Systems and methods for generating pulse clocks with programmable edges and pulse widths configured for varying requirements of different memory access operations. A pulse clock generation circuit includes a selective delay logic to provide a programmable rising edge delay of the pulse clock, a selective pulse width widening logic to provide a programmable pulse width of the pulse clock, and a built-in level shifter for shifting a voltage level of the pulse clock. A rising edge delay for a read operation is programmed to correspond to an expected read array access delay, and the pulse width for a write operation is programmed to be wider than the pulse width for a read operation.