An electronic game apparatus. The apparatus may include at least a first player input device and a second player input device. Each player input device may have a plurality of buttons adapted to be manipulated by a player, thereby producing player input signals for moving one or more characters within the game environment. The apparatus may also include a base unit coupled to the player input devices. The base unit may include a game processor adapted to receive the plurality of player input signals and to determine therefrom a game simulation. The game processor may transmit output signals representative of the game simulation to a monitor device. Optionally the game simulation may include movements of at least one of the first player and the second player character based upon input signals from the corresponding player input device. Each player character may be selectable from different groups of player characters.

An electronic game apparatus may include one or more controller units that may be manipulated by one or more participants in order to simulate a game simulation such as an automobile race. Examples of electronic game assemblies using electronic inputs, input devices for video games or other computing devices, and/or mechanical racing games are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,588,187; 4,695,953; 4,758,691; 4,846,693; 5,174,759; 5,178,545; 5,186,460; 5,239,464; 5,245,320; 5,311,207; 5,317,336; 5,370,536; 5,389,950; 5,396,267; 5,421,590; 5,453,758; 5,511,983; 5,593,350; 5,594,215; 5,668,574; 5,670,992; 5,692,956; 5,749,577; 5,820,462; 5,823,876; 5,829,745; 5,919,092; 5,963,199; 5,967,898; 5,976,018; 6,033,309; 6,050,897; 6,068,554; 6,159,099; 6,191,777; 6,200,219; 6,201,947; 6,364,771; 6,461,238; 6,544,124; 6,597,342; 6,607,437; 6,623,358; 6,645,070; 6,672,962; 6,692,333; 6,714,189; 6,805,631; 6,809,722; 6,878,062; and 6,929,543, in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE33662, in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. D316879; D328315; D375326; D379203; D380503; D395464; D410970; D420708; D435603; and D441028, and in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2001/0018359; 2002/0142838; 2003/0022717; 2003/0036417; 2004/0259638; 2005/0107145; 2005/0148389; 2005/0230230. The entire disclosures of each of the patents, patent applications, and patent application publications recited in this and in other paragraphs are all incorporated by reference herein in their entirety and for all purposes.

Game unit with controller-determined characters


Dielectric materials comprise perovskite of lead, magnesium, niobium, iron and tungsten oxides, the residue of two types of sintering aids and transition metal oxide component.

Considerable efforts have been expended to develop ceramic dielectric materials that are capable of being produced by sintering at sufficiently low temperatures that relatively inexpensive metals can be used as electrodes for fabricating capacitors. Electrode metals such as palladium, silver/palladium alloy, platinum and silver/platinum alloy have been used in order to withstand the high sintering temperatures required to produce many types of ceramic capacitors. These electrode materials, due to the presence of palladium or platinum, constitute a significant expense in the fabrication of a capacitor. Less expensive materials such as silver have lower melting temperatures (silver melts at 961.degree. C.) and thus, to enable fabrication of a viable ceramic capacitor, the dielectric material must be capable of being formed at sintering temperatures sufficiently low that the electrode material does not melt or unduly soften and does not migrate into the dielectric material and adversely affect the performance of the capacitor.
In order to make, especially on a reproducible basis as required for commercial production, ceramic capacitors, the sintering should produce a uniform, dense ceramic body. Characteristic of insufficiently sintered ceramics is the presence of open, or porous, structures and incomplete formation of perovskite phases. Modifications can be made to precursor compositions, e.g., by the inclusion of sintering aids and changes in perovskite phase-forming components, in attempts to provide a composition capable of being sintered at lower temperatures. However, these modifications must be carefully made to avoid untoward effects on the performance of the capacitor.
Demanding performance standards exist for capacitors. Minimum specifications frequently include a dielectric constant of at least about 10,000 at 25.degree. C., a dissipation factor of less than about 3 percent, and high insulation resistance (at least 10.sup.12 ohm-cm at 25.degree. C.). Moreover, extremely high reproducability, reliability and freedom from failures with operation are essential. See, for instance, Electric Industries Association Standard RS-198-C (November 1983) for Z5U-type capacitors.
Park, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,088, disclose lead oxide-based dielectric ceramic materials which are capable of being sintered at temperatures in the range of 900.degree. to 1000.degree. C. and which contain 64.32 to 66.20 weight percent PbO, 2.49 to 6.67 weight percent Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, 24 18 to 24.14 weight percent Nb.sub.2 O.sub.5, 2.09 to 3.59 weight percent MgO, 0.025 to 0.10 weight percent MnO.sub.2 and 0.20 to 1.50 weight percent of a sintering aid additive having a melting point of no more than 775.degree. C. and a resistivity at 25.degree. C. of at least 10.sup.13 ohm-cm, wherein the sintering aid contains one or more of GeO.sub.2, SiO.sub.2, Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3, CdO, ZnO, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, CuO and B.sub.2 O.sub.3 chemically combined with at least 20 weight percent of PbO.
Furukawa, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,102 disclose a ceramic composition containing a solid solution of Pb(Mg.sub.1/3 NB.sub.2/3)O.sub.3 -Pb(Fe.sub.1/2 NB.sub.1/2)O.sub.3 which is said to be capable of being formed by sintering at 800.degree. to less than 1000.degree. C. The patentees disclose various additives such as Pb(Mn.sub.2/3 W.sub.1/3).sub.O.sub.3, Pb (Mn.sub.1/2 W.sub.1/2)O.sub.3, Pb(Mn.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3)O.sub.3, Li.sub.2 O, Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3 and CeO.sub.2. The basic ceramic composition consists of 67.99 to 68.58 weight percent PbO, 0.61 to 8.51 weight percent Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, 1.23 to 3.92 weight percent MgO and 22.27 to 26.89 weight percent Nb.sub.2 O.sub.5.
Yonezawa, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,938, disclose ceramic compositions which purportedly can be sintered at temperatures below about 1000.degree. C. which contain Pb(Fe.sub.2/3 W.sub.1/3).sub.x (Fe.sub.1/2 Nb.sub.1/2).sub.1-x O.sub.3 where 0.2 to 0.5.
Fujiwara, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,075 disclose a ceramic composition having a solid solution structure of Pb(Fe.sub.1/2 Nb.sub.1/2)O.sub.3 -Pb(Mg.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3)O.sub.3 -Pb(Mg.sub.1/2 W.sub.1/2)O.sub.3. This composition comprises 64.80 to 68.58 weight percent PbO, 0 to 11 46 weight percent Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, 0.3 to 3.92 weight percent MgO, 9.65 to 26.89 weight percent Nb.sub.2 O.sub.5 and 0 to 16.83 weight percent WO.sub.3. Additives include MnO, Pb(Mn.sub.2/3 W.sub.1/3)O.sub.3, Pb(Mn.sub.1/2 W.sub.1/2)O.sub.3, Pb(Mn.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3)O.sub.3, Pb(Mn.sub.1/3 Ta.sub.2/3)O.sub.3, Li.sub.2 O, Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3 and CeO.sub.2.
Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 57-208004 describes ceramic dielectric material especially useful for laminated capacitors containing Pb(Mg.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3)O.sub.3 -CdTiO.sub.3 -Pb(Fe.sub.2/3 W.sub.1/3)O.sub.3. Exemplified additives are MnO.sub.2, CeO.sub.2, Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3 and CoO. Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 57-189407 describes also ceramic compositions useful for dielectrics for laminated capacitors containing Pb(Mg.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3) O.sub.3 -CdTiO.sub.3. Additives specifically described are MnO.sub.2, Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, Cr.sub.2 O.sub.3, CeO.sub.2 and WO.sub.3. The applicants state that PbO.MgO are to be used in excess. When the components are not within the specific ranges described in the publication, the materials are said not to insert or have low dielectric constants or have large dielectric loss.
Takagi, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,426 disclose lead powders containing perovskite-type lead-containing oxides The powder is prepared by (a) mixing and calcining a material selected from a broad group of components, (b) adding a lead substance, and (c) calcining the mixture. The materials in step (a) include oxides containing titanium, zirconium, lithium, copper, magnesium, nickel, barium, calcium, strontium, zinc, manganese, cobalt, tin, iron, cadmium, antimony, aluminum, rare earth metals, indium, selenium, niobium, tantalum, bismuth, tungsten, tellurium, rhenium and mixtures thereof.
Thomas in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,814, discloses dielectric compositions having 95.5 to 99.4 weight percent of (Sr.sub.x Pb.sub.l-x TiO.sub.3).sub.a (PbMg.sub.r W.sub.s O.sub.3).sub.b and 4.5 to 6.0 weight percent of a mixture of metal oxides or precursors thereof consisting essentially of (1) binary oxide of a transition metal selected from the group consisting of Co, Ni, Cr, Mn and mixtures thereof, (2) Cd titanate, Zn titanate or mixtures thereof, and (3) a polynary oxide selected from the group consisting of Cd zirconate, Zn zirconate, Cd stannate, Zn stannate and mixtures thereof.
Maher in U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,209, discloses dielectric material comprising Pb.sub.l-x La.sub.x (Zr.sub.y Ti.sub.l-y).sub.l-x/4 O.sub.3 which is doped with 0.1 to 10 weight percent silver. The capacitor may contain low temperature glass which may comprise glass formers selected from B.sub.2 O.sub.3, SiO.sub.2, GeO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, ZnO, CdO, Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3 and PbO. United Kingdom published patent application 2,039,877A discloses a similar composition but further containing barium titanate. See also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,265 in which high cadmium-content silicates are used as flux in similar capacitor formulations.
Lewis in U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,713 discloses various niobate compounds having dielectric properties. The compositions have the formula (l-x)L.sub.2 O-xMO-R.sub.2 O.sub.5 wherein L is sodium which may be partially replaced by potassium, M is cadmium or lead and R is niobium which may be partially replaced by tantalum.
Walker, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 2,277,734, disclose as dielectric materials, the product of firing at high temperature a composition of 80 to 97 percent titanium dioxide and the balance of preformed titanate of calcium, strontium, barium, cadmium, zinc and divalent lead.

Lead magnesium niobate ceramic dielectrics having low sintering temperatures


A battery comprising a housing having a central longitudinal axis. A cover is coupled to the housing and a first flange is integrally formed with the cover and configured to act as a first terminal for the battery. At least a portion of the first flange extends away from the housing in a direction generally perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis. Wherein the first flange is configured for electrical coupling with a terminal of an adjacent battery in a battery system. for electrical coupling with a terminal of an adjacent battery in a battery system.

The present disclosure relates to the field of batteries and battery systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to integrally formed terminals for batteries or cells (e.g., lithium-ion batteries).
It is known to provide batteries or cells for use in vehicles such as automobiles. For example, lead-acid batteries have been used in starting, lighting, and ignition applications. More recently, hybrid electric vehicles are being developed which utilize a battery (e.g., a lithium-ion or nickel-metal-hydride battery) in combination with other systems (e.g., an internal combustion engine) to provide power for the vehicle.
It is known that a battery generally includes two terminals (e.g., a positive terminal and a negative terminal, etc.) through which the battery is electrically connected to other batteries or other components. A battery may have terminals that protrude from the battery surface and/or have a casing that acts as a terminal. These terminals are provided as separate elements that are coupled to the battery (e.g., by welding to a battery cover). This adds an additional step to the manufacturing process, as well as increased cost. The integrity of this weld or other coupling mechanism may present issues over the life of the battery.
Battery systems or assemblies include a number of batteries or cells electrically coupled to each other and/or to other elements of the system. Such cells are conventionally coupled together using conductive members (e.g., bus bars). Such conductive members may be welded to the terminals of the batteries or secured using fasteners. It would be advantageous to eliminate the need for such conductive members to remove the additional cost and manufacturing time associated with such components (e.g., to reduce the number of parts in the battery system and to eliminate the need to handle and assemble the components during manufacturing).
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a battery that includes one or more terminals that are integrally formed with the body or cover of the battery. It would also be advantageous to configure the terminals so they can be directly coupled to terminals of adjacent batteries.

Johnson Controls—SAFT Power Solutions LLC


An optocoupler with a light guide defining element is presented. The light guide defining element has at least one cavity configured to define the shape of the light guide formed by a transparent encapsulant encapsulating the optical transmitter and receiver dies. The transparent encapsulant in liquid form may be injected into the cavity prior to a curing process to harden the encapsulant into a light guide with a predetermined shape. The cavity of the light guide element may be defined by a reflective surface having micro-optics formed thereon. A multichannel optocoupler with multiple transmitter and/or receiver dies having such light guide defining element is also presented. The light guide defining element may have a single cavity enveloping all the optical transmitter or receiver dies, or a multiple cavities by having a pair of transmitter and receiver dies inside each cavity.

A galvanic isolator provides a mean for moving a signal from one electrical circuit to another electrical circuit when the two electrical circuits must otherwise be electrically isolated from one another. Usually the two electrical circuits operate at different voltages, and thus, must be electrically isolated. For example, consider an application in which a 5V battery powered controller board is utilized to control a motor circuit operating at 240V. In this example, it is essential to electrically isolate the 240V motor circuits from the 5V controller circuit, while permitting the 5V controller circuit to send or receive signals from the 240V motor circuit. In this type of application, a galvanic isolator may be used to provide voltage and noise isolation, while permitting the information exchange between the two circuit systems. For electrical system with more than two circuits operating at different voltages, a multichannel galvanic isolator may be used.
There are three main types of galvanic isolators. The first type is a wireless radio frequency transceiver, in which a signal is sent from one circuit to another circuit via a wireless signal. The second type is a magnetic isolator in which the signal is transmitted from one circuit to another circuit by means of a magnetic field. The third type is an optocoupler in which the signal is transferred between circuits by means of light waves. Galvanic isolators may be used in applications involving voltage operating in kilovolts. Magnetic isolators and radio frequency isolators may have limitation in shielding noise from one circuit system to another circuit system because the entire circuit in the isolators may be susceptible to the strong magnetic field or the radio frequency waves that may induce voltage or current. However, optocouplers, couplings signals by means of light waves, do not induce noise in the same way that magnetic isolators or radio-frequency transceivers induce noise.
Generally, an optocoupler comprises an optical transmitter die and an optical receiver die. The optical transmitter die and the optical receiver die may be housed in a single package. A multichannel optocoupler may have more than one pair of optical transmitter or receiver dies. A signal is usually transmitted from the optical transmitter die to the optical receiver die. In order to prevent light loss, a light guide is typically employed. In most cases, the light guide is formed by dispensing a transparent encapsulant in liquid form over the optical transmitter and receiver dies. The transparent encapsulant is then hardened through a curing process into a light guide. The shape of the light guide may be dependent on the viscosity of the encapsulant, and therefore, the shape of the light guide may be difficult to control. This issue of controlling the light guide shape may be more severe for an optocoupler with large dies or for a multichannel optocoupler.

Optocoupler with light guide defining element

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A power semiconductor device is disclosed. In one embodiment, the power semiconductor device includes a plurality of device components that are contact-connected by bonding wires having different thicknesses. The surface of at least one bonding wire serves as a contact area for at least one further bonding wire, the bonding wire that serves as contact area being thicker than the bonding wire contact-connected thereon.

Power semiconductor devices may have not only power components but also control components which serve for controlling the power components. Since the current intensities of the electric currents that permeate the power components are significantly higher than the intensities of the electric currents that are fed to the control components, the thicknesses of power bonding wires that make contact with the power components turn out to be very different compared with the thicknesses of the control bonding wires that make contact with the control components.
The wiring of power components and control components is relatively complicated since for each bonding wire it is necessary to provide contact areas on the power components and control components, respectively, the lateral space requirement of the contact areas turning out to be different depending on the type of bonding wire (power bonding wire or control bonding wire).
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic plan view of a known power semiconductor device.
A power semiconductor device 1 has a first power component 2, a second power component 3 and also a control component 4 for controlling the first and second power components 2, 3. The first and second power components 2, 3 are arranged next to one another, and the control component 4 is provided on the second power component 3. A power contact area 5 and also control contact areas 6, 7 are provided on the first power component 2. A power contact area 8 and also control contact areas 9, 10 are likewise provided on the second power component 3. Control contact areas 11 to 20 are provided on the control component 4. The control contact areas 6, 7, 9 and 10 provided on the first and second power components 2, 3 are electrically connected via control bonding wires 211, 212, 213, 214 to the control contact areas 13, 14, 11, 14 provided on the control component 4. Furthermore, the control contact areas 15 to 20 provided on the control component 4 are electrically connected to external connections 22 of the power semiconductor device 1 via control bonding wires 215 to 2110. The power contact areas 6 and 8 are in each case electrically contact-connected by means of a power bonding wire 23, 24, each power bonding wire 23, 24 in turn being electrically connected to an external connection 22.
What is disadvantageous about the power semiconductor device 1 described in FIG. 1 is that the power contact areas 5, 8 and the control contact areas 6, 7, 9 and 10 in their totality take up a relatively large amount of space, so that, given a predetermined lateral extent of the power components 2 and 3, the active zones provided within the power components 2, 3 generally turn out to be smaller, the higher the lateral extent of the power contact areas 5 and 8. This leads either to an increased lateral extent of the power components 2, 3 (with the power of the power components remaining the same), or to a lower power of the power components 2, 3 (with the lateral dimensions remaining the same). For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.


A vehicle seat control apparatus is configured to be provided in a vehicle switchable between a manual driving state in which a driver performs a driving operation of the vehicle and an automatic driving state in which the driving operation is performed automatically. The apparatus includes a seat adjuster, a controller, and a storage. The seat adjuster adjusts a position of a seat of the vehicle. The controller drives the seat adjuster and makes a transition between the driving two states. The storage stores seat position information indicating the seat position in the the manual driving state. The controller drives the seat adjuster on a basis of the seat position information read out from the storage, and moves, by the seat adjuster, the seat rearward on a basis of the seat position in the manual driving state as a reference position, upon making a transition from the manual driving state to the automatic driving state.

The technology relates to a vehicle seat control apparatus. In particular, the technology relates to a vehicle seat control apparatus that moves a seat automatically when making a transition from a manual driving state to an automatic driving state.
In general, a driver adjusts a position and a reclining angle of a seat in accordance with his/her build before starting to drive, especially when a vehicle is shared by multiple people. This is due to the position and an attitude of the seat upon driving the vehicle which vary depending on a factor such as the build of the driver. To save effort of adjusting the position and the reclining angle, a vehicle having a seat memory function has been developed. The seat memory function stores a position and an attitude of a seat corresponding to those of a driving position that is determined by the driver. For example, reference is made to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H05-262173.
JP-A No. 2015-178332 discloses an automatic drive assist apparatus that allows for automatic driving without the aid of a driver's operation. The automatic drive assist apparatus includes a vehicle controlling ECU (Electronic Control Unit) that controls all of an accelerator operation, a brake operation, and a steering operation which serve as operations related to a behavior of a vehicle. The automatic drive assist apparatus controls and drives devices including an engine, a brake, and an electric power steering to perform the automatic driving until the necessity arises on a guide course that the automatic driving is to be halted.
Further, a technique is known that sets a seat to a relax mode upon the automatic driving for the purpose of, for example, reducing driver's fatigue. Reference is made to the Internet website "http://www.volvocars.com/jp/about/ourcompany/pressrelease/2015/20151119" searched on Jan. 5, 2016. Specifically, the seat is moved rearward and a seat back is reclined when the vehicle is placed in an automatic driving state. This configuration allows the driver to be kept away from a steering wheel, making it possible to reduce the driver's fatigue while preventing an operation including a steering operation performed by the automatic driving from being interrupted by the driver.


Methods, systems, and devices, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for establishing a question and answer (QA) system are provided. One of the methods includes: determining QA pair data according to an extraction template and a target data source; adjusting the extraction template according to anomaly information corresponding to the QA pair data; updating the QA pair data according to the target data source and the adjusted extraction template; and determining a QA index according to the updated QA pair data to establish a QA system.

A question and answer (QA) system, as an advanced form of information retrieval system, can accurately answer questions raised by users so that the users can quickly and accurately obtain the required information. It is research content with broad development prospects in the field of artificial intelligence.
However, most of the current QA systems are established manually, for example, by manually running a crawler program, running an indexing program, etc., which results in low efficiency in the process of establishing a search engine and greater likelihood of mistakes due to human errors, etc., thus making the establishment of a QA system time-consuming and less efficient.

Method, apparatus, storage medium and electronic device for establishing question and answer system


The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for allocating a stream processing unit, and pertains to the field of communications technologies. The method includes: obtaining a parallelism degree and a resource usage rate of a stream processing component on each computing node, and determining the number of stream processing units according to the parallelism degree; generating a stream processing unit to be allocated, and determining a resource usage rate of the stream processing component as a resource usage rate of a corresponding stream processing unit; and allocating, according to a processing capability of the computing node on which the stream processing component is located and a resource usage rate of an allocated stream processing unit, the stream processing unit to be allocated to a corresponding computing node. According to the present invention, the steam data processing efficiency of a distributed stream processing system is improved.

As a data volume of stream data that needs to be processed in a stream processing task becomes increasingly larger, a single computing node has become incapable of processing all stream data in the stream processing task. Therefore, the stream data in the stream processing task is placed separately on multiple computing nodes, and the multiple computing nodes process the stream data separately. With the development of a multi-core technology, in order to use resources of a computing node more effectively to perform efficient processing on the stream data, stream processing units capable of parallel processing are used to perform parallel processing on the stream data. Specifically, the stream processing units are allocated to each computing node, and a stream processing component on the computing node manages at least one allocated stream processing unit, thereby implementing processing on the stream data. Therefore, a proper method for allocating a stream processing unit is crucial to implementing efficient processing on the stream data.
At present, when a stream processing unit is allocated, the number of stream processing components and the number of stream processing units included in each stream processing component are determined in a stream processing task. A stream system service module allocates a stream processing unit to a stream system processing module according to a volume size of stream data flowing into the stream processing unit. For example, a stream processing task has three stream processing units, which are respectively a stream processing unit 1, a stream processing unit 2, and a stream processing unit 3, where a volume of stream data flowing into both the stream processing unit 1 and the stream processing unit 2 is 1 GB, and a volume of data in the stream processing unit 3 is 2 GB. The stream processing unit 1 and the stream processing unit 2 are allocated to a stream system processing module 1 on a computing node 1, and the stream processing unit 3 is allocated to a stream system processing module 2 on a computing node 2 according to the volume sizes of the data flowing into the stream processing units.
During research on the prior art, the inventor finds that the existing method for allocating a stream processing unit has at least the following problems:
A stream processing unit is allocated to a stream system processing module according to a volume size of stream data flowing into the stream processing unit, but a processing capability of a computing node on which the stream processing unit is located is not considered; therefore, a case is caused in which computing resourced of the computing node on which the stream processing unit is located cannot satisfy a requirement for processing a data stream allocated by the stream system service module to the stream processing unit, thereby reducing the data stream processing efficiency for a distributed stream processing system.

Method and apparatus for allocating stream processing unit


Methods of fabricating heavily doped edges of mesa structures in silicon-on-sapphire and silicon-on-insulator semiconductor devices. The methods are self-aligning and require a minimum of masking steps to achieve. The disclosed methods reduce edge leakage and resolve N-channel threshold voltage instability problems. Mesa structures are formed that comprise N-channel and P-channel regions having a thermal oxide layer deposited thereover. A doping layer of borosilicate glass, or alternatively, an undoped oxide layer that is subsequently implanted, is deposited over the mesa structures. In the first method, the doping layer is etched by means of an anisotropic plasma etching procedure to form oxide spacers at the edges of the mesa structures. The doping layer is removed from the N-mesa structures using an N-channel mask and wet oxide etching procedure. The structure is then heated to a relatively high temperature to drive the dopant into the edges of the N-channel mesa structures. The protective layers are then removed by a wet etching procedure. The semiconductor device is fabricated to completion in a conventional manner thereafter. In the second method, a nitride layer is deposited over the mesa structures and thermal oxide layer. A thin oxide layer, which is generally deposited by means of a chemical vapor deposition procedure, is deposited over the silicon nitride layer. The formed structure is then processed to expose the N-channel mesa structures. This is accomplished using an N-well mask, the oxide layer is etched to expose the silicon nitride layer over the N-channel, and the nitride layer covering the N-channel is removed by means of hot phosphoric acid using the oxide layer as a mask. The doping layer is then deposited over the mesa structures. This doping layer is then heated to drive the dopant/implant into the edges of the N-channel mesa structures. The doping layer is then removed by wet oxide etching, the nitride layer is removed by rinsing in hot phosphoric acid and the thermal oxide layer is removed by a wet oxide etching procedure. The semiconductor device is again fabricated to completion in a conventional manner thereafter.

The present invention relates generally to silicon-on-sapphire and silicon-on-insulator semiconductor processing, and more particularly to methods of forming doped edges on the sides of the mesas of such silicon-on-saphire and silicon-on-insulator semiconductors.
Conventional bulk CMOS semiconductor fabrication processes employ guard bands, or guard rings, to minimize leakage. However, conventional N-channel silicon-on-sapphire and silicon-on-insulator semiconductors have mesa structures in which no such guard bands are employed. Typically, no edge doping is performed, and the substrate is employed as a guard band in an attempt to prevent leakage. In radiation hard silicon-on-sapphire and silicon-on-insulator semiconductor devices it is necessary to heavily dope the mesa edges to eliminate edge leakage and threshold instability. In the past it has been difficult to dope these edges to achieve radiation hard device performance, for example.

Edge doping processes for mesa structures in SOS and SOI devices


A storage assembly for switches couplable to batteries of an electric machine to energize the batteries. The storage assembly includes a container defining a cavity to store the switches, a lid movable between a closed state and an open state with respect to the container to respectively close and open the cavity, and a lock out tag out (LOTO) device. The container is configured to be grasped between a pair of arms of a handrail that swings with respect to a walkway platform of a power compartment of the electric machine. The LOTO device is interchangeable with the switches to selectively be received in the cavity in place of the switches when the switches are coupled to the batteries, and be coupled to the batteries in place of the switches to lock out and keep the batteries from energizing when the switches are received in the cavity.

Machines applied in construction and mining environments may use electrical power for accomplishing various tasks, such as machine motion and implement actuation. Electrical power in such machines is typically sourced from a battery pack housed within the machine. One or more batteries are commonly provided within such battery packs to power and execute the various tasks. For operations, such machines may utilize battery energizing switches to energize and activate the batteries, and so that electrical power may be generated and then supplied to various machine systems.
During transportation of such machines, the batteries need to be maintained in a deactivated state. For this reason, the battery energizing switches need to be decoupled from the batteries to prevent the batteries from energizing and becoming activated. The battery energizing switches, once decoupled from the batteries for transportation, need to be stored with the machine's shipment so that the battery energizing switches may be appropriately transported along with the machine to the intended customer. An improper storage of the battery energizing switches can imperil the integrity and functioning of the battery energizing switches, leading to customer ire and dissatisfaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,233,646 relates to a locking mechanism associated with a handrail. The locking mechanism includes a housing. The housing is configured to receive the handrail partially therein. The housing has a top open end configured to accommodate the handrail in an upright position. The housing also has a side open end configured to accommodate the handrail in a collapsed position. A pair of slots is provided on opposite side surfaces of the housing. Each of the side surfaces is adjacent to the side open end. A bracket is affixed to any one of the side surface of the housing. A locking member is pivotally coupled to the bracket. The locking member includes a first arm and a second arm. The first arm is configured to selectively engage with the pair of slots to retain the handrail in the upright position. The second arm is attached to the first arm. The second arm is configured to selectively release the first arm from the pair of slots to allow the handrail to move from the upright position to the collapsed position.

Storage assembly for battery energizing switches of electric machines

Caterpillar Underground Mining Pty. Ltd.


A container having a unitary hollow receptacle and closure is formed according to a process is which an injection molding step forms a preform of thermoplastic material having (1) a hollow body, (2) a closure base at one end of the hollow body to define an opening into the hollow body, and (3) a closure cover spaced from the closure base opening but connected to the closure base. The process further includes blow molding the preform hollow body to form the hollow receptacle so that it extends from the closure base and has a configuration different than the preform hollow body.

A conventional method for fabricating a container or bottle from thermoplastic material includes a first step in which a preform is injection molded in the form of an open-ended tube.
In a second step of the conventional method, the preform tube is blow molded to expand the tube into a blow molding cavity which defines the final shape of the bottle. The final shape includes the main, hollow, receptacle portion of the container as well as the neck which defines the open end. Typically, the neck may be provided with threads, a snap-on bead, or other "finish" for receiving a separately manufactured closure cap, cover, or the like.
The closure, cover, or cap is conventionally manufactured in a separate process and, by a subsequent action, the closure, cover, or cap is assembled onto the container.
It would be desirable to provide an improved, more efficient fabrication process for fabricating a container and closure.
Further, it would be desirable to provide an improved process in which a container can be fabricated with a unitary, hollow receptacle and closure.
Also, it would be beneficial if the process could readily accommodate the inclusion of a tamper-evident structure.

Container with a unitary closure and method for making same


A new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant named ‘Golden Delicious’, characterized by its upright plant habit; freely branching habit; yellow green-colored foliage; and numerous large red-colored flowers.

The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant, botanically known as Salvia elegans, and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Golden Delicious'.
The new Salvia is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of an unnamed selection of Salvia elegans, not patented. The new Salvia was discovered and selected by the Inventor during the fall of 2001 from within a population of plants of the parent selection in a controlled environment in Hebron, Ill.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings at Hebron, Ill., since February, 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Salvia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A trace system for selectively storing in tags stored in a TAG IN register and out tags stored in a TAG OUT register of an I/O channel controlled by an I/O channel controller, the trace system comprising a first means for generating a first signal whenever an in tag is changed in the TAG IN register, a second means for generating a second signal whenever out tags are written into the TAG OUT register, a storage means for storing the in tags and the out tags and a control means for storing, in response to a first or second signal, the in tags stored in the TAG IN register and the out tags stored in the TAG OUT register present when the first or second signal is generated. Means are further provided for allowing the storage means to be read by the I/O channel controller when an interface control check error is detected by the I/O channel in response to I/O channel interface malfunction. The trace system, upon the occurrence of an interface control check error, will store the tags presently stored in the TAG IN and TAG OUT registers and will mark those tags such that the system will be able to identify which tags were stored in the TAG IN and TAG OUT registers associated with the interface control check error.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for tracing the contents of the TAG IN and TAG OUT registers in an I/O channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
The concept of tracing the operation of an I/O channel to aid in diagnoses of problems encountered by the I/O channel has been done within the I/O channel art field. Generally, this has been accomplished by tracing the contents of the TAG IN register associated with the I/O channel for every cycle of operation of the I/O channel. The contents of the TAG IN register for each cycle would be sequentially stored in a dedicated RAM which could be accessed by the operating system. When an interface control check error is detected by the I/O channel, the I/O channel freezes the channel interface and enter into a diagnostic mode to ascertain what caused the interface control check error.
While the above employed methodology of tracing part of the operation of the I/O channel has been helpful in diagnosing I/O channel interface problems, the information obtained was not sufficient to allow the diagnosis of the many errors that occur within the I/O channel.
Further, since no history is maintained for the TAG OUT register, the only set of out tags available to the system for diagnosing the problem would be those out tags stored in the TAG OUT register when the I/O channel is frozen at the time that interface control check error has been detected by the I/O channel. It has been found that there may be a delay in generating the interface control check signal generated by the I/O channel upon the detection of an interface control check error such that the previous set of out tags, than those out tags presently stored in the TAG OUT register, may have been involved in the generation of the interface control check error.


A radio base station communicating with a radio terminal, comprising a control unit configured to perform scheduling of a radio resource with respect to the radio terminal, wherein the control unit estimates transmission power of the radio terminal, which is calculated by the radio terminal, based on information on transmission power notified from the radio terminal, calculates power of an uplink signal from the radio terminal based on uplink propagation loss between the radio base station and the radio terminal, and performs the scheduling based on a difference between a first power obtained by the estimation of the transmission power of the radio terminal and a second power obtained by the calculation of the power of the uplink signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio base station and a communication control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile communication system defined in 3GPP, a transmission power of a signal of a physical uplink shared channel (hereinafter, referred to as PUSCH), which is used when a radio terminal transmits data, is calculated based on propagation loss PL in radio communication between a radio base station (eNB) and a radio terminal (UE) and scheduling information set by the radio base station. Specifically, the transmission power is calculated based on Equation 1 below (refer to 3GPP, TS36.213 (Ve10.0.1), "Physical Layer Procedures" December 2010.).
                    [                  Equation                                                              1                ]                                                                                P            PUSCH                                          (            i            )                          =                  min                                              {                                                                                P                        CMAX                                            ,                                                                                10                                                                                log                            10                                                                                (                                                                                M                                PUSCH                                                                                (                                i                                )                                                                                )                                                                                +                                              P                                                  O                                                                                _                                                                                PUSCH                                                                    +                                              α                        ·                        PL                                            +                                                                        Δ                          TF                                                                                (                          i                          )                                                                    +                                              f                                                                          (                          i                          )                                                                                }                                                  [              dBm              ]                                                          (        1        )
In Equation 1 above, the PPUSCH(i) denotes the transmission power of the signal of the PUSCH. The i denotes a subframe number. The PCMAX denotes maximum transmission power of the radio terminal. The MPUSCH(i) denotes the number of Resource Blocks (hereinafter, referred to as RBs) assigned to the radio terminal by the radio base station in a subframe i. In addition, the RB denotes a time-frequency unit in which a bandwidth is 180 kHz (corresponds to 12 subcarriers) and a time length is 0.5 ms (corresponds to 7 resource symbols). The Po—PUSCH denotes an initial value of transmission power per one RB unique to the radio terminal. The α denotes a coefficient for controlling a propagation loss compensation rate. The PL denotes radio wave propagation loss between the radio base station and the radio terminal. The propagation loss denotes a parameter indicating the degree of attenuation at a reception side of transmission power from a transmission side. The ΔTF(i) denotes a coefficient determined from MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme). The f(i) denotes a correction term of transmission power based on TPC (Transmit Power Control) command transmitted from the radio base station to the radio terminal.
In the LTE, the radio base station performs scheduling for assigning radio resources (RB and MCS), which are required for uplink (hereinafter, referred to as "UL") and downlink (hereinafter, referred to as "DL") communication, to the radio terminal in advance, and notifies the radio terminal of information (scheduling information), which indicates the scheduled content, using PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel). In addition, the radio base station determines a radio resource according to radio wave propagation situations between the radio base station and the radio terminal.
When performing the scheduling, the radio base station calculates SINR (Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio) using the transmission power of the radio terminal, and average interference power or thermal noise measured by the radio base station. The radio base station acquires radio wave propagation situations based on the calculated SINR. In this case, it is not possible for the radio base station to acquire information, which indicates the transmission power when the radio terminal has actually transmitted the signal of the PUSCH, from the radio terminal. Therefore, the radio base station should estimate (calculate) the transmission power when the radio terminal has actually transmitted the signal of the PUSCH. In this case, the radio base station calculates the transmission power of the signal of the PUSCH for the radio terminal using Equation 1 above, and then estimates the calculated transmission power as the transmission power when the radio terminal has actually transmitted the signal of the PUSCH.
When calculating the transmission power (for example, the transmission power of the PUSCH) for the radio terminal using Equation 1 above, the radio base station calculates the transmission power by applying, as propagation loss (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as PL), PL of the UL. On the other hand, when calculating the transmission power using Equation 1 above, the radio terminal applies PL of the DL as the PL. Therefore, when the PL of UL is different from the PL of the DL, values of the transmission power calculated using Equation 1 are different from each other in the radio base station and the radio terminal. In addition, when the PL of UL is different from the PL of DL, for example, the following situations (A) and (B) occur. These situations are generally expected to occur. (A) A situation where the radio terminal moves at a high speed, so that fading variation rapidly occurs in a radio environment between the radio base station and the radio terminal, resulting in a big difference of fading gain between the UL and the DL. (B) A situation where in an environment in which communication is relayed by an AF (Amplify and Forward) relay node having different amplification rates in the UL and the DL between the radio base station and the radio terminal, signals are transmitted between the radio base station and the radio terminal. As described above, if the transmission power of the radio terminal calculated by applying the PL of the UL by the radio base station is different from the transmission power of the radio terminal calculated by applying the PL of the DL by the radio terminal, it is highly probable that the UL scheduling performed for the radio terminal by the radio base station is inappropriate. That is, in such situations, communication quality between the radio base station and the radio terminal may tend to deteriorate.
Particularly, when the AF relay node relays radio communication between the radio base station and the radio terminal, the AF relay node performs an amplification process. Due to the amplification process, a delay time occurs in a signal transmitted between the radio base station and the radio terminal in a radio manner. When the delay time is larger than a CP (Cyclic Prefix) length in an apparatus (for example, the radio terminal) at a reception side, the apparatus at the reception side simultaneously receives a direct wave directly reaching from a wave source (for example, the radio base station), and a delayed wave having a large delay time. Therefore, inter-symbol interference, inter-carrier interference, and deterioration of the accuracy of channel estimation occur, resulting in the deterioration of reception quality. Particularly, since the deterioration of the accuracy of the channel estimation in the apparatus at the reception side is largely affected as the order of the modulation and coding scheme is increased, the deterioration of the reception quality is increased. Particularly, when the apparatus at the reception side is a terminal, since the performance of the channel estimation is limited, the terminal is largely affected by the influence due to the deterioration of the accuracy of the channel estimation caused by delay.

Radio base station and communication control method


Embodiments of an ultra-stable frequency reference generating system and methods for generating an ultra-stable frequency reference using a two-photon Rubidium transition are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a cavity-stabilized reference laser comprising a laser source is locked to a stabilized cavity. A Rubidium cell is interrogated by a stabilized laser output to cause at least a two-photon Rubidium transition and a detector may detect fluorescence resulting from spontaneous decay of the upper state Rubidium transition. The output of the detector is provided at a wavelength of the fluorescence to lock the cavity-stabilized reference laser to generate a stabilized laser output. A frequency comb stabilizer may be locked to the stabilized laser output to generate a super-continuum of optical wavelengths for use in generating an ultra-stable frequency reference.

One issue with many conventional frequency references is stability. Conventional techniques for reaching frequency stabilities (i.e., Δf/f) in the range of 10−14 or better use cryogenically cooled crystal oscillators, cesium fountain clocks, and/or highly stabilized optical clocks. Many of these conventional frequency references are not attractive due to their large size, weight, complexity and/or power consumption.
Thus, there are general needs for improved precision oscillators and methods for generating ultra-stable frequency references. There are also general needs for precision oscillators and methods for generating ultra-stable frequency references that are less complex than many conventional systems. There are also needs for low-phase noise and ultra-stable oscillators that are suitable for use in radar systems, communication systems and signal-collection systems. There are also needs for ultra-stable oscillators for use in systems that require synchronization. There are also needs for ultra-stable oscillators suitable for use in difficult EMI environments. There are also needs for an ultra-stable frequency reference that can provide a frequency stability that exceeds 10−14.

Precision photonic oscillator and method for generating an ultra-stable frequency reference using a two-photon rubidium transition


A new and distinct cultivar of Diascia plant named ‘Divoro,’ particularly distinguished by its lilac flowers, very compact plant and upright habit that becomes later trailing.

The present invention comprises a new distinct cultivar of Diascia, botanically known as Diascia barberae.
The new cultivar is propagated from cuttings resulting from the cross of 'Diastu' and 'Diastis'. 'Diastu' is an antique rose flowering Diascia. 'Diastu' is commercially available as 'Flying Colors Trailing Antique Rose' and issued as U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,949. 'Diastis' is a coral flowering Diascia. 'Diastis' is commercially available as 'Flying Colors Coral' and issued as U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,950.
As a result of this cross the present cultivar was created in 2002 in Enkhuizen, Netherlands and has been repeatedly asexually reproduced by cuttings in Enkhuizen, Netherlands and Sarrians, France over a three-year period. It has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive propagations. The new variety is stable and reproduces true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
This new Diascia plant is an annual in most climatical zones in the US, only in zones 8, 9 and 10 it is a perennial plant.


This application discloses a network communication method applied to a network communication system including a first network device in a first private network, a second network device in a second private network and a gateway device coupling the first private network to the second private network. The first network device receives a first data packet transmitted from a terminal to a target blockchain node, and acquires an actual network address of the target blockchain node; and generates a second data packet according to the first data packet and the actual network address, and transmits the second data packet to a virtual network address of the second network device in the second private network, so that the operation overheads generated when the gateway device generates virtual network addresses for blockchain nodes can be reduced, thereby saving a storage space of the gateway device.

With the development of network technologies, people may customize a virtual private cloud (VPC) based on a cloud and arrange and manage their devices in the VPC. For example, a user may arrange a terminal in the VPC, and a service provider may arrange a blockchain node in the VPC. Each VPC is a relatively isolated network environment. To enable different VPCs to communicate with each other, a VPC gateway is arranged between VPCs. Devices in different VPCs may perform network communication by using the VPC gateway.
For example, a terminal is located in a VPC 1, and blockchain nodes in a blockchain system are located in a VPC 2. The VPC gateway generates a corresponding virtual network address for each blockchain node in the VPC 2 in advance, and stores a mapping relationship between a virtual network address and an actual network address of each blockchain node. In a case that the terminal needs to transmit a data packet to a blockchain node, the terminal transmits the data packet to a virtual network address of the blockchain node. The VPC gateway receives the data packet, searches the mapping relationship between a virtual network address and an actual network address of the blockchain node according to the virtual network address of the blockchain node to obtain an actual network address of the blockchain node, and transmits the data packet to the actual network address of the blockchain node, so that the blockchain node receives the data packet.

Network communication method and system, device, and storage medium

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


Some embodiments include integrated memory having a wordline, a shield plate, and an access device. The access device includes first and second diffusion regions, and a channel region. The channel region is vertically disposed between the first and second diffusion regions. The access device is adjacent to the wordline and to the shield plate. A part of the wordline is proximate a first side surface of the channel region with an intervention of a first insulating region therebetween. A part of the shield plate is proximate a second side surface of the channel region with an intervention of a second insulating region therebetween. The first insulating region includes an insulative material. The second insulating region includes a void. Some embodiments include memory arrays. Some embodiments include methods of forming integrated assemblies.

Memory is utilized in modern computing architectures for storing data. One type of memory is Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM). DRAM may provide advantages of structural simplicity, low cost and high speed in comparison to alternative types of memory.
DRAM may utilize memory cells which each have one capacitor in combination with one transistor (so-called 1T-1C memory cells), with the capacitor being coupled with a source/drain region of the transistor. The DRAM cells may be utilized in a DRAM array having hundreds, thousands, millions, etc., of memory cells. The transistors of the memory array have gates coupled with wordlines (i.e., access lines). The memory cells of the memory array are addressed utilizing bitlines (i.e., digit lines, sense lines) in combination with the wordlines.
A continuing goal of integrated circuit fabrication is to scale integrated circuitry to ever-increasing levels of integration. It would be desirable to develop memory arrangements suitable for scaling into highly-integrated configurations.

Integrated assemblies comprising voids between active regions and conductive shield plates, and methods of forming integrated assemblies


An air compressor or water pump including a frame in which there are mounted a stator, a rotor interacting with the stator to form a synchronous motor, and including a shaft, at least one turbine carried by the shaft, a fluid-supply channel to the turbine, and an outlet channel for compressed fluid, the shaft of the rotor being mounted rotatably on the frame about an, axis by a first and a second bearing. The first, respectively the second, bearing includes a first, respectively a second, spherical element provided on a first, respectively a second, end of the shaft and disposed centered relative to the axis of the shaft, and a first, respectively a second, housing provided in the frame having a form of a cap disposed centered relative to the axis of the shaft and provided to support the first, respectively the second, spherical element.

Such fluid compressors are generally termed turbocompressors or centrifugal compressors. They are equipped, with a stator and a rotor forming a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (brushless motor). Compressors of this type can reach very high speeds, for example 100,000 to 500,000 rpm. The motor drives the high-speed turbine, the turbine compressing the fluid. The fluid can be air, water, a gas, a refrigerant or any other suitable fluid. These compressors are used in numerous industrial, medical, pharmaceutical, foodstuff, automobile applications, in particular for supplying compressed air, or in refrigeration, heating or air-conditioning applications, for supplying compressed fluid.
In these compressors, the motor shaft is mounted rotatably on a frame by means of two axial bearings. These bearings can comprise ball bearings. However, it is difficult to obtain speeds of rotation with such ball bearings because of the difference in speed between the balls and the ball races. Furthermore, although the balls used are made of ceramic, the life span of such bearings is limited to about one hundred hours because of the high speeds of rotation. Other types of bearing can be used, such as aerodynamic bearings. However, this type of bearings has the disadvantage of being displaced transversely at the moment of start-up or during a change in speed, which creates friction at the level of the bearing elements.
Furthermore, compressors are generally lubricated by means of a lubricant. The disadvantage is that the lubricant risks becoming mixed with the fluid such that the compressed fluid is polluted by the lubricant. This is particularly dangerous, for example in the case of medical applications, such as dental applications, for which the compressed air reaching the mouth must be safe.
Finally, the compressors are generally used in installations with very large dimensions, the compressor being at a remove from the equipment which requires compressed fluid. The compressed fluid is supplied by means of a supply circuit provided in the network. Generally, this supply circuit is long, which involves risks of leakages of fluid along the circuit. Leakages in a compressed air circuit involve losses of pressure, which generates very high financial losses. Furthermore, because of the distance separating the compressor from the equipment which requires the compressed fluid, the network is permanently maintained under pressure in order to be able to respond rapidly as needed to the equipment. The permanent functioning of the compressor represents a high consumption of electrical energy.


Horizontal cache persistence in a multi-compute node, SMP computer, including, responsive to a determination to evict a cache line on a first one of the compute nodes, broadcasting by a first compute node an eviction notice for the cache line; transmitting the state of the cache line receiving compute nodes, including, if the cache line is missing from a compute node, an indication whether that compute node has cache storage space available for the cache line; determining by the first compute node, according to the states of the cache line and space available, whether the first compute node can evict the cache line without writing the cache line to main memory; and updating by each compute node the state of the cache line in each compute node, in dependence upon one or more of the states of the cache line in all the compute nodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for horizontal cache persistence in a multi-compute node, symmetric multiprocessing ('SMP') computer.
2. Description Of Related Art
Contemporary high performance computer systems, such as, for example, the IBM System z series of mainframes, are typically implemented as multi-compute node, symmetric multiprocessing ('SMP') computers with many compute nodes. SMP is a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more, typically many more, identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and controlled by a single operating system. Most multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture. In the case of multi-core processors, the SMP architecture applies to the cores, treating them as separate processors. Processors may be interconnected using buses, crossbar switches, mesh networks, and the like. Each compute node typically includes a number of processors, each of which has at least some local memory, at least some of which is accelerated with cache memory. The cache memory can be local to each processor, local to a compute node shared across more than one processor, or shared across compute nodes. All of these architectures require maintenance of cache coherence among the separate caches.
Taking for example a computer with multiple levels of caches, the caches form a vertical structure with smaller caches towards the processor and consistently larger caches, called L1-L2-L3-L4, moving towards main memory. As data within this type of system is aged out from a given level of cache, due to more recent cache fetches requiring storage space, cache lines move from L1 to L2, then from L2 to L3, from L3 to L4, with an eventual write back to main memory as the eviction process completes.
In an architecture with multiple identical compute nodes having horizontal communications among one of the cache levels, L4 to L4 communications for example, then the same type of eviction policy going on in the system can additionally evict a cache line from one L4 to another L4, before completing the eviction out to main storage. This type of cache management structure for evicted cache lines is commonly seen in some variant across many contemporary multi-level/multi-compute node cache designs. One problem with this management scheme arises from the fact that as your observe the latency incurred in crossing each level/link between caches, the penalty increases significantly in magnitude. As a result, a typical processor fetch from L1 may incur a penalty of x, while the fetch from a corresponding L2 may incur a penalty of 3x, and from L3 would be 10x respectively, and so on, with main storage access being substantially higher in access penalty.
As a result of this exponential increase in latency penalty numerous schemes have been devised to improve caching algorithms, such that the selected cache lines for eviction are better chosen for a given system design and respective workload. Besides this, various prefetch algorithms have been created at different levels of caches in hardware and software to try and preempt the processors request for a given cache line such that the exponential effect of cache latency penalty could be avoided or diminished in some regard. The drawbacks of both of these types of solutions and many others are that they require large amounts of additional hardware and/or software support to provide any measurable gains.

Horizontal cache persistence in a multi-compute node, symmetric multiprocessing computer

International Business Machines Corporation


A motor vehicle, is provided with a plurality of operator control units which can be operated individually by an occupant in order to initiate functions of the motor vehicle, a plurality of display units that can be illuminated, and a display control logic unit. In response to operator activation of a first function associated with a second function in a specified operating sequence, a first display unit can be controlled in such a way that the first display unit displays a directional pointer in the spatial direction of a second operator control unit, which on being actuated can initiate the second function.

The invention relates to a motor vehicle, having a plurality of operator control units, which can be operated individually by hand by an occupant of the motor vehicle, in order to be able to initiate certain functions of the motor vehicle in the event of an operator input, and having a plurality of display units that can be illuminated.
Modern motor vehicles usually have a plurality of display and operator control units or rather display and control panels. Usually the operating state, in which the display and operator control units or rather the display and control panels can be operated, is not clear. Similarly the availability of the motor vehicle functions that can be initiated by the display and control units is usually either not discernible at all in the modern display and operator control concepts or these functions are only indicated, for example, by a random activation of displays or illumination of pushbuttons.
In particular, in motor vehicles, but basically also in other devices, for example, in modern household appliances, the existing display and control panels cannot be operated in every operating state. However, this is not always recognized by the user, especially when the availability of one or more functions changes during an operating sequence. One example from the motor vehicle environment: after unlocking the door, the interior light automatically switches on. However, most of the other functions of the motor vehicle are not operator accessible in this operating state. Then the motor vehicle is activated by the user by means of a central switch (in particular, the ignition lock). This switch can lead to a variety of operating states (engine on=readiness to drive, "ignition on", entertainment mode . . . ). Then, depending on the operating state, a variety of different motor vehicle functions that were not available before are available.
In motor vehicles the activation of the search light or displays usually takes place without allowing one to draw inferences as to the operating sequences.
The object of the present invention is to improve the assistance offered to a user or more specifically an occupant in operating the functions of the motor vehicle.
The interior of a motor vehicle according to the invention has, on the one hand, a plurality of operator control units (for example, switches, keys, levers, rotary knobs and pushbuttons, etc.), which can be operated manually by an occupant of the motor vehicle, in order to initiate certain functions of the motor vehicle in the event of an operator input. However, it is also possible, depending on the operating mode and context of different functions, to actuate one and the same operating control unit. On the other hand, the interior of the motor vehicle according to the invention has a plurality of display units that can be illuminated. Furthermore, the motor vehicle according to the invention has a display control logic unit. With this display control logic unit at least one first function of the motor vehicle can be assigned at least one second function of the motor vehicle by a specified operating sequence. In the simplest case such an operating sequence may comprise two functions, for which it is necessary or at least advisable to operate one after the other. For example, an operating sequence may consist of the sequence "start engine", "select gear". However, an operating sequence may also comprise three or more functions, for example, "adjust seat position", "adjust rearview mirror", "adjust outside mirror". In this context a first display unit can be controlled by the display control logic unit in such a way that in response to the initiation of the first function (due to actuation of a first operator control unit) said display unit displays a directional pointer, which is visually perceivable by the occupant, in the spatial direction of a second operator control unit, which on being actuated can initiate then the second function.
Therefore, after the occupant has manually actuated the first operator control unit and, as a result, has initiated the first function, the displayed visual directional pointer points the occupant in the direction of the second operator control unit. Consequently the occupant is led in an easy-to-understand way through the sequence of operations defined as the operating sequence, which provides that after initiating the first function, the second function should also be initiated. The result is the total sequence: actuating the first operator control unit, directional pointer to the second operator control unit by the first display unit, actuating the second operator control unit.
The display control logic unit can be implemented as the control unit of the motor vehicle or more specifically as the program executed thereon or as a portion of such a program. The at least one specified operating sequence can be saved in the form of a table in a memory unit of the display control logic unit.
Furthermore, a specified operating sequence comprises preferably an assignment of operator control units and/or direction pointing display units to the functions involved in the sequence. Such an assignment can indicate, in particular, which display unit can give the appropriate directional pointer.
Furthermore, a specified operating sequence comprises preferably information about a certain way of actuating the display unit(s). Such information can indicate, in particular, the type of directional pointer that should be displayed for the present operating sequence. Such information can be especially helpful when a display unit can display different types of directional pointers.
Furthermore, a preferred embodiment of the invention provides that the display control logic unit can assign to the second function at least one third function by the operating sequence; and in response to the initiation (occurs by actuating the second operator control unit) of the second function, a second display unit can be controlled by the display control logic unit in such a way that said second display unit displays a directional pointer, which is visually perceivable by the occupant, in the spatial direction of a third operator control unit, which on being actuated can initiate the third function.
Therefore, in this preferred embodiment of the invention, after the occupant has manually actuated the second operator control unit and, as a result, has initiated the second function, the additional visual directional pointer—displayed now by the second display unit—points the occupant in the direction of the third operator control unit. Consequently the occupant is led in an easy-to-understand way through a sequence of operations having a specified multi-stepped (three steps in this case) operating sequence. The result is the total sequence: actuating the first operator control unit, directional pointer to the second operator control unit by the first display unit, actuating the second operator control unit, directional pointer to the third operator control unit by the second display unit, actuating the third operator control unit. It is self-evident that in the spirit of the invention this concept can be continued with additional directional pointers (displayed by additional or, if desired, even the same display units) to additional operator control units.
Preferably the first display unit is disposed in essence spatially between the first and the second operator control unit and preferably lends itself well to displaying a light object having a variable length. If, in addition, said first display unit is disposed in the interior of the motor vehicle in such a way that its length extends in essence parallel to an imaginary connecting line between the first and the second operator control unit, then the visually perceptible directional pointer of the first display unit can consist advantageously of an increase in the length of the light object that is observable by the occupant. If the light object is configured as a light bar, then the visually perceptible directional pointer of the first display unit can consist advantageously of an increase in the length of the light bar that is observable by the occupant. Then the light object or more specifically the light bar traces with increasing length to some extent the connecting line (at first only imaginary). The connecting line can be straight or curved. In particular, it can be made up of several straight pieces with the connections of the straight pieces being preferably rounded off. Such a rounding off has the effect of making the "light flux", which is shown by the increase in length along the connecting line, appear softer, so that it is easier for the eye of the observer to follow.
In particular, a unilateral increase in the length of the light object or more specifically bar on the side of the second operator control unit appears to be advantageous. Therefore, the result of such an increase in length is that the growing end of the object or rather bar moves closer to the operator control unit, to which the pointer points. The observer understands this intuitively as the "pointer movement".
The aforesaid applies especially when the increase in length is essentially continuous. This perception is reinforced even more when the increase in length occurs at an essentially uniform rate.
Initial internal tests with the invention reveal that the pointer character is very easily understood intuitively when the increase in length extends over a total duration of more than 300 milliseconds. An additional enhancement of the pointer effect can be observed when the increase in length extends over a total duration of more than 600 milliseconds.
After the light object or more specifically the light bar has reached its maximum length, it can in essence be reset to its minimum length, in order to allow the length to grow multiple times in succession in essentially the same way. This type of pointer can be interrupted after a defined period of time or after a number of repetitions, or after actuating the operator control unit, to which the pointer is pointing (or after initiating the function that was initiated thereby). In this case the start of a growth process can be carried out to completion, if desired, up to the maximum length, in order to prevent the user from becoming irritated.
According to an especially advantageous embodiment of the invention, the first display unit is configured essentially as an optical waveguide, the resulting depicted light object is configured essentially as a light bar, and the light bar has a total length of more than 15 centimeters. Such a large spatial expansion makes it possible to bridge even greater distances in the motor vehicle interior (for example, between the engine start/stop button and the gear selector lever or also between the adjusting elements for interior and exterior mirrors) without a logic break in the perception of the occupant who is watching.
The invention is based, in particular, on the following described idea.
The display and operator control elements of a motor vehicle are linked together by means of graphics displays that can be activated (one possible solution is an optical waveguide). The elements that have to be or can be operated in succession in a logical and/or chronological sequence of operations are connected together.
If, for example, a start/stop button of the motor vehicle is operated, then thereafter a graphics element is activated, and this graphics element draws the attention of the occupant to the gear selector lever. Having selected the gear, the occupant is pointed in a suitable manner to other motor vehicle operator control elements that have to be operated at this point, or rather their functions have become available. The pointer can be, for example, an optical waveguide-based display element that "connects" the operator control elements that are to be operated in succession.
In order to show the operator optimally linked operating sequences, the optical waveguide in such an embodiment of the invention is not only switched on, but a "light flux" from the initially operated element to the operating element(s) that are then available and/or operator accessible is also generated or rather activated.
This light flux can occur once or repeatedly until the customer has completed the next step of the operating process that is either necessary or advisable for the sequence of operations.
The visual phenomenon of the light flux can be accentuated in such a way that the front of the light appears to flow from one element to the next. That is, the optical waveguide is illuminated at one end and then gradually or rather piece by piece the graphics link is illuminated until the entire link glows.
One possible technical solution to this end is the use of an optical waveguide and a plurality of light sources. The light sources are actuated individually, and the light is transmitted into the optical waveguide by means of appropriate coupling geometries. Then the described effect is attained by switching on, dimming and switching off the light sources.
In summary the invention can help to enhance the comprehensibility of the display and control concept of a motor vehicle. The occupant, in particular the driver, is shown the successive operating steps and the availability of functions. In addition, a highly sophisticated and stylish impression can be made with the use of the described visual appearance of a "flowing" light.
The foregoing disclosure has been set forth merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Directional pointers for vehicle control unit actuation sequence


A passive safety harness for use in a vehicle comprises a safety belt portion one end of which is attached to a retractor reel and the other end of which is attached to a carriage movable along a rail formed in the door of the vehicle. The carriage carries a tongue which is received in a latching or locking element secured to the vehicle so as to ensure that in an accident situation the end of the belt attached to the carriage is securely retained in the desired position. The locking mechanism comprises a safety belt buckle which is pivotally mounted in position, but which normally occupies a position in which the plane of the buckle is parallel with the plane of the rail to enable the tongue to be easily inserted into the buckle. However, the arrangement is such that in the event that an accident arises the buckle can pivot so that the force applied to the buckle by the safety belt is axial of the buckle, the buckle being designed primarily to withstand forces in this particular direction.

This invention relates to a passive safety harness for use in a motor vehicle.
It has been proposed to provide a so-called "passive" safety harness for use in a motor vehicle. Such a safety harness is fully automated in that, in response to a signal generated when a person is seated within the motor vehicle (for example, the signal may be generated in response to the door of the motor vehicle being closed) a mechanism is activated which places the various belt portions of the harness in position to restrain the person in the event that an accident arises. Similarly the mechanism can be activated (for example in response to opening of the door) to remove the safety harness from the person sitting in the motor vehicle.
One example of such a safety harness is disclosed in British Patent Specification 1366911.
In this safety harness part of the harness is formed by a lap belt which extends from an inertia reel to a carriage which is movable along a rail formed in the door of the vehicle. The carriage moves to one end of the rail when the harness is to be released and moves to the other end of the rail when the harness is to be closed in a position in which it retains a person within the vehicle. It is desired that the end of the safety belt which is attached to the carriage should remain in this latter position in the event that an accident arises, and thus means are provided in order to secure the carriage, and the end of the belt attached thereto, in the desired position. The particular arrangement used comprises a conventional safety belt buckle which may be mounted on the door of the vehicle and a conventional tongue, dimensioned to be received within the buckle, which is mounted on the carriage. When the carriage moves to its terminal position at the appropriate end of the rail the tongue is inserted into the buckle and thus, in the event that an accident arises, any force generated within the lap belt is transferred, through the carriage to the tongue and from the tongue to the buckle, so that the end of the lap belt connected to the carriage does not move in an undesirable manner. Means are provided to release the conventional safety belt buckle, in British Patent Specification 1366911, for example as the door is opened so that the carriage can then be moved along the rail, or withdrawing the tongue from the buckle. The carriage then moves to the other end of the rail.
The prior art arrangement suffers from two disadvantages.
The first disadvantage is that a conventional safety belt buckle is primarily designed to withstand a force applied thereto by a safety belt, the force being almost precisely aligned with the axis of the buckle. Since the buckle is designed to withstand a maximum force applied axially of the buckle, the buckle can only safely withstand a lesser force which is applied at an inclination to the buckle. If, as in the prior art, the buckle is restrained in a position in which the plane of the buckle is substantially parallel with the plane of the rail in the door, it will be appreciated that the buckle will not be aligned with the direction in which force will be applied to the buckle in an accident situation, since the belt portion attached to the carriage which is connected to the buckle extends substantially horizontally across the lap of the person wearing the harness.
A further disadvantage of the prior art is that if the safety buckle is connected to the door of the vehicle, then the force applied to the buckle during an accident situation is transferred to the door, meaning that the door must be made to be very strong if the door is able to withstand these forces, or further means must be provided to secure part of the door or an element connected to the buckle to the chassis of the vehicle to provide a sufficient degree of strength.

Pivotally mounted locking station for passive safety belt carriage


An adsorption unit for combustion gas of an internal combustion engine has an adsorption housing having a chamber section with an inner wall. An adsorption element disposed in the adsorption housing is made of a gas-permeable adsorption medium that is formed to a hollow body and encloses an interior of the adsorption element. The hollow body has opposed open ends. A main flow passage extends through the hollow body and the combustion gas flows in main flow direction through the hollow body. The adsorption element has an exterior circumferential side facing away from the interior and delimiting together with the inner wall of the chamber section a bypass chamber surrounding the absorption element outwardly. In the main flow direction, the bypass chamber has a downstream end that is closed off and an upstream end that has at least one bypass opening that communicates with the main flow passage.

The invention is related to an adsorption unit of an intake manifold for combustion gas of an internal combustion engine, in particular of a motor vehicle, for adsorption of products of incomplete combustion such as hydrocarbons. The adsorption unit is arranged in an intake conduit of the intake manifold and includes an adsorption element made of an adsorption medium that is formed to a hollow body that encloses an interior of the adsorption element and is open at two opposite ends and through which a main flow passage of the combustion gas extends.
Moreover, the invention concerns an absorption muffler of an intake manifold for combustion gas of an internal combustion engine, in particular of a motor vehicle, for muffling intake noise during intake of the combustion gas. The absorption muffler is arranged in an intake conduit of the intake manifold and comprises a muffler element made of a sound-absorbing medium that is formed to a hollow body that encloses an interior of the muffler element and is open at two opposite ends and through which a main flow passage of the combustion gas extends.
Moreover, the invention concerns an intake manifold for combustion gas of an internal combustion engine.
DE 20 2006 007 096 U1 discloses an intake manifold of an internal combustion engine with integrated air filter that is flowed through by inflowing combustion air. After filtration, the combustion air is supplied downstream of the air filter to the cylinder inlets of the internal combustion engine. In order to prevent that after shutdown of the internal combustion engine fuel vapors can flow back through open inlet valves into the intake manifold and are accidentally released into the atmosphere, between the air filter and the cylinder inlets in the intake manifold an adsorption unit is arranged that adsorbs the fuel vapors. The adsorption unit has an adsorption element made of an adsorption medium formed to a hollow cylinder. The adsorption medium delimits an interior with an axial flow passage for the combustion air. When the internal combustion engine is turned off, the hydrocarbons can basically propagate via the axial flow passage also in opposite direction and deposit on the inner boundary walls of the adsorption medium where adsorption takes place. In regular operation, on the other hand, i.e., when the flow of combustion air is guided into the cylinder inlets of the internal combustion engine, desorption of the combustion residues at the inner wall of the adsorption element takes place. In this way, the adsorption element is subjected to regeneration in order to adsorb hydrocarbons again during the next standstill of the internal combustion engine. Over the course of time, however, combustion residues can settle in the radial outer area of the inner side of the adsorption medium so that gradually loading of the adsorption material with hydrocarbons increases and the adsorption capability decreases.

Adsorption unit and absorption muffler of an intake manifold of an internal combustion engine


A computer system automatically generates service documentation based on usage of a web service. The computer system captures network traffic including actual requests to a service endpoint of the web service and actual responses from the service endpoint of the web service. The captured network traffic can be analyzed using machine learning to determine one or more operations that are available at the service endpoint, input arguments that are accepted by the service endpoint, and output arguments that are provided by the service endpoint. The computer system can automatically generate service documentation for the web service based on metadata that identifies the operations, the input arguments, and the output arguments.

Web services typically require service documentation to facilitate use by clients. Producing and updating service documentation can be tedious and time consuming for a developer of a web service. The developer often will manually embed descriptive metadata in source code and then manually generate service documentation from the embedded metadata. This manual process introduces significant overhead into the development process. To alleviate some of this burden, partial documentation is sometimes automatically generated by statistically analyzing the source code. This automatic process, however, requires access to the source code of the web service.

Automatically generating service documentation based on actual usage


A lamp electrode adapted to deliver mercury during an assembly process has a supporting electrical lead attached to the proximal end of a metallic shell. The proximal and a distal ends of the metallic shell each lie along a central axis. A container with a vitreous plug in a sealed end contains a substance for delivering mercury upon heating of the container. The sidewall of the container is attached to the electrical lead. The longitudinal axis of the container is skewed relative to the electrical lead to orient the container in a direction to reduce discharge of mercury directly toward the metallic shell. The container is heated to open it and discharge a mercury dose from the sealed end, which is prone to opening upon heating of the container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lamp electrodes adapted to deliver mercury and to methods for delivering mercury to a lamp.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional gaseous discharge lamps employ a metallic electrode in the form of a tubular shell that is open at the distal end and closed at the proximal end. The proximal end of the shell is supported at the hairpin turn of supporting electrical leads, whose two legs are embedded in a pinch seal made in a short tubular glass body. A working discharge lamp is typically fabricated in the field by fusing the short glass tubes of the electrode assemblies to both ends of a longer glass tube that was internally coated with a phosphorescent material.
An evacuation tube can be included as part of one of the electrode assemblies in order to communicate with the interior of the discharge lamp. Before loading fill gases into the lamp, the electrode shells are bombarded with charged particles in the usual fashion in a partial vacuum. Thereafter, working with the evacuation tube, a vacuum is pulled before loading an inert gas and tipping off the evacuation tube.
For the sake of efficiency a discharge lamp will typically have a dose of mercury. During normal operation the mercury atoms (existing as a vapor in the lamp) are stimulated by an electrical discharge between the two electrodes and emit UV radiation when returning to a lower energy state. This UV radiation will stimulate the phosphorescent coating on the inside of the long glass tube to produce visible light.
While mercury has its benefits it is also a toxic substance and care must be taken to avoid injury and to ensure accurate dosing. It is especially desirable to avoid handling mercury in the field or relying on the measurement skill of field personnel to ensure correct mercury dosing.
In addition, care must be taken to contain the mercury to avoid an accidental release into the environment, which can adversely affect water quality, fish, and wildlife. It has been determined that containment and safety is enhanced if the mercury is confined to a small container until the discharge lamp is fully sealed, at which point the mercury container can be opened to release the mercury dose.
Also, care must be taken to avoid a premature discharge of mercury before the lamp is completely sealed. The mercury container can prematurely open when exposed to the high temperatures that are often experienced during the manufacture of electrodes and during the fabrication of a working discharge lamp in the field. For example, during the manufacture of electrodes one end of a relatively short glass tube is melted to form a pinch seal on the leads. During fabrication in the field, before the lamp is fully sealed, the electrode shell are "bombarded" with a high current and heated glowing red
When release of the mercury is desired, such release ought to be reliable without risking damage to the finished lamp. Furthermore, the mercury should be released in a location and in a direction to ensure the mercury will be available while avoiding condensation that may stain lamp components and degrade their appearance.
Miniature movement-detection switches have employed a small container sealed with a header. A drop of liquid mercury in the container can make a connection between the metal container and a lead projecting into the container through an insulating glass feedthrough in the header. See the miniature switches offered by Comus International; Clifton, N.J.

Lamp electrode and method for delivering mercury