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US 2012/0059980 A1Published application
Solid state storage device controller with expansion mode
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorDean KLEIN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Solid state storage device controllers, solid state storage devices, and methods for operation of solid state storage device controllers are disclosed. In one such solid state storage device, the controller can operate in either an expansion DRAM mode or a non-volatile memory mode. In the DRAM expansion mode, one or more of the memory communication channels normally used to communicate with non-volatile memory devices is used to communicate with an expansion DRAM device.
Claims20
A solid state storage device controller comprising:
- a memory control circuit for controlling at least a primary, faster memory device in a non-expansion memory mode and the primary memory device and an expansion memory device in an expansion mode;
- and
- a plurality of memory communication channels for coupling at least one slower memory device to the solid state storage device controller wherein, in the expansion mode, at least one of the plurality of memory communication channels is configured to couple the expansion memory device to the memory control circuit,
- wherein a time to access the faster memory device is less than a time to access the slower memory device.
1 more element
A solid state storage device controller comprising:
- memory control circuitry configured to control a non-volatile memory device in a non-expansion mode and both the non-volatile memory device and a volatile memory device in an expansion mode;
- and
- a plurality of memory communication channels, each channel configured to couple a different non-volatile memory device to the solid state storage device controller wherein, in the expansion mode, one of the plurality of memory communication channels is configured to couple the volatile memory device to the memory control circuitry.
A solid state storage device controller comprising:
- a first memory control circuit configured to control a first volatile memory device in both a non-expansion mode and an expansion mode;
- a second memory control circuit configured to control a plurality of non-volatile memory devices in the non-expansion mode and the plurality of non-volatile memory devices and at least a second volatile memory device in the expansion mode;
- and
- a plurality of non-volatile memory communication channels each configured to couple the plurality of non-volatile memory devices to the second memory control circuitry in the non-expansion mode and the plurality of non-volatile memory devices and the at least second volatile memory device to the second memory control circuitry in the expansion mode.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.