Patents by Inventor Marc Alan Dickenson
Marc Alan Dickenson has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 8881125Abstract: Performance impact of a computing system component on a transient end-to-end system operation is estimated by profiling an overall characteristic for a transient end-to-end system operation, and simultaneously profiling a program code component for a second characteristic, thereby collecting a first pair of data points, repeating the operational period while introducing a known artificial delay into the program code component, and while profiling the overall performance characteristic for the system and for the program code component, thereby collecting pairs of data points for each repetition of the operational period for each of the artificial delays; curve fitting and analyzing intercepts of the collected data points to estimate the effect of the artificial delays in the program code component on the transient end-to-end system operation; and reporting the estimate correlated to potential optimal transient end-to-end system operation.Type: GrantFiled: June 11, 2012Date of Patent: November 4, 2014Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Marc Alan Dickenson, Andrew Geissler, Adriana Kobylak, Aditya Kumar
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Patent number: 8266606Abstract: A mechanism is provided for increasing efficiency of tasks by observing the performance of generally equivalent code paths during execution of the task are disclosed. Embodiments involve a computer system with software, or hard-coded logic that includes reflexive code paths. The reflexive code paths may be identified by a software or hardware designer during the design of the computer system. For that particular computer system, however, one of the code paths may offer better performance characteristics so a monitor collects performance data during execution of the reflexive code paths and a code path selector selects the reflexive code with favorable performance characteristics. One embodiment improves the performance of memory allocation by selectively implementing a tunable, linear, memory allocation module in place of a default memory allocation module.Type: GrantFiled: May 13, 2008Date of Patent: September 11, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Patent number: 7979661Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory overflow management by identifying a memory overflow condition associated with execution of a task and adjusting memory allocation for the task to attenuate the memory overflow condition are disclosed. In particular, embodiments reduce the impact of repetitious memory overflow conditions caused by a specific task by increasing the memory allocation for that task. The memory overflow may also be reported to a technical service provider to help the technical service provider identify and fix the code that is responsible for the memory overflow. Many embodiments monitor an extent of the overflow and determine an allocation correction term based upon the extent of the overflow. In some situations, application of a correction term to increase the memory allocation for the task may advantageously eliminate the cause of the memory overflow condition. In further situations, the impact of the memory overflow condition is attenuated.Type: GrantFiled: January 10, 2008Date of Patent: July 12, 2011Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Patent number: 7779223Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory leakage management by identifying a suspect allocation pattern during execution of a task, which may be indicative of memory leakage and implementing measures to protect against memory leakage based upon the suspect allocation pattern, are disclosed. More specifically, embodiments may detect a suspect allocation pattern by monitoring memory allocations and deallocations for tasks. The pattern of memory allocations and deallocations may then be analyzed to determine whether a suspect allocation pattern exists. For instance, the memory allocations and deallocations may be compared to determine whether there is an increasing net residual allocation left by the task after it has reached a quiescent runtime state. In some embodiments, a suspect allocation pattern exists if the total memory allocation for a task continues to rise after a pre-determined time period.Type: GrantFiled: March 20, 2008Date of Patent: August 17, 2010Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Patent number: 7546588Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to increase efficiency of tasks by observing the performance of generally equivalent code paths during execution of the task are disclosed. Embodiments involve a computer system with software, or hard-coded logic, that includes reflexive code paths. The reflexive code paths may be identified by a software or hardware designer during the design of the computer system. For that particular computer system, however, one of the code paths may offer better performance characteristics so a monitor collects performance data during execution of the reflexive code paths and a code path selector selects the reflexive code with favorable performance characteristics. One embodiment improves the performance of memory allocation by selectively implementing a tunable, linear, memory allocation module in place of a default memory allocation module.Type: GrantFiled: September 9, 2004Date of Patent: June 9, 2009Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Publication number: 20080222637Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to increase efficiency of tasks by observing the performance of generally equivalent code paths during execution of the task are disclosed. Embodiments involve a computer system with software, or hard-coded logic that includes reflexive code paths. The reflexive code paths may be identified by a software or hardware designer during the design of the computer system. For that particular computer system, however, one of the code paths may offer better performance characteristics so a monitor collects performance data during execution of the reflexive code paths and a code path selector selects the reflexive code with favorable performance characteristics. One embodiment improves the performance of memory allocation by selectively implementing a tunable, linear, memory allocation module in place of a default memory allocation module.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 13, 2008Publication date: September 11, 2008Inventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Publication number: 20080168444Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory leakage management by identifying a suspect allocation pattern during execution of a task, which may be indicative of memory leakage and implementing measures to protect against memory leakage based upon the suspect allocation pattern, are disclosed. More specifically, embodiments may detect a suspect allocation pattern by monitoring memory allocations and deallocations for tasks. The pattern of memory allocations and deallocations may then be analyzed to determine whether a suspect allocation pattern exists. For instance, the memory allocations and deallocations may be compared to determine whether there is an increasing net residual allocation left by the task after it has reached a quiescent runtime state. In some embodiments, a suspect allocation pattern exists if the total memory allocation for a task continues to rise after a pre-determined time period.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 20, 2008Publication date: July 10, 2008Inventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Patent number: 7398369Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory leakage management by identifying a suspect allocation pattern during execution of a task, which may be indicative of memory leakage and implementing measures to protect against memory leakage based upon the suspect allocation pattern, are disclosed. More specifically, embodiments may detect a suspect allocation pattern by monitoring memory allocations and deallocations for tasks. The pattern of memory allocations and deallocations may then be analyzed to determine whether a suspect allocation pattern exists. For instance, the memory allocations and deallocations may be compared to determine whether there is an increasing net residual allocation left by the task after it has reached a quiescent runtime state. In some embodiments, a suspect allocation pattern exists if the total memory allocation for a task continues to rise after a pre-determined time period.Type: GrantFiled: October 28, 2004Date of Patent: July 8, 2008Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Publication number: 20080133866Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory overflow management by identifying a memory overflow condition associated with execution of a task and adjusting memory allocation for the task to attenuate the memory overflow condition are disclosed. In particular, embodiments reduce the impact of repetitious memory overflow conditions caused by a specific task by increasing the memory allocation for that task. The memory overflow may also be reported to a technical service provider to help the technical service provider identify and fix the code that is responsible for the memory overflow. Many embodiments monitor an extent of the overflow and determine an allocation correction term based upon the extent of the overflow. In some situations, application of a correction term to increase the memory allocation for the task may advantageously eliminate the cause of the memory overflow condition. In further situations, the impact of the memory overflow condition is attenuated.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 10, 2008Publication date: June 5, 2008Inventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Patent number: 7350047Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory overflow management by identifying a memory overflow condition associated with execution of a task and adjusting memory allocation for the task to attenuate the memory overflow condition are disclosed. In particular, embodiments reduce the impact of repetitious memory overflow conditions caused by a specific task by increasing the memory allocation for that task. The memory overflow may also be reported to a technical service provider to help the technical service provider identify and fix the code that is responsible for the memory overflow. Many embodiments monitor an extent of the overflow and determine an allocation correction term based upon the extent of the overflow. In some situations, application of a correction term to increase the memory allocation for the task may advantageously eliminate the cause of the memory overflow condition. In further situations, the impact of the memory overflow condition is attenuated.Type: GrantFiled: October 7, 2004Date of Patent: March 25, 2008Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson
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Patent number: 7308609Abstract: A method, computer program product, and a data processing system for generating a data dump in a data processing system is provided. A system boot of the data processing system is initialized. A firmware that includes fault collection logic is executed. A data dump is created in a persistent storage of the data processing system. An attempt is made to complete the system boot of the data processing system.Type: GrantFiled: April 8, 2004Date of Patent: December 11, 2007Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Marc Alan Dickenson, Brent William Jacobs, Michael Youhour Lim
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Publication number: 20060053421Abstract: Methods, systems, and media to increase efficiency of tasks by observing the performance of generally equivalent code paths during execution of the task are disclosed. Embodiments involve a computer system with software, or hard-coded logic, that includes reflexive code paths. The reflexive code paths may be identified by a software or hardware designer during the design of the computer system. For that particular computer system, however, one of the code paths may offer better performance characteristics so a monitor collects performance data during execution of the reflexive code paths and a code path selector selects the reflexive code with favorable performance characteristics. One embodiment improves the performance of memory allocation by selectively implementing a tunable, linear, memory allocation module in place of a default memory allocation module.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 9, 2004Publication date: March 9, 2006Applicant: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Marc Alan Dickenson