Alibaba Group Holding Assigned Eight Patents

Solid state storage local image processing
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,552,936) developed by Li, Shu, Santa Clara, CA, for “solid state storage local image processing system and method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present invention facilitates efficient and effective information storage device operations. In one embodiment, an add-in card for image processing selectively storing information includes a processing component that performs image processing locally on the add-in card and also directs selective image based storage of original image information and results of the image processing using a unique tag, a solid state storage device that selectively stores the original image information and results of the image processing, and a communication port that receives the original image information and selectively forwards the original image information and results of image processing on the original image information.”

The patent application was filed on March 2, 2016 (15/058,530).

Rapid side-channel access to storage devices
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,552,332) developed by Du, Yu, Hangzhou, China, Zhou, Ping, San Mateo, CA, and Li, Shu, Santa Clara, CA, for a “rapid side-channel access to storage devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Disclosed are systems, methods, and apparatuses for providing a high-speed data path to storage devices. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed comprising receiving, by the processor, a data access command, the data access command specifying a location in memory to access data, issuing, by the processor, the data access command to the storage device via a first datapath, the first datapath comprising a non-block datapath, and accessing, by the processor, the non-volatile storage component through the first datapath and the memory, wherein the non-volatile storage component of the storage device is mapped to memory accessible by the processor.”

The patent application was filed on May 10, 2018 (15/976,034).

Data storage and data access
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,536,265) developed by Tong, Jun, Hangzhou, China, for “method, system and apparatus for data storage and data access.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present application discloses methods and systems to receive a data storage instruction including data to be stored and an identifier of the data, identify a blockchain corresponding to the identifier, the blockchain stored on blockchain network storage nodes of a data access system, identify a key pair corresponding to the identifier, the key pair comprising a private key and a public key, encrypting the data based on the public key to provide encrypted data, updating the blockchain by storing the encrypted data in the blockchain, and storing the updated blockchain in a particular blockchain network storage node of the blockchain network storage nodes, the particular blockchain network storage node associated with a data storage device.”

The patent application was filed on May 24, 2019 (16/422,641).

Blockchain system and data storage
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,505,720) developed by Li, Ning, Hangzhou, China, for “blockchain system and data storage method and apparatus.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for storing data are provided. One of the methods includes: receiving, by one or more computing devices, a transaction request from a first node, the transaction request comprising transaction data, determining, by the one or more computing devices based on the transaction data, a blockchain network corresponding to the transaction request from a plurality of blockchain networks connected to the one or more computing devices, wherein the first node is excluded from a consensus process associated with the determined blockchain network, forwarding, by the one or more computing devices, the transaction request to the determined blockchain network, receiving, by the one or more computing devices from the determined blockchain network, a block generated based on consensus validation on the transaction request, and forwarding, by the one or more computing devices, the block to the first node.”

The patent application was filed on July 16, 2019 (16/513,432).

Increasing storage areal density using predictive data locations
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,504,542) developed by Li, Shu, Santa Clara, CA, for an “increasing storage areal density using predictive data locations.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Disclosed are systems, methods, and devices for increasing the storage areal density of a storage device. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed comprising receiving host data, the host data including first data and extra bit data, generating run-length limited, (RLL) data by encoding the first data with an RLL encoder, generating a symbol corresponding to at least one bit of the extra bit data, and generating superpositioned data by inserting the symbol within a contiguous section of repeating bits in the RLL-encoded first data.”

The patent application was filed on January 7, 2019 (16/240,934).

Low-latency lightweight distributed storage
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,503,409) developed by Li, Shu, Bothell, WA, and Lin, Ming, San Jose, CA, for a “low-latency lightweight distributed storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Embodiments described herein provide a system for facilitating a lightweight distributed storage system. During operation, the system generates a data segment from a data file associated with a write operation and determines a storage key for the data segment. The storage key indicates a calculated storage path associated with a replica of the data segment. The system then determines whether a user-defined storage path is specified by a user for the data segment. If a user-defined storage path has not been specified by the user for the data segment, the system generates a data packet comprising the data segment, wherein a destination for the data packet corresponds to a target disk specified by the calculated storage path.”

The patent application was filed on September 27, 2017 (15/717,667).

Data destruction in phase change memory-based storage
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,496,829) developed by Li, Shu, Bothell, WA, and Zhou, Ping, Folsom, CA, for “method and system for data destruction in a phase change memory-based storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”One embodiment facilitates data destruction in a phase change memory-based storage device. During operation, the system detects, by the storage device, a power loss. Subsequent to the power loss, the system overwrites keys and configuration information used to transform data stored in the phase change memory, wherein the keys and the configuration information are stored in the phase change memory, thereby preventing the data from being recovered.”

The patent application was filed on September 15, 2017 (15/705,698).

User-space storage I/O stack with user-space flash translation layer
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Island, has been assigned a patent (10,496,548) developed by Li, Shu, Bothell, WA, for “method and system for user-space storage I/O stack with user-space flash translation layer.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: One embodiment facilitates a user-space storage I/O stack. During operation, the system generates, by a file system in the user-space, a logical block address associated with an I/O request which indicates data to be read or written. The system generates, by a flash translation layer module in the user-space, a physical block address corresponding to the logical block address, wherein the flash translation layer module is located between the file system and a block device driver in the user-space. The system estimates a latency associated with executing the I/O request. In response to determining that the estimated latency is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, and that the I/O request is a read request, the system reads the requested data from a location other than the physical block address.”

The patent application was filed on February 7, 2018 (15/891,151).