Microsoft Assigned Four Patents

Bandwidth-proportioned datacenters
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, assigned a patent (8,438,244) developed by five co-inventors for a "bandwidth-proportioned datacenters."

The co-inventors are Edmund B. Nightingale, Redmond, WA, Jeremy E. Elson, Jonathan R. Howell, Seattle, WA, Galen C. Hunt, Bellevue, WA, and David A. Maltz, Bellevue, WA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A system including at least one storage node and at least one computation node connected by a switch is described herein. Each storage node has one or more storage units and one or more network interface components, the collective bandwidths of the storage units and the network interface components being proportioned to one another to enable communication to and from other nodes at the collective bandwidth of the storage units. Each computation node has logic configured to make requests of storage nodes, an input/output bus, and one or more network interface components, the bandwidth of the bus and the collective bandwidths of the network interface components being proportioned to one another to enable communication to and from other nodes at the bandwidth of the input/output bus."

The patent application was filed on April 23, 2010 (12/766,726).

Efficient access to storage devices with usage bitmaps
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,456,972) developed by Karan Mehra, Sammamish, WA, Surendra Verma, Bellevue, WA, and John R. Dietrick, Seattle, WA for "efficient access to storage devices with usage bitmaps."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Upon receiving a request to allocate a storage region, a storage device may initialize the contents of the storage device to default values (e.g., zero) in order to avoid problems arising from unknown data stored in the locations of the storage region (e.g., upon writing a data set to a location involved in a mirroring relationship, uninitialized data in the corresponding mirror location may result in a mismatch that jeopardizes the written data). However, initializing the storage device may be time-consuming and inefficient. Instead, a usage bitmap may be generated that, for respective location sets of the storage region, indicates whether values exist in the location. A read request may be fulfilled by examining the usage bitmap to determine whether values exist in the specified location, and if not, the default value may be returned without accessing the storage device. Other efficiencies may also be achieved using the usage bitmap."

The patent application was filed on Sept. 12, 2011 (13/230,840).

Interfaces that facilitate solid state storage configuration
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,447,916) developed by Trenton P. Rambo, Seattle, WA, and Sean Nicholas McGrane, Sammamish, WA, for "interfaces that facilitate solid state storage configuration."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to storage configuration. In aspects, an interface is used to discover the existence, capacity, and characteristics of solid state storage. This information may be provided to a user or storage management process which may use the information to configure the solid state storage. When appropriate, bus bandwidth to the solid state storage as well as bandwidth to memory components of the solid state storage may be configured. Configuration and re-configuration may be performed automatically according to one or more policies maintained locally or remotely."

The patent application was filed on Feb. 17, 2010 (12/706,715).

Flash storage device
to prevent unauthorized use of software
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,452,967) developed by Boris Asipov, Bellevue, WA, for "using flash storage device to prevent unauthorized use of software."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A flash storage device and a method for using the flash storage device to prevent unauthorized use of a software application are provided. An identifier may be encoded within specific sectors of the flash storage device. One bits of the identifier may be encoded as unusable ones of the specific sectors and zero bits of the identifier may be encoded as usable one of the specific sectors. Alternatively, the zero bits of the identifier may be encoded as the unusable ones of the specific sectors and the one bits of the identifier may be encoded as the usable ones of the specific sectors. The software application may be permitted to execute on a processing device connected to the flash storage device only when the identifier is encoded within the flash storage device."

The patent application was filed on Aug. 31, 2007 (11/848,381).