Abstract: A method for quantifying a shape of a surface comprising: measuring an elevation (z) of the surface at a plurality of locations in an x-y plane of the surface comprising measurement data; performing a fit of the measurement data to a series expansion in terms of one or more base functions comprising a series expansion fit; calculating a vector of shape coefficients from the series expansion fit; and outputting the vector of shape coefficients.

Abstract: An analog baud rate clock and data recovery apparatus includes a first track and hold circuit that delays a received signal by one unit interval to create an odd signal; a second track and hold circuit that delays the received signal by one unit interval to create an even signal; a first comparator circuit; and a second comparator circuit. The first track and hold circuit outputs the odd signal to the first comparator circuit and the second comparator circuit. The second track and hold circuit outputs the even signal to the first comparator circuit and the second comparator circuit. The first comparator adds the odd signal to the even signal and outputs a first potential timing error. The second comparator subtracts the odd signal and the even signal and outputs a second potential timing error signal. A desired timing error signal is derived from the first and second potential timing error signals. The desired timing error signal is used to determine whether signal sampling is early or late.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a system and method for dynamic scheduling of application tasks in a distributed task-based system. The system and method employ a learning mechanism that observes and predicts overall application task costs across a networked system, taking into account how the states or loads of the applications are likely to change over time. The application task costs are defined in economic terms. The system and method allows continuous optimization of application response times as perceived by application users.

Abstract: A method for managing a computer system process memory allocated to execution of a process configured to use data stored to storage is provided. The process memory has a predetermined size and is filled by uncompressed pages of data necessary to execute the process being copied from the storage. The process memory is partitioned into an uncompressed region having an adjustable first size and a compressed region having an adjustable second size. The uncompressed region includes uncompressed pages of data and the compressed region includes compressed pages of data. The first size of the uncompressed region and the second size of the compressed region are adjusted when a requested page of data necessary for continuing the execution of the process resides in either the storage or the compressed region.

Abstract: A processor reduces wasted cycle time resulting from stalling and idling, and increases the proportion of execution time, by supporting and implementing both vertical multithreading and horizontal multithreading. Vertical multithreading permits overlapping or “hiding” of cache miss wait times. In vertical multithreading, multiple hardware threads share the same processor pipeline. A hardware thread is typically a process, a lightweight process, a native thread, or the like in an operating system that supports multithreading. Horizontal multithreading increases parallelism within the processor circuit structure, for example within a single integrated circuit die that makes up a single-chip processor. To further increase system parallelism in some processor embodiments, multiple processor cores are formed in a single die. Advances in on-chip multiprocessor horizontal threading are gained as processor core sizes are reduced through technological advancements.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for efficiently performing graphic operations are provided. This is accomplished by providing a processor that supports any combination of the following instructions: parallel multiply-add, conditional pick, parallel averaging, parallel power, parallel reciprocal square root and parallel shifts.

Abstract: A tape drive apparatus for reading and writing data on a magnetic tape includes at least one transducer that interacts with the magnetic tape. A temperature control element is positioned to thermally expand the transducer. A control system controls the amount of current supplied to the temperature control element. A sensing circuit senses the distance between the transducer and the data storage tape. The system generates a spacing signal indicative of the sensed distance and is stored as spacing data. A temperature control element is controlled based upon spacing data to adjust the spacing between the transducer and the tape. The temperature control element may be controlled based upon a fixed adjustment or empirical data. A method is disclosed for controlling spacing between the transducer and a magnetic storage tape by heating the transducer head to cause thermal expansion and reduce pole tip recession.

Abstract: Managing speculative execution via groups of one or more actions corresponding to atomic traces enables efficient processing of flag-related actions, as atomic traces advantageously enable single checkpoints of flag values at atomic trace boundaries. Checkpointing flags during atomic trace renaming in a processor system uses a flag checkpoint table to store a plurality of flag checkpoints, each corresponding to an atomic trace. The table is selectively accessed to provide flag information to restore speculative flags when an atomic trace is aborted. A corresponding flag checkpoint is stored when an atomic trace is renamed. An action that updates flags updates all entries in the table corresponding to younger atomic traces. If the atomic trace is aborted, then the corresponding flag checkpoint is used for restoration of flag state.

Abstract: A method for avoiding tape stiction is provided with a tape drive with a pair of motors for driving a pair of tape reels for conveying data tape across one or more read/write heads. Tachometers measure rotation of the pair of tape reels. Motion of the tape is started and rotation of the tape reels is measured by the tachometers. The measurement of the rotation of the tape reels is compared to determine if there is enough slack associated with tape stiction. The location of tape stiction is stored and weighted. Another method stops motion of the tape at a location wherein excessive tape stiction has not been detected. A tape drive is provided for performing methods for avoiding tape stiction.

Abstract: An error detecting and correcting method and mechanism. An error correcting code for data is utilized wherein a special syndrome pattern is used to indicate corresponding data includes a previously detected uncorrectable error. In response to receiving data and corresponding first check bits from a storage device, new check bits corresponding to the read data are generated. Based upon the read check bits and newly generated check bits, a syndrome is generated. If an uncorrectable error is detected, the newly generated check bits are inverted prior to be stored. Subsequent readers of the stored data will generate a syndrome which corresponds to the predetermined pattern and determine that the data includes a previously detected uncorrectable error. Data including an error corresponding to an previously detected uncorrectable error may be discarded and no error reported.

Abstract: A method for identifying anti aliased images of two or three colors makes use of the fact that in most anti-aliasing techniques, the color values of the source images are known with sub-pixel accuracy, e.g., the boundaries of text characters are described with arbitrary high precision and averaging ensures that the destination pixel values are interpolations of the two source colors so that all of the color values of the image lie on a single line, or a single plane, in 3-dimensional color space.

Abstract: In general, the invention relates to a method for transferring a packet. The method includes receiving the packet by a physical network interface, determining a virtual network interface card (VNIC) using a virtual switching table, where the VNIC is located on a computer operatively connected to the network express manager (NEM) via a chassis interconnect, and the VNIC is executing on a host operating system (OS) in the computer. The method further includes transferring the packet to a receive ring (RR) associated with the VNIC, wherein the RR is located on the NEM, providing the network express manager with a receive descriptor, transferring the packet to the guest OS memory using the receive descriptor, and notifying the guest OS that the packet is in the guest OS memory.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates performing operations on a lock-free double-ended queue (deque). This deque is implemented as a doubly-linked list of nodes formed into a ring, so that node pointers in one direction form an inner ring, and node pointers in the other direction form an outer ring. The deque has an inner hat, which points to a node next to the last occupied node along the inner ring, and an outer hat, which points to a node next to the last occupied node along the outer ring. The system uses a double compare-and-swap (DCAS) operation while performing pop and push operations onto either end of the deque, as well as growing and shrinking operations to change the number of nodes that are in the ring used by the deque.

Abstract: The 3D window system utilizes hardware accelerated window system rendering to eliminate the pixel copy step of 3D window system output redirection. The 3D window system includes a window server that directs the window system device driver graphics routines to render into the texture memory of a graphics device.

Abstract: A method for priority-based allocation in a storage pool involves receiving a request to write a data item in the storage pool, where the storage pool includes multiple metaslabs, and where each of the metaslabs includes a contiguous region of data. The method further involves determining a target metaslab selected from the multiple metaslabs by comparing multiple allocation priorities, where each of the allocation priorities is associated with one of the metaslabs, allocating a block to the target metaslab, and writing the block to the target metaslab, where the block includes a portion of the data item.

Abstract: A method for performing kernel-level diagnostics. The method includes obtaining a hardware trap associated with an attempt by a kernel-level instruction stream to access a memory address, wherein the memory address is referenced by a hardware watchpoint facility, forwarding the hardware trap to a software breakpoint handler, executing a diagnostic instruction defined by the software breakpoint handler to obtain diagnostic data, transmitting the diagnostic data to a user, and returning execution flow to the kernel-level instruction stream.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system for scheduling an event based on a user-selected electronic message. The method comprises accessing a user-selected electronic message precipitating the event from an electronic message in-box, scanning the electronic message for information associated with the event, determining the parameters of the event based on information associated with the event, and automatically scheduling the event in an electronic calendar, using the determined parameters.

Abstract: A system for bidirectional communication using normalized messages via a service engine includes a Java Enterprise Edition (EE) package, a Java Business Integration (JBI) package including a Normalized Message Router (NMR) and a binding component, and the service engine for enabling direct communication between the Java EE package and the JBI package, where the service engine converts a first message from a first protocol to a second protocol, where the first message is sent from the Java EE package to the JBI package, and the service engine converts a second message from the second protocol to the first protocol, where the second message is sent from the JBI package to the Java EE package.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that supports different modes of multi-threaded speculative execution on a processor. The system starts with two or more threads executing in a first multi-threaded speculative-execution mode. The system then switches to a second multi-threaded speculative-execution mode by configuring circuits in the processor to enable a second multi-threaded speculative-execution mode. After configuring the circuits, the system next switches the threads from executing in the first multi-threaded speculative-execution mode to executing in the second multi-threaded speculative-execution mode.

Abstract: A method is provided enabling concurrent garbage collection of a young generation of a task with other tasks executing in a multi-tasking virtual machine. A first record is provided for each thread which has a value in an old generation memory after each thread successfully allocates an object in the old generation memory. A second record is provided for each thread which has a memory address value. Threads of a garbage-collecting task are stopped and an end of scan value for the task is calculated. Garbage collection on threads associated the garbage-collected task are permitted when one of two conditions involving either second records or second records and first records are met.