Arm Limited

Ingming Chang

Jungtae Kwon

Hemangi Umakant Gajjewar

Karl Lin Wang

Cezary Pietrzyk

Moon-Hae Son

A method of converting a static random access memory cell to a read only memory cell and the cell thus converted is disclosed. The cell to be converted comprises a data retention portion powered by a higher and lower voltage supply line and four transistors arranged as two cross coupled inverters. It is converted to a read only memory cell by severing a connection between at least one of said transistors within a first of said two inverters and one of said voltage supply lines such that when powered said first inverter outputs a predetermined value.

Converting SRAM cells to ROM cells

A system, method and computer program product are provided for producing an instance of a memory device from a banked memory architecture. The banked memory architecture specifies a maximum number of memory banks and a maximum number of rows per memory bank. The method comprises the step of receiving input parameters indicating a number of properties of the memory device, the properties comprising at least a number of rows R for the memory device. Thereafter, a degeneration process is performed on the banked memory architecture in order to produce the instance of a memory device having those properties. The degeneration process comprises the steps of: (i) selecting a number of memory banks B for the instance, where the number is an integer less than or equal to the maximum number of memory banks specified by the banked memory architecture, and B is not constrained to be a factor of R; and (ii) partitioning the number of rows R amongst the selected memory banks such that in each memory bank the number of rows in that memory bank is an integer less than or equal to the maximum number of rows per memory bank specified by the banked memory architecture. This has been found to provide a very flexible technique for producing instances from a banked memory architecture allowing fine granularity in the number of rows provided, which is particularly suitable for highly banked memory architectures.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Ingming Chang