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Abstract

A single chip semiconductor integrated circuit device having a central processing unit (CPU) and a flash memory which stores data to be processed by the CPU and which provides data to the CPU through the data bus in response to accessing instructions from the CPU through the address bus. The flash memory is constituted by a plurality of memory blocks each of which has a plurality of electrically programmable nonvolatile memory cells arranged in rows and columns in which each nonvolatile memory cell is coupled to one of a plurality of word lines and one of a plurality of data lines of the flash memory. The memory blocks formed can be facilitated with different memory capacities, including through controlling the number of rows or columns of memory cells associated therewith. Sources of all of the memory cells within each memory block are connected to a single source line which is fed by a predetermined voltage from a corresponding one of plural source voltage control circuits, for flash erasing the memory cells in that memory block in an erasing operation. In accordance with another feature of the flash memory, a control register, included within a device and under the control of the CPU, is employed to control the erasing of data stored in one or more of the memory blocks, simultaneously.

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First Claim