NEC Assigned Eight Patents

Magnetic tape device and maintenance
NEC Platforms, Ltd., Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,870,794) developed by Ojima, Kenichi, Kawasaki, Japan, for a “magnetic tape device and magnetic tape maintenance method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A magnetic tape device includes a magnetic tape as a storage medium, a travel unit that moves the magnetic tape along a travel route, a magnetic head that is arranged at the travel route and performs data reading and writing for the magnetic tape that moves on the travel route, and a lifter unit that is arranged at the travel route and contacts the magnetic tape which is stopped on the travel route, where the lifter unit is able to reciprocate in a direction that intersects the travel route so as to separate the magnetic tape from the magnetic head.”

The patent application was filed on March 26, 2015 (15/129,329).

Distributed storage
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,870,402) developed by Kobayashi, Dai, and Yamakawa, Satoshi, Tokyo, Japan, for a “distributed storage device, storage node, data providing method, and medium.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed storage device according to the present invention includes: a plurality of storage nodes, the plurality of storage nodes includes: a data storage unit that accumulates stream data output from a device, a first time frame generation unit that generates a time frame synchronized with another storage node and associates a data element included in stream data accumulated in the data storage unit with one of time frames, a data selection unit that selects a data element associated with a predetermined time frame from the stream data accumulated in the data storage unit, based on an access request from a client terminal, and a data transmission unit that transmits a data element selected by the data selection unit to the client terminal.”

The patent application was filed on September 27, 2013 (14/427,182).

Storage system
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,858,287) developed by Noda, Kenji, Tokyo, Japan, for a “storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The storage system includes a data dividing means for dividing writing target data into a plurality of units of partial data, and generating units of new divided file data, an index file generation means for generating, for each of the units of partial data, an index entry, and generating index file data by adding test data for error detection, a data writing means for writing the divided file data and the index file data, and a recovery means for detecting an error in the index entries written in the storage device, based on the test data included in each of the index entries. The recovery means deletes an index entry in which an error is detected and all of the subsequent index entries in the index file data stored in the storage device, from the index file data.”

The patent application was filed on November 30, 2011 (13/981,166).

Cache device
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,858,204) developed by Kajimoto, Youhei, Tokyo, Japan, for a “cache device, cache system, and cache method.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A cache device connected to a storage device and connected to a plurality of sources, including a cache unit that relays a read request and a read response between a source and a storage device, and a storage area control unit that stores the source as a first history in association with specification of first data in a read request, and, if the first data are not retained by the cache unit and a storage area sufficient for retaining the first data does not exist, selects data associated with a less number of the sources in the first history as second data in preference to data associated with a greater number of the sources out of the first data or data retained by the cache unit, and, if the second data differ from the first data, causes the cache unit to discard the second data and then store the first data.”

The patent application was filed on December 9, 2015 (14/964,074).

Secure erasure of data
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,852,305) developed by Gajek, Sebastian, Flensburg, Germany, for a “method for provably secure erasure of data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for provably secure erasure of data, performed in a memory available to one or more computing devices, includes generating prover state information, PSI, verifier state information, VSI, and common reference information, (CRI) based on security information, a pregiven time-constraint, and a pregiven space-constraint, the generating PSI, VSI, and CRI being performed interactively between a prover computing device, PCD, and a verifier computing device, (VCD), computing, by the VCD based on the VSI, a challenge, computing a proof-of-erasure, (POE) by the PCD based on the PSI and the computed challenge, the POE having a size corresponding to the pregiven space-constraint, and verifying by the VCD based on the VSI and the POE.”

The patent application was filed on October 21, 2015 (15/502,506).

Data replicating
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,836,361) developed by Arai, Ichiro, Tokyo, Japan, for a “data replicating system, data replicating method, node device, management device and computer readable medium.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Each node constituting this data replicating system returns a response to a data operation requesting device upon having written, into a temporary storage device of the node itself, a post-update log of a data record for which an operation requested by a data operation request was executed. Furthermore, when a checkpoint is reached, each node updates a data record storage unit of the node itself on the basis of the post-update log of the data record stored in the temporary storage device of the node itself, writes the post-update log of the data record stored in the temporary storage device of the node itself into an update history storage unit of the node itself, and writes, into a shared storage device shared with other nodes, checkpoint information having information for specifying a latest post-update log written into the update history storage unit.”

The patent application was filed on December 16, 2013 (14/776,314).

Disk array
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,804,805) developed by Tanaka, Yoji, Tokyo, Japan, for a “disk array apparatus, control method therefor, and storage medium.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A disk array apparatus includes a conversion rule storage unit that stores a conversion rule associated with a plurality of generations in a configuration table of the disk array apparatus and a control unit that, from a disk device which stores a generation identifier indicating the generation and a configuration table, retrieves the generation identifier, and converts the configuration table on the basis of the conversion rule associated with the retrieved generation identifier.”

The patent application was filed on January 21, 2015 (14/601,393).

Distributed storage
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,787,585) developed by Hieda, Satoshi, Tokyo, Japan, for a “distributed storage system, control apparatus, client terminal, load balancing method and program.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed storage system includes: a plurality of servers that store data that is associated with key information, respectively, a packet forwarding apparatus that, on receipt of a new packet that contains the key information and is addressed to one of the plurality of servers, requests a control apparatus to decide a forwarding destination from among the plurality of servers, and the control apparatus. The control apparatus includes: a forwarding destination selection section that decides a forwarding destination of the packet based on key information in a header part of the packet, and an entry setting section that sets, in a packet forwarding apparatus(es) on a path to the forwarding destination, a flow entry for forwarding a subsequent packet(s) with same key information to the forwarding destination. The packet forwarding apparatus(es) forwards a packet(s) with the same key information to the forwarding destination using the set flow entry.”

The patent application was filed on March 29, 2013 (14/388,654).