Intel Corporation

Chun Fung Man

Jonathan E Schmidt

Scott Nelson

Peter Leung

Chong Ong

A device, method, machine-readable medium, and system are disclosed. In one embodiment the device is a memory controller capable of modifying a reference voltage to a persistent moving read reference (MRR) voltage level for use during one or more subsequent reads to a non-volatile memory array. This modification is in response to a change in a reference voltage supplying the non-volatile memory array from a previous reference voltage level to a temporary MRR voltage level.

Persistent moving read reference

In a non-volatile memory that reads a binary value from a storage cell by comparing the voltage level of a stored charge in that cell against a reference voltage, the accumulated errors in a range of memory locations may be analyzed to determined if there are more errors in one direction than the other (for example, more 0-to-1 errors than 1-to-0 errors). If so, the reference voltage may be adjusted up or down so that subsequent reads from that range may produce approximately the same number of errors in each direction. For multiple-bits-per-cell memories, where there are multiple reference voltages for each cell, each reference voltage may be adjusted separately by keeping track of the errors related to that particular threshold.

Adjustable read reference for non-volatile memory

In various embodiments, the reference voltage used for read operations in a non-volatile memory may be adjusted up or down in an attempt to read data from an area that previously produced at least one uncorrectable error. The direction and amount of this adjustment may be based on the number and direction of correctable errors in surrounding data.

Using error information from nearby locations to recover uncorrectable data in non-volatile memory

A method, apparatus, and system for dynamic adjustment of an error control coding (ECC) code rate are disclosed. In one embodiment, a code rate may be changed from a first code rate to a second code rate in response to a change in a bit error rate.

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Vancouver, Canada

Chun Fung Man