Entry Replacement Strategy Patents (Class 711/159)
  • Patent number: 8812804
    Abstract: A secure demand paging (SDP) system includes a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a microprocessor having a secure internal memory and coupled to said DRAM, and a non-volatile memory storing a representation of operations accessible by the microprocessor. The stored representation of operations includes a coded physical representation of operations to configure an SDP space in the DRAM, to organize the SDP space into virtual machine contexts, to organize at least one of the virtual machine contexts into block book keeping blocks and book keeping spaces in the block book keeping blocks, and to execute a secure demand paging process between said secure internal memory and said DRAM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Steven C. Goss, Gregory R. Conti, Narendar Shankar, Mehdi-Laurent Akkar, Aymeric Vial
  • Publication number: 20140229690
    Abstract: A method and circuit arrangement utilize secure clear instructions defined in an instruction set architecture (ISA) for a processing unit to clear, overwrite or otherwise restrict unauthorized access to the internal architected state of the processing unit in association with context switch operations. The secure clear instructions are executable by a hypervisor, operating system, or other supervisory program code in connection with a context switch operation, and the processing unit includes security logic that is responsive to such instructions to restrict access by an operating system or process associated with an incoming context to architected state information associated with an operating system or process associated with an outgoing context.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventor: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
  • Publication number: 20140229689
    Abstract: A system and method for ballooning with assigned devices includes inflating a memory balloon, determining whether a first memory page is locked based on information associated with the first memory page, when the first memory page is locked unlocking the first memory page and removing first memory addresses associated with the first memory page from management by an input/output memory management unit (IOMMU), and reallocating the first memory page. The first memory page is associated with a first assigned device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2013
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Applicant: Red Hat Israel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Paolo Bonzini, Michael Tsirkin
  • Publication number: 20140229691
    Abstract: A data control system comprises a communication interface, a processing system, and a storage system. The communication interface is configured to receive a request to retrieve data from a primary storage volume that includes a secondary storage volume. The storage system is configured to store the primary storage volume that includes the secondary storage volume. The processing system is configured to identify changed segments of a plurality of segments in the primary storage volume and identify allocated segments of the changed segments. The communication interface is further configured to transfer the allocated segments in response to the request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2014
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Applicant: Quantum Corporation
    Inventors: Gregory L. Wade, J. Mitchell Haile
  • Patent number: 8806166
    Abstract: Evaluating memory allocation in a multi-node computer including calculating, in dependence upon a normalized measure of page frame demand, a weighted coefficient of memory affinity, the weighted coefficient representing desirability of allocating memory from the node, and allocating memory may include allocating memory in dependence upon the weighted coefficient of memory affinity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth R. Allen, Rebecca N. B. Legler, Kenneth C. Vossen
  • Publication number: 20140223117
    Abstract: A memory device may be equipped with quick erase capability to secure the contents of the memory device. The quick erase capability may effectively permanently disable access to data stored in the memory device instantaneously upon a command being issued, making all previous data written to the memory device unreadable. The quick erase capability may allow use of the memory device for new write operations and for reading the newly written data immediately once the erase command is received and executed. The quick erase capability may begin a physical erase process of data not newly written without altering other aspects of the quick erase. Aspects may be accomplished with one or more bits per row in a memory device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2013
    Publication date: August 7, 2014
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Michele M. Franceschini, Hillery C. Hunter, Ashish Jagmohan, Charles A. Kilmer, Kyu-hyoun Kim, Luis A. Lastras-Montano, Warren E. Maule
  • Patent number: 8793427
    Abstract: Remote memory can be used for a number idle pages located on a virtual machine. A number of idle pages can be sent to the remote memory according to a placement policy, where the placement policy can include a number of weighting factors. A hypervisor on a computing device can record a local size and a remote page fault frequency of the number of virtual machines. The hypervisor can scan local memory to determine the number of idle pages and a number of idle virtual machines. The number of idle pages, including a page map and a remote address destination for each idle page, can be sent to the remote memory by the hypervisor. The number of virtual machines can be analyzed to determine a per-virtual machine local memory allocation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Kevin T. Lim, Jichuan Chang, Jose Renato G. Santos, Yoshio Turner, Parthasarathy Ranganathan
  • Patent number: 8793555
    Abstract: A method of controlling a nonvolatile semiconductor memory includes checking, at a first interval period, an error count of data stored in a first group, the first group including a plurality of blocks/units, and when a first block/unit in the first group satisfies a first condition, assigning the first block/unit to a second group. The method includes checking, at a second interval period, an error count of data stored in the second group, the second interval period being shorter than the first interval period, and when a second block/unit in the second group satisfies a second condition, moving data stored in the second block/unit to an erased block/unit in which stored data is erased among the plurality of blocks/units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Toshikatsu Hida, Shinichi Kanno, Hirokuni Yano, Kazuya Kitsunai, Shigehiro Asano, Junji Yano
  • Patent number: 8793428
    Abstract: A system for identifying an exiting process and removing traces and shadow page table pages corresponding to the process' page table pages. An accessed minimum virtual address is maintained corresponding to an address space. In one embodiment, whenever a page table entry corresponding to the accessed minimum virtual address changes from present to not present, the process is determined to be exiting and removal of corresponding trace and shadow page table pages is begun. In a second embodiment, consecutive present to not-present PTE transitions are tracked for guest page tables on a per address space basis. When at least two guest page tables each has at least four consecutive present to not-present PTE transitions, a next present to not-present PTE transition event in the address space leads to the corresponding guest page table trace being dropped and the shadow page table page being removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: VMware, Inc.
    Inventors: Qasim Ali, Raviprasad Mummidi, Kiran Tati
  • Publication number: 20140208045
    Abstract: A logical volume manager (LVM) may manage a plurality of logical volumes and a plurality of drives in a logical data storage using metadata stored on the plurality of drives. The LVM may operate in one of two modes. In the first mode, the LVM may deleted uncommitted metadata on a drive and may use committed metadata on the drive when accessing a logical volume. In a second mode, the LVM may use committed metadata on the drive when accessing the logical volume and may refrain from deleting the uncommitted metadata.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: RED HAT ISRAEL, LTD.
    Inventors: Eduardo Warszawski, Ayal Baron
  • Publication number: 20140208046
    Abstract: Described embodiments detect an impending out-of-space (OOS) condition of a media. On startup, a media controller determines whether an impending OOS indicator is set from a previous startup. If the impending OOS indicator is not set, it is determined whether a free pool size has reached a threshold. The free pool is blocks of the solid-state media available to be written with data. If the free pool size has not reached the first threshold, while the startup time is less than a maximum startup time, garbage collection is performed on the solid-state media to accumulate blocks to the free pool. If the startup time reaches the maximum startup time and the free pool size has not reached the threshold, the impending OOS indicator is set and the media is operated in impending OOS mode. Otherwise, if the free pool size reaches the threshold, the media is operated in normal mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2013
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: LSI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Leonid Baryudin, Earl T. Cohen
  • Publication number: 20140207997
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to arranging data on storage media. In one embodiment, a computer system is configured to access a storage array that includes a plurality of storage blocks. The computer system executes a first set of processes and a second set of processes, where the first set of processes operates on selected ones of the plurality of storage blocks to increase a likelihood that the selected storage blocks are operated on by the second set of processes. In some embodiments, the second set of processes determines whether to operate on a storage block based on an amount of invalid data within the storage block. In such an embodiment, the first set of processes increases a likelihood that the storage block is operated on by increasing the amount of invalid data within the storage block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2013
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: FUSION-IO, INC.
    Inventors: James Peterson, Ned Plasson
  • Publication number: 20140208042
    Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a memory management unit (MMU) having entries to store virtual address to physical address translations, where each entry includes a location indicator to indicate whether a memory location for the corresponding entry is present in a local or remote memory. In this way, a common virtual memory space can be shared between the two memories, which may be separated by one or more non-coherent links. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 21, 2014
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Inventors: Gautham N. Chinya, Hong Wang, Deepak A. Mathaikutty, Jamison D. Collins, Ethan Schuchman, James P. Held, Ajay V. Bhatt, Prashant Sethi, Stephen F. Whalley
  • Publication number: 20140201479
    Abstract: An integrated circuit device comprising at least one memory interface module arranged to be operably coupled between at least one data storage device and a plurality of master devices within a data processing system. The at least one memory interface module comprises a plurality of buffers and at least one data access control module. The at least one data access control module being arranged to fetch data from the at least one data storage device in response to a received memory access request comprising a master device identifier, select at least one buffer based at least partly on the master device identifier of the received access request, and load the fetched data into the selected at least one buffer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Manfred Thanner, Nancy Amedeo, Stephan Mueller, Anthony Reipold
  • Publication number: 20140201478
    Abstract: A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for de-duplication aware secure delete. Responsive to receiving a secure delete request for a file, the mechanism identifies a list of file blocks to be securely deleted from a physical disk device. Responsive to determining at least one virtual block of another file refers to a given disk block corresponding to a file block in the list, the mechanism copies the given disk block to generate a copied disk block in the physical disk device and updates a pointer of the at least one virtual block to refer to the copied disk block. The mechanism writes a secure delete pattern for each file block in the list of file blocks to a disk block in the physical disk device without performing de-duplication processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2013
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kalyan C. Gunda, Sandeep R. Patil, Subhojit Roy, Riyazahamad M. Shiraguppi
  • Publication number: 20140195750
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to a buffer pool for a database system. In aspects, secondary memory such as solid state storage is used to extend the buffer pool of a database system. Thresholds such as hot, warm, and cold for classifying pages based on access history of the pages may be determined via a sampling algorithm. When a database system needs to free space in a buffer pool in main memory, a page may be evicted to the buffer pool in secondary memory or other storage based on how the page is classified and conditions of the secondary memory or other storage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Chengliang Zhang, Sadashivan Krishnamurthy, Georgiy I. Reynya, Alexandre Verbitski, Pedro Celis, Dexter Paul Bradshaw
  • Publication number: 20140195748
    Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for efficient replica cleanup during resynchronization. According to various embodiments, a plurality of deleted data segment ranges on a first storage node may be identified. The first storage node may be configured to store a plurality of data segments. Each of the plurality of data segments may have associated therewith a respective identifier. Each of the data segment ranges may designate one or more data segments that have been deleted from the first storage node. The plurality of deleted data segment ranges may be transmitted to a second storage node configured to mirror the plurality of data segments stored on the first storage node. The plurality of deleted data segment ranges may be capable of being used to identify one or more data segments to delete from the second storage node.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: Murali Bashyam, Sreekanth Garigala
  • Publication number: 20140195749
    Abstract: A system and method for performing coarse-grained deduplication of volume regions. A storage controller detects that a first region of a first volume is identical to a second region of a second volume, wherein the first volume points to a first medium and the second volume points to a second medium. In response to detecting the identical regions, the storage controller stores an indication that the first range of the first medium underlies the second range of the second medium. Also in response to detecting the identical regions, the mappings associated with the second range of the second medium are invalidated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2013
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: PURE Storage, INC.
    Inventors: John Colgrove, Ethan Miller, John Hayes, Cary Sandvig, Christopher Golden, Jianting Cao
  • Patent number: 8775751
    Abstract: Reclamation of storage space in presence of copy-on-write snapshot. In one embodiment, a reclamation command is generated. In response to generating the reclamation command, first data held within one storage device is copied to another storage device via a communication link. One or more first physical memory regions of the one storage device, which stores the first data, is allocated to a first region of a data volume. The other storage device is configured to store a copy-on-write snapshot of the data volume. In response to copying the first data, de-allocate the one or more first physical memory regions from the first data volume region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Symantec Corporation
    Inventors: Niranjan Pendharkar, Shailesh Vaman Marathe
  • Patent number: 8775756
    Abstract: A virtual tape emulator (VTE) that performs data integrity read back verification at host sync points. The VTE first flushes data that it may have buffered to a backend storage subsystem such as a disk array. The VTE then reads all data that was written to the backend storage array between a prior sync point and the current sync point. During this feedback verification, integrity checks can be performed. An error detected during read back verification is returned to the host operation that triggered the sync operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: EMC Corporation
    Inventors: Larry W. McCloskey, Bruce Offhaus, Eric M. Vaughn
  • Patent number: 8775752
    Abstract: A virtual memory management apparatus of an embodiment is embedded in a computing machine 80 and is provided with an application program 21, an operating system 22, a volatile memory 11, and a nonvolatile memory 12. The volatile memory 11 is provided with a plurality of clean pages. The nonvolatile memory 12 is provided with a plurality of dirty pages and a page table memory unit 51. The operating system 22 is provided with a virtual memory management unit 23 which includes a page transfer unit 25.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Hideki Yoshida, Tatsunori Kanai, Masaya Tarui, Yutaka Yamada
  • Publication number: 20140189211
    Abstract: In the present disclosure, a persistent storage device includes both persistent storage, which includes a set of persistent storage blocks, and a storage controller. The persistent storage device stores and retrieves data in response to commands received from an external host device. The persistent storage device stores a logical block address to physical address mapping. The persistent storage device also, in response to a remapping command, stores an updated logical block address to physical block address mapping.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Inventors: Johann George, Aaron Olbrich
  • Patent number: 8769220
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for mitigating the performance impact of background or idle time processing during interactive computing sessions. One embodiment of the present invention is a method for mitigating performance impact of background or idle time processing on interactive applications comprising identifying executable and data pages in physical memory that are associated with an interactive application that is temporarily unused and preventing any of the identified executable and data pages from paging out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Symantec Corporation
    Inventors: Bruce E. McCorkendale, Mark W. Spiegel, Paul Agbabian, Shaun Cooley
  • Patent number: 8769187
    Abstract: A mobile device includes a system-on-chip (SOC) that includes a mobile device control module, a solid state disk (SSD) control module, and a random access memory (RAM) control module. The mobile device control module executes application programs for the mobile device. The solid-state disk (SSD) control module controls SSD operations. The RAM control module communicates with the mobile device control module and the SSD control module and stores both SSD-related data and mobile device-related data in a single RAM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.
    Inventor: Sehat Sutardja
  • Patent number: 8769231
    Abstract: A crossbar switch device for a processor block ASIC core and a method for a flush-posted-write(s)-before-read mode thereof are described. Operation for the flush-posted-write(s)-before-read mode is set in a first processor block interface coupled to programmable logic fabric. At least one write command is sent from a transaction initiating device instantiated using the programmable logic fabric to the first processor block interface. The at least one write command is posted in the first processor block interface. At least one write command received is stored in a command queue of the crossbar switch device. A read command initiated by a microprocessor is sent to the crossbar switch device. The at least one write command has an address overlap with the read command with respect to a destination target. The read command is temporarily blocked in the crossbar switch device until a command phase of the at least one write command is completed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Xilinx, Inc.
    Inventors: Ahmad R. Ansari, Jeffery H. Appelbaum, Kunal R. Shenoy
  • Patent number: 8769221
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for preemptive page eviction in a computer system are provided. The method includes identifying a region in an input file for preemptive page eviction, where the identified region is infrequently accessed relative to other regions of the input file. The method also includes generating an output file from the input file, where the identified region is flagged as a page for preemptive page eviction in the output file. The method further includes loading the output file to a memory hierarchy including a faster level of memory and a slower level of memory, wherein the flagged page is preemptively written to the slower level of memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Eli M. Dow, Marie R. Laser, Charulatha Dhuvur, Jessie Yu
  • Publication number: 20140181432
    Abstract: Priority-based garbage collection utilizes attributes of data stored in the non-volatile memory array in order to improve efficiency of garbage collection and of the overall data storage system. A set of low priority data can be selectively evicted from a non-volatile memory array. This can, for example, reduce write amplification associated with garbage collection. Another set of low priority data can be regrouped or consolidated in a different region of the non-volatile memory array. In addition, flushing of data can be performed in order to enhance or optimize garbage collection. Performance and endurance can thereby be improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2012
    Publication date: June 26, 2014
    Applicant: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
  • Publication number: 20140173228
    Abstract: In one example embodiment, a memory system includes a hierarchical first-in first-out (FIFO) memory configured to store data, and a FIFO controller configured to control inputting and outputting of data to and from the FIFO memory, wherein the FIFO memory includes a first layer. The first layer includes a high-speed input FIFO memory configured to receive data from an external device and a high-speed output FIFO memory configured to output data to the external device. The FIFO memory further includes a second layer. The second layer includes a main FIFO memory configured to receive data from the high-speed input FIFO memory and output data to the high-speed output FIFO memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2013
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Dong-Han LEE, Jae-Sop KONG
  • Publication number: 20140173226
    Abstract: The presently disclosed subject matter includes a method and system for enabling the deletion of logical objects characterized by an object identifier (OID). Upon restart following a system interruption, one or more logical objects are identified, each object being addressed by an interrupted delete request. For each identified logical object performing a deletion, the deletion including: reading one or more physical blocks stored in a physical storage space, wherein the one or more physical blocks were linked to the identified logical object before the system interruption, each of the physical blocks includes an OID stored therein indicating a logical object currently linked to the respective physical block; obtaining OIDs stored respectively in the one or more physical blocks; and freeing those physical blocks from among the one or more physical blocks, which store an OID identical to the respective OID of the identified logical object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2012
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicant: INFINIDAT LTD.
    Inventor: Israel GOLD
  • Publication number: 20140173227
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing a memory in a portable terminal including a main memory, a secondary memory, and a plurality virtual machines allocated by partitioning the main memory are provided. The method includes generating, by the virtual machines, monitoring information by monitoring access to the main memory and the secondary memory and swapping out with respect to the secondary memory; determining memory allocation amounts for each of the virtual machines by using the monitoring information; and allocating the main memory to the virtual machines in a partitioning scheme based on the determined memory allocation amounts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2013
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicants: Sungkyunkwan University Foundation for Corporate Collaboration, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Changwoo MIN, Inhyeok KIM, Taehyoung KIM, Young Ik EOM
  • Patent number: 8756376
    Abstract: A method of operating a memory system is provided. The method includes a controller that regulates read and write access to one or more FLASH memory devices that are employed for random access memory applications. A buffer component operates in conjunction with the controller to regulate read and write access to the one or more FLASH devices. Wear leveling components along with read and write processing components are provided to facilitate efficient operations of the FLASH memory devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Spansion LLC
    Inventor: Tzungren Allan Tzeng
  • Patent number: 8756383
    Abstract: A mechanism for random cache line selection in virtualization systems is disclosed. A method includes maintaining a secondary data structure representing a plurality of memory pages, the secondary data structure indexed by a subset of each memory page, determining an index of a received new memory page by utilizing a subset of the new memory page that is a same size and at a same offset as the subset of each memory page, comparing the index of the new memory page with the indices of the secondary data structure for a match, utilizing a main data structure to perform a full page memory comparison with the new memory page if a match is found in the secondary data structure, and updating at least one of the size of the subset, the number of subsets, and the offsets of the subsets used to index the memory page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Red Hat Israel, Ltd.
    Inventor: Michael Tsirkin
  • Patent number: 8750144
    Abstract: Aspects of the invention provide for updating TCAMs while minimizing TCAM entry updates to add/delete ACL rules. For example, one aspect provides a method for minimizing updates in a router forwarding table, such as a TCAM, including a plurality of rules indexed by priority. This method comprises providing a proposed rule to be added to the router forwarding table, identifying a range of candidate entries in the router forwarding table for the proposed rule, determining a minimum set of rules to relocate, and creating an empty entry in the range of candidate entries based upon the minimum set of rules to relocate. The method may further comprise reallocating the minimum set of rules by, for example, shifting the minimum set of rules in sequence based on priority, and adding the proposed rule to the empty entry in the range of candidate entries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Junlan Zhou, Zhengrong Ji
  • Patent number: 8751742
    Abstract: A method of extending memory card data storage capacity to a remote data store includes storing an initial data item received from a host device in a local memory cache, and wirelessly transmitting the initial data item from the local memory cache to the remote data store via a network interface that includes at least one wireless communication transceiver. The method also includes substituting a corresponding, smaller transcoded data item received from the remote data store for the initial data item in the local memory cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ)
    Inventor: Johannes Wilke
  • Publication number: 20140149694
    Abstract: A system-on-chip is provided which includes a data producer; a FIFO buffer which stores data transferred from the data producer at a memory area corresponding to a write pointer; a first consumer which pops data of a memory area corresponding to a first read pointer of the FIFO buffer out; and a second consumer which pops data of a memory area corresponding to a second read pointer of the FIFO buffer out. The FIFO buffer requests a pop-out operation at the second consumer according to the difference between the write pointer and the first read pointer or overwrites data provided from the data producer at a memory area corresponding to the second read pointer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2013
    Publication date: May 29, 2014
    Inventors: Donghan Lee, Jaesop Kong, Keemoon Chun
  • Patent number: 8738846
    Abstract: A file system-aware SSD management system including an SSD management module that incorporates both file system information and information related to the underlying physical solid-state storage media into its operations is described. Also described are related methods for performing data management operations in a file system-aware manner. By incorporating both file system and physical storage information, the system may achieve various advantages over conventional systems, such as enhanced I/O performance, simplified SSD firmware, and extended SSD lifespan. Moreover, by moving solid-state management functions above the firmware level, the system may enable the simultaneous management of a pool of multiple SSDs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Arkologic Limited
    Inventors: Kyquang Son, Ronald Lee, Henry C. Lau, Rajesh Ananthanarayanan
  • Patent number: 8738876
    Abstract: A method for performing block management is provided, where the method is applied to a controller of a Flash memory that includes a plurality of blocks. The method includes: selecting a target block having a least erase count from at least one portion of blocks in a data region of the Flash memory, and utilizing the target block as a block to be erased, wherein serial numbers of the at least one portion of blocks correspond to order of last update of the at least one portion of blocks, respectively; and determining whether to move/copy valid data of the target block into a heavily worn block or a lightly worn block according to a serial number of the target block, where the degree of wear of the heavily worn block is higher than that of the lightly worn block. An associated memory device and a controller thereof are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Silicon Motion Inc.
    Inventor: Yang-Chih Shen
  • Patent number: 8737417
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method for a lock-less, zero data copy messaging mechanism in a multi-core processor for use on a modem in a telecommunications network are described herein. The method includes, for each of a plurality of processing cores, acquiring a kernel to user-space (K-U) mapped buffer and corresponding buffer descriptor, inserting a data packet into the buffer; and inserting the buffer descriptor into a circular buffer. The method further includes creating a frame descriptor containing the K-U mapped buffer pointer, inserting the frame descriptor onto a frame queue specified by a dynamic PCD rule mapping IP addresses to frame queues, and creating a buffer descriptor from the frame descriptor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Alcatel Lucent
    Inventors: Mohammad R. Khawer, Lina So
  • Patent number: 8738850
    Abstract: Reliable storage for database management systems (DBMS) running on memory devices such as NAND type flash memory utilizes minimum I/O overhead and provides maximum data durability. A virtual page map is utilized between the flash memory and a page access component to record changes to the DBMS pages and prevent overwriting or data loss. There is no need for journaling and logging, and performance is increased by reducing the write and erase counts on the flash memory. The logical page numbers of the DBMS are mapped to physical page numbers in the page map, such that the virtual page map allocates an available page from the physical pages when changes to a page occur, and the updated information is stored in the allocated page. The allocated page number is mapped to the logical page number of the original page, thus maintaining a modified page representation while preventing physical in-place updates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: SangCheol Lee, BongSoo Ko, HyungGook Yoo, SongHee Kang
  • Patent number: 8725963
    Abstract: A computer system has a random access memory (RAM) that stores currently used memory pages and SWAP storage for storing memory page that is not in use. If the process requires memory page stored on the SWAP storage, a corresponding page is loaded to RAM. If the page in RAM is not currently in use, it is moved to the SWAP storage. The computer system has a number of Virtual Environments (i.e., Containers) that run their own processes, a VE/Container RAM and a virtual SWAP storage. The Container processes have access to a VE/Container RAM. When the Container process request OS for memory, the memory manager allocates memory pages in the RAM and also allocates memory pages for the Container process in the VE/Container RAM. If no free virtual RAM is available, the process data is moved to the virtual SWAP storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Parallels IP Holdings GmbH
    Inventors: Pavel Emelianov, Kirill Korotaev, Alexander G. Tormasov
  • Patent number: 8725962
    Abstract: A main memory data rewriting device includes a rewrite condition analysis unit configured to analyze a rewrite condition for target data in main memory data stored in a main memory before deactivation of an information processing device, and create a first processing content to acquire environment data substituting the target data from outside of the information processing device and a second processing content to rewrite the target data to the environment data, an environment data processing unit configured to acquire the environment data according to the first processing content when the information processing device is temporarily activated at an activation time set to rewrite the target data during a deactivating period of the information processing device, and a rewrite processing unit configured to rewrite a region of a nonvolatile storage medium in which the target data is stored with the environment data according to the second processing content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Keisuke Mera, Takeshi Ishihara, Nobuhiko Sugasawa
  • Publication number: 20140129786
    Abstract: A translation lookaside buffer coherency unit with Emulated Purge (TCUEP) fetches first instructions for execution in a multi-processor system. The TCUEP associates a first instruction timestamp with each of the first instructions. The TCUEP receives a multi-processor coherency operation and increments the first timestamp value in a master-tag register to form a second timestamp value after receiving the multi-processor coherency operation. The TCUEP fetches, by an instruction fetch unit in the first microprocessor, second instructions for execution in the multiprocessor system. The TCUEP associates a second instruction timestamp with each of the second instructions. The TCUEP enables an emulated purge mechanism to suppress hits in the translation lookaside buffers for the second instructions. The TCUEP after determining the first instructions are complete, purges entries in the translation lookaside buffers and disables the emulated purge mechanism.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2012
    Publication date: May 8, 2014
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Joerg Deutschle, Ute Gaertner, Lisa C. Heller
  • Patent number: 8719511
    Abstract: A system and method is provided wherein, in one aspect, a currently-requested item of information is stored in a cache based on whether it has been previously requested and, if so, the time of the previous request. If the item has not been previously requested, it may not be stored in the cache. If the subject item has been previously requested, it may or may not be cached based on a comparison of durations, namely (1) the duration of time between the current request and the previous request for the subject item and (2) for each other item in the cache, the duration of time between the current request and the previous request for the other item. If the duration associated with the subject item is less than the duration of another item in the cache, the subject item may be stored in the cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Timo Burkard, David Presotto
  • Patent number: 8719509
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a cache stores tags for cache blocks stored in the cache. Each tag may include an indication identifying which of two or more replacement policies supported by the cache is in use for the corresponding cache block, and a replacement record indicating the status of the corresponding cache block in the replacement policy. Requests may include a replacement attribute that identifies the desired replacement policy for the cache block accessed by the request. If the request is a miss in the cache, a cache block storage location may be allocated to store the corresponding cache block. The tag associated with the cache block storage location may be updated to include the indication of the desired replacement policy, and the cache may manage the block in accordance with the policy. For example, in an embodiment, the cache may support both an LRR and an LRU policy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James Wang, Zongjian Chen, James B. Keller, Timothy J. Millet
  • Patent number: 8713066
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a storage subsystem comprising a non-volatile solid-state memory array and a system operation module for managing memory operations. The system operation module is configured to store system operation data in a data structure that includes linked lists for storing system operation data, with at least some lists including entries referencing blocks in the solid-state memory array belonging to a category. The system operation module is further configured to (1) move a particular entry from a first linked list to a second linked list when a block referenced by the particular entry in the first linked list has met a condition for being classified in a new category that is different from that of the blocks referenced by entries in the first linked list, and (2) update entries within the first and second linked lists so that the dependencies in the linked lists are maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jerry Lo, Lan D. Phan, Cliff Pajaro
  • Patent number: 8711164
    Abstract: An integrated memory controller (IMC) may sit on the main CPU bus or a high speed system peripheral bus and couple to system memory. The IMC may use a lossless data compression and decompression scheme for improved performance. The IMC may also include microcode for specific decompression of particular data formats such as digital video and digital audio. Compressed data may be decompressed in the IMC and stored into system memory or saved in the system memory in compressed format. Internal memory mapping may allow for format definition spaces which may define the format of the data and the data type to be read or written. Software overrides may be placed in applications software in systems that desire to control data decompression at the software application level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC
    Inventor: Thomas A. Dye
  • Patent number: 8713065
    Abstract: A hybrid object tree that interconnects individual data objects of different data types from a group of different input data sources is provided. The instantiated data objects of the hybrid object tree include an internal dynamic data area that encapsulates at least one reference to an original input data source. At least one attribute is identified that is unavailable at the referenced original input data source of a first instantiated data object of the hybrid object tree. The at least one attribute is added to the first instantiated data object of the hybrid object tree within the internal dynamic data area of the first instantiated data object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Arthur L. De Magalhaes
  • Publication number: 20140115238
    Abstract: According to various embodiments, a storage controller configured to control storage of data in a pre-determined area of a storage medium may be provided. The storage controller may include a memory configured to store a write pointer, a reclaim pointer, and a wrapped around pointer. The write pointer may indicate a location of the storage medium to write incoming data. The reclaim pointer may indicate a location of the storage medium to perform a space reclamation. The wrapped around pointer may indicate a location of the storage medium where writing is to continue if writing of data reaches an end of the pre-determined area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2013
    Publication date: April 24, 2014
    Applicant: Agency for Science, Technology and Research
    Inventors: Weiya Xi, Sufui Sophia Tan, Khai Leong Yong, Chun Teck Lim, Chao Jin, Zhi Yong Ching
  • Patent number: 8706984
    Abstract: A delete notification can be received at a storage stack filter in a storage stack. It can be determined whether the delete notification applies to an entire storage device. If the delete notification does not apply to the entire storage device, a first set of actions can be taken with the storage stack filter in response to the delete notification. If the delete notification does apply to the entire storage device, a second set of actions can be taken with the storage stack filter in response to the delete notification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Karan Mehra, Andrew Herron
  • Patent number: 8706982
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing efficient strong atomicity is herein described. Optimized strong operations may be inserted at non-transactional read accesses to provide efficient strong atomicity. A global transaction value is copied at a beginning of a non-transactional function to a local transaction value; essentially creating a local timestamp of the global transaction value. At a non-transactional memory access within the function, a counter value or version value is compared to the LTV to see if a transaction has started updating memory locations, or specifically the memory location accessed. If memory locations have not been updated by a transaction, execution is accelerated by avoiding a full set of slowpath strong atomic operations to ensure validity of data accessed. In contrast, the slowpath operations may be executed to resolve contention between a transactional and non-transaction access contending for the same memory location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Bratin Saha, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai, Cheng Wang, Tatiana Shpeisman