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:
Apr. 14, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 29, 1996
Steven Anthony Jacks, Villa Park, IL (US);
Kevin John McNeley, Succasunna, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) provides backup and initialization data for random access memory (RAM) in a control unit. In order to update the EEPROM with new releases of a program and data, the EEPROM is divided into two segments, each with a separately controllable write enable voltage. Advantageously, this allows a new release to be written into one segment of a single EEPROM without erasing the other segment until the newly written segment has been verified. The software for controlling an update of the EEPROM is stored in RAM and the software for controlling an initialization of the RAM from the EEPROM is stored in the EEPROM. Extensive checks are performed before accepting an update of the EEPROM or an initialization of the RAM.