Renesas Technology Corp.

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Kinji Mitani

Shigemasa Shiota

Hiroyuki Goto

Hirofumi Shibuya

Fumio Hara

A memory system permitting a number of alternative memory blocks to be made ready in order to extend the rewritable life and thereby contributing to enhanced reliability of information storage is to be provided. The memory system is provided with a nonvolatile memory having a plurality of data blocks in predetermined physical address units and a controller for controlling the nonvolatile memory in response to an access request from outside. Each of the data blocks has areas for holding a rewrite count and error check information regarding each data area. The controller, in a read operation on the nonvolatile memory, checks for any error in the area subject to the read according to error check information and, when there is any error, if the rewrite count is greater than a predetermined value, will replace the pertinent data block with another data block or if it is not greater, correct data in the data block pertaining to the error.

Nonvolatile memory system

The reliability of data is significantly increased without considerably increasing costs by performing minor data corrections within an information storage device and performing major error corrections in an information processing device. When a request to transfer user data for reading is issued from an information processing device, a control circuit transfers the user data and management data to an error detection circuit, which checks the user data for errors. If the user data contains no error, the control circuit notifies the information processing device that the user data can be transferred, and transfers it to the information processing device. If the user data contains errors, an X count error position and correction data calculation circuit uses the user data and the management data to calculate correction locations and correction data, and judges whether the correction locations are correctable. If uncorrectable (there are more correction locations than X locations), the control circuit notifies the information processing device that the user data is uncorrectable, and then transfers the user data and the management data to the information processing device.

Nonvolatile memory apparatus and data processing system

Production cost for a semiconductor data storage apparatus is significantly reduced by using the same controller to support an external analog module and an internal analog module. In a data processing system, a controller is provided with switching elements composed of fuses. Switching between the external analog module composed of an external power supply circuit, an external power supply monitor circuit, and a clock generator element and the internal analog module composed of an internal power supply circuit, an internal power supply monitor circuit, and a self-excited oscillator circuit is performed by arbitrarily disconnecting the fuses. For example, when an internal power supply voltage Vddgenerated by the external power supply monitor circuit is supplied to the controller or the like, the fuse is disconnected. Thus, measures can be taken in accordance with a purpose by, e.g., selecting the external analog module when an interleave operation is used.

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Higashimurayama, Japan

Kinji Mitani