Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Assigned Patent

Hitachi Data Systems Engineering UK Ltd., Bracknell, Berkshire, Great Britain, has been assigned a patent (10,198,193) developed by Aston, Christopher James, Worcester, Great Britain, and Willis, Trevor Edward, High Wycombe, Great Britain, for “computer program product, method, apparatus and data storage system for controlling write operations in the data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The data storage system includes one or more storage apparatuses and a file system server connected to the one or more storage apparatuses and to one or more host computers. Write operations are controlled by providing a free space object which stores a plurality of indicators, each indicator being associated with one of a plurality of storage units for storing data units in the one or more storage apparatuses and each indicator indicating whether the associated storage unit is free or used, executing a read-ahead examination which comprises examining a set of indicators of the free space object for identifying one or more used storage units associated with indicators of the set, in particular for observing a fragmentation status of the storage units associated with the indicators of the set, and executing an allocation examination which comprises examining one or more indicators.“

The patent application was filed on March 11, 2014 (15/124,843).