TW202213085A - Method and apparatus and computer program product for storing data in flash memory - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method, an apparatus and a computer program product for storing data in a flash memory. The method is performed by a processing unit when loading and executing program code of a flash translation layer to include: dividing storage space of a flash module into a first region and a second region; writing data belonging to a first partition type received from a host side into first physical blocks of the first region only; and writing data belonging to a second partition type received from the host side into the first physical blocks of the first region and the second physical blocks of the second region. With the region division and the policy for writing data into the regions in terms of data characteristics of different partition types, storage space of the flash module would be used more efficient.

Description

Data storage method and device of flash memory and computer program product

The present invention relates to a storage device, in particular to a data storage method, device and computer program product of a flash memory.

Flash memory is usually divided into NOR flash memory and NAND flash memory. NOR flash memory is a random access device. The central processing unit (Host) can provide any address for accessing NOR flash memory on the address pin, and obtain the data stored at the address from the data pin of NOR flash memory in time. material. In contrast, NAND flash memory is not random access, but sequential access. NAND flash memory cannot access any random address like NOR flash memory. Instead, the central processor needs to write the value of the sequence of bytes (Bytes) into the NAND flash memory to define the type of request command (Command) (such as , read, write, erase, etc.), and the address used on this command. The address can point to a page (the smallest block of data in flash for write operations) or a block (the smallest block of data in flash for erase operations).

Efficient use of NAND flash space to store different types of host data has always been an important issue in flash controllers. Therefore, the present invention provides a flash memory data storage method and device and a computer program product, which are suitable for different types of host data.

In view of this, how to alleviate or eliminate the above-mentioned deficiencies in related fields is a problem to be solved.

This specification relates to a data storage method of a flash memory, which is implemented when a processing unit loads and executes the code of the translation layer of the flash memory, including: dividing the storage space of the flash memory module into a first area and a second area ; Only write the data of the first partition type received from the host to the first physical block in the first area; and write the data received from the host and belong to the second partition type into the first physical block in the first area A solid block and a second solid block in the second zone.

The present specification also relates to a computer program product for data storage in flash memory, including code loaded by a processing unit and executing a translation layer of the flash memory.

The present specification further relates to a data storage device of flash memory, which includes a flash memory interface, a host interface and a processing unit. The processing unit divides the storage space of the flash memory module into a first area and a second area; the drive flash interface writes the data belonging to the first partition type received from the host through the host interface only to the first physical block in the first area and driving the flash memory interface to write the data belonging to the second partition type received from the host through the host interface into the first physical block in the first area and the second physical block in the second area.

The first area contains multiple first physical blocks, the second area contains multiple second physical blocks, each first physical block can only use the single-layer unit mode to write data, and each second physical block can use a single Layered cell mode or non-single-layered cell mode to write data. Single-level cell mode programs memory cells to store one of two states, and non-single-level cell mode programs memory cells to store one of four or more states.

One of the advantages of the above embodiment is that the storage space of the flash memory module can be used more efficiently through the above-mentioned area division of the flash memory module and the policy of writing data according to the data characteristics of different partition types.

Other advantages of the present invention will be explained in more detail in conjunction with the following description and drawings.

The following description is a preferred implementation manner to complete the invention, and its purpose is to describe the basic spirit of the invention, but it is not intended to limit the invention. Reference must be made to the scope of the following claims for the actual inventive content.

It must be understood that the words "comprising" and "comprising" used in this specification are used to indicate the existence of specific technical features, values, method steps, operation processes, elements and/or components, but do not exclude the possibility of adding More technical features, values, method steps, job processes, elements, components, or any combination of the above.

The use of words such as "first", "second", "third", etc. in the claims is used to modify the elements in the claims, and is not used to indicate that there is a priority order, a prepositional relationship, or an element between them Prior to another element, or chronological order in which method steps are performed, is only used to distinguish elements with the same name.

It must be understood that when an element is described as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element, and intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is described as being "directly connected" or "directly coupled" to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements can also be interpreted in a similar fashion, such as "between" versus "directly interposed," or "adjacent" versus "directly adjoining," and the like.

Refer to Figure 1. The electronic device 10 includes a host side 110 , a flash memory controller 130 and a flash memory module 150 , and the flash memory controller 130 and the flash memory module 150 may be collectively referred to as a device side. The electronic device 10 can be implemented in electronic products such as personal computers, notebook computers (Laptop PCs), tablet computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, and digital video cameras. The host interface (Host Interface) 137 between the host terminal 110 and the flash memory controller 130 can be a Universal Serial Bus (USB), advanced technology attachment (ATA), serial advanced technology attachment (serial advanced technology attachment, SATA), peripheral component interconnect express (PCI-E), universal flash memory storage (Universal Flash Storage UFS), embedded multimedia card (Embedded Multi-Media Card eMMC) and other communication protocols communicate with each other. The flash interface (Flash Interface) 139 of the flash memory controller 130 and the flash memory module 150 can communicate with each other through a double data rate (Double Data Rate DDR) protocol, for example, Open NAND Flash Interface ONFI, double data rate rate switch (DDR Toggle) or other protocols. The flash controller 130 includes a processing unit 134, which may be implemented using a variety of means, such as using general-purpose hardware (eg, a single processor, a multiprocessor capable of parallel processing, a graphics processor, or other processor capable of computing), and When executing software and/or firmware instructions, the functions described later are provided. The processing unit 134 receives host commands through the host interface 131 , such as a read command, a write command, an erase command, and the like, and schedules and executes these commands. The flash memory controller 130 further includes a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) 136, which can be implemented as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a static random access memory (Static Random Access Memory, SRAM) or a combination of the above two, is used to configure the space as a data buffer to store host data read from the host 110 and to be written to the flash memory module 150, and read from the flash memory module 150 and to be output to the host Host data of the terminal 110. The random access memory 136 can also store data required in the execution process, such as variables, data tables, host-to-Flash H2F Table, Flash-to-Host F2H Table), etc. The flash memory interface 139 includes a NAND flash controller (NAND Flash Controller NFC), which provides functions required for accessing the flash memory module 150, such as a command sequencer (Command Sequencer), a low density parity check (Low Density Parity Check LDPC), and the like.

A bus architecture 132 can be configured in the flash memory controller 130 for coupling elements to each other to transmit data, addresses, control signals, etc. These elements include a host interface 131, a processing unit 134, a RAM 136, A direct memory access (Direct Memory Access, DMA) controller 138, a flash memory interface 139, and the like. The DMA controller 138 can move data between elements through the bus structure 132 according to the instructions of the processing unit 134 , for example, move the data of a specific data buffer (Data Buffer) in the host interface 131 or the flash interface 139 to the data in the RAM 136 . For the specific address, the data of the specific address in the RAM 136 is moved to the specific data register in the host interface 131 or the flash memory interface 139, and so on.

The flash memory module 150 provides a large amount of storage space, usually hundreds of gigabytes (Gigabytes, GB) or even several terabytes (Terabytes, TB), for storing a large amount of host data, such as High-resolution pictures, videos, etc. The flash memory module 150 includes a control circuit and a memory array. The memory cells in the memory array can be configured as single-level cells (Single Level Cells, SLCs) and multi-level cells (Multiple Level Cells, MLCs) after erasing Triple Level Cells (TLCs), Quad-Level Cells (QLCs) or any combination of the above. The processing unit 134 writes the host data to the specified address (destination address) in the flash memory module 150 through the flash memory interface 139 , and reads the host data from the specified address (source address) in the flash memory module 150 . The flash memory interface 139 uses several electronic signals to coordinate data and command transfer between the flash memory controller 130 and the flash memory module 150 , including a data line, a clock signal, and a control signal. Data lines can be used to transmit commands, addresses, read and written data; control signal lines can be used to transmit Chip Enable (CE), Address Latch Enable (ALE), Command Latch Enable Can (Command Latch Enable, CLE), write enable (Write Enable, WE) and other control signals.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the interface 151 in the flash memory module 150 may include four I/O channels (hereinafter referred to as channels) CH#0 to CH#3, and each channel is connected to four NAND flash memory cells, for example, a channel CH#0 is connected to NAND flash memory cells 153#0, 153#4, 153#8 and 153#12. Each NAND flash memory cell can be packaged as an independent die. The flash memory interface 139 can enable the NAND flash memory cells 153#0 to 153#3, 153#4 to 153#7, and 153#8 to 153#11 by issuing one of the enable signals CE#0 to CE#3 through the interface 151 , or 153#12 to 153#15, and then read host data from the enabled NAND flash memory cells in parallel, or write host data to the enabled NAND flash memory cells.

In order to store different types of host data, each of the NAND flash memory cells 153#0 to 153#15 may include a plurality of physical blocks, and each physical block may be configured as an SLC block or a non-SLC block (non-SLC Block). All SLC blocks in the NAND flash memory cells 153#0 to 153#15 can be collected as SLC Regions, and all non-SLC blocks therein can be collected as non-SLC Regions. Each memory cell in an SLC block can only be programmed in SLC mode after erasing, while each memory cell in a non-SLC block can be programmed in SLC, MLC, TLC or QLC mode after erasing. MLC, TLC and QLC modes can be collectively referred to as non-SLC modes. Each MLC, TLC or QLC can store more bits of data than an SLC, but the data retention and access speed of SLC are better than MLC, TLC or QLC. Each memory cell in the SLC block, MLC block, TLC block, and QLC block can store one of two, four, eight, and sixteen states, respectively. Each word line (Word Line) in the SLC block can store a page of data. Each word line in the MLC block can store two pages of data, including the Most Significant Bit (MSB Page) and the Least Significant Bit (LSB Page). Each word line in the TLC block can store three pages of data, including the most significant bit page, the center significant bit page (Center Significant Bit, CSB Page) and the least significant bit page. Each word line in the QLC block can store four pages of data, including the Top Significant Bit (TSB Page), the most significant bit page, the middle significant bit page, and the least significant bit page.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the host 110 executes a file system (File System) 300 to implement operations such as data storage, hierarchical organization, and access. For example, the file system 300 can logically divide the storage space provided by the device into first and second boot partitions (Boot Partitions) 310#1 and 310#2, Replay Protected Memory Block (RPMB Partition) ) 310#3, first to fourth General Purpose Partitions 310#4 to 310#7, and User Data Partition 310#8. The file system 300 transmits logical partition information to the Flash Translation Layer (FTL) 350 executed in the flash controller 130. The information includes the number and length of each partition, and the length of the partition is usually determined in logical order. The number of block addresses (Logical Block Address, LBA). An LBA number can correspond to fixed-length data, such as 512-byte data. Through the file system 300, the host 110 can store system configuration and boot programs in the first boot partition 310#1, and store drivers and operating systems in the second boot partition 310#2. The host 110 can also store various application programs in the first to fourth general purpose partitions (General Purpose Partitions) 310#4 to 310#7, and various data files in the user data partition 310#8 . For example, when the host side 110 wants to write the boot program to the device side, it can issue a host write command to the flash memory controller 130, which includes the number of the first boot partition (Boot Partitions) 310#1, the start LBA number, and the length. and other information. When the host side 110 wants to write the video stream file to the device side, it can also issue a host write command to the flash memory controller 130, which includes the number of the user data partition 310#8, the starting LBA number, the length and other information. For the convenience of management, in some embodiments, the FTL 350 stores data of some partitions in the SLC area 155#1 and stores data of other partitions in the non-SLC area 155#3 according to the characteristics of the host data. The FTL 350 can write the data received from the host 110 into one or more physical blocks in the SLC area 155#1 or the non-SLC area 155#3 in the flash memory module 150 according to the partition number in the host write command. For example in detail, the FTL 350 writes data corresponding to the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3 into the SLC area 155#1, and writes data corresponding to the first to fourth general purpose Data of partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and user data partition 310#8 are written into non-SLC area 155#3. Therefore, the SLC block can be used to store important, error-free, and frequently accessed system data, such as operating systems, drivers, keys, and so on. Non-SLC blocks can be used to store large amounts of system data and user data, such as various applications, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, images, audio, video and other files.

Typically initially, the FTL 350 may allocate space to the SLC area 155#1 that exceeds the length of the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3. For example, although the logical partition information indicates that the total length of the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3 is 8 Megabytes (MB), the FTL 350 is configured with 10MB The storage space is given to SLC area 155#1. However, because the data of the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3 usually change little, the SLC area 155#1 has a lot of spare space that is not used. Even if the first to fourth general purpose partitions (General Purpose Partitions) 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition (User Data Partition) 310#8 are about to fill the non-SLC area 155#3 and the SLC area 155# The headroom of 1 cannot be used either.

In order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned embodiments, the embodiment of the present invention proposes a new configuration method for using the storage space of the flash memory module 150 more efficiently. Referring to Figure 4, FTL 450 allows data of some partitions to be stored only in SLC area 155#1 according to the characteristics of host data, and allows data of other partitions to be stored in SLC area 155#1 or non-SLC area 155#3 . For example, the FTL 450 allows the data corresponding to the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3 to be written only to the SLC area 155#1, and will correspond to the first to fourth The data of the general partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition 310#8 can be written into the SLC area 155#1 and the non-SLC area 155#3. In detail, when the processing unit 134 loads and executes the code of the FTL 450, the data storage method of the flash memory is implemented, including: dividing the storage space of the flash memory module 150 into the SLC area 155#1 and the non-SLC area 155#3; the drive flash interface 139 writes the data belonging to the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3 received from the host side 110 through the host interface 131 into only the SLC area 155#1 and the drive flash interface 139 writes the data belonging to the first to fourth general partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition 10#8 received from the host 110 through the host interface 131 into the SLC area A physical block in 155#1 and a second physical block in non-SLC area 155#3.

In some embodiments, the FTL 450 may write random data (Random Data) corresponding to the first to fourth general purpose partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition 310#8 into the SLC area 155#1, and Write continuous data (Continuous Data) corresponding to the first to fourth general-purpose partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition 310#8 into the non-SLC area 155#3. Referring to the flowchart of the data writing method shown in FIG. 5, the method is implemented when the processing unit 134 loads and executes the code of the FTL 450, and the details are as follows:

Step S510 : Receive a host write command from the host terminal 110 through the host interface 131 .

Step S520: Determine whether the data to be written belongs to a specific partition type (Partition-type). If yes, the flow continues to the processing of step S530; otherwise, the flow continues to the processing of step S540. For example, the FTL 450 divides all partitions into two types: the first partition type includes the first and second boot partitions 310#1 and 310#2 and the RPMB partition 310#3; the second partition type includes the first to fourth General partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and user data partition 310#8. The specific partition type described above refers to the first partition type. The processing unit 134 can complete the judgment by checking the partition number carried in the host write command.

Step S530: Write data to one or more physical pages of the current block (Current Block) in the SLC area 155#1. Each physical block in SLC area 155#1 may be marked in one of three states: Spare Blocks, Current Blocks, and Data Blocks. Any physical block can become a free block after it contains no valid data. For each NAND flash memory cell, the flash memory controller 130 may select one of the free blocks in each data plane as the current block for writing the data requested by the host write command to be stored. When the current block is filled with data, the flash controller 130 closes the physical block and no longer writes data but can only read data. At this time, the physical block is called a data block. Next, the flash controller 130 selects one of the idle blocks as a new current block, and continues to write new data. The FTL 450 may maintain a Physical-To-Logical (P2L Mapping Table) in the RAM 136 for each current block, which is used to store the information of which LBA number the data of each physical page belongs to in the order of the physical pages . Once the current block is closed and becomes a data block, the FTL 450 can drive the flash interface 139 to write the P2L lookup table to the specified location of the flash module 150 . In addition, the FTL 450 also needs to update the corresponding content in the Logical-To-Physical (Logical-To-Physical, L2P Mapping Table). The L2P comparison table stores the information of which physical address the data of each LBA number is stored in in the order of the LBA numbers. The physical address may include the physical block number, physical page number and other information. The FTL 450 updates the physical address of the updated LBA number in the L2P comparison table to refer to the corresponding physical address in the SLC area 155#1.

It should be noted here that each LBA number in the L2P comparison table corresponds to a partition number, which is used to indicate which partition the LBA number data belongs to. Furthermore, each entity address in the L2P lookup table belongs to the SLC area 155#1 or the non-SLC area 155#3 according to the initial configuration. In some embodiments, the FTL 450 may scan the physical addresses of the LBA numbers belonging to the first to fourth general partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition 310#8 in the L2P lookup table to know the first to fourth Data for each LBA number in the four general purpose partitions 310#4 to 310#7 and the user data partition 310#8 is stored in the SLC area 155#1 or the non-SLC area 155#3.

In some embodiments, in order to distinguish which partition type the data of each physical block or each physical page of the data block in the SLC area 155#1 belongs to, the FTL 450 may additionally store the SLC area 155#1 in the RAM 136 Each physical block or data block maintains a partition-type bit table (Partition-type Bit Table), which contains at least the bits of the total number of pages of one physical block, and records which physical page belongs to in the order of physical addresses. Information about the partition type. For example, when a bit record is "1", the data representing the corresponding physical page belongs to the second partition type; when a bit record is "0", the data representing the corresponding physical page belongs to the first partition type. When the data writing is completed, the FTL 450 updates the bit value corresponding to the written physical page in the partition type bit table to "0".

Step S540: Determine whether the host write command is a random write command. If yes, the flow proceeds to the processing of step S550; otherwise, the flow proceeds to the processing of step S560. The FTL 450 can determine whether it is a random write command according to the length of the data to be written by the host write command. Assuming that the minimum unit of data managed by the host 110 is 4 kilobytes (Kilobyte, KB), and each physical page can store data with a length of 16KB: when the host write command instructs to write data shorter than 16KB, the FTL 450 may determine that the host write command is a random write command. On the contrary, it indicates that the host write command is a continuous write command, and may be combined with previous and/or subsequent host write commands to instruct to write a long continuous data.

Step S550: Write data to a physical page of the current block in the SLC area 155#1. The technical details of updating the P2L comparison table and the L2P comparison table after writing the data can be inferred by those skilled in the art according to the description of step S530, and will not be repeated for brevity. In some embodiments, the FTL 450 may update the bit table corresponding to the written physical page in the partition type bit table with a value of "1", indicating that the data of the physical page belongs to the second partition type.

Step S560: Write data to a physical page of the current block in the non-SLC area 155#3. Similarly, each physical block in non-SLC area 155#3 may be marked in one of three states: idle block, current block, and data block. The technical details of changing the state of each physical block in the non-SLC area 155#3 can be inferred by those skilled in the art according to the description of step S530, and will not be repeated for brevity. In addition, the technical details of updating the P2L lookup table and the L2P lookup table after writing data to the current block of the non-SLC area can be inferred by those skilled in the art according to the description of step S530, and will not be repeated for brevity.

It should be noted here that the data writing operations referred to in steps S530 , S550 and S560 do not necessarily drive the flash memory interface 139 to immediately write data into the flash memory module 150 , but rather store the appropriate write commands in the flash memory first. In the queue of the interface 139, and then let the flash memory interface 139 determine the execution timing of these write commands, the present invention is not limited to this.

When the flash memory module 150 is accessed for a period of time, the number of free blocks in the SLC area 155#1 will change, and the FTL 450 can maintain a free counter to indicate the currently owned free blocks in the SLC area 155#1 total. Whenever an idle block in SLC area 155#1 becomes the current block, the idle counter is decremented by one. Whenever a data block in SLC area 155#1 becomes an idle block, the idle counter is incremented by one. In addition, when the flash module 150 is accessed for a period of time, many physical pages in the SLC area 155#1 may include valid sectors and invalid sectors (also called expired sectors), wherein the valid sectors Stores valid data, invalid section stores invalid (old) data. When the FTL 450 detects that the counter is lower than a threshold value, it can read and collect the data in the valid section belonging to the second partition type in a data block, and then drive the flash memory interface 139 in MLC, TLC or QLC mode again Write the collected valid data to the empty physical page of the current block in the non-SLC area 155#3. In addition, the FTL 450 can read and collect the data in the valid section belonging to the first partition type in the data block, and then drive the flash memory interface 139 to re-write the collected valid data in the SLC area 155#1 in the SLC mode The empty physical pages of the current block allow these data blocks containing invalid user data in the SLC area 155#1 to become free blocks for other data to use after erasing. The above program is called a cross-region garbage collection program (Cross-region Garbage Collection, GC Process). It is worth noting that when the cross-region garbage collection program writes valid data to the physical pages in the non-SLC area 155#3 in MLC, TLC or QLC mode, it can release two or more physical pages in the SLC area 155#1 (also known as SLC page) storage space. In the spanning garbage collection procedure, the FTL 450 updates the contents of the P2L comparison table and the L2P comparison table according to the execution result of the write operation.

Referring to the flowchart of the storage space arrangement method shown in FIG. 6, the method is implemented when the processing unit 134 loads and executes the code of the FTL 450, and the detailed description is as follows:

Step S610: a trigger signal is detected. The trigger signal can represent that the device is about to enter the sleep mode, reaches a preset time point, or receives a host write command, or represents that other preset trigger conditions for enabling detection have been met.

Step S620: Read the value of the idle counter to obtain the current number of idle blocks in the SLC area 155#1.

Step S630: Determine whether the current number of idle blocks is lower than a threshold. If yes, the flow continues to the process of step S640; otherwise, the flow continues to the process of step S610.

Step S640: Execute the above-mentioned spanning garbage collection procedure.

In the spanning garbage collection process, in order to determine whether the data stored in each physical page of a data block in the SLC area 155#1 belongs to the first partition type or the second partition type, in some embodiments, the FTL 450 may search for the data The partition type bit table of the block is used to obtain the data of which physical pages in this data block belong to the second partition type. For example, when a bit in the partition type bit table of the data block is "1", the data representing the corresponding physical page belongs to the second partition type, and the FTL 450 can collect valid data in the corresponding physical page.

In other embodiments, the FTL 450 may search the L2P lookup table for the physical addresses of the LBA numbers belonging to the second partition type to know which LBA numbers are stored in the SLC area 155#1, and collect the SLC area 155#1 Valid data for eligible physical addresses in .

In order to prolong the service life of the physical blocks in the SLC area 155#1 with a similar wear level, the FTL 450 may perform the data migration process in a timely manner. The FTL 450 may record an erase counter for each physical block, which is initially 0. After each physical block is erased, the corresponding erase counter is incremented by one. Referring to the flowchart of the Cross-region Wear Leveling method shown in FIG. 7, the method is implemented when the processing unit 134 loads and executes the code of the FTL 450, and the detailed description is as follows:

Step S710: a trigger signal is detected. The trigger signal may represent that the device is about to enter the sleep mode, or reaches a preset time point, or represents that other preset trigger conditions for enabling detection have been met.

Step S720: Read the value of the erase counter of the first or next data block in the SLC area 155#1, which represents the number of times the data block has been erased.

Step S730: Determine whether the value of the erasing counter is higher than the threshold. If yes, it means that the use of the data block is overheated, and the process continues to the process of step S740; otherwise, it means that the use of the data block is normal, and the process continues to the process of step S750.

Step S740: Mark the data block as a migration source block. FTL 450 may record tag information for this block in RAM 136 .

Step S750: Determine whether all data blocks in the SLC area have been detected. If yes, the flow continues to the processing of step S760; otherwise, the flow continues to the processing of step S720.

Step S760: Execute the data migration procedure.

In some embodiments of the data migration process as described in step S760, the FTL 450 can drive the flash memory interface 139 to transfer the data of the plurality of physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the migration source block in the SLC area 155#1 as they are. The MLC, TLC or QLC mode writes to a physical page of a current block in the non-SLC area 155#3, and the erasure count of the current block is relatively low in the non-SLC area 155#3. In addition, the FTL 450 can drive the flash memory interface 139 to write the data of each physical page belonging to the first partition type in the migration source block in the SLC area 155#1 into a current block in the SLC area 155#1 in the SLC mode. A physical page of the current block, the erasure count of this current block is relatively low in SLC area 155#1. It is worth noting that when the data migration program writes the data of two, three or four physical pages of the migration source block in the SLC area 155#1 to the non-SLC area 155#3 in MLC, TLC or QLC mode respectively When the non-SLC page is stored, the storage space of two or more physical pages in the SLC area 155#1 can be released.

In other embodiments of the data migration process described in step S760, the FTL 450 may drive the flash memory interface 139 to collect valid data of a plurality of physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the migration source block in the SLC area 155#1 A physical page of a current block in the non-SLC area 155#3 is written in MLC, TLC or QLC mode, and the erasure count of the current block is relatively low in the non-SLC area 155#3. In addition, the FTL 450 can drive the flash memory interface 139 to collect valid data of multiple physical pages belonging to the first partition type in the migration source block in the SLC area 155#1 and write them into a current block in the SLC area 155#1 in the SLC mode A physical page of the current block, the erasure count of this current block is relatively low in SLC area 155#1. In this way, not only can the purpose of wear leveling be achieved, but also garbage collection can be performed, and the storage space of the flash memory module 150 can be used more effectively.

In the data migration process described in step S760, after the data of the migration source block is written into the non-SLC area 155#3, the FTL 450 can mark the migration source block as a temporarily unused physical block, so as to avoid a short period of time After being erased, it becomes a free block.

In order to prevent the data stored in the physical block in the SLC area 155#1 from being damaged due to excessive reading times, the FTL 450 can execute the data migration process in a timely manner. The FTL 450 can record a read counter for each data block, which is set to 0 after each data block is erased and becomes an idle block. After each data stored in a data block is read, the corresponding read counter is incremented by one. Referring to the flowchart of the Cross-region Read Refresh method shown in FIG. 8, the method is implemented when the processing unit 134 loads and executes the code of the FTL 450, and the detailed description is as follows:

Step S810: Read the data in the physical page of a data block in the SLC area 155#1.

Step S820: Increase the read counter of the data block by one.

Step S830: Determine whether the value of the read counter is higher than the threshold. If yes, it means that the data block has been read too much, and the flow continues to the processing of step S840; otherwise, it means that the data block is used normally, and the flow continues to the processing of step S810.

Step S840: Execute the data migration procedure.

In some embodiments of the data migration process described in step S840, the FTL 450 can drive the flash memory interface 139 to transfer the data of the plurality of physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the data block to the MLC, TLC or QLC mode. Write to one physical page of a current block in non-SLC area 155#3. In addition, the FTL 450 can drive the flash interface 139 to write the data of each physical page belonging to the first partition type in the data block to a physical page of a current block in the SLC area 155#1 in SLC mode intact. It is worth noting that when the data migration program is written in the SLC area 155#1 in MLC, TLC or QLC mode, the data of two, three or four physical pages of this data block are migrated to the non-SLC area 155#3 When there are non-SLC pages in the SLC area, the storage space of two or more physical pages in the SLC area 155#1 can be released.

In other embodiments of the data migration process as described in step S840, the FTL 450 can drive the flash memory interface 139 to collect the valid data of the plurality of physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the data block to MLC, TLC or QLC The pattern is written to a physical page of a current block in the non-SLC area 155#3. In addition, the FTL 450 can drive the flash interface 139 to collect valid data of a plurality of physical pages belonging to the first partition type in the data block and write to a physical page of a current block in the SLC area 155#1 in SLC mode. In this way, not only the purpose of reading and refreshing can be achieved, but also garbage collection can be performed, and the storage space of the flash memory module 150 can be used more effectively.

In addition, when the data block has Read Disturbance due to several reasons, the data stored therein may contain too many erroneous bits. Once it is detected that one or more physical page pages in a data block contain too many erroneous bits, the FTL 450 may perform a data migration process for this data block in a timely manner. Referring to the flowchart of the Cross-region Read Reclaim method shown in FIG. 9, the method is implemented when the processing unit 134 loads and executes the code of the FTL 450, and the detailed description is as follows:

Step S910: Read the data in the physical page of a data block in the SLC area 155#1.

Step S920: Determine whether the error correction rate is higher than a threshold. If yes, it means that the data block may have read interference, and the flow continues to the processing of step S930; otherwise, it means that the data block is used normally, and the flow continues to the processing of step S910. During data reading, the flash memory interface 139 can use the corresponding Error-Correcting Code (ECC) to correct the erroneous bits contained in the data in the physical page. The error correction code may be a low-density parity check code (Low-Density Parity Check Code, LDPC), a BCH code (Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem Code), and the like. Taking each 1KB of data as an example, the BCH code can provide a correction capability of up to 72 error bits, while the LDPC can provide a correction capability of a maximum of 128 error bits. The threshold can be set between 50% and 80% of the maximum correction capability using the error correction code.

Step S930: Execute a data migration program. For the details of the data migration procedure of step S930, reference may be made to the description of step S840, which will not be repeated for brevity.

In the data migration procedure described in steps S760, S840 and S930, in order to determine whether the data stored in each physical page of a migration source block in the SLC area 155#1 belongs to the first partition type or the second partition type, the FTL 450 may The partition type bit table of the migration source block is searched to obtain the data of each physical page belonging to the first partition type or the second partition type.

All or part of the steps in the method of the present invention can be implemented by computer instructions, such as a firmware translation layer (Firmware Translation Layer, FTL) in a storage device, a driver for a specific hardware, and the like. In addition, it can also be implemented in other types of programs. Those skilled in the art can compose the methods of the embodiments of the present invention into computer instructions, which will not be described for brevity. Computer instructions for implementing methods according to embodiments of the present invention may be stored in a suitable computer-readable medium, such as DVD, CD-ROM, USB disk, hard disk, or may be other suitable vehicles) to access the web server.

Although the above-described elements are included in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , it is not excluded that more other additional elements can be used to achieve better technical effects without violating the spirit of the invention. In addition, although the flowcharts of FIGS. 5 to 9 are executed in the specified order, those skilled in the art can modify the order of these steps under the premise of achieving the same effect without violating the spirit of the invention. Therefore, The present invention is not limited to using only the sequence described above. In addition, those skilled in the art can also integrate several steps into one step, or in addition to these steps, perform more steps sequentially or in parallel, and the present invention is not limited thereby.

Although the present invention is described using the above embodiments, it should be noted that these descriptions are not intended to limit the present invention. On the contrary, this invention covers modifications and similar arrangements obvious to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims is to be construed in the broadest manner so as to encompass all obvious modifications and similar arrangements.

10: Electronics 110: Host side 130: Flash Controller 131:Host Interface 132: Busbar 134: Processing unit 136: Random Access Memory 138: Direct Memory Access Controller 139: Flash interface 150: Flash Module 151: Interface 153#0~153#15: NAND flash memory unit CH#0~CH#3: Channel CE#0~CE#3: Enable signal 300: File System 310#1~310#8: Partition 350,450: Flash memory translation layer 155#1: Single-level unit area 155#3: Non-single-level unit area S510~S560: method steps S610~S640: method steps S710~S760: Method steps S810~S840: Method steps S910~S930: Method steps

FIG. 1 is a system architecture diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a flash memory module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a comparison between host partitions and storage areas in some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a comparison between a host partition and a storage area according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a data writing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for organizing storage space according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for cross-area wear averaging according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method for reading and refreshing across regions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a method for reading and regenerating across regions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

S510~S560: method steps

Claims (16)

A method for storing data in a flash memory is implemented when a processing unit loads and executes a program code of a translation layer in a flash memory, and the method includes: The storage space of a flash memory module is divided into a first area and a second area, wherein the first area includes a plurality of first physical blocks, the second area includes a plurality of second physical blocks, and each of the first A physical block can only use a single-layer cell mode to write data, each of the second physical blocks can use the single-layer cell mode or a non-single-layer cell mode to write data, the single-layer cell mode mode is used to program a memory cell to store one of two states, the above-mentioned non-single-level cell mode is used to program a memory cell to store one of four or more states; writing data of a first partition type received from a host to only the first physical block in the first region; and The data belonging to a second partition type received from the host side is written into the first physical block in the first area and the second physical block in the second area. The data storage method of the flash memory according to claim 1, comprising: Receive a host write command from the above host; When the above-mentioned host write command instructs to write a first data belonging to the above-mentioned first partition type, writing the above-mentioned first data to a current block in the above-mentioned first area; When the host write command instructs to write a second data belonging to the second partition type and the host write command is a random write command, write the second data to a current block in the first area ;as well as When the host write command instructs to write a third data belonging to the second partition type and the host write command is a continuous write command, write the third data to a current block in the second area . The data storage method of a flash memory according to claim 2, wherein the length of the second data is shorter than the length of the data stored in one physical page, and the length of the third data is equal to or longer than the length of the data stored in one physical page length. The data storage method of the flash memory according to claim 2, comprising: Check a partition number carried in the host write command to determine that the host write command instructs to write data belonging to the first partition type or the second partition type. The data storage method of the flash memory according to claim 1, comprising: When the number of idle blocks in the first area is lower than a threshold, read and collect data in a plurality of first valid blocks belonging to the first partition type in a data block, and use the single-layer unit mode writing the data in the first valid sector to a current block in the first zone; and When the number of idle blocks in the first area is lower than the threshold, read and collect the data in the second valid area belonging to the second partition type in the data block, and use the non-single-level cell mode Write the data in the second valid sector into a current block in the second area. The data storage method of the flash memory according to claim 1, comprising: When an erasing count or a reading count of a data block in the first area is higher than a threshold, read all data in a plurality of first physical pages belonging to the first partition type in the data block or valid data, and write all data or valid data of the first physical page to a current block in the first area using the single-layer cell mode; and When the erasing count or the reading count of the data block in the first area is higher than the threshold, read all the data of a plurality of second physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the data block or valid data, and write all data or valid data of the second physical page to a current block in the second area using the non-single-level cell mode. The data storage method of the flash memory according to claim 1, comprising: reading data of a physical page in a data block of the first area; When an error correction rate of the physical page is higher than a threshold, read all data or valid data in the plurality of first physical pages belonging to the first partition type in the data block, and use the single-layer unit mode writing all data or valid data of the first physical page to a current block in the first area; and When the error correction rate of the physical page is higher than the threshold value, read all data or valid data of a plurality of second physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the data block, and use the non-single-layer unit The mode writes all data or valid data of the second physical page to a current block in the second area. The data storage method of the flash memory according to any one of claim 6 to 7, comprising: Searching a partition type bit table of the data block to obtain the information of the first physical page belonging to the first partition type and the second physical page belonging to the second partition type in the data block, wherein the partition type The bit table includes a plurality of bits, and each of the bits records the information that the corresponding physical page belongs to the first partition type or the second partition type. A computer program product for data storage in flash memory, comprising code loaded by a processing unit and executing a flash memory translation layer for: The storage space of a flash memory module is divided into a first area and a second area, wherein the first area includes a plurality of first physical blocks, the second area includes a plurality of second physical blocks, and each of the first A physical block can only use a single-layer cell mode to write data, each of the second physical blocks can use the single-layer cell mode or a non-single-layer cell mode to write data, the single-layer cell mode mode is used to program a memory cell to store one of two states, the above-mentioned non-single-level cell mode is used to program a memory cell to store one of four or more states; writing data of a first partition type received from a host to only the first physical block in the first region; and The data belonging to a second partition type received from the host side is written into the first physical block in the first area and the second physical block in the second area. A data storage device of flash memory, comprising: a flash memory interface, coupled to a flash memory module; a host interface, coupled to a host; and A processing unit, coupled to the flash memory interface and the host interface, divides the storage space of the flash memory module into a first area and a second area, wherein the first area includes a plurality of first physical blocks, the first area The second area includes a plurality of second physical blocks, each of the first physical blocks can only use a single-layer cell mode to write data, and each of the second physical blocks can use the single-layer cell mode or a non-single-layer cell mode. The layered cell mode is used to write data, the single-layered cell mode is used to program a memory cell to store one of two states, and the non-single-layered cell mode is used to program a memory cell to store four or more states one of the states; driving the flash memory interface to write the data belonging to a first partition type received from the host side through the host interface to only the first physical block in the first region; and driving the flash memory interface to pass The data belonging to a second partition type received by the host interface from the host side is written into the first physical block in the first area and the second physical block in the second area. The data storage device of the flash memory according to claim 10, wherein the processing unit receives a host write command from the host through the host interface; when the host write command indicates that the write belongs to the first partition When a first data of the above-mentioned type is driven, the flash memory interface is driven to write the first data to a current block in the first area; when the host write command instructs to write a second data belonging to the second partition type and When the host write command is a random write command, drive the flash memory interface to write the second data to a current block in the first area; and when the host write command indicates that the write belongs to the second partition type When a third data is stored and the host write command is a continuous write command, the flash memory interface is driven to write the third data to a current block in the second area. The data storage device of flash memory according to claim 11, wherein the length of the second data is shorter than the length of the data stored in one physical page, and the length of the third data is equal to or longer than the length of the data stored in one physical page length. The data storage device of the flash memory according to claim 11, wherein the processing unit checks a partition number carried by the host write command to determine that the host write command indicates that the write belongs to the first partition type or the above Data for the second partition type. The data storage device of flash memory according to claim 10, wherein when the number of idle blocks in the first area is lower than a threshold, the processing unit drives the flash memory interface to read and collect a data block data in a plurality of first valid sectors belonging to the first partition type, and writing the data in the first valid sectors into a current block in the first sector using the single-level cell mode; and when When the number of idle blocks in the first area is lower than the threshold, the processing unit drives the flash memory interface to read and collect data in the second valid sector belonging to the second partition type in the data block, and use the The non-single-level cell mode writes the data in the second valid sector to a current block in the second zone. The data storage device of flash memory according to claim 10, wherein when an erasing count or a reading count of a data block in the first area is higher than a threshold, the processing unit drives the flash memory interface Read all data or valid data in a plurality of first physical pages belonging to the first partition type in the above-mentioned data block, and use the above-mentioned single-layer unit mode to write all the data or valid data of the above-mentioned first physical page to the above-mentioned A current block in the first area; and when the erasing times or the reading times of the data blocks in the first area are higher than the threshold, the processing unit drives the flash memory interface to read the data blocks belonging to the data blocks. All data or valid data of a plurality of second physical pages of the second partition type, and use the non-single-level cell mode to write all the data or valid data of the second physical page to a current one in the second area. yuan. The data storage device of flash memory according to claim 10, wherein the processing unit drives the flash memory interface to read data of a physical page in a data block of the first area; when an error of the physical page When the correction rate is higher than a threshold, the processing unit drives the flash memory interface to read all data or valid data in a plurality of first physical pages belonging to the first partition type in the data block, and uses the single-level unit mode to write all data or valid data of the first physical page to a current block in the first area; and when the error correction rate of the physical page is higher than the threshold, the processing unit drives the flash memory interface to read Take all data or valid data of a plurality of second physical pages belonging to the second partition type in the above data block, and use the above non-single-level unit mode to write all the data or valid data of the above second physical page to the above first A current block in the second area.

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