Patents by Inventor Mark Francis Wilding

Mark Francis Wilding 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: 8972794
    Abstract: A method (500) or a diagnostic recording device (400) having transactional memory and a processor coupled to the transactional memory can store (502) contents of a transaction log (40) of the transactional memory, detect (504) an exception event, and replay (506) last instructions that led up to the exception event using a debugger tool (80). The transactional memory can be hardware or software based transactional memory. The processor can also store the transaction log by storing the contents of the transaction log in a core file (302) which can include a stack (60), a register dump (70), a memory dump (75), and the transactional log. The debugger tool can be used to load up the core file, an executable file (95), and a library (90) to enable the diagnostic recording device to retrace transactions occurring at the diagnostic recording device up to the exception event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mark Francis Wilding, Robert James Blainey, Thomas J. Heller, Jr., Alexander Abrashkevich
  • Patent number: 8032497
    Abstract: Providing extended or end-to-end data integrity through layers of a system. In one aspect, information is to be transmitted between an application end of the system and a physical storage medium that stores the information for a database of the system, the information to be transmitted via a database server in a database server layer of the system. At least a portion of data protection is provided for the information, the data protection causing the information to be protected from corruption between a system layer and the physical storage medium, where the system layer is a separate layer provided closer to the application end of the system than the database server layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Blair K. Adamache, Kenneth Wayne Boyd, Robert Frederic Kern, Jeffrey William Palm, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7900195
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a data processing system-implemented method, a data processing system, and an article of manufacture for investigating computer software. The data processing system-implemented method includes capturing tracing information at one or more boundary points of the computer software, and reproducing a behavior of the computer software at the boundary points based on the captured tracing information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Alan Begg, Murray Frederick Chislett, Albert Grankin, John Paul Parkin, Edward Van Gennip, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7840946
    Abstract: The invention finds matches in ordered sequences, e.g. program function call stacks from anomalous software program executions for discovering related or identical software flaws and possible known solutions. Call stacks are matched after removing recursive and uninformative subpatterns, e.g. names of common error handling routines, to see if they were generated due to the same possibly known problem. Sequences statistically unlikely to be matches are pruned from the search. Matches found earlier in the sequences may be weighted differently, e.g. to be more important in call stacks, than other matches. Sequences are indexed so that those relevant to a query are identified automatically without detailed exhaustive search. Maximum matches are found by optimizing a cost function based on weighted sequence similarity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rajeev Gupta, Guy Maring Lohman, Tanveer Fathima Mahmood, Laurent Sebastien Mignet, Natwar Modani, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7793267
    Abstract: A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for performing software testing. A first set of traces is compressed to form a first set of compressed traces. The first set of compressed traces is compared to a plurality of additional traces to identify a set of partially matching traces within the plurality of additional traces. The first set of traces is compressed to form a second set of compressed traces. The second set of compressed traces is compressed according to a technique such that the second set of compressed traces contains more information than the first set of compressed traces. The second set of compressed traces is compared to the set of partially matching traces to identify a second set of partially matching traces within the set of partially matching traces. The second set of partially matching traces is placed in a memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Davison, Mechelle Sophia Gittens, David Richard Godwin, Nazim H. Madhavji, Andriy Vladimir Miranskyy, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7783928
    Abstract: A method for describing activities in software products is provided. The method provides for identifying a plurality of activities in a software product that are of interest, defining an event structure to describe each identified activity as an event, associating each identified activity with one or more problem determination technologies, executing the software product, and responsive to detecting one of the plurality of identified activities during execution of the software product, creating one or more event records for the one detected activity based on the defined event structure, initiating the one or more problem determination technologies associated with the one detected activity, and passing the one or more event records to each of the one or more problem determination technologies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Abrashkevich, Dmitri Abrashkevich, Ralph James Bateman, Stephen Rees, Yinghua (Amy) Tang, Robin D. Grosman, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7653610
    Abstract: Disclosed is a data processing system for facilitating problem resolution. The data processing system-implemented system includes a configuring module for configuring a system pathway that leads to a solution, and an associating module for associating a usage indicator with the symptom pathway, the usage indicator indicating a frequency in which the symptom pathway was previously implemented for successfully resolving previously experienced problems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Abrashkevich, Dmitri Abrashkevich, John H. Bailey, Sean Chen, James B. Cottingham, Michael Peter Etgen, Vijaya Ratnala, Frederick O. G. van Veen, Michael LaVerne Wamboldt, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7613888
    Abstract: A data storage system writes data supplied from a host to data storage in accordance with write I/O of an owning application. A workload manager directs the processing of the supplied data in accordance with the write I/O of the owning application, provides service workload identification describing the write I/O, a storage subsystem control adds the service workload identification to record set information for the data, and a journal management system stores the record set information in a journal. The journaled information, for example, may be employed for performing forensic analysis of data corruption events or to perform security audits, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Assignee: International Bsuiness Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth Wayne Boyd, Donna Eng Dillenberger, Robert Frederic Kern, William Frank Micka, Jeffrey William Palm, David Michael Shackelford, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7610459
    Abstract: A data storage system writes data supplied from a host to data storage in accordance with write I/O of an owning application. A workload manager directs the processing of the supplied data in accordance with the write I/O of the owning application, provides service workload identification describing the write I/O, a storage subsystem control adds the service workload identification to record set information for the data, and a journal management system stores the record set information in a journal. The journaled information, for example, may be employed for performing forensic analysis of data corruption events or to perform security audits, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth Wayne Boyd, Donna Eng Dillenberger, Robert Frederic Kern, William Frank Micka, Jeffrey William Palm, David Michael Shackelford, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20090217104
    Abstract: A method (500) or a diagnostic recording device (400) having transactional memory and a processor coupled to the transactional memory can store (502) contents of a transaction log (40) of the transactional memory, detect (504) an exception event, and replay (506) last instructions that led up to the exception event using a debugger tool (80). The transactional memory can be hardware or software based transactional memory. The processor can also store the transaction log by storing the contents of the transaction log in a core file (302) which can include a stack (60), a register dump (70), a memory dump (75), and the transactional log. The debugger tool can be used to load up the core file, an executable file (95), and a library (90) to enable the diagnostic recording device to retrace transactions occurring at the diagnostic recording device up to the exception event.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2008
    Publication date: August 27, 2009
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPRATION
    Inventors: Mark Francis Wilding, Robert James Blainey, Thomas J. Heller, JR., Alexander Abrashkevich
  • Publication number: 20090119645
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a data processing system-implemented method, a data processing system, and an article of manufacture for investigating computer software. The data processing system-implemented method includes capturing tracing information at one or more boundary points of the computer software, and reproducing a behavior of the computer software at the boundary points based on the captured tracing information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2009
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Alan BEGG, Murray Frederick Chislett, Albert Grankin, John Paul Parkin, Edward Van Gennip, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20090083853
    Abstract: Providing extended or end-to-end data integrity through layers of a system. In one aspect, information is to be transmitted between an application end of the system and a physical storage medium that stores the information for a database of the system, the information to be transmitted via a database server in a database server layer of the system. At least a portion of data protection is provided for the information, the data protection causing the information to be protected from corruption between a system layer and the physical storage medium, where the system layer is a separate layer provided closer to the application end of the system than the database server layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2007
    Publication date: March 26, 2009
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Blair K. Adamache, Kenneth Wayne Boyd, Robert Frederic Kern, Jeffrey William Palm, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20090063904
    Abstract: A method for describing activities in software products is provided. The method provides for identifying a plurality of activities in a software product that are of interest, defining an event structure to describe each identified activity as an event, associating each identified activity with one or more problem determination technologies, executing the software product, and responsive to detecting one of the plurality of identified activities during execution of the software product, creating one or more event records for the one detected activity based on the defined event structure, initiating the one or more problem determination technologies associated with the one detected activity, and passing the one or more event records to each of the one or more problem determination technologies.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2007
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Inventors: Alexander Abrashkevich, Dmitri Abrashkevich, Ralph James Bateman, Stephen Rees, Yinghua (Amy) Tang, Robin D. Grosman, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7496901
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a data processing system-implemented method for investigating computer software. The data processing system-implemented method includes capturing tracing information at one or more boundary points of the computer software, and reproducing a behavior of the computer software at the boundary points based on the captured tracing information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Alan Begg, Murray Frederick Chislett, Albert Grankin, John Paul Parkin, Edward Van Gennip, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20090013216
    Abstract: Disclosed is a data processing system for facilitating problem resolution. The data processing system-implemented system includes a configuring module for configuring a system pathway that leads to a solution, and an associating module for associating a usage indicator with the symptom pathway, the usage indicator indicating a frequency in which the symptom pathway was previously implemented for successfully resolving previously experienced problems.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2008
    Publication date: January 8, 2009
    Inventors: Alexander Abrashkevich, Dmitri Abrashkevich, John H. Bailey, Sean Chen, James B. Cottingham, Michael Peter Etgen, Vijaya Ratnala, Frederick O.G. van Veen, Michael LaVerne Wamboldt, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Patent number: 7447829
    Abstract: A method and system in accordance with the present invention comprises a thread stack/thread heap combination, wherein the thread heap is for thread local memory usage and wherein the thread stack and thread heap grow in opposite directions. In the present invention the thread specific heap is allocated next to the thread's stack and grows in the opposite direction from that of the stack. This improvement allows the current space management of thread stacks, which spread out the memory placement of multiple stacks to avoid collision, to also be used for the heaps without additional overhead or complexity. It also allows the existing growth scheme of adding memory pages to the process for the stack to be used again because the growth is simply in the opposite direction. Thread specific heaps eliminate the need for expensive synchronization when allocating from a shared heap in a multiprocessor environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mark Francis Wilding, Daniel Alan Wood
  • Patent number: 7440933
    Abstract: Disclosed is a data processing system-implemented method. The data processing system-implemented method includes configuring a symptom pathway that leads to a solution, and associating a usage indicator with the symptom pathway, the usage indicator indicating a frequency in which the symptom pathway was previously implemented for successfully resolving previously experienced problems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Abrashkevich, Dmitri Abrashkevich, John H. Bailey, Sean Chen, James B. Cottingham, Michael Peter Etgen, Vijaya Ratnala, Frederick O. G. van Veen, Michael LaVerne Wamboldt, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20080256310
    Abstract: A data storage system writes data supplied from a host to data storage in accordance with write I/O of an owning application. A workload manager directs the processing of the supplied data in accordance with the write I/O of the owning application, provides service workload identification describing the write I/O, a storage subsystem control adds the service workload identification to record set information for the data, and a journal management system stores the record set information in a journal. The journaled information, for example, may be employed for performing forensic analysis of data corruption events or to perform security audits, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2007
    Publication date: October 16, 2008
    Inventors: Kenneth Wayne Boyd, Donna Eng Dillenberger, Robert Frederic Kern, William Frank Micka, Jeffrey William Palm, David Michael Shackelford, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20080256309
    Abstract: A data storage system writes data supplied from a host to data storage in accordance with write I/O of an owning application. A workload manager directs the processing of the supplied data in accordance with the write I/O of the owning application, provides service workload identification describing the write I/O, a storage subsystem control adds the service workload identification to record set information for the data, and a journal management system stores the record set information in a journal. The journaled information, for example, may be employed for performing forensic analysis of data corruption events or to perform security audits, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2007
    Publication date: October 16, 2008
    Inventors: Kenneth Wayne Boyd, Donna Eng Dillenberger, Robert Frederic Kern, William Frank Micka, Jeffrey William Palm, David Michael Shackelford, Mark Francis Wilding
  • Publication number: 20080092123
    Abstract: A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for performing software testing. A first set of traces is compressed to form a first set of compressed traces. The first set of compressed traces is compared to a plurality of additional traces to identify a set of partially matching traces within the plurality of additional traces. The first set of traces is compressed to form a second set of compressed traces. The second set of compressed traces is compressed according to a technique such that the second set of compressed traces contains more information than the first set of compressed traces. The second set of compressed traces is compared to the set of partially matching traces to identify a second set of partially matching traces within the set of partially matching traces. The second set of partially matching traces is placed in a memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2006
    Publication date: April 17, 2008
    Inventors: Matthew Davison, Mechelle Sophia Gittens, David Richard Godwin, Nazim H. Madhavji, Andriy Vladimir Miranskyy, Mark Francis Wilding