Patents by Inventor Alan W. Sinclair

Alan W. Sinclair 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).

  • Patent number: 7627733
    Abstract: A method and system for reading data from a non-volatile mass storage device is provided. The method includes, performing logical configuration for the non-volatile mass storage device, wherein file data is allocated addresses in a virtual logical address space; and data identified by virtual logical addresses is read by a host system. The system includes a file storage segment that reads and writes data on a file-by-file basis, allowing a host system to access data from the non-volatile mass storage device using a file interface format; and a logical interface segment that allows the host system to access data using logical addressing, wherein the host system is unaware of a storage format under which data is stored on a file-by-file basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Publication number: 20090271562
    Abstract: A method and system for storage address re-mapping in a multi-bank memory is disclosed. The method includes allocating logical addresses in blocks of clusters and re-mapping logical addresses into storage address space, where short runs of host data dispersed in logical address space are mapped in a contiguous manner into megablocks in storage address space. Independently in each bank, valid data is flushed within each respective bank from blocks having both valid and obsolete data to make new blocks available for receiving data in each bank of the multi-bank memory when an available number of new blocks falls below a desired threshold within a particular bank.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2008
    Publication date: October 29, 2009
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Patent number: 7610437
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2009
    Assignee: Sandisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7590795
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7590794
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7581057
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host. A type of memory block is selected to receive additional data of a file that depends upon the types of blocks into which data of the file have already been written. Blocks containing data are selected for reclaiming any unused capacity therefrom by a process that selects blocks in order starting with those containing the least amount of valid data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7562181
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7558905
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host. A type of memory block is selected to receive additional data of a file that depends upon the types of blocks into which data of the file have already been written. Blocks containing data are selected for reclaiming any unused capacity therefrom by a process that selects blocks in order starting with those containing the least amount of valid data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7529905
    Abstract: A change in the amount of data to be stored that results from various encoding, compression, encryption or other data transformation algorithms, is handled by individually identifying distinct units of the transformed data and storing such units in physical succession within storage blocks of a memory system such as flash memory. The data being stored may come from a host system external to the memory system or from an application running on a processor within the memory system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2009
    Assignee: Sandisk Corporation
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Publication number: 20080307156
    Abstract: A method and system for interfacing a system operating through a logical address space with a direct file storage (DFS) medium is disclosed. The method includes receiving data associated with addresses in a logical block address (LBA) format from a host system and generating file objects manageable by the DFS medium based on a determination of the correlation of the LBA data to host file data. The memory system includes non-volatile memory using the DFS format, an interface for receiving LBA format data, and a controller configured to communicate with the host via an LBA interface and generate file objects from the LBA format data correlated to the host application files usable by the memory system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Publication number: 20080307164
    Abstract: A method and system for flushing physical memory blocks in a memory device is disclosed. The method includes detecting a quantity of available memory, background flushing partially obsolete memory blocks if the quantity decreases to a background activation threshold, disabling the background flushing if the quantity increases to a background deactivation threshold, foreground flushing the partially obsolete memory blocks if the quantity decreases to a foreground activation threshold, and disabling the foreground flushing if the quantity increases to a foreground deactivation threshold. The thresholds may be adaptively defined. The background flushing may occur when the host interface is idle. The foreground flushing may interleave writing operations with flushing operations while a write command is unfinished.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Publication number: 20080307155
    Abstract: A method and system for interfacing a system operating through a logical address space with a direct file storage (DFS) medium is disclosed. The method includes receiving data associated with addresses in a logical block address (LBA) format from a host system and generating file objects manageable by the DFS medium based on a determination of the correlation of the LBA data to host file data. The memory system includes non-volatile memory using the DFS format, an interface for receiving LBA format data, and a controller configured to communicate with the host via an LBA interface and generate file objects from the LBA format data correlated to the host application files usable by the memory system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Publication number: 20080307158
    Abstract: A method and system for providing advance data type information to a mass storage system is disclosed. The method may include a host system providing host file information, such as a host file identifier and/or a data type, to a memory system in addition to LBA format data. The system may include a processor, a memory system interface and a host file system operative on the processor to identify and provide host file information and/or data type information to the memory system along with LBA format data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventor: Alan W. Sinclair
  • Publication number: 20080307192
    Abstract: A method and system for storage address re-mapping is disclosed. The method includes allocating logical addresses in blocks of clusters and re-mapping logical addresses into storage address space, where short runs of data dispersed in logical address space are mapped in a contiguous manner into blocks in storage address space. Valid data is flushed from blocks having both valid and obsolete data to make new blocks available for receiving data when an available number of new blocks falls below a desired threshold. The system includes a host file system, processor executable instructions residing on a host separately from the host file system or residing on a flash memory device such as an embedded solid state disk, or a backend memory manager of the flash memory device that is configured to map data from a logical address space to complete blocks in storage address space in a contiguous manner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7450420
    Abstract: Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host. A type of memory block is selected to receive additional data of a file that depends upon the types of blocks into which data of the file have already been written. Blocks containing data are selected for reclaiming any unused capacity therefrom by a process that selects blocks in order starting with those containing the least amount of valid data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Sandisk Corporation
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Patent number: 7441067
    Abstract: A re-programmable non-volatile memory system, such as a flash EEPROM system, having its memory cells grouped into blocks of cells that are simultaneously erasable is operated in a manner to level out the wear of the individual blocks through repetitive erasing and re-programming. This may be accomplished without use of counts of the number of times the individual blocks experience erase and re-programming but such counts can optionally aid in carrying out the wear leveling process. Individual active physical blocks are chosen to be exchanged with those of an erased block pool in a predefined order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: SanDisk Corporation
    Inventors: Sergey A. Gorobets, Alan D. Bennett, Peter J. Smith, Alan W. Sinclair, Kevin M. Conley, Philip D. Royall
  • Publication number: 20080155176
    Abstract: Data files are assigned addresses within one or more logical blocks of a continuous logical address space interface (LBA interface) of a usual type of flash memory system with physical memory cell blocks. This assignment may be done by the host device which typically, but not necessarily, generates the data files. The number of logical blocks containing data of any one file is controlled in a manner that reduces the amount of fragmentation of file data within the physical memory blocks, thereby to maintain good memory performance. The host may configure the logical blocks of the address space in response to learning the physical characteristics of a memory to which it is connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Publication number: 20080155227
    Abstract: Data files are assigned addresses within one or more logical blocks of a continuous logical address space interface (LBA interface) of a usual type of flash memory system with physical memory cell blocks. This assignment may be done by the host device which typically, but not necessarily, generates the data files. The number of logical blocks containing data of any one file is controlled in a manner that reduces the amount of fragmentation of file data within the physical memory blocks, thereby to maintain good memory performance. The host may configure the logical blocks of the address space in response to learning the physical characteristics of a memory to which it is connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Publication number: 20080155175
    Abstract: Data files are assigned addresses within one or more logical blocks of a continuous logical address space interface (LBA interface) of a usual type of flash memory system with physical memory cell blocks. This assignment may be done by the host device which typically, but not necessarily, generates the data files. The number of logical blocks containing data of any one file is controlled in a manner that reduces the amount of fragmentation of file data within the physical memory blocks, thereby to maintain good memory performance. The host may configure the logical blocks of the address space in response to learning the physical characteristics of a memory to which it is connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright
  • Publication number: 20080155228
    Abstract: Data files are assigned addresses within one or more logical blocks of a continuous logical address space interface (LBA interface) of a usual type of flash memory system with physical memory cell blocks. This assignment may be done by the host device which typically, but not necessarily, generates the data files. The number of logical blocks containing data of any one file is controlled in a manner that reduces the amount of fragmentation of file data within the physical memory blocks, thereby to maintain good memory performance. The host may configure the logical blocks of the address space in response to learning the physical characteristics of a memory to which it is connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Alan W. Sinclair, Barry Wright