Non-volatile memory error correction

Abstract

Improving the performance, life and amount of data storage in write limited non-volatile memory may be achieved by: a) utilizing a serial content-addressable memory (CAM) to perform logical address translation, b) a minimum CAM function to perform erase error count wear leveling, c) increasingly refining a two dimensional error-correction coding (ECC) method as needed to correct for degrading storage, and/or d) serially generating ECC and using an ECC serial decoder to correct the data.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A non-volatile memory device comprising:
 serial compare logic;   at least one section of non-volatile memory;   at least one further section of memory coupled to the serial compare logic, and control logic;   wherein the control logic is configured to direct and provide a serial data input to the serial compare logic to perform logical address to physical record selection for the at least one section of non-volatile memory.   
     
     
         2 . The non-volatile memory device as in  claim 1 , wherein the serial compare logic is further configured to find one or more records with minimum error counts for wear level writing. 
     
     
         3 . The non-volatile memory device as in  claim 1 , wherein the serial compare logic is further configured to determine a count of used records within a block to aid in block selection for erasure. 
     
     
         4 . A non-volatile memory, comprising
 a plurality of non-volatile memory blocks, wherein a block is a minimum erasable portion of the non-volatile memory;   an address input; and   a data port;   wherein the non-volatile memory blocks comprise records, wherein a record includes a logical address; and   wherein a page is a plurality of the records containing a minimum amount of user data to be read from or written into the non-volatile memory, a page of data being contained in a plurality of records having a common logical address.   
     
     
         5 . The non-volatile memory as in  claim 4 , wherein a respective record has a type selected from the group consisting of Deleted; Erased; Fix; and Data,
 wherein a Data record contains data for the Data record's logical address and a Fix record contains one or more error correction code segments for data in one or more Data records having a same logical address as the Fix record.   
     
     
         6 . The non-volatile memory as in  claim 5 , wherein a number of Fix records associated with a logical address is determined by a number of error correction code segments needed to correct the data in the one or more Data records having the same logical address as the Fix record. 
     
     
         7 . The non-volatile memory as in  claim 6 , wherein the Fix record's error correction code segments comprise one or more vertical error correction code segments configured to correct one or more respective slices of data across multiple data records within a page having the same logical address as the Fix record, and one or more horizontal error correction code segments configured to correct data in a data record having the same logical address as the Fix record.