LSI/Avago Assigned Seven Patents

Smart active-active high availability DAS systems
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,015,525) developed by Samanta, Sumanesh, Biswas, Sujan, Bangalore, India, and Simionescu, Horia, Foster City, CA, for a “smart active-active high availability DAS systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A high availability DAS system uses a solid state cache to provide near active-active performance in a DAS duster, while retaining the implementation simplicity of active-passive or dual active system. Each node in the duster may include a solid state cache that stores hot I/O in an active-active mode, which allows the data to be read from or written to the underlying dual-active or active/passive DAS RAID system only when access to the “hot Region” cools down or in the case of Cache Miss. The hot I/O data includes hot read data that accumulated dynamically regardless of ownership of the drives where the hot read data is permanently stored. The hot I/O data also includes hot write data that is mirrored across the solid state cache memories to avoid potential dirty write data conflicts and also to provide High Availability in case of server failures.“

The patent application was filed on June 19, 2012 (13/526,881).

Normalizing storage performance across plurality of logical volumes
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,021,199) developed by Govande, Nilesh S., Pune, India, Mulani, Jameer Babasaheb, Sangli, India, Besmer, Brad D., and Gray, Susan, Colorado Springs, CO, for a “methods and structure for normalizing storage performance across a plurality of logical volumes.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and structure are disclosed for normalizing storage performance across a plurality of logical volumes. One embodiment is a storage controller. The storage controller is adapted to couple with a plurality of host systems and a storage device. The storage controller is adapted to receive one or more requests to create logical volumes for the plurality of hose systems, and adapted to identify a plurality of performance zones for storage areas of the storage device. The performance zones exhibit different performance criteria for one or more of: reading data from the storage device and writing data to the storage device. The storage controller is further adapted to allocate storage from each of the plurality of performance zones for each of the plurality of logical volumes such that the performance criteria for accessing the storage device is distributed substantially uniformly across the plurality of logical volumes.“

The patent application was filed on August 15, 2012 (13/586,133).

Server DAS shared through physical SAS expanders
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,021,166) developed by Varchavtchik, Luiz D., Wichita, KS, Kaufmann, Reid A., Andover, KS, Unrein, Jason A., Wichita, KS, for a “server direct attached storage shared through physical SAS expanders .”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method for servers to belong to a cascaded cluster of nodes, or servers) is disclosed. Servers share storage in common without the need of an external element such as a switch and or external storage device. SAS technology is used with direct attached drives in each node, and connections between each node, to emulate a SAN environment through a cascaded SAS topology. SAS HBAs each containing an SAS expander, connect elements internal to each server with elements external to each. This cascaded DAS clustering enables bi-directional traffic from each server in the cluster to all other servers and their attached drives.“

The patent application was filed on July 17, 2012 (13/550,799).

Storage controller
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,021,141) developed by El-Batal, Mohamad, Westminster, CO, Baderdinni, Anant, Lawrenceville, GA, Ish, Mark, Sandy Springs, GA, and Stuhlsatz, Jason M., Dacula, GA, for a “data storage controller and method for exposing information stored in a data storage controller to a host system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage controller exposes information stored in a locally managed volatile memory store to a host system. The locally managed volatile memory store is mapped to a corresponding portion of a peripheral component interconnect express, PCIe) compliant memory space managed by the host system. Backup logic in the data storage controller responds to a power event detected at the interface between the data storage controller and the host system by copying the contents of the volatile memory store to a non-volatile memory store on the data storage controller. Restore logic restores a data storage controller state by copying the contents of the non-volatile memory store to the locally managed volatile memory store upon the application of power such that the data in the volatile memory store is persistent even in the event of a loss of power to the host system and or the data storage controller.“

The patent application was filed on December 11, 2013 (14/103,679).

Storage devices in side accessible drive sled
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,019,708) developed by Shinsato, Macen, Wichita, KS, El-Batal, Mohamad H., Boulder, CO, Stubbs, Robert E., Longmont, CO, Stuhlsatz, Jason M., Dacula, GA, and Kloeppner, John R., Buhler, KS, for a “apparatus and systems having storage devices in a side accessible drive sled.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Apparatus and systems for improved access to storage devices from the sides of sleds mounted in storage enclosures. Embodiments provide apparatus and systems for a sled in a storage enclosure that provides access to storage devices on either side of the sled when the sled is slid forward out of its enclosure. Multiple sleds may be enclosed within a single enclosure to permit access to a portion of the storage devices in the enclosure hence reducing the problems of instability of the rack if the enclosure is mounted near the top of the rack.“

The patent application was filed on August 25, 2011 (13/217,650).

Data addressing in storage device
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,019,644) developed by Han, Yang, Sunnyvale, CA, Li, Zongwang, Yang, Shaohua, San Jose, CA, and Chang, Wu, Santa Clara, CA, for a “systems and methods for data addressing in a storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for format efficient data storage. As an example, a data storage device is described that includes: a storage medium, a read/write head assembly, and a read channel circuit. The read/write head assembly is disposed in relation to the storage medium and operable to sense information corresponding to an encoded codeword. The read channel circuit is operable to receive the encoded codeword. The read channel circuit includes a missing symbols insertion circuit, a codeword de-scramble circuit, an address insertion circuit, and a data decoder circuit. The missing symbols insertion circuit, the codeword de-scramble circuit, and the address insertion circuit together are operable to pad a derivative of the encoded codeword with a plurality of symbols, to de-scramble the derivative of the encoded codeword, and to insert address information corresponding to the derivative of the encoded codeword to yield a modified encoded codeword. The data decoder circuit is operable to apply a data decoding algorithm to the modified encoded codeword to yield a decoded output.“

The patent application was filed on May 23, 2011 (13/113,219).

Synchronization mark detection for multi-dimensional magnetic recording
LSI Corporation, San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,019,642) developed by Xia, Haitao, Cao, Rui, San Jose, CA, Sun, Lingyan, Longmont, CO, and Pan, Lu, San Jose, CA, for a “synchronization mark detection for multi-dimensional magnetic recording.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for detecting an information pattern includes obtaining a first sample stream and a second sample stream. The first sample stream and the second sample stream are obtained by sensing recorded information at a target location of a storage medium using a first sensor and a second sensor, respectively. A first metric is computed by comparing the first sample stream to a reference pattern representative of a target information pattern to be detected. A second metric is computed by comparing the second sample stream to the reference pattern. A combined metric is computed by combining the first metric and second metric using a weighting function. The target information pattern is detected using the combined metric.“

The patent application was filed on April 2, 2014 (14/243,539).