The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 01, 1995
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1994
John S Mangan, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Robert D Norman, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey Craig, Fremont, CA (US);
Richard Albert, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Anil Gupta, Irvine, CA (US);
Jeffrey D Stai, Placentia, CA (US);
Karl M Lofgren, Newport Beach, CA (US);
SunDisk Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Western Digital Corporation, Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
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.