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. 15, 2000
Filed:
Feb. 26, 1999
Joel B Larner, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Michael J O'Brien, Loveland, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Non-volatile write-once memory, is used for storage of variable data. In an example embodiment, segmented flash memory is used, in which individual segments can be erased. At least two segments are used. When a segment is nearly full, or when the segment is corrupted, the latest values are written to a new segment. During initialization, all variables of interest are written into RAM with default values. The flash segment being used is read sequentially from oldest entry to newest entry, and values from flash memory are used to overwrite values (or pointers to values) in RAM. RAM then contains (or points to) the most recent value for every variable. When a new segment is written, the new segment is written using the values from RAM. The method provides for identification of the latest (current) value for each stored item of information, provides for adding new types of data and deleting old types of data, provides for action when a memory segment is full, and provides for recovery from power-failure.