Abstract: A method, system and apparatus for improving data transfer rate over a network are provided. When a piece of data is to be transmitted to a target system, it is divided into a number of packets and a determination is made as to whether the number of packets exceeds a threshold number. If so, the packets are transferred in parallel over a plurality of network connections. The ideal network connections are TCP/IP connections. Thus, each packet has an IP header, which contains an IP identification field. An indicium is placed into the IP identification field for proper reconstruction of the data by the target system.

Abstract: A system and method for autonomically configuring a router are presented. An agent is installed on a client that tracks resource authorizations for particular applications. The agent sends a configuration request to a router that requests the router to change one or more router parameters, such as assigning a port to the client. The router compares the configuration request against its router policies, and changes router parameters (assigns resources) based upon the configuration request. Once the agent and the router authorize the resources, the application uses the resources to communicate with a computer network through the client resource and the router resource. When the application is terminated, the router and the client disable their respective resources.

Abstract: A system and method for securely restoring software program context is presented. A special purpose processor core is included in a heterogeneous processing environment where each processor can access a shared memory. The isolated special purpose processor core includes an isolated local memory. The isolated special purpose processor core receives an identifier corresponding to the secured program. The identifier is used to read an encrypted context of the secured program from the shared memory. The encrypted context is decrypted using an encryption key. The decrypted context is stored in the isolated special purpose processor core's local memory. The secured program's context integrity is verified by using a persistent security data that is retrieved from a secure location, such as a persistent storage register that can only be accessed when the special purpose processor core is running in isolation mode. If the context is verified, the secured program is executed.

Abstract: A system and method for identifying an unknown word's likely definition based upon a common social networking group is presented. A user receives a message and selects an unknown word in the message. In turn, the recipient client identifies a common social networking group between the sending client and the recipient client. The recipient client then uses the common social networking group to identify the unknown word's definitions using one or more unknown word repositories, such as the sending client unknown word repository, the recipient client unknown word repository, or a mutual client unknown word repository, which corresponds to a mutual client included in the common social networking group. Once the recipient client identifies the unknown word's definitions, the recipient client orders and displays the definitions based upon the common social networking group and social networking group frequency values.

Abstract: An end-user or administrator is allowed to couple portlets in a portal through user interface events taking place on the portal display itself. When the portal is displayed, if the user actuates a control corresponding to a property in a portlet, a menu of actions that can be performed with that data by other portlets is provided to the user. In addition to this “conventional” manner, an alternative manner of actuating the component is provided to the user such that if the user actuates the control in this alternative manner, the user is provided the option of making the chosen action “persistent,” so that the next time the control is actuated by the user, or the associated property is otherwise produced, the chosen action is performed automatically, without requiring the user to choose an action.

Abstract: A system, method, and program product is provided that provides authentication on a per-role basis in a Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) environment. When a user attempts to acquire a role, the improved RBAC system determines whether (a) no authentication is required (e.g., for a non-sensitive role such as accessing a company's product catalog), (b) a user-based authentication (e.g., password) is required, or (c) a role-based authentication (e.g., role-specific password is required).

Abstract: A system and method for cache optimized data formatting is presented. A processor generates images by calculating a plurality of image point values using height data, color data, and normal data. Normal data is computed for a particular image point using pixel data adjacent to the image point. The computed normalized data, along with corresponding height data and color data, are included in a limited space data stream and sent to a processor to generate an image. The normalized data may be computed using adjacent pixel data at any time prior to inserting the normalized data in the limited space data stream.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for integrating portlets. When viewing portlets within a portal container, a user is presented with a choice of one or more sources of data and, for each source, one or more actions that the user can take regarding the source. When an action is selected, it causes the source data to be transferred to one or more “target” portlets that have also been activated by the user. The set of actions available from a given source is automatically provided given the available target portlets. As each portlet is initialized, it informs a “broker” of the actions that the portlet supports along with the type of data that is used by the action. When a portal page is being constructed, each portlet identifies to the broker the sources of data within the portlet along with the values and data types corresponding to the sources.

Abstract: Non-invasive collection of data is presented. A server segments a web page into regions and sends the segmented web page along with a data collector program to a client in response to receiving a client request. The client displays the web page and loads the data collector program which initiates particular event handlers to monitor user event activity corresponding to the displayed web page. When the user performs a user event, such as moving his mouse into a particular web page region, the data collector program collects user event data and associates the user event data with the particular web page region. When the user event is complete, the data collector program sends the collected user event data to the server.

Abstract: A system and method of parameter measurement for a distributed computer system, the method including selecting a master unit; selecting slave units operably connected to the master unit on a bus, the slave units having a slave clock; determining slave unit latencies between the master unit and the slave units; generating slave unit synchronizing signals for the slave units, the slave unit synchronizing signals being adjusted for the slave unit latencies; synchronizing the slave clocks in response to the slave unit synchronizing signals; and measuring an operating parameter at the slave units at a synchronously determined time.

Abstract: A system and method for simulating a circuit design using both an unknown Boolean state and a negative unknown Boolean state is provided. When the circuit is simulated, one or more initial simulated logic elements are initialized to the unknown Boolean state. The initialized unknown Boolean states are then fed to one or more simulated logic elements and the simulator simulates the handling of the unknown Boolean state by the simulated logic elements. Examples of simulated logic elements include gates and latches, such as flip-flops, inverters, and basic logic gates. The processing results in at least one negative unknown Boolean state. An example of when a negative unknown Boolean state would result would be when the unknown Boolean state is inverted by an inverter. The resulting negative unknown Boolean state is then fed to other simulated logic elements that generate further simulation results based on processing the negative unknown Boolean state.

Abstract: A system, method, and program product that uses statistical sampling to determine whether a pallet has been received when the pallet-level RFID tag is not read. When a shipment is unloaded, the system keeps track of the item-level RFID tags that are received. A threshold is retrieved and compared with the number of item-level RFID tags that were received. If the threshold is 50%, then the pallet would be assumed to be received and marked accordingly in the manifest if 50% of the items in the pallet were received. Threshold levels can be customized based upon the vendor shipping the goods, the type of goods being shipped, or both. In addition, the vendor quality rating and the type of good rating can be combined to form a single threshold that incorporates the vendor's quality along with the material (interference) quality of the goods on the particular pallet.

Abstract: A system and method to reduce verification time by sharing memory between multiple test patterns and performing results checking after each test pattern executes one time is presented. A test pattern generator generates multiple test pattern sets, each of which including multiple test patterns. Each test pattern set is executed by a corresponding thread/processor until each test pattern included in the test pattern set has executed at least once. After all test patterns have executed at least once, a test pattern executor performs a memory error detection check to determine whether the system is functioning correctly. Since the invention described herein waits until all test patterns have executed before performing a memory error detection check, less time is spent on memory error detection checks, which allows more time to execute test patterns.

Abstract: A method, data processing system, and computer program product are provided for routing a circuit placement a number of times, resulting in a number of routings. An electromigration quality value is computed for each of the routings, and the routing with the best electromigration quality value is selected. In one embodiment, each routing is analyzed with attention to the current that passes through each of the routing's segments in order to compute a current distribution that is used to compute a routing quality vector. In another embodiment, multiple placements are generated and the electromigration placement quality vectors are computed for the various placements with the placement with the best electromigration quality vector being selected. In one embodiment, the placement with the best electromigration quality vector is routed the number of times to determine the routing with the lowest (best) electromigration quality value.

Abstract: A selection accelerator in topology views is presented. A user uses a topology view to manage a computer network whereby the topology view includes a plurality of nodes and their relationships that correspond to computer network components. When a user selects a primary node, processing identifies related nodes, and displays a relationship identifier next the related nodes, such as a hierarchal level corresponding to the primary node. By viewing the relationship identifiers, the user is able to depress a key to select a plurality of related nodes based upon their relationships. In addition, the user is able to request an invert select which informs processing to select nodes related to the primary node which are not currently selected.

Abstract: A system, method, and program product are provided that access a network resource by sending, from a client computer system, a first domain name resolution request to a DNS server. The first domain name resolution request includes a first domain name and requests multiple IP addresses. The client computer system receives, from the DNS server, a first multiple IP address response that corresponds to the first domain name resolution request, the first multiple IP address response including a IP addresses that each correspond to the first domain name included in the first domain name resolution request. At the client computer system, one of the plurality of IP addresses is selected by a user. The client computer system sends a request to a server corresponding to the selected IP address. The client computer system then receives responsive data from the server and displays the responsive data on a display screen accessible from the client computer system.

Abstract: A system and method for verifying cache snoop logic and coherency between instruction cache and data cache using instruction stream “holes” that are created by branch instructions is presented. A test pattern generator includes instructions that load/store data into instruction stream holes. In turn, by executing the test pattern, a processor thread loads an L2 cache line into both instruction cache (icache) and data cache (dcache). The test pattern modifies the data in the dcache in response to a store instruction. In turn, the invention described herein identifies whether snoop logic detects the change and updates the icache's corresponding cache line accordingly.

Abstract: A system and method for flexible multiple protocols are presented. A device's logical layer may be dynamically configured on a per interface basis to communicate with external devices in a coherent or a non-coherent mode. In coherent mode, commands such as coherency protocol, system commands, and snoop response pass from the device's internal system bus to an external device, thereby creating a logical extension of the devices internal system bus. In non-coherent mode, the input-output bus unit receives commands from the internal system bus and generates non-coherent input-output commands, which are eventually received by an external device.

Abstract: An improved DMAC translation mechanism is presented. DMA commands are “unrolled” based upon the transfer size of the DMA command and the amount of data that a computer system transfers at one time. For the first DMA request, a DMA queue requests a memory management unit to perform an address translation. The DMA queue receives a real page number from the MMU and, on subsequent rollout requests, the DMA queue provides the real page number to a bus interface unit without accessing the MMU until the transfer crosses into the next page. Rollout logic decrements the DMA command's transfer size after each DMA request, determines whether a new page has been reached, determines if the DMA command is completed, and sends write back information to the DMA queue for subsequent DMA requests.

Abstract: An approach to optimize specular highlight generation is presented. A single microprocessor instruction is used to generate an intensity value based upon a viewing angle value. An application stores a viewing angle value in an input register. When called, the “intensity instruction” retrieves the viewing angle value from the input register, and calculates an intensity value using three distinct steps. In turn, the intensity instruction stores the intensity value in an output register for the application to retrieve and further process. In one embodiment, the invention may be implemented using PowerPC™ assembly and VMX™ or Altivec™ instructions. In this embodiment, the intensity instruction may be represented as a “vspecefp” instruction, which stands for a “vector specular estimate floating point” instruction.