Patent ID: 7836230

Claim:
An apparatus for managing requests from a host for data stored in an external storage medium, the apparatus comprising: an execution queue to store one or more commands to be executed, wherein each command stored in the execution queue corresponds to a given request from the host for data; a holding queue to store one or more executed commands until receipt of an acknowledgment from the host, wherein the acknowledgement indicates that the host has received data corresponding to the executed command from the external storage medium; an outgoing queue to store one or more acknowledged commands, the outgoing queue having a maximum storage limit; a counter; and a separate logic block to increment a value of the counter when a command is stored in the execution queue; decrement the value of the counter when an acknowledged command is deleted from the outgoing queue; and disable execution of commands stored in the execution queue when the value of the counter equals the maximum storage limit of the outgoing queue.