Patent · US Expired

High reliability area efficient non-volatile configuration data storage for ferroelectric memories

US7038932B1 · kind B1 · utility

3Cited by
7References
27Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 10, 2004
Grant dateMay 2, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 10, 2024

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C7/20
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Configuration data is stored in one or more rows of non-volatile ferroelectric memory cells, where these rows are formed adjacent to rows of a primary memory array. The primary memory array includes non-volatile ferroelectric memory cells, and the memory cells of the array are substantially the same in construction to the cells of the configuration data rows. This allows at least some of the circuitry utilized to access data from the primary array to be utilized to access the configuration data, which promotes an efficient use of resources among other things. Additionally, the configuration data can be transferred to volatile registers serially at startup to simplify routing and design and thereby conserve space. The volatile registers are operatively associated with configuration data circuitry that makes use of the configuration data at startup or later time(s).

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