Patent ID: 8854900

Claim:
A memory device, comprising: a plurality of dice powered via a power bus, the power bus supplying power for the memory device having a predetermined power capacity, each die having an array of memory cells and a state machine controlling operations of the die; a load signal bus connecting to said plurality of dice and carrying a load signal at one of first and second voltage ranges to indicate whether or not the predetermined power capacity has been exhausted by the operations among said plurality of dice; a set of one or more pull-up drivers connected to said load signal bus to assert collectively on the load signal bus with a total pull-up strength proportional to the predetermined power capacity; a pull-down driver in each die connected to said load signal bus to assert a local pull down on the load signal bus with a local pull-down strength proportional to an amount of power being requested by the respective die; and wherein: the load signal is in the first voltage range when the total pull-up strength exceeds the local pull-down strengths of all dice combined, and the load signal is in the second voltage range when the total pull-up strength is less than the local pull-down strengths of all dice combined; and after the amount of power has been requested by a local die for a scheduled operation, the state machine of the local die either proceed or not proceed with the scheduled operation depending on the which of the first and second voltage ranges the load signal is in.