Technical Program

Paper Detail

Paper IDM.6.1
Paper Title Q-ary Asymmetric LOCO Codes: Constrained Codes Supporting Flash Evolution
Authors Ahmed Hareedy, Beyza Dabak, Robert Calderbank, Duke University, United States
Session M.6: Coding for Storage and Memories II
Presentation Lecture
Track Coding for Storage and Memories
Manuscript  Click here to download the manuscript
Virtual Presentation  Click here to watch in the Virtual Symposium
Abstract Flash memory devices are winning the competition for storage density against magnetic recording devices. This outcome results from advances in physics that allow storage of more than one bit per cell, coupled with advances in signal processing that reduce the effect of physical instabilities. Constrained codes are used in storage to avoid problematic patterns. Recently, we introduced binary symmetric lexicographically-ordered constrained codes (LOCO codes) for data storage and transmission. This paper introduces simple constrained codes that support non-binary physical gates in multi, triple, quad, and the currently-in-development penta-level cell (M/T/Q/P-LC) Flash memories. The new codes can be easily modified if problematic patterns change with time. These codes are designed to mitigate inter-cell interference, which is a critical source of error in Flash devices. The new codes are called $q$-ary asymmetric LOCO codes (QA-LOCO codes), and the construction subsumes codes previously designed for single-level cell (SLC) Flash devices (A-LOCO codes). QA-LOCO codes work for a Flash device with any number, $q$, of levels per cell. For $q \geq 4$, we show that QA-LOCO codes can achieve rates greater than $0.95 \log_2 q$ information bits per coded symbol. Capacity-achieving rates, affordable encoding-decoding complexity, and ease of reconfigurability support the growing improvement of M/T/Q/P-LC Flash memory devices, as well as lifecycle management as the characteristics of these devices change with time.

Plan Ahead

IEEE ISIT 2021

2021 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory

11-16 July 2021 | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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