Ordering reads to limit collisions in a non-volatile memory (nvm)

A solid-state drive (SSD), comprising:

• a flash memory arranged as a main memory store for a host device;
• a controller circuit configured to manage data transfers between the flash memory and the host device, the controller circuit configured to manage a host command queue that lists pending host read commands and host write commands to transfer data between the flash memory and the host device, and a non-volatile write cache which temporarily stores write data sets pending transfer to the flash memory responsive to execution of the associated host write commands in the host command queue;
• a collision prediction circuit configured to predict a rate of future collisions between the pending host read commands in the host command queue;
• and
• a storage manager circuit configured to operate in a first mode to direct storage of the write data sets from the write cache to a first target location responsive to the rate of future collisions being at a first level, and to operation in a second mode to direct storage of the write data sets from the write cache to a different, second target location responsive to the rate of future collisions being at a different, second level.

A method comprising:

• accumulating pending host read commands and host write commands in a queue to transfer data between a non-volatile memory (NVM) and a host device;
• temporarily storing, in a write cache, write data sets associated with the host write commands;
• predicting a rate of future collisions between the pending host read commands in the host command queue;
• and
• directing the write data sets in the write cache to different first or second locations in the NVM responsive to the predicted rate of future collisions.