Patents by Inventor Thomas Basil Smith

Thomas Basil Smith 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: 8161287
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method for protecting a memory are provided. The system includes a memory section with privileged and non-privileged sections, a host gateway (HG) to generate a capability credential, a device controller (DC) to append the credential to data transmitted to the memory, and at least one IO device enabled to do direct memory access (DMA) transactions with the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Backes, Shmuel Ben-Yehuda, Jan Leonard Camenisch, Ton Engbersen, Zorik Machulsky, Julian Satran, Leah Shalev, Ilan Shimony, Thomas Basil Smith, Michael Waidner
  • Publication number: 20040230767
    Abstract: An architecture, method and apparatus for a data processing system having memory compression and two common memories forming either a single unified memory, or a dual memory system capable of continuous operation in the presence of a hardware failure or redundant “duplex” computer maintenance outage, without the cost of duplicating the memory devices. A memory controller employs hardware memory compression to reduce the memory requirement by half, which compensates for the doubling of the memory needed for the redundant storage. The memory controller employs error detection and correction code that is used to detect storage subsystem failure during read accesses. Upon detection of a fault, the hardware automatically reissues the read access to a separate memory bank that is logically identical to the faulty bank.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2004
    Publication date: November 18, 2004
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Patrick Maurice Bland, Thomas Basil Smith, Robert Brett Tremaine, Michael Edward Wazlowski
  • Publication number: 20010010068
    Abstract: A system and method of maintaining consistent cached copies of memory in a multiprocessor system having a main memory, includes a memory directory having entries mapping the main memory, an access history information in the memory directory entries, and a directory cache having records corresponding to a subset of the memory directory entries. The memory directory may be a full map directory having entries mapping all of the main memory or a sparse directory having entries mapping to a subset of the main memory. The method includes the steps of receiving a signal indicating a processor cache miss, retrieving a memory directory entry from the memory directory, updating the access history of the memory directory entry, selecting a directory cache line based on its access history and allocating the directory cache line for replacement, and writing the memory directory entry into the directory cache.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2001
    Publication date: July 26, 2001
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Maged M. Michael, Ashwini Nanda, Thomas Basil Smith