IP Library Granted Patent US 9,170,933
Granted Patent B2
US 9,170,933 · App. 13/700,545 · Granted Oct 27, 2015

Wear-level of cells/pages/sub-pages/blocks of a memory

Inventors: Roy D. Cideciyan (Rueschlikon, CH); Evangelos S. Eleftheriou (Rueschlikon, CH); Robert Haas (Rueschlikon, CH); Xiao-Yu Hu (Rueschlikon, CH); Ilias Iliadis (Rueschlikon, CH); Roman Pletka (Rueschlikon, CH)
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
G06F12/0246G11C16/3495G06F2212/7211
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,170,933
App. No.
13/700,545
Granted
Oct 27, 2015
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method for wear-leveling cells, pages, sub-pages or blocks of a memory such as a flash memory includes receiving (S 10 ) a chunk of data to be written on the cell, page, sub-page or block of the memory; counting (S 40 ), in the received chunk of data, a number of times a given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ is to be written; and distributing (S 50 ) the writing of the received chunk of data among cells, pages, sub-pages or blocks of the memory such as to wear-level the memory with respect to the number of the given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ counted in the chunk of data to be written.

Claims (41)

1. A method for wear-leveling a memory, comprising:

receiving at least one chunk of data to be written on a cell/page/sub-page/block portion of the memory;

counting, in a received chunk of data, a number of times a given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ is to be written;

distributing writing of the received chunk of data among one of cells, pages, sub-pages and blocks of the memory to wear-level the memory with respect to a number of a given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ counted in the chunk of data to be written, and with respect to a number of ‘0s’ already written on each one of the cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory; and

maintaining a pool of received chunks of data,

wherein a chunk of data having a largest number of ‘0s’ among the received chunks of data of the pool is written on the cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory on which a smallest number of ‘0s’ are already written.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cell/page/sub-page/block portion of the memory includes at least one of: a cell, a sub-page, a page and a block of the memory.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the memory is a flash memory.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a chunk of data having a smallest number of ‘0s’ among the received chunks of data of the pool is written on the cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory on which a largest number of ‘0s’ are already written.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the least worn-out cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory is associated with wear-leveling information having a smallest number of ‘0s’; and

the most worn-out cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory is associated with wear-leveling information having the largest number of ‘0s’.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein each one of the cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory are recorded in a counter with their respective wear-leveling information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks recorded in the counter are sorted.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the wear-leveling information is updated after each distribution of the writing of each received chunk of data.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein distributing the writing of the received chunk of data is restricted to a set of cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory comprising cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory having different wear-leveling information.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pool includes a next chunk of data to be written on a cell/page/sub-page/block of the memory.

11. A system for wear-leveling a memory, comprising:

means for receiving at least one chunk of data to be written on a cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory;

a secondary memory for storing a pool of received chunks of data; and

a memory controller, wherein the memory controller

counts, in a received chunk of data, a number of times a given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ is to be written, and

distributes writing of the received chunk of data among cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory such as to wear-level the memory with respect to a number of the given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ counted in the chunk of data to be written, and with respect to a number of ‘0s’ already written on each one of the cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory,

wherein a chunk of data having a largest number of ‘0s’ among the chunks of data of the pool is written on the cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory on which a smallest number of ‘0s’ are already written.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the memory is a flash memory.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the memory controller:

records wear-leveling information for each cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory in a counter; and

updates the wear-leveling information after each distribution of the writing of each received chunk of data.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the memory controller comprises a write allocator for maintaining a set of cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory, and wherein the set of cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory includes cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory having different wear-leveling information.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the pool includes a next chunk of data to be written on a cell/page/sub-page/block of the memory.

16. A computer program product for wear-leveling a portion of a memory, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium; and

computer program instructions for

receiving at least one chunk of data to be written on a cell/page/sub-page/block portion of the memory,

maintaining a pool of received chunks of data,

counting, in the received chunk of data, a number of times a given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ is to be written,

distributing writing of the received chunk of data among one of the cells, pages, sub-pages or blocks of the memory to wear-level the memory with respect to a number of a given type of binary data ‘0’ or ‘1’ counted in the chunk of data to be written, and with respect to a number of ‘0s’ already written on each one of the cells or pages or sub-pages or blocks of the memory, and

writing a chunk of data having a largest number of ‘0s’ among the received chunks of data of the pool on the cell or page or sub-page or block of the memory on which a smallest number of ‘0s’ are already written,

wherein the portion of the memory includes at least one of: a cell, a sub-page, a page or a block of the memory.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the memory is a flash memory.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the pool includes a next chunk of data to be written on a cell/page/sub-page/block of the memory.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 28, 2012
From: CIDECIYAN, ROY D.; ELEFTHERIOU, EVANGELOS S.; HAAS, ROBERT; HU, XIAO-YU; ILIADIS, ILIAS; PLETKA, ROMAN
To: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 029364/0427 →
Priority Claims (1)
EP 10167547 · Jun 28, 2010 · regional
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20130166827A1 · Jun 27, 2013