The present application relates to a field of storage technology, specifically to a memory chip.
Nonvolatile status registers in memory chips are indispensable and important blocks in application. Wherein nonvolatile status bits in the nonvolatile status registers need to be highly reliable, that is, the nonvolatile status registers can still operate as well after a plurality of times (such as 6*1000000 times) of repetitive erasing.
However, erasing operations are performed before writing operations are performed in general schemes, that is, every writing operation follows an erasing operation. In this way, most storage units reach an upper limit of life after more than hundreds of thousands of times erasing operations are performed.
The present application provides a memory chip to alleviate a technical problem of low reliability of nonvolatile status registers.
In a first aspect, the present application provides a memory chip, the memory chip includes a nonvolatile status register and a control circuit, the nonvolatile status register includes a plurality of groups of registers, each group of the registers includes a flag register and at least one data register; the control circuit is connected to the nonvolatile status register, and is configured to control writing times of the nonvolatile status register being greater than erasing times of the nonvolatile status register.
In some embodiments, the control circuit is connected to the plurality of groups of the registers, and is configured to control the plurality of groups of the registers being performed an erasing operation after every plurality of times of writing operations.
In some embodiments, a number of the groups of the registers in the nonvolatile status register is equal to a number of times of the writing operations performed during a period between two adjacent times of erasing operations.
In some embodiments, the flag register is configured to indicate a storage state of the at least one data register in a same group of the registers, and the storage state includes a writable state and a written state.
In a second aspect, the present application provides a memory chip, the memory chip includes a plurality of groups of registers, each group of the registers includes a flag register and at least one data register, and numbers of the at least one data register in different groups of the registers are equal; wherein a writing operation is performed on at least two groups of the registers respectively before every erasing operation is performed.
In some embodiments, after the writing operation is performed on each group of the registers, the erasing operation is performed on the plurality of groups of the registers.
In some embodiments, the flag register is configured to indicate a storage state of a corresponding group of the registers, and the storage state includes a writable state and a written state.
In some embodiments, the plurality of groups of the registers include a first group of the registers to a last group of the registers arranged according to an address sequence; the memory chip is configured to be operated including following steps: reading the storage state of each group of the registers one by one according to the address sequence; judging whether the storage state of a current group of the registers is the writable state; judging whether the current group of the registers is the first group of the registers if the storage state of the current group of the registers is the writable state; and directly writing data to be written to the current group of the registers if the current group of the registers is the first group of the registers.
In some embodiments, the memory chip is further configured to be operated including following steps: recording stored data of each of data registers in a previous group of the current group of the registers to a buffer if the current group of the registers is not the first group of the registers; and writing the data to be written to the current group of the registers; wherein the data to be written includes flag data, an un-updated part of the stored data stored in the buffer, and data to be updated, the flag data is written to the flag register in the current group of the registers, the un-updated part of the stored data stored in the buffer is correspondingly written to data bits that that do not need to be updated in the current group of the registers, and the data to be updated is correspondingly written to data bits that need to be updated in the current group of the registers.
In some embodiments, the memory chip is further configured to be operated including following steps: judging whether the current group of the registers is the last group of the registers if the storage state of the current group of the registers is not the writable state; and scanning the storage state of a next group of the registers if the current group of the registers is not the last group of the registers, and switching to a step “judging whether the storage state of the current group of the registers is the writable state”.
In some embodiments, the memory chip is further configured to be operated including following steps: performing the erasing operation on the plurality of groups of the registers after recording stored data of each of the data registers in the last group of the registers to a buffer, if the current group of the registers is the last group of the registers.
In some embodiments, the memory chip is further configured to be operated including following steps: writing the data to be written to the first group of the registers; wherein the data to be written includes flag data, an un-updated part of the stored data stored in a buffer, and data to be updated, the flag data is written to the flag register in the first group of the registers, the un-updated part of the stored data stored in the buffer is correspondingly written to data bits that do not need to be updated in the first group of the registers, and the data to be updated is correspondingly written to data bits that need to be updated in the first group of the registers.
In some embodiments, the flag data is configured to indicate the storage state as the written state.
In a third aspect, the present application provides a memory chip, the memory chip includes N groups of registers, and each group of the registers include a flag register and M data register, wherein the N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.
In the memory chip provided by the present application, the control circuit is configured to control each group of the registers in the nonvolatile status register being performed the erasing operation after at least one writing operation is performed, which can achieved that writing times is greater than erasing times of the plurality of groups of registers, so that a number of times of the erasing operations can be reduced in a case of a number of times of the writing operations being unchanged, and thus reliability of the nonvolatile status register can be improved.
In addition, at least two groups of the registers are performed on the writing operation respectively before every erasing operation is performed, which can further achieved that the writing times is greater than the erasing times of the plurality of groups of the registers, so that the number of the times of the erasing operations can be reduced in a case of the number of the times of the writing operations being unchanged, and thus the reliability of the nonvolatile status register can be improved.
Technical solutions and effects of the present application will be obvious through a detailed description of specific embodiments of the present application in combination with accompanying drawings.
Technical solutions in embodiments of the present application will be illustrated in combination with drawings in the embodiments of the present application clearly and completely. Obviously, the illustrated embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, not all of them. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort belong to a scope of the present application.
The embodiment provides a memory chip. Please refer to
In the memory chip provided by the present application, the control circuit 200 is configured to control each group of the registers in the nonvolatile status register 100 being performed the erasing operation after at least one writing operation is performed, which can achieved that writing times is greater than erasing times of the plurality of groups of registers, so that a number of times of the erasing operations can be reduced in a case of a number of times of the writing operations being unchanged, and thus reliability of the nonvolatile status register 100 can be improved.
It should be noted that, as shown in
Wherein “a plurality of” in the present application represents two or more than two.
The plurality of groups of the registers may further include a third group of the registers 30. After the writing operation is performed on the first group of the registers 10, the second group of the registers 20, and the third group of the registers 30, respectively, the first group of the registers 10, the second group of the registers 20, and the third group of the registers 30 are erased once again, so that the writing times of the nonvolatile status register 100 is 3, and the erasing times of the nonvolatile status register 100 is 1, which can achieve the writing times of the nonvolatile status register 100 being greater than the erasing times of the nonvolatile status register 100, and thus reliability of the nonvolatile status register 100 can be improved.
It can be understood that the plurality of groups of the registers may further include more groups of registers. Assuming that an upper limit of erasable times of each flag register or each data register is 300K, at least 32 times of writing operations can be performed when every erasing operation is performed if the nonvolatile status register 100 is configured with 32 groups of the registers. Correspondingly, equivalent erasing life of the nonvolatile status register 100 is 9.6 KK=32*300 K times, far exceeding actual erasing life of 300K times before the nonvolatile status register 100 is improved.
Wherein each group of the registers may include the flag register and the at least one data register. For example, in
When the first group of the registers 10, the second group of the registers 20, and the third group of the registers 30 are arranged according to an address sequence, a number of the data registers in a back group of the registers is greater than a number of the data registers in a front group of the registers according to the address sequence. For example, in
It should be noted that both two different configurations of registers in the above groups of the registers can realize data migration of same capacity between different groups of the registers.
Storage capacity of each flag register or each data register may be one or more bytes, or further be one or more bits. Wherein the flag register is configured to store flag data.
The above memory chip may be, but is not limited to, NOR Flash, or other applicable memory.
It should be noted that each of the writing times represents the writing operation performed on a group of the registers, wherein only the writing operation is performed on a same group of the registers after every erasing operation is performed. Each of the erasing times represents the erasing operation performed on the nonvolatile status register 100, that is, the erasing operation is a step of erasing all stored data stored in a stored area in the nonvolatile status register 100.
One data register may be as shown in
Another data register may be as shown in
Another data register may be as shown in
It should be noted that a data of QE in a bit of S9 of the data register shown in
In one embodiment, the control circuit 200 is connected to the plurality of groups of the registers, and is configured to control the plurality of groups of the registers being performed the erasing operation after every plurality of times of the writing operations.
It should be noted that the erasing operation performed represents one of the erasing times, and the writing operation performed represents one of the writing times. The writing operation is performed on each group of the registers before sequentially erasing operations are performed, and a plurality of times of the writing operations may further be allowed to be performed on the plurality of groups of the registers. In this way, the writing times being greater than the erasing times of the nonvolatile status register 100 can be achieved, so that the number of the times of the erasing operations can be reduced in the case of the number of the times of the writing operations being unchanged, and thus the reliability of the nonvolatile status register 100 can be improved.
In one embodiment, a number of the groups of the registers in the nonvolatile status register is equal to a number of times of the writing operations performed during a period between two adjacent times of the erasing operations.
It should be noted that each writing operation may be performed on at least one group of the registers. The embodiment describes an example of performing each writing operation on a group of the registers. The number of the groups of the registers in the nonvolatile status register 100 represents the number of the times of the writing operations performed after the erasing operation is performed, or the number of the times of the writing operations performed before the erasing operation is performed. In the embodiment, the number of the groups of the registers can be configured according to desired equivalent erasing life, which is conducive to accurately predicting the desired equivalent erasing life.
In one embodiment, the flag register is configured to indicate a storage state of the at least one data register in a same group of the registers, and the storage state includes a writable state and a written state.
It should be noted that different values stored in the flag register in each group of the registers may be configured to represent the storage state of the group of the registers. For example, a value stored in the flag register being 0xFF represents that the group of the registers is blank and in the writable state; a value stored in the flag register being 0x00 represents that the group of the registers has been written and is in the written state. Wherein 0xFF represents “FF” of hexadecimal “0x”, which is 11111111 in binary. 0x00 represents “00” of hexadecimal “0x”, which is 00000000 in binary.
In one embodiment, definitions of 00 (0x00) and FF (0xFF) of the stored data stored in the flag registers may be vary according to types of the flag registers, that is, 00 may indicate that the data register is in the writeable state, and the FF may indicate that the data register is in the written state. Therefore, simple changes of the values of the stored data stored in the flag registers may further be included in a scope of the present application.
An embodiment of the present application provides a memory chip. As shown in
In the memory chip provided by the embodiment, the writing operation is performed on at least two groups of the registers respectively before every erasing operation is performed, which can achieved that writing times of the plurality of groups of the registers is greater than erasing times of the plurality of groups of the registers, so that a number of times of the erasing operations can be reduced in a case of a number of times of the writing operations being unchanged, and thus reliability of the nonvolatile status register can be improved. The writing operation being performed on a group of the registers indicates that the writing operation is performed on at least one data register in the group of the registers.
It should be noted that flag bits may exist independently, and a number of the flag bits may be one or more, for example, the number of the flag bits may be eight. The flag bits may further be configured in the flag register, in this case, the number of the flag bits in each flag register may be eight, that is, storage capacity of each flag register may be one or more bytes.
An embodiment of the present application provides a memory chip. The memory chip includes N groups of registers, and each group of the registers includes a flag register and M data register.
It should be noted that the N may be an integer greater than or equal to 2. After a writing operation is performed on each group of the registers, an erasing operation is performed on all groups of the registers, which can achieved that writing times is greater than erasing times of a plurality of groups of the registers, so that a number of times of the erasing operations can be reduced in a case of a number of times of the writing operations being unchanged, and thus reliability of nonvolatile status register can be improved.
Wherein the M may be an integer greater than or equal to 1.
In one embodiment, after the writing operation is respectively performed on each group of the registers, the erasing operation is performed on the plurality of groups of the registers.
It should be noted that after the writing operations are performed on the data registers in all groups of the registers, the erasing operations will be performed on all groups of the registers, which can prolong service life of the data registers.
In one embodiment, the flag register is configured to indicate a storage state of a corresponding group of the registers, and the storage state includes a writable state and a written state.
It should be noted that the storage state is the writable state if an above flag data of the flag register is 0xFF, and the storage state is the written state if the above flag data of the flag register is 0x00.
In one embodiment, as shown in
It should be noted that the above address sequence may be from a first storage address of the first group of the registers to a last storage address of a last group of the registers. A first group of the registers to a last group of the registers in the plurality of groups of the registers corresponds to the first storage address to the last storage address respectively. The first group of the registers may correspond to the first storage address, etc., the last group of the registers corresponds to the last storage address. However, the address sequence of the first storage address to the last storage address may be arranged in a positive sequence, that is, from small to large, or in a reverse sequence, that is, from large to small.
Taking the memory chip shown in
In one embodiment, the memory chip is further configured to be operated including a following step: recording stored data of each data register in a previous group of the current group of the registers to a buffer if the current group of the registers is not the first group of the registers. In one embodiment, the stored data of each data register in the previous group of the registers adjacent to the current group of the registers is recorded to the buffer according to the address sequence, it can be understood that data registers are generally edited according to the address sequence for those skilled in the art, of course, certain address segments may be skipped. The memory chip is further configured to be operated including a following step: writing the data to be written to the current group of the registers, wherein the data to be written includes flag data, an un-updated part of the stored data stored in the buffer, and data to be updated, the flag data is written to the flag register in the current group of the registers, the un-updated part of the stored data stored in the buffer is correspondingly written to data bits that that do not need to be updated in the current group of the registers, and the data to be updated is correspondingly written to data bits that need to be updated in the current group of the registers.
It should be noted that in the embodiment, the flag data may be “0x00” to indicate the storage state of the current group of the registers as the written state.
Taking the memory chip shown in
In one embodiment, as shown in
It should be noted that the storage state of the current group of the registers is not the writable state, that is, the storage state of the current group of the registers is the written state.
In one embodiment, as shown in
It should be noted that the erasing operation in the embodiment represents erasing all of storage areas where the plurality of groups of the registers are located.
In one embodiment, as shown in
It should be noted that the flag data may be “0x00” to indicate the storage state of the first group of the registers as the written state in the embodiment.
In the embodiment, when the storage state of the last group of the registers is the written state, it means that the storage state of all current groups of the registers are the written state, that is, no blank groups of the registers are capable to store the data to be written. Therefore, the erasing operation is needed to enable the data to be written to be written to the first group of the registers corresponding to the first storage address.
In the above embodiments, the description of each embodiment has its own emphasis. For parts not detailed in one embodiment, please refer to relevant description of other embodiments.
The above describes the memory chip provided by the embodiments of the present application in detail. In the present application, specific examples are used to describe a principle and an implementation mode of the present application. The above description of the embodiments is only used to help understand technical solutions and a core idea of the present application; those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions recorded in the aforementioned embodiments, or equivalent replace some of technical features; however, these modifications or substitutions do not make a nature of corresponding technical solutions separate from a scope of the present application.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202211204502.7 | Sep 2022 | CN | national |