Non-volatile memory drive partitions within microcontrollers

• US 9,857,975 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2015
• Issued: 01/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Long, Thomas C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Riad, Amine
• Application Number:
  US14/751,282
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378341A1
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• Field of Search: 714 63
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• 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]

Abstract

A method for managing data on a microcontroller. The method includes a computer processor receiving data to write to the memory of a microcontroller of a field-replaceable unit (FRU). The method further includes a computer processor determining that the received data is a type of data that is stored in a first logical partition, wherein the first logical partition is a logical partition of non-volatile memory of the microcontroller. The method further includes a computer processor determining whether the first logical partition includes sufficient space to store the received data.

Claims

1. A computer program product for locally storing data within non-volatile memory of a microcontroller, the computer program product comprising:

one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to receive data to write to memory of a microcontroller of a field-replaceable unit (FRU);

program instruction to determine that the received data is a type of data that is stored in a first logical partition, wherein the first logical partition is a logical partition of non-volatile memory of the microcontroller;

program instructions to determine whether the first logical partition includes sufficient space to store the received data; and

in response to determining that the received data is state data associated with a failure of the FRU and that the first logical partition includes sufficient storage space, program instructions to write the received state data associated with the failure of the FRU to the first logical partition of the microcontroller utilizing a flash memory programming function.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

program instructions to respond to determining that the data is vital product data for the FRU by writing the vital product data for the FRU to a second logical partition utilizing the flash memory programming function.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

program instructions to respond to determining that the first logical partition includes insufficient space by erasing data stored within the first logical partition utilizing the flash memory erase function.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

program instructions to allocate two or more logical partitions within non-volatile memory of the microcontroller.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, program instructions to allocate two or more logical partitions within non-volatile memory of the microcontroller further comprises:

program instructions to receive a random-access memory (RAM) flash update control program to RAM of the microcontroller;

program instructions to erase the non-volatile memory of the microcontroller;

program instructions to obtain a version of firmware for the FRU that includes memory addresses defining the two or more logical partitions within the non-volatile memory of the microcontroller; and

program instructions to write the obtained version of firmware for the FRU that includes memory addresses defining the two or more logical partitions to the non-volatile memory of the microcontroller, wherein writing the version of the firmware utilizes the received RAM flash update control program.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein vital product data for the FRU includes at least one of:

a part number, a serial number, an engineering change level, a firmware version number, runtime hours, calibration data, and one or more state data parameters utilized by the firmware.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

program instructions to determine whether the received data is at least one of;

state data associated with a failure of the FRU, state data associated with operation of the FRU, vital product data for the FRU, and one or more virtual LAN tables utilized by the FRU.

8. A computer system for managing data on a microcontroller, the computer system comprising:

one or more computer processors;

one or more computer readable storage media;

program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more computer processors, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to receive data to write to memory of a microcontroller of a field-replaceable unit (FRU);

program instruction to determine that the received data is a type of data that is stored in a first logical partition, wherein the first logical partition is a logical partition of non-volatile memory of the microcontroller;

program instructions to determine whether the first logical partition includes sufficient space to store the received data; and

in response to determining that the received data is state data associated with a failure of the FRU and that the first logical partition includes sufficient storage space, program instructions to write the received state data associated with the failure of the FRU to the first logical partition of the microcontroller utilizing a flash memory programming function.

9. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising:

program instructions to respond to determining that the data is vital product data for the FRU by writing the vital product data for the FRU to a second logical partition utilizing the flash memory programming function.

10. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising:

program instructions to respond to determining that the first logical partition includes insufficient space by erasing data stored within the first logical partition utilizing the flash memory erase function.

11. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising:

program instructions to allocate two or more logical partitions within non-volatile memory of the microcontroller.

12. The computer system of claim 11, program instructions to allocate two or more logical partitions within non-volatile memory of the microcontroller further comprises:

program instructions to receive a random-access memory (RAM) flash update control program to RAM of the microcontroller;

program instructions to erase the non-volatile memory of the microcontroller;

program instructions to obtain a version of firmware for the FRU that includes memory addresses defining the two or more logical partitions within the non-volatile memory of the microcontroller; and

program instructions to write the obtained version of firmware for the FRU that includes memory addresses defining the two or more logical partitions to the non-volatile memory of the microcontroller, wherein writing the version of the firmware utilizes the received RAM flash update control program.

13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein vital product data for the FRU includes at least one of:

a part number, a serial number, an engineering change level, a firmware version number, runtime hours, calibration data, and one or more state data parameters utilized by the firmware.

14. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising:

program instructions to determine whether the received data is at least one of;

state data associated with a failure of the FRU, state data associated with operation of the FRU, vital product data for the FRU, and one or more virtual LAN tables utilized by the FRU.