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July 29, 2002
Am29PDL128G
23
P R E L I M I N A R Y
SECTOR PROTECTION
The Am29PDL128G features several levels of sector
protection, which can disable both the program and
erase operations in certain sectors or sector groups:
Persistent Sector Protection
A command sector protection method that replaces
the old 12 V controlled protection method.
Password Sector Protection
A highly sophisticated protection method that requires
a password before changes to certain sectors or sec-
tor groups are permitted
WP# Hardware Protection
A write protect pin that can prevent program or erase
operations in sectors 0, 1, 268, and 269.
All parts default to operate in the Persistent Sector
Protection mode. The customer must then choose if
the Persistent or Password Protection method is most
desirable. There are two one-time programmable
non-volatile bits that define which sector protection
method will be used. If the customer decides to con-
tinue using the Persistent Sector Protection method,
they must set the
Persistent Sector Protection
Mode Locking Bit
. This will permanently set the part
to operate only using Persistent Sector Protection. If
the customer decides to use the password method,
they must set the
Password Mode Locking Bit
. This
will permanently set the part to operate only using
password sector protection.
It is important to remember that setting either the
Per-
sistent Sector Protection Mode Locking Bit
or the
Password Mode Locking Bit
permanently selects
the protection mode. It is not possible to switch be-
tween the two methods once a locking bit has been
set.
It is important that one mode is explicitly se-
lected when the device is first programmed, rather
than relying on the default mode alone.
This is so
that it is not possible for a system program or virus to
later set the Password Mode Locking Bit, which would
cause an unexpected shift from the default Persistent
Sector Protection Mode into the Password Protection
Mode.
The WP# Hardware Protection feature is always avail-
able, independent of the software managed protection
method chosen.
The device is shipped with all sectors unprotected.
AMD offers the option of programming and protecting
sectors at the factory prior to shipping the device
through AMD
’
s ExpressFlash
Service. Contact an
AMD representative for details.
SGA66
1
1
1
0
1
0
X
X
X
X
X
SA239 to SA242
SGA67
1
1
1
0
1
1
X
X
X
X
X
SA243 to SA246
SGA68
1
1
1
1
0
0
X
X
X
X
X
SA247 to SA250
SGA69
1
1
1
1
0
1
X
X
X
X
X
SA251 to SA254
SGA70
1
1
1
1
1
0
X
X
X
X
X
SA255 to SA258
SGA71
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
X
X
X
SA259 to SA261
0
1
1
0
SGA72
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
SA262
SGA73
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
SA263
SGA74
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
SA264
SGA75
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
SA265
SGA76
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
SA266
SGA77
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
SA267
SGA78
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
SA268
SGA79
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
SA269
Table 8.
Sector Block Addresses for Protection/Unprotection (Continued)
Sector
Group
A21
A20
A19
A18
A17
A16
A15
A14
A13
A12
A11
Sectors