Rank-Modulation Rewriting Codes for Flash Memories

Abstract

Current flash memory technology is focused on cost minimization of the stored capacity. However, the resulting approach supports a relatively small number of write-erase cycles. This technology is effective for consumer devices (smartphones and cameras) where the number of write-erase cycles is small, however, it is not economical for enterprise storage systems that require a large number of lifetime writes. Our proposed approach for alleviating this problem consists of the efficient integration of two key ideas: (i) improving reliability and endurance by representing the information using relative values via the rank modulation scheme and (ii) increasing the overall (lifetime) capacity of the flash device via rewriting codes, namely, performing multiple writes per cell before erasure. We propose a new scheme that combines rank-modulation with rewriting. The key benefits of the new scheme include: (i) the ability to store close to 2 bits per cell on each write, and rewrite the memory close to q times, where q is the number of levels in each cell, and (ii) efficient encoding and decoding algorithms that use the recently proposed polar WOM codes.