Solid-state mass storage device and method for failure anticipation
First Claim
1. A method for predicting failure of a solid-state mass storage device having a controller and at least one nonvolatile memory device comprising pages that are organized into memory blocks, the method comprising:
- assigning at least a first of the memory blocks as wear indicator means and excluding the wear indicator means from use as data storage for the nonvolatile memory device;
using at least a set of the memory blocks of the nonvolatile memory device for data storage whereby data are written to and erased from each memory block of the set of memory blocks in program/erase (P/E) cycles;
collecting information regarding the number of P/E cycles encountered by the memory blocks of the set of memory blocks and accessing the information to perform wear leveling on the set of memory blocks;
subjecting the wear indicator means to P/E cycles so that the wear indicator means is subjected to a number of P/E cycles that is greater than the number of P/E cycles encountered by the memory blocks of the set of memory blocks;
performing integrity checks of the wear indicator means and monitoring a bit error rate thereof; and
taking corrective action if the bit error rate of the wear indicator means increases.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A solid-state mass storage device and method of operating the storage device to anticipate the failure of at least one memory device thereof before a write endurance limitation is reached. The method includes assigning at least a first memory block of the memory device as a wear indicator that is excluded from use as data storage, using pages of at least a set of memory blocks of the memory device for data storage, writing data to and erasing data from each memory block of the set in program/erase (P/E) cycles, performing wear leveling on the set of memory blocks, subjecting the wear indicator to more P/E cycles than the set of memory blocks, performing integrity checks of the wear indicator and monitoring its bit error rate, and taking corrective action if the bit error rate increases.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for predicting failure of a solid-state mass storage device having a controller and at least one nonvolatile memory device comprising pages that are organized into memory blocks, the method comprising:
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assigning at least a first of the memory blocks as wear indicator means and excluding the wear indicator means from use as data storage for the nonvolatile memory device; using at least a set of the memory blocks of the nonvolatile memory device for data storage whereby data are written to and erased from each memory block of the set of memory blocks in program/erase (P/E) cycles; collecting information regarding the number of P/E cycles encountered by the memory blocks of the set of memory blocks and accessing the information to perform wear leveling on the set of memory blocks; subjecting the wear indicator means to P/E cycles so that the wear indicator means is subjected to a number of P/E cycles that is greater than the number of P/E cycles encountered by the memory blocks of the set of memory blocks; performing integrity checks of the wear indicator means and monitoring a bit error rate thereof; and taking corrective action if the bit error rate of the wear indicator means increases. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for predicting failure of a solid-state mass storage device having a controller and NAND flash memory devices that comprise pages organized into memory blocks, the method comprising:
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creating from the memory blocks of the NAND flash memory devices a pool of first memory blocks as part of a modified bad-block management algorithm; assigning the first memory blocks as wear-indicator blocks and excluding the wear-indicator blocks from use as data storage for the NAND flash memory devices; using from the memory blocks of the NAND flash memory devices a plurality of second memory blocks for data storage whereby data are written to and erased from each of the second memory blocks in program/erase (P/E) cycles; using information regarding the number of P/E cycles encountered by the second memory blocks to perform wear leveling on the second memory blocks; using the information to subject the wear-indicator blocks to P/E cycles so that the wear-indicator blocks are subjected to a number of P/E cycles that is greater than the number of P/E cycles encountered by each of the second memory blocks; performing integrity checks of the wear-indicator blocks and monitoring bit error rates thereof; and generating a warning of a potential failure of the solid-state mass storage device if the bit error rate of any of the wear-indicator blocks increases. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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Specification