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Method and apparatus for cleaning up a solid state memory disk storing floating sector data

  • US 5,740,395 A
  • Filed: 10/30/1992
  • Issued: 04/14/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/30/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method of cleaning up a solid state memory disk, the solid state memory disk communicating with a host computer via a conventional disk drive interface, the solid state memory disk including a multiplicity of nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices, each nonvolatile semiconductor memory device including a multiplicity of blocks and wherein each nonvolatile semiconductor memory device is erasable only in blocks, each block storing valid sectors and dirty sectors, the method of cleaning up comprising the steps of:

  • a) selecting a first block to clean-up;

    b) allocating a sufficient amount of memory in a second block to store a valid sector located within the first block;

    c) checking whether an amount of data remaining to be copied from the first block exceeds a threshold;

    d) copying the data from the first block to the second block if the amount of data remaining to be copied from the first block does not exceed the threshold, otherwise copying a portion of the data remaining to be copied from the first block to the second block;

    e) repeating steps c) and d) until all of the valid sectors from the first block have been copied to the second block; and

    f) erasing the first block.

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