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:
Apr. 17, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 28, 1998
Applicant:
Inventor:
Paul Hodges, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Assignee:
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 1/214 ; G06F 1/314 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 1/214 ; G06F 1/314 ;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for serializing access to disk arrays shareable among a plurality of RAID control units at a substantial reduction in intercontrol unit communication by (a) defining a lock function over the parity image blocks at each of the disk drives of a shared disk array; and (b) executing a path expression at each accessing control unit, the path expression includes requesting a lock from the drive on the parity image and enforcing a busy-wait until a lock is granted, executing the RAID function, and then releasing the lock.