The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 04, 2012
Filed:
Mar. 15, 2010
Jonathan Thatcher, Liberty Lake, WA (US);
David Flynn, Sandy, UT (US);
Ethan Barnes, Pleasant Grove, UT (US);
John Strasser, Syracuse, UT (US);
Robert Wood, Nwot, CO (US);
Michael Zappe, Arvada, CO (US);
Jonathan Thatcher, Liberty Lake, WA (US);
David Flynn, Sandy, UT (US);
Ethan Barnes, Pleasant Grove, UT (US);
John Strasser, Syracuse, UT (US);
Robert Wood, Nwot, CO (US);
Michael Zappe, Arvada, CO (US);
Fusion-io, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Abstract
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for storing information in a storage device that includes multi-level memory cells. The method involves storing data that is written to the storage device in the LSBs of the multi-level memory cells, and storing audit data in the MSBs of the multi-level memory cells. The audit data can be read separately from the data and used to determine whether or not there has been any unintended drift between states in the multi-level cells. The audit data may be used to correct data when the errors in the data are too numerous to be corrected using error correction code (ECC). The audit data may also be used to monitor the general health of the storage device. The monitoring process may run as a background process on the storage device. The storage device may transition the multi-level memory cells to operate as single-level memory cells.