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:
Jun. 15, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 06, 2000
Richard P. Helliwell, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A system for generating unique identifiers (UUIDs) for software objects and other components in a network in which a large number of components may exist simultaneously and/or over a period of time. UUIDs generated by a particular product are divided into two sub-fields. One sub-field is stored in (relatively slow) non-volatile memory, and incremented infrequently. The other sub-field is stored in relatively fast, volatile RAM, that can be incremented quickly. During operation, the product creating the UUIDs generates new UUIDs by incrementing the field stored in RAM. When overflow of the RAM field occurs, the field stored in non-volatile memory is incremented. A block of flash memory is initialized to all ones, and the bits therein are then sequentially cleared to generate each subsequent unique identifier. The present system provides the equivalent of a counter that can count up to the number of available bits in non-volatile memory plus one, while reducing the number of flash memory erase cycles to one cycle for each time all the bits are cleared.