Apparatus and method for managing mapping information of nonvolatile memory

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for managing mapping information of a nonvolatile memory, in which a time period required for a request for access to a logic sector of the nonvolatile memory is minimized. The apparatus includes an extractor which extracts a logical sector mapped with each physical sector in physical units mapped with a predetermined logical unit, a mapping information generator which generates mapping information of logical sectors belonging to the logical unit including the extracted logical sector, and a mapping information memory which stores the generated mapping information.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a related art mapping relation between a logical unit and physical units;

FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a mapping relation between a physical sector and a logical sector in a physical unit according to the related art;

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating mapping information according to the related art;

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating mapping information of FIG. 2 according to FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a method of processing a reading request in a nonvolatile memory according to the related art;

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating a method of processing a writing request in a nonvolatile memory according to the related art;

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating a structure of a macro block flash memory according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of an apparatus for managing mapping information of a nonvolatile memory according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a view illustrating a physical unit mapped with a logical unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a view illustrating mapping information generated through a physical unit 3 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a view illustrating mapping information of FIG. 10 updated through a physical unit 17;

FIG. 12 is a view illustrating mapping information of FIG. 11 updated through a physical unit 10;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating mapping information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of processing a reading request according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a view illustrating mapping information updated in the case of a reading request according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a view illustrating a method of processing a writing request according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 17 is a view illustrating mapping information updated in the case of a writing request according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing mapping information of a nonvolatile memory, the apparatus comprising: an extractor which extracts a logical sector mapped with each of a plurality of physical sectors in a plurality of physical units mapped with a logical unit;a mapping information generator which generates mapping information of a plurality of logical sectors belonging to the logical unit, wherein said plurality of logical sectors includes the extracted logical sector; anda mapping information memory which stores the generated mapping information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extractor searches the logical unit, and extracts the logical sector in accordance with a result of the search.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the mapping information generator updates the mapping information of the logical sector extracted from each of the plurality of physical units in accordance with a mapped order among the plurality of physical units.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the mapping information comprises a physical unit number corresponding to where the a corresponding logical sector is stored and a logical sector offset corresponding to where the corresponding logical sector is stored in each of the plurality of physical units.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a device driver which performs a data operation of the logical sector by referring to the mapping information.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the mapping information generator updates the generated mapping information when the device driver performs a writing operation.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the device driver extracts a physical unit number corresponding to where the writing operation is performed and a physical sector offset, and the mapping information generator searches a logical unit number to which the logical sector corresponding to where the writing operation is performed belongs and a logical sector offset so as to update the physical unit number corresponding to the logical sector offset and the physical sector offset.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the device driver searches the physical unit number corresponding to where the logical sector is stored and the physical sector offset by referring to the generated mapping information in the case of a reading request of the logical sector.

9. A method of managing mapping information of a nonvolatile memory, the method comprising: extracting a logical sector mapped with each of a plurality of physical sectors in a plurality of physical units mapped with a logical unit;generating mapping information of a plurality of logical sectors belonging to the logical unit, wherein said plurality of logical sectors includes the extracted logical sector; andstoring the generated mapping information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the extracting the logical sector comprises searching the logical unit, and extracting the logical sector in accordance with a result of the search.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the generating the mapping information comprises updating the mapping information of the logical sector extracted from each of the plurality of physical units in accordance with a mapped order among the plurality of physical units.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the mapping information comprises a physical unit number corresponding to where the corresponding logical sector is stored and a logical sector offset corresponding to where the corresponding logical sector is stored in each of the plurality of physical units.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising performing a data operation of the logical sector by referring to the mapping information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the performing the data operation comprises updating the generated mapping information when a writing operation is performed.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the updating comprises extracting a physical unit number corresponding to where the writing operation is performed and a physical sector offset, and searching a logical unit number to which the logical sector corresponding to where the writing operation is performed belongs and a logical sector offset so as to update the physical unit number corresponding to the logical sector offset and the physical sector offset.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the performing comprises searching the physical unit number corresponding to where the logical sector is stored and the physical sector offset by referring to the generated mapping information in the case of a reading request of the logical sector.