US 2010/0138593 A1Published application

Memory controller, semiconductor recording device, and method for notifying the number of times of rewriting

AssigneePanasonic Corporation

InventorTakeshi Ootsuka

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Abstract

User data transferred from a host apparatus and a first information table 35 indicating correspondence between a logical address and a physical address are recorded in a first region of a flash memory 20. A second information table 38 composed of the physical block address storing the first information table 35 and the number of times of update of the physical block for recording the first information table from the time of manufacturing is recorded in a second region of the flash memory 20. The physical blocks of the first and the second regions are recorded independently from each other in a rotational manner. According to the recording of the second information table, the total number of times of rewriting of the first region is converted. This can suppress the number of times of rewriting of the second region and improve reliability of the number of times of update of the first information table from the time of manufacturing, the number being recorded in the second region.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A semiconductor recording device comprising:

at least one nonvolatile memory composed of a plurality of physical blocks;
and
a memory controller for writing data in said nonvolatile memory and reading the data from said nonvolatile memory, wherein
said nonvolatile memory is divided into a first region and a second region in units of physical blocks,
said first region records:
a first information table for creating a correspondence relationship between a logical address issued by a host apparatus and a physical address in units of the physical blocks;
and user data transferred from the host apparatus, and
said second region records a second information table composed of:
a physical address of a physical block storing said first information table;
and the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, and wherein
said memory controller includes:
an empty block management table for managing the physical block in the first region of said nonvolatile memory;
a first management part for upon receiving a writing command issued from the host apparatus, referring to said empty block management table and allocating a physical block to record the user data in said first region and for referring to said empty block management table and newly allocating the physical block, in a case of newly allocating a physical block to store said first information table;
a first information table update part for updating said first information table, in a case of newly allocation a physical block to record the user data transferred from the host apparatus;
a second information table update part for updating said second information table, in a case where said first management part newly allocated a physical block to record said first information table;
a second management part for managing a physical block storing said second information table and recording data in the physical block in the second region of said nonvolatile memory in a rotational manner;
and
a rewriting number conversion part for converting the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, the number being stored in said second information table, into the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of the nonvolatile memory,
the memory controller notifying the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of said nonvolatile memory as the number of times of rewriting to the host apparatus.

16 more elements

A memory controller which writes data in a nonvolatile memory having a first and a second regions in units of the physical blocks and reads the data from said nonvolatile memory, the memory controller being composed of a plurality of physical blocks, comprising:

an empty block management table for managing the physical block in said first region of said nonvolatile memory;
a first management part for upon receiving a writing command issued from the host apparatus, referring to said empty block management table and allocating a physical block to record the user data in said first region and for referring to said empty block management table and newly allocating the physical block, in a case of newly allocating a physical block storing a first information table that creates a correspondence relationship between a logical address issued by a host apparatus and a physical address in units of the physical blocks;
a first information table update part for updating said first information table, in a case of newly allocation a physical block to record the user data transferred from the host apparatus;
a second information table update part for updating said second information table composed of:
a physical address of a physical block storing said first information table;
and the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, in a case where said first management part newly allocated a physical block to record said first information table;
a second management part for managing a physical block storing said second information table and recording data in the physical block in the second region of said nonvolatile memory in a rotational manner;
and
a rewriting number conversion part for converting the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, the number being stored in said second information table, into the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of the nonvolatile memory,
the memory controller notifying the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of said nonvolatile memory as the number of times of rewriting to the host apparatus.

7 more elements

A semiconductor recording device comprising:

at least one nonvolatile memory composed of a plurality of physical blocks;
and
a memory controller for writing data in said nonvolatile memory and reading the data from said nonvolatile memory, wherein
said nonvolatile memory records:
a first information table for creating a correspondence relationship between a logical address issued by a host apparatus and a physical address in units of the physical blocks;
user data transferred from the host apparatus;
and
a second information table composed of:
a physical address of a physical block storing said first information table;
and the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, and wherein
said memory controller includes:
an empty block management table for managing the physical block in the first region of said nonvolatile memory;
a physical block management part for upon receiving a writing command issued from the host apparatus, referring to said empty block management table and allocating a physical block to record the user data, and for referring to said empty block management table and newly allocating the physical block, in a case of newly allocating a physical block to store said first or said second information table;
a first information table update part for updating said first information table, in a case of newly allocation a physical block to record the user data transferred from the host apparatus;
a second information table update part for updating said second information table, in a case where said physical block management part newly allocated a physical block to record said first information table;
and
a rewriting number conversion part for converting the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, the number being stored in said second information table, into the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of the nonvolatile memory,
the memory controller notifying the total number of times of rewriting of said nonvolatile memory as the number of times of rewriting to the host apparatus.

15 more elements

A memory controller which writes data in a nonvolatile memory composed of a plurality of physical blocks and reads the data from said nonvolatile memory, comprising:

an empty block management table for managing the physical block of said nonvolatile memory;
a physical block management part for upon receiving a writing command issued from the host apparatus, referring to said empty block management table and allocating a physical block to record the user data, referring to said empty block management table and allocating a physical block storing a first information table that creates a correspondence relationship between a logical address issued by a host apparatus and a physical address in units of the physical blocks, and referring to said empty block management table and recording a second information table composed of:
a physical address of a physical block storing said first information table;
and the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing;
a first information table update part for updating said first information table;
a second information table update part for updating said second information table in a case where said physical block management part newly allocated a physical block to record said first information table,
a rewriting number conversion part for converting the number of times of update of the physical block storing said first information table from the time of manufacturing, the number being stored in said second information table, into the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of the nonvolatile memory,
the memory controller notifying the total number of times of rewriting of the first region of said nonvolatile memory as the number of times of rewriting to the host apparatus.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.