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US 9,542,344 B2Granted
Datapath management in a memory controller
AssigneeSanDisk Technologies LLC
InventorsDaniel Tuers, Abhijeet Manohar, Venkata Krishna Nadh Dhulipala, Girish B. Desai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A non-volatile memory controller coordinates multiple datapath units along a datapath between a host side and a memory side by unit-to-unit communication, or by a datapath control unit that is in communication with multiple datapath units. Data of a data stream is prioritized so that it passes along the datapath without interruption.
Claims25
A method of operating a nonvolatile memory controller comprising:
- maintaining a first queue of contexts for a first datapath unit that acts on data between a host interface of the memory controller and a nonvolatile memory bus;
- maintaining a second queue of contexts for a second datapath unit that acts on data in series with the first datapath unit between the host interface and the nonvolatile memory bus;
- generating an output that indicates a current operation of the first datapath unit, the output sent from the first datapath unit during the current operation;
- and
- in response to the output, changing priority of contexts of the second queue of contexts for the second datapath unit.
2 more elements
A nonvolatile memory controller comprising:
- a host interface;
- a memory bus;
- a first datapath unit between the host interface and the memory bus;
- a first context queue that contains contexts for the first datapath unit;
- a second datapath unit connected in series with the first datapath unit between the host interface and the memory bus;
- a second context queue that contains contexts for the second datapath unit;
- and
- a datapath control unit directly connected to the first datapath unit and directly connected to the second datapath unit, the datapath control unit prioritizing contexts in the first and second context queues for the first and second datapath units by providing prioritization information to the first and second datapath control units in parallel.
5 more elements
A nonvolatile memory system comprising:
- a three dimensional nonvolatile memory array;
- a memory bus connected to the three dimensional nonvolatile memory;
- and
- a memory controller connected to the memory bus, the memory controller comprising:
- a host interface;
- a first datapath unit between the host interface and the memory bus;
- a first context queue that contains contexts for the first datapath unit;
- a second datapath unit connected in series with the first datapath unit between the host interface and the memory bus;
- a second context queue that contains contexts for the second datapath unit;
- and
- a datapath control unit that is directly connected to the first datapath unit and directly connected to the second datapath unit, the datapath control unit prioritizing contexts in the first and second context queues for the first and second datapath units in parallel.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.