Patent ID: 8161234

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a first new access request to a mass storage disk; determining a total number of access requests to the mass storage disk received in a window of time, the window of time starting at a first point in time and ending at the time of the receipt of the first new access request; decrementing a request frequency counter when the total number of access requests received over the period of time is greater than or equal to a request threshold number; incrementing the request frequency counter when the total number of access requests received over the period of time is less than the request threshold number; generating a legacy advanced technology attachment (ATA)-type command for the first new access request when the request frequency counter is greater than or equal to a request frequency counter threshold number; and generating a native command queue (NCQ)-type command for the first new access request when the request frequency counter is less than the request frequency counter threshold number.