Patent · US Expired

Semiconductor memory capable of successively accessing cell array blocks with a plurality of operation modes having different cycle times

US5973991A · kind A · utility

33Cited by
1References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 6, 1999
Grant dateOct 26, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 6, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C2207/002
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a semiconductor memory system, an SDRAM comprises a memory cell array 101 which is divided into a plurality of cell array blocks, a column decoder, a row decoder, and a sense amplifier circuit. In the SDRAM, a first operation mode with a first cycle time is set when successive access within a cell array block is conducted, a second operation mode with a second cycle time shorter than the first cycle time is set when successive access covering the cell array blocks being apart from each other is conducted and a third operation mode with a medium cycle time is set when successive access covering the cell array blocks adjacent to each other is conducted. With the above constitution, a high speed access can be realized without provision of a specific accessory circuit while suppressing overhead for a semiconductor chip size.

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