Data storage device and operating method thereof

• US 9,223,694 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2013
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation, SK Hynix Inc.
• Original Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation, SK Hynix Inc.
• Inventors: Seo, Hyeok-Jun, Ko, Seok-Min, Chung, Eui-Young
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, DUC T
• Application Number:
  US13/927,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20140006694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 916 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0253 Garbage collection, i.e. reclamation of unreferenced memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7203 Temporary buffering, e.g. using volatile buffer or dedicated buffer blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7205 Cleaning, compaction, garbage collection, erase control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7211 Wear leveling
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2211/5641 Multilevel memory having cells with different number of storage levels

Abstract

A data storage device includes a first memory device configured to store data having a first property, and a second memory device including a first block configured to store data having a second property and a second block configured to store data transferred from the first memory device.

Claims

1. A data storage device comprising:

a first memory device configured to store first data having a hot property;

a second memory device comprising a first block configured to store second data having a cold property and a second block configured to store third data transferred from the first memory device, wherein the second data and the third data are stored in different physical blocks of the second memory device; and

a request separator configured to classify data requested from outside into the first data having the hot property or the second data having the cold property, wherein the request separator comprises;

a first selection circuit configured to classify the requested data into the first data having the hot property or fourth data having the cold property according to a length of the requested data; and

a second selection circuit configured to reclassify the fourth data into fifth data having the hot property or the second data having the cold property according to a number of requests for a logical address corresponding to the requested data, the first data including the fifth data.

2. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the second selection circuit comprises:

a storage unit configured to sequentially store logical page addresses (LPAs) of the requested data according to a request sequence; and

a selection controller configured to reclassify the fourth data into the fifth data having the hot property when the number of requests for an LPA corresponding to the fourth data is greater than a predetermined number.

3. The data storage device of claim 1, further comprising:

a first buffer configured to temporarily store the second data; and

a second buffer configured to temporarily store the third data.

4. The data storage device of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to select one or more data stored at a certain physical location of the first memory device, and transfer the selected data to the second memory device or store the selected data at a different physical location of the first memory device according to an update count (UC) of an address at which the data are stored.

5. The data storage device of claim 4, wherein the selected data includes data that has not been used for the longest time among data stored in the first memory device.

6. The data storage device of claim 4, wherein the controller transfers data stored at the certain physical location, which has an UC equal to or less than a threshold value, to the second memory device.

7. The data storage device of claim 4, wherein the controller stores data stored at the certain physical location, which has an UC greater than a threshold value, at the different physical location of the first memory device.

8. The data storage device of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to perform a garbage collection operation on the second memory device.

9. The data storage device of claim 8, wherein the controller stores data, which is collected in the garbage collection operation, in the second block of the second memory device.

10. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the first memory device comprises a memory device including single-level cells, and the second memory device comprises a memory device including multi-level cells.

11. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second memory devices comprises a nonvolatile memory device.

12. An operating method of a data storage device, the operating method comprising:

storing first data having a hot property in a first memory device;

storing second data having a cold property in a first block of a second memory device;

storing third data transferred from the first memory device in a second block of the second memory device, wherein the second data and the third data are stored in different physical blocks of the second memory device; and

classifying data requested from outside into the first data having the hot property or the second data having the cold property, wherein the classifying of the requested data comprises;

a first step of classifying the requested data into the first data having the hot property or fourth data having the cold property according to a length of the requested data and

a second step of reclassifying the fourth data into fifth data having the hot property or the second data having the cold property according to a number of requests for a logical address corresponding to the requested data, the first data including the fifth data.

13. The operating method of claim 12, wherein the second step comprises:

sequentially storing logical page addresses (LPAs) of the requested data in a storage unit having a predetermined length according to a request sequence; and

reclassifying the fourth data into the fifth data having the hot property when the number of requests for an LPA corresponding to the fourth data is greater than a predetermined number.

14. The operating method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting one or more data in the first memory device; and

transferring the selected data to the second memory device if an update count (UC) corresponding to an address of the selected data does not exceed a threshold value.

15. The operating method of claim 14, further comprising, if the UC corresponding to the address of the data exceeds the threshold value, storing the selected data in the first memory device again.

16. The operating method of claim 15, further comprising resetting the UC corresponding to the address of the selected data when the selected data is stored again in the first memory device.

17. The operating method of claim 14, further comprising, when new data is written at an address of valid data existing in the first memory device, increasing an UC corresponding to the address.

18. The operating method of claim 14, wherein the selecting of the one or more data comprises selecting one or more data including data that has not been used for the longest time in the first memory device.

19. The operating method of claim 12, further comprising performing a garbage collection operation on the second memory device.

20. The operating method of claim 19, wherein the performing of the garbage collection operation comprises storing data collected in the garbage collection operation in the second block of the second memory device.