Mechanism for improved data availability for dram in the presence of uncorrectable errors

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of recovering corrupted data, comprising providing a FIFO storage structure on the memory controller, and providing an error correction code (ECC) generator to the memory device, the ECC generator configured to generate ECC check bits based on a data word. For each data word, the method comprises storing a copy of the data word, appended check bits, and associated address into the FIFO storage structure; generating expected check bits based on the data word; when the expected check bits match the appended check bits, storing the data word and appended check bits to the memory device; and when the expected check bits do not match the appended check bits, and an error in the data word is uncorrectable, replacing the data word and appended check bits with the copy of the data word and appended check bits that were stored in the FIFO storage structure.