Patent ID: 7043598

Claim:
The A method of refreshing, memory in a memory device having a bank of N memory blocks, the method comprising the steps of: generating an address for a first one of the N memory blocks as a current first possible refresh block and address for a current second one of the N memory blocks as a current second possible refresh block, for refreshing at least a portion of one of the possible refresh blocks; checking for contention between the current first possible refresh block and an externally generated access to one of the N memory blocks; and permitting the externally generated access to the one of the N memory blocks during a certain interval and initiating an idle external access interval responsive to the following: i) the memory block of the externally generated access contending with the current first possible refresh block, and ii) the current first and second possible refresh blocks being a same one possible refresh block; and refreshing the one possible refresh block during the idle external access interval.