KR20120092826A

KR20120092826A - High reliable automotive data storage system and data storing method thereof

Info

Publication number: KR20120092826A
Application number: KR1020110012693A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 고동범
Original assignee: 에스앤 주식회사
Priority date: 2011-02-14
Filing date: 2011-02-14
Publication date: 2012-08-22

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vehicle storage system and a data storage method requiring high reliability. It is a built-in black box for automobiles that requires high reliability, and storage media such as navigation, telematics, and audio / vehicle systems, and utilizes the high-speed read and write characteristics of DRAM memory (DRAM) from external memory host controllers. Most of the read and write requests are executed in the DRAM memory, and at the same time, the backup and restoration of the volatile data stored in the DRAM memory to the nonvolatile storage medium is required when the power is cut off or during normal operation. This provides a method of increasing the speed and reliability of the entire storage system. In addition, it provides a method of increasing the reliability of the storage device by simplifying the management of the flash memory and simply implementing the functions of the FTL (Flash Translation Layer) part in hardware.

Description

High Reliable Automotive Data Storage System and Data Storing Method

The present invention relates to a vehicle storage system and a data storage method requiring high reliability. Especially, it is a storage medium such as vehicle built-in black box and navigation, telematics, A / V (Audio / Video) system that requires high reliability for more than 10 years, and uses the high-speed read and write characteristics and stability of DRAM memory. Most of the read and write requests from the memory host controller are executed in the DRAM memory, and at the same time, backup and restoration of volatile data stored in the DRAM memory to the nonvolatile storage media is required when the power is turned off or during normal operation. It is about a method.

The vehicle black box makes it possible to clarify the cause of the traffic accident by analyzing related data such as the speed, direction, brake operation of the vehicle, and can promptly handle the traffic accident information by notifying the police or rescue center using the external network of the vehicle. Is recognized as an essential device. The tachograph installed in the existing taxis and buses records basic driving information such as the speed and distance of the vehicle, but the vehicle black box stores more types of data and has an accident detection and analysis function. The car black box is a small camera installed on the windshield of the car, which captures the situation at the time of the accident and stores all the sounds around the installed microphone into the memory card. When a shock is applied, the driver's voice or impact sound, accelerator operation status, vehicle speed, and time are recorded in detail.It is currently used as a storage medium such as a black box, navigation, telematics, and audio / video system. The storage devices used are SD (Secure Digital) cards or USB memory devices, all of which are flash type storage devices.

Flash memory has the characteristics of non-volatile as a storage medium, but it shows a limitation in speed for writing short size data, and it has a limitation in reliability as it has a limited number of writes when repeatedly performing high-speed data processing. When a write operation is performed, the flash memory deletes and rewrites the data in the corresponding block.In the write operation, a high voltage is added to the block for a certain period of time. You won't be able to use the entire block. Stability issues arise in storage environments where direct data entry is frequently performed continuously. In-vehicle interiors must have stability and durability for more than 10 years. Flash-type storage can cause many problems.

The problem to be achieved by the present invention is a storage device that can be used in the existing vehicle black box, navigation, telematics, audio / video (A / V) system, etc. In combination, most of the read and write requests from the external memory host controller are executed in the DRAM memory, and at the same time, when the power is turned off or during normal operation, the volatile data stored in the DRAM memory is stored as a nonvolatile storage medium. It is to configure a highly reliable semiconductor storage device that supports backup and restore. It simplifies the function of the Flash Translation Layer (FTL) to manage access to flash memory and reduces the number of reads and writes of the flash memory, thereby increasing the stability of the entire storage system.

In order to solve this problem, the present invention implements a semiconductor memory storage device using a DRAM memory (DRAM) and a flash memory as a storage medium by combining the DRAM memory (DRAM) and the flash memory in a hybrid form, the DRAM memory (DRAM). ) Is used as an active storage space, and the flash memory is used as an inactive area for stably storing data. Using a large amount of DRAM memory as the main storage device, most read and write requests are processed in the DRAM memory to ensure data stability, perform backup only when the power is cut off, and quickly restore when power is restored. It provides a way to increase the speed and reliability of the system. In addition, it provides a method of increasing the reliability of the storage device by simplifying the management of the flash memory and simply implementing the functions of the FTL (Flash Translation Layer) part in hardware.

As described above, a memory module composed of a DRAM memory and a flash memory is required to process data of most external host controllers in the DRAM memory to not only provide high-speed data processing, but also when power is turned off or during normal operation. By backing up the input-modified data to the flash memory only at the time of time, the disadvantage of the flash memory caused by repetitive writing can be compensated for the stable storage of data and the life of the entire storage device can be extended.

When restoring the data to the DRAM memory (DRAM) by rebooting the system during power recovery, data requested from an external host controller can be provided directly from the DRAM memory or by using an internal data buffer to enable fast transfer. Therefore, it is possible for an external memory host controller to read and write operating software and application software at high speed in a hybrid storage device without using separate DRAM memory and flash memory for operating software and application software. The separate DRAM memory and flash memory used in the existing external memory host controller can be easily replaced, thus reducing the number of components of the entire system and increasing the availability of the semiconductor memory disk.

First of all, data changes are made in the DRAM memory and backup is performed only when necessary during power off or during normal operation. Therefore, the stability of the flash memory backup device is guaranteed by reducing the element lifespan caused by the input load of the flash memory. The operation speed and stability of the semiconductor memory storage device can be improved.

It simplifies the management of flash memory and implements the function of Flash Translation Layer (FTL) in hardware to provide the method of increasing the reliability of storage device.

1 is a block diagram of a vehicle black box
2 is a block diagram of a conventional vehicle black box storage system
3 is a block diagram of a conventional vehicle black box storage device
4 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a hybrid storage system for a vehicle using a DRAM memory and a flash memory according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a vehicle hybrid memory interface controller using a DRAM memory and a flash memory according to the present invention.

“…” Described in the specification. Wealth ”,“… Gi ”,“… block", "… Module ”means a unit that processes at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by a combination of hardware or software. Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. A preferred embodiment of a high reliability hybrid storage device structure according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the overall system structure of a vehicle black box according to the present invention. The vehicle black box 101 is a small camera installed on the front and rear windshields of a car, and photographs the situation at the time of an accident and stores all the sounds around the installed micros and inputs it into a memory card. Normally, the situation related to driving for a long period of time is recorded, and the data related to the image is repeatedly stored every few minutes due to the limitation of the storage device 103 capacity and is activated immediately after starting. When an accident occurs, that is, when a shock is applied, the driver's voice or the sound of the shock, accelerator operation status, vehicle speed, and time are recorded in detail.

2 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle black box storage system used in the prior art. The host processor 102 processing input data and image information, the DRAM memory 202 used by the host processor, the flash memory 201 used by the host processor, and a secure digital (SD) card storing data and images. 204 or a USB memory device 203 or the like.

3 is an internal block diagram of an on-vehicle memory storage 103 used in the related art. The internal memory mainly uses a flash memory 303 type, and a card interface controller 302 exists as a control device for storing input data and image information in a flash memory. The card interface controller 302 includes an internal MCU 304, a program ROM, a program RAM, a data RAM, and the like, which are designed to perform various algorithms in order to efficiently manage the shortcomings of the flash memory 303.

4 illustrates an embodiment of a hybrid storage system for a vehicle using a DRAM memory and a flash memory according to the present invention. The SD (Secure Digital) card 404 or the USB memory device 403 for storing data and images includes a large capacity DRAM block so that high-speed reading and writing can be performed. Therefore, instead of using the DRAM memory 202 used by the host processor 102 and the flash memory 201 used by the host processor 102, the SD (Secure Digital) card 404 or the USB memory device 403 is used instead. That role can be substituted for

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a vehicle hybrid memory storage device using a DRAM memory and a flash memory according to the present invention. The hybrid storage device storage module 500 includes a large capacity DRAM memory block 504 and a flash memory block 503, and includes a DRAM memory controller 508, a flash memory controller 507, and hardware for managing each memory block. Check the FTL (Flash Translation Layer) unit 505, a hybrid backup controller 506 including a data buffer and cache for backing up or restoring data in the DRAM memory, a power cut-out or recovery detection unit 509, and an operation state. And a hybrid memory interface controller 502 including a register and an external input / output interface 510 for performing DMA and processing of input / output data to and from the outside, and may be implemented as a semiconductor memory storage module or a semiconductor one chip.

The external input / output interface 510 may be a standard interface such as USB, CE_ATA, SD / MMC, etc., and receives a control signal related to reading and writing from the host memory controller 301 and an external signal according to an external state change. The controller 508 controls the backup controller 506 and the flash memory controller 507, and receives data from the host memory controller 301 to read data from the DRAM memory block through the DRAM memory controller 508 according to an operation state. The memory controller 301 transmits data to the memory controller 301 or writes data received through the host memory controller 301 to the DRAM memory block. At this time, when there is a read and write request of the host memory controller 301 during the restoration operation from the flash block 503 to the DRAM memory block 504, an access conflict may occur for the DRAM memory block 504. As described above, the hardware FTL unit 505 is designed to perform the request of the host memory controller 301 and the internal restoration operation without conflict. In addition, when there is a read and write request of the host memory controller 301 during the backup operation from the DRAM memory block 504 to the flash block 503, an access conflict may occur to the DRAM memory block 504. As described above, the hardware FTL unit 505 performs the request of the host memory controller 301 and the internal backup operation without conflict. The hardware FTL unit 505 performs address mapping, garbage collection, wear leveling, and bad block management to access the flash memory, and the host memory controller 301. ) Since the majority of requests are processed in the DRAM memory block 504, the number of writes to the flash block 503 is dramatically reduced, thereby increasing the stability of the flash block 503. Therefore, a simple algorithm can be applied and thus implemented in hardware. Do.

The backup controller 506 backs up the data of the changed DRAM memory block 504 to the flash memory when the power is cut off or when necessary. The flash block 503 stores the data backed up through the FTL unit 505 in the same logical block address location as the physical block address of the DRAM memory block. The backup controller 506, the FTL unit, and the flash memory controller 507 read and write data during a restore operation for a read and write request generated from the host memory controller 301 when a data restore operation is performed by restarting after power off. In response to the operation, when the restoration is completed, the backup controller 506 and the DRAM memory controller 508 perform internal control to perform an external request in the DRAM memory block. The backup controller 506 receives the control signal of the power detector 509 and before performing the backup when the external power is cut off, the state of the external host memory controller 301 and the internal hybrid memory interface controller 502 which were before power off. When the power is restored, the external state and the internal state are stored in a predetermined area of the DRAM memory block 504, and then backed up in whole or a portion of the DRAM memory block 504 using information such as a state register. Proceed.

100: Car black box system conceptual diagram
101: vehicle black box configuration
102: host processor (CPU) for input data and image signal processing
103: memory storage device
104: input / output window
201: NAND Flash Memory
202 DRAM memory
203: USB storage device
204: SD card storage
301: external host memory controller
302: SD (Secure Digital) card interface controller
303: SD (Secure Digital) card flash memory unit
304: Internal MCU
403: Hybrid USB Storage Device
404: Hybrid SD Card Storage
500: Hybrid Memory Storage
502: Hybrid Memory Interface Controller
503: flash memory unit of the hybrid storage device
504: DRAM memory unit of the hybrid storage device
505: FTL of the hybrid storage hardware
506: Hybrid Storage Backup Controller
507: hybrid storage DRAM memory controller
508: Hybrid Storage Flash Memory Controller
509: hybrid storage power detector
510: External storage interface for hybrid storage device

Claims

A storage system for storing vehicle data,
An external input / output interface for receiving a control signal related to reading and writing data from an external host memory controller;
A DRAM memory block including one or more DRAM memories and storing data generated according to system operation;
A flash block for storing backup data of the DRAM memory block;
A hardware FTL unit for performing hardware FTL (Flash Translation Layer) function of the flash memory block;
And a backup controller for backing up changes of data stored in the DRAM memory block to the flash memory or restoring backup data stored in the flash memory block to the DRAM memory block.

The method of claim 1,
The external input / output interface is a hybrid storage device, characterized in that the CE_ATA, SD / MMC bus or USB bus.

The method of claim 1,
The flash translation layer (FTL) unit uses a hybrid memory structure to perform an access request from an external host memory controller in a DRAM memory to configure a flash translation layer (FTL) unit in a hardware manner without an internal MCU, or to use a flash translation layer. Hybrid storage device, characterized in that the function can be omitted.

The method of claim 1,
Control logic for preventing an access collision of a DRAM memory block caused by a request of an external host memory controller during restoration in the DRAM memory block;
A data buffer or cache logic for processing a request from an external host memory controller during restoration in the backup controller;
A DRAM memory controller controlling data input / output of the DRAM memory block; And
A flash memory controller controlling data input / output of the flash translation layer (FTL) unit and a flash memory block;
Power detection unit detects power recovery and shutdown and delivers it to the backup controller
Hybrid storage further comprising at least one of.

The method of claim 4, wherein
The backup controller and the flash memory controller,
When a read and write command is input from the external input / output interface, the DRAM memory block processes the data. When a backup command is input from the external input / output interface, the data stored in the DRAM memory block is stored using the flash translation layer (FTL) unit. Transfer to the flash memory block,
When a power off signal is input from the power detection unit, data stored in the DRAM memory block is transferred to the flash memory block using the FTL (Flash Translation Layer) unit.
When a data recovery command is input from the external input / output interface, the request of an external host memory controller is processed without collision by using the data buffer, and the data stored in the flash memory block is transferred to the DRAM memory block.
When a power recovery signal is input from the power detection unit, a request of an external host memory controller is processed in advance without collision by using the data buffer, and at the same time, data stored in a flash memory block is transferred to the DRAM memory block. Hybrid storage.

In a hybrid storage device for backing up data stored in a DRAM memory block using a flash memory, a method of backing up data to the flash memory block,
(a) storing input data such as an external host state in the DRAM memory block when a data backup command and a power cut detection signal are received;
(b) storing input data such as an internal hybrid memory interface controller state in the DRAM memory block when a data backup command and a power cut detection signal are received;
(c) converting a DRAM memory block address in which the data is stored into a flash memory block address in hardware by using the hardware flash translation layer (FTL) unit; And
(d) determining a modified portion of data of the DRAM memory block
Data backup method in a hybrid storage device comprising a.