Patent ID: 7376010
Filing Date: 2008-05-20
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
1. A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising: a plurality of memory blocks constituted by electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells, a protect flag stored in an area of each of said plurality of memory blocks, and a write operation to each of said plurality of memory blocks being controlled by a corresponding protect flag in the memory block; a memory cell array constituted by the plurality of memory blocks; an interface configured to communicate with an external device; a write circuit configured to write data in a selected memory block in accordance with an address and a data write command input to the interface, when the write command is input from the interface, the write circuit executing the write command when a protect flag in the selected memory block has a first value and not executing the write command when the protect flag has a second value; and a read circuit configured to read, in accordance with the address input to the interface, the protect flag that is stored in an area of the selected memory block, the protect flag read by the read circuit being able to be output to the external device through the interface.