Identification of data committed to non-volatile memory by use of notification commands

Abstract

Systems and methods for utilization of notification or ordering commands are disclosed that can enable more efficient processing of flush requests from software programs and increase data consistency in storage devices. A storage device can obtain a notification command from a host system identifying one or more data items in a cache of the storage device, determine whether the one or more data items have been committed to non-volatile memory of the storage device, and transmit a notification to the host system upon determining that the one or more data items have been committed. The host system may utilize these commands to process flush requests, such that upon receiving a flush request, a notification command may be issued requesting a notification from the storage device that the relevant data has been committed. Notification commands can target or limit the scope of a flush request, such that the speed and efficiency of the flush request processed using notification commands is increased relative to a non-specific full-cache flush. Such increases in efficiency of flush requests may greatly increase the speed and efficiency of storage devices, and consequently the performance of programs utilizing such storage devices.