Flash SuperCharger Makes Android Phones and Tablets
Respond Quicker and Run Faster, while Reducing Build Costs

Technically, Flash SuperCharger is a software managed block device which avoids the problems associated with random writing to Flash devices by writing all data as FIFO-ordered sequential writes.  User blocks and control information are written using atomic structures mapped on top of standard block IO writes.  Flash SuperCharger works with standard block storage devices and does not require special flash chip-level access.  This allows Flash SuperCharger to work with existing hardware configurations using standard storage devices ranging from SD cards and eMMC modules, to multi-terrabyte SSD arrays.

Flash SuperCharger leverages system memory and CPU resources allowing for a fine grained page mapped FTL that would be impractical on a storage controller chip.  This results in theoretical "best case" random write and wear performance while simultaneously creating the lowest cost system solution.

Flash SuperCharger's fine grain FTL approach allows small random writes to operate at the linear device write speeds.  This test shows IO performance for an A-Data 16GB class 10 micro SDHC card running on a Motorola Xoom tablet with stock Android ICS.  You will notice that at 4K block size, which is the native block size for Android's ext3/4 file system as well as the native block size for Flash SuperCharger, the bare device is accelerated from 1.25 IOPS to over 4500 IOPS purely with software.  This is not an effect of caching, compression, or locality.  This benchmark does true random IO with random data across a 4GB LBA range.  This is Flash SuperCharger actually using the linear performance of the device to store random IO.

The ability to random write extremely fast increases the apparent responsiveness of any device. Obviously, applications such as web browsing and mail will appear more responsive, while photo displays will not improve much. But as important, many applications install and initiate significantly faster because Flash SuperCharger satisfies their environmental update needs much more quickly.

Flash SuperCharger also gets rid of device stalls and non-responsiveness. As reported in a Computer World article, study reveals that Android stalls are almost always caused by pending Flash updates. Given that SDHC and eMMC cards typically only process one to five erase cycles per second, it is easy to understand how a couple hundred stacked write IOs from an install, update, or high-IOPS application can strangle a system's responsiveness, causing lost phone calls or seemingly frozen applications.

As important, when all data is written linearly, Flash device lives can be greatly extended. SDHC and eMMC assemblies used in smart phones and tablets have erase blocks of up to 8MB and thus have wear amplification of up to 2048:1 when processing individual 4KB random writes. It's possible to kill such devices in days with just a few million writes. But Flash SuperCharger's linear writing method reduces wear to <2:1, most commonly to +/- 1.2:1. Flash SuperCharger thus assures that a Flash assembly will deliver a consistent quantity of terabytes of writes, what ever the data size and type, rather than an uncertain level which may only be a few gigabytes of storage in some cases.

But what's most important to Original Device Manufacturers is that because Flash SuperCharger is a mature, low cost solution to performance and durability issues, there is an opportunity to significantly reduce the overall manufacturing costs of Android devices by using fewer or less expensive components while improving the user experience.