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:
Jul. 24, 2007
Filed:
Apr. 15, 2004
Richard P. Helliwell, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Richard P. Helliwell, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
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 non-volatile memory, and incremented infrequently. The other sub-field is stored in volatile memory, that can be incremented frequently. During operation, the product creating the UUIDs generates new UUIDs by incrementing the field stored in volatile memory. When overflow of the volatile memory field occurs, the field stored in non-volatile memory is incremented. A block of non-volatile memory is initialized to all of a first logical state, and the bits therein are then sequentially cleared to generate a 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 non-volatile memory erase cycles to one cycle for each time all the bits are cleared.