Abstract: The invention introduces an apparatus for detecting errors during data encryption. The apparatus includes a search circuitry and a substitution check circuitry. The key generation circuitry is arranged operably to convert a first value of one byte corresponding to a plaintext, an intermediate encryption result, or a round key into a second value of a K-bit according to an 8-to-K lookup table, where K is an integer ranging from 10 to 15 and the second value comprises (K minus 8) bits of a Hamming parity. The substitution check circuitry is arranged operably to employ check formulae corresponding to the 8-to-K lookup table to determine whether an error is occurred during a conversion of the first value of the one byte into the second value of the K-bit, and output an error signal when finding the error, where a total amount of the formulae is K minus 8.

Abstract: A method for performing link management of a memory device in predetermined communications architecture with aid of handshaking phase transition control and associated apparatus are provided. The method may include: utilizing at least one upper layer controller of a transmission interface circuit to turn on a physical layer (PHY) circuit of the transmission interface circuit, for starting establishing a link between a host device and the memory device; before entering a first handshaking phase, utilizing the PHY circuit to receive any first incoming data sent from the host device to determine whether the any first incoming data indicates that the host device is in a corresponding first handshaking phase; and in response to the any first incoming data indicating that the host device is in the corresponding first handshaking phase, utilizing the PHY circuit to send first outgoing data that is equal to first predetermined data to the host device.

Abstract: A method of a flash memory controller includes: providing an input/output (I/O) circuit coupled to a flash memory device through a specific communication interface; and, controlling a processor sending a specific read command or a data toggle command through the I/O circuit and the specific communication interface into the flash memory device, to make the flash memory device perform a data toggle operation to control the flash memory device's data register selecting and transferring a first data unit and a second data unit to the flash memory device's I/O control circuit to make the I/O control circuit sequentially transmit the first data unit and the second data unit to the flash memory controller through the specific communication interface in response to the specific read command or the data toggle command.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and an apparatus for programming data into flash memory. The method includes: generating a front-end parameter set, a mid-end parameter set and a back-end parameter set for each data-programming transaction; transmitting the front-end parameter set of each data-programming transaction to a routing engine, thereby enabling the routing engine to drive a host interface (I/F) to obtain from the host side; transmitting the mid-end parameter set of each data-programming transaction to an accelerator, thereby enabling the accelerator to drive the RAID engine to encrypt raw data or generate parity-page data according to multiple pages of the raw data; and transmitting the back-end parameter set of each data-programming transaction to the accelerator, thereby enabling the accelerator to drive a data access engine to program source data into a designated physical address of a flash module.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for programming data into flash memory. The method includes: obtaining, by the accelerator, an execution table indicating that data related to the first virtual carrier need to go through a mid-end and a back-end processing stages earlier than data related to other virtual carriers; driving, by the routing engine, a host interface (I/F) to obtain data associated with all cargos in the second virtual carrier, updating the second cargo flags with third cargo flags to indicate that data associated with all the cargos in the second virtual carrier are prepared in the front-end processing stage; and determining, by the accelerator, that data associated with any cargo in the first virtual carrier hasn't been prepared according to information of the first cargo flags, and disallowing the second virtual carrier to proceed to the following processing stages.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and an apparatus for accessing to encoding-history information. The method includes: providing a super-block formed by storage space of flash units, where the super-block includes zones, each zone includes super-page strings, and each super-page string includes pages across the flash units; and programming encoding-history information into a metadata section of a designated first page of a designated super-page string, thereby enabling a damaged page that is occurred in the designated super-page string of the designated zone to be recovered according to the encoding-history information. The encoding-history information includes a history profile and history entries. The history profile indicates which zone or zones are covered in the super-block, and a quantity of the history entries.

Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory device includes multiple predetermined memory blocks that are configured as a buffer for receiving data from a host device. The memory controller performs a write operation in response to a write command issued by the host device, and during the write operation, the memory controller maintains a first quantity count value for counting a number of the predetermined memory block(s) that has/have been written with data, determines a number of the predetermined memory block(s) which is/are released in response to the write operation and maintains a second quantity count value based on this number. After the write operation, the memory controller updates the first quantity count value based on the second quantity count value when determining that the host device has requested to perform a flush operation on the predetermined memory blocks.

Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory device includes multiple memory blocks. The memory blocks includes one or more spare memory blocks that are not written with data and one or more predetermined memory blocks that are configured as a buffer for receiving data from a host device. The memory controller is coupled to the memory device and configured to access the memory device. The memory controller is configured to determine a setting value of a number of said one or more predetermined memory blocks according to a number of currently remaining spare memory block(s), a number of the predetermined memory block(s) that has/have been written with data among said one or more predetermined memory blocks and a predetermined threshold, and configure the number of the predetermined memory block(s) as the buffer according to the setting value.

Abstract: The invention introduces a method for performing data writes into a flash memory, at least including the steps: determining whether at least one host write command that requires to process immediately is presented in a submission queue (SQ) before performing a portion of a Host-Flash mapping (H2F) table update or a GC process; and executing the host write command that requires to process immediately in a batch and then performing the portion of the H2F table update or the GC process when the determination is positive.

Abstract: A bridge control chip includes a first interface, a second interface, and a processor, wherein the first interface is coupled to a host device, the second interface is coupled to a memory device, and the memory device is a flash memory device. The processor is arranged to execute commands in a queue in sequence, to transmit the commands in the queue to the memory device through the second interface in sequence, wherein when the processor receives one or more received commands from the host device, the processor sorts the one or more received commands and commands which are currently and temporarily stored in the queue according to a distance between a logical address of each of the one or more received commands and a logical address of a current command in the queue that is currently executed by the processor.

Abstract: The invention introduces a method for scheduling and executing host data-update commands. A first queue and a second queue are provided. The first queue includes first host data-update commands each including a first logical address. The second queue includes second host data-update commands each including a second logical address. A third host data-update command including a third logical address is generated and is labeled as a first type of host data-update command according to a host command received from a host side. A redundant first logical address is removed from a matched one of the first host data-update commands in response that the third logical address is the same as any first logical address. A redundant second logical address is removed from a matched one of the second host data-update commands in response that the third logical address is the same as any second logical address.

Abstract: The invention introduces a method for scheduling and executing host data-update commands. A first queue and a second queue are provided. The first queue includes first host data-update commands each including a first logical address. The second queue includes second host data-update commands each including a second logical address. A third host data-update command including a third logical address is generated and is labeled as a first type of host data-update command according to a host command received from a host side. All the first host data-update commands of the first queue are popped out and executed in response that the third logical address is the same as any first logical address. All the second host data-update commands of the second queue are popped out and executed in response that the third logical address is the same as any second logical address.

Abstract: A method of a flash memory controller includes: controlling an I/O circuit using a set-feature signal, which carries a set-feature command, feature address, and parameter information, and transmitting the set-feature signal to a flash memory device; the feature address corresponds to a valid data portion or a dummy data portion following the valid data portion, and both the valid data portion and dummy data portion are comprised in a full page data which is to be written into a physical page unit of the flash memory device or to be read out from the physical page unit; the corresponding parameter information is used to record the valid data portion's column address and data length, the dummy data portion's column address and data length, the dummy data portion's column address and the valid data portion's, or the dummy data portion's data length and the valid data portion's data length.

Abstract: A method of a storage device controller includes: using an interface circuit for receiving and storing different write address information of different write command signals sent from a host device, the different write address information being out of sequence; and, using multiple processor cores to rearrange the different write address information in sequence and then write data into at least one storage zone according to the different write address information rearranged in sequence.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for performing access management of a memory device in a Host Performance Booster (HPB) architecture with aid of device side table information encoding and decoding are provided. The method may include: encoding internal information of the memory device and sending encoded result thereof to a host device, to allow the host device to store the encoded result in a memory within the host device as host-owned encoded device side table information at the host device; generating and storing multiple entries of address mapping control table into a RAM as at least one portion of device side table information at the memory device; decoding partial information of the host-owned encoded device side table information, performing checking operation on decoded result thereof, and selectively using the decoded result to determine physical address associated with logical address; and reading data from the NV memory according to the physical address.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for performing access management of a memory device in a Host Performance Booster (HPB) architecture with aid of device side table information encoding and decoding are provided. The method may include: encoding internal information of the memory device and sending encoded result thereof to a host device, to allow the host device to store the encoded result in a memory within the host device as host-owned encoded device side table information at the host device; generating and storing multiple entries of address mapping control table into a RAM as at least one portion of device side table information at the memory device; decoding partial information of the host-owned encoded device side table information, performing checking operation on decoded result thereof, and selectively using the decoded result to determine physical address associated with logical address; and reading data from the NV memory according to the physical address.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for accessing a flash memory module, wherein the method includes the steps of: writing data into a plurality of pages of a specific block, and establishes or updates a F2H mapping table based on physical addresses of the plurality of pages and logical addresses of the data; using the F2H mapping table to update a H2F mapping table; initializing a flush-bitmap, wherein the flush-bitmap records a plurality of flush bits corresponding to the physical addresses of the plurality of pages, respectively; receiving a trim command from a host device, wherein the trim command asks to mark at least one of the logical addresses of the data as invalid; updating the H2F mapping data according to the trim command; updating the flush-bitmap according to the trim command; and writing the updated H2F mapping table and the updated flush-bitmap into the flash memory module.

Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. When a sub-region of the memory device is selected based on a predetermined rule to perform a data rearrangement procedure, the memory controller determines whether the selected sub-region is a system data sub-region. When determining that the selected sub-region is not a system data sub-region, the memory controller performs the data rearrangement procedure on the selected sub-region to move data corresponding to logical addresses belonging to the selected sub-region to a memory space of the memory device having continuous physical addresses, and when determining that the selected sub-region is a system data sub-region, the memory controller does not perform the data rearrangement procedure on the selected sub-region.

Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory controller maintains a write count for each sub-region of the memory device. When the memory controller has selected one or more sub-regions to perform a data rearrangement procedure, the memory controller further determines whether a selected sub-region is a hot-write sub-region according to the write count corresponding to the selected sub-region. When the memory controller determines that the selected sub-region is not a hot-write sub-region, the memory controller performs the data rearrangement procedure on the selected sub-region to move data corresponding to logical addresses belonging to the selected sub-region to a memory space of the memory device having continuous physical addresses. When the memory controller determines that the selected sub-region is a hot-write sub-region, the memory controller does not perform the data rearrangement procedure on the selected sub-region.

Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory controller uses a first predetermined memory block as a buffer to receive data from a host device. In response to a write command received from the host device, the memory controller determines a sub-region corresponding to the write command, determines whether the sub-region is a hot-write sub-region according to a write count corresponding to the sub-region and accordingly determines whether to use a second predetermined memory block as another buffer to receive data from the host device. When the memory controller determines that the sub-region corresponding to the write command is a hot-write sub-region, the memory controller writes the data into the second predetermined memory block. When the memory controller determines that the sub-region is not a hot-write sub-region, the memory controller writes the data into the first predetermined memory block.