Abstract: Methods and Systems in accordance with the present invention provide a file format for storing spreadsheets compactly on PDAs. PDAs only contain a limited amount of computer memory due to their small size and processing ability. To reduce memory constraints caused by PDA spreadsheet applications, the present invention reduces memory allocated for file storage by optimizing the compression of individual spreadsheet files within a database record storage system. This method and system in accordance with the present invention uses a collection of records to represent a spreadsheet file.

Abstract: Address translation for instruction fetching can be obviated for sequences of instruction instances that reside on a same page. Obviating address translation reduces power consumption and increases pipeline efficiency since accessing of an address translation buffer can be avoided. Certain events, such as branch mis-predictions and exceptions, can be designated as page boundary crossing events. In addition, carry over at a particular bit position when computing a branch target or a next instruction instance fetch target can also be designated as a page boundary crossing event. An address translation buffer is accessed to translate an address representation of a first instruction instance. However, until a page boundary crossing event occurs, the address representations of subsequent instruction instances are not translated. Instead, the translated portion of the address representation for the first instruction instance is recycled for the subsequent instruction instances.

Abstract: A hard disk drive filler assembly has a hard disk drive bracket and a hard disk drive filler disposed in the hard disk drive bracket. The hard disk drive bracket has a front bezel and a bracket body attached to the back of the front bezel. The hard disk drive filler has a filler body attached to the bracket body of the hard disk drive bracket, a connector cover disposed behind the filler body and operable to be disposed over a connector on a server module or a computer server rack, and at least one spring disposed between the dust cover and the filler body.

Abstract: A flow manager may receive prioritized packet flow rules from multiple prioritized network services where each flow rule may comprise a packet filter and a prioritized action list. The priority for the flow rules from each network service may be expressed as either longest prefix or ordered precedence. The flow manager may generate a unified rule set according to the received packet flow rules by identifying conflict between pairs of rules and resolving the identified conflicts according the priority relationship two rules of each pair. When resolving conflicts between rules, the flow manager may append the action list of one rule to the action list of another rule, and may also create a new rule by combining the packet filters and actions lists of the conflicting rules.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for obtaining a value from an associative dictionary are disclosed. Generally, an associative dictionary maps one or more keys to one or more values, enabling retrieval of each of the values using the corresponding one of the keys. The associative dictionary may be implemented using a variety of data structures such as an array or other suitable data structure. A representation structure including a data portion storing a particular data element (e.g., object) is obtained, where the representation structure further includes a reference counter field storing a reference counter indicating a number of wrapper structures referencing the representation structure and an identifier field storing an identifier identifying the data element. The identifier is obtained from the identifier field of the representation structure and provided as a key to the associative dictionary.

Abstract: Data tracks are written across a width of a tape by positioning a first head section across the tape and writing a first subset of data tracks onto the tape with a first plurality of write elements on the first head section. A second head section is positioned across the tape separately from the first head. A second subset of data tracks is written onto the tape with a second plurality of write elements on the second head section so that the second subset is interleaved with the first subset. A third head section is positioned across the tape separately from the first head and the second head. The first subset and second subsets are read with a plurality of read elements on the third head section to verify that data was correctly written onto the tape.

Abstract: A device for coupling a printed circuit board assembly to a computer chassis is described. The device may include a base. The device may include at least two posts. The posts may be located on opposite sides of the base. The posts may couple the device to the computer chassis. The device may include at least one prong. The prong may extend upward from the base. The prong may couple the device to the printed circuit board assembly.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for profiling a heap. According to the method, a flexible and comprehensive general-purpose profiling interface that uniformly accommodates a wide variety of memory allocation and garbage collection methods is used. The profiling interface, among other things, employs a set of virtual machine profiling interface events that support all known types of garbage collection methods.

Abstract: A bitmap manager creates a cached copy of a bitmap and a shadow copy of a bitmap. The contents of the shadow copy are examined as are the bitmap cache to determine when it is necessary to write bitmap data to persistent storage. Extra bits are set or left set in the bitmap shadow copy to minimize the frequency of having to write bitmap data to persistent storage.

Abstract: In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a mechanism for implementing navigation seamlessly between sites in a computing environment in order to access resources without having to require users or user agents to re-authenticate. In one embodiment, there is provided the ability to determine different attribute sets for use with different resources on a target site for a user or user agent authenticated with a first site seeking to access one or more resources of the second site without re-authenticating. In one embodiment, there is provided the ability to map accounts on a first site to accounts on the second site using a set of attributes selected from among attributes provided by an application on the first site. With this mechanism, it is possible for applications or other resources to share information about a user or a user agent across disparate web sites seamlessly.

Abstract: In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a mechanism for implementing transfer of arbitrary length messages between one or more machines in a computing environment comprised of a plurality of machines. With this mechanism, it is possible to send and receive messages of arbitrary length across memory-based or other interconnects using a single operation. In one embodiment, the machines are interconnected by a memory-mapped link. The memory-mapped link includes processes for mapping an image of a buffer allocated in the storage of the receiving machine into the addressing space of the sending machine. The sending machine may transfer the message to the memory of the receiving machine using a single write operation to the memory mapped image in the sending machine's own address space.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for using a Web-service based business process to interact with a Web browser as if the Web browser were a Web service server. In one exemplary implementation, an interface module with a HTTP server is provided to convert data from the Web browser into an XML document from a Web service server and to convert data from the business process engine in an XML document to a Web service server into a Web page for the Web browser. The business process engine may be programmed in the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL) or other suitable business process execution languages.

Abstract: Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide a statistical profile of execution characteristics of a program, then use that statistical profile to regenerate code at run-time. When the information in the statistical profile is insufficient to make an optimization decision, methods and systems in accordance with the present invention may use the statistical profile plus additional information described below to determine a minimal level of instrumentation required to answer a particular optimization question. They then add at run-time the minimal instrumentation required to decide an optimization question, continue running the program for a period of time, and then analyze the resulting instrumentation data. These systems may either iterate the process to get more data or use the available data to compile a more highly optimized program.

Abstract: A host memory location pointer is posted from a host device to a network interface card (NIC) attached to the host device prior to receipt at the NIC of data to be placed in the host memory location corresponding to the pointer. Posting the host memory location pointer serves to surrender ownership of the host memory location from the host device to the NIC. Data received at the NIC is placed in the host memory location corresponding to the pointer. Furthermore, the NIC operates to prevent placement of the data in a portion of the host memory where data has been previously placed by the NIC. Also, the host device operates to re-assume ownership of the portion of the host memory having data placed therein by the NIC without actively reclaiming ownership of the portion of the host memory location from the NIC.

Abstract: A computer system stores a dynamically sized array as a base array that contains references to subarrays in which the (composite) array's data elements reside. Each of the base-array elements that thus refers to a respective subarray is associated with a respective subarray size. Each base-array index is thereby at least implicitly associated with a cumulative base value equal to the sum of all preceding base indexes' associated subarray sizes. In response to a request for access to the element associated with a given (composite-array) index, the array-access system identifies the base index associated with the highest cumulative base value not greater than the composite-array index and performs the access to the subarray identified by the element associated with that base index. Composite-array expansion can be performed in a multi-threaded environment without locking, simply by employing a compare-and-swap or similar atomic operation.

Abstract: An access control mechanism that implements access control at a container level is disclosed. In one implementation, the access control mechanism provides one or more access control services, and registers these services with a container. Once registered, the access control services are exposed to other applications in the container, and those applications can invoke the services to have the access control mechanism implement access control on their behalf. The access control mechanism implements access control for all applications within the container; thus, the applications do not need to implement their own access control mechanisms. In addition, the access control mechanism is not an operating system component. Thus, by relying on the access control mechanism for access control functionality, the applications are not relying on any operating system component. As a result, the applications, the container, and the access control mechanism can be ported to and run on other operating systems/platforms.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus providing a dynamically sized, highly scalable and available server farm are disclosed. A Virtual Server Farm (VSF) is created out of a wide scale computing fabric (“Computing Grid”) which is physically constructed once and then logically divided up into VSFs for various organizations on demand. Each organization retains independent administrative control of a VSF. A VSF is dynamically firewalled within the Computing Grid. Allocation and control of the elements and topology in the VSF is performed by a Control Plane connected to all computing, networking, and storage elements in the computing grid through special control ports. No physical rewiring is necessary in order to construct VSFs in many different configurations, including single-tier Web server or multi-tier Web-server, application server, database server configurations.

Abstract: A sideband scout thread processing technique is provided. The sideband scout thread processing technique utilizes sideband information to identify a subset of processor instructions for execution by a scout thread processor. The sideband information identifies instructions that need to be executed to “warm-up” a cache memory that is shared with a main processor executing the whole set of processor instructions. Thus, the main processor has fewer cache misses and reduced latencies. In one embodiment, a system includes a first processor for executing a sequence of processor instructions, a second processor for executing a subset of the sequence of processor instructions, and a cache shared between the first processor and the second processor. The second processor includes sideband circuitry configured to identify the subset of the sequence of processor instructions to execute according to sideband information associated with the sequence of processor instructions.

Abstract: Techniques for providing security context and firewalls in computing environments are disclosed. The security context includes cryptographic operations that can further enhance security. A security context block that includes a security context identification (ID) and a cryptographic system is disclosed. The security context identification (ID) can be provided for and assigned to various components of the computing system as means for security identification. Using the cryptographic system, various cryptographic operations can be performed on the security context identification (ID) to further enhance security. For example, security identifiers can be authenticated before it is presented to a firewall. After, successful authentication, the firewall can be used to determine whether the security identifier identifies an associate with access privileges.

Abstract: A mechanism is disclosed for exposing a command line interface (CLI) command as a web service by automatically generating a description document that describes the CLI command's syntax. A man page that is associated with the specified CLI command is automatically parsed. Based on the man page, a description document is automatically generated. The automatically generated description document describes the CLI command's syntax.