Pitney Bowes Inc.

Douglas H Patterson

Easwaran C Nambudiri

Wallace Kirschner

An electronic postage meter includes two non-volatile memories. One of the non-volatile memories is utilized for storing in historical sequence in respective registers the transaction information for each of a predetermined number of transactions which have occurred prior to the last transaction. This memory is accessed at the time of each transaction. The real-time transaction information may be sequentially written over the earliest information in the registers. The other non-volatile memory stores cumulative data upon power-down.

Electronic postage meter having multiple non-volatile memories for

A method and associated apparatus is provided for protecting the accounting data stored in an electronic postage meter having multiple non-volatile memories for the storage of accounting data, including the steps of and associated apparatus for providing a first non-volatile memory; writing postage transactions accounting data into the first non-volatile memory in real time during each trip cycle of the meter; providing a second non-volatile memory; writing postage transaction accounting data into the second non-volatile memory only during the power cycle of the meter; and disabling the first non-volatile memory when the meter enters a power down cycle to prevent any further writing of data into the first non-volatile memory. Advantageously, the first non-volatile memory is clamped to ground potential during the power down cycle.

Data protection system for electronic postage meters having multiple

A method and associated apparatus is provided for using data stored in one non-volatile memory to locate the next memory address in which to write data in another non-volatile memory of an electronic postage meter, comprising the steps of and associated apparatus for providing a first non-volatile memory for storing data therein including cumulative piece count data corresponding to the number of completed postage transactions, providing a second non-volatile memory for storing accounting data sequentially therein for each one of a predetermined number of trip cycles of the postage meter which number corresponds to the number of individually addressable trip cycle memory locations in the second non-volatile memory and defines a modulus of the second non-volatile memory, retrieving the cumulative piece count data from the first non-volatile memory during a power up cycle, dividing the cumulative piece count data by the modulus of the second non-volatile memory, and using the remainder resulting from the division to locate the next individually addressable trip cycle memory location in the sequence of memory locations in the second non-volatile memory for writing the accounting data for the first trip cycle of the meter after completion of the power up cycle.

Growing community of inventors

Norwalk, CT, United States of America

Douglas H Patterson