Renesas Technology Corp.

Other

Seisuke Hirosawa

Atsushi Shikata

Makoto Mori

Takeshi Suzuki

Katsumi Ouchi

Masaki Shirai

The present invention provides a nonvolatile memory card in which a program is added, modified, changed, or the like by selecting arbitrary firmware on a flash memory from a plurality of pieces of firmware on flash memories. In a memory card, in addition to a program stored in a built-in ROM, firmware on flash memories as programs for adding, changing, modifying, or the like of a function such as a patch program are stored. Firmware on a flash memory which is desired to be made valid is set in a parameter sector or the like and is loaded into an external RAM, and the CPU of a control logic executes a process.

Nonvolatile memory card

A nonvolatile storage system includes a plurality of nonvolatile memories and a control unit. When having detected a write-in error that occurred at an operation-subject nonvolatile memory, the control unit can set inter-chip alternate information indicating that a storage region related to the write-in error has been replaced by a storage region of any other nonvolatile memory of the plurality of nonvolatile memories to the nonvolatile memory of the storage region related to this error, so that when having received the inter-chip alternate information from the operation-subject nonvolatile memory, the control unit can change the operation subject from the current operation-subject nonvolatile memory to any other nonvolatile memory indicated by this inter-chip alternate information. It is thus possible to rescue a write-in error which occurred at one nonvolatile memory by replacing it with any other chip.

Nonvolatile storage system

Growing community of inventors

Kodaira, Japan

Seisuke Hirosawa