Method and apparatus for suspending the writing of a nonvolatile semiconductor memory with program suspend command

A nonvolatile memory comprising:

• a memory array;
• a command register, wherein the command register comprises a resolution circuit coupled to communicate with a memory array control circuitry, the command register capable of decoding a program suspend command provided to the command register by a plurality of data inputs to the nonvolatile memory, the command register providing a suspend signal as an output;
• and
• the memory array control circuitry coupled to receive the suspend signal from the command register, the memory array control circuitry coupled to provide control signals to the memory array to perform a program operation in which data provided to the nonvolatile memory is written to the memory array, the memory array control circuitry suspending the program operation responsive to receiving the suspend signal.