Seagate Technology Incorporated

Andrew J Louder

Stephen H Perlmutter

Stacey Secatch

Steven Scott Williams

Robert William Dixon

Benjamin J Scott

Kyumsung Lee

Apparatus and method for managing a non-volatile memory (NVM) such as a flash memory in a solid-state drive (SSD). In some embodiments, the NVM is arranged as a plurality of semiconductor memory dies coupled to a controller circuit using a plurality of channels. The controller circuit divides the plurality of dies into a succession of garbage collection units (GCUs). Each GCU is independently erasable and allocatable for storage of user data. The GCUs are staggered so that each GCU is formed from a different subset of the dies in the NVM. In further embodiments, the dies are arranged into NVM sets in accordance with the NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) specification with each NVM set addressable by a different user for storage of data in a separate set of staggered GCUs.

Staggered garbage collection unit (GCU) allocation across dies

Apparatus and method for storing data in a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as a flash memory in a solid-state drive (SSD). In some embodiments, a distributed storage space of the NVM is defined to extend across a plural number of regions of the NVM. A non-standard parity data set is provided having a plural number of data elements greater than or equal to the plural number of regions in the storage space. The data set is written by storing a first portion of the data elements and a first parity value to the plural number of regions and a remaining portion of the data elements and a second parity value to a subset of the plural number of regions. The regions can comprise semiconductor dies in a flash memory, and the distributed storage space can be a garbage collection unit formed using one erasure block from each flash die.

Providing additional parity for non-standard sized parity data sets

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Longmont, CO, United States of America

Andrew J Louder