Method and apparatus for tracking erase cycles utilizing active and inactive wear bar blocks having first and second count fields

A flash memory device comprising:

• a plurality of storage blocks including at least two wear-bar blocks, each wear-bar block including a plurality of wear-bar storage elements corresponding to the plurality of storage blocks, each wear-bar storage element to contain an erase count value to indicate how many erase cycles have been performed on a corresponding storage block, corresponding ones of the plurality of wear-bar storage elements including a first count field and a second count field which collectively contain the erase count value, the second count field being updated when the corresponding storage block is erased, without requiring an erasure of the wear-bar block associated with the corresponding storage block until the second count field reaches a maximum count, and the first count field being updated each time the second count field reaches the maximum count;
• and
• circuitry for updating each of the plurality of erase count values when the corresponding second count field reaches the maximum count.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory device coupled to the processor and including a plurality of storage blocks and at least two wear-bar blocks including a first wear-bar block placed in an active state and a second wear-bar block placed in an inactive state, each wear-bar block including a plurality of count fields for each of the plurality of storage blocks and stored contents in each of the plurality of count fields representing an erase count value for one of the plurality of storage blocks, the count fields for a first storage block of the plurality of storage blocks including a first count field updated each time the first storage block is erased without erasure of the corresponding wear-bar block and a second count field to update a corresponding erase count value each time the first count field reaches a maximum count, the first and second count fields collectively containing the erase count value for the corresponding one of the storage blocks.