Patent · US Expired

Burst random access memory employing sequenced banks of local tri-state drivers

US5617555A · kind A · utility

24Cited by
8References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 30, 1995
Grant dateApr 1, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 30, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C8/12
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A burst dynamic random access memory (DRAM) (10) is disclosed having memory cells arranged in a number of quadrants (22), each quadrant including local I/O lines (24) for accessing the memory cells therein. The local I/O lines (24) of each quadrant are commonly coupled to global I/O lines (26) by tri-state driver banks (30). According to a row address and a first portion of a column address, a row decoding circuit (36) and column decoding circuit (40) couple one set of local I/O lines (24) within each quadrant (22) to selected columns within the quadrants (22). A bank sequencer (48) receives a second portion of the column address and generates burst sequence of different bank select signals. Each bank select signal enables a different set of tri-state driver banks (30). The enabled tri-state driver banks (30) provide a data path between the local I/O lines (24) and the global I/O lines. By enabling a different combination of tri-state driver banks (30) for each bank select signal, burst access is provided to the burst DRAM (10).

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