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. 19, 2005
Filed:
Jan. 17, 2002
Fong-long Lin, Fremont, CA (US);
Wei Xu, Shaanxi, CH;
Fong-Long Lin, Fremont, CA (US);
Wei Xu, Shaanxi, CH;
Silicon Storage Technology, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A single integrated circuit microcontrollerincluding embedded erasable/programmable non-volatile memoryhaving a read protection. Microcontrollercan operate within a special mode in which external circuits may access memoryby use of input/output pins. When microcontrolleractivates this special mode, a read protection flagwithin memoryis checked. The read protection flagmay be set during production of the microcontrollerafter instructional data or firmware has been installed onto memory. If the read protection flaghas been set, the contents of memoryare erased or reprogrammed prior to allowing access to memory. In this manner, external circuits cannot access instructional data or firmware that is stored in memory