Memory page size auto detection

1. A method for automatically determining access parameters of a memory device, comprising:

determining a bus width of the memory device; and

determining a page size of the memory device;

wherein the memory device which is divided into sections, each section comprising a first four byte word having an 8-bit magic number and second four byte word having a configuration magic number in first and second adjacent locations in the memory device and an automatic detection magic number in a third location in the memory device;

wherein determining the bus width comprises:

reading a first four bytes from the memory device in an eight bit mode; and

determining whether the first four bytes read from the memory device correspond to an interleaving of the first four byte word and the second four byte word; and

wherein determining a page size of the memory device comprises:

receiving minimum and maximum page sizes of the memory device;

determining a number of sections marked by computing a ratio of the maximum possible page size and the minimum possible page size;

detecting a number of pages having an automatic detection magic number; and

determining the page size of the memory device by computing the ratio of the number of sections marked times the minimum possible page size and the detected number of pages with the automatic detection magic number.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining that the first four bytes read from the memory device do not correspond to an interleaving of the first four byte word and the second four byte word indicates that the memory device has an 8-bit bus width.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

determining that the first four bytes read from the memory device correspond to an interleaving of the first four byte word and the second four byte word indicates that the memory device has a 16-bit bus width.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the detecting the number of pages further comprises: reading sequentially a series of pages from the memory device; and counting the number of pages which contain the automatic detection magic number.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:

reading a page of data from the memory device; and

testing whether the data contains the automatic detection magic number.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein when it is determined the data contains the automatic detection marker, magic number comprising:

incrementing a counter corresponding to the number of pages read; and

repeating the reading the page and the testing until the data fails to contain the automatic detection magic number.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein when it is determined the data does not contain the automatic detection magic number, further comprising:

determining whether the counter exceeds a maximum number of pages marked with the automatic detection magic number, and, if so, signaling an error condition.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining in hardware whether the memory device utilizes a smaller page size or a larger page size.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

performing a read initialization command; and

checking to determine whether the memory device is busy after a predetermined period of time.

10. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein each section contains dummy data.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the dummy data is a known value that allows error correction to be performed.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the memory device includes a NAND flash memory, an m-system flash memory, or a OneNAND flash memory.

13. An apparatus for automatically determining access parameters of a memory device means, comprising:

means for determining a bus width of the memory device means; and

means for determining a page size of the memory device means;

wherein the memory device means which is divided into sections, each section comprising a first four byte word having an 8-bit magic number and second four byte word having a configuration magic number in first and second adjacent locations in the memory device means and an automatic detection magic number in a third location in the memory device means;

wherein the means for determining the bus width comprises:

means for reading a first four bytes from the memory device means in an eight bit mode; and

means for determining whether the first four bytes read from the memory device means correspond to an interleaving of the first four byte word and the second four byte word; and

wherein the means for determining a page size of the memory device means comprises:

means for receiving minimum and maximum page sizes of the memory device means;

means for determining a number of sections marked by computing a ratio of the maximum possible page size and the minimum possible page size;

means for detecting a number of pages having an automatic detection magic number; and

means for determining the page size of the memory device means by computing the ratio of the number of sections marked times the minimum possible page size and the detected number of pages with the automatic detection magic number.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13 , further comprising:

means for reading sequentially a series of pages from the memory device means; and

means for counting the number of pages which contain the automatic detection magic number.