DATA SHIFT BY ELEMENTS OF A VECTOR IN MEMORY

• US 20160267951A1
• Filed: 03/03/2016
• Published: 09/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Tiwari, Sanjay
• Granted Patent: US 9,741,399 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/4091 Sense or sense/refresh amplifiers, or associated sense circuitry, e.g. for coupled bit-line precharging, equalising or isolating
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/4096 Input/output [I/O] data management or control circuits, e.g. reading or writing circuits, I/O drivers or bit-line switches
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/065 Differential amplifiers of latching type
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1006 Data managing, e.g. manipulating data before writing or reading out, data bus switches or control circuits therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1012 Data reordering during input/output, e.g. crossbars, layers of multiplexers, shifting or rotating
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1036 using data shift registers

Abstract

Examples of the present disclosure provide apparatuses and methods for performing shift operations in a memory. An example method comprises performing a shift operation a first element stored in a first group of memory cells coupled to a first access line and a number of sense lines of a memory array and a second element stored in a second group of memory cells coupled to a second access line and the number of sense lines of the memory array. The method can include shifting the first element by a number of bit positions defined by the second element by performing a number of AND operations, OR operations, SHIFT operations, and INVERT operations performed without transferring data via an input/output (I/O) line.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

performing a shift operation on a first element stored in a first group of memory cells coupled to a first access line and a number of sense lines of a memory array,

wherein the shift operation includes shifting the first element by a number of bit positions defined by a second element without transferring data via an input/output (I/O) line, wherein the second element is stored in a second group of memory cells coupled to a second access line and a the number of sense lines of the memory array.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the shift operation comprises performing a number of AND operations, OR operations, SHIFT operations, and INVERT operations without a sense line address access.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a result of the shift operation in a third group of memory cells coupled to a third access line.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the result of the shift operation is stored in at least one of the first group of memory cells coupled to the first access line and the second group of memory cells coupled to the second access line.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of operations are performed using sensing circuitry coupled to each of a number of columns of complementary sense lines.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each memory cell in the first group of memory cells stores a respective bit of the first element.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each memory cell in the second group of memory cells stores a respective bit of the second element.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second element defines a number of bit positions to shift a number of bits within the first group of memory cells that store the first element.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a first group of memory cells coupled to a first access line and configured to store a first number of bits that represent a first element;

a second group of memory cells coupled to the first access line and configured to store a second number of bits that represent a second element;

a third group of memory cells coupled to a second access line and configured to store a third element;

a fourth group of memory cells coupled to the second access line and configured to store a fourth element; and

a controller configured to operate sensing circuitry to shift the first number of bits within the first group of memory cells by a first number of bit positions defined by the third element and shift the second number of bits within the second group of memory cells by a second number of bit positions defined by the fourth element by performing a number of operations without transferring data via an input/output (I/O) line.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein each of the sensing circuitry comprises a sense amplifier and a compute component.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the sense amplifier comprises a primary latch and the compute component comprises a secondary latch.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first number of bits, the second number of bits are a same bit-length.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein first element, the second element, the third element, and the fourth element are represented with bits having a same bit-length.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to operate the sensing circuitry to perform the number of operations without transferring data via an input/output (I/O) line.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to operate the sensing circuitry to shift the first number of bits within the first number of memory cells and the second number of bits within the second number of memory cells in parallel.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first number of bits are shifted within the first number of memory cells when the third element has a first decimal value of one or higher and the second number of bits are shifted within the second number of memory cells when the fourth element has a second decimal value of one or higher.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to operate the sensing circuitry to:

calculate the first number of bit positions based on a third number of bits stored in the third number of memory cells, wherein the third number of bits represent the third element; and

calculate the second number of bit positions based on a fourth number of bits stored in the fourth number of memory cells, wherein the fourth number of bits represent the fourth element;

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein each of the third number of memory cells and the fourth number of memory cells is associated with a different index.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

a memory cell from the third number of memory cells and a memory cell from the fourth number of memory cells that store a least significant bit (LSB) from the third number of bits and the fourth number of bits is associated with a beginning index; and

a memory cell from the third number of memory cells and a memory cell from the fourth number of memory cells that stores a most significant bit (MSB) from the third number of bits and the fourth number of bits is associated with a last index.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the first number of bit positions is calculated using at least the beginning index that is associated with the third number of memory cells; and

the second number of bit positions is calculated using at least an index that follows the beginning index.

21. A method for performing a number of shift operations, comprising:

performing a shift operation on a first bit-vector comprising a first number of elements stored in a first group of memory cells coupled to a first access line and a number of sense lines of a memory array, wherein the shift operation includes shifting the first bit-vector by a number of bit positions defined by a second bit-vector without a sense line address access

wherein the second bit-vector is stored in a second group of memory cells coupled to a second access line and the number of sense lines of the memory array; and

storing a result of the shift operation as a result bit-vector stored in a third group of memory cells coupled to a third access line.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the quantity of the number of iterations of operations is equal to log₂ (element width) wherein an element width is a quantity of bits that represent each of the first elements.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein performing the shift operation comprises performing a number of iterations of operations using:

a SHIFT MASK bit-vector;

a TMPSHIFTED MASK bit-vector;

an ELEMENT MASK bit-vector; and

an EFFECTIVE MASK bit-vector;

wherein each iteration of operations comprises determining whether any of the first elements comprising the first bit-vector remains to have associated bits shifted within the first group of memory cells.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein performing the shift operation further comprises:

creating the ELEMENT MASK bit-vector; and

creating the EFFECTIVE MASK bit-vector.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein creating the ELEMENT MASK bit-vector comprises:

store a 1-bit as a least significant bit (LSB) of each of the number of elements stored in the first bit-vector in the first number of memory cells; and

store a 0-bit in a remainder of the first number of memory cells.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein creating the ELEMENT MASK bit-vector comprises:

store a 1-bit as a most significant bit (MSB) of each of the number of elements stored in the first bit-vector in the first number of memory cells; and

store a 0-bit in a remainder of the first number of memory cells.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein perform the number of iterations of operations comprises:

creating the SHIFT MASK bit-vector;

shifting a first portion of the first bit-vector using the SHIFT MASK bit-vector;

merging the first portion of the first bit-vector with a second portion of the first bit-vector;

storing a result of the merger as the RESULT bit-vector and

updating the EFFECTIVE mask bit-vector.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein creating the SHIFT MASK bit-vector comprises:

identifying at least one element from the number of elements that are to be shifted based on whether a current bit index used to iterate through the number of iterations of operations identifies the at least one element using the second bit-vector.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein shifting the first portion of the first bit-vector using the SHIFT MASK comprises:

shifting a first portion of the first bit-vector by;

identifying the first portion using the SHIFT MASK bit-vector; and

shifting a number of bits associated with the first portion of the first bit-vector within the first number of memory cells a number of bit positions equal to two to the power of the current bit index (2^{current bit index}).

30. The method of claim 29, wherein merging the first portion of the first bit-vector with a second portion of the first bit-vector.

merging the first portion that has been shifted with a second portion of the first bit-vector that has not been by performing an OR operation on the first portion and the second portion.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein updating the EFFECTIVE MASK bit-vector includes shifting the EFFECTIVE MASK bit-vector 1-bit position within an associated number of memory cells.

32. An apparatus comprising:

a first number of memory cells coupled to a number of sense lines and to a first access line, wherein the first number of memory cells are configured to store a first number of elements;

a second number of memory cells coupled to the number of sense lines and to a second access line, wherein the second number of memory cells are configured to store a second number of elements; and

a controller configured to operate sensing circuitry to;

receive the first number of elements and the second number of elements;

shift bits in each of the first number of elements within the first number of memory cells by a number of bit positions equal to a corresponding second number of elements using a number of operations,

wherein a sense line address access is not performed to;

receive the first number of elements and the second number of elements;

or

shift using at least one of the number of operations.