Patents by Inventor Brian Keith Howell

Brian Keith Howell 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: 6542904
    Abstract: A method and system for efficiently providing maintenance activity on a relational database that is utilized within a processing system is disclosed. The relational database includes a pool of threads and a plurality of resources. The pool of threads receive requests from a plurality of clients and control the plurality of resources. The method and system comprise determining that a maintenance activity is required and providing a first command that initiates a first process which terminates all threads in the pool of threads if the maintenance activity is required. The method and system further include providing a second command which initiates a second process after the maintenance activity has completed which causes the threads to be created and initiates the processing of requests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2003
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard A. Crus, Curt Lee Cotner, Harry Otto Radke, Brian Keith Howell
  • Publication number: 20020152188
    Abstract: A method and system for efficiently providing maintenance activity on a relational database that is utilized within a processing system is disclosed. The relational database includes a pool of threads and a plurality of resources. The pool of threads receive requests from a plurality of clients and control the plurality of resources. The method and system comprise determining that a maintenance activity is required and providing a first command that initiates a first process which terminates all threads in the pool of threads if the maintenance activity is required. The method and system further include providing a second command which initiates a second process after the maintenance activity has completed which causes the threads to be created and initiates the processing of requests.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 1999
    Publication date: October 17, 2002
    Inventors: RICHARD A. CRUS, CURT LEE COTNER, HARRY OTTO RADKE, BRIAN KEITH HOWELL
  • Patent number: 5884327
    Abstract: The system, method, and program of this invention allows a two-phase commit protocol to work properly, even when the client acting as the coordinator does not have a log to record two-phase state information. In a preferred embodiment, the client in a client/server distributed transaction processing system is a personal computer. The client, without a recovery log, acts as a coordinator of a commit process. The coordinator migrates, i.e., passes, responsibility for resynchronization, and any associated logging requirement, to a server, e.g., to any of the connected relational database management system (RDBMS) servers, which is a participant in the transaction. The server uses its own recovery log for use in satisfying the logging requirement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 16, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Curt Lee Cotner, Richard Anthony Crus, Brian Keith Howell, James Willis Pickel, David Joseph Wisneski