Apple has been granted a patent (number 8286127) by the U.S Patent & Trademark Office for a mirrored file system. It involves the Time Machine back-up feature in Mac OS X.

Per the patent, mounting and populating a mirrored version of at least a portion of a file system of a recruiter machine at a volunteer machine performing one or more data processing tasks for the recruiter machine is disclosed. In some embodiments, an input stored in such a dedicated file system for the recruiter machine at the volunteer machine may be locally retrieved and reused, if still consistent with a corresponding input stored in a file system at the recruiter machine, when performing a data processing task for the recruiter machine at the volunteer machine.

In some embodiments, if an input required by the volunteer machine to perform a data processing task for the recruiter machine is not cached in such a dedicated file system for the recruiter machine at the volunteer machine in a state that is consistent with a corresponding input stored in a file system at the recruiter machine, the input is obtained from the recruiter machine.

The inventors are William M. Bumgarner, Adam C. Swift and Andrew Gross.

Apple has also been granted:

° Patent number 8286198 for application programming interfaces for data parallel computing on multiple processors.

° Patent number 8284721 for methods and an apparatus for antenna isolation-dependent coexistence in wireless systems.

° Patent number 8284271 for a system, apparatus, computer readable medium, and method for noise reduction in image capturing devices involving an edge-preserving blur window.

° Patent number 82842051 for methods and apparatuses for load balancing between multiple processing units.

° Patent number 8286196 for parallel runtime execution on multiple processors.

° Patent number 8286081 for editing and saving key-indexed geometries in media editing applications.

° Patent number 8286989 for establishing a secured communication session in a communication system between a user using an untrusted device and a server.

° Patent number 8285949 for secure methods and systems for securely installing software on a computing device, such as a mobile device.

° Patent number 8285499 for a method that executes software including a view hierarchy with a plurality of views which displays one or more views of the view hierarchy.

° Patent number 8285208 for systems and methods for noise cancellation and power management in a wireless headset.

° Patent number 8284792 for buffer minimization in an interface controller.

° Patent number 8281244 for an user interface for media playback.