Fujitsu Assigned Eight Patents

Storage control apparatus
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,378,092) developed by Cho, Emi, Yokohama, Japan, and Suzuki, Toshihiko, Kawasaki, Japan, for a “storage control apparatus and storage control.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An apparatus includes an interface, and a processor. The interface inputs and outputs data from and to a storage device that includes a plurality of memory blocks forming a plurality of RAID groups, and a backup block used as a backup of the plurality of memory blocks. The processor sets as read-out targets a plurality of memory cells included in each memory block. When a memory cell included in a faulty memory block becomes a read-out target, the processor excludes the memory cell that belongs to the RAID group, until restoration of the data of the faulty memory block and copying of the restored data to the backup block are completed. When the copying of the restored data is completed, the processor selects as read-out targets the memory cell that belongs to the RAID group that includes the faulty memory block and a memory cell in the backup block.“

The patent application was filed on November 24, 2014 (14/551,130).

Storage control device for controlling physical storage device
in storage system including virtual storage device
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,377,965) developed by Kinoshita, Tetsuya, Matsuo, Fumio, Nishi, Hidetoshi, Nagano, Japan, Enohara, Katsuo, Kawaguchi, Japan, Yamato, Takaaki, Murayama, Takashi, Hirashima, Nobuyuki, and Furukawa, Yuki, Nagano, Japan, for a “storage control device for controlling physical storage device in storage system including virtual storage device, storage system including physical storage device and virtual storage device, and computer-readable recording medium storing control program for physical storage device in storage system including virtual storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage control device that controls a physical storage device in a storage system, the storage control device includes: a receiving section configured to receive a command from the storage system including the physical storage device and a virtual storage device, the physical storage device configured to store data in a physical volume, the virtual storage device configured to intervene between a host device and the physical storage device and store data to be transmitted and received between the host device and the physical storage device as a virtual portable volume, a determining section configured to determine a type of the command, and a control section, if the command is an ejection command indicating an outside management of a first physical volume specified by the ejection command, configured to perform data protection setting on the first physical volume.“

The patent application was filed on April 8, 2014 (14/247,319).

Storage control device
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,372,763) developed by Yamaji, Kazufumi, Yokohama, Japan, for a “storage control device and storage control method.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage control device includes a processor. The processor is configured to request a plurality of disk devices storing data therein to notify the processor of degradation information on degradation of data stored in the respective disk devices. The processor is configured to instruct, based on first information among notified degradation information, the plurality of disk devices to rewrite data. The first information serves as a trigger of rewriting data. The first information is notified by at least one of the plurality of disk device.“

The patent application was filed on February 24, 2014 (14/187,634).

Storage virtualization
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,367,492) developed by Shiomi, Hiroshi, Kawasaki, Japan, for a “storage virtualization apparatus causing access request process to be delayed based on incomplete count and storage virtualization method.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage virtualization apparatus includes: a first storing unit to store, with respect to each storage port, a process incomplete command count defined as number of commands not yet processed by the storage device having each storage port, a control unit to obtain process incomplete command counts accumulated by other storage virtualization apparatuses, and stores into a second storing unit a process incomplete command total count that is a total of the process incomplete command counts obtained from the other storage virtualization apparatuses and the first storing unit, and an access request responding unit to, when receiving an access request, obtain the process incomplete command total count about a storage port corresponding to the received access request, and to, when the obtained process incomplete command total count is larger than a prescribed number, cause completion timing of an access responding process to the access request to be delayed.“

The patent application was filed on May 21, 2013 (13/898,541).

Storage device, data processing, registration, and recording medium
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,367,485) developed by Nakamura, Yosuke, Nimura, Kazuaki, Yasaki, Koichi, and Guo, Zhaogong, Kawasaki, Japan, for a “storage device, data processing device, registration method, and recording medium.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage device includes a switching unit which switches an access destination in a storage area between a first storage area and a second storage area in response to an access request from a host device, and a nonvolatile storage medium which stores a first host device information used to identify the host device in the second storage area, and a software module executed by a CPU provided in the host device, the software module comprising causing an authority grant unit which transmits a control signal for switching the access destination to the first storage area to the switching unit of the storage device, when the acquired first and second host device information are compared to find that the first and second host device information match with each other.“

The patent application was filed on April 7, 2014 (14/246,528).

Storage control
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,367,393) developed by Akiyama, Shigeru, Kawasaki, Japan, Ogasawara, Yasuhiro, Fujisawa, Japan, Matsuda, Tsukasa, and, Kosokabe, Hitoshi, Kawasaki, Japan, for a “storage control apparatus and storage control method.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage control apparatus converts data in a variable-length data format including a field into data in a fixed-length data format and stores the converted data in the fixed-length data format in a storage apparatus. The storage control apparatus includes a data storage memory, a writing unit, and a verification information adding unit. The writing unit writes the data in the variable-length data format to divided regions of the data storage memory. The verification information adding unit adds verification information to the field of the variable-length data format which is written to one or more of the divided regions. Thus, the storage control apparatus is able to check each divided region for a data error.“

The patent application was filed on November 19, 2014 (14/547,179).

Controlling access to disk apparatus in information processing system
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,363,316) developed by Iwamatsu, Noboru, Kawasaki, Japan, and Ogihara, Kazutaka, Hachioji, Japan, for a “apparatus and method for controlling access to a disk apparatus in an information processing system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information processing apparatus including plural operation processing apparatuses and plural disk apparatuses, which are connected to each other via a switch. A management apparatus provides, in response to a loan request from a terminal, a first operation resource and a first storage resource of a first processing apparatus in which a first operation processing apparatus and a first disk apparatus are connected with each other through the switch, to the terminal through a network. The management apparatus releases the connection between the first operation processing apparatus and the first disk apparatus through the switch in response to a return request from the terminal and provides the first storage resource and a second operation resource of a second processing apparatus in which a second operation processing apparatus and the first disk apparatus are connected with each other through the switch, to the terminal through the network.“

The patent application was filed on April 24, 2014 (14/260,667).

Storage system
Fujitsu, Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,354,914) developed by Noma, Shohei, Shimogawa, Kenichirou, and Shigeta, Soichi, Kawasaki, Japan, for a “storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The I/O performance measurement unit of Hypervisor measures latencies of I/O process requests to virtual disks, and reports the average value of the latencies to the I/O performance information collection unit of the management server. The provision destination determination unit sets, as a storage unit to which a virtual disk is to be allocated, that is a storage unit having the smallest average value of the latencies among storage units to which virtual disks have been provided.“

The patent application was filed on July 18, 2012 (13/551,687).