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:
Sep. 16, 2003
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2000
Masaru Yano, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Shane Hollmer, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael Chung, San Jose, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A method is provided for selecting a group of memory blocks in a flash memory device given their starting and ending addresses. The method compares the two addresses to determine the multi-block first bit location which is the most significant bit location where the starting and ending addresses have different bits. The method then generates a converted memory block address where bits more significant than the multi-block first bit location are the ending address bits and where bits less significant than, or equal in significance to, the multi-block first bit location are equal to a logic 1. The method also generates a converted complementary memory block address identical to the other converted address except that bits in the bit locations more significant than the multi-block first bit location are the complements of the ending address bits. The method then pre-decodes the two converted addresses to generate sets of pre-decoded z-signals corresponding to the block addresses included in a group of the starting and ending addresses and all the addresses between them. Finally, the method decodes the pre-decoded z-signals to generate signals selecting memory blocks whose addresses are in that group.