The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and
software product for performance enhancement of a memory device (e.g., a
memory card) using a pre-erase mechanism. The memory device can be, e.g.,
a memory card, a multimedia card or a secure digital card, etc. A new
command or commands can be used to inform a memory device controller when
the data in one particular sector, allocation unit or block can be
deleted. Using that information the memory device controller then can be
able to do some internal maintenance, e.g., by moving valid data from a
fragmented erase block to another so that the fragmented erase block can
be cleared and erased for future use as well as performing effective wear
leveling maintenance and write performance optimization.