Abstract: A method for performing data retention management of a memory device with aid of pre-shutdown control and associated apparatus are provided. The method may include: receiving a predetermined host command from a host device; in response to the predetermined host command, performing a re-programming procedure on the NV memory, for enhancing data storage reliability of the memory device, for example, reading stored data from at least one source location within the at least one NV memory element to prepare re-programming data according to the stored data, and programming the re-programming data into at least one destination location within the at least one NV memory element to be replacement of the stored data; and in response to the re-programming procedure being completed, sending completion information of the predetermined host command to the host device, to allow the host device to trigger the shutdown of the memory device.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and an apparatus for decoding a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code. The method, which is performed by a processing unit in an LDPC decoder, includes the following steps: determining whether a bit flipping algorithm when decoding a codeword enters a trapping state after an observation period during which a sequential selection strategy is used; and modifying a scheduling strategy to a non-sequential selection strategy and performing the bit flipping algorithm on the codeword under the non-sequential selection strategy when the bit flipping algorithm enters the trapping state. The codeword is divided into chunks in fixed-length and the sequential selection strategy indicates sequentially selecting the chunks in the codeword, so that the bit flipping algorithm is performed on one selected chunk only each time.

Abstract: A method for reading data stored in a flash memory. The flash memory comprises a plurality of memory cells and each memory cell has a particular threshold voltage. The method includes: obtaining a first threshold voltage distribution representing threshold voltages of a first group of the memory cells; obtaining a second threshold voltage distribution representing threshold voltages of a second group of the memory cells, wherein the second threshold voltage distribution is different from the first threshold voltage distribution, and the first group of the memory cells comprises at least a part of the second group of the memory cells; and controlling the flash memory to perform at least one read operation upon the first group of the memory cells according to the second threshold voltage distribution.

Abstract: A memory controller, for use in a data storage device, is provided. A low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoding procedure performed by the memory controller includes an initial phase, a decoding phase, and an output phase in sequence. The memory controller includes a memory-index control circuit and a decoder. The decoder includes a decoding pipeline to perform the decoding phase of the LDPC decoding procedure. After the data storage device is booted up, the decoder reads a plurality of first codewords from a variable-node memory using a first order via the memory-index control circuit for LDPC decoding. In response to the decoder determining that a specific codeword among the first codewords has decoding failure, the decoder is reset to read a plurality of second codewords from the variable-node memory using a second order via the memory-index control circuit for LDPC decoding. The first order is different from the second order.

Abstract: A control method for a multi-channel non-volatile memory is shown. When reading a read target on the non-volatile memory, the controller increases the read count of the monitored unit to which the read target belongs and, based on the read count, determines whether to move data of the monitored unit covering the read target to a safe space to deal with reading interference. The monitored unit is smaller than a cross-channel management unit in read-count group. The controller accesses a parallel accessing space of the non-volatile memory in parallel through all of the channels, and allocates the parallel accessing space based on the cross-channel management unit.

Abstract: A selecting bad data column method suitable for a data storage device is provided. The data storage device includes a control unit and a data storage medium. The selecting method performed by the control unit includes: reading written data of each data column as read data; comparing the read data and the written data of each data column to calculate an average number of error bits of each data column; determining whether the average number of error bits of each data column is greater than or equal to a predetermined value; and recording a data column as a bad data column when the average number of error bits of the data column is greater than or equal to the predetermined value. In this way, in order to avoid the problems that the error correction code can't be corrected or the correction capability is excessively consumed.

Abstract: A method for performing memory access of a Flash cell of a Flash memory includes: performing a plurality of sensing operations respectively corresponding to a plurality of sensing voltages to generate a first digital value and a second digital value of the Flash cell, the second digital value representing at least one candidate threshold voltage of the Flash cell; determining a threshold voltage of the Flash cell according to whether the at least one candidate threshold voltage is high or low; determining soft information of a bit stored in the Flash cell according to the threshold voltage of the Flash cell; and using the soft information to perform soft decoding.

Abstract: A method of a flash memory controller to be used in a storage device and coupled to a flash memory device of the storage device through a specific communication interface includes: using a set-feature signal, which carries a set-feature command, a macro execution feature address, and corresponding macro execution parameter information, as a macro execution signal and transmitting the macro execution signal to the flash memory device to make the flash memory device execute multiple set-feature operations respectively having unique information defined by the corresponding macro execution parameter information carried in the macro execution signal.

Abstract: A method of a flash memory controller to be used in a storage device and coupled to a flash memory device of the storage device through a specific communication interface includes: using a set-feature signal, which carries a set-feature command, a macro execution feature address, and corresponding macro execution parameter information, as a macro execution signal and transmitting the macro execution signal to the flash memory device to make the flash memory device execute multiple set-feature operations respectively having unique information defined by the corresponding macro execution parameter information carried in the macro execution signal.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method, and an apparatus for programming data into flash memory. The method includes: driving, by the routing engine, a host interface (I/F) according to the front-end parameter set when determining that a front-end processing stage needs to be activated for the data-programming transaction; driving, by the accelerator, a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) engine according to the mid-end parameter set when receiving an activation message of the data-programming transaction from the routing engine and determining that a mid-end processing stage needs to be activated; and driving, by the accelerator, a data access engine according to the back-end parameter set when determining that the mid-end processing stage for the data-write transaction does not need to be activated or the mid-end processing stage for the data-write transaction has been completed, and a back-end processing stage for the data-write transaction needs to be activated.

Abstract: A flash memory scheme simplifies the command sequences transmitted between a flash memory device and a flash memory controller into a simplified command sequence so as to reduce the waiting time period of the command transmission and improve the performance of flash memory.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method, a non-transitory computer program product, and an apparatus for encrypting and decrypting physical-address information. The method includes: receiving a first read command requesting of the flash controller for first physical block addresses (PBAs) corresponding to a logical block address (LBA) range from a host side, wherein each first PBA indicates which physical address that user data of a first LBA of the LBA range is physically stored in a flash device; reading the first PBAs corresponding to the LBA range from the flash device; arranging the first PBAs into entries; encrypting content of each entry by using an encryption algorithm with an encryption parameter to obtain an encrypted entry; and delivering the encrypted entries to the host side.

Abstract: The invention introduces a method, an apparatus and a non-transitory computer program product for storing data in flash memory. The method is performed by a processing unit when loading and executing program code of a flash translation layer to include: dividing storage space of a flash module into a first region and a second region; programming data belonging to a first partition type received from a host side into first physical blocks of the first region only; and programming data belonging to a second partition type received from the host side into the first physical blocks of the first region and the second physical blocks of the second region. With the region division and the policy for writing data into the regions in terms of data characteristics of different partition types, storage space of the flash module would be used more effective.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for decoding a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code. The method includes the following steps, which is performed by an LDPC decoder including a variable-node calculation circuitry and a check-node calculation circuitry: A first-stage state entering when a codeword has been stored in a static random access memory (SRAM) is detected. The check-node calculation circuitry is arranged operably to perform a modulo 2 multiplication on the codeword and a parity check matrix to calculate a plurality of first syndromes in the first-stage state. A second-stage state is entered when the first syndromes indicate that the codeword obtained in the first-stage state is incorrect. The variable-node calculation circuitry is arranged operably to perform a bit flipping algorithm accordingly to generate variable nodes, and calculate second soft bits for the variable nodes in the second-stage state.

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for generating a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code. The apparatus includes: a LDPC encoder, a look-ahead circuitry and an exclusive-OR (XOR) calculation circuitry. The LDPC encoder is arranged operably to encode a front part of a user data using a 2-stage encoding algorithm with a parity check matrix to generate a first calculation result. The look-ahead circuitry is arranged operably to perform a dot product operation on a rear part of the user data and one of a plurality of feature rows corresponding to the parity check matrix to generate a second calculation result in each iteration. The XOR calculation circuitry is arranged operably to perform an XOR operation on the first calculation result and the second calculation result to generate a front part of the LDPC code.

Abstract: For an encoder for use in a flash memory controller, partial parity blocks generated in the encoder are divided into two parts for further operations, wherein a number of partial parity block(s) of the first part generated earlier is less than a number of partial parity block(s) of the second part. The encoder can reduce the hardware required for the circulant convolution calculation in the encoder, and has high efficiency. In addition, by converting a parity-check matrix to generate an isomorphic matrix, some components in the encoder and the decoder can be further omitted, so as to further reduce the manufacturing cost.

Abstract: A flash memory method includes: classifying data into a plurality of groups of data; respectively executing error code encoding to generate first corresponding parity check code to store the groups of data and first corresponding parity check code into flash memory module as first blocks; reading out the groups of data from first blocks; executing error correction and de-randomize operation upon read out data to generate de-randomized data; executing randomize operation upon de-randomized data according to a set of seeds to generate randomized data; performing error code encoding upon randomized data to generate second corresponding parity check code; and, storing randomized data and second corresponding parity check code into flash memory module as second block; a cell of first block is used for storing data of first bit number which is different from second bit number corresponding to a cell of second block.

Abstract: The present invention provides a fractional frequency divider, wherein the fractional frequency divider includes a plurality of registers, a counter, a control signal generator and a clock gating circuit. Regarding the plurality of registers, at least a portion of the registers are set to have values The counter is configured to sequentially generate a plurality of counter values, wherein the plurality of counter values correspond to the at least a portion of the registers, respectively, and the plurality of counter values are generated repeatedly The control signal generator is configured to generate a control signal based on the received counter value and the value of the corresponding register. The clock gating circuit is configured to refer to the control signal to mask or not mask an input clock signal to generate an output clock signal.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method, an apparatus and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for debugging a solid-state disk (SSD) device. The method is performed by a processing unit of a single-board personal computer (PC) when loading and executing a function of a runtime library, to include: receiving a request to drive a General-Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) interface (I/F), which includes a parameter required for completing a Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) command; issuing a first hardware instruction to the GPIO I/F to set a register corresponding to a GPIO test data input (TDI) pin according to the parameter carried in the request for emulating to issue the JTAG command to a solid-state disk (SSD) device, wherein the single-board PC is coupled to the SSD device through the GPIO I/F; issuing a second hardware instruction to the GPIO I/F to read a value of the register corresponding to the GPIO TDI pin; and replying with a completion message in response to the request.

Abstract: The present invention provides a storage device including a controller and methods for operating the storage device and the controller. A controller of a storage device may comprise: an interface controller; a memory controller; a processor configured to transmit downstream commands and upstream commands to the memory controller. The memory controller may be coupled between the interface controller and the processor and may comprise: a first command queue; a second command queue; and a tag generator. The memory controller may be configured to: store a first command received from the processor in the first command queue; store a second command received from the processor in the second command queue; and in response to a first access region of the first command overlapping a second access region of the second command in the second queue, assign an order tag to the second command based on a first serial number of the first command by the tag generator.