SEMICONDUCTOR STORAGE APPARATUS MANAGING SYSTEM, SEMICONDUCTOR STORAGE APPARATUS, HOST APPARATUS, PROGRAM AND METHOD OF MANAGING SEMICONDUCTOR STORAGE APPARATUS

• US 20090313444A1
• Filed: 06/19/2007
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Jinichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/159
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0616 in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/765 in solid state disks

Abstract

It is an object to provide a semiconductor storage apparatus managing system for implementing a semiconductor storage apparatus which can be actually utilized in place of a hard disk apparatus.

A semiconductor storage apparatus managing system SY for managing an apparatus lifetime of a semiconductor storage apparatus 10 having a semiconductor memory area 15 for storing data and a defective block substituting area 16 for substituting a defective block in the semiconductor memory area 15, includes a storage apparatus side controller 12 for detecting the number of consumed blocks in the defective block substituting area 16 and a host side controller 31 for predicting the apparatus lifetime of the semiconductor storage apparatus 10 based on a result of the detection and giving a notice of a result of the prediction.

Claims

1. A semiconductor storage apparatus managing system for managing an apparatus lifetime of a semiconductor storage apparatus having a semiconductor memory area for storing data and a defective block substituting area for substituting a defective block in the semiconductor memory area, comprising:

a consumed block number detecting section that detects the number of consumed blocks in the defective block substituting area; and

a lifetime notifying section that predicts the apparatus lifetime of the semiconductor storage apparatus based on a result of the detection of the consumed block number detecting section and giving a notice of a result of the prediction.

2. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 1, further comprising a step notifying section that stepwise gives a notice of a consumption rate or a survival rate of the defective block substituting area which is obtained from the result of the detection of the consumed block number detecting section.

3. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 2, further comprising a smoothing section that smoothes the number of rewriting operations to each block in the semiconductor memory area.

4. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 3, wherein the semiconductor memory area and the defective block substituting area are constituted by a nonvolatile memory.

5. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 3, wherein at least one of the lifetime notifying section and the step notifying section gives a notice by using any of means including a screen display, a voice output, an electronic mail transmission, a command transmission and a telephone.

6. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claims 3, wherein the lifetime notifying section predicts the apparatus lifetime based on any of the worst value, a mean value and a current value of the number of generation of acquired defective blocks in a unit time of the defective block substituting area or a combination thereof.

7. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 3, wherein the semiconductor storage apparatus managing system comprises:

the semiconductor storage apparatus; and

a host apparatus for giving access to the semiconductor storage apparatus,

the semiconductor storage apparatus has a storage apparatus side controller for implementing the consumed block number detecting section and the smoothing section, and

the host apparatus has a host side controller for implementing the lifetime notifying section and the step notifying section.

8. The semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 7, wherein the host side controller polls the storage apparatus side controller to acquire a result of detection of the consumed block number detecting section.

9. A semiconductor storage apparatus applied to the semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 1.

10. A host apparatus applied to the semiconductor storage apparatus managing system according to claim 7.

12. A method of managing a semiconductor storage apparatus having a semiconductor memory area for storing data and a defective block substituting area for substituting a defective block in the semiconductor memory area, the method comprising:

predicting an apparatus lifetime of the semiconductor storage apparatus based on a consumption history of the defective block substituting area; and

giving a notice of a result of the predicting.

11. A program product comprising a recording medium having recorded a program operable to cause a computer to execute the method according the claim 12.