Silicon Motion Assigned Eighteen Patents

Flash memory controller
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,256,529) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Kuo, Chun-Chieh, Taipei, Taiwan, Lin, Ching-Hui, Taipei, Taiwan, 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 January 14, 2015 (14/596,236).

Storage medium, transmittal system and control
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,251,454) developed by Ou, Hsu-Ping, Zhubei, Taiwan, and Chen, Chih-Yu, New Taipei, Taiwan, for a “storage medium, transmittal system and control method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage medium including a first transmittal module and a control module. The first transmittal module includes a plurality of first transmittal pads. The control module determines whether a level state of the first transmittal module is equal to a pre-determined state. When the level state is equal to the pre-determined state, the control module operates in a secure digital, (SD) mode. When the level state is not equal to the pre-determined state, the control module operates in an embedded multimedia card, (eMMC) mode.“

The patent application was filed on October 24, 2012 (13/659,416).

Data storage device and flash memory control
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,244,833) developed by Cheng, Chang-Kai, Hsinchu, 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: ”Flash memory is allocated to provide a data-storage device and management tables. The management tables may record logical-to-physical address mapping information in a hierarchical structure consisting of at least two levels. Further, in addition to the logical-to-physical address mapping information, the management tables may further provide a valid page count table and an invalid block record. The logical-to-physical address mapping information is updated after an update of the valid page count table is completed. The invalid block record is maintained based on the valid page count table.“

The patent application was filed on April 15, 2013 (13/862,816).

Performing memory access management,
and associated memory device and controller
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,239,685) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Chang, Hsiao-Te, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, and Wang, Wen-Long, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method for performing memory access management, and associated memory device and controller thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for accessing a memory includes: utilizing a Flash memory to perform a plurality of sensing operations with a plurality of different sensing voltages respectively corresponding to the plurality of sensing operations, according to the plurality of sensing operations, generating a first digital value of a Flash cell of the Flash memory, according to the plurality of sensing operations and the first digital value, generating at least a second digital value of the Flash cell, and obtaining soft information of the Flash cell according to the second digital value. The first digital value and the second digital value are used for determining information of a same bit stored in the Flash cell, a number of possible bit(s) of the Flash cell directly corresponds to a number of possible states of the Flash cell, and the obtained soft information is used for performing soft decoding.“

The patent application was filed on July 10, 2014 (14/327,580).

Reading data stored in flash memory
by referring to binary digit distribution characteristics
of bit sequences read from flash memory
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,230,673) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method and apparatus for reading data stored in flash memory by referring to binary digit distribution characteristics of bit sequences read from flash memory .”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for reading data stored in a flash memory includes at least the following steps: controlling the flash memory to perform a plurality of read operations upon a plurality of memory cells included in the flash memory, obtaining a plurality of bit sequences read from the memory cells, respectively, wherein the read operations read bits of a predetermined bit order from the memory cells by utilizing different control gate voltage settings, and determining readout information of the memory cells according to binary digit distribution characteristics of the bit sequences.“

The patent application was filed on May 13, 2014 (14/277,007).

Data storage device
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,223,691) 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: ”A data storage includes 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, wherein the spare blocks with erase counts higher than a hot threshold are determined as hot spare blocks, and a hot spare block count indicates a total number of the hot spare blocks. The controller receives target data from the host, writes the target data to a current data block, determines whether a current programming page is the first page of the current data block, determines whether the hot spare block count is greater than zero when the current programming page is the first page, and sets data move information for a wear-leveling process when the hot spare block count is greater than zero.“

The patent application was filed on May 30, 2012 (13/484,224).

Data storage device and flash memory control
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,218,891) developed by Wu, Chia-Chien, Hualien, Taiwan, Lin, Yu-Chih, New Taipei, Taiwan, and Lin, Yen-Hung, 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 data storage device using a flash memory with replay-protected blocks. The storage space of the flash memory is divided into blocks and each block is further divided into pages. A controller is provided in the data storage device to couple to the flash memory. The controller manages at least one replay-protected memory block of the flash memory. The controller programs a success flag and a write count into a system block of the flash memory after the controller programs two pages into the at least one replay-protected memory block of the flash memory. The controller may perform a power restoration process based on the success flag of the system block or/and based on the amount of programmed pages of the at least one replay-protected memory block.“

The patent application was filed on November 27, 2013 (14/091,908).

Updating address mapping in sub-intervals in flash memor storage device
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,208,074) developed by Cheng, Chang-Kai, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “updating address mapping in sub-intervals in a flash memory data storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A mapping table H2F update technique for a FLASH memory is disclosed. In the disclosed data storage device, when a master buffer block selected from a plurality of blocks of a FLASH memory to buffer write data from a host is full, the controller updates a logical-to-physical address mapping table for the master buffer block in separated update sub-intervals. Between the separated update sub-intervals, the controller responds to commands from the host. In this manner, commands from the host are responded to in a timely manner, without being postponed by a time-consuming mapping-table update of an entire buffer block.“

The patent application was filed on August 30, 2013 (14/014,941).

Reading data from block of flash memory and associated memory device
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,195,539) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Liu, Zhen-U, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, for a “method for reading data from block of flash memory and associated memory device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for reading data from a block of a flash memory is provided, where the block includes a plurality of pages and at least one parity page, each of the pages includes a plurality of sectors used for storing data and associated row parities, each of the sectors of the parity page is used to store a column parity. The method includes: reading data from a specific page of the pages, decoding the data of the specific page, and when a specific sector of the specific page fails to be decoded, sequentially reading all original data of the pages and the parity page, and performing error correction upon the specific sector according to at least a portion of the original data of the pages and the parity page corresponding to the specific sector.“

The patent application was filed on July 16, 2013 (13/943,755).

Memory controller and system for reading data stored in flash memory
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,177,664) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method, memory controller and 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. The method comprises: controlling the flash memory to perform a first read operation upon the memory cell with a first threshold voltage to obtain a first binary digit for representing a bit of the N bits data, performing an error correction hard decode according to the first binary digit, controlling the flash memory to perform a second read operation upon the memory cell with a second threshold voltage to obtain a second binary digit for representing the bit of the N bits data, if the error correction hard decode indicates an uncorrectable result, and performing an error correction soft decode according to the first binary digit and the second binary digit.“

The patent application was filed on February 22, 2012 (13/402,615).

Data storage device and operating method for flash memory
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,170,937) developed by Hsiao, Li-Shuo, Chiayi, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and operating method for flash memory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage device and an operating method for a flash memory are disclosed. The disclosed data storage device includes a flash memory and a controller. The flash memory provides a storage space which is stored with a first storage type system information and a second storage type system information. Data recognition for the first storage type system information is stricter than that of the second storage type information. The controller reads the storage space of the flash memory and performs an error checking and correction process on data read from the storage space, and, based on the storage type system information, among the first and second storage type information, which first passes the error checking and correction process, the controller operates the flash memory.“

The patent application was filed on July 2, 2013 (13/933,306).

Testing system and testing method
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,159,451) developed by Chen, Chien-Chi, Keelung, Taiwan, for a “testing system and testing method thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A testing system for a wafer having a plurality of flash memory dies is provided. The testing system includes a testing apparatus and a probe card coupled to the testing apparatus via a specific transmission line. The testing apparatus provides a testing requirement. The probe card includes a plurality of probes and a controller. The probes contact with at least one of the flash memory dies of the wafer. The controller writes a testing data to the flash memory die according to the testing requirement and reads the testing data from the flash memory die via the probes. The controller provides a testing result to the testing apparatus according to the read testing data.“

The patent application was filed on June 27, 2012 (13/535,300).

Data storage device and flash memory control method
for performing garbage
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,141,533) developed by Liao, Jen-Hung, Taichung, Taiwan, and Wu, Chia-Chien, Hualien, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and flash memory control method for performing garbage.”

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. A data storage device comprises a flash memory and a controller. The controller controls the flash memory in accordance with firmware. When the firmware is available for at least a predetermined time period without being requested by a host, the controller, driven according to the firmware, performs a garbage-collection operation on the flash memory without a request from the host.“

The patent application was filed on January 18, 2013 (13/744,989).

Flash memory devices including reserve units
operating in abnormal situations and controlling methods thereof
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,116,797) developed by Ou, Hsu-Ping, Zhubei, Taiwan, for a “flash memory devices including reserve units operating in abnormal situations and controlling methods thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A flash memory controller is provided. The flash memory controller includes a read/write unit, a state machine, a processing unit, and a reserve unit. The read/write unit is coupled to a flash memory. The read/write unit is configured to perform a write command or a read command. The state machine is configured to determine a state of the flash memory controller. The processing unit is coupled to the read/write unit and the state machine. The processing unit is configured to control the read/write unit. The reserve unit is coupled to a first data line, a second data line, and the read/write unit. When the flash memory controller is operating abnormally, the reserve unit receives an external signal via the first data line and the second data line and controls the read/write unit according to the external signal.“

The patent application was filed on January 29, 2013 (13/752,502).

Data storage device and method for flash block management
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,116,792) 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 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 determines a minimum erase count from the erase counts of the spare blocks and the data blocks, adds a first difference to the minimum erase count to obtain a jail threshold, compares the erase counts of the spare blocks with the jail threshold to obtain a plurality of jail blocks with the erase counts greater than the jail threshold, and confines the jail blocks to a jail pool.“

The patent application was filed on May 18, 2012 (13/474,801).

Storage medium and transmittal system utilizing the same
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,111,586) developed by Ou, Hsu-Ping, Zhubei, Taiwan, for a “storage medium and transmittal system utilizing the same.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage medium including a processing module and a cell array. The processing module receives test data according to a write command. The cell array stores the test data. The processing module receives verify data according to a comparison command, reads the test data stored in the cell array to generate access data, and compares the access data with the verify data to generate a compared report.“

The patent application was filed on June 13, 2013 (13/917,007).

Controller, and memory device for correcting data bit(s)
of at least one cell of flash memory
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,110,824) developed by Weng, Chen-Yu, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method, controller, and memory device for correcting data bit(s) of at least one cell of flash memory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for correcting data bit of at least a cell of a flash memory includes: determining a contributing factor of level distribution corresponding to an electric level of a first cell to generate a first determination result, and, correcting/modifying the data bit corresponding to the electric potential of the first cell according to the first determination result.“

The patent application was filed on June 7, 2013 (13/912,215).

Data storage device and flash block management
Silicon Motion Inc., Jhubei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,104,549) 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: ”A data storage device is coupled to a host and includes 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, wherein a spare block count indicates a total number of the spare blocks. The controller receives target data from the host, writes the target data to a current data block, determines whether a current programming page is the first page of the current data block, determines whether the spare block count is less than a spare block count threshold when the current programming page is the first page, and sets data move information for a data merge process when the spare block count is less than the spare block count threshold.“

The patent application was filed on May 30, 2012 (13/484,218).