Garbage collection and TRIM for SSDs

Non-volatile Flash memory is increasingly used in harsh environments like factories where severe
vibration can impact operability. SSDs are more robust than traditional HDDs, offering better energy
efficiency, longer lifespans, faster access times, and better read performance.

However, Flash memory is a write-once and bulk-erase form of data storage. This requires a garbage collection mechanism that sorts good data into available blocks. This ensure efficient disk usage but can reduce performance if not managed correctly.

At this point we need to explain a bit more how flash memory is organized in SSDs and how data gets written or erased. 

• Memory in SSDs is usually managed in blocks and pages. 
• One block consists of several pages. 
• Data will be written page by page but can only be erased as block unit.

Innodisk iCELL technology saves your data

Flash drives like SSDs havebecome more and more popular. But since the early days of wear leveling there is one problem all NAND Flash devices have in common.

Corrupted data and data loss during sudden power failure!

Over the years there were several solutions, mostly solved in software to make the disks more stable.

But with the introduction of SATA III and the customer demands of higher data rates, the SSD manufactures had to think about how to improve the throughput and the IOPS of the drives.