CN112650439B

CN112650439B - MRAM-NAND controller and data writing method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN112650439B
Application number: CN201910960378.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 戴瑾
Original assignee: Shanghai Information Technologies Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Information Technologies Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-10
Filing date: 2019-10-10
Publication date: 2023-03-21
Anticipated expiration: 2039-10-10
Also published as: CN112650439A

Abstract

The application provides an MRAM-NAND controller and a data writing method thereof. The controller comprises an embedded MRAM, a host interface adopting DDR-DRAM interface standard, a NAND controller, a microcontroller, a buffer and a status register. Because the host interface of the MRAM-NAND controller adopts the DDR-DRAM interface, the read-write speed of the controller and the memory bank applied by the controller is favorably improved. Through the cache, the read/write operation efficiency of the controller chip can be effectively improved and stabilized, and meanwhile, the working time sequence is adjusted to solve the compatibility problem of the existing host chip, so that the applicability of related products is improved.

Description

MRAM-NAND controller and data writing method thereof

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of memory technologies, and more particularly, to an MRAM-NAND controller and a data writing method thereof.

Background

Solid State Drives (SSD), referred to as fixed disks for short, are hard disks made of Solid State electronic memory chip arrays, and are composed of a control unit and a memory unit (FLASH chip, DRAM chip). The specification, definition, function and use method of the interface of the solid state disk are completely the same as those of a common hard disk, and the appearance and size of the product are also completely consistent with those of the common hard disk. The method is widely applied to the fields of military affairs, vehicle-mounted, industrial control, video monitoring, network terminals, electric power, medical treatment, aviation, navigation equipment and the like.

Although the development of NAND flash memory technology has promoted the SSD industry, the SSD is difficult to be supported by the existing mobile phones and tablet computers due to the strict requirement for size. In order to expand the technical applicability and improve the read-write speed and stability of the Memory, the conventional scheme generally combines the DDR (Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory, which is a short for DDR-DRAM) technology with the MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) storage technology, and applies the DDR (Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory) technology to the main control chip of the mobile phone or the tablet computer, so as to accelerate the read-write speed and stability of the Data.

For example: chinese patent CN201510098598.7 proposes to utilize MRAM to improve the performance of the storage device, and apply to a chip solid state disk with a new architecture, where MRAM is added in a main control chip and communicates with a host computer using an interface of DRAM.

However, the conventional MRAM has a fast reading speed, which is not inferior to the DRAM, but has a long writing time, which is more than ten times that of the DRAM. This causes that the host cannot realize the same or similar design scheme as DRAM in the timing design when performing operations such as MRAM read/write, i.e. different from the working timing of the existing DRAM related functional chip, which causes the problem of incompatibility with the host chip in the market, and not only the applicability is relatively limited, but also the product popularization is affected.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the above technical problems, it is an object of the present application to provide an MRAM-NAND controller for enhancing data read/write and a data write method thereof.

The purpose of the application and the technical problem to be solved are realized by adopting the following technical scheme.

An MRAM-NAND controller in accordance with the present application includes: the embedded MRAM, adopt DDR-DRAM interface standard host interface, NAND controller, microcontroller, buffer memory and status register; the host interface is used for connecting the embedded MRAM, the NAND controller and the microcontroller with a host chip; the buffer is used for temporarily storing the data read/written by the host chip of the embedded MRAM; the microcontroller is used for obtaining write data of the host chip and recording the write data in a corresponding address of the embedded MRAM and/or writing the write data into a NAND module connected with the embedded MRAM through the NAND controller; the status register is used for recording the space data of the buffer so as to judge whether the data can be continuously written before the host chip writes the data; the MRAM-NAND controller is fabricated on a single silicon die.

The technical problem solved by the application can be further realized by adopting the following technical measures.

In an embodiment of the present application, the buffer is an SRAM buffer.

In an embodiment of the present application, the write data is page data in units of pages.

In an embodiment of the present application, the NAND controller is a single channel or a multi-channel.

In an embodiment of the present application, the MRAM-NAND controller further includes a DMA controller, and the DMA controller is respectively connected to the embedded MRAM and the NAND controller.

In an embodiment of the present application, an address is reserved in the host interface for the host chip to control operations of the microcontroller, the NAND controller, and the DMA controller and inputs to the NAND memory.

In an embodiment of the present application, the microcontroller may be a single-core or multi-core arithmetic processing architecture.

In an embodiment of the present application, any one of the MRAM-NAND controllers is further connected to a NAND module, and the MRAM-NAND controller and the NAND module are packaged in a memory chip.

In an embodiment of the present application, a plurality of memory chips can be directly attached to a substrate to form a memory bank, and the memory bank is inserted into a memory bank slot of a motherboard where the host chip is located, so as to be connected to the host chip.

In an embodiment of the application, the plurality of memory chips form a surface mount type solid state disk, and the surface mount type solid state disk can be directly mounted on a mainboard where the host chip is located.

In an embodiment of the present application, the MRAM-NAND controller is an MRAM-NAND controller, the NAND module is a NAND chip, and the MRAM-NAND controller chip and the NAND chip are stacked together by using a POP package technology and are mounted on the substrate or the motherboard.

Another object of the present invention is a data writing method of an MRAM-NAND controller including a microcontroller, a buffer and a status register, the MRAM-NAND controller connecting a host chip and a NAND module, the method comprising: before the host chip writes data into the MRAM-NAND controller, when the state register judges that the storage space of the buffer is insufficient, the host chip enables the microcontroller to adjust the storage space of the buffer.

In an embodiment of the application, when the host chip enables the microcontroller to adjust the storage space of the buffer, the host chip waits, and the microcontroller starts to adjust the storage space of the buffer until enough buffer space is vacated, and then changes the data of the status register.

According to the method, through a DDR-DRAM standard host interface, the read-write speed of the controller chip and the memory bank applied by the controller chip is not limited by a serial interface, the speed of the DDR-RAM interface is much higher than that of a SATA or PCIe interface, and the read-write speed of the controller chip is effectively improved. Secondly, combining the design of the cache, and further, matching the characteristics of the SRAM, the read/write operation efficiency of the controller chip can be ensured to be improved and stabilized. Thirdly, through the design of the cache, the read/write working time sequence of the controller chip to each memory can be effectively adjusted, the time delay of reading and writing data is greatly shortened, the working time sequence is compatible with the working time sequence of the existing DRAM chip, the applicability is high, and the popularization of related products is not easily influenced. And the MRAM and the NAND are combined, the MRAM serves as a cache for the NAND, and the overall read-write speed is increased by several times by combining the matched design of various algorithms.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary SSD for a computer;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary SSD for use with a cell phone and a tablet computer;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary solid state drive for use in a computer;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an architecture of a controller according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an architecture applied to a memory bank according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a data writing process according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Refer to the drawings wherein like reference numbers refer to like elements throughout. The following description is based on illustrated embodiments of the application and should not be taken as limiting the application with respect to other embodiments that are not detailed herein.

The following description of the various embodiments refers to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate specific embodiments that can be used to practice the present application. In the present application, directional terms such as "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "inner", "outer", "side", and the like are merely referring to the directions of the attached drawings. Accordingly, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and understanding, and is in no way limiting.

The terms "first," "second," "third," and the like in the description and in the claims of the present application and in the above-described drawings, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It should be understood that the objects so described are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances. Furthermore, the terms "comprising" and "having," as well as variations thereof, such as, for example, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions.

The terminology used in the description of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the concepts of the present application. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, expressions used in the singular form encompass expressions in the plural form. In the present specification, it will be understood that terms such as "including," "having," and "containing" are intended to specify the presence of the features, integers, steps, acts, or combinations thereof disclosed in the specification, and are not intended to preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, acts, or combinations thereof. Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

The drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive. In the drawings, elements having similar structures are denoted by the same reference numerals. In addition, the size and thickness of each component shown in the drawings are arbitrarily illustrated for understanding and ease of description, but the present application is not limited thereto.

In the drawings, the range of configurations of devices, systems, components, circuits is exaggerated for clarity, understanding, and ease of description. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "on" another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present.

In addition, in the description, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word "comprise" will be understood to mean that the recited components are included, but not to exclude any other components. Further, in the specification, "on.

To further illustrate the technical means and effects of the present invention adopted to achieve the predetermined objects, the following detailed description is provided for an MRAM-NAND controller and a data writing method thereof according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments, and the detailed description thereof is provided below.

The present application is based on two important technological developments:

(1) 3D NAND technology. The development of 3D NAND technology makes the capacity of one chip in the future comparable to that of the entire SSD in the past, sufficient to run common operating systems and their basic applications. Although the data transmission speed of the solid state disk is fast, the selling price and the capacity have problems. The space for accommodating the memory chip of the hard disk with the width of 2.5 inches is limited, and the chip with higher capacity can increase the total memory space of the hard disk, but the higher cost also increases the selling price of the hard disk. 3D NAND is different from a method of placing memory chips on a single side, but stacking them up to 32 layers, greatly increasing the capacity of the chip.

(2) MRAM technology. MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) is a non-volatile Magnetic Random Access Memory. It possesses the high-speed read-write capability of Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) and the high integration of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), and can be written repeatedly, essentially indefinitely. MRAM is a new memory and storage technology that can be read and written randomly as fast as DDR (D) RAM, and can also permanently retain data after power is removed as NAND flash. Also MRAM is not compatible with standard CMOS semiconductor processes like DRAM, so MRAM can be integrated with logic circuits in one chip.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary SSD architecture for a computer. The SSD includes a set of NAND chips for storing data, a DDR memory for caching data and performing auxiliary computation, and a main control chip (SSD Controller), and the SSD is connected to the host through a high-speed serial interface, such as SATA and PICe. Due to the strict requirement on the size, the existing mobile phones and tablet computers are difficult to support the SSD.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary SSD architecture for cell phones and tablets. In order to expand the technical applicability and improve the read-write speed and stability of the Memory, a DDR (Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory, which is a DDR-DRAM for short) technology is combined with an MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) storage technology. A part of the DDR can be used as NAND cache, and NAND management software corresponding to the SSD controller also runs on a main control chip of a mobile phone or a tablet computer. On the other hand, the stability of data read/write is enhanced by combining the high read/write speed and high integration of MRAM, and the characteristic of being able to be written repeatedly for infinite times.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary solid state drive for a computer, incorporating MRAM in the host chip and communicating with the host using the DRAM interface. Due to the high speed read and write capability of the MRAM module in Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) and the high density of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), the MRAM-NAND controller has faster read and write speed and smaller size. And the new interface and the embedding of the MRAM greatly improve the speed of the storage device, prolong the service life and reduce the power consumption.

However, the MRAM has a longer data writing time than that of the DRAM, so the timing design of the MRAM cannot achieve the same or similar operation timing as the DRAM, which causes the problem of incompatibility with the host chip in the market.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a controller according to an embodiment of the present invention, please refer to other diagrams for understanding. The present application proposes an MRAM-NAND controller 100 comprising: an embedded MRAM110, a host interface 120, a NAND controller 130, a microcontroller 140, a buffer 150, and a status register 160; the host interface 120 is used for connecting the embedded MRAM110, the NAND controller 130, and the microcontroller 140 with a host chip 400; the buffer 150 is used for temporarily storing the data read/written by the host chip 400 from/to the embedded MRAM 110; the microcontroller 140 is used for obtaining the write data of the host chip 400, and recording the write data in the corresponding address of the embedded MRAM110 and/or writing the write data into the NAND module 200 connected thereto through the NAND controller 130; and, the status register 160 is used to record the space data of the buffer 150, so as to determine whether to continue writing before the host chip 400 writes data.

In some embodiments, the host chip 400 causes the microcontroller 140 to adjust the data stored in the buffer 150 to match the data write control.

In an embodiment of the present application, the register 150 is an SRAM cache.

In one embodiment of the present application, the host interface 120 employs the DDR-DRAM interface standard.

In an embodiment of the present application, the write data is Page data in units of pages (pages). The host chip 400 can directly read the data in the embedded MRAM110 through the host interface 120 of the DDR-DRAM specification, and the data written by the host chip 400 is all temporarily stored in the buffer 150. After the host chip 400 completes writing data of one page, the microcontroller 400 transfers the written data to the corresponding address of the embedded MRAM110 and/or writes the written data into the NAND module 200 connected thereto through the NAND controller 130 according to the operation requirement related to the requirement.

In one embodiment of the present application, the MRAM-NAND controller 100 is fabricated on a single silicon die.

In one embodiment of the present application, the NAND controller 130 is a single channel or multiple channels.

In some embodiments, the NAND controller 130 is connected to the NAND module 200, and the NAND module 200 can be a NAND chip or a NAND silicon chip. The NAND controller 130 and the NAND module 200 operate in parallel through multiple channels (32 bit, 64bit, 128bit, etc.), and the read-write speed of the MRAM-NAND controller 100 can be further improved.

In some embodiments, the NAND controller 130 is connected to a NAND chip or a NAND silicon chip through a NAND interface, which is an interface conforming to the ONFI4.0 standard. In this embodiment, the NAND interface selects the most advanced ONFI4.0 interface standard at present, and the width of 128bit is realized through multiple channels.

In an embodiment of the present application, the MRAM-NAND controller 100 further includes a DMA controller, and the DMA controller is respectively connected to the embedded MRAM110 and the NAND controller 130. The motherboard of the host chip 400 is provided with an arithmetic unit, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or other related, similar, or corresponding arithmetic chips. The host chip 400 may also be a chip or an integrated component having such computing capabilities. A DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller is a Direct Memory Access controller, which is a data exchange mode for directly accessing data from a Memory without passing through a CPU. In the DMA mode, the CPU only needs to issue an instruction to the DMA controller, the DMA controller is enabled to process data transmission, and information is fed back to the CPU after the data transmission is finished, so that the occupation rate of CPU resources is reduced to a great extent, and system resources can be greatly saved.

In one embodiment of the present application, an address is reserved in the host interface 120 for the host chip 400 to control the operations of the microcontroller 140, the NAND controller 130 and the DMA controller, and inputs to the NAND memory (NAND module 200). The embedded MRAM110 exchanges data with the NAND controller 130 through the DMA controller, and thus does not affect the operation of the host chip 400, and does not occupy the internal bus of the MRAM-NAND controller 100, which is helpful for increasing the read/write speed.

As illustrated in fig. 4. As mentioned above, in an embodiment of the present application, the host interface 120 is a DDR-DRAM interface, and the speed of the DDR-RAM interface is much faster than the speed of the SATA or PCIe interface, so that the read/write speed of the MRAM-NAND controller 100 and the memory bank applied thereto is no longer limited by the speed of the serial interface, and the read/write speed is greatly increased. In the embodiment, the DDR-DRAM interface selects the current most advanced 64bit DDR4 interface standard, and can theoretically realize the fastest short-time read-write speed of about 50G/s.

In an embodiment of the present application, the microcontroller 140 may be a single-core or multi-core arithmetic processing architecture.

In an embodiment of the present application, any of the MRAM-NAND controllers 100 described above is further connected to a NAND module 200, and the MRAM-NAND controller 100 and the NAND module 200 are packaged in a memory chip 500.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an architecture applied to a memory bank according to an embodiment of the present application. The memory bank 300 is configured to be inserted into a memory bank socket on a motherboard of a computer. The Memory bank 300 standard at present is at least suitable for SIMM (single In-line Memory Module), DIMM (Dual-Inline-Memory Module), SO-DIMM (Small external Dual In-line Memory Module), and the like. Such a memory bank 300 not only provides a memory function, but also has a storage function and a data processing function. The memory bank 300 includes a plurality of memory chips 500, each memory chip 500 encapsulating an MRAM-NAND controller 100 and a NAND module 200 as described in any of the above.

In an embodiment of the present application, the host interfaces 120 of the memory chips 500 are all routed to pins of the memory bank 300.

In an embodiment of the present application, when the memory bank 300 is plugged into a memory bank socket of a motherboard, the host interface 120 is connected to a transmission line of the motherboard, and each of the plurality of memory chips is connected to the host chip 400 through the host interface 120.

In an embodiment of the present application, the plurality of memory chips 500 are directly attached to the substrate of the memory bank 300.

In some embodiments, the plurality of memory chips 500 form a patch type solid state disk as shown in fig. 3, and the patch type solid state disk can be directly attached to a motherboard where the host chip is located.

In an embodiment of the present application, the MRAM-NAND controller 100 is an MRAM-NAND controller 100, the NAND module 200 is a NAND chip, and the MRAM-NAND controller 100 and the NAND chip are stacked together by using POP packaging technology and are mounted on the substrate or the motherboard.

In one embodiment of the present application, a plurality of memory chips 500 (or a plurality of memory chips) have system software built therein, which is run by the microcontroller 140 and the embedded MRAM 110. Some data processing functions can be performed directly within the system software by the cooperation of the system software, the microcontroller 140, and the embedded MRAM 110.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a data writing process of the MRAM-NAND controller according to the embodiment of the present application, please refer to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 for understanding, the process includes:

in step S610, before the host chip writes data into the MRAM-NAND controller, it is determined whether the storage space of the buffer is sufficient through the status register. As mentioned above, the status register 160 is used to indicate/document whether there is room in the buffer 150. Before the host chip 400 performs a write operation, the space value in the status register 160 is read.

In step S620, when the data is determined to be sufficient, the host chip 400 writes the data into the MRAM-NAND controller 100, the microcontroller 140 transfers the data to a corresponding address of the embedded MRAM110 and/or writes the data into the NAND module 200 in cooperation with the NAND controller 130 as required, and the buffer 150 temporarily stores the written data of the host chip 400.

In step S630, when the host chip 400 determines that the buffer space is insufficient, the microcontroller 140 waits, and starts to adjust the storage space of the buffer 150 until the buffer space is sufficiently vacated, and then changes the data in the status register 160, and then executes the operation of step S620, that is, the host chip 400 determines that the buffer space is sufficient, and performs the related data writing operation.

The terms "in one embodiment of the present application" and "in various embodiments" are used repeatedly. This phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; it may also refer to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise.

Although the present application has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the application, and all changes, substitutions and alterations that fall within the spirit and scope of the application are to be understood as being covered by the following claims.

Claims

1. An MRAM-NAND controller device, the controller device comprising: the embedded MRAM, adopt DDR-DRAM interface standard host interface, NAND controller, microcontroller, buffer memory and status register;

the host interface is used for being connected with a host chip;

the buffer is used for temporarily storing the data written into the embedded MRAM by the host chip;

the microcontroller is used for obtaining the write-in data of the host chip and recording the write-in data in a corresponding address of the embedded MRAM and/or writing the write-in data into a NAND module connected with the embedded MRAM through the NAND controller; and

the state register is used for recording the space data of the buffer so as to judge whether the data can be continuously written before the host chip writes the data;

the MRAM-NAND controller is manufactured on a silicon chip, the MRAM-NAND controller device further comprises a DMA controller, the DMA controller is respectively connected with the embedded MRAM and the NAND controller, and a section of address is reserved in the host interface and used for controlling the operation of the microcontroller, the NAND controller and the DMA controller and the input of the NAND memory by the host chip.

2. The MRAM-NAND controller device of claim 1,

the buffer is an SRAM buffer.

3. The MRAM-NAND controller device of claim 1,

the write data is page data in units of pages.

4. The MRAM-NAND controller device of claim 1,

the NAND controller is single channel or multi-channel.

5. The MRAM-NAND controller device of claim 1,

the microcontroller is a single-core or multi-core arithmetic processing structure.

6. The MRAM-NAND controller device of any of claims 1-5, wherein the MRAM-NAND controller is coupled to a NAND memory module, and wherein the MRAM-NAND controller is packaged with the NAND module in a memory chip.