Patents by Inventor Thomas M. Ferris

Thomas M. Ferris 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).

  • System for localizing field replaceable unit failures employing automated isolation procedures and weighted fault probability encoding
    Patent number: 5561760
    Abstract: A system for the automated isolation and report of a Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) and/or a Replaceable Component (RC) responsive to a stream of Fault Symptom Code (FSCs) produced in response to a system fault. The process is entirely automated and can be stored in microcode to allow immediate updating of FSC to FRU/RC correspondences responsive to system design revisions. Selected FRU/RC isolation procedures are included in the FRUs/RCs for automatic execution as part of the isolation process. Failure probability data, including probability distribution data, are included in each FRU/RC to support an alternative weighted failure probability (WFP) isolation scheme to isolate a faulty FRU/RC even when the automated isolation procedures do not provide an unambiguous result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 1, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas M. Ferris, Andrew L. Gross, Mark E. Hill, Douglas E. Torrens