Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
This is a Non-Final Office Action of the instant application 13/198,665, that is a reissue of US Application No. 11/557,786 (hereinafter the ‘786 Application), filed November 8, 2006, which has been granted as US Patent Number 7,571,362 (hereinafter the ‘362 Patent) granted August 4, 2009.
For reissue applications filed before September 16, 2012, all references to 35 U.S.C. 251 and 37 CFR 1.172, 1.175, and 3.73 are to the law and rules in effect on September 15, 2012. Where specifically designated, these are “pre-AIA ” provisions.
Because the effective filing date of the related original patent application (11/557,786) that the reissue application is based on is not on or after March 16, 2013, the AIA First Inventor to File ("AIA -FITF") provisions do not apply. Instead, the earlier 'First to Invent' provisions apply.
The broadening reissue application 13/198,665 is timely filed (8/4/2011) based on filing within two years of the issue date of US 7,571,362 B2 (8/4/2009).
Reissue Obligations
Applicant is reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.178(b), to timely apprise the Office of any prior or concurrent proceed-ing in which Patent No. 7,571,362 is or was involved. These proceedings would include interferences, reissues, reexaminations, and litigation.
Applicant is further reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.56, to timely apprise the Office of any information which is mate-rial to patentability of the claims under consideration in this reissue appli-cation.
These obligations rest with each individual associated with the filing and prosecution of this application for reissue. See also MPEP §§ 1404, 1442.01 and 1442.04.
Applicant is notified that any subsequent amendment to the specification and/or claims must comply with 37 CFR 1.173(b).
Priority
The present reissue application does not properly incorporate the previous claim to foreign priority noted in the ‘786 application. The ‘362 Patent (which resulted from the ‘786 application) claims Foreign Application Priority to Application No. VA2005A0061, filed November 8, 2005.
A claim for priority to an earlier filing date in a foreign country under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) must be made in a reissue application, even though such a claim was previously made in the application for the original patent to be reissued. However, no additional certified copy of the foreign application is necessary. See MPEP § 215.
In reissue applications filed prior to September 16, 2012, unless provided in an application data sheet, pre-AIA 37 CFR 1.63 requires that the oath or declaration must identify the foreign application for patent or inventor’s certificate for which priority is claimed under 37 CFR 1.55, and any foreign applications having a filing date before that of the application on which priority is claimed, by specifying the application number, country, day, month, and year of its filing. See MPEP § 214.01. (MPEP 1417)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-60 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Holzhammer et al., U.S. Patent Number: 5,630,093, hereinafter Holzhammer in view of Yoshida et al., U.S. Publication Number: 2004/0145939, hereinafter Yoshida.
With regard to claims 1 and 19, which teach a method of managing failures in a non-volatile memory device including an array of addressable cells grouped in blocks of data storage cells, Holzhammer teaches, in column 13, lines 6-40 and column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7, a system and method for managing bad blocks / sectors in non-volatile memory.
With regard to claims 1 and 19, which teach the method comprising: defining in the array a first subset of user addressable blocks of data storage cells, a second subset of redundancy blocks of data storage cells, and a third subset of non-user addressable blocks; locating blocks including one or more failed cells of the first subset during a test on water of the non-volatile memory device: storing, in the third subset, a bad block address table based at least in part on said locating of the blocks; Holzhammer teaches, in column 4, lines 6-29 and column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7, defining in non-volatile memory a first subset of active blocks for storing data, a second set of reserve blocks for storing redundant data, and a third set of blocks for storing a mapping table mapping a logical address to a physical address. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16 and column 16, lines 17-28, that when a bad sector / block is identified a record is made of that bad block existing at its location and said record is stored in the cluster map table. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up. Holzhammer further notes, in column 16, lines 18-28, that the reserved blocks are inaccessible so as to be set aside for mapping use.
With regard to claims 1 and 19, which teach copying, at power-on of the non-volatile memory device, the bad block address table from the third subset to an embedded random access memory; Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-40, that the file structure 400, which includes the cluster mapping table 446 and/or versions thereof, is loaded into RAM of the personal computer at boot time.
With regard to claims 1 and 19, which teach looking up the bad block address table copied in the embedded random access memory to determine whether a block of the first subset addressed by the user is bad and, if so, remapping access to a corresponding block of redundancy data storage cells; and determining, during operation of the non-volatile memory device, a failure of a block of cells previously not marked as bad, and updating the bad block address table in the embedded random access memory based at least in part on said determining of the failure of the block; Holzhammer further teaches, in column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7 and in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16, that if a block is identified as bad, the data is remapped to a reserved redundancy block. The mapping table is further updated to reflect the new location of the data in the reserve block (see column 28, lines 48-54).
Holzhammer is further supplemented by Yoshida who teaches an analogous system for protecting against bad blocks in non-volatile memory by setting aside spare blocks to copy data over to, while maintaining a defect map noting bad cell/blocks and keeping track of remapped data (see paragraphs 4-5), while keeping track of defective elements (see paragraph 16). Yoshida further specifically teaches both a detection of failed memory locations that need replacement during normal operation and a test performed on a wafer before-hand to detect defective sectors (see paragraph 71). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time to both detect faulty memory element during operation and before-hand as did Yoshida in the system of Holzhammer. One would have been motivated to do so as to offer a pre-test to check for any defective memory elements before they are even used and further to continually check the memory element during operation to see if any element failed during use.
With regard to claim 2, which teaches further comprising writing in a new page of the third subset an address table based at least in part on said updating of the bad block address table in the embedded random access memory, Holzhammer further teaches, when data is moved after a block is determined to be bad, the mapping table is updated to reflect the new location of the data in the reserve block (see column 28, lines 48-54).
With regard to claims 3, 12, and 20, which teach defining a fourth subset of data storage cells, with each block of the first subset of user addressable blocks of cells being associated to a respective group of data storage cells of the fourth subset to be used for storing a code that indicates whether the first subset is good or bad, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 16, lines 17-28, a fourth subset of data storage for maintaining a record block status 444, denoting which blocks are active blocks capable of storage (good blocks) and which blocks are defective or failed blocks (bad blocks).
With regard to claim 4, which teaches repeating the storing a pre- established number of times, Holzhammer teaches, in column 18, lines 59-63, that a link is added to the linked list chains within the cluster map table each time a dirty sector is created or removed. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 20, lines 58-65, that back-up copies of the cluster mapping table are made after each clean-up operation.
With regard to claims 5 and 21, which teach logic circuitry to manage failures in a nonvolatile memory device including an array of cells grouped in blocks of cells, the logic circuitry configured to: copy, at power-on of the non-volatile memory device, a bad block address table from a first subset of non-user addressable cells of the array of cells to a random access memory, wherein each row of the bad block address table is associated with a corresponding block of redundancy cells; Holzhammer teaches, in column 13, lines 6-40 and column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7, a system and method for managing bad blocks / sectors in non-volatile memory. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16 and column 16, lines 17-28, that when a bad sector / block is identified a record is made of that bad block existing at its location and said record is stored in the cluster map table. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-40, that the file structure 400, which includes the cluster mapping table 446 and/or versions thereof, is loaded into RAM of the personal computer at boot time.
With regard to claims 5 and 21, which teach determine whether an address of a first block of cells, addressed by a user, is in a first row of the bad block address table copied in the random access memory; remap the address to access a first block of redundancy cells that is associated with the first row; Holzhammer teaches, in column 28, lines 37-54, determining whether the first block of cells is clean or dirty, and remapping to the clean copy if the first block is dirty.
With regard to claims 5 and 21, which teach determine, during operation of the non-volatile memory device, a failure of a second block of cells whose address is not in the bad block address table; and update the bad block address table in the random access memory based at least in part on the failure of the second block, Holzhammer teaches, in column 19, lines 15-43 and column 18, lines 50-63, an iterative process where more blocks/sectors are determined to be dirty (bad) overtime and are added to the bad block table and remapped to a corresponding clean address.
Holzhammer is further supplemented by Yoshida who teaches an analogous system for protecting against bad blocks in non-volatile memory by setting aside spare blocks to copy data over to, while maintaining a defect map noting bad cell/blocks and keeping track of remapped data (see paragraphs 4-5), while keeping track of defective storage elements (see paragraph 16). Yoshida further specifically teaches both a test performed on a wafer before-hand to detect defective sectors and a second test detecting of additional failed memory locations that need replacement during normal operation (see paragraph 71). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time to both detect faulty memory element during operation and before-hand as did Yoshida in the system of Holzhammer. One would have been motivated to do so as to offer a pre-test to check for any defective memory elements before they are even used and further to continually check the memory element during operation to see if any element failed during use.
With regard to claims 6, 22, 26, and 29, which teach to write, in a new page of the first subset, an address table based at least in part on the updated bad block address table in the random access memory, Holzhammer teaches, in column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 32 and in column 28, lines 47-54, updating address tables based on new mappings and copying over tables from updated tables stored in RAM.
With regard to claims 7, 14, 23, 28, and 30, which further teach to store a binary code in two cells of each row of the bad block address table that indicates whether or not the redundancy block associated therewith is good and is being used, Holzhammer teaches, in column 18, line 59 through column 19, line 23, storing a code in binary to describe each block as good or dirty (bad). Yoshida further teaches, in paragraphs 10 and 40, the data stored in the blocks defining mappings being in binary.
With regard to claims 8, 24, and 41, which teach a non-volatile memory device including an array of addressable cells grouped in blocks of data storage cells, Holzhammer teaches, in column 13, lines 6-40 and column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7, a system and method for managing bad blocks / sectors in non-volatile memory.
With regard to claims 8, 24, and 41, which teach a first subset of user addressable blocks of data storage cells; a second subset of redundancy blocks of data storage cells; a third subset of non-user addressable blocks of data storage cells to store in a non-volatile fashion a bad block address table; Holzhammer teaches, in column 4, lines 6-29 and column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7, defining in non-volatile memory a first subset of active blocks for storing data, a second set of reserve blocks for storing redundant data, and a third set of blocks for storing a mapping table mapping a logical address to a physical address. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16 and column 16, lines 17-28, that when a bad sector / block is identified a record is made of that bad block existing at its location and said record is stored in the cluster map table. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up.
With regard to claims 8, 24, and 41, which teach a manager to locate failed blocks of bad data storage cells during a test on wafer of the non-volatile memory device, to mark the failed blocks of bad data storage cells as bad and associate therewith corresponding blocks of redundancy data storage cells, and to store in a nonvolatile memory a bad block address table including addresses of failed blocks, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16 and column 16, lines 17-28, that when a bad sector / block is identified a record is made of that bad block existing at its location and said record is stored in the cluster map table. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up.
With regard to claims 8, 24, and 41, which teach with each row of the bad block address table associated with a corresponding block of redundancy data storage cells, a controller coupled to the array and said random access memory, and said manager to determine an address of a block of data storage cells of the first subset is in a first row of the bad block address table copied in the random access memory, to remap the address to access to a first block of redundancy data storage cells that is associated with the first row, to determine, during operation of the memory device, a failure of a second block of data storage cells whose address is not in the bad block address table, and to update the bad block address table in the random access memory based at least in part on the failure of the second block. Holzhammer teaches, in column 28, lines 37-54, determining whether the first block of cells is clean or dirty, and remapping to the clean copy if the first block is dirty. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7 and in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16, that if a block is identified as bad, the data is remapped to a reserved redundancy block. The mapping table is further updated to reflect the new location of the data in the reserve block (see column 28, lines 48-54). Holzhammer teaches, in column 19, lines 15-43 and column 18, lines 50-63, an iterative process where more blocks/sectors are determined to be dirty (bad) overtime and are added to the bad block table and remapped to a corresponding clean address.
With regard to claims 8, 24, and 41, which teach copying, at power-on of the non-volatile memory device, the bad block address table from the third subset to an embedded random access memory; Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-40, that the file structure 400, which includes the cluster mapping table 446 and/or versions thereof, is loaded into RAM of the personal computer at boot time.
Holzhammer is further supplemented by Yoshida who teaches an analogous system for protecting against bad blocks in non-volatile memory by setting aside spare blocks to copy data over to, while maintaining a defect map noting bad cell/blocks and keeping track of remapped data (see paragraphs 4-5), while keeping track of defective storage elements (see paragraph 16). Yoshida further specifically teaches both a test performed on a wafer before-hand to detect defective sectors and a second test detecting of additional failed memory locations that need replacement during normal operation (see paragraph 71). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time to both detect faulty memory element during operation and before-hand as did Yoshida in the system of Holzhammer. One would have been motivated to do so as to offer a pre-test to check for any defective memory elements before they are even used and further to continually check the memory element during operation to see if any element failed during use.
With regard to claim 9, which teaches address circuits coupled to the array and to the manager, Holzhammer teaches, in column 7, lines 20-63 and figure 3, circuits coupling the array and the manager.
With regard to claims 10 and 25, which teach wherein the random access memory comprises an embedded random access memory, Holzhammer teaches, in column 9, lines 26-65, the RAM being embedded RAM.
With regard to claim 11, which teaches wherein the manager is further configured to write, in a new page of the third subset, a bad block address table based at least in part on the updated bad block address table stored in the random access memory, Holzhammer teaches, in column 20, lines 58-65 and column 28, lines 28-54, adding a new record to the address table upon a new update being executed.
With regard to claims 13, 27, 33, 50, and 54, which teach a method comprising: copying, at power-on of the non-volatile memory device, a bad block address table from a first subset of non-user addressable cells of an array of data storage cells of the non-volatile memory device to a random access memory, wherein each row of the bad block address table is associated with a corresponding block of redundancy cells of the array; Holzhammer teaches, in column 13, lines 6-40 and column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7, a system and method for managing bad blocks / sectors in non-volatile memory. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16 and column 16, lines 17-28, that when a bad sector / block is identified a record is made of that bad block existing at its location and said record is stored in the cluster map table. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-40, that the file structure 400, which includes the cluster mapping table 446 and/or versions thereof, is loaded into RAM of the personal computer at boot time.
With regard to claims 13, 27, 33, 50, and 54, which teach determining an address of a first block of cells of the array, addressed by a user, is in a first row of the bad block address table copied in the random access memory; remapping the address to access a first block of redundancy cells that is associated with the first row; Holzhammer further teaches, in column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7 and in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16, that if a block is identified as bad, the data is remapped to a reserved redundancy block. The mapping table is further updated to reflect the new location of the data in the reserve block (see column 28, lines 48-54).
With regard to claims 13, 27, 33, 50, and 54, which teach determining, during operation of the non-volatile memory device, a failure of a second block of cells whose address is not in the bad block address table; updating the bad block address table in the random access memory based at least in part on the failure of the second block; Holzhammer teaches, in column 19, lines 15-43 and column 18, lines 50-63, an iterative process where more blocks/sectors are determined to be dirty (bad) overtime and are added to the bad block table and remapped to a corresponding clean address.
Holzhammer is further supplemented by Yoshida who teaches an analogous system for protecting against bad blocks in non-volatile memory by setting aside spare blocks to copy data over to, while maintaining a defect map noting bad cell/blocks and keeping track of remapped data (see paragraphs 4-5), while keeping track of defective storage elements (see paragraph 16). Yoshida further specifically teaches both a test performed on a wafer before-hand to detect defective sectors and a second test detecting of additional failed memory locations that need replacement during normal operation (see paragraph 71). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time to both detect faulty memory element during operation and before-hand as did Yoshida in the system of Holzhammer. One would have been motivated to do so as to offer a pre-test to check for any defective memory elements before they are even used and further to continually check the memory element during operation to see if any element failed during use.
With regard to claim 15, which teaches writing, in a new page of the first subset, an address table based at least in part on the updated bad block address table in the random access memory, Holzhammer teaches, in column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 32 and in column 28, lines 47-54, updating address tables based on new mappings and copying over tables from updated tables stored in RAM.
With regard to claim 16, which teaches storing a binary code in one or more cells of each row of the bad block address table that indicates whether or not the redundancy block associated therewith is good and is being used, Holzhammer teaches, in column 18, line 59 through column 19, line 23, storing a code in binary to describe each block as good or dirty (bad). Yoshida further teaches, in paragraphs 10 and 40, the data stored in the blocks defining mappings being in binary.
With regard to claims 17 and 31, which teach selecting the bad block address table from a plurality of bad block address tables in the first subset based at least in part on the binary codes stored in each row of the plurality of plurality of bad block address tables, and said copying based at least in part on said selecting, Holzhammer teaches, in column 15, lines 17-34 and column 20, lines 46-65, referencing a mapping table to use based on binary code stored therein.
With regard to claims 18 and 32, which teach said updating comprises: writing the address of the second block of cells in a second row of the bad block address table, Holzhammer teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the address table based upon newly discovered defective memory locations.
With regard to claim 34, which teaches further comprising performing the first memory access command at least in part by accessing the first block of redundancy cells at least in part in response to the remapping, Holzhammer teaches, in column 32, lines 18-27, using updated mappings to find the requested data.
With regard to claims 35-39 and 44-48, which teach determining a failure of a second block of non-volatile memory cells in the non-volatile memory device not previously marked as bad at least in part in response to receiving a second memory access command; and updating the bad block address table at least in part in response to the determining of the failure of the second block of non-volatile memory cells; storing a second entry in the bad block address table; associating a second block of redundancy cells with the failed block; and remapping; Holzhammer further teaches, in column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7 and in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16, that if a block is identified as bad, the data is remapped to a reserved redundancy block. The mapping table is further updated to reflect the new location of the data in the reserve block (see column 28, lines 48-54). Holzhammer teaches, in column 19, lines 15-43 and column 18, lines 50-63, an iterative process where more blocks/sectors are determined to be dirty (bad) overtime and are added to the bad block table and remapped to a corresponding clean address. Yoshida further specifically teaches both a test performed on a wafer before-hand to detect defective sectors and a second test detecting of additional failed memory locations that need replacement during normal operation (see paragraph 71).
With regard to claim 40, which teaches wherein said copying the bad block address table stored in a non-volatile memory array of the memory device to the random access memory array of the memory device comprising copying the bad block address table stored in a dedicated subset of non-volatile memory cells to the random access memory array, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16 and column 16, lines 17-28, that when a bad sector / block is identified a record is made of that bad block existing at its location and said record is stored in the cluster map table. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up. Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM.
With regard to claim 42, which teaches a command interface coupled to the controller to receive the memory access command via an external interconnect, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 5, lines 55-61, an interface coupled to the controller to receive memory access commands.
With regard to claim 43, which teaches the controller further to perform the memory access command at least in part by accessing the first block of redundance cells at least in part in response to the remapping, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 47-54, updating the mapping table to reflect a change in the physical address of stored data to reflect the location data is stored in reserve blocks following clean-up.
With regard to claim 49, which teaches wherein said first subset of non-volatile memory cells comprises a dedicated subset of non-volatile memory cells, Holzhammer teaches, in column 4, lines 6-29 and column 13, lines 6-16, defining in non-volatile memory a first subset of active blocks set aside for storing data.
With regard to claim 51, which teaches wherein said copying the bad block address table to other storage locations of the memory device comprises copying the bad block address table from storage locations in the array to other storage locations in an array of random access memory cells of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM.
With regard to claim 52, which teaches wherein said updating the bad block address table comprises updating the bad block address table stored in the array of non-volatile memory cells, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 14-21 and lines 57-54, updating the address table stored in the non-volatile memory.
With regard to claim 53, which teaches wherein said updating the bad block address table comprises updating the bad block address table stored in the array of random access memory cells, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the updated mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM.
With regard to claim 55, which teaches further comprising copying the bad block address table from storage locations in an array of non-volatile memory cells of the memory device to other storage locations of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the updated mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM.
With regard to claim 56, which teaches wherein said determining the failure comprises determining that the address is not in the bad block address table stored at the other storage locations of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 37-46, a testing step involves looking in the address table for the corresponding address.
With regard to claim 57, which teaches wherein said copying the bad block address table to other storage locations of the memory device comprises copying the bad block address table from storage locations in the array of non-volatile memory cells to other storage locations in an array of random access memory cells of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the updated mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM.
With regard to claim 58, which teaches wherein said updating the bad block address table comprises updating the bad block address table stored in the array of non-volatile memory cells of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 28, lines 14-21 and lines 57-54, updating the address table stored in the non-volatile memory.
With regard to claim 59, which teaches wherein said updating the bad block address table comprises updating the bad block address table stored in the array of random access memory cells of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 21, lines 29-31 and column 20, line 58 through column 21, line 5, copying the updated mapping table 446 or a compressed version of the cluster mapping table to RAM.
With regard to claim 60, which teaches wherein said remapping the block of memory cells to redundancy cells comprises remapping the block of memory cells to a redundant block of non-volatile memory cells of the memory device, Holzhammer further teaches, in column 17, line 64 through column 18, line 7 and in column 18, line 50 through column 19, line 16, that if a block is identified as bad, the data is remapped to a reserved redundancy block. The mapping table is further updated to reflect the new location of the data in the reserve block (see column 28, lines 48-54).
Summary
Claims 1-60 are REJECTED.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DENNIS G BONSHOCK whose telephone number is (571)272-4047. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7:15 - 4:45.
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/DENNIS G BONSHOCK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
Conferees:
/ADAM L BASEHOAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
/ALEXANDER J KOSOWSKI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3992