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:
Jan. 12, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 19, 1996
Robert Neil Carter, Tucson, AZ (US);
Howard Alan Disney, Tucson, AZ (US);
Kevin Scott Goldsmith, Tucson, AZ (US);
William Otto Vomaska, Tucson, AZ (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system and method are provided for dispersing storage of a plurality of related and unrelated data items on a plurality of removable recordable media instances (RMIs). A first storage device is provided for storing a data item on a qualifying related RMI, the qualifying related RMI having one or more related data items stored on it and having sufficient actual storage space remaining for storing the data. A multiplier device is connected to the first storage device for multiplying the actual size of a data item, which is not stored by the first storage device because there is no qualifying related RMI, by a factor greater than one, to produce reserved storage space data which characterizes any other RMI that actually stores the data item. A second storage device, which is responsive to the multiplier device is provided for storing a data item on a qualifying unrelated RMI, the qualifying unrelated RMI having one or more unrelated data items stored on it and having sufficient actual and unreserved storage space remaining to store the data item and, if there is no qualifying unrelated RMI, then storing the data item on a new RMI the new RMI having no data stored on it. This arrangement provides for shared logical space reservation so that physical proximity of related data items is optimized with respect to a set of RMIs.