Patents by Inventor Patrick W. Cummings

Patrick W. Cummings 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).

  • User interface for displaying a hierarchical structure of a computer system
    Patent number: 7496594
    Abstract: A user interface is described that displays a hierarchical structure of a computer system. The hierarchical structure of a system configuration for a computer system is formed by the upward and downward connections between various levels of symbolic and real hardware components. In particular, the user interface displays a graphical model of the hierarchical tree-like structure of the configuration in a single computer window. An individual hardware component may have multiple upward connections to separate parent hardware components. An individual hardware component may be represented by more than one node within the model, yet a single data structure is maintained for each of the hardware components. In this manner, users may interact with the user interface to more easily view, comprehend, and manage configuration data for a computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: Unisys Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick W. Cummings, Mitch M. Maurer, Thomas P. Sherren, Anne M. Steiner
  • Real-time management of a configuration of a computer system
    Patent number: 7475235
    Abstract: A computer system is described for representing and enforcing configuration rules that can be used to create and define a configuration or hardware definition for the computer system. The computer system represents configuration rules that define a configuration of a high end mainframe, such as an OS2200 system, in a file external to a configuration program with which a user may interact to manage the configuration of the mainframe system, and to enforce the configuration rules as a user is attempting to modify a configuration of a computer system. The configuration rules may be specified in, for example, an extensible markup language (XML) file format rather than in the source code of the executable program. The external configuration file may conform to a scripting language that allows a developer to embed validation operations for the configuration data specified in the XML file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2009
    Assignee: Unisys Corporation
    Inventors: Steven R. Bernardy, Patrick W. Cummings, James P. Kramer, Mitch M. Maurer
  • Configuration management for an emulator operating system
    Patent number: 7188062
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing the configuration of a computing arrangement having a host operating system and an emulator operating system includes establishing host operating system interfaces to computing arrangement components. The computing arrangement is scanned, using the host operating system interfaces, to determine configuration information about computing arrangement components reserved for use by the emulator operating system. At least a portion of the scanned configuration information is communicated to the emulator operating system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Assignee: Unisys Corporation
    Inventors: Michael J. Rieschl, Mitch M. Maurer, Steven R. Bernardy, Patrick W. Cummings, Anne M. Steiner