IP Library Patent Application 13722736
Patent Application
App. No. 13/722,736

REAL USAGE MODEL FOR SOLID-STATE DRIVE

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US None
App. No.
13/722,736
Abstract

An embodiment is a technique to generate failure mode information for solid-state drive (SSD) in real environment. An environmental acquisition module acquires environmental information from an environmental sensor. A learning and update module generates an environmental profile based on the acquired environmental information. A failure acquisition module associates failure information from an SSD controller that controls an SSD with the environmental profile. An operation analyzer analyzes the associated failure information using pre-determined information provided by a database to generate failure mode information. A decision module decides if the failure mode information is valid.

Claims (44)

1 . A method comprising:

forming an environmental profile of a solid-state drive (SSD);

construct a usage profile of the SSD; and

creating a real usage model for the SSD using the environmental profile, the usage profile, and an initial usage model.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

updating the real usage model when a change in the environmental profile or the usage profile exceeds a pre-defined threshold.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein forming the environmental profile comprises:

monitoring environmental sensing data of the SSD;

collecting timing information from a timer; and

correlating the environmental sensing data with the timing information to generate an environmental correlation factor.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein monitoring the environmental sensing data comprises:

collecting the environmental sensing data from an environmental sensor being at least one of a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a pressure sensor, and an illuminance sensor; and

transmitting the environmental sensing data to an SSD processor.

5 . The method of claim 3 wherein the usage profile of the SSD includes at least SSD operations, type of SSD, operation rate of the SSD operations, and operation frequency of the SSD operations.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the SSD operations include at least one of garbage collection, wear leveling, program/erase (P/E) cycle, read cycle, write cycle, duty cycle, write input/output per second (IOPS) rating, file size, endurance rating, ECC computation, external data processing, over-provisioning, bad block mapping, TRIM command, and write amplification.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein constructing the usage profile comprises:

determining statistics of the SSD operations;

computing the operation rate and/or the operation frequency using the timing information; and

correlating one of the environmental sensing data and the timing information with the SSD operations to generate an SSD correlation factor.

8 . The method of claim 7 wherein creating the real usage model comprises:

associating the environmental profile with the usage profile;

computing deviations from the initial usage model;

forming a parametric expression using at least one of the statistics of the SSD operations, the operation rate and/or the operation frequency, the associated environmental profile, and the deviations.

9 . The method of claim 7 wherein updating the real usage model comprises:

comparing the environmental correlation factor with an environmental threshold;

comparing the SSD correlation factor with an SSD threshold; and

if the environmental correlation factor exceeds the environmental threshold or the SSD correlation factor exceeds the SSD threshold, restarting one of forming the environmental profile of the SSD, constructing the usage profile of the SSD, and creating a real usage model for the SSD.

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the initial usage model is provided from user information and/or manufacturer information.

11 . A circuit comprising:

a solid-state drive (SSD) processor coupled to an SSD;

an environmental sensor to provide environmental sensing data; and

a usage monitor coupled to the SSD processor and the environmental sensor to provide real usage environment information, the usage monitor comprising a usage processor and a memory coupled to the usage processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the usage processor, cause the usage processor to perform operations comprising:

forming an environmental profile of the SSD,

construct a usage profile of the SSD, and

creating a real usage model for the SSD using the environmental profile,

the usage profile, and an initial usage model.

12 . An apparatus comprising:

an environmental acquisition module to acquire environmental information from an environmental sensor;

a learning and update module to generate an environmental profile based on the acquired environmental information;

a failure acquisition module to associate failure information from a solid-state drive (SSD) controller that controls an SSD with the environmental profile;

an operation analyzer to analyze the associated failure information using pre-determined information provided by a database to generate failure mode information; and

a decision module to decide if the failure mode information is valid.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the environmental sensor includes at least one of a temperature sensor, a power sensor, a timing unit, a humidity sensor, a pressure sensor, and an illuminance sensor.

14 . The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the pre-determined information in the database includes at least one of a constant a threshold, a coefficient, a failure parameters, a failure model, a failure expression, and a failure algorithm.

Assignments (6)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTERESTS IN PATENTS Recorded May 13, 2019
From: MARANON CAPITAL, L.P.
To: VIRTIUM LLC
Reel/Frame 049162/0827 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 19, 2019
From: MONROE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT ADVISORS, LLC, AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
To: VIRTIUM LLC
Reel/Frame 048635/0794 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 6, 2019
From: VIRTIUM LLC
To: MARANON CAPITAL, L.P., AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 048515/0493 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Aug 12, 2015
From: VIRTIUM LLC
To: MONROE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT ADVISORS, LLC, AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 036310/0055 →
MERGER AND CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Aug 8, 2015
From: VIRTIUM TECHNOLOGY INC.; VIRTIUM OPCO LLC
To: VIRTIUM LLC
Reel/Frame 036284/0124 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 20, 2012
From: HOANG, PHO; CHEN, JIAN
To: VIRTIUM TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Reel/Frame 029513/0228 →