Abstract: Storage devices can be configured to utilize one or more memory buffers located within a host-computing device. These host buffers may allow for faster access to some data, including control pages. However, host buffers are susceptible to fragmentation issues similarly to standard user memory arrays. As the data stored within the host buffers becomes more fragmented, performance can suffer. This performance loss in storage devices becomes more pronounced as the desired performance levels of these storage devices increase. Therefore, various methods and systems described herein manage fragmentation within host buffers by conducting one or more operations. These operations may include locating a continuous portion of allocated or unallocated memory within the host buffer and either swap or copy high-usage or high-priority data to those continuous portions. When continuous portions of host buffer memory are not available, relevant portions of data may be cashed within the storage device to increase performance.

Abstract: Aspects of a storage device are provided that allow a controller to leverage cache to minimize occurrence of HMB address overlaps between different HMB requests. The storage device may include a cache and a controller coupled to the cache. The controller may store in the cache, in response to a HMB read request, first data from a HMB at a first HMB address. The controller may also store in the cache, in response to an HMB write request, second data from the HMB at a second HMB address. The controller may refrain from processing subsequent HMB requests in response to an overlap of the first HMB address with an address range including the second HMB address, and the controller may resume processing the subsequent HMB requests after the first data is stored. As a result, turnaround time delays for HMB requests may be reduced and performance may be improved.

Abstract: A data storage device and method for efficient image searching are provided. In one embodiment, a data storage device is provided comprising a memory and a controller. The controller is configured to store a plurality of images and a plurality of keys in the memory, wherein each key of the plurality of keys is generated from a respective image of the plurality of images; receive, from a host, a key generated from a target image desired by the host; and return, to the host, an image from the stored plurality of images that is associated with a key that matches the key received from the host. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: A storage system and method for multiprotocol handling are provided. In one embodiment, a computing device is provided comprising a plurality of communication channels configured to communicate with a storage system, wherein a first communication channel has a faster data transfer speed than a second communication channel. The computing device also comprises a processor configured to determine a priority level of a command; send the command with an indication of its priority level to the storage system; in response to the command being a high-priority command, use the first communication channel for transferring data for the command; and in response to the command being a low-priority command, use the second communication channel for transferring data for the command. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: Systems and method for providing tier selection for data based on a weighted flash fragmentation factor. A weighted flash fragmentation factor is determined indicating a severity of fragmentation in a non-volatile storage based on a logical block address range in a logical-to-physical mapping table for data from a host device to be stored in the tiered data storage system. The factor is shared with the host device to determine a tier selection. The data is stored according to the tier selection based on the factor.

Abstract: Storage devices can be configured to utilize one or more memory buffers located within a host-computing device. These host buffers may allow for faster access to some data, including control pages. However, host buffers are susceptible to fragmentation issues similarly to standard user memory arrays. As the data stored within the host buffers becomes more fragmented, performance can suffer. This performance loss in storage devices becomes more pronounced as the desired performance levels of these storage devices increase. Therefore, various methods and systems described herein manage fragmentation within host buffers by conducting one or more operations. These operations may include locating a continuous portion of allocated or unallocated memory within the host buffer and either swap or copy high-usage or high-priority data to those continuous portions. When continuous portions of host buffer memory are not available, relevant portions of data may be cashed within the storage device to increase performance.

Abstract: A data storage device and method for low-latency power state transitions by having power islanding in a host memory buffer are provided. In one embodiment, a data storage device is provided comprising a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive information from a host about which area, if any, in a host memory buffer will be powered on during a low-power state; and in response to the information indicating that a first area of the host memory buffer will be powered on during the low-power state, flush data from a second area of the host memory buffer that will not be powered on during the low-power state to the first area of the host memory buffer prior to entering the low-power state. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: A data storage device and method for efficient image searching are provided. In one embodiment, a data storage device is provided comprising a memory and a controller. The controller is configured to store a plurality of images and a plurality of keys in the memory, wherein each key of the plurality of keys is generated from a respective image of the plurality of images; receive, from a host, a key generated from a target image desired by the host; and return, to the host, an image from the stored plurality of images that is associated with a key that matches the key received from the host. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: Aspects of a storage device including a memory and a controller are provided. The memory includes non-volatile memory and volatile memory. The controller may determine whether first data is available at a system-level memory location during a first programming stage of a two-stage programming sequence. The controller may read the first data from the system-level memory location when the page data is available at the system-level memory location. Alternatively, the controller may read the first data from the non-volatile memory when the page data is not available at the system-level memory location. Thus, the controller may perform a first programming operation associated with the first programming stage using the first data, thereby improving memory programming performance of the storage device.

Abstract: Storage devices are capable of identifying zones for sharing parity blocks across zones. Active zones may be segregated across multiple active zones having similar zone properties, and grouped so that parity buffers can be shared. By identifying zones for optimal parity sharing, storage devices and systems can: (i) maintain independent parity for all zones during initial zone writes (i.e. during an erased state when data is written directly to pages and not to the zones), (ii) track zone write pointers and frequency of writes in the zones, (iii) segregate zones with higher correlation and group them together, (iv) utilize these groupings placed across various channels so that zones with high correlations, comprising of the zones that are written together and at the same rate, share the parity buffers, and (v) load and XOR individual parity buffers for optimal parity sharing across all zones.

Abstract: Storage devices can be configured to desirably reduce the number of times a zone reset or erasure occur via the use of one or more paired overwrite memory blocks. These storage devices can include a plurality of memory devices with some of these memory devices designated as overwrite memory devices. A controller within the storage device can be configured to direct the storage device to generate one or more subsets within the memory devices such as zones, pair each of subsets with at least one or more overwrite memory devices, store data sequentially within the subset of memory devices, and store any received overwrite data in the overwrite memory devices in chronological order. Data stored within the subsets of memory devices are not erased and instead of being overwritten directly, are instead pointed via a control table to a location in the overwrite memory devices storing the corresponding overwrite data.

Abstract: A resource tracking storage system can track and associate resource usage within storage devices to requesting virtual hosts. Controllers may be configured to receive commands for storage device usage sent from the requesting virtual hosts. Each command for storage device usage may result in a need for future maintenance work to be done within the storage device. Additionally, performance policies, which may be one or more set of rules, thresholds, and/or specifications that indicate a minimum (or maximum) level of performance by the storage device can be regulated by tracking and determining which hosts are degrading the performance of the storage device. With this solution, one or more performance policies can also be enforced by making sure one host is not negatively impacted from the negative storage device usage of another, errant host, even prior to the need for maintenance.

Abstract: A storage system and method for time-duration-based efficient block management and memory access are provided. In one embodiment, a controller of the storage system is configured to receive time stamps from a host for each of a plurality of blocks in the memory; determine a time duration for programming each of the plurality of blocks based on the time stamps; and differentiate the plurality of blocks based on the time durations. Other embodiments are provided.

Abstract: Aspects of a storage device including a memory and a controller are provided. The memory includes non-volatile memory and volatile memory. The controller may determine whether first data is available at a system-level memory location during a first programming stage of a two-stage programming sequence. The controller may read the first data from the system-level memory location when the page data is available at the system-level memory location. Alternatively, the controller may read the first data from the non-volatile memory when the page data is not available at the system-level memory location. Thus, the controller may perform a first programming operation associated with the first programming stage using the first data, thereby improving memory programming performance of the storage device.

Abstract: Aspects of a storage device including a memory and a controller are provided. The memory includes a first partition having multiple dies as channels that are allocated to one or more zones. The controller may receive a write command and data from a host device, in which the write command indicates to write the data to a first zone. The controller may perform a write operation that writes received data to one or more of the plurality of dies that are allocated to a first zone. The controller may transfer the data from the first zone to a second partition in the memory that is associated with the first zone, when the storage device and the host device are in idle states. Thus, the controller can reduce the amount of overprovisioning of memory block allocation to small-sized zones, thereby improving the memory capacity and utilization of the storage device.

Abstract: Aspects of a storage device including a memory and a controller are provided. The memory includes a first partition having multiple dies as channels that are allocated to one or more zones. The controller may receive a write command and data from a host device, in which the write command indicates to write the data to a first zone. The controller may perform a write operation that writes received data to one or more of the plurality of dies that are allocated to a first zone. The controller may transfer the data from the first zone to a second partition in the memory that is associated with the first zone, when the storage device and the host device are in idle states. Thus, the controller can reduce the amount of overprovisioning of memory block allocation to small-sized zones, thereby improving the memory capacity and utilization of the storage device.

Abstract: Aspects of a storage device including a memory and a controller are provided which re-prioritize commands based on zone properties. The controller receives from a host commands associated with a plurality of zones, allocates the memory into a plurality of zone resources based on zone properties indicated by the host for the zones, and identifies a utilization state of the memory for one of the zones. The controller changes a priority order of the commands based on the zone properties and the utilization state for the one of the zones. The controller then executes the commands in the memory or zone resources according to the priority order. As a result, execution of commands may be balanced between zones and lower latencies may be achieved overall for each zone. Improved performance or throughput of the storage device in handling zone commands may therefore result.

Abstract: A data storage device including, in one implementation, a non-volatile memory device including a memory block that includes a plurality of memory dies and a controller that is coupled to the non-volatile memory device and that allocates power to non-memory components based on a determined usage of the memory dies. The controller is configured to monitor a utilization of the plurality of memory dies, determine a utilization state of the plurality of memory dies, and calculate an amount of available power allocated to the plurality of memory dies in response to determining that the plurality of memory dies are in a low utilization state. The controller is also configured to determine whether the amount of available power is above a predetermined threshold, and reallocate the available power to one or more components within the data storage device in response to determining that the amount of available power is above the predetermined threshold.

Abstract: Storage devices are capable of identifying zones for sharing parity blocks across zones. Active zones may be segregated across multiple active zones having similar zone properties, and grouped so that parity buffers can be shared. By identifying zones for optimal parity sharing, storage devices and systems can: (i) maintain independent parity for all zones during initial zone writes (i.e. during an erased state when data is written directly to pages and not to the zones), (ii) track zone write pointers and frequency of writes in the zones, (iii) segregate zones with higher correlation and group them together, (iv) utilize these groupings placed across various channels so that zones with high correlations, comprising of the zones that are written together and at the same rate, share the parity buffers, and (v) load and XOR individual parity buffers for optimal parity sharing across all zones.

Abstract: A storage system and method for a hybrid quad-level cell (QLC) write scheme for reduced random access memory (RAM) footprint and better performance are provided. In one example, a storage system includes a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. A Foggy program operation is performed in a QLC memory in the non-volatile memory by writing two pages of data into the QLC memory. Then, a Fine program operation is performed in the QLC memory by reading the two pages of data written to the QLC memory in the Foggy program operation, reading two other pages of data from the volatile memory, and writing the two pages of data read from the QLC memory and the two other pages of data read from the volatile memory in the QLC memory.