Host controller

• US 9,588,697 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2015
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Feeley, Peter, Leibowitz, Robert N., Radke, William H., Galbo, Neal A., Tsai, Victor Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sun, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/718,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 656 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/28 using burst mode transfer, e.g. direct memory access DMA, cycle steal G06F13/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/32 using combination of interrupt and burst mode transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for controlling a memory device. One method for controlling a memory device embodiment includes storing device class dependent information and a command in one or more of host system memory and host controller memory, setting a pointer to the command in a register in a host controller, directing access to the one or more of host system memory and host controller memory with the memory device via the host controller; and executing the command with the memory device.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a memory device, comprising:

locating a number of commands stored in memory associated with a host system using a pointer that is stored in a register in a host controller,

transmitting the number of commands to a number of memory devices, wherein the number of commands are based on device class dependent information stored in the memory associated with the host system; and

executing the number of commands with a memory device controller on the number of memory devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes storing device class dependent information in the memory associated with the host system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes directing the host controller, via the pointer, to the number of commands and to device class dependent information stored in the memory associated with the host system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes storing device class independent information in one or more registers in a host controller.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein storing device class independent information includes storing one or more types of information selected from the group including:

device control and interrupt information;

device enable/disable information;

device power state control/status information;

one or more pointers to device-class dependent information in the host system memory;

one or more pointers to commands in the host system memory;

a particular device class associated with a particular transaction layer register entry; and

a reset command.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes building the number of commands with a host processor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes building the number of commands in the memory associated with the host system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the number of commands includes reading data from the number of memory devices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the number of commands includes writing data to the number of memory devices.

10. A method for controlling a memory device, comprising:

locating a command stored in memory associated with a host system using a pointer from a register in a host controller, wherein the command is built based on device class dependent information; and

receiving the command from the host system at a memory device external to the host system; and

executing the command with the memory device by initiating a direct memory access (DMA) transfer of write command data in the memory associated with the host system to the memory device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method includes building the command with a host processor.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein method includes storing device class independent information in one or more registers in a host controller.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein executing the command causes the write command data to be read from the host system and written to the memory device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the command includes a segment identifier (SID) to indicate where the write command data is written on the memory device.

15. A method for operating a memory device, comprising:

locating a command stored in memory associated with a host system using a pointer from a register in a host controller, wherein the command is built based on device class dependent information; and

receiving the command from the host system at a memory device external to the host system; and

executing the command with the memory device by initiating a direct memory access (DMA) transfer of read command data in the memory device to the memory associated with the host system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the device class dependent information is information that indicates operating parameters that are specific to the memory device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein executing the command causes the read command data to be read from the memory device and written to the host system.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein executing the command includes managing DMA of data and providing flow control without host processor intervention.