Patent ID: 8583835

Claim:
A method of communicating a non-standard storage subsystem command from a host system to a non-volatile storage subsystem without the need for a special driver that supports the non-standard command, the method comprising: on the host system, discovering, via interaction with the non-volatile storage subsystem, a set of target addresses of the non-volatile storage subsystem used for execution of non-standard storage commands; selecting, from the set of target addresses, a target address that corresponds to the non-standard storage subsystem command, wherein at least some of the target addresses in the set correspond to different non-standard storage subsystem commands than other target addresses, the selected target address is used to receive non-storage subsystem commands of a type that the non-standard storage subsystem command belongs to, and at least some of the target addresses in the set correspond to a different type of non-standard storage subsystem commands than other target addresses; and causing the non-volatile storage subsystem to execute the non-standard storage subsystem command by sending a write data command from the host system to the non-volatile storage subsystem, the write data command specifying the selected target address and comprising write data to be stored at a memory location of the non-volatile storage subsystem corresponding to the selected target address, and the write command being sent via execution, on the host system, of a driver that does not recognize the non-standard storage subsystem command or the discovery of the target address; whereby the non-standard storage subsystem command is specified by the selected target address, and wherein the non-standard storage subsystem command is not embedded in the write data.