A memory card is used on a card write and/or read apparatus which has a data bus with an arbitrary bit width and writes and/or reads a datum to and/or from the memory card. The memory card comprises a data input/output terminal, a memory part having a data bus with a bit width of at least n bits for coupling to the data bus of the card write and/or read apparatus via the data input/output terminal, an address input terminal for receiving an address signal, a first input terminal for receiving a first chip select signal which selects a first byte, a second input terminal for receiving a second chip select signal which selects a second byte, and a decoder circuit for determining a bit width of the data bus of the memory part to be used for data communication between the card write and/or read apparatus to one of n bits and n/N bits based on the first and second chip select signals and one or a plurality of arbitrary bits of the address signal by supplying control signals to the memory part, where n, N and n/N are positive integers.

The present invention generally relates to memory cards, and more particularly to a memory card which has a memory function and has a shape of a credit card, for example.
There has been proposed a memory card which has no central processing unit (CPU) but has a built-in memory such as a random access memory (RAM) and a read only memory (ROM). For example, the memory card uses a data bus having a bit width of eight bits or sixteen bits, and there are proposals to use a data bus having a bit width which is a multiple of eight such as thirty-two bits and sixty-four bits. When such a memory card is loaded into a card write and/or read apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as a card write/read apparatus), it is possible to write arbitrary information to the memory card and/or read prestored information from the memory card.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional memory card. The memory card comprises an input buffer 100, a memory 101, an input/output buffer 102, and terminals 103 through 107. An address signal ADR is applied to the terminal 103, a write enable signal WE is applied to the terminal 104, a chip select signal CS is applied to the terminal 105, and an output enable signal OE is applied to the terminal 106. A write datum which is to be written into the memory 101 and a read datum which is read out from the memory 101 are input and output via the data input/output terminal 107. The input of the write datum is controlled by the input/output buffer 102 in response to the write enable signal WE. On the other hand, the output of the read datum is controlled by the input/output buffer 102 in response to the output enable signal OE.
According to the conventional memory card, the bit width of the data input/output terminal 107, that is, the bit width of a data bus, determines the card write/read apparatus to which the memory card may be loaded. In other words, a memory card which has a data bus with a bit width of eight bits is used exclusively on a card write/read apparatus having a data bus with a bit width of eight bits. Similarly, a memory card which has a data bus with a bit width of sixteen bits is used exclusively on a card write/read apparatus having a data bus with a bit width of sixteen bits. For this reason, when the bit width of the data bus of the card write/read apparatus is changed from eight bits to sixteen bits, it no longer becomes possible to use the memory card which has the data bus with the bit width of eight bits and the memory cards used on this card write/read apparatus must all have the data bus with the bit width of sixteen bits. As a result, an extremely large scale modification must be made in order to extend the functions of the card write/read apparatus because it is necessary to change all the memory cards.
Therefore, the bit width of the data bus of the card write/read apparatus conventionally determines the memory cards which may be used thereon. Thus, there is a problem in that a memory card which has a data bus with a bit width different from that of the card write/read apparatus cannot be used on this card write/read apparatus.
It is possible to consider enabling compatible use of the memory card which has the data bus with the bit width of sixteen bits on the card write/read apparatus which has the data bus with the bit width of eight bits and the card write/read apparatus which has the data bus with the bit width of sixteen bits. In this case, if the memory cards used have the data bus with the bit width of sixteen bits to start with, it is possible to continue using these memory cards even when the bit width of the data bus of the card write/read apparatus is changed from eight bits to sixteen bits to extend the functions thereof.
FIG. 2 shows another example of the conventional memory card. In FIG. 2, those parts which are substantially the same as those corresponding parts in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and a description thereof will be omitted. The memory card shown in FIG. 2 has a data bus with a bit width of sixteen bits. The memory card comprises two 256 k.times.8 bit RAMs 101.sub.L and 101.sub.H, a terminal 105.sub.L for receiving a chip select signal CS0 which selects a lower byte (that is, the RAM 101.sub.H), and a terminal 105.sub.H for receiving a chip select signal CS1 which selects an upper byte (that is, the RAM 101.sub.H). The following Table 1 shows an operation mode of the memory card determined by the chip select signals CS0 and CS1, where "H" denotes a high logic level and "L" denotes a low logic level.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ CS1 CS0 Operation Mode ______________________________________ H H Non-Select H L Lower Byte Select L H Upper Byte Select L L Word Access ______________________________________
When the memory card shown in FIG. 2 is used on the card write/read apparatus having the data bus with the bit width of eight bits, it is necessary to generate the chip select signals CS0 and CS1 by providing a decoder circuit within the card write/read apparatus because the card write/read apparatus having the data bus with the bit width of eight bits originally does not have the function of generating the chip select signals CS0 and CS1. Accordingly, in this case, there is a problem in that the card write/read apparatus having the data bus with the bit width of eight bits must be redesigned extensively to incorporate the decoder circuit by taking into account a signal delay which occurs within the decoder circuit. Further, after such a redesigning is made, it no longer is possible to use the memory card which has the data bus with the bit width of eight bits.


The present disclosure is directed to a control system for a power machine that provides selected resolution of the adjusted speed control and other controls, such as attachment controls, to provide more options to the operator for fine positioning. The present disclosure includes a control system for a power machine. The power machine has a full speed. The control system has an adjustable propulsion controller that an operator can position along a range of movement. Examples of the adjustable propulsion controller include a joystick or an accelerator. The position of the propulsion controller along the range of movement selects the speed of the power machine between a first speed and a second speed, where the first speed is greater than the second speed. The first speed is selectable from a plurality of percentages of the full speed.

The present disclosure relates to control systems for power machines, such as skid steer loaders. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a control system for a power machine that provides variable resolution of the adjustable controls for fine positioning.
Power machines include a number of work vehicles such as skid steer loaders. Skid steer loaders in general have a frame that supports a cab and a movable lift arm that supports a work tool such as a bucket, a forklift, or the like. The movable lift arm is coupled to the frame with power actuators such as hydraulic cylinders. In addition, the tool is coupled to the lift arm by one or more hydraulic cylinders. An operator manipulating the skid steer loader manipulates the tool by actuating the hydraulic cylinders. Skid steer loaders also commonly have an engine that drives a hydraulic pump to power hydraulic traction motors. The traction motors are commonly coupled to wheels through a drive mechanism to move or drive the skid steer loader.
Power machines also include an actuator for directing the speed of the vehicle, i.e., an adjustable speed controller. One example of an adjustable speed controller is a joystick on the skid steer loader that can be used to direct both the speed and course of travel. The user can manipulate the adjustable speed controller over a range of motion to direct the skid steer loader to operate over a range of speed.
Some loaders are provided with a user input for causing the loader to be operated in a selected one of two ranges of speeds. For example, if loader has been rented to a novice user, the rental dealer may wish to set the speed to a lower speed. Similarly, where a loader is attached to a sensitive tool, such as a forklift, and the user is approaching a pallet, the user may wish to switch the operation of the loader into a slower, less responsive mode that allows for finer positioning. By contrast, when a user is simply driving down a road, the user may wish to control loader in a higher speed mode. Therefore, some loaders have been provided with a selector that can be manipulated to select between a low-speed and a high-speed mode.


There is provided a device for performing interaction between a user and a machine. The device includes a plurality of domains corresponding to a plurality of stages in the interaction. Each of the domains has voice comprehension means which understands the content of the user's voice. The device includes: means for recognizing the user's voice; means for selecting a domain enabling the best voice comprehension results as ht domain; means for referencing task knowledge of the domain and extracting a task correlated to the voice comprehension result; means for obtaining a sub task sequence correlated to the extracted task; means for setting the first sub task of the sub task sequence as the sub task and updating the domain to which the sub task belongs as the domain; means for extracting a behavior or sub task end flag correlated to the voice comprehension result and the subtask; and means for causing the machine to execute the extracted behavior.

Conventionally, speech dialog interfaces have been developed as interfaces between robots or machines such as car navigation systems and human users. Machines having dialog interfaces interact with users through dialogs with the users and machines' actions performed based on information obtained from the dialogs.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-316385 discloses the following technique. In order to allow free interaction between a user and a machine, a task (domain) corresponding to a speech recognition result of a user's utterance is selected from a plurality of tasks to automatically generate a sequence of dialogs. When the user further utters, a transition takes place to a sequence of dialogs of a corresponding task as necessary, and then the sequence returns to the original sequence.

Device, method, and program for performing interaction between user and machine


A force-transmitting element for non-detachable workpiece connections includes a flange portion and a transmitting portion, wherein the transmitting portion has a substantially cylindrical inner peripheral surface and wherein the wall thickness of the transmitting portion tapers at least in sections from the end close to the flange portion to the end remote from the flange portion. An operationally reliable non-detachable workpiece connection can be obtained despite relatively small dimensions of the force-transmitting element. The end of the transmitting portion which is close to the flange portion has at least one latching depression on the outer peripheral surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a force-transmitting element for non-detachable workpiece connections, having a flange portion and having a transmitting portion, wherein the transmitting portion has a substantially cylindrical inner peripheral surface and wherein the wall thickness of the transmitting portion tapers at least in sections from the end close to the flange portion to the end remote from the flange portion. The invention further relates to a sliding sleeve for non-detachable workpiece connections, having a first end, which has a certain section thickness, and a second end which, compared to the first end, has a tapered section, wherein the external diameter across the outer peripheral surface is constant at least in sections. The invention further relates to an arrangement comprising a fitting, a force-transmitting element and a sliding sleeve and a method for producing a non-detachable workpiece connection between a fitting, a pipe, a force-transmitting element and a sliding sleeve.
2. Description of Related Art
Patent specification EP 0 159 997 B1 discloses a method for producing a non-detachable workpiece connection between a fitting having a flange, a pipe, a force-transmitting element and a clamping ring, wherein the clamping ring is slid axially onto the force-transmitting element, which in turn encompasses the pipe and the fitting encompassed by the pipe, as far as the stop on the flange and thus brings about a shaping of the pipe within a profile provided for on the outer peripheral surface of the fitting. The angles of inclination of the surfaces, with which the force-transmitting element and the clamping ring interact during the pressing process, with reference to the central axis are small here, in order to be able to convert the greatest possible proportion of the axial dynamics into a radially inward pressing movement. The small angles of inclination, however, result in extensive axial movement of the clamping ring. As a result the pressing tools and the workpieces to be pressed such as for example the fitting, must have extensive dimensions. Admittedly it is basically possible to provide the interaction surfaces of the shaping ring and the force-transmitting element with greater angles of inclination to the central axis. But this causes the self-retaining forces between the force-transmitting element and the clamping ring after the pressing process to be reduced, so that these, in particular under the effect of temperature changes and the associated material expansion or contraction, loosen more easily and so the danger of the occurrence of leaks can increase.
The technical problem for the present invention is therefore to specify a force-transmitting element, a sliding sleeve, an arrangement and a method for producing a non-detachable workpiece connection, by means of which an operationally reliable non-detachable workpiece connection can be obtained despite smaller dimensions of the workpieces.

Force-transmitting element, sliding sleeve, arrangement and method for producing a non-detachable workpiece connection


A sensor includes an array of pixels, and a global shutter configured to expose the array of pixels. Each pixel includes storage elements configured to independently store successive frames within a predetermined time period. Each storage element is configured to be independently read out.

Computer devices, such as laptops and the like, are often equipped with touch sensitive sensors or navigation devices. These are typically CMOS devices which include an array of pixels acting as an image sensor. The image sensor detects movement of an object in the vicinity thereof and converts that detected movement into control signals for controlling the computer device.
Some CMOS image sensors include a rolling blade shutter in which the pixels are processed line by line, one being integrated and another being read out for each movement of the shutter. The shutter moves over the array so that the pixels are exposed for the same amount of time, but not all at the same time. Rolling blade shutter does not work well when taking images of fast moving objects as is illustrated by the imaging problems associated with fans, helicopter blades or propellers. Operating a rolling blade shutter for most types of consumer use is not generally a problem and in fact most users do not notice these types of artefact.
However, in the area of machine vision where the images are processed and analyzed by a computer algorithm, distortion of an image due to motion can be a major drawback. In these cases the algorithms will typically fail or produce inaccurate or unreliable data. As a result, in machine vision types of application, a pixel array with global shutter is generally used. Here, pixels are simultaneously released from reset and start to integrate simultaneously. After a specific period, the pixels are then read out simultaneously into a temporary storage, which is often located inside the pixel. This temporary storage is then scanned out row by row where the signal is amplified or converted into a digital value.
Pixels for rolling blade shutter operation typically have a low number of transistors and so are less dense and suitable for sensors with large number of pixels where the size of the die and the size of the image plane should be kept small.
Currently, global shutter pixels have a single storage element in each pixel. Hence after an image has been acquired, it is to be read out before the next signal can be acquired. This typically involves an amplification process and/or a conversion into a digital value. The readout time is typically significantly longer than the exposure time. For example, a 640×480 pixel array can be read out at 200 Hz (5 ms) while the exposure time could be as short as 10 μs to prevent or reduce motion blur. Hence, with a single storage element in each pixel, two exposures could be as much as 5 ms apart.
The type of delay caused by readout of the array can cause issues in certain circumstances. For example, if background or ambient illumination is to be removed from an image, the amount of ambient illumination (e.g. due to flicker from mains-powered lamps) could change considerably in 5 ms. Similarly, if motion detection is desired, then the image may have moved considerably in 5 ms, making it harder to determine the direction of movement, and potentially making the system sensitive to temporal aliasing. Temporal aliasing occurs if a structure with a repetitive spatial frequency such as a barcode or propeller blade has moved almost one complete cycle during the delay between frames, at which point the second image will appear to have moved backwards.
To avoid these types of issues, it is desirable to be able to take two images in very quick succession especially for ambient light detection and movement detection.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,375,752 discloses a global shutter implementation suitable for small image array sizes (e.g. 20×20 pixels) in an optical mouse suitable for storage of multiple images per pixel. However, as there are as many interconnection wires between the array and the readout as there are pixels in the array this technique would not work with larger arrays, as the wires would block light from falling onto the array.
Various circuit architectures have been proposed to attempt to develop a global shutter application which can be used to store one image or a number of subsequent images.
A three transistor (3T) pixel architecture has been proposed which provides gain within the pixel and so has low noise. It can also be fabricated in most CMOS process technology without any modification to the process. However the architecture suffers from issues associated with dark current and reset (kTC) noise.
A four transistor (4T) pixel architecture is proposed having a buried photodiode so that the architecture is immune to dark current generated at the surface and hence has a lower dark current than the photodiode on a 3T pixel. The pixel is engineered so that it can be fully depleted and as such there are no electrons stored on it during reset and so is immune to kTC noise. This architecture is adopted for systems with small pixel size and where the system is to operate in low light levels as it has lower noise than a 3T pixel architecture.
The 4T pixel architecture does not work well under high light levels as once the charge on the photodiode has decayed to ground, further photo-generated charge will not be stored in the photodiode but can flow to adjacent pixels, degrading the image in a process called "blooming".
A five pixel architecture (5T) has been proposed which addresses the issues of blooming under high light levels by using another transistor to provide a path for photo-generated electrons when the pixel is not integrating. However, the 5T architecture has a single storage node and so cannot acquire two frames quickly. In addition, the voltage stored on the sense node is affected by dark current or parasitic light sensitivity. Typically the capacitance of the sense node is kept low to increase the conversion gain and hence a small level of dark current or photo-generated charge will have a large effect.
A seven pixel (7T) architecture has been proposed which overcomes the issue with parasitic light sensitivity and dark current by having a source follower in the pixel and storing the signal on a larger capacitor. However, this pixel is not suitable for rapid acquisition of images as the image still needs to be read out from the array before the next one is acquired.
X. Wang, J. Bogaerts, et. al. have proposed an eight pixel (8T) architecture in SPIE Electronic Imaging 2010 vol. 7536: "A 2.2 μm CIS for machine vision applications". This pixel has 3 storage nodes in the form of a floating diffusion and two capacitors. The second capacitor allows for greater suppression of parasitic light sensitivity but does not allow for speedier image acquisition.
A photo-gate pixel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,515 and is similar to the widely used 4T pixel, except that it uses a photo-gate in which a potential voltage is applied to form a "potential well" so that photo-generated charge can be accumulated. This has a lower dark current than the 3T pixels but is no longer used as the reset (aka "kTC") noise cannot be cancelled and the photo-gate reduces the sensitivity of the pixel to light, especially in the blue region of the spectrum. Although the photo-gate pixel is capable of global shutter operation, it has only 1 storage capacitor and thus also suffers from blooming.
The photo-gate pixel can be adapted to have two readout channels and could be used to acquire two images with very short (<10 μs) interval as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,838,653. However it is difficult to manufacture this architecture as the photo-gate is typically overlapped by the two transfer gates to ensure photo-generated charge is transferred efficiently. This overlapping of polysilicon is not common in either standard CMOS or imaging process technologies and is difficult to produce. Further, pixels are particularly sensitive to parasitic light sensitivity and blooming as there is no way to reset the photo-gate without also resetting the floating diffusion capacitor where the signal is stored. If the photo-generated charge from one image is not completely transferred on read of the image then the charge will be transferred on the next image causing temporal noise in the next image.
As a result, there is no satisfactory design providing a sensor having a global shutter arrangement and having fast capture of two images for the purposes of ambient light sensing and/or movement detection.

STMICROELECTRONICS (RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT) LIMITED


An electron emission device where the electron emission of the emitter at the respective pixels is uniformly controlled. The electron emission device includes first and second substrates facing each other with a distance, and gate and cathode electrodes formed on the first substrate while interposing an insulating layer. Electron emission sources are electrically connected to the respective cathode electrodes. A resistance layer is disposed between the cathode electrode and the electron emission source in substantially the same plane as the cathode electrode. At least one anode electrode is formed on the second substrate. A phosphor screen is placed on a surface of the anode electrode.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a electron emission device, and in particular, to a electron emission device which forms a resistance layer on an electron emission source to uniformly control the electron emission at respective pixels
(b) Description of Related Art
Generally, the electron emission devices are classified into a first type where a hot cathode is used as an electron emission source, and a second type where a cold cathode is used as the electron emission source. Among the second typed electron emission devices there are field emitter array (FEA) types, surface conduction emitter (SCE) types, metal-insulator-metal (MIM) types, metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) types and ballistic electron surface emitting (BSE) types.
The electron emission devices are differentiated in their specific structure depending upon the types thereof, but basically have an electron emission unit placed within a vacuum vessel, and a light emission unit facing the electron emission unit in the vacuum vessel.
Generally, the FEA typed electron emission device has a front substrate and a rear substrate. Emitters are formed on the rear substrate as electron emission sources, together with cathode electrodes and gate electrodes for emitting electrons from the emitters. Phosphor layers are formed on the surface of the front substrate facing the rear substrate, together with an anode electrode receiving high voltages for accelerating the electron beams.
The FEA typed electron emission device commonly has a triode structure with three electrodes. As shown in FIG. 11, gate electrodes 3 are formed on rear substrate 1, and insulating layer 5 is formed on gate electrodes 3. Cathode electrodes 7 are formed on insulating layer 5 while crossing gate electrodes 3. Emitters 9 are formed at the one-sided periphery of cathode electrodes 7 per the respective pixel regions where gate electrodes 3 and cathode electrodes 7 cross each other.
Anode electrode 13 and phosphor layers 15 are formed on the one-sided surface of front substrate 17 facing rear substrate 1, and grid electrode 11 and support 30 are provided between rear substrate 1 and front substrate 17 to focus the electrons emitted from emitters 9.
When driving voltages are applied to cathode electrode 7 and gate electrode 3, a strong electric field due to the voltage difference between the two electrodes is applied to emitter 9, and electrons are emitted from emitter 9. When a positive (+) voltage of several hundreds to several thousands volts is applied to anode electrode 13, the electrons accelerated toward front substrate 17 collide against phosphor layers 15 to emit light.
With the above-structured electron emission device, when the electron emission of emitter 9 is uniformly controlled per the respective pixels, desired grays can be correctly expressed with heightened screen color purity, and the inter-pixel brightness characteristic can be maintained constantly.
However, with the usual FEA typed electron emission device, the shapes of emitters 9 at the respective pixels can be made non-uniformly due to processing differences, and this can result in differences in the electron emission per respective pixels. Furthermore, the electron emission at the pixels where the voltage drop is made due to the internal resistance of cathode electrode 7 and gate electrode 3 may become deteriorated, resulting in uneven electron emission at the respective pixels.

Electron emission device with emission controlling resistance layer


Pivot-hung door drive system with an electronic control system that contains at least one memory and one microprocessor, for an at least single-panel door, the door panel of which is driven by an electro-mechanical drive unit that acts in the opening and closing directions. The drive unit consists essentially of a drive motor with a transmission and a power transmission unit for the door connected to it, whereby the power transmission unit consists of a drive shaft which is connected with one end of an actuator lever and the pivot-hung door drive system is installed inside a door panel or inside a door frame or casing. The power transmission unit consists of a screw with a nut that partly surrounds it, which nut is positively and non-positively connected to a toothed rack, whereby the drive shaft is engaged with its gear teeth in the gear teeth of the toothed rack.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a concealed drive system for a pivot-hung door with an electronic control and/or regulation system that contains at least one memory and one microprocessor for an at least single-panel door. The door panel of the single-panel door is driven by an electro-mechanical drive unit that acts in the opening and closing directions, whereby the drive unit consists essentially of a drive motor with a force transmission unit connected to it, and the force transmission unit has a drive shaft that is connected with one end of an actuator lever. The entire pivot-hung door drive system is installed in a concealed manner inside a door panel or inside a casing.
2. Background Information
The purpose of automatic door drive systems is to make it easier to open and close the doors. Such automatic door drive systems are gaining importance not only in buildings used for public and business purposes, such as, for example, office buildings, hospitals and residential facilities for older people, but automatic door drive systems are also being installed with increasing frequency in homes and apartments that are equipped for access by the physically disabled. For this purpose, the door drive systems are essentially always mounted on the door panel or above the door frame or casing.
German Patent No. DE 42 31 984 A discloses an electro-mechanical pivot-hung door drive system that is equipped with a data processing unit for optimal operation. Connected with the data processing unit is a motor control unit that transmits its output signal to a geared motor. The process of opening such a pivot-hung door is thereby initiated by means of a sensor signal, and is automatically executed by the drive system. Simultaneous with the opening, an energy storage device is supplied with the necessary energy so that such a door can be returned to a secure closed position without the input of additional electrical energy. In the event of a failure of the motor control unit, it is thereby also possible to close the driven door panel securely even in the absence of outside power.
German Patent No. DE 296 04 692 U1 discloses a device for the actuation of a window panel. For this purpose, chain elements are embedded in the panel, and are moved by a worm gear of a motor provided with a gear train.
German Utility Model 295 21 068 describes a drive system for a pivot-hung door installed in emergency escape routes. In this case, a drive system is used that moves only in the direction of opening the pivot-hung door, and thereby simultaneously supplies a power storage mechanism in the form of a spring element with the necessary energy, so that following the opening process, including the potential length of time the pivot-hung door is held open, the door can be properly closed again without additional energy. The entire drive unit is thereby installed in a concealed manner above the pivot-hung door and inside the frame. The pivot-hung door is driven either directly by the drive shaft of the drive system, or by means of an actuator arm inside the profile of the door, which interacts with a sliding piece that can move in a slide rail.
On the drive system there is also a device that makes it possible, by applying a manual force, to uncouple the pivot-hung door from the drive system beyond the closed position. This device is a mechanical coupling that transmits force only in one direction. The coupling thereby consists of a locking pin that is attached positively and non-positively to the drive shaft, and at least one locking notch in the locking pin. Inside the locking notch there is a pin that is spring-loaded and is provided with a continuously adjustable force. The force adjustment capability makes it possible to adjust the release force continuously.
In an additional embodiment, it is also possible that the upper crossbar of the pivot-hung door can be provided with two hook-shaped support arms that are engaged with each other. The support arms are thereby engaged with each other so that the pivot-hung door can also be uncoupled from the drive system only in one direction, namely in the direction of the emergency escape route.
The problem with such door drive systems, however, is that plans for the incorporation of such drive systems must be made as early as during the design of the building, because otherwise it is impossible to have the required passage height.


When a rotational shaft of a gear speed reducer is rotated, a small-diameter gear of a first gear is held in mesh with first internal teeth of a fixed gear and a large-diameter gear of the first gear is held in mesh with second internal teeth of a second gear. The first gear and the second gear comprise cycloidal gears, respectively, and transmit rotational drive power to the second gear. The rotational drive power is output from an output shaft of the second gear. The gear speed reducer has a default mechanism for holding the output shaft at a predetermined angular position when an electric signal applied to an actuator is interrupted, and a self-lock function for preventing drive power applied from the output shaft from being transmitted to the actuator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gear speed reducer for reducing the rotational speed of an actuator that is energized by an electric signal and outputting the reduced rotation.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have heretofore been employed in the art gear speed reducers for reducing the rotational speed of an actuator that is energized by an electric signal of a motor or the like, and transmitting the reduced rotation to an output member.
For example, such a gear speed reducer is combined with a throttle valve. The rotational output power from an electric motor is transmitted through a drive gear comprising a spur gear to an intermediate gear. After the rotation of the drive gear is reduced in speed by the mesh between the drive gear and the intermediate gear, the rotation is transmitted through a driven gear held in mesh with the intermediate gear to the valve shaft of the throttle valve. The rotational output power from the electric motor is reduced and transmitted through the drive gear, the intermediate gear, and the driven gear to the valve shaft, thereby rotating the valve shaft. For details, reference should be made to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-206762, for example.
There is also known in the art a worm gear speed reducer which employs a worm gear for reducing and transmitting rotational output power from an actuator such as an electric motor therethrough to an output shaft. The worm gear speed reducer has a worm mounted on the motor shaft of the electric motor and a helical gear supported on a shaft that extends substantially perpendicularly to the motor shaft and held in mesh with the worm. The drive torque from the electric motor is transmitted from the motor shaft to the worm and then from the worm to the helical gear, and the reduced drive toque is output to the output shaft. For details, reference should be made to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-172407, for example.
The speed reducer disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-206762 employs spur gears as the drive gear for transmitting the output of the electric motor, the intermediate gear held in mesh with the drive gear, and the driven gear held in mesh with the intermediate gear for transmitting the rotation to the valve shaft. If the rotational output power from the electric motor is to be output to the output shaft with largely reduced speed, then it is necessary to increase the number of gear teeth of the gears. However, an increase in the number of gear teeth of a spur gear results in an increase in the diameter of the spur gear. Furthermore, since the drive gear, the intermediate gear, and the driven gear are supported respectively on support shafts extending substantially parallel to each other, the speed reducer including these gears tends to become larger in size.
The worm speed reducer disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-172407 employs the worm gear which comprises the worm and the helical gear as a speed reducer mechanism. As the worm gear has poor rotation transmitting efficiency, it is difficult to transmit the rotational output power from the electric motor efficiently to the output shaft. In addition, the worm gear is low in durability.
The motor shaft on which the worm is mounted and the output shaft of the helical gear that is held in mesh with the worm extend substantially perpendicularly to each other. Therefore, the worm speed reducer is large in size because of the space required therein for housing the motor shaft and the output shaft, and a large installation space is needed for installing the worm speed reducer.


A mineral mining installation has a plough guided for movement along a scraper-chain conveyor. Roof supports are connected to the conveyor with the aid of shifting mechanisms which employ boom-type guide linkages designed to co-operate with a compact controller to adjust the tilt of the conveyor and the cutting horizon of the plough. The controller employs a plate-like guide block guided for up and down motion at the goaf side of the conveyor. An hydraulic piston and cylinder unit is disposed alongside the goal side of the conveyor and pivots a cranked lever to raise or lower the guide block. The guide block is coupled to a headpiece of an associated one of the boom linkages so that the motion of the guide block is transferred to the headpiece.

A control arrangement is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,500 which utilizes a series of boom-type guide linkages extending between roof supports and a longwall face conveyor. The guide linkages have headpieces which are pivotably coupled to brackets on the goaf or stowage side of the conveyor and the operating position of a plough guided along the conveyor is controlled with the aid of upstanding hydraulic piston and cylinder units acting on the headpieces. Each headpiece is connected to a pair of resilient rods or bars constituting the associated guide linkage. The guide linkages are mounted on the roof supports for longitudinal motion and for swinging in a plane perpendicular to the mineral face. Thus these linkages serve additionally to guide the roof supports when these are shifted up towards the mineral face as well as to transmit the forces which arise during shifting of the conveyor and the roof supports.
In another known control arrangement, also utilizing the known boom-type guide linkages, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,637 an articulated toggle lever system is connected between the headpiece of each guide linkage and the conveyor and a piston and cylinder unit serves to operate the lever system. In this case the hydraulic units extend parallel to the conveyor and more or less horizontally.
A further control arrangment described in DE-3,111,460 has piston and cylinders units also disposed in a horizontal disposition parallel to the conveyor each serving to transmit the necessary control forces to a pivotable lever mounted with a ball-and-socket joint to the headpiece of the associated guide linkage. The lever is constructed to move along an arcuate path with the aid of a pin sliding in a track. The forces which are to be transmitted are relatively high and this necessitates a particularly heavy and strong construction and relatively large dimensions.
An object of the invention is to provide an improved control means and arrangement for boom-type guide linkages which is particularly compact.

Control arrangement for adjusting the position of a mineral winning machine in a mineral mining installation


Redundancy in storage arrays is used to extend the life of disk drives and conserve power. In an exemplary storage array, a group of storage devices includes y storage devices. Data and redundant information is distributed across the y devices to provide m levels of redundancy. “Spun down devices” are provided by spinning down a set of one or more of up to m of the y storage devices. Meanwhile, data transfers to and from the group of storage devices continue to be serviced. After a predetermined time, the currently spun down disks can be spun up, and new spun down devices are provided by spinning down another set of one or more of m of the y storage devices. An array may include several groups of storage devices, each having its own value for y and m.

Today's enterprise data centers store ever-larger amounts of business critical data that must be immediately available and highly reliable. To meet reliability requirements for critical data, arrays of groups of disks are often employed. One type of array is known as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID array). Within a RAID array, data is distributed across groups of disks ("RAID groups") in a manner consistent with the RAID level implemented, from full mirroring to parity protection.
As applications demand larger amounts of storage, RAID arrays include many, even thousands, of disks. In order to control costs, inexpensive disk drives of the sort used in personal computers are often employed in RAID arrays. Such disks are not typically designed to work at a high duty cycle. Rather, these disks are designed to be spun down during periods of non-use. For instance, when a personal computer sits idle, the disk drive spins down and "sleeps" until a user re-engages the computer. When such disk drives are employed in RAID arrays, they often remain spun up and active indefinitely. This can cause the disk drives to fail sooner than they would if used in the environment for which they were originally designed. Furthermore, keeping all the disk drives in the RAID array spun up all the time uses relatively high power. It would be advantageous to use disk drives in RAID arrays in a manner that would extend the life of the disk drives and conserve power while offering adequate service to the customer.

Selective power management of disk drives during semi-idle time in order to save power and increase drive life span


A liquid droplet ejecting head is disclosed. The liquid droplet ejecting head includes an electromechanical transducer element; a first substrate which includes a first wiring member; a reinforcing member which is mounted on the first substrate; and a second substrate which includes a second wiring member and which is mounted on the reinforcing member, wherein liquid droplets are ejected when driving power is supplied to the electromechanical transducer element via the first wiring member and the second wiring member.

A related-art liquid droplet ejecting head is known, which includes a nozzle; an ink chamber; an ink supply path; an electromechanical transducer element; a drive IC which selects the electromechanical transducer element for supplying a drive voltage, etc., wherein a first wiring member which is electrically connected to the drive IC is arranged on a first substrate.
In such a liquid droplet ejecting head, a method is adopted, wherein, for example, a second substrate on which a second wiring member is arranged is provided in order to supply a signal from a host apparatus to the first wiring member and the second substrate is directly pasted onto the first substrate such that the first wiring member and the second wiring member overlap. Moreover, a method of joining the first wiring member and the second wiring member with a solder or a method of joining them with wire bonding may be adopted.
When electrically connecting the first wiring member and the second wiring member, it is preferable to connect a second substrate 50 such as an FPC, etc., to an end portion of a first substrate 20 from points of view of construction method and wiring design. Moreover, in order to reinforce the strength of a first substrate, it is preferable to provide a reinforcing member on the first substrate.
However, when the second substrate 50 is connected to the end portion of the first substrate 20, it is necessary to arrange the reinforcing member, avoiding a connecting portion between the first substrate 20 and the second substrate 50, causing the end portion of the first substrate 20 to have no reinforcing member present. Therefore, there is a problem that the strength of a connecting portion between the first substrate 20 and the second substrate 50 decreases. In other words, there is a problem that the strength of the first substrate may not be secured sufficiently.
Moreover, when the second substrate is directly pasted onto the first substrate, a step occurs between a face on the first substrate and a face on the second substrate, so that it is difficult to join and fix the reinforcing member from over the second substrate. Therefore, there is a problem that it is necessary to provide a large opening in the reinforcing member as a space for connecting the second wiring member and an opening space which is separate from the reinforcing member becomes necessary, causing the size of the first substrate to increase to raise the cost.

Liquid droplet ejecting head and image forming apparatus


A maneuver envelope warning system for an aircraft having operating limits, operating condition sensors and an indicator driver. The indicator driver has a plurality of visual indicators. The indicator driver determines a relationship between sensed operating conditions and the operating limits; such as, a ratio therebetween. The indicator driver illuminates a number of the indicators in proportion to the determined relationship. The position of the indicators illuminated represents to a pilot in an easily ascertainable manner whether the operational conditions are approaching operational limits of the aircraft, and the degree to which operational conditions lie within or exceed operational limits.

a. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a warning system for an aircraft; and, in particular, to a warning system capable of operating during air-to-air combat maneuvers so that operational limitations of the aircraft will not be exceeded unintentionally due to the pilot's attention being directed outside the cockpit to a threat target or for terrain avoidance and navigation.
b. Description of the Prior Art
Typically, pilots were required to look at the air speed indicator, G-meter, and the engine gauges and mentally compare the readings to operational limitations memorized from technical manuals in order to maintain the aircraft within operational limits. The problems associated with these display instruments include: (1) The gauges were among numerous other instruments in the overall cockpit display. Typically, during air-to-air combat maneuvering, a pilot could not devote the attention required to get the necessary readings from these instruments. (2) The pilot had to assimilate information from several gauges in order to determine if any one specific operational limit had been exceeded, and the pilot generally had to make this assimilation in a very small amount of time. (3) Many of the gauges were imprecise or hard to read. (4) The pilot had to memorize numerous operation limitations.
To simplify the pilot's assimilation of operational conditions for a vehicle, warning systems have been developed which compare numerous monitored operational conditions to operational limits of the vehicle. Based on the comparison, a visual alarm, or an audible alarm, or both are given. However, the visual alarm of these warning systems consists of a flashing light. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,027,838, 4,763,285, 4,870,412, and 4,980,684 are representative of these conventional warning systems. These conventional warning systems fail to indicate simultaneously to the pilot in a simple and easily assimilated manner whether multiple operational conditions are approaching the operational limits. Furthermore, these conventional warning systems do not indicate the degree, in a dynamic sense, to which operational conditions are within or exceed operational limits.

Aircraft maneuver envelope warning system

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration


A key server (320) based communication system (310) wherewith communicating parties, originators (312) and recipients (314), exchange encrypted communications (324). An originator requests or provides a key (330) to the key server, optionally with an assertion (322) from an authentication authority (318). Based on attributes (326) from the originator or elsewhere, the key server sets controlling events (340) for the communication. The originator encrypts and sends the communication to one or more recipients. A recipient may or may not request the key to decrypt the message. Positive events (342) are determined based on the controlling events and when and how many such requests occur. Negative events (344) are determined based on the absence of any requests or all requests being untimely.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to providing security for messages communicated in networks, including the Internet, and specifically to determining events related to the receipt of messages.
2. Background Art
Virtually every user of electronic communications mediums has at some time or another paused to wonder about the security of communications within those systems. Various reasons exist for concern in this regard, probably ones far too numerous to cover here, but a few examples include having to depend on complex technologies, having to rely on unknown and possibly untrustworthy intermediaries, and the increasing anonymity in our electronic networks due to the distances which communications may travel and the masses of people which we may now reach.
Existing communications systems have had a long time to establish security mechanisms and to build up trust in them by their users. In the United States our conventional postal mail is a good example. We deposit our posted letters into a receptacle which is often very physically secure. Our letters are then picked up, sorted, transported, and ultimately delivered to a similar receptacle for retrieval by their recipients. Between the receptacles of a sender and a receiver the persons handling a letter are part of a single organization (at least intra-nationally) that is well known to us and considered to be highly trustworthy. Even on the rare occasions when the security of our postal system does fail, it has mechanisms to quickly detect and to correct this.
Unfortunately, most of us do not have anywhere near a similar degree of trust in the security of electronic communications as they pass between senders and receivers in our modern networks. We generally trust only in our ability to maintain the security of our sending and receiving "receptacles" for messages, such as e-mail, instant messages, video-conferences, collaborative documents, etc. This is because these receptacles are personal computers (PCs), workstations, Internet appliances, etc. that are within our personal physical control. We also typically appreciate that we have much less control over what goes on in the electronic medium between such receptacles. For instance, potentially any number of miscreants might receive and copy an unsecured message without its sender and intended receivers being any the wiser. Even worse, in many cases, electronic communications can be lost in transit, maliciously altered, fraudulently concocted entirely, or later simply repudiated.
The problem of e-message security is severe and is already receiving considerable attention. Legal mechanisms have already been put into place, and stronger ones continue to be put into place, at least for e-mail messages, to punish and to discourage security breaches. However, the very beneficial ability of electronic messages to travel so far and so swiftly as they can also means that they may cross legal boundaries, potentially hampering such legal efforts and definitely creating a crisis in user confidence.
Old technologies have been revived and extended for use in the new electronic medium, and often these are variations of ones long used in combination with conventional postal systems to obtain heightened security there. Thus we are seeing a resurgence of interest in and the use of cryptography.
Many of the existing systems for securing electronic communications are unwieldy, not well trusted, or both. The very electronic systems which have made modern electronic communications possible and efficient have already made many conventional cryptographic systems obsolete, or at least highly suspect. Equally or more modern computer systems have the ability to perform staggering numbers of tedious operations in a massively parallel manner, and many strong cryptographic systems of the past have now been shown to be no longer reliable.
New systems for securing electronic communications have emerged, however. The last 25 years have seen the introduction, rapid development, and more recently the application of public-key and private-key based systems commonly termed a "public key infrastructure" (PKI). These are presently quite popular, but perhaps prematurely and unduly.
The foundation of the PKI system is generally attributed to work done by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the mid 1970's. The result of that work, commonly known as the RSA algorithm, is a cryptosystem wherein both a public and a private key are assigned to a principal. The public key is revealed to all, but the private key is kept secret. The keys used are both large prime numbers, often hundreds of digits long, and the inherent strength of the RSA algorithm lies in the difficulty in mathematically factoring large numbers.
To send a message securely the message is encrypted using the public key of its intended recipient (here the principal). The message can then only be decrypted and read by the recipient by using their private key. In this simple scenario anyone can send messages to the recipient which only the recipient can read.
A highly beneficial feature of the PKI approach is that a sender can also be a principal and can send a message which only they could have sent. i.e., a non-repudiable message. For this the sender encrypts a message (often only a part of what will be a larger message) using their private key. A recipient then knows that the purported or disputed sender is the true sender of the message, since only using that sender's public key will work to decrypt the message.
In practice, the sender and the receiver often are both principals in PKI systems. The sender encrypts a "signature" using their private key, then embeds this signature into their message, and then encrypts the result using the recipient's public key. The message then is secure from all but the recipient. Only the recipient can decrypt the message generally, using their private key, and once that is done the recipient may further use the sender's public key to specifically decrypt the signature. In this manner the receiver may rest assured that the sender is the true, nonrepudiable, source of the signature (and implicitly the entire message; but this works more securely still if the signature uniquely includes something like a hash of the general message).
As the presence of the term "infrastructure" in PKI implies, however, this popular cryptographic system requires a considerable support system. The public keys must be published so that those wishing to send a message can determine the keys for the intended message recipients. Additionally, public keys are certified for a specific period of time (e.g., one year) and must be renewed. Finally, if the private key is compromised or suspected as having been compromised, the corresponding public key must be revoked. Consequently, any communicating party must check the revocation status of a public key before using it to encrypt messages or verify signatures. These tasks are usually handled by a "certification authority." Unfortunately, as the marketplace in our competitive society is now demonstrating, this can lead to a plurality of certification authorities all vying for acceptance and thoroughly confusing the potential users. Moreover, the lifecycle of public keys (creation, distribution, renewal, and revocation) can lead to complex and unmanageable deployment scenarios.
Of course public and private key systems are possible without the use of a certification authority, say, among small groups wishing to carry out secure communications among themselves and where repudiation is not a concern. But as the very negative reaction by our government to initial publication of and about the RSA algorithm aptly demonstrated, true, unbridled security can be perceived as a threat to a government's ability to protect society. While it is probably now too late for most governments to fully suppress the use of ultra-strong cryptography, it also follows that such governments will be more receptive to cryptosystems that can be opened when truly appropriate (often termed "key escrow" systems).
PKI also has some other problems with regard to usability and efficiency. Since the keys are quite large, usually well beyond the capability of an average human to memorize, they are awkward to work with. Machine based storage and usage mechanisms usually must be employed just to handle the keys. This is a severe impediment to mobile use across multiple systems and to recovery after erasure from volatile memory, and it creates a whole host of additional problems related to protecting what effectively becomes a physical key needed to contain the private key. A receiver based key system, such as PKI, is also unwieldy in some situations. For example, if there are multiple intended recipients, a public key for each must be obtained and used to separately encrypt each message copy. This can encompass quite a severe computational burden as a list of intended message recipients grows in number. Accordingly, the common case in actual practice is that the message is first encrypted with a single symmetric key. The message key is then encrypted multiple times using each recipient's public key. Thus, the message itself is only encrypted once. It is the message key that is encrypted multiple times.
Accordingly, prior art cryptosystems and PKI systems, and the electronic message systems that employ these, provide many benefits. Unfortunately, even these have been found wanting. As it increasingly became apparent that it was desirable to improve on, augment, or even replace such systems the present inventors developed a "Secure E-Mail System" and a "Security Server System". These are respectively covered in U.S. Pat. No. 6,584,564 and U.S. application Ser. No. 10/305,726, hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The approaches discussed above have considerably improved digital message communications, but they have still left room for further improvement. For example, many businesses use digital communication to conduct business with their customers, suppliers, partners, and other business associates. Digital communication (e.g., electronic mail, enterprise instant messaging (EIM), etc.), like non-digital communication (e.g., paper mail) is seldom a stand-alone process. Often, digital communication is a step in the overall business process flow and is triggered by a business event. For example, when a financial brokerage company determines that a customer's margin call is due it must send the customer a notice. The brokerage company may follow up with a phone call. The ability of the business to determine if the customers have opened their notices impacts the process of calling the customers to follow up. In this example, if the business can prove that the customer has opened the notice, then it need not call the customer to follow up. This can result in a reduced number of customer follow up calls, which in turn translates into savings for the business.
For illustration purposes we will use electronic e-mail to provide background. E-mail is good for this because it always involves a transaction (the e-mail), a transaction originator (the sender of the e-mail), and transaction targets (one or more recipients of the e-mail). It also assumes a decoupled environment, where the sender and recipients do not directly communicate with each other. The reading of an e-mail constitutes an event, and not reading an e-mail within a specified period of time also constitutes an event. Knowledge of such events can be particularly useful, both in business and other contexts.
Existing systems for digital message communications, such as the example described above in a business processes context, have a number of limitations. For instance, they are not transparent. The existing technology they use, such as a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), requires user participation in acknowledging receipt of the communicated data. They do not support both action and the lack of action. In the existing technology such systems usage only provides knowledge about receipt of the communicated data. These systems fail to provide any information about the lack of receipt. Existing systems are also not decoupled. The existing technology they use, such as web-based communication, requires the sender of communication data to directly connect with the recipient. The existing systems also require voluntary participation by the recipients. A return-receipt e-mail, for example, requires voluntary participation by the recipient. If the recipient chooses not to acknowledge receipt of the communication, the originator cannot discern the difference between this event and the recipient not receiving the communication at all. The limitations make existing systems unduly recipient controlled, or not controlled at all, rather than originator-controlled. Existing technology, such as PKI-based e-mail, also does not permit an originator to control when a recipient can view the data. Once a message is transmitted, the recipients can view the data as soon as they receive it. Existing systems are often also constrained by the size of the communication data. Existing technologies, such as web-based communication, are dependent on the size of the communication data. The larger the data, the more memory and processing power is required for the underlying system. This unpredictability results in difficulties in managing the expected capacity of the communication systems.
Accordingly, prior art cryptosystems and PKI systems have also proven to be wanting when it comes to determining events related to digital communications, including but not necessarily limited to business communications.

System for implementing business processes using key server events


A radar sensor includes a housing of radar-transmissive material, a circuit board in the housing, first and second antennas of several patch elements on the same or opposite surfaces of the circuit board, and a metal or metallized support supporting a rear surface of the circuit board. The first antenna has a beam axis that extends out through a front of the housing at an angle in a range from 45° to 90° relative to the circuit board plane. The sensor further includes a beam deflection structure arranged within the housing to deflect a beam axis of the second antenna out through the housing at an angle in a range from 0° to 45° relative to the circuit board plane.

Motor vehicles are increasingly equipped with driver assistance systems, which with the aid of sensor systems detect the environment and from the thus recognized traffic situation derive automatic reactions of the vehicle and/or instruct, especially warn the drivers. Here, a distinction is made between comfort and safety functions.
As a comfort function FSRA (Full Speed Range Adaptive Cruise Control) plays the most important roll in the current development. The vehicle adjusts the true speed to the desired speed predefined by the driver, provided the traffic conditions permit this, otherwise the true speed is automatically adapted to the traffic situation. As a second important safety function the lane change assistant currently establishes, which indicates to the driver and/or warns him with a set turn signal, if there is another vehicle on the adjacent lane, which has to be observed when changing the lane, in particular to avoid accidents and hazardous situations, which would force this other vehicle to brake sharply or to make an uncontrolled lane change on his part.
In addition to an increase of the comfort, safety functions are increasingly the focus, whereby the reduction of the braking and/or stopping distance in emergency situations plays the most important role. The spectrum of the corresponding driver assistance functions extends from an automatic priming of the brake for reducing the brake latency (pre-fill), via an improved brake assistant (BAS+) up to the autonomous emergency braking.
For driver assistance systems of the above described type radar sensor are mainly used today. Also at poor weather conditions they work reliably and can measure in addition to the distance of objects also directly their radial relative speed via the Doppler effect. As transmission frequencies, here 24 and 77 GHz are used.
Currently available radar sensor only have a frontal detection area of at maximum approx. −75 . . . +75°. For implementing a high-performance lane change assistant, however, it is necessary that the detection area further opens towards the side, so that one can look quasi around the corner; this is in particular important for situations, in which the own vehicle passes slowly another in particular smaller vehicle and the latter is in the dead angle region of the side mirrors. In order to realize such a laterally extended detection area, according to the state of the art either a second sensor with another installation orientation or at least an additional, differently oriented high-frequency printed circuit board is necessary, which increases significantly the system costs.

Radar sensor with frontal and lateral emission

ADC Automotive Distance Control Systems GmbH


Methods and arrangements for accessing a storage structure. Included are an arrangement for providing a storage access instruction, an arrangement for inputting an address into a storage structure data cache responsive to a storage access instruction, an arrangement for extending a storage access instruction with a predicted register number field, the predicted register number field containing a predicted register number corresponding to a speculative location of a load/store operand associated with a storage access instruction, an arrangement for speculatively accessing a storage structure with a storage access instruction extended by the extending arrangement, and an arrangement for reverting to the arrangement for inputting an address if the load/store operand is not in the speculative location.

In general, the number of clock cycles needed for accessing memory has been increasing. Solutions to this problem have indeed emerged over the years, but have not yet proven to be adequate. For instance, different caching techniques have been contemplated that store a subset of memory into smaller structures and use the data address to decide where a specific datum must be stored (see Smith, A. J., "Cache Memories", Computing Surveys, September 1982). However, it has also been noted that recent technological trends of increasing wire delays will lead to either increasing access times or decreasing capacities for caches (see Agarwal et al., "Clock Rate Versus IPC: The End of the Road for Conventional Microarchitectures", Proceedings of the International Symposium on Computer Architecture [ISCA], 2000). Generally, the conventional technique of looking up caches by address will either cause conflict misses or require an associative search that can increase cache access time and consume excessive quantities of power. Register files tend not to present such problems.
Also, since the register number is a field which is part of the instruction, the desired register can often be accessed as soon as the instruction is fetched, leading to a short pipeline. This contrasts with caches in the context of current instruction sets, which require that an address first be read from a base or index register, then possibly be computed through an address addition, and then possibly be translated to a real address, before the cache access can start. Shorter pipelines can offer well-known advantages, such as lower branch penalties.
However, register use is usually scheduled by compilers, which tend to miss many opportunities for allocating memory locations into registers, because of the limitations of compile-time algorithms. For example, register allocation often requires that a compiler should prove that two pointers will never refer to the same memory location, which is hard to determine precisely at compile time.
Generally, a register file represents the first line of defense in avoiding accesses to main memory. By filtering accesses to the level-1 data cache (DL1), the register file reduces the number of accesses to the memory hierarchy. It thereby allows better utilization of the caches at all levels, thus conserving cache capacity and bandwidth for the instructions with poor temporal locality that actually need it. Modern algorithms for static register allocation succeed in servicing a large number of requests for data that would otherwise have to go to the memory hierarchy.
In spite of such sophisticated static algorithms, a large proportion of accesses to the DL1 exhibit temporal locality. While this is good for reducing the miss-rate of the DL1, it suggests that there is still additional room for filtering out accesses to the DL1.
In view of the foregoing, a need has been recognized in connection with improving upon the shortcomings and disadvantages of prior efforts.

International Business Machines Corporation


A turbine includes: a turbine impeller; a housing disposed so as to enclose the turbine impeller, and including a scroll passage positioned on an outer circumferential side of the turbine impeller and an inner circumferential wall part defining an inner circumferential boundary of the scroll passage; a plurality of nozzle vanes disposed inside an intermediate flow passage which is positioned, in an exhaust gas flow direction, on a downstream side of the scroll passage and on an upstream side of the turbine impeller; and a plate disposed on a side of the intermediate flow passage with respect to the inner circumferential wall part so as to face the intermediate flow passage such that a gap is formed between the plate and the inner circumferential wall part in an axial direction. The plate has at least one through hole through which the intermediate flow passage and the gap are communicated with each other. The at least one through hole opens to a surface of the plate facing the intermediate flow passage, at a position on a radially outer side with respect to a suction surface of at least one of the plurality of nozzle vanes.

A turbocharger including nozzle vanes for adjusting flow of exhaust gas flowing into turbine rotor blades has been used.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a turbocharger including guide vanes (nozzle vanes) arranged in a flow space (intermediate flow passage) through which exhaust gas flows from a flow space (scroll passage) positioned on the outer circumferential side of a turbine impeller into the turbine impeller. The intermediate flow passage is formed between a blade bearing ring supporting the guide vanes and a cover disc located opposite the blade bearing ring. The guide vanes are rotatably mounted to the blade bearing ring via a blade bearing pin penetrating the blade bearing ring. Further, the cover disc forming the intermediate flow passage together with the blade bearing ring has through holes extending in the same direction as the blade bearing pin on the extension of the blade bearing pin. Thus, a force due to pressure differential across the cover disc (pressure differential between the scroll passage and the intermediate flow passage) is applied to the blade bearing pin via the guide vanes and counteracts a force acting on the blade bearing pin, reducing wear of components such as guide vanes.

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES ENGINE & TURBOCHARGER, LTD.


The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a bowl-shaped structure, a bowl-shaped structure manufactured thereby, and a bowl array using the bowl-shaped structure, wherein the method for manufacturing the bowl-shaped structure comprises the following steps: putting into contact a first substrate, on which a particle alignment layer is formed, and a second substrate so as to transfer the particle alignment layer to the second substrate; forming a particle-thin film complex by coating the particle alignment layer that is transferred on the second substrate with a thin film formation substance; removing a portion of the thin film formation substance from the complex to expose particles, and then removing the exposed particles to form a template having a hole; and forming the bowl-shaped structure by coating a first substance on the surface of the hole of the template and then removing the template.

Aligning uniform structures having a size of a few nanometers to hundreds of micrometers on a substrate is a very important area of the modern science and technologies. An array of the uniform structures can be applied to various fields such as memory devices, optical devices, photo-electronic devices, various sensors (sensors for chemical, biochemical and medical molecule detection which use antigen-antibody, DNA-DNA and protein-protein reactions, pH sensors, and solvent detection sensors), photosynthesis, etc.
In order to use the array in the various fields described above, each of the structures forming the array should have no significant defect of a few millimeters or more and assure perfect control with respect to crystal orientation and lattice symmetry. Meanwhile, from the commercial point of view, preparation of the array should be simply and quickly performed, and each of the structures forming the array should be reproducible.
However, the array of the uniform structures formed by conventional preparing methods has a problem because controlling the structure and the orientation is difficult, and the structure itself has many defects.

Bowl-shaped structure, method for manufacturing same, and bowl array