A method and system for performing memory optimization is described. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a plurality of read/write requests, wherein at least a portion of the read/write requests are assigned respective identifiers for associating related requests of the read/write requests. Arrival times of the read/write requests assigned to each of the identifiers is measured and predicted arrival times of future read/write requests assigned to each of the identifiers is determined. A real-time schedule of memory requests is created using the arrival times of the read/write requests and the predicted arrival times. The method includes using the real-time schedule to determine idle periods and performing opportunistic functions in the memory during the idle periods, including performing at least one of garbage collection or translation cache pre-fetch.