Memory system and control method thereof

• US 8,015,347 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2009
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kioxia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yano, Junji, Kanno, Shinichi, Kitsunai, Kazuya, Hida, Toshikatsu, Yano, Hirokuni
• Primary Examiner(s): Choe; Yong
• Application Number:
  US12/552,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049907A1
• Time in Patent Office: 734 Days
• Field of Search: 711/103, 714/723, 365/201
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1036 Life time enhancement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7202 Allocation control and policies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7205 Cleaning, compaction, garbage collection, erase control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7211 Wear leveling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0616 in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

A memory system includes a nonvolatile memory including a plurality of blocks as data erase units, a measuring unit which measures an erase time at which data of each block is erased, and a block controller which writes data supplied from at least an exterior into a first block which is set in a free state and whose erase time is oldest.

Claims

1. A memory system comprising:

a nonvolatile memory including a plurality of blocks as data erase units;

a measuring unit which measures an erase time at which data of each block is erased;

a block controller which writes data supplied from at least an exterior into a first block which is set in a free state and whose erase time is oldest, wherein the block controller has a block table indicating a correspondence relation between a status value indicating one of a free state and an in-use state and the erase time for each block; and

a first selector which selects the first block based on information of the block table.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein,

the measuring unit includes a first counter which counts the number of times of erase executed in all blocks, and

the erase time corresponds to a count of the first counter.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein,

the measuring unit measures a time at which data in each block is erased, and

the erase time corresponds to the time.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein,

the measuring unit measures a power supply time of the memory system when data in each block is erased, and

the erase time corresponds to the power supply time.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a second block whose erase count is minimum among a preset number of blocks which are set in the in-use state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on information of the block table;

a third selector which selects a third block whose erase count is maximum among a preset number of blocks which are set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on the information of the block table; and

a leveling unit which calculates a difference between erase counts of the second block and the third block, and moves data of the second block into the third block when the difference exceeds a threshold value.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a second block whose erase count is minimum among a preset ratio of blocks which are set in the in-use state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on the information of the block table;

a third selector which selects a third block whose erase count is maximum among a preset ratio of blocks which are set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on information of the block table; and

a leveling unit which calculates a difference between erase counts of the second block and the third block, and moves data of the second block into the third block when the difference exceeds a threshold value.

7. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a second block whose erase count is minimum among blocks which are set in the in-use state and whose erase times are older than a preset time based on information of the block table;

a third selector which selects a third block whose erase count is maximum among blocks which are set in the free state and whose erase times are older than a preset time based on the information of the block table; and

a leveling unit which calculates a difference between erase counts of the second block and the third block, and moves data of the second block into the third block when the difference exceeds a threshold value.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a management unit which manages a magnitude of a load corresponding to an erase interval with respect to the nonvolatile memory, and generates a load concentration degree indicating the magnitude of the load; and

a leveling determination unit which moves data in a second block set in the in-use state into a third block set in the free state when the load concentration degree exceeds a threshold value.

9. The system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a second selector which selects the second block based on information of the block table; and

a third selector which selects the third block based on the information of the block table, wherein,

the second block is a block whose erase count is minimum among a preset number of blocks set in the in-use state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest, and

the third block is a block whose erase count is maximum among a preset number of blocks set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest.

10. The system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a second selector which selects the second block based on information of the block table; and

a third selector which selects the third block based on the information of the block table, wherein,

the second block is a block whose erase count is minimum among a preset ratio of blocks set in the in-use state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest, and

the third block is a block whose erase count is maximum among a preset ratio of blocks set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest.

11. The system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a second selector which selects the second block based on information of the block table; and

a third selector which selects the third block based on the information of the block table, wherein,

the second block is a block whose erase count is minimum among blocks which are set in the in-use state and whose erase times are older than a preset time, and

the third block is a block whose erase count is maximum among blocks which are set in the free state and whose erase times are older than a preset time.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the management unit comprises:

an addition value table indicating a plurality of erase times and addition values set in correspondence to the respective erase times; and

a second counter which adds an addition value corresponding to the erase time of a block whenever the block is updated from the free state to the in-use state,

wherein the load concentration degree corresponds to a count value of the second counter.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the second counter adds an addition value corresponding to the erase time of a block whenever the block is updated from the in-use state to the free state.

14. The system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a leveling limitation unit which limits the number of leveling processes by the leveling determination unit based on the load concentration degree, and generates a logical value indicating whether a leveling process is performed,

wherein the leveling determination unit determines whether the leveling process is performed based on the logical value.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the leveling limitation unit comprises:

a random number generation unit which generates a random number; and

a random number determination unit which determines whether the random number is smaller than a threshold value, and generates the logical value based on the determination result.

16. A memory system comprising:

a nonvolatile memory including a plurality of blocks as data erase units;

a measuring unit which measures an erase time at which data of each block is erased;

a block controller which counts an erase count of each block, and has a block table indicating a correspondence relation between a status value indicating one of a free state and an in-use state, the erase time and the erase count for each block; and

a first selector which selects a first block whose erase count is minimum among a preset number of blocks set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on information of the block table,

wherein the block controller writes data supplied from at least an exterior into the first block.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein,

the measuring unit includes a first counter which counts the number of times of erase executed in all blocks, and

the erase time corresponds to a count of the first counter.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein,

the measuring unit measures a time at which data in each block is erased, and

the erase time corresponds to the time.

19. The system according to claim 16, wherein,

the measuring unit measures a power supply time of the memory system when data in each block is erased, and

the erase time corresponds to the power supply time.

20. The system according to claim 16, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a second block whose erase count is minimum among a preset number of blocks which are set in the in-use state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on the information of the block table;

a third selector which selects a third block whose erase count is maximum among a preset number of blocks which are set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on the information of the block table; and

a leveling unit which calculates a difference between erase counts of the second block and the third block, and moves data of the second block into the third block when the difference exceeds a threshold value.

21. The system according to claim 16, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a second block whose erase count is minimum among a preset ratio of blocks which are set in the in-use state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on the information of the block table;

a third selector which selects a third block whose erase count is maximum among a preset ratio of blocks which are set in the free state starting from a block whose erase time is oldest based on the information of the block table; and

a leveling unit which calculates a difference between erase counts of the second block and the third block, and moves data of the second block into the third block when the difference exceeds a threshold value.