摘要:
In a memory including a flash memory, the life of the memory is prevented from being decreased due to the high frequency of rewrite operations of data to a specific area. When the erasure frequency of a block 301, storing four sectors of data, is high, each sector of block 301 is transferred to different blocks 302-305 to avoid deterioration of the data of block 301 due to the high frequency of rewriting.
摘要:
A storage device, including: a non-volatile semiconductor memory which is electrically erasable; a system interface coupled with an external host system; and a controller reading data from the non-volatile semiconductor memory and transmitting data to the host system via the system interface in response to a read command received by the system interface from the host system; and wherein the controller starts reading (N+n)th sector data from the non-volatile semiconductor memory, while the controller transmits Nth sector data that has been read from the non-volatile semiconductor memory to the host system via the system interface, in response to the read command for successive sector data.
摘要:
In response to a read command received by a system interface unit for accessing a plurality of blocks of data stored in said non-volatile semiconductor memory, a controller carries out selective read operations of blocks of data to two memories from the non-volatile semiconductor memory. The controller also carries out parallel operations of data transferring a first block of data, which has already been subjected to error detection and error correction operations by an error correction unit, from one of the two memories to a host system via said system interface unit and of data transferring of a second block of data to be subjected to the error detection and error correction operation, from said non-volatile semiconductor memory to the other of the two memories.
摘要:
An electrically alterable non-volatile multi-level memory device and a method of operating such a device, which includes setting a status of at least one of the memory cell to one state selected from a plurality of states including at least first to fourth level states, in response to information to be stored in the one memory cell, and reading the status of the memory cell to determine whether the read out status corresponds to one of the first to fourth level states by utilizing a first reference level set between the second and third level states, a second reference level set between the first and second level states and a third reference level set between the third and fourth level states.
摘要:
A method of operating an electrically alterable non-volatile multi-level memory device includes settling a status of at least one of the memory cell to one state selected from a plurality of states including at least first to fourth level states, in response to information to be stored in the one memory cell, and reading the status of the memory cell to determine whether the read out status corresponds to one of the first to fourth level states by utilizing a first reference level set between the second and third level states, a second reference level set between the first and second level states and a third reference level set between the third and fourth level states.
摘要:
A semiconductor memory includes a memory block consisting of a plurality of cells, a write control section, and a read control section. The write control section sets a potential to each of the plurality of cells in such a manner that the potential corresponds to a level indicated by a bit data string obtained by arranging pieces of bit data which are stored in buffers A and B and which are to be stored in the cell in the order of the buffer A and the buffer B. The read control section has a discriminator corresponding to each of the plurality of cells. The discriminator sets a threshold voltage to a potential level that corresponds to a number of discriminating operations to be performed with respect to a corresponding cell and a result of a discriminating operation already performed with respect to the cell. As a result of these operations, the semiconductor memory can determine the pieces of bit data in the order of the buffer A and the buffer B every time the discriminating operation is performed with respect to the cell.
摘要:
In the present invention, disclosed is a semiconductor memory device capable of reducing the number of erasing times of each block allocated to a cluster or the number of blocks to be erased in one writing to the minimum. As an embodiment of the present invention, when a host system 1 performs accessing, for each cluster as a unit, to the FAT partition prepared on a flash memory 17 of the semiconductor memory device 100, a CPU 6 adds an address offset value held by address offset storage section 10 to a logical address specified by the host system 1, whereby a logical address of a head sector of the cluster correspond to a physical address of a head sector of a unit block for erasing/writing data in the flash memory 17.
摘要:
A semiconductor storage device that determines the cause of an error at the time of the error correction of data read out from a non-volatile semiconductor memory, on the basis of a previously recorded error correction count, and selects a data refresh processing or a substitute processing to perform. When the error is detected, the corrected data is rewritten back for preventing reoccurrence of error due to accidental cause. If it is determined that the reoccurrence frequency of the error is high and the error is due to degradation of the storage medium, based on the error correction count, the substitute processing is performed.
摘要:
In a memory device using an electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory as a storage medium, wherein, in order to allow the memory to deteriorate evenly, the erasing time and writing time are measured, the influence of scatter of cells in the memory being eliminated on the basis of the resultant measurement values, a substantial degree of deterioration being thereby determined with a high accuracy, whereby a memory device of a high reliability and a high efficiency is practically obtained. In order to rewrite an electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory (1), there are provided a means for measuring the erasing time and writing time, a means for comparing an erasing time with a stored reference time, a means for correcting writing time on the basis of the results of the comparison, and a means for determining deterioration on the basis of the results of the correction. According to the present invention, the substantial deterioration of each cell can be determined, and such control is possible that more deteriorated memory is used less frequently while less deteriorated memory is used more frequently. As a result, the reliability of the memory is improved, and the memory can have a longer service life.
摘要:
In a memory device using an electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory as a storage medium, wherein, in order to allow the memory to deteriorate evenly, the erasing time and writing time are measured, the influence of scatter of cells in the memory being eliminated on the basis of the resultant measurement values, a substantial degree of deterioration being thereby determined with a high accuracy, whereby a memory device of a high reliability and a high efficiency is practically obtained. In order to rewrite an electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory (1), there are provided a means for measuring the erasing time and writing time, a means for comparing an erasing time with a stored reference time, a means for correcting writing time on the basis of the results of the comparison, and a means for determining deterioration on the basis of the results of the correction. According to the present invention, the substantial deterioration of each cell can be determined, and such control is possible that more deteriorated memory is used less frequently while less deteriorated memory is used more frequently. As a result, the reliability of the memory is improved, and the memory can have a longer service life.