Patents by Inventor Ralf Schaufler

Ralf Schaufler 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).

  • Publication number: 20230334147
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for monitoring and auditing secure software builds is disclosed. The computer-implemented includes receiving a build file containing a sequence of build instructions. The computer-implemented method further includes, for each build instruction being executed: determining an indicator value corresponding to a monitoring level associated with a build instruction; and modifying logging of trace information associated with a computing system executing the build instruction based, at least in part, on the indicator value corresponding to the monitoring level.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2022
    Publication date: October 19, 2023
    Inventors: Angel Nunez Mencias, Thomas Pohl, Timo Kussmaul, Ralf Schaufler, Simon Spinner, Kai Brennenstuhl, Martin Tröster
  • Patent number: 10241888
    Abstract: A method is presented to verify correctness of computer system software and hardware components. The method includes: operating a test environment with a verified system software and hardware version; monitoring and recording each hardware access during operation of the test environment with the verified system software and hardware version to generate a corresponding verified trace file; operating the test environment with a modified system software and/or hardware version; monitoring and recording each hardware access to generate a corresponding new trace file during operation of the test environment with the modified system software and/or hardware version; defining an arbitrary order for target chips in the verified and the modified hardware model or hardware system version; sorting sequences of entries in both trace files according to the target chip order; and comparing the sorted trace files by comparing their entries each by each and outputting a corresponding comparison result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ralf Schaufler, Tobias Senner
  • Publication number: 20140278334
    Abstract: A method is presented to verify correctness of computer system software and hardware components. The method includes: operating a test environment with a verified system software and hardware version; monitoring and recording each hardware access during operation of the test environment with the verified system software and hardware version to generate a corresponding verified trace file; operating the test environment with a modified system software and/or hardware version; monitoring and recording each hardware access to generate a corresponding new trace file during operation of the test environment with the modified system software and/or hardware version; defining an arbitrary order for target chips in the verified and the modified hardware model or hardware system version; sorting sequences of entries in both trace files according to the target chip order; and comparing the sorted trace files by comparing their entries each by each and outputting a corresponding comparison result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ralf SCHAUFLER, Tobias SENNER
  • Patent number: 8275979
    Abstract: Technique for initializing a data processing system. Sequences of initialization steps for selected functional hardware elements of a data processing system are defined and dependencies between the initialization steps are determined. These definition steps are preferably performed during the design and development of the data processing system. The sequences of initialization steps and their dependencies are represented in a single control flow table. This control flow table is then analyzed by a system management controller during an initialization phase of the data processing system. The sequences are associated with selected functional hardware elements and for each associated sequence of initialization steps the system management controller generates and executes a parallel thread of execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Walter Nicklaus, Ralf Schaufler, Joerg Schulze
  • Publication number: 20110145656
    Abstract: Analyzing a distributed computer system, wherein said distributed computer system comprises at least one hardware unit to process data, an interconnection network and at least one processing unit to initialize said at least one hardware unit by using said interconnection network. According to the inventive method different trace files generated by components of said distributed computer system are post-analyzed and trace lines inside said different trace files belonging to the same action executed from at least one component inside said distributed computer system are identified by using unique key expressions, wherein an output file with context and/or time distribution information for different actions is generated by extracting trace lines representing cross process or cross controller calls and/or function calls for each related action based on an input file.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Friedemann Baitinger, Claudia Fischer, Walter Niklaus, Ralf Schaufler
  • Publication number: 20080184024
    Abstract: Technique for initializing a data processing system. Sequences of initialization steps for selected functional hardware elements of a data processing system are defined and dependencies between the initialization steps are determined. These definition steps are preferably performed during the design and development of the data processing system. The sequences of initialization steps and their dependencies are represented in a single control flow table. This control flow table is then analyzed by a system management controller during an initialization phase of the data processing system. The sequences are associated with selected functional hardware elements and for each associated sequence of initialization steps the system management controller generates and executes a parallel thread of execution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2007
    Publication date: July 31, 2008
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Walter Nicklaus, Ralf Schaufler, Joerg Schulze