Semiconductor device and method of searching for erasure count in semiconductor memory

A method of searching for an erasure count in a semiconductor memory in which data erasure is performed in units of blocks, the method comprising:

• a step that stores, corresponding to each of the blocks, an erasure count data piece representing a data erasure count performed in the block in a block management memory;
• a step that generates a read address signal in response to a search start instruction and provides the read address signal to the block management memory to successively read the erasure count data pieces from the block management memory;
• and
• a minimum erasure count search step that searches a block corresponding to an erasure count data piece representing a minimum erasure count from among the erasure count data pieces read from the block management memory,
• wherein, when the erasure count data piece read from the block management memory represents an erasure count smaller than a minimum erasure count data piece, the erasure count data piece is outputted as the minimum erasure count data piece and an address indicated by the read address signal is outputted as a minimum erasure count address.

A semiconductor device comprising:

• a semiconductor memory in which data erasure is performed in units of blocks;
• a block management memory that stores, corresponding to each of the blocks, an erasure count data piece representing a data erasure count performed in the block;
• a read address generation circuit that generates a read address signal in response to a search start instruction and provides the read address signal to the block management memory to successively read the erasure count data pieces from the block management memory;
• and
• an erasure count search circuit that searches for a block corresponding to an erasure count data piece representing a intended erasure count from among the erasure count data pieces read from the block management memory and transmits a result of the search.