Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for securing volatile data in power failure in systems having redundancy

US6990603B2 · kind B2 · utility

23Cited by
20References
70Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJan 2, 2002
Grant dateJan 24, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 23, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/2038
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for transferring data between a main volatile memory and a backup memory in a redundant system comprised of a main sub-system and a mirror sub-system is provided. For the purpose of preserving uninterruptible power supply energy, data is continuously transferred to back-up memory which may be a corresponding volatile memory of the mirror sub-system, or a non-volatile memory of the main sub-system. The method further includes the steps of detecting a loss of system power, transferring data from volatile memory to non-volatile memory, and turning off the power supply of the non-volatile memory module. The method is capable of detecting the status of the uninterruptible power supply of the mirror system and if that system is operative then only data not previously backed up is transferred to main non-volatile memory; otherwise, if a power failure is detected in both sub-systems all data in volatile memory, not previously written to non-volatile memory is transferred to non-volatile memory.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.