Dave's PCF WIP: Terms

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memory state

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"Memory state" refers to a condition, attribute, and/or characteristic, of a memory cell, or storage cell, designed and/or configured to represent an encoding for one or more data bit values. In certain embodiments, the memory state may be changed by way of a storage operation. In a non-volatile memory cell, the memory cell maintains its memory state without a power source.In certain embodiments, and in certain contexts, memory state may also refer to a collection, or set of memory cells, that collectively have a similar condition, attribute, and/or characteristic. In relation to non-volatile memory cells, groups, collections, or sets of memory cells with a similar condition within a certain range may be referred to collectively as memory cells of a particular memory state. Furthermore, reference may be made to a memory state as a shorthand reference to all memory cells having a condition that falls within a predefined range defined for that memory state.For example, with NAND memory cells, a threshold voltage (Vt) window may be defined between a negative threshold voltage, or approximately zero threshold voltage, and a maximum threshold voltage.  Within this Vt window, a number of sub-ranges may be defined and referred to as memory states. In certain embodiments, the whole Vt window may be divided up such that each threshold voltage falls within one of the memory states. In one embodiment, each memory state has a lower boundary and an upper boundary and may be represented by a cell threshold voltage distribution.