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.

Date of Patent:
Nov. 03, 2015

Filed:

Jan. 07, 2009
Applicants:

Wesley Walston, Huntington Beach, CA (US);

Mark S. Diggs, Laguna Hills, CA (US);

Inventors:

Wesley Walston, Huntington Beach, CA (US);

Mark S. Diggs, Laguna Hills, CA (US);

Assignee:

SILICONSYSTEMS, INC., Aliso Viejo, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 12/02 (2006.01); G06F 3/06 (2006.01); G06F 13/16 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 12/0246 (2013.01); G06F 3/061 (2013.01); G06F 13/161 (2013.01); G06F 2212/1016 (2013.01);
Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods that recognize and recapture potentially unused processing time in typical page program and block erase operations in non-volatile memory (NVM) devices. In one embodiment, a characterization module within a controller executes a characterization procedure by performing page program and block erase operations on one or more NVM devices in an array and storing execution time data of the operations in a calibration table. The procedure may be executed at start-up and/or periodically so that the time values are reflective of the actual physical condition of the individual NVM devices. A task manager uses the stored time values to estimate the time needed for completing certain memory operations in its task table. Based on the estimated time for completion, the task manager assigns tasks to be executed during page program and/or block erase cycles, so that otherwise unused processing time can be utilized.


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