Microsoft Assigned Six Patents

Delete notifications by file systems
and applications to release storage space
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,402,069) developed by four co-inventors for the "use of delete notifications by file systems and applications to release storage space."

The co-inventors are Senthil Rajaram, Seattle, CX, Andrew Herron, Redmond, WA, Daniel W.H. Chan, Redmond, WA, and Ravinder S. Thind, Sammamish, WA

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "In accordance with one or more aspects, one or more portions of each of multiple files that have been freed are determined. One or more delete notifications are generated identifying the one or more portions of the multiple files. Each portion is identified as a range of data on a storage device, and each delete notification includes one or more ranges of data on the storage device. These generated delete notifications are then sent to a storage stack. Additionally, an application can determine that one or more ranges of data of a storage device are to be freed and send a delete notification, in the absence of a file system on the device, to the storage stack identifying the one or more ranges of data of the storage device that are to be freed."

The patent application was filed on May 4, 2009 (12/435,229).

Secure storage
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,407,146) developed by Ankur Varma, San Francisco, CA, for "secure storage".

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A portable secure storage device provides a means to transport media from one media player to another while maintaining the security of and the rights associated with the content stored in the portable secure storage device. The device contains a security engine for managing digital rights associated with content stored in the device. The device can also include a HDD drive memory and a real time clock. The HDD drive memory provides ample storage of media and versatility of digital rights management. The real time clock maintains secure time. The device can be use to provide a thumbnail, a snapshot, a trailer version, or a table of contents of contents stored therein based on the security level of the receiving device. The portable secure storage device can query the receiving device to determine the current status of rights and can provide content in accordance with current rights."

The patent application was filed on Oct. 28, 2005 (11/263,658).

Extensible management of self-encrypting storage devices
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,442,235) developed by Grigory Borisovich Lyakhovitskiy, Bothell, WA, for an "extensible management of self-encrypting storage devices."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Security device objects can be utilized to support a stack of components of computer-executable instructions that are directed to managing the security functionality represented by the security device object. In the case of hardware encrypting storage devices, a security device object can represent the self-encrypting capabilities of those devices and the attendant stack can comprise drivers directed to band and key management. A default band management driver can support a band-centric set of input/output controls that can be redirected to the band management driver. It can cache band authentication keys or provide callback mechanisms for key providers to register themselves to provide keys on-demand. Key provider identifiers can be stored on the storage device and utilized to dynamically load, install or upgrade key providers when the band authentication key is required. The band management driver can also prevent the powering-down of the storage device in an unlocked state."

The patent application was filed on April 14, 2010 (12/760,181).

Extending SSD lifetime using hybrid storage
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,407,403) developed by Vijayan Prabhakaran, Sunnyvale, CA, Mahesh Balakrishnan, Mountain View, CA, and Gokul Soundararajan, Oakville, Canada, for "extending SSD lifetime using hybrid storage."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A hybrid storage device uses a write cache such as a HDD drive, for example, to cache data to a SSD. Data is logged sequentially to the write cache and later migrated to the SSD. The SSD is a primary storage that stores data permanently. The write cache is a persistent durable cache that may store data of disk write operations temporarily in a log structured fashion. A migration policy may be used to determine how long to cache the data in the write cache before migrating the data to the SDD. The migration policy may be implemented using one or more migration triggers that cause the contents of the write cache to be flushed to the SSD. Migration triggers may include a timeout trigger, a read threshold trigger, and a migration size trigger, for example."

The patent application was filed on Dec. 7, 2009 (12/631,875).

Hybrid memory device with single interface
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,423,700) developed by Ruston Panabaker, Bellevue, WA, and Jack Creasey, Redmond, WA, for a "hybrid memory device with single interface."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Described is a technology by which a memory controller is a component of a hybrid memory device having different types of memory therein (e.g., SDRAM and flash memory), in which the controller operates such that the memory device has only a single memory interface with respect to voltage and access protocols defined for one type of memory. For example, the controller allows a memory device with a standard SDRAM interface to provide access to both SDRAM and non-volatile memory with the non-volatile memory overlaid in one or more designated blocks of the volatile memory address space (or vice-versa). A command protocol maps memory pages to the volatile memory interface address space, for example, permitting a single pin compatible multi-chip package to replace an existing volatile memory device in any computing device that wants to provide non-volatile storage, while only requiring software changes to the device to access the flash."

The patent application was filed on April 30, 2010 (12/771,670).

Memory refresh cycles for pattern matching
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,427,854) developed by Yaron Weinsberg and John Joseph Richardson, Bellevue, WA, for "utilization of memory refresh cycles for pattern matching."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Searching for patterns stored on a hardware storage device. A method includes, as part of a memory refresh operation, performing a read to read contents of a portion of a memory. The method further includes writing the read contents of the portion of memory back to the portion of memory. The read contents are provided to data comparison logic. Using the data comparison logic; the read contents are compared to predetermined data patterns. A determination is made as to whether or not the contents match at least one of the predetermined data patterns. When the read contents match at least one of the predetermined data patterns, a software readable indicator is provided indicating that the read contents match at least one of the predetermined data patterns. Similar embodiments may be implemented using HDD head wear leveling operations."

The patent application was filed on April 15, 2010 (12/760,797).