| International Business Machines Corporation Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20120131677 | IMAGE VULNERABILITY REPAIR IN A NETWORKED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach to repair vulnerabilities (e.g., security vulnerabilities) in images (e.g., application images) in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). Specifically, an image is checked for vulnerabilities using a database of known images and/or vulnerabilities. If a vulnerability is found, a flexible/elastic firewall is established around the image so as to isolate the vulnerability. Once the firewall has been put in place, the vulnerability can be repaired by a variety of means such as upgrading the image, quarantining the image, discarding the image, and/or generating a new image. Once the image has been repaired, the firewall can be removed. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131670 | Global Variable Security Analysis - A method includes determining selected global variables in a program for which flow of the selected global variables through the program is to be tracked. The selected global variables are less than all the global variables in the program. The method includes using a static analysis performed on the program, tracking flow through the program for the selected global variables. In response to one or more of the selected global variables being used in security-sensitive operations in the flow, use is analyzed of each one of the selected global variables in a corresponding security-sensitive operation. In response to a determination the use may be a potential security violation, the potential security violation is reported. Apparatus and computer program products are also disclosed. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131668 | Policy-Driven Detection And Verification Of Methods Such As Sanitizers And Validators - A method includes performing a static analysis on a program having sources and sinks to track string flow from the sources to the sinks. The static analysis includes, for string variables in the program that begin at sources, computing grammar of all possible string values for each of the string variables and, for methods in the program operating on any of the string variables, computing grammar of string variables returned by the methods. The static analysis also includes, in response to one of the string variables reaching a sink that performs a security-sensitive operation, comparing current grammar of the one string variable with a policy corresponding to the security-sensitive operation, and performing a reporting operation based on the comparing. Apparatus and computer program products are also disclosed. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131658 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DYNAMIC USER AUTHENTICATION USING CUSTOMIZABLE CONTEXT-DEPENDENT INTERACTION ACROSS MULTIPLE VERIFICATION OBJECTS - An authentication framework is provided which enables dynamic user authentication that combines multiple authentication objects using a shared context and that permits customizable interaction design to suit varying user preferences and transaction/application requirements. For example, an automated technique for user authentication comprises the following steps/operations. First, user input is obtained. At least a portion of the user input is associated with two or more verification objects. Then, the user is verified based on the two or more verification objects in accordance with at least one verification policy operating on a context shared across the two or more verification objects. The user authentication technique of the invention may preferably be implemented in a flexible, distributed architecture comprising at least one client device coupled to at least one verification server. The client device and the verification server may operate together to perform the user authentication techniques of the invention. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131646 | ROLE-BASED ACCESS CONTROL LIMITED BY APPLICATION AND HOSTNAME - In a Role Based Access Control (RBAC) system, an additional layer of access control is provided on a per-client basis on a centralized directory or database server. Access to privileged commands that are otherwise accessible by a user under a given role may be restricted by the additional layer of access control, depending on the client under which access is attempted. Thus, a user otherwise authorized to access a privileged command under an assigned role using one client may be restricted from accessing that command from a particular client system, even if another user having the same role is allowed to access that command using another client. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131638 | PROCESSING PERFORMANCE OF REPEATED DEVICE COMPLIANCE UPDATE MESSAGES - A message comprising an indication of a management key block and an indication of an authorization table is received at a first network device from a second network device. The indication of the management key block, the indication of the authorization table, and a response message generated based on validating the indication of the management key block and the indication of the authorization table are stored. A second message comprising a second indication of the management key block and a second indication of the authorization table is received at the first network device from the second network device. The first network device communicates with the second network device in accordance with the stored response associated with the first message on determining that the second indication management key block and the second indication of the authorization table match corresponding stored indications of the management key block and the authorization table. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131631 | TRANSFERRING A BROADCAST TRANSMISSION TO A REMOTE DEVICE - An approach is described that includes determining that a remote device has moved outside of a pre-defined area associated with a digital video recorder (DVR), and transmitting program data from the DVR to the remote device while the remote device remains outside of the pre-defined area. Another approach includes a digital video recorder (DVR) having a memory and a processor. The DVR operates to: receive an incoming transmission signal; transmit a selected program to a primary display device; determine that a remote device has moved outside of a pre-defined area; and transmit program data corresponding to the selected program to the remote device while the remote device remains outside of the pre-defined area. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131598 | Mechanism that Provides More Efficient Event Handler Processing - Disclosed is an apparatus, method, service product, and program product which each provide an enhanced, registration-based event handler mechanism. Listener programs are located and compiled before notification is needed. When notification is ultimately required, the pre-located listeners can be called directly without incurring the performance expense associated with first locating and then calling each listener. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131590 | MANAGING VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS OF AN INPUT/OUTPUT ADAPTER - A computer implemented method may include identifying allocations for each virtual function of a plurality of virtual functions that are provided via an input/output adapter. The computer implemented method may further include determining a range associated with each group of a plurality of groups based on the identified allocations. The computer implemented method may also include associating each virtual function with a group of the plurality of groups based on the range associated with the group. Where at least one group of the plurality of groups is empty, and where one or more groups of the plurality of groups has two or more virtual functions associated with the one or more groups, the computer implemented method may include distributing the two or more virtual functions to the at least one empty group. The computer implemented method may further include transferring the plurality of virtual functions from each group to a corresponding category at the input/output adapter. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131587 | HARDWARE DEVICE FOR PROCESSING THE TASKS OF AN ALGORITHM IN PARALLEL - A hardware device for concurrently processing a fixed set of predetermined tasks associated with an algorithm which includes a number of processes, some of the processes being dependent on binary decisions, includes a plurality of task units for processing data, making decisions and/or processing data and making decisions, including source task units and destination task units. A task interconnection logic means interconnect the task units for communicating actions from a source task unit to a destination task unit. Each of the task units includes a processor for executing only a particular single task of the fixed set of predetermined tasks associated with the algorithm in response to a received request action, and a status manager for handling the actions from the source task units and building the actions to be sent to the destination task units. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131580 | APPLICATION TASK REQUEST AND FULFILLMENT PROCESSING - Techniques for fulfilling requests and providing results to a requesting entity. Embodiments may poll a flag to determine when a fulfillment request from a requesting entity is pending. Upon detecting the fulfillment request is pending, embodiments may retrieve the request and perform one or more actions associated with the request to produce a fulfillment result. Embodiments may then store the fulfillment result in a storage location and transmit a notification to the requesting entity to indicate the fulfillment request has been fulfilled. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131578 | Optimization of Virtual Appliance Deployment - In an embodiment for deploying a new virtual appliance ( | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131577 | PROVIDING A VIRTUAL MACHINE - A software element database stores software element definitions according to a software element hierarchy. A score is assigned to at least one of the software element based at least in part upon the software element's hierarchy level. Further, virtual machine templates are stored in a library. The virtual machine templates include at least one software element associated with a software element from the software element database. A user enters a specification that specifies desired software elements to be included in the virtual machine via a user interface. After the specification is entered, the a score value is calculated for at least one virtual machine template from the library, based on the scores assigned to the software elements. Using the calculated score, the virtual machine template having the highest score value is selected and the selected virtual machine template is delivered as the virtual machine to a hypervisor. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131575 | DEVICE EMULATION IN A VIRTUALIZED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - Systems and methods for optimizing operation of a physical device in a virtualized computing environment are provided. The method comprises monitoring instructions issued by an application running on a virtual machine's (VM) operating system, wherein the VM is hosted by a hypervisor providing access to a physical device connected to a virtualized computing environment; wherein a device driver supported by the operating system issues one or more instructions to an emulated device supported by the hypervisor to control the physical device according to the issued instructions, wherein the emulated device's registers are implemented in memory of the hypervisor and the instructions issued by the device driver are stored in said registers, wherein the hypervisor handles the instructions, in response to learning that the instructions are stored in said registers. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131572 | Method for Specification of Environment Required for Crowdsourcing Tasks - Embodiments of the invention are associated with crowdsourcing, wherein a computing environment comprising all of the tools and other resources required to perform a specified task can be made available to all prospective participants, as a virtual machine image. One embodiment of the invention is directed to a method associated with a particular task that is provided by a task requester, wherein the particular task is to be performed by means of a crowdsourcing process. The method comprises the steps of selecting a plurality of participants, wherein each participant of the plurality is qualified to perform the particular task, and specifying a computing environment that comprises a set of resources, wherein each resource is required to perform the particular task. A virtual machine image that contains each of the resources of the set is constructed, and is then made available for use by each selected participant of the plurality. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131571 | PERFORMANCE IN A NESTED VIRTUALIZED ENVIRONMENT - Methods and systems for improving performance in a virtualization environment. The method comprising: detecting, by a first software, a first set of features supported by a hardware device, wherein the first software runs on the hardware device; detecting a second set of features with which to run a second software, wherein the second software is launched by the first software with the second set of features; exposing one or more features in the second set of features to the second software, wherein the second software detects and enables the exposed features for a third software launched by the second software; and emulating a first feature without causing a trap such that control is transferred to the second software, in response to determining that the first feature is an exposed feature not included in the first set of features, wherein one or more sensitive events are associated with the first feature. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131567 | SYSTEMATIC MIGRATION OF WORKLOAD BASED ON CLASSIFICATION - Data characterizing a source computing environment having at least one hardware resource and at least one workload is obtained, as is a specification of a target computing environment to which the at least one workload is to be migrated in a migration. Based on the data characterizing the source computing environment and the specification of the target computing environment, the migration is categorized into one of a plurality of categories; and the migration is specified in accordance with a migration technique selected based on the categorizing step. Techniques to identify suitable migration candidates are also provided. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131560 | VIRTUAL MACHINE TESTING - A system for testing a base machine includes the base machine that has a base feature set (BFS) and a testing module. The system also includes a test case generator, configured to: select a prior level of the base machine, the prior level having a legacy architecture; determine a feature set of the legacy architecture based on the BFS; generate a set of test instructions based on the feature set; and provide the set of test instructions to the testing module. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131558 | MANAGING BREAKPOINTS IN A MULTI-THREADED ENVIRONMENT - An electronic device is provided that, in an embodiment, saves a plurality of values for a variable specified by a condition after a respective plurality of encounters of a breakpoint by a program that modifies the variable. One of the plurality of values is selected based on a condition. A determination is made whether to stop execution of the program at the breakpoint based on the one of the plurality of the values. Execution of the program is stopped at the breakpoint if the determining is true. The program is allowed to continue to execute if the determining is false. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131556 | XPATH-BASED SELECTION ASSISTANCE OF GUI ELEMENTS DURING MANUAL TEST SCRIPT AUTHORING FOR XML-BASED APPLICATIONS - An automated software testing system can include a test script authoring graphical user interface and an element selection assistant. The test script authoring graphical user interface is an interface for manual test script authoring of an XML representation of a GUI for software applications formed from one or more XML based source code documents. A search section is a user input section within which a user is permitted to input at least one of an XPATH expression and a text string. The element selection assistant can be for searching the XML-based code documents using a search XPATH expression. The search XPATH expression can be the XPATH expression input into the search section or a generated XPATH expression automatically generated from the text string. The result section can present results from the element selection assistant. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131549 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPTIMIZING HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES - Systems and methods for replacing inferior code segments with optimal code segments. Systems and methods for making such replacements for programming languages using Message Passing Interface (MPI) are provided. For example, at the compiler level, point-to-point code segments may be identified and replaced with all-to-all code segments. Programming code may include X10, Chapel and other programming languages that support parallel for loop. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131544 | Model Extension Framework - Techniques for implicitly extending an object model, even those that do not provide an extension mechanism, in a manner that is transparent, independent, and non-disruptive to the model itself. An “extension” is preferably created for each object to be extended, and comprises a reference to the object and contains an “extension object” that specifies the particular extensions. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131530 | PARTITIONING FOR HARDWARE-ACCELERATED FUNCTIONAL VERIFICATION - A circuit design is partitioned for hardware-accelerated functional verification using a directed hypergraph with edge weights that are a function of slack. Slack may be computed as the difference between the early and late ranks for the source of an edge. The weight may further be computed as the difference between the edge's slack and a maximum slack value. In a preferred implementation each vertex also has multiple weights associated with resource requirements of different node types, and the partitioning is constrained to prevent vertex movement that would result in vertex weights for a given partition exceeding a partition resource capacity based on the accelerator architecture. Edge and vertex weights can be recomputed for the next level of partitioning. The partitioning process can be repeatedly iteratively until a termination criterion is met, the termination criterion being based in part on the number of directed cuts in each of the partitions. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131512 | DISPLAYING POSTS IN REAL TIME ALONG AXES ON A COMPUTER SCREEN - Sequentially displaying posts apart from each other on a computer screen, including prompting a user to input a dimension element including one or more of a character, graphic, or symbol on the computer screen; identifying posts containing one or more dimension elements; sequentially displaying the identified posts apart from each other along a first axis; displaying a moveable cursor along the first axis across one or more displayed posts and that indicates only one or more particular posts; moving the cursor according to the user's operation; identifying one or more posts at a position currently indicated by the cursor; identifying one or more additional posts containing one or more dimension elements related to the elements contained in the posts currently indicated by the cursor; and sequentially displaying posts of the one or more additionally identified posts along a second axis. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131499 | COMPUTER METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TOPOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF TEXTUAL DATA - Computer system, method and apparatus generate and display a graphical representation of a body of text. The graphical representation serves as a text map allowing navigation operations and other user interaction. The text map enables improved navigation of the body of text. Computer-based geographic mapping operations (e.g., zoom, pan, highlight, etc.) are used to navigate the text. The text map may have various graphical feature overlays also navigable by and interactive to the user. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131489 | EVALUATING AND COMPARING THE REQUIREMENTS OF A TASK WITH THE CAPABILITIES OF AN ENTITY - A method for evaluating the requirements of a task with the capabilities of an entity includes generating a first visual representation, creating a mask based on the first visual representation, applying the mask to a second visual representation, and generating a third visual representation conveying which task requirements the entity is capable of satisfying. The first visual representation includes the requirements of the task, the second visual representation includes the capabilities of the entity, and the third visual representation is generated based on the application of the mask to the second visual representation. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131483 | DRAG-AND-DROP ACTIONS FOR WEB APPLICATIONS USING AN OVERLAY AND A SET OF PLACEHOLDER ELEMENTS - In order to improve performance and responsiveness for drag-and-drop actions for Web applications, the amount of JavaScript loaded and executed at each increment of the mouse as it moves during a drag-and-drop action should be minimized. This can be achieved by harnessing the efficient and native-code algorithms built into Web browsers. Instead of using a JavaScript algorithm to compute which drop target the mouse is on, an overlay with placeholders can be placed on top of the page using z-index, where the placeholders are placed directly on top of the drop targets. The current drop target can be computed using the browser's built-in onmouseover and onmouseout events on the placeholder elements, thus freeing the browser from loading and executing too much JavaScript. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131482 | OPTIMIZING A USER INTERFACE FOR A COMPUTING DEVICE - In general, embodiments of the invention provide an approach to organize a user interface, such as a computer desktop, based on the role or activity of the current user. Specifically, a display area configuration of a user device is defined by selecting resources from a plurality of available resources to include in a display area configuration, building a profile from the selected resources to preserve the display area configuration, and saving the profile. The display area is then built on a user device when the profile is selected from the user device. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131481 | Dynamic De-Identification of Data - The present invention relates to a method, computer program product and system for masking sensitive data and, more particularly, to dynamically de-identifying sensitive data from a data source for a target application, including enabling a user to selectively alter an initial de-identification protocol for the sensitive data elements via an interface. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131480 | MANAGEMENT OF VIRTUAL MACHINE SNAPSHOTS - A virtual machine snapshot mechanism takes snapshots of virtual machines on a computer system, generates relationships between a snapshot and resources on the computer system, and provides a graphical display of one or more snapshots that allow visually determining which snapshots include which resources. A user may search the snapshots based on user-specified criteria. If an exact match is not available, and closest match is identified in the graphical display. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131475 | SOCIAL NETWORK BASED ON VIDEO RECORDER PARENTAL CONTROL SYSTEM - A computer system, computer program product, and method of sharing and creating social network reviews of selected programs that may be viewed and shared over a social network. If a user agrees with a social network review already present for a selected program, the categorization and editing of inappropriate content of the selected program may be applied to the same program for that user. If a user disagrees with a social network review of a selected program already present, the user may review the selected program and edit any inappropriate content as desired and submit the review to the social network. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131468 | TEMPLATE FOR OPTIMIZING IT INFRASTRUCTURE CONFIGURATION - A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product provides hierarchical templates to optimize a configuration of an information technology (IT) infrastructure. A technology rule set, which defines technology weights of an IT infrastructure by mapping capabilities of IT infrastructure components to IT infrastructure attributes needed to execute a specific workload, is established. Hierarchical templates, which are tied to configuration logic for creating IT infrastructures, are sent to a user. Based on user-selected templates, a candidate IT infrastructure for executing the specific workload is configured. In response to determining that the candidate IT infrastructure fails to meet the customer's expectations, the candidate IT infrastructure is reconfigured until the customer's expectations are met. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131445 | TEMPLATE-BASED CONTENT CREATION - Methods, systems and program products for generating content from a user-created template. Embodiments of the invention may provide an interface configured to allow users to create templates, where the templates further include a user-specified formatting. Embodiments may receive a template created by a user using the provided interface, and responsive to receiving the template, may retrieve data associated with the variable fields in the received template. Embodiments may generate new content based on the received template and the retrieved data, where the generated new content is formatted according to the user-specified formatting in the received template. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131434 | DOCUMENT RENEWAL AND TRANSLATION - Methods, systems and program products for renewing documents relating to an agreement between two entities. Content from an existing document is extracted, the existing document having been created from component documents. A selection of one or more updated component documents is received. An updated document is then generated based on the extracted content from the received document and the received selection of one or more updated component documents, wherein the updated document defines a revised agreement between the two entities. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131429 | Magnifying the Text of a Link While Still Retaining Browser Function in the Magnified Display - A web browser magnifies the content of the whole page in memory and displays the relevant portion in a magnifier with hyperlinks. The web browser then maps the magnified display to the original document. Thus, manipulation of the mouse in the magnified display may result in an action with respect to the original document. The user may then select a link for navigation within the magnified display. Alternatively, the web browser may analyze the original web page and construct magnifier contents on the basis of either the document object model, extensible markup language (XML), or hypertext markup language (HTML) representation of the magnified portion. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131426 | DOCUMENT GENERATION AND SERVICES MANAGEMENT - Methods, systems and program products for generating a document of understanding. Embodiments of the invention may provide an interface allowing a user to select from a plurality of component documents. Upon receiving a selection of component documents from the user, embodiments may generate a document of understanding based on the received selection. Embodiments may then submit the generated document of understanding for approval, and upon approval, embodiments my mark the generated document of understanding as active. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131393 | Detecting System Component Failures In A Computing System - Detecting system component failures in a computing system, including: capturing, by a digital imaging device, an image of a component in the computing system; comparing, by a digital imaging comparator, the image of the component in the computing system to a graphical template for the component in the computing system; determining, by the digital imaging comparator, whether the image matches the graphical template for the computing system within a predetermined threshold; and sending, by a notification system, a failure event notification upon determining that the image does not match the graphical template for the computing system within the predetermined threshold. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131391 | MIGRATION OF DATA IN A DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENT - Embodiments of the invention migrate dynamically changing data sets in a distributed application environment. Writes to a source device are intercepted and it is determined whether data in the source device is being migrated to a target device. If data is being migrated, then the intercepted write is mirror written synchronously to both the source and the target. Data being migrated is read from a region of the source and written to a region of the target and also to a minor writing memory location. The source region data is re-read and compared to the originally read data that is written to the mirror writing memory location. If the compared data does not match, the data migration from the source region to the target region (and to the minor writing memory location) is repeated until the originally read data and the re-read data match. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131390 | Detecting System Component Failures In A Computing System - Detecting system component failures in a computing system, including: detecting, by an illumination detector, the occurrence of an illumination event in the computing system; determining, by an illumination event identifier, whether the illumination event is associated with a suspected component failure in the computing system; and sending, by a notification system, a failure event notification upon determining that the illumination event is associated with a suspected component failure in the computing system. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131386 | VERIFICATION OF SPECULATIVE EXECUTION - A Design-Under-Test (DUT) may be designed to perform speculative execution of a branch path prior to determination whether the branch path is to be performed. Verification of the operation of DUT in respect to the speculative execution is disclosed. A template may be used to generate a plurality of tests. In addition to standard randomness of the tests to various parameters in accordance with the template, the tests may also differ in their respective speculative execution paths. The tests are partitioned by a generator into portions to be placed in speculative paths and portions to be placed in non-speculative paths. The generator may provide for a variance in portions. The generator may provide for nested speculative paths. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131381 | Operating a Data Storage System - A data storage system including at least one memory device array including memory devices for storing data; and a storage subsystem controller for performing a method for operating the memory devices within the memory device array by relocating parity entities from a first memory device to a spare memory device replacing a failed memory device, and by storing one or more of reconstructed data entities on the first memory device. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131375 | Executing a Kernel Device Driver as a User Space Process - A method, including receiving, by a user space driver framework (UDF) library executing from a user space of a memory over a monolithic operating system kernel, a kernel application programming interface (API) call from a device driver executing from the user space. The UDF library then performs an operation corresponding to the kernel API call. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131344 | IDENTIFYING AND LOCATING AUTHENTICATED SERVICES USING BROADCAST ENCRYPTION - Provided are techniques to enable, using broadcast encryption, a device to locate a service offered by a server with the knowledge that the service offered by the server is a trusted service. A signed enhanced Management Key Block (eMKB) includes a trusted service locator (TSL) that includes one or more records, or “trusted service data records” (TSDRs), each identifying a particular service and a corresponding location of the service is generated and transmitted over a network. Devices authorized to access a particular service parse the eMKB for the end point of the service, connect to the appropriate server and transmit a request. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131338 | AUTHENTICATION AND AUTHORIZATION OF A DEVICE BY A SERVICE USING BROADCAST ENCRYPTION - Provided are techniques to enable a device that provides a service to authorize a second device for receiving the service and the delivery of the service to the second device and other devices within a trusted network. A signed Management Key Block (MKB) is generated and transmitted over a network. Devices authorized to access a particular service parse the MKB and transmit a request. A server associated with the service determines whether or not the device is authorized to access the service based upon data included in the request. The first device may issue a challenge to the second device for authentication purposes. If service is approved, service is initiated, either from the first device or another authorized device. Devices may be organized into classes such that devices of a specific class are authorized to access the service. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131337 | DEVICE ARCHIVING OF PAST CLUSTER BINDING INFORMATION ON A BROADCAST ENCRYPTION-BASED NETWORK - Provided are techniques for the creation and storage of an archive for binding IDs corresponding to a cluster of devices that render content protected by a broadcast encryption scheme. When two or more clusters are merged, a binding ID corresponding to one of the clusters is selected and a new management key is generated. Binding IDs associated with the clusters other than the cluster associated with the selected binding ID are encrypted using the new management key and stored on a cluster-authorized device in a binding ID archive. Content stored in conformity with an outdated binding ID is retrieved by decrypting the binding ID archive with the management key, recalculating an old management key and decrypting the stored content. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131335 | Collaborative Agent Encryption And Decryption - A method for securely transmitting data from a sender computer system to a receiver computer system comprises receiving a cleartext message by a first intelligent agent environment; splitting said message into a plurality of message fragments; creating an intelligent agent for each message fragment; generating a key for each message fragment; encrypting each said message fragment to produce a respective encrypted message fragment; and transmitting each intelligent agent with said respective encrypted message fragment as a data payload. The method may further comprise receiving each intelligent agent with its respective encrypted message fragment as a data payload by a second intelligent agent environment at the receiver computer system; locating each of a set of agents; decrypting each encrypted respective message fragment to produce a respective cleartext message fragment; and collaborating by the set of agents to recombine cleartext message fragments to form a cleartext message. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131334 | Method for Attesting a Plurality of Data Processing Systems - A technique for attesting a plurality of data processing systems. The method includes: configuring a chain of data processing systems wherein a first data processing system is responsible for retrieving attestation data associated with a second data processing system; sending a request for attestation of the first data processing system; in response to receiving the request, retrieving a list of associated one or more children, wherein the one or more children comprise the second data processing system; retrieving and storing attestation data associated with each child; retrieving and storing attestation data associated with the first data processing system; and sending to the requester a concatenated response containing the attestation data associated with the first and second data processing systems, such that the attestation data associated with the first and second data processing systems can be used to attest the first and second data processing systems, respectively. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131314 | Ganged Hardware Counters for Coordinated Rollover and Reset Operations - Mechanisms for controlling rollover or reset of hardware performance counters in the data processing system. A signal indicating that a rollover or reset of a first hardware performance counter has occurred is received and it is determined if the first hardware performance counter is analytically related to one or more second hardware performance counters based on defined ganged hardware performance counter sets. A signal is sent to each of the one or more second hardware performance counters in response to a determination that the first hardware performance counter is analytically related to the one or more second hardware performance counters. Each of the one or more second hardware performance counters is reset to an initial value in response to the one or more second hardware performance counters receiving the signal from the ganged hardware performance counter rollover/reset logic. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131304 | Adaptive Wear Leveling via Monitoring the Properties of Memory Reference Stream - Adaptive write leveling in limited lifetime memory devices including performing a method for monitoring a write data stream that includes write line addresses. A property of the write data stream is detected and a write leveling process is adapted in response to the detected property. The write leveling process is applied to the write data stream to generate physical addresses from the write line addresses. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131300 | DETERMINING SUITABLE NETWORK INTERFACE FOR PARTITION DEPLOYMENT/RE-DEPLOYMENT IN A CLOUD ENVIRONMENT - Migrating a logical partition (LPAR) from a first physical port to a first target physical port, includes determining a configuration of an LPAR having allocated resources residing on a computer and assigned to the first physical port of the computer. The configuration includes a label that specifies a network topology that is provided by the first physical port and the first target physical port has a port label that matches the label included in the configuration of the LPAR. The first target physical port with available capacity to service the LPAR is identified and the LPAR is migrated from the first physical port to the target physical port by reassigning the LPAR to the first target physical port. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131293 | DATA ARCHIVING USING DATA COMPRESSION OF A FLASH COPY - Embodiments of the disclosure relate to archiving data in a storage system. An exemplary embodiment comprises making a flash copy of data in a source volume, compressing data in the flash copy wherein each track of data is compressed into a set of data pages, and storing the compressed data pages in a target volume. Data extents for the target volume may be allocated from a pool of compressed data extents. After each stride worth of data is compressed and stored in the target volume, data may be destaged to avoid destage penalties. Data from the target volume may be decompressed from a flash copy of the target volume in a reverse process to restore each data track, when the archived data is needed. Data may be compressed and uncompressed using a Lempel-Ziv-Welch process. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131292 | VARIABLE DATA PRESERVATION PREWRITE - In one aspect of the present description, a data preservation function is provided for preserving a set of data on a source storage device at a point in time, and includes identifying as a function of prior update usage, such as input/output usage, of the data to be preserved, a portion of the data which is more likely to be the subject of updates during at least a portion of the data preservation operation as compared to the remaining portion of the data to be preserved, and copies the identified portion of the data to be preserved to a target storage device. In another aspect, the size of the portion of data to be identified is variable. In one embodiment, the size of the portion of data to be identified is a function of a parameter of the command, such that a user can specify the command parameter which affects the size of the portion of data which is prewritten to the target storage device. The parameter may be, for example, a percentage of the data to be preserved, such that a user can specify the percentage of the point-in-time data which is prewritten to the target storage device. Alternatively, the parameter may be, for example, a probability of a collision occurring, such that a user can specify a probability of a collision occurring. Other features and aspects may be realized, depending upon the particular application. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131291 | APPLICATION AWARE SNAPSHOTS - A method of creating an application aware snapshot comprises a host system receiving a request for a snapshot, and the host system sending a SCSI snapshot command directly to a disk controller without requiring a disk controller-specific provider to be installed on the host system. The disk controller then receives the SCSI snapshot command and creates the snapshot in response to receiving the SCSI command, wherein the snapshot is created in accordance with logic contained within the disk controller without requiring a disk controller-specific provider to be installed on the host system. Using the SCSI snapshot command facilitates a plurality of host systems being able to send a SCSI snapshot command directly to a disk controller without requiring a disk controller-specific provider to be installed on each of the plurality of host systems. Similarly, a single host system is able to send a SCSI snapshot command directly to a plurality of disk controllers without requiring a disk controller-specific provider for each disk controller to be installed on the host system. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131290 | Backup Memory Administration - Methods, systems, and computer program products for backup memory administration are provided. Embodiments include storing in an active memory device, by a memory backup controller, blocks of computer data received from random access memory; recording in a change log, by the memory backup controller, identifications of each block of computer data that is stored in the active memory device; detecting, by the memory backup controller, a backup trigger event; and responsive to the detecting of the backup trigger event: copying, by the memory backup controller, from the active memory device, to a backup memory device, the blocks of data identified in the change log; and clearing, by the memory backup controller, the change log. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131280 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BACKING UP STORAGE VOLUMES IN A STORAGE SYSTEM - Systems and methods for backing up storage volumes are provided. One system includes a primary side, a secondary side, and a network coupling the primary and secondary sides. The secondary side includes first and second VTS including a cache and storage tape. The first VTS is configured to store a first portion of a group of storage volumes in its cache and migrate the remaining portion to its storage tape. The second VTS is configured to store the remaining portion of the storage volumes in its cache and migrate the first portion to its storage tape. One method includes receiving multiple storage volumes from a primary side, storing the storage volumes in the cache of the first and second VTS, migrating a portion of the storage volumes from the cache to storage tape in the first VTS, and migrating a remaining portion of the storage volumes from the cache to storage tape in the second VTS. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131274 | Legacy Data Managment - Various systems, processes, products, and techniques may be used to manage legacy data. In one general implementation, a system, process, and/or product for managing legacy data may include the ability to determine whether a data request has been received and, if a data request has been received, determine whether the data request is associated with legacy data of an external storage management system. If the data request is not associated with legacy data of an external storage management system, the system, process, and/or product may retrieve data from a local storage array, and if the data request is associated with legacy data of an external storage management system, the system, process, and/or product may request legacy data from an external storage management system. The system, process, and/or product may also generate a response to the data request. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131265 | WRITE CACHE STRUCTURE IN A STORAGE SYSTEM - A method of writing data units to a storage device. The data units are cached in a first level cache sorted by logical address. A group (G | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131260 | HYPERVISOR PAGE FAULT PROCESSING IN A SHARED MEMORY PARTITION DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM - Hypervisor page fault processing logic is provided for a shared memory partition data processing system. The logic, responsive to an executing virtual processor of the shared memory partition data processing system encountering a hypervisor page fault, allocates an input/output (I/O) paging request to the virtual processor from an I/O paging request pool and increments an outstanding I/O paging request count for the virtual processor. A determination is then made whether the outstanding I/O paging request count for the virtual processor is at a predefined threshold, and if not, the logic places the virtual processor in a wait state with interrupt wake-up reasons enabled based on the virtual processor's state, otherwise, it places the virtual processor in a wait state with interrupt wake-up reasons disabled. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131248 | MANAGING COMPRESSED MEMORY USING TIERED INTERRUPTS - Systems and methods to manage memory are provided. A particular method may include initiating a memory compression operation. The method may further include initiating a first interrupt configured to affect a first process executing on a processor in response to a first detected memory level. A second initiated interrupt may be configured to affect the first process executing on the processor in response to a second detected memory level, and a third interrupt may be initiated to affect the first process executing on the processor in response to a third detected memory level. At least of the first, the second, and the third detected memory levels are affected by the memory compression operation. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131240 | SLIDING WRITE WINDOW MECHANISM FOR WRITING DATA - Various embodiments writing data are provided. In one embodiment, the data arranged in a plurality of write intervals is loaded into a plurality of buffers, the totality of the plurality of buffers configured as a sliding write window mechanism adapted for movement to accommodate the write intervals. The data may reach the storage system out of a sequential order, and by loading it appropriately into the said buffers the data is ordered sequentially before it is written to the storage media. When a commencing section of the sliding write window is filled up with written data, this section is flushed to the storage media, and the window slides forward, to accommodate further data written by the writers. The writers are synchronized with the interval reflected by the current position of the sliding write window, and they send data to be written only where this data fits into the current interval of the window. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131239 | DYNAMIC RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR DISTRIBUTED CLUSTER-STORAGE NETWORK - Various embodiments for operating a distributed cluster storage network having a host computer system and a storage subsystem are provided. In one embodiment, by way of example only, at a first of a plurality of storage control nodes a request is received to write data to storage from the host computer system. The data is forwarded by a forwarding layer at the first of the plurality of storage control nodes to a second of the plurality of storage control nodes. Buffer resource are allocated for the data to be written to the storage by a buffer control component at each of the plurality of storage control nodes. The constrained status indicator of the buffer resource is communicated to the forwarding layer. Additional system and computer program product embodiments are disclosed and provide related advantages. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131238 | Management of Redundant Physical Data Paths in a Computing System - A redundancy manager manages commands to peripheral devices in a computer system. These peripheral devices have multiple pathways connecting it to the computer system. The redundancy manager determines the number of independent pathways connected to the peripheral device, presents only one logical device to the operating system and any device driver and any other command or device processing logic in the command path before the redundancy manager. For each incoming command, the redundancy manager determines which pathways are properly functioning and selects the best pathway for the command based at least partly upon a penalty model where a path may be temporarily penalized by not including the pathway in the path selection process for a predetermined time. The redundancy manager further reroutes the command to an alternate path and resets the device for an alternate path that is not penalized or has otherwise failed. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131235 | USING A TABLE TO DETERMINE IF USER BUFFER IS MARKED COPY-ON-WRITE - A method, system and computer program product for determining if a buffer is marked copy-on-write. A user applications selects a buffer in user space to store data involved in a write/read operation. The user application searches a table storing addresses of buffers in user space that are marked copy-on-write to determine if the address of the selected buffer is listed in the table. If the address is listed in the table, then the selected buffer is marked copy-on-write. If the address is not listed in the table, then the selected buffer is not marked copy-on-write. By having a table store a list of addresses of buffers in user space that are marked copy-on-write by the kernel, the user application is now able to know whether the buffer in user space is marked copy-on-write. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131232 | CONFIGURING AN INPUT/OUTPUT ADAPTER - A computer-implemented method includes initializing a driver associated with an input/output adapter in response to receiving an initialize driver request from a client application. The input/output adapter may be initialized to enable adapter capabilities of the input/output adapter to be determined. The computer-implemented method also includes determining the adapter capabilities of the input/output adapter and determining slot capabilities of a slot associated with the input/output adapter. The computer-implemented method further includes setting configurable capabilities of the input/output adapter based on the adapter capabilities and the slot capabilities. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131210 | TRANSPORT LAYER CONNECTION - A system identifies a network socket on a machine by assigning a non-IP address socket anchor and a port number to the network socket. A socket anchor may comprise a globally unique number. In some embodiments, a socket anchor comprises a number having a preselected number of bits. The number having the preselected number of bits may comprise a selected number associated with the machine concatenated with a number of randomly generated bits. The number of bits of the selected number plus the number of randomly generated bits is equal to the preselected number of bits. In some embodiments, the selected number associated with the machine is a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network interface associated with the machine. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131181 | WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT IN HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS - A system for managing a workload in a heterogeneous environment comprising at least one application, an interoperability layer for inter-application communication, and at least one adapter for connecting the at least one application to the interoperability layer, is disclosed. Such a system includes a self-adapting application connector management component which includes the following: a monitoring component for monitoring the performance and workload characteristics of one or more applications and/or one or more adapters; a computing component for computing a configuration change based on the monitored performance and workload characteristics; a change component for changing the configuration of the one or more adapters in accordance with the computed configuration change; and a change component for changing the configuration of the one or more applications in accordance with the computed configuration change. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131172 | MANAGING SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS USING STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL IN A NETWORKED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - Embodiments of the present invention relate to the use of event processing (e.g., for complex events) in a cloud infrastructure using Statistical Process Control (SPC) techniques to detect changes in a holistic system. Specifically, events (e.g., complex events that occur over multiple layers in the architecture) may be detected and/or correlated by an event processor. Thereafter, an SPC engine will determine if the events impact a set of SLAs based on a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are measurements indicating actual performance of the cloud computing environment versus stated goals. The SPC engine will then determine if a set of actions is needed to address the events to avoid the SLAs terms from not being met. If so, a provisioning engine can carry out any needed actions. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131163 | BALANCING THE LOADS OF SERVERS IN A SERVER FARM BASED ON AN ANGLE BETWEEN TWO VECTORS - A system and computer program product for balancing the loads of servers in a server farm. A vector, referred to herein as the “DesiredVector,” is computed to hold the load factors for each of the servers. Upon receipt of a client request, a vector, referred to herein as the “ActiveConnections,” is modified for each scenario where the new client request is considered to be serviced by a different server. The ActiveConnections vector holds the current number of client requests being serviced by each of the servers. Angles made by each of the different ActiveConnections vectors with the DesiredVector are computed. Upon identifying the ActiveConnections vector that produces the smallest angle with the DesiredVector, the client request is directed to the server which corresponds to the identified ActiveConnections vector. In this manner, the best possible distribution of requests among the servers is made for every client connection. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131160 | DISASSOCIATING AND FREEING MANAGED CONNECTIONS BASED ON USAGE PATTERNS - A method, system and computer program product for disassociating and freeing managed connection objects. Managed connections are dissociated from their connection handles based on their usage patterns, determined by various connection parameters, which more effectively reduces the idle time of the managed connections. The managed connections whose cost of disassociating and reassociating is less than the cost of keeping the managed connections idle are targeted and released to the free pool of managed connections via the dissociation from its connection handles. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131159 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REDUCING MESSAGE PASSING FOR CONTENTION DETECTION IN DISTRIBUTED SIP SERVER ENVIRONMENTS - A method, a system, and a computer program product are provided for reducing message passing for contention detection in distributed SIP server environments. The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to determine that a first site is waiting for a first object locked by a second site. The programming instructions are further operable to determine that a third site is waiting for a second object locked by the first site, and to send a first probe to the second site to determine whether the second site is waiting. A second probe is received and indicates that a site is waiting for an object locked by the first site. The second probe further indicates a deadlock in a distributed server environment to be resolved. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131132 | IF-NONE-MATCH FOR AGGREGATED PAGE DISTRIBUTION - Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for page request management for aggregated page content. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for page request management for aggregated page content can include issuing on behalf of a user a request for dynamically aggregated components in a page. The method further can include inserting into a header of the request a key computed as a combination of identifiers for the aggregated components and last modified data for the aggregated components. Finally, the method can include receiving in response to the request a new page of dynamically aggregated components for the user only if the computed key does not match a key computed for the new page. Otherwise, only a response is received indicating that the page has not been modified. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131124 | RDMA READ DESTINATION BUFFERS MAPPED ONTO A SINGLE REPRESENTATION - A computer-implemented method, system, and article of manufacture for data communication between a requester and a responder in a remote direct memory access (RDMA) network, where each of the requester and the responder is an RDMA-enabled host of the network. The method includes: sending a request for the responder to provide data, where the request includes a mapped steering tag that is obtained by mapping a set of memory buffers of the requester onto a single representation that allows for identifying each of the memory buffers of the set; and receiving the requested data together with the mapped steering tag and assigning the data being received to the memory buffers of the set consistently with the mapping. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131115 | TRANSACTIONAL MESSAGING SUPPORT IN CONNECTED MESSAGING NETWORKS - A method and system are provided for transactional messaging support in connected messaging networks. A first messaging network is provided which does not support transactional processing and a second messaging network is provided which does support transactional processing. A proxy application is provided between the first and second messaging networks. The proxy application receives messages from a first application on the first messaging network, the messages including instructions regarding transactional processing of the messages, and forwards the messages to the second messaging network using a transactional processing supported by the second messaging network. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131109 | HIDING EMAIL IDENTIFICATION USING A CONFIGURABLE SET OF DOMAINS - A method of delivering an electronic mail message. A mail server receives and stores a rule from a first user. Thereafter the mail server receives the electronic mail message from a second user comprising a sender. The mail server compares the rule with an email address in a field of the electronic mail message. Responsive to the rule being satisfied the email server takes an action with respect to the email address or the field to form a modified electronic mail message. Thereafter, the email server delivers the modified electronic mail message to a third user comprising a recipient. The first, second, and third users may all be different from each other. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131108 | INTELLIGENT OFFLOAD OF WORK TO HANDLE PEAK ACTIVITY IN AN ENTERPRISE EMAIL SYSTEM - A method and system for sending a message are disclosed. The method involves receiving a message at a mail server and determining that a load of the mail server exceeds a threshold. If it is determined that the load of the mail server exceeds a threshold, then the method involves determining whether the message needs to be sent immediately. If it is determined that the message does not need to be sent immediately, then the method involves delaying sending the message. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131093 | CONNECTION DISTRIBUTION FOR LOAD BALANCING IN A DISTRIBUTED DATABASE - An information processing system includes a number of database servers deployed onto a number of physical nodes in a distributed manner. Among the database servers, at least two servers taking care of data different from one another are deployed onto the same physical node and at least one server taking care of the same data as any of the at least two servers are deployed onto at least one other physical node. A distribution section distributes connections by monitoring load on each of the physical nodes and moving a connection with a client from a database server on a physical node with load heavier than a target to a database server on a physical node with load lighter than the target so that the connections are distributed to balance the load. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131082 | COMPUTATION OF A REMAINDER BY DIVISION USING PSEUDO-REMAINDERS - Methods, computer systems, and computer program products for calculating a remainder by division of a sequence of bytes interpreted as a first number by a second number is provided. A pseudo-remainder by division associated with a first subsequence of the sequence of bytes is calculated. A property of this pseudo-remainder is that the first subsequence of the sequence of bytes, interpreted as a third number, and the pseudo-remainder by division have the same remainder by division when divided by the second number. A second subsequence of the sequence of bytes interpreted as the first number is appended to the pseudo-remainder, interpreted as a sequence of bytes, so as to create a sequence of bytes interpreted as a fourth number. The first number and the fourth number have the same remainder by division when divided by the second number. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131077 | VIRTUAL ATTRIBUTE FEDERATION SYSTEM - The present invention may comprise a system and method for a Virtual Attribute Federation System (VAFS) and may be composed of a Virtual Attribute Federation Manager (VAFM) and a system of Virtual Attribute Enabled Directories (VAED) modified to accept federation of virtual attributes. The VAFM produces signed and trusted calculation methods and coordinates a synchronized dispersal of these methods to the VAEDs. The VAEDs may have local mappings which allow for federation-time configuration of the calculation methods. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131074 | Contact Information Management - A method includes, with a first computing device, receiving contact information for an entity from a connector, the connector being a human operator of a peer computing device that stores a contact information database for contacts of the connector, the contact information being contact information for the entity, where the connector is providing the contact information to put an operator of the first computing device in communication with the entity, after receiving the contact information, receiving a communication with the first computing device from the entity, and in response to receiving the communication from the entity, displaying at least some of the contact information in an introduction tag along with notification of receiving the communication. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131070 | Concurrent Collection of Cyclic Garbage in Reference Counting Systems - The present invention provides techniques that allow concurrent collection of cyclic garbage on reference counting systems. In general, candidate objects are found that may be part of cyclic garbage. Each candidate object has a reference count. Two tests are performed to determine if concurrent operations have affected the reference counts of the candidate objects. If concurrent operations have not affected the reference counts, the candidate objects are collected as garbage. Additionally, during garbage collection, the decrements to reference counts are delayed so that increments occur before decrements and so that decrements are held a predetermined time before being applied. This prevents decrementing a reference and collecting a cycle as garbage right before a reference is added to an object in the cycle. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131069 | OBJECT CONSOLIDATION TO A GRID OF A VIRTUAL MACHINE - A method for consolidating objects to a grid of a virtual machine may include allocating, by a virtual machine operating on a processing device, each new object into an allocate space of a new memory area for newly created objects in a virtual machine memory of the virtual machine. The new memory area may include the allocate space and a survivor space. The method may also include performing a garbage collection process in response to the allocate space becoming substantially full of objects and copying at least some objects in the allocate space into either the survivor space or a tenured space in the virtual machine memory in response to the garbage collection process. The method may also include transferring a selected object from the tenured space to the grid of the virtual machine in response to a predetermined criterion. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131053 | WEBPAGE CONTENT SEARCH METHOD AND SYSTEM - An information locating method and system. The method includes presenting by a computer processor, a Webpage to a user. The computer processor receives a search command for performing a search function associated with the Webpage. In response, the computer processor: analyzes source code of the Webpage; downloads and analyzes files associated with the Webpage; and analyzes viewable information of the Webpage. The computer processor locates specified information associated with the Webpage. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131045 | GROUP UNIVERSAL RESOURCE IDENTIFIERS - A message is received with an encoding of a group universal resource identifier that identifies a resource group and of a plurality of member universal resource identifiers for a plurality of resources that constitute the resource group. The message is received subsequent to requesting the resource group with the group universal resource identifier. For each of the plurality of member universal resource identifiers in an order designated by the message, the member universal resource identifier is extracted. The member universal resource identifier comprises a member resource name and a universal resource identifier that identifies a corresponding one of the plurality of resources. The member universal resource identifier is inserted into navigation history of a web browser. The member universal resource identifier is inserted into the navigation history in accordance with the order. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131038 | FACILITATION OF SEARCH, LIST, AND RETRIEVAL OPERATIONS ON PERSISTENT DATA SET USING DISTRIBUTED SHARED MEMORY - Various embodiments for facilitating search, list and retrieval operations on a persistent data set using a distributed shared memory (DSM) by a processor device are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, a DSM is used to store the data structures in a cluster shared memory, such that updates, deletions and insertions are applied to both the persistent data set and the DSM, and search, list and retrieval operations are processed directly from the DSM. A data structure in the persistent data set is stored in two separate DSM pages: a first page includes an identifying search key of the data structure, the search key also pointing to a location of the data structure in the storage. A second page includes the updatable properties of the data structure. A DSM storing the data structures' pages is organized as a two-row matrix. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131032 | PRESENTING A SEARCH SUGGESTION WITH A SOCIAL COMMENTS ICON - Disclosed is a method of presenting a search suggestion to a user. The method includes receiving a portion of a search query from the user. Responsive to receiving the portion of the search query, presenting to the user one or more search suggestions and at least one social comment icon corresponding to at least one of the one or more search suggestions. The method also includes selecting the at least one social comment icon to view comments from and websites recommended by at least one friend of the user, the comments and websites pertaining to the corresponding at least one of the one or more search suggestions Also disclosed are computer program products. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131028 | DETERMINING POINTS OF INTEREST USING INTELLIGENT AGENTS AND SEMANTIC DATA - A method, a system, and a computer program product are provided for determining points of interest using intelligent agents and semantic data. The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable for receiving a media data comprising a location data comprising where media was captured. The instructions are also operable for determining at least one point of interest based on the media data, tying the media data to the at least one point of interest, and providing the media data tied to the at least one point of interest to an end user. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131016 | EVIDENCE PROFILING - Evidence profiling, in one aspect, may receive a candidate answer and supporting pieces of evidence. An evidence profile may be generated, the evidence profile communicating a degree to which the evidence supports the candidate answer as being correct. The evidence profile may provide dimensions of evidence, and each dimension may support or refute the candidate answer as being correct. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131012 | Method and apparatus for autonomic discovery of sensitive content - A data loss prevention (DLP) system provides a policy-based mechanism for managing how data is discovered and classified on an endpoint workstation, file server or other device within an enterprise. The technique described herein works in an automated manner by analyzing file system activity as one or more endpoint applications interact with a file system to build a statistical model of which areas of the file system are (or will be deemed to be) active or highly active. Using this information, scanning to those areas by the DLP software is then prioritized appropriately to focus compute resources on scanning and classifying preferably only those files and folders that are necessary to be scanned, i.e., the file system portions in which the user is applying the majority of his or her activity. As a result, the technique limits scanning to only those areas that have meaningful activity (thereby conserving compute resources with respect to files or folders that have not changed), improving scanning efficiency. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120131002 | VIDEO TAG SHARING METHOD AND SYSTEM - A tag sharing method and system. The method includes receiving by a computer processor, an audio/video data file and tag data describing different subject matter of audio/video data of the audio/video data file. The computer processor associates portions of the tag data with audio/video subsets of the audio/video data and in response the computer processor generates a modified audio/video data file including independent audio/video tags. Each audio/video tag of the independent audio/video tags includes an audio/video subset of the audio/video subsets independently stored with an associated portion of the portions of the tag data. The computer processor receives rule data comprising rules associated with allowing users of a social networking system to view each audio/video subset. The computer processor stores the modified audio/video data file and the rule data. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130989 | SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR COST ESTIMATION USING PARTIALLY APPLIED PREDICATES - In accordance with aspects of the present invention, provided are systems and computer program products for incrementally estimating the cardinality of a derived relation including statistically correlated partially applicable predicates for a range-partitioned table. During the generation of a QEP a cardinality estimate is calculated in which one or more partially applicable predicates is correlated to another partially applicable predicate and/or to one or more fully applicable predicates. The cardinality includes a number of rows expected to be returned by the QEP and is computed in an incremental fashion for each operator of the QEP. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130987 | Dynamic Data Aggregation from a Plurality of Data Sources - A method for dynamically aggregating data is provided. A server device receives a subscriber request for a report based on a subset of metadata contained in a data dimensions catalog. The server device analyzes data aggregation requirements from a plurality of data sources for the report based on the subset of metadata defined in the subscriber request. The server device generates a data access plan for movement of data from the plurality of data sources based on the data aggregation requirements for the report. Then, the server device executes the data access plan to fetch the data from the plurality of data sources based on the data aggregation requirements for the report. A computer system and computer program product for dynamically aggregating data are also provided. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130982 | OPTIMIZING DATABASE QUERY - Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method, computer program product and system for optimizing database transactions configured for receiving a query. The query specifies a set of predicates supplied to the query and a minimal number of predicates to be satisfied for the query to be true. An operation using the query is performed on a repository that is stored in a computer readable storage medium. A set of results satisfying the minimal number of predicated is rendered. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130977 | DYNAMIC LANGUAGE CHECKING - Dynamic language checking includes identifying questionable language usage; creating a query in dependence upon the questionable language usage; querying a search engine with the query; receiving from the search engine search result statistics describing the search results for the query; and determining, in dependence upon search results statistics returned by the search engine, whether the questionable language usage is proper language usage. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130974 | SEARCH ENGINE FOR RANKING A SET OF PAGES RETURNED AS SEARCH RESULTS FROM A SEARCH QUERY - A method, apparatus and computer program for a search engine to rank a set of pages returned as search results from a search query. The search query and a first origin page are received. The search query includes one or more keywords and the first origin page is chosen based on information associated with the search query. A set of results is generated based on the one or more keywords. The click distance from the first origin page to each page in the returned set is then calculated. The click distance represents the number of intermediate pages that a user would need to traverse in order to progress from the first origin page to a page in the set of search results. The set of search results are then ranked based on the calculated click distance from the first origin page to a page in the set of results. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130957 | METHODS AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR PRIORITIZING SERVICE RESTORATION ACTIVITIES IN THE EVENT OF A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE - Methods and arrangements for prioritizing customer service restoration, in the event of service failure or compromise such that any adverse effect of the service disruption on the customer is minimized, the perceived drop in quality of service, if any, is minimized and timely and efficient resource reallocation for service restoration is achieved. Input data relating to customer service protocols is assimilated. A service restoration order is implemented responsive to a service disruption and based on the assimilated input data. This implementing includes determining bufferable and non-bufferable services, postponing restoration of the bufferable services, and determining an order of priority of the non-bufferable services. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130951 | NON-PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS TO ENTERPRISE MESSAGING ADMINISTRATION - The present invention is directed to non-programmatic access to enterprise messaging administration. A method of operating a data processing system, wherein the data processing system includes a file system, a messaging system and a monitoring component, in accordance with an embodiment includes: monitoring the file system, detecting a change in the file system, and amending a structure of the messaging system, according to the detected change in the file system. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130934 | SMART SURVEY WITH PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERY - Embodiments of the invention collect data or information from a dynamic and adaptive target group selection. Sets of experts are selected that each have higher value metrics scores relative to scores of other, unselected experts of a population of known experts, and wherein the metric values are indicative of an expertise relevant to one or more questions in a survey. Responses to the survey are used to expand the set of experts by adding experts noted in answer referrals, and to automatically update the expert value metric scores as a function of response timeliness and of degrees of correlation of answers to an expected answer or other norm. The survey is updated by removing satisfied questions, and expert selections, answers analysis and survey updating and resending steps are iteratively repeated until each question is satisfied, wherein the expert sets are dynamically revised for each iteration. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130929 | CONTROLLING QUARANTINING AND BIASING IN CATACLYSMS FOR OPTIMIZATION SIMULATIONS - Some embodiments are directed to generating a first probability value that represents a percentage of times that first bit values for a given bit position of a first plurality of candidate solutions equate to a pre-defined number, where the first plurality of candidate solutions has converged on a sub-optimal solution during a simulation of an optimization problem using an optimization algorithm. Some embodiments are further directed to generating a second probability value that is inversely biased from the first probability value; and generating a second plurality of candidate solutions with the second probability value, where the second plurality of candidate solutions are inversely biased from the first bit values for the given bit position. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130928 | EFFICIENT STORAGE OF INDIVIDUALS FOR OPTIMIZATION SIMULATION - Candidate solutions to an optimization problem comprise a set of potential values that can be applied to variables in a problem description. Candidate solutions can be large because of the complexity of optimization problems and large number of variables. The populations of candidate solutions may also be large to ensure diversity and effectiveness in computing a solution. When the populations and the candidate solutions are large for an optimization problem, computing a solution to the optimization problem consumes a large amount of memory. In some instances, several generations of candidate solutions are stored in memory. Compression of the candidate solutions can minimize the memory space consumed to compute a solution to an optimization problem. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130911 | OPTIMIZING LICENSE USE FOR SOFTWARE LICENSE ATTRIBUTION - In one embodiment, a system for license management includes logic adapted for arranging entitlement slots under a plurality of licenses, each entitlement slot being configured for affording entitlement to use of an instance of a software application during a particular time frame, logic adapted for determining a license use signature from recorded license attribution information, logic adapted for receiving a notification of an instance not attributed to a license, and logic adapted for attributing the non-attributed instance to one of the plurality of licenses as a function of the license use signature, wherein each license has an entitlement value defining a maximum number of entitlement slots that may be attributed to that license during the time frame and any given instance of the software application may consume any number of the entitlement slots including zero entitlement slots. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130902 | WIRELESS ESTABLISHMENT OF IDENTITY VIA BI-DIRECTIONAL RFID - A method, a system, and a computer program product are provided for wireless establishment of identity via bi-directional radio-frequency identification (RFID). The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable for sending device data including at least a username and a password to a transceiver. The method also includes receiving an identifier of an access point in a wireless network from the transceiver, the transceiver sending the device data to the access point via a security server. The device data is sent to the access point based on the identifier of the access point, the access point establishing a secure connection to the computer infrastructure based on the device data received from the transceiver and the computer infrastructure. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130872 | PARKING MANAGEMENT - A parking management approach includes associating a payment source with a vehicle identifier. The approach also includes receiving a message indicating initiation of a parking event at a parking location, and updating a parking database to indicate that a vehicle having the vehicle identifier is parked at the parking location. The message includes an identification of at least one of the payment source and the vehicle identifier. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130766 | DEVICE-INDEPENDENT ATTENDANCE PROMPTING TOOL FOR ELECTRONICALLY-SCHEDULED EVENTS - In one embodiment, a system for motivating electronically-scheduled event attendance can include a set of attendance listening components, an attendance prompt, and an attendance prompting tool. The attendance listening components can monitor activities performed in a networked environment. The attendance prompt can represent an electronic message and feedback mechanism that is provided on an electronic device. The attendance prompting tool can interject the attendance prompt into an activity identified by an attendance listening component as being performed by a user-selected member of the networked environment. The attendance prompt can be associated with an electronically-scheduled event the user-selected member is to attend. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130759 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RISK OPTIMIZED, SPATIALLY SENSITIVE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE SCHEDULING FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT - A preventative maintenance method and a system for estimating the risk of failure of an asset based on intrinsic parameters such as failure history combined with causative factors like weather and independent external risk factors such as vandalism and risk of flooding. The present invention may further have a system for estimating the risk of failure of an asset based on intrinsic parameters, such as failure history combined with causative factors such as weather and independent external risk factors like vandalism and risk of flooding having a location based asset/service failure risk estimator, an external risk estimates database for feeding and an integrated failure risk database, the external risk estimates database feeding the integrated failure risk database. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130757 | FRAMEWORK FOR VIRTUAL TEAM EFFECTIVENESS - A framework method for virtual team effectiveness. The method includes identifying members of the virtual team for a common project; determining a level of objective agreement (OA) among the virtual team members wherein OA is a shared understanding by the virtual team members of the objectives of the virtual team; determining a level of contextual appreciation (CA) among the virtual team members wherein CA is a shared understanding of an operating context under which the virtual team members operate; determining a level of style alignment (SA) among the virtual team members wherein SA is the alignment of workplace behavioral traits of the virtual team members; determining a qualitative measure of virtual team effectiveness (VTE) according to the relationship: VTE=OA*CA*SA. Also disclosed is a service method and a computer program product. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130728 | SEMANTICALLY ENABLED, DATA SENSITIVE NEGOTIATION AND COLLABORATION ENGINE - A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product facilitates fulfillment of a term of a contract between a healthcare provider and a healthcare authorizer. A healthcare provider profile that describes a first set of business priorities for a healthcare provider and a healthcare authorizer profile that describes a second set of business priorities for a healthcare authorizer are created. A request is received from the healthcare provider for the healthcare authorizer to fulfill a term of a contract between the healthcare provider and the healthcare authorizer. Confidential data is received from the healthcare provider and the healthcare authorizer. A solution that fulfils the request is then generated, based on the contract, the healthcare provider profile, the healthcare authorizer profile, and the confidential data. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130702 | VERIFICATION OF A COMPUTER PROGRAM IN RESPECT TO AN UNEXPECTED RESPONSE TO AN ACCESS REQUEST - Testing a computer program comprises identification of resource access requests by the computer program to a resource provided by an underlying host. The resource access requests may be intercepted and a determined response may be returned instead of the actual response of the underlying host. In some exemplary embodiments, the resource may a clock of the underlying host and the response may be the time of the clock. In some exemplary embodiments, the computer program may be tested to check for validity during execution on a cloud computing environment, in which access to resources may yield results that on a non-cloud computing environments are generally not expectable. The testing may be performed on a non-cloud computing environments and simulate scenarios applicable to cloud computing environments. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130669 | VARIATION AWARE TESTING OF SMALL RANDOM DELAY DEFECTS - In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for variation aware testing of small random delay defects. One embodiment of a method for selecting a set of paths with which to test an integrated circuit chip includes computing a metric that considers the joint impact of parametric process variation delay defects and single random delay defects and selecting the set of paths such that the value of the metric is at least as great as a target value. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130657 | MEASURING POWER CONSUMPTION IN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A method for determining power consumption of a power domain within an integrated circuit is presented. In a first step, a local power supply impedance profile (Z(f)) of this power domain is determined. Subsequently, a local time-resolved power supply voltage (U(t)) is measured while a well-defined periodic activity is executed in power domain. A set of time-domain measured voltage data (U(t)) is thus accumulated and transformed into the frequency domain to yield a voltage spectrum (U(f)). A current spectrum I(t) is calculated from this voltage profile (U(f)) by using the power supply impedance profile Z(f) of this power domain as I(t)=F | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130625 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING TRAFFIC INTENSITY USING INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH CROWDSOURCING - Systems and associated methods for utilizing crowdsourcing probes to obtain traffic information are described. Such traffic information includes location, date, time, speed, and speed limit information. Embodiments allow for the determination of traffic intensity, or road congestion, through the calculation of a road speed capacity factor. Embodiments provide that the traffic information and traffic intensity information may be visualized through a user interface. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120130545 | DYNAMIC COOLING SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A method, programmed medium and system are provided for altering the airflow through an electronic device such as a laptop computer in response to overheating, and feedback about the state of use of a laptop computer. In an exemplary embodiment, a laptop case is constructed such that it has an alternate opening for each intake and/or exhaust port. The primary intake and/or exhaust port is located such that it does not interfere with the user while the laptop is being operated normally. When it is detected that an intake and/or exhaust port is potentially blocked, it is determined whether or not the laptop is actively being used. If the laptop is not being used when an overheated condition is detected, a predetermined action is taken to change the air input/output air flow through an alternate exhaust path. If the laptop is being used, other actions, in terms of altering airflow, may take place, such as enabling a user to selectively choose a different airflow path from a plurality of airflow paths available within the electronic device being cooled. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129519 | DYNAMIC ACCESS TO RADIO NETWORKS - A method, system, and computer usable program product for dynamic access to radio networks are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Historical information about a user's movements in a geographical area is analyzed, the analysis identifying a pattern in the user's movements. A set of transient network providers is identified in the pattern, the set of transient network providers including a first transient network provider whose network the user accesses while in the pattern or a second transient network provider whose network may be accessible to the user while in the pattern. A sequence of the transient network providers in the set of transient network providers is identified, the sequence corresponding to the order in which the user accesses the transient network providers. The pattern, the set of transient network providers, and the sequence are stored in relation with the user. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129357 | TWO-DIMENSIONAL PATTERNING EMPLOYING SELF-ASSEMBLED MATERIAL - A first nanoscale self-aligned self-assembled nested line structure having a sublithographic width and a sublithographic spacing and running along a first direction is formed from first self-assembling block copolymers within a first layer. The first layer is filled with a filler material and a second layer is deposited above the first layer containing the first nanoscale nested line structure. A second nanoscale self-aligned self-assembled nested line structure having a sublithographic width and a sublithographic spacing and running in a second direction is formed from second self-assembling block copolymers within the second layer. The composite pattern of the first nanoscale nested line structure and the second nanoscale nested line structure is transferred into an underlayer beneath the first layer to form an array of structures containing periodicity in two directions. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129340 | ANTIFUSE STRUCTURE FOR IN LINE CIRCUIT MODIFICATION - An antifuse structure and methods of forming contacts within the antifuse structure. The antifuse structure includes a substrate having an overlying metal layer, a dielectric layer formed on an upper surface of the metal layer, and a contact formed of contact material within a contact via etched through the dielectric layer into the metal layer. The contact via includes a metal material at a bottom surface of the contact via and an untreated or partially treated metal precursor on top of the metal material. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129336 | STRUCTURES AND METHODS FOR IMPROVING SOLDER BUMP CONNECTIONS IN SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES - Structures with improved solder bump connections and methods of fabricating such structures are provided herein. The structure includes a trench formed in a dielectric layer which has at least a portion thereof devoid of a fluorine boundary layer. The structure further includes a copper wire in the trench having at least a bottom portion thereof in contact with the non-fluoride boundary layer of the trench. A lead free solder bump is in electrical contact with the copper wire. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129319 | Electrical Antifuse, Method of Manufacture and Method of Programming - An antifuse having a link including a region of unsilicided semiconductor material may be programmed at reduced voltage and current and with reduced generation of heat by electromigration of metal or silicide from a cathode into the region of unsilicided semiconductor material to form an alloy having reduced bulk resistance. The cathode and anode are preferably shaped to control regions from which and to which material is electrically migrated. After programming, additional electromigration of material can return the antifuse to a high resistance state. The process by which the antifuse is fabricated is completely compatible with fabrication of field effect transistors and the antifuse may be advantageously formed on isolation structures. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129313 | THERMALLY INSULATED PHASE MATERIAL CELLS - A memory cell structure and method for forming the same. The method includes forming a pore within a dielectric layer. The pore is formed over the center of an electrically conducting bottom electrode. The method includes depositing a thermally insulating layer along at least one sidewall of the pore. The thermally insulating layer isolates heat from phase change current to the volume of the pore. In one embodiment phase change material is deposited within the pore and the volume of the thermally insulating layer. In another embodiment a pore electrode is formed within the pore and the volume of the thermally insulating layer, with the phase change material being deposited above the pore electrode. The method also includes forming an electrically conducting top electrode above the phase change material. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129312 | METHOD OF FORMING E-FUSE IN REPLACEMENT METAL GATE MANUFACTURING PROCESS - Embodiment of the present invention provides a method of forming electronic fuse or commonly known as e-fuse. The method includes forming a polysilicon structure and a field-effect-transistor (FET) structure together on top of a common semiconductor substrate, the FET structure having a sacrificial gate electrode; implanting at least one dopant into the polysilicon structure to create a doped polysilicon layer in at least a top portion of the polysilicon structure; subjecting the polysilicon structure and the FET structure to a reactive-ion-etching (RIE) process, the RIE process selectively removing the sacrificial gate electrode of the FET structure while the doped polysilicon layer being substantially unaffected by the RIE process; and converting the polysilicon structure including the doped polysilicon layer into a silicide to form the electronic fuse. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129309 | METHOD FOR FABRICATING HIGH-GAIN MOSFETS WITH ASYMMETRIC SOURCE/DRAIN DOPING FOR ANALOG AND RF APPLICATIONS - A method of fabrication of an analog, asymmetric Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor-Field-Effect-Transistor (MOSFET) is provided. The method may comprise forming a first gate oriented in a first direction over an active region of a semiconductor substrate, forming a second gate extending perpendicular to the first gate over a second active region, using a dual-directional implant process to form a reduced-HALO doped area on a drain side of the first gate and also for a HALO doped area for the second gate, while the source side of the first gate is covered by a resist. Additionally, the method may comprise forming a HALO doped area on the source side of the first gate using a quad-directional implant process using the mask also used for HALO implants of other digital-logic devices on the substrate, while the drain side of the gate is blocked by a resist. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129304 | FIN-TYPE FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR - Disclosed herein are improved fin-type field effect transistor (FinFET) structures and the associated methods of manufacturing the structures. In one embodiment FinFET drive current is optimized by configuring the FinFET asymmetrically to decrease fin resistance between the gate and the source region and to decrease capacitance between the gate and the drain region. In another embodiment device destruction at high voltages is prevented by ballasting the FinFET. Specifically, resistance is optimized in the fin between the gate and both the source and drain regions (e.g., by increasing fin length, by blocking source/drain implant from the fin, and by blocking silicide formation on the top surface of the fin) so that the FinFET is operable at a predetermined maximum voltage. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129302 | FABRICATING PHOTONICS DEVICES FULLY INTEGRATED INTO A CMOS MANUFACTURING PROCESS - Disclosed are process enhancements to fully integrate the processing of a photonics device into a CMOS manufacturing process flow. A CMOS wafer may be divided into different portions. One of the portions is for the CMOS devices and one or more other portions are for the photonics devices. The photonics devices include a ridged waveguide and a germanium photodetector. The germanium photodetector may utilize a seeded crystallization from melt process so there is more flexibility in the processing of the germanium photodetector. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129276 | 4D Process and Structure - A 4D device comprises a 2D multi-core logic and a 3D memory stack connected through the memory stack sidewall using a fine pitch T&J connection. 3D memory in the stack is thinned from the original wafer thickness to no remaining Si. A tongue and groove device at the memory wafer top and bottom surfaces allows an accurate stack alignment. The memory stack also has micro-channels on the backside to allow fluid cooling, and is further diced at the fixed clock-cycle distance, and flipped on its side and re-assembled on to a template into a pseudo-wafer format. The top side wall of the assembly is polished and built with BEOL to fan-out and use the T&J fine pitch connection to join to the 2D logic wafer. The other side of the memory stack is polished, fanned-out, and bumped with C4 solder. The invention also comprises a process for manufacturing the device. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120128152 | BROADCAST ENCRYPTION BASED MEDIA KEY BLOCK SECURITY CLASS-BASED SIGNING - Provided are techniques for verifying, by a first device, that a management key block of a second device is valid. A management key block that includes a plurality of verification data, each of the plurality associated with a plurality of security classes ranked from a high to low, is generated. The first device, which is associated with a security class that is higher than a security class associated with the second device, verifies a management key block of the second device by calculating a management key precursor associated with the higher security class and verifying verification data associated with the higher security class. In this manner, the second device is unable to pass an unauthorized, or “spoofed,” management key block. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120128149 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CALCULATING AN SHA-2 HASH FUNCTION IN A GENERAL PURPOSE PROCESSOR - Various systems, apparatuses, processes, and/or products may be used to calculate an SHA-2 hash function in a general-purpose processor. In some implementations, a system, apparatus, process, and/or product may include the ability to calculate at least one SHA-2 sigma function by using an execution unit adapted for performing a processor instruction, the execution unit including an integrated circuit primarily designed for calculating the SHA-2 sigma function(s), and calculating the SHA-2 hash function with general-purpose hardware processing components of the processor based on the sigma function(s). In certain implementations, the calculation of the SHA-2 sigma function(s) can be performed by the integrated circuit within a single instruction, allowing for a faster calculation of the SHA-2 hash function. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120128147 | USER-DEFINED SYSTEM-ENFORCED SESSION TERMINATION IN A UNIFIED TELEPHONY ENVIRONMENT - Enforcing user-defined real-time communication session terminations can begin with a termination enforcement handler identifying termination conditions applicable to a real-time communication session hosted by a unified telephony system. The termination conditions can define a limit for an operational variable for the unified telephony system or the real-time communication session. The identified termination conditions can be evaluated. If a termination condition is satisfied, it can be determined which participants are to be disconnected from the real-time communication session based upon handling rules for the termination conditions and/or termination preferences associated with the real-time communication session. The termination preferences can be defined by an initiating entity of the real-time communication session. The participants can be notified that their connection to the real-time communication session will be terminated in a predefined time limit. If the predefined time limit is reached, the participants' connection to the real-time communication session can be automatically terminated. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120128146 | MANAGING SUBCONFERENCE CALLS WITHIN A PRIMARY CONFERENCE CALL - Managing subconference calls within a primary conference call. An approach includes establishing a primary conference call including a plurality of participants, establishing a subconference call including a subset of the plurality of participants, and providing respective output signals to each of the plurality of participants. Members of the primary conference call are provided with audio only of the primary conference call, and members of the subconference call are provided with audio of the subconference call. The approach also includes providing a visual display that shows respective groupings of members of the subconference call and members of the primary conference call. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120128033 | THERMAL SENSOR FOR SEMICONDUCTOR CIRCUITS - A system and a method for measuring temperature within an operating circuit use a Wheatstone bridge within a temperature sensing circuit. One of the resistors in the Wheatstone bridge is a thermally sensitive resistive material layer within the operating circuit. The other three resistors are thermally isolated from the operating circuit. Particular configurations of NFET and PFET devices are used to provide enhanced measurement sensitivity within the temperature sensing circuit that includes the Wheatstone bridge. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127850 | BEST-PATH EVALUATION BASED ON RELIABILITY OF NETWORK INTERFACE LAYERS - A system and associated method for dynamic error dampening in a node in a network system. The node collects statistics of data traffic transferred through the node. The node has a link error MIB storing Error ratio and Reliability of interface of the node. When the Error ratio is too high, the node starts running a Layer 2 protocol for monitoring data traffic and calculates Penalty of the node. When Penalty is higher than predefined Suppress Threshold, the node deactivates Layer 3 link while the Layer 2 protocol still monitors the interface. Once the Penalty becomes lower than Reuse Threshold, the node reactivates the Layer 3 link that had been previously deactivated. When Penalty becomes zero (0), the node clears the Error ratio and stops the Layer 2 protocol for monitoring the data traffic. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127790 | ADJUSTABLE WRITE BINS FOR MULTI-LEVEL ANALOG MEMORIES - Selecting bins in a memory by receiving a target cost for performing writes at an analog memory that is capable of storing a range of values. Possible bins that may be created in the range of values and a cost associated with each possible bin are determined. Each possible bin includes one or more of the values. A group of bins are identified, the group of bins are among the possible bins with associated costs that are within a threshold of the target cost. A maximum number of bins are selected from the group of bins that have non-overlapping values. The selected bins are stored along with the values of the selected bins utilized to encode and decode contents of the analog memory. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127771 | MULTI-WAFER 3D CAM CELL - A multi-wafer CAM cell in which the negative effects of increased travel distance have been substantially reduced is provided. The multi-wafer CAM cell is achieved in the present invention by utilizing three-dimensional integration in which multiple active circuit layers are vertically stack and vertically aligned interconnects are employed to connect a device from one of the stacked layers to another device in another stack layer. By vertically stacking multiple active circuit layers with vertically aligned interconnects, each compare port of the inventive CAM cell can be implemented on a separate layer above or below the primary data storage cell. This allows the multi-wafer CAM structure to be implemented within the same area footprint as a standard Random Access Memory (RAM) cell, minimizing data access and match compare delays. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127571 | Generating a Stereoscopic Image - A method of generating an image to be observed as a stereoscopic image when viewed binocularly through an eye-side surface of a lenticular lens, in which a plurality of parallax images are arranged on a back surface of each of lenses of the lenticular lens or light beams corresponding to the plurality of images are input to the back surface, the method including parallax per unit length is made relatively smaller, in at least part, at a position closer to each edge of each lens in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the lens. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127442 | DETERMINING LITHOGRAPHIC SET POINT USING OPTICAL PROXIMITY CORRECTION VERIFICATION SIMULATION - The subject matter disclosed herein relates to determining a lithographic set point using simulations of optical proximity correction verification. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method of determining a lithographic tool set point for a lithographic process is disclosed. The method may include: providing a model of a production lithographic process including simulations of printed shapes; analyzing the model of the production lithographic process to determine whether a set of structures on a production mask used in the production lithographic process to create the printed shapes will fail under a plurality of set points; determining an operating region of set points where the set of structures on the production mask does not fail; and establishing a set point location within the operating region based upon a set point selection function. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127303 | Detecting System Component Failures In A Computing System - Detecting system component failures in a computing system, including: capturing, by a digital imaging device, a plurality of time sequenced images of a component in the computing system; comparing, by a digital imaging comparator, the plurality of time sequenced images of the component in the computing system; determining, by the digital imaging comparator, whether the plurality of time sequenced images of the component in the computing system have changed more than a predetermined threshold; and sending, by a notification system, a component alert notification upon determining that the plurality of time sequenced images of the component in the computing system have changed more than the predetermined threshold. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127263 | MULTIPOINT CONFERENCE SCALABILITY FOR CO-LOCATED PARTICIPANTS - A terminal device associated with a participant of the multipoint session can be identified. The multipoint session can be associated with a video and an audio stream. The terminal device can be a computing device comprising of an audio and video input, and a video output. The multipoint session can be a conference associated with a telephony session. The location of the terminal device and a conferencing device can be determined. The conferencing device can be associated with an audio input and output. If the terminal device is proximate to the conferencing device, a terminal device audio stream can be terminated and a conference device audio stream can be received. A video stream and an audio stream can be simultaneously presented upon the audio and video output of the conferencing device and terminal device. The video and the audio stream can be a synchronized stream of the session. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120127102 | MOVING AN OBJECT BY DRAG OPERATION ON A TOUCH PANEL - A contact state of a finger with respect to an object displayed on a first layer is detected. The object is moved onto a second layer and displayed on the second layer in response to detecting that the finger has moved from the contact state to a proximity state with respect to the object and in response to the finger reaching a second layer displayed nearer than the first layer. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126999 | IDENTIFYING A POTENTIAL VEHICLE INCIDENT WITHIN A COMMUNICATION BLACK SPOT - A method, system and computer program product for identifying a potential vehicle incident within a communication black spot. It is identified when a vehicle has entered a communication black spot. It is further identified when the vehicle has failed to exit the communication black spot within a determined time period. It is then determined whether it is likely that the vehicle has failed to exit the communication black spot within the determined time period due to being involved in an incident (or whether there is another reasonable explanation for a vehicle's failure to exit). If it is determined that it is likely that the vehicle has been involved in an incident within the communication black spot, a third party can be alerted (by a service provider) to the potential that an incident has occurred within the communication black spot. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126937 | ASSET MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE - Asset management for control of electric appliances comprises a keycode unit and an equipment unit embedded in an appliance. The keycode unit is located in a protected environment and relates to an asset management area. The equipment unit may store an appliance identification code. The keycode unit and the equipment unit may be in communication contact, whereby the equipment unit sends positioning coordinates to the keycode unit, and wherein the equipment unit is adapted to lock the appliance via the lock unit, in response to a lock signal that the equipment unit receives from the keycode unit, if the appliance moves outside the asset management area. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126876 | GAIN CONTROL WITH MULTIPLE INTEGRATORS - A method according to one embodiment includes receiving an increment signal at a first integrator when a second integrator overflows; receiving a decrement signal at the first integrator when the second integrator underflows; and incrementing or decrementing a gain applied to an analog signal based on receipt of the increment or decrement signal. A system according to one embodiment includes a first integrator configured to cause incrementing of a gain applied to an analog signal based on receipt of an increment signal when a second integrator overflows, the first integrator being configured to cause decrementing of the gain applied to the analog signal based on receipt of a decrement signal when the second integrator underflows; and the second integrator. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126870 | CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR RAS-ENABLED AND SELF-REGULATED FREQUENCY AND DELAY SENSOR - Circuits and methods are provided for a reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) enabled and self-regulated frequency and delay sensor of a semiconductor. A circuit for measuring and compensating for time-dependent performance degradation of an integrated circuit, includes at least one critical functional path of the integrated circuit, and Wearout Isolation Registers (WIR's) connected to boundaries of the critical functional path. The circuit also includes a feedback path connected to the WIR's, and a sensor control module operable to disconnect the critical functional path from preceding and succeeding functional paths of the integrated circuit, connect the critical functional path to the feedback path to form a critical path ring oscillator (CPRO), and enable the CPRO to generate an operating signal. A delay sensor module is operable to measure a frequency of the operating signal to determine and compensate for a degradation of application performance over a lifetime of a semiconductor product. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126836 | MICROELECTROMECHANICAL STRUCTURE (MEMS) MONITORING - A MEMS component is monitored to determine its status. Sensors are deployed to sense the MEMS component and produce detection signals that are analyzed to determine the MEMS component state. An indicator device alerts a user of the status, particularly if the MEMS component has failed. Additionally, the MEMS component monitoring system may be practiced as a design structure encoded on computer readable storage media as part of a circuit design system. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126792 | STRUCTURES AND METHODS FOR RF DE-EMBEDDING - Electrical structures, methods, and computer program products for radio frequency (RF) de-embedding are provided. A structure includes a first test device, a first through structure corresponding to the first test device, and a first open structure corresponding to the first test device. The structure also includes a second test device having at least one different physical dimension than the first test device but otherwise identical to the first test device, a second through structure corresponding to the second test device, and a second open structure corresponding to the second test device. A method includes determining a first electrical parameter of the first test device in a first DUT structure and a second electrical parameter of the second test device in a second DUT structure based on measured electrical parameters of the first and the second DUT structures, through structures, and open structures. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126425 | 3D INTEGRATED CIRCUITS STRUCTURE - A structure of connecting at least two integrated circuits in a 3D arrangement by a metal-filled through silicon via which simultaneously connects a connection pad in a first integrated circuit and a connection pad in a second integrated circuit. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126405 | SOLDER INTERCONNECT PADS WITH CURRENT SPREADING LAYERS - Structure and methods of making the structures. The structures include a structure, comprising: an organic dielectric passivation layer extending over a substrate; an electrically conductive current spreading pad on a top surface of the organic dielectric passivation layer; an electrically conductive solder bump pad comprising one or more layers on a top surface of the current spreading pad; and an electrically conductive solder bump containing tin, the solder bump on a top surface of the solder bump pad, the current spreading pad comprising one or more layers, at least one of the one or more layers consisting of a material that will not form an intermetallic with tin or at least one of the one or more layers is a material that is a diffusion barrier to tin and adjacent to the solder bump pad. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126370 | THIN FILM RESISTORS AND METHODS OF MANUFACTURE - A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes: forming a resistor over a substrate; forming at least one first contact in contact with the resistor; and forming at least one second contact in contact with the resistor. The resistor is structured and arranged such that current flows from the at least one first contact to the at least one second contact through a central portion of the resistor. The resistor includes at least one extension extending laterally outward from the central portion in a direction parallel to the current flow. The method includes sizing the at least one extension based on a thermal diffusion length of the resistor. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126367 | ANTIFUSE STRUCTURE FOR IN LINE CIRCUIT MODIFICATION - An antifuse structure and methods of forming contacts within the antifuse structure. The antifuse structure includes a substrate having an overlying metal layer, a dielectric layer formed on an upper surface of the metal layer, and a contact formed of contact material within a contact via etched through the dielectric layer into the metal layer. The contact via includes a metal material at a bottom surface of the contact via and an untreated or partially treated metal precursor on top of the metal material. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126366 | ANTIFUSE STRUCTURE FOR IN LINE CIRCUIT MODIFICATION - An antifuse structure and methods of forming contacts within the antifuse structure. The antifuse structure includes a substrate having an overlying metal layer, a dielectric layer formed on an upper surface of the metal layer, and a contact formed of contact material within a contact via etched through the dielectric layer into the metal layer. The contact via includes a metal material at a bottom surface of the contact via and an untreated or partially treated metal precursor on top of the metal material. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126363 | STRUCTURE OF METAL E-FUSE - Structures of electronic fuses (e-fuse) are provided. An un-programmed e-fuse includes a via of a first conductive material having a bottom and sidewalls with a portion of the sidewalls being covered by a conductive liner and the bottom of the via being formed on top of a dielectric layer, and a first and a second conductive path of a second conductive material formed on top of the dielectric layer with the first and second conductive paths being conductively connected through, and only through, the via at the sidewalls. A programmed e-fuse includes a via; a first conductive path at a first side of the via and being separated from sidewalls of the via by a void; and a second conductive path at a second different side of the via and being in conductive contact with the via through sidewalls of the via. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126358 | TONE INVERSION WITH PARTIAL UNDERLAYER ETCH - A method for tone inversion for integrated circuit fabrication includes providing a substrate with an underlayer on top of the substrate; creating a first pattern, the first pattern being partially etched into a portion of the underlayer such that a remaining portion of the underlayer is protected and forms a second pattern, and such that the first pattern does not expose the substrate located underneath the underlayer; covering the first pattern with a layer of image reverse material (IRM); and etching the second pattern into the substrate. A structure for tone inversion for integrated circuit fabrication includes a substrate; a partially etched underlayer comprising a first pattern located over the substrate, the first pattern being partially etched into a portion of the underlayer such that a remaining portion of the underlayer is protected and forms a second pattern, and such that the first pattern does not expose the substrate located underneath the underlayer; and an image reversal material (IRM) layer located over the partially etched underlayer. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126342 | FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS WITH LOW K SIDEWALL SPACERS AND METHODS OF FABRICATING SAME - Field effect transistors and method for forming filed effect transistors. The field effect transistors including: a gate dielectric on a channel region in a semiconductor substrate; a gate electrode on the gate dielectric; respective source/drains in the substrate on opposite sides of the channel region; sidewall spacers on opposite sides of the gate electrode proximate to the source/drains; and wherein the sidewall spacers comprise a material having a dielectric constant lower than that of silicon dioxide and capable of absorbing laser radiation. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126339 | SEMICONDUCTOR TRANSISTORS HAVING REDUCED DISTANCES BETWEEN GATE ELECTRODE REGIONS - A semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes: a semiconductor substrate which includes a top substrate surface which defines a reference direction perpendicular to the top substrate surface and further includes a first semiconductor body region and a second semiconductor body region; a first gate dielectric region and a second gate dielectric region on top of the first and second semiconductor body regions, respectively; a first gate electrode region on top of the semiconductor substrate and the first gate dielectric region; a second gate electrode region on top of the semiconductor substrate and the second gate dielectric region; and a gate divider region in direct physical contact with the first and second gate electrode regions. The gate divider region does not overlap the first and second gate electrode regions in the reference direction. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126337 | SOURCE/DRAIN-TO-SOURCE/DRAIN RECESSED STRAP AND METHODS OF MANUFACTURE OF SAME - A structure and a method of making the structure. The structure includes first and second semiconductor regions in a semiconductor substrate and separated by a region of trench isolation in the semiconductor substrate; a first gate electrode extending over the first semiconductor region; a second gate electrode extending over the second semiconductor region; a trench contained in the region of trench isolation and between and abutting the first and second semiconductor regions; and an electrically conductive strap in the trench, the strap electrically connecting the first and second semiconductor regions. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126336 | Isolation FET for Integrated Circuit - An integrated circuit (IC) includes an active region; a pair of active field effect transistors (FETs) in the active region; and an isolation FET located between the pair of active FETs in the active region, the isolation FET configured to provide electrical isolation between the pair of active FETs, wherein the isolation FET has at least one different physical parameter or electrical parameter from the pair of active FETs. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126335 | METHOD AND STRUCTURE FOR GATE HEIGHT SCALING WITH HIGH-K/METAL GATE TECHNOLOGY - A method and structure to scale metal gate height in high-k/metal gate transistors. A method includes forming a dummy gate and at least one polysilicon feature, all of which are formed from a same polysilicon layer and wherein the dummy gate is formed over a gate metal layer associated with a transistor. The method also includes selectively removing the dummy gate while protecting the at least one polysilicon feature. The method further includes forming a gate contact on the gate metal layer to thereby form a metal gate having a height that is less than half a height of the at least one polysilicon feature. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126330 | Enhanced Thin Film Field Effect Transistor Integration into Back End of Line - A semiconductor chip has self aligned (where a gate electrode and associated spacers define the source/drain implant with respect to the gate electrode) Field Effect Transistors (FETs) in a back end of the line (BEOL) portion of the semiconductor chip. The FETs are used to make buffer circuits in the BEOL to improve delay and signal integrity of long signal paths on the semiconductor chip. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126319 | LATERAL DIFFUSION FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR WITH DRAIN REGION SELF-ALIGNED TO GATE ELECTRODE - A disposable structure displaced from an edge of a gate electrode and a drain region aligned to the disposable structure is formed. Thus, the drain region is self-aligned to the edge of the gate electrode. The disposable structure may be a disposable spacer, or alternately, the disposable structure may be formed simultaneously with, and comprise the same material as, a gate electrode. After formation of the drain regions, the disposable structure is removed. The self-alignment of the drain region to the edge of the gate electrode provides a substantially constant drift distance that is independent of any overlay variation of lithographic processes. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126295 | BORDERLESS CONTACT FOR REPLACEMENT GATE EMPLOYING SELECTIVE DEPOSITION - A self-aligned gate cap dielectric can be employed to form a self-aligned contact to a diffusion region, while preventing electrical short with a gate conductor due to overlay variations. In one embodiment, an electroplatable or electrolessly platable metal is selectively deposited on conductive materials in a gate electrode, while the metal is not deposited on dielectric surfaces. The metal portion on top of the gate electrode is converted into a gate cap dielectric including the metal and oxygen. In another embodiment, a self-assembling monolayer is formed on dielectric surfaces, while exposing metallic top surfaces of a gate electrode. A gate cap dielectric including a dielectric oxide is formed on areas not covered by the self-assembling monolayer. The gate cap dielectric functions as an etch-stop structure during formation of a via hole, so that electrical shorting between a contact via structure formed therein and the gate electrode is avoided. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126294 | WAFER FILL PATTERNS AND USES - A method of forming a semiconductor device having a substrate, an active region and an inactive region includes: forming a hardmask layer over the substrate; transferring a first pattern into the hardmask layer in the active region of the semiconductor device; forming one or more fills in the inactive region; forming a cut-away hole within, covering, or partially covering, the one or more fills to expose a portion of the hardmask layer, the exposed portion being within the one or more fills; and exposing the hardmask layer to an etchant to divide the first pattern into a second pattern including at least two separate elements. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126292 | HETEROJUNCTION BIPOLAR TRANSISTORS WITH REDUCED BASE RESISTANCE - Heterojunction bipolar transistors with reduced base resistance, as well as fabrication methods for heterojunction bipolar transistors and design structures for BiCMOS integrated circuits. The heterojunction bipolar transistor includes a conductive layer between the intrinsic base and the extrinsic base. The conductive layer is comprised of a conductive material, such as a silicide, having a lower resistivity than the materials forming the intrinsic base and the extrinsic base. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126285 | Vertical NPNP Structure In a Triple Well CMOS Process - A vertical NPNP structure fabricated using a triple well CMOS process, as well as methods of making the vertical NPNP structure, methods of providing electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, and design structures for a BiCMOS integrated circuit. The vertical NPNP structure may be used to provide on-chip protection to an input/output (I/O) pad from negative-voltage ESD events. A vertical PNPN structure may be also used to protect the same I/O pad from positive-voltage ESD events. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126216 | LOW TEMPERATURE MELT-PROCESSING OF ORGANIC-INORGANIC HYBRID - The present invention provides a process for preparing a melt-processed organic-inorganic hybrid material including the steps of maintaining a solid organic-inorganic hybrid material at a temperature above the melting point but below the decomposition temperature of the organic-inorganic hybrid material for a period of time sufficient to form a uniform melt and thereafter, cooling the uniform melt to an ambient temperature under conditions sufficient to produce the melt-processed organic-inorganic hybrid material. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126194 | THERMALLY INSULATED PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL MEMORY CELLS - A memory cell structure and method for forming the same. The method includes forming a pore within a dielectric layer. The pore is formed over the center of an electrically conducting bottom electrode. The method includes depositing a thermally insulating layer along at least one sidewall of the pore. The thermally insulating layer isolates heat from phase change current to the volume of the pore. In one embodiment phase change material is deposited within the pore and the volume of the thermally insulating layer. In another embodiment a pore electrode is formed within the pore and the volume of the thermally insulating layer, with the phase change material being deposited above the pore electrode. The method also includes forming an electrically conducting top electrode above the phase change material. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126149 | Controlling Electromagnetic Radiation In A Data Center - Controlling electromagnetic (‘EM’) radiation in a data center having a number EM sections, including: receiving, by an EM controller, a specification of preferred EM radiation characteristics for the data center; and setting, by the EM controller, a state of each EM section in accordance with the specification, where the state of each EM section may be one of: an absorption state in which the EM section absorbs EM radiation or a reflection state in which the EM section reflects EM radiation. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120126068 | Handle For Retaining A Cable Of An Electronic Device - Apparatuses that include a handle for retaining a cable of an electronic device are provided. In one embodiment, the handle includes a handle body that has first and second opposed ends, wherein each end of the handle body is fastened to the electronic device; and a plurality of cable grips that extend from a position on the handle body between the first and second opposed ends of the handle body, wherein the plurality of cable grips define a cable cavity that is contoured to partially house a cable of the electronic device. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125997 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING AND VERIFYING A PASSPORT - Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach that leverages public key infrastructure (PKI) digital signature and barcode technology in providing a passport that can be validated for authenticity and data integrity when in printed form. In one embodiment, there is a barcoding tool that includes a data retrieving component configured to retrieve a set of identity data; a data concatenating component configured to concatenate the set of identity data into a single data string; a digital signature generating component configured to generate a digital signature from the data string using a private key of an issuing authority; and a barcode generating component configured to generate a barcode symbol from the data string and a barcode symbol from the digital signature. In another embodiment, there is a barcode reading tool that includes reading the identity data and digital signature barcode symbols using a barcode reader; displaying the identity data and digital signature on a display device; verifying the digital signature; and displaying verification results on a display device. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125916 | TEMPERATURE CONTROL DEVICE FOR OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES - Current may be passed through an n-doped semiconductor region, a recessed metal semiconductor alloy portion, and a p-doped semiconductor region so that the diffusion of majority charge carriers in the doped semiconductor regions transfers heat from or into the semiconductor waveguide through Peltier-Seebeck effect. Further, a temperature control device may be configured to include a metal semiconductor alloy region located in proximity to an optoelectronic device, a first semiconductor region having a p-type doping, and a second semiconductor region having an n-type doping. The temperature of the optoelectronic device may thus be controlled to stabilize the performance of the optoelectronic device. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125677 | CROSSTALK REDUCTION BETWEEN SIGNAL LAYERS IN A MULTILAYERED PACKAGE BY VARIABLE-WIDTH MESH PLANE STRUCTURES - A first selection of mesh line segments of a mesh layer are of a first width and a second selection of mesh line segments of the mesh layer are of a second width, wherein the second width is greater than the first width. The second selection of mesh line segments of the second width are positioned in parallel to a selection of signal lines in a signal layer that are likely to introduce crosstalk, wherein the widening of the mesh line segments shadowing the selection of signal lines increases the likelihood that the return current associated with the signal will flow in the wider mesh line segment, thereby increasing the likelihood of containing the electromagnetic fields associated with the signal such that crosstalk to other signals is reduced or contained. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125556 | SOLDER MOLD PLATES USED IN PACKAGING PROCESS AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SOLDER MOLD PLATES - Solder mold plates and methods of manufacturing the solder mold plates are provided herein. The solder mold plates are used in controlled collapse chip connection processes. The solder mold plate includes a plurality of cavities. At least one cavity of the plurality of cavities has a different volume than another of the cavities in a particular chip set site. The method of manufacturing the solder mold plate includes determining susceptible white bump locations on a chip set. The method further includes forming lower volume cavities on the solder mold plate which coincide with the susceptible white bump locations, and forming higher volume cavities on the solder mold plate which coincide with less susceptible white bump locations. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125538 | METHOD OF CREATING AN EXTREMELY THIN SEMICONDUCTOR-ON-INSULATOR (ETSOI) LAYER HAVING A UNIFORM THICKNESS - A method for creating an extremely thin semiconductor-on-insulator (ETSOI) layer having a uniform thickness includes: measuring a thickness of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) layer at a plurality of locations; determining a removal thickness at each of the plurality of locations; and implanting ions at the plurality of locations. The implanting is dynamically based on the removal thickness at each of the plurality of locations. The method further includes oxidizing the SOI layer to form an oxide layer, and removing the oxide layer. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125433 | GRID-LINE-FREE CONTACT FOR A PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL - Electrical contact to the front side of a photovoltaic cell is provided by an array of conductive through-substrate vias, and optionally, an array of conductive blocks located on the front side of the photovoltaic cell. A dielectric liner provides electrical isolation of each conductive through-substrate via from the semiconductor material of the photovoltaic cell. A dielectric layer on the backside of the photovoltaic cell is patterned to cover a contiguous region including all of the conductive through-substrate vias, while exposing a portion of the backside of the photovoltaic cell. A conductive material layer is deposited on the back surface of the photovoltaic cell, and is patterned to form a first conductive wiring structure that electrically connects the conductive through-substrate vias and a second conductive wiring structure that provides electrical connection to the backside of the photovoltaic cell. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125421 | LOW COST SOLAR CELL MANUFACTURE METHOD EMPLOYING A REUSABLE SUBSTRATE - A reusable substrate and method for forming single crystal silicon solar cells are described. A method of forming a photovoltaic cell includes forming an intermediate layer on a monocrystalline silicon substrate, forming a monocrystalline silicon layer on the intermediate layer, and forming electrical features in the monocrystalline silicon layer. The method further includes forming openings in the monocrystalline silicon layer, and detaching the monocrystalline silicon layer from the substrate by selectively etching the intermediate layer through the openings. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120125260 | System for Abating the Simultaneous Flow of Silane and Arsine - A system for abating a simultaneous flow of silane and arsine contained in an exhaust gas of DRAM processing chamber. The system includes a CVD abatement apparatus and a resin-type adsorber. The CVD abatement apparatus comprises an enclosure that defines a chamber for receiving the exhaust gas. The enclosure contains a plurality of removable substrates arranged as a series of baffles inside the enclosure. As the exhaust gas flows through the CVD abatement apparatus, the silicon within the silane is deposited as a film upon the substrates by chemical vapor deposition. The arsine continues to flow through the CVD apparatus to the adsorber where it is adsorbed by the resin contained therein. After the film has reached a particular thickness, the substrates can be removed from the enclosure, cleaned of the film and returned to the enclosure for further use. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120124669 | Hindering Side-Channel Attacks in Integrated Circuits - A mechanism is provided for protecting a layer of functional units from side-channel attacks. A determination is made as to whether one or more subsets of functional units in a set of functional units in the layer of functional units is performing operations of a critical nature. Responsive to a determination that there is one or more subsets of functional units that are performing the operations of the critical nature, at least one concealing pattern is generated in a concealing layer in order to conceal the operations of the critical nature being performed by each of the subset of functional units. The concealing layer is electrically and physically coupled to the layer of functional units. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124637 | SECURE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE INFORMATION - A system and method for providing or exchanging healthcare information (e.g., medical information) to authorized users in a secure manner. The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to: assign identification information to a plurality of users and a plurality of items; associate the identification information of a user of the plurality of users with one or more items of the plurality of items; set-up security policies including predetermined locations, within predetermined stages within a sequence and during predetermined times; and provide the user access to the one or more items when there is a matching between the identification information of the user and the one or more items, and all of the security policies associated with the user and the one or more of the plurality of items are met. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124633 | Wireless Video Streaming Quality Management for Bandwidth Constrained Cellular Network - A method for wireless video streaming includes determining a backhaul bandwidth of a base station and ongoing traffic between a plurality of wireless clients and the base station, determining a video transcoding policy for each of the wireless clients based on a service agreement of each wireless client, decoding network signaling information, extracting a plurality of video streams based on the decoded network signaling information, and transcoding the plurality of video streams simultaneously upon determining that the ongoing traffic exceeds the backhaul bandwidth. Transcoding is based on a video transcoding policy of a receiving wireless client, video properties of a video stream being transcoded, and the decoded network signaling information. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124592 | METHODS OF PERSONALIZING SERVICES VIA IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON COMPONENTS - Methods and arrangements for more efficiently enhancing the personalization and customization of services while avoiding an undue overburdening of personnel, infrastructure or resources. An input service component comprising a plurality of tasks is assimilated, similarity among the tasks is determined, and output service components are routed to resources based on similarity among the tasks, the service components each comprising a subgroup of similar tasks. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124590 | MINIMIZING AIRFLOW USING PREFERENTIAL MEMORY ALLOCATION - One embodiment provides a method of controlling memory in a computer system. Airflow is generated through an enclosure at a variable airflow rate to cool a plurality of memory banks at different locations within the enclosure. The airflow rate is controlled as a function of the temperature of one or more of the memory banks. Memory workload is selectively allocated to the memory banks according to expected differences in airflow, such as differences in airflow temperature, at each of the different locations. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124585 | Increasing Parallel Program Performance for Irregular Memory Access Problems with Virtual Data Partitioning and Hierarchical Collectives - A method for increasing performance of an operation on a distributed memory machine is provided. Asynchronous parallel steps in the operation are transformed into synchronous parallel steps. The synchronous parallel steps of the operation are rearranged to generate an altered operation that schedules memory accesses for increasing locality of reference. The altered operation that schedules memory accesses for increasing locality of reference is mapped onto the distributed memory machine. Then, the altered operation is executed on the distributed memory machine to simulate local memory accesses with virtual threads to check cache performance within each node of the distributed memory machine. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124582 | Calculating Processor Load - A method, computer system, and computer program product for identifying a transient thread. A thread of a process is placed in a run queue associated with a processor. Data is added to the thread indicating a time that the thread was placed into the run queue. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124578 | CLASSIFYING WORKLOAD FOR A SERVICE - In one example embodiment, a machine implemented method is provided. The method comprises sampling a plurality of values of a parameter associated with a software service by monitoring said parameter; determining a workload signature for the software service based on statistical analysis performed during a first sampling period; and classifying the workload of said software service by selecting, based on said plurality of values, a first workload classification from a plurality of predefined workload classifications, wherein the workload of the software service is reclassified to a second workload classification, based on a workload signature calculated during a second sampling period. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124572 | VIRTUALIZATION OF VENDOR SPECIFIC NETWORK INTERFACES OF SELF-VIRTUALIZING INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICE VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS - A vendor independent partition interface between a logical partition and an adjunct partition associated with a self-virtualizing IO resource is used to effectively abstract away vender-specific interface details for the self-virtualizing IO resource. By doing so, vender-specific implementation details may be isolated from the operating systems resident in logical partitions, thus requiring only changes in vendor specific firmware in order to support new or revised self-virtualizing IO resources. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124562 | Application Programming Interface Naming Using Collaborative Services - A method, computer system, and computer program product for improving application programming interface naming. An alternate name is received for a target application programming interface feature from a consumer developer. In addition, an indirection to the application programming interface feature is generated based on the alternate name. Then, the indirection to the application programming interface feature is transmitted to an indirections repository. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124560 | Autonomic Hotspot Profiling Using Paired Performance Sampling - A processor performance profiler is enabled to for identify specific instructions causing performance issues within a program being executed by a microprocessor through random sampling to find the worst-case offenders of a particular event type such as a cache miss or a branch mis-prediction. Tracking all instructions causing a particular event generates large data logs, creates performance penalties, and makes code analysis more difficult. However, by identifying and tracking the worst offenders within a random sample of events without having to hash all events results in smaller memory requirements for the performance profiler, lower performance impact while profiling, and decreased complexity to analyze the program to identify major performance issues, which, in turn, enables better optimization of the program in shorter developer time. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124546 | SEARCH CAPABILITY ENHANCEMENT IN SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE (SOA) SERVICE REGISTRY SYSTEM - A system and associated method for searching a web service registry system by use of a search controller. The web service registry system has components of the search controller, a service registry, a name parser, a dictionary, and a name composer. The search controller receives a service name from a user of the web service registry system. The service registry is searched with the service name to find a service description associated with the service name. If the service description is not found, the search controller coordinates another search with a candidate service name that substitutes the service name for searching the service registry. The candidate service name is generated by use of the name parser, the dictionary, and the name composer. The search controller discovers the service description associated with the candidate service name and returns to a user of the service registry system. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124542 | Method and System for Optimizing a Device With Current Source Models - A method for optimizing a circuit includes at least a first branch and a second branch includes defining an objective function using a shape of waveforms measured at a timing point in each branch, and optimizing the objective function to minimize a variance of clock skew of the first branch and the second branch across different process voltage temperature values. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124541 | IMPLEMENTING SPARE LATCH PLACEMENT QUALITY DETERMINATION - A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing spare latch placement quality (SLPQ) determination in a floor plan design of an integrated circuit chip. A spare latch placement quality (SLPQ) metric data function is defined and compared to a spare latch placement input with a series of calculations performed. The spare latch placement quality (SLPQ) determination is made based upon the compared SLPQ metric data function and the spare latch placement input. Then associated reports including textual and visual reports are generated responsive to the SLPQ determination. In addition, a new spare latch placement can be constructed with an algorithm responsive to the SLPQ determination. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124539 | Clock Optimization with Local Clock Buffer Control Optimization - A physical synthesis tool for dock optimization with local clock buffer control optimization is provided. The physical synthesis flow consists of delaying the exposure of clock routes until after the clock optimization placement stage. The physical synthesis tool clones first local clock buffers. Then, the physical synthesis tool runs timing analysis on the whole design to compute the impact of this necessarily disruptive step. After cloning local clock buffers, the physical synthesis tool adds an extra optimization step to target the control signals that drive the local clock buffers. This optimization step may includes latch cloning, timing-driven placement, buffer insertion, and repowering. The flow alleviates high-fanout nets and produces significantly better timing going into clock optimization placement. After placement, the physical synthesis tool fixes latches and local clock buffers in place, inserts clock routes, and repowers local clock buffers. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124538 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR SELECTIVELY ADDING TIMING MARGIN IN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A method, system, and integrated circuit including selectively added timing margin. The method, for integrating statistical timing and automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) to selectively add timing margin in an integrated circuit, includes identifying, while a chip is in design, paths that are unable to be robustly tested “at speed” during manufacturing test, running statistical timing to calculate a margin to be applied to the paths, updating design specifications for margin to be applied to the paths, and optimizing chip logic based on updated design specifications. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124537 | SLACK-BASED TIMING BUDGET APPORTIONMENT - A slack-based timing budget apportionment methodology relies not only upon timing analysis-based determinations of slack in the units in an integrated circuit design, but also potential performance optimization opportunities in the logic used to implement such circuits. Logic in various units of an integrated circuit design that is amenable to being replaced with comparatively faster logic may be identified during timing budget apportionment, such that the magnitude of the slack reported for those units can be adjusted to account for such potential performance improvements. Then, when timing budgets are reapportioned using the slack calculated for each unit, additional slack is available to be reapportioned to those units needing larger timing budgets. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124535 | Optimal Chip Acceptance Criterion and its Applications - At least one target metric is identified for an integrated circuit chip design for which manufacturing chip testing is to be optimized. At least one surrogate metric is also identified for the integrated circuit chip design for which manufacturing chip testing is to be optimized. A relationship between the at least one target metric and the at least one surrogate metric is modeled using a general joint probability density function. A chip disposition criterion is determined based on the general joint probability density function. The chip disposition criterion determines, for a given physical chip putatively manufactured in accordance with the design, based on the at least one surrogate metric for the given physical chip, whether the given physical chip is to be accepted or discarded during the manufacturing chip testing. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124534 | System and Method for Performing Static Timing Analysis in the Presence of Correlations Between Asserted Arrival Times - A method of applying common path credit in a static timing analysis in the presence of correlations between asserted arrival times, comprising the steps of using a computer, identifying one or more pairs of asserted arrival times for which one or more correlations exist; propagating to each of the one or more pairs of asserted arrival times a timing value dependent on the one or more correlations; and performing a subsequent common path pessimism removal analysis for at least one test during which a timing value dependent on the one or more correlations between asserted arrival times is used to compute an adjusted test slack. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124533 | SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURE AND METHOD OF DESIGNING SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURE TO AVOID HIGH VOLTAGE INITIATED LATCH-UP IN LOW VOLTAGE SECTORS - A method and semiconductor structure to avoid latch-up is disclosed. The method includes identifying at least one high voltage device on a semiconductor chip, identifying a circuit on the semiconductor chip separated from the identified at least one high voltage device by a guard ring, evaluating the circuit for a latch-up condition, and when the latch-up condition occurs, adjusting the contact-circuit spacing in the circuit. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124532 | IMPLEMENTING VERTICAL DIE STACKING TO DISTRIBUTE LOGICAL FUNCTION OVER MULTIPLE DIES IN THROUGH-SILICON-VIA STACKED SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE - A method and circuit for implementing die stacking to distribute a logical function over multiple dies, die identification and sparing in through-silicon-via stacked semiconductor devices, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. Each die in the die stack includes predefined functional logic for implementing a respective predefined function. The respective predefined function is executed in each respective die and a respective functional result is provided to an adjacent die in the die stack. Each die in the die stack includes logic for providing die identification. An operational die signature is formed by combining a plurality of selected signals on each die. A die signature is coupled to a next level adjacent die using TSV interconnections where it is combined with that die signature. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124530 | MAKING A DISCRETE SPATIAL CORRELATION CONTINUOUS - A mechanism is provided for making a discrete spatial correlation on a 2D grid continuous. The region has given grid points and each of the grid points has its discrete stochastic variable. Additional grid points and associated stochastic variables are established on the boundary and corners of the region. All correlation coefficients are obtained among the given discrete stochastic variables and the additional discrete stochastic variables. For each of two given spatial points whose spatial correlation is needed, a quadrilateral containing it is identified by four grid points, and a stochastic variable for it is expressed as a weighted linear combination of four stochastic variables at four grid points, with four weights being a continuous function of the coordinate of the point. The resulting spatial correlation is a weighted linear combination of multiple discrete correlation coefficients each weight being a continuous function of the coordinates of the two given points. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124515 | BORDER MENU FOR CONTEXT DEPENDENT ACTIONS WITHIN A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE - A border menu can be presented on four sides of an outer border of a graphical user interface. The border menu can be presented at the top of a stack of a graphical user interface. The border menu can include a set of user-selectable options, each selectable via a pointing device, each of the user-selectable options being associated with at least one of an icon or text button. At least one of the user-selectable options can be presented along each of the four sides of the outer border of the border menu. Selection of each of the user-selectable options can result in triggering an event, which results in firing of a programmatic action to run executable code for a corresponding one of the user-selectable options. At least a portion of the user-selectable options can include application-specific options for an application running on the computing device. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124493 | RENDERING DYNAMIC CONTENTS WITH STATIC FILE BASED GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FORM CONTROL - The invention provides a method for rendering dynamic web contents with static file based graphical user interface (GUI) form control The method includes the steps of trapping an event which requires to draw or redraw an image in a file based GUI image control in a current local environment; initiating a WebCrawler function with parameters derived from the current local environment to retrieve data from the web; generating a locally accessible file with web content in a format interpretable by the file based GUI image control; and having the file based GUI image control render the web content contained in the locally accessible file. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124485 | EMBEDDING TOOLS IN A COLLABORATION WINDOW - A computer implemented method, system and/or computer program product automatically extends a collaboration window. An initiation of an interactive teleconference, which utilizes a collaboration window that is displayed on two communication devices, is detected. The topic of the interactive teleconference is determined by a starting context of the interactive teleconference. The topic is associated with a related application that provides supporting information for the interactive teleconference. This supporting information and/or associated application(s) are then displayed on one or both of the two communication devices. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124425 | Method and Apparatus Useful In Manufacturing Test Case Operations - The incorporation of a simulation mode into existing manufacturing code test cases that communicate with a service processor. While in simulation mode, the test cases are able to run independently of system hardware or network connection. Test case code paths are exercised through the modification of simulated output, without change to the original code. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124415 | MEMORY MIRRORING WITH MEMORY COMPRESSION - Systems and methods to manage memory are provided. A particular method may include storing data in a primary memory that is in communication with a processor and storing in a mirrored data in a mirrored memory. The mirrored data may be compressed, and the mirrored memory may be in communication with the processor. A failure condition associated with the data of the primary memory may be detected. In response to the detected failure condition, the mirrored data in the mirrored memory may be accessed. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124402 | DETERMINING A POWER SAVING MODE BASED ON A HARDWARE RESOURCE UTILIZATION TREND - Techniques are disclosed for managing the amount of power consumed by server components of a computer system, each server component having multiple power modes. The utilization of each server component is monitored. Based on the monitored utilization, a time period is determined in which to apply a selected power mode to the respective server component. The respective server component is configured to operate in the selected power mode for at least the determined time period. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120124350 | TABLE-DRIVEN SOAKER TOOL FOR INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEMS - A soaker tool for an information handling system (IHS) exercises the IHS to provide a predetermined amount of utilization that a user may specify. The soaker tool schedules wait times following respective utilization times in alternating fashion to achieve a desired utilization value for a predetermined time period. The soaker tool monitors for a dispatch interrupt during the utilization times. Should a dispatch interrupt occur during a utilization time, the soaker tool accounts for the dispatch interrupt by determining a remainder utilization time to maintain utilization accuracy. The soaker tool may employ a parameter table that specifies utilization times, wait times, loop counts and adjustment cycles indexed to the respective utilization values that a user may select. The soaker tool may employ adjustment cycles to compensate for cumulative timing errors that may occur when running the tool for extended time periods. | 05-17-2012 |
