Serial memory interface

1. A memory system, comprising:

a substrate including active circuitry fabricated on the substrate; and

a non-volatile memory array in electrical communication with the active circuitry, the non-volatile memory array is in contact with the substrate and is fabricated directly on top of the substrate so that the non-volatile memory array is positioned vertically above the substrate, the active circuitry including

a serial port in data communication with the non-volatile memory array, wherein the serial port is operable to send a bid requesting access to the non-volatile memory array, and

logic configured to grant access to the non-volatile memory array by arbitrating the bid, wherein the logic uses a serial interface to control the transfer of encoded data from the non-volatile memory array to the serial port using a pathing technique.

2. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory array includes a plurality of memory planes that are in contact with adjacent memory planes, each of the plurality of memory planes being vertically configured in relation to the substrate and to another memory plane.

3. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory array is in communication with the memory system by the serial port.

4. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the serial port is configured to operate independently of other serial ports.

5. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the serial port is configured to operate in parallel with another serial port.

6. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the serial port is configured to cascade with another serial port in communication with another non-volatile memory array.

7. The memory system recited in claim 6 , wherein the serial interface is operative to provide access to the non-volatile memory array from a port selected from the group consisting of a cascaded serial port, separate serial ports, and a normal incoming serial port.

8. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the logic is configured to perform a function to determine whether the bid requesting access to the non-volatile memory array is granted.

9. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the logic is configured to switch data received by the serial port to the non-volatile memory array, the logic arbitrating access by the serial port to the non-volatile memory array by performing a priority select function.

10. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory array is divided into a plurality of memory partitions, wherein each of the memory partitions has a read path and a write path.

11. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the encoded data includes a plurality of data packets, each of the plurality of data packets having a control character configured to identify a characteristic of each of the plurality of data packets.

12. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory array comprises a plurality of memory partitions, each of the plurality of memory partitions having at least two independent paths configured to access data stored in each of the memory partitions.

13. The memory system recited in claim 12 and further comprising:

a plurality of serial ports in data communication with the plurality of memory partitions, wherein the plurality of serial ports includes at least one serial input port and at least one serial output port and the serial output port is operative to retransmit a signal received by the serial input port.

14. The memory system recited in claim 13 , wherein the plurality of serial ports has simultaneous access to different memory partitions.

15. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the serial interface is configured to perform substantially simultaneous operations.

16. The memory system recited in claim 15 , wherein the substantially simultaneous operations include reading data from the non-volatile memory array.

17. The memory system recited in claim 16 , wherein the substantially simultaneous operations include writing data to the non-volatile memory array.

18. The memory system recited in claim 16 , wherein the substantially simultaneous operations include reading and writing data to the non-volatile memory array.

19. The memory system recited in claim 1 , where the bid requesting access to the non-volatile memory array is granted based on usage criteria.

20. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein a portion of the non-volatile memory array comprises a plurality of memory partitions and a grid operative to provide multiple paths for access to the plurality of memory partitions.

21. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the serial interface allows a plurality of hosts to access data in the non-volatile memory array.

22. The memory system recited in claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory array comprises a two-terminal cross-point array including a plurality of two-terminal memory cells, each memory cell including a first terminal, a second terminal, and an electrolytic tunnel barrier in contact with a mixed valence conductive oxide, and wherein the electrolytic tunnel barrier and the mixed valence conductive oxide are electrically in series with the first and second terminals.

23. The memory system recited in claim 22 , wherein each two-terminal memory cell stores data as a plurality of conductivity profiles that can be non-destructively determined by applying a read voltage across the first and second terminals, and

wherein the plurality of conductivity profiles can be reversibly switched from a first conductivity profile to a second conductivity profile by applying a write voltage having a predetermined magnitude and polarity across the first and second terminals.