Silicon Motion, Inc.

Sheng-I Hsu

Tsung-Chieh Yang

Chun-Cheng Lee

Tien-Hsing Yao

Yang-Chih Shen

Ching-Chin Chang

Cheng Yi

Wallace C Kou

Kaihong Wang

I-Ling Tseng

Chang-Lung Lu

Che-Min Lin

Kuan-Chun Yu

The present invention provides a fractional frequency divider, wherein the fractional frequency divider includes a plurality of registers, a counter, a control signal generator and a clock gating circuit. Regarding the plurality of registers, at least a portion of the registers are set to have values The counter is configured to sequentially generate a plurality of counter values, wherein the plurality of counter values correspond to the at least a portion of the registers, respectively, and the plurality of counter values are generated repeatedly The control signal generator is configured to generate a control signal based on the received counter value and the value of the corresponding register. The clock gating circuit is configured to refer to the control signal to mask or not mask an input clock signal to generate an output clock signal.

Fractional frequency divider and flash memory controller

The invention introduces an apparatus for controlling different types of storage units, at least including: an interface and a processing unit. The interface connects at least two types of storage units, which include at least a nonvolatile hybrid memory. The processing unit is configured to operably access data to the different types of storage units through the interface.

Method and apparatus for controlling different types of storage units

A data accessing method using dynamic speed adjustment with aid of a thermal control unit, and associated apparatus such as memory device, memory controller, etc. are provided. The data accessing method includes: utilizing a thermal control unit to start monitoring temperature at a predetermined intra-controller location of the memory controller; in response to at least one accessing request from a host device, controlling a transmission interface circuit to perform data transmission between the host device and the memory controller at an original communications speed, for accessing data in the NV memory; in response to the temperature being greater than a first temperature threshold, detecting an increment of the temperature between a first start time point and a first end time point; based on at least one first predetermined rule, determining a first communications speed according to the increment; and switching from the original communications speed to the first communications speed.

Data accessing method using dynamic speed adjustment with aid of thermal control unit, and associated apparatus

A method and apparatus for performing access control of a memory device with aid of a multi-phase memory-mapped queue are provided. The method includes: receiving a first host command from a host device; and in response to the first host command, utilizing a processing circuit within the controller to send a first operation command to the NV memory through a control logic circuit of the controller, and trigger a first set of secondary processing circuits within the controller to operate and interact via the multi-phase memory-mapped queue, for accessing the first data for the host device, wherein the processing circuit and the first set of secondary processing circuits share the multi-phase memory-mapped queue, and use the multi-phase memory-mapped queue as multiple chained message queues associated with multiple phases, respectively, for performing message queuing for a chained processing architecture including the processing circuit and the first set of secondary processing circuits.

Memory and apparatus for performing access control with aid of multi-phase memory-mapped queue

A method for performing dynamic throttling control with aid of configuration setting and associated apparatus such as a host device, a data storage device and a controller thereof are provided. The method includes: utilizing the host device to provide a user interface, to allow a user to select any of a plurality of throttling control configurations of the data storage device; and in response to the selection of said any of the plurality of throttling control configurations by the user, utilizing the host device to send throttling control information corresponding to said any of the plurality of throttling control configurations toward the data storage device, to perform the dynamic throttling control on the data storage device during programming the NV memory, for limiting power consumption of the data storage device during programming the NV memory, wherein the throttling control information indicates performing the dynamic throttling control is required.

Method and apparatus for performing dynamic throttling control with aid of configuration setting

The present invention provides a fractional frequency divider, wherein the fractional frequency divider includes a plurality of registers, a control signal generator and a clock gating circuit. Regarding the plurality of registers, at least a portion of the registers are set to have values. The control signal generator is configured to generate a control signal based on an input clock signal and values in the at least a portion of the registers, wherein the control generator sequentially generates the control signal during each cycle of the input clock signal. The clock gating circuit is configured to refer to the control signal to mask or not mask the input clock signal to generate an output clock signal.

A method for performing storage space management, an associated data storage device, and a controller thereof are provided. The method includes: receiving an identify controller command from a host device; in response to the identify controller command, returning a reply to the host device to indicate that a plurality of logical block address (LBA) formats are supported, where the plurality of LBA formats are related to access of a non-volatile (NV) memory, and the plurality of LBA formats include a first LBA format and a second LBA format; receiving a first namespace (NS) management command from the host device; in response to the first NS management command, establishing a first NS adopting the first LBA format; receiving a second NS management command from the host device; and in response to the second NS management command, establishing a second NS adopting the second LBA format.

Method for performing storage space management, associated data storage device, and controller thereof

A data storage system includes a processing circuit, a lookup table (LUT), and a decoding circuit. The processing circuit is arranged to receive a first logical block address (LBA) from a host. The LUT is arranged to store a storage address mapping to the first LBA. The decoding circuit is arranged to utilize the storage address to read storage data from a storing circuit, and decode a first data sector in the storage data according to an error checking and correcting code in the storage data, and the first data sector at least comprises a second LBA.

Data storage system and associated method for saving storage space and eliminating data errors

A data storage system includes a processing circuit, a calculating circuit and an encoding circuit. The processing circuit receives a data byte from a host. The calculating circuit generates a cyclic redundancy check code according to an LBA, and combines the cyclic redundancy check code and the data byte into a data sector so that the data sector includes LBA-related information. The encoding circuit encodes the data sector to generate an error checking and correcting code, and combines the data sector and the error checking and correcting code into a storage data, so that the storage data includes the LBA-related information without including the LBA. Via the data sector and the storage data, the data storage system performs cyclic redundancy checking as well as error checking and correcting without storing the LBA for reducing 1-bit errors; and the LBA-related information does not include part or all of the LBA.

Growing community of inventors

Hsinchu County, Taiwan

Sheng-I Hsu