Richard Martin Frank

US Patent:

6490671, Dec 3, 2002

Filed:

May 28, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/321990

Inventors:

Richard L. Frank - Groton MA
Gopalan Arun - Nashua NH
Michael J. Cusson - Chelmsford MA
Daniel E. OShaughnessy - Hollis NH

Assignee:

Oracle Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 1208

US Classification:

711207, 711202, 711206, 711208

Abstract:

A method for maintaining virtual memory consistency in a multi-processor environment comprises allocating a subset of virtual memory to a process, and mapping the subset of virtual memory to a first subset of physical memory. A translator lookaside buffer (TLB) is maintained in each processor, each TLB comprising a plurality of TLB entries. Each TLB entry represents a mapping between a virtual address in the subset of virtual memory and a physical address in the first subset of physical memory. When the subset of virtual memory is to be unmapped, a reference to the first subset of physical memory is placed into a free list, and marked as dirty. When the number of dirty references exceeds a predetermined threshold, the corresponding entries in each processors TLB are invalidated. Alternatively, all TLB entries can be invalidated. The free list comprises a plurality of free list entries, where each entry comprises a reference to virtual memory which is either unmapped or whose mapping is dirty.

US Patent:

6532494, Mar 11, 2003

Filed:

May 28, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/321998

Inventors:

Richard L. Frank - Groton MA
Michael J. Cusson - Chelmsford MA
Joydip Kundu - Nashua NH
Daniel E. OShaughnessy - Hollis NH

Assignee:

Oracle International Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 1300

US Classification:

709224

Abstract:

A quorumless network cluster provides a highly available system by addressing the partition-in-space and partition-in-time problems in network clusters. In a particular solution, a cluster manager (CM) can use disk based messaging to manage the operation of the cluster. Each node within the cluster must have access to a shared disk to operate within the cluster. A particular methodology can operate the cluster in a closed loop between nodes to N. If a node fails to receive a heartbeat message from its predecessor in the loop, it initiates a cluster reconfiguration by sending a reconfiguration message to each other node in the cluster. The quorumless cluster can also include a common storage for a cluster definition. Each node may provide a proposed change to the cluster definition, however only a single coordinator node may update the cluster definition and apply the suggested changes.

US Patent:

6871222, Mar 22, 2005

Filed:

May 28, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/321090

Inventors:

Richard L. Frank - Groton MA, US
Michael J. Cusson - Chelmsford MA, US
Joydip Kundu - Nashua NH, US
Daniel E. O'Shaughnessy - Hollis NH, US

Assignee:

Oracle International Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F012/00

US Classification:

709223, 709229

Abstract:

A quorumless network cluster provides a highly available system by addressing the partition-in-space and partition-in-time problems in network clusters. In a particular solution, a cluster manager (CM) can use disk based messaging to manage the operation of the cluster. Each node within the cluster must have access to a shared disk to operate within the cluster. A particular methodology can operate the cluster in a closed loop between nodes 1 to N. If a node fails to receive a heartbeat message from its predecessor in the loop, it initiates a cluster reconfiguration by sending a reconfiguration message to each other node in the cluster.

US Patent:

7076783, Jul 11, 2006

Filed:

May 28, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/321967

Inventors:

Richard L. Frank - Groton MA, US
Michael J. Cusson - Chelmsford MA, US
Joydip Kundu - Nashu NH, US
Daniel E. O'Shaughnessy - Hollis NH, US

Assignee:

Oracle International Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 3/00

US Classification:

719313, 709220, 709223

Abstract:

A quorumless network cluster provides a highly available system by addressing the partition-in-space and partition-in-time problems in network clusters. In a particular solution, a cluster manager (CM) can use disk based messaging to manage the operation of the cluster. Each node within the cluster must have access to a shared disk to operate within the cluster. A particular methodology can operate the cluster in a closed loop between nodes to N. If a node fails to receive a heartbeat message from its predecessor in the loop, it initiates a cluster reconfiguration by sending a reconfiguration message to each other node in the cluster. The quorumless cluster can also include a common storage for a cluster definition. Each node may provide a proposed change to the cluster definition, however only a single coordinator node may update the cluster definition and apply the suggested changes.

US Patent:

7194740, Mar 20, 2007

Filed:

May 28, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/321809

Inventors:

Richard L. Frank - Groton MA, US
Gopalan Arun - Nashua NH, US
Michael J. Cusson - Chelmsford MA, US
Daniel E. O'Shaughnessy - Hollis NH, US

Assignee:

Oracle International Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 9/46
G06F 12/00

US Classification:

718102, 711 1, 711100

Abstract:

A method and system provides a requested memory to a requesting process. The memory is requested by a consumer process residing in application space. The consumer process requests the requested memory from a Very Large Memory (VLM) driver in the operating system. The size of the requested memory may be larger than the maximum size per process supported by the operating system. The VLM driver creates one or more donor processes residing in application space dependent on the size of the requested memory. Each donor process requests an allocation of a portion of memory less than the maximum size per process supported by the operating system. Having received the requested memory, the donor process transfers ownership of the portion of memory to the VLM driver. The VLM driver provides the requested memory provided by the donor processes to the consumer process.

US Patent:

8108873, Jan 31, 2012

Filed:

Mar 14, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/724522

Inventors:

Richard L. Frank - Groton MA, US
Gopalan Arun - Nashua NH, US
Michael J. Cusson - Chelmsford MA, US
Daniel E. O'Shaughnessy - Hollis NH, US

Assignee:

Oracle International Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 9/46
G06F 9/26
G06F 3/00

US Classification:

718104, 711203, 719321

Abstract:

A method and system provides a requested memory to a requesting process. The memory is requested by a consumer process residing in application space. The consumer process requests the requested memory from a Very Large Memory (VLM) driver in the operating system. The size of the requested memory may be larger than the maximum size per process supported by the operating system. The VLM driver creates one or more donor processes residing in application space dependent on the size of the requested memory. Each donor process requests an allocation of a portion of memory less than the maximum size per process supported by the operating system. Having received the requested memory, the donor process transfers ownership of the portion of memory to the VLM driver. The VLM driver provides the requested memory provided by the donor processes to the consumer process.

US Patent:

57908516, Aug 4, 1998

Filed:

Apr 15, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/843332

Inventors:

Richard Frank - Groton MA
Gopolan Arun - Nashua NH
Richard Anderson - Nashua NH
Stephen Klein - Hollis NH

Assignee:

Oracle Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 940

US Classification:

395674

Abstract:

An arbitration procedure allowing processes and their associated processors to perform useful work while they have pending service requests for access to shared resources within a multi-processor system environment. The arbitration procedure of the present invention is implemented within a multi-processor system (e. g. , a symmetric multi-processor system) wherein multiple processes can simultaneously request "locks" which control access to shared resources such that access to these shared resources are globally synchronized among the many processes. Rather than assigning arbitration to the operating system, the present invention provides an arbitration procedure that is application-specific. This arbitration process provides a reservation mechanism for contending processes such that any given process only requests a lock call to the operating system when a lock is available for that process, thereby avoiding spinlock by the operating system. During the period between a lock request and a lock grant, a respective process is allowed to perform other useful work that does not need access to the shared resource.

US Patent:

58931660, Apr 6, 1999

Filed:

May 1, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/847046

Inventors:

Richard Frank - Groton MA
Gopalan Arun - Nashua NH
Richard Anderson - Nashua NH
Stephen Klein - Hollis NH

Assignee:

Oracle Corporation - Redwood Shores CA

International Classification:

G06F 1214

US Classification:

711163

Abstract:

An addressing method and computer system for sharing a large memory address space using address space within an operating system's virtual address space. The system provides sharing the SSB over many processes without the disadvantages associated with process based global sections. For instance, the novel system does not require that each process maintain its own dedicated page table entries (PTEs) in order to access the SSB thereby requiring less operating system virtual memory to maintain the PTE data structures. The system uses a process to switch to kernel mode, then identifies those sections of the operating system virtual memory space that are not being used; in some cases the unused address space can be 1. 5-1. 8 gigabytes in size. The unused address space is linked together to form the SSB.