Silicon Motion Assigned Fourteen Patents

Managing and accessing flash memory module
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,606,911) developed by Wang, Chi-Lung, Zhubei, Taiwan, Chen, Chia-Hsin, Taichung, Taiwan, and Lin, Chien-Cheng, Yilan, Taiwan, for a “apparatuses for managing and accessing flash memory module.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for maintaining address mapping for a flash memory module is disclosed including: recording a first set of addresses corresponding to a first set of sequential logical addresses in a first section of a first addressing block, recording a second set of addresses corresponding to a second set of sequential logical addresses in a second section of the first addressing block, recording a third set of addresses corresponding to a third set of sequential logical addresses in a first section of a second addressing block, and recording a fourth set of addresses corresponding to a fourth set of sequential logical addresses in a second section of the second addressing block, wherein the second set of logical addresses is successive to the first set of logical addresses, and the third set of logical addresses is successive to the second set of logical addresses.“

The patent application was filed on July 15, 2013 (13/942,380).

Data storage device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,606,733) developed by Chiu, Shen-Ting, Houlong Township, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and operating method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device includes a FLASH memory and a controller. The FLASH memory includes a plurality of blocks wherein each of the blocks includes a plurality of pages. The controller is coupled to the FLASH memory and utilized to execute a garbage-collection process on the FLASH memory according to a number of spare blocks in the FLASH memory and a number of inefficient blocks where most of the pages are spare in the FLASH memory. The garbage-collection process is utilized for merging at least two inefficient blocks to release at least one spare block from the inefficient blocks.“

The patent application was filed on November 10, 2014 (14/537,551).

Memory controller, and memory system for reading data stored in flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu Country, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,601,219) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method, memory controller, and memory system for reading data stored in flash memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An exemplary method for reading data stored in a flash memory includes: selecting an initial gate voltage combination from a plurality of predetermined gate voltage combination options, controlling a plurality of memory units in the flash memory according to the initial gate voltage combination, and reading a plurality of bit sequences, performing a codeword error correction upon the plurality of bit sequences, and determining if the codeword error correction successful, if the codeword error correction is not successful, determining an electric charge distribution parameter, determining a target gate voltage combination corresponding to the electric charge distribution parameter by using a look-up table, and controlling the plurality of memory units to read a plurality of updated bit sequences according to the target gate voltage combination.“

The patent application was filed on March 24, 2015 (14/666,316).

Data storage device and method for flash block management
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,600,408) developed by Cheng, Chang-Kai, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Lin, Yen-Hung, New Taipei, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and method for flash block management.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The invention provides a data storage device. In one embodiment, the data storage device is coupled to a host, and comprises a flash memory and a controller. The flash memory comprises a spare block pool and a data block pool, wherein the spare block pool comprises a plurality of spare blocks, and the data block pool comprises a plurality of data blocks. The controller receives target data from the host, writes the target data to a current programming data block, determines whether a current programming page is a first page of the current programming data block, determines whether data move information is set when the current page is not the first page, and when the data move information is set, perform a data move process according to the data move information within a limited time period.”

The patent application was filed on May 30, 2012 (13/484,228).

Flash memory controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,588,709) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Kuo, Chun-Chieh, Lin, Ching-Hui, and Shen, Yang-Chih, Taipei, Taiwan, for a “flash memory controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A flash memory controller for controlling a flash memory module includes a communication interface for receiving a first data and a second data, and a processing circuit for dynamically controlling a data writing mode of the flash memory module according to an amount of stored data in the flash memory module. If the amount of stored data in the flash memory module is less than a first threshold when the communication interface receives the first data, the processing circuit controls the flash memory module so that the first data is written into the first data block under an one-bit-per-cell mode. If the amount of stored data in the flash memory module is greater than the first threshold when the communication interface receives the second data, the processing circuit controls the flash memory module so that the second data is written into the second data block under a two-bit-per-cell mode.“

The patent application was filed on December 30, 2015 (14/983,566).

Data storage apparatus for scrambled data and management
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,575,885) developed by Chen, Chia-Hsin, Taichung, Taiwan, Yeh, Kuo-Liang, Zhudong Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, and Hsu, Ken-Fu, Zhubei, Taiwan, for a “data storage apparatus for scrambled data and management method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage apparatus has a transmission interface, a nonvolatile memory and a controller. The controller records a non-completed flag. When the controller starts a card opening process, the nonvolatile memory is configured under card opening, and the non-completed flag is set non-completed status. When the controller receives a format command form the transmission interface, the nonvolatile memory is formatted and the non-completed flag is set as completed status. When the controller receives a write command, the write data are scrambled before being written to the nonvolatile memory. When in non-completed status, when the controller receives a read command from the transmission interface, no matter whether the data corresponding to the requested address are scrambled, the data are descrambled and descrambled are provided via the transmission interface.“

The patent application was filed on June 11, 2013 (13/915,257).

Controller for managing memory device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,570,183) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method and controller for managing memory device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for managing a memory device includes: sending a last writing command to a specific non-volatile, (NV) memory element in the memory device to write a set of data to a specific block of the specific NV memory element, rather than sending either a first writing command or a second writing command to the specific NV memory element, where these writing commands are utilized for writing to the same location at different times, respectively, in order to guarantee data correctness, and after writing the set of data to the specific block, sending a read command to the specific NV memory element to read stored data of the set of data from the specific block, and checking whether the stored data match the set of data to determine whether the specific block is a bad block.“

The patent application was filed on May 25, 2016 (15/163,686).

Data read method for flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,570,162) developed by Huang, Chien-Ting, New Taipei, Taiwan, for a “data read method for flash memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The invention provides a data read method. In one embodiment, a flash memory comprises a plurality of pages, and predetermined information is written into each of the pages of the flash memory. First, a target address of the flash memory is read according to a source read voltage to obtain source data and a source error correction code. When error bits of the source data cannot be corrected according to the source error correction code, the predetermined information corresponding to the source data is read from the flash memory according to the source read voltage to obtain correction information. The source data and the source error correction code are then amended according to the difference between the predetermined information and the correction information to obtain an amended data and an amended error correction code. Error bits of the amended data are then corrected according to the amended error correction code.“

The patent application was filed on March 29, 2011 (13/075,053).

Data storage device and flash memory control
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,569,126) developed by Chang, Yi-Kang, New Taipei, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and flash memory control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A flash memory control technology with power recovery capability, by which command sequence information is generated for write data that is requested to be written into a flash memory. A random access memory is allocated for temporary storage of the write data and the command sequence information. The write data is uploaded from the random access memory onto a run-time write block between physical blocks of the flash memory with the command sequence information corresponding thereto. During a power recovery process of a data storage device that is equipped with the flash memory, the run-time write block is checked and, according to the command sequence information that has been uploaded onto the run-time write block, the write data in the run-time write block and later in a command sequence than lost data is abandoned.“

The patent application was filed on July 17, 2015 (14/802,515).

Data storage device and data fetching method for flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,563,551) developed by Cheng, Chang-Kai, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and data fetching method for flash memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device is provided. The data storage device, coupled to a host, includes: a flash memory, and a controller, configured to control accessing of the flash memory, wherein when the host performs random data accessing to the flash memory, the controller retrieves address information of a corresponding block and a corresponding page in the flash memory associated with first data to be read based on a global mapping table, and pre-fetches the corresponding page from the flash memory based on the address information, wherein when the controller obtains the address information, the controller further determines whether the first data is located in a current buffer block based on a local mapping table, wherein when the first data is located in the current buffer block, the controller further cancels the pre-fetched corresponding page, and reads the first data from the current buffer block.“

The patent application was filed on June 12, 2014 (14/302,692).

Flash storage device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,563,550) developed by Cheng, Chang-Kai, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “flash storage device and control method for flash memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A FLASH memory is used in data storage and is further stored with a logical-to-physical address mapping table and a write protection mapping table. The write protection mapping table shows the write protection statuses of the different logical addresses. In accordance with logical addresses issued via a dynamic capacity management command from a host, a controller of the data storage device modifies the logical-to-physical address mapping table to break the logical-to-physical mapping relationship of the issued logical addresses. Further, the controller asserts a flag, corresponding to the issued logical addresses, in the write protection mapping table, to a write protected mode. According to a change in the amount of write-protected flags of the write protection mapping table, the controller adjusts an end-of-life judgment value of the FLASH memory and thereby a lifespan of the FLASH memory is prolonged.“

The patent application was filed on August 20, 2013 (13/970,779).

Data storage device and power-interruption detection
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,563,249) developed by Lin, Wen-Sheng, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and power-interruption detection method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device includes a flash memory and a controller device. The flash memory includes a plurality of pages, wherein each of the pages includes a spare area, and each of the spare areas stores a power-off-reset count. The controller device determines whether the first page has been through a power-interruption event according to the power-off-reset counts stored in the spare areas.“

The patent application was filed on January 28, 2016 (15/009,231).

Data storage device and flash memory control
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,542,278) developed by Lin, Chien-Cheng, Yilan, Taiwan, Liang, Chia-Chi, Taichung, Taiwan, Huang, Chang-Chieh, Zhubei, Taiwan, and Lee, Jie-Hao, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and flash memory control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device and a flash memory control method with high efficiency are disclosed. The random access memory of the data storage device is allocated to provide a collection and update area for logical-to-physical address mapping tables that correspond to logical addresses recorded into the physical-to-logical address mapping table. When recording a logical address corresponding to a new logical-to-physical address mapping table that has not appeared in the collection and update area into the physical-to-logical address mapping table, the microcontroller of the data storage device is configured to collect the new logical-to-physical address mapping table into the collection and update area and perform an update of the new logical-to-physical address mapping table within the collection and update area.“

The patent application was filed on November 6, 2014 (14/534,686).

Writing data into flash memory and related control apparatus
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,536,602) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method for writing data into flash memory and related control apparatus.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for writing data into a flash memory, wherein the flash memory includes a plurality multi-level cells, and each of the plurality of multi-level cells is capable of storing a plurality of bits. The method includes: storing a first bit into each of the plurality of multi-level cells respectively, determining if each of the plurality of multi-level cells stores the first bit respectively, and when each of the plurality of multi-level cells stores the first bit respectively, storing a second bit into each of the plurality of multi-level cells respectively.“

The patent application was filed on April 17, 2015 (14/689,058).