Patents by Inventor Chia-Chi Liang

Chia-Chi Liang 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).

  • Publication number: 20240094912
    Abstract: A method for accessing a flash memory module includes: determining a type of data to be written into the flash memory module; selecting a specific encoding/decoding setting from a plurality of sets of encoding/decoding settings at least according to the type of data, wherein the plurality of sets of encoding/decoding settings correspond to different data lengths, respectively; utilizing the specific encoding/decoding setting to encode the data to generate encoded data; and writing the encoded data into a block of the flash memory module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Hsiao-Chang Yen, Tsu-Han Lu
  • Publication number: 20240094915
    Abstract: A method for accessing a flash memory module includes: selecting a block in the flash memory module; selecting a specific encoding/decoding setting from a plurality of sets of encoding/decoding settings at least according to an erase count of the block, wherein the plurality of sets of encoding/decoding settings include different error correction code (ECC) lengths, respectively; utilizing the specific encoding/decoding setting to encode a data to generate an encoded data; and writing the encoded data into the block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Hsiao-Chang Yen, Tsu-Han Lu
  • Patent number: 11809748
    Abstract: The present invention provides a control method of a flash memory controller, wherein the flash memory controller is configured to access a flash memory module, the flash memory module includes a plurality of planes, and each plane includes a plurality of blocks; and the control method includes the steps of: after the flash memory controller is powered on, reading a first code bank from a specific block of the plurality of blocks; storing the first code bank into a buffer memory; executing the first code bank to manage the flash memory module; when the flash memory controller starts a code bank swapping operation, trying to read a second code bank from a super block; if the second code bank is read successfully, storing the second code bank into the buffer memory to replace the first code bank; and executing the second code bank to manage the flash memory module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Tsu-Han Lu, Hsiao-Chang Yen
  • Publication number: 20230289098
    Abstract: The present invention provides a control method of a flash memory controller, wherein the flash memory controller is configured to access a flash memory module, the flash memory module includes a plurality of planes, and each plane includes a plurality of blocks; and the control method includes the steps of: after the flash memory controller is powered on, reading a first code bank from a specific block of the plurality of blocks; storing the first code bank into a buffer memory; executing the first code bank to manage the flash memory module; when the flash memory controller starts a code bank swapping operation, trying to read a second code bank from a super block; if the second code bank is read successfully, storing the second code bank into the buffer memory to replace the first code bank; and executing the second code bank to manage the flash memory module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Publication date: September 14, 2023
    Applicant: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Tsu-Han Lu, Hsiao-Chang Yen
  • Patent number: 11449435
    Abstract: A method for performing access management in a memory device, the associated memory device and the controller thereof, and the associated electronic device are provided. The method may include: receiving a host command and a logical address from a host device; performing a checking operation to obtain a checking result, for determining whether to load a logical-to-physical (L2P) table from the NV memory to a random access memory (RAM) of the memory device; reading the target data and associated metadata from the NV memory, wherein a latest version of the L2P table is available in the RAM when reading the target data from the NV memory is performed; and checking whether a recorded logical address within the metadata and the logical address received from the host device are equivalent to each other, to control whether to send the target data to the host device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2022
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Publication number: 20210182209
    Abstract: A method for performing access management in a memory device, the associated memory device and the controller thereof, and the associated electronic device are provided. The method may include: receiving a host command and a logical address from a host device; performing a checking operation to obtain a checking result, for determining whether to load a logical-to-physical (L2P) table from the NV memory to a random access memory (RAM) of the memory device; reading the target data and associated metadata from the NV memory, wherein a latest version of the L2P table is available in the RAM when reading the target data from the NV memory is performed; and checking whether a recorded logical address within the metadata and the logical address received from the host device are equivalent to each other, to control whether to send the target data to the host device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2021
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Patent number: 10970226
    Abstract: A method for performing access management in a memory device, the associated memory device and the controller thereof, and the associated electronic device are provided. The method may include: receiving a host command and a logical address from a host device; performing a checking operation to obtain a checking result, for determining whether to load a logical-to-physical (L2P) table from the NV memory to a random access memory (RAM) of the memory device; reading the target data and associated metadata from the NV memory, wherein a latest version of the L2P table is available in the RAM when reading the target data from the NV memory is performed; and checking whether a recorded logical address within the metadata and the logical address received from the host device are equivalent to each other, to control whether to send the target data to the host device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Patent number: 10809943
    Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory controller and a memory device. The memory controller includes multiple memory blocks, and each memory block includes multiple pages. The memory controller is coupled to the memory device and configured to access the memory device. In an initialization procedure of the data storage device, the memory controller is configured to determine whether a sudden power-off has occurred during a first write operation to write data to a first memory block, and when a sudden power-off is determined to have occurred during the first write operation, the memory controller is configured to select a second memory block that is and write data to the second memory block in a second write operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Hsuan-Ping Lin
  • Patent number: 10698814
    Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory controller is coupled to the memory device and configured to access the memory device and establish a physical to logical address mapping table and a logical address section table. The logical address section table records statuses of a plurality of logical address sections. Each status is utilized to indicate whether the physical to logical address mapping table records any logical address that belongs to the corresponding logical address section. The logical address section table includes a plurality of section bits in a plurality of dimensions. When the memory controller receives a write command to write data of a first predetermined logical address, the memory controller determines the section bit of each dimension corresponding to the first predetermined logical address, and accordingly sets a corresponding digital value for each section bit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventors: Hsuan-Ping Lin, Chia-Chi Liang
  • Publication number: 20190227748
    Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory controller and a memory device. The memory controller includes multiple memory blocks, and each memory block includes multiple pages. The memory controller is coupled to the memory device and configured to access the memory device. In an initialization procedure of the data storage device, the memory controller is configured to determine whether a sudden power-off has occurred during a first write operation to write data to a first memory block, and when a sudden power-off is determined to have occurred during the first write operation, the memory controller is configured to select a second memory block that is and write data to the second memory block in a second write operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Chia-Chi LIANG, Hsuan-Ping LIN
  • Publication number: 20190227929
    Abstract: A data storage device includes a memory device and a memory controller. The memory controller is coupled to the memory device and configured to access the memory device and establish a physical to logical address mapping table and a logical address section table. The logical address section table records statuses of a plurality of logical address sections. Each status is utilized to indicate whether the physical to logical address mapping table records any logical address that belongs to the corresponding logical address section. The logical address section table includes a plurality of section bits in a plurality of dimensions. When the memory controller receives a write command to write data of a first predetermined logical address, the memory controller determines the section bit of each dimension corresponding to the first predetermined logical address, and accordingly sets a corresponding digital value for each section bit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2019
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Hsuan-Ping LIN, Chia-Chi LIANG
  • Publication number: 20190213137
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for managing a flash memory module, wherein the method comprises: reading a logical address to physical address (L2P) mapping table from the flash memory module; compressing the L2P mapping table to generate a compressed mapping table, wherein the compressed mapping table records a reference physical address and whether a corresponding physical address of each logical address is the reference physical address plus an offset value; and when receiving a read command asking for reading data corresponding to a specific logical address, referring to the compressed mapping table to determine a specific physical address corresponding to the specific logical address, and reading the data from the flash memory module according to the specific physical address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng Lin, Chia-Chi Liang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Publication number: 20190107964
    Abstract: A method for performing access management in a memory device, the associated memory device and the controller thereof, and the associated electronic device are provided. The method may include: receiving a host command and a logical address from a host device; performing a checking operation to obtain a checking result, for determining whether to load a logical-to-physical (L2P) table from the NV memory to a random access memory (RAM) of the memory device; reading the target data and associated metadata from the NV memory, wherein a latest version of the L2P table is available in the RAM when reading the target data from the NV memory is performed; and checking whether a recorded logical address within the metadata and the logical address received from the host device are equivalent to each other, to control whether to send the target data to the host device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 1, 2018
    Publication date: April 11, 2019
    Inventors: Chia-Chi Liang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Patent number: 9842030
    Abstract: The data storage device included a flash memory, divided into a plurality of blocks with each block comprising a plurality of physical pages, and a control unit, coupling the flash memory to a host and comprising a microcontroller and a random access memory. The microcontroller maintains a plurality of logical-to-physical address mapping tables and a link table on the flash memory to record mapping information between the host and the flash memory and records a link table indicator on the flash memory to indicate a position of the link table. The link table indicates positions of the plurality of logical-to-physical address mapping tables, and each entry in the link table corresponds to one logical-to-physical address mapping table. Further, the microcontroller erases user of logical addresses corresponding to N logical-to-physical address mapping tables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng Lin, Chia-Chi Liang, Chang-Chieh Huang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Publication number: 20170249219
    Abstract: The data storage device included a flash memory, divided into a plurality of blocks with each block comprising a plurality of physical pages, and a control unit, coupling the flash memory to a host and comprising a microcontroller and a random access memory. The microcontroller maintains a plurality of logical-to-physical address mapping tables and a link table on the flash memory to record mapping information between the host and the flash memory and records a link table indicator on the flash memory to indicate a position of the link table. The link table indicates positions of the plurality of logical-to-physical address mapping tables, and each entry in the link table corresponds to one logical-to-physical address mapping table. Further, the microcontroller erases user of logical addresses corresponding to N logical-to-physical address mapping tables.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 17, 2017
    Publication date: August 31, 2017
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng LIN, Chia-Chi LIANG, Chang-Chieh HUANG, Jie-Hao LEE
  • Patent number: 9727271
    Abstract: A data storage device with flash memory and a flash memory control method are disclosed, in which the flash memory includes multi-level cells (MLCs) and single-level cells (SLCs). A microcontroller is configured to use the random access memory to cache data issued from the host before writing the data into the flash memory. The microcontroller is further configured to allocate the blocks of the flash memory to provide a first run-time write block containing multi-level cells and a second run-time write block containing single-level cells. Under control of the microcontroller, each physical page of data uploaded from the random access memory to the first run-time write block contains sequential data, and random data cached in the random access memory to form one physical page is written into the second run-time write block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng Lin, Chia-Chi Liang, Chang-Chieh Huang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Patent number: 9684568
    Abstract: A data storage device and a flash memory control method with high erasing efficiency are disclosed. A microcontroller is configured to maintain a plurality of logical-to-physical address mapping tables and a link table on a flash memory to record mapping information between a host and the flash memory. The link table indicates positions of the plurality of logical-to-physical address mapping tables, and each entry in the link table corresponds to one logical-to-physical address mapping table. When erasing user data of logical addresses corresponding to N logical-to-physical address mapping tables, the microcontroller is configured to invalidate N entries corresponding to the N logical-to-physical address mapping tables in the link table, where N is an integer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng Lin, Chia-Chi Liang, Chang-Chieh Huang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Publication number: 20170160942
    Abstract: A data storage device with flash memory and a flash memory control method are disclosed, in which the flash memory includes multi-level cells (MU:s) and single-level cells (SLCs). A microcontroller is configured to use the random access memory to cache data issued from the host before writing the data into the flash memory. The microcontroller is further configured to allocate the blocks of the flash memory to provide a first run-time write block containing multi-level cells and a second run-time write block containing single-level cells. Under control of the microcontroller, each physical page of data uploaded from the random access mernoiy to the first run-time write block contains sequential data, and random data cached in the random access memory to form one physical page is written into the second run-time write block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2017
    Publication date: June 8, 2017
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng LIN, Chia-Chi LIANG, Chang-Chieh HUANG, Jie-Hao LEE
  • Patent number: 9645896
    Abstract: A data storage device with flash memory and a flash memory control method are disclosed, in which the flash memory includes multi-level cells (MLCs) and single-level cells (SLCs). A microcontroller is configured to use the random access memory to cache data issued from the host before writing the data into the flash memory. The microcontroller is further configured to allocate the blocks of the flash memory to provide a first run-time write block containing multi-level cells and a second run-time write block containing single-level cells. Under control of the microcontroller, each physical page of data uploaded from the random access memory to the first run-time write block contains sequential data, and random data cached in the random access memory to form one physical page is written into the second run-time write block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng Lin, Chia-Chi Liang, Chang-Chieh Huang, Jie-Hao Lee
  • Patent number: 9645895
    Abstract: A data storage device with flash memory and a flash memory control method are disclosed, in which the flash memory includes multi-level cells (MLCs) and single-level cells (SLCs). A microcontroller is configured to establish a first physical-to-logical address mapping table (F2H table) in a random access memory (RAM) for a first run-time write block containing MLCs. The microcontroller is further configured to establish a second F2H table in the RAM for a second run-time write block containing SLCs. When data that was previously stored in the first run-time write block with un-uploaded mapping information in the first F2H table is updated into the second run-time write block, the microcontroller is configured to update a logical-to-physical address mapping table (H2F table) in accordance with the first F2H table. The H2F table is provided within the flash memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
    Inventors: Chien-Cheng Lin, Chia-Chi Liang, Chang-Chieh Huang, Jie-Hao Lee