Patent ID: 11899945
Assignee: SILICON MOTION, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. A memory device, comprising:
a non-volatile (NV) memory, configured to store information, wherein the NV memory comprises at least one NV memory element; and
a memory controller, coupled to the NV memory, configured to control operations of the memory device, wherein the memory controller comprises:
a processing circuit, arranged to control the memory controller according to a plurality of host commands from a host device, to allow the host device to access the NV memory through the memory controller, wherein the processing circuit is arranged to perform communications specification version control of the memory device in a predetermined communications architecture with aid of compatibility management; and
a transmission interface circuit, arranged to perform communications with the host device;
wherein:
the memory controller receives a first command from the host device through the transmission interface circuit of the memory controller;
the memory controller executes a device-side compatibility management procedure of a compatibility management function to detect whether the host device conforms to any version of multiple predetermined versions of a predetermined communications specification according to the first command to generate a detection result, and selectively switch from one firmware version to another firmware version according to the detection result; and
the memory controller sends a first response to the host device through the transmission interface circuit, wherein the first response is sent to the host device in response to the first command;
wherein the first command represents a first predetermined request which is implemented as a read descriptor request, wherein multiple fields of a predetermined format of the read descriptor request comprise:
a first field, for carrying a first predetermined value;
a flag field, for carrying at least one flag;
a task tag field, for carrying at least one task tag;
a first length field, for carrying a first length; and
a second length field, for carrying a second length; and

at least one other field reserved for at least one other purpose among the multiple fields is arranged to carry at least one parameter for indicating whether the host device conforms to the any version of the multiple predetermined versions of the predetermined communications specification.