Patent ID: 8886874

Claim:
A method for operating a flash memory performed by a memory controller, wherein the memory controller is in communication with a processor, and the flash memory includes a plurality of sectors, each sector including a plurality of memory cells, the method comprising: populating an internal table in the memory controller with a plurality of attributes corresponding to the plurality of sectors, wherein the plurality of attributes includes at least one of a sector size, sector count, sector address range, and memory cell address range; receiving a first memory read access command from the processor that includes a plurality of address bits corresponding to a memory cell address of a memory cell that is currently being accessed, wherein the plurality of address bits includes a first set of sector address bits corresponding to a current sector address of a current sector associated with the memory cell, and a first set of memory cell address bits corresponding to a sector specific memory cell address of the memory cell; comparing the current sector address with a previous sector address stored in the memory controller and the flash memory, wherein the previous sector address corresponds to a previous sector accessed during execution of a previous memory read access command; transmitting the first set of memory cell address bits to the flash memory during an address cycle of the first memory read access command when the previous sector address and the current sector address are identical; replacing the previous sector address stored in the memory controller and the flash memory with the current sector address when the previous sector address and the current sector address are different; transmitting the plurality of address bits to the flash memory during the address cycle of the first memory read access command when the previous sector address and the current sector address are different; receiving at least one of the first set of memory cell address bits and the plurality of address bits by the flash memory; appending the current sector address to the sector specific memory cell address by the flash memory to generate the memory cell address; and accessing the memory cell using the memory cell address.