IP Library Granted Patent US 11,294,598
Granted Patent B2
US 11,294,598 · App. 16/858,332 · Granted Apr 5, 2022

Storage devices having minimum write sizes of data

Inventors: Alan D. Bennett (Edinburgh, GB); Daniel L. Helmick (Broomfield, CO); Liam Parker (Edinburgh, GB); Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets (Edinburgh, GB); Peter Grayson (Grand Rapids, MI)
Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
G06F3/0659G06F3/0604G06F3/064G06F3/0652G06F3/0679
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,294,598
App. No.
16/858,332
Granted
Apr 5, 2022
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure generally relates to methods of operating storage devices. The storage device comprises a controller and a storage unit divided into a plurality of zones. The storage unit comprises a plurality of dies, where each die comprises two planes. One erase block from each plane of a die is selected for zone formation. Each erase block comprises a plurality of wordlines. A zone comprises one or two dies dedicated to storing parity data and a plurality of dies dedicated to storing user data. The zone further comprises space devoted for controller metadata. The storage device restricts a host device to send write commands in a minimum write size to increase programming efficiency. The minimum write size equals one wordline from one erase block from each plane of each die in the zone dedicated to storing user data minus the space dedicated to metadata.

Claims (34)

1. A storage device, comprising:

a non-volatile storage unit, wherein a capacity of the non-volatile storage unit is divided into a plurality of zones, wherein the non-volatile storage unit comprises a plurality of dies, each of the plurality of dies comprising a plurality of erase blocks, and each of the erase blocks comprising a plurality of wordlines, wherein each of the erase blocks has a logical block address, two or more logical block addresses of two or more erase blocks being associated to each zone of the plurality of zones; and

a controller coupled to the non-volatile storage unit, wherein the controller is configured to:

determine a minimum write size for commands to write data received from a host device, wherein the minimum write size is determined based on a number of erase blocks in a zone dedicated to storing user data, a pages per cell of the wordlines of each erase block, a number of wordlines in each erase block, and an amount of space dedicated to storing metadata of the storage device; and

restrict the host device to send the commands to write data in the minimum write size upon determining the minimum write size.

2. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein each zone of the plurality of zones comprises the same number of erase blocks and has a same writable zone capacity.

3. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the minimum write size is determined to write two full wordlines in each die of the zone minus the amount of space dedicated to storing metadata.

4. The storage device of claim 3 , wherein each die of the zone comprises two planes, and wherein the minimum write size is determined to write to one full wordline in each plane of each die of the zone minus the amount of space dedicated to storing metadata.

5. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein a portion of each wordline comprises the amount of space dedicated to storing metadata.

6. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein a portion of each erase block comprises the amount of space dedicated to storing metadata.

7. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein at least one die in each zone is dedicated to storing die failure protection data.

8. A storage device, comprising:

a non-volatile storage unit, wherein a capacity of the non-volatile storage unit is divided into a plurality of zones, wherein the non-volatile storage unit comprises a plurality of dies, each of the plurality of dies comprising a plurality of erase blocks, and each of the erase blocks comprising a plurality of wordlines, wherein each of the erase blocks has a logical block address, two or more logical block addresses of two or more erase blocks being associated to each zone of the plurality of zones;

a controller coupled to the non-volatile storage unit, wherein the controller is configured to:

calculate a minimum write size for commands to write data received from a host device, wherein the minimum write size is calculated to write a full wordline size of one erase block of each plane of each die dedicated to storing user data within a zone; and

restrict the host device to send the commands to write data in the minimum write size upon calculating the minimum write size.

9. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the minimum write size is calculated based on a pages per cell of the plurality of wordlines.

10. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein a portion of each zone comprises a metadata capacity for the storage device to write to.

11. The storage device of claim 10 , wherein the minimum write size is calculated to account for the metadata capacity.

12. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive one or more write commands from the host device in a size smaller than the minimum write size;

hold the one or more write commands until the one or more write commands aggregate to the minimum write size; and

write the one or more write commands to the non-volatile storage unit once the one or more write commands are aggregated to the minimum write size.

13. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein each zone comprises a plurality of user data dies dedicated to storing user data, a first parity die, and a second parity die.

14. The storage device of claim 13 , wherein the first parity die is dedicated to storing p-parity data and the second parity die is dedicated to storing q-parity data.

15. A storage device, comprising:

a non-volatile storage unit, wherein a capacity of the non-volatile storage unit is divided into a plurality of zones, wherein the non-volatile storage unit comprises a plurality of dies, each of the plurality of dies comprising a plurality of planes, each of the planes comprising a plurality of erase blocks, and each of the erase blocks comprising a plurality of wordlines, wherein each of the erase blocks has a logical block address, two or more logical block addresses of two or more erase blocks being associated to each zone of the plurality of zones;

means for receiving commands to write data received from a host device in a minimum write size, wherein the minimum write size is set by multiplying a number of erase blocks in a zone dedicated to storing user data times a pages per cell of the wordlines times a wordline size, and subtracting an amount of space dedicated to storing metadata of the storage device;

means for calculating the minimum write size for commands; and

means for restricting the host device to send the commands to write data in the minimum write size upon calculating the minimum write size.

16. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the minimum write size is set to align to a size of a wordline.

17. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein one or more zones individually comprises 32 dies, and wherein at least 30 dies of the 32 dies of each of the one or more zones are dedicated to storing user data.

18. The storage device of claim 17 , wherein at least one die of the 32 dies of each of the one or more zones is dedicated to storing parity data.

19. The storage device of claim 17 , wherein a first die of the 32 dies of each of the one or more zones is dedicated to storing p-parity data and a second die of the 32 dies of each of the one or more zones is dedicated to storing q-parity data.

Assignments (10)
PARTIAL RELEASE OF SECURITY INTERESTS Recorded Apr 25, 2025
From: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS AGENT
To: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 071382/0001 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 25, 2025
From: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 071050/0001 →
PATENT COLLATERAL AGREEMENT Recorded Aug 23, 2024
From: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS THE AGENT
Reel/Frame 068762/0494 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jun 27, 2024
From: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 067982/0032 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 29, 2024
From: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 067567/0682 →
PATENT COLLATERAL AGREEMENT - DDTL LOAN AGREEMENT Recorded Aug 21, 2023
From: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 067045/0156 →
PATENT COLLATERAL AGREEMENT - A&R LOAN AGREEMENT Recorded Aug 21, 2023
From: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 064715/0001 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST AT REEL 053482 FRAME 0453 Recorded Feb 8, 2022
From: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
To: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 058966/0279 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 14, 2020
From: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS AGENT
Reel/Frame 053482/0453 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 24, 2020
From: BENNETT, ALAN D.; HELMICK, DANIEL L.; PARKER, LIAM; GOROBETS, SERGEY ANATOLIEVICH; GRAYSON, PETER
To: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 052493/0933 →
Continuity (1)
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