MOBILE DEVICE AND DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD OF THE SAME

• US 20160259557A1
• Filed: 03/03/2016
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: YANG, Seung-soo
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0813 with a network or matrix configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/314 In storage network, e.g. network attached cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Provided are a mobile device and a data management method of the mobile device. The data management method that is processed by a central processing unit (CPU) of the mobile device includes: selecting data to be swapped from among data stored in a local memory of the mobile device, in response to a request to perform swapping on the data stored in the local memory; selecting one of at least two external memories which are located outside the mobile device and have different hierarchical levels; and swapping the selected data to the selected external memory.

Claims

1. A data management method processed by a central processing unit (CPU) of a mobile device, the data management method comprising:

selecting data to be swapped from among data stored in a local memory of the mobile device, in response to a request to perform swapping on the data stored in the local memory;

selecting one of at least two external memories which are located outside the mobile device and have different hierarchical levels; and

swapping the selected data to the selected external memory.

2. The data management method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically checking a size of a free area in the local memory; and

,

generating the request in response to the size of the free area in the local memory being equal to or less than a reference value.

3. The data management method of claim 1, further comprising generating the request in response to determining that certain data stored in the local memory is not to be used for a reference period of time or longer, a free area does not exist in the local memory, or an instruction to perform the swapping is received from a user.

4. The data management method of claim 1, wherein the local memory comprises at least two dynamic random-access memories (DRAMs) comprising a first DRAM and a second DRAM,

wherein the data management method further comprises generating the request in response to determining that at least one of the at least two DRAMs is to operate in a low power mode.

5. The data management method of claim 4, wherein the selected data is data stored in the first DRAM having a larger free area than the second DRAM, and

wherein the swapping comprises swapping the selected data from the first DRAM to the second DRAM.

6. The data management method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the data to be swapped comprises selecting the data to be swapped based on characteristics of the data stored in the local memory.

7. The data management method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the data to be swapped comprises selecting the data to be swapped based on a unit of the data stored in the local memory.

8. The data management method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the data to be swapped comprises selecting all data which are used in a same application.

9. The data management method of claim 1, wherein the selecting one of the at least two external memories comprises selecting one of the at least two external devices based on a re-use probability of the selected data.

10. The data management method of claim 1, further comprising setting a hierarchical level of each of the at least two external memories based on at least one of a distance between each of the at least two external memories and the mobile device, and a resource used for the swapping.

11. The data management method of claim 1, further comprising not killing all applications that are executed in the mobile device and maintaining a state where all of the applications are executed.

12. The data management method of claim 1, further comprising swapping the selected data to a local storage which is electrically connected to the mobile device before the swapping the selected data to the selected external memory.

13. The data management method of claim 12, further comprising swapping the selected data swapped to the local storage to the selected external memory.

14. The data management method of claim 1, further comprising providing a user interface (UI) indicating a state of the swapping and the selecting one of the at least two external memories to a user.

15. A data management method in a mobile device, the method comprising:

determining whether an event has occurred or occurs;

selecting data to be swapped from among data stored in a local memory which is accessed by an application processor to execute a first application, in response to the determining that the event has occurred or occurs; and

swapping the selected data to at least one memory from among at least one another memory in the mobile device or at least one another memory outside the mobile device to change an area occupied by the selected data in the local memory to a free area to be used by the application without stopping execution of a second application which currently uses the local memory.

16. The data management method of claim 15, wherein the event comprises at least one of an event in which an existing free area in the local memory is equal to or less than a reference value, a command to stop execution of a third application which currently uses the local memory, an event indicating certain data stored in the local memory is processed not to be used for a predetermined period of time or longer, and an interrupt occurring at a predetermined time interval.

17. The data management method of claim 15, the swapping comprises swapping the selected data to the other memory in the mobile device, and then, swapping at least a portion of the swapped data in the other memory in the mobile device to the other memory outside the mobile device,

wherein the other memory outside the mobile device is connected to the mobile device through a network.

18. The data management method of claim 15, further comprising selecting the at least one memory to which the selected data is to be swapped, based on resources required for the swapping to the other memories.

19. The data management method of claim 15, wherein the selected data is data of which a frequency of use by the application processor is the lowest among the data stored in the local memory.

20. A mobile device comprising:

an application processor configured to control execution of at least one application; and

a local memory to which data requested to execute the application is loaded,

wherein the application processor comprises;

a remote swap manager configured to, while maintaining a state where all of the at least one application is executed in the mobile device, control an operation of swapping out data, selected from among data stored in the local memory, to an external memory located outside the mobile device or an operation of swapping in the data, swapped out to the external memory, to the local memory;

a compressor configured to compress the data swapped out to the external memory; and

a decompressor configured to decompress the data swapped in from the external memory.