Page Allocation for Flash Memories

• US 20140201426A1
• Filed: 01/11/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Ma, Xudong
• Granted Patent: US 9,448,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7202 Allocation control and policies

Abstract

Technologies are described herein for allocating pages in a flash memory. Some example technologies may receive multiple data elements and a write request to write the multiple data elements to the flash memory. Example technologies may identify a correlation between a subset of the data elements based on correlation criteria. Example technologies may allocate neighboring pages of the flash memory for storing the subset of the data elements. Example technologies may write the subset of the data elements into the allocated pages.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for allocating pages in a flash memory, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of data elements and a write request to write the plurality of data elements to the flash memory;

identifying, by a computing device, a correlation between a subset of the data elements based on correlation criteria;

allocating, by the computing device, neighboring pages of the flash memory for storing the subset of the data elements; and

writing, by the computing device, the subset of the data elements into the allocated pages.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a series of read requests to read the subset of the data elements; and

reading, by the computing device, the subset of the data elements from the allocated pages and additional pages neighboring the allocated pages according to a joint decoding decision that compensates for inter-cell interference.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data elements comprises a plurality of files or file segments.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the correlation between the subset of the data elements based on the correlation criteria comprises determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated when the subset of the data elements are accessed concurrently, sequentially, or within a threshold amount of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated when the subset of the data elements are accessed concurrently, sequentially, or within the threshold amount of time comprises determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated based on a monitoring record of previous accesses of the subset of the data elements.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated when the subset of the data elements are accessed concurrently, sequentially, or within the threshold amount of time comprises determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated based on a heuristic.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated when the subset of the data elements are accessed concurrently, sequentially, or within the threshold amount of time comprises determining that the subset of the data elements are correlated based on a user-interaction record containing user input of the correlation.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighboring pages comprises adjacent pages within a wordline.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighboring pages comprises adjacent pages between multiple wordlines.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the flash memory comprises a NAND type flash memory.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the flash memory is a single-level type flash memory.

12. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a plurality of data elements and a write request to write the plurality of data elements to a flash memory;

identify a correlation between a subset of the data elements based on correlation criteria;

allocate neighboring pages of the flash memory for storing the subset of the data elements; and

write the subset of the data elements into the allocated pages.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

receive a series of read requests to read the subset of the data elements; and

read the subset of the data elements from the allocated pages and additional pages neighboring the allocated pages according to a joint decoding decision that compensates for inter-cell interference.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the plurality of data elements comprises a plurality of files or file segments.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein to identify the correlation between the subset of the data elements based on the correlation criteria, the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer to determine that the subset of the data elements are correlated when the subset of the data elements are accessed concurrently, sequentially, or within a threshold amount of time.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the subset of the data elements comprises a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) file and an image file that belong to a single web page.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the subset of the data elements comprises consecutive video frames of a video.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the subset of the data elements comprises a first data element including information of a first product and a second data element including information of a second product that is related to the first product.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the neighboring pages comprises adjacent pages within a wordline.

20. A computing device, comprising:

a flash memory comprising a plurality of memory cells arranged to form a plurality of memory pages; and

an operating system coupled to the flash memory and configured to

receive a plurality of data elements and a write request to write the plurality of data elements to the flash memory,

identify a correlation between a subset of the data elements based on correlation criteria,

allocate neighboring pages of the flash memory for storing the subset of the data elements, and

write the subset of the data elements into the allocated pages.

21. The computing device of claim 20, wherein the operating system is further configured to:

receive a series of read requests to read the subset of the data elements; and

read the subset of the data elements from the allocated pages and additional pages neighboring the allocated pages according to a joint decoding decision that compensates for inter-cell interference.