Method and apparatus for performing erase operations transparent

Details Method and apparatus for performing erase operations transparent Method and apparatus for performing erase operations transparent

1998-07-07

1999-09-14

Bragdon, Reginald G.

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory

Storage accessing and control

Specific memory composition

711 5, 711156, 711158, 711172, 711171, G06F 1212, G06F 1202

Patent

active

059537370

ABSTRACT:
In a digital system having a host, a controller device and at least one nonvolatile memory integrated circuit, such as a flash memory chip, a method and apparatus is disclosed for storing digital information, provided by the host, in the nonvolatile memory under the direction of the controller in an efficient manner so as to significantly improve system performance. The nonvolatile memory is organized into sequentially-numbered blocks. Each nonvolatile integrated circuit is assigned a predetermined number of sequential blocks and when a free block is solicited for storage of digital information provided by the host, the nonvolatile integrated circuit rather than the entire nonvolatile memory is searched for the free block. When the information stored in a block is being updated by the host, the nonvolatile integrated circuit assigned to that block is excluded from the search for the free block. Moreover, the nonvolatile integrated circuit having the greatest number of free blocks is used for searching of the free block and storing of the host-provided information to allow for equal use of the nonvolatile integrated circuits.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5479633 (1995-12-01), Wells et al.
patent: 5592415 (1997-01-01), Kato et al.
patent: 5809558 (1998-09-01), Matthews et al.
patent: 5835935 (1998-11-01), Estakhri et al.
patent: 5845313 (1998-12-01), Estakhri et al.

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