Patents by Inventor Jimmy P. Strickland

Jimmy P. Strickland 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: 5544345
    Abstract: A high-speed cache is shared by a plurality of independently-operating data systems in a multi-system data sharing complex. Each data system has access both to the high-speed cache and to lower-speed, upper-level storage for obtaining and storing data. Management logic in the shared high-speed cache is provided to meet the serialization and data coherency requirements of the data systems when sharing the high speed cache as a store-multiple cache in a multi-system environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kelly S. Carpenter, Gerard M. Dearing, Jeffrey M. Nick, Jimmy P. Strickland, Michael D. Swanson, Wendell W. Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 5537574
    Abstract: A method for controlling coherence of data elements sharable among a plurality of independently-operating CPCs (central processing complexes) in a multi-system complex (called a parallel sysplex) which contains sysplex DASDds (direct access storage devices) and a high-speed SES (shared electronic storage) facility. Sysplex shared data elements are stored in the sysplex DASD under a unique sysplex data element name, which is used for sysplex coherence control. Any CPC may copy any sysplex data element into a local cache buffers (LCB) in the CPC's main storage, where it has an associated sysplex validity bit. The copying CPC executes a sysplex coherence registration command which requests a SES processor to verify that the data element name already exists in the SES cache, and to store the name of the data element in a SES cache entry if found in the SES cache. Importantly, the registration command communicates to SES the CPC location of the validity bit for the LCB containing that data element copy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Elko, Jeffrey A. Frey, John F. Isenberg, Jr., Chandrasekaran Mohan, Inderpal S. Narang, Jeffrey M. Nick, Jimmy P. Strickland, Michael D. Swanson
  • Patent number: 5493668
    Abstract: A high-speed cache is shared by a plurality of independently-operating data systems in a multi-system data sharing complex. Each data system has access both to the high-speed cache and the lower-speed, secondary storage for obtaining and storing data. Management logic and the high-speed cache assures that a block of data obtained form the cache for entry into the secondary storage will be consistent with the version of the block of data in the shared cache with non-blocking serialization allowing access to a changed version in the cache while castout is being performed. Castout classes are provided to facilitate efficient movement from the shared cache to DASD.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1992
    Date of Patent: February 20, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Elko, Jeffrey A. Frey, Chandrasekaran Mohan, Inderpal S. Narang, Jeffrey M. Nick, Jimmy P. Strickland, Michael D. Swanson
  • Patent number: 5355477
    Abstract: A Virtual Storage Access Management (VSAM) technique for maintaining data integrity of the record-level shared data in a multiprocessor system environment without the concurrency loss associated with locking at the data Control Interval (CI) or block level. Two or more concurrent processes can update different records within the same VSAM data CI using only a record-level lock. This feature relies upon multiple private data CI copies, Shared External Storage (SES), cache cross-invalidation, and a conditional writing operation. A first process updates a private copy of a data CI containing the target record from SES, logs the changes, and writes the changed data CI back to the SES conditioned upon no update having been made to the same block data CI by a second process in the interim.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1991
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jimmy P. Strickland, Kenneth M. Kapulka
  • Patent number: 5339427
    Abstract: A shared coupling facility contains system lock management (SLM) means for supporting a distributed locking protocol used by a plurality of sharing lock managers each executing on a processor having access to the shared memory and to any other processors in the processor complex. A request to lock a resource shared among the lock managers is first checked against a local hash table and then, if necessary, forwarded to the system lock management means in the shared memory for synchronous or asynchronous processing. List structures are maintained in the shared coupling facility to support the protocol, and are used by the system lock management means to record data recovery status. The sharing lock managers interact with the SLM means to control/manage lock contention, waiter queueing, and compatibility processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 16, 1994
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Elko, John F. Isenberg, Jr., Brian B. Moore, Jimmy P. Strickland, Michael D. Swanson, George W. Wang
  • Patent number: 5317739
    Abstract: A Structured External Storage (SES) device/processor is connected to two or more DP systems, thereby loosely coupling the systems. The SES is capable of holding data objects of two distinct types (List objects and Cache objects), and communicates commands and command responses with the systems using a message protocol. A support facility within a processor on which a system is executing receives status indications from the SES without interrupting mainline system execution. Within the SES, a serialization mechanism allows more than one command to execute in parallel without loss of data object integrity, or command consistency. A forward completion mechanism sends to systems early notification of completion of certain commands, without permitting results inconsistent with this notification to be obtained by the systems. And a restart mechanism permits interrupted commands to be restarted by the initiating system or, in certain cases, by another system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1992
    Date of Patent: May 31, 1994
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: David A. Elko, Jeffrey A. Frey, John F. Isenberg, Jr., Jeffery M. Mick, Jimmy P. Strickland, Michael D. Swanson, Audrey A. Helffrich, Brian B. Moore
  • Patent number: 4878167
    Abstract: A method for writing tagged (partitioned and classified) records from a first log stream to multiple recovery streams and discarding same from said first stream at the termination of the unit of recovery in a transaction-oriented system to permit first log stream reuse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1989
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth M. Kapulka, Holly A. Rader, Jimmy P. Strickland
  • Patent number: 4480304
    Abstract: Method and means for operating a computing system for controlling access to and maintaining the integrity of data resources shared by multiple applications executing on a plurality of central electronic complexes (CEC's) while minimizing communication of sharing control parameters between different electronic complexes. Each complex includes a resource lock manager (IRLM) which maintains the hold and wait locks for applications executing under one or more information management subsystems on the complex and selected wait locks for the other complex. Selective communication of lock request information is controlled by hash tables maintained in synchronization in each IRLM, which denote the interest of each complex in each hash class, or congruence class, of data resources. A first complex already having exclusive use of a congruence class grants locks on data resources which map into the congruence class without communication of the request to the other complex.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1980
    Date of Patent: October 30, 1984
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Clarence A. Carr, Robert L. Huddleston, Jimmy P. Strickland
  • Patent number: 4399504
    Abstract: Data resources are shared by applications executing on a plurality of central electronic complexes. Each complex of a pair includes a resource lock manager (IRLM) which maintains the hold and wait locks for applications executing on the complex and selected wait locks for the other complex. Selective communication of lock request information is controlled by hash tables maintained in synchronization in each IRLM, which denote the interest of each complex in each hash class of data resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1980
    Date of Patent: August 16, 1983
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ronald L. Obermarck, Jimmy P. Strickland, Vern L. Watts