1. A method for flexibly mapping host read and write commands into physical volume storage element commands comprising the steps of: receiving one of a read command and a write command; identifying mapping segment descriptors (MSDs) that contain a logical block address range and parameters; forwarding said MSDs to a hardware mapping engine, and said hardware mapping engine calculating for each MSD one of a read range and a write range for each of the physical storage elements specified by the MSD; and generating a list of physical storage element commands to perform said host erad and write commands in the specified storage element ranges.