The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 15, 2026
Filed:
Oct. 18, 2024
Dell Products L.p., Round Rock, TX (US);
Vladimir Shveidel, Pardes Hana-Karkur, IL;
Uri Shabi, Tel Mond, IL;
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
A technique of managing reference counts of virtual blocks includes providing a virtual block having a fixed-length reference-count field configured to store a reference count, the reference count indicating a number of pointers that point to the virtual block. The technique further includes creating an incref (reference-count increment) directed to the virtual block and, in response to the incref causing the reference count of the virtual block to increase to a threshold value, performing an update operation, the update operation including writing the threshold value to an expansion region separate from the virtual block and storing a code in the reference-count field. The code indicates that an actual reference count of the virtual block is stored in the expansion region.