A CNC machine for producing spiral-toothed bevel gears is described, which has a first carriage supporting a tool spindle and is displaceable in height, and whose guide is disposed on a lateral surface of a machine housing, which is horizontally guided in a straight coordinate axis on a machine base. The tool spindle axis is parallel with the lateral surface and with the coordinate axis. Furthermore, the machine has a workpiece spindle support having a second carriage and a pivoting device with a vertical axis and is also horizontally guided on the machine base. The parallel arrangement of the tool spindle axis results in a new machine concept with a compact structure and optimal chip flow. Therefore the machine is particularly suited for heavy-duty dry milling. Since the tool spindle is not located above the area of the machine having a horizontal guide, it is possible to arrange a chip collector underneath the tool spindle, which can be reached by the chips essentially under the force of gravity.

This application is a substitute of reissue Ser. No. 09/538,859, now abandoned.
The invention relates to a machine for producing spiral-toothed bevel gears, in particular a CNC machine, with a first carriage which supports a tool spindle and is displaceable in height, whose guide is disposed on a lateral surface of a machine housing, which is horizontally guided in a straight coordinate axis on a machine base, wherein the tool spindle axis is parallel with the lateral surface, and with a workpiece spindle support having a second carriage and a pivoting device with a vertical axis, which is also horizontally guided on the machine base.
Gear cutting machines for bevel gears, wherein the conventional generating cradle or generating drum has been replaced by a type of a compound carriage, are usually embodied in accordance with the following concept: a tool or cutter head spindle and its drive are located on a first carriage, which performs the vertical portion of the former generating drum rotation. For its part, this carriage is guided on a machine housing, which is displaced on a horizontal guide of the machine base in order for the cutter head to dip into the workpiece. The horizontal part of the former generating drum is in this case performed by a workpiece spindle support. Examples of such machines are recited in what follows.
A problem in the design of such gear cutting machines is the fact that chips generated in the course of gear cutting remain on the horizontal guide tracks on the machine base or on their cover. During wet milling they must be conveyed away by a strong oil flow. With a weak oil flow or with gear cutting without oil, so-called dry milling which is desired for ecological reasons today, considerable problems arise on account of the chips. Since during dry milling the chips absorb 80% of the heat, heat distortion of the guides and of the machine housing and therefore inaccuracies and impediments in the feed movement can arise. Chip removal is expensive, both in connection with wet and dry milling, if machine damage is to be prevented. The ergonomic arrangement of the operating elements is also important when designing such gear cutting machines in order to assure the rapid and safe set-up of the machine tools. This means that for an operator in particular the tool and the workpiece must be easily accessible for changing without having to bend over into the machine.
A machine of the type described in the field of the invention, which is constructed in accordance with the above concept, is represented in USSR Letters Patent 724 287. The tool spindle axis of this machine is arranged at right angles to the straight coordinate axis of the machine housing, in which the machine housing is horizontally guided on the machine base. Furthermore, the tool spindle is located on a side of the machine housing facing away from the operator. A change in tools is therefore connected with a corresponding elaboration. Since furthermore in this embodiment the place where the tool and the workpiece are in engagement during gear cutting is located above the machine base, an accumulation of chips on the machine base and on the guides cannot be avoided.
CNC gear cutting machines are described in the international patent publication WO 89/01838 and in East German Letters Patent 255 296 A1, wherein the tool spindle is respectively disposed parallel with the straight coordinate axis of the machine housing and at right angles to a lateral surface of the machine housing, wherein the respective lateral surface also extends at right angles to the straight coordinate axis of the machine housing. The mentioned chip accumulation therefore also occurs on the guides and on the machine base of these known gear cutting machines. It is furthermore necessary for an operator to bend over into the machine for changing the tool and/or the workpiece.
An advantageous chip run-off into an appropriate collection chamber is assured with lathes, such as are known from German Published, Non-Examined Patent Application DE-OS 24 27 148 or from German Letters Patent 3 921 649. But these are machine tools of a different type, which are not constructed in accordance with the compound carriage concept.
As already mentioned above, in gear cutting machines the operating elements should be ergonomically arranged. This requirement is met, for example, by the gear cutting machine known from the above mentioned East German Letters Patent 255 296 A1, wherein with manual feeding the workpiece can be moved to the operator. The gear cutting machine known from USSR Letters Patent 724 287 mentioned further above does not meet this requirement.
The efficient operation of the known gear cutting machines is furthermore made more difficult because of their high degree of susceptibility to dirt, besides the unergonomic arrangement of the operating elements.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the design of a machine for producing spiral-toothed bevel gears, in particular a CNC machine, with a first carriage which supports a tool spindle and is displaceable in height, whose guide is disposed on a lateral surface of a machine housing, which is horizontally guided in a straight coordinate axis on a machine base, wherein the tool spindle axis is parallel with the lateral surface, and with a workpiece spindle support having a second carriage and a pivoting device with a vertical axis, which is also horizontally guided on the machine base, in such a way that it permits ergonomic operation, but no movement deviation.
This object is attained by a machine of the type mentioned at the outset by means of the lateral surface being selected in such a way that the tool spindle axis extends parallel with the straight coordinate axis.
Advantageous embodiments are the subject of the dependent claims.
Since with the machine in accordance with the invention the tool spindle axis is parallel with the lateral surface of the machine housing on which the first carriage is disposed, the operating elements of the machine can be arranged in such a way that an ergonomical operation is possible. It is possible in this case to arrange both carriages on the same side, viewed from the position of the operator, which allows a simple, safe and efficient operation of the machine. The mechanical structure of the machine in accordance with the invention is such that with manual feeding the workpiece is moved to the operator. Because of this the machine in accordance with the invention is also particularly ergonomic. No bending into the machine is required for changing a workpiece. Because of the arrangement in close proximity to the machine housing and the workpiece spindle support in the machine in accordance with the invention, the optimal distribution of the movements on the tool and workpiece sides is possible with an optimal flow of force, because of which a maximum process stiffness can be achieved. This is of importance, since with CNC machines the static stiffness of the machine must be as large as possible, the same as with mechanical machines. However, this is not the only determining parameter with CNC machines. Because of the control circuits which consist of an actuator (servo motor and machine element), controller (CNC and axis actuator) and a position sensor (measuring system), a much more complex technical control behavior results. This pertains in particular to the movement deviation which, in CNC machines, is a function of the static stiffness and the quality of the control circuits, besides an effective chip and heat removal. Static stiffness is optimally assured with the machine in accordance with the invention, since the arrangement of the operating elements makes short and very stiff drive trains possible. The close arrangement next to each other of the tool spindle support and the machine housing furthermore allows a very compact structure of the machine in accordance with the invention possible.
If in an embodiment of the invention the lateral surface is furthermore selected in such a way that the tool spindle is not located above an area of the machine including a horizontal guide of the workpiece spindle support or of the machine housing, into which chips could be introduced during the operation, no horizontal guides, which could become soiled by chips, are located in this area. This area of the machine can furthermore be used for other uses than guiding. A completely unhindered access to at least the first carriage of the machine is furthermore possible, which simplifies the maintenance of the carriage and the changing of the tools.
If a chip collector is arranged underneath the tool spindle, which the chips essentially reach under the effects of gravity, the chips can be caught in a simple manner and removed. In this case the machine base can be usefully recessed at least at the place where the chip collector will be arranged. Since, as explained above, the chips take 80% of the heat along with them during dry milling, heating of the machine base is also prevented by means of the chip collector. Therefore the requirement is met to provide for the fastest possible removal of the chips during dry milling and to prevent their contact with the machine base or other parts of the machine as much as possible.
If in a further embodiment of the invention the workpiece spindle and the tool spindle are arranged in such a way that in the course of gear cutting the workpiece and the tool come into engagement at a place which is essentially located above the area of the machine which is free of the horizontal guide, it is even more assuredly provided that during dry milling the chips do not come into contact with parts of the machine which could be endangered by heat effects.
If in a still further embodiment of the invention the first carriage has a guide in a further straight coordinate axis, the Z-axis, which is inclined in respect to the vertical direction, this represents an inclined base arrangement in which the base of the machine housing can be made particularly wide in the direction transversely to the tool spindle axis. This leads to an especially large machine stiffness. A more advantageous chip conveyance into the chip collector also results from the inclined base arrangement, which is advantageous particularly in connection with dry milling. In this embodiment the machine in accordance with the invention is conceived for an optimal chip flow. Since the essential portion of the heat generated in the course of dry milling is removed by means of the chips, the inclined base arrangement makes it possible in a particularly safe manner that the thermal influence of the chips is removed in that the chips are not even brought into contact with the machine base or other functional elements of the machine, but instead drop into the chip collector as soon as possible. Although this is also the case with other embodiments of the machine in accordance with the invention, the inclined base arrangement offers the best conditions. Thus, by means of the special conception of the inclined base arrangement, the machine is not only especially stiff, but also especially well suited for dry milling.
The compact side by side arrangement of the machine housing and the workpiece spindle support, which is made possible by the arrangement in accordance with the invention of the tool spindle axis, offers the further advantage that to prevent failing of chips, the machine can be completely encapsulated. It is possible to provide covers which are designed so they are inclined toward the chip collector and guide those generated chips, which do not directly fall into the chip collector, to it. It is furthermore possible to provide sheathing, in particular between the machine housing and the workpiece spindle support, which protects both the second carriage and the pivoting device from falling chips. A chip guide constructed in this way with the aid of guide surfaces on the cover and the sheathing makes the machine in accordance with the invention particularly well suited for heavy-duty dry milling. But these advantages are also fully realized if it is intended to perform wet-milling for reasons of technology.

Machine for producing spiral-toothed bevel gears


In some implementations, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a state update command. The method further includes, in response to the state update command, sending a command to perform a state update in a first server of a plurality of servers and queueing incoming requests for access to the plurality of servers. The method further includes receiving confirmation from the first server that the state update was successful. The method further includes, after receiving the confirmation, sending a respective command to the plurality of servers to perform the state update and a scheduled update time associated with the state update. The method further includes receiving a respective state update message from a subset of the plurality of servers that the state update was successful and after receiving the state update message, transmitting the queued incoming requests to the subset of the plurality of servers.

Typical security procedures involve authentication of a device or user, e.g., based on a username and password combination, or other credentials) and tying it to roles defined via access control lists (ACLs) to determine the operations that a device or user can perform, e.g., data transfer operations. If device or user credentials are compromised, such procedures fail. For example, in deployments of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, a very large number of devices (e.g., millions of sensors) that send data may be outside a trusted perimeter of the enterprise (e.g., that receives data from such sensors and enables data analytics applications). Theft or other mechanisms that lead to such devices being connected to the enterprise with credentials that allow it to not just send data to the enterprise, but also allow it to extract data or perform administrative operations (e.g. delete data, etc.) can compromise security of enterprise data stores, e.g., distributed databases, and data customers, e.g., analytics applications, business logic applications that determine business parameters (e.g., pricing, manufacturing volume, etc.).
Further, distributed state update (in-memory or on persistence storage) of multiple servers (that may be geographically separated) is impossible to achieve without a lock. In typical distributed systems, a stored critical state is used to process data coming in from end devices (outside or within the network) and then have the data persisted. Updates to the stored critical state need to be performed in a manner that makes the state effective simultaneously across all the servers. Current distributed state update techniques do not include mechanisms to perform such update, and are error-prone.
When databases are utilized to receive and store data from various data sources (e.g., IoT sensors, point-of-sale systems, weblogs, clickstream data from browsers or mobile apps, etc.) such databases are configured to allow fast writes while sacrificing read operations. Such configuration limits the ability to perform real-time (or near real-time) analyses of data. Such analyses are valuable in many contexts, e.g., dynamic pricing or discounting, order fulfillment, etc. This problem is magnified when the databases are implemented in a distributed manner over multiple servers. Further, current databases that permit data analytics require data customers to develop custom code for analytical operations. Further, based on the type of analyses to be performed, such databases may also require expensive manual configuration of the distributed database and/or high costs to provide satisfactory performance.
Implementations described herein were conceived in the context of these problems.

Distributed data storage and analytics system


In an automatic analyzer which includes a reaction container which contains reaction solution therein, a light source which emit light to be transmitted through the reaction solution, a spectral detector which measures the light transmitted through the reaction solution, a memory which stores light measurement data measured by the spectral detector and a CPU which calculates the light measurement data stored in the memory to obtain a light intensity, wherein the spectral detector measures the light over an entirety of an area from one end to the other end of the reaction container at a portion where the reaction solution reserves, the memory stores the light measurement data measured by the spectral detector, and light measurement data in an area where the reaction solution exists is obtained from the memory to calculate a light intensity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer which conducts the qualitative and quantitative analysis of a biological sample such as blood or urine. In particular, the present invention relates to an automatic analyzer of a type where a light source and a spectral detector are disposed so as to oppose to each other via a reaction container thereby to measure a quantity of light transmitted through the reaction container.
2. Description of the Related Art
The automatic analyzer detects the presence/non-presence or measures a density of an objective component(s) within a biological sample such as blood or urine. Since the automatic analyzer is higher in the analyzing speed and the analyzing accuracy (reproducibility) as compared with a case where a medical technologist measures manually, the automatic analyzers have widely spread mainly in large hospitals and medical laboratories.
The automatic analyzer is arranged to measure absorbance in a manner that the optical axis of a transmission light is shifted sequentially to an adjacent reaction container while rotating reaction containers which are continuously disposed in a circumferential manner. In order to measure the absorbance accurately, the timing of the light measurement is required to be synchronized with the rotation of the reaction containers.
As a technique for satisfying such a requirement, JP-A-9-80055 discloses that detection plates (reaction container position detection means) having the same number as that of the reaction containers are provided in a circumferential manner concentrically above the reaction containers thereby to detect the positions of the reaction containers. JP-A-2000-258433 discloses a technique that the light measurement starting position of a reaction container is determined in accordance with an encoder signal from a direct drive motor having an encoder.


A cutting tool or wear surface having diamond particles chromium mounted thereon. The diamond particles are preferably less than approximately 1,000 nanometers in length. Chromium or chromium like material is preferably mounted to an article through immersion in a bath and electroplating, amongst other techniques.

The present invention relates to cutting tools and wear surfaces and, more specifically, to extending the usable life of those tools and surfaces.
Several types of cutting tools and wear surfaces are known in the art. Cutting tools include knife and saw blades, including those used to cut ceramic, wood, metal, semiconductor, etc. Wear surfaces generally refer to any industrial surface for which a hardened, extended wear surface is desired. Drums, gears, shafts, pulleys and almost any lubricated mechanically contacting surfaces are examples of wear surfaces within the present invention. While the present invention was initially developed in the context of toothed saw blades, it should be recognized that the present invention is applicable to all saw blades and wear surfaces, and particularly to metal substrated saw blades and wear surfaces.
Diamonds are known for their characteristic durability and hardness. For that reason, various diamond tipped saw blades have been developed. U.S. Patents disclosing such saw blades include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,992,268; 5,488,774; 5,408,983; and 5,316,559. Saw blades in these patents typically utilize amorphous diamond particles or other diamond or diamond like particles. The diamond material is mounted to the saw blade substrate by nickel mediated mounting (where the nickel acts as an adhesive), direct deposition via energized plasma, and graphite fiber or vapor mediated mounting, amongst others. In general, current techniques for mounting diamond particles are disadvantageous in that they are either too complicated, too expensive or do not produce sufficient, long lasting adhesion.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid Open Patent no. JP357127674A teaches an internal peripheral saw blade in which nickel is used to mount diamond particles to the aluminum substrate of the saw blade. Nickel is used, amongst other reasons, because it is a relatively soft metal and can be worked into a solution that facilitates electroplating. As a relatively soft metal, however, nickel does not provide a desired level of adhesion when subjected to physical stresses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,983, issued to Lazarou on Feb. 8, 1994, teaches a device to sharpen saw or knife blades, often referred to in the trade as a xe2x80x9cgrinder.xe2x80x9d In the sharpening or grinding device of Lazarou, the diamond particles are coated to the grinder substrate by an electro bonding-process in which the diamond particles are provided in solution with nickel chrome. This arrangement is disadvantageous in that it relies, at least in part, on nickel (which is disadvantageous for the reasons discussed above) and further in that it is limited to grinding devices. Grinding devices are typically more abrasive (rougher surfaces) and have different sized diamond particles than cutting blades or wear surfaces (wear surfaces tend to be rather smooth). Grinding devices are also typically subjected to greater abrasion forces than cutting or wear surfaces.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a saw blade or wear surface that has increased durability and extended life compared to prior art saw blades or wear surfaces.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such saw blades or wear surfaces in a cost effective manner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide saw blades or wear surface that are xe2x80x9chardenedxe2x80x9d with a layer of diamond particles that are mounted to the substrate with chromium.
It is also an object to use nanometer range diamond particles, amongst other sizes, in achieving saw blades or wear surfaces in accordance with the present invention.
In one embodiment, the present invention includes an article used in cutting or as a wear surface that has a body having a first surface, diamond particles, and a chromium containing material coupling the diamond particles to the first surface. The diamond particles may be less than approximately one micrometer in length or between 500 and 0.05 nanometers in length, or another size. The chromium containing material may contain elemental chromium and/or a chromium alloy. The surface having the diamond particles mounted thereon may be a cutting surface or a wear surface.
The present invention also includes an article made by the process of providing an article body having a first surface, providing diamond particles, and mounting the diamond particles to the first surface with a chromium containing material.
A method of forming such an article is also within the present invention.
These and related objects of the present invention are achieved by use of a chromium mounted diamond particle cutting tool or wear surface (and method and making same) as described herein.
The attainment of the foregoing and related advantages and features of the invention should be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art, after review of the following more detailed description of the invention taken together with the drawings.

Chromium mounted diamond particle cutting tool or wear surface and method


Reducing timing skew begins with identifying signals that are to have a reduced timing skew. These identified signals are then routed to reduce the layout distance of each signal path. Among these identified signals, a longest signal path is found and the signal paths of the remaining identified signals are lengthened. The lengthening is done to each of the remaining identified signal paths to each have a length substantially equal to the longest signal path whereby the timing skew between the identified signals is reduced. A signal length matching process may be stored as a program in a computer-readable medium with the program operable on a computer system tailored for providing chip placement and routing processes.

System on a chip designs continue to grow in complexity and performance as technology processes provide greater and greater densities. With increased densities and more and more signal paths having strict timing requirements, the routing of the numerous signal paths with minimum capacitance and signal to signal timing skew typically exceeds the capabilities of existing routing tools. The existing routing tools usually have features allowing special routing for data buses in order to reduce the skew between different data bits. The purpose of such a routing is to make sure that all the data bits in the bus are propagating to the destination within one clock cycle. Depending on the technology, routing distance and number of the signals, one can expect the timing skew to be reduced down to 50-100 picoseconds (ps) for rise edge skew or fall edge skew only. Requiring the skew to be reduced even further and also to reduce the skew between the rising and falling signal edges of multiple signals goes beyond the typical current routing tool capabilities.
A specific example of a high speed critical interface is an external memory interface. The external memory interface supplies input and output data paths between a chip and memory. Many times the interface runs at the highest clock rate of the chip. Depending upon the number of signals in the data path and the number of control lines and clocks, a significant number of high speed data paths may have to be routed to meet stringent timing requirements. Due to the complexities of current and future chip designs with thousands to millions of interconnecting wires, the use of current tools is not adequate to route these critical interface paths with minimum skew. For example, with a double data rate (DDR) external memory interface, the skew tolerance is very critical because data is transferred between the memory and the chip every half a clock cycle, using both edges of an interface clock. Data and clock signals in the DDR external memory interface propagate through the chips inputs and outputs, packaging, and printed circuit board paths which introduce noise on the signals. Due to the noise and signal skew, the clocking point where data is valid in a receiver circuit is critical with little tolerance. With DDR memory speeds exceeding 1 Gb/s, there is increased demand for reducing the rise/fall skew on the chip.

Methods and apparatus for reducing timing skew


An architecture for a line card in a network routing device is provided. The line card architecture provides a bi-directional interface between the routing device and a network, both receiving packets from the network and transmitting the packets to the network through one or more connecting ports. In both the receive and transmit path, packets processing and routing in a multi-stage, parallel pipeline that can operate on several packets at the same time to determine each packet's routing destination is provided. Once a routing destination determination is made, the line card architecture provides for each received packet to be modified to contain new routing information and additional header data to facilitate packet transmission through the switching fabric. The line card architecture further provides for the use of bandwidth management techniques in order to buffer and enqueue each packet for transmission through the switching fabric to a corresponding destination port. The transmit path of the line card architecture further incorporates additional features for treatment and replication of multicast packets.

In a data communication network, routing devices receive messages at one of a set of input interfaces and forward them on to one or more of a set of output interfaces. Users typically require that such routing devices operate as quickly as possible in order to keep pace with a high rate of incoming messages. In a packet routing network, where information messages are transmitted in discrete chunks or "packets" of data, each packet includes a header. A routing device uses the header information for routing the packet to an output interface for subsequent forwarding to a destination device. A routing device can forward the packet to another routing device for further processing and/or forwarding.
Header information used for routing can include destination and source addresses for the packet. Additionally, a routing device can use header information such as destination device port, source device port, protocol, packet length, and packet priority. Routing devices can use header information for access control, accounting, quality of service, or class of service.
FIG. 1 illustrates a generic packet routing device 100 such as that found in the prior art. Routing device 100 consists of a set of line cards 110 and a switching fabric 120. Each line card 110 includes an input interface 111, an output interface 112, a fabric interface 170, and a control element 130. Line cards 110 connect to communications network 1, which can be a local, enterprise, metropolitan, or wide-area network, through both input interface 111 and output interface 112. More than one input interface 111 or output interface 112 can be provided, with each interface carrying a fraction of the full capacity of control element 130.
Control element 130 is configured to receive inbound packets (i.e., packets entering the routing device from network 1) from input interface 111, process the packets, and transmit them through fabric interface 170 to switching fabric 120, which then sends the packets to another (or the same) line card 110 for further processing. This path to the switching fabric is the "receive" or ingress path into the routing device from the network.
Outbound packets (i.e., transmitted out of the routing device) are received from switching fabric 120 through fabric interface 170, processed in control element 130, and transmitted to network 1 on output interface 112. Accordingly, this path from the switching fabric is the "transmit" or egress path from the routing device to the network.
In the prior art, control element 130 can include an inbound packet receiver 140, lookup circuit 145, inbound memory controller 150, first memory 160, a second (outbound) lookup circuit 175, outbound memory controller 155, second memory 165, and outbound transmitter 180. Control circuits 190 are also provided to perform such tasks as configuration, initialization, statistics collection, and accounting functions, as well as to process certain exception packets.
In routing device 100, packets are received from the physical medium of the network at input interface 111. The inbound packet receiver 140 operates in conjunction with lookup circuit 145 to determine routing treatments for inbound packets. Lookup circuit 145 includes routing treatment information disposed in a memory structure. These routing treatments can include, for example, one or more of the following:                selection of one or more output interfaces to which to forward inbound packets responsive to the destination device, to the source and destination device, or to information in any other packet header fields (packets may also be dropped);        determination of access control list (ACL) treatment for inbound packets;        determination of class of service (COS) treatment for inbound packets;        determination of one or more accounting records or treatments for inbound packets; and        determination of other administrative treatment for inbound packets.
One shortcoming of traditional prior art packet routing systems is an inability of processors using software to perform necessary lookup and queue management functions in real time (i.e., approaching line rate of the incoming packets). As the need for increased packet throughput grows, such software-based systems lack sufficient scalability to meet the demands of modern data communications networks.
Prior art packet routing systems tuned for additional speed with hardware implementation of functions once performed by software exhibit a drawback of a lack of flexibility. As the hardware is less able to be reconfigured without replacement or redesign, these prior art packet routing systems can be rendered obsolete by the adoption of new standards and communication protocols.
A further drawback of prior art routing systems is their relative inability to rapidly provide a range of services, such as bandwidth management, based on packet priority, as represented by, for example, the various fields in a packet header. Such systems are often described as providing type of service (TOS), quality of service (QOS), or class of service (COS). Such prior art routing systems typically experience additional packet latency and throughput reduction when performing services such as bandwidth management based on packet priority, if they are capable of performing these features at all. In particular, so-called "edge" QOS features associated with, for example, leased-line aggregation and content aggregation are in particular need of support by new routing devices.
What is therefore needed is a flexible routing system, preferably distributed on a line card, that provides ultra-high throughput packet switching and bandwidth management. The system architecture should be able to be reconfigured to handle a variety of network protocols and optimization. In particular, low-latency routing determined by individual packet class of service is desired. Such a line card should operate at near line rate (i.e., at or near the maximum speed of transmission over the physical medium and without any appreciable buffering delay).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pipelined packet switching and queuing architecture


A method for verifying the accuracy of memory testing software is disclosed. A built-in self test (BIST) fail control function is utilized to generate multiple simulated memory fails at various predetermined locations within a memory array of a memory device. The memory array is then tested by a memory tester. Afterwards, a bit fail map is generated by the logical-to-physical mapping software based on all the memory fails indicated by the memory tester. The bit fail map provides all the fail memory locations derived by the logical-to-physical mapping software. The fail memory locations derived by the logical-to-physical mapping software are then compared to the predetermined memory locations to verify the accuracy of the logical-to-physical mapping software.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to software tools in general, and, in particular, to a software tool for verifying memory testing software. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for verifying the accuracy of logical-to-physical mapping software.
2. Description of Related Art
Conceptually speaking, diagnosing failures in a memory device is fairly straightforward. Basically, after a memory tester has detected a failure in a memory device, the logical address of the failed memory location is translated into a corresponding physical location within the memory device. Such translation is commonly known as a logical-to-physical translation and is typically performed by a logical-to-physical mapping software. Once the failed physical location of the memory device is known, different analyses can be performed. For example, photographic data of the memory device can be compared to the physical location obtained by a tester to determine whether or not they correlate to the same location.
Methods for obtaining failed logical addresses of memory devices during memory testings are well-known in the art. For stand-alone memory devices, the logical addresses are already known by memory testers. For memory devices utilizing built-in self-test (BIST), several schemes have been developed for translating what memory testers know (typically in cycle numbers) into corresponding logical addresses.
The major problem in memory testings lies upon the inability to verify whether or not the logical-to-physical mapping software is functioning correctly. There are several points within the logical-to-physical mapping software at which errors can be introduced. For example, memory designers may mis-communicate the logical-to-physical algorithm description to software engineers who write the logical-to-physical mapping software. Also, the cycle delays from the time a memory fail occurred to the time the memory fail being detected are usually not accounted for. In addition, during a cycle in which a memory tester observed the fail, test data are not corrected for cycle offsets due to counters (such as whether it starts at 0 or 1) and for any operations that take place before memory test begins (e.g., a "reset" operation).
The prior art solution to the above-mentioned problem is to test memory devices that come off a manufacturing line early in the life of the process (often as a special-purpose test chip) and generate a bit-fail map (BFM) of the failing memory cells. Memory designers then look at the BFM and identify the likely locations for a physical defect that could cause the memory failure. The failed memory device is then sent to failure analysis where it is stripped down to the circuit layers that include the memory and then the locations identified by the memory designers are observed. If an abnormality is found, it is assumed that the abnormality is a defect that caused the memory failure. With such methodology, however, only by physically observing multiple defects with high accuracies can any level of confidence be achieved. In practice, frequently no defect is observed at the location that casts doubt on the logical-to-physical mapping software.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved method for verifying logical-to-physical mapping software that is convenient and relatively inexpensive to implement.

Method and apparatus for verifying memory testing software

International Business Machines Corporation


A novel pet care device for walking a dog is provided. The device integrates many pet care items that are necessary while walking a dog into a unitary device that is simple to operate and provides a new convenience to the dog owner. In certain embodiments, the device includes an integrated retractable leash, a flashlight, fluid spraying to dispose of pet waste, a source of fresh drinking water, and a water bowl from which a dog may drink the water.

Pet owners are often burdened with difficulties when talking a dog out for a walk. These difficulties include having to clean up the dog's waste and providing a clean source of drinking water for the dog. Frequently, owners must carry a leash for restraining the dog, plastic bags or a waste scope device, and a water bottle to provide water to the dog. Additionally, there are safety concerns when walking a dog at night with the visibility of the owner and dog to operators of motor vehicles sharing the road way. Thus, owners will also carry a flashlight when walking the dog at night. Further is generally undesirable to pick up and carry the dog's waste either by a plastic bag or scope device.
There exist many pet care devices that are constructed with the aim of solving some of these problems. While the devices heretofore fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, they do not provide a complete pet care solution as such there exists and need for a novel pet care device, which substantially departs from the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of reducing an owner's burden while walking a dog.


A Communication processing device, a communication processing method, and a computer program are provided. A configuration is provided wherein multiple access points are set as slaves, a mobile device is set as a master, so as to enable use of multiple resources at different access points. A mobile communication processing device searches access points, generates pico-cell information from communication settings information for each searched access point, generates a mapping table storing available address information conforming to a communication protocol applied to communication with each access point set in the pico-cell information. An address corresponding to a communication protocol is set based on the mapping table, and communication status setting processing is performed based on the pico-cell information to perform communication with each slave. According to this configuration, data processing using various resources connected to multiple access points set as slaves can be performed.

The present invention relates to a communication processing device, a communication processing method, and a computer program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a communication processing device, a communication processing method, and a computer program, wherein with master-slave type small-scale wireless communication processing, setting a mobile terminal of a user as a master and an access point which the mobile terminal can access as a slave, enables the mobile terminal to perform communication using access points as multiple slaves, so data processing using resources connected to two or more access points can be performed.
In recent years, portable personal computers, cell phones, and so forth have come into widespread use, and many users carry small devices having communication functions and information processing functions, and connect to networks outdoors or at other locations to perform communication via network. In such a mobile computing environment, it is assumed that devices which are connected to a network and receive services via the network, such as portable communication terminals, PDAs, mobile computers, or the like, are nodes which move. In order to use a moving node, it is necessary that no communication interruption due to moving of the node occurs.
In various fields, techniques for realizing ubiquitous computing, which is being proposed as an environment where users can readily connect to a network at any time and any place, is being researched and developed. As one of the techniques, there has been an argument over making a certain space intelligent. For example, a system or the like wherein two or more access points (AP) distributed and disposed in movement space of a user track the movement of users, and network devices work in conjunction with the movements of the user, has been proposed.
However, such a user tracking system works effectively when the range of movement of the user is restricted, and it is difficult to build a user tracking processing system throughout all space when the range of movement of the user is not restricted. Accordingly, there is the problem of scalability. Also, in the event of performing user management in increments of a predetermined space, there is another problem in that privacy of a user who uses resources of a predetermined space is not protected. For example, there is the risk that a resource administrator in a certain space might record contents information used by a user.
On the other hand, as a system employing the existing infrastructure, a personal communication service dispersion system which employs various existing various communication networks by switching over as appropriate, has been proposed (for example, Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-56263). The system disclosed in Patent Document No. 1 ais a system which enables integrating and using different networks such as mail services or phone services or the like.
The system disclosed in this Patent Document No. 1 comprises a resource control program which manages various hardware resources such as a PC connected to a physical network, a service control program which controls a physical network for each user ID as user identification information, and a service control device having a directory for searching each of the control programs and hardware, and in the event of performing communication processing wherein a user inputs a user ID and uses resources for example, the service control device performs a directory search, and performs transfer destination search for input signals from the user, routing processing, and so forth.
However, with a configuration described in the Patent Document, a resource control program, a service control program, and a service control device having a directory for searching these control programs and hardware need to be set for each predetermined hardware resource, so there is the problem of scalability as well. Also, processing base on input of a user identifier is required, so there is the problem of user privacy protection.
Meanwhile, as a short-distance communication control method, a master-slave type communication method such as BLUETOOTH for example, has come to be widely employed in these days. In such a master-slave type communication control method, a master for performing communication intermediary processing within a small-scale network (pico-network) is disposed, and a communication device (slave) in a pico-network can perform communication via the master. In such a master-slave type communication control method, entering a newly participating slave to a pico-network is easily carried out, and breakaway from the pico-network is also easily carried out, accordingly, it can be said that this method is suitable for communication with mobile terminals.
For example, a wireless communication system using BLUETOOTH has the advantage that there is no directivity and transparency is high, as compared with infrared data communication methods such as the conventional IrDA (Infrared Data Association). Hence, in the event of employing communication with high directivity such as with IrDA, it is necessary to dispose communicating devices so as to face one another appropriately, however, in a communication system such as with BLUETOOTH, there is no positional restriction such as described above.
The standards of BLUETOOTH are managed by BLUETOOTH SIG Inc., and details can be freely obtained by anyone from BLUETOOTH SIG Inc.; for example, with communication using BLUETOOTH, a device detection message for detecting devices which exist in a surrounding area is transmitted by broadcasting from a master device controlling communication.
A master can detect devices which exist in a surrounding area, that is, communicable devices, by response messages transmitted from devices (slaves) which receive this device detection message. Also, in the event of establishing communication with a specific device from the detected devices, the master identifies the device based on identification information of each device included in the response message, and establishes the communication.
In BLUETOOTH, information referred to as a BLUETOOTH device address is assigned to each device as information identifying such a device. This address is unique as to each device, which is employed in various kinds of processing such as administering devices.
Up to seven slaves can belong to one master in the same pico-net in BLUETOOTH communication. All devices belonging to the same pico-net are in a synchronized state on a frequency axis (frequency hopping pattern) and time axis (time slot). Furthermore, a network can be configured by connecting multiple pico-nets as well, which is referred to as a scatter net.
Moreover, in BLUETOOTH, with regard to data sent and received with wireless communication or the communication procedures thereof, specifications referred to as profiles, in which the procedures are arranged for each service, are being formulated, and services which each device can provide are represented according to this profile.
In a PAN (Personal Area Network) profile, a communication method between slaves in a pico-net is regulated so that the pico-net is regarded as one network, and devices belonging to the pico-net configured based on the PAN profile can transmit and receive various kinds of data. Similarly, with regard to scatter nets, stipulations are being planned wherein the scatter net is regarded as one network so as to transmit and receive various kinds of data. This network may be a network based on IP (Internet Protocol), for example.
Now, in the event of configuring such a network, the master obtains information regarding to peripheral devices using the aforementioned device detection messages to determine which device should be a master, and which device should be a slave, or which service should be employed to perform communication, based on user instructions, for example.
Application of a mobile wireless communication terminal of a user to master-slave type wireless communication involves the mobile terminal belonging to various pico-nets and performing communication via the master set in the pico-net.
Suppose, for instance, there is a configuration such as that illustrated in FIG. 1. A mobile terminal 100 which a user owns comprises a control unit 111, memory unit 112, output unit 113, input unit 114, and a communication device 101 for performing short-distance communication such as BLUETOOTH. On one hand, there are access points (AP) 121, 122, and 131 which are disposed in space with a distributed and fixed formation, and various devices (hardware resources) 123 and 132 such as a VTR, printer, PC, and so forth are connected to each access point. Establishing communication with an access point using the mobile terminal 100 allows users to use the devices (resources) connected to the access point.
In such an environment, an access point (AP) 121 fixedly provided is set as a master, and forms a pico-net 120, and in the event that the mobile terminal 100 which the user owns moves into a region of the pico-net 120, the mobile terminal 100 is identified as a slave through predetermined device search processing, thereby enabling communication via the access point 121 which is the master in the pico-net 120 to be performed. Consequently, the device (resource) 123 connected to the access point 121 can be used.
However, the mobile terminal 100 cannot use the device 132 shown in the upper portion of FIG. 1. The mobile terminal 100 does not belong to the pico-net set as a communicable region of the access point (AP) 131 connected to the device 132, so the access point (AP) 131 set as a master does not identify the mobile terminal 100 as its slave.
In order to solve this situation, it is necessary, as shown in FIG. 2 for example, for the mobile terminal 100 to comprise multiple wireless communication devices 151, 152, and 153, and perform communication via each device, so that the mobile terminal 100 can belong to multiple pico-nets and communicate with the access points (AP) set as the master of each pico-net to use the resources connected to each access point in parallel.
In the configuration shown in FIG. 2, the mobile terminal 100 belongs to a pico-net 163 set as a communicable region of the access point (AP) 121, to a pico-net 161 set as a communicable region of the access point (AP) 131, and to a pico-net 162 set as a communicable region of the access point (AP) 122, wherein each access point is assigned to be a master, and the mobile terminal 100 is assigned to be a slave, thereby enabling communication in each pico-net to be performed in parallel. Consequently, connection resources 123 and 132 at each access point can be used in parallel.
However, as described above, in a configuration wherein two or more access points are set as a master, in order to realize communication via each access point, the mobile terminal 100 needs to comprise multiple wireless communication devices 151, 152 and 153, which causes a problem.
FIG. 3 illustrates device and software configuration which a mobile terminal requires. (a) illustrates a configuration of hardware 172 and software 171 which a mobile terminal has to be equipped with in order to perform communication by connection to only one access point as described above with reference to FIG. 1. In the event of performing communication conforming to a specific communication protocol, one communication device for transmitting/receiving data as hardware, and one each of a device driver for controlling a communication device, a network protocol stack for executing processing of a specific communication protocol, and an application program for executing specific processing for transmitting/receiving data, as software, is sufficient for communication processing conforming to a specific protocol.
However, in a configuration shown in FIG. 2, assuming that a different communication protocol is applied to each access point 121, 122, and 131, the mobile terminal needs hardware 172 and software 171 in a configuration shown in FIG. 3(b). In order to perform communication conforming to three types of communication protocols, three communication devices for transmitting/receiving data as hardware are required, and with regard to software, three types of device drivers for controlling each communication device, three network protocol stacks for executing processing of three types of communication protocols, and further an application program for executing specific processing for transmitting/receiving data, are required.
As described above, in the event that two or more access points are set as a master, and each access point performs communication with a different communication protocol, the configuration shown in FIG. 3(b) is required, thereby causing the problem of increased costs for mobile terminals.

Communication processing apparatus, communication processing method, and computer program


A method for producing a thermoplastic polymer film is disclosed. A melted thermoplastic polymer is extruded from a die onto a rotary cooling body, static electricity is impressed on the rotary cooling, body through a main electrode provided close and parallel to the cooling body and the film is solidified by cooling which method is characterized by providing at least one ungrounded auxiliary electrode composed of a conductive material unconnected to the main electrode and disposed at least on one side of the main electrode parallel to the rotary cooling body.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing a thermoplastic polymer film utilizing the electrostatic application method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The electrostatic application method comprises, in a manufacturing process of a film by the extrusion of a melted thermoplastic polymer, providing a wire or plate electrode between a die and a rotary cooling body, depositing an electrostatic charge on the surface of the film in a melted state by using the rotary cooling body as the counter electrode, and allowing the film to adhere uniformly on the surface of the rotary cooling body to thereby cool the film rapidly. The electrostatic application method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,223,757, Japanese Patent KOKOKU Nos. 48-3535, 48-14786, 48-29311 and the like.
The electrostatic application method is excellent for preventing the slip of the film and the entrapment of air, and for reducing the shrinkage of the film in the cross direction caused by the rapid cooling. However, when the production speed is elevated in order to raise the productivity, the electrostatic charge deposited per an unit area of the film on the surface of the rotary cooling body decreases according to the increase of the circumferential speed of the cooling body. As a result, the adhesive force is decreased, and air is trapped between the film and the surface of the cooling body. In such a state, the efficiency of heat transfer between the film and the rotary cooling body is decreased by the tapped air layer, and the flatness of the film is damaged by the trapped air bubbles between the film and the rotary cooling body. When the impressed voltage to the wire electrode is elevated in order to increase the adhesive force, a sufficient electrostatic application cannot be achieved. Particularly, there is an upper limit in the impressed voltage due to the generation of spark discharge between the wire and the rotary cooling body or the film. Moreover, the spark discharge between the wire and the rotary cooling body results in scarring of the surface of the rotary cooling body, and the spark discharge between the wire and the film generates pinholes on the film.
In order to compensate such a disadvantage of the electrostatic application method, various proposals have been made. For example, Japanese Patent KOKAI No. 53-14762 discloses a method for making uniform the turbulence of the electric field caused by the unevenness of a die surface by providing a shield composed of a laminate of a metal layer and an insulating layer between a wire electrode and a die surface faced thereto so that the insulating layer is disposed on the side of the wire electrode. Japanese Patent KOKAI No. 58-163624 discloses a method of extending the life of a wire electrode by providing a second electrode close to the wire electrode on the side opposite to the rotary cooling body, and impressing a voltage simultaneously on the second electrode and the wire electrode as the same kind of electrode. U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,411 discloses a method of inhibiting neck-in effect by providing a brush electrode on both edge portions of the rotary cooling body so as to face the cooling body. Japanese Patent KOKOKU No. 61-19415 discloses a method of improving the adhesion of the extruded film to the rotary cooling body by using a grounded auxiliary electrode, in addition to the main electrode of a metal wire, composed of a conductive material being planar or having an opening provided on the side opposite to the rotary cooling body. Japanese Patent KOKAI No. 51-146560 discloses a method of depositing the same kind of an electric charge on the surface of a thermoplastic polymer on the side not contacting the cooling body and on the surface provided with an insulating coating of a rotating roll disposed on the same side.
However, the above methods are still insufficient in view of increasing the density of electric charge and raising the directivity of the electric charge toward the extruded film for improving the adhesion of film in the electrostatic application method.

Method of producing thermoplastic polymer film


A suction port assembly of a vacuum cleaner is connected with a cleaner body by an extended flow passage and draws in air and dust from a surface being cleaned when the cleaner is in operation. The suction port assembly includes a suction head having a suction hole formed at a bottom surface opposite to the surface being cleaned. A first connection member extends from one side of the suction head. A second connection member rotatably connects at one end to an exit end of the first connection member and rotates about a first axis to move upwardly and downwardly with respect to the suction head, and at the other end is connected with the extended flow passage. A third connection member engages the second connection member with one end rotatable about a second axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis, and the other end disengageably connected to the extended flow passage.

Conventional vacuum cleaners generally draw in air and dust from a surface being cleaned by utilizing a suction force generated by a vacuum generator of the vacuum cleaner body. Referring to FIG. 1, a general conventional vacuum cleaner 100 comprises a cleaner body 110 housing a vacuum generator (not shown) therein, an extended flow passage 120 having at least one of an extension pipe 125 and an extension hose 121, connected in fluid communication with the cleaner body 110, and a suction port assembly 130 formed at an end of the extended flow passage 120 to draw in air and the dust from the surface being cleaned.
As seen in FIG. 2, the suction port assembly 130 has a suction head 131 and a suction port 132 extending therein. The suction port assembly 130 is movable along the surface being cleaned during cleaning operation. An articulated portion 135 shaped as a neck connects the suction head 131 in fluid communication to the extended flow passage 120. The extended flow passage 120 is movably connected with the suction head 131 which is lifted up by the articulated portion 135.
A conventional articulated portion 135, as seen in FIG. 1, includes a first connection hole 136 for pivotal connection with the rear side of the suction head 131, and a second connection hole 137 for removable connection with the extension pipe 125 of the extended flow passage 120. The first connection hole 136 is formed in a square shape to guide the air from the suction port 132 towards the extended flow passage 120 even when the articulated portion 135 is pivoted at an angle with respect to the suction head 131.
However, the conventional articulated portion 135 of the suction port assembly 130 only allows pivotal movement between the suction head 131 and the extended flow passage 120 in the lifting direction 'a' (FIG. 1) with respect to the surface being cleaned, covering only a limited range of cleaning area. For example, the conventional vacuum cleaner 100 often has difficulty in cleaning crevices or corners of a room.
Additionally, because the first connection hole 136 of the articulated portion 135 is formed in square shape, as shown in FIG. 2, the pivotal movement of the articulated portion 135 is limited to within a predetermined angle θ so that the first connection hole 136 is not exposed to the outside of the suction head 131. If the articulated portion 135 is moved more than the predetermined angle θ, the bottom surface of the suction head 131 is lifted apart from the cleaning surface, thereby reducing cleaning efficiency. Even when the articulated portion 135 is moved within the predetermined angle θ, suction efficiency is often reduced due to the partial blocking of the first connection hole 136 by inner structures of the suction head 131.

Vacuum cleaner with articulated suction port assembly


An outside viewing device for a vehicle, having a camera that is housed in a casing having a frontal wall through which there passes an imaging window, and an internal partition which is parallel to the frontal wall and through which there passes an opening next to the imaging window. In addition, two peripheral wiper seals, disposed at the periphery of the window and the opening, delimit a guide in which a transparent screen slides, in a sealed manner, between at least two imaging positions, in each of which different surface portions of the screen are positioned next to the imaging window. Finally, a device for moving the screen is designed to slide the latter between its different positions.

Increasingly, vehicles are equipped with cameras that are installed on the outside of said vehicles and are intended to assist drivers, such as cameras known as backup cameras that are used in particular during parking and or reversing maneuvers, and panoramic cameras that are used to make it easier for road vehicles of the heavy duty type to carry out maneuvers, etc.
One development aims, moreover, to use these cameras for "rearview" purposes, or, in other words, to replace the rearview mirrors of vehicles with cameras housed in profiled shells, having notably the advantage of exhibiting a drag coefficient that is notably less than that of traditional rearview mirrors.
All of these viewing devices make it necessary to ensure that the images transmitted by the cameras are sufficiently clear to be able to be used reliably. Thus, these devices should not be dirty and should be able to be cleaned easily, even automatically.
The current solution, as described in the patent application WO 2016/116231, incorporated herein by reference, consists in providing viewing devices comprising a cleaning head and a camera that are movable relative to one another between a cleaning position, in which they are next to one another, and an active imaging position in which they are spaced apart from one another.
Such a solution has the major drawback that the camera is put out of action while it is being cleaned. Although this putting out of action may be tolerated when the cameras are being used for driving assistance, it is, by contrast, entirely inconceivable for "rearview" purposes for safety reasons.

Outside viewing device for a vehicle, comprising a camera


A non-destructive test using cryogenic temperatures is capable of detecting defects in materials that result from residual stress from manufacturing and from retained austenite. The subject materials or parts that are subjected to cryogenic temperatures approaching and below ˜−300° F., −184° C., 89° K, thereby causing permanent deformations or characteristic changes in the material if excessive residual stress, retained austenite or discontinuities exist. To determine the extent of changes, a first metric of the subject material is determined, the material is then subjected to cryogenic cooling thereby triggering any deformation or characteristic changes. Subsequent to the cryogenic cooling, the subject material may be returned to a second temperature whereby a second metric representing based on the same characteristic of the subject material is determined. The comparison of the first and second metrics reveals the deformation or change resultant from the defect. In addition characteristic changes in the subject material during cryogenic cooling may be use to detect the phase transition of the retained austenite to martensite.

During the manufacture of machine parts and metallic components, including but not limited to engine power transmission and geared elements, testing of the constituent parts, or representative samples there from, is an essential method for quality control, and this is of particular importance in certain fields, such as vehicles, turbine, aviation and aerospace applications, in which component failure could have catastrophic results.
For example, aircraft engines are quite different from most automobile engines as they rely entirely on available air-cooling to control engine oil and part temperatures. The engine is exposed to significant changes in temperature as a result of changing airflow and rapid expansion and cooling of the engine parts occur. This can cause premature engine parts failure, reduction of power and oil leaks to occur.
On most automotive engines manufactured today, the engine temperature is cooled by water circulation and is automatically temperature controlled using a thermostat thus eliminating the vast engine temperature changes that occur in air-cooled aircraft engines.
Because aircraft engines are subjected to this rapid expansion and contraction of engine parts any residual stress that is in the engine parts can significantly affect the life of an engine. Residual stress occurs in parts at rest, and may be a by-product of manufacturing processes and cyclic use.
The need for such quality testing in which metallic component failure could have a catastrophic result is often not well or completely met in the metallic context by presently available testing methods. First, destructive testing methods are limited because of the various means in which such part destruction results in distortions which mask or obliterate the forensic value of the particular component under such examination.
Currently there are many forms of Non Destructive Testing Processes (NDT) for metallic materials that include but are not limited to examples as follows: X-ray diffraction (xrd), Radiography (rt), Convergent beam electron diffraction (cbed), Transmission electron microscopy (tem), Neutron diffraction, Synchrotron hard x-ray, Eddy current (et), Magnetoelastic instrumentation barkhausen noise (bn), Ultrasonic resonant analysis, Magnetoacoustic, Ultrasonic, Thermoelastic infared, Photoelastic, Electronic speckle pattern interferometry, Magnetic particle, Magnaflux quasar process compensated resonant inspection (pcri), and Acoustic resonance. Other forms of non destructive testing have limitations in their practical value due to, for one example, refraction issues in the x-ray context.
The present subject matter may augment, incorporate, modify or substitute for the above identified testing procedures.
Of particular importance is the detection of residual stress in a part or product. Residual stress is stress present in a body that is free of external forces or temperature gradients. Residual stress can be induced through manufacturing processes such as heat treating, machining, shot peening, forming, grinding, casting and other procedures that have been applied to a material.
Under typical parts, manufacturing conditions, temperature gradients can produce non-uniform dimensional and volume changes. When metal castings cool and solidify, compressive stresses develop in lower-volume areas, which cool first, and tensile stresses develop in areas of greater volume, which are last to cool. Shear stresses can develop between the different volume areas. This can happen even in large castings and machine parts of relatively uniform thickness. The surface cools first and the core last. In such cases, stresses develop as a result of the phase (volume) change between those layers that transform first and the center portion, which transforms last.
When both volume and phase changes occur in metal parts of uneven cross section, normal contractions due to cooling are opposed by transformation expansion. The resulting residual stresses will remain until a means of relief is applied. This type of stress develops most frequently in steels during a quenching process frequently used in parts manufacturing. As a result the surface becomes harder before the interior does. Although the inner materials can be strained to match this surface change, subsequent interior expansions place the surface of the metal under tension when the inner material transforms. Cracks in high-carbon steels can arise from such stresses and cause pre-mature parts failure when under load stress.
Grinding operations, when parts are machined, may cause residual stresses in parts such as crankshafts, camshafts and gears. During an initial grinding process the part being ground will have an elevated surface temperature as a result of the grinding wheel contact. The surface of the part being ground becomes heated while the surrounding metal constrains expansion around the grinding area. As the machined metal cools after grinding it can leave a tensile residual stress on the surface. At a later point in time as the part is subjected to operational stresses from normal engine operation, surface cracks can develop causing premature parts failure.
One example of destructive testing for residual stress is presented in "Cross-Sectional Mapping of Residual Stresses by Measuring the Surface Contour After a Cut" M. B. Prime, Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology. Volume 123, April 2001, pp. 162-168, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. In Prime and other methods, residual stresses may be determined from deformation measured after material is removed and destroyed. These methods have the disadvantages of destructive testing as described previously.
One common mechanism, in addition to manufacturing induced stress, which introduces residual stress is the transformation or incomplete transformation of austenite to martensite in the manufacture of steel parts.


Audio systems and methods are provided that receive a playback signal and produce an acoustic signal based upon the playback signal, and include microphone signal(s) for capturing and processing user voice signals. An echo reference signal is based upon the playback signal, and an echo canceler reduces echo components from the microphone signal(s). Functionality of the echo canceler is modified, such as by freezing an adaptive filter, in response to a non-linear condition in the audio playback, or a likelihood of such a non-linear condition.

Audio systems sometimes include one or more acoustic transducers to convert acoustic signals into electrical signals (e.g., microphones) to detect acoustics in the environment in which they operate, and sometimes also include acoustic drivers (e.g., loudspeakers) to reproduce acoustic audio content from an electrical signal. Microphones may be deployed in such systems for the purpose of detecting desired audio, which may include a user's speech for applications such as automatic speech recognition, virtual personal assistants, and communications (e.g., telephone), for example. The microphone(s) may pick up components of the audio playback generated by the acoustic drivers, e.g., through acoustic reflections and/or acoustic coupling, etc., and this self-playback (echo) signal may interfere with the detection and/or processing of the desired signal, e.g., the user's speech. Echo cancellers having adaptive filters may be used to reduce or remove the echo signal components.

Voice capture processing modified by back end audio processing state


An invention is disclosed that enables proxy Mobile IP registration to be performed in a secure manner. Various security mechanisms may be used independently, or in combination with one another, to authenticate the identity of a node during the registration process. First, an Access Point receiving a packet from a node verifies that the source MAC address identified in the packet is in the Access Point's client association table. In addition, as a second mechanism, the Access Point (or Foreign Agent) ensures that a one-to-one mapping exists for the source MAC address and source IP address identified in the packet. As a third mechanism, a binding is not modified in the mobility binding table maintained by the Home Agent unless there is a one-to-one mapping in the mobility binding table between the source MAC address and the source IP address.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Mobile IP network technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to authenticating the identity of a node during proxy registration performed on behalf of the node.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile IP is a protocol which allows laptop computers or other mobile computer units (referred to as "Mobile Nodes" herein) to roam between various sub-networks at various locations—while maintaining internet and/or WAN connectivity. Without Mobile IP or related protocol, a Mobile Node would be unable to stay connected while roaming through various sub-networks. This is because the IP address required for any node to communicate over the internet is location specific. Each IP address has a field that specifies the particular sub-network on which the node resides. If a user desires to take a computer which is normally attached to one node and roam with it so that it passes through different sub-networks, it cannot use its home base IP address. As a result, a business person traveling across the country cannot merely roam with his or her computer across geographically disparate network segments or wireless nodes while remaining connected over the internet. This is not an acceptable state-of-affairs in the age of portable computational devices.
To address this problem, the Mobile IP protocol has been developed and implemented. An implementation of Mobile IP is described in RFC 2002 of the Network Working Group, C. Perkins, Ed., October 1996. Mobile IP is also described in the text "Mobile IP Unplugged" by J. Solomon, Prentice Hall. Both of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and for all purposes.
The Mobile IP process and environment are illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown there, a Mobile IP environment 2 includes the internet (or a WAN) 4 over which a Mobile Node 6 can communicate remotely via mediation by a Home Agent 8 and a Foreign Agent 10. Typically, the Home Agent and Foreign Agent are routers or other network connection devices performing appropriate Mobile IP functions as implemented by software, hardware, and/or firmware. A particular Mobile Node (e.g., a laptop computer) plugged into its home network segment connects with the internet. When the Mobile Node roams, it communicates via the internet through an available Foreign Agent. Presumably, there are many Foreign Agents available at geographically disparate locations to allow wide spread internet connection via the Mobile IP protocol. Note that it is also possible for the Mobile Node to register directly with its Home Agent.
As shown in FIG. 1, Mobile Node 6 normally resides on (or is "based at") a network segment 12 which allows its network entities to communicate over the internet 4. Note that Home Agent 8 need not directly connect to the internet. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, it may be connected through another router (a router R1 in this case). Router R1 may, in turn, connect one or more other routers (e.g., a router R3) with the internet.
Now, suppose that Mobile Node 6 is removed from its home base network segment 12 and roams to a remote network segment 14. Network segment 14 may include various other nodes such as a PC 16. The nodes on network segment 14 communicate with the internet through a router which doubles as Foreign Agent 10. Mobile Node 6 may identify Foreign Agent 10 through various solicitations and advertisements which form part of the Mobile IP protocol. When Mobile Node 6 engages with network segment 14, Foreign Agent 10 relays a registration request to Home Agent 8 (as indicated by the dotted line "Registration"). The Home and Foreign Agents may then negotiate the conditions of the Mobile Node's attachment to Foreign Agent 10. For example, the attachment may be limited to a period of time, such as two hours. When the negotiation is successfully completed, Home Agent 8 updates an internal "mobility binding table" which specifies the care-of address (e.g., a collocated care-of address or the Foreign Agent's IP address) in association with the identity of Mobile Node 6. Further, the Foreign Agent 10 updates an internal "visitor table" which specifies the Mobile Node address, Home Agent address, etc. In effect, the Mobile Node's home base IP address (associated with segment 12) has been shifted to the Foreign Agent's IP address (associated with segment 14).
Now, suppose that Mobile Node 6 wishes to send a message to a corresponding node 18 from its new location. An output message from the Mobile Node is then packetized and forwarded through Foreign Agent 10 over the internet 4 and to corresponding node 18 (as indicated by the dotted line "packet from MN") according to a standard internet protocol. If corresponding node 18 wishes to send a message to Mobile Node—whether in reply to a message from the Mobile Node or for any other reason—it addresses that message to the IP address of Mobile Node 6 on sub-network 12. The packets of that message are then forwarded over the internet 4 and to router R1 and ultimately to Home Agent 8 as indicated by the dotted line ("packet to MN(1)"). From its mobility binding table, Home Agent 8 recognizes that Mobile Node 6 is no longer attached to network segment 12. It then encapsulates the packets from corresponding node 18 (which are addressed to Mobile Node 6 on network segment 12) according to a Mobile IP protocol and forwards these encapsulated packets to a "care of" address for Mobile Node 6 as shown by the dotted line ("packet to MN(2)"). The care-of address may be, for example, the IP address of Foreign Agent 10. Foreign Agent 10 then strips the encapsulation and forwards the message to Mobile Node 6 on sub-network 14. The packet forwarding mechanism implemented by the Home and Foreign Agents is often referred to as "tunneling."
It is often desirable to assign a unique IP address to each user or device within a network. Moreover various protocols enable automatic assignment of IP addresses within a particular network. For instance, in accordance with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), network administrators may manage a network centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network. More particularly, using the Internet's set of protocols (TCP/IP), each device that is capable of connecting to the Internet needs a unique IP address. When an organization sets up its computer users with a connection to the Internet, an IP address must be assigned to each machine. Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer and, if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IP address must be entered. DHCP allows a network administrator to supervise and distribute IP addresses from a central point and automatically sends a new IP address when a computer is plugged into a different location within the network.
DHCP uses the concept of a "lease" or amount of time that a given IP address will be valid for a computer. The lease time can vary depending on how long a user is likely to require the Internet connection at a particular location. DHCP is particularly useful in education and other environments where users change frequently. Using very short leases, DHCP can dynamically reconfigure networks in which there are more computers than there are available IP addresses. Thus, DHCP supports static addresses for computers containing Web servers that need a permanent IP address.
Although DHCP functions in a static environment, the assignment of a new IP address each time a computer changes its location within a network is far from ideal within a mobile environment. More particularly, when a mobile node roams to a new location within a network, it would be desirable for the node to maintain its home address. However, provisions have not been made for a node that wishes to maintain a single IP address when it changes its location within a network using DHCP. Moreover, a node that is not mobile enabled cannot currently change its location within a network using DHCP and still maintain its assigned IP address.
It is possible to provide Internet services via a wireless link for mobile users who attach to a network via a connection such as a DHCP connection, even where the node does not support Mobile IP. Specifically, a proxy device may implement Mobile IP on behalf of a node that does not support Mobile IP functionality. One such proxy device is the access point (AP). An Access Point (AP) may be defined as the center point in an all-wireless network or serves as a connection point between a wired and a wireless network. Multiple APs can be placed throughout a facility to give users with WLAN adapters the ability to roam freely throughout an extended area while maintaining uninterrupted access to all network resources.
patent application Ser. No. 10/080,995, entitled "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING PROXY MOBILE IP REGISTRATION IN A WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK," discloses a system for communicating subnet addresses of gateways (e.g., Home Agents) that support APs in the network. When an AP receives a data packet, the AP may compare the data packet (e.g., source address) with the AP information for one or more APs to determine whether to send a registration request on behalf of the node. More particularly, the AP determines from the source address whether the node is located on a subnet identical to a subnet of the AP. If the node is located on the subnet of the AP, no Mobile IP service is required on behalf of the node. However, when it is determined from the source address that the node is not located on the subnet identical to the subnet of the Access Point, the AP composes and sends a mobile IP registration request on behalf of the node. For instance, the mobile IP registration request may be composed using the gateway associated with the "home" AP (e.g., having a matching subnet) as the node's Home Agent.
Proxy Mobile IP allows clients to move between networks while maintaining sessions. This is accomplished through Mobile IP control messages such as those disclosed in, application Ser. No. 10/080,995, entitled "METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING PROXY MOBILE IP REGISTRATION IN A WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK," by inventors Wang et al, filed on Feb. 20, 2002. In this manner, even clients that do not support Mobile IP may move between networks while maintaining sessions.
As shown in FIG. 2, proxy Mobile IP is supported by multiple Access Points within a wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). In this example, two Access Points 202 and 204 support proxy Mobile IP for sub-network A. In this example, a DHCP server assigns an IP address on sub-network A to the node 205. One of the Access Points 202 and 204 detects whether the IP address of the node 205 is on a different sub-network. Since the IP address of the node 205 is on the same sub-network as the Access Points 202 and 204, proxy registration is not required since the node 205 is in its home network.
Alternatively, if the node 205 were on a different sub-network, a registration request would be composed on behalf of the client 205 and sent to the Foreign Agent. The registration request is then processed by the Foreign Agent, shown here as router 206, and subsequently by the client's Home Agent. Upon completion of registration of the node 205 with its Home Agent, packets addressed to the node 205 are then tunneled to node 205 by its Home Agent via the Foreign Agent and Access Point.
When the node 205 subsequently roams beyond the layer 3 boundary from sub-network A to sub-network B, one of the two Access Points 208 and 210 supporting proxy Mobile IP for sub-network B composes a registration request on behalf of the client 205 once it is determined that the IP address of the node 205 is on a different sub-network. The registration request is then processed by the Foreign Agent, shown here as router 212, and forwarded to the client's Home Agent. Upon completion of registration of the node 205 with its Home Agent, packets addressed to the node 205 are then tunneled to the node 205 by the node's Home Agent via the Foreign Agent and Access Point.
While proxy Mobile IP is advantageous since it allows non-Mobile IP enabled nodes to move while maintaining a session, this method is susceptible to route poisoning and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Specifically, another client may send packets with various source IP addresses and MAC addresses. When this second client sends a packet with another client's IP address, the network would then direct traffic to the IP address at the location of the second client because the Access Point would assume that the first client has moved.
In view of the above, it would be desirable if an authentication mechanism could be implemented to authenticate the identity of a client for which proxy Mobile IP registration is being performed.

Methods and apparatus for securing proxy Mobile IP


A method of double-sided patterning including positioning a first silicon wafer with its back side facing upwards and forming one or more deep trenches serving as alignment marks on the back side of the first silicon wafer; performing alignment with respect to the alignment marks and forming a back-side pattern on the first silicon wafer; depositing a polishing stop layer on the back side of the first silicon wafer; flipping over the first silicon wafer and bonding its back side with the front side of a second silicon wafer; polishing the front side of the first silicon wafer to expose the alignment marks from the front side; performing alignment with respect to the alignment marks and forming a front-side pattern on the first silicon wafer; removing the second silicon wafer and the polishing stop layer to obtain a double-sided patterned structure on the first silicon wafer.

In the fabrication of some power devices such as reverse-conductor insulated-gate bipolar transistors (RC-IGBTs), device structures are formed on both the front and back sides of a silicon wafer, which requires the process of double-sided patterning as well as alignment between patterns on the front and back sides of the silicon wafer.
The general practice for achieving the above device structures is one called back-side alignment, for which special lithographic apparatuses and processes are employed. Specifically, in a back-side alignment process, alignment marks are formed on the front side of a wafer, and are taken as alignment references during the back-side lithographic processes. As the silicon wafer is turned upside down when performing back-side alignment, i.e., its front side is facing downwards, a special method is needed to achieve the alignment. According to different light sources adopted, commonly used alignment methods are classified into those adopting infrared light and visible light. Moreover, according to different detecting modes, commonly used detecting methods are classified into reflection detecting and transmission detecting. Currently, all alignment methods adopted in practice are a combination of the above categories.
When infrared light is used, determined by its physical properties, both its reflectivity and transmissivity are affected by characteristics of the wafer and the process, for example, the wafer thickness, doping type and doping concentration of the wafer, and whether the pattern on the front side of the wafer is formed of metal. These will have great impacts on the intensity and signal to noise ratio (SNR) of infrared signals. Therefore, for a determined alignment mode, the process must be carried out in fixed steps, i.e., in which step the back-side lithography should be performed is strictly limited. Meanwhile, extremely high requirements are also imposed on the dopant type and concentration, which will severely limit the properties of the device. As a result, different apparatuses must be employed to produce specific devices with different properties, thus leading to a high production cost of the devices.
On the other hand, when visible light is used, as it cannot pass through a silicon wafer, one can only adopt the reflection type alignment. In such a mode, when performing the back-side lithographic process, the silicon wafer held by a wafer stage must be placed with the back side facing upwards, namely, with the front side where the alignment marks are formed facing downwards and contacting with the wafer stage, and thus holes must be drilled in the wafer stage in order to introduce light into the holes from the back side of the wafer stage. In order to avoid harming the wafer stage's function of holding the silicon wafer by suction, positions and sizes of such holes are limited, thus increasing the complexity of circuit layout design. Further, there are also strict requirements on a protective film that is coated on the front side of the wafer to protect the pattern formed thereon before the wafer is flipped over. For example, in order for visible light to pass through, such film must be transparent and have uniform and stable optical properties.
Overall, because all these methods require expensive special apparatuses and a corresponding specific process, the fabrication cost of this kind of devices has remained high.
Not limited to the above, other back-side processes such as back-side implantation and back-side metallization also require special apparatuses. Therefore, manufacturers have tried to avoid the use of such back-side processes if alternative solutions are available.
In addition, the breakdown voltage of certain types of devices is closely dependent on the thickness of the silicon wafer. Specifically, given the facts that the ratio of breakdown voltage to thickness for silicon is about 10V/μm, and that common consumer-level electronic products have an operating voltage range of 110 volts alternating current (VAC) to 380 VAC and a typical breakdown voltage of about 600 V, silicon substrates for silicon-based integrated devices are generally required to have a thickness of smaller than 100 μm, and typically, from 50 μm to 60 μm. Commonly employed silicon wafer fabrication processes cannot achieve a thickness smaller than 60 μm and must be aided by using carrier substrates, which are thin films commonly made of organic materials, glasses, silicon, metals and the like. Use of such carrier substrates greatly limits subsequent processes. For example, as carrier substrates made of organic materials or glasses cannot be sucked by electrostatic adsorption, when adopting such carrier substrates, all electrostatic adsorption apparatuses throughout the whole production line must be substituted with special suction apparatuses. Moreover, as metals and silicon are opaque materials, no back-side process is applicable when a carrier substrate formed of metal or silicon is applied.
Therefore, there is no effective double-sided patterning method suitable for mass production of thin silicon wafers (i.e., those with a thickness of smaller than 150 μm) at present.

Shanghai Hua Hong Nec Electronics Co., Ltd.


Described is an aqueous binder composition for mineral fibers which comprises a component (i) in the form of one or more carbohydrates and a component (ii) in the form of one or more compounds selected from sulfamic acid, derivatives of sulfamic acid, salts thereof.

Mineral fiber products generally comprise man-made vitreous fibers (MMVF) such as, e.g., glass fibers, ceramic fibers, basalt fibers, slag wool, mineral wool and stone wool (rock wool), which are bonded together by a cured thermoset polymeric binder material. For use as thermal or acoustical insulation products, bonded mineral fiber mats are generally produced by converting a melt made of suitable raw materials to fibers in conventional manner, for instance by a spinning cup process or by a cascade rotor process. The fibers are blown into a forming chamber and, while airborne and while still hot, are sprayed with a binder solution and randomly deposited as a mat or web onto a travelling conveyor. The fiber mat is then transferred to a curing oven where heated air is blown through the mat to cure the binder and rigidly bond the mineral fibers together.
In the past, the binder resins of choice have been phenol-formaldehyde resins which can be economically produced and can be extended with urea prior to use as a binder. However, the existing and proposed legislation directed to the lowering or elimination of formaldehyde emissions have led to the development of formaldehyde-free binders such as, for instance, the binder compositions based on polycarboxy polymers and polyols or polyamines, such as disclosed in EP-A-583086, EP-A-990727, EP-A-1741726, U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,990 and US-A-2007/0173588.
Another group of non-phenol-formaldehyde binders are reaction products of aliphatic and/or aromatic anhydrides with alkanolamines, e.g., as disclosed in WO 99/36368, WO 01/05725, WO 01/96460, WO 02/06178, WO 2004/007615 and WO 2006/061249. These binder compositions are water soluble and exhibit excellent binding properties. WO 2008/023032 discloses urea-modified binders.
The disclosures of all of the documents mentioned herein are incorporated herein in their entireties.
Since some of the starting materials used in the production of these binders are rather expensive chemicals, there is an ongoing need to provide formaldehyde-free binders which are economically produced and at the same time show good bonding properties for producing a bonded mineral fiber product.
A further effect in connection with previously known aqueous binder compositions from mineral fibers is that at least the majority of the starting materials used for the productions of these binders stem from fossil fuels. There is an ongoing trend of consumers to prefer products that are at least partly produced from renewable materials and there is therefore a need to provide binders for mineral wool which are at least partly produced from renewable materials.
Further, there is an ongoing need to provide binders for mineral wool which enable the production of mineral wool products having good long term mechanical properties.