Patent ID: 8898415

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining a first queue of a plurality of read requests associated with respective read commands for transmission to a first number of a plurality of serially connected devices; maintaining a second queue of a plurality of write requests associated with respective write commands for transmission to a second number of the plurality of serially connected devices; reordering the plurality of read requests in the first queue or the plurality of write requests in the second queue in order to cause commands to be grouped into one or more sets within the queues, each set including a read command of the read commands and a write command of the write commands, transmitting the read command that addresses a first device of the plurality of serially connected devices; transmitting the write command of a same set of the sets, the write command addressing the first device or addressing a second device of the plurality of serially connected devices, wherein the second device is located in an upstream location relative to the first device; and transmitting write data corresponding to the write command in a first time period that overlaps with a second time period during which read data corresponding to the read command is to be transmitted from the first device.