Abstract: The invention is an apparatus and method to allow a microcontroller unit with fewer pins to use SDRAM. This invention uses the SDRAM burst mode in a favorable way. On an initial cycle of the burst access the microcontroller supplies an address one less than the actual initial address on a multiplexed address/data bus connected to both the address bus and the data bus of the SDRAM. DQM signals from the microcontroller to the SDRAM suppress all data writes. On the second and subsequent cycles of the burst assess, the microcontroller supplies the next data word to be written on the multiplexed address/data bus together with DQM signals permitting data writing. This technique prevents collisions of address and data on the microcontroller multiplexed address/data bus.