Patent ID: 7035993

Claim:
A flash memory data access method, for data access between a host and a flash memory device, wherein the host sequentially accesses data by using a plurality of logical elements stored in a logical portion, wherein the host writes data to the flash memory device by providing the plurality of logical elements, and the flash memory device includes a physical portion, wherein the physical portion comprises a plurality of physical elements for storing data, wherein the method comprises: mapping logical elements of the logical portion to virtual elements of a virtual portion of the flash memory device; creating a virtual-to-physical (VP) table, which maps virtual units of the virtual portion to physical units of the physical portion; and creating a screen element table if the logical elements provided by the host are out of sequence, wherein the screen element table maps the virtual elements in each one of the virtual units to the physical elements of a physical unit corresponding to the virtual unit, wherein the screen element table has a table data structure, wherein the VP table and the screen element table exist in separate tables, wherein, if the logical elements provided by the host are in sequence, the logical elements requested by the host are mapped to physical elements via the VP table by unit, wherein, if the logical elements provided by the host are out of sequence, the logical elements requested by the host are mapped to physical elements first via the VP table by unit and subsequently via the screen element table by element, and wherein an empty physical element of the physical elements is written in response to a request from the host.