Device controller that schedules memory access to a host memory, and storage device including the same

A device controller included in a storage device, the device controller comprising:

• a host controller connected to a host memory, and configured to communicate with the host memory;
• a memory controller connected to a plurality of nonvolatile memory devices, and configured to communicate with the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices;
• a protocol controller configured to control data transfer between the host controller and the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices, and to perform a data memory access to a data region of the host memory and a non-data memory access to a non-data region of the host memory through the host controller;
• and
• a scheduler configured to selectively perform re-ordering of the data memory access and the non-data memory access according to a number of outstanding commands and a throughput efficiency of the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices.

A storage device comprising:

• a plurality of nonvolatile memory devices;
• and
• a device controller configured to control the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices,
• wherein the device controller comprises:
• a host controller connected to a host memory, and configured to communicate with the host memory;
• a memory controller connected to the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices, and configured to communicate with the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices;
• a protocol controller configured to control data transfer between the host controller and the plurality of nonvolatile memory devices, and to perform a data memory access to a data region of the host memory and a non-data memory access to a non-data region of the host memory through the host controller;
• and
• a scheduler configured to re-order the data memory access and the non-data memory access such that the non-data memory access to the non-data region is performed after the data memory access to a data chunk has completed, the data chunk being successive data that is allocated within the data region by a physical region page (PRP).