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US 2010/0162084 A1Published application
Data error recovery in non-volatile memory
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsRichard Coulson, Albert Fazio, Jawad Khan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
When an error correction code (ECC) unit finds uncorrectable errors in a solid state non-volatile memory device, a process may be used in an attempt to locate and correct the errors. This process may first identify ‘low confidence’ memory cells that are likely to contain errors, and then determine what data is more likely to be correct in those cells, based on various criteria. The new data may then be checked with the ECC unit to verify that it is sufficiently correct for the ECC unit to correct any remaining errors.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- determining that binary data read from a specified range of sequential memory locations in a charge-based non-volatile (NV) memory contains errors that were uncorrected by an error correcting code (ECC) unit associated with the NV memory;
- identifying which memory cells in the specified range produced data that is likely to be in error;
- changing the data for at least some of the cells whose data was determined to likely be in error;
- and
- verifying whether the changed data is sufficiently correct for the ECC unit to provide correct data for the specified range.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising
- a computer system containing a processor and a charge-based non-volatile (NV) memory, the computer system to perform:
- determining that binary data read from a specified range of sequential memory locations in the NV memory contains errors that were uncorrected by an error correcting code (ECC) unit associated with the NV memory;
- identifying which memory cells in the specified range produced data that is likely to be in error;
- changing the data for at least some of the cells whose data was determined to likely be in error;
- and
- verifying whether the changed data is sufficiently correct for the ECC unit to provide correct data for the specified range.
3 more elements
An article comprising
- a tangible computer-readable medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
- determining that binary data read from a specified range of sequential memory locations in a charge-based non-volatile (NV) memory contains errors that were uncorrected by an error correcting code (ECC) unit associated with the NV memory;
- identifying which memory cells in the specified range produced data that is likely to be in error;
- changing the data for at least some of the cells whose data was determined to likely be in error;
- and
- verifying whether the changed data is sufficiently correct for the ECC unit to provide correct data for the specified range.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.