Patents by Inventor Stewart L. Palmer

Stewart L. Palmer 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: 9940346
    Abstract: In a shared data system comprising one or more primary nodes and a plurality of secondary nodes, global lock manager on a primary node manages locks for shared resources by exchanging an abstract lock state with local lock managers on the secondary nodes. The abstract lock state includes a particular representation of all of the applications on the nodes that are requesting or are granted locks. The exchange of these particular lock states instead of individual requests improves performance by increasing concurrency and reducing off-machine communication. A global deadlock detector on a node detects and resolves global deadlocks, in conjunction with local deadlock detectors on the secondary nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2018
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Gopi K. Attaluri, James L. Finnie, Stewart L. Palmer, Piotr M. Plachta, Garret F. Swart, Xun Xue, Roger L. Q. Zheng
  • Publication number: 20150019739
    Abstract: In a shared data system comprising one or more primary nodes and a plurality of secondary nodes, global lock manager on a primary node manages locks for shared resources by exchanging an abstract lock state with local lock managers on the secondary nodes. The abstract lock state includes a particular representation of all of the applications on the nodes that are requesting or are granted locks. The exchange of these particular lock states instead of individual requests improves performance by increasing concurrency and reducing off-machine communication. A global deadlock detector on a node detects and resolves global deadlocks, in conjunction with local deadlock detectors on the secondary nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2014
    Publication date: January 15, 2015
    Inventors: Gopi K. Attaluri, James L. Finnie, Stewart L. Palmer, Piotr M. Plachta, Garret F. Swart, Xun Xue, Roger L.Q. Zheng
  • Patent number: 8868755
    Abstract: In a shared data system comprising one or more primary nodes and a plurality of secondary nodes, global lock manager on a primary node manages locks for shared resources by exchanging an abstract lock state with local lock managers on the secondary nodes. The abstract lock state includes a particular representation of all of the applications on the nodes that are requesting or are granted locks. The exchange of these particular lock states instead of individual requests improves performance by increasing concurrency and reducing off-machine communication. A global deadlock detector on a node detects and resolves global deadlocks, in conjunction with local deadlock detectors on the secondary nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gopi K. Attaluri, James L. Finnie, Stewart L. Palmer, Piotr M. Plachta, Garret F. Swart, Xun Xue, Roger L.Q. Zheng
  • Patent number: 8868748
    Abstract: In a shared data system comprising one or more primary nodes and a plurality of secondary nodes, global lock manager on a primary node manages locks for shared resources by exchanging an abstract lock state with local lock managers on the secondary nodes. The abstract lock state includes a particular representation of all of the applications on the nodes that are requesting or are granted locks. The exchange of these particular lock states instead of individual requests improves performance by increasing concurrency and reducing off-machine communication. A global deadlock detector on a node detects and resolves global deadlocks, in conjunction with local deadlock detectors on the secondary nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gopi K. Attaluri, James L. Finnie, Stewart L. Palmer, Piotr M. Plachta, Garret F. Swart, Xun Xue, Roger L. Q. Zheng
  • Patent number: 8838910
    Abstract: A mechanism is provided for multi-part aggregated variables in structured external storage. The shared external storage provides a serialized, aggregated structure update capability. The shared external storage identifies each local value for which a group value is needed by name. Each time a member writes out its value, the member specifies the name of the object, the member's current value, and the type of aggregate function to apply (e.g., minimum, maximum, etc.). The structured external storage in one atomic operation updates the member's value, recalculates the aggregate of all of the individual values, and returns the aggregate to the member. The advantage of this approach is that it requires only one write operation to the structured external storage. The update operation does not require locking, because the operation is atomic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Elko, Ronen Grosman, Stewart L. Palmer, Adam J. Storm
  • Publication number: 20140032765
    Abstract: In a shared data system comprising one or more primary nodes and a plurality of secondary nodes, global lock manager on a primary node manages locks for shared resources by exchanging an abstract lock state with local lock managers on the secondary nodes. The abstract lock state includes a particular representation of all of the applications on the nodes that are requesting or are granted locks. The exchange of these particular lock states instead of individual requests improves performance by increasing concurrency and reducing off-machine communication. A global deadlock detector on a node detects and resolves global deadlocks, in conjunction with local deadlock detectors on the secondary nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2013
    Publication date: January 30, 2014
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gopi K. Attaluri, James L. Finnie, Stewart L. Palmer, Piotr M. Plachta, Garret F. Swart, Xun Xue, Roger L.Q. Zheng
  • Publication number: 20120089735
    Abstract: In a shared data system comprising one or more primary nodes and a plurality of secondary nodes, global lock manager on a primary node manages locks for shared resources by exchanging an abstract lock state with local lock managers on the secondary nodes. The abstract lock state includes a particular representation of all of the applications on the nodes that are requesting or are granted locks. The exchange of these particular lock states instead of individual requests improves performance by increasing concurrency and reducing off-machine communication. A global deadlock detector on a node detects and resolves global deadlocks, in conjunction with local deadlock detectors on the secondary nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2010
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Gopi K. Attaluri, James L. Finnie, Stewart L. Palmer, Piotr M. Plachta, Garret F. Swart, Xun Xue, Roger L. Q. Zheng
  • Publication number: 20110302377
    Abstract: A mechanism for automatic reallocation of shared external storage structures is provided. The shared external storage divides the dynamically allocable storage into fixed sized blocks referred to as allocation units. To create an object of a specific type, the shared external storage uses some number of allocation units. If the object will fit in one allocation unit, then it is placed in one allocation unit. If the object is larger than one allocation unit, then the appropriate number of allocation units is obtained and chained together to contain all of the information of the required object. When an object so allocated is no longer needed, the shared external storage breaks the object down to a set of one or more fixed sized allocation units. The shared external storage then returns the allocation units to the pool of available objects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2010
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Elko, Stewart L. Palmer
  • Publication number: 20110302375
    Abstract: A mechanism is provided for multi-part aggregated variables in structured external storage. The shared external storage provides a serialized, aggregated structure update capability. The shared external storage identifies each local value for which a group value is needed by name. Each time a member writes out its value, the member specifies the name of the object, the member's current value, and the type of aggregate function to apply (e.g., minimum, maximum, etc.). The structured external storage in one atomic operation updates the member's value, recalculates the aggregate of all of the individual values, and returns the aggregate to the member. The advantage of this approach is that it requires only one write operation to the structured external storage. The update operation does not require locking, because the operation is atomic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2010
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Elko, Ronen Crosmas, Stewart L. Palmer, Adam J. Storm
  • Patent number: 8046633
    Abstract: A system and method for managing shared resources is disclosed. The system includes a primary coherency processing unit which processes lock requests from a plurality of data processing hosts, the primary coherency processing unit also storing a first current lock state information for the plurality of data processing hosts, the first current lock state information including a plurality of locks held by the plurality of data processing hosts. The system further includes a standby coherency processing unit storing fewer locks than the primary coherency processing unit, the locks stored by the standby coherency processing unit being a subset of locks included in the first current lock state information, the standby coherency unit configured to perform a plurality of activities of the primary coherency processing unit using the subset of locks in response to a failure of the primary coherency processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew A. Huras, Roger L. Zheng, Aamer Sachedina, James L. Finnie, Keriley K. Romanufa, Xun Xue, Andrew D. Buckler, Stewart L. Palmer
  • Publication number: 20110145627
    Abstract: A system and method for managing shared resources is disclosed. The system includes a primary coherency processing unit which processes lock requests from a plurality of data processing hosts, the primary coherency processing unit also storing a first current lock state information for the plurality of data processing hosts, the first current lock state information including a plurality of locks held by the plurality of data processing hosts. The system further includes a standby coherency processing unit storing fewer locks than the primary coherency processing unit, the locks stored by the standby coherency processing unit being a subset of locks included in the first current lock state information, the standby coherency unit configured to perform a plurality of activities of the primary coherency processing unit using the subset of locks in response to a failure of the primary coherency processing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2009
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Matthew A. HURAS, Roger L. Zheng, Aamer Sachedina, James L. Finnie, Keriley K. Romanufa, Xun Xue, Andrew D. Buckler, Stewart L. Palmer
  • Patent number: 7085286
    Abstract: A method of communicating between two business entities, each of the business entities utilizing a different communication protocol, wherein a business conversation is established between the entities, comprises the steps of: providing a business-to-business (B2B) protocol exchange for facilitating communications between the business entities, the B2B protocol exchange being operatively connected to the business entities. The method further includes the step of receiving, at the B2B protocol exchange, a message from one of the business entities in a first communication protocol, translating the received message in the first communication protocol into a translated message in a second protocol used by another of the business entities and sending the translated message to the other business entity. In this manner, the present invention provides a framework for facilitating communication between two business entities implemented using different communication protocols.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel M. Dias, Stewart L. Palmer, Hidayatullah Shaikh, James Thomas Rayfield
  • Publication number: 20030002526
    Abstract: A method of communicating between two business entities, each of the business entities utilizing a different communication protocol, wherein a business conversation is established between the entities, comprises the steps of: providing a business-to-business (B2B) protocol exchange for facilitating communications between the business entities, the B2B protocol exchange being operatively connected to the business entities. The method further includes the step of receiving, at the B2B protocol exchange, a message from one of the business entities in a first communication protocol, translating the received message in the first communication protocol into a translated message in a second protocol used by another of the business entities and sending the translated message to the other business entity. In this manner, the present invention provides a framework for facilitating communication between two business entities implemented using different communication protocols.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Publication date: January 2, 2003
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel M. Dias, Stewart L. Palmer, Hidayatullah Shaikh, James Thomas Rayfield
  • Patent number: 5581737
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for optimizing a data structure of an external data storage facility shared by a plurality of data processing systems, the data structure being allocated by a first allocation command which includes first allocation parameters based on an amount of storage space in the external data storage facility assigned for creation of the data structure and a composition of the data structure, includes a device for determining values of the first allocation parameters, to thereby determine a first composition of the data structure, a device for determining an actual usage of the data structure, to thereby determine a second composition of the data structure, a device for comparing the first composition of the data structure with the second composition of the data structure, and a device for issuing, based on an output from the comparing device, a second allocation command having second allocation parameters, to the data structure for reallocation thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Dennis J. Dahlen, David A. Elko, Audrey A. Helffrich, Richard P. King, Jeffrey M. Nick, Stewart L. Palmer, Wendell W. Wilkinson