Arbitrated management of a shared non-volatile memory resource

An apparatus comprising:

• a non-volatile memory (NVM) comprising a population of semiconductor memory dies to which are connected a number of parallel channels;
• a controller circuit configured to apportion the semiconductor memory dies into a plurality of die sets each configured to store user data blocks associated with a different user and to carry out hot data transfers to transfer user data blocks between the respective die sets and host devices corresponding to the associated users responsive to a sequence of host access commands issued by the respective users associated with the die sets;
• and
• a shared resource available for use by each of the die sets in turn to support background data transfers not associated with the host access commands to write data to the respective die sets, the controller circuit further configured to arbitrate the use of the shared resource by each of the die sets in turn to sequentially perform the background data transfers associated with the respective die sets to maintain a selected level of performance of the hot data transfers.