Memory card with volatile and non volatile memory space having multiple usage model configurations
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsMohamed Arafa, Raj K. Ramanujan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus is described that includes a memory card. The memory card also includes volatile memory devices. The memory card also includes non volatile memory devices. The memory card is configurable to implement a first portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory devices as system memory. The memory card also includes a controller to manage, upon a power down event, the transfer of information from the volatile memory devices into a second portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory devices.
Claims18
An apparatus, comprising:
- a memory card, comprising:
- a) a volatile memory device;
- b) a non volatile memory device, the memory card comprising configuration circuitry to cause the memory card to implement a first portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device as system memory;
- c) a controller to manage, upon a power down event, the transfer of information from the volatile memory device into a second portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device.
At least one machine readable medium containing program code that when processed by a computing system causes the computing system to perform a method, comprising:
- recognizing that a memory card having a volatile memory device and a non volatile memory device has been plugged into a DDR memory channel, the memory card being designed to automatically save content of the volatile memory device into a first portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device upon a power down event;
- configuring the memory card to implement one of a plurality of modes of operation supported by the memory card, the plurality of modes of operation comprising:
- a) another portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device is to behave as system memory;
- b) another portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device is to behave as system memory and the volatile memory device is to behave as a cache, wherein, the cache is to behave as a cache for any of i), ii) and iii) below:
- i) another portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device that is to behave as byte addressable system memory;
- ii) another memory card plugged into said DDR memory channel;
- iii) another memory card plugged into another memory channel;
- and,
- c) another portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device is to behave as mass storage.
A computing system, comprising:
- one or more processors;
- a memory controller coupled to the one or more processors;
- a memory channel coupled to the memory controller;
- a memory card coupled to the memory channel, the memory card comprising:
- a volatile memory device;
- a non volatile memory device, the memory card comprising configuration circuitry to cause the memory card to implement a first portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device as system memory;
- a controller to manage, upon a power down event, the transfer of information from the volatile memory device into a second portion of the storage space of the non volatile memory device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.