In a method for providing concurrent access to virtual memory data structures, a lock bit for locking a virtual page data structure is provided in a page table entry of a page table. The page table is configured to map virtual pages to physical pages. Then, a first thread specifying an operation on the virtual page data structure is received. The first thread is provided exclusive access to the virtual page data structure by setting the lock bit in the page table entry such that other threads are prevented from accessing the virtual page data structure. A wait bit also may be provided in the page table entry to indicate that one or more of the other threads are in a wait queue when the first thread has exclusive access to the data structure. When the first thread no longer needs exclusive access to the data structure, a second thread is selected from among the other threads and is provided with exclusive access to the data structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to memory management in computer systems and, more particularly, to methods for managing concurrent access to virtual memory data if structures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern computer systems employ operating systems to manage the computer systems"" resources and provide a foundation for application programs running on the computer systems. Some of the popular operating systems include DOS, Microsoft Windows(copyright), Microsoft Windows NT(copyright), Microsoft Windows 98(trademark), UNIX, and LINUX(trademark). The operating system provides a base for writing and running application programs thereby freeing programmers from the details of computer system hardware. In addition, the operating system manages processes, memory, file systems, I/O systems, and the like.
In an operating system, a process refers to a running program with input, output, and a state. For example, a process includes the current values of the program counter, the registers, and the variables of an executing program. Each process has a thread, which is associated with an address space. The thread is sometimes referred to as a lightweight process. Processes and threads are well known in the art and are described, for example, in Modern Operating Systems, Andrew S. Tannenbaum, (1992). Hence, running a process generally requires executing a thread by accessing the address space.
The operation of accessing an address space typically involves managing a memory system in the operating system. In particular, the operating system implements a virtual memory system to map a virtual address associated with a thread from a large virtual address space to a physical address of a physical memory, which is typically a RAM. A computer system is not limited to a single virtual address space. Indeed, it may implement as many virtual address spaces as its operating system is capable of supporting. For example, modern operating systems often support multiple processors and multiple threads of execution, thereby allowing the sharing of the system resources and further providing multiple concurrent processes and threads that execute simultaneously.
FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary conventional memory mapping method for mapping one or more virtual address spaces to a physical memory. A plurality of virtual address spaces 102 (VAS0), 104 (VAS1), and 106 (VASN) are provided. Each of the virtual address spaces 102, 104, and 106 is provided with a page table for mapping. Specifically, the virtual address spaces 102, 104, and 106 are associated with page tables 110, 112, and 114, respectively. Each of the virtual address spaces has a plurality of virtual pages 116. A physical memory 108 also includes a plurality of physical pages 118. The virtual pages 116 and physical pages 118 are typically of same size and typically range from 4 kilobytes (KB) up to 16 KB. Nevertheless, computer systems may employ any suitable page size, which can be selected by the operating system based on supporting hardware.
In this configuration, pages in the virtual address spaces 102, 104, and 106 are mapped to pages in the physical memory 108 via page tables 110, 112, and 114, respectively. For example, a virtual page 120 in the virtual address space 102 is mapped via page table 110 to physical page 126. Likewise, a virtual page 122 in the virtual address space 104 is mapped to physical page 128 through page table 112 while virtual page 124 of the virtual address space 106 is mapped to physical page 130 via page table 114. In those instances where a page is not present in the physical memory, a page fault is generated to load the page from a secondary storage device such as a hard drive, optical drive, tape drive, etc. Page mapping and page faults are well known in the art. It should be noted that page tables may be shared among several virtual address spaces. Indeed, even a portion of a page table may be shared among different address spaces.
A virtual address space, in abstract terms, is typically divided into a plurality of regions in accordance with data types. FIG. 1B shows a more detailed diagram of the exemplary virtual address space 102. The virtual address space 102 is comprised of a plurality of regions 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, and 140. Each of the regions 130 through 140 is a contiguous region and the virtual pages within each region share common attributes. For example, the regions 130, 134, and 138 are empty regions that can be used to accommodate new data (e.g., files) from a secondary storage device or data from other contiguous regions 132, 136, and 140. The code region 132 corresponds to the address space of codes (e.g., text in Unix) such as programs, instructions, and the like. On the other hand, the data region 136 includes a pair of sub-regions 142 and 144 that corresponds to address spaces of data and uninitialized data (e.g., HEAP), respectively. Likewise, the stack region 140 corresponds to the address space of a stack. The operating system maintains attributes such as the start address and the length of each region so that each region can be tracked accurately.
As mentioned above, the virtual pages in each region share common attributes. For example, the code region 132 may have an attribute specifying a file on a hard drive from which instructions can be fetched. The stack region 140, on the other hand, usually grows dynamically and automatically downwards toward lower addresses and has an attribute that identifies it as a stack. Other common attributes include read and write attributes. For instance, the code region 132 is generally given an attribute of read only while data is associated with both read and write attributes. Other attributes also may be applied to any of the regions in a virtual address space.
In modern computer systems, operating systems generally allow multiple threads to execute virtually simultaneously in the virtual address space 102. For example, UNIX and LINUX(trademark) operating systems allow multiple threads to concurrently execute in a single virtual address space. In such instances, the threads may be performing an operation that affects the address space at once. For example, multiple threads on multiple CPUs could simultaneously perform page faults. Multiple threads may also execute a system call (e.g., MMAP in Unix) to map a file from a secondary storage device into the address space. To accommodate the new file, the operating system may create a region in one of the empty regions 130, 134, or 138 of the virtual address space 102.
However, when multiple threads are attempting to access the same region in a virtual address space, a problem of contention arises. For example, if two threads are allowed to operate on the kernel data associated with the same virtual page in a region, the data may not be synchronized or updated properly. To address the contention problem, conventional techniques have used a xe2x80x9clockxe2x80x9d to synchronize access by providing exclusive access to a thread such that other threads are not allowed to change the data accessed by the thread. In this manner, the lock ensures mutual exclusion of multiple threads for updates.
Conventional methods typically have provided a lock for each region in a virtual address space. The virtual memory system portion of the operating system generally maintains the regions of a virtual address space as a data structure, which is kept in a memory. FIG. 1C shows a simplified data structure 150 using locks 162, 164, and 166 to provide exclusive access to regions 152, 154, and 156, respectively. The regions 152, 154, and 156 may correspond to a code region, data region, and stack region, respectively, and may be shared among different address spaces. It is noted that the word region is used herein in its most general form. In fact, it may actually be composed of multiple data structures within the kernel. The data structure 150 also includes an address space 158 that heads the virtual address space and maintains a pointer to the first region 152. In addition, the address space 158 includes a pointer to a page table 160 associated with the data structure 150. The data structure 150 may be provided for each virtual address space where the operating system provides multiple virtual address spaces. The data structures for all the virtual address spaces are stored in kernel memory in the operating system.
The regions 152, 154, and 156 are arranged as a linked list where the region 152 points to regions 154, which in turn points to region 156. However, the data structure 150 may be implemented by using any suitable arrangement such as arrays, trees, and the like. Each of regions 152, 154, and 156 is also a data structure and provides a pointer to locations such as files on a disk, flags for read/write permission, a flag for a stack, etc.
The data structures for the regions 152, 154, and 156 include the locks 162, 164, and 166, respectively. The lock 162 is used to provide a thread with exclusive access to the kernel data structures for the pages in the region 152. For example, the lock 162 is obtained and held to enable the thread to perform an operation that affects the kernel data structures corresponding to the virtual addresses in the region 152. When the thread finishes its operation, the lock 162 is released so that another thread can access the data structures. Similarly, the locks 164 and 166 are used to provide exclusive access to the data structures for the pages the regions 154 and 156, respectively. As is well known in the art, the locks 162, 164, and 166 may be implemented using binary semaphore, monitor, etc.
Unfortunately, the conventional method of providing one lock per region to protect against changes to the region data structures has several drawbacks. For example, providing a single lock in a region creates a contention problem and a bottleneck when multiple threads need to perform page faults or make other changes to the state of the pages in the region. In such situations, the threads are typically placed in a queue and executed one after another, thereby causing the bottleneck. The problem is exacerbated in proportion to the scale of a computer system. As an example, a large-scale computer system with dozens or even hundreds of processors may have hundreds of threads competing for the lock to a region, which can be gigabytes in size.
One solution has divided each region into multiple sub-regions, with each sub-region being assigned a lock. Although this solution somewhat improves the performance, it merely provides finer granularity without substantially correcting the fundamental problem stemming from having one lock per region or sub-region. That is, the contention problem will continue to exist for a sub-region having a plurality of pages unless the granularity of each sub-region is equal to the size of a virtual page.
Making the granularity of the sub-regions equal to the size of virtual page, however, leads to other problems. By way of example, a two-gigabyte region of a virtual address space can be split four contiguous sub-regions of 512 megabytes each. Each sub-region will have its own lock. Although four threads may execute concurrently, they must be accessing different sub-regions. In other words, they may not access the data structures for the same sub-region at the same time. Furthermore, splitting a multi-gigabyte region into small pieces would result in a prohibitive number of regions. For instance, using four sub-regions effectively quadruples space and memory overhead to support the sub-regions. Since each region is represented by a data structure, creating multiple sub-regions in place of a single one increases the operating system kernel""s memory overhead. Hence, this conventional approach increases both the time and space overhead of the kernel.
These problems are further accentuated in multi-processor computer systems having many processors due to the use of a large number of threads. For example, in distributed shared memory (DSM) systems, providing multiple locks for a region still suffers from the space overhead problem and also suffers from a lack of locality. Furthermore, the conventional methods do not scale easily for various region sizes and require substantial memory spaces to accommodate the data structures.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is a method for managing concurrent access to virtual memory data structures without the attendant cost in space. What is also needed is a method that can provide locks that are scalable for multi-processor computer systems.
Broadly speaking, the present invention fills these needs by providing methods for managing concurrent access to the kernel data structures for a virtual page in memory. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
The present invention provides methods for providing concurrent access to a virtual page data structure in a computer system. A lock bit for locking a virtual page data structure is provided in a page table entry of a page table. The page table is configured to map virtual pages to physical pages. Then, a first thread specifying an operation on the virtual page data structure is received. The first thread is provided exclusive access to the virtual page data structure by setting the lock bit in the page table entry such that other threads are prevented from accessing the virtual page data structure.
Preferably, a wait bit also is provided in the page table entry to indicate that one or more of the other threads are in a wait queue when the first thread has exclusive access to the page. When the first thread no longer needs exclusive access to the page, a second thread is selected from among the other threads and is provided with exclusive access to the page. Alternatively, the waiting threads may be placed in a spin loop to wait for the lock bit to become available. In this case, the wait bit need not be used.
By thus providing a lock in each page table entry, the present invention allows the locks to scale on a one-to-one basis with page table entries and therefore with virtual pages as well. Furthermore, the methods of the present invention employ a single lock bit in each of the existing page table entries, thereby substantially reducing space requirements and eliminating the need for additional data structures. The use of a wait bit in the page table entry facilitates efficient locking when more than one thread is waiting to access a data structure associated with the page table entry. Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.

Method for managing concurrent access to virtual memory data structures


A driving-environment setup system has a plurality of portable devices, each of which transmits a feature identification information item used for identifying a physical feature of an associated user of the each of the plurality of portable devices and transmits an environment identification information item used for identifying a driving environment for the associated user. An in-vehicle device of the system detects a physical feature of a person sitting in a driver's seat and identifies one of the associated users as a driver when the physical feature identified based on the received feature identification information item of the one of the associated users corresponds to the detected physical feature. The in-vehicle device sets a driving environment for the driver based on the received environment identification information item.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relate to a driving-environment setup system which sets up a driving environment of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in a vehicle, various setups are possible, such as a seat position, a steering wheel position, angles of various mirrors, an air-conditioning setup, an audio system setup, and a navigation system setup. The driving environment of the vehicle can be changed according to a driver's liking. However, when two or more users share the same vehicle to drive, a driving environment must be set up whenever a driver changes,.
Accordingly, JP-A-2003-237504 proposes a system which recognizes a driver who rides a vehicle and sets the driving environment of the vehicle as a driving environment for the recognized driver. In this system, a scanner for taking an image of the picture of a driver's license is installed in the vehicle, and a user who rides the vehicle operates the scanner to take his or her image of the driver's license. By the above operation, the driving environment of the vehicle is set as the driving environment for the driver recognized through the scanner.
In the above-described construction, a user who rides a vehicle does not need to perform the operation itself to set up the driving environment of the vehicle, but needs to operate a scanner to take an image of a driver's license. Therefore, the user is made conscious of the setting operation of the driving environment. In order to set up a driving environment of a vehicle, without making a user conscious of the setting operation of the driving environment, there may be provided a construction, in which a user is made to carry a portable device that stores information regarding a driving environment for the user, for example, and the vehicle automatically acquires the information from the portable device of the user when the user rides the vehicle.
Such construction will work satisfactorily if there is only one user who rides the vehicle. However, when two or more users, each possessing a portable device, ride the vehicle, it is easy to imagine that the driving environment of the vehicle will be set as a driving environment for an occupant other than the driver (a fellow passenger).

Driving-environment setup system, in-vehicle device and program thereof, portable device and program thereof, management device and program thereof


A light engine that includes light emitting diodes mounted on a printed circuit board, which in turn is attached to a heat sink. An optic assembly is positioned over the printed circuit board to direct the emitted light as desired. The light engine can be positioned. within the ceiling within the opening of a mounting frame. In some embodiments, the light engine is retained on the mounting frame such that it can be moved clear of the mounting frame opening.

Light fixtures for recessed positioning within a ceiling are capable of emitting a single, fixed light distribution. They are not designed to permit adjustment or tailoring of their distribution in the field. Rather, to alter the distribution, the existing fixture must be removed and replaced with. another fixture having the desired distribution. This is a time consuming and costly process.
Moreover, most such fixtures are fixedly secured over the ceiling opening. Servicing the electronic components of the fixture requires full access to the ceiling above the fixture. Therefore, removal and replacement of ceiling components, such as tiles and t-supports, is required to service the electronic components. Exposure to the ceiling environment is less than desirable for a variety of reasons. Environmental concerns, such as asbestos contamination and asbestos removal, become an issue when disturbing the ceiling. Moreover, the area above the ceiling collects dirt and dust which can dislodge during servicing and thereby increase the time and cost of clean-up after installation. Additionally, exposed electrical wiring is common in such areas, which creates a safety hazard for workers during servicing.


In an information distribution/reproduction control apparatus, a plurality of stream servers distribute real-time reproducible stream information to a plurality of clients through a network like the Internet. A transit control server controls the stream servers for the distribution of the stream information, and also controls the clients for real-time reproduction of the stream information.

Along with the popularization of the internet and intranet, there has recently been paid attention to an information distribution system for live broadcasting the status of a lecture or a concert in a similar manner to that of a prior-art television broadcasting. According to this system, stream information that a client can reproduce in real time is generated from image data and voice data based on a streaming technique, and this stream information is distributed to a plurality of clients at the same time through a network. Providers of such an information distribution service are not only carrying out a simple distribution of the stream information but also are groping for a provision of higher value-added services in line with the growing trend of multimedia.
Conventionally, under the environments of internet and intranet, there has so far been diffused an information distribution system for real-time distributing the status of a lecture, a concert or the like as stream information (moving picture data and voice data) to the service receivers. This information distribution system is structured by a video camera and a microphone installed respectively at the place of a lecture or a concert, and a stream server for generating stream information (contents information) that can be reproduced by moving picture data and voice data from the video camera and microphone in real time by using a streaming technique and for distributing this stream information to a plurality of clients through an internet or the like.
Each of the plurality of clients receives the stream information and reproduces this stream information in real time. Recently, this information distribution system has come to attract considerable attention as the system can distribute stream information so long as there are clients connected to the internet or the like.
As explained above, in the prior-art information distribution system, the client can reproduce a plurality of kinds of stream information at the same time. However, there is no external control applied to this reproduction. Therefore, this system has a drawback in that when more than necessary stream information has been reproduced in real time, the contents information that is most necessary is easily missed. In the worst case, there is considered a situation where the volume of stream information received is beyond the processing capacity at the client side so that it is not possible to reproduce any information.
Further, there is no external control applied to the stream server side either. Therefore, the stream server can distribute as much volume of a plurality of stream information as possible. In this case, there is considered a case where the traffic volume of the internet and others exceeds a prescribed value and a congestion occurs so that the channel utilization efficiency is lowered extremely.
Further, the prior-art information distribution system is a broadcasting type system which is specialized in the distribution of stream information that can be reproduced in real time. Therefore, this system makes no difference from the existing television broadcasting system in that the contents information is reproduced in real time.
Thus, when the prior-art information distribution system is compared with the existing television broadcasting system in the aspect of cost, the information distribution system requires a higher connection charge to be paid to the telecommunications service enterprises for the utilization of a network. On the other hand, the television broadcasting system requires a substantially lower cost of connection charge. Accordingly, when only the cost aspect is compared, it can be said that the prior-art information distribution system cannot compete at all with the existing television broadcasting system.
Under the above circumstances, providers of the information distribution service using the information distribution system have not limited their services to a simple distribution of the stream information but have been groping for a provision of higher value-added services. However, at present, the providers have not yet found decisive services that can compete with the services of the existing television broadcasting system.

Information distribution/reproduction control apparatus, information distribution/reproduction control method, and computer-readable recording medium recorded with information distribution/reproduction control program


An apparatus—which could be a chair (10), but could also be an apparatus that supports a person in other than a seated position—comprising a moveable platform (including a seat (12) in case of a chair) urged always toward a neutral position when a person is seated or otherwise positioned on the apparatus (10). The motion of the platform/seat (12) toward and away from the neutral position is constrained so that the platform/seat (12) remains at least approximately horizontal in its orientation relative to the floor on which the apparatus/chair (10) is positioned even when traveling along a path not horizontal to the floor, i.e. e.g. along a path inclined to the floor. A method is also provided in which the apparatus/chair (10) is used to provide lower-back therapy.

Numerous attempts have been made to provide chairs—especially for office use—that are comfortable, and so do not tire out the person sitting in the chair even after sitting for a long time. Especially in an office, where a person may remain seated in a chair for an extended period, there is a marked tendency for the person to slouch in the chair, i.e. to slump down so that the person slides forward on the seat and so at least the lower back of the person moves to a more reclined position. It is well known that a slouched or slumped sitting position can cause or aggravate injury to a person's back.
What generally happens is simply that as a person tires, the person slides forward in the seat of the chair into a slouched position, and, already tired, tends not to expend the energy required to again assume a correct, non-slouching posture. Also a non-tired person can voluntarily assume the slouched position and find it difficult to correct this posture.
While the prior art teaches chairs in which the seat can be tilted to make slouching more difficult, the back of the chair generally tilts also, in synchrony with the seat, and the person ends up in a partially reclined position, which is generally considered not conducive to work. Chairs in which the back does not tilt, but the seat does are especially potentially harmful.
What is needed is a chair that addresses the tendency of a person to slide forward in a chair, but does so in a way that does not rely on a tilting of the seat or the back of the chair.


The top (2) of a sheet metal container (1) for the transportation and storage of liquids has a central fill opening (3) which is edged by a neck (5) which is perpendicular to the top surface (4) of the container. A plastic or metal ring (6) with an external thread (7) is pressed down against the top surface (4) by the upper edge (8) of the neck (5). The neck is swaged outwardly. The threaded ring (6) is protected against rotation by form-fit connections on the neck (5). A plastic screw cap (11) into which a disc-shaped insert (12) of special steel is pressed, is screwed onto the threaded ring (6). Between the outside edge (13) of the cap insert (12) and a ring projection (14) of the latter, an annular groove (15) for holding a gasket (16) is molded into the insert, and by this gasket (16) the screw cap (11) is sealed against the upper edge (8) of the neck (5).

In sheet metal containers of varied designs for liquids which are available on the market the necessary openings are punched out of the top or bottom and onto the edge of the opening a threaded neck is welded which consists for example of a sheet metal pipe section with pressed-in thread and an attachment flange or a metal pipe section with a cut thread and an attachment flange which is welded on the pipe section or which is cast in one piece with it.
Production of these known sheet metal containers is comparatively expensive due to the required leak-proof welding of the threaded neck onto the edges of the opening.
The problem of the invention is to make production of sheet metal containers cheaper by structural improvement of the threaded neck on the container openings.

Sealing cap with metal insert for sheet metal containers for corrosive liquids


A control device for a display device including a plurality of scanning lines, a plurality of data lines traversing the plurality of scanning lines, and a plurality of pixels disposed at positions corresponding to intersections between the plurality of scanning lines and the plurality of data lines, the control device displaying a first character inputted in a predetermined region of the display device; and thereafter, displaying a second character different from the inputted character, superposed on the first character displayed in the predetermined region.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to control devices for a display device, display devices, control methods for the display device, and electronic apparatuses.
2. Related Art
A display device using the memory-property of display elements such as electrophoretic elements, electronic powder-particle elements, and cholestric liquid crystal elements has been known. A displayed image can be retained by means of the memory-property even when the power supply is stopped. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that afterimages would likely be generated in displayed images. In particular, a display device that would readily generate afterimages entails a problem in that its information protection function is deteriorated. An image that has been displayed in the past would be visually recognized due to its afterimage, such that information that should be protected may be visually recognized by a third party. For this reason, a technology has been proposed to reduce readability of an image that has been displayed in the past, even when an afterimage occurs, through overwriting a nonsensical readability inhibition image on the image that has been displayed (see, for example, JP-A-2010-210898).
However, according to the configuration in which characters including numbers, such as, a password, are displayed for identification, and then the characters are overwritten with a readability inhibition image, types of the readability inhibition images are limited, which causes problems in that the readability cannot be sufficiently reduced, and it becomes necessary to prepare a plurality of readability inhibition images separately in advance.

Control device, display device, driving method for display device and electronic apparatus


A buffer memory controller comprises a first memory configured to buffer write operation data between a write head and a second memory that stores write operation data corresponding to first and second write operations. A first memory location identifies a location of write operation data that corresponds to the first write operation stored within the second memory. A second memory location identifies a location of write operation data that corresponds to the second write operation stored within the second memory. Controller logic determines whether the first write operation and the second write operation write data to the same track. The controller logic transfers the data of the first write operation and the second write operation in an order other than the order in which the second memory received the first and second write operations when the first write operation and the second write operation write data to the same track.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to hard disk controllers and, more particularly, the invention relates to a disk controller and associated methods that enable multiple write operations to be executed out of order during a single revolution of a disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
The speed at which a hard disk drive executes read and write operations requested by a host computer is critical to the performance of the computer. Any delay caused by the hard disk drive will likely cause a corresponding delay in the execution of a program by the computer. Some of the developments in hard drive technology have focused on decreasing the response time or increasing the data transfer rate for individual disk operations. Other developments in hard drive technology have focused on decreasing the amount of time that it takes to execute multiple operations. Two of the latter type of developments are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,667,286 and 6,029,226.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,286, titled "Method and apparatus for transferring data between a disk and a central processing unit," presents an architecture with toggling data buffers. The architecture allows multiple operations to be performed during a single revolution of the disk. Data is transferred between the central processing unit and a first data buffer while data is transferred between a second data buffer and the disk. The operation of the buffers can be toggled such that data is transferred between the central processing unit and the second data buffer while data is transferred between the first data buffer and the disk.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,226, titled "Method and apparatus having automated write data transfer with optional skip by processing two write commands as a single write command," presents a method for combining write commands. The proximity of the first logical block address (LBA) of a second write command is compared to the ending LBA of a first write command. If the second write command is sufficiently close, the disk controller executes the two write commands as a single write command, skipping over the sectors between the two commands during the combined write. Two writes, therefore, can be performed in one revolution of the hard disk.
In certain instances, it would also be advantageous to execute write operations in an order other than the order in which the operations are received by the disk controller. Executing write operations out of order may allow the writes to be executed during a single rather than multiple revolutions of the disk. The total time taken to execute the operations is therefore reduced. The present invention seeks to provide this advantage, among others.

Disk controller configured to perform out of order execution of write operations


A fire suppression device includes a container body having a discharge orifice. A cooling assembly is coupled along an inner wall of the container body and includes a cooling housing body and an agent cup seat. An agent assembly coupled along the inner wall includes an agent cup with a fire suppression agent generator therein. An agent cup fitting is near an end of the agent cup and is coupled with the agent cup seat. Spacing members extend between the inner wall and at least one of the cooling housing body and the agent cup. The plurality of spacing members space the cooling housing body and the agent cup from the inner wall. An insulation layer is coupled between the inner wall and the plurality of spacing members, and a portion of the insulation layer is clamped between the spacing members and the inner wall.

Self contained fire extinguishing assemblies are used to extinguish fires in enclosed volumes. In some examples, the assemblies are mounted within the enclosed volumes (rooms, warehouses and the like). In other examples, the assemblies are mounted in locations that experience sometimes violent movement, vibration and the like including, for instance, engine compartments, equipment cabinets and the like.
Dynamic forces caused by violent movement and vibration (e.g., from crashes, vehicle or equipment operation and the like) are applied to the fire extinguishing assemblies and may damage components therein. Damage to fire extinguishing assemblies causes the assemblies to fail or not perform adequately when needed in the desired environment (e.g., during a fire in an engine compartment).
In other examples, dynamic forces as described above alter the arrangement of components of the fire extinguishing assemblies as manufactured and accordingly may negatively affect the performance of the assemblies.

Fire suppression apparatus and method for using the same in an enclosed compartment


Methods and systems for monitoring one or more products by grouping the products into lots are described. Methods and systems of the present invention provide significant benefits over adding an RFID tag to represent and monitor a group of products. For example, the present invention simplifies data management by monitoring information associated with lots, rather than each individual product. In addition, information pertaining to all products included in a lot may be obtained by although only a small portion of products in the lot can be identified.

Since the 1980s, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been available and utilized in various contexts. To operate, RFID systems do not require a direct line-of-sight between, for example, a product label (a RFID tag) and a product label reader (a RFID tag reader). Known RFID tags can be read in a relatively short amount of time (e.g., 2 milliseconds per tag), and can also receive and store information that is desired to be added to the RFID tag over time.
RFID technology has been utilized to track and monitor individual products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,211,781 describes the use of RFID technology to track and locate a moveable article, such as a piece of mail.
However, to date, using a RFID tag to monitor a group of items, elements, and/or products has not been utilized in certain contexts. For example, adding a single RFID tag to monitor a group of items, elements, and/or products is generally ineffective since the RFID tag may become lost, separated, and/or damaged. Furthermore, the group of products may need to be sub-divided at a later time, and the sub-groups can no longer be tracked using the added single RFID tag. In addition, there may be circumstances where it is not possible to accurately determine which individual products are included in a group of products.
We have discovered that providing a system and a method that can be used to monitor groups of products having RFID tags is needed.

Methods and systems for monitoring groups of items, elements, and/or products using radio frequency identification


The present invention is directed to a power source that includes a housing and an energy storage device arranged to provide an output power. A generator is disposed within the housing and is rechargeable association with the energy storage device.

The present invention relates generally to aircraft ground power systems and, more particularly, to an aircraft ground power apparatus designed to respond "on-demand" based on aircraft charging demands. The aircraft ground power apparatus includes an energy storage device capable of providing immediate and sufficient power in conjunction with an internal combustion engine that can be automatically started to compliment the energy storage device and charge the energy storage device to provide sufficient aircraft ground power while saving fuel.
Aircraft sitting at a gate or terminal will normally cease engine operation along with any internal or auxiliary power generating equipment. Particularly, should the aircraft intend to remain on the ground, such as at a terminal, for any significant length of time, the aircraft systems are typically powered from auxiliary systems designed to allow the aircraft systems to operate auxiliary equipment without the need to operate the aircraft engines. The needed auxiliary power is often supplied by portable ground power units carried on wheeled trailers.
When an aircraft is at rest and in need of power, a ground power unit is towed into position by a tractor or tug. Once in place, the aircraft ground power unit is uncoupled from the tractor and its electrical cable is connected to the aircraft by plugging the cable into a receptacle provided on the aircraft. A combination engine driven generator incorporated within the ground power unit is operated to generate power that is supplied to the aircraft via the electrical cable. Typically, the aircraft ground power is connected to the aircraft, the unit is started, and then the operator leaves the unit unattended until power is no longer needed from the aircraft ground power unit. In the interim, the engine and generator operate at an operational or high speed to deliver power to the aircraft independent of actual load. That is, aircraft ground power unit typically requires that the engine and generator be running at full speed to provide correct frequency and power and/or supply a full load to the aircraft. Therefore, while in operation, the aircraft ground power unit is set to deliver a maximum amount of power to the aircraft and, thereby, runs at full speed.
However, while the aircraft ground power unit is connected to an aircraft, the power consumption needs of the aircraft are not necessarily constant or consistent. That is, the individual power consumption needs may vary widely and may even be intermittent. For example, when the aircraft has passengers on board the aircraft may require a relatively large amount of power from the aircraft ground power unit to provide sufficient cooling by the aircraft air conditioning systems. On the other hand, when the aircraft is empty, the aircraft may require a relatively low amount of power from the aircraft ground power unit, such as when only a pilot is on board and only preflight navigational systems are in operation.
Regardless of the power consumption needs of the aircraft, the known engine and generator units operate at full operational speed for the duration of the connection unless an operator arrives to shut down the unit. Accordingly, although the full power generation capabilities of the aircraft ground power unit is not necessary, the engine and generator are continuously run. Accordingly, excess fuel is consumed and additional noise and exhaust are created unnecessarily.
Additionally, aircraft ground power units are often switched from departing aircraft to newly arrived aircraft. When disengaging an aircraft ground power unit from a departing aircraft, the generator of the aircraft ground power unit is powered down and the aircraft ground power unit is removed from the departing aircraft and transported to the newly arrived aircraft. Once at the newly arrived aircraft, the aircraft ground power device is attached to the newly arrived aircraft and then the engine and generator of the aircraft ground power unit must be restarted. However, before power is delivered to the newly arrived aircraft, the generator of the aircraft ground power unit must again reach full operational speed. Specifically, an operator must first start the generator and wait until the generator is at operational speed before power is delivered to the aircraft. This delay in reaching operational power can create unnecessary power consumption from the aircraft's auxiliary power systems while the aircraft awaits power from the aircraft ground power unit. That is, although the aircraft has come to rest and is connected to a aircraft ground power unit, the aircraft continues to draw operational power from internal auxiliary power systems to drive systems such as passenger ventilation and air conditions systems until the generator of the aircraft ground power unit reaches full operational speed and power is finally delivered to the aircraft. This delay in power delivery from the aircraft ground power unit to the aircraft, albeit relatively short, can result in prolonged power draws from the aircraft's internal auxiliary power system which must later be recharged.
It would therefore be desirable to design an aircraft ground power unit that operates on-demand and is dynamically adjustable to the power consumption needs of an associated aircraft. Specifically, it would be desirable to have an on-demand aircraft ground power device that matches the power requirements of the associated aircraft that does not necessarily run the engine continuously.

Fuel saving engine driven aircraft ground power device and method of use


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates using a multi-variate pattern-recognition technique to trigger software rejuvenation for a computer system. The system operates by periodically measuring values of a target set of performance parameters associated with the computer system while the computer system is operating. The system then predicts values for the target set of performance parameters based upon previously determined correlations between performance parameters in the target set of performance parameters. If the predicted values deviate beyond a predetermined threshold from the measured values, thereby indicating that software aging is likely to have occurred, the system schedules a software rejuvenation operation for the computer system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of highly reliable computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus that uses pattern-recognition techniques to trigger software rejuvenation in order to enhance performance and availability in computer systems.
2. Related Art
As electronic commerce grows increasingly more prevalent, businesses are increasingly relying on enterprise computing systems to process ever-larger volumes of electronic transactions. A failure in one of these enterprise computing systems can be disastrous, potentially resulting in millions of dollars of lost business. More importantly, a failure can seriously undermine consumer confidence in a business, making customers less likely to purchase goods and services from the business. Hence, it is critically important to ensure reliability in such enterprise computing systems.
Unfortunately, as computer systems run for longer periods of time, they are increasingly affected by a phenomenon known as "software aging." Software aging is typically caused by resource contention problems that build up over time until the computer system eventually hangs, panics, crashes or otherwise grinds to a halt. Software aging can be caused by a multitude of factors, including memory leaks, unreleased file locks, accumulations of unterminated threads, data round-off accrual, file space fragmentation, shared memory pool latching and thread stack bloating.
Many of the adverse effects of software aging can be mitigated through a technique known as "software rejuvenation." Software rejuvenation operates by cleaning up the internal state of a computer system and/or application to prevent the occurrence of more severe crash failures in the future. For some extreme problems, software rejuvenation can involve therapeutic reboots. However, less drastic measures suffice for the vast majority of software aging problems, such as flushing stale locks, reinitializing application components, preemptively rolling back, defragmenting memory and shutting down individual applications.
If the software aging is caused by parasitic resource consumption (for example, a memory leak), periodic software rejuvenation can restore the resource and can thereby avoid a system crash caused by shortage of the resource as is illustrated by FIG. 1.
Unfortunately, it is very hard to determine when these software rejuvenation operations are required. Some existing systems monitor a single system parameter. For example, some systems monitor an amount of free memory, and if the amount of free memory falls below a threshold value, they perform a software rejuvenation operation in an attempt to free up some memory. Unfortunately, this technique is only effective in mitigating known types of software aging problems (such as memory leaks) that can be detected by monitoring a single system parameter.
Other systems perform software rejuvenation at periodic intervals. However, this may not catch software aging problems that arise between the periodic intervals. On the other hand, if these periodic rejuvenation operations are performed too frequently, they can unnecessarily degrade system performance.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus for performing software rejuvenation operations without the limitations and problems of the above-described techniques.

Method and apparatus for using pattern-recognition to trigger software rejuvenation


Methods of and devices for providing escaping routes for the flux and gases generated to move away from the solder joint in the process of solder joint formation.

With the popularity of the computers and the consumers' electronics, various electronic gadgets are becoming a necessity in our daily life. The electronic gadgets contain IC (integrated circuits) chips, such as bottom terminal components (BTC). BTC is getting more and more popular with its high connectivity speed. However, void issues at the central ground pads are problems for the BTC and other computer chips that are attached to printed circuit boards (PCB). For example, a quad flat no-leads package (QFN) from automotive industry has a HiP (Head in Pillow) phenomenon with an occurrence of 90% of field failure in one pin connector, which generally result from the void issues.
Typically, flux is trapped underneath the bottom internal components among other SMT (surface-mount technology) parts in the reflowing process (e.g., SMT soldering). The amount of flux in the paste is around 11% of the total paste amount (in weight). Sometimes, the amount of flux applied is too much and the gases generated in the soldering process are often trapped underneath the components and pads affecting the reliability of the soldering joints. Voids generated by the excess flux and the gases affect mechanical properties and reduce the integrity of the solder joint. Some experiments show that the components and/or computer chips can be lifted by the gases close to 4 mils, which can stress the solder joint in formation between the components and the signal pins.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical semiconductor assembly having a BTC 101 on a PCB 102. In a typical PCB of SMD pad (solder mask defined) 112 and a NSMD pad (non solder mask defined) 114, flux starts to move and evaporate after the paste reaching 183° C. in a soldering process. The flux entrapped underneath the BTC evaporates and generates gases when heat increases. The flux and the gases try to find a way out. However, the resin seal the external edges (between the solder mask damp 120, 122, 116, and 118 (collectively solder mask damp 124) and the bottom side of the BTC devices 104 and 106) forming a confirmed space 108 and 110. When the gases increase in volume, the devices 104 and 106 are lifted by the gases. In some cases, the devices 104 and 106 can be lifted close to 4 mils, which cause stress to the solder joint in formation between the components and the signal pins. The flux movement starts to decrease as soon as the temperature goes down.


An anchor for an elongated structural member comprising sidewalls rigidly affixed in a spaced apart and confronting relation to a generally planar base for defining a channel to receive and secure the structural member to the planar base. The sidewalls have diverging sidewall surfaces from apexes from which the spaced and parallel sidewall surfaces extend in opposite directions along the planar base and support at least one prong to secure the planar base by the parallel sidewall surfaces. The prong is operatively positioned by upon rotational movement of the diverging sidewall surfaces to adjacent opposite sides of such a structural member.

In the construction arts there are known a wide variety of connector elements which are used to anchor structural members with respect to one another. Although available in many configurations for a variety of specialized purposes, perhaps the most common such connector element is the so-called plate nail or gang nail device. This typically is an essentially flat, usually rectangular metal plate having a number of die punched, integrally formed nail prongs extending transversely to one side of the plate. Such gang nail plates are commonly used, for example, in the construction of wood trusses for residential construction. Two such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,667,337 and 3,899,803.
Among other specialized devices for use in construction are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,218,426, 3,736,714, 2,606,350, 5,794,334, 4,508,319, 4,716,632. The first two of these patents disclose systems in which members are engaged by relative rotation of one member with respect to another.
The present invention pertains to an anchor device for anchoring thereof with respect to a structural member. In its preferred form, the invention comprises a rigid, circular, plate-like base member having fixed to one side thereof a generally radially extending channel formed by a pair of transversely extending, upstanding sidewalls. Each of the sidewalls forms an angle having its apex located adjacent to the center of the base member such that the confronting sidewalls diverge from one another, from their respective apexes toward the outer perimeter of the base member.
The channel formed between the two spaced sidewalls is wide enough to receive an elongated structural member, a 2xc3x974 stud for example, and the diverging sidewalls provide freedom to rotate the anchor apparatus with respect to the structural member, within the limits defined by the sidewalls. At least one of the sidewalls includes nail prong elements extending therefrom into the channel formed between the sidewalls such that, in one rotational position of a structural member received therein, the prongs penetrate the structural member to anchor the novel anchor to the structural member.
The disclosed anchor device provides for improved efficiency and ease of use and can offer enhanced structural integrity for the structures in which it is used.
It is therefore one object of the invention to provide a novel and improved structural anchor device.
Another object of the invention is to provide a structural anchor device which is engaged with a structural member by rotation of the anchor device with respect to the structural member.


This invention provides an audible remote screening function or device for use with an answering device or machine and may also combine this screening function with an ability for remote operational control of an answering device or machine. Preferred forms of the invention provide for remote call screening of an answering device or machine, or remote call screening of an answering device or machine together with remote operational control of an answering device or machine, with the capability to remotely operate and/or remotely screen calls (incoming or pre-recorded) of that of an answering device or machine from a remote area or room via the remote function or device. In preferred forms: the audible remote screening from the device can be heard across a room or from another room; the remote device can be made to stay in an active ON mode eliminating any need for the user to search, locate, or activate the remote device or any command signal per call being screened; the remote operational control and/or screening device can be directly plugged in allowing for simultaneous power and recharge abilities for continuous power and uninterrupted operation ability; a remote-override switch located on an answering device or machine for privacy control over unauthorized access to the answering device or machine from the remote device; and small size for portability. The functions and capabilities of the remote device can be implemented, combined and used in conjunction with/into any other unit or housing. This invention also provides visual screening functions.

1. Field of Invention
This invention is cross referenced with Co-Pending application Ser. No. 10/017,529, Provisional Filed Dec. 12, 2000; Utility Filed Dec. 12, 2001.
This invention relates generally to telephone answering machines, and more particularly to a remote call screening device that allows a user to monitor and screen incoming telephone calls.
2. Description of Prior Art
Originally, answering machines could only provide the user with two ways of screening or monitoring his incoming telephone calls. One way is to play back a previously recorded message that was left on an answering machine. The other way is to listen to the loudspeaker of an answering machine at the same time that the caller is leaving the message. In other words, screen the caller. If at this point the user options to converse with the caller, the user can then pick up a telephone plugged into or near the answering machine. But if the user is in a remote location, away from the answering machine unit, such as in another room or across the house, the user may hear the ringing signal of the telephone but will not be able to screen the incoming telephone call to decide whether or not he wishes to pick up the telephone and speak with that calling party, without his having to run to the other room or across the house to where the answering machine itself is located, in order to hear or screen the caller, who is leaving a message, through the loudspeaker of the answering machine.
Also, answering machines are only accessible in limited ways. One way is by direct manipulation of the actual answering machine unit. The second way is by an outside telephone line with touch-tone capabilities or "beeper remote". The third way is by a cordless, touch-tone, telephone with corresponding circuitry integrated within a matching answering machine unit. And this last example is limited in its accessibility to an answering machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,259 to Scordato (1989) provides an audio "screening mode" in a cordless, touch-tone telephone integrated within an answering machine unit.
A Caller ID provides a visual "screening method" whereby the telephone number from where a caller is calling from (and sometimes a name associated with that particular telephone number) is displayed on an LCD screen, sometimes with an option to store a limited amount of telephone numbers. Caller ID requires that a special Caller Identification Service be used in conjunction with a Caller ID unit. A Caller Identification Service must be purchased from a telephone company, in addition to your regular telephone service, in order to be able to use a Caller ID. The Caller ID units are singular units within themselves or are integrated within a cordless telephone receiver of an integrated cordless telephone and its matching base unit.
Nevertheless, Scordato U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,259 and Caller ID suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) The use of Scordato's system requires a phone.
(b) The use of Scordato's system requires a cordless phone.
(c) The use of Scordato's system requires a cordless telephone that must be integrated with its own matching answering machine/recharger base unit.
In the use of Caller ID units that are included within cordless telephone receivers, the cordless telephone receiver also must be integrated with its own matching recharger base unit.
(d) The Scordato system requires that a switch actuator on the cordless receiver unit be turned "on" in order to activate the "screener mode" in the matching base answering machine unit. This switch actuator must be turned "on" per incoming call in order to be able to screen incoming calls. Scordato's invention must be in one of either an active mode "screen mode" or in a passive mode "non-screen mode". In order to hear/screen an incoming call, the "screen mode" must be activated at the time that a caller is presently calling, and re-activated at the time of each additional call, requiring that the user has to locate and physically be at the cordless telephone receiver of the matching answering machine base unit in order to physically manipulate the actuator command signal (turn it "on") in order to activate the "screen mode" in the answering machine base in order to be able to use this screening function.
(e) The user of the Scordato invention has to physically be at the remote cordless telephone receiver of the matching answering machine base unit, hands on, putting receiver to ear in order to hear the calls being screened as messages are being left.
With Caller ID, the user has to be close enough to pick up and/or be in eyesight (reading) range of any Caller ID unit in order to be able to read the telephone number information on the LCD screen.
(f) With the Scordato invention, telephone calls cannot be screened or listened to by more than one person simultaneously, such as family members who are waiting for their own prospective callers, because the cordless telephone handset receiver of the Scordato invention can only be put to one user's ear at a time in order to hear the call being screened, and only the person whose ear is on the receiver can hear the call being screened.
(g) Scordato's invention has a manufacturer installed, fixed "family code" shared between the answering machine/recharging base unit and its cordless telephone handset receiver unit, thereby limiting its screening use to just one remote screening device: that of the matching cordless telephone handset receiver.
In the cordless telephone version of Caller ID there is also only one cordless telephone receiver per matching recharging base unit, thereby limiting screening use to just one cordless receiver unit.
(h) In Scordato's invention, a cordless telephone handset receiver needs recharging at a home base unit. Therefore, because a cordless telephone receiver consistently needs recurring recharging or sometimes full charging, the receiver is not always capable of being in a convenient or remote location where a user may happen to be.
The same is true of the cordless telephone version of Caller ID, as it also needs recharging at a home base unit. Therefore it also is not always capable of being in a convenient or remote location where a user may happen to be.
(i) In Scordato's invention, the only way to turn the screening mode Off and On has its location in the cordless telephone handset receiver unit. Because there is no separate On/Off switch on the matching answering machine/base unit itself to keep the screening mode on the cordless telephone handset receiver from operating (to disable the screen mode on the cordless handset receiver) at the user's discretion, this does not afford the user/owner with any privacy or control over somebody else picking up the cordless telephone handset receiver and remotely screening the owner's incoming or recorded calls that were left on his answering machine. The user's/owner's only option for this would be to turn the whole answering machine unit off.
(j) In Scordato's invention, the answering machine/base unit does not have an indicator to show that the screen mode is "on" and being used from the cordless telephone handset receiver, thus the user/owner is not able know when somebody else may be operating the screen mode from the cordless telephone receiver and listening to the user's/owner's personal calls. This lacking, also, does not afford the user/owner the option to control his privacy.
(k) The Scordato invention is not capable of recharging and being in a screen mode concurrently, therefore putting limitation on screening availability.
The cordless telephone version of Caller ID is also not capable of recharging and being in a screen mode concurrently, limiting available screening time.
(l) The cordless telephone receiver cannot plug directly into an AC outlet for a constant source of power, again limiting its available screening time to when the cordless telephone receiver is not being recharged in its base.
The same is true, again, of the cordless telephone version of Caller ID.
(m) The cordless telephone receiver is not equipped with a source for an optional adapter plug with cord in order to maintain an active screen mode and a concurrent constant source of power.
The same is true of the cordless telephone version of Caller ID.
(n) There are many other reasons that Caller ID is not very practical, such as:
Most people only have a few telephone numbers memorized in their heads, therefore, as a calling party is calling, the user of Caller ID must rack his brain as to whom the phone number belongs to that is being displayed on the LCD.
If a user is expecting or receiving a call from a first-time caller, the user of Caller ID probably won't have any idea whose phone number is being displayed on the LCD screen of his Caller ID unit. And even if a name is displayed with the telephone number, the user still has no way of knowing who is really on the line nor no way of finding out the content of the call, what it's regarding, etc. through a Caller ID.
If the user is expecting a call from a favored someone (favored caller) who happens to be calling from a different phone or location than what is stored for them in the Caller ID unit or memorized in the user's head for that particular person, the user is at a loss as to who is calling.
The user may not wish to converse with other-wise-favored callers at certain particular times, though these callers may have their phone numbers stored as preferred caller numbers in the Caller ID unit.
The user may not wish to converse with a caller depending on what kind of message the caller has for him or what the caller has to say, and a Caller ID LCD phone number display is not going to help in these instances, whether or not the caller is calling from a preferred number.
The user may wish to speak to only a certain particular caller from a selected stored phone number and not to the other people that may live there at that same number, but the user of the Caller ID unit is not able to discern who from that telephone number really is calling.
So, in regards to that just mentioned, and also for that of non-stored telephone numbers or non-familiar telephone numbers, in order to really screen his calls, the user would then still need to be at his answering machine unit in order to hear the calls being screened, despite having Caller ID.
(o) Caller ID requires that a special Caller Identification Service be used in conjunction with a Caller ID unit. The service must be purchased from a telephone company in addition to your regular telephone service in order to be able to use a Caller ID system. This service is only available where the service is provided.
(p) In order to protect their own safety and privacy, most consumers have chosen to block Caller ID so that their own personal telephone numbers will not be forwarded to someone else's Caller ID unit, in order to keep their telephone number private and their location private, for safety and other privacy reasons.


Caged acyloxyalkyl esters of phosphate-containing inositol phosphates which are capable of permeating cell membranes. The second messengers are protected (caged) at the 6-hydroxyl, with a photolabile group. Once inside the cell, the ester derivatives undergo enzymatic conversion to remove the acyloxyalkyl ester groups. The resulting caged compound remains biologically inactive until exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. Upon UV light exposure, the active form of the second messenger is released within the cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to biologically important phosphates such as second messengers. More particularly, the present invention relates to modifying second messengers to form derivatives which can be introduced into a cell without disrupting the cell membrane. Once inside the cell, the derivative is converted back to the biologically active second messenger.
2. Description of Related Art
The publications and other reference materials referred to herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional detail regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference. For convenience, the reference materials are numerically reference and grouped in the appended bibliography.
Second messengers are ions or small molecules that carry information from the cell membrane to targets on the inside of the cell. They play a major role in biological signal transduction and amplification (1). A common feature of most of the known second messengers, such as adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) (2,3), guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (4) (cGMP), myo-inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate (1,4,5)IP.sub.3) or myo-inositol-1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (1,3,4,5)IP.sub.4) (5), is the presence of phosphates. The correct number and position of these phosphates is essential for biological specificity and also confers extreme hydrophilicity (6,7).
The hydrophilicity of second messengers prevents endogenously generated molecules from leaking out of cells. As a result, high sensitivity is maintained within the responding cell and freedom from cross-talk between neighboring cells is achieved. However, the membrane impermeability of second messengers also makes deliberate extracellular application difficult or ineffective (2,6,8), even though such intervention would often be very useful for research or therapeutic reasons.
One approach for introducing phosphate containing compounds into cells involves using protective groups to reversibly convert the negatively charged phosphate compound into a neutral compound for transport through the cell membrane. The protective group is chosen so that it is enzymatically cleaved from the phosphate compound inside the cell to produce the original phosphate compound. For example, lipophilic, intracellularly hydrolyzable derivatives have been useful for amino, hydroxyl, and carboxylate moieties (9-12). Acetoxymethyl (AM) esters of polycarboxylate cation indicators and chelators are have also been used (12-14). Analogous acyloxyalkyl esters applied to phosphates are known, but they have been less widely exploited (15).
On simple model phosphates, uses of AM esters have been limited to potential therapeutic drugs, such as phosphonoformate (foscarnet) (16), antiviral nucleotides such as 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine monophosphate (17,18), and a 3-phosphonate-containing inhibitor of the insulin receptor kinase (19). The phosphonoformate esters proved not to be biologically useful due to failure to hydrolyze to the correct products (16), but esterification was found to enhance the effectiveness of the antiviral nucleotides and kinase inhibitor (17-19).
Considerable work has been done on o-nitrobenzyl esters as photolyzable ("caged") derivatives of ATP (20), cyclic nucleotides (21,22), and inositol phosphates (23). However, the emphasis has been on producing a kinetically fast and complete transition from a monoester to the active freed phosphate metabolite (24,25), rather than as a general means of achieving membrane permeability. In addition, nitrobenzyl esters become cumbersome if more than one are required to mask negative charges, because multiple groups add considerable bulk and require high doses of UV to cause cleavage of all the groups.
Although numerous different myo-inositol polyphosphates are possible, only about a dozen have been found in cells. Their intracellular functions are controversial or unknown, except for myo-inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP.sub.3), whose role as an intracellular second messenger to release Ca.sup.2+ from internal stores is unquestioned (26). The next most studied inositol polyphosphate is myo-inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate (IP.sub.4), which is believed to cooperate with IP.sub.3 to open Ca.sup.2+ -channels in the plasma membrane (27-30) or to resequester Ca.sup.2+ released by IP.sub.3 (31, 32). However, these hypotheses remain controversial (33-37).
Almost nothing is known about intracellular functions for other inositol polyphosphates. Detailed dissection of the roles of inositol polyphosphates is often difficult if they are endogenously generated in response to agonists, since such stimulation may affect multiple receptors, G proteins, diacylglycerol formation, multiple inositol polyphosphates, and yet other transduction pathways. Direct introduction of specific inositol polyphosphates is often preferable.
The high negative charge of inositol polyphosphates results in negligible passive permeability through membranes. Existing methods for introducing inositol phosphates include microinjection, patch-clamp techniques, and permeabilization by electroporation, detergents like saponin, or removal of extracellular Ca.sup.2+. All these methods breach the plasma membrane and jeopardize the more complex functions and long-term viability of the cells. Furthermore, microinjection and patch techniques can only be applied to a few cells at a time.
In view of the above, there is a need to provide new compounds and procedures for increasing the membrane permeability of second messengers so that they can be introduced effectively into cells in amounts which are useful for investigational or therapeutic purposes.

Caged membrane-permeant inositol phosphates

The Regents of the University of California


A magnetic disk drive capable of reducing the influence of a tension ascribable to the forming of a flexible printed circuit (FPC), which transfers the output signal of a magnetic head, on a carriage. The curved configuration and arrangement of the FPC are changed to minimize the tension ascribable to the FPC even when the carriage seeks the inner or outer peripheral portion of a magnetic disk.

The present invention relates to a magnetic disk drive and, more particularly, to a magnetic disk drive improved to reduce the influence of a tension ascribable to the forming of a flexible printed circuit, which transfers the output signal of a magnetic head, on a carriage.
A conventional magnetic disk drive has a carriage in the form of an arm and rotatably mounted on a shaft. A suspension is affixed to the free end of the carriage and in turn supports a magnetic head at the free end thereof. A coil assembly is affixed to the rear end of the carriage while a permanent magnet assembly is located to face the coil assembly. A control circuit positions the carriage which is rotated by an electromagnetic force generated between the coil assembly and the permanent magnet assembly. A flexible printed circuit (FPC) is connected at one end to the carriage and at the other end to the base of the disk drive for transferring the output signal of the head to the control circuit. The problem with the conventional magnetic disk drive is that the radius of curvature of the FPC noticeably changes depending on the position of the head in the radial direction of the disk. As a result, the tension acting on the FPC greatly changes. Since the tension acts on the carriage and constantly changes during the course of seek, even the servo loop fails to position the head with accuracy, resulting in a seek error or a read error.


A lesion treating device for converting a standard balloon catheter into a cutting balloon catheter is provided. The device includes a longitudinal housing such as a tube which is sized to be inserted into a lumen of the balloon catheter and cutting wires disposed within the longitudinal housing in an undeployed position. When the longitudinal housing is moved relative to the cutting wires, the cutting wires extend out of the longitudinal housing. The balloon of the balloon catheter is then moved under the deployed cutting wires and inflated to convert the standard balloon catheter into the cutting balloon catheter.

Treatment of stenosis by angioplasty balloon catheters is well known. Typically a lesion can be opened by a standard balloon catheter quickly and easily at moderate inflation pressures. Some stenotic lesions can be highly resistant to opening at reasonable pressures and occasionally balloon catheters are not strong enough to sufficiently open such lesions. For example, when treating a stenosis that occurs at the venous anastomosis of a dialysis graft, it is found that often these lesions require pressure in excess of 28 atmospheres. Such a high pressure increases the degree of vascular trauma caused by the rapid stretching and tearing of the media and adventia layers of the vessel. Vascular trauma to the vessel wall has been shown to increase the ingrowth of smooth muscle cells, which is directly related to increased restenosis rates.
Despite the above drawbacks, high-pressure angioplasty balloons were developed to treat these highly resistant lesions. Typically these catheters require larger sheath sizes than low-pressure balloon catheters and are expensive due to the materials and design required to achieve high pressures.
To address the problems associated with conventional high pressure angioplasty balloons, techniques were developed in which an angioplasty balloon was placed along side of a guidewire and then inflated, creating focal pressure against the lesion along the guidewire surface. This technique became known as the Buddy Wire technique. Scientific studies have demonstrated that the application of slow, low pressure delivered in a focused manner reduces the degree of vessel trauma and thus post-procedure complications including restenosis. Although the technique is still practiced today, there are several disadvantages with the procedure. The technique typically is done with a single "Buddy Wire", resulting in a single focal pressure line against the lesion. The use of more than one wire will address this problem but it is difficult to control the positioning within the lesion of more than one guidewire. Lack of control over guidewire location relative to the balloon makes the procedure more unpredictable and difficult than conventional angioplasty procedures.
In the early 1990s, cutting balloon catheters were developed. Barath disclosed a cutting balloon in U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,024 entitled "Balloon Catheter with Cutting Edge", issued Mar. 23, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference. Barath's design and other cutting angioplasty balloons have microsurgical cutting wires in the form of blades that are pre-mounted to the surface of the balloon. When the balloon is inflated the blades cut partially through the vessel wall resulting in controlled, localized dissection of the inner vessel layers. The blades produce high focal stress lines along the lesion surface in a controlled, predictable manner. Because the pressure is concentrated along the blades, less balloon inflation pressure is required to open the stenosis. For example, a lesion that may require 30 atms with standard high pressure angioplasty may open at approximately 8 atms with a cutting balloon device.
Although cutting balloon technology addresses some of the problems associated with conventional angioplasty, there are several drawbacks with the use of cutting balloons. The cutting blades or wires increase the overall profile of the angioplasty device. Specifically, a cutting balloon profile is larger than a conventional Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) or Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty (PTA) catheter with the same nominal inflated diameter. Thus, the catheter requires a larger insertion sheath than a standard angioplasty balloon. Difficulties in advancing the balloon through the vasculature to the target lesion are more frequent with a cutting balloon than with a conventional angioplasty balloon of an equivalent inflation diameter due to the larger profile.
Insertion, advancement and placement of cutting balloons are also more difficult because the relatively stiff blade materials prevent the cutting balloon from being as flexible as standard angioplasty catheters. Accordingly, tracking the device through tortuous vasculature is more problematic with the cutting balloon. To increase the flexibility, one conventional catheter incorporated keyhole cutouts in the blades. While the keyhole design increases the overall flexibility of the cutting balloon, it adds complexity to the micro-precision manufacturing process and costs. Radisch attempts to address the blade stiffness problem in his U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0040770 entitled "Segmented Balloon Catheter Blade", which is incorporated herein by reference. Radisch's design utilizes individual blade segments attached to a base in such a manner as to allow relative movement between adjacent blade segment, thereby providing increased flexibility. Again, while increasing flexibility, the design adds complexity to the manufacturing cost and still does not address the problems associated with increased overall device diameter.
Prior art cutting balloons are also disadvantageous during withdrawal of the device. Some cutting balloon designs use the balloon creases to cover and protect the vessel wall from unintentional incising during withdrawal. One such design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,634 entitled "Balloon Catheter with Seated Cutting Edges", issued Jun. 14, 1994 to Vigil, which is incorporated herein by reference. While Vigil provides an increased level of protection during withdrawal, there are still disadvantages with the Vigil design. The balloon deflation process is not always controllable and the deflated balloon surface does not always adequately cover the blades. Furthermore, deflation failures, common with angioplasty balloons, may result in significant patient complications when the cutting balloon fails to completely deflate. Unintentional vessel dissection may occur during withdrawal. Balloon rupture and other mechanical failure may result in the necessity of surgically retrieving blade components from the vessel.
Another disadvantage of cutting balloons is cost. The cutting balloons cost approximately four times the cost of a standard balloon catheter. Consequently the cutting balloon catheter is only used when standard angioplasty balloons fail to open a lesion. Even so, the medical facility needs to carry a complete inventory of both standard and cutting balloons in order to be prepared to treat various size lesions. This becomes very expensive and requires a large inventory space. Barath attempts to overcome this problem in U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,935 entitled "Balloon Activated Forced Concentrators for Incising Stenotic Segments", issued Aug. 25, 1998, which is incorporated herein by reference. He discloses the use of a separate "activated force concentrator" component that is mounted over a standard angioplasty balloon prior to insertion.
Although Barath's device allows customization of a standard angioplasty balloon for a variety of procedures and thus reduces inventory requirements, it does have several deficiencies. The concentrator is user-mounted on the balloon prior to insertion into the patient. The concentrator increases the overall profile of the device resulting in insertion and advancement complications as previously discussed. Even after deflation in its reduced profile, the atherotomes or blades remain exposed and may thus increase the possibility of unintentional incision of non-target vessel segments during withdrawal. Another disadvantage of Barath's concentrator design relates to balloon inventory-stocking levels. Although Barath's design reduces the inventory requirements for angioplasty procedures, each balloon length would require a separate concentrator length thus introducing complexity and additional inventory parts into the angiosuite. In addition, the difference in balloon specifications among manufacturers makes custom fitting of the concentrator to the balloon difficult.
Still another disadvantage of cutting balloons is that a physician is required to remove the standard angioplasty catheter already in the vessel and insert in its place the cutting balloon catheter. In general, cutting balloons are intended for use only after conventional angioplasty has failed to successfully restore vessel lumen patency. When that happens, the conventional angioplasty balloon is removed and then the cutting balloon is inserted and advanced to the lesion. With Barath's design, the angioplasty balloon is removed, the concentrator is mounted on the balloon, and then the concentrator-mounted balloon is re-inserted into the vessel. With either approach, the balloon exchanges carry added risk, add time to the procedure, and increase treatment costs due to additional device use.
In addition to replacing the standard catheter with a cutting balloon catheter, often it may be necessary to also replace the guidewire as well. This is because a standard angioplasty balloon may require a 0.035″ guidewire, while a cutting balloon catheter may require a smaller diameter 0.018″ or 0.014″ guidewire. As persons of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate, this procedure carries substantial added risk to the patient, not to mention the increased cost and added procedure time.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a device and method, which can be used to convert a conventional angioplasty balloon catheter into a cutting balloon catheter without increasing the balloon diameter and without requiring an exchange or re-insertion of the catheter.
It is also desirable to provide such a device and method in which a single unit can accommodate multiple conventional angioplasty balloons of varying diameters and lengths.
It is also desirable to provide such a device and method, which provides protection of the vessel wall from the cutting elements during insertion and withdrawal of the device.
It is also desirable to provide a reliable, inexpensive, efficient and fast method of opening a stenotic lesion that fails to open using conventional angioplasty by converting an already in place angioplasty balloon to a cutting instrument.
It is also desirable to provide such a device and method which substantially reduces the requirement of carrying a complete inventory of both standard and cutting balloons in order to be prepared to treat various size lesions.

Device and method for converting a balloon catheter into a cutting balloon catheter


A procedure and a device for controlling, in a radar unit for the measurement of target data, the transmission of radar pulses and the reception of target echoes originating from the transmitted radar pulses, in such a way that the performance of the radar unit increases, in order thereby to gain a longer range during a period of time. The period of time is preferably repeated continually. The period of time is divided into a first and a second partial period of time where the first and the second partial periods of time are each at least twice as long as a pulse repetition interval which is used during the first partial period of time. During the first partial period of time the radar unit is controlled so that it transmits radar pulses for the measurement of target data with a higher energy content than what is possible in a steady state. The control is carried out in such a way that the amount of transmitted energy of the radar unit during the period of time is at the most the possible energy transmission of the radar unit in a steady state during a corresponding period of time. There is thereby obtained a more efficient signal integration by means of the signal integration of the target echoes that originate from the radar unit being concentrated during the first partial period of time. The radar unit is also controlled so that it does not transmit radar pulses for the measurement of target data during the second partial period of time.

This invention concerns a procedure and device for the control of a radar unit in such a way that the performance of the radar unit is increased and as a result an increase in the range of the radar unit can be achieved. This application is based on application No. 9700112-7 filed on Jan. 17, 1997 in Sweden, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.

Procedure and device for the control of a radar unit


In a heat dissipating device, a heat-conductive base plate is mounted on a flip chip base, and is formed with a through hole that extends from an upper surface to a lower surface opposite to the lower surface and disposed in contact with the flip chip base. A heat-conductive block is formed integrally on the upper surface of the base plate, covers the through hole in the base plate, and has a bottom surface flush with the upper surface of the base plate. The bottom surface is formed with a recess that is registered with the through hole in the base plate such that when the base plate is used to cover the flip chip base, the through hole in the base plate allows the chip device to extend into the recess. Multiple heat-dissipating members are formed integrally on the upper surface of the base plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a heat dissipating device, more particularly to a heat dissipating device adapted to be applied to a flip chip device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In view of the advantages of short connecting wires, low inductance, controlled high-frequency noise and reduced package size, a flip chip package technique has been widely applied to many kinds of integrated circuit chips.
FIG. 1 illustrates a flip chip package product that includes a flip chip base 10, a chip device 11 and a cover body 12. The flip chip base 10 has a bottom surface provided with a plurality of pins 103, and a top surface opposite to the bottom surface and formed with a plurality of contacts 101 that are coupled electrically to the pins 103. The chip device 11 has a lower surface formed with a plurality of solder balls 111. By using a flip chip bonder (not shown), the chip device 11 is mounted on the top surface of the flip chip base 10, and the solder balls ill of the chip device 11 are disposed in electrical contact with the contacts 101 of the flip chip base 10, respectively. A heat-conductive thermoset material (not shown) is filled between the flip chip base 10 and the chip device 11 so as to reinforce the structural connection therebetween. The cover body 12 has amounting surface formed with a recess 121. When the cover body 12 is mounted on the top surface of the flip chip base 10 after coating an adhesive material on the mounting surface of the cover body 12, the chip device 11 is received in the recess 121 of the cover body 12. A heat-conductive material is filled in the recess 121 between the chip device 11 and the cover body 12. The mounting surface of the cover body 12 are provided with four conductive posts 122, each of which extends into a respective one of a plurality of grounding holes 102 formed in the flip chip base 10, and is grounded when the cover body 12 is mounted on the flip chip base 10 so as to provide electromagnetic interference shielding to the chip device 11. It is noted that the cover body 12 is mainly used to protect the chip device 11, and the cover body 12 has a limited heat-dissipating area, thereby resulting in inferior heat-dissipating efficiency.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a heat dissipating device that is adapted to be applied to a flip chip device and that has a relatively large heat-dissipating area.
According to the present invention, a heat dissipating device is adapted to cover a flip chip base that is mounted with a chip device thereon, and comprises:
a heat-conductive base plate adapted to be mounted on the flip chip base, the base plate having a lower surface adapted to be disposed in contact with the flip chip base, and an upper surface opposite to the lower surface, the base plate being formed with a through hole that extends from the upper surface to the lower surface;
a heat-conductive block formed integrally on the upper surface of the base plate and covering the through hole in the base plate, the block having a bottom surface flush with the upper surface of the base plate, and a top surface opposite to the bottom surface, the bottom surface having an area larger than that of the through hole, and being formed with a recess that is registered with the through hole in the base plate such that when the base plate is used to cover the flip chip base, the through hole in the base plate allows the chip device to extend into the recess; and
a plurality of heat-dissipating members formed integrally on the upper surface of the base plate.

Heat dissipating device adapted to be applied to a flip chip device