LSI/Avago Assigned Three Patents

Implementing logical device consistency in clustered storage system
LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,751,741) developed by five co-inventors for “methods and structure for implementing logical device consistency in a clustered storage system.”

The co-inventors are Vinu Velayudhan, Fremont, CA, James A. Rizzo, Austin, TX, Adam Weiner, Henderson, NE, Rakesh Chandra, Santa Clara, CA, and Guolin Huang, Sunnyvale, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and system are provided for exposing logical volumes to host systems and storage controllers in a consistent manner across a clustered storage system. One embodiment is a storage controller. The storage controller is operable to communicate with other storage controllers within the clustered storage system. The storage controller is further operable to generate a proposed Logical Unit Number (LUN) for a logical volume provisioned at the storage devices, and to communicate with each of the other storage controllers within the clustered storage system requesting that the other storage controllers determine if the proposed LUN is in use. If the proposed LUN is not in use, then storage controller assigns the proposed LUN to the logical volume. If the LUN is in use, then the storage controller generates a new proposed LUN and re-tries communication with the other storage controllers until a unique LUN is found.”

The patent application was filed on March 28, 2012 (13/432,232).

Power management for HDD read channel
LSI Corp., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,730,603) developed by Jing Lu, San Jose, CA, Lei Chen, Sunnyvale, CA, and Johnson Yen, Fremont, CA, for “power management for storage device read channel.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A hard disk drive or other storage device comprises a storage medium, a read head configured to read data from the storage medium, and control circuitry coupled to the read head and configured to process data received from the read head. The control circuitry comprises read channel circuitry that includes a low-density parity check decoder or other type of decoder. Power management circuitry associated with the read channel circuitry is configured to detect a power control condition of the read channel circuitry and to control insertion of idle clock cycles in a clock signal supplied to the decoder responsive to the detected power control condition. For example, the read channel circuitry may comprise a clock generator configured to gate the clock signal responsive to a control signal from the power management circuitry.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 11, 2012 (13/609,387).

Managing end of life in SSD
LSI Corp., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,745,449) developed by David L. Dreifus, Clinton, NJ, Robert W. Warren, Loveland, CO, and Brian McKean, Longmont, CO, for “systems and methods for managing end of life in a solid state drive.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for managing solid state drives. As an example, a storage system is described that include at least a first flash memory block and a second flash memory block, and a control circuit. The first flash memory block and the second flash memory block are addressable in the storage system. The control circuit is operable to identify the first flash memory block as partially failed, receive a write request directed to the first flash memory block; and direct the write request to the second flash memory block.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 11, 2012 (13/347,827).