Abstract

A method of memory management for a primary memory created from a non-volatile, long-term storage medium, in particular flash memory, which enables direct manipulation of data segments stored therein. The data segments of a single file are typically not stored contiguously in relation to the order in which they are stored and subsequently recalled, yet the method enables recall in the logical order in which the data segments were created. This method is particularly useful for flash memory which has the characteristic of not being able to overwrite data in memory without first erasing previously recorded data. The method comprises the minimum steps of dividing the primary memory into equal size blocks, each block being the smallest amount of data which can be read from or written to memory in a single read or write operation. A cache memory the size of at least one of the read/write blocks is then coupled to the primary memory and provides temporary storage space for data being written to and read from primary memory.

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