size in one embodiment a redundant segment is able to repair one or more defective cells in a memory segment located in the corresponding portion enabling a redundant element to repair one or more defective cells in a memory segment located in a different portion is also useful illustratively the matrix is separated into first and second portions 364 1 u2212 x as shown defective memory cells 393 are located in memory elements 340 12 and 340 21 in the first portion or the matrix and memory elements 340 8 and 340 18 in the second portion the defects in memory segments in the first portion can be repaired by replacing them with segments of the redundant elements in the first portion likewise the defects in memory segments in the second portion can be repaired with redundant segments in the corresponding second portion by separating the matrix into x number of portions a redundancy element can repair a defective memory segment in x different portions generally the number of fuses needed for encoding the redundancy elements is equal to x a b 1 where x is the number of portions a is equal to the number bits needed to encode the.