REMOTELY RE-PROGRAMMABLE PROGRAM MEMORY FOR A MICROCONTROLLER

摘要

A single chip microcontroller (11) has a plurality of I/O ports (33, 35, 43, 45) which communicate directly and indirectly with an electrically programmable and erasable read only memory array (61) used as a program store circuit. The PEROM (61) array provides for fast erasing and reprogramming, either directly from a local host or remotely. The plurality of ports provides alternative access routes to the memory store, thereby providing a capability for verifying microinstructions immediately after writing them, one at a time. A random access memory, RAM (25), is also provided. The PEROM array is like hard disk storage in a microcontroller. A low voltage power supply has a connected charge pump which provides a programming and erase high voltage for the PEROM array.