Data defragmentation of solid-state memory
US8140740B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 29, 2009 |
| Grant date | Mar 20, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 23, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/023
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for improving the performance of a computer system having a solid-state (flash) memory device as the main system memory. After weeks or months of frequent use, solid-state memories can become badly fragmented, and although every memory cell has basically the same access time to retrieve or to write data from or into that cell, vendors have found that self-defragging utilities within the memory device often improves overall performance. Yet if such defragging utilities are automatically run when other applications are running simultaneously, the drain on system performance can be very detrimental. To avoid the occurrence of unwanted self-defragging of these solid-state memory devices, we inhibit under some circumstances such functionality until it is deemed safe to do so.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.