Patent ID: 7301817

Claim:
A method for programming non-volatile storage, comprising: programming, in a set of non-volatile storage elements, at least first and second subsets of non-volatile storage elements having respective threshold voltages that fall within a first threshold voltage distribution, so that a threshold voltage of at least a first non-volatile storage element of the first subset transitions to a second threshold voltage distribution which overlaps with the first threshold voltage distribution, and a threshold voltage of at least a second non-volatile storage element of the second subset transitions to a third threshold voltage distribution which is outside of the first and second threshold voltage distributions; tracking the threshold voltage of the at least a first non-volatile storage element to determine when it has transitioned to the second threshold voltage distribution; and determining when to initiate a verification process for verifying when the threshold voltage of the at least a second non-volatile storage element has transitioned to the third threshold voltage distribution, responsive to the tracking.