Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Tae-sun Chung

Ji-Hyun In

Kwang-yoon Lee

Hyo-jun Kim

Bum-soo Kim

Ji-hyun In

Song-ho Yoon

Myung-jin Jung

Jang-hwan Kim

Chan-Ik Park

Jin-Hyuk Kim

Hyung-seok Park

Yong-seok Kwon

Hyun-mo Chung

Sung-ju Myoung

Jae-wook Cheong

Jae-Wook Cheong

Sung-Ju Myoung

A method for minimizing the degradation of performance upon accessing a flash memory using a logical-physical mapping scheme, and a method for efficiently storing and managing information on logical-physical mapping in a flash memory. A method for writing data in a flash memory includes determining whether a sector is empty in a physical page having a most recently written logical page number of data to be written, the offset of the sector matching that of the data to be written; if the sector is empty, writing the data in the sector to the physical page; and if the sector is not empty, selecting an empty physical page to write the data to a sector in the selected empty physical page of which the offset matches that of the data to be written and writing a logical page number for the data to the selected empty physical page.

Address mapping method and mapping information managing method for flash memory, and flash memory using the same

A flash memory access apparatus and method improves the overall performance of a flash memory system by minimizing the deterioration of performance of a flash memory due to repeated write operations through a minimized process of a write operation and the process of a recovery operation in consideration thereof and by allowing a stable recovery even though an error occurs. The flash memory access apparatus comprises a flash memory with regions divided on the basis of a unit that consists of predetermined blocks; and a flash memory controller. When a write operation is requested for a specific logical block number of the flash memory, the flash memory controller writes data and meta-information in a physical block corresponding to a logical block with the logical block number in the absence of a previous write operation for the logical block, but performs a write operation for writing the data and the meta-information allocated to the logical block in a new physical block without changing flash memory state information written in a previous physical block corresponding to the logical block in case of the presence of the previous write operation.

Flash memory access apparatus and method

A data management device and a data management method for a flash memory, in which physical addresses are classified according to pages, each of which is a physical data operation unit, and a predetermined data operation is performed with respect to the classified physical addresses. The data management device and method reduce time required for the data operation in a large-block flash memory, in which a physical data operation unit is larger than a logical data operation unit. As a result, an optimal data operation can be achieved in a large-block flash memory.

Data management device and method for flash memory

A method of re-mapping a flash memory, which minimizes the number of times the flash memory, is accessed and helps to evenly use the entire area of the flash memory, is provided. The method includes arranging a plurality of physical units yet to be mapped according to their erase count values, and sequentially mapping the physical units to a logic unit in such a manner that a physical unit having a smaller erase count value is mapped to the logic unit ahead of a physical unit having a larger erase count value.

Method of remapping flash memory

A data management apparatus and method used in a system using one or more flash memories, which can deal with defective blocks in each of the flash memories using different methods depending on how the system manages data stored in each of the flash memories. The data management apparatus includes a device driver, which controls the operation of one or more flash memories, and a controller, which transfers data stored in a defective block of one of the flash memories to a predetermined block in the flash memory.

Data management apparatus and method of flash memory

Provided are a data management apparatus and method used for a flash memory, which can guarantee predetermined response time by expecting when a user will receive a response to his or her request for performing a data operation on the flash memory. The data management apparatus includes an operation determination unit which determines operations required for performing a data operation on a flash memory, the data operation being requested by a user using a user program, an operation registration unit with which an operation list including the operations determined to be required for performing the requested data operation on the flash memory is registered, and an operation processing unit which selects one of the operations included in the operation list registered with the operation registration unit and performs the selected operation.

Data management apparatus and method for determining a response time in flash memory devices

A data recovery apparatus and method used for a flash memory, which can recover data damaged or lost when power supplied to the flash memory is cut off while data operations are being consecutively performed on at least one data stored in the flash memory. The data recovery apparatus performs a data operation at each of a plurality of consecutive logical addresses, and if the data operations performed at the logical addresses are successful, records a mark value in a last index area of a plurality of consecutive index areas respectively corresponding to the consecutive logical addresses.

Data recovery apparatus and method used for flash memory

A method and an apparatus for managing bad blocks generated while a flash memory is being used. A method for managing a bad block in a flash memory includes (a) allocating a used area having a plurality of used blocks and a spare area having a plurality of spare blocks in the flash memory, and providing a block map page group including a plurality of block map pages in which mapping information to map a bad block generated in either of the used area or the spare block to a spare block, (b) having mapping information of the block map page reside among the block map page groups in the memory, and (c) mapping the bad block generated during a flash operation to an unused spare block found through the mapping information, updating the mapping information, and recording the updated mapping information on the block map page.

Apparatus and method for managing bad blocks in a flash memory

A mapping algorithm for efficient access to a flash memory, wherein block state information that is changed through logical operations required by a processor is written in the flash memory according to a predetermined state transition algorithm and the changed information is referred to upon read/write operations. A mapping control apparatus for a flash memory according to the present invention includes a flash memory having regions divided on a block basis and containing block state information indicating the state of each block, each block including a predetermined number of sectors; and a processor for determining a sector on which a predetermined logical operation is to be performed based on the block state information and updating the block state information according to a predetermined state transition algorithm, when the logical operation is required for the flash memory.

Growing community of inventors

Seoul, South Korea

Tae-sun Chung