Addressing, command protocol, and electrical interface for non-volatile memories utilized in recording usage counts
View Patent ↗Electrical interfaces, addressing schemes, and command protocols allow for communications with memory modules in computing devices such as imaging and printing devices. Memory modules may be assigned an address through a set of discrete voltages. One, multiple, or all of the memory modules may be addressed with a single command, which may be an increment counter command, a write command, or a punch out bit field. The status of the memory modules may be determined by sampling a single signal that may be at a low, high, or intermediate voltage level.
1. A method of interfacing with one or more memories, comprising:
assigning an address utilizing a singular addressing scheme, through a single electrical conductor comprising a plurality of voltage levels, to each of a plurality of memories;
exchanging data, via a first channel, between a processing device and at least one of the plurality of memories;
receiving a status of at least one memory from the at least one memory via a second channel; and
providing at least one protocol for exchanging data between the processing device and the plurality of memories, wherein the at least one protocol is operable to address one, several, or all of the plurality of memories.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical conductor comprises a set of discrete voltage levels for assigning the address to each of the plurality of memories.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning a counter to a location in at least one of the plurality of memories.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the status is selected from the group of statuses consisting of a busy status, an error status, and a ready status.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the status corresponds to one of three voltage levels of the second channel.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one protocol comprises an increment counter command protocol, wherein the increment counter command protocol specifies an increment counter command identifying at least one of the plurality of memories, and a value by which to increment a counter in at least one of the plurality of memories.
7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the at least one protocol comprises a punch out bit field command protocol, wherein the punch out bit field command protocol specifies a punch out command identifying at least one of the plurality of memories, and a location of a bit field in at least one of the plurality of memories.
8. A method of communicating with one or more memory modules, comprising:
receiving, at a processing device, a first signal from at least one memory module, the first signal indicating that the at least one memory module is ready to receive data;
generating, at the processing device, a packet comprising a set of bits representing a command and a memory module address, wherein the memory module address utilizes singular addressing to identify each memory module; and
transmitting the packet from the processing device to each identified memory module.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the command comprises an increment counter command and the packet further comprises an increment value.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the command comprises a punch out bit field command.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the command comprises a write data command and the packet further comprises data to be written.
12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the data in the packet is encrypted and the method further comprises decrypting the packet at each identified memory module.