Patent ID: 7573757

Claim:
A method for reducing a current consumption of the semiconductor memory device, comprising the steps of: generating a first write enable signal, a second write enable signal and a final data mask signal; latching a global data loaded on a global data line in response to the first write enable signal and the data mask signal to generate a global latch data; and outputting a local data to a local data line based on the global latch data in response to the second write enable signal, wherein the global data is not latched when the final data mask signal is activated; and wherein the step of generating the final data mask signal includes the step of: generating an intermediate enable signal by combining a bank flag signal to enable a bank for performing a write operation, a write flag signal activated if the write command is inputted, and a driver select signal to activate a selected write driver; and outputting the final data mask signal by combining the intermediate enable signal and an initial data mask signal for stopping the write operation.