Effective wear-leveling and concurrent reclamation method for embedded linear flash file systems
First Claim
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1. A method for reclaiming targeted Erase Units from a plurality of erase units of a flash memory comprising:
- when there are free erase units in the plurality of erase units, identifying the targeted Erase Units based on the number of erasures of an Erase Unit and a wear-leveling threshold, the targeted Erase Units having a number of erasures that exceed the wear-leveling threshold, wherein the wear-leveling threshold is a maximum difference in the number of erasures between the Erase Unit having the most erasures and the Erase Unit having the least erasures; and
reclaiming the targeted Erase Units even if the targeted Erase Units do not contain dirty Blocks of the flash memory.
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Abstract
Reclamation of an Erase Unit of a flash memory is performed concurrently with a file operation on the flash memory by initiating a reclamation operation on the individually erasable portion of the memory, by suspending the reclamation operation for the file operation, by performing the file operation, and by resuming the reclamation operation.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for reclaiming targeted Erase Units from a plurality of erase units of a flash memory comprising:
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when there are free erase units in the plurality of erase units, identifying the targeted Erase Units based on the number of erasures of an Erase Unit and a wear-leveling threshold, the targeted Erase Units having a number of erasures that exceed the wear-leveling threshold, wherein the wear-leveling threshold is a maximum difference in the number of erasures between the Erase Unit having the most erasures and the Erase Unit having the least erasures; and reclaiming the targeted Erase Units even if the targeted Erase Units do not contain dirty Blocks of the flash memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of selecting for reclamation an Erase Unit from among a plurality of Erase Units of a flash memory comprising:
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inspecting information of a Master Control Erase Unit; selecting the Erase Unit for reclamation based on the inspected information, wherein an Erase Unit is selected as the Erase Unit to be reclaimed if there are free Erase Units and a number of erasures of the Erase Unit has exceeded a threshold, wherein the threshold is a maximum difference between the number of erasures of the Erase Unit having the most erasures and the number of erasures of the Erase Unit having the least erasures; and reclaiming the Erase Unit selected for reclamation even though free Erase Units exist on the flash memory sufficient to support a file operation. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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Specification