Patent ID: 8694715

Claim:
A method for rapidly programming at least two bits per cell, in a population of pages belonging to respective erase sectors in flash memory, the population of pages defining a multiplicity of cells, the method comprising: for at least one cell, initially programming at least one first bit into the cell thereby to induce one of a first plurality of program levels in the cell, said first plurality of program levels including an erase level and at least one program level other than the erase level, skipping, while a cycle count of at least one erase sector that comprises the at least one cell have a predeterminedly low cycle count, a subsequence programming of at least one second bit into the cell of a certain program level that differs from the erase level and allowing the cell to remain in a program level of the first plurality of levels; and subsequently programming, after the cycle count of the at least one erase sectors that include the at least one cell exceeds the predeterminedly low cycle count, the at least one second bit into the cell, thereby to induce one of a second plurality of program levels in the cell if the at least one second bit is of a program level that differs from the certain program level.