in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , a method and apparatus is disclosed for use in a digital system having a host coupled to at least two nonvolatile memory devices . the host stores digital information in the nonvolatile memory devices and reads the stored digital information from the nonvolatile memory devices . the memory devices are organized into blocks of sectors of information . the method is for erasing digital information stored in the blocks of the nonvolatile memory devices and comprises assigning a predetermined number of blocks , in sequential order , to each of the nonvolatile memory devices , each block having a predetermined number of sectors . the method further comprises forming ` super ` blocks , each ` super ` block comprising a plurality of blocks , identifying a particular ` super ` block having at least two blocks , a first block being located in a first nonvolatile memory device and a second block being located in a second nonvolatile memory device for erasure of the particular ` super ` block and erasing the first and second selected blocks of the particular ` super ` block so that erasure of the second block is performed without waiting for completion of the erasure of the first block ; and indicating the status of the first and second nonvolatile memory devices to be busy during erasure of the first and second selected blocks , wherein the speed of erase operations in the digital system is substantially increased thereby increasing the overall performance of the digital system .