Patent ID: 8108180
Filing Date: 2012-01-31
Classification: G06F,G11C

Abstract:
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium for determining an end-of-life stage of the flash memory, the computer readable medium comprising instructions for: detecting at least one life cycle event associated with a flash memory residing on an electronic device; assigning one of a plurality of weights from a plurality of weights to the at least one life cycle event based on a life cycle event type associated with the at least one life cycle event, wherein each weight in the plurality of weights is associated with a different life cycle event type from a plurality of life cycle event types; incrementing a counter associated with the at least one life cycle event based on the weight that has been assigned to the at least one life cycle event; determining, based on the counter, a total number of occurrences for the at least one life cycle event; storing the total number of occurrences for the at least one life cycle event on the flash memory; determining if the total number of occurrences exceeds at least one given threshold; identifying a current life cycle stage of the flash memory based at least in part on the determining if the total number of occurrences exceeds at least one given threshold, wherein the life cycle stage is associated with the at least one given threshold; and notifying a user of the life cycle state of the flash memory via at least one of a visual notification device and audible notification device directly coupled to the flash memory.