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US 9,437,312 B2Granted
Management of write-protected data in a semiconductor memory
AssigneeSanDisk IL Ltd.
InventorsDonald Ray Bryant-Rich, Tal Sagy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods of finalizing a semiconductor memory are disclosed. A method includes receiving an instruction to finalize data at a data storage device that includes a controller coupled to a semiconductor memory. The data storage device also includes a status indicator to indicate a finalize status of the semiconductor memory. In response to receiving the instruction to finalize the data at the data storage device, the status indicator is set to a finalize value. Write to the semiconductor memory operations are prevented by the controller in response to the status indicator having the finalize value.
Claims38
A method comprising:
- receiving an instruction to finalize data stored in a data storage device, the data storage device including a controller coupled to a semiconductor memory, the semiconductor memory storing the data and having a write protect pin and a memory type indicator associated therewith that indicates that the semiconductor memory is a re-writable memory;
- using the controller to emulate an assertion of the write protect pin after receiving the instruction to finalize the data;
- changing the memory type indicator associated with the semiconductor memory to a read-only memory type indicator to finalize the data and to cause the data to be write-protected;
- and
- subsequent to the changing of the memory type indicator, performing at least one cycle of erasing and rewriting the data in the semiconductor memory.
2 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a memory controller;
- and
- a storage interface circuit coupled to the memory controller,
- wherein the memory controller is configured:
- to finalize data in a semiconductor memory that is coupled to the memory controller via the storage interface circuit, the semiconductor memory having a write protect pin and an associated indicator, the associated indicator indicating that the semiconductor memory is a re-writeable memory;
- in response to receiving an instruction from a host to finalize the data in the semiconductor memory, to change the associated indicator to indicate that the semiconductor memory is a read-only memory to finalize the data by causing the data to be write-protected and to emulate an assertion of the write protect pin after receiving the instruction to finalize the data, wherein subsequent to changing the associated indicator, the memory controller is further configured to perform at least one cycle of erasing and rewriting the data in the semiconductor memory.
3 more elements
A data storage device comprising:
- a memory controller;
- a semiconductor memory responsive to the memory controller and having a write protect pin;
- and
- an interface circuit configured to couple to a host system, wherein the memory controller is configured to:
- configure the semiconductor memory to be an archival media device by causing data stored therein to be write-protected, wherein causing the data to be write-protected includes:
- setting a status indicator to a finalize value to finalize the data in the semiconductor memory in response to receiving an instruction via the interface circuit to finalize the data, wherein the memory controller is further configured to emulate an assertion of the write protect pin after receiving the instruction to finalize the data;
- and
- subsequent to emulating the assertion, performing at least one cycle of erasing and rewriting the data in the semiconductor memory;
- and
- in response to finalizing the data, cause the host system to logically disconnect from the semiconductor memory and to logically reconnect to the semiconductor memory for a status update, wherein the status update includes an indication that the data is finalized.
7 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving an instruction to finalize data stored in a data storage device;
- emulating an assertion of a write protect pin of the data storage device;
- and
- subsequent to the emulating of the assertion, performing at least one cycle of erasing and rewriting the data in the data storage device.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.