Silicon Motion Assigned Ten Patents

Data storage device and flash memory voltage protection
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,997,249) developed by Pao, Yi-Hua, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and flash memory voltage protection method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device includes a flash memory, a voltage detection device, and a controller. The flash memory is arranged to store data. The voltage detection device is arranged to detect a supply voltage received by the data storage device. The controller is configured to receive write commands from a host, and perform a prohibition mode when the supply voltage is outside a predetermined range, wherein the write command is arranged to enable the controller to write the flash memory, and the controller is further configured to disable all of the write commands received from the host in the prohibition mode.”

The patent application was filed on November 10, 2017 (15/809,542).

Data storage device and data maintenance
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,996,462) developed by Lin, Wen-Sheng, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and data maintenance method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present invention provides a data storage device that includes a flash memory and a controller. The flash memory has a plurality of blocks, and each of the blocks has a plurality of pages arranged sequentially along a first direction. The controller determines whether an X-th page of a temporary block of the blocks can be successfully read when the data storage device resumes operation after a power-off event, and writes dummy data and a temporary-block table into the, (X+1)-th page of the temporary block when the X-th page can be successfully read, wherein the X-th page is the page that was read last from the temporary block before the power-off event occurred, the temporary-block table records the information of all the pages in the temporary block, and X is a positive integer.”

The patent application was filed on July 28, 2017 (15/662,836).

Data storage device and data maintenance
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,996,304) developed by Chen, Kuan-Lin, Taichung, Taiwan, and Kuo, Wu-Chi, Zhubei, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and data maintenance method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present invention provides a data storage device including a flash memory, a plurality of counting control arrays and a controller. The flash memory includes a plurality of chips, each chip has a plurality of pages arranged to be assembled into a super block according to a predetermined order, and each of the super blocks includes the pages of the different chips. The controller keeps the value of a first field of a first counting control array corresponding to a first chip required to be read and writes a second value into the other fields except for the first field of the first counting control array when the first field is a first value, and writes the first value into the first field and keeps the values of the other fields of the first counting control array when the first field is the second value.”

The patent application was filed on March 2, 2016 (15/059,240).

Data storage device and voltage protection
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,990,999) developed by Pao, Yi-Hua, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “data storage device and voltage protection method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device includes a flash memory, a voltage detection device, and a controller. The flash memory is arranged to store data. The voltage detection device is arranged to detect a supply voltage received by the data storage device. The controller is configured to receive write commands from a host, and perform a prohibition mode when the supply voltage is outside a predetermined range, wherein the write command is arranged to enable the controller to write the flash memory, and the controller is further configured to disable all of the write commands received from the host in the prohibition mode.”

The patent application was filed on November 10, 2017 (15/809,539).

Flash memory storage and programming
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,990,996) developed by Hsiao, Li-Shuo, Zhudong Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for a “flash memory data storage device and programming method thereof.“

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 memory array. The controller performs a programming operation for the flash memory. After the controller issues a program command of the programming operation to the flash memory, the controller issues a first read status command to the flash memory before a page program time of the flash memory has been reached, and the controller determines whether the programming operation is performed in the flash memory according to a first memory status provided by the flash memory.”

The patent application was filed on October 7, 2016 (15/288,012).

Reading data from storage unit of flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,990,280) developed by Shen, Yang-Chih, Taipei, Taiwan, for a “methods for reading data from a storage unit of a flash memory and apparatuses using the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for reading data from a storage unit of a flash memory, performed by a processing unit, including at least the following steps: A first read command is received from a master device via a first access interface. It is determined whether data requested by the first read command has been cached in a first buffer, which caches continuous data obtained from a storage unit. A second access interface is directed to read the data requested by the first read command from the storage unit and store the read data in a second buffer and the first access interface is directed to read the data requested by the first read command from the second buffer and clock the read data out to the master device when data requested by the first read command has not been cached in the first buffer.”

The patent application was filed on May 1, 2015 (14/702,392).

Programming storage unit of flash memory in multiple stages
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,977,714) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Shen, Yang-Chih, Taipei, Taiwan, and Hsu, Sheng-I, Zhubei, Taiwan, for a “methods for programming a storage unit of a flash memory in multiple stages and apparatuses using the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An embodiment of a method for accessing a storage unit of a flash memory, performed by an arbiter, includes at least the following steps. After transmitting data to first storage units each connected to one of storage-unit access interfaces in a first batch, the arbiter issues a data write command to each first storage unit, thereby enabling each first storage unit to start a physical data programming. During the physical data programming of each first storage unit, data is transmitted to second storage units each connected to one of the storage-unit access interfaces in a second batch.”

The patent application was filed on July 15, 2014 (14/331,575).

Scheduling read and write commands
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,971,546) developed by Shen, Yang-Chih, Taipei, Taiwan, for a “methods for scheduling read and write commands and apparatuses using the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for scheduling read and write commands, performed by a processing unit, including at least the following steps: the processing unit obtains more than one read commands from a read queue successively and executes the obtained read commands until a first condition is met. After the first condition is met, the processing unit obtains more than one write commands from a write queue successively and executes the obtained write commands until a second condition is met.”

The patent application was filed on July 27, 2016 (15/220,739).

Executing data access commands and flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,959,232) developed by Chang, Yu-Chuan, New Taipei, Taiwan, for a “methods for executing data access commands and flash memory devices using the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An embodiment of a method for executing data access commands, performed by a control unit, is disclosed to include at least the following steps. A series of interface-driving instructions is read from a RAM, Random Access Memory) after detecting that an indication for altering instruction source has been written into a register. A storage-unit access interface is operated according to the interface-driving instructions, so as to complete data access to a storage unit.”

The patent application was filed on October 15, 2014 (14/514,762).

Memory controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (9,959,165) 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 February 3, 2017 (15/423,593).