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. 20, 1999
Filed:
May. 23, 1996
Christopher J Yard, Austin, TX (US);
Mark Ireton, Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of managing a memory array having a plurality of erasable sectors. The method initially assigns at least one of the erasable sectors as a storage array and at least one of the erasable sectors as an update array. At least one data file is then sequentially written into the storage array beginning at a starting byte within the storage array. Each data file written into the storage array is initially designated as an active file. Thereafter, one or more of the active files is deleted by re-designating an active file as a deleted file. The deletion of active files is accomplished without erasing any of the erasable sectors. In a presently preferred embodiment, the deletion of files is accomplished by setting an Active/Delete flag in a header of the file. After deleting one or more active files, the array comprises at least one active file and at least one deleted file. Thereafter, the array is periodically updated by copying the active files from the storage array to the update array and erasing the sectors that comprise the storage array.