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:
Apr. 12, 2005
Filed:
Nov. 21, 2003
Applicant:
Duncan Curry, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Inventor:
Duncan Curry, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Assignee:
Atmel Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C016/04 ; G11C007/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
A memory device having a memory array of nonvolatile memory elements also includes one or more security rows (or columns) of security bits that can be programmed to a locked status. External memory access requests are processed by first reading the corresponding security bit. If the requested row or column is locked, a default zero value is returned. Only external requests of unlocked locations, and all internal access requests, return the actual memory contents. Security bits can be erased (unlocked), but the secured contents of the locked row or column is also erased at the same time.