Patent · US Expired

Data pipelining method and apparatus for memory control circuit

US6374337B1 · kind B1 · utility

146Cited by
152References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 16, 1999
Grant dateApr 16, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 16, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C16/10
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and circuit for fast memory access (read or write) of the data to and from a memory array is disclosed. Architecture wise, the memory array control circuit provides for at least two address latches and two page registers. The first address latch contains a first data address and the second address latch contains a second data address. The first data address is decoded first and sent to the memory array to access (read or write) the corresponding data from the memory array. When the data of the first data address is being accessed, the decoding process will begin for a second data address. When the data of the first data address has been accessed, the second data address is ready for the memory array. Thus, there can be continuous fetching from or writing to the memory array. In the preferred embodiment, there are two page registers. In a read operation, the data read from the first data address is transferred to a first page register. When the data of the second data address is being accessed, the data in the first page register is transferred to a second page register. When the operation to read the data from the second data address is completed, the data can be placed in…

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