Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Assigned Three Patents

Dynamic write balancing in storage system
Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Ltd., Berkshire, Great Britain, has been assigned a patent (9,778,882) developed by Aston, Christopher J., Bucks, Great Britain, Laker, Mark S., Hampshire, Great Britain, and Willis, Trevor E., Bucks, Great Britain, for a “dynamic write balancing in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Available storage locations are identified by searching through a free blocks object non-sequentially. The free blocks object may be logically divided into sections, and the sections may be searched non-sequentially. Each section may be logically divided into a number of sub-sections, and the sub-sections of the various sections may be searched non-sequentially. A new section may be added to the free blocks object, and the added section may be searched until a predetermined threshold or condition is reached, at which point non-sequential searching may begin or resume.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2008 (12/164,745).

Multi-way checkpoints in storage system
Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Ltd., Berkshire, Great Britain, has been assigned a patent (9,767,120) developed by Aston, Christopher J., Bucks, Great Britain, Benham, Simon L., Berkshire, Great Britain, and Berrington, Neil, San Jose, CA, for a “multi-way checkpoints in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the present invention allow multiple checkpoints to be taken so that multiple versions of the filesystem, including a working version and at least two checkpoint versions, can be maintained over time. Specifically, at least three ‘superblock’ root structures are used to manage multiple instantiations of the filesystem. The superblocks are preferably stored in fixed locations within the storage system for easy access, although they may alternatively be stored in other ways. The number of superblocks may be fixed or variable.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2008 (12/164,730).

File cloning and de-cloning in storage system
Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Ltd., Berkshire, Great Britain, has been assigned a patent (9,760,579) developed by Picken, Daniel J. N., Bracknell, Great Britain, and Berrington, Neil, San Jose, CA, for a “file cloning and de-cloning in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A file cloning mechanism allows for quickly creating copies, clones) of files within a filesystem, such as when a user makes a copy of a file. In exemplary embodiments, a clone of a source object is at least initially represented by a structure containing references to various elements of the source object, e.g., indirect onodes, direct onodes, and data blocks). Both read-only and mutable clones can be created. The source file and the clone initially share such elements and continue to share unmodified elements as changes are made to the source file or mutable clone. None of the user data blocks or the metadata blocks describing the data stream, i.e., the indirect/direct onodes) associated with the source file need to be copied at the time the clone is created. At appropriate times, cloned files may be ‘de-cloned.’ ”

The patent application was filed on April 29, 2016 (15/142,174).