IP Library Patent Application 13465839
Patent Application
App. No. 13/465,839

SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY DEVICE, METHOD OF CONTROLLING READ PREAMBLE SIGNAL THEREOF, AND DATA TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US None
App. No.
13/465,839
Abstract

A semiconductor memory device, includes a clock terminal provided to receive a clock signal, a data terminal provided to transfer a data therethrough in synchronization with the clock signal, a strobe terminal provided to be related in the data terminal and to transfer a strobe signal therethrough, a command terminal provided to receive a command that communicates the data with an outside thereof, and an address terminal provided to be supplied an information specifying a length of a preamble of the strobe signal from an outside of the semiconductor memory device, prior to communicating the data.

Claims (52)

1 . A semiconductor memory device, comprising:

a clock terminal provided to receive a clock signal;

a data terminal provided to transfer a data therethrough in synchronization with the clock signal;

a strobe terminal provided to be related in the data terminal and to transfer a strobe signal therethrough;

a command terminal provided to receive a command that communicates the data with an outside thereof; and

an address terminal provided to be supplied an information specifying a length of a preamble of the strobe signal from an outside of the semiconductor memory device, prior to communicating the data.

2 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 1 , the device further comprising:

a data strobe signal output control circuit configured to output the preamble of the strobe signal and then output a toggle transition of the data strobe signal to communicate the data.

3 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 1 ,

wherein the length of the preamble is a first length when the information indicates a first value.

4 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim

wherein the length of the preamble is a second length different from the first length when the information indicates a second value different from the first value.

5 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 1 ,

wherein the preamble comprises a read preamble.

6 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 5 ,

wherein the strobe signal comprises a read data strobe signal.

7 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 1 ,

wherein the strobe signal is transferred from the semiconductor memory device to a controller when performing a read operation.

8 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 2 ,

wherein the data strobe signal output control circuit further outputs a postamble of the data strobe signal following to the toggle transition.

9 . A semiconductor memory device, comprising:

a first external terminal configured to receive a clock signal;

a second external terminal configured to receive a read command in synchronization with the clock signal;

a third external terminal configured to output a data strobe signal in response to the read command, the data strobe signal including a preamble and a toggle transition following to the preamble;

a fourth external terminal configured to output a read data in synchronization with the toggle transition of the data strobe signal;

a fifth external terminal configured to receive a preamble length information; and

a control circuit configured to control a length of the preamble of the data strobe signal based on the preamble length information.

10 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 9 ,

wherein the length of the preamble is set to a first length when the information indicates a first value.

11 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 10 ,

wherein the length of the preamble is set to a second length different from the first length when the information indicates a second value different from the first value.

12 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 9 ,

wherein the preamble comprises a read preamble.

13 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 12 ,

wherein the strobe signal comprises a read data strobe signal.

14 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 9 , further comprising a CAS latency specification register configured to specify a timing of starting an output of said read data.

15 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 14 , further comprising:

a read flag that is set when said read command is received.

16 . A semiconductor memory device, comprising:

a first external terminal provided to receive a clock signal;

a second external terminal provided to transfer a data therethrough in synchronization with the clock signal;

a third external terminal provided to receive a command for communicating the data with an outside thereof;

a control circuit configured to produce a data strobe signal, which includes a preamble and a toggle transition following to the preamble, so that the transferring the data is conducted by the toggle transition of the data strobe signal; and

a fourth external terminal provided to be supplied an information specifying a length of the preamble of the strobe signal from an outside of the semiconductor memory device.

17 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 16 ,

wherein the length of the preamble is a first length when the information indicates a first value.

18 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 17 ,

wherein the length of the preamble is a second length different from the first length when the information indicates a second value different from the first value.

19 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 16 ,

wherein the fourth external terminal comprises an address terminal.

20 . The semiconductor memory device as claimed in claim 16 ,

wherein the control circuit further receives a CAS latency specification signal.