IBM Patents

The International Business Machines Corporation provides IT infrastructure and services to enterprise customers.

IBM Patents by Type
  • IBM Patents Granted: IBM patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • IBM Patent Applications: IBM patent applications that are pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • Patent number: 8983779
    Abstract: A system and method implementing a hierarchical approach to RTM (Reverse Time Migration) seismic imaging at different granularity in space and time. An RTM seismic imaging algorithm utilizes RTM technique to convert a parallel problem into one solved using massive domain partitioning. In the method, a coarse-grain grid for the 3D volume of the geological subsurface structure under investigation is initially processed, permitting the RTM imaging process to be performed faster and produces lower level seismic image for inspection. Criteria are then applied to the first level of seismic image to determine whether to reject the image or whether a finer resolution seismic imaging is needed. In the case of finer resolution is needed, RTM resolution for the target volume is adjusted accordingly and RTM imaging process is applied with the new resolution. The process is repeated until either the image is accepted or rejected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lurng-Kuo Liu, Ligang Lu, Michael P. Perrone
  • Patent number: 8983533
    Abstract: A method for enabling a MIMO operation mode in a multimode communication terminal includes switching a first channel module to have parameter characteristics consistent with those of a second channel module, so that the multimode communication terminal enables the MIMO operation mode by using the first channel module and the second channel module at the same time. The method also includes extracting corresponding parameters from the second channel module and configuring the first channel module to be switched with the extracted parameters, such that the first channel module and second channel module enable the multimode communication terminal to perform MIMO communication. The method further includes issuing, upon determination of a switch, notification instructions to means in channel switch layer means and changing a data channel associated with the first channel module, such that the first channel module and second channel module can be adapted to the MIMO operation mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yong Hua Lin, Hong Hua Song, Yu Dong Yang, Yu Yuan, You Zhou
  • Patent number: 8981326
    Abstract: A phase change memory cell, an array of the phase change memory cells, and a method for fabricating the phase change memory cells. The phase change memory cell includes a bottom electrode, a heating element, and a heat shield. During programming of the phase change memory cell, the bottom electrode passes current to the phase change memory cell. The heating element is electrically coupled to the bottom electrode and generates heat during the programming of the phase change memory cell. The heat shield is thermally conductive and surrounds at least a portion of the heating element. The heat shield conducts heat generated during programming of the phase change memory cell to the bottom electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew J. BrightSky, Chung H. Lam, Alejandro G. Schrott
  • Patent number: 8984042
    Abstract: A technique is provided for performing a mixed precision estimate. A processing circuit receives an input of a first precision having a wide precision value. The processing circuit computes an output in an output exponent range corresponding to a narrow precision value based on the input having the wide precision value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael K. Gschwind, Valentina Salapura
  • Patent number: 8983840
    Abstract: Techniques, an apparatus and an article of manufacture identifying one or more utterances that are likely to carry the intent of a speaker, from a conversation between two or more parties. A method includes obtaining an input of a set of utterances in chronological order from a conversation between two or more parties, computing an intent confidence value of each utterance by summing intent confidence scores from each of the constituent words of the utterance, wherein intent confidence scores capture each word's influence on the subsequent utterances in the conversation based on (i) the uniqueness of the word in the conversation and (ii) the number of times the word subsequently occurs in the conversation, and generating a ranked order of the utterances from highest to lowest intent confidence value, wherein the highest intent value corresponds to the utterance which is most likely to carry intent of the speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Om D. Deshmukh, Sachindra Joshi, Saket Saurabh, Ashish Verma
  • Patent number: 8981493
    Abstract: An improved finFET and method of fabrication is disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention take advantage of the different epitaxial growth rates of {110} and {100} silicon. Fins are formed that have {110} silicon on the fin tops and {100} silicon on the long fin sides (sidewalls). The lateral epitaxial growth rate is faster than the vertical epitaxial growth rate. The resulting merged fins have a reduced merged region in the vertical dimension, which reduces parasitic capacitance. Other fins are formed with {110} silicon on the fin tops and also {110} silicon on the long fin sides. These fins have a slower epitaxial growth rate than the {100} side fins, and remain unmerged in a semiconductor integrated circuit, such as an SRAM circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kangguo Cheng, Thomas N. Adam, Ali Khakifirooz, Alexander Reznicek
  • Patent number: 8984240
    Abstract: Page faults during partition migration from a source computing system to a destination computing system are reduced by assigning each page used by a process as being hot or cold according to their frequency of use by the process. During a live partition migration, the cold or coldest (least frequently used) pages are copied to the destination server first, followed copying the warmer (less frequently used) and concluded by copying the hottest (most frequently used) pages. After all dirtied pages have been refreshed, cutover from the instance on the source server to the destination server is made. By transferring the warm and hot pages last (or later) in the migration process, the number of dirtied pages is reduced, thereby reducing page faults subsequent to the cutover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Vishal C. Aslot, Adekunle Bello, Brian W. Hart
  • Patent number: 8984119
    Abstract: An event notification system for distributed processing systems provides for replacement of event identifiers associated with transient objects, such as processes within the processing system. An event management interface receives a notification from an event producer that an identifier of an event produced by the event producer is no longer valid. The event management interface blocks event notification for the event and dissociates an event registration entry associated with the event from the event identifier. A new event identifier is received from the event producer by the event management interface, which associates the registration entry with the new event identifier. Event notification for the event is then resumed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Cheryl L. Jennings, Rajeev Mishra, Trishali Nayar, Lance W. Russell
  • Patent number: 8981939
    Abstract: A system for verifying compliance, comprises an input device including a radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader module, wherein the RFID reader module is capable of determining that an RFID tag corresponding to a medication dose in a product packaging is not detectable, and recording a time of the determination that the RFID tag is not detectable, a network, and a data management service module which is capable of receiving from the input device via the network information corresponding to the RFID tag and the time when the RFID tag was determined not detectable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Melissa J. Buco, David M. Loewenstern, Florian Pinel, Larisa Shwartz
  • Patent number: 8984481
    Abstract: A method (which can be computer implemented) for inferring whether at least a first relationship exists between at least first and second entities includes the steps of applying a first assessor to obtain a first confidence level pertaining to putative existence of said at least first relationship between said at least first and second entities, applying a second assessor to obtain a second confidence level pertaining to putative existence of said at least first relationship between said at least first and second entities, and combining said first and second confidence levels to obtain an overall inference whether said at least first relationship exists between said at least first and second entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tamir Klinger, Peri L. Tarr
  • Patent number: 8984132
    Abstract: A method of securely deploying a software application in the Internet cloud including identifying those aspects of a software application that use secure data, and those aspects of the application that use non-secure data, deploying the secure data on one or more secure servers that are not publicly accessible over the Internet, and deploying non-secure data on one or more cloud servers that are publicly available over the Internet, where communication between the secure servers and the cloud servers is managed using secure connections with access only to computation results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Anca Sailer, Sambit Sahu, Hidayatullah Shaikh
  • Patent number: 8978960
    Abstract: A flip chip assembly apparatus includes at least one warpage-suppressor assembly. Each warpage-suppressor assembly can include a side heater, a deformable material pad, and an actuator assembly for moving the side heater and the deformable material pad. Each side heater provides additional heat to peripheral solder balls during bonding of two substrates, thereby facilitating the reflow of the peripheral solder balls. Each deformable material pad contacts, and presses down on, a surface of one of the two substrates under bonding. The deformable material pad(s) can prevent or minimize warpage of the contacted substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Peter J. Brofman, Jae-Woong Nah, Katsuyuki Sakuma
  • Patent number: 8984041
    Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for performing a floating point arithmetic operation in a data processing system. A plurality of floating point operands of the floating point arithmetic operation are received and bits in a mantissa of at least one floating point operand of the plurality of floating point operands are shifted. One or more bits of the mantissa that are shifted outside a range of bits of the mantissa of at least one floating point operand are stored and a vector value is generated based on the stored one or more bits of the mantissa that are shifted outside of the range of bits of the mantissa of the at least one floating point operand. A resultant value is generated for the floating point arithmetic operation based on the vector value and the plurality of floating point operands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John B. Carter, Bruce G. Mealey, Karthick Rajamani, Eric E. Retter, Jeffrey A. Stuecheli
  • Patent number: 8980715
    Abstract: Multilayer dielectric structures are provided having silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon oxynitride (SiNO) films for use as capping layers, liners, spacer barrier layers, and etch stop layers, and other components of semiconductor nano-devices. For example, a semiconductor structure includes a multilayer dielectric structure having multiple layers of dielectric material including one or more SiN layers and one or more SiNO layers. The layers of dielectric material in the multilayer dielectric structure have a thickness in a range of about 0.5 nanometers to about 3 nanometers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alfred Grill, Seth L. Knupp, Son V. Nguyen, Vamsi K. Paruchuri, Deepika Priyadarshini, Hosadurga K. Shobha
  • Patent number: 8984161
    Abstract: For distributing data requests between data centers, a cost reduction module selects a data center from a plurality of data centers to fulfill a data operation request corresponding to mirrored data stored at the plurality of data centers. The selection is based on data center cooling efficiency factors comprising a data storage device efficiency percentage. A response module sends the data operation request to the selected data center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Abhinay R. Nagpal, Sandeep R. Patil, Dhaval K. Shah, Yan W. Stein
  • Patent number: 8984485
    Abstract: Use of an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) to select portions of source code when analyzing the affect of changes in that source code from one version to another. In this way, it is possible to better focus on how changes in the source code, especially changes which only impact limited portion(s) of the source code, affect code quality with respect to measures like code complexity, performance and so on.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hisham E. Elshishiny, Sherif Sabry, Ghada H. Selim, Ossama Shokry
  • Patent number: 8981475
    Abstract: A lateral diffusion metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) comprises a semiconductor substrate having an STI structure in a top surface of the substrate, a drift region below the STI structure, and a source region and a drain region on opposite sides of the STI structure. A gate conductor is on the substrate over a gap between the STI structure and the source region and partially overlaps the drift region. A conformal dielectric layer is on the top surface and forms a mesa above the gate conductor. The conformal dielectric layer has a conformal etch-stop layer embedded therein. Contact studs extend through the dielectric layer and the etch-stop layer, and are connected to the source region, drain region, and gate conductor. A source electrode contacts the source contact stud, a gate electrode contacts the gate contact stud, and a drain electrode contacts the drain contact stud. A drift electrode is over the drift region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Santosh Sharma, Yun Shi, Anthony K. Stamper
  • Patent number: 8983990
    Abstract: A method of performing a graph query issued by a user is provided. The method includes performing on a processor, receiving a user graph query. The method includes rewriting the user graph query as a new query based on a query policy expressed in a graph query language. The method includes performing the new query on graph data to obtain a result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Songyun Duan, Anastasios Kementsietsidis, Wangchao Le, Min Wang
  • Patent number: 8984513
    Abstract: A mechanism for replicating programs executing on a computer system having a first storage means is provided. The mechanism identifies the events corresponding to requests from one executing program, which may be different from the executing program to be replicated, which are non-deterministic and identifies the ‘Non Abortable Events’ (NAE's), which change irremediably the state of the external world that need to be reproduced in the replay of the programs. These events are immediately transferred for replay and the executing program is blocked until the transfer is acknowledged. For the other non-deterministic events, they are logged and sent to the executing program, the executing programs remaining blocked only if the log is full and/or if a timer between two NAEs expires, in this case a log transfer to the standby machine is performed to prepare replication before unblocking of the executing program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Philippe Bergheaud, Dinesh K. Subhraveti, Marc P. Vertes
  • Patent number: 8982492
    Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and program for adjusting tension in a tape media to counter tape dimensional stability (TDS) errors in a tape media. A determination is made of whether to adjust tension of the tape media based on a detected error rate of reading at least one of the tracks. The tension of the tape media is adjusted in response to determining to adjust the tension.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nhan X. Bui, Reed A. Hancock, Kevin B. Judd
  • Patent number: 8983981
    Abstract: A processor-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product defines multiple context-based conformed dimensional data gravity wells on a context-based conformed dimensional data gravity wells membrane. Conformed dimensional objects and synthetic context-based objects are parsed into n-tuples. A virtual mass of each parsed object is calculated, in order to define a shape of the multiple context-based conformed dimensional data gravity wells that are created when data objects that are pulled into each of the context-based conformed dimensional data gravity well frameworks on a context-based conformed dimensional gravity wells membrane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Samuel S. Adams, Robert R. Friedlander, James R. Kraemer, Jeb R. Linton
  • Patent number: 8984329
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and system for de-centralized stream processing is provided. The method may include providing a plurality of processing nodes in a hierarchical genome having a plurality of levels, wherein each of said processing nodes is configured to transmit and receive a stream of data. The method may further include restricting a subset of the plurality of processing nodes from differentiating into a role within each level of the hierarchical genome. The method may also include identifying a failure at one of the processing nodes and replacing the failed node with one of the processing nodes from the restricted subset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth Sabir, David Lowe
  • Patent number: 8984476
    Abstract: An illustrative embodiment of a computer-implemented process for target application creation receives a representation of a logical topology diagram for an application architecture to form a source input, locates part type information in a part type dictionary using the source input, locates application parts in an application parts repository for each located part type and composes a subset of identified parts. The computer-implemented process further determines whether integration dependencies are met and responsive to a determination that integration dependencies are met, consolidates parts into an application structure, determines whether to exclude parts and responsive to a determination to not exclude parts, builds a target application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tinny Mei Chi Ng, Louise Suzanne Elliott
  • Patent number: 8984179
    Abstract: In response to receiving a request for a DMA data transfer, a DMA transfer mode may be determined based on based on the size of the requested DMA data transfer and profile data of an I/O adapter. The profile data for the I/O adapter may include a physical location of the I/O adapter or a number of clients supported by the I/O adapter. The DMA transfer mode may also be determined based on a preference of an application or an I/O device. Moreover, the DMA transfer mode may be determined based on a CPU usage metric being outside of a threshold for the CPU usage metric or on a memory usage metric being outside of a threshold for the memory usage metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Omar Cardona, Matthew R. Ochs, Vikramjit Sethi
  • Publication number: 20150071069
    Abstract: Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for injecting congestion in a link between adaptors in a network. A congestion request is sent to a selected adaptor in a containing network component comprising one of a plurality of network components. The selected adaptor is in communication with a linked adaptor in a linked network component comprising one of the network components. The congestion request causes a delay in servicing the selected adaptor to introduce congestion on a link between the selected adaptor and the linked adaptor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew G. Borlick, Steven E. Klein, Ashwani Kumar
  • Publication number: 20150074137
    Abstract: A search query portion is received. A plurality of suggested search queries is identified based on the search query portion. Feature values are determined for each of the plurality of suggested search queries based on a feature display preference. A heat map of the suggested search queries is transmitted to a client computer system. The heat map contains a plurality of blocks visually representing the plurality of suggested search queries and the determined feature values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Billy W. Chang, Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  • Publication number: 20150074040
    Abstract: Staging data record changes from a faster storage medium to a slower storage medium using data query rewriting is provided. In response to receiving a data query corresponding to a particular data record, it is determined whether the data query is one of a transactional data query or an analytical data query. In response to determining that the data query is a transactional data query, the transactional data query is rewritten to apply transactional delta changes to the particular data record on a storage-class memory of a computer. In response to determining that the data query is an analytical data query, the analytical data query is rewritten to select and reconcile each data record corresponding to the particular data record stored on the storage-class memory with the particular data record stored on a persistent data storage device of the computer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Bishwaranjan Bhattacharjee, Mustafa Canim, Mohammad S. Hamedani, Kenneth A. Ross
  • Publication number: 20150069608
    Abstract: An improved through-silicon via (TSV) and method of fabrication are disclosed. A back-end-of-line (BEOL) stack is formed on a semiconductor substrate. A TSV cavity is formed in the BEOL stack and semiconductor substrate. A conformal protective layer is disposed on the interior surface of the TSV cavity, along the BEOL stack and partway into the semiconductor substrate. The conformal protective layer serves to protect the dielectric layers within the BEOL stack during subsequent processing, improving the integrated circuit quality and product yield.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher Collins, Troy Lawrence Graves-Abe, Mukta G. Farooq, Tze-man Ko, William Francis Landers, Youbo Lin, Son Van Nguyen, Jennifer Ann Oakley, Deepika Priyadarshini
  • Publication number: 20150073738
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to determining process variations using device threshold sensitivities. A computing device determines first and second threshold voltages for first and second transistors, respectively, wherein the first and second transistors are included in an integrated circuit and are n-channel and p-channel field effect transistors, respectively. The computing device also determines process parameters that are associated with the integrated circuit using a combination of determined first and second threshold voltages, wherein the process parameter reflects random sensitivities, timing delay differences, timing delay and slew rate changes, and/or variations between low, high, and regular threshold voltages which are associated with the first and second transistors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nathan Buck, Eric A. Foreman, Jeffrey G. Hemmett, Amol A. Joshi, Dileep N. Netrabile, Vladimir Zolotov, Hemlata Gupta
  • Publication number: 20150073902
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for financial transaction analytics are provided herein. A method includes generating a profile of a customer, the customer profile comprising multiple commercial-related parameters pertaining to the customer based at least on past transaction information of the customer; determining the identity of a merchant from a message pertaining to a transaction of the customer; determining location information of the customer from the message pertaining to the customer transaction; and generating at least one commercial offer personalized for the customer based on (i) the customer profile, (ii) the merchant identified from the message, and (iii) the customer location determined from the message.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Soujanya Soni, Vishal S. Batra, Mukesh K. Mohania
  • Publication number: 20150074450
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system includes a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to detect a failure event indicating possible failure of a storage device, initiate a rebuild for the storage device which experienced the failure event, receive information about the storage device which experienced the failure event, and apply a set of statistical process control rules to the information to determine whether the failure event is statistically abnormal. Other systems, methods, and computer program products for providing early warning of storage device failure are also described in additional embodiments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lawrence C. Blount, Thorsten Muehge, Erik Rueger, Joerg Weyerhaeuser
  • Publication number: 20150074624
    Abstract: An approach is provided in which a model verification system partitions one of a design specification's circuit design properties into multiple unsolved cases. The model verification system then performs property checking on one of the unsolved cases against a corresponding circuit design model, which results in a property checked solved case and a subset of unsolved cases. In turn, the model verification system performs sequential equivalence checking on one or more of the subset of unsolved cases by checking their sequential equivalence against the property checked solved case. As a result, the model verification system stores the cases as sequentially equivalent solved cases and verifies of a portion of the design specification against a portion of the circuit design model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Krishnan K. Kailas, Hari Mony
  • Publication number: 20150074051
    Abstract: Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for building a metadata index from source metadata records when creating a target volume for subsequent metadata access from the target volume. A copy operation is initiated to copy the source volume to the target volume, wherein the target volume is created with a target volume name different from a source volume name of the source volume. Source volume metadata having records including information on data sets in the source volume is copied to target volume metadata. A metadata index is generated indicating locations of the records in the target volume metadata having information on the data sets in the target volume. The metadata index is used to access the records in the target volume metadata when accessing data sets in the target volume.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert S. Gensler, Jason R. Luurs, Jeffrey R. Suarez
  • Publication number: 20150074231
    Abstract: Help page techniques including: (i) sending, by a customer computer, heterogeneous software context data to a central registry over a communication network; (ii) receiving, by the customer computer, from a registry server over the communication network, a set of network address information including at least a first network address information for contacting a first provider server relating to the first software product and a second network address information for contacting a second provider server relating to the second software product; and (iii) linking, by the customer computer, the first and second network address information on a single set of help page(s).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gaurav Nigam, Arun Ramakrishnan, Rohit Shetty
  • Publication number: 20150069947
    Abstract: Dynamic reconfiguration-switching of motor windings is optimized between winding-configurations. Acceleration is traded off in favor of higher velocity upon detecting an electric motor is at an optimal angular-velocity for switching to an optimal lower torque constant and voltage constant. The total back electromotive force (BEMF) is prohibited from inhibiting further acceleration to a higher angular-velocity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2014
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Allen K. BATES, Nhan X. BUI, Reed A. HANCOCK, Daniel J. WINARSKI
  • Publication number: 20150073688
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to traffic impact prediction in a transportation network. Link level background traffic demand in a transportation network may be estimated based on information about available routes, and based on expected background traffic volumes between origins and destinations. A background traffic flow model that optimizes a background flow of the expected background traffic volumes among the available routes to minimize a sum of background congestion costs, background path entropy, and errors between an observed background traffic flow and the optimized background flow may be applied. Alternative routes may be identified based on the available routes and event based control plans. Expected additional event based traffic volumes may be received. A link level total traffic demand in the transportation network may be estimated based on the expected additional event based traffic volumes, the identified alternative routes, and the estimated background traffic demand.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Arun Hampapur, Qing He, Xuan Liu, Songhua Xing
  • Publication number: 20150074651
    Abstract: A method, system and product for directing verification towards bug-prone portions. The method comprising syntactically analyzing a computer program to identify portions of the computer program that correspond to one or more bug patterns; and performing verification of the computer program, wherein the verification comprises traversing a control flow graph of the computer program and tracking symbolic values of variables of the computer program, wherein said performing comprises directing the traversal of the control flow graph to nodes of the control flow graph that correspond to the identified portions, whereby bug-prone portions of the computer program are prioritized to be verified before non-bug-prone portions of the computer program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: HANA CHOCKLER, ODED MARGALIT, DMITRY PIDAN, SITVANIT RUAH
  • Publication number: 20150073776
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for checking documents using colloquialisms. Colloquialisms used in messages by users in a social network are tracked. The relationships (e.g., co-worker) between the senders and recipients of these messages are identified. A social graph is then generated to depict the relations between the users in the social network based on these identified relationships. Furthermore, usage patterns of colloquialisms (e.g., a particular colloquialism is used only with close friends as opposed to co-workers) are formulated. A rule set is generated using the social graph and formulated usage patterns. By using the rule set to check documents, documents may be more accurately checked for spelling and/or grammatical errors by taking into consideration the appropriate usage of colloquialisms based on the context (e.g., communicating with a friend). Furthermore, alternative words or phrases may be appropriately recommended based on the context using such a rule set.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mustansir Banatwala, David A. Brooks, Joseph A. Russo
  • Publication number: 20150069532
    Abstract: One method disclosed herein includes removing a sacrificial gate structure and forming a replacement gate structure in its place, after forming the replacement gate structure, forming a metal silicide layer on an entire upper surface area of each of a plurality of source/drain regions and, with the replacement gate structure in position, forming at least one source/drain contact structure for each of the plurality of source/drain regions, wherein the at least one source/drain contact structure is conductively coupled to a portion of the metal silicide layer and a dimension of the at least one source/drain contact structure in a gate width direction of the transistor is less than a dimension of the source/drain region in the gate width direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicants: GLOBAL FOUNDRIES Inc., International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ruilong Xie, Shom Ponoth, Balasubramanian Pranatharthiharan
  • Publication number: 20150074174
    Abstract: Service agreement performance validation includes receiving a request for access to an application from a client system. The application is hosted by a data center in a network-hosted computing environment. The service agreement performance validation also includes querying a global positioning system receiver for geographic location information of the data center, receiving the geographic location information from the global positioning system receiver, transmitting the geographic location information to the client system, and providing access to the application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John G. Musial, Sandeep R. Patil, Riyazahamad M. Shiraguppi, Gandhi Sivakumar, Matthew B. Trevathan
  • Publication number: 20150074395
    Abstract: A mechanism is provided for establishing a trust relationship between two products. A resource device receives a registration request from an application device to access a resource on the resource device by an application and users of the application on the application device. The resource device sends a registration response using a redirection uniform resource identifier (URI) provided with the registration request, where the registration response includes an authorization code and a symmetric key in response to authenticating the registration request. The resource device receives an access token request that includes the symmetric key, verifiable authentication data, and the redirection URI. The resource device sends an access token to the application device in response to validating the access token request, where the access token allows for access to the resource on the resource device thereby establishing the trust relationship between the resource device and the application device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John Y. Chang, Ching-Yun Chao, Lewis Lo, Ki H. Park, Barbara J. Vander Weele
  • Publication number: 20150071539
    Abstract: Machines, systems and methods for object relationship characterization are provided. The method comprises providing a plurality of images, each having a plurality of pixels; selecting a pair of images from the plurality of images, the pair of images comprises a first image and a second image; characterizing at least one pixel of the first image and the second image by a first feature vector and a second feature vector respectively; characterizing the first image by a first probability distribution over the first feature vector; characterizing the second image by a second probability distribution over the second feature vector; assigning a list of histogram bins for the first image and the second image; computing a distribution flow descriptor (DFlow) for capturing relationship between the first probability distribution and the second probability distribution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Pavel Kisilev
  • Publication number: 20150069609
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a crackstop and seal ring for 3D chip stacked wafers. A continuous through-silicon trench (TST) spans multiple wafers of a 3D chip stacked wafer, and forms a closed shape around a functional circuit or die, protecting the chip during subsequent fabrication such as dicing and packaging.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mukta G. Farooq, Erdem Kaltalioglu
  • Publication number: 20150074125
    Abstract: A computer identifies at least one common content element used by each of at least two users from at least one communication by each of the at least two users. Responsive to one of the at least two users constructing content for a potential communication to the other of the at least two users, the computer accesses the at least one common content element for use by at least one content prediction service enabled for presenting one or more possible content elements comprising the at least one common content element for user selection during construction of the content for the potential communication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Gerald F. MCBREARTY, Shawn P. MULLEN, Jessica C. MURILLO, Johnny M. SHIEH
  • Publication number: 20150071611
    Abstract: Each data integrity value, from among a plurality of data integrity values each associated with a separate unit of a program comprising a plurality of units, is checked against a separate recorded portion of a recording of the program corresponding to one of the plurality of units, wherein the recording of the program is recorded from a broadcast of the program. Responsive to a particular data integrity value from among the plurality of data integrity values not matching when checked against a particular separate recorded portion of the program corresponding to a particular unit from among the plurality of units, the recording is corrected by replacing only the particular separate recorded portion of the program from a second recording of only the particular unit from a subsequent broadcast of the program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: SUSANN M. KEOHANE, SHAWN P. MULLEN, JESSICA C. MURILLO, JOHNNY M. SHIEH
  • Publication number: 20150074368
    Abstract: A method for improving thin provisioning storage devices in connection with secure delete operations is provided. The method may include receiving at a physical storage device a first indicator to initiate writing a secure delete pattern to a plurality of physical storage locations. The secure delete pattern is written to a plurality of allocated physical storage locations based on the received first indicator. When a second indicator is set, the end of the secure delete pattern is reached. The thin provisioning storage device, upon receiving the second indicator, securely erases the plurality of storage device metadata regions where the mapping of virtual storage locations to allocated physical storage locations is stored. Requests to write a secure delete pattern for virtual storage locations without corresponding allocated physical storage locations are ignored.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Shah Mohammad Rezaul Islam, Sandeep R. Patil, Riyazahamad M. Shiraguppi, Gandhi Sivakumar, Matthew B. Trevathan
  • Publication number: 20150074645
    Abstract: Arrangements described herein relate to adopting an existing automation script to a new framework. A first version of an automation script configured to execute in a first framework, and expected unit test results for the automation script, are received. A second version of the automation script is created from the first version of the automation script. The second version of the automation script is configured to execute in at least a second framework. The first version of the automation script is executed in the first framework to run a first version of a unit test and the second version of the automation script is executed in the second framework to run a second version of the unit test. Results generated by execution of the first and second versions of the automation script are analyzed to validate the second version of the automation script.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Bradley C. Herrin, Maneesh Mehra
  • Publication number: 20150073985
    Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides a method for selectively using degree confidence for image validation to authorize transactions, wherein a request to authorize a transaction is received, the request including a user's name, a photo of the user, and a transaction value. A database is queried with the user's name to identify one or more reference photos of the user; and, the received photo of the user is compared to the reference photo of the user with an analysis engine to generate a confidence value. An authorization threshold is determined with a processor based on the transaction value. The transaction is authorized when the confidence value is equal to and/or greater than the authorization threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Martinianus Budi Tjahja Hadinata, Charles Steven Lingafelt, John Elbert Moore, JR.
  • Publication number: 20150070032
    Abstract: A contamination detection apparatus may include an optical element having an outer surface and an other surface opposing the outer surface, a first capacitor plate located on the outer surface at an outer periphery of the optical element, and a second capacitor plate located on the outer surface at the outer periphery of the optical element. The second capacitor plate is located adjacent the first capacitor plate and separated from the first capacitor by a gap to form a capacitor, whereby a contaminant is electrically detected based on the contaminant entering the gap and varying a capacitance value corresponding to the capacitor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Carlos Strocchia-Rivera
  • Publication number: 20150074643
    Abstract: Arrangements described herein relate to managing reusable artifacts. Responsive to receiving a request to create a placeholder for a reusable artifact representing a reusable unit, the placeholder for an appropriate version of the reusable artifact is created within a container and a first parameter identifying the reusable artifact is assigned to an artifact property of the placeholder. The placeholder further includes a branch property configured to indicate a first null value or a second parameter identifying a branch of the reusable artifact corresponding to a particular variant of the reusable artifact, and a version property configured to indicate a second null value or a third parameter identifying a particular version of the reusable artifact.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Nicholas D.J. Crossley, Troy R. Dugger, David J. Honey, Samuel Sung-Ok Lee, Schuyler B. Matthews, Darcy L. Wiborg Weber