Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Mircrosoft Corporation

Microsft Corporation

Yadhu Nandh Gopalan

Sachin C Patel

Andrew Michael Rogers

Bor-Ming Hsieh

Andrew D Rogers

Scott Randall Shell

Michael D Malueg

Hang Li

Sharon Drasnin

Larry Alan Morris

Ronald Otto Radko

David Michael Sauntry

Jason Ryan Farmer

Mark Allen Miller

Daniel J Polivy

Upender Sandadi

Andrew Martin Pearson

Neil Laurence Coles

Matthew G Lyons

James A Stulz

Christopher Ross Jordan

Angelo Renato Vals

Richard Thomas Palm

DaiQian Huang

James Robert Hamilton

William Jefferson Westerinen

David Michael Callaghan

Ruston Panabaker

George Joy

John Mark Miller

Loren Kohnfelder

Mark Myers

Xiongjian Fu

Sharath Viswanathan

David Fischer Kelley

Greg Hogdal

Zoheb Vacheri

Mukkul Dasgupta

Michael D Maleug

Authenticating a backup image stored on a storage device prior to restoring the backup image. A value such as a hash value is generated based on the image to be preserved. The value is stored on the storage device in a first area accessible for writing only when the computing device is in an update mode. The first area becomes read-only when the computing device is in an operating system mode. The image is stored on the storage device in a second area accessible for writing when the computing device is in the update mode or the operating system mode. When attempting to restore the image from the second area, the value from the first area is compared to another value generated at the time of the restoration for validation.

Authenticating a backup image with bifurcated storage

A transaction safe file system uses two sets of file allocation tables and bitmap images to perform file modifications on one of the sets while the other set remains a last known good set. After a modification is complete, a pointer is changed to the newly modified set, and the newly modified set becomes the last known good set. The sets are then synchronized. The file allocation table is used to define cluster chains while the bitmap image is used to determine if a cluster is free or not. In some operations, only the bitmap image may need to be manipulated. The file system may be used in a transaction safe mode as well as a non-transaction safe mode.

Storage system format for transaction safe file system

Directories in a file system are defined with a dummy cluster in a file allocation table as the initial entry. Subsequent clusters in a directory's definition may define any data for the directory that can be changed in a transaction-safe mode. A directory may be modified in a transaction-safe mode by modifying any of the subsequent clusters while tracking changes in a second file allocation table. When the changes have been made to the directory, a pointer to the second file allocation table may be switched to indicate that the second file allocation table is now last known good. The first file allocation table may then be synchronized with the second.

Fat directory structure for use in transaction safe file system

Concepts for enhancing operation of transaction-safe file allocation table systems are described. The concepts include writing a file to non-volatile memory media and rendering an update of file size to the TFAT storage medium; and receiving a request to locate data in a non-volatile memory having a TFAT file management system, selecting a sector of the memory to parse to locate the data, determining when the selected sector is a first sector of a directory or subdirectory of the memory and when determining reveals that the selected sector is a first sector, skipping reading data from the selected sector. The concepts also include flushing a cache and synchronizing FATs.

Transaction-safe fat file system improvements

Various flash management techniques may be described. An apparatus may comprise a processor, a flash memory coupled to the processor, and a flash management module. The flash management module may be executed by the processor to receive a write request to write data to the flash memory, write a first control sector with a sequence number to the flash memory, and write the sequence number, an address for a logical sector, and data to at least one physical sector corresponding to the logical sector of the flash memory. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Flash management techniques

An application issues an application command to a file system of the computing device, where the application command includes a location of data at a source. The file system allocates space on a medium for the data and compiles a list including an identification of each portion of the medium that is to be used to store the data. The file system then issues a file system command to a block driver of the medium, where the file system command includes the location of the data at the source and the compiled list. The block driver contacts the source, requests the data at the location thereof, and writes the data to the portions of the medium included in the compiled list.

Efficient data transfer to/from storage medium of computing device

Embodiments of the invention intelligently associate processes with core processors in a multi-core processor. The core processors are asymmetrical in that the core processors support different features or provide different resources. The features or resources are published by the core processors or otherwise identified (e.g., via a query). Responsive to a request to execute an instruction associated with a thread, one of the core processors is selected based on the resource or feature supporting execution of the instruction. The thread is assigned to the selected core processor such that the selected core processor executes the instruction and subsequent instructions from the assigned thread. In some embodiments, the resource or feature is emulated until an activity limit is reached upon which the thread assignment occurs.

Managing thread affinity on multi-core processors

Scheduling of threads in a multi-core system is performed using per-processor queues for each core to hold threads with fixed affinity for each core. Cores are configured to pick the highest priority thread among the global run queue, which holds threads without affinity, and their respective per-processor queue. To select between two threads with same priority on both queues, the threads are assigned sequence numbers based on their time of arrival. The sequence numbers may be weighted for either queue to prioritize one over the other.

Scheduling threads in multi-core systems

FAT directory structure for use in transaction safe file system

Embodiments provide a security infrastructure that may be configured to run on top of an existing operating system to control what resources can be accessed by an applications and what APIs an application can call. Security decisions are made by taking into account both the current thread's identity and the current thread's call chain context to enable minimal privilege by default. The current thread context is captured and a copy of it is created to be used to perform security checks asynchronously. Every thread in the system has an associated identity. To obtain access to a particular resource, all the callers on the current thread are analyzed to make sure that each caller and thread has access to that resource. Only when each caller and thread has access to that resource is the caller given access to that resource.

Granting least privilege access for computing processes

Data can be retained upon a storage medium that has characteristics suitable for the data. However, as the storage mediums are used, time passes, etc., characteristics of memory can change and therefore data can reside upon an improper medium. Data can be dynamically moved from one storage location to another automatically and intelligently based upon a change in characteristics. In addition, new data can be placed on a storage medium based upon characteristics of the medium in a current state.

Policy framework to treat data

Scheduling of threads in a multi-core system running various legacy applications along with multi-core compatible applications is configured such that threads from older single thread applications are assigned fixed affinity. Threads from multi-thread/single core applications are scheduled such that one thread at a time is made available to the cores based on the thread priority preventing conflicts and increasing resource efficiency. Threads from multi-core compatible applications are handled regularly.

Application compatibility in multi-core systems

In one aspect, the present disclosure describes a process for maintaining file allocation tables (FATs) for a volume of storage medium. The process includes triggering, by a write operation, modification of data in an existing sector of a data file by writing of data to a new sector of the storage medium. The process also includes writing revised used/unused sector information into one FAT and setting a variable indicative of a number of FATs (NOF) to a first value. The process additionally includes copying the one FAT to another FAT and re-setting the variable to a second value.

Transaction-safe FAT files system

A computing device includes a processor, a storage device having an executable file, and a file system for executing the file in place on the storage device on behalf of the processor. The file is divided into multiple non-contiguous fragments on the storage device, and the computing device further includes a virtual address translator interposed between the processor and the storage device for translating between physical addresses of the fragments of the file on the storage device and corresponding virtual addresses employed by the processor.

Computing device with relatively limited storage space and operating / file system thereof

Growing community of inventors

Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Yadhu Nandh Gopalan