Flash EEprom system
First Claim
1. A method of operating a non-volatile memory system, comprising:
- utilizing more than one integrated circuit chip that individually includes a plurality of non-overlapping units of memory cells that are erasable together, the individual units of memory cells storing multiple bytes of data, selecting a plurality of units of memory cells distributed over more than one of the integrated circuit chips for erase, and thereafter erasing the selected plurality of units of memory cells together without erasing others of the units of memory cells on said more than one of the integrated circuit chips.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system of Flash EEprom memory chips with controlling circuits serves as non-volatile memory such as that provided by magnetic disk drives. Improvements include selective multiple sector erase, in which any combinations of Flash sectors may be erased together. Selective sectors among the selected combination may also be de-selected during the erase operation. Another improvement is the ability to remap and replace defective cells with substitute cells. The remapping is performed automatically as soon as a defective cell is detected. When the number of defects in a Flash sector becomes large, the whole sector is remapped. Yet another improvement is the use of a write cache to reduce the number of writes to the Flash EEprom memory, thereby minimizing the stress to the device from undergoing too many write/erase cycling.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of operating a non-volatile memory system, comprising:
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utilizing more than one integrated circuit chip that individually includes a plurality of non-overlapping units of memory cells that are erasable together, the individual units of memory cells storing multiple bytes of data, selecting a plurality of units of memory cells distributed over more than one of the integrated circuit chips for erase, and thereafter erasing the selected plurality of units of memory cells together without erasing others of the units of memory cells on said more than one of the integrated circuit chips. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of operating a non-volatile memory system, comprising:
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utilizing a plurality of integrated circuit chips that each includes a plurality of non-overlapping units of memory cells that are erasable together and that each individually stores multiple bytes of data, setting a tag for each of multiple units of memory cells distributed over more than one of the plurality of integrated circuit chips for erase, and thereafter erasing the tagged multiple units of memory cells together without erasing others of the units of memory cells on said more than one of the integrated circuit chips. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. A non-volatile memory system, comprising:
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a plurality of integrated circuit chips that individually includes an array of re-programmable non-volatile memory cells organized into non-overlapping units of a plurality of memory cells wherein the plurality of memory cells of individual units are erasable together, the units of memory cells individually having a capacity to store multiple bytes of data, a controller on another integrated circuit chip, a bus connecting said another integrated circuit chip and said plurality of integrated circuit chips, and logic circuits provided on the plurality of integrated circuit chips and connected with the controller over the bus to cause a plurality of selected units of memory cells on more than one of the plurality of integrated circuit chips to be erased together without erasing others of the units of memory cells on said more than one of the plurality of integrated circuit chips. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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Specification