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.

Date of Patent:
Aug. 30, 2011

Filed:

May. 28, 2009
Applicants:

Stephen F. Mcginty, Austin, TX (US);

Jochen Lattermann, Munich, DE;

Ross S. Scouller, Austin, TX (US);

Inventors:

Stephen F. McGinty, Austin, TX (US);

Jochen Lattermann, Munich, DE;

Ross S. Scouller, Austin, TX (US);

Assignee:
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C 29/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract

Detecting brown-out in a system having a non-volatile memory (NVM) includes loading data in the NVM, wherein a next step in loading is performed on a location in the NVM that is logically sequential to an immediately preceding loading. A pair of adjacent locations include one with possible data and another that is empty. Determining which of the two, if at all, have experienced brownout includes using two different sense references. One has a higher standard for detecting a logic high and the other higher standard for detecting a logic low. Results from using the two different references are compared. If the results are the same for both references, then there is no brownout. If the results are different for either there has been a brownout. The location with the different results is set to an invalid state as the location that has experienced the brownout.


Find Patent Forward Citations

Loading…