Patent ID: 8484408

Claim:
A storage system, comprising: a storage cache comprising a plurality of flash memory units organized in an array configuration, each of the plurality of flash memory units comprising a plurality of flash memory devices and a flash unit controller, wherein each flash unit controller manages data access and data operations for its corresponding flash memory devices; an array controller coupled to the plurality of flash memory units, the array controller manages data access and data operations for the plurality of flash memory units and organizes data as full array stripes; a primary storage device coupled to the array controller, the primary storage device stores data for the storage system; and a storage cache controller coupled to the array controller, wherein the storage cache controller: comprises a block line manager that buffers write data to be cached for a write operation until the storage cache controller has accumulated an array band, and commits write data to the array controller as full array stripes, receives storage commands from at least one host system, and determines: for a write data storage command, whether to store write data in the storage cache and/or in the primary storage device, and for a read data storage command, whether to access read data from the storage cache or from the primary storage device.