Seagate Technology Assigned Twelve Patents

Malware mitigating storage controller
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12235961) developed by Davies; Ian, Longmont, CO, Barrell; Michael, Superior, CO, and Dewey; Douglas William, Longmont, CO, for a “malware mitigating storage controller.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for mitigating the effects of malware is provided. The method includes determining a compressibility of a portion of data, determining a data corruption condition is satisfied based on the determined compressibility, and modifying a retention policy for retention of stored snapshots associated with the portion of data based on the satisfaction of the data corruption condition. The modifying of the retention policy includes generating a first snapshot associated with the portion of the data, prior to writing cached data associated with the portion of the data, writing the cached data associated with the portion of the data, and generating a second snapshot associated with the portion of the data, responsive to the deletion.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-05-04 (17/736822).

HAMR head with integrated photodiode
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12236986) developed by Gubbins; Mark Anthony, Letterkenny, Ireland, Harvey; Christopher Neil, Springtown, Great Britain, Goggin; Aidan Dominic, Redcastle, Ireland, El Hallak; Fadi, Mohandas; Reshma Anamari, Howells; Bryn John, Londonderry, Great britain, and Olson; Scott Eugene, Eagan, MN, for a “heat-assisted magnetic recording head with an integrated photodiode.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A heat-assisted magnetic recording head includes a laser, a near-field transducer, a primary waveguide, a secondary waveguide, and a photodiode. The laser is configured to emit electromagnetic radiation. The near-field transducer is configured to focus and emit an optical near-field. The primary waveguide configured to receive the electromagnetic radiation and propagate the electromagnetic radiation toward and proximal to the near-field transducer. The secondary waveguide configured to receive a portion of the electromagnetic radiation from the primary waveguide. The photodiode configured to receive the portion of the electromagnetic radiation from the secondary waveguide and emit a signal that represents a magnitude of the electromagnetic radiation that the laser emits.”

The patent application was filed on 2023-12-13 (18/537957).

Method for grain size analysis
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12229933) developed by Zhu; Sha, Nassirou; Maissarath, Ng; Cindy, Fremont, CA, and Lu; Caiyan, Campbell, CA, for a “method for grain size analysis.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods for analysis of the magnetic grain using a software program effectively and accurately by improving the magnetic grain boundary contrast from an image prior to analyzing the grain size with an imaging analysis program. A method for automated grain size analysis includes obtaining a SEM electronic image of a magnetic material composed of a plurality of grains and modifying the image by smoothing the image, removing high spatial and low spatial frequencies from the image, improving contrast of the image, pixelating the image, processing the image to a binary image, and clearing outer edges of the binary image to remove at least incomplete grains to generate grain size data from the image.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-12-01 (17/539964).

Hint-based fast data operations with replication in object-based storage
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12197782) developed by More; Shankar Tukaram, and Pinglikar; Vidyadhar Charudatt, Pune, India, for “hint-based fast data operations with replication in object-based storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage command is received from a client computer. The storage command includes a key associated with a content object that is to be written to two or more storage nodes in response to the command. A virtual address space is used to indicate a storage location of the content object. A virtual address of the virtual address space is assigned to the content object. The content object is redundantly stored the two or more storage nodes at respective two or more device addresses of the respective two or more storage nodes. The two or more device addresses are mapped to the virtual address, and the virtual address is returned to the client computer as a hint.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-02-18 (17/675533).

Cartridge data storage with information-theoretic security
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12189831) developed by Keshtkarjahromi; Yasaman, Shakopee, MN, and Mendonsa; Riyan Alex, Minneapolis, MN, for a “cartridge data storage with information-theoretic security.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A secure cartridge-based storage system includes a set of read/write control electronics on a shared controller adapted to removably couple with each of a plurality of storage cartridges. Data blocks within primary non-volatile memory of the cartridge-based storage system collectively comprise a main store with information-theoretic security. The shared controller incorporates various controls for providing selective data access to individual data magazines and/or cartridges as well as for partitioning user data and writing the partitioned data according to an information-theoretic security scheme and reading the partitioned data and reconstructing the user data from the partitioned data.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-10-22 (17/077875).

Efficient scheduling of data storage disc I/O
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12182444) developed by Kulkarni; Ajay Narayan, Fnu; Ronny, Longmont, CO, Tiotantra; Harry, Shugart, Singapore, and Gaertner; Mark A., Shakopee, MN, for an “efficient scheduling of data storage disc input/output.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes creating a table with a plurality of cells indicative of intersections of tracks and wedges on a data storage disc surface. The method also includes storing disc pending command information for different disc pending commands in corresponding different cells of the plurality of cells according to locations for the different disc pending commands on the data storage disc surface. The method further includes searching the table for one or more next disc pending commands of the different disc pending commands to schedule for execution.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-03-24 (17/703303).

Electronic device that includes gas phase component
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12183371) developed by Goodman; Rory Stephan, Boulder, CO, Cheng; Yuhang, Edina, MN, Purani; Dipeshkumar Jayantilal, Shakopee, MN, and Luebben; Silvia De Vito, Golden, CO, for an “electronic device that includes a gas phase component.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An electronic device including a housing having an interior gas space, at least one electronic component positioned within the housing, an environmental control module positioned within the housing, wherein the environmental control module contains a sorbent, and a relative humidity sensor in communication with the interior gas space, wherein the interior gas space is maintainable at a relative humidity of 0% as measured by the relative humidity sensor. The interior gas space may include between about 97% and about 99.9% helium expressed as a molar fraction and at least a portion of the remainder as molecular oxygen. The sorbent can include at least one of a type A zeolite, a type X zeolite, or a type Y zeolite.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-03-23 (17/701977).

Updateable encryption in self encrypting drives
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12166873) developed by Jeljeli; Hamza, Lim; Kian Beng, Nagarajan; Saravanan, Singapore, Singapore, for a “updateable encryption in self encrypting drives.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method of rotating a set of keys, having a media encryption key (MEK) and a current media encryption key encryption key (MEKEK) encrypted and stored in a self-encrypting drive (SED) having data encrypted with the MEK (MEK(data)), includes decrypting the stored MEK and the current MEKEK. A new MEK (MEK′) and a new MEKEK (MEKEK′) are generated. The MEKEK′ is encrypted to replace the current encrypted MEKEK. A concatenation of the MEK and the MEK′ is encrypted with MEKEK′. The encrypted data MEK(data) is re-encrypted with MEK′.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-03-02 (17/189927).

Data storage system with distributed operations for known hardware
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12164814) developed by Mane; Hemant Vitthalrao, Niwot, CO, Feist; Jason Matthew, Minneapolis, MN, Viraraghavan; Praveen, Chicago, IL, Dixon; Robert W., Jones; Marc Timothy, and Williams; Steven, Longmont, CO, for a “data storage system with distributed operations for known hardware.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed data storage system can be configured with a host connected to a device and a distribution module. The distribution module identifies a manufacturing origin of the device and diverts a system operation from an upstream component connected to the distribution module to the device in response to the identified manufacturing origin of the device. The manufacturer installed operating parameters of the device are then used to complete the system operation.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-06-23 (17/847623).

Chamfer formation on data storage disc substrates
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12159658) developed by Salleh; Sideq Bin, Awang; Mohd Arobi Bin, and Kelunie; Gary Anak, Johor, Malaysia, for a “chamfer formation on data storage disc substrates.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes partially forming a top chamfer on a disc substrate with a first brush, and partially forming a bottom chamfer on the disc substrate with a second brush. The method also includes completing the formation of the bottom chamfer with the first brush, and completing the formation of the top chamfer with the second brush.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-10-07 (17/496346).

Hot data management in data storage system
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12135895) developed by Anderson; Jack Vincent, Shakopee, MN, Henze; Jonathan, Savage, MN, Goss; Ryan James, Prior, MN, McJilton; Charles, and Goolsby; Jeremy Blair, Longmont, CO, for a “hot data management in a data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data storage system may store a first data block having a first data configuration generated by a host in a non-volatile memory that is connected to a data module. A data strategy may be generated with the data module in response to the storage of data with the data strategy consisting of at least one trigger associated with identifying the first data block as hot. The first data block can be replicated to a different memory location with a second data configuration as directed by the data strategy with the first data configuration being different than the second data configuration.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-07-30 (17/389521).

Fast partial erasure for drive sanitization
Seagate Technology LLC, Fremont, CA, has been assigned a patent (12131758) developed by Liu; Xiong, Zhang; Lihong, Li; Quan, and Xie; Wenxiang, Singapore, Singapore, for a “fast partial erasure for drive sanitization.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method involves determining a threshold error rate that will result on data stored on a magnetic disk surface of a disk drive being unrecoverable. The method also involves determining a seek velocity that will overwrite sufficient portions of the data such the data will exhibit at least the threshold error rate. The disk drive performs at least one traversal of the magnetic disk surface with a head of the disk drive that emits an erase field during the at least one traversal at the seek velocity. The at least one traversal sanitizes the data.”

The patent application was filed on 2023-07-19 (18/223896).