Unisys Corporation

Michael F Stanton

Ralph E Sipple

James R McBreen

Hans Christian Mikkelsen

Peter John Hancock

James W Willen

Michael Zambon

John Carter

Robert Morris

Brian L McElmurry

Murray D Wilke

A non-stop multi-host transaction processing environment may be created by receiving incoming user calls to components through a vestibule bank, and by utilizing an installation manager during the replacement of software. The installation manager may be used in connection with a vestibule bank to handle user calls during the installation of a replacement software component such that user calls for a component can be processed while that component is being replaced, without an error being passed back to the end user. During the replacement of a software component, user calls from the old component may be drained and diverted to a replacement component. User calls received during the installation may be queued and then routed to the replacement component once the component has been replaced.

Dynamic replacement of software components

A method of and apparatus for efficiently providing video on demand services to a cable television subscriber. The provider system consists of two major subsystems. The first subsystem, called a video server, streams video to video on demand subscribers through the cable television network. The second subsystem, called the transaction server, performs virtually all remaining provider functions including, security, accounting, storage and spooling of video data, etc. The video server is preferably uses a Unisys CMP memory platform into which the transaction server spools requested video programs. One or more industry standard processors operating under a standard operating system stream the video data from the memory platform to the subscriber.

Video server

A method of and apparatus for efficiently providing video on demand services to a cable television subscriber. The provider system consists of two major subsystems. The first subsystem, called a video server, streams video to video on demand subscribers through the cable television network. The second subsystem, called the transaction server, performs virtually all remaining provider functions including, security, accounting, storage and spooling of video data, etc. The transaction server preferably uses a large scale mainframe computer. The video server subsystem may be a partitioned portion of same large scale mainframe computer.

Video on demand transaction server

Driving task dispatching by an operating system in a multiprocessor computer system is accomplished with a virtual switching queue which accepts highest priority tasks from multiple switching queues which in turn are accessed by instruction processors seeking tasks. Overload, plucking and stealing of tasks may be used to effectively balance load within the computer system. Dynamic reconfiguration used where regular queues lose underlying instruction processors.

Computer OS dispatcher operation with virtual switching queue and IP queues

Regardless of the switching queue organization, enhanced multiprocessor factor performance for software application group is accomplished via allocation of cache neighborhoods to software application groups that share memory space as identified by a user. Certain user requirements may be refused as unavailable to protect overall performance. Exclusivity and priority requirements of a user can also be honored by the operating system. Load balancing and dynamic reconfiguration features respect software application group dedications to the extent feasible.

Computer OS dispatcher operation with user controllable dedication

Bracket for shakleless padlock

Visual and spatial information as a function of time is collected and saved for further processing to determine spacial and target identification for an information database. The later processed information is used to determine the spatial position of an object seen in the visual information. The method includes the high speed collection and time correlation of video images, spatial position information and vehicle attitude with minimal time offset between individual frames of view in digital sets of video data.

Growing community of inventors

Lino Lakes, MN, United States of America

Michael F Stanton