Abstract: An apparatus having various conduits moves liquid by passing gas up through it. A collector conduit transports the liquid to the bottom of the unit. A gas-lift conduit mixes the liquid and gas at the bottom and transports the mixture upwards, owing to the rising action of the bubbles and the resulting decreased density of the gas/liquid mixture. At the top of the gas-lift conduit, some of the gas may escape from the liquid and out of the apparatus. The lifted liquid may exit the apparatus at an elevation higher than the entry point of the liquid or may be directed down through a down and out conduit. A one way valve or equivalent configuration may be used to limit flow to one direction.

Abstract: A gas/liquid pump moves liquid by passing gas up through it. Pumping is accomplished by the liquid's moving through three conduits. The first, a collector conduit, transports the liquid to the bottom of the unit. The second, a gas-lift conduit, mixes the liquid and gas at the bottom and transports the mixture upwards, owing to the rising action of the bubbles and the resulting decreased density of the gas/liquid mixture. At the top of the gas-lift conduit, some of the gas escapes from the liquid and out of the unit. The lifted liquid then returns to near its original density and exits the unit through the down and out conduit.

Abstract: A method and system directed to reducing the bottleneck to storage. In one aspect of the invention, a data-aware data flow manager is inserted between storage and a process or device requesting access to the storage. The data-aware data flow manager determines which data to cache and which data to pipe directly through. Through intelligent management and caching of data flow, the data-aware data flow manager is able to avoiding some of the latencies associated with caches that front storage devices. The data-aware data flow manager may determine whether to cache data or pipe it directly through based on many factors including type of data requested, state of cache, and user or system policies.