Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Lawrence D. Cutter, Esq.
  • Patent number: 6459408
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to inform a person who adjusts the direction of an antenna 70 of the intensity of a signal received by the antenna 70 without connecting or adding special equipment to the antenna 70 or a connection cable 74. The satellite receiver 20 comprises: a received intensity information outputting means 22 for outputting received intensity information describing the intensity of a signal received from the antenna 70; a modulating means 30 for superimposing the received intensity information on a carrier wave; and a superimposing means 40 for superimposing the carrier wave carrying the received intensity information on a connection cable 74.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroaki Kubo, Masahiro Murakami
  • Patent number: 6457154
    Abstract: Uncorrectable errors are detected during the transmission of a data word according to an error correction code. Then, any address faults are identified from among the detected uncorrectable errors. In addition, address faults as well as uncorrectable memory data failures are detected from among the detected uncorrectable errors. Furthermore, address parity bits are not required to be stored to memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Chin-Long Chen, Mu-Yue Hsiao, Patrick J. Meaney, William Wu Shen
  • Patent number: 6442583
    Abstract: A method for managing a workload distributed across data processing systems in accordance with a common processor consumption standard, including the steps of measuring the processor consumption of the work units to create local processor consumption data; sending the local processor consumption data to at least one other system; receiving processor consumption data from at least one other system to create remote processor consumption data; and adjusting at least one of the system control parameters to modify the remote processor consumption and the local processor consumption of the work units to achieve the common processor consumption standard is provided. Also provided is an apparatus according to the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Catherine Krueger Eilert, Bernard Roy Pierce
  • Patent number: 6418519
    Abstract: A write-behind computer program product is presented which allows writing data to multiple volumes of storage media associated with one or more server nodes in a distributed processing environment. A client application on a client node writes blocks of data to a first magnetic tape of a first server node until an end of physical storage of the first magnetic tape is reached, without having predetermined the size of the first magnetic storage. Thereafter, the writing of blocks of data is switched to a second magnetic tape, which may be on the first server node or a second server node in the system. The writing and switching process can repeat a number of times across multiple magnetic tapes. Data is written in a write-behind operation and the switching to a new magnetic tape occurs transparent to the client application, and without loss of data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William S. Cadden, Rong S. Lee, Oystein Skudal
  • Patent number: 6415332
    Abstract: Message-passing capability is provided in a computer system with a plurality of asynchronous computing nodes interconnected for transmission of messages between threaded user tasks executing in ones of the computing nodes. A message is received at a receiver computing node employing a threaded message passing interface (MPI), which includes a means by which a user-defined program can be called by an interrupt service thread at the MPI. The user-defined program takes a predefined action in response to the asynchronous arrival of the at least one message packet. For example, the user-defined program might comprise a program to initiate a function to receive the at least one message packet at the receiver's threaded MPI, which may include awaking a waiting thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: William G. Tuel, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6412018
    Abstract: Message-passing capability is provided in a computer system with a plurality of asynchronous computing nodes interconnected for transmission of messages between threaded user tasks executing in ones of the computing nodes. A message is received at a receiver computing node employing a threaded message passing interface (MPI), which includes a means by which a user-defined program can be called by an interrupt service thread at the MPI. The user-defined program takes a predefined action in response to the asynchronous arrival of the at least one message packet. For example, the user-defined program might comprise a program to initiate a function to receive the at least one message packet at the receiver's threaded MPI, which may include awaking a waiting thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: William G. Tuel, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6401216
    Abstract: A checkpoint of a parallel program is taken in order to provide a consistent state of the program in the event the program is to be restarted. Each process of the parallel program is responsible for taking its own checkpoint, however, the timing of when the checkpoint is to be taken by each process is the responsibility of a coordinating process. During the checkpointing, various data is written to a checkpoint file. This data includes, for instance, in-transit message data, a data section, file offsets, signal state, executable information, stack contents and register contents. The checkpoint file can be stored either in local or global storage. When it is stored in global storage, migration of the program is facilitated. When a parallel program is to be restarted, each process of the program initiates its own restart. The restart logic restores the process to the state at which the checkpoint was taken.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kalman Zvi Meth, Anton Prenneis, Adnan M. Agbaria, Patrick Francis Caffrey, William Joseph Ferrante, Su-Hsuan Huang, Demetrios K. Michailaros, William Gole Tuel, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6393583
    Abstract: A checkpoint of a parallel program is taken in order to provide a consistent state of the program in the event the program is to be restarted. Each process of the parallel program is responsible for taking its own checkpoint, however, the timing of when the checkpoint is to be taken by each process is the responsibility of a coordinating process. During the checkpointing, various data is written to a checkpoint file. This data includes, for instance, in-transit message data, a data section, file offsets, signal state, executable information, stack contents and register contents. The checkpoint file can be stored either in local or global storage. When it is stored in global storage, migration of the program is facilitated. When a parallel program is to be restarted, each process of the program initiates its own restart. The restart logic restores the process to the state at which the checkpoint was taken.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kalman Zvi Meth, Anton Prenneis, Adnan M. Agbaria, Patrick Francis Caffrey, William Joseph Ferrante, Su-Hsuan Huang, Demetrios K. Michailaros, William Gole Tuel, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6389482
    Abstract: When applications connect to a data pipe, which is located on the same system as the connecting applications, the data pipe is considered a local pipe. That is, local media is used to pipe the data. If, however, an application on a different system is to access the pipe, the pipe is transitioned from a local pipe to a cross-system pipe, in which an alternative non-local media is used to pipe the data. The application causing the transition and any other applications to subsequently connect to the pipe use the cross-system pipe. Any local applications still allocated to the pipe are transitioned, such that they now access the cross-system pipe, instead of the local pipe. Likewise, when an application disconnects from a cross-system pipe, such that all remaining connections to the pipe are local connections, the pipe is transitioned from a cross-system pipe to a local pipe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Roman Anthony Bobak, Scott Brady Compton, Jon Kim Johnson, David Lee Meck, William Robert Richardson
  • Patent number: 6385659
    Abstract: Message-passing capability is provided in a computer system with a plurality of asynchronous computing nodes interconnected for transmission of messages between threaded user tasks executing in ones of the computing nodes. A message is received at a receiver computing node employing a threaded message passing interface (MPI), which includes a means by which a user-defined program can be called by an interrupt service thread at the MPI. The user-defined program takes a predefined action in response to the asynchronous arrival of the at least one message packet. For example, the user-defined program might comprise a program to initiate a function to receive the at least one message packet at the receiver's threaded MPI, which may include awaking a waiting thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: William G. Tuel, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6360304
    Abstract: A write-behind enablement approach is presented which allows writing data to multiple volumes of storage media associated with one or more server nodes in a distributed processing environment. A client application on a client node writes blocks of data to a first magnetic tape of a first server node until an end of physical storage of the first magnetic tape is reached, without having predetermined the size of the first magnetic storage. Thereafter, the writing of blocks of data is switched to a second magnetic tape, which may be on the first server node or a second server node in the system. The writing and switching process can repeat a number of times across multiple magnetic tapes. Data is written in a write-behind operation and the switching to a new magnetic tape occurs transparent to the client application, and without loss of data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William S. Cadden, Rong S. Lee, Oystein Skudal
  • Patent number: 6345382
    Abstract: A run-time customization capability extends functionality of a software application in a computer system. Through object-oriented design, an instance of a first class is instantiated. The first class (e.g., a derived class) has a same interface as a second class. The first and second classes enable respective first and second functionalities through respective first and second implementations of the same interface. The first implementation is dynamically loaded at run time. The dynamic loading can involve locating the first implementation, such as by using a locator to locate a module comprising the first implementation. A transfer vector usable in accessing the first implementation can be initialized to have an indication of a location of the first implementation. Programming code associated with the same interface can be compiled prior to compilation of programming code associated with the first implementation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Stephen C. Hughes
  • Patent number: 6337852
    Abstract: A method for a message processing system in which messages are transmitted from source nodes to destination nodes. A transmission flow control technique is disclosed in which the source node optimistically sends control information and a data portion of a message, and wherein a destination node discards the data portion of the message if it is unable to accommodate it. The destination node, however, retains enough of the control information to identify the message to the source node, and when the destination node is subsequently able to accommodate the data portion, the destination node issues a request to the source node to retransmit the data portion of the message. Discarding of one message is followed by discards of sequential messages, until the destination node is able to accommodate the data portions of messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christine M. Desnoyers, Douglas J. Joseph, Francis A. Kampf, Alan F. Benner
  • Patent number: 6338151
    Abstract: Error recovery is performed when an error rate for a subsystem of a computer environment (e.g., an Input/Output (I/O) subsystem) is greater than a predefined value and a critical resource of the computer environment (e.g., storage) is experiencing a shortage. Error recovery may include slowing down activity of the devices associated with the subsystem and/or simulating errors for the subsystem. The simulation of the errors does not require a large block of additional storage, and thus, the shortage situation is not exacerbated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Harry Morris Yudenfriend, John Andrew Staubi, Michael G. Fitzpatrick
  • Patent number: 6338091
    Abstract: A system for a message processing system in which messages are transmitted from source nodes to destination nodes. A transmission flow control technique is disclosed in which the source node optimistically sends control information and a data portion of a message, and wherein a destination node discards the data portion of the message if it is unable to accommodate it. The destination node, however, retains enough of the control information to identify the message to the source node, and when the destination node is subsequently able to accommodate the data portion, the destination node issues a request to the source node to retransmit the data portion of the message. Discarding of one message is followed by discards of sequential messages, until the destination node is able to accommodate the data portions of messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christine M. Desnoyers, Douglas J. Joseph, Francis A. Kampf, Alan F. Benner
  • Patent number: 6338147
    Abstract: A checkpoint of a parallel program is taken in order to provide a consistent state of the program in the event the program is to be restarted. Each process of the parallel program is responsible for taking its own checkpoint, however, the timing of when the checkpoint is to be taken by each process is the responsibility of a coordinating process. During the checkpointing, various data is written to a checkpoint file. This data includes, for instance, in-transit message data, a data section, file offsets, signal state, executable information, stack contents and register contents. The checkpoint file can be stored either in local or global storage. When it is stored in global storage, migration of the program is facilitated. When a parallel program is to be restarted, each process of the program initiates its own restart. The restart logic restores the process to the state at which the checkpoint was taken.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kalman Zvi Meth, Anton Prenneis, Adnan M. Agbaria, Patrick Francis Caffrey, William Joseph Ferrante, Su-Hsuan Huang, Demetrios K. Michailaros, William Gole Tuel, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6338145
    Abstract: Error recovery is performed when an error rate for a subsystem of a computer environment (e.g., an Input/Output (I/O) subsystem) is greater than a predefined value and a critical resource of the computer environment (e.g., storage) is experiencing a shortage. Error recovery may include slowing down activity of the devices associated with the subsystem and/or simulating errors for the subsystem. The simulation of the errors does not require a large block of additional storage, and thus, the shortage situation is not exacerbated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Harry Morris Yudenfriend, John Andrew Staubi, Michael G. Fitzpatrick
  • Patent number: 6336193
    Abstract: Error recovery is performed when an error rate for a subsystem of a computer environment (e.g., an Input/Output (I/O) subsystem) is greater than a predefined value and a critical resource of the computer environment (e.g., storage) is experiencing a shortage. Error recovery may include slowing down activity of the devices associated with the subsystem and/or simulating errors for the subsystem. The simulation of the errors does not require a large block of additional storage, and thus, the shortage situation is not exacerbated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Harry Morris Yudenfriend, John Andrew Staubi, Michael G. Fitzpatrick
  • Patent number: 6332199
    Abstract: A checkpoint of a process is taken in order to provide a consistent state of the process in the event the process is to be restarted. When the process is restarted, the process is placed in the state it was in when the checkpoint was taken. However, there are times when certain information has changed since the last checkpoint and it should not be restored. For example, if a process is restarted on a computing unit different from the one in which the checkpoint was taken, then environment variables associated with the new computing unit, such as the name of the computing unit, are not to be restored to the values they were before the checkpoint. In order to prevent this, one or more environment variables are adjusted, after the process is restored to the reflect the state they were in prior to restoration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kalman Zvi Meth, Adnan M. Agbaria
  • Patent number: 6282560
    Abstract: Managing processor resources in a non-dedicated computer system. An amount of a processor resource is allocated to a real-time application of the computer system. The amount does not exceed a limit chosen for a group of real-time applications, wherein the group includes the real-time application being allocated the resource. A selected amount of the processor resource remains available to execute other types of applications and work on the system. During processing of the real-time application, use of the processor resource does not exceed a chosen maximum value, thereby ensuring the processor resource is not monopolized by the real-time application and allowing other types of work to be processed on the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Catherine Krueger Eilert, Peter Bergersen Yocom