METADATA REDUNDANCY SCHEMES FOR NON-VOLATILE MEMORIES

• US 20150309928A1
• Filed: 06/22/2015
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Post, Daniel J., Khmelnitsky, Vadim, Wakrat, Nir Jacob
• Granted Patent: US 9,342,449 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1666 where the redundant component is memory or memory area
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7201 Logical to physical mapping or translation of blocks or pages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7207 management of metadata or control data

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for storing data to or reading data from a non-volatile memory (“NVM”), such as flash memory, using a metadata redundancy scheme. In some embodiments, an electronic device, which includes an NVM, may also include a memory interface for controlling access to the NVM. The memory interface may receive requests to write user data to the NVM. The user data from each request may be associated with metadata, such as a logical address, flags, or other data. In response to a write request, the NVM interface may store the user data and its associated metadata in a first memory location (e.g., page), and may store a redundant copy of the metadata in a second memory location. This way, even if the first memory location becomes inaccessible, the memory interface can still recover the metadata from the backup copy stored in the second memory location.

Claims

1. A method of storing data in a non-volatile memory, the method comprising:

receiving a first write request to write first user data to a first logical address;

receiving a second write request to write second user data to a second logical address;

identifying a physical address at which to store the second user data; and

programming the first logical address, the second logical address, and the second user data in the non-volatile memory at the physical address.

2-29. -29. (canceled)