The technology industry continues to be a hotbed of patent innovation. Activity is driven by the increasing demand for flexible and dynamic IT infrastructures, along with the rising adoption of virtualization technologies in various industries, and growing importance of technologies such as memory ballooning, memory overcommitment, and memory deduplication. In the last three years alone, there have been over 4.1 million patents filed and granted in the technology industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Cloud in technology: virtual machine memory management. Buy the report here.
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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 1.5 million patents to analyze innovation intensity for the technology industry, there are 190+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Virtual machine memory management is a key innovation area in cloud
Virtual machine memory management encompasses strategies and approaches for the effective administration of memory assets within virtualized environments. It entails overseeing tasks such as memory allocation, translating virtual addresses, optimizing caches, swapping pages, and implementing system-level memory enhancements to enhance the overall performance and productivity of virtualized systems.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 30+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established technology companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of virtual machine memory management.
Key players in virtual machine memory management – a disruptive innovation in the technology industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of applications identified for each patent. It broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of countries each patent is registered in. It reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to virtual machine memory management
| Company | Total patents (2010 - 2022) | Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies |
| Qualcomm | 41 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Texas Instruments | 3 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Apple | 3 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Alibaba Group | 5 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Hitachi | 20 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Citrix Systems | 14 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CommVault Systems | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Renesas Electronics | 11 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Advanced Micro Devices | 33 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Marvell Technology | 6 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Infineon Technologies | 3 | Unlock Company Profile |
| VMware | 97 | Unlock Company Profile |
| IBM | 265 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Unisys | 18 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Intel | 247 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Micron Technology | 18 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Stratoscale | 4 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Global Foundries | 9 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Nutanix | 12 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Open Invention Network | 5 | Unlock Company Profile |
| CNEX Labs | 3 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Verizon Patent And Licensing | 2 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Bitdefender Ipr Management | 26 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Idemia Identity & Security | 2 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit Design | 3 | Unlock Company Profile |
| Virtuozzo International | 3 | Unlock Company Profile |
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Among the companies innovating in cloud-enabled virtual machine memory management, Intel is one of the leading patents filers. The company’s patents are aimed at a disclosure describing a processor comprising a hardware input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) and a core responsible for executing an instruction to capture a payload originating from a virtual machine (VM). The payload includes details like a guest Bus Device Function (BDF) identifier, a guest Address Space Identifier (ASID), and a guest address range. The core then accesses a virtual machine control structure stored in memory to retrieve pointers to both a first set and a second set of translation tables. By navigating through these sets, the core converts the guest BDF identifier into a host BDF identifier using the first set, and similarly, transforms the guest ASID into a host ASID using the second set. These host identifiers are subsequently stored in the payload. Finally, an administrative command, comprising the payload, is sent to the hardware IOMMU to carry out the invalidation process for the specified guest address range. Other prominent patent filers in the space include VMware and Qualcomm.
In terms of application diversity, Micron Technology leads the pack, while Unisys and VMware stood in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Bitdefender Ipr Management held the top positions, followed by Renesas Electronics and Citrix Systems.
Cloud-enabled virtual machine memory management revolutionizes how memory resources are allocated and utilized in virtualized systems. By leveraging cloud-based solutions, it allows for efficient management of memory allocation, address translation, cache optimization, page swapping, and overall memory optimization. The approach significantly enhances the performance and efficiency of virtualized systems. Furthermore, it enables dynamic resource allocation, ensuring that virtual machines receive the necessary memory resources as per their requirements.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the technology industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Technology.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
