Patents by Inventor Keith Iain Wilkinson

Keith Iain Wilkinson 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: 9350256
    Abstract: An internal common slot battery backup unit (CSBBU) is provided that can be placed in a network device's power supply unit (PSU) slot. The CSBBU has the same features of a PSU and communicates with other PSUs in the network device in order to determine when it should supply power to the networking device and when it should be in a recharging state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, William P. Cerreta
  • Patent number: 8719456
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are described to provide shared switch and cache memory. The apparatus may comprise a message switch module, a cache controller module, and shared switch and cache memory to provide shared memory to the message switch module and to the cache controller module. The cache controller module may comprise pointer memory to store a plurality of pointers, each pointer pointing to a location in the shared switch and cache memory (e.g., point to a message header partition in the shared switch and cache memory). If there is a corresponding pointer, a memory read response may be sent to the requesting agent. If there is no corresponding pointer, a write data request may be sent to a corresponding destination agent and, in response to receiving the requested data, a pointer to the stored data in the pointer memory may be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 8472482
    Abstract: In particular embodiments, there are provided methods and apparatus including receiving one or more Infiniband signal streams, de-serializing the received one or more Infiniband signal streams to generate a corresponding one or more parallel data streams, de-serializing further including selectively adding or deleting a control symbol associated with a quiescent period of the one or more received signal streams, time-division multiplexing the generated one or more parallel data streams, and serializing the time division multiplexed one or more parallel data streams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2013
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: William Cerreta, Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 8006011
    Abstract: A data storage system comprises an InfiniBand port, a fibre channel port, and a controller. The InfiniBand port is operable to connect the data storage system to a computer, and the fibre channel port is operable to connect the data storage system to one or more fibre channel storage devices. The controller is operable to receive an InfiniBand boot request from a computer system via the InfiniBand Port, and to connect the computer system to the one or more fibre channel storage devices via the fiber channel port such that the controller is operable to map an InfiniBand boot request from the computer system to a fibre channel target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Tracy Edmonds, Shrikant Jay Vaidya
  • Patent number: 7996583
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide methods and systems operable to receive a work queue pair from one of a plurality of host nodes, to scan the work queue pair for known data formats corresponding to one of a plurality of transport protocols, to optionally convert the work queue pair to produce a standard work queue pair data format, to add the work queue pair to a scheduler queue for a virtual host channel adapter (HCA) scheduler, and to update a context associated with the work queue pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20110106986
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are described to provide shared switch and cache memory. The apparatus may comprise a message switch module, a cache controller module, and shared switch and cache memory to provide shared memory to the message switch module and to the cache controller module. The cache controller module may comprise pointer memory to store a plurality of pointers, each pointer pointing to a location in the shared switch and cache memory (e.g., point to a message header partition in the shared switch and cache memory). If there is a corresponding pointer, a memory read response may be sent to the requesting agent. If there is no corresponding pointer, a write data request may be sent to a corresponding destination agent and, in response to receiving the requested data, a pointer to the stored data in the pointer memory may be provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 6, 2011
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicant: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 7870306
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are described to provide shared switch and cache memory. The apparatus may comprise a message switch module, a cache controller module, and shared switch and cache memory to provide shared memory to the message switch module and to the cache controller module. The cache controller module may comprise pointer memory to store a plurality of pointers, each pointer pointing to a location in the shared switch and cache memory (e.g., point to a message header partition in the shared switch and cache memory). If there is a corresponding pointer, a memory read response may be sent to the requesting agent. If there is no corresponding pointer, a write data request may be sent to a corresponding destination agent and, in response to receiving the requested data, a pointer to the stored data in the pointer memory may be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 7865633
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide methods and systems operable to receive a work queue pair from the host application, to add the work queue pair to a scheduler queue for a virtual HCA scheduler, to update a context associated with the work queue pair, to create at least one data packet corresponding to the work queue pair, and to send the at least one data packet to at least one of a plurality of target nodes via at least one of a plurality of data channel ports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20100103954
    Abstract: In particular embodiments, there are provided methods and apparatus including receiving one or more Infiniband signal streams, de-serializing the received one or more Infiniband signal streams to generate a corresponding one or more parallel data streams, de-serializing further including selectively adding or deleting a control symbol associated with a quiescent period of the one or more received signal streams, time-division multiplexing the generated one or more parallel data streams, and serializing the time division multiplexed one or more parallel data streams.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Applicant: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: William Cerreta, Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 7571272
    Abstract: A bridge comprises an InfiniBand channel adapter, a fiber channel adapter, a command path, and a data path. The command path is coupled to the InfiniBand channel adapter and the fiber channel adapter; and the command path is operable to receive commands from a first of the InfiniBand and fiber channel adapters, to process the received commands, and to transmit the processed command to the other of the InfiniBand and fiber channel adapters. The data path is coupled to the InfiniBand adapter and fiber channel adapter, and is operable to transfer data from the first of the InfiniBand and fiber channel adapters to the other of InfiniBand and fiber channel adapters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2009
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Tracy Edmonds, Shrikant Jay Vaidya, Jonathan Rollo Pearce
  • Patent number: 7568062
    Abstract: A bridge comprises an InfiniBand port, a fiber channel port, a cut-through data path coupled to the InfiniBand port and fiber channel port comprising a data buffer path operable to store data, and a message control path operable to decode and encode message headers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2009
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Jonathan Rollo Pearce
  • Publication number: 20090024900
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide a system and method for cyclic redundancy checking in lane-based data communications. A particular embodiment provides a data stream receiver to receive an input data stream having a plurality of data lanes, and a lane-based CRC generator to generate a set of CRC values, each CRC value of the set of CRC values corresponding to a different data lane of the plurality of data lanes; and generate an aggregated CRC value from the set of CRC values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2007
    Publication date: January 22, 2009
    Applicant: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Roland Brill Dreier, Hemant Vinchure
  • Publication number: 20080123672
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide methods and systems operable to receive a work queue pair from the host application, to add the work queue pair to a scheduler queue for a virtual HCA scheduler, to update a context associated with the work queue pair, to create at least one data packet corresponding to the work queue pair, and to send the at least one data packet to at least one of a plurality of target nodes via at least one of a plurality of data channel ports.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: May 29, 2008
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20080126564
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide methods and systems operable to receive a work queue pair from one of a plurality of host nodes, to scan the work queue pair for known data formats corresponding to one of a plurality of transport protocols, to optionally convert the work queue pair to produce a standard work queue pair data format, to add the work queue pair to a scheduler queue for a virtual host channel adapter (HCA) scheduler, and to update a context associated with the work queue pair.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: May 29, 2008
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20080126507
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are described to provide shared switch and cache memory. The apparatus may comprise a message switch module, a cache controller module, and shared switch and cache memory to provide shared memory to the message switch module and to the cache controller module. The cache controller module may comprise pointer memory to store a plurality of pointers, each pointer pointing to a location in the shared switch and cache memory (e.g., point to a message header partition in the shared switch and cache memory). If there is a corresponding pointer, a memory read response may be sent to the requesting agent. If there is no corresponding pointer, a write data request may be sent to a corresponding destination agent and, in response to receiving the requested data, a pointer to the stored data in the pointer memory may be provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: May 29, 2008
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20080059686
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide methods and systems operable to receive a work queue pair from one of a plurality of host nodes, to scan the work queue pair for known data formats corresponding to one of a plurality of transport protocols, to optionally convert the work queue pair to produce a standard work queue pair data format, to add the work queue pair to a scheduler queue for a virtual host channel adapter (HCA) scheduler, and to update a context associated with the work queue pair.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: March 6, 2008
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20070204103
    Abstract: A data storage system comprises an InfiniBand port, a fibre channel port, and a controller. The InfiniBand port is operable to connect the data storage system to a computer, and the fibre channel port is operable to connect the data storage system to one or more fibre channel storage devices. The controller is operable to receive an InfiniBand boot request from a computer system via the InfiniBand Port, and to connect the computer system to the one or more fibre channel storage devices via the fiber channel port such that the controller is operable to map an InfiniBand boot request from the computer system to a fibre channel target.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2006
    Publication date: August 30, 2007
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Tracy Edmonds, Shrikant Jay Vaidya
  • Publication number: 20070147394
    Abstract: A timer for processing timer entries in an efficient manner utilizing linked lists, without requiring a walk-through to add new timer entries. Timer entries are added to a linked list only at its tail. Each linked list has an associated timer size. In one embodiment, a timer entry is added only to a linked list having a timer size matching the expiration time of the timer entry. In other embodiments, a timer entry is added to a linked list having the greatest timer size not exceeding the expiration time of the timer entry. When a timer entry is added to a linked list, its expiration time is reduced by the timer size of the linked list, and a time-to-live value is set such that the sum of all time-to-live values of timer entries in the linked list equals the timer size.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2006
    Publication date: June 28, 2007
    Inventor: Keith Iain Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20070143522
    Abstract: A bridge comprises an InfiniBand port, a fibre channel port, a cut-through data path coupled to the InfiniBand port and fibre channel port comprising a data buffer path operable to store data, and a message control path operable to decode and encode message headers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Jonathan Rollo Pearce
  • Publication number: 20070143523
    Abstract: A bridge comprises an InfiniBand channel adapter, a fibre channel adapter, a command path, and a data path. The command path is coupled to the InfiniBand channel adapter and the fibre channel adapter; and the command path is operable to receive commands from a first of the InfiniBand and fibre channel adapters, to process the received commands, and to transmit the processed command to the other of the InfiniBand and fibre channel adapters. The data path is coupled to the InfiniBand adapter and fibre channel adapter, and is operable to transfer data from the first of the InfiniBand and fibre channel adapters to the other of InfiniBand and fibre channel adapters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Inventors: Keith Iain Wilkinson, Tracy Edmonds, Shrikant Jay Vaidya, Jonathan Rollo Pearce