Western Digital Corporation

Sundisk Corporation

Richard Albert

Robert D Norman

John S Mangan

Anil K Gupta

Jeffrey G Craig

Karl M Lofgren

Jeffrey Donald Stai

A file structure employed in a flash electrically erasable and programmable read only memory ('EEPROM') system and aspects of forming and using certain data fields within such a file structure. An array of rows and columns of EEPROM memory cells is divided into blocks of cells that are separately addressable for the purpose of erasing an entire block of cells at the same time. Each block contains several rows of cells with certain columns thereof storing a sector of data, typically 512 bytes of data, and other columns of cells within the same rows being used as spare cells to replace any defective sector data cells and store overhead (header) information about the block and the data sector. Such overhead information includes pointers to locations of any defective sector data cells within the block, whether the block has been mapped out in favor of another block, error correction codes for the sector data and the header information, and other similar types of information.

Flash EEPROM array data and header file structure

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Richard Albert