Charles W. Brown

Simultaneous code execution and data storage in a single flash memory chip for real time wireless communication systems

A cost-effective, flexible approach to emulating electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) in flash memory is presented. New low latency suspend/resume circuitry combined with flash media management software is introduced to enable simultaneous code and data storage; thus eliminating system EEPROM memory, reducing system data write time, and lowering memory system cost and power consumption. This new method eliminates the need for specialized hardware circuits in flash memory that are required to simultaneously read code, while writing or erasing data from an independent address partition. Flash data integrator (FDI) media management software architecture is presented for data storage in a GSM cellular phone application, and is shown to offer a more flexible solution than a specialized hardware approach.