Semiconductor integrated circuit and method for writing into non-volatile memory using a program received by external communication

Abstract

A semiconductor integrated circuit is provided for writing into a non-volatile memory incorporated therein. In addition to the non-volatile memory, the semiconductor integrated circuit includes a central processing unit (CPU) and a communication interface that receives programs to be executed by the CPU for writing into the non-volatile memory and transmits the received programs to the CPU. The communication interface receives the programs to be executed by the CPU via an external synchronous serial communication and sends serial clocks to the CPU. In this way, a mask read only memory (ROM) for storing rewriting programs for the non-volatile memory is eliminated and the pulse width of various control signals required for writing into the non-volatile memory can be easily altered.