Patents by Inventor Pamela Hempstead

Pamela Hempstead 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: 8898371
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide a media controller for a storage device having sectors, the sectors organized into blocks and superblocks. The media controller stores, on the storage device, logical-to-physical address translation data in N summary pages, where N corresponds to the number of superblocks of the storage device. A buffer layer module of the media controller initializes a summary page cache in a buffer. The summary page cache has space for M summary page entries, where M is less than or equal to N. For operations that access a summary page, the media controller searches the summary page cache for the summary page. If the summary page is stored in the summary page cache, the buffer layer module retrieves the summary page from the summary page cache. Otherwise, the buffer layer module retrieves the summary page from the storage device and stores the retrieved summary page to the summary page cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Randy Reiter, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken
  • Patent number: 8352690
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide a media controller that synchronizes data cached in a buffer and corresponding data stored in one or more sectors of a storage device. A buffer layer module of the media controller caches data transferred between the buffer and the storage device. One or more contiguous sectors are associated with one or more chunks. The buffer layer module updates a status corresponding to each chunk of the cached data and scans the status corresponding to a first chunk of cached data. If, based on the status, the first chunk of cached data is more recent than the corresponding data stored on the storage device, a media layer module synchronizes the data on the storage device with the cached data. The status corresponding to the group of one or more sectors is updated. The media layer module scans a next chunk of cached data, if present.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Carl Forhan, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Timothy Lund, Michael Hicken
  • Patent number: 8301861
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide reconstruction of logical-to-physical address mapping data for one or more sectors of a storage device at startup of a media controller. The sectors of the storage device are organized into blocks and superblocks and the address mapping data is stored in a volatile memory. At a startup condition of the media controller, a buffer layer module of the media controller allocates space in the volatile memory for one or more logical-to-physical address mapping data structures. A media layer module of the media controller determines a block type of each block of the storage device and places each block of the storage device into corresponding groups based on the determined block type of each block. The one or more blocks of each group are processed, and one or more address mapping data structures for the storage device are constructed in the allocated space in the volatile memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: LSi Corporation
    Inventors: Randy Reiter, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken
  • Patent number: 8219776
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide logical-to-physical address translation for data stored on a storage device having sectors organized into blocks and superblocks. A flash translation layer maps a physical address in the storage device to a logical sector address. The logical sector address corresponds to mapping data that includes i) a page index, ii) a block index, and iii) a superblock number. The mapping data is stored in at least one summary page corresponding to the superblock containing the physical address. A block index and a page index of a next empty page in the superblock are stored in a page global directory corresponding to the superblock. A block index and a page index of the at least one summary page and the at least one active block table for each superblock are stored in at least one active block table of the storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Carl Forhan, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken, Randy Reiter, Timothy Swatosh
  • Patent number: 8166258
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide skip operations for transferring data to or from a plurality of non-contiguous sectors of a solid-state memory. A host layer module sends data to, and receives commands from, a communication link. Received commands are one of read requests or write requests, with commands including i) a starting sector address, ii) a skip mask indicating the span of all sector addresses in the request and the sectors to be transferred, iii) a total number of sectors to be transferred; and, for write requests, iv) the data to be written to the sectors. A buffer stores data for transfer to or from the solid-state memory. A buffer layer module i) manages the buffer, ii) segments the span of the request into a plurality of chunks, and iii) determines, based on the skip mask, a number of chunks to be transferred to or from the solid-state memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy Lund, Carl Forhan, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken, Bryan Holty, John Paradise
  • Publication number: 20110072194
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide logical-to-physical address translation for data stored on a storage device having sectors organized into blocks and superblocks. A flash translation layer maps a physical address in the storage device to a logical sector address. The logical sector address corresponds to mapping data that includes i) a page index, ii) a block index, and iii) a superblock number. The mapping data is stored in at least one summary page corresponding to the superblock containing the physical address. A block index and a page index of a next empty page in the superblock are stored in a page global directory corresponding to the superblock. A block index and a page index of the at least one summary page and the at least one active block table for each superblock are stored in at least one active block table of the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2009
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Inventors: Carl Forhan, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken, Randy Reiter, Timothy Swatosh
  • Publication number: 20110072198
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide a media controller for a storage device having sectors, the sectors organized into blocks and superblocks. The media controller stores, on the storage device, logical-to-physical address translation data in N summary pages, where N corresponds to the number of superblocks of the storage device. A buffer layer module of the media controller initializes a summary page cache in a buffer. The summary page cache has space for M summary page entries, where M is less than or equal to N. For operations that access a summary page, the media controller searches the summary page cache for the summary page. If the summary page is stored in the summary page cache, the buffer layer module retrieves the summary page from the summary page cache. Otherwise, the buffer layer module retrieves the summary page from the storage device and stores the retrieved summary page to the summary page cache.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Inventors: Randy Reiter, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken
  • Publication number: 20110072199
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide reconstruction of logical-to-physical address mapping data for one or more sectors of a storage device at startup of a media controller. The sectors of the storage device are organized into blocks and superblocks and the address mapping data is stored in a volatile memory. At a startup condition of the media controller, a buffer layer module of the media controller allocates space in the volatile memory for one or more logical-to-physical address mapping data structures. A media layer module of the media controller determines a block type of each block of the storage device and places each block of the storage device into corresponding groups based on the determined block type of each block. The one or more blocks of each group are processed, and one or more address mapping data structures for the storage device are constructed in the allocated space in the volatile memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Inventors: Randy Reiter, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken
  • Publication number: 20110072196
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide a media controller that synchronizes data cached in a buffer and corresponding data stored in one or more sectors of a storage device. A buffer layer module of the media controller caches data transferred between the buffer and the storage device. One or more contiguous sectors are associated with one or more chunks. The buffer layer module updates a status corresponding to each chunk of the cached data and scans the status corresponding to a first chunk of cached data. If, based on the status, the first chunk of cached data is more recent than the corresponding data stored on the storage device, a media layer module synchronizes the data on the storage device with the cached data. The status corresponding to the group of one or more sectors is updated. The media layer module scans a next chunk of cached data, if present.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2010
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Inventors: Carl Forhan, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Timothy Lund, Michael Hicken
  • Publication number: 20110022779
    Abstract: Described embodiments provide skip operations for transferring data to or from a plurality of non-contiguous sectors of a solid-state memory. A host layer module sends data to, and receives commands from, a communication link. Received commands are one of read requests or write requests, with commands including i) a starting sector address, ii) a skip mask indicating the span of all sector addresses in the request and the sectors to be transferred, iii) a total number of sectors to be transferred; and, for write requests, iv) the data to be written to the sectors. A buffer stores data for transfer to or from the solid-state memory. A buffer layer module i) manages the buffer, ii) segments the span of the request into a plurality of chunks, and iii) determines, based on the skip mask, a number of chunks to be transferred to or from the solid-state memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2009
    Publication date: January 27, 2011
    Inventors: Tim Lund, Carl Forhan, Timothy Swatosh, Pamela Hempstead, Michael Hicken, Bryan Holty, John Paradise