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US 7,743,290 B2Granted
Status of overall health of nonvolatile memory
AssigneeLexar Media, Inc.
InventorsMartin Ragnar Furuhjelm, Steffen Markus Hellmold
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A nonvolatile memory system includes nonvolatile memory organized into blocks, one or more of which are designated as spare blocks and one or more of which may be defective at the time of manufacturing of the nonvolatile memory. A controller device is coupled to the nonvolatile memory for measuring the health status of the nonvolatile memory by determining the number of growing defects on an on-going basis.
Claims21
A flash memory system comprising:
- nonvolatile memory organized into blocks, one or more of which are designated as spare blocks and one or more of which may be defective;
- and
- a controller coupled to the nonvolatile memory and configured to measure a health status of the nonvolatile memory, wherein the controller is also configured to output a signal indicative of a total number of spare blocks, of the one or more designated spare blocks, remaining at the time of the measurement of the health status that are not used to replace defective blocks.
A nonvolatile memory system comprising:
- nonvolatile memory organized into blocks, one or more of which are designated as spare blocks and one or more of which may be defective at the time of manufacturing of the nonvolatile memory;
- a controller device coupled to the nonvolatile memory and configured to perform a measurement of a health status of the nonvolatile memory;
- and
- a display;
- wherein the display is configured to display a value indicative of a total number of spare blocks, of the one or more designated spare blocks, remaining at a time of the measurement of the health status that are not used to replace defective blocks.
2 more elements
A method for measuring the health of nonvolatile memory system comprising:
- noting a number of defective blocks included within nonvolatile memory;
- reserving a number of spare blocks within the nonvolatile memory;
- measuring a health status of the nonvolatile memory during operation of the nonvolatile memory by determining a number of growing defects on an on-going basis;
- and
- outputting a signal indicative of a total number of spare blocks, of the reserved number of spare blocks, remaining at a time of the measurement of the health status that are not used to replace the noted number of defective blocks.
2 more elements
A nonvolatile memory system comprising:
- a host;
- and
- a nonvolatile memory organized into blocks, one or more of which are designated as spare blocks and one or more of which may be defective at the time of manufacturing of the nonvolatile memory, the nonvolatile memory comprising a display;
- wherein a health status of the nonvolatile memory is measured by the host by determining a number of growing defects on an on-going basis;
- and
- wherein the display is configured to display a value indicative of a total number of spare blocks, of the one or more designated spare blocks, remaining at the time of the measurement of the health status that are not used to replace defective blocks.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.