Apparatus and method for refreshing DRAM

摘要

A refresh method for DRAM is provided, in which a memory cell array is arranged to have multiple storing pages. Each storing page has a counter value. The method includes detecting out a portion of the storing pages being no longer used, indicated as a “no-use portion”, and another portion of the storing pages being still in use, indicated as “in-use portion”. Then, only the in-use portion of the storing pages is performed with a refreshing operation.

主权项

1. A refresh method for dynamic random access memory (DRAM), wherein a memory cell array is arranged to have multiple storing pages, and each storing page has a counter value, the method comprising:
detecting a portion of the storing pages no longer being used, indicated as a “no-use portion”, and another portion of the storing pages still being in use, indicated as an “in-use portion”; and performing a refresh operation only on the in-use portion of the storing pages, wherein detecting the no-use portion of the storing pages comprises:
providing by a memory master about an ending time stored in a frame data and at least one of the storing pages, wherein the frame data is received by the memory master to be written into a memory cell array; andsetting the at least one storing page used by the corresponding frame data as the no-use portion when the ending time is detected.