Patents by Inventor Alan William Somers

Alan William Somers has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10725970
    Abstract: A method for using a block storage device for storing and reproducing electronic files is disclosed. The block storage device includes blocks, each one possessing a logical block address (LBA) unique to that block. The method includes providing a deduplication pathway, including a deduplication data structure (DDS), and a block indirection pathway, including a block indirection data structure (BIDS). When receiving an electronic file, if deduplication is desired for the electronic file, then processing the electronic file only through the deduplication pathway, and, otherwise, processing the electronic file only through the block indirection pathway.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Spectra Logic Corporation
    Inventor: Alan William Somers
  • Patent number: 10297274
    Abstract: A method for recording parity data of data stripes within shingled media recording bands in a redundant array of independent disks can be accomplished using a plurality of shingled media recording (SMR) hard disk drives (HDD) each with a plurality of shingled data bands. A data stream received from a host computer system is sequentially stored to a plurality of block segments in successive order, one stripe at a time successively. Each of the shingled data bands possess n data blocks (or multiple data blocks that are grouped together as a data unit) that are successively ordered, each corresponding successive data block from all of the SMR HDDs defines a data stripe, accordingly n data blocks in each SMR HDD defines n stripes across the shingled data bands. A transaction group sync triggers a halt to writing the data stream. The rest of the data stripe is written with fill bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: Spectra Logic, Corp.
    Inventor: Alan William Somers
  • Publication number: 20190108238
    Abstract: A method for using a block storage device for storing and reproducing electronic files is disclosed. The block storage device includes blocks, each one possessing a logical block address (LBA) unique to that block. The method includes providing a deduplication pathway, including a deduplication data structure (DDS), and a block indirection pathway, including a block indirection data structure (BIDS). When receiving an electronic file, if deduplication is desired for the electronic file, then processing the electronic file only through the deduplication pathway, and, otherwise, processing the electronic file only through the block indirection pathway.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2017
    Publication date: April 11, 2019
    Inventor: Alan William Somers
  • Publication number: 20170352375
    Abstract: A method for recording parity data of data stripes within shingled media recording bands in a redundant array of independent disks can be accomplished using a plurality of shingled media recording (SMR) hard disk drives (HDD) each with a plurality of shingled data bands. A data stream received from a host computer system is sequentially stored to a plurality of block segments in successive order, one stripe at a time successively. Each of the shingled data bands possess n data blocks (or multiple data blocks that are grouped together as a data unit) that are successively ordered, each corresponding successive data block from all of the SMR HDDs defines a data stripe, accordingly n data blocks in each SMR HDD defines n stripes across the shingled data bands. A transaction group sync triggers a halt to writing the data stream. The rest of the data stripe is written with fill bits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2017
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Inventor: Alan William Somers
  • Patent number: 9569125
    Abstract: Apparatus and associated method contemplating: operating a storage server having access to a plurality of storage devices, at least a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices defining a first bank and at least a second storage device of the plurality of storage devices defining a second bank; during a first time interval, energizing the first bank to enable data transfer, and de-energizing the second bank to disable data transfer; during the first time interval, mapping data received from the storage server to the first bank; during a second time interval that begins before a storage capacity of the first bank is full, de-energizing the first bank to disable data transfer, and energizing the second bank to enable data transfer; and during the second time interval, mapping the data received from the storage server to the second bank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Spectra Logic, Corp.
    Inventors: Alan William Somers, Justin Theodore Gibbs
  • Publication number: 20160299709
    Abstract: Apparatus and associated method contemplating: operating a storage server having access to a plurality of storage devices, at least a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices defining a first bank and at least a second storage device of the plurality of storage devices defining a second bank; during a first time interval, energizing the first bank to enable data transfer, and de-energizing the second bank to disable data transfer; during the first time interval, mapping data received from the storage server to the first bank; during a second time interval that begins before a storage capacity of the first bank is full, de-energizing the first bank to disable data transfer, and energizing the second bank to enable data transfer; and during the second time interval, mapping the data received from the storage server to the second bank.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2015
    Publication date: October 13, 2016
    Applicant: Spectra Logic Corporation
    Inventors: Alan William Somers, Justin Theodore Gibbs