Fast purge on storage devices
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorNadav Grosz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A memory device includes a memory array including memory cells, a communication interface to a host device, and a memory control unit operatively coupled to the memory array and the communication interface. The memory control unit is configured to encrypt write data received via the communication interface to produce encrypted data, program a portion of the memory cells of the memory array with the encrypted data, read the encrypted data from the portion of the memory cells in response to a memory read request, decrypt the read encrypted data to produce read decrypted data only for portions of the read encrypted data not stored in purged regions of the memory array.
Claims18
A memory device comprising:
- a memory array including memory cells;
- a communication interface to a host device;
- a memory control unit operatively coupled to the memory array and the communication interface, and configured to:
- encrypt write data received via the communication interface to produce encrypted data;
- program selected memory cells of the memory array with the encrypted data;
- mark unmapped regions of memory cells storing encrypted data as purged regions without erasing the encrypted data in response to a purge operation;
- decrypt the encrypted data in response to a memory read operation to produce read decrypted data for regions of the memory array that are not purged regions;
- and
- returning predetermined data indicating purged data in response to a memory read operation to a purged region of the memory cells.
A memory system comprising:
- a host device;
- and
- a memory device, the memory device including a memory control unit configured to:
- receive data from the host device to be written to a portion of memory cells of a memory array of the memory device;
- encrypt the data to be written to produce encrypted data;
- program the memory cells with the encrypted data;
- receive a purge command from the host device and mark unmapped regions of memory cells storing encrypted data as purged regions without erasing the encrypted data in response to the purge operation;
- read the encrypted data from the portion of the memory cells;
- and
- decrypt the read encrypted data to produce read decrypted data and transfer the read decrypted data to the host device if the portion of the memory cells is not in a purged region;
- and
- returning predetermined data indicating purged data to the host device without performing an erase operation when the memory read operation from the host device is to a purged region of the memory cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.