Memory device and data storing method

• US 9,354,818 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2014
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kioxia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuo, Yaotung, Nagai, Koichi, Sawamura, Shoji, Kondo, Nobuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Okeke, Izunna
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shayanfar, Ali
• Application Number:
  US14/475,907
• Publication Number:
  US 20150242141A1
• Time in Patent Office: 636 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1014 One time programmable [OTP] memory, e.g. PROM, WORM
• 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 3/0623 in relation to content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• 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 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a data storing method includes saving data stored in a memory device to a host device and verifying validity or accuracy of the data saved in the host device.

Claims

1. A memory device, comprising:

a non-volatile memory;

a volatile memory that stores data read from the non-volatile memory; and

a controller that controls operations of the memory device;

wherein,

the controller saves to a host device the data stored in the volatile memory without a saving request from the host device;

the controller reads the data from the host device after the data is saved to the host device; and

the controller verifies validity or accuracy of the data read from the host device based on verification data added to the data saved in the host device,

wherein the verification data is a checksum or a hash; and

wherein, when there is no match between a checksum or a hash determined from the data saved in the host device and a checksum or a hash added to the data saved in the host device, the controller accesses the non-volatile memory to recover the data saved in the host device.

2. The memory device according to claim 1, wherein,

the controller adds the verification data to the data stored in the volatile memory before the data is saved to the host device.

3. The memory device according to claim 2, wherein,

the controller encrypts the data in the volatile memory before the data is saved to the host device;

and

the controller decrypts the encrypted data read from the host device after saved to the host device.

4. The memory device according to claim 1, wherein, when a shift takes place from a normal operation mode to a low-power consumption mode, the controller saves to the host device the data stored in the volatile memory without a saving request from the host device.

5. The memory device according to claim 4, wherein, when a shift takes place from the low-power consumption mode to the normal operation mode, the controller reads the data from the host device.

6. A data storing method, comprising:

saving data stored in a memory device to a host device without a saving request from the host device;

reading the data from the host device after saving the data to the host device;

verifying validity or accuracy of the data read from the host device based on verification data added to the data saved in the host device; and

accessing the memory device to recover the data saved in the host device when there is no match between a checksum or a hash determined from the data saved in the host device and a checksum or a hash added to the data saved in the host device,

wherein the verification data is a checksum or a hash.

7. The data storing method according to claim 6, wherein the verification is performed at the memory device side.

8. The data storing method according to claim 6, wherein the verification is performed at the host device side.

9. The data storing method according to claim 6, wherein verification data for use in the verification is added to the data saved to the host device before the data is saved to the host device.

10. The data storing method according to claim 9, wherein the addition is performed at the memory device side.

11. The data storing method according to claim 9, wherein the addition is performed at the host device side.

12. The data storing method according to claim 9, further comprising:

encrypting the data in the memory device before saving the data to the host device; and

decrypting the encrypted data read from the host device after the encrypted data is saved to the host device.

13. The data storing method according to claim 9, wherein, when a shift takes place from a normal operation mode to a low-power consumption mode, the data stored in the memory device is saved to the host device.

14. The data storing method according to claim 13, wherein, when a shift takes place from the low-power consumption mode to the normal operation mode, the data saved in the host device is returned to the memory device.

15. The data storing method according to claim 9, wherein the checksum or the hash is calculated from the data saved to the host device before encryption.

16. The data storing method according to claim 9, wherein the checksum or the hash is calculated from the data saved to the host device after encryption.