Abstract: A computer system is provided which performs a self-test of the memory cells of a memory device prior to loading of a computer program into the memory device, so as to determine the locations of defective memory cells. During loading of the computer program, each instruction step, data block and stack declaration is decoded, and the present invention creates and inserts a jump instruction into the original program code to bypass any defective memory cells without interrupting the intended operation of the instruction steps that are loaded into the memory. The loaded program code is then modified to correct any address-referencing that may be changed due to the insertion of the jump instructions. The present invention can even periodically perform a self-test procedure during the normal operation of the computer system so as to locate new defective memory cells and to modify the program code to bypass these newly-located defective memory cells.

Abstract: When loading executable machine code into memories, the defective memory locations can be bypassed by properly inserting jump instructions or dummy memory allocation instructions in the program code. Prior to loading the executable code into the memories, defective memory locations are checked and recorded first. The source program code are analyzed to see which instruction step will fall into defective memory locations. Dummy memory space allocation instructions or additional jump instructions, are inserted in the original micro code, such that defective memory locations can be bypassed when the modified program code is loaded into the working memory space. The present invention is useful for loading executable programs in programmable and verifiable memories, such as Flash/EEPROM, EPROM, SRAM and DRAM, etc.