LSI (Avago) Assigned Seven Patents

Improved storage system communication for n-way interconnectivity
LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,788,753) developed by five co-inventors for “systems configured for improved storage system communication for N-way interconnectivity.”

The co-inventors are Rodney A. DeKoning, Wichita, KS, Mohamad H. El-Batal, Boulder, CO, Bret S. Weber, Wichita, KS, William G. Deitz, Niwot, CO, and Stephen B. Johnson, Colorado Springs, CO.

cStorage systems configured for improved N-way connectivity among all of a plurality of storage controllers and all of a plurality of storage devices in the system. All controllers of the storage system are coupled through a switched fabric communication medium to all of the storage devices of the storage system. Thus, the back-end interface of each storage controller of the storage system is used for all communications with any of the storage devices as well as for any communications among the controllers to coordinate the N-way distribution of stored data in a declustered RAID storage environment. This use of the back-end channel for all storage controller to storage device N-way connectivity as well as controller to controller N-way connectivity eliminates the need for a dedicated inter-controller interface for such N-way connectivity and eliminates the over-utilization of a front-end (e.g., network) communication path for providing N-way connectivity in the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on April 7, 2011 (13/082,148).

Storage device having degauss circuitry with ramp generator
for use in generating chirped degauss signal
LSI Corp., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,773,817) developed by four co-inventors for a “storage device having degauss circuitry with ramp generator for use in generating chirped degauss signal.”

The co-inventors are Paul Mazur, Cottage Grove, MN, Robert A. Norman, Bloomington, MN, Jeffrey A. Gleason, Burnsville, MN, and Anamul Hoque, Lakeville, MN.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A hard disk drive or other disk-based storage device comprises a storage disk, a write head configured to write data to the disk, and control circuitry coupled to the write head. The control circuitry comprises a write driver and degauss circuitry associated with the write driver. The degauss circuitry is configured to generate a chirped degauss signal to be applied to the write head by the write driver. The degauss circuitry comprises a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal for controlling a frequency of at least a portion of a waveform of the chirped degauss signal. The ramp signal generated by the ramp generator may comprise a current ramp that is applied to a control input of a current controlled oscillator of the degauss circuitry.”

The patent application was filed on July 24, 2012 (13/556,480).

Near-live reprogramming of firmware in storage systems using hypervisor
LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,776,060) developed by five co-inventors for “methods and structure for near-live reprogramming of firmware in storage systems using a hypervisor.”

The co-inventors are Martin Jess, Erie, CO, Charles E. Nichols, Wichita, KS, Rexford A. Hill, San Diego, John G. Logan, Long Beach, CA, and Timothy R. Snider, Derby, KS.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and structure for reprogramming firmware in a storage controller using a virtual machine management (VMM) environment. A storage process (current firmware) in the storage controller operates in a current virtual machine (VM) under control of a hypervisor. Reprogrammed (new) firmware is loaded into a new virtual machine under control of the hypervisor. The new firmware initializes and directs the current firmware to quiesce its processing. The new firmware also requests the hypervisor to map data in the memory space of the current virtual machine into the memory space of the new virtual machine and to transfer ownership/control of devices and network addresses from the current virtual machine to the new virtual machine. The new firmware operating on the new virtual machine then takes control of the storage controller and resumes processing of requests.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 4, 2010 (12/939,548).

Controlled wedge spacing in storage device
LSI Corp., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,780,476) developed by Jeffrey P. Grundvig, Loveland, CO, for “systems and methods for controlled wedge spacing in a storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for data processing. For example, some embodiments of the present invention provide clock generation systems that include: a first clock multiplier circuit, a second clock multiplier circuit, a modulus accumulator circuit, and a data clock phase control circuit. The first clock multiplier circuit is operable to multiply a reference clock by a first multiplier to yield a first domain clock, and the second clock multiplier circuit is operable to multiply the reference clock by a second multiplier to yield a second domain clock. The modulus accumulator circuit is operable to yield a value indicating a fractional amount of the second domain clock that an edge of the second domain clock is offset from a trigger signal. The data clock phase control circuit is operable to phase shift the second domain clock by a phase amount corresponding to the fractional amount.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 23, 2011 (13/242,983).

Latency reduction associated with response to request in storage system
LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,782,335) developed by Yishai Baruch Pinchover and Ron Mandel, Haifa, Israel, for the “latency reduction associated with a response to a request in a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes segmenting a virtual volume into an active area configured to map to a first type of storage and a non-active area configured to map to a second type of storage through a storage virtualization engine. The second type of storage includes data associated with a host device and the first type of storage includes point-in-time images corresponding to the data associated with the host device. The first type of storage offers a higher performance than that of the second type of storage. The method also includes allocating a portion of space in the first type of storage to serve as a cache memory during a write operation and/or a read operation, and reducing a latency associated with the response to a write request and/or a read request through performing the corresponding write operation and/or the read operation through the first type of storage. “

The patent application was filed on Nov. 8, 2010 (12/941,112).

Analog tunneling current sensors for use with disk drive storage devices
LSI Corp., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,760,790) developed by five co-inventors for “analog tunneling current sensors for use with disk drive storage devices.“

The co-inventors are Brad A. Natzke, Rochester, MN, Cameron C. Rabe, Mendota Heights, MN, Hong Jiang, Warren, NJ, Andrew P. Krebs, Eagan, MN, and Jason P. Brenden, Mendota Heights, MN.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Amplifier architectures are provided for current sensing applications. An amplifier includes a load device, an operational amplifier, a current source, and a bipolar transistor. The operational amplifier has a first input terminal connected to a first input node that receives an input current, and a second input terminal connected to a second input node that receives a reference voltage. The current source is connected to an output of the operational amplifier. The operational amplifier, the current source, and the bipolar transistor form a feedback loop that generates and maintains a bias voltage on the first input node based on the reference voltage applied to the second input node. The bipolar transistor amplifies the input current received on the first input node, and generates an amplified input current. The load device converts the amplified input current to an output voltage, wherein the output voltage is used to sense the input current.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 12, 2012 (13/674,308).

High impedance low noise cross-coupled amplifier
for use in as preamplifier in magnetic data storage system
LSI Corp., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,792,198) developed by Michael Straub, Longmont, CO, and Andrew P. Krebs, Eagan, MN, for a “high impedance low noise cross-coupled amplifier for use in as a preamplifier in a magnetic data storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A balanced amplifier with a relatively high input impedance with wide bandwidth for use as a fly-height sensor head preamplifier in a magnetic storage read system. The balanced amplifier has two substantially identical halves, each amplifier half having an input transistor, responsive to the input node of the amplifier half disposed in series with a cross-coupling transistor receiving a buffered cross-coupled version of the input signal applied to the other half of the balanced amplifier. Use of cascoded transistors and voltage-followers to limit voltages across various the input and cross-coupling transistors enhance the common mode rejection and power supply rejection ratios of the amplifier while retaining a low high-frequency noise figure similar to low-input impedance balanced amplifier designs.”

The patent application was filed on Dec. 27, 2013 (14/141,682).