Apparatus and method for improved data restore in a memory system

• US 8,468,317 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2011
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AgigA Tech Incorporated (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Original Assignee: AgigA Tech Incorporated (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Inventors: Steed, Torry J
• Primary Examiner(s): Dudek, Jr., Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): Verderamo, III, Ralph A
• Application Number:
  US13/154,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20120317382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering

Abstract

A process of interacting with a memory module to restore data backed up from volatile memory to nonvolatile memory of the memory module involves a host system configuring the volatile memory of the module to interoperate with a host memory controller via a DIMM memory interface to the module; the host configuring a controller of the module to copy data from the nonvolatile memory to a peripheral I/O bus, the configuration of the controller of the module carried out via the peripheral I/O bus; a host I/O controller receiving the data copied to the peripheral I/O bus and communicating the received data to a host memory controller; and the host memory controller copying the received data to the volatile memory via the DIMM memory interface, thus completing a restore of the data from nonvolatile memory to the volatile memory.

Claims

1. A memory module that interfaces with a host system as a Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM), comprising:

a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory;

a DIMM module interface to the volatile memory;

a peripheral I/O bus interface to the nonvolatile memory, the peripheral I/O bus interface also interfacing to control logic of the memory module to initiate data backup from the volatile to the nonvolatile memory; and

logic to cause an interface to the nonvolatile memory to be read/write for operations between the nonvolatile memory and the volatile memory, and to cause the interface to the nonvolatile memory to be read-only for operations between the nonvolatile memory and the peripheral bus.

2. The memory module of claim 1, further comprising:

the peripheral I/O bus implements one of Universal Serial Bus, PCI Express, or SATA communications.

3. The memory module of claim 1, further comprising:

logic to encrypt data copied from the volatile memory to the nonvolatile memory, and to copy encrypted data in the nonvolatile memory to the peripheral I/O bus without decrypting the copied data.

4. A process of interacting with a memory module to restore data backed up from volatile memory to nonvolatile memory of the memory module, the process comprising:

a host system configuring the volatile memory of the module to interoperate with a host memory controller via a DIMM memory interface to the module;

the host configuring a controller of the module to copy data from the nonvolatile memory to a peripheral I/O bus, the configuration of the controller of the module carried out via the peripheral I/O bus;

a host I/O controller receiving the data copied to the peripheral I/O bus and communicating the received data to a host memory controller; and

the host memory controller copying the received data to the volatile memory via the DIMM memory interface, thus completing a restore of the data from nonvolatile memory to the volatile memory.

5. The process of claim 4, further comprising:

backing up data from the volatile memory to the nonvolatile memory, and the controller of the module encrypting the data as it is backed up;

copying the encrypted data to the peripheral I/O bus; and

the host receiving the encrypted data via the peripheral I/O bus and decrypting the encrypted data.

6. The process of claim 4, further comprising:

copying the data from the volatile memory to a magnetic or optical disk.