| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 6687801 |
Adaptive copy pending off mode |
February 3, 2004 |
| Transferring data from a local storage device to a remote storage device includes providing a first portion of data to a cache memory of the local storage device, marking the first portion of data as write pending, and, in response to transferring a second portion of data related to the |
| 6687797 |
Arbitration system and method |
February 3, 2004 |
| An arbitration system having a common memory region. The region has a plurality of refreshable data storage elements. The system includes a plurality of memory region controllers each one being adapted to request access to the common memory region. Each one of the controllers has a m |
| 6687787 |
Configuration of a data storage system |
February 3, 2004 |
| A computer-implemented method for automatically configuring a data-storage system includes receiving a specification of mass-storage elements to be incorporated into the data-storage system and identifying installed resources of the data-storage system that are available for sharing amon |
| 6687718 |
Method and apparatus for cascading data through redundant data storage units |
February 3, 2004 |
| A data storage facility for transferring data from a data altering apparatus, such as a production data processing site to a remote data receiving site. The data storage facility includes a first data store for recording each change in the data generated by the data altering apparatu |
| 6684268 |
Data storage system having separate data transfer section and message network having CPU bus sel |
January 27, 2004 |
| A system interface includes a plurality of first directors, a plurality of second directors, a data transfer section and a message network. The data transfer section includes a cache memory. The cache memory is coupled to the plurality of first and second directors. The messaging network |
| 6681390 |
Upgrade of a program |
January 20, 2004 |
| A method and processor program product for performing an upgrade of a program on a processor are provided. An upgraded version of the program is received into the processor and a backup of the program is created in memory associated with the processor. The upgraded version of the program |
| 6681353 |
Methods and apparatus for obtaining a trace of a digital signal within a field programmable gate |
January 20, 2004 |
| The invention is directed to techniques which use a test circuit within an FPGA device to obtain a trace of a digital signal used by normal operating circuitry of the FPGA device. The test circuit stores the trace in memory of the FPGA device which is accessible without the need of a log |
| 6680847 |
Electronic circuitry enclosure with air vents that comply with emissions and safety standards |
January 20, 2004 |
| An air vent comprises a vent assembly including an electrically-conductive screen mounted inside an enclosure constructed of panels. One or more of the panels has an array of holes through it. The holes are configured and sized to prevent an appendage, such as a finger from penetrating t |
| 6678788 |
Data type and topological data categorization and ordering for a mass storage system |
January 13, 2004 |
| The storage space of a RAID striped mass storage system is topologically organized as a plurality of basic units of storage space for storing data items in data blocks. A topological data formatter includes a write data buffer for each data type and an initial data classifier initially |
| 6678748 |
Method for optimizing multiple input/output requests to a single logical device |
January 13, 2004 |
| A method and system for optimizing input-output requests. Input-output requests are intercepted before any information transfers to a data storage facility. Commands in the input-output request are scanned to determine their starting and ending addresses. The scanned addresses are th |
| 6678332 |
Seamless splicing of encoded MPEG video and audio |
January 13, 2004 |
| Predictive analysis is performed upon encoded digital motion video (such as an MPEG Transport Stream) to facilitate real-time splicing. The predictive analysis includes estimation of upper and lower bounds of the data levels in a decoder's video and audio buffers for splicing in such a w |
| 6678161 |
Frame connecting techniques for use in electronic systems |
January 13, 2004 |
| An electronic system includes electronic circuitry having a first portion and a second portion, and an electronic cabinet assembly that houses the electronic circuitry. The electronic cabinet assembly includes a first cabinet that houses the first portion of the electronic circuitry and |
| 6675274 |
Method and apparatus for determining volume swaps |
January 6, 2004 |
| Described are techniques for determining temporary storage areas for logical volumes to be swapped. Logical volumes may be swapped in a computer system in connection with efforts to improve performance of associated data storage entities in the computer system. As part of the data sw |
| 6672914 |
Methods and apparatus for mounting a bus bar assembly |
January 6, 2004 |
| A bus bar mounting system has a frame assembly and a bus bar assembly. The frame assembly includes a chassis which is mountable within an equipment cabinet, and an interlocking portion that forms a unitary member with the chassis. The bus bar assembly includes a set of bus bars, and a bu |
| 6671774 |
Method and apparatus for performing swap analysis |
December 30, 2003 |
| Described are techniques used in connection with determining one or more pairs of logical volumes (LVs) to increase the performance of storage devices by swapping these LVs. Future performance of the anticipated potential LV swap is determined in accordance with past performance data |
| 6671705 |
Remote mirroring system, device, and method |
December 30, 2003 |
| In a remote mirroring system, device, and method, a master storage unit stores information in a log and uses the information from the log to quickly resynchronize slave images following a failure in the master storage unit. Upon receiving a write request from a host, the master stora |
| 6665812 |
Storage array network backup configuration |
December 16, 2003 |
| A redundant communication network includes servers having production servers and a backup server; a storage system including a plurality of production volumes for storing data and a corresponding plurality of backup volumes connected to each of the production volumes. The redundant c |
| 6665771 |
Intra-disk swapping of data storage volumes |
December 16, 2003 |
| A process performs an intra-disk swap. The process includes finding a set of values indicative of access loads of new states of a disk. Each new state is produced from a current state of the disk by hypothetically swapping a pair of physical storage volumes of the disk. The process also |
| 6665740 |
Logical volume selection in a probability-based job scheduler |
December 16, 2003 |
| A scheduler for selecting a logical volume for job generation based on the loading of physical resources in a data storage system. The scheduler determines a job workload for each of the physical resources, selects physical resources based on the job workload and selects a logical volume |
| 6665739 |
Method for enabling overlapped input/output requests to a logical device using assigned and para |
December 16, 2003 |
| A method for enabling overlapped input/output requests to a logical device using assigned and parallel access unit control blocks. Each I/O request interrupts an operating system to assign a base and related unit control block to the input/output requests. In addition a parallel access c |
| 6665738 |
Method for enabling overlapped input/output requests to a logical device from multiple hosts wit |
December 16, 2003 |
| A method for enabling for enabling overlapped input-output request to a logical device from multiple hosts with explicit allegiances. Parameters including an address range in a new input-output request are tested against corresponding address ranges in other input-output requests in a |
| 6665714 |
Method and apparatus for determining an identity of a network device |
December 16, 2003 |
| A method and apparatus for managing the availability and assignment of data in a storage system that is coupled to a network. A user interface is provided that executes on a host processor that is coupled to the storage system over the network. The user interface communicates with a |
| 6665703 |
Storage system with internal LAN |
December 16, 2003 |
| A storage system is provided which includes an internal local area network. The local area network is achieved by providing a separate Ethernet bus as well as Ethernet hardware on each host and disk/tape controller within the storage system. Each host controller and disk/tape controller |
| 6664964 |
Correlation criteria for logical volumes |
December 16, 2003 |
| A system and method for determining whether activity graphs (hereinafter "graphs") for logical volumes of data storage are correlated. A number of correlation criteria are applied to the graphs, including the area ratio criteria determines whether an area ratio described by the graph is |
| 6662241 |
Apparatus and method for controlling a peripheral device |
December 9, 2003 |
| A method and apparatus for controlling a peripheral device is provided. In a server, in a client/server environment, a server application receives a request for execution of a peripheral device script from a client application. The server application retrieves a peripheral device script |
| 6662197 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring update activity in a data storage facility |
December 9, 2003 |
| A method and apparatus for monitoring update activity, particularly in the form of write requests, to a data storage facility, over at least one cycle to identify any write operation or update that occurs to that data storage facility on a track-by-track basis. At the end of each cycle a |
| 6658592 |
Error detection in disk storage systems |
December 2, 2003 |
| A method for scanning a disk to verify the integrity of data records stored on the disk includes comparing copies of meta-data derived from a data record to be verified. For each data record, a first copy of the meta-data for that record is stored in a cache memory and a second copy of t |
| 6658589 |
System and method for backup a parallel server data storage system |
December 2, 2003 |
| A system and method for safe and effective backup and restore of parallel server databases stored in data storage systems. Parallel server databases allow multiple nodes in MPP (Massively Parallel Processor) or SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processor) systems to simultaneously access a database. |
| 6658522 |
Method to reduce overhead associated with system I/O in a multiprocessor computer system |
December 2, 2003 |
| Featured is a method for reducing overhead associated with system input output (I/O) operations in a computer system having a plurality of processors and a physical memory accessed and used by the plurality of processors. The physical memory being accessed can be a global physical me |
| 6654855 |
Method and apparatus for improving the efficiency of cache memories using chained metrics |
November 25, 2003 |
| A time-weighted metric is associated with each line of data that is being held in a data cache. The value of the metric is recomputed as the lines are accessed and the metric value is used to group cache lines for paging purposes. The metrics are computed and stored and the stored metric |
| 6654772 |
Multi-volume extent based file system |
November 25, 2003 |
| A memory storage device has a file storage operating system which uses an inode to record and find segments of each data file. The inode includes a plurality of rows. A portion of the rows are written with direct extents pointing to data blocks storing portions of file segments. At least |
| 6654752 |
Method and apparatus for independent and simultaneous access to a common data set |
November 25, 2003 |
| A data network with data storage facilities for providing redundant data storage and for enabling concurrent access to the data for multiple purposes. A first data processing system with a first data facility stores a data base and processes transactions or other priority applications. A |
| 6651130 |
Data storage system having separate data transfer section and message network with bus arbitrati |
November 18, 2003 |
| A system interface includes a plurality of first directors, a plurality of second directors, a data transfer section and a message network. The data transfer section includes a cache memory. The cache memory is coupled to the plurality of first and second directors. The messaging network |
| 6651074 |
Method and apparatus for storage and retrieval of very large databases using a direct pipe |
November 18, 2003 |
| A method and apparatus for directly connecting very large data streams from an archive command into a backup data system using an "intelligent process." An output stream-is piped into an intelligent pipe-reading process and distributed over a set of temporary data stores built from raw |
| 6647474 |
Remote data mirroring system using local and remote write pending indicators |
November 11, 2003 |
| A primary data storage system is linked to a geographically remote secondary data storage system for automatically maintaining a remote copy of the data in the primary storage. The primary data storage system controller uses write pending indicators to control and coordinate the remo |
| 6647458 |
Benchmark tool write analysis for a mass storage system |
November 11, 2003 |
| A method for automatically finding the transition interval from a fast write to a delayed fast write, in a mass storage system in which the mass storage system has a plurality of disk drive storage elements controlled by a disk drive controller, the controller having a cache memory throu |
| 6643722 |
Data storage system having director boards with plural processors |
November 4, 2003 |
| A data storage system wherein a host computer is coupled to a bank of disk drives through an interface. The interface has a plurality of directors and a memory interconnected by a buss. The directors control data transfer between the host computer and the bank of disk drives as such data |
| 6640285 |
Method and apparatus for improving the efficiency of cache memories using stored activity measur |
October 28, 2003 |
| Cache memory lines are dynamically paged out to underlying storage in accordance with their current levels of activity and are clustered for paging purposes on the same basis. Activity measures are assigned to each line when it is paged into cache; these measures are updated whenever a |
| 6640280 |
Obtaining data from a remote storage device using multiple jobs per device on RA |
October 28, 2003 |
| Providing data from a volume of a remote storage device coupled to a local storage device that is coupled to a host, includes providing a command to the remote storage device to request the data, if the data is stored in a cache portion of the remote storage device, the remote storage de |
| 6637641 |
Systems and methods for manufacturing a circuit board |
October 28, 2003 |
| A circuit board manufacturing system has a paste source, a circuit board processing apparatus, and a controller. The circuit board processing apparatus includes a carrier configured to receive a circuit board having (i) a section of circuit board material and (ii) virgin metallic surface |
| 6636934 |
Fiber channel port by-pass selector section for dual ported disk drives |
October 21, 2003 |
| A data storage system having a plurality of disk drives. Each one has a pair of bi-directional ports. A pair of directors controls the flow of data to and from the disk drives. A first fiber channel port by-pass selector section is provided. The first fiber channel by-pass selector s |
| 6636933 |
Data storage system having crossbar switch with multi-staged routing |
October 21, 2003 |
| A memory system having a backplane with a plurality of receiving slots. Each one of the slots has electrical contacts for providing an indication of Such one of the slots. Each one of the slots has a different slot indication. A plurality of memory boards is provided. Each one of the |
| 6636418 |
Methods and apparatus for installing electronic cabinets using improved stabilization techniques |
October 21, 2003 |
| An electronic system has electronic circuitry and an electronic cabinet that houses the electronic circuitry. The electronic cabinet includes a frame that holds the electronic circuitry, a set of exterior members that mounts to the frame, and a stabilization assembly. The stabilization |
| 6633955 |
Four way support for dynamic mirror service policy |
October 14, 2003 |
| Described are techniques for use in determining a dynamic mirror service policy (DMSP) for a plurality of mirror devices. The DMSP determines which of the plurality of mirror devices services I/O operations associated with a logical volume (LV), such as a read operation, at a particular |
| 6633954 |
Method for enhancing host application performance with a DASD using task priorities |
October 14, 2003 |
| A method for enhancing the performance of an application on a data processing system that operates with a disk array storage device in which the completion of tasks associated with different transactions with one logical storage device are conditions precedent to the completion of other |
| 6633925 |
Operating system for generating overlapped input-output requests to a device in a disk array sto |
October 14, 2003 |
| A method for enabling a data processing system with a host running under an operating system and with a disk array storage device organized by logical devices to process panel I/O requests to a logical device from one or more host processors concurrently. The system includes a parallel a |
| 6631477 |
Host system for mass storage business continuance volumes |
October 7, 2003 |
| A mass storage business continuance time maker function host system that allows one or more MVS mainframe hosts to have the time to: establish business continuation volumes to mirror the standard mass storage volumes; synchronize business continuation volumes with the standard volumes so |
| 6631433 |
Bus arbiter for a data storage system |
October 7, 2003 |
| A system interface includes a plurality of first directors, a plurality of second directors, a data transfer section and a message network. The data transfer section includes a cache memory. The cache memory is coupled to the plurality of first and second directors. The messaging network |
| 6629216 |
Fibre channel by-pass |
September 30, 2003 |
| A data storage system having a plurality of disk drives. Each one has a pair of ports. A pair of directors controls the flow of data to and from the disk drives. A first fiber channel port by-pass selector section is provided. The first fiber channel selector section includes: an inp |
| 6629199 |
DIGITAL DATA STORAGE SYSTEM INCLUDING DIRECTORY FOR EFFICIENTLY PROVIDING FORMATTING INFORMATION |
September 30, 2003 |
| A digital data storage system in the form of a mass storage subsystem in which information is stored on one or more disk storage units, with a storage element constituting a track on a disk storage device and each track storing a plurality of records. Each track in each disk storage |
