Patent ID: 6922833

Claim:
A method in a data processing system including a storage device, said method comprising the steps of: providing a write cache in said storage device; executing a FAST WRITE operation utilizing said write cache only when writing particular types of data, wherein a command complete status is returned prior to writing data during said FAST WRITE operation and a command complete status is returned only after writing data when said FAST WRITE operation is not executed; receiving an instruction to write first data to said storage device; determining whether said first data is sequential data; in response to said first data being sequential data, determining whether said first data can be written within a particular time frame; in response to a determination that said first data is sequential data that can be written within said particular time frame, returning a command complete status and then writing said first data to said storage device; in response to a determination that said first data is sequential data that cannot be written within said particular time frame, writing said first data to said storage device and then returning a command complete status; and in response to a determination that said first data is non-sequential data, writing said first data to said storage device and then returning a command complete status.