MICROCONTROLLER PROGRAMMABLE METHOD FOR ACCESSING EXTERNAL MEMORY IN A PAGE MODE OPERATION

A microcontroller and method for executing instructions from an 8051 instruction set are disclosed. The microcontroller includes first and second input/output (I/O) ports that are controlled such that the first I/O port is a dedicated data port and the second I/O port is a dedicated address port for performing memory cycles to external memory when in a page mode of operation. In addition, the cycle times of memory cycles to external memory is configurable so that the microcontroller is capable of more efficiently cooperating with both high speed and low speed external memory devices.