An aqueous acid composition that may be used, for example, in a matrix acidizing treatment can include an acid, a polymeric acid corrosion inhibitor, and an acid corrosion inhibitor intensifier. The acid corrosion inhibitor can include iodide ions and metal ions, with the metal ions being one or more of copper, silver, bismuth, or antimony. The molar ratio of metal ions to iodide ions can be 1:X, where X is greater than or equal to 2. The polymer of the polymeric acid corrosion inhibitor can have a molecular weight less than 100,000 g/mol.

Corrosion inhibitor compositions can be used to protect metal surfaces exposed to acidic aqueous solutions. Notably, ferrous metals such as carbon steel or various alloy steels undergo significant generalized and localized corrosion when in contact with aqueous acids and, particularly, under elevated temperature conditions. Examples of fields in which such contact is common include industrial acid cleaning, metal pickling operations, and during various different operations in oil and gas exploration and production.
In the oil and gas industry, exposure to acidic solutions may arise as a result of various operations such as: (i) subterranean matrix acidizing and acid fracturing treatments; (ii) oilfield production phase systems in which steel and alloy surfaces are exposed to acidic fluids associated with co-produced carbon dioxide and/or hydrogen sulphide); and (iii) during CO2 pumping services in which steel and alloy surfaces are exposed to acidic fluids associated with injected carbon dioxide.
The technique of matrix acidizing involves exposure of wellbore steel to an injected acid. This operation may be performed with coiled tubing, which is run into the wellbore and then used to convey the acid to the region where the acid is to penetrate the rock formation. During such acid injection, the internal surface of the coiled tubing and a section of the wellbore casing is exposed to the acid. In the subsequent flowback phase, the steel casing in the wellbore and the exterior surface of the coiled tubing can be exposed to so-called 'unspent' acid flowing back with formation fluids to the surface.
Steel may be protected against corrosion by contacting the steel with an organic corrosion inhibitor that adsorbs to the metal surface. Adsorbed inhibitor(s) may influence the rate of corrosion by one or more of several mechanisms by: (i) forming a physical barrier film which restricts the diffusion of species to/from the metal surface; (ii) blocking anodic and/or cathodic reaction sites directly; (iii) interacting with corrosion reaction intermediates adsorbed on the surface; and (iv) influencing the electrical double layer that forms at the metal/solution interface.
Non-polymeric corrosion inhibitors predominate in commercial corrosion inhibitor formulations used for downhole operations and in associated research and development activities. Notwithstanding, it has been variously proposed and demonstrated over the last 50 years that polymeric corrosion inhibitors can show greater efficiency than their equivalent monomers. Notably, polymeric corrosion inhibitors can show effective inhibition when used at significantly lower dosages relative to non-polymeric corrosion inhibitors. Thus, because they can be used in lower dosages, polymeric corrosion inhibitors can provide a more environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to non-polymeric or monomeric corrosion inhibitors.
Corrosion inhibitor formulations may also include metal salt mixtures. The metal provided by the metal salt is used to complex with a quaternary ammonium compound and form a protective deposit on metal tubulars and equipment. Antimony (SbCl3) is a metal salt that has previously been used.
Corrosion inhibitors can be used in combination with a corrosion inhibitor intensifier. An intensifier is a compound capable of enhancing the performance of a selected acid corrosion inhibitor. Corrosion inhibitor intensifiers are commonly used in environments in which the effectiveness of the corrosion inhibitor is reduced, such as, for example, at elevated temperatures.
Iodide is a known intensifier for both monomeric and polymeric corrosion inhibitors. Iodide's high selectivity as compared with anions of common mineral acids, e.g. hydrochloric acid, means that it is preferentially adsorbed to the surface of contacted metals, providing a minor inhibiting effect in its own right, and additionally providing a more preferential surface for the adsorption of corrosion inhibitor molecules. This process may not necessarily be sequential as there may also be significant co-adsorption of the iodide ions and inhibitor molecules. In some cases, a matrix acidizing fluid contains acid components, a corrosion inhibitor (e.g., quaternary ammonium compound), and a corrosion inhibitor intensifier (e.g., iodide ions and a source of formic acid).
Cuprous iodide may also be used as a corrosion inhibitor intensifier. In addition to iodide, the presence of copper ions provides an additional cathodic inhibition effect. Self-diverting formulations containing viscoelastic surfactant may also include cuprous iodide as a corrosion inhibitor intensifier. Other examples of aqueous acidic fluids for use with steel or Inconel can include water, acid, a corrosion inhibitor, a copper salt, and an alkali metal iodide (e.g., NaI or KI). The alkali metal iodide may generate copper/cuprous iodide in-situ, such as when the copper salt and the alkali metal iodide are present in approximately a 1:1 stochiometric ratio of copper to iodine.
Additional acidizing fluid compositions contain acid component(s), an acid corrosion inhibitor consisting of an acetylenic alcohol, and mixtures of organic nitrogen compounds and acetylenic alcohols, together with dissolved cuprous iodide, CuI, as a corrosion inhibitor intensifier. Example weight ratios of Cu+ to I− of 1:2 may be used and equate to a molar ratio of 1:1. The copper and iodide ions may be provided through soluble precursor salts (e.g. CuCl+KI) for in-situ formation of cuprous iodide. The use of soluble salts has been correlated with a decreased degree of corrosion inhibition as compared with dissolved cuprous iodide, but the degree of corrosion inhibition can be improved by providing at least 5% molar excess of the salt (KI) supplying the iodide. Propargyl alcohol and alcohol-amine based inhibitors have been used experimentally with copper iodide intensifiers and a 5% molar excess of iodide, in recognition of galvanic corrosion caused by heterogeneous electro-deposition of copper metal forming micro-cathodes, which results in accelerated corrosion of the remainder of the ferrous surface, typically in the form of pitting. Notably, precipitated metals may not form a continuous coating but a "skeleton" deposit which leads to galvanic corrosion.

Aqueous acidic compositions with a corrosion inhibitor


A laminate acoustic window for sonar systems having a pair of septa sandwiching a core therebetween, the core being made of a low shear high elongation to break material, the septa being formed of a relatively low density, high modulus material. The windows of the invention are characterizied by unusual freedom from attenuation loss over a wide frequency range. The windows are further substantially self damping and avoid thereby a generation of significant quantities of deleterious noise due to self generated vibration and transmitted vibration.

Acoustic windows such as sonar domes for use in transmitting or receiving acoustic wave form signals in a liquid environment are known. Traditionally, these windows have consisted of a single thickness of a metal such as steel that may optionally have been covered by a biologically active substance such as a rubber containing a biocide, in order that biofouling of surfaces of the window may be inhibited.
Typically such windows on an exterior surface have interfaced with a body of free liquid such as an ocean, lake or tank. Such windows, on the interior surface, traditionally have at least partially defined a chamber filled with water or another liquid. Substantial efforts have been expended to configure such windows to be acoustically "clear", that is producing a desirably low distortion and attenuation of sound wave energy being passed through the windows and, equally, a desirably low distortion of the angle characterizing the impingement of the wave energy against the window.
Such windows have been subject to certain undesirable characteristics. For example, windows made of a rigid material such as steel can generate significant quantities of acoustic noise associated with the passage of water over the window and can transmit significant quantities of acoustic noise arising from vibrational frequencies associated with the operation of machinery aboard a ship upon which a window is embodied. In addition, these relatively rigid windows can generate a significant bounce or reflection effect for acoustic wave form energy impinging upon the window surface. Such bounce can result in a substantial reduction of signals being transmitted through the window, and where reflection occurs from interior surfaces of the window during transmission of an acoustic wave form from within the chamber defined by the window, spurious or erroneous determinations of and/or making of an echo can result.
It has been suggested that alternate materials to steel or other metals be employed in the fabrication of domes. Fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) have been suggested as a suitable window material, such FRP materials have demonstrated enhanced corrosion resistance over steel but have generally been subject to many of the same difficulties characterizing steel with respect to acoustic clarity, reduction, and reflective characteristics.
Windows such as sonar domes can be required to transmit acoustic energy having a frequency ranging from about 500 hz to about 500 khz. These frequencies correspond to wavelengths of about 3 meters to about 0.003 meters in water, with the wavelengths being subject to some variation depending upon the material through which the wave form is being propagated. With traditional domes of metal or reinforced plastic, where the thickness of the material from which the dome is fabricated deviates substantially from a 1/2 wave length of the acoustical frequency being transmitted through the dome, reduction such as through insertion loss, that is 20 log P.sub.o /P.sub.t where P.sub.o is the incident pressure of the wave and P.sub.t is the transmitted pressure, can become unacceptable. A sonar dome structurally must be built to withstand a particular structural loading. This construction results in an inherent thickness in the material of construction. Where this thickness substantially deviates from 1/2 the wavelength being transmitted an effective blindness to certain acoustic waveform frequencies can result by simple reduction of the waveform energy transmitting across the material thickness.
Naturally sonar domes are not the sole use for acoustically transparent materials; frequently it is desired that acoustic waveform energy be transmitted through a window or covered aperture in a vessel hull. The same constraints that affect performance of conventional sonar domes also may affect the acoustic performance of such windows.
Structural configurations in forming sonar domes and windows have traditionally focused material selection considerations upon elevated modulus materials, that is materials having a Young's modulus of in excess of at least about 100,000 psi (6895.times.10.sup.5 kPa) and more frequently in excess of about 1,000,000 psi (6895.times.10.sup.6 kPa). These materials generally are possessed of an elongation break characteristic approaching zero and a sound propagation velocity characteristic too elevated to be used in a desirable, thin tunable window, and the use of such rigid, high strength materials has tended to make "tuning" sonar domes and windows formed with such materials quite difficult. The properties of materials of construction for the sonar domes or windows taken together with the structural loading imposed upon such domes and windows has tended to establish the acoustic properties of the sonar dome without much residual flexibility for tuning of the properties such as clarity, reduction and the like.
A sonar dome or window, tunable to substantially reduce reduction of sound wave frequencies, upon passage through the sonar dome or window, could find substantial application in both the military and commercial areas. Equally, a dome or a window formed of one or more materials configured to reduce the reflective signals during passage of an acoustic waveform signal therethrough could find substantial utility.
Likewise, a construction for sonar domes and windows wherein the sonar dome or window is possessed of elevated self damping properties, could find substantial utility in reducing noise and spurious signals resulting from vibrations engendered as examples, by the passage of water along the sonar dome or window, or by the transmitted vibration of machinery and equipment aboard the vessel embodying the sonar dome or window.

Window for acoustic wave form and method for making


A model-based method of classifying a specimen in a specimen container. The method includes capturing images of the specimen and container at multiple different exposures times, at multiple different spectra having different nominal wavelengths, and at different viewpoints by using multiple cameras. From the captured images, 2D data sets are generated. The 2D data sets are based upon selection of optimally-exposed pixels from the multiple different exposure images to generate optimally-exposed image data for each spectra. Based upon these 2D data sets, various components are classified using a multi-class classifier, such as serum or plasma portion, settled blood portion, gel separator (if present), tube, air, or label. From the classification data and 2D data sets, a 3D model can be generated. Specimen testing apparatus and quality check modules adapted to carry out the method are described, as are other aspects.

Automated testing systems may conduct clinical chemistry or assays using one or more reagents to identify an analyte or other constituent material in a specimen such as urine, blood serum, blood plasma, interstitial liquid, cerebrospinal liquids, and the like. For convenience and safety reasons, these specimens are almost always contained within specimen containers (e.g., specimen collection tubes). The test or assay reactions generate various changes that may be read and/or manipulated to determine a concentration of analyte or other constituent that is present in the specimen.
Improvements in automated testing technology have been accompanied by corresponding advances in pre-analytical sample preparation and handling operations such as batch preparation, centrifugation of sample containers to separate sample constituents, cap removal to facilitate fluid access, and the like by automated pre-analytical specimen preparation stations, which are part of Laboratory Automation Systems (LASs). LASs may automatically transport the specimens in specimen containers to a number of pre-analytical specimen processing stations and/or analytical stations containing clinical chemistry analyzers or assay instruments (hereinafter collectively referred to as "analyzers").
These LASs may handle any number of different specimens contained in barcode-labeled specimen containers. The barcode label may contain an accession number that may be correlated to demographic information that may be entered into a hospital's Laboratory Information System (LIS) along with test orders and possibly other information. An operator may place the labeled specimen containers onto the LAS system in racks, and the LAS may automatically route the sample containers for pre-analytical operations such as centrifugation, de-capping, and possibly aliquot preparation, and all prior to the specimen actually being subjected to clinical analysis or assaying by one or more analyzers that may also be part of the LAS.
For certain tests, a serum or plasma portion (e.g., obtained from whole blood by centrifugation) may be used. A gel separator may be added to the specimen container to aid in the separation of the settled blood portion from the serum or plasma portion. After centrifuging and a subsequent de-capping process, the specimen container may be transported to an appropriate analyzer that may extract serum or plasma portion from the specimen container and combine the serum or plasma portion with one or more reagents in a reaction vessel (e.g., cuvette or other vessel). Analytical measurements may then be performed, often using a beam of interrogating radiation, for example, or by using photometric or fluorometric absorption readings, or the like. The measurements allow determination of end-point or rate or other values, from which an amount of analyte or other constituent to be determined using well-known techniques.
In the prior art, the integrity of the serum or plasma portion of the specimen is visually inspected by a skilled laboratory technician. This may involve a review of the color thereof. A normal serum or plasma portion has a light yellow to light amber color, and may not include clots, bubbles, or foam. Specimens containing Hemolysis, Icterus, or Lipemia (H, I, or L) may be determined by comparing the specimen to known color standards. However, manual visual inspection is very subjective, labor intensive, and fraught with the possibility of human error.
Because manual visual inspection includes the problems listed above, it is becoming increasingly prevalent to evaluate the integrity of specimens without the use of visual inspection by a laboratory technician, but rather by using an automated inspection. However, in some instances, barcode labels adhered directly to the specimen container may partially occlude a view of the specimen, so that there may not be clear opportunity to visually observe the serum or plasma portion of the specimen.
In some systems, such as those described in US Pat. Pub. 2012/0140230 to Miller, the specimen container may be rotated at a quality station to find a view window that is unobstructed by the label. However, such systems may be less prone to ease of automation.
Because of problems encountered when trying to rotate specimens for imaging, there is an unmet need for a method and apparatus adapted to readily image a specimen container and specimen. The method and apparatus should not appreciably adversely affect the speed at which analytical or assaying test results are obtained. Furthermore, the method and apparatus should be able to be used even on labeled specimen containers, where the label occludes the view of some portion of the specimen.

Methods and apparatus for multi-view characterization


A method of controlling access to a real estate property includes installing a dynamic electronically-controlled lockset on an exterior door of a real estate property, maintaining, at a remote location, a reference device adapted to present a value of a second dynamic access code to one or more users located in the real estate office, receiving, at the real estate agent location, a request from a user for a current value of the second dynamic access code, examining the reference device to determine the current value of the second dynamic access code, and providing the current value of the second dynamic access code to the user for input into the electronically-controlled lockset. The lockset is adapted to unlock upon receiving a value corresponding to a first dynamic access code programmed therein. The second dynamic access code is time-synchronized with the first dynamic access code programmed in the electronically-controlled lockset.

1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of controlling access to real estate properties, and, in particular, to methods of using an electronic door lock control system in conjunction with direct real-time communication between a prospective home buyer and a real estate agent or other service provider.
2. Background
Builders have traditionally contracted with real estate agents to represent them in the sale of their new homes with the expectation that agents would provide access, sales and security. They count on agents to facilitate the showing of their new properties to prospective buyers, with or without the accompaniment of the agents themselves. In large subdivisions with dozens of new homes being built, agents are available "on-site" certain hours of the day to open and sell these new homes, and keep the properties secure.
However, with the dearth of areas suitable for large developments today in many markets, builders are constructing "infill" homes, that is, new homes in existing neighborhoods. Currently, agents mount a mechanical key-holding device on the front door of such properties to provide access to other agents. These other agents have a personal device which they use to interact with the doorknob-mounted device to open it and to access a key to the front door of the property. As they leave, they lock the door and place the key back in the doorknob-mounted device.
For a buyer without a buyer's agent to tour a newly built home, he/she calls the listing agent of record and requests a tour. The agent typically has to drive over to the property immediately to open the home for the prospective buyer, or set an appointment to meet there at a later time. Because of the hassles involved, buyers often do not call an agent for a tour unless they have exceptional interest. Agents find it a hassle to have to drop everything to show these homes, often only to discover the buyers to be "tire-kickers." Agents with multiple properties must devote a considerable amount of time to this process with little return on their investment of time and money. As a result, builders' properties are not shown as often as they would like. In desperation, some builders encourage buyer tours by unlocking their mostly-completed homes during the daylight hours and locking them back up every night. They know that buyers need to explore/touch/see the houses in order to have interest in and come to buy a property.
At the current time in the real estate market, there is not a keyless lock that works on a time rotation or sequence-based code, which could be used for Builder's new properties. The products that are available involve (1) opening a box and extracting a key or (2) keyless unlocking via a punched in code but the code in the lock has to be changed manually if it can be changed at all. Both present significant security risks since both the key and the unchanged code could fall into the wrong people's hands. Thus, a need exists for a dynamic electronic door lock control system using periodically-changing access codes to control access to properties being offered for sale or lease.

Methods of controlling access to real estate properties


A method and system for page preloading using a control flow are provided. The method includes extracting preload page information from one or more pages in a first program code, and generating a second program code including the first program code and the extracted preload page information. The second program code is stored in non-volatile memory. When loading a page from the second program code stored in the non-volatile memory into main memory, preloading one or more pages from the non-volatile memory based on the preload page information stored in the loaded page.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to preloading pages, and more particularly, to a method and system for preloading a page using a control flow.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventional computing systems include main memory (e.g., random access memory), which can operate at high speed but can store only a small amount of information. An auxiliary storage device (e.g., a hard disk drive) can store a large amount of information but operates at a relatively low speed. A virtual memory space compensates for the limited storage space of main memory by mapping memory of the auxiliary storage device to be used as main memory.
A central processing unit (CPU) does not directly access information in the auxiliary storage device but accesses information in the main memory, and therefore, an operating system (OS) loads code of a program corresponding to a process handled by the CPU from the auxiliary storage device into the main memory. However, due to a capacity difference between the main memory and the auxiliary storage device, all of the program code corresponding to the process handled by the CPU cannot be loaded into the main memory at the same time. Accordingly, the OS loads only essential code in the main memory. When necessary code does not exist in the main memory, a page fault is generated and a necessary page is loaded from the auxiliary storage device into the main memory. In addition, the OS may perform a preload in which code to be executed by the CPU is predicted and loaded in advance.
Excessive overhead is encountered when accessing the auxiliary storage device operating at low speed. Accordingly, the number of page faults significantly affects system performance. An exact preload reduces the number of page faults.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a path in which a program is executed. FIG. 2 illustrates an order in which code is generated when the program illustrated in FIG. 1 is compiled.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, blocks A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H illustrated in FIG. 1 may indicate code of the program, which is defined by functions. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of program execution paths may exist. For instance, there may be a path having an order of A, B, C, D, G, and A, a path having an order of A, B, E, F, G, and A, and a path having an order of A, B, E, H, G, and A. A compiler compiles the program, and compiled code may be stored in memory for storing code, for example, an auxiliary storage device (e.g., flash memory or a hard disk drive). When the program is most frequently executed in the path having the order of A, B, C, D, G, and A among the program execution paths, the compiler may store the compiled code in the auxiliary storage device in the order illustrated in FIG. 2.
A demand paging module (DPM) included in the OS may perform the preload. Usually, code can be preloaded based on code locality within the program
The DPM can perform the preload using the locality when the program code is stored in the order as illustrated in FIG. 2. At this time, the code A should be executed after the code G is executed, but the DPM preloads the code E. Since the DPM cannot have information about which code is executed after the code G is executed, it performs the preload based on the locality. As a result, a page fault occurs. When the page fault occurs, program execution time is increased.

Method and system for preloading page using control flow


A portable flying disc game includes a foldable base that can be pivotally attached to a first end of a vertical pole. A first basket member is removably coupled to the vertical pole above the foldable base, and includes a first part and a second part that are detachable from one another. The first part has a first coupling member that receives the vertical pole and a support flange for receiving and supporting the second part to form the assembled first basket member. A second basket member is also removably coupled to the vertical pole, and includes a frame having a first part and a second part to which ends of cords are coupled to so that the cords hang from the frame. A weighted member is coupled to the cords which serve to support and suspend the weighted member above the first basket.

Heretofore, there have been a variety of different types of flying disc targets and flying disc entrapment devices used in the game of flying disc golf. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,494,455, 5,868,395, 4,792,143, 4,461,484 and 4,039,189 to Headrick, the use of a pole mounted flying disc entrapment device is disclosed using a plurality of vertically mounted chains. The chains are used for engaging and entrapping a flying disc. The mounted chains are suspended above an open top basket mounted on a pole.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,713 to Grunfeld, a disc golf target using a chain and net assembly including an upper chain and net ring with ring sleeve is received on top of the upper pole for suspending the assembly. The upper chain and net ring is used for suspending a plurality of chains and a net. A weighted lower chain and net ring is attached to a bottom of the chains and the net. The lower chain and net ring includes a floating sleeve. When a flying disc hits the chains and/or the net, the floating sleeve acts as a shock absorber. Grunfeld also notes that his disc golf target is "portable, lightweight, rugged in construction and can be quickly assembled and disassembled" even though it is constructed to include heavy chains.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,285 to Chittenden, a disc golf target is described as using a plurality of chain segments suspended from a support member by generally U-shaped attachment loops. The attachment loops have upwardly and outwardly sloped side portions, so that the energy of the disc is absorbed and dissipated by spreading and lifting the chain segments as the disc strikes the target assembly. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,635 also to Chittenden, a disc golf target is described using chains supported from curved support members. The curved support members are disposed above a disc-receiving basket mounted on an upright stand. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,551 to Dunipace, another disc golf target is disclosed having a chain rack. The chain rack is used to suspend a plurality of outer and inner chains. The chains are disposed above a pole mounted basket. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,255 to Jolsen, a disc catching apparatus is illustrated having flexible chains, an open top basket and a top housing having one or more lamps. The lamps are used to light up the disc catching apparatus.
However, none of the conventional flying disc targets above solve the problem of creating a lighter and more portable disc golf target that still provides an effective target for trapping the flying discs. The heavy chains of these conventional flying disc targets limit their use as portable flying disc targets.


Each of data bands of a magnetic tape includes a plurality of wraps as data tracks. In the read/write test, a predetermined test length is set to every wrap and test patterns are written to the test length portion, and the patterns are read so as to verify whether or not there is trouble to the drive or the tape. While it takes time to switch a magnetic head among the wraps on testing all the wraps, the time depends on order of switching. In the present invention, the order in which the magnetic head switches the wraps for reading or writing, that is, a wrap sequence, is selected to be different from the wrap sequence in an actual active state. The wrap sequence in the actual active state has been selected based on a factor such as writing performance of the tape, which has not been suited to the read/write test.

The present invention relates to a technique for testing a magnetic tape drive, and more particularly, it relates to a technique for improving order of movement of a magnetic head to access all wraps in a read/write test on the magnetic tape drive so as to reduce test time.
A magnetic tape drive is subjected to a read/write test, in which predetermined data is written to a magnetic tape upon completion of assembly or on occurrence of a fault during actual operation and the written data is then read to check performance. The magnetic tape has a plurality of data tracks defined as a recording area across it corresponding to a plurality of conversion elements of a magnetic head, which is called a wrap. In the read/write test, for all the wraps, test data (hereafter, referred to as a test pattern) is written on a test length portion equivalent to five percent or so of overall tape length while switching a magnetic head position and the written test pattern is further read.
This read/write test has an object of reading and writing a test pattern for all the wraps and verifying the read test pattern so as to check a function of reading and writing by correctly moving the magnetic head to all the wraps. In addition, it has an object of, on occurrence of trouble in the magnetic tape drive, limiting existence of a cause of the trouble such as whether the tape or the drive has a problem. For instance, in the case where trouble occurs in actual operation or normal operation and good results are acquired by conducting the read/write test on a different tape from the one used for the operation, it can be presumed that the tape used on occurrence of the trouble has a problem. Moreover, in the case where it passes the read/write test, it can be presumed that the tape has no problem and the drive has the cause.
Conventional magnetic tapes are relatively short in overall length and low in bit density, which means the number of wraps is small, so that a problem seldom occurs even if 5-percent test length is adopted. Therefore, the read/write test on each individual wrap has been conducted in order of moving the head in a normal operation of the drive, that is, according to a wrap sequence in the normal operation. A contributing factor to this is that it is easier to use a program of the wrap sequence to be used in the normal operation rather than to create a special sequence program for the test. However, while the conventional tapes have 30 GB or so of storage capacity, recent tapes are as long as 600 meters with the number of wraps twice as many as conventional tapes and increased storage capacity of 100 GB so that the read/write test conducted in the conventional wrap sequence requires test time of as long as 40 minutes.
Reduction of the test time is strongly required to address the trouble occurring in manufacturing processes of magnetic tape drives and in their active state, and attempts to implement it have been made so far, without sufficient results, by reducing the test length of the tapes by up to 0.5 percent of the overall test length or improving servo control systems.
The inventor noted when shortening the test length of the tapes that, as a factor responsible for the test time, the time required for the magnetic head to move among the wraps is important, which was not noteworthy when the test length of the tapes was long. It was also noted that, to achieve the object of the read/write test, the wrap sequence does not have to be the one in the normal operation as far as all the wraps can be read and written. Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for conducting the read/write test on the magnetic tape drive in a short time. Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic tape drive capable of conducting the read/write test in a short time.
A principle of the present invention is to utilize the fact that time when switching a magnetic head from one wrap to another wrap is different depending on mutual physical relationship between the wraps before and after the switching in a read/write test on a magnetic tape drive so as to select order of switching wraps, namely, a wrap sequence that is optimum. Another principle is to select a wrap sequence suited to the read/write test by paying attention to a characteristic that changing to a write mode after a read mode requires time to write to a buffer.
An aspect of the present invention is to make the wrap sequence different from the one in a normal operation of the drive. While the order of switching wraps in the read/write test has been that in the normal operation conventionally, this order has been prescribed in specifications due to other elements such as data recording performance of the tape, not considering time for the read/write test.
While the time for switching wraps is not a problem as time for reading and writing in the actual active state of the magnetic tape drive since it moves on to a next wrap after writing in overall length of the tape for a certain wrap, it is significant to adopt the wrap sequence different from the one in the actual active state in the read/write test since the wrap sequence influences test time greatly because of short test length.
In another aspect of the present invention, order of data bands to be accessed by the magnetic head is set up first. Next, test patterns are consecutively written to all the wraps included in either a forward wrap group or a backward wrap group for each of the data bands selected in the set up order. As for the selected data bands, while it may move on to another data band after writing only to all the wraps included in the forward wrap group, or it may move on to another data band after writing only to all the wraps included in the backward wrap group, or, it may further write to all the wraps included in the forward wrap group and subsequently to all the wraps in the backward wrap group of the same data band, it consecutively writes to all the wraps included in either one of the wrap groups. Consecutively means that, while writing to the wrap group in a certain direction, the magnetic head does not move to another wrap group when it moves from one wrap to another wrap. However, order of writing to the wraps included in a certain wrap group can be arbitrarily selected.
Next, test patterns are read as to the wrap groups written according to the set up order of the data bands. Reading is also performed consecutively in a unit of the wrap group on the wraps included therein so as not to move to another wrap group while reading. It becomes unnecessary to change movement direction of the tape when switching wraps within the same band by writing or reading in the unit of wrap group in a certain direction, and the time for switching wraps can be reduced since it is conducted within the same data band. The read test patterns are verified by software or hardware. To be more specific, it is determined by whether the written test patterns are correctly read. It is possible to prepare a filter by hardware equivalent to the test patterns to verify whether the read test patterns can pass through it, or to compare the written test patterns to the read test patterns.
In a further aspect of the present invention, writing according to the above aspect is performed on all the wrap groups including the forward and backward groups and then reading is performed therefrom. As it takes extra time to write to a buffer if the modes of reading and writing the wrap groups are changed, writing is performed first on all the wrap groups, that is, all the wraps included in all the data bands and then reading is performed therefrom so that it is sufficient to write the test patterns to the buffer just once.
A still further aspect of the present invention relates to a magnetic tape drive having the above forms. A program recording a wrap sequence for testing is stored in a recorder such as a ROM as a program that is different from a wrap sequence in the normal operation, and is executed by a central processing unit (CPU) on the read/write test.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing configuration of a magnetic tape;
FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing configuration of wraps on data bands;
FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing configuration of a magnetic head 201 applied to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 a diagram showing partial details of the wraps;
FIG. 5 is a partial block diagram of the magnetic tape drive described as the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the basic procedure of the read/write test;
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing relationship between the time required for movement of the head for switching the wraps and switching patterns;
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing wrap groups of the magnetic tape used in the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the wrap group sequence wherein a total of time for switching wrap groups and time for writing to a buffer is the smallest; and
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the wrap sequences created based on selected wrap group sequences.

Method for testing magnetic tape drive apparatus

International Business Machines Corporation


Failover controllers help maintain user-perceived continuous connectivity for users of a geographically dispersed flat network when part of that network becomes unavailable, even though flat network packets are not WAN-routable. One such controller has local and remote flat network ports, at least one WAN port, and failover capability to WAN(s) utilizing encapsulation when the flat network is partially or fully unavailable. The failover procedure uses a packet origin table built automatically from incoming packets and from double-tunneled ARP requests. A monitor indicates whether the flat network is fully available (up) or not fully available (down). Controller software updates the packet origin table, and directs packets between ports depending on flatnet status, the packet origin table's content, and any packet handling enhancements such as load balancing, affinity enforcement, quality of service maintenance, packet traffic shaping, packet policy application, firewall operation, reverse firewall operation, encryption/decryption, and/or compression/decompression.

Networks are complex, and their use is subject to a wide, inconsistent, and changing collection of technical requirements and options. For example, a given packet payload on a journey between two networked locations may be subject to multiple addressing formats, a plurality of transmission protocols, varied security options or requirements, intermittent hardware and software reliability, several particular priorities relative to other packets, and many different filtering rules.
The immense number of possible combinations of known and future networking technical options and requirements is overwhelming, even if one focuses only on features currently in use somewhere. Experienced network professionals sometimes indulge in guesswork and experimentation, because no one has yet fully mastered the enormous amount of information required to understand all networking requirements and options. At the same time, however, network professionals recognize that blindly trying different combinations will not consistently provide even a minimally functioning network architecture. And for practical purposes, simply trying different combinations of known features will almost never provide an efficient and reliable network architecture. In addition to the low probability of chancing upon a cost-effective and working combination of features, the efforts and expenses involved in setting up a network architecture are often substantial, so experimentation is severely hampered in practice.
Accordingly, effective network professionals use and depend on particular devices, systems, and processes which have been designed by experienced network innovators who have a proven track record of success.


Adjustable and/or dual-suspension boot levers for hardshell boots, having upper parts and lower parts that rotate relative to one another, are disclosed. Adjustable boot levers disclosed herein are adjustable along a continuum or at one of a plurality of preset positions on a lever to provide a forward-lean angle customizable to a user's preferences. Dual-suspension boot levers provide fore-aft dampening and are also customizable by selection of appropriate elastic materials and properties for use in the forward-lean and backward-lean suspension devices. In some embodiments, adjustability and dual-suspension are combined in a boot lever design.

Users of modern hardshell ski and snowboard boots enjoy the freedom-of-movement afforded by boots capable of transitioning between a walk mode and a downhill mode. In the walk mode, the upper part of the boot is allowed to rotate relative to the lower part of the boot, typically around pivots positioned at the inner and outer ankle areas. The walk mode allows for a more natural gait than a fixed-position boot, which is useful for walking around the base area of a ski resort and for uphill travel by backcountry skiers and riders. However, the free rotation of the boot parts must be constrained during downhill travel for effective power transfer from the user's leg to the boot and ski or snowboard.
The downhill mode of most commercially available boots is achieved by locking the upper part of the boot at a manufacturer-specified forward-lean angle relative to the lower part of the boot. In some more advanced boot designs, two manufacturer-specified forward-lean angles (e.g., regular lean and aggressive lean) are available. However, no known transition mechanisms currently provide the option to customize the forward-lean angle to a user's preference or to adjust the forward-lean angle along a continuum or at one of a plurality of preset positions on a lever as user preferences, snow conditions, boot fatigue and/or other factors change.
In addition, hardshell boots locked in downhill mode are sometimes too responsive for snowboarders, who are accustomed to soft boots that allow for some knee bending that does not result in turn initiation. Snowboarders seeking a less responsive boot can install an after-market boot tuning system (BTS) that provides spring-loaded dampening in the fore and aft directions, but installation of the BTS replaces the transition mechanism, thereby eliminating the option to use the boot in walk mode. French Patent Application No. 3050619 also attempts to allow some knee bending with a hardshell boot by providing a transition lever capable of dampening forward movement when the lever is in the downhill position, but the transition lever has a hard stop at the rebound position, which can interrupt a rider's natural movement. Thus, known systems for making hardshell boots less responsive tend to decrease a boot's functionality and/or inhibit a rider's natural movement.

Adjustable and dual-suspension boot levers


Tooth cleaning devices for portable, discrete use to improve dental hygiene as well as cosmetic appearance of teeth and processes for using same. The devices enable discrete cleaning of teeth after drinking dark-colored beverages or after eating food in social settings when conventional teeth cleaning devices are unavailable or inconvenient. In particular, these devices are designed for multiple uses, so that the same device may be used for teeth cleaning on multiple occasions.

Good dental hygiene is advantageous for health and cosmetic reasons. Various means exist by which individuals may clean their teeth. The vast majority of tooth cleaning devices are designed consistent with in-home use. For example, conventional tooth brushes are large enough to fit conveniently within a fully clenched hand and have bristles exposed to the open air. Storage of these devices requires containers that are several inches in length and more than one or two inches in diameter. The large size of conventional tooth brushes provides a durable and reusable product that may be used numerous times before the device is substantially degraded to the point necessitating disposal. Although the large size and durability of conventional tooth brushes render them well suited for repeated home use, these characteristics make them inconvenient when away from home or "on-the-go." In addition, water and tooth paste are typically required for the use of conventional tooth brushes, making their use inconvenient or impossible when water and tooth paste are not readily available.
Various other means have been created in attempts to address the need for a more portable tooth cleaning device. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,860 discloses a single use disposable, waterless tooth brushing assembly that includes a toothbrush, a non-foaming, saliva-activated, oral care composition pre-applied to the bristles of the toothbrush, a small moistened disposable towel for use after tooth cleaning, and a compact, lightweight, two-layer heat-sealed packaging container for pre-use sanitary storage of the toothbrush and towel.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,182,542 discloses a waterless disposable toothbrush that includes a handle having a toothpick connected thereto to enable cleaning between teeth, and a rupturable dispenser containing a dentifrice and being connected in a bristle portion of the toothbrush head for dispensing the dentifrice to the teeth.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,478,959 discloses an oral care toothbrush that includes a head mounted to one end of the handle containing a plurality of oral care elements. An oral care accessory is mounted to the opposite end of the handle. An oral care composition dispenser is mounted to the head within the cleaning field defined by the oral care elements.
U.S. Pub. No. 2011/0239387 discloses an oral care toothbrush that includes a handle having a head at one end of the handle, the head having at least one cleaning element and at least one oral care dispenser. The oral care dispenser releases the oral care matter within about five seconds when exposed to water.
Various packaging methods have also been created in an attempt to conveniently house portable tooth cleaning devices. For example, U.S. Pub. No. 2010/0230312 discloses a package for displaying a plurality of items where the package has first and second containers connectable between an open position and a closed position, each container having an outer surface having at least one elongated protrusion, with the head end extending further outwardly from the package than the tail end. The head end of the at least one protrusion of the first container is proximate to the tail end of the at least one protrusion of the second container in the closed position.
Portable tooth freshening and cleansing devices are becoming more common. For example, "portable" concentrated mouthwash strips have become popular among those who are concerned with dental freshness. Portable interdental brushes have also been developed for facilitating removal of food and plaque while on-the-go.
Gum products have also tried to capitalize on the desire to clean teeth while on the go. Many modern chewing gum manufacturers market at least one significant line of chewing gum as "whitening" or "dental cleaning" gums.
In an effort to cosmetically improve tooth appearance, consumers have increasingly turned to tooth bleaching or whitening. There are many commercially available methods for whitening teeth, such as brushing, bleaching strips, bleaching pens, bleaching gels, laser bleaching, and natural bleaching. Traditionally, at-home whiteners use overnight trays containing a carbamide peroxide gel which reacts with water to form hydrogen peroxide. Some whitening techniques may undesirably open dentinal tubules causing increased tooth sensitivity and potentially resulting in temporary tooth stains after drinking certain dark colored liquids such as coffee, tea or red wine.
In view of the foregoing, the need exists for compact, multi-use, portable ready-to-use tooth cleaner and freshener devices that may be used quickly and discretely in social settings preferably without the need for additional material such as separate tooth paste, cleanser or water. The need also exists for portable and discrete devices for removing dental stains and, in particular, for removing temporary tooth stains resulting from dark colored liquids. The need also exists for improved packaging for such tooth cleaning devices that allow the tooth cleaning devices to be kept clean and fresh until time for use.

Multiuse tooth cleaning devices and processes for using same


An adaptive equalizer finite impulse response (FIR) filter for high-speed communication channels with modest complexity, where the filter is iteratively updated during a training sequence by a circuit performing the update: h(t+1)= h(t)+μ[sgn{d(t)}−sgn{z(t)−Kd(t)}]sgn{ x(t)},where h(t) is the filter vector representing the filter taps of the FIR filter, x(t) is the data vector representing present and past samples of the received data x(t), d(t) is the desired data used for training, z(t) is the output of the FIR filter, μ determines the memory or window size of the adaptation, and K is a scale factor taking into account practical limitations of the communication channel, receiver, and equalizer. Furthermore, a procedure and circuit structure is provided for calibrating the scale factor K.

FIG. 1 provides a high-level abstraction of a portion of a computer server or system, where microprocessor 102 resides on board 104 and communicates with memory 106 on board 108. The communication is by way of striplines on backplane 110. Backplane 110 is connected to boards 104 and 108 by connectors 112. Not shown in FIG. 1 are other memory units and microprocessors, where the various microprocessors and memory units may communicate to one another so as to access or write data and instructions.
Communication of signals over backplane 110 may be modeled by transmission line theory. Often, the signaling is based upon differential signaling, whereby a single bit of information is represented by a differential voltage. For example, FIG. 2a shows drivers 202 and 204 driving transmission lines 206 and 208, respectively. For differential signaling, drivers 202 and 204 drive their respective transmission lines to complementary voltages. Typical curves for the node voltages at nodes n1 and n2 for a bit transition are provided in FIG. 2b, where the bit transition is indicated by a dashed vertical line crossing the time axis. The information content is provided by the difference in the two node voltages.
For short-haul communication, such as for the computer server in FIG. 1, the signal-to-noise ratio is relatively large. If the transmission lines are linear, time-invariant systems having a bandwidth significantly greater than that of the transmitted signal, then a relatively simple receiver architecture may be employed to recover the transmitted data. Such a receiver is abstracted by comparator 210, which provides a logic signal in response to the difference in the two received voltages at ports 212 and 214.
However, every transmission line has a finite bandwidth, and for signal bandwidths that are comparable to or exceed the transmission line (channel) bandwidth, intersymbol interference may present a problem. Furthermore, actual transmission lines may have dispersion, whereby different spectral portions of a signal travel at different speeds. This may result in pulse spreading, again leading to intersymbol interference. As a practical example, for high data rates such as 10 Gbps (Giga bits per second), the transmission lines used with backplanes or motherboards are such that intersymbol interference is present.
Channel equalization is a method in which one or more filters are employed to equalize the channel to help mitigate intersymbol interference. These filters may be sampled-data (discrete-time) filters, where a time index t is a discrete variable, or they may be continuous-time filters, where the time index is a continuous variable. Many channel equalizers are realized by a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter employed at the receiver. A FIR is a sampled-data filter. FIG. 3 is an abstraction of a FIR filter structure, where x(t) is the input (received) signal to the FIR filter and z(t) is the filtered output. In the case of differential signaling, x(t) and z(t) may be viewed as representing differential signals. The filter impulse response is represented by a n dimensional vector denoted as h, where the filter weights are the components of this vector and are denoted by [ h]i, i=0, 1, . . . , n−1. Multipliers 302 and summer 304 may be realized in the analog or digital domain. For the embodiments described in these letters patent, multipliers 302 and summer 304 are realized in the analog domain.
In many adaptive equalization schemes, the filter vector is updated during a training time interval, and then remains fixed for some period of time. During training, a known sequence is transmitted over a communication channel to the receiver, and the filter vector is synthesized during the training time interval. Many algorithms have been developed to synthesize the filter vector. The well-known LMS (Least Mean Square) algorithm is an iterative technique based upon the method of steepest descent (gradient) to minimize a squared error.
The LMS algorithm may be written as the following iterative procedure performed during the training time interval: h(t+1)= h(t)+μ[Kd(t)−z(t)] x(t),where x(t) is a n dimensional received data vector with components given by [ x(t)]i=x(t−i) for i=0, 1, . . . , n−1, μ is a positive weight determining the filter "memory" or "window size" and may be viewed as the step-size in the steepest descent method, d(t) represents the known transmitted data during the training time interval (the training sequence), and K is a positive scale factor. The above iteration is performed during a training time interval t=1, . . . , T, where an initial h(0) is chosen and at the end of the training time interval, the filter vector h is set equal to h(T), i.e., h= h(T).
In many analog implementations the filter weights assume discrete values limited to some fixed range, and the scale factor K takes into account this finite range of the filter weights as well as practical implementations of the filtering. For example, for bipolar differential signaling the known training sequence d(t) may take on either of the values VCC or −VCC, where VCC is a supply voltage, but in practice the filtered output z(t) is always in magnitude less than the supply voltage. In this case, K<1.
To simplify the computations needed to synthesize the filter vector, the so-called sign-sign-LMS algorithm has been used: h(t+1)= h(t)+μsgn{[Kd(t)−z(t)]}sgn{ x(t)},where sgn{ } is the sign function. The sign-sign-LMS algorithm, although widely used due to its simplicity of implementation, has been found to have some undesirable properties when used in adaptive high-speed equalizers with relatively low to moderate length words (e.g., four to six bits) for the filter weights. Because the probability of filter weight update during adaptation is high, there is a significant amount of residual noise in the filter weights, even after convergence of the algorithm. This residual noise may be reduced by choosing a longer window (smaller μ), but this increases the convergence time, or in other words, the training time interval. Another disadvantage found in many instances is that the converged filter weights are relatively sensitive to the scale factor K, whose optimum value has been found to be difficult to determine.

Adaptive equalization using a conditional update sign-sign least mean square algorithm


Systems and methods for writing data are provided. A lock-free container and methods of writing to the lock-free container are disclosed. The container is associated with a tail pointer that identifies free space in the container. Threads writing to the container access the tail pointer and update an offset in the tail pointer to account for a size of a write to the container. Multiple threads can write to the same container without having to contend for a container lock.

Computing systems rely heavily on the data stored within their storage systems. For a variety of reasons, there is a need to ensure that the data is organized so that reading and writing operations can be more efficient. Some systems deal with this issue by packing data into larger units that are referred to as containers throughout this disclosure. Containers are examples of data structures used to organize and store data, where the data may or may not be related or sequential to one-another. After a container is filled, it is written as a unit to storage. A container has several advantages. For example, a container can reduce internal fragmentation and is more efficient when performing large write operations.
Ideally, segments or data from the same stream of data are packed together in the same container. This can be accomplished by associating each data stream with its own container. A data stream may be assigned to a file being written, assigned to a client system writing to the storage system, or assigned with other techniques. As the number of data streams in the computing system increases, this arrangement can become unmanageable and requires a prohibitive amount of memory because each stream would have a container assigned to it. For 1,000 streams, each with a 1 MB container, 1 GB of RAM would be allocated. In cases where some data streams write slowly into their assigned containers, unused space in containers is assigned, but effectively wasted.
Instead of allocating a container for each data stream, containers can be shared. Thus, segments from multiple streams are packed together in the same container. Sharing a container among multiple data streams avoids a situation of having an in-memory (e.g., in RAM) container per stream and avoids a problem of wasted space associated with streams that write slowly or infrequently to their own containers.
However, sharing a container between streams leads to additional concerns. For instance, some storage applications, such as data caching on solid-state drives (SSDs), can have a very high data stream count and a very high write churn. If each data stream is a thread of execution, there can be high contention to simultaneously pack data into the same container. In other words, several data streams may want to write into the same container at the same time. This can be handled by either queuing the requests so that a single packer thread writes to the container or by acquiring a container lock such that only one data stream has access to the container at a time.
The problem with queuing requests is that it involves extra copying of the data between memory locations and has a corresponding performance cost. The problem with acquiring a container write-lock is that it leads to execution threads waiting because of lock contention. Systems and methods are needed to improve write throughput for packing data in a storage system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to bearing assemblies, related bearing apparatuses, and related methods. An example of a bearing assembly disclosed herein may include a support structure having a first end and a second end. The bearing assembly also includes a superhard bearing element secured to the first end of the support structure. The superhard bearing element includes a superhard sealing surface that may be configured to contact a sealing surface of an opposing bearing element, a base surface contacting the support structure and opposing the superhard sealing surface, and at least one lateral surface extending between the superhard sealing surface and the base surface. The support structure and the superhard bearing element may both include at least one conduit extending therethrough through which a fluid may flow.

Wear-resistant, superhard compacts are utilized in a variety of mechanical applications. For example, polycrystalline diamond compacts ("PDCs") are used in drilling tools (e.g., cutting elements, gage trimmers, etc.), machining equipment, bearing apparatuses, wire-drawing machinery, and in other mechanical apparatuses.
PDCs and other superhard compacts have found particular utility as superhard bearing elements in thrust bearings within pumps, turbines, subterranean drilling systems, motors, compressors, generators, gearboxes, and other systems and apparatuses. For example, a PDC bearing element typically includes a superhard diamond layer that is commonly referred to as a diamond table. The diamond table is formed and bonded to a substrate using a high-pressure/high-temperature ("HPHT") process.
Despite the availability of a number of different bearing apparatuses including such PDCs and/or other superhard materials, manufacturers and users of bearing apparatuses continue to seek bearing apparatuses that exhibit improved performance characteristics, lower cost, or both.

Bearing assemblies, related bearing apparatuses and related methods


A cascaded configuration of regulator circuits can be co-integrated within a commonly-shared integrated circuit package (such as an integrated electronic module). Such co-integration can include placing a switched-mode regulator circuit in close proximity to a linear regulator circuit. Magnetic field coupling between the regulator circuits is generally a non-linear function of a separation between the circuits. The switched-mode regulator circuit can generate noise that may adversely impact the linear regulator output. Magnetic coupling between the regulator circuits within the module package can be suppressed or eliminated using a magnetic barrier. The barrier can be magnetically permeable and electrically non-conductive.

Various regulator circuit topologies can be used to receive an input signal, such as an unregulated voltage or current, and to regulate such a signal such as to provide power to one or more downstream devices. Such regulation can include providing one or more of a controlled output voltage or current, for example. A regulator circuit can include an integrated circuit device, such as a monolithic integrated circuit die. Generally, a monolithic integrated circuit die can include one or more of active devices such as transistors, or passive devices such as resistors, inductors, or capacitors, and interconnections. Such a monolithic integrated circuit die can be fabricated upon or can otherwise include a semiconductor substrate. Limitations can exist with respect to a magnitude of passive component values that can be implemented using monolithic integrated circuits. Accordingly, in certain applications, a monolithic integrated circuit die can be coupled to one or more components located "off-chip," but such components may still be included within an integrated electronic module package.
In one approach, a regulator circuit can operate using a switched-mode regulation scheme where energy is selectively provided to a storage element, such as an inductor, during a first duration, then dumped from the inductor into an output load, during a second duration. In one illustrative application, a monolithic integrated circuit can include a switched-mode power supply controller circuit such as including one or more of analog or digital circuitry forming a portion of a regulated power supply. A combination of the integrated circuit die and other off-chip components can provide a regulated power supply circuit. Components separate from the integrated circuit can include an energy storage element (e.g., the inductor), and other circuitry such as one or more large bypass capacitors or power switching devices (e.g., power transistors).

Analog Devices International Unlimited Company


A semiconductor package includes a semiconductor die with a plurality of solder bumps formed on bump pads. A substrate has a plurality of contact pads each with an exposed sidewall. A solder resist is disposed opening over at least a portion of each contact pad. The solder bumps are reflowed to metallurgically and electrically connect to the contact pads. Each contact pad is sized according to a design rule defined by SRO+2*SRR−2X, where SRO is the solder resist opening, SRR is a solder registration for the manufacturing process, and X is a function of a thickness of the exposed sidewall of the contact pad. The value of X ranges from 5 to 20 microns. The solder bump wets the exposed sidewall of the contact pad and substantially fills an area adjacent to the exposed sidewall. The contact pad can be made circular, rectangular, or donut-shaped.

Semiconductor devices are found in many products in the fields of entertainment, communications, networks, computers, and household markets. Semiconductor devices are also found in military, aviation, automotive, industrial controllers, and office equipment. The semiconductor devices perform a variety of electrical functions necessary for each of these applications.
The manufacture of semiconductor devices involves formation of a wafer having a plurality of die. Each semiconductor die contains hundreds or thousands of transistors and other active and passive devices performing a variety of electrical functions. For a given wafer, each die from the wafer typically performs the same electrical function. Front-end manufacturing generally refers to formation of the semiconductor devices on the wafer. The finished wafer has an active side containing the transistors and other active and passive components. Back-end manufacturing refers to cutting or singulating the finished wafer into the individual die and then packaging the die for structural support and environmental isolation.
One goal of semiconductor manufacturing is to produce a package suitable for faster, reliable, smaller, and higher-density integrated circuits (IC) at lower cost. Flip chip packages or wafer level packages (WLP) are ideally suited for ICs demanding high speed, high density, and greater pin count. Flip chip style packaging involves mounting the active side of the die facedown toward a chip carrier substrate or printed circuit board (PCB). The electrical and mechanical interconnect between the active devices on the die and conduction tracks on the carrier substrate is achieved through a solder bump structure comprising a large number of conductive solder bumps or balls. The solder bumps are formed by a reflow process applied to solder material deposited on metal contact pads which are disposed on the semiconductor substrate. The solder bumps are then soldered to the carrier substrate. The flip chip semiconductor package provides a short electrical conduction path from the active devices on the die to the carrier substrate in order to reduce signal propagation, lower capacitance, and achieve overall better circuit performance.
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of flip chip 10 with a solder bump 12 formed on metal contact pad 14. The solder bump 12 is then metallurgically and electrically connected to metal contact pad 15 on substrate 16 using a solder reflow process. To connect solder bump 12 and contact pad 15, a solder resist or mask opening 18 is disposed over a surface of the substrate to confine the solder reflow to the physical boundaries of contact pad 15, see FIG. 2a. Due to manufacturing alignment tolerances as to the relative position between contact pad 15 and solder resist opening 18, contact pad 15 is made substantially larger than solder resist opening 18 to ensure that the full metal area of the contact pad is exposed, given the alignment tolerance of the solder resist opening. In generally, the minimum size of contact pad 15 is Pmin=SRO+2*SRR, where SRO is the minimum solder resist opening required to ensure good metallurgical connection and SRR is the solder resist alignment tolerance, also known as solder registration. In one example, if solder resist opening 18 is 90 microns and the solder resist alignment tolerance is 25 microns, then, according to the known design rule, contact pad 15 is made 140 microns in diameter. Thus, under the known design rule, and given the maximum manufacturing alignment tolerance, the solder resist opening always falls within the contact pad and leaves no voids or empty space around the pad, as shown in FIG. 2b.
Unfortunately, the larger contact pad required to ensure that the solder resist opening always falls within the full metal area of the contact pad limits the metal signal trace or track routing density that can be achieved on the substrate. The larger contact pad necessarily reduces trace routing density as fewer traces can be placed between the contact pads. In addition, the larger contact pad translates to fewer contacts pads per unit area of the substrate.

Filp chip interconnection structure with bump on partial pad and method thereof


A device for removing from a container a fluid contained therein comprises a needle-shaped member with a distal end that is suitable for piercing a septum that seals the container. The needle-shaped member is in connection with a discharge member for discharging the fluid removed from the container. At a proximal portion of the needle-shaped member, which portion is designed to be inserted into the container, at least one opening that is in open connection with the discharge member is provided.

The present invention is directed towards a device for removing from a container a fluid contained therein, said container being sealed by a septum, said device comprising a needle-shaped member with a distal end that is suitable for piercing the septum and a discharge member that is in connection with the needle-shaped member for discharging the fluid removed from the container.
Containers, e.g. in the shape of a bottle, comprising a septum, are used on a large scale for retaining fluid samples which originate e.g. from a chemical processing plant or from a human being or an animal. Receiving the fluid in the container and, if applicable, removing it again elsewhere for the sake of e.g. a chemical analysis of the sample, can be safely conducted by piercing the septum with a syringe, so that it is not necessary to remove a cap or lid first. In other words, the contents of the sample bottle remain sealed from the environment at all times. This safety issue is an important requirement, particularly if the fluid is aggressive and/or health-hazardous, or if a sterile environment has to be maintained, e.g. in hospitals.
When a syringe is used to remove fluid from the container, however, some fluid will always be left inside the container, and this fluid cannot be removed from the container as long as safety precautions are observed. This remaining fluid, or if not the entire sample was required for analysis, the rest of the fluid, is usually destroyed, e.g. by destroying the container with contents, which method puts an undesirable strain on the environment and is also a waste of material.

Device for removing a fluid from a container


A throwable toy is thrown like a Frisbee disc or a flight ring is thrown, spinning through air on an initially directed course. It is easily gripped when thrown and when caught by persons of all ages. Many extended fibers are held together in a ring arrangement, as each extended fiber has one end held with other ends in a set of twisted wires arranged and joined together in a ring. After assembly of this throwable toy, the twisted wire ring is essentially not visible, yet it is comfortably felt by the person throwing or catching this throwable toy.

Throwable toys, which are circular in overall shape, when viewed in flight in reference to a horizontal plane or a near horizontal plane, have been used for many years. The Frisbee throwable toy has been and still is enjoyably used by many persons of various ages. However, younger children with small hands often have a difficult time when trying to throw and to catch Frisbee toys or similar solid crowned disc throwable toys.
There have been and still are flight rings which younger children are able to throw with greater ease. Also they are often caught by a child who passes his or her hand through the center of these flight rings. Generally, these flight rings are lighter and their travel distance is less than the travel distance of a Frisbee toy, when both are thrown with a like or near like throwing force.

Throwable toy having a ring arrangement of many extended fibers having one end of each fiber held with other fiber ends in a set of twisted wires arranged and joined together in a ring


A programmable volume dispensing apparatus having a positive displacement metering pump for dispensing varying amounts of high viscosity fluids such as soldering paste. The metering pump comprises a positive displacement metering pump and a digitally driven drive motor under programmable control. The drive motor is connected to the volume adjustment of the pump via a chain and sprocket mechanism. The chain and sprocket mechanism adjusts a stop which controls the stroke of the pump and the volume of fluid dispensed. In an alternate embodiment a flexible rotary drive shaft controls the stroke of the pump and the volume of fluid dispensed. Different volumes of solder can be dispensed to different areas and shapes of pads on a circuit board in accordance with preprogrammed dispensing commands.

The invention relates to fluid dispensing apparatus and more particularly to a programmable volume dispensing apparatus.
Piston pumping or positive displacement dispensing provides an ideal method for dispensing certain heavy (high solids, high viscosity) fluids. Precise and repeatable volumes can be dispensed by setting the distance a pump piston travels. A solder paste dispenser for discretely controlled deposition of very small quantities of a viscous fluid at each of a succession of locations on surface mounted device boards is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,103 issued Feb. 25, 1986 to Harold J. Engel. However, if different volumes of dispensing fluids are desired for a series of dispensed fluid shot, the dispensing apparatus must be stopped and manually adjusted to an appropriate setting for the shot volume desired. A trial and error sequence is used to obtain a specific shot volume which involves using precision optical equipment and/or weight measurement of each dispensed shot using specialized instruments. Where many different shot volumes of soldering paste are required for soldering varying sizes of surface mounted devices on a printed wiring board, such a trial and error process must be repeated many times which is not practical for a reliable, cost effective, production line operation.
The manner in which the invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a novel dispensing apparatus for varying the volume of fluid dispensed under programmable control will be understood as this specification proceeds.

Programmable volume dispensing apparatus


A projection lens system including seven lens elements for use in a projection television which comprises, in order from the screen side, a first lens unit composed of a positive lens element, a second lens unit composed of an aspherical lens element made of plastic in a meniscus form having at least one aspherical surface, a third lens unit composed of a concave lens element, a fourth lens unit composed of a positive cemented lens having a convex surface on both sides, a fifth lens unit composed of a positive lens element made of plastic in meniscus form having at least one aspherical surface, and a sixth lens unit composed of a negative lens element which has a concave surface directed toward the screen, the sixth lens unit being made of a plastic lens in meniscus form having at least one aspherical surface.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to projection television and, more particularly, to a projection lens system useful in a projection television.
2. Description of Related Art
A projection television is a device by which images from red, green, and blue projection CRTs are projected through three associated projection lens systems onto a screen to form an enlarged color picture. In order to reduce the thickness or size of a projection television, the projection lens systems employed are required to have a large viewing angle and aperture ratio, as well as good imaging performance.
Many types of projection lens systems have been proposed for satisfying these requirements, and typical examples include: a projection lens system that is solely composed of glass lenses that can be machined with high precision to retain good quality; a system that is solely composed of plastic lenses with a view to reducing the manufacturing cost while attaining a large aperture ratio; and a hybrid system composed of glass lenses and aspherical plastic lenses.
The conventional projection lens systems have their own problems. A problem with the system that is solely composed of glass lenses is that its size and cost will be increased and its marginal performance be greatly impaired if an attempt is made to improve its imaging performance while maintaining a large aperture ratio. The system that is solely composed of plastic lenses having an aspherical surface is suitable for the purpose of attaining a large aperture ratio but the precision of machining that can be attained with plastic lenses is not as high as the value achievable with glass lenses s that this system is not capable of operating with its design performance being fully exhibited. A further problem with plastic lenses is that they experience changes in refractive index and shape in the face of temperature variations and that the resulting change in the focal position will impair their imaging performance.
It is generally held that the lenses through which images from red, green, and blue projection tubes are projected onto a screen in a projection television need not be achromatic. In practice, however, a blue projection tube produces a broad emission spectrum whereas spurious emission spectra are observed in green and red projection tubes. Therefore, non-achromatic projection lenses have a disadvantage in that the imaging performance for the three primary colors is reduced to produce a lower contrast.

Projection lens systems for use in projection television


A device for preparing a liquid sample for a direct injection of a corresponding gaseous sample to a micro-gas chromatograph includes: a fluid space and a gas space, which spaces are separated by a semipermeable separating layer, the fluid space including a supply line for the liquid sample, and the gas space having an outlet connectable with the gas chromatograph. The fluid space and/or the gas space is associated with at least one heating element. The device absorbs a sample volume of approximately 10 μl to 30 μl. The separating layer has a thickness of 10 μl to 300 μl and pores having a size between 0.05 μl and 5 μl.

Normally, liquid samples that are being examined for solvent residues or other organic components are analysed in a gas chromatograph. The liquid sample is directly injected into an injector, where it quickly evaporates. The sample, or parts thereof, are then supplied to a separating column for gas-chromatographic separation. The various components of the sample are separated as they flow through, and subsequently passed to a detector, where they are converted into electrical signals that can be analysed. Frequently, however, the sample will contain components that cannot be directly injected because they may damage the injector, the separating column, or the detector or cause them to malfunction. In this case, a larger amount of sample is extracted and evaporated in a separate vessel, also known as a headspace evaporator. This is a glass that is sealed and heated so that the components of the sample being analysed, or 'analyte(s)', leave the liquid and can be enriched in the gaseous phase. This generally occurs in the range of, or above, the boiling point of the analyte. If equilibrium has been reached in the gaseous phase, a sample is extracted from it and injected into the gas chromatograph. The interfering components of the sample generally remain in the liquid (or 'carrier liquid'). To prepare a sample in a headspace evaporator, typically, a sample volume of 1-10 ml is required, whilst a sample volume of approximately 1-10 μl is sufficient for direct injection into the gas chromatograph.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,838 concerns a method and device for continuous fluid extraction and analysis by means of a membrane. To this end, two fluid chambers are separated by a semipermeable structure. The fluid with the substance to be extracted flows through the one chamber, whilst the extracting fluid flows through the other. The substance may be a gas to be supplied to a gas chromatograph. Preferred membranes are hydrophobic, and consist of silicone or polypropylene. The chambers may be formed as adjacent cuboids or as concentric cylinders.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,098 describes ways of producing anisotropic membranes from polymers coated with a particularly thin silicone film. Various organic solvents and gases can be separated with these composite membranes. For example, they may be used in devices having a first fluid chamber in order to separate it from a second, smaller fluid chamber. A fluid mixture is passed by the composite membrane, which is supported by a sintered, porous metal plate. In the process, one of the fluids from the mixture can penetrate the membrane and thus be separated.
DE 26 04 003 A1 discloses a device for separating gases from liquids. The device comprises a reservoir tube consisting of an elongated cylindrical sleeve with a feed and a drain. The inner wall of the tube is provided with a coil that may be formed as a single thread. A separation tube with sieve-like openings is arranged within the reservoir tube. A hydrophobic film through which the gas present in the liquid can pass and be suctioned off is wrapped over these openings.
GB 2 392 114 A discloses a device according to the preamble of claim 1.

Device for preparing a liquid sample for a gas chromatograph


An on the fly method of laser shock peening a gas turbine engine part by continuously moving a metallic gas turbine engine part while continuously firing a stationary laser beam, which repeatably pulses between relatively constant periods, on a portion of the part with sufficient power to vaporize material on the surface of the portion of the part with the pulses around laser beam spots formed by the laser beam on the surface and form a region having deep compressive residual stresses extending into the part from the laser shock peened surface. Flowing a curtain of water over the surface upon which the laser beam is firing while moving the part until the laser shock peened surface is completely covered by laser beam spots at least once. The surface may covered by a paint which is then the material used to produce the plasma or the surface may be unpainted and the metal of the part is used to produce the plasma. The part such a fan or compressor blade may be moved linearly to produce at least one row of overlapping circular laser beam spots having generally equally spaced apart linearly aligned center points.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to laser shock peening of gas turbine engine parts and, more particularly, for airfoil leading and trailing edges such as on fan and compressor blades having localized compressive residual stresses imparted by laser shock peening.
2. Description of Related Art
Gas turbine engines and, in particular, aircraft gas turbine engines rotors operate at high rotational speeds that produce high tensile and vibratory stress fields within the blade and make the fan blades susceptible to foreign object damage (FOD). Vibrations may also be caused by vane wakes and inlet pressure distortions as well as other aerodynamic phenomena. This FOD causes nicks and tears and hence stress concentrations in leading and trailing edges of fan blade airfoils. These nicks and tears become the source of high stress concentrations or stress risers and severely limit the life of these blades due to High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) from vibratory stresses. FOD damage may also result in a loss of engine due to a release of a failed blade. It is also expensive to refurbish and/or replace fan blades and, therefore, any means to enhance the rotor capability and, in particular, to extend aircraft engine fan blade life is very desirable. The present solution to the problem of extending the life of fan blades is to design adequate margins by reducing stress levels to account for stress concentration margins on the airfoil edges. This is typically done by increasing thicknesses locally along the airfoil leading edge which adds unwanted weight to the fan blade and adversely affects its aerodynamic performance. Another method is to manage the dynamics of the blade by using blade dampers. Dampers are expensive and may not protect blades from very severe FOD. These designs are expensive and obviously reduce customer satisfaction.
Therefore, it is highly desirable to design and construct longer lasting fan and compressor blades, as well as other gas turbine engine parts, that are better able to resist both low and high cycle fatigue than present day parts. The above referenced U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 08/319,346, entitled "LASER SHOCK PEENED ROTOR COMPONENTS FOR TURBOMACHINERY", and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/373,133, entitled "LASER SHOCK PEENED GAS TURBINE ENGINE FAN BLADE EDGES", are directed towards this end. The latter, more particularly, provides an airfoil of a fan blade with regions of deep compressive residual stresses imparted by laser shock peening at least a radially extending portion of leading and/or trailing edge surfaces of the fan blade.
The region of deep compressive residual stresses imparted by laser shock peening of the present invention is not to be confused with a surface layer zone of a work piece that contains locally bounded compressive residual stresses that are induced by a hardening operation using a laser beam to locally heat and thereby harden the work piece such as that which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,838, entitled "Method and apparatus for truing or straightening out of true work pieces". The present invention uses multiple radiation pulses from high power pulsed lasers to produce shock waves on the surface of a work piece similar to methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,698, entitled "Altering Material Properties"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,477, entitled "Laser shock processing"; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,957, entitled "Material Properties". Laser peening as understood in the art and as used herein, means utilizing a laser beam from a laser beam source to produce a strong localized compressive force on a portion of a surface. Laser peening has been utilized to create a compressively stressed protection layer at the outer surface of a workpiece which is known to considerably increase the resistance of the workpiece to fatigue failure as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,421, entitled "Laser Peening System and Method". One issue is manufacturing costs of the laser shock peening process which can be prohibitively expensive. The "on the fly" laser shock peening process of the present invention is designed to provide cost saving methods for laser shock peening.


A method of determining the thickness of an internal wall in a gas turbine engine component includes the steps of utilizing flash thermography to measure a complete thickness of a component between an outer wall and at least one enlarged cooling channel at a location where an outer cooling channel is positioned between the outer wall and the at least one enlarged cooling channel and where at least one member spans the cooling channel, such that the thickness is through the member which spans the outer cooling channel. An outer thickness of the component is measured from the outer wall to an outer wall of the outer cooling channel. A thickness is determined from an inner wall of the outer cooling channel to the at least one enlarged cooling channel by subtracting the measured outer thickness from the complete thickness, and also subtracting a known thickness of the outer cooling channel.

This application relates to a method of determining a thickness of an inner wall in a gas turbine engine component.
Gas turbine engines are known and, typically, include a fan delivering air into a compressor section where it is compressed and delivered downstream into a combustor section. The air is mixed with fuel and ignited in the combustor section and products of this combustion pass downstream over turbine rotors driving them to rotate. The turbine rotors typically carry blades. Rows of static vanes are placed intermediate rows of the blades. The blades and the vanes become quite hot due to the hot products of combustion.
Thus, it is known to provide cooling channels within the gas turbine engine components. The blades and the vanes typically include an airfoil receiving the cooling channels. Historically, there were relatively large central cooling channels. A wall thickness between an outer wall of the airfoil and the channel must be carefully maintained and designed.
It was known in the art to provide various inspection means for measuring a thickness between the outer wall and the cooling channels in manufactured airfoils to ensure that it meets the design specifications. One method of measuring the wall thickness was flash thermography.
Flash thermography is a known method of measuring thickness or looking for flaws within a body. Essentially, a flash of light energy is directed off a component to be inspected. This dramatically and quickly raises the temperature of the component. An infrared camera repeatedly captures images of the surface and can determine changes in the heat at the surface. Modern flash thermography systems are able to evaluate those changes on a pixel by pixel basis and, thus, can provide temperature change information over very precise areas on the surface of the component.
Those changes can be translated to a thickness in the component based upon the material of the component and utilizing algorithms well known in the art.
More recently, gas turbine engine components having airfoils have been provided with so-called cooling channels. The cooling circuits are precisely made to an exact width and have sometimes been placed between an outer wall and the relatively larger central cooling channels.
Flash thermography is not able to provide accurate measurements of the distance from an inner wall of the microcircuit to the enlarged central cooling channel.

Flash thermography double wall thickness measurement


A rod connection for fixing a rod part in a surgical device within a bore of a rod receiving member includes the rod receiving member having a bore having an inner diameter, the rod part having an outer diameter, the rod part being introduced into the bore, wherein the inner diameter of the bore and the outer diameter of the rod part are selected, such that the rod part is press-fitted into the bore of the rod receiving member. The bore has an inner wall surface opposing an outer wall surface of the rod part, the inner wall surface or the outer wall surface being provided with at least one recess in order to reduce a contact surface area between the rod part and the rod receiving member.

The invention relates to a rod connection provided in a surgical device.
Surgical devices may be composed of several components, which are adjoined with each other depending on the application either upon assembly of the respective device by the manufacturer or at the instance of surgery. Thus a connection between those components has to be provided, which for example secures a predetermined degree of reliability of the device in view of strain, bending and torsion stress, when this connection represents a rigid or fixed interface between the components.
In clinical surgery, the materials selected for the distinct components of the surgical device may be, among others, bio-compatible metals such as Titanium or Nitinol, a Nickel-Titanium alloy, or synthetic materials such as PEEK (polyetheretherketone) optionally being carbon fibre reinforced. The type of connection between the components commonly also depends on the materials involved.
For example in the case of two components made from metal, a connection may be established by providing a bore in one component (rod receiving member), into which is press-fitted a rod-like member of the other component, which has an interference with regard to the bore. In other words, in a disassembled state, the rod-like member (rod part) has an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the bore.
The corresponding amount of interference is chosen depending on the materials involved, and more specifically depending on the respective friction coefficients. The interference is further chosen such that in case of both a maximum value and a minimum value of a tolerance range with respect to the corresponding diameters a reliable connection is maintained.
In various applications in clinical surgery there is a continuing demand to provide components having a reduced size while maintaining its reliability with respect to external force transfer, which also act on the connections established in the devices.
With regard to the above mentioned press-fit connections, it may be observed that with decreasing diameters of the bore and the rod, a minimum bilateral tolerance of 5 μm increases its influence on the connection design. Consequently, with decreasing sizes of the diameters, the relative amount of interference increases.
As a result, there is a tendency to provide rod connections in clinical surgery, which may require considerable axial forces to assemble the components.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need to provide a reliable rod connection which allows a rod to be inserted into a bore with a moderate axial force.

Rod connection in a surgical device and rod-shaped bone stabilization device comprising the same