Patents by Inventor Nicholas Hugh Withers

Nicholas Hugh Withers 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).

  • Writing of data on an array of storage devices with controlled granularity
    Patent number: 8468301
    Abstract: A disk array control apparatus controls writing of data onto an array of N storage devices such as disk drives, where N is an integer of 3 or greater. Each storage device writes data with a granularity of a sector having a predetermined sector size. The apparatus writes data with a granularity of a transfer unit having a transfer size which is T times the sector size, where T is a plural integer greater than (N?1). The apparatus is allows writing to an array of storage devices for which (N?1) is not a factor of T. In particular, the apparatus divides each transfer unit of data into plural stripes each consisting of a respective plural number of sectors of data having the sector size, the stripes each consisting of at most (N?1) sectors and at least one of the stripes consisting of less than (N?1) sectors, and calculates, in respect of each stripe, a parity sector of parity data. The sectors of data and the parity sector representing the parity of each stripe are written onto different storage devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: PLX Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Hugh Withers
  • Redundant Storage of Data on an Array of Storage Devices
    Publication number: 20090144497
    Abstract: A disk array control apparatus controls writing of data onto an array of N storage devices such as disk drives, where N is an integer of 3 or greater. Each storage device writes data with a granularity of a sector having a predetermined sector size. The apparatus writes data with a granularity of a transfer unit having a transfer size which is T times the sector size, where T is a plural integer greater than (N?1). The apparatus is allows writing to an array of storage devices for which (N?1) is not a factor of T. In particular, the apparatus divides each transfer unit of data into plural stripes each consisting of a respective plural number of sectors of data having the sector size, the stripes each consisting of at most (N?1) sectors and at least one of the stripes consisting of less than (N?1) sectors, and calculates, in respect of each stripe, a parity sector of parity data. The sectors of data and the parity sector representing the parity of each stripe are written onto different storage devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2007
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Applicant: OXFORD SEMICONDUCTOR LIMITED
    Inventor: Nicholas Hugh Withers