A system, apparatus, and method are disclosed for controlling accesses into memory to minimize sequential accesses to the same bank of memory, at least in part, by characterizing a subset of an address in parallel with address translations associated with those accesses. In one embodiment, an exemplary memory controller can include an address translator configured to translate an address useable by a processor to a first memory address. Also, the memory controller includes a bit characterizer configured to characterize a subset of the address as having a value from a range of values, and a bank separator coupled to the address translator and the bit characterizer for receiving a first portion of the first memory address and the value, respectively. Accordingly, the bank separator is configured to differentiate the first portion from a second portion of a second memory address.