LSI Assigned three Patents

Modifying firmware image settings within RAID controllers

LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,332,839) developed by Jayant Mohan Daftardar, Lawrenceville, GA, for a "method and system for modifying firmware image settings within data storage device controllers."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Embodiments of the invention include a method for modifying firmware settings within a data storage controller, such as a data storage controller used in a RAID storage array. The method includes extracting a sub-module from a firmware image stored in the controller, stripping off the sub-module’s header, decompressing the remaining compressed image by replacing the stripped sub-module header and an extended image header in the compressed image with an extended header image that allows conventional decompression, and separating the decompressed image into its executable code and at least one settings group. The method reinitializes the executable code to restore its validity, modifies one or more values of one or more settings groups, creates a new sub-module using the reinitialized executable code and the modified settings groups, and replaces the original settings groups in the firmware image with the modified settings groups, thereby modifying the firmware settings of the data storage controller."

The patent application was filed on Aug. 15, 2008 (12/192,444).

Implementing parallelism with SCSI I/O referrals

LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,332,549) developed by four co-inventors for a "method and system for implementing parallelism with SCSI I/O referrals."

The co-inventors are Andrew J. Spry, Wichita, KA, Ross Zwisler, Lafayette, CO, Gerald J. Fredin, Wichita, KA, and Kenneth J. Gibson, Lafayette, CO

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method for communication between an initiator system and a block storage cluster may include receiving a first input/output (I/O) request from the initiator system. The method may also include sending a referral response from a first storage system included in a plurality of storage systems of the block storage cluster to the initiator system when data associated with the first I/O request is stored in more than one storage system of the plurality of storage systems of the block storage cluster. Additionally, the method may include directing a referral I/O to the first storage system and the second storage system for transferring data to or transferring data from the first storage system and the second storage system, and transferring data associated with the referral I/O to or transferring data associated with the referral I/O from the first storage system and the second storage system."

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2009 (12/384,001).

Dynamic storage of cache data for SSDs

LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,312,250) developed by Carl Forhan and Timothy Lund, Rochester, MN, for a "dynamic storage of cache data for SSDs."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Described embodiments provide a media controller that determines the size of a cache of data being transferred between a host device and one or more sectors of a storage device. The one or more sectors are segmented into a plurality of chunks, and each chunk corresponds to at least one sector. The contents of the cache are managed in a cache hash table. At startup of the media controller, a buffer layer module of the media controller initializes the cache in a buffer of the media controller. During operation of the media controller, the buffer layer module determines a number of chunks allocated to the cache. Based on the number of chunks allocated to the cache, the buffer layer module updates the size of the of the cache hash table."

The patent application was filed on March 12, 2010 (12/722,828)