in a digital system having a host , a controller device and at least one nonvolatile memory integrated circuit , such as a flash memory chip , a method and apparatus is disclosed for storing digital information , provided by the host , in the nonvolatile memory under the direction of the controller in an efficient manner so as to significantly improve system performance . the nonvolatile memory is organized into sequentially - numbered blocks . each nonvolatile integrated circuit is assigned a predetermined number of sequential blocks and when a free block is solicited for storage of digital information provided by the host , the nonvolatile integrated circuit rather than the entire nonvolatile memory is searched for the free block . when the information stored in a block is being updated by the host , the nonvolatile integrated circuit assigned to that block is excluded from the search for the free block . moreover , the nonvolatile integrated circuit having the greatest number of free blocks is used for searching of the free block and storing of the host - provided information to allow for equal use of the nonvolatile integrated circuits .