Data protection techniques for a non-volatile memory array

A data storage system, comprising:

• a non-volatile memory (NVM) array;
• and
• a controller coupled to the NVM array, wherein the controller is configured to:
• receive data for storage in the NVM array;
• in response to receiving the data for storage in the NVM array, form first component codewords based on encodings with a first level code of respective first portions of the data;
• in response to receiving the data for storage in the NVM array, form a second component codeword based on an encoding with a second level code of a second portion of the data and the first component codes;
• and
• store a respective portion of each of the first and second component codeswords on packages of the NVM array, wherein the storing achieves maximum equal spreading of each of the component codewords across all of the packages.

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therein, the program instructions executable by a controller, to cause the controller to:

• receive data for storage in a non-volatile memory (NVM) array;
• in response to receiving the data for storage in the NVM array, form first component codewords based on encodings with a first level code of respective first portions of the data;
• in response to receiving the data for storage in the NVM array, form a second component codeword based on an encoding with a second level code of a second portion of the data and the first component codes;
• and
• store a respective portion of each of the first and second component codeswords on packages of the NVM array, wherein the storing achieves maximum equal spreading of each of the component codewords across all of the packages.