Patent ID: 8244984

Claim:
A method for managing information related to dirty data stored in an intermediate cache coupled to one or more clients and to an external memory, the method comprising: receiving a dirty data notification related to dirty data residing in the intermediate cache, the dirty data notification including a memory address indicating a location in the external memory where the dirty data should be stored and a data type associated with the dirty data; extracting a bank page number from the memory address that identifies a bank page within the external memory where the dirty data should be stored; incrementing a first count associated with a first entry in a notification sorter that is affirmatively associated with the bank page, wherein the first count indicates the number of cache lines in the intermediate cache that have resident dirty data and are associated with the bank page; determining that the dirty data has a first data type; and incrementing a second count associated with the first entry, wherein the second count indicates the number of cache lines in the intermediate cache that have resident dirty data having the first data type and are associated with the bank page.