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. 13, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 10, 2000
Hirofumi Mukai, Kodaira, JP;
Kiyoshi Matsubara, Higashimurayama, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A microcomputer is capable of having a CPU calculate a suitable bit rate with respect to a host computer and of setting accordingly an appropriate erasure time forestalling excess erasure of an internally furnished flash memory regardless of the operating frequency of the microcomputer. The microcomputer includes a central processing unit, a non-volatile semiconductor memory, and a terminal which is supplied with a mode set signal. The non-volatile semiconductor memory includes a first block storing a control program and a second block storing data. When the terminal is supplied with a mode set signal for indicating a predetermined mode, if data has previously been written into the second block, such data is erased by the central processing unit. On the other hand, if no data is found in the second block, it is determined that an erase operation is unnecessary and therefore is not performed.