Patent ID: 7616485

Claim:
A nonvolatile memory apparatus comprising: a control unit; a main storage medium of the apparatus including an electrically reloadable nonvolatile memory having a plurality of memory cells, wherein the electrically reloadable nonvolatile memory is adapted to be operable even when faulty memory cells exist therein; and faulty registration means including a reloadable memory for registering address values of faulty regions of the main storage medium containing therein the faulty memory cells, wherein data which is stored in the electrically reloadable nonvolatile memory is divided into blocks, each block having a plurality of data to be administrated and which is assigned an access address by the control unit, an administrative information region being provided in each block, and wherein the control unit is adapted to carry out (i) access requests of the main storage medium and (ii) administration of faulty regions and a number of reloading occurrences of reloading of respective ones of the memory cells of the electrically reloadable nonvolatile memory in the main storage medium.