3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Flash Memory Technology Technology Background July 2003 The following document refers to Spansion memory products that are now offered by both Advanced Micro Devices and Fujitsu. Although the document is marked with the name of the company that originally developed the specification, these products will be offered to customers of both AMD and Fujitsu. Continuity of Specifications There is no change to this document as a result of offering the device as a Spansion product. Any changes that have been made are the result of normal documentation improvements and are noted in the document revision summary, where supported. Future routine revisions will occur when appropriate, and changes will be noted in a revision summary. Continuity of Ordering Part Numbers AMD and Fujitsu continue to support existing part numbers beginning with “Am” and “MBM”. To order these products, please use only the Ordering Part Numbers listed in this document. For More Information Please contact your local AMD or Fujitsu sales office for additional information about Spansion memory solutions. Publication Number 22250 Revision A Amendment 0 Issue Date October 1, 1998 TECHNOLOGY BACKGROUND 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Flash Memory Technology 2 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Technology Background Introduction AMD, the technology leader in Flash memories, has developed a new generation of highperformance, single-power-supply flash memory devices. The Am29BL162C device is the first burst mode low-voltage flash memory device from AMD. This device allows read access times as fast as 18 ns, while performing read, program, and erase operations using only a single 2.7 volt power supply. This device offers all of the features of AMD’s industrystandard 2.7 volt-only Am29LVxxx devices with substantially faster access times, making it the ideal choice for low-power, high performance applications. In addition, this device is 5 volt I/O tolerant, allowing it to be easily used in 5 volt systems. The Burst Mode interface of the Am29BL162C has been designed with inputs from industry-leading microprocessor manufacturers, simplifying the design-in process for system designers. The following is an abbreviated list of the Am29BL162C distinctive characteristics: ❏ 18 ns burst access time ❏ 65 ns initial access time ❏ 2.7 V to 3.6 V device VCC operating range ❏ 5 V I/O tolerant on data, address, and control signals ❏ 32 word-linear burst sequence ❏ Minimum 1,000,000 program/erase cycle guarantee per sector For a complete list of features, operational description and specifications see publication number 22142 (Am29BL162C data sheet). In a typical embedded application, the memory system may contain DRAM for code execution and Flash for control code storage. The control code is typically downloaded from the flash and executed from DRAM to take advantage of the faster read access times of DRAM. With the fast data access of the Am29BL162C, the need for this shadow DRAM is eliminated in many cases, and the code can be executed directly from the flash memory. This allows the CPU’s read cycle to be maximized and lowers the overall system cost by eliminating the redundant DRAM. In addition, many of today’s systems still operate at mixed voltages. This is due, in part, to 5.0-volt devices that must be used on the board, such as ASICs, processors, etc. As these devices often control the system data and address buses, the system bus must operate at 5.0 volts. In order to interface these buses to lower-voltage memory devices, voltage translators must be designed into the system to translate the higher system bus voltage down to the lower voltage tolerated by the memory device. The Am29BL162C has 5 volt I/O and control signal 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Technology Background 3 tolerance, so that DC-to-DC converters are no longer required. This leads to lower overall system cost. Block Diagram Internally, the Am29BL162C is designed with the same leading-edge design as the traditional 29LVxxx family of devices, with some additional read control logic. This read control logic was modified to allow the flash device to provide a seamless burst interface and allow 18 ns burst access times. This additional logic is incorporated into the burst state controller and burst address counter blocks in the block diagram below. IND# VCC VSS RY/BY# Buffer IND# Buffer RY/BY# Erase Voltage Generator RESET# State Control Command Register Program Voltage Generator Chip Enable Output Enable Logic CE# OE# VCC Detector LBA# BAA# CLK Input/Output Buffers Burst State Control Timer Burst Address Counter Address Latch WE# DQ0– DQ15 Data Latch Y-Decoder Y-Gating X-Decoder Cell Matrix A0, A1 A0–A19 Figure 1. Am29BL162C Block Diagram 4 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Technology Background Read Operation The Am29BL162C will power-up in an “asynchronous read” operating mode. In this mode, the device operates like a conventional Flash device (Am29LVxxx) and supports only asynchronous, random reads, not synchronous burst reads. To support burst reads, the Am29BL162C must be put into the bust mode by writing the Burst Enable command sequence. To exit the burst mode, the device must be given the Burst Disable command sequence. Random Read Operation In the asynchronous mode the Am29BL162C has two control functions which are used to obtain data at the outputs. CE# should be used for device selection. OE# is the output control and should be used to gate data to the output pins after the device is selected. Burst Mode Read Operation In order to operate in burst mode, three additional control pins have been added. These control pins allow easy interfacing to a wide range of microprocessors with minimal glue logic to achieve high performance burst read capability. These additional pins are as follows: Load Burst Address (LBA#), Burst Address Advance (BAA#), and Clock (CLK). The burst mode read operation is a synchronous operation tied to the rising edge of the clock. The microprocessor or microcontroller supplies only the initial address. All subsequent addresses are automatically generated by the device at the rising edge of subsequent clock cycles by asserting the BAA# signal. The burst read cycle consists of an address phase and a corresponding data phase. During the address phase, the Load Burst Address (LBA#) pin must be held low for one clock period. At the rising edge of CLK, the starting burst address is loaded into the internal burst address counter. During the data phase, the first burst data is available after the initial access time (tACC) from the rising edge of CLK. For subsequent burst data, an active Burst Address Advance (BAA#) and the rising edge of the CLK will increment the counter and supply the remaining data in the appropriate sequence in the specified burst access time (t BACC). The stream of data will be provided as long as the BAA# pin is asserted. The timing diagram in Figure 2 demonstrates this burst mode operation. 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Technology Background 5 CE# CLK LBA# BAA# A0: A19 DQ0: DQ15 Aa Initial Access (tIACC) Da Burst Access Da + 1 Da + 2 Da + 3 Burst Access Burst Access (tBACC) OE# Figure 2. Burst Mode Read Operation Burst Configuration The Am29BL162C provides a 32 word sequential burst and is used to support microprocessors that implement an instruction pre-fetch queue and to support large data transfers during system configuration. In this linear mode, the Am29BL162C will deliver a continuous sequential word stream starting at the specified word and will wrap around when the end of the 5 bit counter is reached (11111). For example, if the initial address is xxxx0h, the data order will be 0-1-23…. 28-29-30-31-0-1…; if the initial address is xxxx2h, the data order will be 2-3-4-5…..2829-30-31-0-1-2-3…; and if the initial address is xxxx8h, the data order will be 8-9-1011….30-31-0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9….Data will be repeated if more than 32 clocks are supplied. IND#: End of Burst Indicator This active low output signal indicates the end of the burst sequence. It has the same output driving characteristic as the typical data output DQ signal. It becomes low in the same data output cycle as the last word in the burst sequence. 6 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Technology Background For processors that do not wish to receive wrap around data, the LBA# and a new address need to be issued to the Flash in order to receive data from the next burst range. Wrap around data is defined as the data after last word in the burst range, e.g. word 0, 1, and so on, after word 31 in the 32 word linear mode. Summary Technology leadership, experience and creativity of AMD’s engineering resources have once again led to the arrival of the next generation of high performance flash memory devices. These burst mode low voltage devices offer burst read access times of 18 ns, with initial access times of 65 ns. The high performance, reduced power consumption, and industryleading guaranteed minimum endurance of 1,000,000 cycles combine to make this family and ideal choice for cost-sensitive, performance-driven applications. 3.0 Volt-only Burst Mode Technology Background 7 One AMD Place P.O. 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