Hard information decoder aided by a soft information decoder

A method for decoding data in a memory device, comprising:

• performing, by a controller, a read operation to receive hard data from the memory device;
• converting, by the controller, the hard data into soft information;
• decoding, by the controller, using a first decoder for a first number of decoding iterations based on the soft information;
• generating, by the controller, an error vector indicating which bits of the hard data have been flipped by the first decoder based on a current state of a codeword for a respective decoding iteration of the first number of decoding iterations;
• decoding, by the controller, using a second decoder to correct errors in the hard data for a second number of decoding iterations based on the error vector;
• determining, by the controller, whether the hard data was successfully decoded by the second decoder;
• in response to determining that the hard data was not successfully decoded by the second decoder, decoding, by the controller, using the first decoder to correct the errors in the hard data for a third number of decoding iterations until a stop condition;
• and
• providing, by the controller, corrected data in response to correcting the errors in the hard data.

A system for decoding data in a memory device, comprising:

• a memory device;
• and
• a processing device coupled to the memory device, the processing device to perform operations comprising:
• converting hard data corresponding to a codeword stored in the memory device into soft information, wherein the soft information comprises reliability values indicating a confidence level for each bit of the hard data, and the converting comprises mapping binary states of bits in the hard data to the reliability values using a bit-to-reliability-value mapping data structure that assigns a reliability value to each bit based on a binary state of the bit in the hard data;
• and
• implementing a two stage decoding process to correct errors in the codeword to provide corrected data, wherein:
• during a first stage of the two stage decoding process using a first decoder to provide an error vector based on the soft information, the error vector indicating which bits of the hard data have been flipped by the first decoder;
• and
• during a second stage of the two stage decoding process using a second decoder to correct errors in the hard data based on the error vector.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

• performing a read operation to receive hard data from a memory device;
• converting the hard data into soft information, wherein the soft information comprises reliability values indicating a confidence level for each bit of the hard data, and the converting comprises mapping binary states of bits in the hard data to the reliability values using a bit-to-reliability-value mapping data structure that assigns a reliability value to each bit based on a binary state of the bit in the hard data;
• decoding using a first decoder for a first number of decoding iterations based on the soft information;
• generating an error vector indicating which bits of the hard data have been flipped by the first decoder based on a current state of a codeword for a respective decoding iteration of the first number of decoding iterations;
• decoding using a second decoder to correct errors in the hard data for a second number of decoding iterations based on the error vector;
• and
• providing corrected data in response to correcting the errors in the hard data.