Patent ID: 11868247
Assignee: RADIAN MEMORY SYSTEMS, LLC
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 5:
6. A storage system comprising:
a solid state storage drive (SSD) comprising flash memory divided into zones that are non-overlapping subdivisions of the flash memory;
a host that communicates with the SSD, wherein the host:
transmits a query command to the SSD and responsively receives:
a list of zones in the SSD;
starting logical block addresses for the zones;
capacities for the zones, wherein the starting logical block address and the capacity of each zone define a range of logical block addresses for that zone; and
extents to which zones are unutilized and can receive additional write data;

discovers information provided by the SSD about a specific one of the zones, the specific zone identified by its starting logical block address, wherein the information includes a state of the specific zone, the specific zone comprises at least two erase units, and the erase units are on at least two different planes of the flash memory; and
in response to discovering the information, transmits a maintenance command to the SSD, wherein the maintenance command identifies the specific zone by its starting logical block address.