Silicon Motion Assigned Nine Patents

Method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and apparatus for programming and recovering protected data
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12505242) developed by Chen; Ching-Hung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Chang; Chiu-Han, Taipei, Taiwan, for “method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and apparatus for programming and recovering protected data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The invention introduces a method for programming and recovering protected data. Protected data instructed by a data write command is received from a host side in multiple batches. After an encoding algorithm is used to generate an intermediate calculation result according to a first portion of the protected data, and an authentication key, multiple authentication calculation operations for remaining portions of the protected data, and multiple data programming operations for all portions of the protected data are arranged to enable the authentication calculation operations to be performed in parallel to the data programming operations. Each data programming operation is performed to program a corresponding portion of the protected data and a metadata associated with the corresponding portion of the protected data into a current block of a flash module. The metadata comprises information about whether the protected data has passed an authentication.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-01-19 (18/417262).

Method and apparatus for performing storage space management of memory device with aid of dynamic block configuration
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12498852) developed by Chang; Chin-Chun, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Wang; Sheng-Jui, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, and Hsu; Ling-Chi, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “method and apparatus for performing storage space management of memory device with aid of dynamic block configuration.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for performing storage space management of a memory device with aid of dynamic block configuration includes: configuring at least one portion of blocks among a plurality of blocks to be multiple first blocks in a first region and multiple second blocks in a second region according to a first reserved block threshold; combining the multiple first blocks into a set of first superblocks in the first region; and combining at least one portion of second blocks among the multiple second blocks into a set of second superblocks in the second region, wherein the first reserved block threshold is less than a minimum non-damaged block count among respective non-damaged block counts of a plurality planes, for a memory controller to increase available storage capacity by increasing a ratio of a size of the second region to a size of the first region.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-05-19 (18/668236).

Method for reading data from flash memory and related memory controller and storage system thereof
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12498882) developed by Liang; Chia-Chi, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, and Tsai; Cheng-Yu, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for “method for reading data from flash memory and related memory controller and storage system thereof.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for reading data from a flash memory is provided. The method comprises: determining whether a host device is requesting a sequential read access to the flash memory; prior to receiving a first host read command issued by the host device, performing a read-ahead operation to read data from the flash memory according to a read-ahead start logical block address (LBA) if the host device is requesting the sequential read access to the flash memory; and storing the data that is read through the read-ahead operation in a read-ahead buffer; and in response to receiving a first host read command issued by the host device, sending a portion or all of data that is read through the read-ahead operation to the host device if a start LBA of the first host read command corresponds to one of start LBAs of data that is stored in the read-ahead buffer.”

The patent application was filed on 2023-03-13 (18/120973).

Method and apparatus for performing data access control for host device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12489465) developed by Teng; Duen-Yih, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “method and apparatus for performing data access control for host device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for performing data access control for a host device includes: receiving a plurality of host commands from the host device, for performing data access on at least one medium according to the plurality of host commands, wherein the data access includes data receiving; and performing a data access optimization procedure for maintaining correctness of the data receiving that includes: performing the data receiving on the at least one medium to obtain at least one code word; performing multiple first low-density parity-check (LDPC) code decoding operations regarding multiple column segments, where a portion of column segments are abnormal column segments corresponding to puncture variable nodes; finding at least one column segment satisfying predetermined selection condition, to perform at least one second LDPC code decoding operation regarding the at least one column segment; performing multiple third LDPC code decoding operations regarding the multiple column segments; and returning error-free data.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-06-12 (18/740578).

Flash memory controller, operating method of flash memory controller, and storage device capable of performing different dimension error correction to protect data
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12487749) developed by Yang; Tsung-Chieh, Hsinchu, Taiwan, for “flash memory controller, operating method of flash memory controller, and storage device capable of performing different dimension error correction to protect data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A flash memory controller, to be coupled between a host device and a flash memory module, includes an error correction code (ECC) circuit. The ECC circuit performs a wordline-dimensional ECC operation upon specific data, sent from the host device to form a super block stored within the flash memory module, to generate wordline-dimensional parity data and performs a finger-dimensional ECC operation upon the specific data generate finger-dimensional parity data. The ECC circuit corrects an error of the superblock by using the wordline-dimensional parity data and the finger-dimensional parity data so as to obtain correct data content of the specific data.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-08-20 (18/810487).

Flash memory controller, storage device, and address mapping method of flash memory controller
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12468483) developed by Lin; Chien-Ting, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, Hsu; Wei-Chi, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Liu; Chin-Hung, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, for “flash memory controller, storage device, and address mapping method of flash memory controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A flash memory controller includes a specific buffer and a processor. The specific buffer allocates a cache space. The processor receives a specific host address sent from the host device, reads and loads a corresponding address pointer mapping table from the flash memory into the cache space according to address information pointed by a specific address pointer linker, determines a specific address pointer corresponding to the specific host address from the corresponding address pointer mapping table according to the specific host address, reads and loads a corresponding address mapping table from the flash memory into the cache space according to address information pointed by a specific address pointer corresponding to the specific host address, and finds a specific flash memory address from the corresponding address mapping table according to the specific host address to perform an access operation in response to the found specific flash memory address.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-02-19 (18/581353).

Handshaking method and data storage system
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12461837) developed by Shen; Shih-Hsiang, Zhubei, Taiwan, for “handshaking method and data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Disclosed is a handshaking method applied to a data storage system including a host system and a data storage device. The handshaking method includes the following steps: applying for a host memory buffer from the host system by the data storage device; transmitting, by the host system, a command descriptor to the host memory buffer, so that the data storage device performs standalone behavior based on the command descriptor in the host memory buffer, and transmits an operation log corresponding to the standalone behavior to the host memory buffer; and continuously monitoring, by the host system, the host memory buffer until the data storage device completes the standalone behavior and transmits a response descriptor to the host memory buffer. Therefore, the host memory buffer is used as a communication interface between the host system and the data storage device, so that the data storage device can perform more diverse operations.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-01-04 (18/404870).

Control method of memory device, and associated flash memory controller and memory device
Silicon Motion, Inc., Hsinchu County, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12461656) developed by Lin; Wen-Sheng, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for “control method of memory device, and associated flash memory controller and memory device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A control method of a memory device includes: updating a wear leveling related data temporarily stored in a buffer memory; obtaining multiple parameters; determining a write frequency according to the multiple parameters; and copying the wear leveling related data from the buffer memory to a flash memory module included in the memory device according to the write frequency.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-08-25 (18/814579).

Method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and apparatus for configuring current block to program data
Silicon Motion, Inc., Zhubei, Taiwan, has been assigned a patent (12461694) developed by Tsai; Cheng-Yu, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for “method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and apparatus for configuring current block to program data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The invention introduces a method for configuring a current block to program data, performed by a processing unit, which includes: dividing storage space of a flash module into a static area and a dynamic area; entering a first mode to obtain a first empty SB from the dynamic area and erase the first empty SB to configure the first empty SB as a non-SLC block; and entering a second mode from the first mode to obtain a second empty SB from the static area and erase the second empty SB to configure the second empty SB as an SLC block in response that a background garbage collection (GC) flag indicates that a background GC process has been performed, at least one empty SB is presented in the static area, and a quantity of empty SBs in the dynamic area equals or is less than a predefined quantity.”

The patent application was filed on 2024-04-18 (18/639142).