Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

International Business Machines Corporation

Microsoft Corporation

Michael Richard Fortin

Cenk Ergan

Mehmet Iyigun

Alexander Kirshenbaum

Robert L Reinauer

Yevgeniy Bak

Clark David Nicholson

William Jefferson Westerinen

John M Parchem

Dean L DeWhitt

Michael James Zwilling

Mark Joseph Zbikowski

Hanumantha Rao Kodavalla

Ruston Panabaker

Nathan Steven Obr

Patrick L Stemen

Rajeev Y Nagar

Therron Powell

Stuart Sechrest

Surenda Verma

Dan Teodosiu

David Fields

Emily Nicole Hill

Benjamin A Mickle

James Robert Hamilton

Robert John Urquhart

Mike Neil

Aaron Edward Dietrich

Eric J Horvitz

Galen Clyde Hunt

Christopher A Meek

Arun Upadhyaya Kishan

Hari R Pulapaka

Adrian Mihail Marinescu

Burton Jordan Smith

Robert P Fitzgerald

Robert Francis Berry

Avi R Geiger

Mihai Costea

Charles Patrick Thacker

Robert Tod Dimpsey

Andrew J Ritz

David Allen Goebel

Anil Francis Thomas

Asela J Gunawardana

Emily Nicole Wilson

Mukesh Karki

Michael J Manos

Ahmad Bilal

Nicholas Stephen Judge

Matthew Robert Ayers

Paul B Koch

Reuben R Olinsky

Charles T Lenzmeier

Dilesh Dhokia

Maher Afif Saba

Robin Giese

Jee Fung Pang

George Cristian Chicioreanu

Mahlon David Fields

Christopher Peter Kleynhans

Marius Gheorghe Gheorghescu

Shaun Wiley

Jonathan Vines Smith

Dan Li

Rich Caruana

W Jeff Westerinen

Milos Kralj

Daniel Teodosiu

Ben Mickle

James J Freely

Alex Kirshenbaum

Adrian Bivol

Maher Saba

Dean L Dewhitt

William J Westerinen

Clark D Nicholson

Determining and using the ideal size of memory to be transferred from high speed memory to a low speed memory may result in speedier saves to the low speed memory and a longer life for the low speed memory.

Optimizing write and wear performance for a memory

To ensure that the contents of a non-volatile memory device cache may be relied upon as accurately reflecting data stored on disk storage, it may be determined whether the cache contents and/or disk contents are modified during a power transition, causing cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. The cache device may be removable from the computer, and unexpected removal of the cache device may cause cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. Cache metadata may be managed during normal operations and across power transitions, ensuring that cache metadata may be efficiently accessed and reliably saved and restored across power transitions. A state of a log used by a file system may be determined prior to and subsequent to reboot of an operating system in order to determine whether data stored on a cache device may be reliably used.

Method and system for ensuring reliability of cache data and metadata subsequent to a reboot

In order to provide a more efficient persistent storage device, one or more long-term storage media are included along with a non-volatile memory. In one embodiment, one portion of the non-volatile memory is used as a write buffer and a read cache for writes and reads to the long-term storage media. Interfaces are provided for controlling the use of the non-volatile memory as a write buffer and a read cache. Additionally, a portion of the non-volatile memory is used to provide a direct mapping for specified sectors of the long-term storage media. Descriptive data regarding the persistent storage device is stored in another portion of the non-volatile memory.

Non-volatile memory cache performance improvement

Application compatibility is facilitated by use of library operating systems. Library operating systems can encapsulate portions of an application likely to break application compatibility. An application can be bound to a compatible library operating system that operates over a host operating system. Furthermore, library operating system version can be greater than, equal, or less than the version of the host operating system. Consequently, both backward and forward compatibility is enabled.

Application compatibility with library operating systems

The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device.

Using external memory devices to improve system performance

Systems and methods of pre-launching applications in a computer system, said applications being likely to be activated by a user from a terminated and/or suspended process state, are disclosed. The pre-launching of an application may be based on the assessed probability of the application being activated&#x2014;as well as the level of availability of system resources to affect such pre-launching. Applications may be pre-launched based on these and other conditions/considerations, designed to improve the user's experience of a quick launch of applications in the background. Several prediction models are presented to provide a good estimate of the likelihood of an application being activated by a user. Such prediction models may comprise an adaptive predictor (based on past application usage situations) and/or a switch rate predictor (based on historic data of an application being switched and, possibly, having a decay rate applied to such switch rate measure).

Predictive pre-launch for applications

In an example embodiment, data is transferred from a higher speed memory to a lower speed memory or data storage device after determining a size of a block of data to be written to the lower speed memory. In an example embodiment data is collected in the higher speed memory until an amount of collected data is equal to or greater than the size of the block to be written, and then the collected data is transferred to the lower speed memory or data storage. In an example embodiment, the block size can be a predefined erase block size of the lower speed memory. In an example embodiment, the lower speed device is a flash memory.

Multiple copy sets of data are maintained on one or more storage devices. Each copy set includes at least some of the same data units as other sets. Different sets optionally have data units stored in different orders on the storage device(s). A particular one of the sets of data is selected as the set to be accessed in response to detecting a particular scenario.

Data copy management for faster reads

A method and apparatus for managing the caching of data on an auxiliary memory of a computer. Pages of data may be cached on an auxiliary memory, such as a flash memory, at a virtual level using an identifier that does not involve a physical address of the pages on a memory. Pages may be cached on auxiliary memory that may be removable from the computer, e.g., by unplugging the memory from the computer. Page data may be encrypted and/or compressed on the auxiliary memory. An authentication indicator may be used to verify the accuracy of cached data in the case of an interrupted connection to the auxiliary memory, e.g., as a result of computer power down, hibernation, removal of the memory from the computer, etc.

Management of external memory functioning as virtual cache

In a computer-implemented method for filtering input/output operations of a flash drive, an input/output request directed toward a flash drive is received. It is determined whether the input/output request is associated with a high volume write operation. If the input/output request is associated with the high volume write operation, a flash drive input/output management action to perform is selected. If the input/output request is not associated with the high volume write operation, the input/output request is forwarded to the flash drive.

Extending flash drive lifespan

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Michael Richard Fortin