To TRIM or Not to TRIM: Judicious TRIMing for Solid State Drives

Abstract

The TRIM command is a relatively new addition to the ATA standard. As Solid State Drives (SSDs) operate differently from hard disks, there exists a discrepancy between the operating system and device's view of storage that each individually manages. The TRIM command works to eliminate this discrepancy. In this study, we first show evidence that naive use of TRIM anactually harm SSD performance. Then, we propose a policy that allows judicious use of TRIM to reap the benefits that were intended.