Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for maintaining variable data in a non-volatile electronic memory device

US5386533A · kind A · utility

11Cited by
10References
67Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 21, 1990
Grant dateJan 31, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 21, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01C22/02
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An apparatus and method for maintaining variable data in a non-volatile electronic memory device comprises a shifter array (106) which provides a shifter value to shifter register (104). Shifter register (104) uses 8-bit column decoder (110) to specify which of a plurality of overlapping storage units in array (94) will store variable data provided from register (92). Address register (112) specifies to row decoder (116) which of two rows in shifter array (106), pointer array (118) and array (94) will be accessed by read and write operations. Pointer array (118) stores an index specifying which of the two rows contains the most recently updated variable data. Shifter register (104) uses 8-bit column decoder (108) to specify which of a plurality of adjacent storage units in pointer array (118) will store the index. OR gate (98) specifies when to replace an overlapping storage unit in array (94) and an adjacent storage unit in pointer array (118).

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.