Method of managing a solid state drive, associated systems and implementations

• US 9,542,199 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2014
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Heo, Jin Gyu, Lee, Donggi, Hwang, Seongsik, Lee, Dongjin, Lee, Jeong Woo, Cheon, Wonmoon, Lim, Seungho, Kim, Jong-Min, Lee, Jae-Hwa, Lee, Haeri, Jee, Woonhyug
• Primary Examiner(s): DUDEK JR, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US14/508,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20150026449A1
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/1673 using buffers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7201 Logical to physical mapping or translation of blocks or pages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4403 Processor initialisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

One embodiment of a method includes loading, by a memory controller, a boot image from a solid state drive to an operating memory of a computing system during an initialization operation of the computing system. The initialization operation initializes components of the computing system.

Claims

1. A method for setting a mode of a storage device including a plurality of memory chips, the method comprising:

determining whether a number of bad blocks of a first memory chip among the plurality of memory chips is higher than a threshold value;

setting the first memory chip to a read only mode if the number of the bad blocks is higher than the threshold value; and

storing metadata of the first memory chip set to the read only mode to a second memory chip among the plurality of memory chips if the number of the bad blocks is higher than the threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining is performed if a program fail occurs during a program operation in the first memory chip, and the method further comprising:

replacing a bad block with a reserved block in the first memory chip if the number of the bad blocks is equal to or less than the threshold value and the program fail occurs.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

updating the metadata of the first memory chip to include information of replacing the bad block; and

storing the updated metadata in at least the first memory chip.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the storing the updated metadata stores the updated metadata in the first memory chip with information associated with a number of updates of the metadata.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the storing the updated metadata stores the updated metadata in the plurality of memory chips.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata indicates that the first memory chip is in the read only mode.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the storing stores the metadata in select memory chips among the plurality of memory chips, and the select memory chips are in a read/write mode.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an error if a write is requested to the first memory chip set to the read only mode.

9. A method for initializing a storage device including a plurality of memory chips, the method comprising:

determining whether an identification number is read from a selected memory chip of the plurality of memory chips;

reading metadata from the selected memory chip if the identification number is read from the selected memory chip;

selecting a mode of the selected memory chip according to at least one of the determining whether the identification number is read from the selected memory chip of the plurality of memory chips and the read metadata, the selecting selects the mode of the selected memory chip as an unaccessible mode if the identification number is not read from the selected memory chip; and

determining whether modes of remaining memory chips of the plurality of memory chips are selected.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether another identification number is read from another memory chip if the modes of all of the plurality of memory chips are not selected.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

updating the metadata of the selected memory chip to indicate the unaccessible mode; and

storing the updated metadata into another memory chip of the plurality of memory chips if the identification number is not read from the selected memory chip.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the reading reads the metadata from a meta block, and

the storing the updated metadata stores the updated metadata in the meta block if the metadata is updated, and the updated metadata is associated with a number of updates of the metadata.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the metadata includes a plurality of metadata parts, each of the plurality of metadata parts is associated with a number of updates, the method further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of metadata parts as valid metadata, the selected metadata part associated with a highest number of updates among the metadata parts.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

storing the metadata of the selected memory chip in the plurality of memory chips.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of memory chips stores a plurality of metadata of the plurality of memory chips.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the selecting selects modes of more than two memory chips according to the read metadata if the read metadata include information associated with modes of more than two memory chips.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

completing the initialization of the storage device if the modes of the plurality of memory chips are selected.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

storing status information in a portion of the plurality of memory chips after completing the initialization, the portion of the plurality of memory chips being in a read/write mode, the status information including information of the modes of the plurality of memory chips.

16. A method for initializing a storage device including a plurality of memory chips, the method comprising:

determining whether an identification number is read from a selected memory chip of the plurality of memory chips;

reading metadata from the selected memory chip if the identification number is read from the selected memory chip;

selecting a mode of the selected memory chip according to at least one of the determining whether the identification number is read from the selected memory chip of the plurality of memory chips and the read metadata, the selecting selects the mode of the selected memory chip from a read/write mode, a read only mode and an unaccessible mode; and

determining whether modes of remaining memory chips of the plurality of memory chips are selected.