Patent ID: 7941590

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: multi-level memory cells; an estimation block configured to determine estimated mean and standard deviation values of level distributions of the multi-level memory cells; and a computation block operatively coupled to the estimation block and configured to compute at least optimal or near optimal detection threshold values based, at least in part, on the estimated mean and standard deviation values, the optimal or near optimal detection threshold values to be used in order to facilitate reading of data stored in the multi-level memory cells, wherein the multi-level memory cells include at least one M level memory cell having M levels, and the computation block is further configured to compute an i th level near optimal mean value ({tilde over (m)} i ) of the M level memory cell according to the equation: m ~ i = m 0 + σ 0 + 2 ⁢ ∑ k = 1 i - 1 ⁢ ⁢ σ k + σ i σ 0 + 2 ⁢ ∑ k = 1 M - 2 ⁢ ⁢ σ k + σ M - 1 ⁢ L where m i is the estimated mean value of the i th level of the M level memory cell, σ i is the estimated standard deviation value of the i th level of the M level memory cell, L is equal to m M-1 -m o , and wherein at least one of the estimated standard deviation values σ 0 , . . . , σ M-1 is non-zero.