Power sequencing and data hardening architecture

• US 9,323,637 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2013
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sandisk Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SanDisk Enterprise IP LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Lucas, Gregg S., Delpapa, Kenneth B., Herman, Lace J., Ellis, Robert W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Guyton, Philip
• Application Number:
  US14/135,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20150100824A1
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206

Abstract

The various implementations described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to enable power sequencing and a data hardening module in a storage device. In one aspect, the method includes determining whether a power supply voltage provided to the storage device is lower than an under-voltage threshold. The method further includes, in accordance with a determination that the power supply voltage is lower than the under-voltage threshold, performing a power fail operation, the power fail operation including: (1) signaling a power fail condition to a plurality of controllers on the storage device, (2) transferring data held in volatile memory to non-volatile memory, and (3) removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device.

Claims

1. A method of protecting data in a storage device, the method comprising:

determining whether a power supply voltage provided to the storage device is lower than an under-voltage threshold; and

in accordance with a determination that the power supply voltage is lower than the under-voltage threshold, performing a power fail operation, the power fail operation including;

signaling a power fail condition to a plurality of controllers on the storage device, the plurality of controllers including a memory controller and one or more flash controllers;

transferring data held in volatile memory to non-volatile memory, including;

transferring data, including metadata stored in volatile memory of the memory controller, from the memory controller to the one or more flash controllers; and

transferring data, including the metadata, from the one or more flash controllers to the non-volatile memory; and

removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more flash controllers are coupled by the memory controller to a host interface of the storage device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device includes:

resetting the memory controller subsequent to transferring data from the memory controller to the one or more flash controllers; and

removing power from the memory controller subsequent to resetting the memory controller.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more flash controllers include a first flash controller and a second flash controller, and wherein removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device includes:

resetting the first flash controller subsequent to transferring data from the first flash controller to the non-volatile memory;

resetting the second flash controller subsequent to transferring data from the second flash controller to the non-volatile memory; and

removing power from the first and the second flash controllers subsequent to resetting the first and second flash controllers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein removing power from the first and the second flash controllers is subsequent to removing power from the memory controller.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the power fail operation is performed to completion regardless of whether the power supply voltage returns to a voltage greater than or equal to the under-voltage threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the power supply voltage is a voltage supplied by a host system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the power supply voltage is a voltage supplied for serial presence detect (SPD) functionality.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the power supply voltage includes a first voltage and a second voltage, and wherein performing the power fail operation includes:

performing the power fail operation in accordance with a determination that the first voltage is lower than a first under-voltage threshold; and

performing the power fail operation in accordance with a determination that the second voltage is lower than a second under-voltage threshold.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the power fail operation is performed using power from a reserve energy storage device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the power fail operation is performed using power from an energy storage device on the storage device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the energy storage device includes one or more capacitors.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

monitoring the energy storage device to ensure capacitors in the energy storage device are charged to at least a first charge level; and

selectively testing one or more capacitors from the energy storage device during operation of the storage device.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

prior to determining whether the power supply voltage provided to the storage device is lower than the under-voltage threshold;

charging the energy storage device using a higher voltage than the power supply voltage provided to the storage device;

determining whether the energy storage device meets a minimum charge level threshold within a predefined charge time; and

in accordance with a determination that the energy storage device does not meet the minimum charge level threshold in the predefined charge time, preventing operation of the storage device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein preventing operation of the storage device includes communicating a failure message to a host system.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising discharging the energy storage device subsequent to removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory comprises one or more flash memory devices.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage device includes a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of controllers on the storage device include at least one non-volatile memory controller and at least one other memory controller other than the at least one non-volatile memory controller.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of controllers on the storage device maps double data rate (DDR) interface commands to serial advance technology attachment (SATA) interface commands.

21. A storage device, comprising:

an interface for coupling the storage device to a host system;

a plurality of controllers including a memory controller and one or more flash controllers, each of the plurality of controllers configured to transfer data held in volatile memory to non-volatile memory; and

a data hardening module including one or more processors and an energy storage device, the data hardening module configured to;

determine whether a power supply voltage provided to the storage device is lower than an under-voltage threshold; and

in accordance with a determination that the power supply voltage is lower than the under-voltage threshold, perform a power fail operation, the power fail operation including;

signaling a power fail condition to the plurality of controllers, causing the plurality of controllers to transfer data held in volatile memory to non-volatile memory, the transfer including;

transferring data, including metadata stored in volatile memory of the memory controller, from the memory controller to the one or more flash controllers; and

transferring data, including the metadata, from the one or more flash controllers to the non-volatile memory; and

removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device.

22. The storage device of claim 21, wherein the one or more flash controllers are coupled by the memory controller to a host interface of the storage device.

23. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of a storage device having a plurality of controllers including a memory controller and one or more flash controllers and a data hardening module, the one or more programs including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors of the storage device cause the data hardening module to:

determine whether a power supply voltage provided to the storage device is lower than an under-voltage threshold; and

in accordance with a determination that the power supply voltage is lower than the under-voltage threshold, perform a power fail operation, the power fail operation including;

signaling a power fail condition to the plurality of controllers, causing the plurality of controllers to transfer data held in volatile memory to non-volatile memory, the transfer including;

transferring data, including metadata stored in volatile memory of the memory controller, from the memory controller to the one or more flash controllers; and

transferring data, including the metadata, from the one or more flash controllers to the non-volatile memory; and

removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium includes a non-transitory computer readable storage medium associated with each of the plurality of controllers on the storage device and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium associated with the data hardening module.