Patent ID: 8019937

Claim:
A method for committing cached data to storage media in a storage system including a host entity and a physical storage device (PSD), the method comprising the steps of: the host entity issuing a write IO request to the PSD being in write-back caching mode to write associated data from a host memory to the PSD, wherein the PSD comprises the storage media, which is non-volatile storage media, and a cache memory, which is a volatile cache memory and used for containing the cached data sent from the host memory; the host entity receiving a successful IO completion response associated with the write IO request from the PSD and recording an entry of the write IO request to a selected list; the host entity issuing a synchronized cache IO request to the PSD to have the PSD commit cached data from the cache memory of the PSD to the storage media of the PSD; the PSD responding a successful IO completion response of the synchronized cache IO request to the host entity; when the host entity receives the synchronized cache IO request completion response from the PSD, the host entity extracting from the selected list the entry of the write IO request issued before the issuance of the synchronized cache IO request; and after the reception of the synchronized cache IO request completion response from the PSD, the host entity engaging completion processing of write IO request corresponding to the entry of the write IO request extracted.