Sector-based storage device emulator having variable-sized sector
First Claim
1. An apparatus for emulating a sector-based storage device, comprising:
- a plurality of individually erasable blocks of nonvolatile memory organized as logical blocks, wherein each logical block comprises at least one individually erasable block of the nonvolatile memory, the nonvolatile memory storing first sector data associated with a sector number at a first location within the nonvolatile memory; and
a microprocessor that receives superseding second sector data associated with the sector number, the microprocessor storing the second sector data at a second location within the nonvolatile memory, wherein the first and second locations are not a same location, wherein an amount of space allocated to the second sector data is not equal to an amount of space allocated to the first sector data.
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Abstract
A solid state memory disk that stores data on a sector basis is described. The solid state disk includes an array of FLASH memory devices, which store the sectors of data. Each block of memory within the FLASH array includes data space for storing many sectors of data and a block sector translation table. The block sector translation table identifies each sector of data stored in the block'"'"'s data space by a sector number. The solid state disk also includes a controller. Among its many responsibilities, the controller manages the writing of sector data into the array and the reading of sectors of data from the array. The controller responds to a write request by seeking an earlier version of the sector which has a logical sector number equal to the sector'"'"'s sector number and marking that sector dirty. Afterward, the controller allocates free memory space for the sector of data. The sector of data is then written into the allocated memory space. The controller reads sectors of data by seeking a sector header translation table to convert sector numbers into physical addresses.
208 Citations
31 Claims
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1. An apparatus for emulating a sector-based storage device, comprising:
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a plurality of individually erasable blocks of nonvolatile memory organized as logical blocks, wherein each logical block comprises at least one individually erasable block of the nonvolatile memory, the nonvolatile memory storing first sector data associated with a sector number at a first location within the nonvolatile memory; and a microprocessor that receives superseding second sector data associated with the sector number, the microprocessor storing the second sector data at a second location within the nonvolatile memory, wherein the first and second locations are not a same location, wherein an amount of space allocated to the second sector data is not equal to an amount of space allocated to the first sector data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An apparatus for emulating a sector-based storage device, comprising:
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a plurality of individually erasable blocks of nonvolatile memory organized as logical blocks for storing sector data associated with sector number, wherein each logical block comprises at least one individually erasable block of the nonvolatile memory; and a microprocessor, wherein the microprocessor stores the sector data received from an external device within a selected logical block of the nonvolatile memory, wherein an amount of space allocated for the sector data within the selected logical block varies in accordance with a variable size of the sector data. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification