Patents by Inventor Alan Douglas Bryce
Alan Douglas Bryce has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 8239643Abstract: In a nonvolatile memory with block management system, critical data such as control data for the block management system is maintained in duplicates. Various methods are described for robustly writing and reading two copies of critical data in multi-state memory. In another aspect of the invention, a preemptive garbage collection on memory block containing control data avoids an undesirable situation where a large number of such memory blocks need be garbage collected at the same time.Type: GrantFiled: September 23, 2011Date of Patent: August 7, 2012Assignee: SanDisk Technologies Inc.Inventors: Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan Douglas Bryce, Alan David Bennett
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Patent number: 8117381Abstract: The present invention presents techniques for the linking of physical blocks of a non-volatile memory into composite logical structures or “metablocks”. After determining an initial linking of good physical blocks into metablocks, a record of the linking is maintained in the non-volatile memory where it can be readily accessed when needed. In one set of embodiments, the initially linking is deterministically formed according to an algorithm and can be optimized according to the pattern of any bad blocks in the memory. As additional bad blocks arise, the linking is updated using by replacing the bad blocks in a linking with good blocks, preferably in the same sub-array of the memory as the block that they are replacing.Type: GrantFiled: April 11, 2011Date of Patent: February 14, 2012Assignee: SanDisk Technologies Inc.Inventors: Carlos J. Gonzalez, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan David Bennett
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Publication number: 20120017038Abstract: In a nonvolatile memory with block management system, critical data such as control data for the block management system is maintained in duplicates. Various methods are described for robustly writing and reading two copies of critical data in multi-state memory. In another aspect of the invention, a preemptive garbage collection on memory block containing control data avoids an undesirable situation where a large number of such memory blocks need be garbage collected at the same time.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 23, 2011Publication date: January 19, 2012Inventors: Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan Douglas Bryce, Alan David Bennett
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Patent number: 8051257Abstract: In a nonvolatile memory with block management system, critical data such as control data for the block management system is maintained in duplicates. Various methods are described for robustly writing and reading two copies of critical data in multi-state memory. In another aspect of the invention, a preemptive garbage collection on memory block containing control data avoids an undesirable situation where a large number of such memory blocks need be garbage collected at the same time.Type: GrantFiled: August 13, 2004Date of Patent: November 1, 2011Assignee: SanDisk Technologies Inc.Inventors: Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan Douglas Bryce, Alan David Bennett
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Publication number: 20110191530Abstract: The present invention presents techniques for the linking of physical blocks of a non-volatile memory into composite logical structures or “metablocks”. After determining an initial linking of good physical blocks into metablocks, a record of the linking is maintained in the non-volatile memory where it can be readily accessed when needed. In one set of embodiments, the initially linking is deterministically formed according to an algorithm and can be optimized according to the pattern of any bad blocks in the memory. As additional bad blocks arise, the linking is updated using by replacing the bad blocks in a linking with good blocks, preferably in the same sub-array of the memory as the block that they are replacing.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 11, 2011Publication date: August 4, 2011Inventors: Carlos J. Gonzalez, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan David Bennett
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Patent number: 7970985Abstract: The present invention presents techniques for the linking of physical blocks of a non-volatile memory into composite logical structures or “metablocks”. After determining an initial linking of good physical blocks into metablocks, a record of the linking is maintained in the non-volatile memory where it can be readily accessed when needed. In one set of embodiments, the initially linking is deterministically formed according to an algorithm and can be optimized according to the pattern of any bad blocks in the memory. As additional bad blocks arise, the linking is updated using by replacing the bad blocks in a linking with good blocks, preferably in the same sub-array of the memory as the block that they are replacing.Type: GrantFiled: July 30, 2009Date of Patent: June 28, 2011Assignee: SanDisk CorporationInventors: Carlos J. Gonzalez, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan David Bennett
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Patent number: 7783845Abstract: The present invention presents a number of improvements for managing erase processes in non-volatile memory. Such memory systems typically manage the memory by logically organize the basic unit of physical erase (erase block) into composite logical groupings (meta-blocks or logical group), where an erase block generally consists of a number of sectors. When an erase command is received, the specified sectors are checked against the memory system's control data. If the specified sectors span any full logical grouping, the full logical groupings can each be treated as a whole and erased according to one process (such as performing a true, physical erase), while other sectors are “logically” erased at the sector level by standard techniques.Type: GrantFiled: November 14, 2005Date of Patent: August 24, 2010Assignee: SanDisk CorporationInventors: Alan David Bennett, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets
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Publication number: 20090292944Abstract: The present invention presents techniques for the linking of physical blocks of a non-volatile memory into composite logical structures or “metablocks”. After determining an initial linking of good physical blocks into metablocks, a record of the linking is maintained in the non-volatile memory where it can be readily accessed when needed. In one set of embodiments, the initially linking is deterministically formed according to an algorithm and can be optimized according to the pattern of any bad blocks in the memory. As additional bad blocks arise, the linking is updated using by replacing the bad blocks in a linking with good blocks, preferably in the same sub-array of the memory as the block that they are replacing.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 30, 2009Publication date: November 26, 2009Inventors: Carlos J. Gonzalez, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan David Bennett
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Patent number: 7624239Abstract: The present invention presents a number of improvements for managing erase processes in non-volatile memory. Such memory systems typically manage the memory by logically organize the basic unit of physical erase (erase block) into composite logical groupings (meta-blocks or logical group), where an erase block generally consists of a number of sectors. When an erase command is received, the specified sectors are checked against the memory system's control data. If the specified sectors span any full logical grouping, the full logical groupings can each be treated as a whole and erased according to one process (such as performing a true, physical erase), while other sectors are “logically” erased at the sector level by standard techniques.Type: GrantFiled: November 14, 2005Date of Patent: November 24, 2009Assignee: SanDisk CorporationInventors: Alan David Bennett, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets
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Patent number: 7139864Abstract: A non-volatile memory system is organized in physical groups of physical memory locations. Each physical group (metablock) is erasable as a unit and can be used to store a logical group of data. A memory management system allows for update of a logical group of data by allocating a metablock dedicated to recording the update data of the logical group. The update metablock records update data in the order received and has no restriction on whether the recording is in the correct logical order as originally stored (sequential) or not (chaotic). Eventually the update metablock is closed to further recording. One of several processes will take place, but will ultimately end up with a fully filled metablock in the correct order which replaces the original metablock. In the chaotic case, directory data is maintained in the non-volatile memory in a manner that is conducive to frequent updates. The system supports multiple logical groups being updated concurrently.Type: GrantFiled: December 30, 2003Date of Patent: November 21, 2006Assignee: SanDisk CorporationInventors: Alan David Bennett, Alan Douglas Bryce, Sergey Gorobets, Alan Welsh Sinclair, Peter John Smith
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Publication number: 20050144365Abstract: In a nonvolatile memory with block management system, critical data such as control data for the block management system is maintained in duplicates. Various methods are described for robustly writing and reading two copies of critical data in multi-state memory. In another aspect of the invention, a preemptive garbage collection on memory block containing control data avoids an undesirable situation where a large number of such memory blocks need be garbage collected at the same time.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 13, 2004Publication date: June 30, 2005Inventors: Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets, Alan Douglas Bryce, Alan David Bennett