Silicon Motion Assigned Twenty Patents

Storage device and cache area addressing
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,949,348) developed by Jhang, Yi-Shou, Taipei, Taiwan, for “storage device and cache area addressing method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage device and a cache area addressing method is disclosed. The storage device includes a memory module, a buffer, a memory controller, and a cache area addressing circuit. The buffer includes a cache area. The memory controller is coupled to the memory module and the buffer. The cache area addressing circuit is coupled to the memory controller and the buffer and configured to perform the followings. A logical address from the memory controller is received. Whether the logical address corresponds to a logical address interval of the cache area is determined. When the logical address corresponds to the logical address interval of the cache area, the logical address is mapped to a first physical address in the cache area according to a base address. Otherwise, the logical address is mapped to a second physical address in the buffer.”

The patent application was filed on August 9, 2019 (16/536,631).

Data accessing method using data protection with aid of parity check matrix having partial sequential information
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,944,429) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “data accessing method using data protection with aid of parity check matrix having partial sequential information, and associated apparatus.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data accessing method using data protection with aid of a parity check matrix having partial sequential information, and associated apparatus such as memory device, memory controller, and decoding circuit thereof are provided. The data accessing method may include: in response to a read request, starting receiving protected data corresponding to the read request from predetermined storage space, generating the parity check matrix, performing syndrome calculation based on the parity check matrix according to a codeword to generate and output a syndrome for the codeword, performing error detection according to the syndrome to generate and output a decoding result signal, and performing error location decoding according to the syndrome to generate and output an error location, performing error correction of the codeword, to correct an error at the error location of the codeword, and performing further processing according to the one or more codewords obtained from the protected data.”

The patent application was filed on January 2, 2020 (16/732,354).

Storage devices and data processing
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,942,858) developed by Ke, Kuan-Yu, Zhubei, Taiwan, for “data storage devices and data processing methods.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory controller selects a predetermined memory block to receive data and records multiple logical addresses in a first mapping table. The first mapping table records which logical page the data stored in each physical page of the predetermined memory block is directed to. A bit table is stored in a buffer memory and includes multiple fields. Each field records a bit value. When the memory controller writes data of a logical page that corresponds to a first logical address into the predetermined memory block, the memory controller records the first logical address in the first mapping table, converts the first logical address according to a predetermined function to generate a first field index of the bit table and sets the bit value corresponding to the first field index as a first value in the bit table.”

The patent application was filed on December 5, 2019 (16/704,646).

Executing from host side through frontend interface input-output commands using slot bit table
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,936,513) developed by Chiu, Shen-Ting, Miaoli County, Taiwan, for “apparatus and method for executing from a host side through a frontend interface input-output commands using a slot bit table.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The invention introduces a method for executing host input-output (IO) commands, performed by a processing unit of a device side when loading and executing program code of a first layer, at least including: receiving a host IO command from a host side through a frontend interface, generating a slot bit table (SBT) including an entry according to the host IO command, creating a thread of a second layer, and sending addresses of callback functions and the SBT to the thread of the second layer, thereby enabling the thread of the second layer to call the callback functions according to the IO operation of the SBT for driving the frontend interface to interact with the host side to transmit user data read from a storage unit to the host side, or receive user data to be programmed into the storage unit from the host side.”

The patent application was filed on April 21, 2020 (16/854,065).

Flash controllers and corresponding storage devices capable of rapidly/fast generating or updating contents of valid page count table
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,936,199) developed by Ou, Hsu-Ping, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “flash controllers, methods, and corresponding storage devices capable of rapidly/fast generating or updating contents of valid page count table.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method of a flash controller to be coupled between a flash memory device and a host device is provided. The flash memory device has a plurality of blocks each having a plurality of pages, and the method comprises: receiving a trim/erase/unmap command from the host device, obtaining a storage space, which is to be erased, from the trim/erase/unmap command, comparing a space size of the storage space with a threshold to determine whether the space size is larger than the threshold, and resetting valid page counts of the plurality of blocks of the flash memory device when the space size is larger than the threshold.”

The patent application was filed on July 17, 2018 (16/036,954).

Storage device utilizing virtual blocks to improve performance and storage
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,929,303) developed by Chung, Chien-Chung, Taipei, Taiwan, for “data storage device utilizing virtual blocks to improve performance and data storage method thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The data storage method includes selecting one of a plurality of blocks in a flash memory as an active block, dividing the active block into a plurality of virtual blocks, selecting and accessing one of the virtual blocks, and maintaining a mapping table corresponding to the selected virtual block. The mapping table records mapping information between a plurality of logical addresses and a plurality of physical addresses of the selected virtual block.”

The patent application was filed on July 5, 2018 (16/028,005).

Storage and associated data storing method for reducing data error rate
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,917,119) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Hsu, Sheng-I, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “data storage system and associated data storing method for reducing data error rate.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage system includes a processing circuit, a calculating circuit and an encoding circuit. The processing circuit receives a data byte from a host. The calculating circuit generates a cyclic redundancy check code according to an LBA, and combines the cyclic redundancy check code and the data byte into a data sector so that the data sector includes LBA-related information. The encoding circuit encodes the data sector to generate an error checking and correcting code, and combines the data sector and the error checking and correcting code into a storage data, so that the storage data includes the LBA-related information without including the LBA. Via the data sector and the storage data, the data storage system performs cyclic redundancy checking as well as error checking and correcting without storing the LBA for reducing 1-bit errors, and the LBA-related information does not include part or all of the LBA.”

The patent application was filed on September 11, 2019 (16/568,221).

Storage and associated operating method capable of detecting errors and effectively protecting data
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,915,388) developed by Pao, Yi-Hua, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Hu, Wen-Chi, Zhubei, Taiwan, for “data storage device and associated operating method capable of detecting errors and effectively protecting data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The data storage device includes a first memory having error correction capability, and a controller coupled to the first memory. The controller is configured to calculate an error count of the first memory. The controller is configured to report a message to a host when the controller determines that an alarm condition is satisfied. The alarm condition is related to the error count of the first memory and a threshold count.”

The patent application was filed on January 11, 2018 (15/868,190).

Memory controller and method of accessing flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,892,776) developed by Kuo, Shiuan-Hao, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “memory controller and method of accessing flash memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory controller for use in a data storage device is provided. A low-density parity check (LDPC) process performed by the memory controller includes an initial phase, a decoding phase, and an output phase. The memory controller includes a variable-node circuit and a check-node circuit. During each LDPC decoding iterative operation in the decoding phase: the check-node circuit obtains a codeword difference from the variable-node circuit, and calculates a syndrome according to the codeword difference. The variable-node circuit is configured to: determine a syndrome weight according to the syndrome from the check-node circuit, obtain a previous codeword from a variable-node memory without obtaining a channel value from a channel-value memory, perform bit-flipping on one or more codeword bits in the previous codeword according to the calculated syndrome weight to generate an updated codeword, and subtract the previous codeword from the updated codeword to obtain the codeword difference.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2020 (16/835,939).

Storage and control method for non-volatile memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Jhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,892,031) developed by Yuan, Yi-Hung, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “data storage device and control method for non-volatile memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Storage capacity optimization of non-volatile memory is shown. Through a controller, communication between a host and a non-volatile memory is in units of a first data length. The controller manages a bad column table for the non-volatile memory in units of a second data length. The second data length is shorter than the first data length. Taking byte communication as an example, one nibble of storage units is marked as bad when it has any damaged storage units.”

The patent application was filed on July 28, 2019 (16/524,114).

Performing adaptive locking range management, associated storage device and controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,884,954) developed by Lin, Chih-Yu, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, Pan, Hung-Ting, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Hsu, Sung-Ling, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “method for performing adaptive locking range management, associated data storage device and controller thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for performing adaptive locking range management, an associated data storage device and a controller thereof are provided. The method may include: receiving a security command from outside of the data storage device, wherein the security command is related to changing an old locking range into a new locking range, obtaining a start Logical Block Address (LBA) and a length value of the new locking range according to the security command, determining whether the start LBA of the new locking range is less than an end LBA of the old locking range, and determining whether an end LBA of the new locking range is greater than a start LBA of the old locking range, and in response to both determination results being true, performing data trimming on any respective non-overlapped portions of the new locking range and the old locking range.”

The patent application was filed on July 4, 2019 (16/503,591).

Performing pipeline-based accessing management in storage server
Silicon Motion Technology,(Hong Kong) Limited, Kowloon, Hong Kong, has been assigned a patent (10,884,933) developed by Tseng, Guo-Fu, Chang, Cheng-Yue, New Taipei, Taiwan, and Chiu, Kuan-Kai, Taipei, Taiwan, for “method and apparatus for performing pipeline-based accessing management in a storage server.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for performing pipeline-based accessing management in a storage server and associated apparatus are provided. The method includes: in response to a request of writing user data into the storage server, utilizing a host device within the storage server to write the user data into a storage device layer of the storage server and start processing an object write command corresponding to the request of writing the user data with a pipeline architecture of the storage server, utilizing the host device to select fixed size buffer pool from a plurality of fixed size buffer pools, utilizing the host device to allocate a buffer from the fixed size buffer pool to be a pipeline module of at least one pipeline within the pipeline architecture, for performing buffering for the at least one pipeline, and utilizing the host device to write metadata corresponding to the user data into the allocated buffer.”

The patent application was filed on September 25, 2019 (16/581,776).

Error-handling, associated storage device and controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,884,856) developed by Kuo, Che-Ming, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, and Yeh, Yen-Ting, Taoyuan, Taiwan, for “error-handling method, associated data storage device and controller thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An error-handling method, an associated data storage device and the controller thereof are provided. The error-handling method may include: uploading an error-handling program to a buffer memory equipped with error correction code (ECC) protection capability, in response to at least one error, interrupting execution of a current procedure and activating an interruption service, executing the error-handling program on the buffer memory, disabling a transmission interface circuit, resetting at least one hardware engine and at least one NV memory element, performing cache rearrangement regarding a data cache within the data storage device, and programming rearranged cache data into the NV memory element, to perform data recovery, and through activating a watchdog module and the transmission interface circuit and relinking with a host device, completing soft reset to make the data storage device operate normally again.”

The patent application was filed on September 11, 2019 (16/568,192).

Performing storage control in storage server, associated memory device and memory controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,884,662) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “method for performing storage control in a storage server, associated memory device and memory controller thereof, and associated storage server.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for performing storage control in a storage server may include: regarding any memory device of a plurality of memory devices installed at the storage server, assigning a channel of multiple channels within the memory device for access control corresponding to a thread of a plurality of threads running on the storage server, wherein the storage server configures the plurality of memory devices to form a RAID of the storage server, and during storing a series of logical access units (LAUs) into the RAID, writing information into respective sets of pages of the plurality of memory devices as pages in a LAU of the series of LAUs according to a predetermined arrangement rule, to make the respective sets of pages be sequentially written into the plurality of memory devices respectively with aid of the assignment of the channel of the multiple channels to the thread. Associated apparatus are provided.”

The patent application was filed on March 7, 2019 (16/296,161).

Performing data-accessing management in storage server
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,884,642) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, and Wang, Wen-Long, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “method and apparatus for performing data-accessing management in a storage server.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for performing data-accessing management in a storage server and associated apparatus such as a host device, a storage device, etc. are provided. The method includes: in response to a client request of writing a first set of data into the storage server, utilizing the host device within the storage server to trigger broadcasting an internal request corresponding to the client request toward each storage device of a plurality of storage devices within the storage server, and in response to the internal request corresponding to the client request, utilizing said each storage device of the plurality of storage devices to search for the first set of data in said each storage device to determine whether the first set of data has been stored in any storage device, for controlling the storage server completing the client request without duplication of the first set of data within the storage server.”

The patent application was filed on March 27, 2019 (16/365,695).

Computer program product for generating storage mapping table
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,866,903) developed by Lin, Jiyun-Wei, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “apparatus and method and computer program product for generating a storage mapping table.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The invention introduces an apparatus for generating a storage mapping table at least including a direct memory access controller for reading first physical location (PL) information corresponding to a logical location of the storage mapping table, an expanding circuit for obtaining the first PL information and expanding the first PL information into second PL information, and a controller for transmitting the second PL information to a host.”

The patent application was filed on October 2, 2018 (16/149,367).

Memory controller and data processing circuit
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,866,736) developed by Hsu, Tzu-Wei, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “memory controller and data processing circuit with improved system efficiency.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory controller and data storage device include a central processing unit, an interface logic circuit and an arbiter circuit. The central processing unit includes an internal memory device. The interface logic circuit is coupled to an external memory device and a standard bus. The arbiter circuit is directly coupled to the central processing unit via an SRAM bus. When the central processing unit has to read predetermined data stored in the external memory device, the central processing unit issues a first request to the interface logic circuit. In response to the first request, the interface logic circuit reads the predetermined data from the external memory device and transmits the predetermined data to the arbiter circuit via the standard bus. The arbiter circuit transfers the predetermined data directly to the central processing unit via the SRAM bus to write the predetermined data in the internal memory device.”

The patent application was filed on June 19, 2019 (16/445,419).

Performing dynamic recovery management regarding redundant array of independent disks
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,860,423) developed by Chang, An-Nan, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “method and apparatus for performing dynamic recovery management regarding redundant array of independent disks.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method and apparatus for performing dynamic recovery management regarding a RAID are provided. The method includes: writing a first set of protected data into a first protected access unit of multiple protected access units of the RAID, and recording a first set of management information corresponding to the first set of protected data, for data recovery of the first set of protected data, and when any storage device of multiple storage devices of the RAID malfunctions, writing a second set of protected data into a second protected access unit of the protected access units, and recording a second set of management information corresponding to the second set of protected data, for data recovery of the second set of protected data. Any set of the first set of protected data and the second set of protected data includes data and multiple parity-check codes.”

The patent application was filed on July 16, 2019 (16/513,675).

Reducing data errors in transceiving of lash storage interface
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,848,263) developed by Shih, Fu-Jen, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “methods for reducing data errors in transceiving of a flash storage interface 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 reducing data errors in transceiving of a flash storage interface, performed by a processing unit of a first side, comprising: continuously monitoring data frames and/or control frames from a second side, and triggering a TX (transmission) data rate adjustment when information of the data frame and/or the control frame indicates that the lowest layer of the second side detects errors from received data.”

The patent application was filed on June 20, 2018 (16/013,105).

Storage apparatus managing method and storage
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (10,839,055) developed by Chou, Li-Ling, New Taipei, Taiwan, and Lin, Chao-Yu, Taipei, Taiwan, for “storage apparatus managing method and storage apparatus managing system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage apparatus managing method, applied to a storage apparatus connected to a portable electronic apparatus, includes: (a) receiving authentication information via the portable electronic apparatus or the storage apparatus, (b) transmitting at least one confirmation command to a control module via a storage management program in the portable electronic apparatus, wherein the confirmation command is arranged to confirm whether the control module is in a ready state, (c) controlling the portable electronic apparatus to be capable of reading from or writing to an encrypted data region of the storage apparatus, when the control module is confirmed to be in the ready state and the authentication information matches predetermined authentication information, and, d) controlling the portable electronic apparatus to be incapable of accessing the encrypted data region when the authentication information does not match the predetermined authentication information.”

The patent application was filed on June 27, 2018 (16/019,561).