Adaptive management of intermediate storage

A method for use by a storage device that receives read and write commands from a host and that includes non-volatile memory and a memory controller in communication with the non-volatile memory, wherein the non-volatile memory includes a portion designated as intermediate storage (IS) memory and another portion designated as main storage (MS) memory, wherein the IS memory has lower write and read latencies, greater endurance, and lower storage density and capacity than the MS memory, the method comprising:

• storing a plurality of relocation schemes each of which is associated with one of a plurality of potential host activity patterns;
• maintaining one or more activity logs that keep track of operations related to data stored for a host in the non-volatile memory;
• storing data in the IS memory in response to receiving one or more write commands from the host;
• predicting a host activity pattern based on at least one of one or more activity logs;
• selecting one of the plurality of stored relocation schemes to apply to the data stored in the IS memory, wherein the selecting is performed based on the predicted host activity pattern;
• and
• executing the selected relocation scheme to thereby selectively relocate one or more portions of the data from the IS memory to the MS memory in accordance with the selected relocation scheme.

A storage device, comprising:

• non-volatile memory including a portion of which is designated as intermediate storage (IS) memory and another portion of which designated as main storage (MS) memory;
• means for predicting a host activity pattern based on write and read operations that are performed for a host;
• means for selecting a relocation scheme based on the predicted host activity pattern;
• and
• means for executing the selected relocation scheme to thereby relocate at least some data from the IS memory to the MS memory.