Patent ID: 8447922

Claim:
A memory controller that can be connected to a nonvolatile memory including physical blocks and reads and writes data from and to the nonvolatile memory in accordance with an access command provided from an external unit, the memory controller comprising: a use condition obtaining unit that obtains information about a number of physical blocks of the nonvolatile memory to be used as temporary blocks from the access command provided from the external unit; a usable capacity determination unit that determines a capacity of a temporary area and a capacity of a normal access area based on the number of temporary blocks obtained by the use condition obtaining unit, the temporary area being formed by the temporary blocks, the normal access area being formed by physical blocks of the nonvolatile memory that are different from the temporary blocks; and a data read/write unit that writes data to either one of the temporary area or the normal access area determined by the usable capacity determination unit.