Use of application data and garbage-collected data to improve write efficiency of a data storage device

A data storage device, comprising:

• a plurality of flash memory devices, each of the flash memory devices being arranged into a plurality of erase units having a plurality of logical blocks for storing data;
• and
• a memory controller operationally coupled with the flash memory devices, the memory controller being configured to:
• receive a request from a host computing device to write a first logical block of application data to the data storage device;
• write the first logical block to a data buffer, wherein a size of the data buffer is a same size as a page that can be written to the data storage device and is larger than the logical block;
• start a timer in response to writing the first logical block to the data buffer;
• receive one or more additional requests from the host computing device to write one or more additional logical blocks of application data to the data storage device;
• prior to an expiration of the timer, determine that the data buffer is not full;
• detect the expiration of the timer;
• write, in response to detecting the expiration of the timer and determining that the data buffer is not full, one or more logical blocks of garbage-collected data to the data buffer, wherein the garbage-collected data comprises at least one valid logical block of an erase unit of the data storage device that has been selected for garbage collection;
• and
• write the data buffer to the data storage device.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform a process, the process comprising:

• receiving a request from a host computing device to write a first logical block of application data to a data storage device;
• writing the first logical block to a data buffer, wherein a size of the data buffer is a same size as a page that can be written to the data storage device and is larger than the logical block;
• starting a timer in response to writing the first logical block to the data buffer;
• receiving one or more additional requests from the host computing device to write one or more additional logical blocks of application data to the data storage device;
• prior to an expiration of the timer, determining that the data buffer is not full;
• detecting the expiration of the;
• writing, in response to detecting the expiration of the timer and determining that the data buffer is not full, one or more logical blocks of garbage-collected data to the data buffer, wherein the garbage-collected data comprises at least one valid logical block of an erase unit of the data storage device that has been selected for garbage collection;
• and
• writing the data buffer to the data storage device.

A data storage device, comprising:

• a plurality of flash memory devices, each of the flash memory devices being arranged into a plurality of erase units having a plurality of logical blocks for storing data;
• and
• a memory controller operationally coupled with the flash memory devices, the memory controller being configured to:
• receive a request from a host computing device to write a first logical block of application data to the data storage device;
• write the first logical block to a data buffer, wherein a size of the data buffer is larger than the logical block and may store multiple logical blocks;
• start a timer when the first logical block is written to the data buffer;
• write one or more logical blocks of garbage-collected data to the data buffer, wherein the garbage-collected data comprises at least one valid logical block of an erase unit of the data storage device that has been selected for garbage collection;
• prior to an expiration of the timer, determine that the data buffer is not full;
• detect the expiration of the timer;
• in response to detecting the expiration of the timer and determining that the data buffer is not full, write one or more additional logical blocks of garbage-collected data to the data buffer to fill the data buffer;
• and
• write the full data buffer to the data storage device.

A method comprising:

• receiving a request by a memory controller from a host computing device to write a first logical block of application data to the data storage device;
• writing the first logical block to a data buffer, wherein a size of the data buffer is larger than the logical block and may store multiple logical blocks;
• starting a timer when the first logical block is written to the data buffer;
• writing one or more logical blocks of garbage-collected data to the data buffer, wherein the garbage-collected data comprises at least one valid logical block of an erase unit of the data storage device that has been selected for garbage collection;
• prior to an expiration of the timer, detecting that the data buffer is not full;
• detecting the expiration of the timer;
• in response to detecting the expiration of the timer and detecting that the data buffer is not full, writing one or more additional logical blocks of garbage-collected data to the data buffer to fill the data buffer;
• and
• writing the full data buffer to the data storage device.