Patents Examined by Willy W Huaracha
  • Patent number: 8276155
    Abstract: Exemplary embodiments include a system and storage medium for managing computer processing functions in a multi-processor computer environment. The system includes a physical processor, a standard logical processor, an assist logical processor sharing a same logical partition as the standard logical processor, and a single operating system instance associated with the logical partition, the single operating system instance including a switch-to service and a switch-from service. The system also includes a dispatch component managed by the single operating system instance. Upon invoking the switch-to service by standard code, the switch-to service checks to see if an assist logical processor is online and, if so, it updates an integrated assist field of a work element block associated with the task for indicating the task is eligible to be executed on the assist logical processor. The switch-to service also assigns a work queue to the work element block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donald F. Ault, Jose R. Castano, Jeffrey P. Kubala, Robert J. Maddison, Bernard R. Pierce, Gary S. Puchkoff, Peter J. Relson, Robert R. Rogers, Donald W. Schmidt, Leslie W. Wyman
  • Patent number: 8245239
    Abstract: A method includes executing one or more applications in a deterministic execution environment and executing a plurality of background tasks in the deterministic execution environment. The one or more applications and the background tasks are executed in different time slots. At least one of the background tasks cannot be completed within a single time slot. The at least one of the background task is executed incrementally in multiple non-adjacent time slots so as to prevent the at least one background task from interfering with the execution of the one or more applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Piyush Garyali, Ziad M. Kaakani, Keijo J. Manninen, Pratap Parashuram, Elliott H. Rachlin, Jethro F. Steinman, Vivek B. Varma
  • Patent number: 8230428
    Abstract: A method is disclosed for scheduling data management jobs on a computer system that uses a dual level scheduling method. Macro level scheduling using a chained timer schedules the data management job for execution in the future. Micro level scheduling using an algorithm controls the actual dispatch of the component requests of a data management job to minimize impact on foreground programs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Lan Huang
  • Patent number: 8230436
    Abstract: Coalescing schedules that use a resource to extend battery life. Each of the schedules is defined to execute at a recurrent activation time within a defined tolerance. After receiving notification of an event, the schedules are accessed to identify the schedules that may be executed early based on their activation time and tolerance. The identified schedules are aggregated for execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Anh P. Tran, Lloyd Alfred Moore, Christopher Todd Guillory, Hugh Teegan, John Mark Miller, Adam Sapek, Keith C. Bentley, Poonam Ganesh Hattangady, Albert Liu
  • Patent number: 8214837
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system enable sequestered partitions on a device. A scheduler may allocate resources to each of the sequestered partitions and dynamically reallocate the resources from one partition to another, as necessary. In one embodiment, the scheduler may dedicate resources to an operating system in a first partition and dedicate resources to a digital video recorder in a second partition. Additionally, the scheduler may reallocate resources to the second partition in response to the resource requirements of the digital video recorder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Andrew J. Fish
  • Patent number: 8209681
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a method of sampling hardware events in a computer system comprises a first step and iterative performance of second and third steps. In the first step, an initiator virtual machine identifies a profiling event and a count to a virtual machine monitor. The virtual machine monitor iteratively performs the second and third steps. In the second step, the virtual machine monitor programs a hardware event counter with the count for the profiling event. In the third step, upon receiving an interrupt from the hardware event counter, the virtual machine monitor saves a sample that comprises a code-in-execution identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Yoshio Frank Turner, Aravind Menon, Jose Renato Santos, Gopalakrishnan Janakiraman
  • Patent number: 8205202
    Abstract: A computer system that comprises computers, front-end applications, a messaging service, and an enterprise integration application is disclosed, each of the applications and the messaging service executing on at least one of the computers. The messaging service places service requests transmitted from the front-end applications on queues based on the type of the service requests. The enterprise integration application comprises business logic modules, each business logic module dedicated to acting on one type of the service requests and comprising at least one interface thread, at least one handling thread, and at least one management thread. The interface threads retrieve service requests from the queue associated with the type of service request associated with the business logic module. The handling threads act on the service requests retrieved by the interface thread. The management thread creates additional interface threads and handling threads as more are needed by the business logic module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Mark D. Leonard
  • Patent number: 8176490
    Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable media for managing a compute environment are disclosed. The method includes importing identity information from an identity manager into a module performs workload management and scheduling for a compute environment and, unless a conflict exists, modifying the behavior of the workload management and scheduling module to incorporate the imported identity information such that access to and use of the compute environment occurs according to the imported identity information. The compute environment may be a cluster or a grid wherein multiple compute environments communicate with multiple identity managers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Adaptive Computing Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventor: David B. Jackson
  • Patent number: 8151271
    Abstract: A heuristic algorithm for solving a load balancing problem that carries out scheduling of plurality of tasks in two phases. In the first phase some tasks of the plurality of tasks are assigned to resources, they are best on, on a per resource basis and in the second phase resources are chosen for the remaining tasks of the plurality of tasks such that the length of the schedule is minimized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Inventor: Abhishek Khanna
  • Patent number: 8146078
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request to transition control to a virtual machine (VM) from a virtual machine monitor (VMM), calculating an offset value, receiving, during operation of the VM, a request for a current value of the timer, adjusting the current value of the timer based on the offset value, and providing the adjusted timer value to the VM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Steven M. Bennett, Gilbert Neiger, Andrew V. Anderson
  • Patent number: 8146081
    Abstract: In a virtual machine system, a plurality of guest OSes are time-divisionally executed under virtual machine execution environments provided by a virtual machine monitor (VMM). The VMM specifies a group of guest OSes that intercommunicate with each other via a communication interface provided by the VMM. Then, the VMM sets a quantum in an execution schedule of each guest OS which are included in the plurality of guest OSes and included in the specified group of guest OSes shorter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Solutions Corporation
    Inventor: Satoshi Mizuno
  • Patent number: 8141089
    Abstract: A soft lock mechanism controls access by multiple processes to a shared resource to make simultaneous access an unlikely event, while not necessarily preventing simultaneous access. Preferably, the soft lock contains a next_free_time field, specifying when the soft lock will next be available, and a lock_duration, specifying a sufficiently long interval for most accesses to the resource to complete. The lock is obtained by comparing the current time to next_free_time. If the current time is later than next_free_time, then the lock is obtained immediately, and next_free_time is updated to the current time plus lock_duration. If the current time is before next_free_time, then next_free_time is incremented by lock_duration, and the requesting process waits until the old next_free_time to obtain the lock. No action is required to release the lock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael J. Corrigan, Gary Ross Ricard, Timothy Joseph Torzewski
  • Patent number: 8141076
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for cell processors are disclosed. A policy module is loaded from a main memory of a cell processor into the local memory of a selected synergistic processing unit (SPU) under control of an SPU policy module manager (SPMM) running on the SPU. The policy module loads a work queue from the main memory into the local memory of the SPU. The policy module interprets and process one or more tasks from the work queue on the SPU. The selected SPU performs the task(s) and after completion or upon a pre-emption, returns control of the SPU to the SPMM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: John P. Bates, Payton R. White, Attila Vass
  • Patent number: 8132169
    Abstract: A system and method for dividing an application into a number of logical program partitions is presented. Each of these logical program partitions are stored in a logical program package along with a execution monitor. The execution monitor runs in one of the processing environments of a heterogeneous processing environment. The logical program partition includes sets of object code for executing on each of the types of processors included in the heterogeneous processing environment. The logical program partition includes instrumentation data used to evaluate the performance of a currently executing partition. The execution monitor compares the instrumentation data to the gathered profile data. If the execution monitor determines that the partition is performing poorly then the code for the other environment is retrieved from the logical program package and loaded and executed on the other environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Karl Gschwind, John Kevin Patrick O'Brien, Kathryn O'Brien
  • Patent number: 8117614
    Abstract: An efficient facility for determining resource usage, such as a processor time used by tasks. The determination is performed on behalf of user applications that do not require a call to operating system services. The facility includes an instruction that determines elapsed time and reports it to the user as a single unit of operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Dan F. Greiner
  • Patent number: 8117616
    Abstract: A deadlock prevention mode indicator is provided, wherein the deadlock prevention mode indicator is a lock that can be held in a shared mode or in an exclusive mode by one or more of a plurality of threads, and wherein the plurality of threads can cause deadlocks while acquiring a plurality of data locks. An execution of the plurality of threads is serialized by allowing a data lock to be acquired by a thread in response to the thread holding the deadlock prevention mode indicator, wherein serializing the plurality of threads avoids any deadlock from occurring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Russell Lee Lewis
  • Patent number: 8082549
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system, method and apparatus for allocating resources with a linear programming model comprising an objective function and a set of constraints describing feasible allocations of the resources. The method ranks constraints based on a numerical measure derived from criteria selected from at least a first and second group and selects one or more of the top-ranked constraints. A new problem is determined from the model's objective function, the previously selected constraints, and the newly selected constraints, and a tentative resource allocation is determined based on the new problem. Whenever the tentative resource allocation violates a model constraint not in the current problem, one or more of the top-ranked such violated constraints are selected, and the new problem determination and tentative resource allocation steps are repeated. The resources are allocated according to the tentative resource allocation when it does not violate any model constraints.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignee: Board of Regents, The University of Texas System
    Inventors: Herbert W. Corley, Jr., Jay M. Rosenberger
  • Patent number: 8060875
    Abstract: A system and method for assigning virtual machines to network interfaces. A first virtual machine is assigned to a network interface according to a first rule and a second virtual machine is assigned to a network interface according to a second rule. The assignment rules are dependent on network conditions as determined through at least one of the network interfaces. The first rule and the second rule may specify assignments differently, such that the same network conditions may result in different assignments for the first and second virtual machines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: VMware, Inc.
    Inventor: Walter Andrew Lambeth
  • Patent number: 8051417
    Abstract: In an embodiment of the invention, an apparatus and method for a target thread selection in a multi-threaded process perform the steps of receiving a signal that may or may not be masked by threads in the process; and searching a thread subset for a target thread that can handle the signal. A signal daemon may search for the target thread if the target thread is not found in the thread subset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Elizabeth An-Li Clark, Edward J. Sharpe, William Pohl
  • Patent number: 8028287
    Abstract: A method for performing a scheduling algorithm with minimum resource scheduling in a mobile communication system, comprising the steps of scheduling (10) allocation units for a user or service in a scheduling frame, checking whether (20) the allocation units scheduled for a user or service in a particular scheduling frame meet a resource constraint, and releasing the allocation units (40) scheduled for a user or service for that particular scheduling frame for based on the result of the checking step for resource constraint. The invention also concerns a scheduler in a mobile communication system, a base station and mobile terminal comprising such a scheduler and a mobile communication system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Golitschek Edler Von Elbwart, Christian Wengerter