Dell Assigned Three Patents

Removable HDD with front panel input
Dell Products, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,607,359) developed by four co-inventors for a “removable HDD with front panel input.”

The co-inventors are Thomas L. Pratt, Ajay Agarwal, Winston Bumpus, and William A. Curtis, Austin, TX.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ” A system and method is disclosed for authenticating a removable data storage device (RDSD) by using a trusted information module (TIM) to control access to data files stored on the RDSD. A security information input receiver receives identity verification factors from a user and provides the identity verification factors to the TIM for processing. In some embodiments of the invention, the TIM uses identity verification factors in cryptographic operation to authenticate the user, the RDSD and the information processing system to each other. The TIM then performs similar operations with the contents of one or more authorization files to control access and usage of the data files stored on the RDSD.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 22, 2007 (11/625,434).

Top accessible disk drive carrier for horizontally mounted HDD
Dell Products, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,611,093) developed by five co-inventors for a “top accessible disk drive carrier for horizontally mounted HDD.“

The co-inventors are Kevin Terwilliger, Richard A. Crisp, Austin, J. Orand, Garrett R. Lewis, and Paul Kramer, Austin, TX.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A disk drive carrier includes a frame and a shuttle. The frame includes supports configured to be in physical communication with a disk drive, a first index tab to align the disk drive with a connector on a backplane of a server tray, and an arm configured to engage the disk drive with the connector in a horizontal orientation. The shuttle includes a base including a channel, edges extending from the base and forming an enclosure to receive the frame and the disk drive in a vertical orientation, a fastener connected to the server tray through the channel, and an alignment key configured to slide along the first index tab and to align the disk drive with the connector. The disk drive shuttle is configured to horizontally move along the server tray and to enable the disk drive to connect with the connector in the horizontal orientation.“

The patent application was filed on Oct. 25, 2011 (13/281,193).

Heat indices for file systems and block storage
Dell Products, Round Rock, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,612,401) developed by four co-inventors for “heat indices for file systems and block storage.”

The co-inventors are Abhijit Dinkar, San Jose, CA, Vinod Jayaraman, San Francisco, CA, Murali Bashyam, Fremont, CA, and Goutham Rao, Los Altos Hills, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques and mechanisms are provided to allow for selective optimization, including deduplication and/or compression, of portions of files and data blocks. Data access is monitored to generate a heat index for identifying sections of files and volumes that are frequently and infrequently accessed. These frequently used portions may be left non-optimized to reduce or eliminate optimization I/O overhead. Infrequently accessed portions can be more aggressively optimized.”

The patent application was filed on March 4, 2011 (13/041,268).