Silicon Motion Assigned Twenty Patents

Performing adaptive locking range management, associated storage device and controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,360,912) 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 November 30, 2020 (17/106,206).

Access method
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,360,853) developed by Jhang, Yi-Shou, Jhubei, Taiwan, for an “access method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An access method is provided, which is applied to a memory device. The memory device is coupled to a host device, the host device is configured to provide a data, the memory device includes a SSD controller and a volatile memory, the volatile memory is coupled to the SSD controller, and the volatile memory includes a data storage area. The access method includes: the SSD controller receiving the data, the SSD controller generating a corresponding cyclic redundancy check code according to the data, and the SSD controller sequentially storing the data and the cyclic redundancy check code into the data storage area.”

The patent application was filed on February 18, 2020 (16/792,892).

Garbage collection for storage device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,354,236) developed by Hsu, Hong-Jung, and Kuo, Chun-Chieh, Jhubei, Taiwan, for a “garbage collection method for data storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A garbage collection method for a data storage device includes steps of: entering a background mode from a foreground mode, selecting a plurality of source data blocks from a plurality of in-use data blocks, dividing a mapping table into a plurality of sub-mapping tables and selecting one of the sub-mapping tables as a target sub-mapping table, wherein the target sub-mapping table is used to manage one of the source data blocks, selecting a destination data block from a plurality of spare data blocks, and sequentially updating a correspondence relationship of data stored in the target sub-mapping table from the source data blocks to the destination data block, wherein the updating comprises copying the data stored in the source data blocks to the destination data block.”

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2020 (16/833,680).

Storage devices and methods for firmware failure prevention
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,354,192) developed by Wu, Po-Wei, Keelung, Taiwan, for “data storage devices and methods for firmware failure prevention.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device including a non-volatile memory and a micro-controller is provided. The non-volatile memory includes a first block and a second block, wherein the first block stores firmware code. The micro-controller writes one predetermined string into the second block before an execution of the firmware code, and determines whether there is more than one predetermined string in the second block. In response to there being no more than one predetermined string in the second block, the micro-controller allows the execution of the firmware code and erases the predetermined string in the second block upon successful completion of a prerequisite procedure during the execution of the firmware code. In response to there being more than one predetermined string in the second block, the micro-controller does not allow the execution of the firmware code.”

The patent application was filed on November 1, 2019 (16/671,364).

Storage device and data processing
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,347,640) developed by Liu, Yuan-Ping, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, Li, Yi-Hua, Tainan, Taiwan, and Yang, Tzu-Yi, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “data storage device and data processing method.“

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 is arranged to configure a plurality of first memory blocks to receive data from a host device. The first memory blocks form at least a first superblock. When an amount of data stored in the first memory blocks reaches a specific value, the memory controller moves the data from the first memory blocks to a plurality of second memory blocks in a predetermined procedure. The second memory blocks form at least a second superblock. The second superblock includes the second memory blocks located in different memory chips. The data stored in two adjacent logical pages in the first superblock is written in two second memory blocks located in different memory chips.”

The patent application was filed on October 27, 2020 (17/080,856).

Selecting bad columns in storage medium
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,335,432) developed by Huang, Sheng-Yuan, Jhubei, Taiwan, for a “method for selecting bad columns in data storage medium.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for selecting bad columns in a data storage medium is provided. The data storage medium is coupled to a control unit, and the data storage medium includes data blocks, wherein each of the data blocks includes columns. The columns are divided into chunks. The method for selecting bad columns in the data storage medium includes following steps. (a) The control unit calculates a number of bad columns in each of the chunks to sorts the chunks, wherein the bad columns are selected from the columns. (b) The control unit sequentially marks or records the bad columns in each of the chunks with bad column groups, wherein a bad column position and a bad column number in each of the chunks are marked or recorded in each of the bad column groups.”

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2020 (17/037,795).

Data erasing method of NVM and storage device using same
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,335,409) developed by Liu, Tsai-Fa, New Taipei, Taiwan, for “data erasing method of non-volatile memory and storage device using the same.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data erasing method of a non-volatile memory and a storage device using the same are provided. The data erasing method of the non-volatile memory includes the following steps. A boost circuit is boosted to output a damage voltage. A switch is turned on to apply the damage voltage to the non-volatile memory. The switch is connected between the boost circuit and the non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory is destroyed by the damage voltage.”

The patent application was filed on June 9, 2020 (16/896,669).

Storage device and NVM control
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,334,480) developed by Lee, Jie-Hao, Zhubei, Taiwan, Chang, Yi-Kang, New Taipei, Taiwan, and Lin, Hsuan-Ping, Taichung, Taiwan, for “data storage device and non-volatile memory control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An efficient control technology for non-volatile memory is shown. A non-volatile memory provides a storage space that is divided into blocks. When programming the write data issued by the host to the non-volatile memory, the programming order of the blocks is recorded. Garbage collection is based on the recorded programming order. Sequential data can be collected to the destination block in sequence.”

The patent application was filed on May 28, 2020 (16/885,627).

Storage device and method for sharing memory of controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,334,415) developed by Li, An-Pang, Jhubei, Taiwan, for “data storage device and method for sharing memory of controller thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage device and a method for sharing memory of controller thereof are provided. The data storage device comprises a non-volatile memory and a controller, which is electrically coupled to the non-volatile memory and comprises an access interface, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) error correcting code (ECC) engine and a central processing unit (CPU). The CPU has a first memory for storing temporary data, the RAID ECC engine has a second memory, and the controller maps the unused memory space of the second memory to the first memory to be virtualized as part of the first memory when the second memory is not fully used so that the CPU can also use the unused memory space of the second memory to store the temporary data.”

The patent application was filed on July 4, 2019 (16/503,504).

Storage devices, access and data processing
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,327,770) developed by Wu, Po-Wei, Keelung, Taiwan, for “data storage devices, access device and data processing methods.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An access device includes a memory controller coupled to a memory device and configured to access the memory device. The memory controller is further configured to perform a test procedure on the memory device to obtain a test result, write a boot code index, which indicates a predetermined address for storing predetermined system data of the memory device and a copy rule adopted for generating one or more duplicates of the predetermined system data, in the memory device, establish system data of the memory device according to the test result, write the system data into the predetermined address as the predetermined system data, and write the system data in one or more memory blocks of the memory device as the duplicates of the predetermined system data according to the copy rule.”

The patent application was filed on December 19, 2019 (16/721,887).

Flash memory apparatus and storage management method for flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,323,133) developed by Yang, Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and Hsu, Hong-Jung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for “flash memory apparatus and storage management method for flash memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A flash memory storage management method includes: providing a flash memory module including single-level-cell (SLC) blocks and at least one multiple-level-cell block such as MLC block, TLC block, or QLC block, classifying data to be programmed into groups of data, respectively executing SLC programming and RAID-like error code encoding to generate corresponding parity check codes, to program the groups of data and corresponding parity check codes to the SLC blocks, when completing program of the SLC blocks, performing an internal copy to program the at least one multiple-level-cell block by sequentially reading and writing the groups of data and corresponding parity check codes from the SLC blocks to the multiple-level-cell block according to a storage order of the SLC blocks.”

The patent application was filed on June 9, 2020 (16/896,210).

Fractional frequency divider and flash memory controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,323,122) developed by Yao, Tien-Hsing, Taipei, Taiwan, Lee, Chun-Cheng, Yilan County, Taiwan, and Hsu, Sheng-I, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “fractional frequency divider and flash memory controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present invention provides a fractional frequency divider, wherein the fractional frequency divider includes a plurality of registers, a control signal generator and a clock gating circuit. Regarding the plurality of registers, at least a portion of the registers are set to have values. The control signal generator is configured to generate a control signal based on an input clock signal and values in the at least a portion of the registers, wherein the control generator sequentially generates the control signal during each cycle of the input clock signal. The clock gating circuit is configured to refer to the control signal to mask or not mask the input clock signal to generate an output clock signal.”

The patent application was filed on May 26, 2021 (17/331,577).

Storage device and NVM control
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,314,586) developed by Lin, Ting-Han, Zhubei, Taiwan, and Hsu, Che-Wei, Taichung, Taiwan, for “data storage device and non-volatile memory control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Mapping information management for data storage. A mapping information format without any uncorrectable flag bits (UNC bits) is shown. A controller provides a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) engine. In response to an uncorrectable marking command issued by a host, the controller operates the cyclic redundancy check engine to encode a data pattern with a biased encoding seed to generate biased cyclic redundancy check code. The controller programs the data pattern and the biased cyclic redundancy check code to the non-volatile memory. The data pattern, therefore, will not pass CRC. The uncorrectable marking command works.”

The patent application was filed on January 28, 2020 (16/774,300).

Function management method and memory device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,308,080) developed by Hsu, Kuo-Chiang, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “function management method and memory device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A function management method applied to a memory device includes obtaining a plurality of functions through a map file of a compiler, and parsing at least one source code of the memory device with the map file. The functions include at least one normal function and at least one API function. The parsing includes developing a mapping relationship between the at least one API function and the at least one normal function, and developing a calling relationship between the at least one normal function.”

The patent application was filed on November 8, 2016 (15/346,184).

Performing operations to namespaces of flash memory
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,307,992) developed by Lin, Sheng-Liu, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “method and apparatus for performing operations to namespaces of a flash memory device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The invention introduces a method for performing operations to namespaces of a flash memory device, at least including the steps: receiving a namespace setting-update command from a host, requesting to update a namespace size of a namespace, determining whether the updated namespace size of the namespace can be supported, and when the updated namespace size of the namespace can be supported, updating a logical-physical mapping table of the namespace to enable the namespace to store user data of the updated namespace size.”

The patent application was filed on October 18, 2018 (16/164,252).

Computer program for generating storage mapping table
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,307,991) 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) address corresponding to a logical location of the storage mapping table, an expanding circuit for obtaining the first PL address and expanding the first PL address into second PL address by appending data bits that originally provide different information from a physical address of the flash memory unit to the first PL address, and a controller for transmitting the second PL address without transmitting the first PL address stored in the flash memory unit to a host.”

The patent application was filed on October 30, 2020 (17/085,068).

Storage device and NVM control
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,307,979) developed by Chung, Yu-Hsiang, Zhubei, Taiwan, for “data storage device and non-volatile memory control method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Efficient space trimming of data storage device is shown, which uses a controller to program a trimming tag that corresponds to a trimming command issued by a host into a cache area of a temporary storage device. The trimming tag, therefore, can be flushed from the cache area to the non-volatile memory for non-volatile storage. The update of the host-to-device mapping table based on the trimming tag can be postponed to the moment that the controller is free.”

The patent application was filed on September 18, 2020 (17/025,067).

Storage devices and data processing
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,307,786) 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 configures a first predetermined memory block and a second predetermined memory block as buffers to receive data from a host device and determines to use the first or the second predetermined memory block to receive the data according to write addresses of a write command received from the host device. When the write addresses indicate that the data to be written by the host device is management data of a file system of the host device, the memory controller writes the data to the first predetermined memory block. When the write addresses indicate that the data to be written by the host device is not the management data of the file system of the host device, the memory controller writes the data to the second predetermined memory block.”

The patent application was filed on April 15, 2020 (16/849,333).

Performing dynamic recovery management regarding RAID
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,301,326) 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 October 30, 2020 (17/084,650).

Controlling storage device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (11,301,175) developed by Chen, Chun-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for a “method for controlling storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for controlling a storage device is provided. The method may include: transmitting an initial command conforming to a first communications protocol and a data payload comprising a command parameter to the storage device, wherein the command parameter conforms to a second communications protocol, transmitting a setting command conforming to the first communications protocol to the storage device, and generating an operation command conforming to the second communications protocol according to the initial command, the setting command and the data payload comprising the command parameter. More particularly, the initial command and the setting command are different commands.”

The patent application was filed on March 4, 2021 (17/192,849).