System and method for frame and field memory access in a wide-word memory

The present invention comprises an efficient system and method for reading and writing data from memory that is organized to represent either field or frame video data in a wide-word configured memory. A memory controller is configured to read or write either sequential wide-words or alternate wide-words in a DMA transfer as directed by software. After the DMA transfer is initiated, the memory read or write operations proceed automatically until the DMA transfer is completed. The ability to read or write either sequential or alternate wide-words beneficially supports operations to convert between field video data for interlaced video displays and frame video data for progressive-scan displays.