Memory system and command handling method
A memory system including a memory controller and a memory and a related method are disclosed. The method includes communicating a command and error detection/correction (EDC) data associated with the command from the memory controller to the memory, decoding the command and executing an EDC operation related to the EDC data in parallel, and if the command is a write command, delaying execution of a write operation indicated by the write command until completion of the EDC operation, else immediately executing an operation indicated by the command without regard to completion of the EDC operation.
1. In a memory system comprising a memory controller and a memory, a method comprising:
communicating a command and error detection/correction (EDC) data associated with the command from the memory controller to the memory;
decoding the command and executing an EDC operation related to the EDC data in parallel, wherein decoding the command comprises receiving a command packet in a packet receiver and in response generating an internal command, internal EDC data, and an internal address; and
if the command is a write command, delaying execution of a write operation indicated by the write command until completion of the EDC operation, else
immediately executing an operation indicated by the command without regard to completion of the EDC operation,
wherein executing the EDC operation comprises:
applying the internal EDC data, the internal command, and the internal address to an error detector;
generating an error signal in the error detector in relation to the internal command, internal address, and the internal EDC data; and
applying the error signal to a write enable signal transfer block.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the command is communicated to the memory as a command packet including control data, as a command packet including control data and address data, or as a command packet including control data, address data, and write data.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the command is communicated from the memory controller to the memory via a first unidirectional bus.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the memory communicates read data to the memory controller responsive to the command via a second unidirectional bus.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first and second unidirectional buses have different bus widths.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein write data and read data are communicated between the memory controller and memory via a bidirectional bus.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the command is communicated to the memory as a command packet including the EDC data.
8. The method of 1 wherein the EDC operation implements a cyclic redundancy checker (CRC) and the EDC data comprises CRC data.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the command communicated from the memory controller to the memory comprises a command packet including the EDC data, control data, and address data and the command is communicated via a first unidirectional bus.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein delaying execution of the write operation comprises; generating a final write enable signal in the write signal transfer block responsive to the error signal.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
decoding the internal command in a command decoder and generating a plurality of control signals applied to a memory core in order to execute the operation indicated by the command;
wherein one of the control signals comprises a write enable signal applied to the write signal transfer block.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating an error flag in the memory in response to the error signal and communicating the error flag to the memory controller.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:
communicating write data associated with the command from the memory controller to the memory via a second unidirectional bus; and
communicating read data associated with the command from the memory to the memory controller via a third unidirectional bus.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the second and third unidirectional buses has a different bus width than the first unidirectional bus.
15. In a memory system comprising a memory controller and a memory, a method comprising:
communicating a command and error detection/correction (EDC) data associated with the command from the memory controller to the memory, wherein the command communicated from the memory controller to the memory comprises a first command packet including control data, address data, and first EDC data associated with at least one of the control data and address data, and a second command packet including write data and second EDC data associated with the write data,
decoding the command and executing an EDC operation in parallel, wherein the EDC operation is related to at least one of the first EDC data and the second EDC data, and decoding the command signal comprises receiving the first command packet in a packet receiver and in response generating an internal command, an internal address, first internal EDC data, and a first packet indicating signal; and
if the command is a write command, delaying execution of a write operation indicated by the write command until completion of the EDC operation, else
immediately executing an operation indicated by the command without regard to completion of the EDC operation,
wherein executing the EDC operation comprises:
applying the first internal EDC data, the internal command, the first packet indicating signal, and the internal address to an error detector;
generating a first error signal in the error detector in relation to the internal command, the first EDC data, internal address, and the first packet indicating signal; and
applying the first error signal to a write signal transfer block.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein delaying execution of the write operation comprises; generating a final write enable signal in the write signal transfer block in relation to the first error signal.
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein decoding the command further comprises;
receiving the second command packet in the packet decoder and generating internal write data, second internal EDC data, and a second packet indicating signal; and
storing the internal write data.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein executing the EDC operation further comprises:
applying the second internal EDC data, the internal write data, and the second packet indicating signal to the error detector; and
generating a second error signal in the error detector in relation to the internal write data, the second internal EDC data, and the second packet indicating signal.
19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
applying the second error signal to a data transfer block; and
transferring the stored internal write data to a memory cell array via the data transfer block in response to the second error signal.
20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
generating an error flag in the memory in response to the first and second error signals, and communicating the error flag to the memory controller.