United States Patent {1 Ban USOQS9374250 {u] Patent Number 5,937,425 45] Date of Patent: Aug. 10, 1999 [54] FLASH FILE SYSTEM OPTIMIZED FOR PAGE-MODE FLASH TECHNOLOGIES, [75] Inventor: Amir Ban, Ramat Hasharon, Iscael Pioneers Lid. [73] Assignee: M-Systems Flash Tel Aviv, Israel [21] Appl. No. 08/951,644 Filed: et. 16, 1997 [51] Int. cle [2] Us. cL 7AL/108; 711/209 [58] Field of Search 711/108, 165, "711/209, 202; 365)185.29, 185.33, 185.22 GO6F 12/08 218 (56) References Cited US. PATENT DOCUMENTS. efor nein muen 26- 5,459,850 101995. Clay ea. man SATOG38 121995 Asset. sues Sjo3,003 5/1907 Holchammer al aus 51644539 7/1997 Yamagani ets. 365/200 582.197 10/1997 Robinson aus SNXLISS 3/1999 Okamoto ea Tus Primary Examiner—adie P. Chan Assistant Examiner—Gary J, Portka Atiomey, Agent, or Firm—Mack M. Friedman 7 ABSTRACT A method for organizing a flash memory in which the size of the memory portion for reading or writing data, such as 8 block, dlfers from the size of the smallest portion for erasing, such as a unit, The method ofthe present invention is particularly useful for page-mode devices exemplified by the NAND and AND technologies, in order to enable these devices to be reorganized when no more wnvriten physical units are available 17 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets _f 32 |~14 78 14U.S. Patent ‘Aug. 10, 1999 Sheet 1 of 6 5,937,425 FIG. ne —_ we block 1 Fall 67 Ne block n FIG.2 a ag 12 2 22 ; - block 1 7 | block 1 A 14 2 | 4 LL block n e 4 [-— block nU.S. Patent ‘Aug. 10, 1999 Sheet 2 of 6 5,937,425 FIG3A Co 24 1 [2] ( a ice A | p12 -30 70 Cf 2 | 74 a | | | -——— 82 23 — BY 34 [*] — | 80 |_12 [14 26 — 46 | | is 28-