Flash-based soft information generation
AssigneeMarvell International Ltd.
InventorXueshi Yang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure describes techniques for flash-based soft information generation. In some aspects a flash-memory device includes a soft information generator configured to determine soft information for a data value stored by a flash-memory cell. The soft information includes fewer bits than a number of data bits read from the flash-memory cell from which the soft information is generated. When the flash-memory device transfers the soft information to a memory controller, fewer bits per data value are transferred. By so doing, an efficiency of a data link between the flash memory device and the memory controller may be improved.
Claims20
A flash-memory device comprising:
- an array of flash-memory cells, each of the flash-memory cells configured to store a data value;
- a soft information generator configured to determine, based on multiple reads of one of the flash-memory cells, soft information for the data value stored by the one of the flash-memory cells, each of the multiple reads of the one of the flash-memory cells producing a respective data bit useful to determine the soft information for the data value;
- and
- a communication interface configured to transfer the soft information for the data value to a memory controller for iterative decoding of the data value and to not transfer at least some of the respective data bits to the memory controller.
A data storage device comprising:
- a flash-memory integrated circuit (IC) including:
- an array of flash-memory cells, each of the flash-memory cells configured to store a data value;
- a soft information generator configured to determine, based on data bits produced by multiple reads of one of the flash-memory cells, soft information for the data value stored by the one of the flash-memory cells;
- and
- a controller interface configured to transfer, via a data link, the soft information for the data value from the flash-memory IC for decoding;
- and
- a flash-memory controller IC including:
- a flash-memory interface configured to receive the soft information for the data value via the data link;
- an error-correcting code (ECC) decoder configured to decode, based on the soft information, the data value of the one of the flash-memory cells to provide error-corrected data, the ECC decoder being an iterative low-density parity-check decoder;
- and
- a host interface configured to transfer the error-corrected data of the data storage device to a host device.
A method comprising:
- reading, from a flash-memory cell of a flash-memory integrated circuit (IC), a data bit representing a data value stored by the flash-memory cell;
- determining, within the flash-memory IC, soft information for the data value based on the data bit read from the flash-memory cell and at least one data bit previously read from the flash-memory cell;
- and
- transferring, from the flash-memory IC and via a data link, the soft information for the data value to a flash-memory controller IC for iterative decoding of the data value, the data bit read from the flash-memory cell and the at least one data bit previously read from the flash-memory cell not transferred from the flash-memory IC via the data link.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.