Patent ID: 6912101

Claim:
A semiconductor device, comprising: a single integrated circuit substrate including: a volatile memory; an internal non-volatile memory a terminal for optionally coupling an external non-volatile memory device to said semiconductor device; and a selector system coupled to said internal non-volatile memory and said terminal, wherein said selector system selects a single source from which to load a program code into said volatile memory from among said external non-volatile memory and said internal non-volatile memory device based upon whether or not said external non-volatile memory device is coupled to said terminal, said selector system including: a coupling detector for detecting whether or not said external non-volatile memory device is coupled to said terminal; and a source selector, coupled to said coupling detector, for selecting said internal non-volatile memory as said source in response to said coupling detector detecting that said external non-volatile memory device is not coupled to said terminal and for selecting said external non-volatile memory device as said source in response to said coupling detector detecting that said external non-volatile memory device is coupled to said terminal.