Patent ID: 7259987

Claim:
A non-volatile memory system, comprising: a set of non-volatile storage elements, said set of non-volatile storage elements includes a first subset of non-volatile storage elements having a first set of physical states and a second subset of non-volatile storage elements having said first set of physical states, one or more of said first set of physical states are at lower voltages for said second subset of non-volatile storage elements than for said first subset of non-volatile storage elements; and managing circuitry in communication with said non-volatile storage elements, said managing circuitry reads said set by: reading said first subset, said step of reading includes applying one or more first read values to determine if said one or more storage elements of said first subset are programmed to said first physical state, and reading said second subset, said step of reading includes applying one or more second read values to determine if said one or more storage elements of said second subset are programmed to said second physical state; wherein said one or more second read values are less than said one or more first read values.