Patents by Inventor Stephen Charles West

Stephen Charles West 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: 6408348
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system, method, and program for limiting input/output (I/O) requests from an application program to a storage device to facilitate the processing of data in memory. A determination is made as to whether an amount of a set of data in memory exceeds at least one threshold. At least one of multiple paths to the storage device is indicated as blocked to I/O requests from the application program. Each indicated blocked path is available for processing the set of data in memory. An I/O request from the application program is received and a determination is made as to whether the received I/O request intends to access the storage device using one indicated blocked path. The I/O request is denied access to the storage device via the blocked path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lawrence Carter Blount, Emeline Yvonne Germain, Vernon John Legvold, William Frank Micka, Warren Keith Stanley, Stephen Charles West
  • Patent number: 6260129
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system for managing pages in a volatile memory device for data transfer operations between a first storage area and a second storage area. The first storage area is queried to determine a number of data sets to include in a data transfer operation. A number of pages in the volatile memory device needed for the data transfer operation is then determined. A determination is then made as to whether the number of pages needed for the data transfer operation is greater than available fixed pages in a pool of pages. Available fixed pages in the pool are allocated to the data transfer operation after determining that the number of pages needed to process the data transfer operation is less than or equal to the available fixed pages in the pool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corportion
    Inventors: Robert Nelson Crockett, Ronald Maynard Kern, Gregory Edward McBride, David Michael Shackelford, Stephen Charles West
  • Patent number: 5875481
    Abstract: A data processing system includes a data storage subsystem containing a plurality of data storage devices for reading and writing data on a plurality of data storage volumes. The data processing system is controlled by software to perform a method for recycling the data storage volumes containing a percentage of still valid data and a percentage of invalid data by transferring the still valid data on a plurality of input data storage volumes to one or more output data storage volumes. In accordance with the recycling method, the data processing system assigns a selected number of the data storage devices as input devices and a selected number of the data storage devices as output devices in a predetermined input/output ratio of the form m:k, where m is the number of input devices and k is the number of output devices. The system then commences transferring still valid data from input volumes mounted on the input devices to output volumes mounted on the output devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 23, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lyn Lequam Ashton, Anthony Steve Pearson, Jerry Wayne Pence, Stephen Charles West