Abstract: Innovative managers of persistent data are provided. As an example, in a client/server environment, a persistent manager object may be initialized on both the client and server subsystems. The persistent manager objects may be instances of the same persistent manager class. The persistent manager object on the client subsystem may receive a request to store persistent data and the persistent manager object on the client sends the request to the persistent manager object on the server subsystem. The persistent manager object on the server subsystem may then store the persistent data to make it subsequently be available for the client subsystem.

Abstract: A hydrogen generating apparatus that includes a reactant with a vapor phase at greater than atmospheric pressure. The apparatus includes a tank for housing the reactant, such as ammonia. Ammonia communicates with a reactor having a solid reactant, such as lithium aluminum tetrahydride. A check valve is located between the tank and the reactor and is used to control the flow of ammonia to the reactor. Heat generated by the reaction is useful in raising the temperature of the reactant in the tank. The reactor can also include a gas flow enhancing material that facilitates gas flow through the reactor. A filter and getters are employed downstream of the reactor to remove unwanted solids and impurities from the hydrogen gas stream.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for implementing a persistent storage interface that may be used to store entries into a variety of different storage subsystems are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, an object-based system which is arranged to store and to retrieve configuration information includes a server and a client that is in communication with the server. The client communicates with the server using a client/server protocol. The system also includes at least one persistent agent that is arranged to store persistent entries, as well as a persistent storage application programming interface that allows the server to communicate with the at least one persistent agent. The persistent storage application programming interface is arranged to support multiple persistent agents such that different persistent agents may be used with respect to the system. In one embodiment, the object-based system is a Java System Database.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and software for endianness checking for platform-independent device drivers is described. According to one embodiment, the method of the invention includes generating a memory allocation request from a platform-independent device driver. The driver instantiates a memory constraints object that is configured to report the endianness of the driver. The request is received by a bus manger that is configured to process memory allocation requests from the device driver and has an endianness independent of the device driver. If the endianness of the bus manager and device driver is inconsistent, then the memory constraints object is transformed to be consistent with the bus manager's endianness.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for allocating memory resources to a device driver is described. In one embodiment, a device driver generates a request for memory allocation in terms of an abstract memory address space. This abstract memory address space is also used by a bus manager to manage the allocation of memory. The driver forwards the request to the bus manager which can then allocate memory or translate the request to a second abstract memory address space used by a second bus manager. When the request is passed to a platform manager, real memory is allocated and the requested memory is passed back to the driver. Thus, by making a memory request in terms of a bus manager's abstract memory address space, the necessity of coding the driver to request real addresses (a platform-specific operation) is avoided.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing a data framework and associated client/server protocol for storing and exchanging data among computers in a network. A data schema having an n-way tree-type structure with a root node layer, intermediate node layers, and a data layer for storing configuration data is described. The intermediate node layers contain a multitude of nodes containing categorical information relating to components and various aspects of the computer network. Following a tree structure, each intermediate node and root node has branches emanating to nodes below it. These subordinate nodes are referred to as children nodes. The data node layer is at the bottom of the tree and contains actual specific configuration data relating to components and other aspects of the computer network, such as information regarding users registered to use the network.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing a data framework and associated client/server protocol for storing and exchanging data among computers in a network. A data schema having an n-way tree-type structure with a root node layer, intermediate node layers, and a data layer for storing configuration data is described. The intermediate node layers contain a multitude of nodes containing categorical information relating to components and various aspects of the computer network. Following a tree structure, each intermediate node and root node has branches emanating to nodes below it. These subordinate nodes are referred to as children nodes. The data node layer is at the bottom of the tree and contains actual specific configuration data relating to components and other aspects of the computer network, such as information regarding users registered to use the network.

Abstract: A method and system for creating and maintaining a journal of transactions directed to a configuration database is disclosed. A multi-threaded journaling method logs transactions in a configuration database by first receiving a database transaction, the transaction being either a single modification, e.g. insertion, deletion, update, or a series of modifications directed to the configuration database. An initial entry is inserted into a journal file where the initial entry includes a transaction identifier or handle that corresponds to the database transaction. Subsequent entries are inserted into the journal file corresponding to the specific updates of the transaction, the subsequent entry containing the transaction identifier and actual transaction data relating to the specific update. The journaling mechanism then determines whether each of the specific updates to the configuration database has been successfully completed.

Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for updating and managing a configuration database used to store configuration and user data in a computer network having multiple clients, such as network computers. The transaction management mechanisms described determine whether new data, such as a new user or specific property, is being added to the configuration database or whether an existing node in the database is being modified by a transaction. A locking mechanism obtains a lock on a node according to whether a new node is being added to the configuration database or an existing node is being modified. During this process, an identifier is assigned to the transaction that caused the lock that acts as a transaction handle. The transaction then proceeds to modify the configuration database by either adding new data or modifying existing data.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing a data framework and associated client/server protocol for storing and exchanging data among computers in a network. A data schema having an n-way tree-type structure with a root node layer, intermediate node layers, and a data layer for storing configuration data is described. The intermediate node layers contain a multitude of nodes containing categorical information relating to components and various aspects of the computer network. Following a tree structure, each intermediate node and root node has branches emanating to nodes below it. These subordinate nodes are referred to as children nodes. The data node layer is at the bottom of the tree and contains actual specific configuration data relating to components and other aspects of the computer network, such as information regarding users registered to use the network.

Abstract: A programmable halogen lamp assembly radiantly heats a post-etch wafer in a semiconductor wafer processing environment to evolve corrosive, chlorine based compounds that reside on or in the processed wafer, preferably during wafer unloading to minimize throughput loss, and preferably under vacuum to prevent the onset of a corrosion reaction.