Storage Page Timestamping for Faster Garbage Collection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Non-volatile memory devices face performance degradation due to the time-consuming garbage collection process, which is necessary to manage updated data and free up space, leading to increased load factors and reduced performance.
Innovation Solution
A method for managing data in storage devices that involves determining the state of logical pages by calculating actual and approximate timestamps and comparing them to a threshold, as well as utilizing a recently used block list to differentiate between frequently updated (hot) and less frequently updated (cold) pages, thereby optimizing garbage collection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If garbage collection is performed to increase available space in non-volatile memory device, then the available space is increased, but the time required for garbage collection increases the load factor and reduces device performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by calculating and storing time stamps for logical pages when data is first written or updated. This pre-calculated timestamp information is stored alongside the data in the memory device. During garbage collection, this pre-stored timestamp allows the controller to quickly identify valid pages without performing complex validation operations, thereby reducing the time required for garbage collection while still effectively managing available space.
2Measurement precision
If timestamp calculation and comparison is performed for each logical page to determine its state, then the accuracy of hot/cold page identification is improved, but the processing complexity and time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses copying by storing a copy of the timestamp information in the metadata area of the memory device. Instead of recalculating or re-reading original write timestamps during garbage collection, the system maintains a replicated copy of this temporal information that can be quickly accessed and compared. This copying approach preserves measurement precision while reducing processing complexity during garbage collection operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for managing data in a storage device includes: receiving a logical page from a host and calculating an actual time stamp of the logical page; finding a block of the storage device in which the logical page is stored and detecting a time stamp of the block and a page offset of the logical page stored in the block; calculating an approximate time stamp of the logical page stored in the block using the time stamp of the block and the page offset; and determining that the logical page is in a first state if the difference between the actual time stamp and the approximate time stamp is smaller than a threshold value, and determining that the logical page is in a second state different from the first state if the difference between the actual time stamp and the approximate time stamp is larger than the threshold value.