High-reliability fault-tolerant 16 Mbit memory chip

A combination of redundant circuits and error-correcting-code circuits have been implemented on a 16 Mb memory chip. The combination of these circuits results in a synergistic fault-tolerance scheme, making this chip immune to a high level of manufacturing and reliability defects. In addition to the error-correcting-code circuits, the chip also has redundant cells that can be used to replace defective cells. The combined use of the error-correcting code, and redundancy results in a synergetic fault-tolerance effect, making the chip impervious to thousands of manufacturing defects. This is an increase in fault tolerance of several orders of magnitude