Patents by Inventor Robert J. Woodruff

Robert J. Woodruff 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: 20220210639
    Abstract: In an embodiment, at least one interface mechanism may be provided. The mechanism may permit, at least in part, at least one process allocate, at least in part, and/or configure, at least in part, at least one network-associated object. Such allocation and/or configuration, at least in part, may be in accordance with at least one parameter set that may correspond, at least in part, to at least one query issued by the at least one process via the mechanism. Many modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2021
    Publication date: June 30, 2022
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Todd M. Rimmer, Robert J. Woodruff, Mark S. Hefty, Sayantan Sur
  • Patent number: 11372680
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method provides determining that a message has been placed in a send buffer; and transferring the message to an application on a second virtual machine by bypassing use of an operating system to process the message by directly placing the message in an application memory space from which the application can retrieve the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Patent number: 11246027
    Abstract: In an embodiment, at least one interface mechanism may be provided. The mechanism may permit, at least in part, at least one process allocate, at least in part, and/or configure, at least in part, at least one network-associated object. Such allocation and/or configuration, at least in part, may be in accordance with at least one parameter set that may correspond, at least in part, to at least one query issued by the at least one process via the mechanism. Many modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Todd M. Rimmer, Robert J. Woodruff, Mark S. Hefty, Sayantan Sur
  • Patent number: 10908961
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method includes implementing a virtual remote direct memory access (RDMA) component in a virtualization layer on the computer system, the virtual RDMA component having an interface implementing RDMA semantics. An RDMA send request from a send queue associated with a first application running on the first VM is read using the virtual RDMA component, the RDMA send request referencing a send buffer in an application memory space for the first application. The virtual RDMA component then copies or transfers a message in the send buffer to a receive buffer in the second VM. A host computing system configured to implement the method and instructions configured to be executed on a host computing system is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Publication number: 20190361743
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method includes implementing a virtual remote direct memory access (RDMA) component in a virtualization layer on the computer system, the virtual RDMA component having an interface implementing RDMA semantics. An RDMA send request from a send queue associated with a first application running on the first VM is read using the virtual RDMA component, the RDMA send request referencing a send buffer in an application memory space for the first application. The virtual RDMA component then copies or transfers a message in the send buffer to a receive buffer in the second VM. A host computing system configured to implement the method and instructions configured to be executed on a host computing system is also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2019
    Publication date: November 28, 2019
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Patent number: 10248182
    Abstract: Methods for performing power management of InfiniBand (IB) switches and apparatus and software configured to implement the methods. Power management datagrams (MADs) are used to inform IB switches that host servers connected to the IB switch's ports are to transition to a reduced-power or offline state or have returned to a normal operating state. A subnet management agent (SMA) on the IB switch receives the power MADs from the host servers and tracks each server's operating state. In response to power down MADs, the SMA coordinates power reduction of the switch's ports and other switch circuitry. For switches with multi-port IB interfaces, a multi-port interface is caused to enter a reduced-power state when all of its ports are connected to host servers that are idle or offline. Additionally, when all of a switch's ports are connected to idle or offline servers the SMA may put the switch's core switch logic into a reduced-power state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Robert J. Woodruff
  • Patent number: 10089197
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems for leveraging an offload programming model for local checkpoints. Compute entities in a computing environment are implemented as one or more sources and a larger number of sinks. A job dispatcher dispatches jobs comprising executable code to the source(s), and the execution of the job code is managed by the source(s). Code sections in the job code designated for offload are offloaded to the sinks by creating offload context information. In conjunction with each offload, an offload object is generated and written to storage. The offloaded code sections are executed by the sinks, which return result data to the source, e.g., via a direct write to a memory buffer specified in the offload context information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Shiow-wen Wendy Cheng, Robert J. Woodruff
  • Patent number: 10055371
    Abstract: Embodiments of apparatuses and methods for remote direct memory access (RDMA) with commit acknowledgements (ACKs) are described. In embodiments, a device may include a process queue to store a remote direct memory access (RDMA) request from an initiator to update a target memory. The device may further include a control module, coupled to the process queue, to issue a commit operation to the target memory based on the RDMA request and generate an acknowledgement, ACK, to be sent to the initiator on completion of the commit operation. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Mark S. Hefty, Robert J. Woodruff
  • Publication number: 20180088995
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method provides determining that a message has been placed in a send buffer; and transferring the message to an application on a second virtual machine by bypassing use of an operating system to process the message by directly placing the message in an application memory space from which the application can retrieve the message.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Patent number: 9749413
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to provide peer-to-peer interrupt signaling between devices coupled via one or more interconnects are described. In one embodiment, a NIC (Network Interface Card such as a Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) capable NIC) transfers data directly into or out of the memory of a peer device that is coupled to the NIC via one or more interconnects, bypassing a host computing/processing unit and/or main system memory. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Mark S. Hefty, Robert J. Woodruff, Jerrie L. Coffman, William R. Magro
  • Patent number: 9747134
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method provides determining that a message has been placed in a send buffer; and transferring the message to an application on a second virtual machine by bypassing use of an operating system to process the message by directly placing the message in an application memory space from which the application can retrieve the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Patent number: 9632973
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and software for implementing RMA application programming interfaces (APIs) over Active Message (AM). AM write and AM read requests are sent from a local node to a remote node to write data to or read data from memory on the remote node using Remote Memory Access (RMA) techniques. The AM requests are handled by corresponding AM handlers, which automatically perform operations associated with the requests. For example, for AM write requests an AM write request handler may write data contained in an AM write request to a remote address space in memory on the remote node, or generate a corresponding RMA write request that is enqueued into an RMA queue used in accordance with a tagged message scheme. Similar operations are performed by AM read requests handlers. RMA reads and writes using AM are further facilitated through use of associated read, write, and RMA progress modules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Jianxin Xiong, Robert J. Woodruff, Frank L. Berry
  • Publication number: 20170104692
    Abstract: In an embodiment, at least one interface mechanism may be provided. The mechanism may permit, at least in part, at least one process allocate, at least in part, and/or configure, at least in part, at least one network-associated object. Such allocation and/or configuration, at least in part, may be in accordance with at least one parameter set that may correspond, at least in part, to at least one query issued by the at least one process via the mechanism. Many modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2016
    Publication date: April 13, 2017
    Inventors: WILLIAM R. MAGRO, TODD M. RIMMER, ROBERT J. WOODRUFF, MARK S. HEFTY, SAYANTAN SUR
  • Publication number: 20170075409
    Abstract: Methods for performing power management of InfiniBand (IB) switches and apparatus and software configured to implement the methods. Power management datagrams (MADs) are used to inform IB switches that host servers connected to the IB switch's ports are to transition to a reduced-power or offline state or have returned to a normal operating state. A subnet management agent (SMA) on the IB switch receives the power MADs from the host servers and tracks each server's operating state. In response to power down MADs, the SMA coordinates power reduction of the switch's ports and other switch circuitry. For switches with multi-port IB interfaces, a multi-port interface is caused to enter a reduced-power state when all of its ports are connected to host servers that are idle or offline. Additionally, when all of a switch's ports are connected to idle or offline servers the SMA may put the switch's core switch logic into a reduced-power state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2016
    Publication date: March 16, 2017
    Applicant: lntel Corporation
    Inventors: Robert J. Woodruff, Sanjeev Jain
  • Patent number: 9582463
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to provide heterogeneous I/O (Input/Output) using RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) and/or Active Message are described. In an embodiment, information is exchanged between an embedded system and a storage device via a source device. The embedded system and the storage device exchange information over a first link and a second link instead of a third link in response to a transfer rate of the first link (coupled between the embedded system and the source device) being faster than a transfer rate of the second link (coupled between the source device and the storage device). The third link is capable to directly couple the embedded system and the storage device. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Shiow-Wen Wendy Cheng, Robert J. Woodruff
  • Patent number: 9558148
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and software for optimizing network data flows within constrained systems. The methods enable data to be transferred between PCIe cards in multi-socket server platforms, each platform including a local socket having an InfiniBand (IB) HCA and a remote socket. Data to be transmitted outbound from a platform is transferred from a PCIe card to the platform's IB HCA via a proxied datapath. Data received at a platform may employ a direct PCIe peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer if the destined PCIe card is installed in the local socket or via a proxied datapath if the destined PCIe card is installed in a remote socket. Outbound transfers from a PCIe card in a local socket to the platform's IB HCA may selectively be transferred using an either a proxied data path for larger data transfers or a direct P2P datapath for smaller data transfers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Arlin R. Davis, Jerrie L. Coffman, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Patent number: 9519328
    Abstract: Methods for performing power management of InfiniBand (IB) switches and apparatus and software configured to implement the methods. Power management datagrams (MADs) are used to inform IB switches that host servers connected to the IB switch's ports are to transition to a reduced-power or offline state or have returned to a normal operating state. A subnet management agent (SMA) on the IB switch receives the power MADs from the host servers and tracks each server's operating state. In response to power down MADs, the SMA coordinates power reduction of the switch's ports and other switch circuitry. For switches with multi-port IB interfaces, a multi-port interface is caused to enter a reduced-power state when all of its ports are connected to host servers that are idle or offline. Additionally, when all of a switch's ports are connected to idle or offline servers the SMA may put the switch's core switch logic into a reduced-power state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Robert J. Woodruff
  • Patent number: 9479506
    Abstract: In an embodiment, at least one interface mechanism may be provided. The mechanism may permit, at least in part, at least one process allocate, at least in part, and/or configure, at least in part, at least one network-associated object. Such allocation and/or configuration, at least in part, may be in accordance with at least one parameter set that may correspond, at least in part, to at least one query issued by the at least one process via the mechanism. Many modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Todd M. Rimmer, Robert J. Woodruff, Mark S. Hefty, Sayantan Sur
  • Patent number: 9411651
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is provided. In an embodiment, the method provides determining that a message has been placed in a send buffer; and transferring the message to an application on a second virtual machine by bypassing use of an operating system to process the message by directly placing the message in an application memory space from which the application can retrieve the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William R. Magro, Robert J. Woodruff, Jianxin Xiong
  • Publication number: 20160170849
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems for leveraging an offload programming model for local checkpoints. Compute entities in a computing environment are implemented as one or more sources and a larger number of sinks. A job dispatcher dispatches jobs comprising executable code to the source(s), and the execution of the job code is managed by the source(s). Code sections in the job code designated for offload are offloaded to the sinks by creating offload context information. In conjunction with each offload, an offload object is generated and written to storage. The offloaded code sections are executed by the sinks, which return result data to the source, e.g., via a direct write to a memory buffer specified in the offload context information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: Shiow-wen Wendy Cheng, Robert J. Woodruff