Oracle Assigned Twenty-Three Patents

Tape head with thin tape bearing surface coating
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,311,954) developed by Li, Jianhua, Superior, CO, and Link, Michael J., Lafayette, CO, for a “tape head with thin tape bearing surface coating.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A tape head is provided for use with a tape drive that is configured to receive a length of tape. The tape head includes a head body including at least one head element for performing read and/or write operations on the tape, and a protective layer extending over at least a portion of the head body for inhibiting wear of the head body when the tape is moved with respect to the head body. Furthermore, the protective layer is made of titanium oxide, chromium oxide, zirconium oxide, aluminum oxide, or zinc oxide.“

The patent application was filed on March 12, 2015 (14/645,551).

Supporting efficient buffer usage with single external memory interface
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,311,044) developed by Aggarwal, Uttam, San Ramon, CA, for a “system and method for supporting efficient buffer usage with a single external memory interface.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method can support input/output, (I/O) virtualization in a computing environment. The system can comprise a free buffer pool in a memory. An I/O device operates to use the free buffer pool to store disk read data received from a physical host bus adaptor, (HBA). The free buffer pool can contain a two-dimensional linked list and a one-dimensional linked list. Each entry of the two-dimensional linked list contains multiple packet buffers in consecutive memory locations, and each entry of the one-dimensional linked list contains a single packet buffer.“

The patent application was filed on December 4, 2013 (14/097,009).

Diffractive imaging of groove structures on optical tape
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,310,313) developed by Wilson, Scott D., Thornton, CO, for a “diffractive imaging of groove structures on optical tape.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A groove-monitoring system for imaging an optical tape surface is provided. The optical tape surface includes a plurality of groove patterns embossed thereon. The groove-monitoring system includes an optical sensor, a first light source directing a first light beam onto the optical tape surface with a first angle of incidence such that the first light beam is directly reflected from the optical tape surface and imaged by the optical sensor. The groove-monitoring system also includes a second light source directing a second light beam onto the optical tape surface with a second angle of incidence such that the second light beam is diffracted from the optical tape surface and imaged by the optical sensor as a diffracted light image.“

The patent application was filed on December 29, 2014 (14/584,609).

Mirroring, in memory, data from disk to improve query performance
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,292,564) developed by Kamp, Jesse, Castro Valley, CA, Ganesh, Amit, San Jose, CA, Marwah, Vineet, San Ramon, CA, Raja, Vivekanandhan, San Mateo, CA, Lahiri, Tirthankar, Palo Alto, CA, Holloway, Allison L., San Carlos, CA, Hase, Sanket, Mountain View, CA, Chavan, Shasank K., Menlo Park, CA, Mukherjee, Niloy, Lee, Teck Hua, Belmont, CA, Gleeson, Michael J., Saratoga, CA, and Kunchithapadam, Krishna, Portland, OR, for a “mirroring, in memory, data from disk to improve query performance.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques are provided for maintaining data persistently in one format, but making that data available to a database server in more than one format. For example, one of the formats in which the data is made available for query processing is based on the on-disk format, while another of the formats in which the data is made available for query processing is independent of the on-disk format. Data that is in the format that is independent of the disk format may be maintained exclusively in volatile memory to reduce the overhead associated with keeping the data in sync with the on-disk format copies of the data.“

The patent application was filed on July 21, 2014 (14/337,179).

Simulated failover testing
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,282,021) developed by Smith, Jeffrey Anderson, Hutto, TX, Shivam, Piyush, and Baker, William Eugene, Austin, TX, for a “method and apparatus for simulated failover testing.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Implementations of the present disclosure involve a system and method for simulating a storage cluster testing system. The method and system includes a processor configured to instructions stored on a memory to produce a simulation interface. The simulation interface includes an abstraction layer that receives verbs from a test driver and passes the verbs to one of two or more plugins. The plugins may include a synthetic plugin configured to translate the verbs into one or more command and send commands to a simulated storage appliance that is a computing device with relatively lower performance than an actual storage appliance. The simulated storage appliance may act in place of two storage appliances clustered to form a storage cluster. The simulated storage appliance forms a simulated storage cluster. The simulated storage cluster simulates the performance of the verb on by the storage cluster.“

The patent application was filed on October 19, 2012 (13/655,857).

Circuit for glitch reduction in memory read latch circuit
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,281,028) developed by Pyon, Taejin, Qin, Yong, San Jose, CA, and Nguyen, Thu Hanh, Fremont, CA, for a “method and circuit for glitch reduction in memory read latch circuit.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method and circuit for reducing a glitch in a memory read latch is disclosed. A read latch circuit includes a first logic gate having a first input coupled to a read bit line and a second input. The read latch circuit further includes a second logic gate coupled to receive as inputs a first enable signal and a delayed version of the first enable signal. The second logic gate is configured to provide a second enable signal to the second input of the first logic gate. The second logic gate is configured to provide a rising edge of the second enable signal after a predetermined delay without a corresponding delay of a falling edge of the second enable signal. The first logic gate provides an output corresponding to a data value received on the read bit line responsive to receiving the rising edge of the second enable signal..“

The patent application was filed on January 23, 2015 (14/603,408).

Tape head surface with non-uniform cross-width edge profiles
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,280,988) developed by Lakshmikumaran, Anand V., Denver, CO, and Torline, Joseph E., Arvada, CO, for a “tape head surface with non-uniform cross-width edge profiles.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A tape head having offset transducer spans between adjacent modules of the tape head that serves to maintain the balance between debris removal and reduced magnetic layer/recording device spacing on the one hand and reduced tape/tape head friction on the other hand. In one aspect, opposite edges of each module are relatively sharper adjacent the transducer span and relatively rounded, e.g., less sharp) away from the transducer span. The sharp edges reduce magnetic spacing loss and scrape debris off of the tape while the rounded edges reduce or eliminate contact between the tape and the head in regions where no transducer spans are present and thus where no tape writing or reading would be taking place.“

The patent application was filed on September 4, 2014 (14/477,526).

Steering DMA write requests to cache memory
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,280,290) developed by Feehrer, John R, Westford, MA, Kurth, Hugh R, Bedford, MA, Silverton, Aron J, Chicago, IL, and Stabile, Patrick, Everett, MA, for a “method for steering DMA write requests to cache memory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system may include a processor which may include a cache memory and a Direct Memory Access, (DMA) controller, a peripheral device on an I/O expansion bus, and a bus interface coupled to the I/O expansion bus and the processor. The bus controller may determine if data packets sent from the peripheral device to the processor include a DMA write instruction to the cache memory with an optional desired cache location. Upon determining a DMA write instruction to the cache memory is included in the data packet, the bus controller may format the data in the data packet for storage in the cache and either receive the desired cache location or determine an appropriate location within the cache to store the formatted data. The bus controller may determine an alternate location within the cache if the desired location within the cache cannot accept more data from the peripheral device.“

The patent application was filed on February 12, 2014 (14/178,626).

Z-drive shipping lock for storage library robotic assembly
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,278,806) developed by Manes, Joseph P., Arvada, CO, for a “Z-drive shipping lock for storage library robotic assembly. ”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system for selectively disallowing unwinding of a storage library robotic mechanism cable assembly in a direction that would otherwise allow a platform of the robotic mechanism to move downwardly via the force of gravity while at the same time allowing for winding up of the cable assembly and the platform, such as during shipping, manual access, replacement of the robotic mechanism, and/or the like. The system may include a ratchet pawl for engaging between adjacent teeth of a drive assembly of the robotic mechanism and an actuator for selectively moving or allowing for movement of the ratchet pawl into and out of the engaged position. In one embodiment, the system may include an electric switch or the like to sense when the pawl is engaged with the drive assembly.“

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2013 (13/852,694).

Rotatable recording head actuator for correcting angular error in tape drives
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,275,666) developed by Vanderheyden, William J., Broomfield, CO, Camargo, Camila, Boulder, CO, Durkin, Ian, Washington, DC, Elbialy, Gamal, Raleigh, NC, Wine, Kenneth, Bethesda, MD, Shi, Xuyue, Hedong Dis Tiajin, China, and Lee, Brendan, Niwot, CO, for a “rotatable recording head actuator for correcting angular error in tape drives .”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A recording head actuator assembly for correcting for tape mis-registration, (TMR) in a tape drive. The assembly includes a recording head actuator including a recording head and actuators for laterally positioning the head relative to tracks of a tape. The assembly also includes a dynamic azimuth control, (DAC) assembly that includes a flexural pivot and a rotation driver. The rotation driver applies a driving force on the flexural pivot causing the flexural pivot to rotate about a hinge axis and the head to rotate about a rotation axis passing through the head, from a first azimuth angle to a second azimuth angle. The rotation axis and the hinge axis coincide, and the rotation axis of the head is transverse to a direction of tape travel. In some useful implementations, the flexural pivot may include a planar outer flexure and a planar inner flexure arranged as a cross strip pivot.“

The patent application was filed on April 10, 2015 (14/683,250).

Connector retention and alignment assembly for use
in computer and data storage mounting racks
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,257,788) developed by Jia, Rui, San Jose, CA, for a “connector retention and alignment assembly for use in computer and data storage mounting racks.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A cable connector assembly useful for properly aligning/positioning and retaining, (during connecting and disconnecting) a number of connectors for computing devices. The assembly uses left and right side walls with flexible and resilient connector engagement members that provide at least some amount of outward ‘give’ or movement to facilitate assembly but are designed to spring back into place after insertion of the connectors. The engagement members of the left and right side walls may each take the form of a leaf spring that can be flexed a distance outward but then spring back to or towards a non-deformed state to mate with and apply an inward retention force against the adjacent connector. The assembly includes removable and rotatable middle walls or dividers that are placed on posts extending upward from the inner surface of the assembly’s base and allowed to rotate about the posts during the assembly process.“

The patent application was filed on January 23, 2015 (14/603,751).

Queue descriptor cache management for host channel adapter
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,256,555) developed by Manula, Brian Edward, Bugge, Haakon Ording, Oslo, Norway, and Gotwald, Frederick Luther, San Diego, CA, for a “method and system for queue descriptor cache management for a host channel adapter.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for managing a queue descriptor cache of a host channel adaptor, (HCA) includes obtaining a queue descriptor from memory. The queue descriptor includes data describing a queue and the memory is located in a host system. The method further includes storing a copy of the queue descriptor in the queue descriptor cache of the HCA. The HCA accesses the copy of the queue descriptor to obtain the plurality of data, accesses the queue using the data, and updates the data to reflect the access to the queue. The method further includes calculating, using the data, a value corresponding to utilization of the queue, comparing the value against a threshold, fetching, if the value exceeds the threshold, a new copy of the queue descriptor from memory, and replacing the copy of the queue descriptor in the queue descriptor cache with the new copy obtained from the memory.“

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2012 (13/721,699).

Optical tape pick up unit with holographic optical element
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,245,572) developed by Wilson, Scott D., Thronton, CO, for a “optical tape pick up unit with holographic optical element.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An optical tape pick up unit includes a holographic optical element and an aspheric objective lens. The holographic optical element splits a laser beam into first order beams and introduces pre-compensating wavefront error into the first order beams. The aspheric objective lens focuses the first order beams onto optical tape and introduces wavefront error into the first order beams having a magnitude similar to and polarity opposite that of the pre-compensating wavefront error.“

The patent application was filed on November 21, 2012 (13/682,915).

Concurrent access for hierarchical data storage
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,244,961) developed by Vermette, Shane Robert, San Carlos, CA, for a “concurrent access for hierarchical data storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method of providing concurrent access to a hierarchy in a data structure may include receiving a request from a first process to change a first value associated with an object, where the request may include a second value to be combined with the first value. The method may also include determining that a second process is currently accessing information associated with the object. The method may additionally include associating, in response to determining that the second process is currently accessing information associated with the object, the second value with the object without combining the first value and the second value.“

The patent application was filed on December 14, 2012 (13/714,626).

Efficient memory region deallocation
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,244,829) developed by Manula, Brian Edward, Bugge, Haakon Ording, Oslo, Norway, and Wittosch, Robert W., Duluth, GA, for a “method and system for efficient memory region deallocation.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for deallocation of a memory region involving transmitting, by a host channel adapter, HCA, a first invalidation command for invalidating at least one key associated with the memory region, transmitting, by the HCA, a second invalidation command for invalidating a translation lookaside buffer, (TLB) entry for the memory region, invalidate the at least one key associated with the memory region, determining whether all memory access requests to the memory region have been processed by the HCA, stalling processing of the second invalidation command when outstanding memory access requests to the memory region are present, and processing the outstanding memory access requests for the memory region by the HCA before executing the second invalidation command invalidating the TLB entry for the memory region.“

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2012 (13/721,875).

Computer readable media for predicting overload conditions using load information
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,240,949) developed by McMurry, Sam Eric, Richardson, TX, Campbell, Ben Allen, Irving, TX, and Sparks, Robert James, Plano, TX, for a “methods, systems and computer readable media for predicting overload conditions using load information.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods, systems, and computer readable media for predicting imminent Diameter overload conditions using load information are disclosed. One embodiment of a system for implementing the subject matter described herein includes a first Diameter node including at least one network interface for receiving Diameter messages and a Diameter overload prediction unit. The Diameter overload prediction unit may be configured to extract load information from the Diameter messages, detect a traffic pattern using the extracted load information, predict at least one overload condition associated with one or more other Diameter nodes, and communicate an indication of the predicted overload condition to at least some of the other Diameter nodes before a time at which the overload condition is predicted to occur.“

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2013 (13/956,300).

Runtime memory throttling
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,213,530) developed by Driscoll, James George, Santa Clara, CA, for a “runtime memory throttling.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system that implements a memory management policy at runtime when receiving a syntax tree in response to initiating the compiling of software code identifies a plurality of calls within the syntax tree and modifies each the plurality of calls with a corresponding memory-modified call to create a plurality of memory-modified calls. Each memory-modified call is linked with a memory management class and the modifying occurs during the compiling of the software code. Following modification of each of the plurality of calls, the system compiles the plurality of memory-modified calls to generate a bytecode.“

The patent application was filed on November 22, 2013 (14/087,446).

Detection of logical corruption
in persistent storage and automatic recovery therefrom
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,208,038) developed by Joshi, Sameer, Bagal, Prasad, San Jose, CA, Wickremesinghe, Rajiv, Belmont, CA, Long, Richard, Palo Alto, CA, Nandyala, Harish, Fremont, CA, and Huang, Shie-rei, Saratoga, CA, for a “detection of logical corruption in persistent storage and automatic recovery therefrom.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, system, and computer program product for restoring blocks of data stored at a corrupted data site using two or more mirror sites. The method commences by receiving a trigger event from a component within an application server environment where the trigger event indicates detection of a corrupted data site. The trigger is classified into at least one of a plurality of trigger event types, which trigger event type signals further processing for retrieving from at least two mirror sites, a first stored data block and a second stored data block corresponding to the same logical block identifier from the first mirror site. The retrieved blocks are compared to determine a match value, and when the match value is greater than a confidence threshold, then writing good data to the corrupted data site before performing consistency checks on blocks in physical or logical proximity to the corrupted data site.“

The patent application was filed on May 13, 2014 (14/276,914).

Maintaining column vectors of relational data within volatile memory
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,944) developed by Ellison, Lawrence J., Woodside, CA, Ganesh, Amit, San Jose, CA, Marwah, Vineet, San Ramon, CA, Kamp, Jesse, Castro Valley, CA, Patthak, Anindya C., Fremont, CA, Chavan, Shasank K., Menlo Park, CA, Gleeson, Michael J., Saratoga, CA, Holloway, Allison L., San Carlos, CA, and Bhattacharyya, Manosiz, San Jose, CA, for a “techniques for maintaining column vectors of relational data within volatile memory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques are provided for more efficiently using the bandwidth of the I/O path between a CPU and volatile memory during the performance of database operation. Relational data from a relational table is stored in volatile memory as column vectors, where each column vector contains values for a particular column of the table. A binary-comparable format may be used to represent each value within a column vector, regardless of the data type associated with the column. The column vectors may be compressed and/or encoded while in volatile memory, and decompressed/decoded on-the-fly within the CPU. Alternatively, the CPU may be designed to perform operations directly on the compressed and/or encoded column vector data. In addition, techniques are described that enable the CPU to perform vector processing operations on the column vector values.“

The patent application was filed on June 12, 2013 (13/916,284).

High speed read access memory array
with variation tolerant bypass scheme with protection circuit
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,201,595) developed by Lee, Jungyong, Li, Singrong, San Jose, CA, and Cho, Hoyeol, Palo Alto, CA, for a “high speed read access memory array with variation tolerant bypass scheme with protection circuit.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A memory array for process variation tolerant bypass operation. The memory array may utilize normal read operation data path of a memory I/O module. Accordingly, the speed at which the bypass operation may be executed may be increased. Furthermore, a potential for false read operations introduced by the utilization of the normal read operation data path of the memory I/O module may be reduced using a protect mechanism operable to block the output of false reads from the memory array.“

The patent application was filed on September 19, 2012 (13/622,896).

Hardware assisted object memory migration
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,195,593) developed by Radovic, Zoran, Alvsjo, Sweden, for a “hardware assisted object memory migration.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for utilizing memory version instructions and techniques in conjunction with garbage collection in a processor. A hardware-assisted garbage collection algorithm may be executed by a computing system to move live objects between memory regions. Special store instructions may be utilized to mark the live objects of each memory region that is about to be migrated. Mutators performing useful work may be configured to trap on a memory region which is marked for migration.“

The patent application was filed on January 15, 2015 (14/598,166).

Target and initiator mode configuration
of tape drives for data transfer between source and destination tape drives
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,195,402) developed by Hostetter, David G., Louisville, CO, and Sanders, Steven, Golden, CO, for a “target and initiator mode configuration of tape drives for data transfer between source and destination tape drives.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods that substantially or fully remove a commanding server from a data path, (e.g., as part of a data migration, disaster recovery, and/or the like) to improve data movement performance and make additional bandwidth available for other system processes and the like. Broadly, a network interface card, e.g., host bus adapter, (HBA)) of a tape drive may be configured in both a target mode to allow the tape drive to be a recipient of control commands from a server to request and/or otherwise obtain data from one or more source tape drives, and in an initiator mode to allow the tape drive to send commands to the one or more tape drives specified in the commands received from the server to request/read data from and/or write data to such one or more tape drives.“

The patent application was filed on July 15, 2014 (14/331,355).

On-chip completion cache for optimized completion building
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood City, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,191,452) developed by Manula, Brian Edward, Oslo, Norway, Sandven, Magne Vigulf, Ski, Norway, and Bugge, Haakon Ording, Oslo, Norway, for a “method and system for an on-chip completion cache for optimized completion building.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for optimizing completion building is disclosed. The method involves receiving a work request by a host channel adapter, HCA, caching a portion of the work request in a completion cache in the HCA, wherein the cached portion of the work request includes information for building a completion for the work request, receiving, by the HCA, a response to the work request, querying the completion cache upon receiving the response to the work request to obtain the cached portion of the work request, and building the completion for the work request using the cached portion of the work request, wherein the completion informs a software application of at least a status of the work request as executed by the HCA.“

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2012 (13/721,765).