# US 11,307,766 B2 · Apparatus and method and computer program product for programming flash administration tables > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,307,766 B2 - Document ID: US11307766B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/026,632 - Filed: 2020-09-21 - Published: 2021-09-30 - Granted: 2022-04-19 - Earliest claimed: 2020-03-25 - Assignees: Silicon Motion, Inc. - Applicants: Silicon Motion, Inc. - Inventors: Kuan-Yu Ke - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11307766B2 ## CPC - G06F 3/0604: {Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management} - G06F 3/0631: {by allocating resources to storage systems} - G06F 3/0655: {Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices} - G06F 3/0679: {Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]} - G06F 12/0246: {in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory} - G06F 2212/1016: Performance improvement - G06F 2212/1056: Simplification - G06F 2212/7201: Logical to physical mapping or translation of blocks or pages - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract The invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a non-transitory computer program product for programming flash administration tables. The non-transitory computer program product includes program code to: periodically determine whether user data that has been programmed into a current block of a flash module satisfies a random-write condition; and update a record of a host-to-flash (H2F) sub-table according to content of a flash-to-host (F2H) table for the current block when user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module satisfies the random-write condition. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for programming flash administration tables when executed by a processing unit of a flash controller, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program code to: determine whether user data that has been programmed into a current block of a flash module satisfies a random-write condition each time a predefined number of host pages of user data that has been programmed into the current block; and update a record of a host-to-flash (H2F) sub-table according to content of a flash-to-host (F2H) table for the current block when user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module satisfies the random-write condition, wherein the random-write condition means that a quantity of to-be-updated H2F sub-tables associated with user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module exceeds a threshold, and the threshold is set by an equation: TH2=TH1/n, TH2 represents the threshold, TH1 represents the predefined number, and n represents an integer lower than TH1. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the threshold is an integer lower than the predefined number. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein n represents an integer ranging from 2 to 5. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a procedure for updating the record of the H2F sub-table comprises: searching content of a high-level mapping table for a physical address of the H2F sub-table; reading the H2F sub-table from the physical address of the flash module; updating the record of the H2F sub-table according to the content of the F2H table for the current block; and programming the updated H2F sub-table into the flash module. ### Claim 5 A method for programming flash administration tables, performed by a flash controller, comprising: determining whether user data that has been programmed into a current block of a flash module satisfies a random-write condition each time a predefined number of host pages of user data that has been programmed into the current block; and updating a record of a host-to-flash (H2F) sub-table according to content of a flash-to-host (F2H) table for the current block when user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module satisfies the random-write condition, wherein the random-write condition means that a quantity of to-be-updated H2F sub-tables associated with user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module exceeds a threshold, and the threshold is set by an equation: TH2=TH1/n, TH2 represents the threshold, TH1 represents the predefined number, and n represents an integer lower than TH1. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the threshold is an integer lower than the predefined number. ### Claim 7 An apparatus for programming flash administration tables, comprising: a flash interface, coupled to a flash module; and a processing unit, coupled to the flash interface, arranged operably to determine whether user data that has been programmed into a current block of the flash module satisfies a random-write condition each time a predefined number of host pages of user data that has been programmed into the current block; and drive the flash interface to update a record of a host-to-flash (H2F) sub-table according to content of a flash-to-host (F2H) table for the current block when user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module satisfies the random-write condition, wherein the random-write condition means that a quantity of to-be-updated H2F sub-tables associated with user data that has been programmed into the current block of the flash module exceeds a threshold, and the threshold is set by an equation: TH2=TH1/n, TH2 represents the threshold, TH1 represents the predefined number, and n represents an integer lower than TH1. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The apparatus of claim 7, comprising: a random access memory (RAM), coupled to the processing unit, arranged operably to store the F2H table for the current block. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the threshold is an integer lower than the predefined number. ### Claim 10 (depends on 7) The apparatus of claim 7, wherein n represents an integer ranging from 2 to 5. ### Claim 11 (depends on 7) The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing unit is arranged operably to search content of a high-level mapping table for a physical address of the H2F sub-table; drive the flash interface to read the H2F sub-table from the physical address of the flash module; update the record of the H2F sub-table according to the content of the F2H table for the current block; and drive the flash interface to program the updated H2F sub-table into the flash module.