Memory Emulation In A Cellular Telephone

Abstract

A cellular telephone using a memory array that is directly addressed and non-volatile is disclosed. The memory array can be used to replace and emulate multiple memory types such as DRAM, SRAM, non-volatile RAM, FLASH memory, and a non-volatile memory card, for example. The memory array may be randomly accessed. Data stored in the memory array is retained in the absence of electrical power. One or more memory arrays may be used in the cellular telephone. At least one of the memory arrays may be in the form of a removable memory card.

1 . A cellular telephone, comprising:
 a digital baseband processor including a central processing unit (CPU), the CPU including an operating system (OS) and a file manager;   an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) electrically coupled with the digital baseband processor;   a memory controller electrically coupled with the digital baseband processor, the CPU electrically coupled with the memory controller via a CPU bus; and   a two-terminal cross-point memory array that is directly accessed for data operations, the two-terminal cross-point memory array is electrically coupled with the memory controller and configured to store data in a plurality of memory elements (ME's) that are positioned in the two-terminal cross-point memory array, each ME having exactly two terminals and including an ion reservoir and a tunnel barrier electrically in series with each other and with the two terminals of the ME, and operative to replace and emulate both volatile and non-volatile memory and configured for write operations without a FLASH File System (FFS) and without a FLASH erase operation prior to a write operation,   wherein the OS is configured to coordinate memory I/O functions without FLASH polling loads, without FLASH system loads, and without a FLASH pointer system, and   wherein the file manager is specifically configured to understand a file structure of the two-terminal cross-point memory array and to translate data from the two-terminal cross-point memory array to the CPU bus.   
     
     
         2 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the two-terminal cross-point memory array is randomly accessed. 
     
     
         3 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the memory controller includes a direct memory access (DMA) channel, the processing unit includes a file manager, and the data is accessed by the DMA channel operating in cooperation with the file manager. 
     
     
         4 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the two-terminal cross-point memory array is vertically stacked. 
     
     
         5 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein data operations on two-terminal cross-point memory array occur at a potential difference that is less than approximately 7 volts. 
     
     
         6 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the data is retained an absence of electrical power. 
     
     
         7 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the two-terminal cross-point memory array is operative to replace and to emulate a memory type selected from the group consisting of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), non-volatile random access memory (FLASH), a removable non-volatile memory card, and any combination of those memory types. 
     
     
         8 . The cellular telephone of  claim 7 , wherein the data is retained without a refresh operation to the two-terminal cross-point memory array. 
     
     
         9 . The cellular telephone of  claim 7 , wherein the data is retained in an absence of electrical power. 
     
     
         10 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the ion reservoir includes mobile oxygen ions. 
     
     
         11 . The cellular telephone of  claim 7 , wherein consecutive write operations to the two-terminal cross-point memory array are performed without performing the FLASH erase operation prior to each write operation in the consecutive write operations. 
     
     
         12 . The cellular telephone of  claim 7 , wherein the data is retained in an absence of electrical power and is also retained when removable non-volatile memory card is removed from the cellular telephone. 
     
     
         13 . The cellular telephone of  claim 7 , wherein the non-volatile two-terminal cross-point memory array is vertically stacked. 
     
     
         14 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the cellular telephone is a component of a device selected from the group consisting of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an electronic organizer, a device including electronic organizer functionality, a portable electronic device, a computer, and any combination of those devices. 
     
     
         15 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the ion reservoir and the tunnel barrier are in contact with each other. 
     
     
         16 . The cellular telephone of  claim 1 , wherein the tunnel barrier includes a thickness that is approximately 50 Angstroms or less. 
     
     
         17 . A cellular telephone, comprising:
 a digital baseband processor including a central processing unit (CPU), the CPU including an operating system (OS) and a file manager;   an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) electrically coupled with the digital baseband processor;   a memory controller electrically coupled with the digital baseband processor, the CPU electrically coupled with the memory controller via a CPU bus; and   a plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays that are directly accessed, the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays are electrically coupled with the memory controller and are configured to store data in a plurality of memory elements (ME's) that are positioned in plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays, each ME having exactly two terminals and including an ion reservoir and a tunnel barrier electrically in series with each other and with the two terminals of the ME,   the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays are operative to replace and emulate both volatile and non-volatile memory, the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays are configured for write operations without a FLASH File System (FFS) and without a FLASH erase operation prior to a write operation, and the data stored in each ME is retained in an absence of electrical power,   wherein the OS is configured to coordinate memory I/O functions without FLASH polling loads, without FLASH system loads, and without a FLASH pointer system, and   wherein the file manager is specifically configured to understand a file structure of the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays and to translate data from the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays to the CPU bus.   
     
     
         18 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein the memory controller includes a direct memory access (DMA) channel, and the data is accessed by the DMA channel operating in cooperation with the file manager. 
     
     
         19 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein data operations to the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays occur at a potential difference that is less than approximately 7 volts. 
     
     
         20 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein the ion reservoir includes mobile oxygen ions. 
     
     
         21 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein at least one of the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays is randomly accessed. 
     
     
         22 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein at least one of the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays is operative to replace and to emulate a memory type selected from the group consisting of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), non-volatile random access memory (FLASH), and any combination of those memory types. 
     
     
         23 . The cellular telephone of  claim 22 , wherein consecutive write operations to one or more of the plurality of two-terminal cross-point memory arrays occurs without a FLASH erase operation during the consecutive write operations. 
     
     
         24 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein the ion reservoir and the tunnel barrier are in contact with each other. 
     
     
         25 . The cellular telephone of  claim 17 , wherein the tunnel barrier includes a thickness that is approximately 50 Angstroms or less.