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.

Date of Patent:
Sep. 22, 1998

Filed:

Aug. 02, 1996
Applicant:
Inventors:

Roland T Knaack, Starkville, MS (US);

Cameron B Lacy, Kanata, CA;

Brendon L Johnson, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Assignee:

Cypress Semiconductor Corp., San Jose, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
365200 ; 3652257 ; 327525 ;
Abstract

The present invention disables defective rows in a FIFO or other buffer where the word lines of the FIFO buffer are driven by a shift register scheme. Additional enabled rows may be placed within the normal memory array. The additional enabled rows are substituted, as needed, for one or more defective rows. As a result, a defective row can be disabled without effecting the operation of the FIFO, particularly the read or write data path. In one example, the disabling effect is achieved by using one or more laser fuses. The present invention can be used to effectively bypass any single shift register element or a multiple number of shift register elements.


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