Intel Corporation

Ritesh B Trivedi

Robert L Baltar

Sandeep K Guliani

Mark E Bauer

Balaji Srinivasan

Robert J Royer, Jr

Eng Hun Ooi

Blaise B Fanning

Michael W Williams

Jeffrey R Wilcox

James A McCall

Aaron K Martin

Christopher P Mozak

Kerry Dean Tedrow

Anoop Mukker

Harishankar Sridharan

Brian R Mcfarlane

Balajl Srinivasan

Senthilkumar Ganapathy

Satish Krishnamoorthy

A method is described that includes choosing between one of two different ways to cause a memory device to enter a specific one of multiple lower power states that each comprise lower power consumption than a highest low power state. The method also includes asserting a first signal on a first signal line that is coupled to a power management controller of the memory device to indicate to the power management controller that a sideband channel of a memory bus that is coupled to the memory device is activated. The method also includes causing the memory device to enter the specific one of the multiple lower power states by also performing the chosen one of a) sending an in-band signal on said memory bus coupled with said asserting of said first signal, said in-band signal specifying the specific one of the multiple lower power states; or, b) sending a second signal on a second signal line that identifies the specific one of the multiple lower power states.

Power control of a memory device through a sideband channel of a memory bus

In an embodiment, a memory interface may send an indication that a request is being sent. The indication may be sent to a non-volatile memory via a point-to-point bus between a memory interface and the non-volatile memory. The memory interface may send the request to the non-volatile memory via the bus. The request may include an address that may be used to identify a location for storing or reading data. The non-volatile memory may acquire the request from the bus and process the request. After processing the request, the non-volatile memory may send an indication to the memory interface that indicates the non-volatile memory has a response to send to the memory interface. The memory interface may grant access to the bus to the non-volatile memory. After being granted access to the bus, the non-volatile memory may send the response to the memory interface.

Non-volatile memory interface

A transmission line interface circuit includes a voltage regulator to control a voltage swing of the transmission line interface circuit for signal transmission. The transmission line interface circuit includes complementary driver elements, including a p-type driver element to pull up the transmission line in response to a logic high, and an n-type driver element to pull down the transmission line in response to a logic low. The voltage regulator is coupled between one of the driver elements and a respective voltage reference to reduce a voltage swing of the transmission line interface circuit.

I/O driver transmit swing control

Disclosed embodiments may include a circuit having a clock-to-output (TCO) compensation circuit coupled to a RAM pull-up transmitter and a RAM pull-down transmitter. The TCO compensation circuit may be configured to compare a first output with a second output and to generate a delay code, based on the comparison, for at least one other RAM transmitter on the die to adjust a duty cycle of a third output associated with the at least one other RAM transmitter. Other embodiments may be disclosed.

Duty cycle compensation of RAM transmitters

An apparatus and method are disclosed for providing a kicker function for non-volatile memory drain bias. According to one embodiment, the kicker function is provided by a high performance transistor that is activated by a kicker enable signal, providing a kicker function for non-volatile memory drain bias. According to one embodiment, the kicker function is provided by a high performance transistor that is activated by a kicker enable signal.

Kicker for non-volatile memory drain bias

An apparatus is disclosed for providing a load for a non-volatile memory drain bias circuit. Under an embodiment, a load for a non-volatile memory drain bias circuit comprises a column load and a current mirror, a reference voltage for the current mirror being a sample and hold voltage reference. The column load and the current mirror are coupled to a cascode device.

Load for non-volatile memory drain bias

An apparatus and method are disclosed for providing drain bias for non-volatile memory. According to one embodiment, the drain bias is provided utilizing a drain bias circuit that is referenced by a static voltage reference.

Drain bias for non-volatile memory

According to the invention, an apparatus and method are disclosed for sensing the contents of non-volatile memory. According to one embodiment, a set of local sensing circuits is used to read the logical values stored in memory cells contained within a partition of a non-volatile memory device.

Local sensing of non-volatile memory

A method and apparatus for a memory device is described. In one embodiment, global Y (GY) enable is gated by the trailing edge of a address transition detection (ATD) pulse. The ATD pulse ensures that the GY enable is off during periods when the memory device is not attempting to read a memory cell. The sense (SEN) node between the GY transistor and drain bias circuit may be charged up and global bit line (GBL) may be grounded. During this time, the power supply current is cut off by the GY transistor itself, thereby eliminating the need of separate cut-off transistors within the drain bias circuit. This permits minimal time delay in sensing after the incoming address is stable.

Method and apparatus for gating a global column select line with address transition detection

A flash memory using a pre-sensing amplifier coupled to receive differential inputs from a pair of memory cells of said flash memory array and to generate a differential output from the pre-sensing amplifier. The differential output is coupled to a bus, which is also coupled to a post-sensing amplifier. The differential configuration on the bus allows marginal voltage differences to be detected by the post-sensing amplifier so that logic states from the flash memory can be sensed without the bus transitioning to half of the supply voltage.

Differential signal path for high speed data transmission in flash memory

An apparatus and method are disclosed for providing a sample and hold voltage reference for non-volatile memory. According to one embodiment, the sample and hold voltage reference produces a reference voltage for a drain bias circuit of a memory cell.

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Folsom, CA, United States of America

Ritesh B Trivedi