Method and apparatus for protection of non-volatile memory in presence of out-of-specification operating voltage

A method of operating a memory device, the method comprising:

• storing a data pattern into the memory device;
• receiving a positive integer, N;
• reading the data pattern from the memory device N times to generate a plurality of read results;
• comparing at least a portion of the read results with the data pattern;
• and
• processing a write operation when the compared read results match the data pattern.

A memory system, comprising:

• a memory array having a reference data pattern stored therein;
• and
• a memory controller coupled to the memory array, the memory controller comprising:
• a control unit adapted to receive read and write operations, write data into and read data from the memory array according to the read and write operations, and read the reference data pattern as a read result;
• and
• a comparator coupled to the control unit, the comparator adapted to receive from the control unit the read result and the data pattern and to send to the control unit a comparison signal according to a difference between the read result and the data pattern, the control unit being further adapted to process a write operation when the comparison signal indicates a match between the read result and the data pattern.