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IBM Assigned Eighteen Patents

Dual HDD, migration, cache, tape, de-dupe, database backup, metadata, HDD power management, RAID, versioning, etc.

Dual HDD drive system
and method for dropped write detection and recovery
International Business Machines Corp.www.ibm.com, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,667,326) developed by James A. O’Connor, Ulster Park, NY, for a “dual HDD drive system and method for dropped write detection and recovery.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system is provided. The system detects a dropped write from a hard disk drive (HDD). The system includes two or more HDDs, each being configured to define a data block spread across the two or more HDDs. The data block is configured to regenerate a checksum across the full data block during a read operation to detect the dropped write.”

The patent application was filed on May 23, 2011 (13/113,447).

Spatial extent migration for tiered storage architecture
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,667,245) developed by four co-inventors for a “spatial extent migration for tiered storage architecture.”

The co-inventors are Pui Fun Lau, Vail, AZ, David Montgomery, Costa Mesa, CA, Karl A. Nielsen, and Richard B. Stelmach, Tucson, AZ.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are techniques for migrating a first extent, determining a spatial distance between the first extent and a second extent, determining a ratio of a profiling score of the second extent to the spatial distance, and, in response to determining that the ratio exceeds a threshold, migrating the second extent.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 17, 2013 (13/743,970).

Optimizing locations of data accessed by client applications
interacting with storage system
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,667,219) developed by 10 co-inventors for “optimizing locations of data accessed by client applications interacting with a storage system.”

The co-inventors are Evangelos S. Eleftheriou, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, Robert Galbraith, Adrian C. Gerhard, Rochester, MN, Robert Haas, Xiao-Yu Hu, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, Murali N. Iyer, Rochester, MN, Ioannis Koltsidas, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, Timothy J. Larson, Steven P. Norgaard, Rochester, MN, and Roman Pletka, Rueschlikon, Switzerland.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for optimizing locations of physical data accessed by one or more client applications interacting with a storage system, with the storage system comprising at least two redundancy groups having physical memory spaces and data bands. Each of the data bands corresponds to physical data stored on several of the physical memory spaces. A virtualized logical address space includes client data addresses utilizable by the one or more client applications. A storage controller is configured to map the client data addresses onto the data bands, such that a mapping is obtained, wherein the one or more client applications can access physical data corresponding to the data bands.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 7, 2012 (13/606,932).

Storage drive with target of opportunity recognition
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,682,470) developed by Paul Merrill Greco, and Glen Alan Jaquette, Tucson, AZ, for a “storage drive with target of opportunity recognition.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and computer program product are provided for utilizing target of opportunity to perform at least one special operation while a removable storage medium is mounted within a data storage drive for another purpose. The system for recognizing a target of opportunity comprises a tape drive. The tape drive receives a command to mount a tape cartridge in the tape drive, and in response the tape drive mounts the tape cartridge in the tape drive. The tape drive determines if at least one special operation may be performed. If it is determined that at least one special operation may be performed, the tape drive recognizes that a target of opportunity exists. In response to determining that at least one special operation may be performed, the tape drive sends a first notification that the tape drive is to remain in a not ready state. The tape drive performs the at least one special operation, and in response to performing the at least one special operation, the tape drive sends a second notification that the tape drive is in a ready state or an error state.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 8, 2008 (11/971,076).

Caching data in storage system having multiple caches
including non-volatile storage cache in sequential access storage device
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,677,062) developed by Michael T. Benhase, and Lokesh M. Gupta, Tucson, AZ, for “caching data in a storage system having multiple caches including non-volatile storage cache in a sequential access storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for caching data in a storage system having multiple caches. A sequential access storage device includes a sequential access storage medium and a non-volatile storage device integrated in the sequential access storage device, received modified tracks are cached in the non-volatile storage device, wherein the non-volatile storage device is a faster access device than the sequential access storage medium. A spatial index indicates the modified tracks in the non-volatile storage device in an ordering based on their physical location in the sequential access storage medium. The modified tracks are destaged from the non-volatile storage device by comparing a current position of a write head to physical locations of the modified tracks on the sequential access storage medium indicated in the spatial index to select a modified track to destage from the non-volatile storage device to the storage device.”

The patent application was filed on May 14, 2012 (13/471,299).

Tension transients suppression
during acceleration and/or deceleration for tape drive
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,681,448) developed by Nhan X. Bui, Tucson, AZ, and Eiji Ogura, Yokohama, Japan, for “tension transients suppression during acceleration and/or deceleration for storage tape drive.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In one embodiment, a system includes a controller configured to: determine a reference velocity at various intervals, receive or determine a secondary velocity based at least in part on a parameter associated with a drive mechanism motor, determine a value representative of a difference between the reference velocity and secondary velocity, adjust a speed of the motor of the drive mechanism for minimizing the difference between the reference velocity and secondary velocity, receive/determine a primary velocity based on reading information encoded on a magnetic tape, at a switching point, make the reference velocity about equal to the primary velocity, after the switching point, determine the reference velocity at various intervals, after the switching point, determine a value representative of a difference between the reference velocity and primary velocity, and adjust the speed of the motor of the drive mechanism for minimizing the difference between the reference velocity and primary velocity.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 30, 2012 (13/600,104).

Removal of data remanence in de-dupe storage clouds
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,682,868) developed by five co-inventors for “removal of data remanence in deduplicated storage clouds.”

The co-inventors are Deepak R. Ghuge, Ahmednagar, India, Bhushan P. Jain, Maharashtra, India, Sandeep R. Patil, Elmsford, NY, Sri Ramanathan, Lutz, FL, and Matthew B. Trevathan, Kennesaw, GA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method implemented in a computer infrastructure including a combination of hardware and software includes receiving from a local computing device a request to securely delete a file. The method also includes determining the file is deduplicated. The method further includes determining one of: the file is referred to by at least one other file, and the file is not referred to by another file. The method additionally includes securely deleting links associating the file with the local computing device without deleting the file when the file is referred to by at least one other file. The method also includes securely deleting the file when the file is not referred to by another file.”

The patent application was filed on Dec. 2, 2011 (13/309,977).

Methods, systems, and physical computer storage media to backup database
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,682,855) developed by four co-inventors for “methods, systems, and physical computer storage media for backing up a database.”

The co-inventors are Snehal S. Bhakta, Shannon L. Gallaher, Stanley M. Kissinger, and Glenn R. Wilcock, Tucson, AZ.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Systems and physical computer storage media are now provided that improve backing up data sets. Each database transaction is registered to a central repository prior to starting the database transaction, each database transaction comprising a plurality of writes to be executed for a database application on a database, receiving a first signal indicating a start of a backup application on the database, and quiescing all database transactions registered to the central repository to thereby wait for all ongoing writes of the database transactions registered to the central repository to complete and to release control of the database to the database application.

The patent application was filed on June 6, 2011 (13/153,855).

Optimizing data in value-based storage system
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,683,150) developed by 11 co-inventors for a “system and method for optimizing data in value-based storage system.”

The co-inventors are Nikhil Bansal, Yorktown Heights, NY, Frederick Douglis, Basking Ridge, NJ, Lisa Karen Fleischer, Ossining, NY, Kirsten Weale Hildrum, Hawthorne, NY, Akshay Kumar Reddy Katta, New York, John Davis Palmer, San Jose, CA, Elizabeth Suzanne Richards, Columbia, MD, David Tao, Glen Burnie, MD, William Harold Tetzlaff, Mount Kisco, NY, Joel Leonard Wolf, Katonah, NY, and Philip Shi-lung Yu, Chappaqua, NY.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage system includes a plurality of data vats, and a processor including an optimizing unit that optimizes a value of data stored in the storage system. The optimizing unit optimizes the value by computing and implementing an optimal decision for allocating new data to a first data vat of the plurality of data vats, moving existing data from at least a second data vat of the plurality of data vats to the first data vat, and deleting existing data from the first data vat, based on an amount of data in each of the plurality of data vats.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 14, 2012 (13/616,945).

Efficient construction of synthetic backups within de-dupe storage system
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,682,854) developed by Lior Aronovich, Toronto, Canada, Michael Hirsch, Mazkeret Batya, Israel, and Yair Toaff, Givat Shmuel, Israel, for an “efficient construction of synthetic backups within deduplication storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A deduplication storage system enables new input data to be deduplicated with data of synthetic backups already constructed, and for this purpose efficiently calculates deduplication digests for synthetic backups being constructed, based on already existing digests of data referenced by the synthetic backups. For each input data segment of the plurality of input data segments of a synthetic backup being constructed, a plurality of deduplication digests of stored data segments, referenced by the input data segment, is retrieved from an index. Each input data segment is partitioned into each of a plurality of fixed-sized data sub-segments. A calculation is performed producing a deduplication digest for a data sub-segment, where the calculation is based on the retrieved deduplication digests of the plurality of stored data sub-segments referenced by the input data sub-segment.”

The patent application was filed on June 4, 2012 (13/488,180).

Handle portable cassettes removeably
disposed in storage library comprising pass-through accessor
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,675,303) developed by four co-inventors for a “method to handle portable cassettes removeably disposed in a storage library comprising a pass-through accessor.”

The co-inventors are Matthew C. Compton, Louis D. Echevarria, Stefan Lehmann, and Richard A. Welp, Tucson, AZ.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method is provided to handle portable cassettes removeably disposed in a data storage library, wherein the method supplies a data storage library comprising a plurality of storage slots, and a plurality of portable cassettes removeably disposed a designated storage slot in a first alignment order, and a pass-through accessor comprising a moveable fixturing apparatus to store portable cassettes, wherein the pass-through accessor is moveably disposed in the data storage library. The method positions the pass-through accessor adjacent an open end of a designated storage slot, and sequentially removes and attaches to the fixturing apparatus a plurality of portable cassettes from the designated storage slot. The method then transports the plurality of portable cassettes to a designated location within the data storage library.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 20, 2012 (13/590,040).

Clearing metadata tracks in storage system
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,676,748) developed by five co-inventors for “clearing metadata tracks in a storage system.”

The co-inventors are Angelique R. Budaya, Aaron S. Mahar, James A. Springer, Tucson, AZ, Warren K. Stanley, Loveland, CO, and Gail A. Spear, Tucson, AZ.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods, systems, computer program products and methods for deploying computing infrastructure for clearing metadata in a storage subsystem. The method includes identifying one or more metadata tracks to clear, receiving a request from a client to clear the identified tracks, quiescing any active processes, clearing the identified tracks and resuming the quiesced processes. The request may be a single request operable to clear all metadata tracks. Alternatively, target volumes having metadata tracks to be cleared are identified and a request is received from a client for each target volume. A dynamic function list may also be created for each target volume, the list including a list of functions in which the target volume is associated. After active processes are quiesced, each function in the dynamic function list of each target volume is invoked whereby the metadata tracks are cleared. The quiesced processes are then resumed.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 18, 2004 (10/993,048).

Reliability-aware HDD power management
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,677,162) developed by John B. Carter, Wesley M. Felter, and Anthony N. Hylick, Austin, TX, for “reliability-aware disk power management.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A token value is maintained based on an allowable number of low power transitions of a hard disk drive without adversely affecting reliability, compared to an actual number of low power transitions of said hard disk drive. The allowable number of low power transitions increases over the hard disk drive’s lifetime. Before the hard disk drive performs a low power transition, the token is evaluated to determine if the hard disk drive is allowed to perform a low power transition. Low power transitions discussed include parking the head and spinning-down the hard disk drive.

The patent application was filed on Dec. 7, 2010 (12/962,477).

Method, system and program storage device
for automatic incremental learning of programming language grammar
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,676,826) developed by four co-inventors for a “method, system and program storage device for automatic incremental learning of programming language grammar.”

The co-inventors are Pankaj Dhoolia, Dadri, India, Mangala G. Nanda, New Delhi, India, Krishna Nandivada Venkata, Bangalore, India, and Diptikalyan Saha, Kolkata, India.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The embodiments provide for automatic incremental learning of programming language grammar. A corpus (i.e., a text file of software code written in a particular programming language) is parsed based on a set of grammar rules. An unparsed statement from the corpus is identified along with a section thereof, which did not match any of the grammar rules in the set. A subset of the set of grammar rules at fault for the parsing failure is identified. Groups of new grammar rules are developed such that each group comprises at least one new grammar rule, such that each group can parse the unparsed statement, and such that each new grammar rule is a modification of grammar rule(s) in the subset. One specific group can then be selected for possible incorporation into the set of grammar rules. Optionally, before a specific group is selected, the groups can be heuristically pruned and/or ranked.”

The patent application was filed on June 28, 2011 (13/170,723).

RAID transformation in pooled storage system
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,677,066) developed by four co-inventors for “RAID array transformation in a pooled storage system.”

The co-inventors are John P. Agombar, Matthew J. Fairhurst, Winchester, UK, John E. Lindley, San Jose, CA, and Lee J. Sanders, Winchester, UK.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In one embodiment, a method includes reserving extents in a storage pool, reading data from a first portion of an in-use RAID arranged according to a first array configuration, using the reserved extents in the storage pool to store a first portion of the data for writing to the in-use RAID, using one or more free extents in the storage pool or in the in-use RAID to store a second portion of the data for writing to the in-use RAID, writing the data to a second portion of the in-use RAID arranged according to a second array configuration, performing one or more first I/O operations according to the first array configuration, wherein the one or more first I/O operations are performed on the data before the data is read by the data migrating component, and performing one or more second I/O operations according to the second array configuration.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 31, 2011 (13/223,160).

Processing read and write requests in storage controller
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,700,852) developed by Lawrence Y. Chiu, San Jose, CA, Yu-Cheng Hsu, Tucson, AZ, and Sangeetha Seshadri, San Jose, CA, for “processing read and write requests in a storage controller.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are a method, system, and computer program product for processing read and write requests in a storage controller. A host adaptor in the storage controller receives a write request from a host system for a storage address in a storage device. The host adaptor sends write information indicating the storage address updated by the write request to a device adaptor in the storage controller. The host adaptor writes the write data to a cache in the storage controller. The device adaptor indicates the storage address indicated in the write information to a modified storage address list stored in the device adaptor, wherein the modified storage address list indicates modified data in the cache for storage addresses in the storage device.”

The patent application was filed on Feb. 3, 2010 (12/699,805).

Providing versioning in storage device
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,700,843) developed by Lawrence Y. Chiu, San Jose, CA, and Yu-Cheng Hsu, Tucson, AZ, for “providing versioning in a storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are a computer program product, system and method for managing Input/Output (I/O) requests to a storage device. In response to a write request, a determination is made as to whether preserve mode is enabled. A first entry is located in a volume control table for the logical address to write indicating a version number of the data and a first physical location in the storage device. The write data is written to a second physical location in the storage device. If the preserve mode is enabled, a second entry is added to the volume control table for the logical address, the volume control table is updated to have the first or second entry for the logical address point to the second physical location and indicate a current version, and the first or second entry not indicating the current version indicates the first physical location and a previous version.”

The patent application was filed on April 10, 2013 (13/860,481).

On-demand energy savings by lowering power usage
of at least one storage device in multi-tiered storage system
International Business Machines, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,700,932) developed by five co-inventors for a “method for on-demand energy savings by lowering power usage of at least one storage device in a multi-tiered storage system.”

The co-inventors are Wendy A. Belluomini, David D. Chambliss, Joseph S. Glider, Himabindu Pucha, and Rui Zhang, San Jose, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the invention relate to dynamic power management of storage volumes and disk arrays in a storage subsystem to mitigate loss of performance resulting from the power management. The volumes and arrays are prioritized, and in real-time power is selectively reduced in response to both the prioritization and an energy savings goal. A feedback loop is provided to dynamically measure associated power gain based upon a lowering of power consumption, and device selection may be adjusted based upon received feedback.”

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2012 (13/562,626). The full-text of the patent can be found at  Written by Sudarshan Harpal; edited by Jaya Anand.

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