US 12,248,369 B2
Decoding status flag techniques for memory circuits
Farid Nemati, Los Altos Hills, CA (US); Steven R. Hutsell, San Jose, CA (US); Gregory S. Mathews, Saratoga, CA (US); Yi Chun Chen, San Jose, CA (US); Kevin C. Wong, Los Altos, CA (US); and Kalpana Bansal, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on May 24, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/323,178.
Application 18/323,178 is a continuation of application No. 17/804,932, filed on Jun. 1, 2022, granted, now 11,829,242.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/267,546, filed on Feb. 4, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0325274 A1, Oct. 12, 2023
Int. Cl. G06F 11/10 (2006.01); G06F 11/07 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 11/1064 (2013.01) [G06F 11/076 (2013.01); G06F 11/0772 (2013.01); G06F 11/106 (2013.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus, comprising:
memory circuitry that includes:
memory cells configured to store data;
interface circuitry that includes a first interface configured to transmit data and a second interface configured to transmit parity information for the data;
on-die error correcting code (ECC) circuitry configured to:
check read data from the memory cells for errors; and
correct detected correctable errors to generate corrected data;
link ECC circuitry configured to transmit link parity information via the second interface;
wherein the memory circuitry is configured to:
provide read data to a requesting circuit via the first interface, including one or more sets of corrected data from the on-die ECC circuitry; and
provide a decoding status flag (DSF), including to:
set the DSF to a first value in response to no error being detected for a given set of provided read data;
set the DSF to a second value in response to a correctable error that was detected and corrected by the on-die ECC circuitry to provide a given set of read data;
set the DSF to a third value in response to an uncorrectable error detected by the on-die ECC circuitry; and
transmit the DSF via the same second interface as the link parity information.