Example embodiments of the inventive concepts described herein relate to a memory controller and an operating method thereof.
A semiconductor memory device is a memory device which is fabricated using semiconductors such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and so on. Semiconductor memory devices are classified into volatile memory devices and nonvolatile memory devices.
The volatile memory devices may lose stored contents at power-off. The volatile memory devices include a static RAM (SRAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and the like. The nonvolatile memory devices may retain stored contents even at power-off. The nonvolatile memory devices include a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM), a flash memory device, a phase-change RAM (PRAM), a magnetic RAM (MRAM), a resistive RAM (RRAM), a ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), and so on.
The semiconductor memory device may be controlled by a memory controller according to a request from a host. The memory controller may communicate with the host through a host interface. That is, the memory controller may write or read data to or from the semiconductor memory device according to the host request. The nonvolatile memory device and the memory controller may constitute a data storage device. As an operating speed of a host increases and a bandwidth of the host interface improves, there may be a demand for increased performance of the memory controller.