System and method for efficient uncorrectable error detection in flash memory

摘要

A system and method for efficient uncorrectable error detection in flash memory is described. A microcontroller including a non-volatile flash memory utilizes an Error Correction Code (ECC) having a certain error detection and correction bit strength. The user data is first processed by a hash function and hash data is stored with the user data. Then, the user data and hash data are processed by the ECC system. In detection, the hash ensures that a relatively low bit-strength ECC system did not incorrectly manipulate the user data. Such a hash integrity check provides an efficient, robust detection of incorrectly corrected user data resulting from errors beyond the correction but strength of the ECC system utilized.