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:
Oct. 15, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 18, 2001
Sau Ching Wong, Hillsborough, CA (US);
Kimberley Johnsen, Seattle, WA (US);
Multi Level Memory Technology, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A multi-bit-per-cell non-volatile memory stores different portions of a data stream using different numbers of bits per cell. In particular, data that requires a high degree of data integrity (e.g., the header of a data frame) is stored using a relatively small number of bits per memory cell. Data that is more error-tolerant (e.g., the main data representing music, images, or video) is stored using a relatively large number of bits per memory cell. Write circuitry decodes an input data stream and determines the number of bits to be written in each memory cell. Read circuitry decodes an output data stream and determines a number of bits read from each memory cell to generate the data stream. One such memory includes a decoder in the write circuitry and a decoder in the read circuitry, and another embodiment includes a single decoder that the write and read circuits share. The decoder can include programmable logic array that a user can program according to a protocol used in the data stream to be recorded in and played back from the memory.