Patent ID: 7835202

Claim:
A method for reading data from an array of memory cells arranged as a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the method comprising: selecting an individual row from the plurality of rows based on one or more first address signals; selecting a series of columns from the plurality of columns based on one or more second address signals wherein the series of columns corresponds to the largest amount of data that can be read from the array of memory cells at one time; determining whether a control signal is active; responsive to determining that the control signal is active, activating sense amplifiers associated only with a subset of the columns in the series of columns, and reading data only from memory cells located in both the selected row and in the columns associated with the activated sense amplifiers, thereby reading an amount of data that is smaller than the largest amount of data that can be read from the array of memory cells at one time; and responsive to determining that the control signal is not active, activating a sense amplifier associated with each column in the series of columns, and reading data from all the memory cells located in both the selected row and in the series of columns, thereby reading the largest amount of data that can be read from the array of memory cells at one time.