Patent ID: 7663523

Claim:
A method for managing the use of a plurality of physical unit elements, the method comprising: identifying by a physical system a number of a plurality of physical unit elements that are to be selected for use in a current selection cycle, the physical system operating using a sequence of selection cycles, the system including the plurality of physical unit elements, a subset of the plurality of physical unit elements to be selected for use in any given selection cycle, wherein the plurality of unit elements includes a less-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, and a more-used portion of one or more of the plurality of physical unit elements, wherein each of the unit elements in the more-used portion has been used at least one more time than each of the unit elements in the less-used portion since a particular time, wherein the number of the plurality of physical unit elements that is identified as to be selected for use in the current selection cycle is greater than zero, but less than the number of unit elements in the less-used portion; selecting by the physical system the identified number of unit elements from the less-used portion, wherein an order of selection of the less-used portion is not predetermined prior to the selecting; and using the selected elements in the current selection cycle in response to the selecting.