The invention provides embodiments to facilitate cell search. In one embodiment, received samples are split into a plurality of sample sets for processing. Each of the sets is processed and an accumulated result is divided by an estimated noise value. In another embodiment, a code correlator correlates the received signal with a primary synchronization code and an auxiliary code correlator having a same length as the code correlator correlates the received signal with a code having a low cross correlation with the primary synchronization code. In another embodiment, a division of an accumulated result with a noise estimate is performed using indexes of the most significant bits.