Granted Patent B2

US 8,954,694 · App. 13/677,704 · Granted Feb 10, 2015

Abstract

Claims (33)

1. A data storage device controller, the controller being configured to: (1) couple to a volatile memory and a plurality of non-volatile memory devices configured to store a plurality of physical pages and (2) program data to and read data from the plurality of non-volatile memory devices, the controller being configured to:

store a firmware table comprising a plurality of firmware table entries;

maintain a plurality of firmware journals in the plurality of non-volatile memory devices, each firmware journal being associated with a firmware table entry and comprising firmware table entry information;

read the plurality of firmware journals upon startup; and

rebuild the firmware table using the firmware table entry information in each of the read plurality of firmware journals.

2. The controller of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of firmware journals is associated with a firmware journal number.

3. The controller of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to rebuild the firmware table using the firmware journal number, an address and a length.

4. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to read the plurality of firmware journals in an order in which they were generated.

5. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to, upon a change to a firmware table entry, generate a new firmware journal and to store the generated firmware journal in a non-volatile memory.

6. The controller of claim 5 , wherein as between an earlier-generated firmware journal associated with a given firmware table entry and a latest-generated firmware journal associated with the given firmware table entry, only the latest-generated firmware journal comprises valid firmware table entry information.

7. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of firmware journals collectively define a history of changes to the firmware table over time.

8. The controller of claim 1 , wherein each firmware journal is configured to store an address, in the volatile memory, of its associated firmware table entry.

9. The controller of claim 1 , wherein each firmware journal is configured to store, in the volatile memory, a size of its associated firmware table entry.

10. The controller of claim 1 , wherein each firmware journal is configured to store at least one of an error correction code and a digest.

11. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to build a firmware journal map, each entry in the firmware journal map pointing to a location in the non-volatile memory devices where one of the plurality of firmware journals is stored.

12. A data storage device, comprising:

the controller of claim 1 , and

the plurality of non-volatile memory devices.

13. A method for controlling a data storage device, the data storage device comprising a volatile memory and a plurality of non-volatile memory devices configured to store a plurality of physical pages and to enable programming data to and reading data from the plurality of non-volatile memory devices, the method comprising:

storing a firmware table comprising a plurality of firmware table entries;

maintaining a plurality of firmware journals in the plurality of non-volatile memory devices, each firmware journal being associated with a firmware table entry and comprising firmware table entry information;

reading the plurality of firmware journals upon startup; and

rebuilding the firmware table using the firmware table entry information in each of the read plurality of firmware journals.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of firmware journals is associated with a firmware journal number.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein rebuilding further comprises rebuilding the firmware table using the firmware journal number, an address and a length.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein reading comprises reading the plurality of firmware journals in an order in which they were generated.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising, upon a change to a firmware table entry, generating a new firmware journal and to store the generated firmware journal in a non-volatile memory.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein as between an earlier-generated firmware journal associated with a given firmware table entry and a latest-generated firmware journal associated with the given firmware table entry, only the latest-generated firmware journal comprises valid firmware table entry information.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of firmware journals collectively define a history of changes to the firmware table over time.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein maintaining further comprises storing, in each firmware journal, an address in volatile memory of its associated firmware table entry.

21. The method of claim 13 , wherein maintaining further comprises storing, in each firmware journal, a size of its associated firmware table entry.

22. The method of claim 13 , wherein maintaining further comprises storing, in each firmware journal, at least one of an error correction code and a digest.

23. The method of claim 13 , further comprising building a firmware journal map, each entry in the firmware journal map pointing to a location in the non-volatile memory devices where one of the plurality of firmware journals is stored.

Assignments (10)