Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100275037 | Low-Power USB SuperSpeed Device with 8-bit Payload and 9-bit Frame NRZI Encoding for Replacing 8/10-bit Encoding - A Low-power flash-memory device uses a modified Universal-Serial-Bus (USB) 3.0 Protocol to reduce power consumption. The bit clock is slowed to reduce power and the need for pre-emphasis when USB cable lengths are short in applications. Data efficiency is improved by eliminating the 8/10-bit encoder and instead encoding sync and framing bytes as 9-bit symbols. Data bytes are expanded by bit stuffing only when a series of six ones occurs in the data. Header and payload data is transmitted as nearly 8-bits per data byte while framing is 9-bits per symbol, much less than the standard 10 bits per byte. Low-power link layers, physical layers, and scaled-down protocol layers are used. A card reader converter hub allows USB hosts to access low-power USB devices. Only one flash device is accessed, reducing power compared with standard USB broadcasting to multiple devices. | 10-28-2010 |
20110066837 | Single-Chip Flash Device with Boot Code Transfer Capability - A Multi-Media Card (MMC) Single-Chip Flash Device (SCFD) contains a MMC flash microcontroller and flash mass storage blocks containing flash memory arrays that are block-addressable rather than randomly-addressable. An initial boot loader is read from the first page of flash by a state machine and written to a small RAM. A central processing unit (CPU) in the microcontroller reads instructions from the small RAM, executing the initial boot loader, which reads more pages from flash. These pages are buffered by the small RAM and written to a larger DRAM. Once an extended boot sequence is written to DRAM, the CPU toggles a RAM_BASE bit to cause instruction fetching from DRAM. Then the extended boot sequence is executed from DRAM, copying an OS image from flash to DRAM. Boot code and control code are selectively overwritten during a code updating operation to eliminate stocking issues. | 03-17-2011 |
20110179219 | HYBRID STORAGE DEVICE - A hybrid storage device comprises both solid-state disk (SDD) and at least one hard disk drive (HDD). The hybrid storage device has at least two operational modes: concatenation and safe. According to one aspect, the total capacity of hybrid storage device is the sum of SSD and at least one HDD in a concatenation or big mode, while the total capacity is the capacity of the HDD in a safe mode. In one embodiment, HDD is configured for storing a copy of the SSD's contents in a reserved area. In another, SSD comprises more than one identical flash memory devices controlled by a RAID controller. | 07-21-2011 |
20110302358 | Flash-Memory Device with RAID-type Controller - A smart flash drive has one or more levels of smart storage switches and a lower level of single-chip flash devices (SCFD's). A SCFD contains flash memory and controllers that perform low-level bad-block mapping and wear-leveling and logical-to-physical block mapping. The SCFD report their capacity, arrangement, and maximum wear-level count (WLC) and bad block number (BBN) to the upstream smart storage switch, which stores this information in a structure register. The smart storage switch selects the SCFD with the maximum BBN as the target and the SCFD with the lowest maximum WLC as the source of a swap for wear leveling when a WLC exceeds a threshold that rises over time. A top-level smart storage switch receives consolidated capacity, arrangement, WLC, and BBN information from lower-level smart storage switch. Data is striped and optionally scrambled by Redundant Array of Individual Disks (RAID) controllers in all levels of smart storage switches. | 12-08-2011 |
20120278543 | Flash-Memory Device with RAID-type Controller - A smart flash drive has one or more levels of smart storage switches and a lower level of single-chip flash devices (SCFD's). A SCFD contains flash memory and controllers that perform low-level bad-block mapping and wear-leveling and logical-to-physical block mapping. The SCFD report their capacity, arrangement, and maximum wear-level count (WLC) and bad block number (BBN) to the upstream smart storage switch, which stores this information in a structure register. The smart storage switch selects the SCFD with the maximum BBN as the target and the SCFD with the lowest maximum WLC as the source of a swap for wear leveling when a WLC exceeds a threshold that rises over time. A top-level smart storage switch receives consolidated capacity, arrangement, WLC, and BBN information from lower-level smart storage switch. Data is striped and optionally scrambled by Redundant Array of Individual Disks (RAID) controllers in all levels of smart storage switches. | 11-01-2012 |
20120284587 | Super-Endurance Solid-State Drive with Endurance Translation Layer (ETL) and Diversion of Temp Files for Reduced Flash Wear - A flash drive has increased endurance and longevity by reducing writes to flash. An Endurance Translation Layer (ETL) is created in a DRAM buffer and provides temporary storage to reduce flash wear. A Smart Storage Switch (SSS) controller assigns data-type bits when categorizing host accesses as paging files used by memory management, temporary files, File Allocation Table (FAT) and File Descriptor Block (FDB) entries, and user data files, using address ranges and file extensions read from FAT. Paging files and temporary files are never written to flash. Partial-page data is packed and sector mapped by sub-sector mapping tables that are pointed to by a unified mapping table that stores the data-type bits and pointers to data or tables in DRAM. Partial sectors are packed together to reduce DRAM usage and flash wear. A spare/swap area in DRAM reduces flash wear. Reference voltages are adjusted when error correction fails. | 11-08-2012 |
20130145085 | Virtual Memory Device (VMD) Application/Driver with Dual-Level Interception for Data-Type Splitting, Meta-Page Grouping, and Diversion of Temp Files to Ramdisks for Enhanced Flash Endurance - A Virtual-Memory Device (VMD) driver and application execute on a host to increase endurance of flash memory attached to a Super Enhanced Endurance Device (SEED) or Solid-State Drive (SSD). Host accesses to flash are intercepted by the VMD driver using upper and lower-level filter drivers and categorized as data types of paging files, temporary files, meta-data, and user data files, using address ranges and file extensions read from meta-data tables. Paging files and temporary files are optionally written to flash. Full-page and partial-page data are grouped into multi-page meta-pages by data type before storage by the SSD. ramdisks and caches for storing each data type in the host DRAM are managed and flushed to the SSD by the VMD driver. Write dates are stored for pages or blocks for management functions. A spare/swap area in DRAM reduces flash wear. Reference voltages are adjusted when error correction fails. | 06-06-2013 |
20140006688 | Endurance and Retention Flash Controller with Programmable Binary-Levels-Per-Cell Bits Identifying Pages or Blocks as having Triple, Multi, or Single-Level Flash-Memory Cells | 01-02-2014 |
20140281151 | Green NAND Device (GND) Driver with DRAM Data Persistence For Enhanced Flash Endurance and Performance - A Green NAND Device (GND) driver application queries AC line and battery status and then stores an image of processor states and caches and a resume routine to DRAM when power failure occurs. A DRAM image is then stored to flash memory for a persistent mode when battery power is available. The image in DRAM may be a partial image that includes entries, flushed caches, processor contexts, ramdisks, write caches, and a resume context. Endurance of flash memory is increased by a Super Enhanced Endurance Device (SEED) SSD. In a power down mode, the GND driver limits DRAM use and only caches in DRAM data that can be deleted on power down. Host accesses to flash are intercepted by the GND driver and categorized by data type. Paging files and temporary files cached in DRAM are optionally written to flash. | 09-18-2014 |
20140310574 | Green eMMC Device (GeD) Controller with DRAM Data Persistence, Data-Type Splitting, Meta-Page Grouping, and Diversion of Temp Files for Enhanced Flash Endurance - A controller for a Super Enhanced Endurance Device (SEED) or Solid-State Drive (SSD) increases flash endurance using a DRAM buffer. Host accesses to flash are intercepted by the controller and categorized as data types of paging files, temporary files, meta-data, and user data files, using address ranges and file extensions read from meta-data tables. Paging files and temporary files are optionally written to flash. Full-page and partial-page data are grouped into multi-page meta-pages by data type in the DRAM before storage by lower-level flash devices such as eMMC, UFS, or iSSD. Caches in the DRAM buffer for storing each data type are managed and flushed to the flash devices by the controller. Write dates are stored for pages or blocks for management functions. A spare/swap area in DRAM reduces flash wear. Reference voltages are adjusted when error correction fails. | 10-16-2014 |