A method includes providing a semiconductor memory device having at least one memory cell array. The memory cell array has a multiplicity of memory cells arranged in a matrix-like manner. Each of the memory cells is assigned a physical address and an electrical address. The method also includes inputting a physical address of a memory cell that is to be addressed into an address input device of the semiconductor memory device, decoding the input physical address into the assigned electrical address of the memory cell to be addressed by an address decoder device of the semiconductor memory device, and outputting the electrical address to the memory cell array in order to address the memory cell.