A method for garbage collection in a NAND flash memory system is disclosed. The method includes the steps of receiving a data request task in the NAND flash memory system; executing the data request task in the NAND flash memory system; based on the condition where the number of free data pages in the NAND flash memory system is below the first pre-determined threshold, determining whether a data block partial garbage collection list is empty; based on the condition where the data block partial garbage collection list is empty, selecting a victim block in the NAND flash memory system; and creating a plurality of data block partial garbage collection tasks.

The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods related to a memory protocol. An example apparatus can perform operations on a number of block buffers of the memory device based on commands received from a host using a block configuration register, wherein the operations can read data from the number of block buffers and write data to the number of block buffers on the memory device.

A storage control apparatus includes: a pre-processing-execution determining block for determining whether or not either one of an erase operation and a program operation is to be executed as pre-processing in a write operation to be carried out on a predetermined data area to serve as a write-operation object; and a pre-read processing block for reading out pre-read data from the data area prior to the write operation if a result of the determination indicates that the pre-processing is to be executed. The apparatus further includes a bit operating block for carrying out: the pre-processing and one of the erase and program operations which is not the pre-processing as post-processing if a result of the determination indicates that the pre-processing is to be executed; and the post-processing without carrying out the pre-processing if a determination result indicates that the pre-processing is not to be executed.

The invention introduces an apparatus for handling flash physical-resource sets, at least including a random access memory (RAM), a processing unit and an address conversion circuit. The RAM includes multiple segments of temporary space and each segment thereof stores variables associated with a specific flash physical-resource set. The processing unit accesses user data of a flash physical-resource set when executing program code of a Flash Translation Layer (FTL). The address conversion circuit receives a memory address issued from the FTL, converts the memory address into a relative address of one segment of temporary space associated with the flash physical-resource set and outputs the relative address to the RAM for accessing a variable of the associated segment of temporary space.

A method for managing processing power in a storage system is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of blades, each of a first subset having a storage node and storage memory, and each of a second, differing subset having a compute-only node. The method includes distributing authorities across the plurality of blades, to a plurality of nodes including at least one compute-only node, wherein each authority has ownership of a range of user data.

According to an embodiment, when receiving a read request designating a logical address range of a particular size or more from a host, a first circuit issues a plurality of first sub-commands, each of which is a sub-command for each first data unit, in order of logical addresses. A second circuit respectively adds serial numbers corresponding to the plurality of first sub-commands in the order of issuance. A plurality of third circuits respectively executes processing of specifying locations of the first data unit based on management information for the plurality of first sub-commands in a distributed manner. A fifth circuit reorders the plurality of first sub-commands in the logical address order based on the serial numbers after the processing by the plurality of third circuits. A sixth circuit executes a read operation on a first memory based on the plurality of first sub-commands reordered in the order of logical addresses.

Aspects of a storage device including a master chip controller and a slave chip processor and memory including a plurality of memory locations are provided which allow for simplified processing of descriptors associated with host commands in the slave chip based on an adaptive context metadata message from the master chip. When the controller receives a host command, the controller in the master chip provides to the processor in the slave chip a descriptor associated with a host command, an instruction to store the descriptor in the one of the memory locations, and the adaptive context metadata message mapping a type of the descriptor to the one of the memory locations. The processor may then process the descriptor stored in the one of the memory locations based on the message, for example, by refraining from identifying certain information indicated in the descriptor. Reduced latency in command execution may thereby result.

A storage system is provided. The storage system includes a plurality of storage units, each having a controller and solid-state storage memory. The storage system further includes one or more first pathways that couple processing devices of a plurality of storage nodes and is configured to couple to a network external to the storage system and one or more second pathways that couple the plurality of storage nodes to the plurality of storage units, wherein the one or more second pathways enable multiprocessing applications.

An electronic device includes a first memory suitable for storing a plurality of segment codes each associated with at least one operation; a second memory; and a processor suitable for loading a first segment code among the plurality of segment codes from the first memory to the second memory, and performing an operation associated with the first segment code by executing the first segment code loaded into the second memory.

A data storage device may include a storage including a plurality of memory blocks composed of system memory blocks for storing system data and user memory blocks for storing user data; and a controller configured to: control exchange of the system and user data with the storage in response to a request of a host device; and determine whether a start condition for performing a garbage collection operation on the storage is satisfied, based on a number of bad memory blocks in the plurality of memory blocks.