Semiconductor memory capable of writing and reading data
AssigneeOki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
InventorKenichi Watanabe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory serving as a semiconductor memory which is capable of erasing data in a batch comprises four banks constituting a storage circuit, a bank control circuit for instructing access to respective banks (writing, reading, etc.), and a status signal output circuit connected to the bank control circuit. The status signal output circuit outputs status signals for instructing access status of respective banks. The status signals are outputted to an external device through a data bus. With such a construction, the access status of respective banks can be easily grasped, so that the data access to the semiconductor memory can be enhanced with efficiency, thereby realizing high speed data processing.
Claims19
A semiconductor memory capable of writing and reading data in units of banks, wherein a predetermined number of memory cells is defined as one bank, said semiconductor memory comprising:
- a storage circuit composed of a plurality of banks for storing data therein;
- a control circuit, coupled to the storage circuit, which outputs a control signal for controlling reading and writing of data within the banks of the storage circuit;
- and
- a status signal output circuit, coupled to the control circuit, which generates and outputs a plurality of status signals respectively indicative of a read/write processing status of the plurality of banks of the storage circuit.
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory capable of writing and reading data in units of banks, wherein a predetermined number of memory cells is defined as one bank, said nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising:
- a storage circuit composed of a plurality of banks for storing data therein;
- a control circuit, coupled to the storage circuit, which outputs a control signal for controlling reading and writing of data within the banks of the storage circuit;
- and
- a status signal output circuit coupled to the control circuit, which generates and outputs a plurality of status signals leading out of the semiconductor memory and respectively indicating operational processing states of the plurality of the banks of the storage circuit.
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory capable of writing and reading data in units of banks, wherein a predetermined number of memory cells is defined as one bank, said nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising:
- a storage circuit composed of a plurality of banks for storing data therein, the storage circuit verifying whether data is normally written within the banks;
- a control circuit, coupled to said storage circuit, which outputs a control signal for controlling reading and writing of data within the banks of the storage circuit;
- and
- a status signal output circuit, coupled to the control circuit, which generates and outputs a plurality of status signals leading out of the semiconductor memory and respectively indicating a write/read status of the plurality of banks and a result of verification of data in the storage circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.