Patent ID: 8683270

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining a first signal to indicate a pending program operation at a particular group of a plurality of groups of memory devices, each group comprising a plurality of memory devices, each memory device comprising one or more memory arrays; at a particular memory device of said particular group: applying a programming signal for programming at least one of said one or more memory arrays according to said pending program operation; detecting a program-fail event for said at least one of said one or more memory arrays during said pending program operation; generating an electronic fail signal to indicate that said program operation was unsuccessful; and providing said electronic fail signal to a memory controller or to a processor; and polling a plurality of memory devices of said particular group to determine said particular memory device at which said at least one or more memory arrays said program operation was unsuccessful, and wherein fail signal lines of a plurality of memory devices of said particular group are electrically coupled and connected to a pass/fail (P/F) input port of at least one of said memory controller or said processor.