Silicon Motion Assigned Twelve Patents

Flash memory controller and memory device
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,324,789) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “flash memory controller and memory device for accessing flash memory module, and associated method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for accessing a flash memory module includes: sequentially writing Nth-(N+K)th data to a plurality of flash memory chips of the flash memory module, and encoding the Nth-(N+K)th data to generate Nth-(N+K)th ECCs, respectively, where the Nth-(N+K)th ECCs are used to correct errors of the Nth-(N+K)th data, respectively, and N and K are positive integers, and writing the, (N+K+1)th data to the plurality of flash memory chips of the flash memory module, and encoding the, N+K+1)th data with at least one of the Nth-(N+K)th ECCs to generate the, (N+K+1)th ECC.”

The patent application was filed on August 29, 2018 (16/115,570).

Managing data stored in flash memory and associated memory device and controller
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,324,786) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Kan, Li-Sheng, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for a “method for managing data stored in flash memory and associated memory device and controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for managing data stored in a flash memory is provided, where the flash memory includes a plurality of blocks. The method includes: providing a program list, where the program list records information about programmed blocks of the plurality of blocks and sequence of write times of the programmed blocks, detecting quality of a first block of the plurality of blocks to generate a detecting result, where the first block is the programmed block that has an earliest write time, and determining whether to move contents of the first block to a blank block, and to delete the contents of the first block according to the detecting result.”

The patent application was filed on September 28, 2017 (15/717,970).

Data storage
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,324,645) developed by Liu, Tsai-Fa, New Taipei, Taiwan, and Lien, Hung-Lian, Taipei, Taiwan, for “data storage device and data storage method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage method for a data storage device is provided. The data storage method includes steps of: determining whether a power drop/loss event occurs, when the power drop/loss event is determined to have occurred, recording a voltage level of a charge storage device, wherein the charge storage device provides power to the data storage device during the power drop/loss event, determining whether the charge storage device is operating normally according to the recorded voltage level of the charge storage device, and when the charge storage device is determined to be not operating normally, configuring the data storage device to enter a safe operation mode. A data storage device is also provided.”

The patent application was filed on March 29, 2017 (15/472,270).

Associated memory device and controller thereof for performing dynamic resource management
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,310,746) developed by Hsu, Che-Wei, Taichung, Taiwan, and Tseng, Hsin-Hsiang, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “method, associated memory device and controller thereof for performing dynamic resource management.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for performing dynamic resource management in a memory device, the memory device, and a controller thereof are provided. The memory device includes a non-volatile, (NV) memory, and the NV memory includes a plurality of NV memory elements. The method may include: storing a plurality of sets of physical region descriptor, (PRD) information related to a plurality of host commands, respectively, and storing a plurality of intermediate PRDs respectively corresponding to the plurality of sets of PRD information into a first queue, obtaining an intermediate PRD of the plurality of intermediate PRDs from the first queue, and storing the intermediate PRD into a second queue, sending a command to the NV memory according to the intermediate PRD in the second queue to access data, and when an operation of accessing the data is successful, releasing the intermediate PRD from the second queue to the first queue.”

The patent application was filed on January 1, 2018 (15/859,701).

Operating data storage device
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,304,557) developed by Jian, Wen-Chun, Zhubei, Taiwan, for “methods for operating a data storage device and data storage device utilizing the same.“

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 controller is coupled to the flash memory and includes a ROM which stores a boot code. In an initialization procedure of the data storage device, the controller does not access the flash memory and receives a debug code from an external device, and executes the boot code and the debug code to complete the initialization procedure.”

The patent application was filed on May 26, 2017 (15/606,164).

Data-storage device and data maintenance
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,296,231) developed by Tsou, Tai-Yu, Hengshan Township, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, and Chu, Po-Chia, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for “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 and a controller. The controller receives a read command arranged to read data from a host, determines a plurality of read tasks by analyzing the read command, and determines task time of each of the read tasks according to the number of the read tasks and an I/O latency time. In a first read task of the read tasks, the controller reads a part of the data and transmits the read part to the host, and executes a first maintenance process according to a predetermined condition, wherein the predetermined condition includes a remain time and the remain time is the task time minus the time spent by the first read task.”

The patent application was filed on January 6, 2018 (15/863,889).

Accessing flash memory module and associated flash memory controller
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,289,487) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Hsu, Hong-Jung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for a “method for accessing flash memory module and associated flash memory controller and memory device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for accessing a flash memory module is provided. The flash memory module is a 3D flash memory module including a plurality of flash memory chips, each flash memory chip includes a plurality of blocks, each block includes a plurality of pages, and the method includes: configuring the flash memory chips to set at least a first super block and at least a second super block of the flash memory chips, and allocating the second super block to store a plurality of temporary parities generated when data is written into the first super block.”

The patent application was filed on April 25, 2017 (15/495,993).

Data storage device and data maintenance
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,283,216) developed by Chen, Ching-Ke, Taichung, Taiwan, Chou, Po-Sheng, Toufen Township, Taiwan, and Shen, Yang-Chih, Taipei, Taiwan, for “data storage device and data maintenance 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 plurality of chips, each of the chips includes a plurality of pages, the pages are arranged to assemble into a super block, the pages of the super block are numbered 0.about.X from top to bottom of the super block, the pages with number 0.about.Y-1 constitute a data area, and the pages with numbers Y.about.X constitute a RAID parity area. The controller corrects data of the data area according to data of the RAID parity area when the data in the data area cannot be successfully read.”

The patent application was filed on July 13, 2017 (15/649,394).

Data storage device and operating method of memory controller
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,282,106) developed by Yeh, Yen-Ting, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Liang, Teng-Chi, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “data storage device and operating method of memory controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An operating method of a memory controller includes steps of: configuring the memory controller to receive a read command and read at least one piece of first data stored in a non-volatile memory according to the received read command, configuring the memory controller to determine whether a read count of the at least one piece of first data is greater than a set value, and configuring the memory controller to copy and store the at least one piece of first data in a data temporary storage device when the read count of the at least one piece of first data is determined to be greater than the set value. A data storage device and another operating method are also provided.”

The patent application was filed on February 22, 2017 (15/438,773).

Memory device and data read method
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,275,187) developed by Lin, Yu-Chih, Zhubei, Taiwan, for “memory device and data read method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory device is provided. A processor accesses non-volatile memories via channels and generates a status table according to at least one command of a command queue. The status table records a plurality of tasks. Each task corresponds to one read status and one channel number. The processor selects a plurality of specific tasks from the tasks to serve as a first task set and simultaneously performs all the selected specific tasks with different channel numbers. When the read status of a first specific task matches a first predetermined status, the processor retrieves a logical-to-physical address mapping table relating to the logical address of the first specific task. When the read status of the first specific task matches a second predetermined status, the processor retrieves data relating to the logical address of the first specific task.”

The patent application was filed on August 24, 2016 (15/246,110).

Scheduling and executing commands in flash memory
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,275,181) developed by Chiu, Shen-Ting, Houlong Township, Taiwan, and Chen, Yi-Da, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “methods for scheduling and executing commands in a flash memory and apparatuses using the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The invention introduces a method for scheduling and executing commands in a flash memory, performed by a processing unit, including at least the following steps: reading information stored in a command profile space to determine whether a priority command is present in a command queue, de-queuing the priority command from the command queue and executing the priority command when the priority command is present in the command queue, and using a scheduling algorithm to select a simple read/write command from the command queue and executing the simple read/write command when no priority command is present in the command queue.”

The patent application was filed on January 5, 2018 (15/863,531).

Controlling data transfer speed of data storage device and host device
Silicon Motion Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,275,163) developed by Shih, Fu-Jen, New Taipei, Taiwan, and Chen, Yen-Hung, Taichung, Taiwan, for “methods for controlling data transfer speed of a data storage device and a host device utilizing the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A host device coupled to a data storage device via a predetermined interface includes a processor and a signal processing device. The processor accesses data stored in the data storage device via the predetermined interface. The signal processing device performs signal processing on the data. The processor transmits a first power mode change request packet to the data storage device via the predetermined interface, to request to change a data transfer speed of the predetermined interface from a first speed to a second speed. The processor receives a first power mode change confirm packet via the predetermined interface from the data storage device, and in response to the first power mode change confirm packet, the processor determines to keep the data transfer speed at the first speed and does not change the data transfer speed to the second speed.”

The patent application was filed on November 22, 2017 (15/820,727).