Technologies for data decompression include a computing device that reads a symbol tag byte from an input stream. The computing device determines whether the symbol can be decoded using a fast-path routine, and if not, executes a slow-path routine to decompress the symbol. The slow-path routine may include data-dependent branch instructions that may be unpredictable using branch prediction hardware. For the fast-path routine, the computing device determines a next symbol increment value, a literal increment value, a data length, and an offset based on the tag byte, without executing an unpredictable branch instruction. The computing device sets a source pointer to either literal data or reference data as a function of the tag byte, without executing an unpredictable branch instruction. The computing device may set the source pointer using a conditional move instruction. The computing device copies the data and processes remaining symbols. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Software data decompression is an important software operation used in many computing applications, including both server and client applications. Many common lossless compression formats are based on the LZ77 compression algorithm. Data compressed using LZ77-based algorithms typically include a stream of symbols. Each symbol may include literal data that is to be copied to the output or a reference to repeat data that has already been decompressed. Compared to other lossless compression algorithms such as DEFLATE, LZ77-based algorithms typically achieve lower compression levels but provider higher performance, particularly for decompression. One typical LZ77-based format is "Snappy," developed by Google Inc. and used by the Apache Hadoop™ project and others. Other LZ77-based formats include LZO and LZF.
Typical implementations of decompression algorithms include numerous conditional branches used to categorize input symbols. The outcome of those conditional branches is dependent on the input data. Branch prediction hardware for typical processors may have difficulty correctly predicting the outcome of those conditional branches. Branch misprediction penalties may reduce achievable decompression performance.

Technologies for efficient LZ77-based data decompression


A mobile terminal including a wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other terminal; a touchscreen configured to display a plurality of display objects; a sensing unit configured to detect a motion of the mobile terminal; and a controller configured to move and modify a shape of the plurality of display objects to reflect a characteristic of the detected motion of the mobile terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile terminal and controlling method thereof. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for providing a user interface using such a visual effect as applying modeling of physics laws.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, terminals can be classified into mobile/portable terminals and stationary terminals. The mobile terminals can be classified into handheld terminals and vehicle mount terminals again according to possibility of user's direct portability.
As functions of the terminal are diversified, the terminal is implemented as a multimedia player provided with composite functions such as photographing of photos or moving pictures, playback of music or video files, game play, broadcast reception and the like for example.
To support and increase of the terminal functions, it may be advantageous to consider the improvement of structural parts and/or software parts of the terminal.
Recently, as a mobile terminal tends to be equipped with a touch GUI (graphic user interface) using a touchscreen, the demand for a user-oriented UI (user interface) for modifying or changing shapes or arrangement states of objects freely is rising.

Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof


A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving via a high speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) is disclosed. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) receives the HS-DSCH while operating in a cell forward access channel (Cell-FACH) state, a cell paging channel (Cell-PCH) state, or URA paging channel (URA-PCH) state.

High-speed shared channels for downlink and uplink transmissions are available in third generation partnership project (3GPP) Release 6 systems. Currently, these channels are only available when a user equipment (UE) is in a Cell_DCH state. The UE is in the Cell DCH state if dedicated channels are allocated for the UE. In other radio resource control (RRC) states of the connected mode, (i.e., Cell_FACH, Cell_PCH, and URA_PCH states), the UE is not allocated dedicated channels. Communication with the UE takes place over a random access channel (RACH) and a forward access channel (FACH) in the Cell_FACH state, and over a paging channel (PCH) in the Cell_PCH and URA_PCH states.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show conventional medium access control (MAC) entities in the network and in the UE, respectively. A plurality of sub-MAC entities are included in the MAC entity. The MAC-b entity controls a broadcast channel (BCH). The MAC-c/sh/m controls access to all common transport channels, except a high speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH). The MAC-d controls access to all dedicated transport channels to MAC-c/sh/m and MAC-hs. The MAC-hs handles high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) specific functions and controls access to the HS-DSCH. The MAC-e/es controls access to an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH).
The data rates available on the FACH channel in the downlink are in practice limited to low values due to the inability of a radio network controller (RNC) to modify its transmission power or a modulation and coding scheme to adapt to the requirements of the different UEs served by the FACH. This data rate limitation means that the duration needed to set up dedicated channels for the UE is relatively long and this, in turn, results in long call setup times which degrade end-user experience. Because of this, it has been proposed to allow the use of the HS-DSCH while the UE is in the Cell_FACH state. It has also been proposed to allow the use of the HS-DSCH for paging in the Cell_PCH and URA_PCH states.
While allowing the utilization of the HS-DSCH in the Cell_FACH, Cell_PCH, and URA_PCH states would improve the system performance, there are a number of issues that need to be solved in order to avoid inefficiencies. MAC architecture should be modified to allow the utilization of the HS-DSCH in other RRC states. MAC sub-entities should also be modified to solve the following issues: how to efficiently identify UEs that the data carried over the HS-DSCH belong to; how to efficiently identify types of logical channels that the data carried over the HS-DSCH belong to; and how to handle legacy UEs that do not support the feature.

Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving transmissions with a UE in a cell PCH state

Nufront Mobile Communications Technology Co., Ltd.


Described is a nucleic acid coding for a protein called “cyplasin” that shows a preferential toxicity to autonomously growing mammalian cells. Cell death induced by this protein differs from both apoptosis and necrosis. An intracellular cell death which occurs when recombinantly preparing cyplasin in cell cultures can be avoided by removal of the secretion signal in the cyplasin sequence. This modification makes it possible to express the cyplasin in a mammalian cell culture which is preferable with regard to the glycosylation pattern of the obtained protein. Thus, the present invention also relates to a method of recombinantly producing a protein in eukaryotic cells, preferably mammalian cells, which is cytotoxic for said cells when applied externally.

Marine organisms represent an essentially unexploited reservoir for genes and metabolic products of potential biological and/or pharmacological interest [1, 2, 3]. So far, literature on natural products derived from marine organisms is dominated by low molecular weight compounds characterized by cytotoxicity. A number of such natural drugs are either clinically applied or under evaluation as potential anticancer drugs [1, 2, 3]. In contrast, reports on exploitable genes from marine organisms and their products are rare. The green fluorescent protein from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria may serve as an example for a gene of basic biological interest, which is widely used in biotechnology as reporter for studies on gene expression and protein localization in living cells [4].
Sea hares appear to represent another species producing high molecular weight gene products of interest. Originally, the toxicity of the mollusc Aplysia was found to be due to low molecular weight metabolic substances deriving from algal diet [5]. However, cytolytic, antimicrobial and antifungal activities could be detected in biochemical isolates of high molecular weight from the sea hares Aplysia kurodai, Aplysia juliana and Dolabella auricularia. Accordingly it was suggested that these organisms might produce water-soluble gene-expressed biopolymeres of pharmacological interest [5, 6]. Furthermore, these biochemical investigations suggest that sea hares produce a number of closely related glycoproteins of different sizes and with different biological activities. First attempts to characterize these proteins on the sequence level led to the molecular cloning of one Aplysia kurodai-derived cDNA which showed significant sequence identities with the cDNA encoding a protein produced by the giant African snail Achatina fulica [7]. However, a clear correlation of the protein encoded by the cloned Aplysia kurodai cDNA with any biological activity is missing. This is most likely due to the fact that the biologically active molecules are glycoproteins and that recombinant expression in E. coli results in biologically inactive proteins.

Cytotoxic cyplasin of the sea hare, aplysia punctata, cdna cloning and expression of bioreactive recombinants


A receiving apparatus for a toner container has a toner cavity over which the containing portion of the container is slid. To prevent skiving of toner into the workings of the machine, a guide forces at least the leading part of the containing portion through a higher path with respect to the cavity as it moves over the cavity than the path it takes moving back to a position beside the cavity. A toner container for such a receiving apparatus includes a flange with extensions of the flange away from the container for cooperating with the guide of the apparatus.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,385, issued Dec. 13, 1977 to Katusha et al, shows a toner container having a containing portion with an opening on the bottom and a flange extending outward from the opening. A cover is slidably secured to the flange. A receiving apparatus for the container includes a sump cavity for receiving toner through the bottom of the container when the opening of the container is positioned directly above it. The container and cover are positioned beside the cavity and the container portion is slid off the cover and over the cavity with the flange sliding on a receiving surface that surrounds the cavity.
A problem with this system is that the leading edge of the flange as the container is slid to its position over the cavity has a tendency to skive toner associated with the cavity out of the cavity area and into the workings of the apparatus and into the air. Airborne toner or toner in the apparatus causes a myriad of problems with the apparatus and anyone working with the apparatus.

Receiving apparatus for a toner container and toner container therefor


Improved vertical resolution from pulse neutron logs is obtained by the disclosed process; a pulse of fast neutrons is emitted from a source and counts are taken at near and far dectors. This is done repetitively so that the interval between neutron bursts is conveniently divided into a number of gates, the preferred form being six contiguous gates. The count rate especially in gates 3-6 is obtained and is processed in a modified form to thereby enhance vertical resolution. While before vertical resolution was dependent in part in spacing of the detectors and source, improved vertical resolution is obtained to thereby locate thin beds which would otherwise be obscured.

This invention relates to in situ measurements of earth formations traversed by a well borehole. More particularly the invention relates to the measurement of thermal neutron decay time or neutron lifetime of earth formations in the vicinity of a well borehole and of the borehole itself.
In recent years, an improved well logging system for measuring simultaneously the thermal neutron decay components of the earth formations in the vicinity of a well borehole and the borehole component itself had been introduced. U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,481 which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety describes the most successful commercial system for making such simultaneous measurements. Briefly in the invention described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,481, a well logging tool is moved through a borehole which includes a pulsed source of fast neutrons and two radiation detectors. The pulsed neutron source generates a pulse of neutrons of approximately 14 Mev energy for a duration of between 10 and 150 microseconds at a pulse rate of approximately 1,200 pulses per second. The neutrons are introduced into the media comprising the well borehole and the surrounding earth formations and result in a thermal neutron population being generated from the slowing down of the fast neutrons in the earth formation media and in the borehole media. After a very short pause to allow moderation of the fast neutrons following the neutron pulse, the detectors are gated on and capture gamma radiation resulting from the capture of thermal neutrons in the borehole and the earth formations in the vicinity of the borehole are measured essentially continuously until the next neutron burst is about to begin. Multiple time gates which occur during this essentially continuous interval are used for this purpose. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,481, the use of six such time gates is described. The gates, being essentially contiguous in time and of variable length, have the shorter gates closer to the neutron pulse and the longer duration gates being further removed in time from the neutron pulse.
The contiguous nature of the gates tends to reduce statistical errors, but neither the number of or continuous nature of the gates are essential to this invention, so long as the number and position of gates are adequate to provide data to solve for the desired components. The multiple time gate measurements of the counting rates of the gamma rays measured in each gate are supplied to a thermal neutron lifetime computer which computes formation and borehole neutron lifetime components by means of an iterative least squares fitting technique of the count rate data taken during four or more of the time gates following each neutron burst. The thermal neutron lifetime computer is enabled to calculate both the borehole thermal neutron lifetime component and the earth formation thermal neutron lifetime component simultaneously, and also simultaneously can compute the magnitude of the initial borehole and initial formation neutron components of thermal neutron population.
Approximately once per second and for approximately 5% of the one second operating cycle, the neutron source pulsing sequence is turned off completely and the detectors are used to establish any relatively long lived background counting rate due to source neutron induced gamma ray activity within the gamma ray detector, the formation, the borehole, the logging sonde or any natural gamma radiation in the vicinity of the borehole. This background gamma radiation information is then properly normalized and subtracted from the count rates made in each of the time gates following the neutron bursts. The percentage of the one second cycle used for background can be varied but the approximate 5% amount mentioned has been found to be suitable for this purpose.
A problem which has arisen due to the statistical nature of the measurement of the gamma rays generated by captured thermal neutrons has been that certain mathematical filtering techniques must be applied both to the raw measurement data prior to the data processing and then to the computed thermal neutron decay time or lifetime parameters for both the borehole and the formation which are produced by the logging system described previously. Moreover, the detectors in the system described for thermal multigate decay time logging are spaced as close as conveniently possible to the neutron source in the downhole logging instrument but, because of the relatively small diameter of the logging instrument, the near detector is spaced a distance of approximately 12 inches from the neutron source and the far detector is approximately 12 inches further from the neutron source than the near detector. A rough rule of thumb of vertical resolution of a logging instrument is that resolution is proportional to the distance between the source and the detector simply because of the physics of source propagation (of most types) and the received stimulus observed by the detector. This is not strictly true in the instance of pulsed neutron logging tools such as the thermal multigate decay log in that the vertical resolution of the long spaced detector is not quite twice that of the short spaced detector, but both have resolutions in the range of 18-30 inches.
It is thus seen that, because of the statistical count data filtering and the spacing of source to detectors in the thermal multigate decay time logging system, vertical resolution on the order of 4 to 5 feet is to be expected with the conventionally processed data from this type of logging device. Because of the commercial realities of life, however, it is becoming more important to be able to evaluate thin bed stringers inside of shaley sand formations for potential hydrocarbon production. Higher vertical resolution than the 4 to 5 feet resolution provided by conventionally processed data from the logging instrument in a thermal multigate decay system is quite desirable. In the present invention, such higher resolution is provided by unique processing techniques which are based upon the physics of the measurement, but which employ mathematical processing techniques in their implementation to improve the vertical resolution offered by the measuring instrument and processing software.

Technique for obtaining high vertical resolution formation capture cross sections from pulsed neutron logs


A dual rail driver for an electrochromic device is provided. The dual rail driver includes a power supply having a first power supply rail and a second power supply rail and an H bridge connected to the first power supply rail and the second power supply rail and configurable to couple to an electrochromic device. The dual rail driver includes a controller coupled to the H bridge through a failsafe module and configurable to control switches of the H bridge to charge and discharge the electrochromic device from the first power supply rail and the second power supply rail. The failsafe module is configurable to override one or more signals from the controller that controls the switches of the H bridge through the failsafe module, responsive to detecting anomaly of the electrochromic device.

Electrochromic devices, as used in electrochromic windows and smart windows, typically have an anode and a cathode, one of which is driven by a power supply controlled by a microcontroller or other circuitry. One problem encountered in real-world situations is that if the microcontroller or processor has a software-based failure (or a hardware-based failure), the power supply continues to drive the electrochromic device, which then fails. This can cascade and cause power transistors to fail, circuit boards or wiring to fail, or even start a fire. Another problem encountered in real-world situations is that driving the anode or the cathode to a limited voltage or current level for tinting the electrochromic device, and connecting this same terminal to ground or to the opposite terminal for bleaching the electrochromic device, can result in uneven switching times, and also slow switching times. It is within this context that the embodiments arise.

Two rail design and safety circuit for electrochromic windows


In one embodiment of the invention, a method of analyzing a circuit design is disclosed. In the method of analyzing a circuit design, a circuit is levelized into multiple levels. Circuit simulations of elements at a level are determined using circuit simulators, one for each element and in parallel in level order. Topological circuit loops may be removed from the circuit. Circuit simulation of the circuit may be performed on the circuit using the circuit simulations determined by the circuit simulators at each level of the circuit.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a circuit simulation workflow. Generally, a circuit designer may use a hardware description language (HDL) (e.g., Verilog) to describe or code a circuit through equations and behavior descriptions. The HDL is then synthesized into a netlist 110 from a library. The netlist's library elements have detailed descriptions in the form of transistor level subcircuits. The netlist 110, together with the library subcircuits, input waveforms 115 and the boundary conditions 120, may be simulated and verified using a circuit simulation program (e.g., SPICE (simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis)), as shown in block 105. The output 125 of the circuit simulation program 105 may be used to generate a statically pre-characterized model. Current circuit simulation technologies are not adapted to handle large circuits efficiently.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for circuit simulation using parallel computing


A resonance flat panel speaker includes a wireless music vibration body, at least one resonance sounding board and a resonance sounding cloth arranged in the wireless music vibration body. A first surface of the resonance sounding board is attached to a sound vibrator in the wireless music vibration body. A second surface of the resonance sounding board is attached to an inner surface of the resonance sounding cloth. The resonance sounding cloth is combined with an outer frame of the wireless music vibration body with a tensile force of 5 kg-20 kg. The resonance sounding board is matched with different audio resonance points of the resonance sounding cloth to produce a full range flat panel speaker.

The sound principle of traditional speaker is to generate sound by touching the diaphragm through generation of electrical signals, the basic principle comes from Fleming's left-hand law, put a current-carrying wire perpendicular to the magnetic line between the south and north poles of the magnet, the wire will be moved by the interaction between magnetic line and current, then if a diaphragm is attached to this wire, the diaphragm will generate forward and backward movement along with the change of current. When related diaphragms move and vibrate, it makes surrounding air vibrate, thus the speaker generates sound. However, the size of speaker is generally big, especially the big thickness normally occupies large area, heavy and unaesthetic appearance will bring great limitation in placing it. For the limited living space in today's environment, it is not so appropriate.
In recent years, there are some speakers using the principle of object vibration, make the vibration sounding device fasten on the surface of fixing object (e.g. surface of wooden table, glass and etc.), utilize the vibration of related fixing object to generate sound. Even though the size of speaker can be smaller in this case, the sound frequency will change according to property of related objects, and its application will be limited.


An ATA/IDE host controller 100 generated from an HDL design base and a default frequency configuration script is disclosed. The controller supports ATA/IDE interface communications at a user-selected default frequency of 33, 66, 100, or 133 Mhz and at frequencies other than the default frequency using a set of programmable override timing registers 121. An internal timing control module 110 provides either the default timing parameters or the override timing parameters to the IDE host interface 102, according to the programmable override control 301.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems and systems-on-a-chip (SOCs). More specifically, the present invention relates to IDE controllers used in computers and SOCs to communicate with external devices and systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ATA/IDE interface has evolved over the past several years to support faster timings for greater data bandwidth on the interface. Starting with the initial ATA/IDE specification, entitled "0791 M AT Attachment Interface for Disk Drives" (ATA-1), which was developed under the authority of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) by Technical Committee 13 of the International Committee on Information Technology Standards (INCITS), there have been several revisions to support more data throughput across the interface. The introduction of the Ultra DMA 33 protocol allowed ATA/IDE devices to transfer data at rates up to 33 MB per second. The next revision, Ultra DMA 66, allowed data transfer rates that were twice as fast, up to 66 MB per second. Two subsequent revisions, Ultra DMA 100 and more recently Ultra DMA 133 allowed for data to be transmitted at rates of 100 MB per second and 133 MB per second, respectively. The original ATA/IDE specification and all subsequent revisions are available from the American National Standards Institute at 25 West 43rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10036, and are incorporated by reference for all purposes into this specification.
When Ultra DMA 33 was initially introduced, companies designed controllers to support the new ATA/IDE Ultra DMA 33 compliant devices. Much of the design involved handling the signaling interface to meet the proper timing required by the specification. The design was typically implemented using state machines and counters with hard coded values. This hardware would generate the control signals and data strobes to match the timing parameters required by the Ultra DMA 33 specification. These designs also used a system clock frequency of 33 Mhz, which is the native clock frequency for running Ultra DMA 33 transfers. When the Ultra DMA 66 specification came out, companies had to design new controllers to handle the updated timings to the specification. These controllers were implemented again in a similar fashion using state machines and counters with hard coded timing parameter values to meet the timing requirements on the Ultra DMA 66 interface. The controllers used a clock frequency of 66 Mhz, which is the native clock frequency for Ultra DMA 66 transfers.
As the next generation specifications for Ultra DMA 100 and Ultra DMA 133 were defined, new controllers were introduced supporting these latest interfaces, but these either did not fully support the previous Ultra DMA 33 or Ultra DMA 66 interfaces (and Ultra 100 when Ultra DMA 133 was introduced) or did not run at an optimal transfer rate when running at those slower speeds. This was not an issue in many systems, since the controller designs were optimized in terms of gate counts and performance for the highest interface speed, and these designs were typically used in a single project or environment for a specific clock frequency and device speed (e.g. operation at 133 Mhz to work only with Ultra DMA 133 devices).
However, problems with reuse arose when a host controller targeted for one clock frequency and device speed needed to support multiple systems that ran at different clock frequencies and had to support multiple Ultra DMA speeds. Normally, a different controller had to be used for each system to accommodate that system's interfaces and operating frequencies. Ultra DMA 33's natural clock frequency runs at 33 Mhz (30 ns clock period). Similarly, Ultra DMA 66 runs at 66 Mhz (15 ns clock period), Ultra DMA 100 at 100 Mhz (10 ns clock period), and Ultra DMA 133 runs at 133 Mhz (7.5 ns clock period). A controller designed to handle Ultra DMA 133 transfers assumes a system clock speed of 133 Mhz and thus defines its timing parameters in number of clock cycles, where a clock cycle has a 7.5ns period. Internal counters in the design check to make sure that enough clock cycles have elapsed to meet the minimum timing parameter for a transaction, or that a signal has changed before the maximum timing requirement for a specific transaction is reached. A controller optimized for use in a 133 Mhz system cannot be used in a slower system (for example, one designed for Ultra DMA 33 transfers that uses a 33 Mhz input clock having a 30ns clock period), because all of the timing parameters must be recalculated. For example, a transaction or event with a maximum allowed timing of 70ns can be met with a defined timing parameter of 8 clock cycles (60ns total) in a system running at 133 Mhz, but when the system clock is slowed down to 33 Mhz, the 8-clock cycle requirement translates to 240 ns. This exceeds the allowable maximum time allocated for the transaction.
Supporting all of the Ultra DMA modes (Ultra DMA 33, Ultra DMA 66, Ultra DMA 100 and Ultra 133) at their native clock frequencies (33 Mhz, 66 Mhz, 100 Mhz and 133 Mhz, respectively) required four different versions of the host controller, one for each clock frequency. While optimizing a host controller for a specific system enabled designers to save on the number of gates and achieve a more efficient design for the specific application, an obvious disadvantage to this approach is design maintenance. Supporting and maintaining at least four different designs is clearly more difficult that supporting and maintaining one design.
To address this issue, designers created a single hardware description language design base that included configuration directives specifying which speed a specific instantiation of the design would be optimized for. This approach allowed all of the different hard coded parameters to exist within a single design base. For example, a host controller base design described in Verilog would use the "ifdef" construct, coupled with a special identifier, to specify which speed a design being instantiated is optimized for. Similar constructs exist for other HDL languages. This technique can generate hard coded parameters for the four native clock frequencies (33 Mhz, 66 Mhz, 100 Mhz, and 133 Mhz) for each Ultra DMA transfer mode (Ultra DMA 33, Ultra DMA 66, Ultra DMA 100, and Ultra DMA 133, respectively) as well as the other data transfer modes (Taskfile Accesses, PIO Data Transfers and Multiword DMA Transfers). Using this approach, when a host controller is required for a particular transfer speed, special scripts that invoke the configuration directives are used to preserve the proper hard coded parameters for that particular frequency and strip the other parameters out. This generates an optimized design in terms of timing and performance with the proper hard coded parameters from the design base. This approach simplifies maintenance of the design, since only one design base needs to be maintained.
While partially addressing the multiple-design maintenance issue, using a configuration directive script with the generic design base still results in different hardware configurations, and therefore, does not enable the use of a single controller configuration which supports different systems and different clock frequencies. This is a problem in SOCs that have an integrated ATA/IDE host controller, because SOC manufacturers want their chips to be usable across a variety of environments, even though each environment may be running at a different clock frequency. In addition, some systems may not even run their system clock frequencies at the native speeds of 33 Mhz, 66 Mhz, 100 Mhz or 133 Mhz. For example, some environments might have to run at faster speeds (166 Mhz, 200 Mhz) or non-native frequencies (40 Mhz, 80 Mhz, etc) due to system synchronization issues or foundry process limitations. Obviously, a single design having hard coded parameters—even one generated from a generic design base using a configuration directive script—cannot be used across all of these different environments.
An ATA/IDE host controller that provides support for non-native clock frequencies and that is usable across multiple environments running at different clock frequencies is therefore required. The present invention is such a device. The ATA/IDE host controller of the present invention uses special programmable registers that allow default hard-coded timing parameters to be overridden by values programmed to insure compliance with ATA/IDE timing requirements under the current operating parameters of the system environment in which the host controller is operating. This allows the system user to use the present invention's default timing parameters, or to reprogram the timing parameters when the present invention is used in a system environment with a different clock frequency. In addition, the present invention supports on-the-fly timing parameter reprogramming, to enable its use in systems that allow the system clock frequency to change during regular operation. For example, some systems reduce clock frequencies on-the-fly to minimize power consumption or to reduce heat generation. Reprogramming timing parameters on the fly allows the present invention to continue to support the same ATA/IDE transactions at the same data rate, even when the system clock frequency is reduced.

Configurable advanced technology attachment/integrated drive electronics host controller with programmable timing registers that store timing parameters that control communications


A linear motor device having a magnet, a first yoke for holding the magnet in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic flux in the clearance thereof, a second yoke disposed parallel to the first yoke so that there may be obtained a magnetic closed circuit of the magnetic flux, a third yoke fixed between the opposite ends of the second yoke and the first yoke, and a coil bobbin holding thereon a coil wound in a direction which intersects the magnetic flux, and provided with a driving coil movable along the first yoke extending through the coil bobbin upon electrical energization of the coil, characterized in that the thickness of that portion of the coil bobbin which intervenes between the first yoke and the magnet is restricted so that the interval kept between the first yoke and the magnet can be set on the basis of the thickness of the wound lamination of the coil.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a linear motor device, and more particularly to a linear motor device used as driving means or the like for driving the optical pick-up unit of an optical type recording-reproducing apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, the tendency of recording-reproducing apparatuses to have a large capacity has increased and attention has been paid to optical disc memories as high-density recording mediums therefor. Now, to record information in such an optical disc memory or read out the recorded information, it is necessary to drive a carriage carrying thereon an optical pick-up movable along the surface of the optical disc, and a linear motor of the voice coil type has been used as driving means therefor.
FIGS. 9 and 10 of the accompanying drawings shows an example of an optical pick-up driving apparatus using such a linear motor. In these figures, the reference numeral 1 designates a disc supported by a hub 2 and rotatively driven by a spindle shaft 3, and relative to such a disc 1, an optical pick-up 5 provided with an objective lens 4 is carried on a head carriage 6, which is movable in the direction of arrow along shafts 8 on a pedestal 7. The reference numeral 10 denotes linear motors for driving the head carriage 6.
The linear motors 10 are provided at the opposite sides of the shafts 8, and as shown in FIG. 11 of the accompanying drawings, each of the linear motors is comprised of a center yoke 11, a side yoke 12, a magnet 13 fixed to the side yoke 12, a relay yoke 14 for coupling the center yoke 11 and the side yoke 12 together at their opposite ends, a coil bobbin 15 movable along the center yoke 11, and a coil 16 wound on the bobbin 15. Mounting portions 15A of the bobbin 15 are fixed to the opposite end portions of the head carriage 6.
So, in the linear motor 10 thus constructed, by supplying an electric current to the coil 16 through a magnetic circuit constituted by the center yoke 11, the relay yoke 14, the side yoke 12 and the magnet 13, the coil 16 can be moved with the bobbin 15 along the center yoke 11, thereby moving the head carriage 6.
Now, in such a prior-art linear motor 10, as shown in FIG. 12 of the accompanying drawings, it is necessary to keep a gap L.sub.G between the center yoke 11 and the inner surface of the coil bobbin 15 which is opposed to the center yoke 11 in order to make the coil bobbin 15 movable along the center yoke 11. This gap L.sub.G should desirably be at least 0.5 mm from a consideration of the assembly error of the linear motor 10 or dynamic factors such as the deformation of the bobbin due to the heat generation resulting from the electrical energization of the coil and the deformation due to the inertia force caused, by the generation of an electromagnetic force large enough to move the head carriage unit.
Also, when the thickness of the coil-wound portion 15B of the coil bobbin 15 is L.sub.B and the height of the rib portion 15c at the opposite ends thereof is L.sub.H, the thickness L.sub.B should desirably be 0.5 mm or more from the viewpoints of strength and shaping factors, and the height L.sub.H of the rib portion should desirably be greater than the winding thickness L.sub.C of the coil 16.
Accordingly, the interval L kept between the magnet 13 and the center yoke 11 is EQU L=L.sub.B +L.sub.H +2L.sub.G. (1)
So, the interval L need be the rib height L.sub.H prescribed by the coil winding thickness L.sub.C, plus at least 1.5 mm.

Linear motor and driving apparatus using the same


In a method for producing software modules for field devices for process automation technology (PROFIBUS), wherein the software modules serve as device descriptions and have defined interfaces, in accordance with the FDT/DTM, for application programs in process control systems, syntactically and semantically correct, standard device descriptions are produced in EDD 1.1 from PDM, HCF or company-specific device descriptions for field devices, and the EDD 1.1 versions are then converted into corresponding software modules by means of a compiler C.

In process automation technology, field devices are frequently used, which serve for registering and/or influencing process variables. Examples of such field devices are fill level measuring devices, mass flow meters, pressure meters, meters for measuring temperature, etc., which register the corresponding process variables fill level, mass flow rate, pressure, and temperature. Serving for the influencing of process variables are so-called actuators, which, e.g. as valves, influence the flow of a liquid in a section of pipeline.
The field devices are usually connected to a data bus, and are, as a rule, connected with a central control-, or engineering-, system, which controls the entire process flow and/or enables a direct access to the individual field devices. In the control system, the measured values of the different process variables are evaluated and/or monitored, and appropriate actuators are correspondingly activated for influencing the process. Data transmission between field device and control occurs according to the known international standards for field busses, such as e.g. Hart, Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus, CAM, etc.
Today's automated plants frequently involve a large number of different field devices of a widest variety of manufacturers. Before startup and/or during operation, adjustments must occur at the field devices. These adjustments must frequently be made on site. To this end, the individual field device manufacturers provide different configuration programs for the different devices. Becoming competent with the different programs, including the different operating philosophies, demands extreme effort and time on the part of the user.
The parametering of individual field devices or the configuring of certain groups of field devices in an automated plant having a multiplicity of field devices is extremely complex and expensive, because of the various communications interfaces and the required protocols. The configuring, operating, and maintaining of a field device in an automated plant should be considerably simpler to perform. Desired is the integration of field devices into control systems or engineering applications via a Plug and Play capability, such as is already known e.g. for printers in Windows environments.
Various field device manufacturers have, therefore, come together in PNO (POFIBUS Nutzerorganisation e.V.), for the purpose of enabling a simpler handling of field devices. The field device manufacturers develop special software modules for their field devices. These software modules are delivered with the field devices to the customers. Each software module encapsulates all data and functions of the particular field device and represents, in principle, a black box. Additionally, the device manufacturer can integrate into these software modules its own "look and feel". I.e., the user interface always looks the same to the user, independently of the particular application. The application program, which serves e.g. for configuring, visualizing, operating and maintaining the different field devices, accesses the particular software modules of the field device via a defined interface. One possibility is the FDT/DTM interface specification, as given in the Profibus Guideline-Order No. 2.162, volume 3, of November 2000, which can be obtained via the PNO, Karlsruhe, Germany (www.profibus.com). The content of such guideline is incorporated here by reference.
At the moment, corresponding software modules are available only for a few field devices. For a large number of field devices, the software modules still have to be produced by the pertinent manufacturers. One possibility is to convert available device descriptions by means of compilers, or generators, into corresponding software modules.
The available device descriptions, however, do not exist in a uniform form, or language. There are PDM device descriptions, HCF device descriptions, as well as company-specific device descriptions stored in internal company databases. For each of these categories of different device descriptions, a separate compiler is necessary.
Disadvantageous in the case of such method is that one must generate different compilers for different categories of device descriptions. A further disadvantage of such method is that, in the case of changes, all utilized compilers always have to be revised, in order to prevent inconsistencies. This makes the generating of software modules for field devices by means of present device descriptions very complex.

Method for producing software modules for field devices of process automation technology

Endress + Hauser Conducta Gesellschaft für Mess-und Regeltechnik mbH + Co. KG


The present invention provides a building structure with a two part roof including a first generally horizontal top fixed roof part and a second roof part extending downwardly outwardly from the first roof part and formed by sliding panels for retractability of the second roof part. The first and second roof parts are separated by a first roof support which is under compression with a second roof support which is under tension being provided below the second roof part.

In the building of sports stadiums and the like, there has been an ever increasing tendency to go to retractable roof designs allowing an outdoor feeling in good weather conditions and the closing of the roof in bad weather conditions.
The standard arrangement in a retractable roof is one which includes central roof sections which retract to provide a single central roof "overhead" opening.
Several problems result from the construction described immediately above. Firstly, during most times of the day, the sun is not in fact directly overhead and therefore the center roof opening does not maximize the effect of the sun. Furthermore in some cases, the shadows thrown by the position of the sun relative to the center opening creates severe problems for athletes playing within the building or stadium, and for T.V. monitoring.
A further problem encountered with the overhead type opening is that it is essentially stagnant and is not well exposed to air circulation. The only way for the outside air to enter the stadium is to come directly down through the opening. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true where there tends to be a suction of air out of rather than into the stadium.
Still another problem with the overhead retractable roof is that it necessitates the handling of very large pieces of moving roof sections which are both awkward and expensive.

Building structure with fixed center and movable perimeter roof sections


Improvements in a retractable Snap-On Leash is disclosed. The Snap-on Leash is always on the collar and can be used on nearly any collar that is available in the market place. This further allows the retractable snap-on leash to be removed and placed on a different collar when as the animal grows and when the collar wears out or is damaged. The owner simply needs to locate the handle to extend the leash. A lanyard retainer, stop or lock can be incorporated to limit the extension length less than the length of the leash spooled in the housing. The retracting mechanism allows the leash to be retracted automatically at the end of a walk or as the dog changes distance from the owner. The handle conforms to the shape of the housing to minimize a surface that can catch on anything that the dog might encounter.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in an animal leash. More particularly, the present animal leash is a retractable snap-on leash that allows for the leash to remain on the collar at all times.
Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Domesticated animals, such as dogs, require exercise for health. leash laws in most communities are becoming more stringent and more routinely enforced, however, it is becoming less desirable to permit a pet to roam freely and unleashed. As a consequence, walking such pets while they are confined on leashes is becoming increasingly prevalent. The most common leash has a retractable cord that is attached and removed from the collar of a dog when the dog is being walked. The conventional leash and collar combination works well with many animals and in a number of circumstances, it may be inconvenient to use the separate devices in certain circumstances. For example, animal owners frequently do not desire to carry an additional object, thereby limiting their freedom of movement. When not in use, the owner is required to carry the leash, which can be a further inconvenience and the leash may also become lost or misplaced during or before the walk.
A number of patents and or publications have been made to address these issues. Exemplary examples of patents and or publication that try to address this/these problem(s) are identified and discussed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,250,253 issued on Jan. 6, 1965 to M. A. Galin discloses a Dog Collar with Retractable Leash. The retractable leash is for use with a domesticated animal for calming the animal in crowded or congested areas. This patent is a collar with an integrated retracting mechanism. The handle is essentially a dowel secured in a sleeve to keep the dowel retained. While this patent is for a retractable dog collar, the consumer must purchase the complete collar and does not have the ability to move the retractor from one collar to another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,766 issued on May 11, 1982 to Daniel T. Deibert discloses a Retracting Collar-Mounted Leash. The casing which is intended to resemble a scaled-down brandy barrel mounts an internal shaft on which is journaled a sleeve which mounts a leaf spring and a coiled leash which extends through a slot in the casing. While this collar can be installed on an existing collar, it lacks a comfortable handle for the user to grip when they walk their dog.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,247 issued on Dec. 19, 2006 to Charlotte Eulette et al discloses a Wearable Retracting Animal Leash. The retractable dog leash system is designed to attach to the collar of a pet and be permanently worn in this manner is small and lightweight, and comprises an ergonomic handle that fits neatly against the case when the leash is in a retracted condition. This patent does not have attaching mechanism that wraps around the housing to be more permanently secured where the animal can just rub against a surface to remove the leash.
What is needed is a retractable dog collar where the collar is securable and removable onto an existing dog collar. The retractable snap-on leash disclosed in this document provides the solution.


Various technologies described herein pertain to controlling floating diffusion gain using a charge pump. Feedback can be utilized to control impedance of a floating diffusion region of a pixel of an image sensor, which further includes a read bus and an amplifier. The pixel includes a capacitor and a floating diffusion region, which has an intrinsic floating diffusion capacitance. The capacitor includes a first terminal and a second terminal, where the first terminal is coupled to the floating diffusion region. The amplifier includes an input terminal and an output terminal. The input terminal of the amplifier is coupled to the read bus and the output terminal of the amplifier is coupled to the second terminal of the capacitor. Gain of the amplifier is adjustable to control an equivalent capacitance of the floating diffusion region. Alteration of the equivalent capacitance can modify conversion gain and dynamic range of the pixel.

An image sensor is a device that can convert an optical image into an electronic signal. Image sensors are oftentimes utilized in still cameras, video cameras, video systems, and other imaging devices. Cameras and other imaging devices commonly employ either a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor or a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.
CMOS image sensors include an array of pixels, each of which can comprise a photodetector. CMOS image sensors also include circuitry to convert light energy to an analog voltage. Moreover, CMOS image sensors can include additional circuitry to convert the analog voltage to digital data. Thus, a CMOS image sensor can be an integrated circuit that comprises various analog, digital, mixed-signal, etc. components associated with capturing light and processing imaging related information; accordingly, a CMOS image sensor can be a system on chip (SoC). For example, components integrated into the CMOS image sensor oftentimes include a processor module (e.g., microprocessor, microcontroller, or digital signal processor (DSP) core), memory, analog interfaces (e.g., analog to digital converters, digital to analog converters), and so forth.
Visible imaging systems implemented using CMOS image sensors can reduce costs, power consumption, and noise while improving resolution. For instance, cameras can use CMOS image sensors that efficiently marry low-noise image detection and signal processing with multiple supporting blocks that can provide timing control, clock drivers, reference voltages, analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion, key signal processing elements, and the like. High-performance video cameras can thereby be assembled using a single CMOS integrated circuit supported by few components including a lens and a battery, for instance. Accordingly, by leveraging CMOS image sensors, camera size can be decreased and battery life can be increased. Also, dual-use cameras have emerged that can employ CMOS image sensors to alternately produce high-resolution still images or high definition (HD) video.
In a pixel of an image sensor, charge collected in a photodetector is commonly transferred to a floating diffusion region of the pixel. The floating diffusion region can convert the charge to a voltage. Capacitance of the floating diffusion region can determine a voltage gain. For example, a low capacitance of the floating diffusion region can provide a high conversion gain, which can be used for low light scenes. Yet, high conversion gain can be associated with a low dynamic range, particularly in designs with larger pixels. According to another example, a larger capacitance of the floating diffusion region can provide a lower conversion gain, while allowing for a greater dynamic range. However, the capacitance of the floating diffusion region is typically selected during design of the image sensor; accordingly, the conversion gain and the dynamic range of a pixel is typically fixed due to the capacitance of the floating diffusion region being fixed based upon the design of the image sensor.

Charge pump for pixel floating diffusion gain control


A system and method improve guidance system performance. An accuracy improvement module (AIM) can be configured to compare observed and expected inclination compensation factors (ICFs) at a plurality of inclination angles to detect an inaccuracy in antenna height. In response to detecting an inaccuracy, an AIM can determine a revised antenna height that more accurately represents the height of an antenna above ground. A proposed antenna height can be determined using an observed ICF. A fixed vehicle body height can be subtracted from the proposed antenna height to provide a proposed tire radius. The proposed tire radius can be compared to a table of standard tire radii to determine a tire radius value, which can then be added to the fixed vehicle body height to provide a revised antenna height. The revised antenna height can improve the accuracy or calculated ground positions, thereby improving guidance system performance.

Global competition compels farmers to modify cultivation practices by exercising more cost-effective farming techniques and acquiring more efficient machinery. In doing so, farmers have turned to larger machinery as well as sophisticated technology that automates and optimizes the operation of agricultural vehicles and towed implements. As farming becomes increasingly mechanized, and farm implements faster and larger, accurate positioning of equipment becomes a more significant factor in operational efficiency.
Automatic steering of a main vehicle e.g., a tractor and its towed implement, is often used on large farms where high value crops are grown and operators are not well trained in driving. Many vehicle guidance systems rely on steering inputs from Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), or similar satellite navigation systems. As known in the art, signals from a plurality of satellites can be used to calculate a geographical position of a vehicle. While an effective means of providing accurate location data when a vehicle is moving on fairly level terrain, position data derived from satellite signals may not accurately represent actual ground position when the vehicle is operated on a sloped surface. Inertial sensors are often employed to detect one or more inclination angles of a vehicle. The detected inclination angle can be used to determine an inclination compensation factor (ICF) that represents the effects of vehicle inclination on ground position determination. The satellite-based position and the ICF can be used to provide an adjusted position that compensates for ground slope and better represents the actual vehicle ground track. In general, ICF computations are based on vehicle's inclination angle(s), such as a roll angle, and the height above ground of the antenna receiving the satellite transmissions. Because antennas are typically deployed on the top of a vehicle for optimum satellite reception, the vehicle height is generally be used to represent antenna height. However, vehicle height, and consequently antenna height, can fluctuate with tire height, and differences in antenna height due to varying tire heights can lead to measurable differences in ICF's, resulting in differences in the adjusted positions. Current methods allow the manual configuration of such height parameters; however a change in tire height is not readily associable with steering performance, and thus not reconfigured to a correct value. As a result, the methods can be plagued by errors that can adversely affect guidance system performance, particularly those systems that use real-time kinematic (RTK) techniques that are sensitive to accuracy.

Automatic determination of tire height for improving guidance performance


An acoustic stringed instrument body includes a soundboard, a bottom surface and a side surface, wherein the soundboard includes a relief cut, wherein the relief cut is dimensioned to create a more flexible coupling between the soundboard and the sidewall, wherein the relief cut improves the tone of the instrument by allowing the soundboard to vibrate more freely.

The present invention is directed to instrument bodies, and more particularly, to acoustic stringed instrument bodies.
Acoustic stringed instrument bodies like those on guitars, basses violins, cellos and the like have top surfaces called soundboards. These soundboards are typically made from wood and vibrate when the instrument is played. To provide an instrument with the most aesthetically pleasing tones, soundboards are usually tapered or feathered to thin the soundboard near its peripheral edge to allow more movement by the soundboard relative to the side wall of the instrument. However, tapering a soundboard is difficult and time consuming and frequently requires hours of hand sanding by a skilled craftsman to form a taper at the soundboard""s edges which is not visually apparent.
One drawback associated with conventional soundboards involves the prohibitive costs of tapering a high quality instrument soundboard. Another drawback associated with conventional soundboards involves the use of wood as a soundboard material. Wood soundboards have a tendency to swell under humid conditions, causing changes in visual appearances and tonal quality. In addition, cracking can occur in wood soundboards under dry conditions.
In view of these drawbacks, there exists a need for an acoustic musical instrument soundboard that does not need to be tapered to achieve good tonal quality. There also exists a need for a wooden acoustic musical instrument soundboard that is robustly designed to be resistant to changes in atmospheric conditions such as humidity and temperature levels.
The present invention alleviates to a great extent the disadvantages of the prior art by providing an acoustic stringed instrument body including a soundboard with a relief cut around its periphery. The relief cut forms a more flexible coupling between the soundboard and the sidewall of the instrument, which improves the tone of the instrument.
One aspect of the present invention involves an acoustic stringed instrument body, including a soundboard, a bottom surface and a side surface, wherein the soundboard includes a relief cut to create a more flexible coupling between the soundboard and the sidewall thereby improving the tone of the instrument by allowing the soundboard to vibrate more freely.
Another aspect of the present invention involves an acoustic stringed instrument body, including a soundboard having an exterior surface, wherein a relief cut is located on the exterior surface close to the perimeter of the exterior surface.
A further aspect of the present invention involves an acoustic stringed instrument body, including a soundboard having an interior surface, wherein a relief cut is located on the interior surface close to the perimeter of the interior surface.
Yet another aspect of the present invention involves an acoustic stringed instrument body, including a soundboard having a relief cut with a semicircular, rectangular or triangular cross-section.
Another aspect of the present invention involves an acoustic stringed instrument body, including a back wall having a relief cut, wherein the relief cut in the back wall improves the tone of the instrument by allowing the back wall to vibrate more freely.
A further aspect of the present invention involves an acoustic stringed instrument body, including a soundboard is made of wood, wherein a relief cut in the soundboard permits stretching and contraction of the wooden soundboard due to changes in atmospheric conditions.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be appreciated from review of the following detailed description of the invention, along with the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout.

Acoustic stringed instrument body with relief cut


A microwave plasma CVD apparatus which comprises a treating chamber having means for supporting a body to be treated therein, a plasma generating chamber connected to the treating chamber through a metal mesh, means for introducing a gas into the plasma generating chamber, and means for introducing microwave to convert the gas into a plasma. An embodiment thereof is characterized in that an oscillator for the microwave performs continuous oscillation, the plasma generating chamber constitutes a cylindrical cavity resonator surrounded by the metal mesh and a stop or stops, and a bell-jar smaller than the cavity in length and much smaller than the cavity in inside diameter is disposed in the cavity resonator in contact with the metal mesh to constitute a reentrant cylindrical cavity resonator through control of the position of the stop and the open area ratio of the aperture of the stop. The other embodiment is characterized in that an oscillator for the microwaves performs continuous oscillation, the plasma generating chamber constitutes a cavity surrounded by the mesh and a stop or stops, a bell-jar internally contacting the cavity is disposed in contact with the mesh, and the position of the stop and the open area ratio of the aperture of the stop are controllable according to the condition of electric discharge generated in the bell-jar, whereby the cavity resonator formed before the electric discharge and the cavity resonator formed after the discharge are formed at different positions.

A plasma CVD process means a process for forming a deposited film on a substrate by converting a specified substance into a plasma to form highly active radicals and bringing the radicals into contact with the substrate, and a plasma CVD apparatus means an apparatus used for carrying out the plasma CVD process.
Hitherto, such a plasma CVD apparatus has comprised a plasma CVD chamber constituted of a vacuum vessel provided with a raw material gas inlet port and an exhaust port, and a device for supplying electromagnetic waves or the like for supplying the energy by which the raw material gas introduced into the plasma CVD chamber is converted into a plasma.
The plasma CVD process is based on the high activity of the radicals mentioned above, and a desired deposited film is formed by appropriately selecting the density of the radicals, the temperature of the body to be treated, and the like. An important factor in the plasma CVD process is to efficiently form desired radicals to bring about the formation of a deposited film.
As a medium for supplying the energy for generating a plasma, electromagnetic waves of a high frequency of about 13.56 MHz have conventionally been used. However, it has recently been found that by the use of microwave of a frequency of about 2.45 GHz, it is possible to efficiently form a high-density plasma and to concurrently heat the body to be treated. And the public attention has been focused on a plasma CVD process employing microwave, and along with this, several apparatuses for the process have been proposed.
For instance, there have been proposed a method of forming a deposited film of amorphous silicon (hereinafter referred to as "A-Si") as a component for use in semiconductor devices, electrophotographic photosensitive materials, image inputting sensors, image pickup devices, photovoltaic devices and other electronic devices, optical devices, etc. by the plasma CVD process employing microwave (hereinafter referred to as "MW-PCVD process"), and an apparatus for carrying out the method.
FIG. 9 is a sectional schematic view illustrating an example of such known MW-PCVD apparatus.
In FIG. 9, numeral 1 denotes a rectangular waveguide, 2 a microwave inlet window, 3 a plasma generating chamber, 4 a film forming chamber, 5 and 10 each a gas supply pipe, 6 an exhaust port, 7 a body to be treated, 8 a support for the body to be treated, and 9 denotes a metal mesh.
As shown in FIG. 9, the apparatus comprises the chamber 3 for generating a plasma by use of microwave and the chamber 4 for forming a film by the plasma, the plasma generating chamber 3 and the film forming chamber 4 being separated by the metal mesh 9 so as to prevent the microwave and charged particles from penetrating into the film forming chamber 4. The plasma generating chamber 3 is constructed as a cavity resonator, and the microwave propagated through the rectangular waveguide 1 are introduced into the chamber 3 through the microwave inlet window 2 made of a dielectric material such as quartz (SiO.sub.2), alumina ceramic (Al.sub.2 O.sub.3) and Teflon. The film forming chamber 4, in which the body to be treated 7 is disposed, is provided with the gas supply pipe 5 and the exhaust port 6 for evacuating the plasma generating chamber 3 and the film forming chamber 4.
When the MW-PCVD apparatus of the above construction is operated, microwaves are introduced through the rectangular waveguide 1 into the plasma generating chamber 3, and an electric discharged gas introduced through the gas inlet port 10 is converted into a plasma by the electric field energy of the microwave to form a multiplicity of radicals. Only the radical capable of penetrating through the metal mesh 9 are introduced into the film forming chamber 4, to collide with the gas supplied through the gas supply pipe 5, whereby it is possible to form a deposited film on the body to be treated 7.
In the use of the conventional MW-PCVD apparatus of the above-mentioned construction, however, there is an unsolved problem that when the rectangular waveguide 1 and the plasma generating chamber 3 constituting the cavity resonator are fastened to each other, input impedance matching is not achieved and, therefore, a major portion of the electric field energy of the microwave is reflected, hindering effective utilization of the energy.
As a method of solving the problem, a method has been employed in which electromagnets are disposed around the cavity resonator to effect ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) (Refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-141729 (1980)). The method, however, requires a magnetic flux density of 875 gauss, leading to a considerably large and heavy apparatus. In addition, since the apparatus is generally designed to have a cavity resonator in vacuum, the refractive index of the plasma generated by electric discharge becomes less than 1, resulting in that the cavity resonator does no longer exist (Refer to "Electric Discharge Handbook" complied by The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Part 4, Chapter 2, P.298). Further, in the case where a static magnetic field is developed by electromagnets, the current is varied by heating the coiled wire material and, therefore, it takes a long period of time to stably establish the ECR condition (namely, a magnetic flux density of 875 gauss) by controlling the current variation. Besides, a deviation from the ECR condition during the period causes a lowering in the microwave absorption coefficient, and it is difficult to raise the efficiency in using the electric field energy before the condition is stabilized.

Microwave plasma CVD apparatus with plasma generating chamber constituting a cylindrical cavity resonator


A medium transport apparatus includes a first roller configured to transport a medium, a second roller configured to transport the medium at a different position, in the transport direction of the medium, from the first roller, the second roller including a rotary shaft parallel to a rotary shaft of the first roller, and a bearing portion configured to contact with both the rotary shaft of the first roller and the rotary shaft of the second roller in an area in an extending direction of the rotary shaft, within which the transported medium passes.

The present disclosure relates to a medium transport apparatus.
Hitherto, various types of medium transport apparatus have been used. Among those, a medium transport apparatus including a roller for transporting a medium in a transport direction has been used.
For example, JP-A-2013-193306 discloses a transport apparatus including a transport roller for transporting a recording medium in a transport direction and a plurality of bearings for suppressing bend of a rotary shaft of the transport roller.


A method, computer program product, and computing system for receiving, at a local node, a request to buffer data on a remote persistent cache memory system of a remote node. A target memory address within the remote persistent cache memory system may be sent from the local node via a remote procedure call (RPC). The data may be sent from the local node to the target memory address within the remote persistent cache memory system via a remote direct memory access (RDMA) command.

Storing and safeguarding electronic content may be beneficial in modern business and elsewhere. Accordingly, various methodologies may be employed to protect and distribute such electronic content.
For example, each battery backup RAM system of a multi-node storage system may be defined per node without a mirroring connection between each node. Accordingly, when persisting data within a battery backup RAM system to one node (e.g., a local node), data may not automatically be persisted to the other node (e.g., a remote node). Conventional processes for ensuring consistent data between battery backup RAM systems may require multi-node signaling overhead and/or may require many copies of buffered data within the multi-node storage system.

System and method for multi-node buffer transfer


A fastener for securing an undercover panel to an underside of a vehicle is disclosed. The fastener includes a body having a bore for receiving a threaded bolt extending from the underside of the vehicle, a flange for engaging a first side of the undercover panel, a plurality of resiliently deformable engaging fingers for allowing insertion of the bolt into the bore and to resist removal of the bolt from the bore, and a plurality of resilient engaging members for enabling the engaging members to pass in a first direction through an aperture in the undercover panel, and to resist removal of the fastener from the panel. A plurality of reinforcing members extend from the body to engage a respective engaging member, as a result of forces urging said undercover panel towards the underside of the vehicle, to resist flexing of the engaging members away from the body.

The present invention relates to fasteners for automotive components, and relates particularly, but not exclusively, to fasteners for securing an undercover panel to the underside of a vehicle floor.
Undercover panels are generally secured to the underside of a vehicle floor in order to cover components such as exhaust pipes, fuel lines and brake lines, in order to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the vehicle. Undercover panels are generally made of thermoplastic materials, although it is becoming increasingly popular to use fabric materials to form such panels, which provide a more lightweight undercover panel than one made from thermoplastic material, and provide various manufacturing advantages. An example of a textile undercover panel of this type is supplied by Johann Borgers GmbH & Co. KG, Borgersstrasse, 46397 Bocholt, Germany. However, the use of fabric undercover panels also causes difficulties in securing the undercover panel to the underside of the vehicle, mainly because of the increased flexibility of the undercover panel compared with one made of thermoplastic material.
Fasteners for attaching sheet-like materials such as undercover panels to the underside of a vehicle are well known. For example, EP 1350712 discloses a fastener for attaching an undercover panel to a weld stud on the underside of a floor panel of a car body. The fastener comprises a pair of clips which are assembled to each other at an aperture in the undercover panel, from opposite sides of the undercover panel. The undercover panel with fasteners assembled thereto is then mounted to the underside of the car body by being pushed onto a weld stud on the vehicle underside during final vehicle assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,320 discloses a retaining device for securing a layer of insulation material to sheet metal in the construction of motor vehicle interiors. The retaining device is formed as a single piece, and has a flange for abutting the surface of the layer of insulation material, and an articulated structure which can be inserted through a hole in the layer of insulation material. The articulated structure has locking fingers connected via live hinges to a push plate, so that flexing of the live hinges causes the layer of insulating material to be clamped between the locking fingers and the flange. The layer of insulating material with fasteners secured thereto is then pushed onto a weld stud on the sheet metal.
DE 102006007244 discloses a fastener formed as a single element by means of injection moulding and having first and second parts connected to each other by a frangible portion adapted to bleak when a predetermined axial compressive load is applied to the fastener. The fastener has a threaded portion for mounting to a weld stud, a flange for engaging a component and an anchor portion having flexible fingers which provide the fastener with a larger diameter than an aperture in the component to which the fastener is to be mounted. The fastener is inserted through the aperture from one side thereof so that the flexible fingers flex and pass through the aperture, and as the flange comes into abutment with the component, the flexible fingers flex back to their original position to retain the fastener on the component. The two parts of the fastener are then pushed together, which fractures the frangible part to secure the two parts of the fastener to each other and clamp the component between the parts. The component with fasteners secured thereto is then screwed onto a weld stud.
EP 1849687 discloses a fastener for attaching an undercover to the underside of a vehicle floor panel. The fastener comprises first and second tubular clips which are pushed together from opposite sides of the undercover material to clamp the undercover between the two clips of the fastener. The undercover with fasteners secured thereto is then mounted to a weld stud which is inserted into a bore of the fastener.


An improved base for a NPN bipolar transistor. The base region is formed with Boron and Indium dopants for improved beta early voltage product and reduced base resistance.

Solid state devices are typically made from semiconductor material. Semiconductor material is a material that has a resistance that lies between that of a conductor and an insulator. In creating a device in semiconductor material, device regions are formed to be either N conductivity type (N type) or P conductivity type (P type). The N type semiconductor material is doped with a donor type impurity that generally conducts current via electrons. P type semiconductor material is doped with acceptor-type impurities that conducts current via hole migration. One example of a solid state device is a bipolar NPN transistor. A bipolar NPN transistor is made of a N type emitter, a P type base and a N type collector.
One common method of creating a P type base is by introducing Boron dopants into a select region of the semiconductor material. More recently, the use of Indium has been used to create the P type base. The use of Indium provides an improved beta early voltage product (hFE−VA product). Wherein hFE is the transistor gain (beta) and VA is early voltage. Basically, the early voltage is a measure of how rapidly the depletion layer from a base-collector junction spreads into a base thereby changing the net base doping in non-depleted portions of the base. A high beta early voltage product is achieved by minimizing the spread of the depletion layer into the base. Indium dopants are effective in holding back the depletion layer to achieve an improved beta early voltage product.
In particular, the improved beta early voltage product acquired with the use of Indium results in increased collector currents and collector-emitter gains as compared to boron implanted transistor bases. The increase in beta early voltage product arises from the fact that Indium resides farther from the band edge than Boron. Because of this, Indium in neutral regions partially freezes-out. That is, a lot of the Indium dopant (which in this case is an acceptor) does not accept an electron from the valence band thereby forming holes. In the depleted regions (relevant to its performance here) the Indium in the base-collector depletion region is totally ionized. The result is, that beta (which is set by the low fraction of ionized indium in the non-depleted portions of the base) is high while the spread of the base-collector depletion layer into the base (which is set by the higher fraction of ionized indium in the depleted layer) is low compared to base regions formed with Boron implant. The hole concentration of Indium is given by the following hole concentration equation:
  p  =            2                    N        A                    1      +                        1          +                      4                                      g              A                                                                  N                A                                                              N                  V                                                                  exp                                                        (                                                                                E                          v                                                -                                                  E                          A                                                                    kT                                        )
In the hole concentration equation, p is the hole concentration, NA is the indium concentration, gA is a degeneracy factor which is approximately equal to 4, EV is a valence band edge energy, EA is an acceptor (Indium) ionization energy, k is Boltzman's constant and T is the absolute temperature.
One limitation of a device made with an Indium base is that the device will have a high base resistance. The base resistance is inversely proportional to the integrated doping in the neutral or un-depleted base region. A high base resistance leads to high noise in the device. So even though you can achieve a relatively high beta early voltage product in a device with a base doped with Indium, the relatively high base resistance created by the Indium dopant limits the applicability of the device. It is desired in the art to have a device with a base that has relatively high beta early voltage product and relatively low base resistance.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a device with a base that has relatively high beta early voltage product and relatively low base resistance.


An electrode device for an electric field emission electron source suitable for duty drive having an element size of 50 xcexcm or smaller and an electrode device fabricating method. A glass film used as catalyst of forming carbon nanotubes is formed on a substrate to form metal catalyst at nano meter level and control dispersion. Carbon nanotubes are dispersively formed on the metal catalyst and a metal coat is formed on the surface of carbon nanotubes to improve electric pulse response characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrode device for electron emission and its fabrication method.
2. Description of the Related Art
(1) Electron Emission
According to conventional electrode techniques, emitters for electron emission have been formed by dispersing carbon nanotubes into slurry as conductive auxiliary and coating them on a metal cathode by screen printing (JP-A-11-111158, JP-A-11-111161, JP-A-2000-36243, JP-A-10-12124, GB 2353138). This method is simple, economical and easy to realize a large screen. There is another method by which carbon is grown in an alumina mold and a grown carbon column is used as an emitter (JP-A-2000-67736). With screen printing, however, it is difficult to control the number, vertical orientation and length of carbon nanotubes in an electrode in-plane and an ohmic contact with a cathode substrate, so that uniformity in the electrode in-plane cannot be realized. A mold carbon column is associated with a difficulty of controlling an ohmic contact and diameter so that an electric field is difficult to be raised and a large electric field is necessary for electron emission.
(2) Electrode
A spin transfer effect has been reported, which transfers magnetic spins by wiring a carbon naonotube between the source and drain. Fabrication of ultra fine transistors has also been reported. This fabrication utilizes the fact that metallic or semiconductive nature is presented depending upon a difference of chirality of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Metal electrodes are attached to both ends of single-walled carbon nanotubes forming several tens of bundles. Large current is flowed to realize resistance heating to selectively break only metallic nature carbon nanotubes and leave only semiconductive nature carbon nanotubes.
Since the size of a carbon nanotube is very small, it is difficult to process it and a large scale circuit is impossible to be fabricated by using such carbon nanotubes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrode device for an electric field emission electron source suitable for duty drive having an element size of 50 xcexcm or smaller and an electrode device fabricating method.
The invention provides an electrode device which is fabricated by forming a glass film to be used as catalyst for forming carbon nanotubes, on a substrate to form metal catalyst at a nano meter level and control dispersion, dispersively forming carbon nanotubes on the metal catalyst and forming a metal coat on the surfaces of the carbon nanotubes to improve electric pulse response characteristics, and also provides a fabrication method for such an electrode device.
According to the method of fabricating a nano electrode device of the invention, uniform current is input and output in the in-plane of the device. More specifically, electron emission is realized which has no current loss to be caused by dielectric polarization. The current loss corresponds to the response characteristics of an output current relative to an input current. The amplitude and time of an output current responds sufficiently to the amplitude and time of an input current.
According to the fabrication method of the invention, a sputter glass film forming process quite different from conventional methods is introduced to efficiently form an electrode for electron emission.
According to the fabrication method of the invention, an acceleration voltage up to 50 keV can be applied.
The invention provides a display panel, a projector light source or an electron beam drawing apparatus mounted with an electron device capable of emitting electron beams at 50 keV or lower characterized in uniform electron beam emission in the in-plane of the electrode device. The electrode device has among others an emitter for electron beam emission, a grid for attracting electrons and a converging lens for converging electron beams, and can obtain a high current density.


The invention relates to a jack-up rig. The inventive rig would work like a conventional jack-up rig while in open water with the hull jacked up out of the water. However, in the event of ice conditions, the hull is lowered into the water into an ice defensive configuration. The hull is specifically shaped with a lower portion that is an ice-bending surface to bend and break up ice that comes in contact with the hull while in the ice defensive configuration. Furthermore, the jack-up rig comprises at least two derricks.

In the never-ending search for hydrocarbons, many technologies have been developed to find new reservoirs and resources and most areas of the world have been scoured looking for new discoveries. Few expect that any large, undiscovered resources remain to be found near populated areas and in places that would be easily accessed. Instead, new large reserves are being found in more challenging and difficult to reach areas.
One promising area is in the offshore Arctic. However, the Arctic is cold, remote and ice on the water creates considerable challenges for prospecting for hydrocarbons. Over the years, it has generally been regarded that six unprofitable wells must be drilled for every profitable well. If this is actually true, one must hope that the unprofitable wells will not be expensive to drill. However, little in the Arctic is inexpensive.
Currently, in the shallow waters of cold weather places like the Arctic, exploratory drilling from a jack-up or mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) can be used for about 45-90 days in the short, open-water summer season. Predicting when the drilling season starts and ends is a game of chance and many efforts are undertaken to determine when the jack-up may be safely towed to the drilling location and drilling may be started. Once started, there is considerable urgency to complete the well to avoid having to disconnect and retreat in the event of ice incursion before the well is complete. Even during the few weeks of open water, ice floes present a significant hazard to jack-up drilling rigs on location and legs of the jack-up drilling rig are exposed and quite vulnerable to damage.
Jack-up rigs are mobile, self-elevating, offshore drilling and workover platforms equipped with legs that can be lowered to the ocean floor until a foundation is established to support the hull, which contains the drilling and/or workover equipment, jacking system, crew quarters, loading and unloading facilities, storage areas for bulk and liquid materials, helicopter landing deck and other related equipment.
The jack-up rig is designed to be towed to the drilling site and jacked-up out of the water so that the wave action only impacts the legs, which have a fairly small cross section. However, the legs of a jack-up provide little defense against ice floe collisions and an ice floe of any notable size is capable of causing structural damage to one or more legs and/or pushing the rig off location. If this type of event were to happen before the drilling operations were suspended and suitable secure and abandon had been completed, a hydrocarbon leak would possibly occur. Even a small risk of such a leak is completely unacceptable in the oil and gas industry, to the regulators and to the public.
Thus, once it is determined that a potentially profitable well has been drilled during this short season, a very large, gravity based production system, or similar structure may be brought in and set on the sea floor for the long process of drilling and producing the hydrocarbons. These gravity-based structures are very large and very expensive, but are built to withstand the ice forces year around.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,730 discloses a floating work platform that has two derricks provided thereon. However, that patent is directed to a semi-submersible vessel, such as a drill ship. Unlike jack-up rigs, semi-submersible vessels by nature are subject to both the wave and impact of ice floe, and therefore cannot withstand the extreme conditions in the Artic.
EP1094193 discloses a offshore drilling ship that has a dual-activity drilling assembly, so that the time involved in drilling wells in substantially deep water can be reduced. However, this patent is also directed to a drilling ship that cannot maintain high stability required in the Artic under harsh weather conditions. Additionally, the dual-activity drilling assembly disclosed can only drill one well at a time, which is inherently inefficient for exploration or production purposes, especially at a place where only a very narrow window of operation is available.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,477 describes a self-elevating drilling unit with dual cantilever assemblies that permit dual drilling on a small platform where each drilling unit can operate on an 8×8 spacing. However, this rig is still subject to the vagaries of weather and does not solve the ice problem that exists in Artic or North sea drilling.
Therefore, there is the need for a drilling system and method that can both withstand the extreme conditions in the Artic and provide highly efficient exploration capacity and mobility.

Dual-derrick ice-worthy jack-up drilling unit