ADAPTIVE GARBAGE COLLECTION

摘要

Data being stored in a block of flash memory system may be characterized as being frequently modified or infrequently modified (hot/cold) based on a heuristic. When performing garbage collection, if the data from hot blocks is consolidated and data from cold blocks is separately consolidated by writing the data to different free blocks, the number of write operations to perform the garbage collection may be reduced. The lower “write amplification” contributes to increasing the lifetime of the memory circuit. When the number of blocks in a pool of previously erased blocks is reduced to a threshold value, a block having data previously stored therein may be selected for garbage collection based on a second heuristic.

主权项

1. A method of managing a flash memory system, comprising:
providing a processor configured to perform the steps of:
designating data of a block of memory of the flash memory system being garbage collected as being hot data or cold data according to a first heuristic parameter;merging valid hot data from into a first previously erased block;merging valid cold data into a second previously erased block; and,saving new or modified data into a third previously erased block.