Alibaba Group Holding Assigned Four Patents

Efficient and enhanced distributed storage clusters
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, George Town, KY, has been assigned a patent (10,268,538) developed by Li, Shu, Bothell, WA, for “efficient and enhanced distributed storage clusters.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Storing data is described herein, including: receiving a first data, wherein the first data comprises a portion of a data block, encoding at least a portion of the first data to generate a codeword, dividing the codeword into a plurality of codeword portions, storing a first codeword portion, and sending at least a subset of codeword portions other than the first codeword portion among the plurality of the codeword portions to a plurality of nodes. Receiving acknowledgement of storage of data is also described herein, including: determining whether a first acknowledgement from a first node is received, wherein the first data comprises a portion of a data block, determining whether a second acknowledgement from the first node is received, and in response to receipt of the first acknowledgement and receipt of the second acknowledgment, determining that the first data has been stored.”

The patent application was filed on November 28, 2016 (15/362,555).

Managing soft information in high-capacity SSD
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, George Town, KY, has been assigned a patent (10,263,639) developed by Li, Shu, Bothell, WA, for “managing soft information in high-capacity solid state drive.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique for managing soft information decoding for a solid state drive, (SSD) is disclosed. The technique includes performing soft decoding of data read from an SSD using at least some of a plurality of soft information tables and monitoring a set of one or more soft information properties associated with the plurality of soft information tables. The technique also includes adjusting the at least some of the plurality of soft information tables based at least in part on the set of the one or more soft information properties and repeating the soft decoding of data read from the SSD using at least the one or more adjusted soft information tables.”

The patent application was filed on February 7, 2017 (15/426,725).

Persistent memory for key-value storage
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, George Town, KY, has been assigned a patent (10,261,913) developed by Zhou, Ping, Folsom, CA, for a “persistent memory for key-value storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Using persistent memory for key-value storage is disclosed, including: receiving a put key operation including a key and a corresponding value, directly storing the key at a persistent memory media using a physical address that is determined based at least in part on the key, wherein the persistent memory media supports memory persistence and in-place updating, directly storing the value to the persistent memory media, receiving a get key operation including the key, and directly accessing the persistent memory media using the physical address that is determined based at least in part on the key to retrieve the value corresponding to the key.”

The patent application was filed on April 20, 2017 (15/492,776).

Efficient data consistency verification for flash storage
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, George Town, KY, has been assigned a patent (10,261,705) developed by Li, Shu, Bothell, WA, for an “efficient data consistency verification for flash storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Data verification includes obtaining a logical block address, LBA, which is associated with a data block of a file, to be verified. Data verification further includes reading, from a solid state drive, (SSD) comprising one or more flash storage elements, data content that corresponds to the LBA. Data verification further includes determining whether an access latency associated with the reading of the data content exceeds a threshold. Data verification further includes, in the event that the access latency does not exceed the threshold, evaluating the data content to determine whether it is consistently stored in a physical memory included in the SSD. Data verification further includes, in the event that the data content is determined not to be consistently stored in the physical memory included in the SSD, recording an indication indicating that the LBA is not successfully verified.”

The patent application was filed on December 15, 2016 (15/380,069).