Michael P Swift

US Patent:

7673174, Mar 2, 2010

Filed:

Apr 6, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/398799

Inventors:

Michael Swift - Madison WI, US
Brian Bershad - Seattle WA, US
Hank Levy - Seattle WA, US

Assignee:

University of Washington - Seattle WA

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 15, 714 2, 719321

Abstract:

A solution to the problem of maintaining application integrity when device drivers fail. This solution employs a new mechanism, the shadow driver, which is an operating system (OS) kernel agent that monitors communication between the OS kernel and the device driver it “shadows. ” When a device driver error occurs, the shadow driver acts in place of the failed device driver, intercepting and responding to calls from the OS kernel and the device driver during cleanup, unloading, reloading, and re-initialization of the failed device driver. Applications and the OS kernel are thus isolated from the failure. An initial embodiment was developed for use with the Linux™ OS and was tested with a dozen device drivers. Results demonstrate that shadow drivers successfully mask device driver failures from applications, impose minimal performance overhead, require no changes to existing applications and device drivers, and can be implemented with relatively little code.

US Patent:

7741575, Jun 22, 2010

Filed:

Aug 9, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/199259

Inventors:

Brian C. Bowers - Mundelein IL, US
Steven J. Krejcik - Brookfield IL, US
Walter S. Conard - Lake Villa IL, US
Michael R. Swift - Libertyville IL, US

Assignee:

Bowe Bell + Howell Company - Durham NC

International Classification:

G06K 9/00

US Classification:

209584, 209583, 382101

Abstract:

Mail processing methods and techniques for sorting and commingling mail from various mail sources including the tracking of the mail pieces through processing. Such tracking entails uniquely identifying each mail piece, received in batches from the mail sources, and recording the unique identification of each mail piece. The received mail is sorted and commingled in a first pass, to form first collections, and each first collection is loaded into a uniquely identified mail container. For each respective mail piece, the tracking entails recording an association of the unique identification of one of the mail containers into which it is likely the respective mail piece is sorted on the first pass. After processing is complete, postal and client reports can be adjusted based on actual first pass counts.

US Patent:

8063332, Nov 22, 2011

Filed:

Apr 1, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/078499

Inventors:

Brian C. Bowers - Mundelein IL, US
Steven J. Krejcik - Brookefield IL, US
Walter S. Conard - Lake Villa IL, US
Michael R. Swift - Libertyville IL, US

Assignee:

Bell and Howell, LLC - Durham NC

International Classification:

G06K 9/00

US Classification:

209584, 209552, 209583, 209900

Abstract:

Mail processing methods and techniques for sorting and commingling mail from various mail sources including the tracking of the mail pieces through the processing. Such tracking entails uniquely identifying each mail piece, received in batches from the mail sources, and recording the unique identification of each mail piece. The received mail is sorted and commingled in a first pass, to form first collections, and each first collection is loaded into a uniquely identified mail container. For each respective mail piece, the tracking entails recording an association of the unique identification of one of the mail containers into which it is likely the respective mail piece is sorted on the first pass. After processing is complete, postal and client reports can be adjusted based on actual final pass counts.

US Patent:

8239633, Aug 7, 2012

Filed:

Jul 9, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/217811

Inventors:

David A. Wood - Madison WI, US
Mark D. Hill - Madison WI, US
Michael M. Swift - Madison WI, US
Michael R. Marty - Madison WI, US
Luke Yen - Fitchburg WI, US
Kevin E. Moore - Mill Valley CA, US
Jayaram Bobba - Madison WI, US
Haris Volos - Madison WI, US

Assignee:

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation - Madison WI

International Classification:

G06F 12/08

US Classification:

711141, 711E12026

Abstract:

A coherence controller in hardware of an apparatus in an example detects conflicts on coherence requests through direct, non-broadcast employment of signatures that: summarize read-sets and write-sets of memory transactions; and provide false positives but no false negatives for the conflicts on the coherence requests. The signatures comprise fixed-size representations of a substantially arbitrary set of addresses for the read-sets and the write-sets of the memory transactions.

US Patent:

8301297, Oct 30, 2012

Filed:

Mar 3, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/716644

Inventors:

Brian Bowers - Mundelein IL, US
Michael Swift - Libertyville IL, US

Assignee:

Bell and Howell, LLC - Durham NC

International Classification:

G06F 7/00
G06K 9/00

US Classification:

700226, 700224, 700219, 209583, 209584

Abstract:

The present application relates to a system and method for sorting mailpieces prior to their delivery to the postal authority. The system and method allow for the running of different first pass sort schemes on multiple sorters in a sorting facility without stopping operations for no-count mode, without losing mailpiece tracking, or waiting for all first pass sorting to complete before re-running the mail that was not sorted to the finest depth of sorting. With the present application, mailpieces that can be run a second time can be run concurrently during first pass without the high risk no-count mode or loss of data integrity.

US Patent:

8510597, Aug 13, 2013

Filed:

Feb 8, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/023354

Inventors:

Michael M. Swift - Madison WI, US
Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau - Madison WI, US
Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau - Madison WI, US
Swaminathan Sundararaman - Madison WI, US
Sriram Subramanian - Madison WI, US
Abhishek Rajimwale - Santa Clara CA, US

Assignee:

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation - Madison WI

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 15, 714 2

Abstract:

In general, techniques are described for enabling a restartable file system. A computing device comprising a processor that executes an operating system may implement the techniques. The processor executes kernel and file system functions of the operating system to perform an operation, where both types of functions call each other to perform the operation. The operating system stores data identifying those of the kernel functions that called the file system functions. In response to determining that one of the file system functions that was called has failed, the operating system accesses the data to identify one of the kernel functions that most recently called one of the file system functions, and returns control to the identified one of the kernel functions without executing any of the file system functions called after the identified one of the kernel functions and prior to the one of the file system functions that failed.

US Patent:

20170243038, Aug 24, 2017

Filed:

Feb 21, 2017

Appl. No.:

15/438425

Inventors:

- Durham NC, US
Michael R. Swift - Libertyville IL, US
Steven Seburn - Buffalo Grove IL, US

International Classification:

G06K 7/10
G06K 7/14

Abstract:

A method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium for generating an error reconciliation report include receiving operational input data obtained by one or more automated sensors, as well as receiving electronic data records, in the form of one or more IMb data sources, for each mail piece from manufacturing processes, during mail processing; receiving an error report, which comprises a list of Intelligent Mailer barcodes (IMbs) alleged to contain errors associated therewith, wherein the error report is generated automatically by a postal authority; loading the operational input data and the error report into an IMb database; providing an error reconciliation processor in electrical communication with the IMb database; comparing, using the error reconciliation processor, the operational input data against the list of IMbs from the error report against one or more criteria; and generating an error reconciliation report, which comprises results of the comparing step.

US Patent:

20160246730, Aug 25, 2016

Filed:

Feb 20, 2015

Appl. No.:

14/627472

Inventors:

- Madison WI, US
Mark D. Hill - Madison WI, US
Michael M. Swift - Madison WI, US

International Classification:

G06F 12/10

Abstract:

The translation of virtual guest addresses to host physical addresses in a virtualized computer system provides a compound page table that may simultaneously support nested-paging and shadow-paging for different memory regions. Memory regions with stable address mapping, for example, holding program code, may be treated using shadow-paging while memory regions with dynamic address mapping, for example, variable storage, may be treated using nested-paging thereby obtaining the benefits of both techniques.