Storage device and memory controller

Abstract

Disclosed is a storage device using non-volatile semiconductor memory that achieves high performance and long life for the device. When managing the non-volatile semiconductor memory (), physical blocks are classified into three types: scratch blocks (), data blocks (), and erased blocks (). Data writing from a host device () is performed on the scratch blocks. When the number of empty pages within a scratch block becomes less than a predetermined number or no longer exists, the block is treated thereafter as a data block, and one of the erased blocks is newly assigned as a scratch block. If there are insufficient erased blocks, a block with relatively less valid data is selected from among the data blocks. After copying all valid data included in the block to a scratch block, the block is erased, and thus an erased block is acquired.