Micron Technology, Inc.
Managing garbage collection in a memory subsystem based on characteristics of data streams

Abstract:

A method for managing garbage collection in a memory subsystem, where a stream data manager writes data units from a stream of data into an allocated portion of memory composed of a plurality of blocks. The stream data manager evaluates a behavior of the stream of data to calculate the stream's efficiency, where the efficiency value is calculated based on an amount of invalid data units stored in the allocated portion of memory. The stream data manager determines a threshold of valid data units in a block within the allocated portion of memory, applicable to each block in the plurality of blocks for determining when to perform garbage collection. The stream data manager performs the garbage collection of a first block of the plurality of blocks in response to determining that a value of valid data units in the first block is within a predetermined range of the threshold value.