Memory Access Blocking Patents (Class 711/152)
  • Patent number: 8930627
    Abstract: A computer program product for mitigating conflicts for shared cache lines between an owning core currently owning a cache line and a requestor core. The computer program product includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method. The method includes determining whether the owning core is operating in a transactional or non-transactional mode and setting a hardware-based reject threshold at a first or second value with the owning core determined to be operating in the transactional or non-transactional mode, respectively. The method further includes taking first or second actions to encourage cache line sharing between the owning core and the requestor core in response to a number of rejections of requests by the requestor core reaching the reject threshold set at the first or second value, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Khary J. Alexander, Chung-Lung K. Shum
  • Patent number: 8924596
    Abstract: A shared counter resource, such as a register, is disclosed in the hardware, where the register representing how much free space there is in the command queue is accessible to one or more processing elements. When a processing element reads the “reservation” register, the hardware automatically decrements the available free space by a preconfigured amount (e.g., 1) and returns the value of the free space immediately prior to the read/reservation. If the read returns 0 (or a number less than the preconfigured amount), there was insufficient free space to satisfy the request. In the event there was insufficient space to satisfy the request the reservation register may be configured to reserve however much space was available or to not reserve any space at all. Any number of processing elements may read these registers and various scenarios are described where the input and output queues are accessible via various processing elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Concurrent Ventures, LLC
    Inventors: Jesse D. Beeson, Jesse B. Yates
  • Patent number: 8924674
    Abstract: A data object is stored in a hosted storage system and includes an access control list specifying access permissions for data object stored in the hosted storage system. The hosted storage system provides hosted storage to a plurality of clients that are coupled to the hosted storage system. A request to store a second data object is received. The request includes an indicator that the first data object stored in the hosted storage system should be used as an access control list for the second data object. The second data object is stored in the hosted storage system. The first data object is assigned as an access control list for the second data object stored in the hosted storage system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: David R. Hanson, Erkki Ville Juhani Aikas
  • Patent number: 8924656
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for configuring a storage environment. In particular, the storage environment may be configured with a symmetric frontend and an asymmetric backend. That is, an owner storage controller may be granted read/write access to a storage device owned by the owner storage controller, while a non-owner storage controller may be granted merely read access. In this way, the owner storage controller may execute, log, and/or commit a write command to the storage device, while the non-owner storage controller may merely execute, but not log and/or commit, a write command. Write buffers, log memories, and/or file system metadata may be synchronized between the owner storage controller and the non-owner storage controller, such that the non-owner storage controller may efficiently take ownership of the storage device in response to a failure of the owner storage controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
    Inventors: Ameya Prakash Usgaonkar, Parag Deshmukh, Siddhartha Nandi, Bipul Raj
  • Patent number: 8914588
    Abstract: A lock mechanism can be supported in a transactional middleware system to protect transaction data in a shared memory when there are concurrent transactions. The transactional middleware machine environment comprises a semaphore provided by an operating system running on a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors operates to access data in the shared memory. The transactional middleware machine environment also comprises a test-and-set (TAS) assembly component that is associated with one or more processes. Each said process operates to use the TAS assembly component to perform one or more TAS operations in order to obtain a lock for data in the shared memory. Additionally, a process operates to be blocked on the semaphore and waits for a release of a lock on data in the shared memory, after the TAS component has performed a number of TAS operations and failed to obtain the lock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Xugang Shen, Xiangdong Li
  • Patent number: 8910310
    Abstract: An embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC), an electronic device equipped with an eMMC and an eMMC engineering board are disclosed. The eMMC includes an eMMC substrate plate, a plurality of solder balls and an eMMC chip. The solder balls are soldered to the eMMC substrate plate, and, one of the solder balls is designed as a security protection enable/disable solder ball. The eMMC chip is bound to the eMMC substrate plate, and, the eMMC chip has a security protection enable/disable pin electrically connected to the security protection enable/disable solder ball. The security protection enable/disable pin is internally pulled high by the eMMC chip when the security protection enable/disable solder ball is floating. When the security protection enable/disable solder ball is coupled to ground, the eMMC is protected from software-based attacks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Silicon Motion, Inc.
    Inventor: Yu-Wei Chyan
  • Patent number: 8904119
    Abstract: Methods and structure for migrating a logical volume with a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander are provided. The expander comprises a plurality of physical links with associated transceivers (PHYs). The expander further comprises a control unit operable to select a logical volume, and to initiate migration of data from the selected logical volume to a backup logical volume. Further, the expander includes a Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) target of the expander operable to intercept commands directed to the selected logical volume responsive to the control unit initiating the migration, and an SSP initiator of the expander that is operable to generate commands directed to the backup logical volume based on the intercepted commands, and to provide the intercepted commands to the selected logical volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Inventors: Nishant Kumar Yadav, Umang Kumar, Rajendra Singh
  • Patent number: 8898397
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for memory and process sharing via input/output (I/O) with virtualization. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a circuit design/system in which multiple chipsets are present that communicate with one another via a communications channel. Each chipset generally comprises a processor coupled to a memory unit. Moreover, each component has its own distinct/separate power supply. Pursuant to a communication and/or command exchange with a main controller, a processor of a particular chipset may disengage a memory unit coupled thereto, and then access a memory unit of another chipset (e.g., coupled to another processer in the system). Among other things, such an inventive configuration reduces memory leakage and enhances overall performance and/or efficiency of the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Inventor: Moon J. Kim
  • Publication number: 20140344529
    Abstract: A lock mechanism can be supported in a transactional middleware system to protect transaction data in a shared memory when there are concurrent transactions. The transactional middleware machine environment comprises a semaphore provided by an operating system running on a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors operates to access data in the shared memory. The transactional middleware machine environment also comprises a test-and-set (TAS) assembly component that is associated with one or more processes. Each said process operates to use the TAS assembly component to perform one or more TAS operations in order to obtain a lock for data in the shared memory. Additionally, a process operates to be blocked on the semaphore and waits for a release of a lock on data in the shared memory, after the TAS component has performed a number of TAS operations and failed to obtain the lock.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2014
    Publication date: November 20, 2014
    Inventors: Xugang Shen, Xiangdong Li
  • Publication number: 20140337585
    Abstract: Page table data for each page within a memory address space includes a write permission flag and a dirty-bit-modifier flag. The write permission flag is initialised to a value indicating that write access is not permitted. When a write access occurs, then the dirty-bit-modifier flag indicates whether or not the action of the write permission flag may be overridden. If the action of the write permission flag may be overridden, then the write access is permitted and the write permission flag is changed to indicate that write access is thereafter permitted. A page for which the write permission flag indicates that writes are permitted is a dirty page.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2013
    Publication date: November 13, 2014
    Inventors: Richard Roy GRISENTHWAITE, Matthew Lucien EVANS
  • Patent number: 8886904
    Abstract: A method, comprising: during a normal operating mode of a first solid-state storage device, reserving a portion of an available physical storage space of the first solid-state storage device, giving rise to a reserved portion and a user data portion; setting a user data capacity of the first solid-state storage device according to a size of the user data portion; using substantially the entire available physical storage space for storing user data within the first solid-state storage device; and upon receiving at the first solid-state storage device an instruction to switch to a data protection mode, switching the first solid-state storage device to the data protection mode and allocating part of the reserved portion to the user data portion, giving rise to an extended user data portion, and using the added user data capacity for backing up data that is or was stored on the second solid-state storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Kaminario Technologies Ltd.
    Inventors: Doron Tal, Shachar Fienblit, Yedidia Atzmony
  • Publication number: 20140325200
    Abstract: A memory access control system includes a plurality of operators, a first memory, and a second memory. The plurality of operators are configured to execute different arithmetic operations. The first memory has a shared region accessible from the plurality of operators. The second memory is configured to cause any one of the plurality of operators to access. One of the operators is configured to access the second memory to load required data and execute a process concurrently with loading data required for a separate other process to cause the first memory to hold the data required for the separate other process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2014
    Publication date: October 30, 2014
    Applicant: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Kenichiro NITTA
  • Patent number: 8874854
    Abstract: A mechanism for selectively disabling and enabling read caching based on past performance of the cache and current read/write requests. The system improves overall performance by using an autonomic algorithm to disable read caching for regions of backend disk storage (i.e., the backstore) that have had historically low cache hit ratios. The result is that more cache becomes available for workloads with larger hit ratios, and less time and machine cycles are spent searching the cache for data that is unlikely to be there.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lee Charles La Frese, Joshua Douglas Martin, Justin Thomson Miller, Vernon Walter Miller, James Russell Thompson, Yan Xu, Olga Yiparaki
  • Patent number: 8868843
    Abstract: A system and method for efficiently determining whether a requested memory location is in a large row-based memory of a computing system. A computing system includes a processing unit that generates memory requests on a first chip and a cache (LLC) on a second chip connected to the first chip. The processing unit includes an access filter that determines whether to access the cache. The cache is fabricated on top of the processing unit. The processing unit determines whether to access the access filter for a given memory request. The processing unit accesses the access filter to determine whether given data associated with a given memory request is stored within the cache. In response to determining the access filter indicates the given data is not stored within the cache, the processing unit generates a memory request to send to off-package memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Gabriel H. Loh, Mark D. Hill
  • Patent number: 8868845
    Abstract: Example embodiments of the present invention include a method, system and computer program product for managing spinlocks in a multi-core computer system. The method comprises providing a spinlock per core in the multi-core computer system and storing each spinlock in a respective memory location configured to be access independently by respective cores of the multi-core computer system. A request is then received at a core in the multi-core computer system to perform an operation on a spinlock in the multi-core computer system. A multi-reader/single writer spinlock is obtained in response to the request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: EMC Corporation
    Inventor: David W. Harvey
  • Patent number: 8868849
    Abstract: In a shared memory process different threads may attempt to access a shared data variable in a shared memory. Locks are provided to synchronize access to shared data variables. Each lock is allocated to have a location in the shared memory relative to the instance of shared data that the lock protects. A lock may be allocated to be adjacent to the data that it protects. Lock resolution is facilitated because the memory location of a lock can be determined from an offset with respect to the data variable that is being protected by the lock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Daniel Waddington, Tongping Liu, Chen Tian
  • Patent number: 8862831
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to facilitate shared pointers in a heterogeneous platform. In one embodiment of the invention, the heterogeneous or non-homogeneous platform includes, but is not limited to, a central processing core or unit, a graphics processing core or unit, a digital signal processor, an interface module, and any other form of processing cores. The heterogeneous platform has logic to facilitate sharing of pointers to a location of a memory shared by the CPU and the GPU. By sharing pointers in the heterogeneous platform, the data or information sharing between different cores in the heterogeneous platform can be simplified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Yang Ni, Rajkishore Barik, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai, Tatiana Shpeisman, Jayanth N. Rao, Ben J. Ashbaugh, Tomasz Janczak
  • Patent number: 8862752
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for conditionally preventing the transfer of data. In use, a request to transfer data is identified. In addition, a location of the data is determined. Further, the transfer of the data is conditionally prevented based on the location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Sudeep Das, Sameer Shashikant Paranjape, Pramod Sharma
  • Patent number: 8856460
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for zero buffer copying, where such a system includes one or more high performance computing systems, each including one or more processors and a high performance memory. The system further includes a user space that includes a Java virtual machine (JVM) and one or more application server instances; and a plurality of byte buffers accesible to the JVM and the one or more application server instances. When a request is received by a first application server instance data associated with the request is stored in a heap space associated with the JVM, and the JVM pins the portion of the heap space where the data is stored. The data is pushed to a first byte buffer where it is accessed by the first application server instance. A response is generated by the first application server using the data, and sent by the first application server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Ballav Bihani, Staffan Larsen, Steven Liu
  • Patent number: 8856588
    Abstract: At least one node of a plurality of nodes in an information processing apparatus executes the following processing for data included in a memory of one node or other nodes and stored in a shared memory area which the node and the other nodes access. That is, the node detects an ICE which occurs over a predetermined number of times within a predetermined time or a PCE which occurs at a single location in the shared memory area. When the error is detected, the node performs control to prevent the node and the other nodes from accessing the shared memory. The node recovers the data in a memory area different from the shared memory area. The node notifies information about the different memory area to the other nodes. The node performs control to resume the access to the data from the node and the other nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Hideyuki Koinuma, Hiroyuki Izui
  • Patent number: 8856478
    Abstract: A processor holds, in a plurality of respective cache lines, part of data held in a main memory unit. The processor also holds, in the plurality of respective cache lines, a tag address used to search for the data held in the cache lines and a flag indicating the validity of the data held in the cache lines. The processor executes a cache line fill instruction on a cache line corresponding to a specified address. Upon execution of the cache line fill instruction, the processor registers predetermined data in the cache line of the cache memory unit which has a tag address corresponding to the specified address and validates a flag in the cache line having the tag address corresponding to the specified address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Takahito Hirano, Iwao Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 8856461
    Abstract: This invention provides a request controlling apparatus, processor and method. The request controlling apparatus is connected to a request storage unit and includes: a queue unit storing flag recording region configured to record a storing flag corresponding to a queue unit in the request storage unit, a comparing means configured to judge whether a incoming first queue unit corresponds to a same message as an already existing queue unit, where the already existing queue unit is in the request storage unit and a flag setting means is configured to set the storing flag corresponding to the already existing queue unit in the queue unit storing flag recording region, to indicate that a message state related to the already existing queue unit will not be stored if the first queue unit corresponds to the same message as in the already existing queue unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Xiao Tao Chang, Hubertus Franke, Xiaolu Mei, Kun Wang, Hao Yu
  • Publication number: 20140297970
    Abstract: Critical sections of multi-threaded programs, normally protected by locks providing access by only one thread, are speculatively executed concurrently by multiple threads with elision of the lock acquisition and release. Upon a completion of the speculative execution without actual conflict as may be identified using standard cache protocols, the speculative execution is committed, otherwise the speculative execution is squashed. Speculative execution with elision of the lock acquisition, allows a greater degree of parallel execution in multi-threaded programs with aggressive lock usage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 13, 2014
    Publication date: October 2, 2014
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, James R. Goodman
  • Patent number: 8850131
    Abstract: A method includes scheduling a memory request requested by a thread executing on a processing system. The scheduling is based on at least one of a number of critical sections being executed on the processing system by the thread and a number of other threads executing on the processing system being blocked from execution on the processing system by execution of the thread. In at least one embodiment of the invention, the thread is associated with a first application of a plurality of applications executing on the processing system and the scheduling is further based on an indicator of application priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventor: Jaewoong Chung
  • Publication number: 20140289483
    Abstract: A shared memory controller controls access to a shared memory by a plurality of master devices based on access requests received from the plurality of master devices. The shared memory control unit includes a memory access arbiter that receives a lock reading request to lock a portion of shared memory, a waiting queue that stores the access requests, and a lock transaction controller. The lock transaction controller receives a plurality of access requests after the lock reading request is received by the memory access arbiter. The lock transaction controller stores the access requests in the waiting queue, and receives an unlock writing request to unlock the portion of shared memory. After the portion of shared memory is unlocked, the lock transaction controller releases the access requests from the waiting queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2014
    Publication date: September 25, 2014
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Sohichiroh HOSODA, Jun TANABE, Hiroyuki USUI
  • Publication number: 20140281196
    Abstract: A processor of an aspect includes a plurality of logical processors. A first logical processor of the plurality is to execute software that includes a memory access synchronization instruction that is to synchronize accesses to a memory. The processor also includes memory access synchronization relaxation logic that is to prevent the memory access synchronization instruction from synchronizing accesses to the memory when the processor is in a relaxed memory access synchronization mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventors: Martin G. Dixon, William C. Rash, Yazmin A. Santiago
  • Publication number: 20140281286
    Abstract: A memory system is provided, which includes a real memory space and a virtual memory space. The memory system includes a memory device having a first memory space which is accessed using a first memory address and a second memory space which is accessed using a second memory address, and a memory controller configured to control access to the memory device; wherein the memory controller is configured to translate the first memory address into the second memory address mapped thereto in response to a request for access to the first memory space, access the second memory space using the translated second memory address, and access the second memory space using the non-translated second memory address, in response to a request for access to the second memory space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2014
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Sun-Young LIM
  • Publication number: 20140258645
    Abstract: Transactional reader-writer locks may leverage available hardware transactional memory (HTM) to simplify the procedures of the reader-writer lock algorithm and to eliminate a requirement for type stable memory An HTM-based reader-writer lock may include an ordered list of client-provided nodes, each of which represents a thread that holds (or desires to acquire) the lock, and a tail pointer. The locking and unlocking procedures invoked by readers and writers may access the tail pointer or particular ones of the nodes in the list using various combinations of transactions and non-transactional accesses to insert nodes into the list or to remove nodes from the list. A reader or writer that owns a node at the head of the list (or a reader whose node is preceded in the list only by other readers' nodes) may access a critical section of code or shared resource.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Publication date: September 11, 2014
    Applicant: ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: David Dice, Yosef Lev, Yujie Liu, Victor M. Luchangco, Mark S. Moir
  • Patent number: 8832388
    Abstract: A technology can be provided for managing shared memory used by a plurality of compute nodes. An example system can include a shared globally addressable memory to enable access to shared data by the plurality of compute nodes. A memory interface can process memory requests sent to the shared globally addressable memory from the plurality of processors. A memory write module can be included for the memory interface to allocate memory locations in the shared globally addressable memory and write read-only data to the globally addressable memory from a writing compute node. In addition, a read module for the memory interface can map read-only data in the globally addressable shared memory as read-only for subsequent accesses by the plurality of compute nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan Ross, Jork Loeser
  • Patent number: 8825964
    Abstract: Described are techniques for performing processing in a data storage system. A client application executing on a host is identified as a candidate for migration to the data storage system. First data used by the client application is stored on one or more physical storage devices of the data storage system. The client application is migrated to the data storage system for temporary execution on the data storage system. The client application is executed on the data storage system for a time period using a first portion of resources of the data storage system allocated for exclusive use by migrated client applications executing on the data storage system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: EMC Corporation
    Inventors: John R. Sopka, Patrick Brian Riordan, David Meiri, Yigal Banker, John T. Fitzgerald, Alex Veprinsky
  • Patent number: 8819349
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention operate within the context of a system with a processor providing memory-monitoring functionality. The lower-privileged code of a first process, such as user application code, communicates directly with higher-privileged code of a second process, such as interrupt-handling code of the operating system kernel, without using a software interrupt or other gate mechanism. This enhances overall system performance by eliminating the saving of state and processing inherent in interrupt handling, and also avoids missing events that may occur while other interrupts are masked during event handling. Specifically, the second process initializes a monitored memory area that is directly accessible by processes having at least the privilege level of the first process. The second process further initializes memory-monitoring hardware of the processor to monitor writes to the monitored memory area, such that the second process will resume execution from a dormant state when a write takes place.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Mateusz Berezecki
  • Patent number: 8819351
    Abstract: For at least one storage resource object associated with at least one of the plurality of resource groups by a resource group attribute, at least one policy is defined for limiting host requests to the storage resources in the at least one of the plurality of resource groups to prevent an issuance of the host requests to an unowned one of the storage resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Richard A. Ripberger
  • Patent number: 8819352
    Abstract: Embodiments related to a hardware transactional memory (HTM). An aspect includes setting a mode register of a processor core of a computer to indicate a HTM mode. Another aspect includes executing a plurality of transactions by the processor core in the HTM mode based on the mode register. Another aspect includes determining whether a first transaction of the plurality of transactions exceeds a failure limit of the processor core in the HTM mode. Yet another aspect includes, based on determining that the first transaction exceeds the failure limit of the processor core in the HTM mode, transitioning the processor to an assisted transaction mode by setting the mode register of the processor core to indicate the assisted transaction mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas J. Heller, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8806121
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for intelligent storage planning and planning within a clustered computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). Specifically, embodiments of the present invention will first determine/identify a set of storage area network volume controllers (SVCs) that is accessible from a host that has submitted a request for access to storage. Thereafter, a set of managed disk (mdisk) groups (i.e., corresponding to the set of SVCs) that are candidates for satisfying the request will be determined. This set of mdisk groups will then be filtered based on available space therein, a set of user/requester preferences, and optionally, a set of performance characteristics. Then, a particular mdisk group will be selected from the set of mdisk groups based on the filtering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kavita Chavda, David P. Goodman, Sandeep Gopisetty, Seshashayee S. Murthy, Aameek Singh
  • Patent number: 8806164
    Abstract: Subject matter disclosed herein relates to an apparatus comprising memory and a controller, such as a controller which determines block locking states in association with operative transitions between two or more interfaces that share at least one block of memory. The apparatus may support single channel or multi-channel memory access, write protection state logic, or various interface priority schemes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Giulio Albini, Emanuele Confalonieri
  • Patent number: 8799574
    Abstract: A method for installing linked MIFARE applications (TK1-A, TK1-B, TK1-C) in a MIFARE memory (MM) being configured as a MIFARE Classic card or an emulated MIFARE Classic memory comprises storing the first linked MIFARE application (TK1-A) in a first free sector of the MIFARE memory, storing the second linked MIFARE application (TK1-B) in a second free sector of the MIFARE memory and writing link information (LK) indicating this second sector in a link information memory location of the first sector where first linked MIFARE application (TK1-A) has been stored, and repeating the steps of storing linked MIFARE applications and writing link information (LK) until the last linked MIFARE application (TK1-C) has been stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: NXP, B.V.
    Inventor: Alexandre Corda
  • Patent number: 8799591
    Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus and method for controlling access by a read-write spinlock with no mutual exclusion among readers. The apparatus and method perform the steps of using values in a data structure in the read-write spinlock to control read access to a shared object and using values in the data structure and a guard lock to control write access to the shared object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Douglas V. Larson, Marcia E. McConnell
  • Publication number: 20140208043
    Abstract: A method for synchronizing parallel applications in a partitioned asymmetric multi-processing system having multiple independent levels of security is provided. Synchronized access to a shared data memory region is provided for a first application through a first instance of a para-virtualized user library linked against a first application in a first domain having a first security level. Synchronized access is provided to the shared data memory region for a second application in parallel with the first application through a second instance of the para-virtualized user library linked against the second application in the first domain. The second instance of the para-virtualized user library also accesses the synchronization structure. Access is prevented to the shared data memory region and the synchronization structure by other applications in one or more other domains having other levels of security per domain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: RAYTHEON COMPANY
    Inventor: Jeremy A. Goddard
  • Patent number: 8788763
    Abstract: An apparatus and system for protecting memory of a virtual guest includes initializing a virtual guest on a host computing system. The host computing system includes a virtual machine manager that manages operation of the virtual guest. The virtual guest includes a distinct operating environment executing in a virtual operation platform provided by the virtual machine manager. The method includes receiving an allocation of run-time memory for the virtual guest, the allocation of run-time memory comprising a portion of run-time memory of the host computing system. The method includes setting, by the virtual guest, at least a portion of the allocation of run-time memory to be inaccessible by the virtual machine manager.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher J. Arges, Nathan D. Fontenot, Ryan P. Grimm, Joel H. Schopp, Michael T. Strosaker
  • Patent number: 8789057
    Abstract: Transactional Lock Elision (TLE) may allow multiple threads to concurrently execute critical sections as speculative transactions. Transactions may abort due to various reasons. To avoid starvation, transactions may revert to execution using mutual exclusion when transactional execution fails. Because threads may revert to mutual exclusion in response to the mutual exclusion of other threads, a positive feedback loop may form in times of high congestion, causing a “lemming effect”. To regain the benefits of concurrent transactional execution, the system may allow one or more threads awaiting a given lock to be released from the wait queue and instead attempt transactional execution. A gang release may allow a subset of waiting threads to be released simultaneously. The subset may be chosen dependent on the number of waiting threads, historical abort relationships between threads, analysis of transactions of each thread, sensitivity of each thread to abort, and/or other thread-local or global criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Oracle America, Inc.
    Inventors: David Dice, Mark S. Moir
  • Patent number: 8782646
    Abstract: In a NUMA-topology computer system that includes multiple nodes and multiple logical partitions, some of which may be dedicated and others of which are shared, NUMA optimizations are enabled in shared logical partitions. This is done by specifying a home node parameter in each virtual processor assigned to a logical partition. When a task is created by an operating system in a shared logical partition, a home node is assigned to the task, and the operating system attempts to assign the task to a virtual processor that has a home node that matches the home node for the task. The partition manager then attempts to assign virtual processors to their corresponding home nodes. If this can be done, NUMA optimizations may be performed without the risk of reducing the performance of the shared logical partition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machnies Corporation
    Inventors: Vaijayanthimala K. Anand, Mark R. Funk, Steven R. Kunkel, Mysore S. Srinivas, Randal C. Swanberg, Ronald D. Young
  • Patent number: 8782352
    Abstract: A lock mechanism can be supported in a transactional middleware system to protect transaction data in a shared memory when there are concurrent transactions. The transactional middleware machine environment comprises a semaphore provided by an operating system running on a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors operates to access data in the shared memory. The transactional middleware machine environment also comprises a test-and-set (TAS) assembly component that is associated with one or more processes. Each said process operates to use the TAS assembly component to perform one or more TAS operations in order to obtain a lock for data in the shared memory. Additionally, a process operates to be blocked on the semaphore and waits for a release of a lock on data in the shared memory, after the TAS component has performed a number of TAS operations and failed to obtain the lock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Xugang Shen, Xiangdong Li
  • Patent number: 8782351
    Abstract: The method for protecting memory of a virtual guest includes initializing a virtual guest on a host computing system. The host computing system includes a virtual machine manager that manages operation of the virtual guest. The virtual guest includes a distinct operating environment executing in a virtual operation platform provided by the virtual machine manager. The method includes receiving an allocation of run-time memory for the virtual guest, the allocation of run-time memory comprising a portion of run-time memory of the host computing system. The method includes setting, by the virtual guest, at least a portion of the allocation of run-time memory to be inaccessible by the virtual machine manager.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher J. Arges, Nathan D. Fontenot, Ryan P. Grimm, Joel H. Schopp, Michael T. Strosaker
  • Patent number: 8775708
    Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for accessing a shared memory associated with a reader-writer lock according to a first concurrency mode, dynamically changing from the first concurrency mode to a second concurrency mode, and accessing the shared memory according to the second concurrency mode. In this way, concurrency modes can be adaptively changed based on system conditions. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Bratin Saha, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai
  • Patent number: 8776054
    Abstract: Lack of freedom in the operation of terminals has been a problem. On the other hand, there has been concern that allowing freedom of operation would negatively impact systems. A virtual computer device is provided with a memory unit and a CPU. The CPU executes an access program, which has the CPU input from or output to the memory unit in accordance with a received input/output request, and a VM monitor which implements a virtual computer in the CPU. Under the control of the VM monitor, the CPU executes a VM program which sends a input/output request to the access program, and via the access program, has the CPU input from or output to the storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Hideyuki Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20140189260
    Abstract: A streaming multiprocessor in a parallel processing subsystem processes atomic operations for multiple threads in a multi-threaded architecture. The streaming multiprocessor receives a request from a thread in a thread group to acquire access to a memory location in a lock-protected shared memory, and determines whether a address lock in a plurality of address locks is asserted, where the address lock is associated the memory location. If the address lock is asserted, then the streaming multiprocessor refuses the request. Otherwise, the streaming multiprocessor asserts the address lock, asserts a thread group lock in a plurality of thread group locks, where the thread group lock is associated with the thread group, and grants the request. One advantage of the disclosed techniques is that acquired locks are released when a thread is preempted. As a result, a preempted thread that has previously acquired a lock does not retain the lock indefinitely.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2012
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Applicant: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Nicholas WANG, Shirish GADRE, Robert OHANNESSIAN, Lacky V. SHAH, Matthew BROCKMEYER, Stewart Glenn CARLTON
  • Publication number: 20140189261
    Abstract: A processor of an aspect includes operation mode check logic to determine whether to allow an attempted access to an operation mode and access type protected memory based on an operation mode that is to indicate whether the attempted access is by an on-die processor logic. Access type check logic is to determine whether to allow the attempted access to the operation mode and access type protected memory based on an access type of the attempted access to the operation mode and access type protected memory. Protection logic is coupled with the operation mode check logic and is coupled with the access type check logic. The protection logic is to deny the attempted access to the operation mode and access type protected memory if at least one of the operation mode check logic and the access type check logic determines not to allow the attempted access.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2012
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Inventors: GUR HILDESHEIM, SHLOMO RAIKIN, ITTAI ANATI, GIDEON GERZON, HISHAM SHAFI, ALEX BERENZON, GEOFFREY S. STRONGIN, IRIS SORANI
  • Publication number: 20140156954
    Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a method and network device for achieving enhanced performance with multiple CPU cores in a network device having a symmetric multiprocessing architecture. The disclosed method allows for storing, by each central processing unit (CPU) core, a non-atomic data structure, which is specific to each networking CPU core, in a memory shared by the plurality of CPU cores. Also, the memory is not associated with any locking mechanism. In response to a data packet is received by a particular CPU core, the disclosed system will update a value of the non-atomic data structure corresponding to the particular CPU core. The data structure may be a counter or a fragment table. Further, a dedicated CPU core is allocated to process only data packets received from other CPU cores, and is responsible for dynamically responding to queries receives from a control plane process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2012
    Publication date: June 5, 2014
    Inventors: Ramsundar Janakiraman, Prasad Palkar, Brijesh Nambiar, Sridhar Kamsetty, Vijayaraghavan Doraiswami
  • Patent number: 8738862
    Abstract: Embodiments related to a transaction program. An aspect includes, based on determining that one instruction is part of an active atomic instruction group (AIG), determining whether a private-to-transaction (PTRAN) bit associated with an address of the one instruction in a main memory is set, the PTRAN bit being located in a main memory comprising a plurality of memory increments each having a respective directly addressable PTRAN bit in the main memory. Another aspect includes, based on determining that the PTRAN bit is not set: setting the PTRAN bit; adding a new entry to a cache structure and a transaction table including an old data state of the address of the one instruction stored in the cache structure and control information stored in the transaction table; and completing the one instruction as part of the active AIG.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas J. Heller, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8730492
    Abstract: A printing apparatus to perform a printing operation by driving hardware provided thereto according to a printing command received from a user, including a firmware unit to store function information of a plurality of models of the printing apparatus, and selectively perform the function of one of the plurality of models which corresponds to a model index designated as the printing apparatus is initialized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Sung-hi Lee