Abstract: A device comprising: storage comprising a group of partitions, and a controller operable to place data into a selected one of the partitions, and to evict existing data from the selected partition when already occupied. The eviction is performed according to an eviction policy. According to this, each partition has an associated age indicator, each age indicator is operable to cycle through a sequence of J steps. Each age indicator is able to run ahead of the current oldest age indicator, but only as long as the age indicators of all the partitions in the group, between them, form a consecutive run of no more than K consecutive steps in the sequence, where K<J?1. The selected partition for eviction is one of the partitions in the group with the oldest age indicator.

Abstract: A device comprising: storage comprising a group of partitions, and a controller operable to place data into a selected one of the partitions, and to evict existing data from the selected partition when already occupied. The eviction is performed according to an eviction policy. According to this, each partition has an associated age indicator, each age indicator is operable to cycle through a sequence of J steps. Each age indicator is able to run ahead of the current oldest age indicator, but only as long as the age indicators of all the partitions in the group, between them, form a consecutive run of no more than K consecutive steps in the sequence, where K<J?1. The selected partition for eviction is one of the partitions in the group with the oldest age indicator.