) a plurality of substitutive memory areas for use as substitute memory areas for said data memory areas, each of said plurality of substitutive memory areas being identified by a unique physical address, and (3) a plurality of error memory areas each of which is provided in correspondence with a respective one of said plurality of data memory areas and each of which stores error information of corresponding ones of said data memory areas, said storage device further comprising;
address conversion means; and
a memory controller which accesses a respective data memory area identified by a received physical address,wherein at least one of said error memory areas corresponds to a data memory area in which no error occurred and stores, as said error information, information showing that no error occurred in the corresponding data memory area,wherein each of remaining ones of said error memory areas corresponds to a respective data memory area in which error occurred and stores, as said error information, said physical address of a respective substitutive memory area to be used in place of the corresponding data memory area in which error occurred, andwherein when the physical address of said substitutive memory area is stored as the error information in the error memory area corresponding to the data memory area identified by the physical address, said address conversion means converts said physical address, to be provided to the memory controller, into the physical address of said substitutive memory area stored in the error memory area corresponding to the respective data memory area identified by the physical address to be accessed.
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Abstract
A semiconductor disk wherein a flash memory into which data is rewritten in block unit is employed as a storage medium, said semiconductor disk comprises a data memory in which file data are stored, a substitutive memory which substitutes for blocks of errors in the data memory, an error memory in which error information of the data memory are stored, and a memory controller which reads data out of, writes data into and erases data from the data memory, the substitutive memory and the error memory. Since the write errors of the flash memory can be remedied, the service life of the semiconductor disk can be increased.
171 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A storage device employing a flash memory, comprising:
a storage area comprised of (1) a plurality of data memory areas for storing data, each of said plurality of data memory areas being identified by a unique physical address, (2) a plurality of substitutive memory areas for use as substitute memory areas for said data memory areas, each of said plurality of substitutive memory areas being identified by a unique physical address, and (3) a plurality of error memory areas each of which is provided in correspondence with a respective one of said plurality of data memory areas and each of which stores error information of corresponding ones of said data memory areas, said storage device further comprising; address conversion means; and a memory controller which accesses a respective data memory area identified by a received physical address, wherein at least one of said error memory areas corresponds to a data memory area in which no error occurred and stores, as said error information, information showing that no error occurred in the corresponding data memory area, wherein each of remaining ones of said error memory areas corresponds to a respective data memory area in which error occurred and stores, as said error information, said physical address of a respective substitutive memory area to be used in place of the corresponding data memory area in which error occurred, and wherein when the physical address of said substitutive memory area is stored as the error information in the error memory area corresponding to the data memory area identified by the physical address, said address conversion means converts said physical address, to be provided to the memory controller, into the physical address of said substitutive memory area stored in the error memory area corresponding to the respective data memory area identified by the physical address to be accessed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. In a storage device which employs a flash memory, and to which a host system is connected, the improvement therein comprising the fact that a size of a block, which is a rewriting unit of said flash memory, is equal to a size of a sector which is an accessing unit of a file when said host system accesses the file.
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5. A storage device employing a flash memory, comprising:
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a storage area of said storage device, said storage area including; a plurality of data memory areas for storing data, each of said plurality of data memory areas being identified by a unique physical address; a plurality of substitutive memory areas for use as substitute memory areas for said data memory areas, each of said plurality of substitutive memory areas being identified by a unique physical address, and a plurality of error memory areas each of which is provided in correspondence with a respective one of said data memory areas, and each of which stores error information of corresponding ones of said data memory areas; said storage device including; logical address conversion means, supplied with logical addresses in a data access operation, for converting a logical address into the physical address of the data memory area designated by the logical address, and a memory controller which receives said physical address resulting from the conversion, and which accesses the data memory area identified by the received physical address; wherein at least one of said error memory areas corresponds to a data memory area in which no error occurred, and stores, as said error information, information showing that no error occurred in the corresponding data memory area, wherein each of remaining ones of said error memory areas corresponds to a respective data memory area in which error occurred, and stores, as said error information, said physical address of a respective substitutive memory area to be used in place of the corresponding data memory area in which error occurred, and wherein when the physical address of said substitutive memory area is stored as the error information in the error memory area corresponding to the data memory area identified by the logical address, said logical address conversion means converts said logical address into the physical address of said substitutive memory area stored in the error memory area corresponding to the respective data memory area identified by the logical address, instead of converting the logical data into the physical address of said respective data memory area identified by the logical address. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 19, 20, 21)
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9. A storage device employing a flash memory, wherein a storage area of said storage device is divided into a plurality of physical sectors identified by physical addresses, said storage device includes:
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logical address conversion means which receives a logical address of data in a data writing operation and converts said logical address into a physical address, and a memory controller for receiving said physical address resulting from the conversion by the conversion means, and writing said data into a respective physical sector; wherein said logical address conversion means converts a logical address received in the writing operation to the physical address which is different from the physical address to which said logical address conversion means converted a logical address, identical to the logical address to be presently converted, in a preceding writing operation. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification