Patent ID: 7042793

Claim:
A semiconductor memory device comprising: a memory cell array in which a plurality of memory cells are arranged two-dimensionally in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, each of the memory cells having first- and second-port word lines and first- and second-port bit line pairs; a first row decoder for driving the first-port word line of memory cells in a row selected from the plurality of rows in the memory cell array according to a first-port row address; a second row decoder for driving the second-port word line of memory cells in a row selected from the plurality of rows in the memory cell array according to a second-port row address; a row address comparison circuit for detecting whether or not the first-port row address and the second-port row address match each other and controlling the first and second row decoders in such a manner that when it is detected that the first-port and second-port row addresses do not match each other, the first and second row decoders are both operated, and when it is detected that the first-port and second-port row addresses match each other, only the first row decoder is operated; and a column switch interposed between a set of the first-port bit line pairs and the second-port bit line pairs, each of which is shared by memory cells in a corresponding one of the columns in the memory cell array, and a set of a first-port data line pair and a second-port data line pair, each of which is shared by the columns in the memory cell array, wherein when the row address comparison circuit detects that the first-port row address and the second-port row address do not match each other, the column switch connects, to the first-port data line pair, the first-port bit line pair of memory cells in a column selected from the plurality of columns in the memory cell array according to the first-port column address, and connects, to the second-port data line pair, the second-port bit line pair of memory cells in a column selected from the plurality of columns in the memory cell array according to the second-port column address, and when the row address comparison circuit detects that the first-port row address and the second-port row address match each other, the column switch connects, to the first-port data line pair, the first-port bit line pair of the memory cells in the column selected from the plurality of columns in the memory cell array according to the first-port column address, and connects, to the second-port data line pair, the first-port bit line pair of the memory cells in the column selected from the plurality of columns in the memory cell array according to the second-port column address.