Abstract: A Work Flow Manager (WFM), or process manager, is the software to manage and control the flow of work items from one function to the next in a well-defined application process to achieve the complete processing of those work items. Applications of WFMs include the processing of imaged or multimedia documents such as health and other insurance forms, filmless radiology, IRS tax submissions, and FBI fingerprint and voice identification. The invention WFM:a. provides an improved, scalable subsystem and method for work flow management;b. partitions the application (work flow) process into component distributed services, each represented by an OSF Distributed Computer Environment (DCE) service;c. defines the application process with a state transition diagram (STD);d. uses centralized control software with a work-in-process (WIP) manager, a work queue manager, and a WIP submission attributes data base manager;e.

Abstract: The distributed auditing subsystem invention runs in a UNIX-like operating system environment with a hierarchical file system. The invention provides an audit trail of accesses to the objects it protects and maintains and protects that audit trail from modification or unauthorized access or destruction. The audit data generated by the invention is protected so that read access to it is limited to those who are authorized for audit data. The invention enables the recording of events which are relevant to the maintenance of the security of the system, such as the use of identification and authentication mechanisms, the introduction of objects into a user's address space, the deletion of such objects, actions taken by computer operators and system administrators and/or system security officers, and other security relevant events. The invention generates an audit record for each recorded event which includes the date and time of the event, the user, the type of event, and the success or failure of the event.

Abstract: Operation of a computer system after a main memory failure is enabled by storing a read-only access shadow copy of its data structures in another memory having an independent failure mode. The shadow copy is periodically updated at a series of checkpoints. Where the data structure is a linked list, updating without recopying is enabled by prelinking the list item in the read-only list to the beginning of a second read/write list, which is appended to the first list at the next checkpoint.