System, method, and computer program product for determining a retention behavior for at least one block of a memory device having finite endurance and/or retention

A computer program product, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:
• computer usable program code configured to write monitor data to at least one block of a memory device, the memory device comprising:
• a plurality of memory blocks having finite endurance and/or retention, at least one of the blocks having monitor data written therein, and
• circuitry for addressing the blocks,
• wherein the monitor data is written to multiple groups of blocks, and
• wherein a number of write cycles performed for each group is different;
• computer usable program code configured to read the monitor data after a period of time;
• computer usable program code configured to determine a retention behavior of the at least one block based on the reading;
• computer usable program code configured to output a result of the determining;
• computer usable program code configured to provide wear leveling when writing user data to the memory blocks,
• with the proviso that the monitor data is not subject to wear leveling.

A system, comprising:

• a memory device having finite endurance and/or retention, the memory device comprising:
• a plurality of memory blocks, at least one of the blocks having monitor data written therein, wherein the at least one block has been written to a plurality of times prior to writing the monitor data;
• and
• circuitry for addressing the blocks,
• with the proviso that the monitor data is not subject to wear leveling,
• a module for subjecting writing of user data to wear leveling.