KR20100022811A - A flash memory storage device and a manage method using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A flash memory storage device and a managing method using the same are provided to increase data processing speed of a flash memory. CONSTITUTION: A mapping table stores mapping information for converting a logical page address into a physical block address to assign one physical block including physical pages for one logical page. An operation unit(200) checks a physical block address corresponding to a logical page address about an operation request with reference to the mapping table. The operation unit processes an operation requested for a page included in a block corresponding to the checked physical block address.

Description

Flash memory storage device and its management method {A FLASH MEMORY STORAGE DEVICE AND A MANAGE METHOD USING THE SAME}

This document relates to a flash memory storage device, and more particularly, to a flash memory storage device and a management method thereof that can improve the access speed performance of the flash memory.

Flash memory has the advantages of random access memory (RAM), which is free to record and delete data, and read only memory (ROM) that preserves stored data without power supply. It is widely used as a storage medium for portable electronic devices such as MP3 players.

In such a flash memory, if the previous data is to be modified, the block containing the data must be deleted and the data must be recorded again. For example, even if the letters or alphabets are modified one by one, the entire word is pressed by pressing the 'delete' key. It's like deleting the whole thing and then rewriting the whole thing, including the modifications.

Because of the erase before write characteristic of the flash memory, even if the physical address of the data written to the flash memory is changed, the data recorded in the flash memory can be accessed with the same logical address. In general, logical-physical mapping methods are supported.

The logical-physical mapping method manages mapping information between a logical address and a physical address of a specific data through a predetermined mapping table. For example, a page mapping method may be used.

1 schematically illustrates a flash memory access method according to a conventional page mapping method. As shown in FIG. 1, the page mapping method maintains mapping information in units of pages of a flash memory so that physical pages of the flash memory can be accessed using a logical page address.

For example, if a logical page number (LPN) is specified as 9 with a write operation request for a predetermined data, the flash memory access device refers to the mapping table and refers to the physical page number corresponding to LPN 9 ( Search for PPN 6, which is a physical page number (PPN). Then, the corresponding data is recorded on page 6 of the flash memory. If other data is recorded on the page, the data is recorded on the empty physical page of the flash memory and the PPN corresponding to LPN 9 is written in the mapping table. Change it.

Such a flash memory can randomly access data stored in a specific location like a conventional RAM, nonvolatile storage, or magnetic device.However, a method of modifying or deleting data is different from that of a conventional storage device. Access is performed based on block).

Among the terms used above and below, bytes having physically consecutive addresses are called pages. Pages are basic units of operations such as reading / writing to flash memory, and a block composed of a plurality of pages ( Block) becomes the basic unit of the delete operation that can be erased by one erase operation in flash memory.

In this case, when the block is composed of a plurality of pages, the size of the basic unit of the delete operation and the basic unit of the operation such as read / write are different from each other. Nevertheless, the above-described erase before write characteristic causes a problem that an erase operation must be performed on a block basis.

2 schematically shows a data modification method for a conventional flash memory. As can be seen with reference to FIG. 2, when the data b1 of FIG. 2 is to be corrected, the entire block including b1 must be modified. The copy of step S10 and the copy of step S30 are made together, and the deletion of step S40 may also be performed to complete the modification.

In other words, the correction operation on the flash memory necessarily involves a delete operation, and the data included in one block is larger than the page size, which is the basic unit of the operation such as read / write to the flash memory, than the page size. To correct the problem, all other data contained in the block must be rewritten. This is a direct cause of the problem of slowing down the flash memory, and there is an anxiety factor that causes data loss when a problem such as sudden power failure occurs.

This document provides a flash memory storage device and a management method thereof capable of increasing the data processing speed of a flash memory in the above-described background art.

As a means for solving the above problems, a flash memory storage device includes a flash memory unit comprising blocks including a plurality of physical pages, an input unit for receiving an operation request for data through a logical page address from a user, and one logical unit. A logical table address for the operation request with reference to the mapping table and a mapping table including mapping information for converting a logical page address into a physical block address so that one physical block including a plurality of physical pages is allocated for the page. And an operation unit that checks a physical block address corresponding to and processes the requested operation on a page included in a block corresponding to the identified physical block address.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of managing a flash memory including blocks including a plurality of pages, the method comprising: receiving an operation request for data through a logical page address from a user; Identifying a physical block address corresponding to a logical page address for the operation request by referring to a mapping table including mapping information for converting to a physical block address, and a page included in a block corresponding to the identified physical block address Processing the requested operation for.

For the case where the data is metadata including file system information for the flash memory unit, a mapping table including mapping information for converting the logical page address into a physical block address may be used.

When the operation request is a modification request for the data, the modified data may be recorded in another page available in the block in which the data is stored without deleting the data.

When a request for a page is calculated in a plurality of flash memories, a data recording start position may be adjusted to be stored in a minimum number of blocks by applying an offset value determined through flash memory information and file system information of the flash memory. have.

The metadata for the flash memory unit may be stored in a nonvolatile memory other than the flash memory unit.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, since a plurality of physical pages are allocated for data for one logical page address, an erase operation necessarily required for the existing modification operation may be omitted.

In addition, according to the present embodiment, since only data for one logical page is stored in one block, there is an effect that the delete / write operation for other data that is accompanied by some data modification in the block may be omitted.

In addition, since the number of physical pages corresponding to one block is allocated to one logical page address, that is, the operation is more efficiently performed by allocating the basic page of the erase operation.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is an effect that one data can be stored in the minimum number of blocks by changing the data recording start position using an offset value.

In addition, according to this, only the minimum number of blocks can be processed when deleting or modifying stored data, thereby increasing the speed of flash memory operation.

Hereinafter, a flash memory storage device and a flash memory management method in which one logical page is extended and mapped to a plurality of physical pages will be described in more detail.

3 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a flash memory storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, a flash memory storage device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include an input unit 100, an operation unit 200, a storage unit 300, and a flash memory unit 400. Can be.

The input unit 100 receives an operation request such as read / write / delete / modify a predetermined logical address from the user, and the operation unit 200 converts the operation request for the logical address into an operation request for the physical address. . That is, the operation unit 200 converts the operation request for the logical address requested by the user into a physical address on the flash memory unit 400 to perform the requested operation.

The storage unit 300 stores an access code necessary for the operation unit 200 to access the flash memory unit 400. For example, the storage unit 300 stores a mapping table indicating a mapping relationship between a logical address requested by a user and a physical address on the flash memory unit 400. The storage unit 300 may be implemented in the flash memory unit 400 or an external memory including random access memory (RAM).

The flash memory unit 400 stores data to be recorded by the user. The flash memory unit 400 is configured to include a plurality of blocks including a plurality of pages. Above and below, the block is the basic unit of the delete operation and the page is the basic unit of the read / write operation.

According to the present embodiment, a plurality of physical pages are allocated to one logical page in the flash memory. That is, when there is an operation request for the flash memory through one logical page address from the user, the operation is performed on any page among a plurality of physical pages allocated to the logical page address.

In particular, the number of physical pages allocated to one logical page may be determined by the number of pages included in one physical block. This is the same result as one physical block is allocated for one logical page.

In order to implement the above-described embodiment, a logical-physical mapping method that manages mapping information between logical addresses and physical addresses for specific data through a predetermined mapping table, and maps logical page addresses and physical block addresses. Can be applied.

4 is a view for explaining a flash memory management method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the logical-physical mapping method according to the present embodiment converts logical mapping information of a page unit of a flash memory into physical mapping information of a block unit, and converts the logical mapping information to a physical block of a flash memory using a logical page address. Is to enable access.

For example, if a logical page number (LPN) is specified as 3 with a write operation request for a given data, the flash memory access device refers to the mapping table to the physical block number corresponding to LPN 3 Search for PBN # 1 which is (Physical Block Number: PBN). The data is then written to any page in block 1 of the flash memory.

According to the present embodiment, since a plurality of physical pages are allocated for data for one logical page address, the delete operation necessarily required for the existing modification operation may be omitted. In addition, according to the present embodiment, since only data for one logical page is stored in one block, the delete / write operation for other data, which is accompanied by some data modification in the block, may be omitted.

However, according to the present embodiment, allocating one block to one logical page is disadvantageous in terms of memory capacity. That is, according to the exemplary embodiment described with reference to FIG. 4, since a plurality of physical pages are allocated to one logical page as compared with a conventional method of allocating logical pages and physical pages one-to-one, a usable memory capacity may be increased. It will be perceived as being reduced.

For example, assuming that the entire memory is mapped to one block by applying the embodiment of FIG. 4, in terms of a user, the memory capacity is the number of pages (N) in which the total capacity P is included in one block. It will be recognized as the capacity (P / N) divided by). Therefore, according to the embodiment described below, the embodiment of FIG. 4 is applied to only part of the storage areas in the flash memory, and the same method as the conventional method is applied to the remaining storage areas.

5 is a diagram illustrating logical region classification and a physical region allocation method of a flash memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, when the flash memory area is largely divided into a metadata area and a data area, the flash memory management method described with reference to FIG. 4 is applied only to the metadata area.

The metadata area is an area in which metadata associated with a flash memory is stored. Metadata is data for managing data stored in flash memory, such as file system information. In particular, file system information stores data in such a way that the computer keeps files and data in them easy to find and find. This is the information required to manage data according to a file system, which is defined as a set of abstract data structures for searching, accessing, and manipulating data.

That is, in the case of metadata, the data is frequently modified, but the memory capacity of the data is small, so that each page is divided into a plurality of physical pages, especially one, for logical pages of the metadata area where metadata is stored. By allocating to blocks, the number of erases can be significantly reduced compared to the number of modifications, thereby greatly improving the processing speed of the flash memory.

Meanwhile, metadata about the flash memory may be stored in a nonvolatile memory other than the flash memory unit 400, for example, Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM), thereby securing efficiency of the flash memory storage space and thereby flash. You might be able to speed up memory access.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which a correction operation is processed through a flash memory storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a flash memory before and after the correction operation is processed according to an embodiment of the present invention. Indicates the data recording state.

First, in step S600, a modification request for b1 71 stored in a flash memory is received from a user. The modification request will then be made via the logical page address of b1 (71). Then, in step S610, it is checked whether b1 (71) is data stored in the metadata area. It will be appreciated that step S610 may be omitted if the embodiment of FIG. 4 has no limitation applied only to metadata.

If b1 (71) is metadata as a result of checking in step S610, the process proceeds to step S620 in which the logical page address of b1 (71) is converted into a physical block address according to the present embodiment to block b1 (71) stored therein ( 70) can be confirmed. Then, in step S630, it is checked whether there is a free page available in this block 70.

If there is a free page in the block 70 as a result of checking in step S630, the flow proceeds to step S640 to store b2 72, which is data in which b1 is modified, in the free page in the block 70. In step S650, flag information indicating that b2 72 is the latest modified data is added.

However, if the check result b1 71 of step S610 is not metadata or the free page in the check result block 70 of step S630 does not exist, the process proceeds to step S660 and is stored in the block 70 by a conventional method. Delete the data and store the modified data b2 72. At this time, if necessary, a copy process for other data stored in the block 70 may be involved.

According to the present embodiment described above, if there is a free page in the block at the time of metadata modification, the modified data can be stored in the block, so that the deletion operation for the existing data can be omitted each time the modification is made, and in one block It is also possible to omit copy operations for other data, so that the processing speed is expected to be greatly improved as compared with the prior art.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a flash memory management method according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 9 and 10 show data recording states before and after the data recording start position is adjusted to an offset value according to the present embodiment. Drawing.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, when a request for a page is applied to a plurality of flash memories, an offset value determined through the flash memory information and the file system information of the flash memory is applied to be stored in the minimum number of blocks. It is done.

The flash memory information may include page information that is a read / write unit of the flash memory, block information that is an erase unit of the flash memory, or capacity / characteristic information of the flash memory.

In addition, the file system information is the smallest unit that can be addressed by the computer. For example, sector information, file information, and files related to each other defined by a size of 512 bytes can be created and stored in a group. Directory information, data recording start position information, or a file allocation table for checking whether a directory or files are stored or whether a specific storage area of a flash memory is used.

Referring to FIG. 8, in step S800, a flash memory storage device is recognized by a computer to acquire flash memory information, and in step S810, file system information is obtained through metadata stored in the flash memory. In operation S820, the offset value of the data recording start position information of the flash memory is determined through the flash memory information and the file system information. The offset value should be determined such that the minimum number of blocks is used for the data operation. . In step S840, data recording and the like are performed from the position changed by this offset value.

As an example of the method of determining the offset value of step S820, the required page number or block number may be determined by checking the page size or block size identified through the flash memory information and comparing the same to the data size to be recorded. At this time, if the data recording start position information is checked through the file system information, it can be known how many pages from the data recording start position.

As a result of the check, the size of data to be recorded can be recorded in one block. If data is recorded in two or more blocks instead of one block because the data recording start position is about the middle of an arbitrary block, the data is recorded in one block. The offset value for the data recording start position is determined so that data recording can be made, and data recording starts from the position changed by the offset.

For example, referring to FIG. 9, the data size to be recorded is two pages, but the data recording start position is the last page of the first block 90. The first block 90 is recorded and the remaining part is recorded in the second block 91.

For another example, referring to FIG. 10, the data size to be recorded is two pages, but the data recording start position is the last page of the third block 92. In this case, the third block 92 is a flash memory. Assume that this is the last block of the first chip. When recording in this state, a part of data to be recorded is recorded in the third block 92 of the first chip, and the other part is recorded in the first block 93 of the second chip.

As one data is recorded in a plurality of blocks or chips as described above, processing speed decreases because a plurality of blocks or chips have to be performed for arithmetic operations such as writing / reading / deleting / modifying the data.

In this case, therefore, the offset value is determined to be one page according to this embodiment, and the data recording start position is changed by one page to record data. Then, as shown in the right side of FIG. 9, all data to be recorded in the second block 90 can be recorded, and as shown in FIG. 10, the recording object in the first block 93 of the second chip. All of this data can be recorded.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, one data can be stored in the minimum number of blocks by changing the data recording start position by using an offset value, so that the flash memory area can be efficiently managed and stored in the stored data. The minimum number of blocks can be processed when deleting or modifying the data. Therefore, the processing speed of flash memory data will be increased.

Although described above with reference to the drawings and embodiments, those skilled in the art that the present invention can be variously modified and changed without departing from the technical mapping of the present invention described in the claims below. I can understand.

1 schematically illustrates a flash memory access method according to a conventional page mapping method.

2 is a view schematically showing a data modification method for a conventional flash memory.

3 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a flash memory storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view for explaining a flash memory management method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a logical region classification and a physical region allocation method of a flash memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of correcting an operation through a flash memory storage device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a diagram illustrating a data writing state of a flash memory before and after a correction operation is processed according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a flash memory management method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a diagram showing a data recording state before and after the data recording start position is adjusted to an offset value according to this embodiment.

10 is a diagram showing a data recording state before and after the data recording start position is adjusted to an offset value according to this embodiment.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: input unit 200: calculation unit

300: storage unit 400: flash memory unit

Claims (10)

A flash memory unit comprising blocks including a plurality of physical pages; An input unit configured to receive an operation request for data through a logical page address from a user; A mapping table including mapping information for converting a logical page address into a physical block address so that one physical block including a plurality of physical pages is allocated to one logical page; And An operation unit which checks a physical block address corresponding to a logical page address for the operation request with reference to the mapping table, and processes the requested operation on a page included in a block corresponding to the identified physical block address Including, a flash memory storage device. The method according to claim 1, And the data is metadata including file system information for the flash memory unit. The method according to claim 1, And if the operation request is a modification request for the data, write the modified data to another page available in the block in which the data is stored. The method according to claim 1, If a plurality of flash memory requests for pages are requested, the data recording start position is adjusted to be stored in a minimum number of blocks by applying an offset value determined through flash memory information and file system information of the flash memory. Flash memory device, characterized in that. The method according to claim 1, The metadata for the flash memory unit is stored in a nonvolatile memory other than the flash memory unit. In the method for managing a flash memory consisting of blocks comprising a plurality of pages, Receiving an operation request for data through a logical page address from a user; Identifying a physical block address corresponding to a logical page address for the operation request by referring to a mapping table including mapping information for converting a logical page address into a physical block address; And Processing the requested operation on a page included in a block corresponding to the identified physical block address  Comprising a flash memory management method. The method according to claim 6, And the data is metadata including file system information for the flash memory unit. The method according to claim 6, And if the operation request is a modification request for the data, writing the modified data in another page available in the block in which the data is stored. The method according to claim 6, If a plurality of flash memory requests for pages are requested, the data recording start position is adjusted to be stored in a minimum number of blocks by applying an offset value determined through flash memory information and file system information of the flash memory. Characterized in that the flash memory management method. The method according to claim 6, Metadata for the flash memory unit is stored in a nonvolatile memory other than the flash memory unit.

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