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:
Jun. 19, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 28, 1998
Ronnie B. Kon, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Cisco Technology Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Data storage units, such as flash memory, nonvolatile random access memory and like, are provided with information stored therein, or physically coupled thereto, which indicates, or can be used to determine, remaining or impending end of lifetime of the data storage unit or its components. In a flash memory embodiment, a counter initialized to the number of maximum permissible flash memory erasures is stored in a counter, such as in the header portion of the flash memory. The counter is decremented with each erasure and, as the counter approaches zero, appropriate actions can be taken such as warning the user, support personnel, vendor and the like and/or disabling the flash memory.