Patents Represented by Attorney Schubert Osterrieder & Nickelson PLLC
  • Patent number: 7283993
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media are disclosed for handling errors resulting in error messages while executing a script file such as a Sequential Query Language (SQL) script. Embodiments may include one or more databases such as databases interconnected via a network, which include or have the ability to create and/or execute script files with on-error statements. Script files with on-error statements may include an error identifier and a resolution identifier. Each error identifier may identify one or more errors associated with the resolution identifier and the resolution identifier may identify a way to handle the error. Resolution identifiers may provide one or more error-recovery statements, calls for execution of a stored procedure, or other functions to correct, log, or ignore errors and continue or terminate execution of script files. Many embodiments include a command line processor that can recognize and implement the on-error statements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: James Michael McArdle
  • Patent number: 7284184
    Abstract: A method for combining a simple forward error correction code i.e., a Hamming-like code with scrambling and descrambling functions is disclosed. Therefore, irrespective of the information to be transported, received data may be corrected, bit error spreading effects being handled, while providing desirable signal characteristics such as signal DC balance and enough signal transitions. The overhead introduced by the method is a modest increase over the original overhead of the 10 Gb Ethernet 64B/66B code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rene Gallezot, Rene Glaise, Michel Poret
  • Patent number: 7278056
    Abstract: Methods, systems and media for management of functional verification of a system are disclosed. One embodiment may be directed to methods, systems and media for management of functional verification of a computer system, such as a processor or IC chip. Embodiments may include a verification manager for user input and a functional verification database for centralized storage of functional verification information. Embodiment may also include a coverage analysis environment that receives test information from a simulation and test generation environment, converts it if necessary, and selectively stores information in the functional verification database. In a further embodiment, a harvest module determines whether a test should be saved for future regression testing, and tests that add to functional coverage are added to a regression suite.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Amir Hekmatpour
  • Patent number: 7275151
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media are disclosed for improved granularity of a response-request communication on a networked computer system. One example embodiment includes receiving the request-response communication by the networked computer system, and associating the request-response communication with a port, having a nodelay setting, from a set of ports on the networked computer system. Further, the example embodiment includes enabling, based upon the associating, the nodelay setting upon connection of the request-response communication with the port. Further still, the example embodiment includes sending, in accordance with the enabling, the request-response communication to a destination in communication with the networked computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jos Manuel Accapadi, Kavitha Vittal Murthy Baratakke, Andrew Dunshea, Venkat Venkatsubra
  • Patent number: 7254700
    Abstract: Systems and methods for handling the event of a wrong branch prediction and an instruction rejection in a digital processor are disclosed. More particularly, hardware and software are disclosed for detecting a condition where a branch instruction was mispredicted and an instruction that preceded the branch instruction is rejected after the branch instruction is executed. When the condition is detected, the branch instruction and rejected instruction are recirculated for execution. Until, the branch instruction is re-executed, control circuitry can prevent instructions from being received into an instruction buffer that feeds instructions to the execution units of the processor by fencing the instruction buffer from the fetcher. The instruction fetcher may continue fetching instructions along the branch target path into a local cache until the fence is dropped.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David Stephen Levitan, Brian William Thompto
  • Patent number: 7247037
    Abstract: Methods and arrangements to adapt an electronic system to attenuate electrostatic discharges of a cable as the cable is connected with a connector on the electronic system are disclosed. Embodiments may include an adapter to couple with a connector of an electronic system. The adapter may momentarily interconnect conductors of a cable with a selected conductor of the connecter to discharge to attenuate or discharge an electrostatic charge built up on the conductors of the cable. In some embodiments, the adapter includes a selector switch so the selected conductor can be selected based upon the electronic system. In other embodiments, the selected conductor is fixed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mithkal M. Smadi, Anthony C. Spielberg
  • Patent number: 7247038
    Abstract: Methods and arrangements to methods and arrangements to attenuate electrostatic discharges of a cable are disclosed. Embodiments may include connectors with discharge elements integrated into the connectors to interconnect conductors of a cable to attenuate or discharge an electrostatic charge built up on the conductors. In some embodiments, the conductors are momentarily connected to ground as the connector couples with another connector to interconnect a cable with, e.g., a computer. In further embodiments, the discharge elements interconnect the conductors of a cable to redistribute an electrostatic charge and thereby minimize the impact of a discharge when the cable couples with an electronic system such as a computer. Another embodiment comprises a male connector with discharge elements, which ground conductors of the cable as the cable is being inserted into the connector. The discharge elements are pushed out of the way of the conductors as the conductors couple with the connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mithkal M. Smadi, Anthony C. Spielberg
  • Patent number: 7246332
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for functional simulation of an I/O bus are disclosed. More particularly, a method of simulating distortion and noise parameters of an I/O bus is disclosed. Embodiments include constraining one or more fields of a record and determining delay amounts based on the resulting parameters, where the final delay amount includes a delay buffer and a net of delay amounts associated with the parameters. Embodiments may also include determining a value of a next bit to be sent to the I/O bus and, after waiting the delay amount, driving the bit on the bus to the next bit value. Parameters may include skew, jitter, duty cycle distortion, voltage reference distortion, and drift of any of these parameters. Further embodiments may include signaling the end of a phase in response to a phase done condition being satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Brian Likovich, Jr., Joseph David Mendenhall, John Christopher Morris, Robert James Reese, Chad Everett Winemiller
  • Patent number: 7237827
    Abstract: Systems, methods and media for reducing the aerodynamic drag of vehicles are disclosed. More particularly, a control system for a pressure drag reduction system for a vehicle is disclosed. Embodiments may include a machine-accessible medium containing instructions to receive input relating to a vehicle and to determine an improved pressure drag reduction system configuration based on the received input. Received input may include pressures, vehicle speed, user inputs, or other information. Embodiments may also include instructions to change the configuration of the pressure drag reduction system based on the determined improved configuration. In some embodiments, the operation of fans or ducts of the pressure drag reduction system may be controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Inventor: Khosrow Shahbazi
  • Patent number: 7237210
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for managing functional verification of a parameterizable design are disclosed. Embodiments include a system having a testbench configuration module adapted to configure a testbench, the testbench having testbench signals and one or more instantiated components having a plurality of ports of a generic design, where the testbench signals are wired to the plurality of ports. The testbench may also have one or more instantiated special components based on chip-specific versions of the design where the special components are wired to the same ports as the generic design. The system may also include a functional verification manager that, through a component module, observes values in the testbench and automatically configure a verification environment based on the observed values, including automatic insertion of checkers at different levels of hierarchy. The testbench may be a VHDL or Verilog testbench in some embodiments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Brian Likovich, Jr., Joseph David Mendenhall, John Christopher Morris, David Otero, Chad Everett Winemiller
  • Patent number: 7228478
    Abstract: Test patterns for testing electrical circuits are generated by a MUX having its output operatively coupled to a Scan-In shift register and inputs receiving seed pattern signals, response signal from a response shift register, positive and negative signals from the Scan-In register. A control logic circuit provides control signals that enable the MUX to select appropriate input signals. The circuit arrangement enables relatively few seed patterns to generate relatively large number of test patterns. The seed patterns are a sub-set of a test pattern set preferably generated by software such as the Automatic Test Pattern Generator (ATPG). A method to generate the seed patterns is, also, provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Shivakumar Swaminathan
  • Patent number: 7224670
    Abstract: The decision within a packet processing device to transmit a newly arriving packet into a queue to await processing or to discard the same packet is made by a flow control method and system. The flow control is updated with a constant period determined by storage and flow rate limits. The update includes comparing current queue occupancy to thresholds and also comparing present queue occupancy to previous queue occupancy. The outcome of the update is a new transmit probability value. The value is stored for the subsequent period of flow control and packets arriving during that period are subject to a transmit or discard decision that uses that value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Clark Debs Jeffries, Jitesh Ramachandran Nair, Michael Steven Siegel, Rama Mohan Yedavalli
  • Patent number: 7218129
    Abstract: A system, apparatus and method for controlling temperature of an integrated circuit in a chip tester is disclosed. Embodiments include supplying a chilled fluid to a cold plate at a first flowrate, where the first flowrate is associated with a first valve setting based on at least a desired temperature setpoint and an applied power. Embodiments may determine a change in applied power and modify the chilled fluid flowrate in response to a change in testing conditions to a second flowrate associated with a second valve setting associated with at least the desired temperature setpoint and the changed testing conditions. This feed forward loop may be supplemented by a feedback loop that includes modifying the energy supplied to a cold plate heater in response to a comparison of a current temperature and the temperature setpoint. The valve may be a proportional control valve or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Paul Beaman, Robert F. Florence, Jr., Howard Victor Mahaney, Jr., Frederic William Wright, IV
  • Patent number: 7203697
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media are disclosed for managing a resource managed by a mbean server having an mbean. One embodiment includes receiving a request by the application, wherein the request constitutes an action a user seeks to perform on the resource, and adding a number of instance identifier fields to an mbean descriptor file associated with the mbean. Further, the embodiment includes populating the number of instance identifier fields with an equivalent number of properties from an objectname of the resource, thereby producing a populated mbean descriptor file that identifies the resource among resources. Further still, the embodiment includes reading the mbean descriptor file after the populating, and determining, based on the reading, whether the user has an authority to perform the request. If authority exists, then an mbean method performs the action on the resource, and filters the obtained results to coincide with the user's authority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David Yu Chang, Vishwanath Venkataramappa, Leigh Allen Williamson
  • Patent number: 7185944
    Abstract: Systems, methods and media for reducing the aerodynamic drag of vehicles are disclosed. More particularly, embodiments may include at least one fan for directing air into a lower pressure region behind a vehicle in motion in order to reduce pressure drag. Embodiments may also include one or more internal ducts for directing air from other parts of the vehicle to the at least one fan. In one embodiment, the operation of the at least one fan may be controlled based on sensed conditions, user control, or other means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Inventor: Khosrow Shahbazi
  • Patent number: 7177782
    Abstract: Methods and arrangements for capturing information related to operational conditions are disclosed. Embodiments include volatile memory to quickly record operational parameters via, e.g., basic input output system (BIOS) code, system management interrupt (SMI) code and/or executing applications. Many embodiments provide an alternative power source and a voltage switch to protect against loss of the information between storage in the volatile memory and storage in the non-volatile memory. Some embodiments include a read controller that provides access to the volatile memory when primary power is available. The read controller may also offer direct access to the non-volatile memory in case of a catastrophic failure that renders the processing device substantially non-functional. Further embodiments include a second processing device to generate a usage model and/or to perform diagnostics with the operational parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2007
    Assignee: Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Ohad Falik, Joseph Wayne Freeman, Isaac Karpel, James S. Rutledge, Randall Scott Springfield
  • Patent number: 7165804
    Abstract: Systems, methods and media for reducing the aerodynamic drag of vehicles are disclosed. More particularly, a method for reducing the pressure drag of a vehicle is disclosed. Embodiments may include capturing air from the airflow around the vehicle when the vehicle is moving and directing air from a first location to a second location. Embodiments may also include forcing the captured air from the second location into a lower pressure region to reduce pressure drag associated with movement of the vehicle in a direction, where the lower pressure region is created in response to movement of the vehicle. Further embodiments may include where directing the air includes directing the air through a duct internal to the vehicle or through a duct attached to the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Inventor: Khosrow Shahbazi
  • Patent number: 7156453
    Abstract: Systems, methods and media for reducing the aerodynamic drag of vehicles are disclosed. More particularly, embodiments may include at least one fan for directing air into a lower pressure region behind a vehicle in motion in order to reduce pressure drag. Embodiments may also include one or more internal ducts for directing air from other parts of the vehicle to the at least one fan. In one embodiment, the operation of the at least one fan may be controlled based on sensed conditions, user control, or other means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2007
    Inventor: Khosrow Shahbazi
  • Patent number: 7152908
    Abstract: A system, method and media for reducing the aerodynamic drag of vehicles is disclosed. More particularly, at least one fan for directing air into a lower pressure region behind a vehicle in motion in order to reduce pressure drag is disclosed. Embodiments include one or more ducts from directing air from other parts of the vehicle to the at least one fan. In one embodiment, the operation of the at least one fan may be controlled based on sensed conditions, user control, or other means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Inventor: Khosrow Shahbazi
  • Patent number: 7113402
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for reducing dust on components in a computer system is disclosed. Embodiments include a system that generally includes an enclosure, a component mounted with the enclosure, and a fan adapted to induce an airflow towards the component to provide cooling. The system also generally includes a dust ionizer adapted to provide an electrical charge to dust particles within the airflow and a dust reflector having an electrical charge adapted to deflect the charge dust particles away from the component. In some embodiments, the component may be a processor, heat sink, video chip, memory module, voltage regulator module, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: James Stephen Rutledge, Cory Allen Chapman, Kenneth Scott Seethaler, William Stephen Duncan