QLogic Assigned Nine Patents

Intelligent adapter for providing storage area network access
and access to local storage device
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,350,807) developed by Shah, Shishir, Irvine, CA, for a “intelligent adapter for providing storage area network access and access to a local storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network device that includes a storage protocol controller having a port for interfacing with a storage area network, (SAN) based storage device and another network device operating within a cluster is provided. The network device also includes a processor executing instructions for managing a local storage device that is configured to operate as a caching device for a computing device. The network device is configured to operate as a host bus adapter and a storage controller for managing storage space at the local storage device and the SAN-based storage device.“

The patent application was filed on March 8, 2013 (13/790,395).

Managing networks
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,338,059) developed by Ainsworth, Stephen, McGlaughlin, Edward C., Spengler, Michael K., and Wagner, John P., Minnetonka, MN, for a “system and methods for managing networks.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Method and system for configuring a plurality of virtual networks using a plurality of physical resources of a network device is provided. A hierarchical data structure having a plurality of layers for representing an instance of the network device is generated. A first layer represents the plurality of virtual networks, a second layer represents a plurality of virtual network protocols that are used by the plurality of networks, and a third layer represent the physical resources that are used by the plurality of virtual networks for communicating with other devices. The plurality of virtual networks is validated by using the data structure to check if there is any conflict in using the selected physical resources.“

The patent application was filed on June 21, 2013 (13/924,107).

Improved data caching in virtualized environment
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,330,010) developed by Shah, Bhavik, Ahmedabad, India, for a “methods and systems for improved data caching in a virtualized environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for data storage and caching in a system including virtual machines is disclosed. In an embodiment, a machine implemented method includes mapping a plurality of virtual hard drives to a logical unit number, (LUN) of a storage system, each virtual hard drive including a logical block address, (LBA) range of the storage system LUN, storing the mapping in a caching module data structure, determining that one of the virtual hard drives should be cached, and updating the caching module data structure to indicate that the LBA range associated with the one of the virtual hard drives should be cached.“

The patent application was filed on August 27, 2014 (14/470,337).

Intelligent adapter for maintaining cache coherency
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,330,003) developed by Shah, Shishir, Irvine, CA, and Emralino, Normin A., Huntington Beach, CA, for a “intelligent adapter for maintaining cache coherency.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system having a first computing device interfacing with a first adapter and a second computing device interfacing with a second adapter, where the first adapter and the second adapter operate within a cluster is provided. The first adapter processes an I/O request, when the first adapter is a cache owner of a logical entity presented to the first computing device, otherwise the request is sent to the second adapter by a storage protocol controller of the first adapter and the second adapter as the cache owner of the logical entity processes the request.“

The patent application was filed on March 8, 2013 (13/790,471).

Data migration
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,329,794) developed by Shah, Bhavik, Ahmedabad, India, for a “system and methods for data migration.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Method and system for migrating information from a source storage to a destination storage is provided. The method includes, (a) receiving a migration request to migrate information from the source storage to the destination storage, wherein a router receives the migration request, ( b) placing a reservation on the source storage such that no other system can write to the source storage, once the migration of information from the source storage to the destination storage is initiated, wherein the router sends a reservation request to a system that manages the source storage and the system grants the reservation request to the router,, c) migrating information from the source storage to the destination storage, while the reservation is placed on the source storage, and, d) releasing the reservation after migration is completed in step, (c).“

The patent application was filed on January 21, 2010 (12/691,629).

Communication with peripheral devices
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,311,268) developed by Chen, Qian, Irvine, CA, and Weimer, Ronald A., Laguna Hills, CA, for a “method and system for communication with peripheral devices.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for ignoring protocol defined framing errors at a peripheral device coupled to a processor via an interconnect system are provided. When a framing error violation does not affect data transfer to the peripheral device or from the peripheral device, the protocol defined link training sequence is disabled to ignore the framing error and the peripheral device continues to process data regardless of the framing error.“

The patent application was filed on October 21, 2013 (14/058,887).

Performing read ahead operation using intelligent storage adapter
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,311,021) developed by Shah, Bhavik, Ahmedabad, India, for a “methods and systems for performing a read ahead operation using an intelligent storage adapter.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for a read ahead operation are provided. The method includes maintaining a data structure by an adapter to track whether data blocks associated with a logical unit number, (LUN) have been written or modified, extracting a starting logical block address, (LBA) for executing a read request for reading data stored using the LUN, generating a LBA range for a read ahead operation that is used to predict data that may be read subsequent to the read request, determining if blocks associated with the LBA range for the read ahead operation have been written or modified, only reading ahead the blocks associated with the LBA range, when the blocks have been written to or modified, and temporarily storing the read ahead data at a cache LUN maintained by the adapter.“

The patent application was filed on August 27, 2014 (14/470,309).

Smoothing FIFO
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,282,046) developed by Dropps, Frank R., Maple Grove, MN, and Kohlwey, Ernest G., Eagan, MN, for a “smoothing FIFO and methods thereof.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Network device and associated methods are provided. The network device includes a plurality of base-ports, each base-port coupled to a plurality of network links and each base-port includes a plurality of sub-ports configured to operate as independent ports for sending and receiving information. Each network link is coupled to a smoothing first in-first out, (FIFO) memory module that is used to temporarily store information at a first clock rate and information is read from the smoothing FIFO at a second clock. A sub-port can include one network link or more than one network link for receiving information from another device. A controller module monitors the smoothing FIFO for each network link to insert or delete characters from each of the smoothing FIFO based on a sub-port configuration for maintaining an order in which information is received for the sub-port.“

The patent application was filed on March 14, 2013 (13/830,717).

Network devices having configurable receive packet queues
QLogic, Corporation, Aliso Viejo, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,282,000) developed by Dropps, Frank R., Verba, Craig M., Maple Grove, MN, and Slechta, Jr., Leo J., Eagan, MN, for a “network devices having configurable receive packet queues and related methods.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Method and system for configuring a port of a network device are provided. One method for a port of a network device communicating with another network device port includes reading manufacturing, license and user provided port configuration data by a processor of the network device, obtaining capabilities information for the port by the processor of the network device from an external pluggable media device, setting port configuration data based on the capabilities information obtained from the external pluggable media, executing auto-negotiation on the port, when enabled and obtaining configuration data from the other port, determining that enough data is available to set port configuration, attempting to configure the port by using a highest permissible bandwidth configuration when enough data is available to set the port configuration, and setting port configuration based on the attempt to configure the port to operate when a link connected to the port is operational.“

The patent application was filed on June 25, 2015 (14/749,964).