Futuristic cityscape of SSD chips symbolizing FastGC's efficient data management.

Speed Up Your SSD: How FastGC Revolutionizes Data Management

Nico Varela in Tech & Innovation September 2025 • 4 min read.

"Discover how this innovative approach dramatically improves SSD performance and reliability using efficient data migration techniques."

Solid State Drives (SSDs) have become essential for fast access speed, low energy consumption, and high shock resistance in modern computing. However, NAND flash memory, the tech at the heart of SSDs, comes with a unique challenge: data can't be overwritten directly. Instead, updates require an out-of-place process, leading to the need for a time-consuming operation called garbage collection (GC).

Garbage collection reclaims invalid data, but it frequently interrupts operations and significantly affects system performance. One major bottleneck is the migration of valid data, which consumes a large portion of the GC process. To combat this, manufacturers have introduced copyback, which accelerates data movement within the SSD. However, copyback introduces new challenges related to data reliability.

Enter FastGC, a new approach designed to overcome the limitations of traditional copyback methods. By efficiently detecting copyback feasibility, FastGC minimizes performance penalties and ensures data integrity. This innovation greatly improves write and read response times, offering a faster and more reliable SSD experience.

Understanding FastGC: The Key to Efficient Data Migration

Futuristic cityscape of SSD chips symbolizing FastGC's efficient data management.

FastGC operates on the principle of copyback, an advanced operation that moves data within a NAND flash plane without involving the SSD controller directly. This reduces migration latency because it skips the encoding and decoding processes. Traditional methods struggle with ensuring data reliability during copyback due to error accumulation, which can exceed the error correction capabilities of the Error Correction Code (ECC).

To address this, FastGC incorporates an intelligent copyback feasibility detector. This detector assesses whether copyback can be performed reliably, preventing data corruption while still leveraging the speed benefits of copyback. The system carefully tracks how many times data has been migrated via copyback, using this count as a key indicator of its feasibility.

Copyback Execution Counts: FastGC monitors how often data has been moved using copyback.
Copyback Feasibility Detector: This system decides whether data should be migrated via copyback or external data move based on these counts.
Threshold Copyback Counts: Data undergoing a small number of copyback operations are migrated via copyback to accelerate speed, while data reaching a threshold are migrated via external data move to eliminate accumulated errors.

This approach ensures that data is migrated via the fastest method possible while maintaining assurable reliability. Unlike traditional systems that conservatively limit copyback operations, FastGC intelligently balances speed and data integrity, offering superior overall performance.

The Future of SSD Performance

FastGC represents a significant leap forward in SSD technology, offering a smarter, faster, and more reliable solution for data management. By intelligently leveraging copyback and incorporating an efficient feasibility detector, FastGC paves the way for enhanced SSD performance and a better user experience. As storage demands continue to grow, innovations like FastGC will play a critical role in optimizing the capabilities of SSDs.

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This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1109/dac.2018.8465931, Alternate LINK

Title: Fastgc: Accelerate Garbage Collection Via An Efficient Copyback-Based Data Migration In Ssds

Journal: 2018 55th ACM/ESDA/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)

Publisher: IEEE

Authors: Fei Wu, Jiaona Zhou, Shunzhuo Wang, Yajuan Du, Chengmo Yang, Changsheng Xie

Published: 2018-06-01

Everything You Need To Know

What is FastGC, and how does it improve SSD performance and reliability?

FastGC is a data management technique designed to improve the performance and reliability of SSDs. It addresses the limitations of traditional garbage collection methods by efficiently managing data migration using copyback operations. FastGC incorporates a copyback feasibility detector, which assesses whether copyback can be performed reliably, preventing data corruption while still leveraging the speed benefits. This helps minimize performance penalties and ensures data integrity. It differs from traditional methods by intelligently balancing speed and data integrity, offering superior overall performance.

How does FastGC compare to traditional garbage collection methods in SSDs?

Traditional garbage collection in SSDs involves reclaiming invalid data, which can be a time-consuming process that interrupts operations and affects system performance. A major bottleneck is the migration of valid data, which consumes a large portion of the GC process. Manufacturers use copyback to accelerates data movement within the SSD, but this introduces new challenges related to data reliability. FastGC directly addresses the copyback limitations by efficiently detecting copyback feasibility, minimizing performance penalties and ensuring data integrity.

How does FastGC ensure data integrity during data migration using copyback?

FastGC uses copyback execution counts, a copyback feasibility detector, and threshold copyback counts to maintain data integrity. The system monitors how often data has been moved using copyback, and then the copyback feasibility detector decides whether data should be migrated via copyback or external data move based on these counts. Data undergoing a small number of copyback operations are migrated via copyback, while data reaching a threshold are migrated via external data move to eliminate accumulated errors.

What is the role of the copyback feasibility detector in FastGC?

The copyback feasibility detector is a key component of FastGC. It assesses whether performing a copyback operation is reliable. This assessment prevents data corruption while allowing FastGC to leverage the speed benefits of copyback. The system tracks how many times data has been migrated via copyback, and it uses this count as a key indicator of its feasibility. By doing so, it intelligently determines whether to proceed with copyback or opt for external data move.

What are the potential long-term implications of FastGC for the future of SSD technology and design?

FastGC could influence future SSD designs by setting a new standard for efficient data management. By demonstrating how to intelligently leverage copyback while maintaining data integrity, FastGC paves the way for enhanced SSD performance. Innovations like FastGC will play a critical role in optimizing the capabilities of SSDs to meet growing storage demands.