Patent ID: 8312213

Claim:
A method to speed up access to an external storage device whose memory cell is a flash memory for accessing to the external storage device whose memory cell is a flash memory, comprising the steps of: (a) during startup of a computer, setting up part of a physical memory of the computer as a cache memory for use by the external storage device whose memory cell is a flash memory, in the form of a continuous physical memory area outside the physical memory area that is managed by an operating system of the computer; (b) upon detection of a request to write data to the external storage device whose memory cell is a flash memory, writing the data to the cache memory; and (c) sending the data written in the cache memory to the external storage device whose memory cell is a flash memory to be saved therein, wherein the data in the cache memory is sent to the external storage device when the size of the data saved in the cache memory has reached or exceeded the size of a memory block, wherein the memory block is a unit in which data erasing takes place together with data writing in the flash memory of the external storage.