Patents Represented by Attorney Kunzler & McKenzie
  • Patent number: 7734029
    Abstract: A method for automated call initiation includes initiating a call to a destination using a first communication line. The method also includes initiating a call status determination that determines when a person answers the call at the destination. Furthermore, the method includes during the call status determination, sending audio information from the destination to an agent. In addition, the method includes assigning the call to the agent, in response to the call status determination determining that the person answered the call at the destination. Therefore, the agent is able to monitor the call and assume a natural response to the person, thus eliminating delay as the conversation begins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: Transcend Products, LLC
    Inventor: Rix Alan Ryskamp
  • Patent number: 7722759
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for separating minerals from mineral feedstock—for example bitumen from tar sand. The apparatus includes residence chambers for contacting solvent and tar sand. The solvent-tar sand contact occurs in at least two stages. The drained miscella from the first stage is sent to a flashing module to separate the miscella into recovered solvent, a bitumen stream, and a volatile hydrocarbons stream. Solvent is recycled from the final stage and reused in the residence chambers. An energy recovery module recovers the energy from the volatile hydrocarbons stream. A solvent stripper removes the solvent residue from the drained tar sand to create a cleaned sand stream, and the solvent stripper recycles the solvent vapors to energize and assist the separation process. The apparatus enables a water-free, energy efficient, and nearly complete recovery of bitumen from tar sand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Pariette Ridge Development Company LLC.
    Inventors: Jay Duke, Shane Duke
  • Patent number: 7707158
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and a data processing system for selecting services of a business process for execution is provided. Ontological data is read from a data store, and an ontological model representative of the ontological data is then generated. The ontological model is mapped to a business process that comprises a plurality of sub-processes. The ontological model is used to select a subset of the plurality of sub-processes comprising the original business process resulting in a modified business process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Robert Bogner, Belinda Ying-Chieh Chang, Robert Russell Cutlip, Kevin Grigorenko
  • Patent number: 7702864
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for copying data from a volatile memory device to a plurality of persistent storage devices in response to a loss of primary power. The apparatus includes a section module, a stripe module, and a write module. The section module sections a data image of a write cache into a plurality of data blocks. The stripe module establishes a plurality of data stripes from the plurality of data blocks. The write module writes in parallel each of the plurality of data stripes to a corresponding plurality of unique, persistent data storage devices in response to a loss of line power to the write cache. Advantageously, the apparatus quickly copies the write data from the write cache to a persistent memory device in a relatively short period of time, decreasing the dependence on significant batteries to back up the volatile memory device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Herve Gilbert Philippe Andre, Michael Thomas Benhase, Yu-Cheng Hsu, David Frank Mannenbach
  • Patent number: 7702786
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer program product to reduce the detrimental effects of taking resources offline. A resource is taken offline in a storage network by quiescing activity to the resource providing notification that the resource will become unavailable, and taking the resource offline.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mark Steven Bayus, Roger Gregory Hathorn, Matthew Joseph Kalos, Ashwani Kumar, Takashi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7702789
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for reassigning a client. A selection module selects a second computation module that is hardware compatible with a first computation module. A suspension module suspends a software process for a client executing on the first computation module. An execution state module copies a computation module execution state of the first computation module to the second computation module. A memory map module copies a memory map of a software process image associated with the software process and stored in a first storage system from the first computation module to the second computation module. In one embodiment, a resumption module resumes the software process executing on the second computation module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daryl C. Cromer, Howard J. Locker, Randall S. Springfield, Rod D. Waltermann
  • Patent number: 7698095
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for determining fan rotation direction. A first temperature detection module detects a first temperature at a first location between a fan and a heat generating device. The fan provides cooling for the heat generating device by drawing air from the heat generating device across the first location to the fan when the fan is rotating in a first direction. A second temperature detection module detects a second temperature at a second location where the heat generating device is between the second location and the fan such that heat from the heat generating device is drawn away from the second location when the fan is rotating in the first direction. A temperature comparison module determines if the second temperature is above the first temperature. A fan rotation error module generates a fan rotation error signal if the second temperature is above the first temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Chu Te Chung, C. Charles Dishman, Jen-Ching Lin, Randhir S. Malik
  • Patent number: 7697404
    Abstract: A medium, system, and method are disclosed for a common data storage medium depression depth. An optical data storage medium comprises a plurality of spacer layers and data surfaces. A wavelength for a radiation beam such as the emission of a laser diode is identified. The index of refraction for a first spacer layer or substrate is also identified. The substrate is configured to transmit the radiation beam. The index of refraction of a second spacer layer that is configured to transmit the radiation beam is also identified. A depression depth for a plurality of pits for ROM media, or sector headers for recordable media, or grooves for recordable media on each data surface is substantially equal to the radiation beam wavelength divided by four times the average of the indexes of refraction of each spacer layer. In one embodiment, the average is an arithmetic mean of the indexes of refraction. In an alternate embodiment, the average is a harmonic mean of the indexes of refraction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils Haustcin, Craig Anthony Klein, Daniel James Winarski
  • Patent number: 7698592
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for rebuilding a data storage array having plural communication paths. A first error detecting component detects an error at a data storage device of a data storage array. The data storage device has a plurality of ports and is operable to provide data for a preemptive rebuild. A port control component disables all but a single port of the data storage device. A preemptive rebuild component copies data from the data storage device to a spare data storage device using the single operational port. An alternative path maintenance component maintains an alternative communication path for use by other members of the data storage array and bypasses the data storage device. A second error detecting component detects an error at the data storage device during operation of the preemptive rebuild component. A device disabling component disables the data storage device after detecting a second error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Paul Nicholas Cashman
  • Patent number: 7697228
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for interchanging testing. A test module moves a first tape from a tape pool to a first reserved slot of plurality of reserved slots using an accessor. In an embodiment, there is one (1) reserved slot corresponding to each of a plurality of tape drives. Each reserved slot is configured to store one tape for the corresponding tape drive. No other tape drive accesses the stored tape from the reserved slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Angqin Bai, Kent P. Bortz, Shawn O. Brume, Lawrence G. Gonzales
  • Patent number: 7698428
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for backing up data across a plurality of clients on a grid computing system. A sequence management apparatus includes a client request module, a sequence module, and packet storage module. The sequence module is configured to receive data to be backed up from a source client. The sequence module is configured to generate a non-transparent sequence key that identifies one or more target clients on the grid computing system. The packet storage module is configured to store a backup copy of the data from the source client on the plurality of target clients according to the non-transparent sequence key. The non-transparent sequence key may be generated by and known only to the sequence management apparatus in order to maintain a minimum security level for the data backed up on the plurality of target clients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph John Fatula, Jr.
  • Patent number: 7693878
    Abstract: A system, apparatus, and process creates a table of contents (TOC), including one or more table of contents (TOC) entries, to manage data in a hierarchical storage management system. Each TOC entry contains metadata describing the contents and attributes of a data object within an image, which is an aggregation of multiple data objects into a single object for storage management purposes. The TOC is stored in a storage hierarchy, such as magnetic disk, for fast access of and efficient operation on the aggregated TOC entries. The system, apparatus, and process also provide for aggregating the TOC entries from one or more TOCs into a TOC set in the storage management server database. The TOC set may be manipulated and queried in order to find a particular data object or image referenced by a TOC entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Joseph Anglin, David Maxwell Cannon, Mark Alan Haye, Michael A. Kaczmarski, Donald Paul Warren, Jr.
  • Patent number: 7694096
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for implementing protected partitions in storage media. The apparatus includes a control module configured to communicate with a host and receive read/write commands for a storage device, and a protection module operating within the control module and configured to maintain a plurality of protection states for the partition and a plurality of allowable transitions between the protection states. The system includes the apparatus, a host device, and a storage device coupled with the host, the storage device including an enclosure having storage media and a control module. The method includes communicating with a host device and receiving read and write commands for a storage device having at least one partition, and maintaining a plurality of protection states for the partition and a plurality of allowable transitions between the protection states on a control module located within the storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils Haustein, Craig Anthony Klein, Martin Roosen, Daniel James Winarski
  • Patent number: 7689756
    Abstract: An apparatus, system and method to facilitate I2C communication between a host device and a slave device where the slave device shares a common physical address with another slave device on the I2C bus. The apparatus includes a detection module to detect an incoming address on the I2C bus, a translation module to translate the incoming address to an outgoing address, and a communication module to communicate data between the host device and the slave device where the outgoing address matches the physical address of the slave device. In this manner, the present invention avoids address conflicts between commonly addressed slave devices while reducing costs, components, and complexities traditionally associated with dynamic addressing techniques and other prior art solutions to address conflicts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Brandon J. Ellison
  • Patent number: 7686619
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for a configurable blade card. A base card is in physical and electrical communication with a blade connector. The blade connector is in physical and electrical communication with a blade enclosure connector. A secondary card is in physical and electrical communication with the base card to form a blade card. A coupler physically couples the base card and the secondary card. The base card and the secondary card are co-planar and compatible with a blade card form factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert H. Bell, Jr., Jose R. Escalera, Octavian F. Herescu, Vernon W. Miller, Michael D. Roll
  • Patent number: 7689743
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for copying data. The present invention includes a data storage subsystem that supports fast replication and a host system that communicates a fast replication request to the data storage subsystem, estimates an expected wait time for a pending fast replication operation if the fast replication request is not granted, awaits the expiration of the wait time, communicates an additional fast replication request to the data storage subsystem, and records the data as moved if the additional fast replication is granted. In certain embodiments, the host system moves the data via conventional I/O operations if the expected wait time exceeds an expected duration for the conventional I/O operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Justin Paul Eastman, Jeffrey Richard Suarez, Andrew Nelson Wilt
  • Patent number: 7684143
    Abstract: An apparatus, system and method to limit frame spacing error during timing-based servo pattern fabrication. An apparatus in accordance with the invention may include a first servo write head to simultaneously write servo stripes onto a first servo frame of a magnetic tape, and a second servo write head to simultaneously write servo stripes onto a successive servo frame of the magnetic tape. The first and second servo write heads may write the stripes substantially concurrently to minimize spacing error between the frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Glen Alan Jaquette
  • Patent number: 7685325
    Abstract: A system for generating bus signals for a plurality of remote stations. Bus data packets are comprised of a plurality of data blocks. Each data block is directed to a remote station. The position of each data block in the data packet identifies the remote station to which the data block is directed. Each of the remote stations receives each data packet substantially synchronously. The remote stations decode the data packets to determine the type of data packet and identify the content of the data packet directed to it. Each remote station loads the corresponding content from the data packet. Each of the remote stations can then generate output signals based on the data packet content substantially synchronously with the other remote stations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary William Batchelor, Enrique Garcia
  • Patent number: 7685389
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for setting protection states of protected partitions in storage media. The apparatus includes a control module configured to receive protection state transition commands from a host for a target partition, a check module configured to verify a protection state for the target partition, and a write module configured to perform the protection state transition according to a plurality of defined allowable state transitions. The system includes a host device, a storage device coupled with the host, the storage device comprising an enclosure having storage media and a control module, and the apparatus. The method includes receiving protection state transition commands from a host for a target partition, verifying a protection state for the target partition, and performing the protection state transition according to a plurality of defined allowable state transitions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nils Haustein, Craig Anthony Klein, Martin Roosen, Daniel James Winarski
  • Patent number: 7680771
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for provisioning database resource within a grid database system. The apparatus comprises an analysis module and a provision module. The analysis module analyzes a data query stream from an application to a database instance and determines that the data query stream exhibits a predetermined performance attribute. The provision module provisions a database resource in response to a determination that the data query stream exhibits the predetermined performance attribute. The provisioned database resource may be a database instance, a database server, or a cache. The provisioning of the new database resource advantageously is substantially transparent to a client on the database system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Enzo Cialini, Laura Myers Haas, Balakrishna Raghavendra Iyer, Allen William Luniewski, Jayashree Subrahmonia, Noshir Cavas Wadia, Hansjorg Zeller