Marger Johnson & McCollom, P.C.
Semiconductor memory device with auto refresh to specified bank
Method and apparatus for use with multi-bank Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) circuits, modules, and memory systems are disclosed. In one described embodiment, an SDRAM circuit receives a bank address to be used in an auto-refresh operation, and performs the auto-refresh operation on the specified bank and for a current refresh row. When all bank addresses have been supplied for the current row, the SDRAM circuit updates the current refresh row and repeats the process. This process can allow a memory controller to modify an auto-refresh bank sequence as necessary such that auto-refresh operations can proceed on some memory banks concurrently with reads and writes to other memory banks, allowing better utilization of the SDRAM circuit. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Sasung Eelctronics Co., Ltd.
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G11C G11C G11C
inventional inventional inventional
Jung-Bae Yun-Sang
Lee Lee