IBM Assigned Six Patents

Enabling efficient small writes to WORM storage

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,391,122) developed by four co-inventors for a "system and method for enabling efficient small writes to worm storage."

The co-inventors are Windsor Wee Sun Hsu, San Jose, CA, Lan Huang, Sunnyvale, CA, Michael A. Ko, and Shauchi Ong, San Jose, CA

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "According to the present invention, there is provided a method of providing a WORM storage system, the method including a sector-append capability. The method includes receiving data to be written to a WORM storage system. In addition, the method includes identifying a target sector at which the data is to be written. Also, the method includes determining if the received data can be added to the target sector. Moreover, the method includes adding the received data to the target sector if it is determined that the received data can be added to the target sector."

The patent application was filed on Dec. 12, 2008 (12/334,280).

On-chip non-volatile storage of a test-time profile
for efficiency and performance control

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,386,859) developed by Eren Kursun, Ossining, NY, Philip G. Emma, Danbury, CT, and Stephen M. Gates, Ossining, NY, for an "on-chip non-volatile storage of a test-time profile for efficiency and performance control."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Mechanisms for controlling an operation of one or more cores on an integrated circuit chip are provided. The mechanisms retrieve, from an on-chip non-volatile memory of the integrated circuit chip, baseline chip characteristics data representing operational characteristics of the one or more cores prior to the integrated circuit chip being operational in the data processing system. Current operational characteristics data of the one or more cores are compared with the baseline chip characteristics data. Deviations of the current operational characteristics data from the baseline chip characteristics data are determined and used to determine modifications to an operation of the one or more cores. Control signals are sent to one or more on-chip management units based on the determined modifications to cause the operation of the one or more cores to be modified."

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2010 (12/771,387).

High density storage medium, method and device

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,383,756) developed by 11 co-inventors for a "high density storage medium, method and device."

The co-inventors are Richard Anthony DiPietro, Campbell, CA, Urs T. Duerig, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, Jane Elizabeth Frommer, San Jose, CA, Bernd Walter Gotsmann, Horgen, Switzerland, Erik Christopher Hagberg, Evansville, IN, James Lupton Hedrick, Pleasanton, CA, Armin W. Knoll, Adliswil, Switzerland, Teddie Peregrino Magbitang, Robert Dennis Miller, San Jose, CA, Russell Clayton Pratt,and Charles Gordon Wade, Los Gatos, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A composition of matter for the recording medium of nm scale thermo-mechanical information storage devices and a nm scale thermo-mechanical information storage device. The composition includes: one or more polyaryletherketone copolymers, each of the one or more polyaryletherketone copolymers comprising (a) a first monomer including an aryl ether ketone and (b) a second monomer including an aryl ether ketone and a first phenylethynyl moiety, each of the one or more polyaryletherketone copolymers having two terminal ends, each terminal end having a phenylethynyl moiety the same as or different from the first phenylethynyl moiety. The one or more polyaryletherketone copolymers are thermally cured and the resulting cross-linked polyaryletherketone resin used as the recording layer in an atomic force storage device."

The patent application was filed on March 19, 2008 (12/051,128).

Reducing write amplification in cache
with flash memory used as write cache

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,386,714) developed by Wendy A. Belluomini, San Jose, CA, Binny S. Gill, Shrewsbury, MA, and Michael A. Ko, San Jose, CA, for "reducing write amplification in a cache with flash memory used as a write cache."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Embodiments of the invention are directed to reducing write amplification in a cache with flash memory used as a write cache. An embodiment of the invention includes partitioning at least one flash memory device in the cache into a plurality of logical partitions. Each of the plurality of logical partitions is a logical subdivision of one of the at least one flash memory device and comprises a plurality of memory pages. Data are buffered in a buffer. The data includes data to be cached, and data to be destaged from the cache to a storage subsystem. Data to be cached are written from the buffer to the at least one flash memory device. A processor coupled to the buffer is provided with access to the data written to the at least one flash memory device from the buffer, and a location of the data written to the at least one flash memory device within the plurality of logical partitions. The data written to the at least one flash memory device are destaged from the buffer to the storage subsystem."

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2010 (12/826,499).

Scalable performance-based volume allocation
in large storage controller collections

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,412,890) developed by Bhuvan Bamba, Larchmont, NY, and Madhukar R. Korupolu, Sunnyvale, CA, for a "scalable performance-based volume allocation in large storage controller collections."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A scalable, performance-based, volume allocation technique that can be applied in large storage controller collections is disclosed. A global resource tree of multiple nodes representing interconnected components of a storage system in a plurality of component layers is analyzed to yield gap values for each node (e.g., a bottom-up estimation). The gap value for each node is an estimate of the amount inGB of the new workload that can be allocated in the subtree of that node without exceeding the performance and space bounds at any of the nodes in that subtree. The gap values of the global resource tree are further analyzed to generate an ordered allocation list of the volumes of the storage system (e.g., a top-down selection). The volumes may be applied to a storage workload in the order of the allocation list and the gap values and list are updated."

The patent application was filed on March 8, 2011 (13/043,247).

Allocation of storage resources in networked computing
environment based on energy utilization

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,407,501) developed by four co-inventors for an "allocation of storage resources in a networked computing environment based on energy utilization."

The co-inventors are Sandip Agarwala, Sunnyvale, CA, Eric K. Butler, San Jose, CA, Sandeep Gopisetty, Morgan Hill, CA, and Kavita Chavda, Roswell, GA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach to provision storage resources (e.g., across an enterprise storage system (ESS) such as a general parallel file system (GPFS) or the like) for different workloads in an energy efficient manner. The system evaluates different energy profiles/workloads’ energy consumption characteristics of storage devices to determine an allocation plan that reduces the energy cost (e.g., results in the lowest cost/energy consumption for handling a storage workload). In a typical embodiment, energy consumption characteristics for handling a particular storage workload will be determined. Thereafter, a type of storage device capable of handling the workload will be determined. Then, an allocation plan that results in the most efficient energy consumption for handling the workload will be developed. In general, the allocation plan is based upon the energy consumption characteristics and an energy efficiency algorithm. The energy efficiency algorithm serves to identify storage device(s) that can handle the workload in such a way as to reduce total energy consumption and, accordingly, costs. Along these lines, the energy efficiency algorithm may also consider other factors such as capacity and load of storage devices and service level agreement (SLA) terms in addition to energy costs (e.g., over times of day and/or days of week). In any event, at least one storage device can then be selected for handling the storage workload according to the allocation plan."

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2011 (13/073,081).