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:
Feb. 25, 1997
Filed:
Apr. 15, 1994
Jeffrey C Randall, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Anil K Gowda, Eden Prairie, MN (US);
Timothy F McCarthy, Plymouth, MN (US);
Edward L Schwarz, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, MN (US);
Abstract
A computer has access to a number of data items available from at least one data source. The computer receives requests for the values of certain of these data items from a number of different clients which may be either devices external to the computer or application programs operating in a multitasking environment within the computer. As each request is received from a client, it is stored in a data item table. The computer replies to each client request in the data item table with a data item value available somewhere in the data item table. The computer updates older data item values held by the data item table by requesting those data item values from the data sources which provide them. The data item values supplied to clients are those from previously received data source replies if these replies are not too old. This reduces the number of requests for data item values which the data sources must handle, reduces traffic on a data link which might otherwise be overloaded, and reduces the delay in responding to client requests.