Management of internal operations by a storage device

1. A method of handling internal operations of a storage device, the method comprising:

defining an integral sequence of commands capable of being in one of an active state and an inactive state;

associating with the integral sequence of commands a first set of internal memory management operations each of which is an extra-sequence operation, and a second set of internal memory management operations each of which is an intra-sequence operation, wherein the first set of internal, memory management operations is prohibited from being executed while the integral sequence of commands is in the active state and the second set of internal memory management operations is permitted to be executed while the integral sequence of commands is in the active state;

receiving a command from a host device when the storage device is coupled to the host device;

in response to the received command, determining when the integral sequence of commands is in the active state or is transitioning from the inactive state to the active state; and

when the integral sequence of commands is in the active state or is transitioning from the inactive state to the active state, refraining from executing any operation of the first set of internal memory management operations.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising permitting execution of any operation of the second set of internal memory management operations when the integral sequence of commands is in the active state or is transitioning from the inactive state to the active state.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

when the integral sequence of commands is in the inactive state or is transitioning from the active state to the inactive state, permitting execution of an operation of the first set of internal operations and, refraining from executing any operation of the second set of internal operations.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein determining a transition of the integral sequence of commands from the inactive state to the active state, or from the active state to the inactive state includes determining whether information derived from the received command satisfies predefined beginning-of-sequence conditions or end-of-sequence conditions, respectively.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with playing back of multimedia content.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with capturing multimedia content or images.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with data synchronization.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with a boot command.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein an operation of the first set of internal memory management operations is selected from the group consisting of:

flash memory management operation;

encryption/decryption of outgoing/incoming data;

compression/decompression of outgoing/incoming data;

anti-virus operation;

defragmentation operation;

ruggedization;

backing up data;

changing data format;

garbage collection;

employing an error correction mechanism;

caching data into a fast flash storage area;

flushing cached data;

low power mode operation; and

static wear leveling.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein an operation of the second set of internal memory management operations is selected from the group consisting of:

flash memory management operation;

encryption/decryption of outgoing/incoming data;

compression/decompression of outgoing/incoming data;

anti-virus operation;

defragmentation operation;

ruggedization;

backing up data;

changing data format;

garbage collection;

employing an error correction mechanism;

caching data into a fast flash storage area;

flushing cached data;

low power mode operation; and

static wear leveling.

11. A storage device comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive storage commands from a host device when the storage device is operationally coupled to the host device;

a mass storage area to store an integral sequence of commands, a first set of internal memory management operations each of which is an extra-sequence operation, and a second set of internal memory management operations each of which is an intra-sequence operation, wherein the integral sequence of commands is in one of an active state and in an inactive state; and

a controller to:

receive, via the communication interface, a command from the host device when the storage device is operationally coupled to the host device;

determine, based on the received command, when the integral sequence of commands is in the active state or is transitioning from the inactive state to the active state; and

responsive to the integral sequence of commands being in the active state or transitioning from the inactive state to the active state, prohibit execution of a first operation of the first set of internal memory management operations and enable execution of a second operation of the second set of internal memory management operations.

12. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the controller is further adapted to:

determine when the integral sequence of commands is in the inactive state or is transitioning from the active state to the inactive state based on information derived from the received command; and

responsive to the integral sequence of commands being in the inactive state or transitioning from the active state to the inactive state, permit execution of an operation of the first set of internal memory management operations.

13. The storage device according to claim 12 , wherein the controller is further adapted to determine a transition or a transitioning of the integral sequence of commands from the inactive state to the active state or from the active state to the inactive state by determining whether the information derived from the received command satisfies one of a predefined beginning-of-sequence condition and a predefined end-of-sequence condition, respectively.

14. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with playing back multimedia content.

15. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with capturing multimedia content.

16. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with a data synchronization command.

17. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the integral sequence of commands is associated with a boot command.

18. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the first operation of the first set of internal memory management operations is selected from the group consisting of:

flash memory management operations;

encryption/decryption of outgoing/incoming data;

compression/decompression of outgoing/incoming data;

anti-virus operation;

defragmentation operation;

ruggedization;

backing up data;

changing data format;

garbage collection;

employing an error correction mechanism;

caching data into a fast flash storage area;

flushing cached data;

using low power mode; and

static wear leveling.

19. The storage device according to claim 11 , wherein the second operation of the second set of internal memory management operations is selected from the group consisting of:

flash memory management operations;

encryption/decryption of outgoing/incoming data;

compression/decompression of outgoing/incoming data;

anti-virus operation;

defragmentation operation;

ruggedization;

backing up data;

changing data format;

garbage collection;

employing an error correction mechanism;

caching data into a fast flash storage area;

flushing cached data;

using low power mode; and

static wear leveling.