System, method, and apparatus for improving the utility of storage media

• US 9,361,029 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sandisk Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Strasser, John, Flynn, David, Fillingim, Jeremy, Wood, Robert, Hyun, Jea, Sun, Hairong
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Trong
• Application Number:
  US14/611,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20150149817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 494 Days
• Field of Search: 365/185.03, 365/185.09, 365/185.11, 365/185.12, 365/185.17, 365/185.18, 365/185.24, 365/185.29, 365/185.33, 711/100, 711/102, 711/103, 711/104, 711/105, 711/114, 711/170
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1068 in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk G06F11/1072 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/26 Functional testing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0629 Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/56 using storage elements with more than two stable states represented by steps, e.g. of voltage, current, phase, frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/00 Erasable programmable read-only memories G11C14/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/26 Sensing or reading circuits; Data output circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/28 using differential sensing or reference cells, e.g. dummy cells
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/3404 Convergence or correction of memory cell threshold voltages; Repair or recovery of overerased or overprogrammed cells
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/3418 Disturbance prevention or evaluation; Refreshing of disturbed memory data
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2029/0409 Online test
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/02 Detection or location of defective auxiliary circuits, e.g. defective refresh counters
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/026 in sense amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/028 with adaption or trimming of parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/42 using error correcting codes [ECC] or parity check
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/50016 of retention

Abstract

One method for improving the utility of solid-state storage media within a solid state storage device includes referencing one or more storage media characteristics for a set of storage cells of the solid-state storage media. The method also includes determining a configuration parameter for the set of storage cells based on the one or more storage media characteristics. The method includes configuring the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter. The configuration parameter includes a parameter of the set of storage cells modifiable by a module external to the solid-state storage device by way of an interface. The module external to the solid-state storage device includes a device driver executing on a host device.

Claims

1. An apparatus to improve the utility of solid-state storage media, the apparatus comprising:

a media characteristic module that references one or more storage media characteristics for a set of storage cells of solid-state storage media;

a configuration parameter module that determines a configuration parameter for the set of storage cells based on the one or more storage media characteristics; and

a storage cell configuration module that configures the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter, wherein configuring the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter comprises communicating with a device driver executing on a host device external to the apparatus.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a characteristic update module that updates the one or more storage media characteristics for the set of storage cells in response to an update event.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a configuration update module that updates the configuration parameter for the set of storage cells in response to a change in the one or more storage media characteristics.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the media characteristic module maintains the one or more storage media characteristics for the set of storage cells in a storage media characteristic repository comprising storage media characteristics for a plurality of different sets of storage cells of the solid-state storage media.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the configuration parameter module maintains the determined configuration parameter for the set of storage cells in a configuration parameter repository comprising configuration parameters for a plurality of different sets of storage cells of the solid-state storage media.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more storage media characteristics comprise one or more of a program/erase cycle count for the set of storage cells, a read count for the set of storage cells, a retention time since a previous write for the set of storage cells, a temperature for the set of storage cells, a use case for the set of storage cells, and an error statistic for the set of storage cells.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage cell configuration module communicates with the device driver by calling an Application Programming Interface (API) of the device driver.

8. A system to improve the utility of solid-state storage media, the system comprising:

a solid-state storage device, the solid-state storage device comprising solid-state storage media;

a media characteristic module that references one or more storage media characteristics for a set of storage cells of the solid-state storage media;

a configuration parameter module that determines a configuration parameter for the set of storage cells based on the one or more storage media characteristics; and

a storage cell configuration module that configures the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter,

wherein the storage cell configuration module uses an interface of the set of storage cells to configure the set of storage cells by communicating with a device driver installed on a host device in communication with the solid-state storage device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the storage cell configuration module communicates with the device driver by calling an Application Programming Interface (API) of the device driver.

10. A method to improve the utility of solid-state storage media comprised within a solid state storage device, the method comprising:

referencing one or more storage media characteristics for a set of storage cells of the solid-state storage media;

determining a configuration parameter for the set of storage cells based on the one or more storage media characteristics; and

configuring the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter wherein the configuration parameter comprises a parameter of the set of storage cells modifiable by a module external to the solid-state storage device by way of an interface, wherein the module external to the solid-state storage device comprises a device driver executing on a host device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating the one or more storage media characteristics for the set of storage cells in response to an update event.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the update event comprises one or more of a background scan of the solid-state storage media comprising the set of storage cells, a read request for the set of storage cells, a read request for neighboring storage cells of the set of storage cells, a startup operation for a device comprising the set of storage cells, a shutdown operation for a device comprising the set of storage cells, and a garbage collection operation for the set of storage cells.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating the configuration parameter for the set of storage cells in response to a change in the one or more storage media characteristics.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining a plurality of additional configuration parameters for a plurality of different sets of storage cells of the solid-state storage media based on storage media characteristics for the plurality of different sets of storage cells and configuring the plurality of different sets of storage cells to use the plurality of additional configuration parameters.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the configuration parameter comprises a parameter of the set of storage cells modifiable by way of an interface, the configuration parameter selected from the group comprising a read voltage, a step magnitude for an incremental step pulse programming operation, a maximum number of iterations for an incremental step pulse programming operation, a program verify threshold for a program operation, an initial bias for an incremental step pulse programming operation, a step magnitude for an incremental step pulse erase operation, a maximum number of iterations for an incremental step pulse erase operation, an erase verify threshold for an erase operation, and an initial bias for an incremental step pulse erase operation.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein configuring the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter further comprises configuring the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter in response to a trigger.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the trigger comprises one of, a change in the one or more storage media characteristics, a read request for the set of storage cells, a startup operation for a device comprising the set of storage cells, and a regular shutdown operation for a device comprising the set of storage cells.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more storage media characteristics comprise one or more of a program/erase cycle count for the set of storage cells, a read count for the set of storage cells, a retention time since a previous write for the set of storage cells, a temperature for the set of storage cells, a use case for the set of storage cells, and an error statistic for the set of storage cells.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the determined configuration parameter is based on a target set of storage cells, the target set of storage cells having controlled use characteristics.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the determined configuration parameter for the set of storage cells is based on one of a determined configuration parameter for the target set of storage cells and one or more storage media characteristics for the target set of storage cells.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the configuration parameter for the set of storage cells comprises,

comparing the at least one of the one or more storage media characteristics for the set of storage cells to at least one storage media characteristic for the target set of storage cells;

and

determining the configuration parameter for the set of storage cells based on a difference between the at least one storage media characteristic for the set of storage cells and the at least one storage media characteristic for the target set of storage cells.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein configuring the set of storage cells to use the determined configuration parameter comprises calling an Application Programming Interface (API) of the device driver.

23. The method of claim 10, further comprising the device driver modifying the configuration parameter of the set of storage cells.

24. The method of claim 10, wherein the referencing, determining and configuring are performed by a storage controller comprised within the solid-state storage media.