Method and apparatus for memory management

1. A power management method, comprising:

surveying at least a portion of a physical memory of an electronic device;

determining an amount of free memory space and used memory space based on the surveying of the physical memory;

determining if a consolidation of used memory space should be performed; and if so determined

consolidating the used memory space; and

reducing the power provided to at least a portion of the physical memory following the consolidation of used memory space.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

periodically performing the surveying and consolidating.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

performing the surveying and consolidating in response to a user initiated event.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

after the surveying and prior to consolidating the used memory space, designating at least some used memory space as free memory space based on a characteristic of data stored in the used memory space.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the characteristic of data includes a type of the data stored in the used memory space.

6. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a physical memory coupled to the processor; and

a storage medium coupled to the processor, the storage medium storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

survey at least a portion of the physical memory;

determine an amount of free memory space and used memory space based on rite survey of the physical memory;

determine if a consolidation of used memory space should be performed; and if so determined

consolidate the used memory space; and

reduce the power provided to at least a portion of the physical memory following the consolidation of used memory space.

7. The device of claim 6 , further comprising instructions which cause the processor to:

periodically perform the survey and consolidation.

8. The device of claim 6 , further comprising instructions which cause the processor to:

perform the survey and consolidation in response to a user initiated event.

9. The device of claim 6 , further comprising instructions which cause the processor to:

after the surveying and prior to consolidating the used memory space, designate at least some used memory space as free memory space based on a characteristic of data stored in the used memory space.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the characteristic of data includes a type of the data stored in the used memory space.

11. A machine-readable medium, having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a computing system including a physical memory cause the computing system to:

survey at least a portion of the physical memory;

determine an amount of free memory space and used memory space based on the survey of the physical memory;

determine if a consolidation of used memory space should be performed; and if so determined

consolidate the used memory space; and

reduce the power provided to at least a portion of the physical memory following the consolidation of used memory space.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions which cause the processor to:

periodically perform the survey and consolidation.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions which cause the processor to:

perform the survey and consolidation in response to a user initiated event.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions which cause the processor to:

after the surveying and prior to consolidating the used memory space, designate at least some used memory space as free memory space based on a characteristic of data stored in the used memory space.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the characteristic of data includes a type of the data stored in the used memory space.