Time division peak power management for non-volatile storage

Abstract

Time division peak power management in non-volatile memory systems is disclosed. The memory system has a memory controller and a number of semiconductor dies. Each die is assigned a time slot in which to perform high current portions of memory operations. The memory controller provides an external clock to each die. Each die tracks repeating time slots based on the external clock. The memory controller may synchronize this tracking. If a die is about to perform a high current portion of a memory operation, the die checks to determine if its allocated slot has been reached. If not, the die halts the memory operation until its allocated time slot is reached. When the allocated time slot is reached, the halted memory operation is resumed at the high current portion. Therefore, the high current portion of the memory operation occurs during the allocated time slot.