Patents Examined by Christian P. Chace
  • Patent number: 8856487
    Abstract: Example embodiments for configuring a non-volatile memory device may comprise configuring M physical partitions of the non-volatile memory into two or more banks, wherein the two or more banks respectively comprise one or more of the M physical partitions, and wherein at least a first of the M physical partitions comprises a first size and wherein at least a second of the M physical partitions comprises a second size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Emanuele Confalonieri, Corrado Villa
  • Patent number: 8856473
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a virtualization protection system (VPS) that leverages virtual machine monitor (VMM) technology. In some embodiments, a computer system contains a host operating system and one or more virtual machines that run on “guest” operating systems. The VPS makes certain areas of memory of the computer system read-only, making it essentially impossible for the virtual machines or other component to compromise the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Red Hat, Inc.
    Inventor: Henri Han van Riel
  • Patent number: 8850113
    Abstract: A method begins by a processing module determining whether to convert data between a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) format and a dispersed storage network (DSN) format. The method continues with the processing module retrieving the data from a RAID memory to produce retrieved RAID data when the data is to be converted from the RAID format to the DSN format. The method continues with the processing module converting stripe-block data of the retrieved RAID data into a plurality of sets of encoded data slices and outputting the plurality of sets of encoded data slices to at least one of the RAID memory and a DSN memory for storage therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Cleversafe, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Baptist, Gary W. Grube, Timothy W. Markison, Jason K. Resch
  • Patent number: 8838903
    Abstract: A hierarchical data-storage system has a volatile storage medium, a first non-volatile storage medium, and a controller including a ranking engine tracking data writes to each of the memory mediums. Each medium is associated with a pre-set capacity threshold, and the controller, upon the volatile medium reaching its pre-set threshold, identifies one or more blocks of data as least-frequently written to the volatile medium, copies the data in those blocks to the non-volatile medium, and marks those blocks as available for new data writes, and the controller, upon the non-volatile medium reaching its pre-set threshold, identifies one or more blocks of data as least-frequently written to the non-volatile medium, and marks those blocks as available for new data writes from the volatile medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Dataram, Inc.
    Inventor: Jason Caulkins
  • Patent number: 8838896
    Abstract: The present patent application discloses a method and apparatus for using external and internal memory for cancelling traffic interference comprising storing data in an external memory; and processing the data samples on an internal memory, wherein the external memory is low bandwidth memory; and the internal memory is high bandwidth on board cache. The present method and apparatus also comprises caching portions of the data on the internal memory, filling the internal memory by reading the newest data from the external memory and updating the internal memory; and writing the older data back to the external memory from the internal memory, wherein the data is incoming data samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Senthil Govindaswamy, Jeffrey A. Levin, Raghu Sagar Madala, Sharad Deepak Sambhwani
  • Patent number: 8838936
    Abstract: A method of maintaining and updating a logical-to-physical (LtoP) table in a storage device including a processor, a volatile memory, and a non-volatile memory, the storage device being in communication with a host, the method including receiving, by the processor, data for storing at a physical address in the non-volatile memory, the data being associated with a logical address of the host, storing, by the processor, the physical address in a first LtoP zone of a plurality of LtoP zones of the LtoP table, the LtoP table being stored in the volatile memory, adding, by the processor, the first LtoP zone to a list of modified zones, and storing, by the processor, a second LtoP zone of the plurality of LtoP zones in the non-volatile memory when a size of the list of modified zones exceeds a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: NXGN Data, Inc.
    Inventors: Nader Salessi, Joao Alcantara
  • Patent number: 8819331
    Abstract: A memory system according to the embodiment comprises a memory device including a plurality of memory cells operative to store storage data, the storage containing input data from external to which parity information is added; and a memory controller operative to convert between the input data and the storage data, the storage data containing information data corresponding to the input data, and a relationship between the information data and the input data being nonlinearly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Haruki Toda
  • Patent number: 8812773
    Abstract: In a method of merging blocks in a semiconductor memory device according to example embodiments, a plurality of data are written into one or more first blocks using a first program method. One or more merge target blocks that are required to be merged are selected among the one or more first blocks. A merge-performing block for a block merge operation is selected among the one or more first blocks and one or more second blocks. A plurality of merge target data are written from the merge target blocks into the merge-performing block using a second program method that is different from the first program method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Min-Seok Kim, Ki-Tae Park
  • Patent number: 8656132
    Abstract: When a computer 10 receives a request from the client computer 30 to access snapshot files, the target device to be used is identified. The computer 10 makes a request to the identified target device TD for attachment of the logical device LDEV that stores the snapshot files for which access is requested. When the computer 10 receives notification that the attachment has ended from the storage device system 20, the identified target device is mounted on the directory in which the snapshot files are stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi Ltd.
    Inventors: Ai Satoyama, Yoshiaki Eguchi
  • Patent number: 8650375
    Abstract: The program attains compatibility of suppression of an overhead accompanying page exception handling in the case of operating a program whose amount of memory use is large on a virtual machine and suppression of the overhead accompanying page exception handling in the case of operating a first OS that has a function of making another OS run on a virtual machine. A VMM creates a shadow PT (Page Table) for prohibiting reading-writing of privileged memory that requires emulation of reading/writing by using a RSV-bit, and registers the shadow PT and the second PT that a second OS operating on the first OS has in an x86 compatible CPU equipped with page exception detecting function using two PT's. When a page exception occurs, the VMM refers to cause code of the page exception and, when a P field of the cause code is 0, determines immediately that emulation is unnecessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoya Hattori, Toshiomi Moriki, Yuji Tsushima
  • Patent number: 8639881
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a memory includes a buffer area, a first storage, a second storage and a driver. The buffer area is reserved in order to transfer data between the driver and a host system that requests for data writing and data reading. The driver is configured to write data into the second storage and read data from the second storage in units of predetermined blocks using the first storage as a cache for the second storage. The driver is further configured to reserve a cache area in the memory, between the buffer area and the first external storage, and between the buffer area and the second storage. The driver is further configured to manage the cache area in units of the predetermined blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Takehiko Kurashige
  • Patent number: 8639878
    Abstract: A system, method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are described for providing redundancy in a storage system. According to one method, maps are generated and stored that define stripe patterns for storing data on the storage nodes of a storage cluster. The maps are defined such that when a new storage node is added to the cluster, no movement of data occurs between two storage nodes that existed in the cluster prior to the addition of the new storage node during re-striping, and such that the data stored on each storage node is mirrored on another storage node. Storage nodes may also be designated as an owner or a peer for each storage zone. Input/output operations received at an owner node are fielded directly and mirrored to the peer node, while input/output operations received at a peer node are redirected to the owner node for processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: American Megatrends, Inc.
    Inventors: Paresh Chatterjee, Ajit Narayanan, Narayanan Balakrishnan, Vijayarankan Muthirisavenugopal
  • Patent number: 8635418
    Abstract: A memory system is provided. In the system, there are first and second sets of dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) and a system register. Each DRAM has at least a first and a second addressable mode register, where the binary address of the second mode register is the inverted binary address of the first mode register. The system register has an input configured to be coupled to a controller, an output coupled to the first set of DRAMs via first address lines and an inverted output coupled to the second set of DRAMs via second address lines. The system register is configured to receive mode register set commands including address bits and configuration bits at the input and to output the mode register set commands non-inverted via the output to the first set of DRAMs and in inverted form via the inverted output to the second set of DRAMs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2014
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Deutschland GmbH
    Inventor: Ingolf E. Frank
  • Patent number: 8615642
    Abstract: Functionality can be implemented in a virtual memory manager (VMM) to allow small pages (e.g., 4 KB) to be coalesced into large pages (e.g., 64 KB), so that a single free list can be maintained for the large pages (“maintained pages”). When a process requests a small page, the VMM can associate a maintained page with a memory segment accessible by the process. Then, the maintained page can be divided to form a set of small pages (“fragments”). The fragments can become available pages in a broken page list. The VMM can satisfy the request by allocating one of the fragments in the broken page list. If the process requests additional small pages, the additional requests can be satisfied from the broken page list. When the process terminates, the fragments in the broken page list become a maintained page and can be returned to the free list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Shashidhar Bomma, Andrew Dunshea
  • Patent number: 8607016
    Abstract: Techniques for managing data in a non-volatile memory system (e.g., Flash Memory) are disclosed. A controller can use information relating to a host's file system, which is stored by the host on non-volatile memory, to determine if one or more clusters (or sectors with clusters) are currently allocated. The controller can use the information relating to the host's file system to identify when the host is sending data to the next free cluster and to store such data in a sequential format by copying data from other locations in the non-volatile memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: SanDisk Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin M. Conley, Alan Welsh Sinclair, Peter John Smith
  • Patent number: 8601227
    Abstract: A method includes determining an amount of memory space in a memory device available for memory mirroring. The method further includes presenting the available memory space to an operating system. The method further includes selecting at least a portion of the amount of memory space to be used for memory mirroring with the operating system. The method further includes adding a non-selected portion of the available memory to memory space available to the operating system during operation. An associated system and machine readable medium are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Robert C. Swanson, John V. Lovelace, Larry D. Aaron, Jr., Sugumar Govindarajan
  • Patent number: 8595446
    Abstract: The transactional memory system described herein may apply a mix of read validation techniques to validate read operations (e.g., invisible reads and/or semi-visible reads) in different transactions, or to validate different read operations within a single transaction (including reads of the same location). The system may include mechanisms to dynamically determine that a read validation technique should be replaced by a different technique for reads of particular locations or for all subsequent reads, and/or to dynamically adjust the balance between different read validation techniques to manage costs. Some of the read validation techniques may be supported by hardware transactional memory (HTM). The system may delay acquisition of ownership records for reading, and may acquire two or more ownership records back-to-back (e.g., within a single hardware transaction). The user code of a software transaction may be divided into multiple segments, some of which may be executed within a hardware transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Oracle America, Inc.
    Inventors: Yosef Lev, Marek K. Olszewski, Mark S. Moir
  • Patent number: 8595459
    Abstract: A micro-threaded memory device. A plurality of storage banks are provided, each including a plurality of rows of storage cells and having an access restriction in that at least a minimum access time interval must transpire between successive accesses to a given row of the storage cells. Transfer control circuitry is provided to transfer a first amount of data between the plurality of storage banks and an external signal path in response to a first memory access request, the first amount of data being less than a product of the external signal path bandwidth and the minimum access time interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Rambus Inc.
    Inventors: Frederick A. Ware, Craig E. Hampel, Wayne S. Richardson, Chad A. Bellows, Lawrence Lai
  • Patent number: 8595457
    Abstract: Method and system for replicating a storage volume is provided. Information is adaptively replicated in a swap mode or a copy mode. When information is copied from a storage volume to a memory buffer, an application determines if another information transfer from the same source volume is pending. If a transfer from the same source is pending, then information is copied from the memory buffer to a stolen buffer in a copy mode. If a transfer from the same source is not pending, then instead of copying the information, the application enables a swap mode. During the swap mode, an operating system for a storage system swaps a pointer from the stolen buffer to information stored in the memory buffer. The memory buffer itself is invalidated so that no other module can access the memory buffer. Because the pointers are swapped, the application accesses information directly from the memory buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: NETAPP, Inc.
    Inventors: Kapil Kumar, Hitesh Sharma, David Grunwald
  • Patent number: 8583884
    Abstract: This invention proposes a computing system and a backup method capable of improving the backup efficiency. In accordance with copy requests from the host, the data written to the first logical volume in the first storage system is copied to the second logical volume in the first storage system, the data copied to the second logical volume is used to form a journal and is transferred to the second storage system asynchronously, with the writing of data from the host to the first logical volume. In the second storage system, the data transferred from the first storage system is written to the third logical volume in the second storage system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenji Sekine, Tomoyuki Kato, Kazuhide Sano