Memory partitioning

This invention relates to an improved memory storage system which allows selective ranges of memory locations, which can also be referred to as virtual memory banks, to be enabled and disabled. The ranges of memory locations can be disabled to avoid refreshing unused memory location and to eliminate faulty memory locations. Also, the ranges of memory locations can be treated as blocks or banks of memory regardless of the physical chips used to store the data. In other words, if a memory bank has a capacity of 16 MB, the range of memory locations may be a portion of the total capacity of this memory bank, for example 8 MB or 4 MB, and the remainder of the memory bank can be unaffected or be the subject of another range of memory locations. In a preferred embodiment, the ranges of memory locations is at least 2 MB in size.