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:
May. 11, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 26, 2001
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
This invention relates to the structure and design of microprocessor ICs, in particular to the embedding or integration of a non-volatile, so-called flash memory into an ICs. Such a flash memory may be integrated by providing a dedicated flash bus which operationally links the flash memory with one or more microprocessors on the IC. Unfortunately, flash memories have relatively long access times compared to usual modern microprocessors. To achieve that the flash memory keeps pace with the microprocessor(s), a dedicated flash bus ( ) links the flash memory ( ) to the microprocessor ( ), said flash bus ( ) having a width m which is greater than the width n of the microprocessor's data bus ( ). Preferably, width m is a multiple of width n. A plurality of intermediate storage registers ( ) connects the flash bus ( ) with the data bus ( ) of the microprocessor ( ) for performing the width conversion. These intermediate storage registers ( ), together with an additional tag register ( ), may serve as cache for the microprocessor's data requests, further increasing the potential speed of the IC.