1. A storage system, comprising: a host having an operating system and a FICON controller; at least one storage device; a FICON connection between the host and the at least one storage device; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for providing storage device access, the software comprising: executable code that recognizes a fixed block command set of a fixed block architecture (FBA) to access at least one storage device using a FICON communication channel of a storage system, wherein the fixed block command set supports access to the at least one storage device using an extended field that increases a number of blocks of the at least one storage device that are directly referenceable for accessing data on the storage device; executable code that enables a controller of the communication channel to access the at least one storage device using the fixed block command set and the extended field executable code that receives information corresponding to an access command to access the at least one storage device; and executable code that determines whether the at least one storage device has a storage capacity greater than a predetermined threshold, and, if it is determined that the at least one storage device has a storage capacity greater than the predetermined threshold, processes the access command using the extended field, and, if it is determined that the at least one storage device does not have a storage capacity greater than the predetermined threshold, processes the access command without using the extended field.