The preferred embodiments described herein relate to a redundant memory
structure using bad bit pointers. In one preferred embodiment, data is
written in a first plurality of memory cells, and an error is detected in
writing data in one of the memory cells. In response to the detected
error, a pointer is written in a second plurality of memory cells, the
pointer identifying which memory cell in the first plurality of memory
cells contains the error. During a read operation, the data is read from
the first plurality of memory cells, and the pointer is read from the
second plurality of memory cells. From the pointer, the memory cell
containing the error is identified, and the error is corrected. Other
preferred embodiments are provided, and each of the preferred embodiments
can be used alone or in combination with one another.
