Programming unprogrammed upper page during lower page programming of multi-level storage cells

An apparatus comprising:

• means for receiving first data of a write request for a word line of a non-volatile storage medium, the word line comprising a lower page and an upper page;
• means for determining that the first data is sized such that at least a portion of the upper page of the word line is not programmed with at least a portion of the first data in response to programming the lower page of the word line with at least a portion of the first data;
• and
• means for programming the at least a portion of the unprogrammed upper page of the word line with at least a portion of the first data during programming of the lower page of the word line with the first data.

A system comprising:

• a non-volatile memory device, the non-volatile memory device comprising a plurality of word lines of memory cells;
• and
• a controller for the non-volatile memory device, the controller performing operations for:
• programming a lower page of a word line of the plurality of word lines of the non-volatile memory device with data of a write request;
• determining at least a portion of memory cells of the word line where an upper page of the word line is not programmed with the data and where the lower page of the word line is programmed with the data;
• and
• programming the at least a portion of the upper page of the word line with the same data used to program the corresponding lower page of the word line.