This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0009208, filed on Jan. 30, 2012, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The inventive concepts relate to a memory device, a memory system, and/or a programming method thereof, and more particularly, to a memory device, a memory system, and/or a programming method thereof that may improve performance of a device and/or a system.
As memory devices become small and highly integrated, a data reading speed of the memory device greatly affects performance of the memory device or a memory system.
The inventive concepts provide a memory device, a memory system, and/or a programming method thereof that may improve performance of a device and/or a system.
According to at least one example embodiment, a memory system comprises a memory controller configured to set first type offset information corresponding to a first type of data and set a second type offset information corresponding to a second type of data; and a memory device configured to receive the first type offset information to program the first type of data in a first type of page that is read at a first speed and receive the second type offset information to program the second type of data in a second type of page that is read at a second speed, the first speed being different from the second speed.
According to at least one example embodiment, the first type of data is more frequently accessed in the memory device than the second type of data.
According to at least one example embodiment, the first type of data requires a rapid programming time or a rapid reading time compared to the second type of data.
According to at least one example embodiment, the first speed is greater than the second speed.
According to at least one example embodiment, a time to read the first type of page is shorter than a time to read the second type of page.
According to at least one example embodiment, the memory device includes a plurality of blocks, and the first type of page and the second type of page are in different blocks from among the plurality of blocks.
According to at least one example embodiment, the memory device includes a plurality of blocks, and the first type of page and the second type of page are in a same block from among the plurality of blocks.
According to at least one example embodiment, the memory controller includes a counter configured to count a requested access frequency of data, and the memory controller is configured to classify the data into the first type of data and the second type of data according to a result of the counter.
According to at least one example embodiment, the memory device is a multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory, and the memory system is a solid state drive (SSD).
According to at least one example embodiment, the first type of page and the second type of page are configured to share a same word line of the memory device, and a number of reading operations for distinguishing data of the first type of page is less than a number of reading operations for distinguishing data of the second type of page.
According to at least one example embodiment, the first speed and the second speed correspond to programming times of the first type of page and the second type of page.
According to at least one example embodiment, a programming method of an MLC NAND flash memory device comprises programming a first type of data in a first type of page that is read at a first speed according to first type offset information; and programming a second type of data in a second type of page that is read at a second speed according to second type offset information.
According to at least one example embodiment, a time to read the first type of page is less than a time to read the second type of page.
According to at least one example embodiment, the first type of page and the second type of page share a same word line of the memory device, and a number of reading operations for distinguishing data of the first type of page is less than a number of reading operations for distinguishing data of the second type of page.
According to at least one example embodiment, the NAND flash memory device is in a solid state drive (SSD), and the first type offset information and the second type offset information are transmitted from a memory controller in the SSD.
According to at least one example embodiment, a memory device comprises a memory array including at least one memory block; and a control logic configured to program first data and second data into the at least one memory block, the first data being programmed into a first page of the at least one memory block, the second data being programmed into a second page of the at least one memory block, the first data being accessed more frequently than the second data in the at least one memory block.
According to at least one example embodiment, the control logic is configured to program the first data according to first offset information, and program second data according to second offset information, the first offset information corresponding to characteristics of the first page, and the second offset information corresponding to characteristics of the second page.
According to at least one example embodiment, wherein the characteristics of the first page relate to a number of operations required to read the first data, and the characteristics of the second page relate to a number of operations required to read the second data.
According to at least one example embodiment, the number of operations required to read the first data is less than the number of operations required to read the second data.
According to at least one example embodiment, the first and second pages share a same word line in the memory array, and the control logic is configured to program the first data into a region including a least significant bit of the word line, and the control logic is configured to program the second data into a region including a most significant bit of the word line.
Exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Hereinafter, the inventive concepts will be described in detail by explaining embodiments of the inventive concepts with reference to the attached drawings.
The inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the example embodiments set forth herein; rather, these example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the inventive concepts to one of ordinary skill in the art.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments and is not intended to limit the inventive concepts. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,”, “includes”, and/or “including” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the inventive concepts.
Hereinafter, example embodiments of the inventive concepts will be described with reference to accompanying drawings schematically illustrating the example embodiments. In the drawings, for example, illustrated shapes may be deformed according to fabrication technology and/or tolerances. Therefore, the example embodiments of the inventive concepts are not limited to certain shapes illustrated in the present specification, and may include modifications or deviations of shapes caused in fabrication processes.
As used herein, expressions such as “at least one of,” when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modify the individual elements of the list.
The memory system MSYS includes a memory controller Ctrl and a memory device MEM. The memory controller Ctrl sets first type offset information OFS1t with respect to a first type of data HDTA and sets second type offset information OFS2t with respect to a second type of data CDTA.
The first type of data HDTA may be data that is frequently accessed in the memory device MEM. The second type of data CDTA may be data that is less frequently accessed in the memory device MEM compared to the first type of data HDTA. Accordingly, the first type of data HDTA and the second type of data CDTA may be referred to as hot data and cold data, respectively.
For example, the first type of data HDTA may be meta data for the memory device MEM, and the second type of data CDTA may be user data. However, the first type of data HDTA and the second type of data CDTA are not limited to the meta data and the user data, respectively. Also, irrespective of access frequency, the first type of data HDTA may be data that requires a relatively rapid read time or a relatively rapid programming time, and the second type of data CDTA may be data that does not require a relatively rapid read time or a relatively rapid programming time compared to the first type of data. The first type offset information OFS1t and the second type offset information OFS2t include information regarding a property of an area where data is programmed in the memory device MEM, which will be described later.
Referring to
Referring to
For example, the host interface unit 213 may provide an interface of an SATA or an SAS protocol to the host device HOST. However, the inventive concepts are not limited thereto, and the host interface unit 213 may provide an interface to various interface protocols such as universal serial bus (USB), man machine communication (MMC), peripheral component interconnect-express (PCI-E), parallel advanced technology attachment (PATA), small computer system interface (SCSI), enhanced small device interface (ESDI), or intelligent drive electronics (IDE).
The memory interface unit 215 may provide an interface to the memory device MEM to program or read data requested by the host device HOST. For example, the memory interface unit 215 may provide a result of converting a logical block address transmitted from the host device HOST into a physical address with respect to a page of the memory device MEM, which may be a flash memory, to the memory device MEM.
Operations between the host device HOST and the memory device MEM may be performed by a firmware included in the SRAM 212 under the control of the processor 211. For example, the firmware may, as shown in
The memory device MEM of the memory system MSYS may include a memory cell array MA having a structure as shown in
When the memory cell array MA is a memory cell array of a NAND flash memory device as described above, each of the blocks BLK0 to BLKa-1 of
In the NAND flash memory device having a structure as shown in
One or more pages may be set in each word line of
Referring to
In
As shown in
For example, in the 2-bit MLC NAND flash device, each word line may be shared by a least significant bit (LSB) page, which is read at a reading voltage having a voltage level between a program state P1 and a program state P2 of
For example, the word line 0 WL0 of
In the above-described example, only a single reading voltage is required to read the LSB page, while two reading voltages are required to read the MSB page. In this case, only a single reading operation is required to read the LSB page, while two reading operations are required to read the MSB page. Thus, reading speeds required to read the LSB page and the MSB page may be different.
In the memory system MSYS according to at least one example embodiment, a first type of data and a second type of data classified according to data properties may be programmed in the corresponding pages from among the pages having different properties to improve reading characteristics and decrease latency of the memory device MEM or the memory system MSYS. A structure and operations of the memory device MEM according to at least one example embodiment will be described in detail below.
Referring to
The memory device MEM of at least one example embodiment performs programming through the following operations, which are similar to the memory device MEM of
The first type offset information OFS1t may indicate that a page in which data is to be programmed is the first type of page PAG1t that is read at a first speed. Similarly, the second type offset information OFS2t may indicate a page in which data is to be programmed is the second type of page PAG2t that is read at a second speed.
In
In the above-described example, the first speed may be higher than the second speed. As described above, a difference between reading speeds of the first type of page PAG1t and the second type of page PAG2t may be related to the required number of reading operations. For example, when the number of reading operations required to read data of the corresponding page is relatively small, a reading speed of the corresponding page may be relatively high. On the other hand, when the number of reading operations required to read data of the corresponding page is relatively great, the reading speed of the corresponding page may be relatively low. For example, since the number of reading operations required to read the first type of page PAG1t is smaller than the number of reading operations required to read the second type of page PAG2t, time to read the first type of page PAG1t may be relatively short. Accordingly, for example, only a single reading operation is required to read the LSB page, while two reading operations are required to read the MSB page in the 2-bit MLC NAND flash device, and thus a reading speed of the LSB page may be higher than that of the MSB page.
According to the memory device MEM of at least one example embodiment, data having a frequent access speed may be stored in a page having a high reading speed, thereby improving a reading performance of the memory device MEM and improving the whole performance of the memory device MEM accordingly.
Referring back to
Referring to
Still referring to
In the memory device MEM according to at least one example embodiment, as shown in
In the above description, the 2-bit MLC flash memory device has been described. However, the inventive concepts are not limited thereto. For example, the memory device MEM may be an MLC NAND flash memory device having at least 3 bits.
When the memory device MEM of the current embodiment is an MLC NAND flash memory device having at least 3 bits, three pages may be shared in each word line. For example, a page a PAGa, a page a′ PAGa′, and a page a″ PAGa″ may be set with respect to the word line 0 WL0 of the memory device MEM, a page b PAGb, a page b′ PAGb′, and a page b″ PAGb″ may be set with respect to the word line 1 WL1, and a page c PAGc, a page c′ PAGc′, and a page c″ PAGc″ may be set with respect to the word line 2 WL2. A page d PAGd, a page d′ PAGd′, and a page d″ PAGd″ may be set with respect to the word line e-1 WLe-1 in the same manner.
In a 3-bit MLC flash memory device, three pages shared in each word line may be an LSB page that is read at a reading voltage having a voltage level between a program state P3 and a program state P4 of
In the above-described example, as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
The computer system CSYS may further include a power supply device PS. Also, the computer system CSYS may further include a volatile memory device, e.g., RAM, for sending/receiving data between the processor CPU and the memory system MSYS.
When the computer system CSYS is a mobile device, a battery and a modem, such as a baseband chipset for supplying an operation voltage of the computer system CSYS, may be additionally provided. The computer system CSYS may further include an application chipset, a camera image processor (CIS), a mobile DRAM, etc.
Referring to
According to an example embodiment, when the reading speeds of the first type of page and the second type of page are different, programming speeds of the first type of page and the second type of page may be different and correspond to the difference in the reading speed. For example, in order to program an MSB page in the 2-bit MLC flash memory device as shown in
According to a memory device, a memory system, and a programming method of the inventive concepts, a first type of data and a second type of data classified according to data properties may be programmed in the corresponding pages from among pages having different properties to improve the whole performance and decrease latency of the memory device or the memory system.
While the inventive concepts have been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2012-0009208 | Jan 2012 | KR | national |