The entire device can be erased at one time by using a 6-byte software code. The software chip erase code consists of 6-byte load commands to speci fic address locations with specific data patterns.Once the code has been entered, the device will set each byte to the high state (FFH). After the software chip erase has been initiated, the device will internally time the erase operation so that no external clocks are required. The maximum time required to erase the whole chip is tEC (20 ms). The software data protection is still enabled even after the software chip erase is performed. If the boot block lockout feature has been enabled, the 6-byte software chip erase algorithm will not function.