Patents by Inventor Theron D. Tock

Theron D. Tock 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: 6115802
    Abstract: A lockless-lookup hash table for use in a multi-threaded processing system has a memory whose storage locations hold elements. Each memory location is uniquely identified by an index value, and each element includes a key and a value. The target location for storing an input value is determined by generating a hash value from an input key value, and probing storage locations, beginning at the one designated by the generated hash value, until an empty location is found. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the hash table may be used as a commonly accessed resource in a multi-threaded environment without requiring locks associated with lookup operations. In such environments, incorrect results may be tolerated, so long as the lookup operation is guaranteed never to return a value that had never been stored into the table by one of the threads in the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: Sun Mircrosystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Theron D. Tock, Thomas K. Wong
  • Patent number: 5966542
    Abstract: A method and system for providing an executable module having an address space for storing program data that is to reside in a read-only storage medium and an address space for storing program data that is to reside in a random access memory is herein described. The executable module represents Java classes that are structured for dynamic class loading. A static class loader is used to modify the class structure to accommodate static loading. The static class loader also identifies methods that contain unresolved symbolic references and data that varies during the execution of the module. These methods and data are identified in order to place them in the address space that resides in the random access memory. The static loader is beneficial in a distributed computing environment having a client computer that has little or no secondary storage thereby requiring applications to run entirely in random access memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 12, 1999
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventor: Theron D. Tock
  • Patent number: 5909695
    Abstract: A multi-threaded processing system has a cache that is commonly accessible to each thread. The cache has a plurality of entries for storing items, each entry being identified by an entry number. The location in the cache of an item that includes a first key is determined by supplying the first key to a lockless-lookup engine which then provides a lookup output that is alternatively a lookup entry number or an indication that the item is not stored in the cache. The lookup entry number is alternatively a first or second entry number, wherein the first entry number points to a first entry in which the item is stored and the second entry number points to a second entry in which the item is not stored. If the lookup output is the lookup entry number, then it is verified that the lookup entry number is the first entry number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 1, 1999
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas K. Wong, Theron D. Tock
  • Patent number: 5815718
    Abstract: A method and system for providing an executable module having an address space for storing program data that is to reside in a read-only storage medium and an address space for storing program data that is to reside in a random access memory is herein described. The executable module represents Java classes that are structured for dynamic class loading. A static class loader is used to modify the class structure to accommodate static loading. The static class loader also identifies methods that contain unresolved symbolic references and data that varies during the execution of the module. These methods and data are identified in order to place them in the address space that resides in the random access memory. The static loader is beneficial in a distributed computing environment having a client computer that has little or no secondary storage thereby requiring applications to run entirely in random access memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1998
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventor: Theron D. Tock
  • Patent number: 5742759
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide an improved method and system for securely controlling access to resources in a distributed computer system. One embodiment of the present invention stores and binds a group identification to a target object and then uses membership checking to determine whether a client object which requests access to the target object is a member of a group with access rights to the target object. In this way, the present invention avoids performing costly cryptographic operations in order to verify access rights of requesting objects, as was common in some prior art systems.A second embodiment of the present invention stores and binds a group identification to a target object reference and then passes the target object reference to client objects in the system. Since the target object reference includes a group identification entry, a first client object is able to determine which other clients in the system are members of the identified group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 21, 1998
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Danny M. Nessett, Theron D. Tock
  • Patent number: 5701432
    Abstract: A multi-threaded processing system has a cache that is commonly accessible to each thread. The cache has a plurality of entries for storing items, each entry being identified by an entry number. The location in the cache of an item that includes a first key is determined by supplying the first key to a lockless-lookup engine which then provides a lookup output that is alternatively a lookup entry number or an indication that the item is not stored in the cache. The lookup entry number is alternatively a first or second entry number, wherein the first entry number points to a first entry in which the item is stored and the second entry number points to a second entry in which the item is not stored. If the lookup output is the lookup entry number, then it is verified that the lookup entry number is the first entry number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 23, 1997
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas K. Wong, Theron D. Tock