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, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 06, 1998
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
36523006 ; 36518511 ; 36518529 ;
Abstract
A block size buffer and block address pre-decoder are provided for a flash memory. At the time of data erase, the size of a block to be erased is input to the block size buffer and a set of block addresses is input to the block address pre-decoder. An output signal of the block size buffer is supplied to and decoded by the block address pre-decoder, a row decoder is controlled based on the result of pre-decoding, and a plurality of addressing including the above block address as a top address are selected in a multiple manner. Then, a plurality of successive blocks are simultaneously selected to simultaneously erase data in the memory cells in the plurality of blocks.