HP Assigned Six Patents

HDD and removable solid state device
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, Houston, TX has been assigned a patent (8,527,692) developed by Fred Charles Thomas III, Fort Collins, CO, and Walter A. Gaspard, Magnolia, TX, for a “storage apparatus with a HDD and a removable solid state device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage apparatus includes a non-volatile HDD drive platter, a coupling interface for removably receiving a non-volatile solid state device operable as a cache. The storage apparatus also includes a communication line functionally connected to the HDD drive platter and the coupling interface and a storage controller are connected to the communication line to control operations of the HDD drive platter and the solid state device, in which the storage controller is to determine whether the solid state device is coupled to the coupling interface and to modify operations of the HDD drive platter based upon whether the solid state device is coupled to the coupling interface.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 26, 2011 (13/219,306).

Hot-pluggable HDDs that mounted in in-line arrangement
Hewlett-Packard Development, Houston, TX has been assigned a patent (8,564,946) developed by five co-inventors for a “computer including hot-pluggable disk storage drives that are mounted in an in-line arrangement.”

The co-inventors are Rachid M. Kadri, Houston, TX, John R. Grady, Cypress, TX, David S. Blocker, Conroe, TX, Wanda L. Bloomfield, Magnolia, TX, and George D. Megason, Spring, TX.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An electronic device includes a housing defining an enclosure, one or more processors in the enclosure, and one or more memory modules in the enclosure. Disk storage drives are provided in an in-line arrangement within the enclosure such that a rear portion of one disk storage drive is adjacent a front portion of another disk storage drive.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 8, 2009 (13/139,342).

Dynamically expanding storage capacity of storage volume
Hewlett-Packard Development, Houston, has been assigned a patent (8,554,996) developed by James Louis Long, Matthew D. Haines, Fort Collins, CO, and Charles Martin McJilton, Longmont, CO, for a “dynamically expanding storage capacity of a storage volume.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage system includes at least one storage device on which are provided storage volumes and an extended storage volume. The storage volumes include a first storage volume that is implemented with a data protection mechanism, and a second storage volume that is implemented without the data protection mechanism. Also, an extended storage volume is provided that is initially un-allocated to any of the storage volumes. A controller dynamically allocates at least one portion of the extended storage volume to the particular storage volume to dynamically expand storage capacity of the particular storage volume.”

The patent application was filed on July 7, 2008 (13/002,606).

Data transfer device library and key distribution
Hewlett-Packard Development, Houston, TX has been assigned a patent (8,549,297) developed by Andrew Topham, John William Drew, and Duncan Mark Wakelin, Bristol, UK, for a “data transfer device library and key distribution.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method of distributing a key to encrypt data for storing on a removable storage item in a data transfer device library, the library comprising a controller having a key associated therewith and being connected to a plurality of data transfer devices each being operable to transfer data to a removable storage item and having a key store, the method comprising: providing the key for the library to the controller; the controller providing the key to the key store of each data transfer device connected to the controller. A data transfer device library is also disclosed.”

The patent application was filed on July 26, 2006 (11/494,294).

Storage service
Hewlett-Packard Development, Houston, TX has been assigned a patent (8,538,920) developed by Dana E. Laursen, Corvallis, OR, for a “system and method for storage service.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage service stores data from a network device. A data collector retrieves the data for the storage service based on reference data passed to the storage service from the network device.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 8, 2011 (13/205,022).

Data redundancy using internal and external mass storage device
Hewlett-Packard Development, Houston, TX has been assigned a patent (8,578,091) developed by Fred Charles Thomas, Fort Collins, Colo., Paul A. Boerger, Loveland, CO, and Matthew D. Haines, Fort Collins, CO, for “providing data redundancy using an internal mass storage device and an external mass storage device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer includes an enclosure, an internal mass storage device within the enclosure, and a redundancy controller within the enclosure. At least one port enables direct connection of the computer to at least one external mass storage device. The redundancy controller is configured to provide data redundancy using the internal mass storage device and the at least one external storage device if the at least one external mass storage device is connected to the at least one port.”

The patent application was filed on June 15, 2009 (12/484,499).