Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Yul-Won Cho

Kyung-Wook Ye

KyungWook Ye

Provided is a data storage device including two or more data storage areas including may have two or more (heterogeneous) types of nonvolatile memory cells. At least one of the data storage areas includes a plurality of memory blocks that are sequentially selected, and metadata are stored in the currently selected memory block. The memory blocks can be sequentially used and metadata can be stored in a uniformly-distributed manner throughout the data storage device. Therefore, separate merging and wear-leveling operations are unnecessary. Thus, it is possible to improve the lifetime and writing performance of a data storage device having two or more heterogeneous nonvolatile memories.

Data storage device, memory system, and computing system using nonvolatile memory device

In one embodiment, the invention provides a memory system including a flash memory device including a plurality of memory blocks implementing a plurality of data blocks, a plurality of log blocks, and a plurality of free blocks. The memory system further includes a flash translation layer maintaining the number of the free blocks to be at least equal to a reference number by converting selected memory blocks among the data and log blocks into free blocks via at least one merge operation during a background period. Additionally, the flash translation layer converts selected ones of the free blocks into data and log blocks, respectively.

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Seoul, South Korea

Yul-Won Cho