A beverage making system that includes a plurality of packs containing different beverage making ingredients and having different infrared reflectance spectra in a region thereof. A beverage making apparatus includes a station for receiving at least one of the packs; a source of liquid adapted to supply liquid into the at least one pack while the pack is located at the station; a system controller for controlling the supply of liquid from the source according to a beverage making program; and an infrared pack recognition system comprising an infrared light source for illuminating the region of the pack while it is located at the station. The apparatus also includes a detector for measuring an intensity of infrared light reflected from the region and for supplying an output signal to the system controller, whereby the beverage-making program is selected by the system controller in response to the output of the infrared pack recognition system.

The present invention provides a beverage making system that includes a plurality of packs containing different beverage making ingredients and having different infrared reflectance spectra in a region thereof. A beverage making apparatus includes a station for receiving at least one of the packs; a source of liquid adapted to supply liquid into the at least one pack while the pack is located at the station; a system controller for controlling the supply of liquid from the source according to a beverage making program; and an infrared pack recognition system comprising an infrared light source for illuminating the region of the pack while it is located at the station. The apparatus also includes a detector for measuring an intensity of infrared light reflected from the region and for supplying an output signal to the system controller, whereby the beverage-making program is selected by the system controller in response to the output of the infrared pack recognition system.
The beverage making machine will usually be a semi-automatic beverage making machine as hereinbefore defined, but in certain embodiments it may be a fully automatic machine, that is to say a machine that stores a plurality of the packs and releases a pack into the beverage making station automatically in response to an operator command to select and make a beverage.
The term "pack" refers to any container having stored therein a predetermined quantity of a beverage making ingredient. The packs may be open containers, such as cups, for example those provided by in-cup dispensing or vending systems. In other embodiments, the packs may be filter packs, for example tubular bodies shaped and dimensioned to rest on the top of a cup and having a filter across the bottom thereof, a beverage making ingredient such as ground coffee over the filter in the bottom of the container, and an open top for introduction of hot water. However, most usually the packs for use in the present invention are capsules, that is to say fully enclosed packages containing the beverage making ingredient. Preferably, the capsules are substantially air- and moisture-impermeable.
The pack contains a beverage-making ingredient. Suitable ingredients include tea (leaf or instant), coffee (ground or instant), drinking chocolate (powder or concentrate), beverage whitener (solid or liquid), or a soft drink concentrate such as a water soluble or water dispersible syrup or sweetened powder concentrate. In certain embodiments, the beverage making ingredient is an infusible beverage brewing ingredient, such as leaf tea or ground coffee. In such embodiments the pack may further comprise a filter sheet inside the pack and bonded to an internal surface of the pack. Typically, the amount of ingredient in the pack is sufficient for the preparation of one portion of beverage, i.e. from about 25 to about 500 ml, preferably from about 100 ml to about 250 ml. For example, the package may contain from about 2 g to about 25 g of ground coffee or from about 1 g to about 9 g of leaf tea.
Typically, each pack comprises a plastics sheet (e.g. thermoformed or injection molded sheet) or flexible film material, and the region that is recognized by the infrared pack recognition system is located on the sheet or flexible film material. The region may be a specially printed or coated region, but it is a particular advantage of the present invention that by suitable selection of wavelength range and aperture it is possible to achieve pack recognition using prior art packs, without any dedicated printing or coating.
The sheet or flexible film material will usually be a laminate comprising two or more of the following layers: a thermoplastic sealant layer for bonding the sheet to other members of the package; a substantially gas-impermeable barrier layer, which preferably is a metal film such as aluminum film; adhesion layers to improve adhesion between other layers of the laminate; structural layers, for example to provide puncture resistance; and/or a printing substrate layer. The structural layers could be made of polyolefins, polyester, nylons, or other polymers as is well known in the art.
It has been found that especially good pack recognition can be achieved by infrared reflectance from a region formed from a metallised sheet or film material, wherein the reflective metal layer is covered by a partially transparent layer, for example a layer of colored plastic film or printed transparent or semi-transparent material.
In certain embodiments, the pack comprises two flexible films bonded in face to face relationship to provide a flexible sachet. In other embodiments, a sachet is formed by folding-over a single film, and bonding the edges of the film together to form the edges of the sachet.
In certain embodiments, the pack further comprises a nozzle for water injection into the pack. The nozzle may be inserted into a top edge of the pack. In other embodiments, there is no nozzle, for example if the water is to be injected into the package through a hollow injector tube that pierces a side of the package.
In certain embodiments, the pack consists essentially of oxygen-impermeable sheet material, optionally a filter material inside the pack body, and optionally an injection nozzle.
Suitable sachet and pack constructions are as described in WO94/01344, EP-A-05 12468, EP-A-0468079, U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,189, EP-A-0272922, EP-A-0 179641 and WO02/19875, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference
The pack is received in a beverage making station of the apparatus. The station is shaped and configured to hold the pack while beverage preparation is taking place. The station may comprise a clamp to grip at least a portion of the pack while beverage preparation is taking place. In certain embodiments, the station may fully enclose and clamp the pack (apart from necessary liquid inlets and outlets for beverage preparation) while beverage preparation is taking place, and in such embodiments the station may exert pressure on the pack, for example when beverage preparation takes place under pressure in espresso-type coffee brewing.
In the system according to the present invention, the source of liquid suitably comprises an injector for injecting liquid into the pack. The injector may be adapted to pierce the pack, or it may be adapted for insertion into a nozzle provided in the pack.
The apparatus is adapted to prepare a beverage from the pack by injecting water according to a predetermined program that is optimized for that pack. Typically, the source of liquid can be programmed by the control system to provide a plurality of different beverage making programs characterized by one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of temperature, pressure and flow rate (each of which may be independently variable and programmable as a function of time), total volume, or combinations thereof. For example, espresso coffee brewing preferably uses a small volume of water injected into a bed of coffee at 1 MPa or more, at a temperature of about 90° C. Filter coffee brewing preferably uses a larger volume of water at 0.2 MPa or less and about 90° C. In certain embodiments, for example coffee or tea infusion, the water is not injected continuously, but instead it is injected in pulses to allow time for the beverage to infuse between pulses. The apparatus may also be adapted to inject air into the pack after the last water injection step, in order to expel as much beverage as possible from the pack, and/or it may be adapted to squeeze the pack after the last water injection step for the same reason. Suitable apparatus is described, for example in WO02/19875 and GB-A-2121762, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
A suitable infrared (IR) wavelength range for operation is from about 750 nm to about 1200 nm, for example from about 800 nm to about 1100 nm. It will be appreciated that the infrared pack recognition system of the present invention may measure the reflectance at more than one wavelength and/or in more than one region of the pack in order to achieve greater accuracy and reliability. However, it is an advantage of operating in the infrared region of the spectrum that a single measurement (data point) of IR reflectance averaged over the measurement wavelength band and/or averaged over an area of the pack can be used to discriminate effectively between packs, in particular without special printing or treatment of the packs.
It has been found for example that different packs made in accordance with EP-A-0179641 and supplied under the Registered Trade Mark FLAVIA® by Four Square Division of Masterfoods, Basingstoke, UK, are readily distinguishable in this region of the infrared without any need for special marking or coating.
A further advantage of IR is that it is possible to discriminate effectively between different packs by measuring the wavelength at a single wavelength in the IR region (e.g. as produced by an IR laser diode), so that one does not need multiple sources or tuneable sources. IR also enables pack recognition to be separated from the visual design. In certain embodiments, different packs in the system have a constant visible color in the region where reflectance is measured, but varying IR reflectance in that region. There may even be an invisible IR barcode or anti-counterfeiting feature.
Typically, the infrared pack recognition system comprises an integrating sphere. The use of integrating spheres for the optical measurement geometry in reflectance colorimetry is described in the Commission Internationale De L'Eclairage (CIE) Publication Number 15.2 (Colorimetry), 1986, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. An integrating sphere is an apparatus with an interior cavity (typically spherical) having a highly reflective, infraredly diffuse white surface. The simplest integrating sphere design contains two apertures, one which admits light and another which serves as a measurement port where the amount of light on the surface of the sphere can be measured. An integrating sphere has the property that at any point on the inner surface of the sphere the illumination is essentially independent of the direction and location of the incident beam as well as the size of the beam; the inner surface is uniformly illuminated throughout, except at the point of direct illumination. Integrating spheres are used in colorimetry for the precise determination of color for a sample under test. The integrating sphere aperture may be directly covered by the pack under test, or it may contact the pack through a window or a lens.
The apparatus according to the present invention may be adapted to measure a sample with the specular component of reflection (mirror-like reflection from the surface) either included (SCI mode) or excluded (SCE mode). Other aspects of measurement may include selection of the measurement aperture size (typically from about 10 to about 400 mm2, for example from about 25 to about 100 mm2), spectral content of the illumination, and angle of receiver beam with respect to the sample normal. The apparatus may comprise multiple detectors for different regions of the pack, and/or equipment to provide relative movement of the pack and the detector(s) to achieve still greater reliability similar to that achieved by modern bank note recognition systems.
A further important feature that may be present in the infrared pack recognition system is a self-calibration feature. Preferably, the apparatus according the present invention further provides a reference surface, which is preferably white, and which is seen by the pack recognition system when there is no pack in the beverage making station. The system self-calibrates in each wavelength range of interest by reference to the measured reflectance of this surface, and also preferably by reference to a standard dark measurement (light source off).

Semi-automatic beverage making apparatus


A system and method that provides the ability for users to select, create, and upload a collection of graphical images whereby a web site login process presents the user with an array of graphical images including the graphical images designated for an authentication pattern, the graphical image authentication system then determines that the graphical images chosen by the user are correct or incorrect without notifying the user until the process is complete.

Every day millions fall victim of some form of identity theft. According to Privacy and American Business, 1 out of 5 Americans have fallen victim to some form of identity theft. Whether it is as simple as someone accessing a social media profile that was left active on a public computer or someone gaining access to a credit card from a personal or group security breach. One of the biggest reasons for this is the human element. The majority of passwords are extremely easy to remember or have been used throughout multiple sites even though passwords make up a critical part of our life in the age of the Internet. Passwords can be obtained through trickery like phishing attacks over email. Computer hackers have also found all sorts of ways to crack codes, find vulnerabilities, and bypass security barriers. These break-ins then create other layers of damages and exposure representing billions, perhaps trillions in dollars of damages.
Oftentimes, passwords have also been artificially created by computer programs and are stored in keychain passwords but these can be "sniffed" or read over Wi-Fi using scripts. Really well-written passwords are also harder to remember and usually are difficult to type, especially on a mobile device keyboard, which is now the most commonly used computing device among the general public. Thus, the stronger the password, the more difficult to type or remember.
There are other established ways for identifying the user's authentication such as utilizing biometric data from a thumbprint or a retinal scan. However, biometric data does not work 100% of the time and can be thrown off by something as simple as dirty fingers. This also can take extended amounts of time because the conversion of multiple biometric data into hash strings. Face recognition is also used but this can also be time consuming and there are documented issues with the technology authenticating users with similar facial structures, especially common with close family members such as twins.
Another problem with most authentication systems is that they actually verify if the password entered is correct or incorrect enabling a third party to understand and adjust to a negative response by entering a different password. This allows a third party such as a hacker to continue to try entering a series of different passwords because they are able to receive feedback each time the hacker enters a password.
Thus, exists a need for improving upon the verification of unique identification whereby the creator may design passwords that are complex to anyone other than the creator while being simple to understand and processed within a short amount of time.

System and method for verifying unique user identification


A power supply module has a printed circuit board (PCB) containing a plurality of electrical components for converting an input voltage to an output voltage. A heat sink is formed over substantially an entire surface area of the PCB for providing heat dissipation. The heat sink is made with a thermally conductive and electrically insulating polymer compound, such as liquid crystalline polymer or polyphenylene sulfide, which is injection molded to surface of the PCB. The heat sink can be formed on a front side and backside of the PCB and may have a plurality of posts for increasing the heat dissipating surface area of the heat sink. By disposing the heat sink over substantially the entire surface of the PCB, the heat sink is able to remove more heat and allow the power supply module to provide more output load current given the same physical size and ambient conditions.

Most modern electronic equipment requires a power supply to provide a direct current (DC) operating potential to the electronic components contained therein. Common types of electronic equipment which use power supplies include personal computers, energy systems, telecommunication systems, audio-video equipment, consumer electronics, automotive components, and other devices which utilize integrated circuits, semiconductor chips, or otherwise require DC operating potential. Most, if not all, semiconductor components require a low voltage DC operating potential. However, many sources of electric power are alternating current (AC), or high voltage DC, which must be converted to low voltage DC for the electronic equipment.
In one common arrangement, the AC/DC power supply receives an AC input voltage, e.g., between 110 and 240 VAC, and converts the AC input voltage to the DC operating voltage. The AC voltage is routed through a full-wave rectifier bridge and filtered to produce a high voltage DC signal. The high voltage DC signal is processed through a pulse width modulated (PWM) controller and transformer assembly to generate the low voltage, regulated DC output voltage, which is used as the operating potential for the semiconductor components and other devices requiring low voltage DC supply in the electronic equipment. The low voltage DC signal is typically in the range of 1 to 12 VDC. In other cases, a DC/DC power supply receives a high voltage DC signal and provides the low voltage DC signal necessary for the electronic equipment.
Power supplies are well-known to generate heat during normal operation. The energy transfer process across the transformer as well as switching losses in the power transistor are primary sources of the heat generation in power converters. In an effort to dissipate the heat, power supply manufacturers have mechanically attached heat sinks on individual components, e.g. pressure fit metal fins on the power transistor package, and utilized cooling fans to increase air flow across the unit. The heat sink increases the surface area of the heat generating device. The cooling fan increases air flow across the surface area of the heat generating device to dissipate the heat into the surrounding air.
As electronic equipment increase in functionality, there is less room for overhead functions like power supplies. This is particular true in telecommunication systems. The original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) demand more power from dimensionally smaller power supplies, or power supplies which at least are not proportionally larger. The heat generation is one factor limiting the operational parameters and power rating which can be achieved with conventional power converters.
A need exists for a power supply having a higher power rating without increasing its feature size or ambient operating temperature.

Integral molded heat sinks on DC-DC converters and power supplies


A hidden lock locked to an inner side of a doorplate comprises a top seat assembly; a top rod; the top seat assembly being assembled to the top rod; a linking rod installed to a lower side of the top rod; a lower rod; a lower head; a top seat assembly; a resisting unit. The connecting shaft having a groove, plurality of slots, a plurality of holes, an upper engaging tube and a lower engaging tube. A bent stop is extended from the resisting unit. When a top rod reduces inwards, the stop will resist against a neck of the top rod to prevent a lower head to contact the ground. A pin device is installed for retaining the lock in high temperature.

For preventing fire accident in high building, fireproof doors are widely installed between different floors. Generally, the locks of the fireproof doors are installed in the doorframes and have very complicated structures so that the manufacturing processes are tedious. Furthermore, the lock is difficult in operation and is easy to have faults. Especially, when the fireproof door is opened, a lower protruded head will protrude upwards due to a compression of a spring so that it will contact the groove with the movement of the door. Not only the ground is worn and the door will be destroyed. Furthermore, generally, the fireproof door is closed, when fire accident occurs.
In general design, in high temperature, the buckling studs will not reduce inwards and then the fireproof doors will not open automatically so as to prevent the expansion of fire. This is the main function of the fireproof door.

Hidden lock locked to an inner side of a doorplate


A method includes performing a search method to determine a pair of receiver path correction signals, performing the search method to determine a pair of transmitter path correction signals, and using the pairs of receiver path and transmitter path correction signals to suppress a carrier signal. An apparatus includes a first pair of summers, an upconverter circuit coupled to the first pair of summers, a multiplexer coupled to the upconverter circuit, to a ground, and to an RF front end, a downconverter circuit coupled to the multiplexer, a second pair of summers coupled to the downconverter circuit, and a correction circuit coupled to the first and second pairs of summers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of communications. More particularly, the invention relates to radio frequency (RF) communications.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Quadrature modulation techniques enable two independent signals to be combined at a transmitter, transmitted on the same transmission band, and separated at a receiver. The principle of quadrature modulation is that two separate signals, I and Q (In-phase and Quadrature phase), are modulated by using the same carrier wave frequency, but the carrier wave of signal Q is 90° out of phase relative to the carrier wave of signal I. After modulation, the resulting signals are summed and transmitted. Because of the phase difference, the I and Q signals can be separated from each other when the summed signal is demodulated at the receiver.
In practical applications, quadrature modulator circuit elements in the baseband (I and Q) channels may present electrical mismatch and produce undesirable DC offsets. Since the baseband paths are DC coupled, all individual DC offset errors may add up and produce a combined effect in the form a carrier feedthrough at the modulator output, degrading the quality of the transmission.
Present attempts to solve these problems have used separate, dedicated RF detectors to improve transmission quality, but this has resulted in increased system cost and higher current drain.

Method and apparatus for RF carrier feedthrough suppression


A display apparatus having a front substrate that is a display panel, a rear substrate disposed at a predetermined distance apart from the front substrate and facing the front substrate, the rear substrate comprising a back light unit, and a cooling device to remove heat generated by the rear substrate. The cooling device includes an actuator disposed between the front substrate and the rear substrate, the actuator to generate an ion wind using a voltage, a transparent electrode installed to face the actuator and which is grounded, a plurality of supports to support ends of the actuator, and a high-voltage power source to apply a voltage to the actuator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a display apparatus having a cooling device that removes heat to cool the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most display apparatuses that have recently been developed are flat display panels, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Flat display panels may be manufactured to be thinner and have a wider screen than general display apparatuses that use cathode rays, which require space in a thickness direction.
Much heat is generated in such a flat panel since the display apparatus operates by accelerating electrons onto a fluorescent surface to generate light. Thus, a cooling device is needed in order to remove heat generated in the display apparatus. Conventional cooling devices may employ a natural convection method or a forced convection method that ventilates an area by using a fan. However, the natural convection methods have low cooling efficiencies, and the forced convection methods generate noise and vibrations due to fan use. Accordingly, there is a demand to develop a cooling device that overcomes the problems of conventional cooling devices and has high cooling efficiency.

Display apparatus having a cooling device


A semiconductor having an optimized insulation structure which is simple and inexpensive to produce and can be made smaller than LOCOS insulation structures is disclosed. An implantation mask on a surface of a semiconductor substrate is used to implant elements into the semiconductor substrate, which elements, on thermal activation, form an insulation region together with the further elements of the semiconductor substrate. The thermal activation is effected by means of laser irradiation, during which the semiconductor substrate is briefly melted and then recrystallizes during the subsequent cooling, so that the implanted elements form the insulation region together with the further elements of the semiconductor substrate.

Reducing the size of semiconductor components is of crucial importance in the development of new generations of semiconductor technologies. By reducing the dimensions of the semiconductor components, it is possible to increase the integration density on a semiconductor chip and therefore to achieve a cost saving, which is an important development objective. However, insulation structures which provide an electrical insulation, for example between adjacent semiconductor components, in an ever smaller space are required in order to reduce the component dimensions.
The selective oxidation of silicon is an insulation process that is in widespread use in the field of silicon semiconductor technology. This is also referred to as LOCOS (LOCal Oxidation Of Silicon) and is used above all as suitable insulation between components.
A typical process sequence used to form LOCOS regions includes, for example, first of all growing a thermal oxide with a thickness of, for example, 50 nm on a silicon substrate, followed by subsequent production of a nitride layer with a thickness of, for example, 140 nm on the thermal oxide. The nitride layer on the thermal oxide can be patterned by means of a plasma etch. This uncovers the regions in which field oxide regions are to be formed during the subsequent oxidation. In the regions in which the nitride remains in place, the nitride acts as a barrier and prevents oxygen diffusion during the oxide growth. Since nitrogen-oxygen compounds also form on the nitride during the field oxidation, etching of the oxide is also required prior to the wet-chemical removal of the nitride mask, for example using phosphoric acid, but this involves undesirable thinning of the field oxide. On account of the lateral diffusion of the oxygen under the diffusion barrier nitride, the result is the "bird's beak" that is characteristic of a LOCOS structure. However, the dimensions of the bird's beak have to be taken into account in the design rules which are intended to ensure the process reliability and manufacturing suitability of a semiconductor technology, consequently resulting in relatively large fin and spacer regions. A fin with a typical lateral extent of 3.6 μm and a distance between adjacent LOCOS root points of 1.2 μm results for a LOCOS structure with a thickness of, for example, 600 nm. A reduction in the lateral dimensions of an insulation structure, for example in the case of a semiconductor technology with CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) and DMOS (Double Diffused Metal Oxide Semiconductor) components would have the effect of saving space during the formation of edge terminations, the separation between transistors, between highly doped n-type and p-type connection zones and between gate and drain regions.
In semiconductor technologies with features sizes in the range of 0.5 μm and below, what is known as shallow trench isolation (STI) constitutes another way of achieving higher integration densities of electrical insulation regions. A typical process sequence used to form a shallow trench isolation includes, for example, first of all anisotropically etching a trench into a semiconductor substrate, followed by thermal oxidation in order to oxidize out radiation damage. The trench is then filled, for example with the aid of a CVD oxide (CVD: chemical vapour deposition), e.g. with a HDPCVD oxide (high density plasma CVD oxide). The filling of the trench is followed by a planarization step, e.g. using CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing). Therefore, what remains is a trench which has been filled with oxide up to the surface of the semiconductor substrate. Shallow trench isolation can achieve smaller dimensions of the insulation structures compared to LOCOS insulation, but is associated with higher costs on account of the trench etch and the CMP.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.

Semiconductor having optimized insulation structure and process for producing the semiconductor


A liquid crystal drive device having a differential-type input circuit including a differential amplification stage for receiving a differential signal and a buffer stage for generating an output signal on the basis of an output of the differential amplification stage, the liquid crystal drive device for receiving a signal of display data via the input circuit and outputting a signal for driving a liquid crystal panel on the basis of the display data, wherein a liquid crystal driving voltage VLCD larger than a power supply voltage VCC for logic to be supplied to the operation voltage buffer stage is supplied to the differential amplification stage of the input circuit. A standby function of interrupting an operation current of the differential amplification stage in a period where no display data is received is provided.

Liquid crystal drivers for driving a data line of a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) liquid crystal panel used as a display in a notebook-sized computer or the like include a liquid crystal driver for receiving digital display data of 6 bits per pixel at high speed and generating 384 liquid crystal driving output voltages in 64 tones on the basis of the digital data. In recent years, as a interface for transmitting/receiving digital data at high speed in such a liquid crystal driver, an LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling) interface or a small amplitude differential signal interface as a derivative standard of the LVDS interface is used. By using such a small amplitude differential signal interface, as compared with the case of applying a CMOS level interface or the like, power consumption and electromagnetic interference (EMI) of input/output signals can be reduced.
FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of an MOSFET as an example of a small amplitude differential signal interface examined by the inventors herein and the like before achieving the present invention.
The small amplitude differential signal interface includes, for example as shown in FIG. 5, a differential amplification stage 61 for amplifying a difference voltage of input differential signals, a driving stage 62 for increasing an output voltage from the differential amplification stage 61 by a level shifting circuit 62a and for generating a signal on the output side on the basis of the output voltage, and an output stage 63 for driving a load connected to the output side and outputting a signal of a predetermined amplitude. The differential amplification stage 61 has a constant current MOSFET Q61 which is connected to a common source of a pair of differential input MOSFETs Q62 and Q63 and supplies constant current. A direct current flowing in the differential amplification stage 61 is controlled by the constant current MOSFET Q61.
For a small amplitude differential signal interface or a semiconductor chip having the interface, there are a request for a wider fluctuation permissible width of a center voltage of input differential signals and a request for lower power consumption by decreasing a power supply voltage for logic which is supplied to the semiconductor chip.
However, in the small amplitude differential signal interface, a power supply voltage VCC for logic supplied to the driving stage 62 and the output stage 63 is commonly supplied to the source of the constant current MOSFET Q61 provided for the differential amplification stage 61. Therefore, when the power supply voltage VCC is decreased, a gate-source voltage Vgs of the MOSFET Q61 for constant current also decreases.
A drain current in a saturation region in an MOSFET is expressed by the following equation (1).I=β(W/L)(Vgs−Vth)2   (1)
where β denotes a constant, W denotes a gate width, L indicates a gate length, and Vth indicates a threshold voltage.
As understood also from Equation (1), if the gate-source voltage Vgs decreases, a problem such that when the threshold voltage Vth is deviated from a reference value due to variation in process of the MOSFET, the variation exerts a large influence on the current value I and a problem such that a gate width has to be increased to pass the same current occur.
When the power supply voltage VCC is lowered, the potential of the common source of the differential input MOSFETs Q62 and Q63 also decreases. A current passed to the differential amplification stage 61 also relatively largely changes due to fluctuations in the center voltage of input differential signals YP and YN and current consumption and circuit characteristics change. It causes a problem such that the fluctuation permissible width of the center voltage of the input differential signals YP and YN cannot be also widened.
Further, when the potential of the common source of the differential input MOSFETs Q62 and Q63 decreases, the output voltage from the differential amplification stage becomes low and a problem such that the level shifting circuit 62a has to be provided for the driving stage 62 at the post stage. However, a direct current has to be passed to the level shifting circuit 62a, so that current consumption increases accordingly. It is therefore generally designed so that the direct current passed to the level shifting circuit 62a becomes small. When designed in such a manner, however, the rising of a signal in the level shifting circuit 62a becomes slow, and a problem such that signal delay time increases occurs.
From the above, it was found that, in the semiconductor integrated circuit having an input circuit as shown in FIG. 5, the power supply voltage VCC for logic cannot be set to be too low. As a result, there is a problem such that the power consumption of the semiconductor chip cannot be reduced.
An object of the invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit and a liquid crystal drive device having a differential circuit capable of realizing a wider fluctuation permissible width of a center voltage of input differential signals and reducing power consumption.
Another object of the invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit and a liquid crystal drive device realizing a wider fluctuation permissible width of a center voltage of input differential signals and lower power consumption by decreasing a power supply voltage for logic.
The above and other objects and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the description of the specification and the attached drawings.

Semiconductor integrated circuit, liquid crystal drive device, and liquid crystal display system


An engine torque sensory system (10), adapted for use with an engine-driven vehicle (12) having a flexplate (18), including at least one sensor (26) fixedly attached on the surface of the flexplate (18) and operable to detect deformations along the surface of the flexplate (18) caused by the generated engine torque, and further including a receiver (28) communicatively coupled to the sensor (26), spaced from the rotating flexplate (18), and operable to convert sensor readings to correlative engine torque values.

Engine torque sensors have been developed to help regulate and optimize various aspects of motor-driven vehicular performance. For example, to improve automotive vehicle driveability in powertrain applications, it is desirable to coordinate engine and transmission control functions. Transmission control algorithms in powertrains use torque information from the engine controller under a wide variety of powertrain operating conditions to improve shift quality, fuel economy, and drivability. Engine torque sensing is used to improve other aspects of performance, such as cold-start driveability, combustion optimization, and cylinder-balancing.
For internal combustion engines, in-cylinder pressure sensors have traditionally been utilized to estimate engine torque as a function of the pressure gradient during compression and power strokes. Other more complex modules have also been developed to estimate engine torque utilizing various combinations of sensors. For example, the in-cylinder pressure sensor may be combined with manifold pressure, air-flow, ambient pressure, and air temperature sensors to generate a cooperative engine torque estimation system. The limited accuracy and reliability of these estimation modules, however, present fidelity concerns that impede high performance engine and transmission control strategies currently prevalent in automotive vehicles. As subsystems, including those related to emissions, fuel economy and driveability, become increasingly more complex, their proper performance require more accurate torque determination, making conventional engine torque estimation methods insufficient to achieve the stated goals of new powertrain control strategies.
To achieve the objectives of faster and more efficient powertrain calibration, control, engine-transmission matching and improved driveability, direct engine torque sensors of laboratory quality have been developed in recent years. These sensory systems typically include a crankshaft-mounted sensor that directly measures the torque-induced strains in the crankshaft. For example, conventional crankshaft-mounted strain gauges have been electronically coupled to a communication bus through a series of slip-rings, insulators, and brushes. Another example includes a magnetoelastic application, wherein the crankshaft is elongated, and at least a portion of the crankshaft is initially magnetized. In this configuration, a collar sensor measures changes in the magnetic flux of the magnetostrictive material.
Conventional direct engine torque sensors, however, present various packaging, cost, performance, and reliability concerns. First, these sensors are relatively complex and expensive to produce in comparison to other vehicle components, and therefore, have yet to become fully implemented in the mass production of automotive vehicles. Another obstacle to mass production is the lack of required space on or near the crankshaft for sensor integration in production vehicles. No earlier attempts at installing the sensor on the crankshaft have led to a method viable for mass production, as they require significant engine modifications. Finally, the limited bandwidth typically presented in these sensors provide insufficient capabilities for optimization tasks, such as shift point optimization or spark timing control on an individual-cylinder individual-event basis for the full range of engine operating conditions.

Method and apparatus for engine torque sensing


This invention is data processing apparatus and method. Data is protecting from corruption using an error correction code by generating an error correction code corresponding to the data. In this invention the data and the corresponding error correction code are carried forward to another set of registers without regenerating the error correction code or using the error correction code for error detection or correction. Only later are error correction detection and correction actions taken. The differing data/error correction code registers may be in differing pipeline phases in the data processing apparatus. This invention forwards the error correction code with the data through the entire datapath that carries the data. This invention provides error protection to the whole datapath without requiring extensive hardware or additional time.

Memories and registers are exposed to radiation that can introduce soft errors in both the memory bit cells and the flip flops. This causes the content of the memory or the flip flops to be corrupted, which often causes device failure. The probability of such a soft error corruption in flip flop increases with increased integration and smaller manufacturing technologies. The percentage of FIT rate (Failure in Time over billion seconds) that is directly related to such soft error corruption in the flip flops is on the rise.
Conventional solutions to this problem include adding ECC (Error Correction Code) to the memory bit cells. This requires extra hardware logic to detect and correct errors on every read to the memory. This logic adds to the latency of memory accesses causing an overall degradation in performance. Conventional solutions for errors in discrete registers includes using specially designed and radiation hardened flip flops or using flip flops with ECC or parity built into them. Each of these conventional solutions adds gates to the flip flop and has a negative impact on the area and speed of the design.

Protection of memories, datapath and pipeline registers, and other storage elements by distributed delayed detection and correction of soft errors


Apparatus for use in an operating theatre equipped with a surgical table, comprises a lifting frame (12) attachable to the surgical table and adapted for lifting a body part of a subject undergoing a surgical procedure upon the surgical table, and comprising an upright support post (18) incorporating a jack (54), and a lifting arm (17) pivotally mounted upon the post, whereby the arm can be turned about the upright support post on thrust bearing (57) to either overhang the surgical table, or be pivoted away to permit access to the surgical table. The arm is adapted to support a retractor that comprises a blade portion incorporating a plurality of independent lighting devices positioned in light ports (71, 72, 73) and configured to provide discrete illumination selectively to zones within the surgical field according to (a) a predetermined sequence program, or (b) a sequence determined by a user of the retractor.

In most incidences of thoracic surgery, including cardiovascular surgery, the operation necessitates the surgical division of the patient's sternum, such that the thoracic basket, or rib cage, can be prised apart. The division of the rib cage allows the surgeon access to the patient's thoracic cavity.
To effect the division of the sternum, generally, the patient's sternum is split by the use of a chest saw, and the two halves held apart using a retractor.
From the clavicle downwards, there are three main parts of the sternum—the manubrium, body and the xiphoid process. The three parts form the middle portion of the anterior wall of the thorax. The manubrium supports the clavicles, and the peripheries of the manubrium and body support the first seven pairs of ribs.
Conventional open-sternum surgery inflicts significant patient trauma and discomfort, requires extensive recuperation times, and may result in life-threatening complications.
Incisions made over the chest are especially painful. The pain is unavoidable because movement exacerbates pain and the chest moves with respiration.
A significant amount of blood is typically lost from the raw surfaces of the two sides of the cut sternum. The need for blood transfusion is therefore relatively high.
Heat loss from wet surfaces is significant from open sternal wounds.
Chest incisions made through splitting the sternum only heal as fast as the fracture in the breastbone can heal. It typically takes several months for the bone to unite fully.
In some patients the fracture does not heal or becomes infected. This leads to long-term problems with stability of the chest cage or life threatening sepsis.
Furthermore, when the rib cage is divided using a conventional prior art sternal spreading retractor, more stress is placed on the shorter upper ribs than the longer lower ribs sometimes resulting in broken ribs.
Finally, the division of the chest can also lead to patients suffering from neurological disorders following open chest surgery, such as numbness in the hands.
To mitigate the damage that can be caused to the smaller upper ribs, which are connected to a neurologically important part of the plexus, surgeons have attempted to formulate more satisfactory ways of dividing the sternum and holding it thus.
One such idea has been to position the retractor in a lower position on the sternum to minimise damage to the weaker upper ribs. Such positioning has been found to result in less rib breakages, but the uneven pressure of the placement occasionally causes sternal fracture, leading to complications such as increased bleeding during surgery, and the need for repeated surgery to correct the sternal damage.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide minimally invasive chest cavity access through a neck incision, which has many potential benefits:                Less pain and trauma        Less bleeding        A smaller incision        Less heat loss during surgery        Reduced risk of infection        Decreased length of stay in hospital post procedure        Decreased recovery time
Incisions made in the neck fall outside of the area of the body that moves with respiration so a wound here is inherently less painful. In addition it is easy to infiltrate the neck area with local anaesthetic. This can abolish pain altogether.
Less pain means less need for analgesia. The latter have side effects including sedation at higher doses. The reduced requirement for analgesia will enable patients to waken from anaesthesia more quickly and to breathe spontaneously.
Heat loss from wet surfaces is much less from a small neck incision than an extensive open sternal wound.
Blood loss will be minimal through a small neck incision in comparison to open sternal incisions. Because no bone is divided and bone marrow is not exposed.
Neck incisions heal more quickly than conventional open-chest incisions. This is because they are smaller and the skin and soft tissues of the neck have a much better blood supply than those over the chest. The latter also reduces potential infections.
The present invention obviates or mitigates the foregoing deficiencies of the prior art devices and methods.


A travel power adapter system includes a base unit and a plurality of adapter assemblies. The base unit provides an integral prong configuration associated with an intrinsic electrical plug standard. Each adapter assembly provides a prong configuration associated with a different extrinsic electrical plug standard. The base unit provides a base recess that the integral prong configuration can pivot into in a nested condition. Each adapter assembly provides coupling sleeves dimensioned to slidably receive, in a first direction, the plurality of prongs in the nesting condition, forming an operative association between the base unit and the prong configuration of the adapter assembly, enabling an electrical connection to a receptacle or socket associated with the extrinsic electrical plug standard. The adapter assembly provides a locking unit that engages a locking slot of the base recess, thereby preventing the adapter assembly unintentionally moving in the reverse first direction.

The present invention relates to electrical power adapters and, more particularly, to a travel power adapter system embodying an adapter base unit provide in an integral prong configuration associated with an intrinsic electrical plug standard with a track and slide configuration for operatively associating the integral prong configuration interchangeably with one of a plurality of adapter assemblies. Each adapter assembly enables interconnection of the integral prong configuration to an electrical receptacle or socket of an extrinsic electrical plug standard different than that of the intrinsic electrical plug standard. Furthermore, there is a locking engagement that can be formed between the adapter assembly and the base unit preventing unintentional disengagement of the adapter assembly and the base unit when removing the adapter assembly from the electrical receptacle or socket.
Portable electric-powered and electronic devices are ubiquitous. Such devices may run on AC current from a receptacle, run on a battery in need of recharging via an AC current from such receptacles, or run on a DC current that can be adapted from an AC current from such receptacles. As a result of their portability, such devices may need to be electrically coupled to various types of receptacles as a user travels from country to country, where each receptacle has a different extrinsic electrical plug standard than the intrinsic electrical plug standard of the integral prong configuration of the device in question.
As can be seen, there is a need for a travel power adapter system enabling an operative association between the intrinsic electrical plug standard of the base unit and the native extrinsic electrical plug standard (e.g., prong configuration, power rating, and frequency) by way of one of a plurality of adapter assemblies that operatively associates the native extrinsic prong configuration with the integral prong configuration of the base unit. The system embodied in the present invention provides a track and slide configuration to enable such operative association condition.
Currently, there are adapter assemblies on the market for portable electric-powered and electronic devices; however, many of these adapter assemblies have a "horizontal oriented" design (i.e., the adapter assembly operatively engages the integral prong configuration of the base unit in the same direction that the extrinsic prong configuration of the adapter assembly engages the electrical receptacle or socket), and as a result of being engaged (slid in and out) in the same direction, the adapter assembly remains inserted when the base unit is pulled out of the native extrinsic electrical receptacle or socket. This is not very convenient.
In order to improve the above problems, a vertical oriented design for the adapter assembly-base unit engagement has been designed. This vertical oriented design enables the integral prong configuration of the adapter base unit to initially be pivoted from a non-nested condition ninety degrees to a nested condition so that when the adapter assembly engages the integral prong configuration in a first direction, the extrinsic electrical plug standard of the adapter assembly engages the electrical receptacle or socket in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. Thus, when the base unit is pulled out of the electrical receptacle or socket, the adapter assembly does not come off the base unit, stuck in the electrical receptacle or socket.
However, there is still a need for improvement in such designs, because the removal of the base unit from the electrical receptacle or socket (especially if not in a straight line, which may demand a user to stoop down or move themselves into another uncomfortable position) may easily generate a vertical (reverse first direction) component force that the adapter assembly to slide from integral prong configuration, risking disconnection and possibly damage to the integral prong configuration and/or the adapter assembly.


In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method and apparatus for detecting a moving speed of a mobile terminal in a mobile communication utilizing time division multiple access system, wherein a measurement is made for a variation in delay of a burst radiowave received from the mobile terminal with reference to a transmission burst signal before a calculation of a moving speed of the mobile terminal is made on the basis of the measured variation in the delay.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for detection of a moving speed of a mobile terminal in mobile communication.
There has been known a method of detecting a moving speed of the movable terminal at a radio base. In this case, the detection of the moving speed is made with reference to a detected value of a received electric field. This technique is, for example, disclosed in the Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 8-33031. In detail, a radio-wave is emitted from the mobile terminal and then received in the radio base for detection of an input level of the received radio-wave. As described in Japanese laid-open patent publications Nos. 8-33031 and 3-104330, the input level of the received radio-wave is in the fading state due to strain of a transmission line. The moving speed is detected from the result of detection of the received electric field with such intense variation in the following manners.
First, center values of the received electric field levels are calculated for every time durations .DELTA.t which are constant in order to determine short time duration center value Rm. Second, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the determined short time duration center value Rm is compared to a threshold value R in order to count the number of divisions of the threshold value R by the determined short time duration center value Rm. Third, a moving speed is calculated from the above counted number in a unit time T (T >>.DELTA.t).
As the moving speed of the mobile terminal is high, a fading pitch is increased by Doppler-effect whereby the number of division of the threshold value R by the determined short time duration center value Rm is increased. The detection of the moving speed of the mobile terminal is made by utilizing those phenomenons.
If, however, a time division multiple access system is used where the received electric field is inputted in burst state, then the accuracy of detection of the moving speed is deteriorated on the following grounds. In case of frequency division multiple access system, the radiowave received in the base is continuous wave. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the moving speed is measured by detecting the number of division of the threshold value R of the fading pitch for a unit time duration. However, the most of the recent mobile communication systems are the time division multiple access system, wherein the radiowave received in the radio base is in the burst state. In this case, the measurement is possible discontinuously but only between the bursts. This results in drop of probability of the detection of the fading pitches by which the threshold value R is divided whereby the accuracy of detection of the moving speed is deteriorated.
In the above circumstances, it had been required to develop a novel method and an apparatus for detecting a moving speed of a mobile terminal in a mobile communication utilizing time division multiple access system, which is free from the above problems.

Method and apparatus for detection of a moving speed of a mobile terminal in mobile communication


Given a set of data for which a conservation law is an appropriate characterization, “hold” and/or “fail” tableaux are provided for the underlying conservation law, thereby providing a conservation dependency whereby portions of the data for which the law approximately holds or fails can be discovered and summarized in a semantically meaningful way.

The present invention relates to data analysis and, more particularly, to situations in which a "conservation law" exists between related quantities.
Given a pair of numerical data sequences—call them a and b—and an ordered attribute t such as time, the quantities obey a conservation law when that the sum of the values in a up to T equals the sum of the values in b up to T, for all t=T. Thus, current flowing into and out of a circuit node obeys a conservation law because the amount of current flowing into the node equals the amount of current flowing out.
Thus in accordance with the present invention, we have recognized that even when two numerical sequences do not strictly obey a conservation law, it can be useful to carry out a conservation-law-based analysis of such data and, more specifically, to generate data indicating the degree to which the conservation law is or is not obeyed or satisfied. Examples of such pairs of sequences are a) the number of inbound packets at an IP router versus the number of outbound packets; b) the number of persons entering a building versus the number of persons leaving; and c) the dollar value of the charges run up by a group of credit card holders versus the payments made by those credit card holders
We have thus recognized that a conservation law is often an abstract ideal against which real data may be calibrated. Short-term deviations naturally occur from delays and measurement inaccuracies (credit card holders carry a balance; two people who enter a building at the same time may leave at different times, packets entering an IP router may be buffered therein and may thus encounter delays between the router input and output ports, etc.). Major violations may be caused by unusual phenomena or data quality problems; e.g., the reported number of people entering a building may be consistently higher than the number of people leaving (via the front door) if there exists an unmonitored side exit.
We have thus further recognized that it would be useful to discover for which portions, or "subsets," of the data a conservation law approximately holds (or fails) and to summarize them in a semantically meaningful way. Such a summarization allows one to, for example, quantify the extent of missing or delayed events that the data represents.
To this end, and in accordance with an aspect of the invention, we define what we call a conservation dependency. A conservation dependency is, in essence, an underlying conservation law coupled with a tableau. The tableau provides information about the degree which particular subsets of the data do or do not satisfy the underlying conservation law, the former being referred to as a "hold tableau" and the latter being referred to as a "fail tableau." Specifically, a hold tableau identifies subsets of the data (e.g., ranges of time for a time-ordered sequence of data) that satisfy the underlying conservation law to at least a specified degree, or "confidence." By contrast, a "fail" tableau identifies subsets of the data that do not satisfy the underlying conservation law to at least a specified degree. Which type of tableau is the more useful for understanding properties of the data will depend on the nature of the data.
Consider, for example, sequences of credit card charges and payments over time for a given bank. In a general sense, the aggregate amount of charges over time tends to be equal to the aggregate amount of payments because most people pay their bills. Thus the conservation law "charges=payments" is an appropriate model to consider when analyzing such data. However, the aggregate of charges up to any given point in time are going to exceed the aggregate of payments up to that same point in time because of payment grace periods and other factors such as spending habits. Thus in this setting the conservation law "charges=payments" holds only approximately.
That being said, seeing, through a tableau such as that shown FIG. 5, the degree (confidence) to which the conservation law "charges=payments" is or is not satisfied can help the bank understand customer patterns. Specifically, the appearance in a fail tableau of particular time periods (corresponding to subsets of the data) for which the data's confidence is below some level ĉ means that the conservation law is relatively unsatisfied during those time periods, meaning, in turn, that during those time periods the total outstanding balance owed to the bank is relatively high. Thus seeing from the fail tableau that the conservation law "charges=payments" is relatively unsatisfied during the holiday shopping season in November and December would be a confirmation that that is a time when people regularly fall behind on payments. Or seeing from a fail tableau that, for a given confidence level ĉ, there are more time periods in recent years versus less recent years where outstanding balances are high would suggest that people are having an increasing difficult time keeping up with their debts.
More rigorously, assume a data set comprising a pair of numerical sequences a={a1, a2, . . . ai, . . . an} and b={b1, b2, . . . bi . . . bn} with ai, bi≧0 and for which the ith pair of values, (ai, bi), is associated with the ith value, ti, of an ordered attribute t={t1, t2, . . . ti, . . . tn}.
Given such a data set, the invention provides a tableau which comprises one or more subsets of values of the ordered attribute t that meet at least a first specified criterion, that criterion being is that, for at least a specified fraction ŝ of the data set, a confidence measure for the pairs of values associated with each subset in the tableau is a) at least equal to a confidence value ĉ (when we want to provide a hold tableau and b) no more than a confidence value ĉ (when we want to provide a fail tableau). The confidence measure for the pairs of values associated with each subset in the tableau is a measure of the degree to which those pairs of values deviate from an exact conservation law for the data in question.
In illustrative embodiments of the invention, the confidence measure for the pairs of values {(ai, bi), (ai+1, bi+1), . . . , (aj, bj)} for any interval {i, i+1, . . . , j}, is a function of an area between two curves A={A1, A2, . . . Ai, . . . An} from a where A0=0 and Ai=Σj≦Iaj and B={B1, B2, . . . Bi, . . . Bn} from b where B0=0 and Bi=Σj≦Ibj. That area, in particular is the area between a segment of curve A between Ai and Aj and a segment of curve B between Bi and Bj.


An example system for a performance gains predictor includes a counter engine to determine a number of events during an application session of a computing system utilizing a first processor, a metrics engine to calculate a number of metrics for the first processor based on the number of events, a factor engine to determine a number of factors of the first processor that can affect the number of metrics based on an evaluation of the computing system, and a performance engine to predict a performance change of the computing system utilizing a second processor based on the number of factors.

Computing systems (e.g., computer, server, datacenter, etc.) can utilize hardware and software to perform a number of functions. For example, the computing systems can utilize processors to execute instructions. Updates to hardware of the computing system can be an important investment for the owner or manager of the computing system. In deciding whether to update hardware it can be important to understand the benefits and detriments that the updates may provide.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A technique to verify, evaluate, and estimate the performance of an integrated circuit is embodied in a computer software program that is executable by a computer system. The technique accurately estimates of the performance (e.g., transient delays) of an integrated circuit, and has fast execution times. The technique is applicable to small circuits having relatively few transistors, and especially well suited for integrated circuits having millions of transistors and components. The technique handles the effects of deep-submicron integrated circuit technology.

This application includes a microfiche appendix having 5 sheets and a total of 404 frames. This microfiche appendix contains a C++ source code listing.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates to the field of electronic design automation (EDA) software, and more specifically, to techniques of verifying, evaluating, and estimating the performance of integrated circuits.
Integrated circuit technology is a marvel of the modem age. Integrated circuits are used in many applications such as computers, consumer electronics, networking, and telecommunications. There are many types of integrated circuits including microprocessors, microcontrollers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), gate arrays, programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), erasable programmable read only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read only memories (EEPROMs), and Flash memories. Integrated circuits are also sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cchips.xe2x80x9d
Integrated circuit technology continues to rapidly advance. Automation tools are needed to simplify and expedite the task of designing an integrated circuit. It is important to be able to accurately predict or estimate the performance of an integrated circuit before the integrated circuit is fabricated. Techniques are needed to provide accurate, fast estimates of the performance of an integrated circuit.
As semiconductor processing techniques continue to improve, the performance of integrated circuits also continues to improve. Deep-submicron integrated he circuit technology has enabled commercial multimillion transistor commercial integrated circuits operating at, for example, 500 megahertz. High clock frequencies require the ability to reliably analyze the performance of circuits with little tolerance for error. A 10 percent tolerance in a performance estimate of a 500 megahertz design equates to a margin of 200 picoseconds, which is 0.200 nanoseconds. In other words, there is little room for error in performance estimation.
In addition to accuracy, capacity, and speed are also important considerations for any performance estimation technique. For example, time-to-market pressures demand performance analysis tools with the ability to obtain an accurate snapshot of the performance of a 10-million-transistor design within a day so that system architects can make meaningful architectural tradeoffs without having to wait for days to obtain an accurate result.
As can be seen, techniques are needed to predict and estimate the performance of integrated circuits, especially fast and efficient techniques that provide accurate results for integrated circuit designs with a large number of transistors.
The present invention provides a technique for the performance verification, evaluation, and estimation of integrated circuits. In an embodiment, the technique of the present invention is embodied in a computer software program that is to be executed by a computer system. In particular, the technique facilitates accurate estimates of the performance (e.g., transient delays) of an integrated circuit and has fast execution times. Although applicable to small circuits having relatively few transistors, the technique is especially suited for integrated circuits having millions of transistors and components.
The technology of the present invention is broadly applicable to custom, semicustom, and high-performance integrated circuits. The present invention may be used to accurately estimate the performance of all the paths of an integrated circuit. When used in designs operating in the 250 megahertz to 1 gigahertz range, and greater, the software of present invention can provide results within a design tolerance of about two percent.
Further, the present invention handles the complexities of integrated circuit technology, including deep-submicron effects. To achieve such tight tolerances, the performance estimation technique handles the deep-submicron effects of RC-interconnect and transistor interaction, cross-coupling capacitance, simultaneous-switching, and waveform shape. These effects are dynamic in nature and traditional techniques of static transistor-level path analysis or library-based approaches cannot incorporate these dynamic effects. The present invention provides significantly more accurate performance estimates for deep-submicron designs compared to other techniques such as static path analysis.
Since the present invention uses a dynamic simulation approach, it is able to incorporate cross-coupling capacitance, simultaneous-switching, and waveform shape effects with results that are comparable to Spice-level simulation. The present invention also produces fewer false paths with resulting savings in designer time and effort. A divide-and-conquer approach enables the present invention to deal with very large designs, with turnaround times of under a day for 10-million-transistor designs.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the performance of an integrated circuit is estimated by partitioning a netlist into strongly coupled components (SCCs). A plurality of vectors is generated for each of the strongly coupled components. Strongly driven nodes are determined for each SCC. Vector pairs are sequenced and accurate simulation is performed on each strongly coupled component. The result is an accurate estimate of the performance of the integrated circuit, covering all the paths. Moreover, strongly coupled components and the simulation results obtained during a first execution of software of the present invention are saved in a database. During subsequent executions, these saved strongly coupled components and the simulation results are reused for those strongly coupled components that are unchanged, saving considerable time.
Other aspects of the present invention include tighter integration between timing analysis and characterization by including Boolean information and automatic elimination of global (block-level) false paths.
In an embodiment, the invention is a method of evaluating the performance of an integrated circuit. A netlist or circuit description is partitioned into strongly coupled components. A number of vectors is generated for the strongly coupled components. The strongly driven nodes are determined. Stimulus is generated for the strongly coupled components. A strongly coupled component includes a first channel-connected component and a second channel-connected component. The first channel-connected component influences a Boolean output of the second channel-connected component, and the second channel-connected component influences a Boolean output of the first channel connected component. A strongly driven node includes a logical element driving the node with a drive strength greater than another logical element driving the same node.
In another embodiment, the invention is a computer program product including a computer usable medium with computer readable code for causing an evaluation of the performance of an integrated circuit. The computer program product includes computer readable code devices configured to cause a computer to effect partitioning a netlist into strongly coupled components; computer readable code devices configured to cause a computer to effect generating a plurality of vectors for the strongly coupled components; and computer readable code devices configured to cause a computer to effect determining strongly driven nodes.
The invention is further a method of estimating the performance of an integrated circuit design including selecting a circuit block of the integrated circuit design. The circuit block may be described in a Spice or netlist format. A logic function is obtained for a node of the circuit block. In a specific embodiment, the logic function includes four subfunctions f0, f1, f0xe2x80x2, and f1xe2x80x2. Using the logic function, a set of vectors is determined that switch or transition the logic function at the node. A table is formed including the set of vectors.
In a further embodiment, the invention is a method of estimating the performance of an integrated circuit design including making a first estimation of the performance of the integrated circuit design. During the first estimation of the performance of the integrated circuit design, a database is created to store estimated performance results for the integrated circuit design. A second estimation of the performance of the integrated circuit design is made. During the second estimation of the performance of the integrated circuit design, the database is read. The stored estimated performance results from the database of at least a portion of the integrated circuit design are used, where the performance results for the portion of the integrated circuit design was estimated during the first estimation.
The invention includes a method of estimating the performance of an integrated circuit design including selecting a circuit block of the integrated circuit design. A logic function for a node of the circuit block is obtained. Using the logic function, a set of vectors is determined that will switch the logic function at the node. A table including the set of vectors is formed.
The invention includes a method of estimating the performance of an integrated circuit design including dividing the integrated circuit design into channel-connected components, where a channel-connected component includes nodes and transistors reachable by tracing source-drain connections of the transistors. Channel-connected components are identified that are connected in a feedback loop, where a feedback loop of channel-connected components includes an output of a first channel-connected component driving an input of a second channel-connected component and an output of the second channel-connected component driving an input of the first channel-connected component. Channel-connected components connected in a feedback loop are merged together to form first strongly coupled components.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which like reference designations represent like features throughout the figures.

Method of estimating performance of integrated circuit designs


The present disclosure provides a fixture for assembling a light strip and a back plate in an edge-type backlight module. The back plate includes a bottom plate and a lateral side, the light strip includes a base plate and an LED lamp, and the base plate of the light strip is connected to the lateral side of the back plate. The fixture includes a stopper, which includes a stopping slot for allowing the lateral side of the back plate and the light strip to pass therethrough. A bottom of the stopper is of a planar structure and is in close contact with a surface of the base plate away from the bottom plate of the back plate.

There is a very narrow upright edge reserved for a light-emitting diode (LED) in an edge-type backlight source, so it is very difficult to secure a light strip onto a design position when assembling the light strip. For an ultrathin design, there is a very small reserved tolerance for a thickness of the backlight source, and any tiny assembly deviation of the light strip will adversely affect an optical value of the backlight source.

Fixture for assembling light strip and back plate

BEIJING BOE CHATANI ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


A picture signal encoding method in which a picture string produced by converting non-interlaced pictures into sets of field pictures each beginning from the first field of each interlaced picture and another picture string produced by converting non-interlaced pictures into sets of field pictures each beginning from the second field of each interlaced picture are combined together to an input picture signal for encoding, is disclosed. The method includes a detection step of detecting a lone field not constituting the non-interlaced picture in the input picture signal, and an encoding step of re-constructing the picture string of the input picture signal and encoding the resulting non-interlaced picture string.

This invention relates to a picture signal encoding method and apparatus, applied to encoding for recording or transmission of moving picture signals, a signal recording medium having the encoded picture signals recorded thereon, and a picture signal decoding method and apparatus for decoding the encoded picture signals.
In a system for transmitting moving picture signals to remote places, as in a teleconference system or television telephone system, line correlation or inter-frame correlation of picture signals is employed for compression encoding of picture signals. When recording moving picture signals on a recording medium, such as a magneto-optical disc or a magnetic tape, and reproducing the recorded signals for display on a display unit, line correlation or inter-frame correlation of picture signals is utilized for high-efficiency compression encoding of picture signals for improving the recording efficiency on the recording medium.
That is, if desired to record the digital video signals of an extremely large information volume on a recording medium of small size and small recording capacity for prolonged recording time, means need to be provided for high efficiency encoding and recording of video signals and for high efficiency decoding of the read-out signals. Thus a high-efficiency encoding system, exemplified by a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) system, exploiting the correlation of video signals, has been proposed for responding to these requirements.
FIG. 1 shows a prior-art example of the system configuration for encoding and decoding moving picture signals using the MPEG system.
In FIG. 1, a field picture supplied from a video tape recorder (VTR) 151 is converted by a scan converter 152 into a frame picture which is encoded by an encoder 153. With the MPEG system, inter-frame differences are found of the video signals for lowering redundancy along the time axis. Subsequently, orthogonal transform techniques, such as discrete cosine transform (DCT), are employed for lowering redundancy along the spatial axis, thereby efficiently encoding video signals. The encoded information may be recorded on a recording medium 154.
For reproducing a recording medium, having recorded thereon high-efficiency encoded signals, reproduced signals are processed by a decoding unit 155 by, for example, inverse orthogonal transform, for deciding a frame picture, which is then converted by a scan converter 156 for display on a monitor 157.
It is assumed that a film picture, obtained from a film picture, by a tele-cine technique using so-called 2-2 pull-down, is supplied from a VTR 151.
The 2-2 pull-down is a tele-cine technique extensively used in converting 24-picture-frame-per-second film pictures into 25-frame-per-second or 50-field-per-second video signals in accordance with the so-called phase alternation by line (PAL) system. This system consists in reading out each picture frame of a film in two video fields by interlaced scanning.
Since the two fields thus read out are read out from the same picture frame, the two fields converted into a frame structure may be handled as a non-interlaced frame. That is, this frame is equivalent to a frame obtained by reading out a picture film of a film with a video frame by non-interlaced scanning.
In general, a non-interlaced frame is higher in line-to-line correlation in the vertical direction than the interlaced frame and hence is higher in redundancy and frame encoding efficiency than a interlaced frame.
If 2:2 pull-down is performed regularly for the totality of the picture frames of the film, the frames entering an encoder 3 are necessarily non-interlaced frames, so that the frame encoding efficiency is high and hence no problem is presented.
If, with the conventional encoding system, a picture string converted from the non-interlaced picture by the so-called telecine operation by interlaced pictures is processed such as by editing, the encoding efficiency tends to be lowered. That is, if video signals, containing irregular 2:2 pull-down patterns due to subsequent processing such as field editing, are supplied from the VTR 151, the frame entering the encoder 153 is not necessarily the non-interlaced frame, so that, with the conventional encoder, the frame encoding efficiency is undesirably lowered. This will be explained by referring to FIGS. 2 and 3.
In FIG. 2A, non-interlaced pictures NF, such as picture frames of a motion picture, are converted by 2:2 pull-down of the tele-cine processing into interlaced pictures of, for example, the so-called PAL system. The sequence of the non-interlaced film pictures shown in FIG. 2A is converted by so-called telecine operations into a sequence of interlaced pictures of which each frame begins with a first field (top.sub.-- field), as shown in FIG. 2B. That is, the sequence shown in FIG. 2B is a sequence of frames CF each made up of the first field Ft and a second field Fb in this order. Conversely, the sequence of the non-interlaced picture NF of FIG. 2C is converted into a sequence of interlaced pictures of which each frame begins with a second field (bottom field), as shown in FIG. 2C. That is, the sequence shown in FIG. 2D is a sequence of frames CF each made up of the second field Fb and the first field Ft in this order.
If these sequences are combined together at edit points T.sub.E1, TE.sub.2, as shown, there is produced an irregular sequence which disrupts paired fields corresponding to the sequence of the non-interlaced pictures NF in the original picture, as shown in FIG. 2E. In the example shown in FIG. 2E, a lone field F.sub.x is produced directly at back of the edit point T.sub.E.
The sequence shown in FIG. 2E adversely affects the picture encoding efficiency, as now explained by referring to FIG. 3.
The irregular sequence shown in FIG. 2E is encoded during encoding as frames of combined rectangular frames CP as shown in FIG. 3A. If the frame encoded corresponds to the combination CP.sub.1 constituting the non-interlaced frame of the combination CP.sub.1 of the original picture, the encoding efficiency is high, as shown in FIG. 3B. Conversely, with the combination CP.sub.2 other than the correct combination of the non-interlaced picture NF, the picture contains strong high-frequency components in its edge portion, as shown in FIG. 3C, despite the fact that the original picture is the non-interlaced picture, thus lowering the encoding efficiency. In FIGS. 3B and 3C, the encoding efficiency is lowered in the case of a picture representing a true circle shifted transversely in the transverse direction.
As a technique for efficiently encoding a picture produced by tele-cine processing as described above, there has hitherto been proposed a method consisting of removing repeated fields from the 2:3 pulled down pictures and subsequently constructing the frames so that the input frames will become non-interlaced frames. However, the lone field not constituting the non-interlaced frame, produced by the irregular 2:2 pull-down as described above, is different from the iterative frame produced by 2:3 pull-down, and hence this technique cannot be employed for solving the problem.

Picture signal editing and encoding method and apparatus, signal recording medium and picture signal decoding method and apparatus


A novel system and method of video assisted music instrument collaboration over distance. The system and method enable a musician to play a music instrument at one location and have the played music recreated by a music instrument at another location is provided. The system and method can be used to provide distance education for musical instrument instruction and, in this case, each student and instructor of the system has an end point which can connect to other end points in the system to exchange music data, preferably MIDI data, and videoconferencing data through a data network such as the Internet. The system and method can also be used for performances wherein a musician at a first end point plays an instrument and music data, representing the music played, is transferred to a second end point where the music played at the first end point is reproduced and one or more other musicians at the second end point play with the reproduced music in a musical performance. Preferably, each end point includes a music processing engine which buffers data received from another end point to remove the effects of transmission delays and jitter and to discard overly delayed data and to prevent damage to the music instrument at the end point due to undue network delays. Further, the music processing engine can inform the users when network performance is responsible for improper and/or undesired music playback by the instrument at the end point. This buffering by the music processing engine can also allow the synchronization of a video conferencing system between the end points with the playing of music by the instruments at the end points.

Music instrument instruction, at all but the most modest levels of music education, requires a great deal of direct collaboration between the student and the instructor. As a student becomes more proficient at their instrument and their art, the level of instructor required to further advance the student also advances. As will be apparent, instructors capable of teaching students at the higher instruction levels are in short supply and under great demand. Conventionally, this has required students at higher levels to move to locations where such high level instructors are available. If the student is not able to move to such a location, access to high-level instructors will not generally be available to them.
Also, collaboration between musicians located at different locations for the purposes of performing has been desired for many years.
The general availability of data communications networks, such as the Internet, has recently led to a great deal of activity in the education space and especially in the area of distance education. Educational instruction of various types is now available over the Internet by way of video (prerecorded or streaming), interactive Java™ applets, class notes, assignments, voice and video conferencing, etc.
While such network-enabled distance education programs have been very well received, to date there has been no system or method to provide the necessary collaboration for real time music instrument instruction, in a distance education environment, or performance.
Specifically, musical instrument instruction requires a very high degree of collaboration between the instructor, the student, the instructor's musical instrument and the student's musical instrument. The collaboration required includes the need for each of the instructor and student to be able to observe each other, speak to each other and hear each other and to be able to interact with each other's instrument in real time. Musical performance requires a similar degree of collaboration between the musicians at each location. To date, no system or method has been available for providing the necessary collaboration through a data network.
Previous attempts have been made at providing collaboration between musicians at different locations through a data network, but these previous attempts have not been directed to the provision of real time music instruction between an instructor and a student or to real time collaboration between performing musicians.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,872 to Neumann et al. teaches a system of remote computers which allow musicians at various locations to play together. Instrument data, in the form of MIDI data, is sent via TCP packets from each musician's instrument to each other musician. The packets of MIDI data have a timestamp appended to them from a standard system clock, synchronized across the locations, as well as a predetermined value representing the delay experienced by data traveling across the network. Each location receives the packets, and time orders them according to the clock and delay, after which the MIDI data can be processed by an instrument at the location and the local musician can play his instrument with the instrument playing the received MIDI data.
Despite statements to the contrary in the patent, the system taught by Neumann does not support collaborative performance between musicians as it assumes that the point-to-point delay through the network is constant. In many networks, such as the Internet, jitter (which is the change in the transmission delay experienced by packets moving through the network) is a significant factor which cannot be ignored with time sensitive information such as music data, as very small time-based variations will be perceived by most musicians and/or audience listeners. Further, no provision is made by Neumann et al. to allow other synchronized interaction, such as audio and video conferencing, between the users at each network location. Thus, Neumann et al. does not teach a system or method capable of being used to enable collaboration between musicians for music instrument instruction or performances.
It is also desired to have a system and method which would permit one or more musicians at one location to collaborate and perform with at least one musician at another location.

System and method for video assisted music instrument collaboration over distance


A jig for inspecting a display module, the display module including a display module body and a lug, the jig including a bottom plate and a cover plate, the cover plate operatively covering the bottom plate; the bottom plate being provided with a first flat portion and the cover plate being provided with a second flat portion, wherein the bottom plate is provided with a first concave portion surrounded by the first flat portion, and/or the cover plate provided with a second concave portion surrounded by the second flat portion, the first concave portion and/or the second concave portion form(s) a receiving area for the display module body, and the first flat portion and the second flat portion are configured to clamp the lug.

Technologies for electronic display are more and more mature, and display modules are widely used in laptops, cell phones, televisions, and the like.
In the related art, the display modules usually comprise a display panel and a backlight module. The backlight module further comprises lugs. The lugs are disposed on two opposite sides of the backlight module and extend outward, and are configured to fix the display module to an application device. At present, the deformation of the lugs is inspected by manual detection. However, there is no reference standard, and at the same time, each lug needs to be inspected, which leads to excessive inspection time and even leads to missed detection.

Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A semiconductor memory device includes first conductive lines on a substrate, an interlayer insulating layer with a plurality of via holes on the substrate, second conductive lines on the interlayer insulating layer, and a resistive memory material in the via holes and electrically connected to the first and second conductive lines, the resistive memory material having a vertically non-uniform specific resistance profile with respect to the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor memory device with a resistive memory material layer exhibiting improved operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of non-volatile memory devices in portable digital appliances, such as digital cameras, mp3 players, personal digital assistants (PDA), and cellular phones has rapidly expanded. Flash memory devices are widely used as the non-volatile memory for such applications. A typical flash memory device cell comprises single floating gate MOS transistors, which may provide a highly integrated memory device at low cost.
However, as further reduction of manufacturing costs and higher integration of memory devices is desired, development continues on new memory devices that may overcome the limits of conventional flash memory devices. For example, memory devices have been developed having a memory cell structure using a resistive memory material.
The resistive memory material refers to a material with at least two stable resistive state. Application of an electrical pulse to the resistive memory material may generate heat, thereby setting the resistive memory material into an amorphous state or into a crystalline state with respect to its resistive state. The resistive memory material may have a high electrical resistance in an amorphous state and a low electrical resistance in a crystalline state. The resistive state may be reversibly switched, and the difference of resistances between the amorphous and crystalline states may be used to detect an operational state of the semiconductor memory device, e.g., a programming state or a deletion state.
However, an increased degree of integration of the semiconductor memory device may require a reduced gap between adjacent conductive lines, i.e., a reduced gap between adjacent intersection points of the first and second conductive lines. Such a reduced gap may trigger thermal interference, i.e., transfer of heat generated in the resistive memory material, between adjacent intersection points of the first and second conductive lines. For example, operational portions of the resistive memory material, i.e., portions at a state of programming and/or deletion, may transfer heat to adjacent non-operational portions of the resistive memory material. Such thermal interference may trigger, e.g., operation of non-operational portions of the resistive memory material by conversion thereof from an amorphous state into a crystalline state, thereby generating erroneous memory device operation.

Semiconductor memory device and method of manufacturing the same


Techniques are provided for enhancing the audio component of streamed media provided by an application on a computing device, referred to collectively herein as an enhance audio mode. The mode may be configured to enhance audio by adjusting the volume gain during playback of streamed media from a specific application (e.g., Netflix or Pandora). In some cases, detection of playback from a specific media streaming application may be based on detection of a system file update, which may occur, for example, in a user space level. In some cases, the volume gain adjustment may be applied by an audio codec included with the computing device, which may occur, for example, in a kernel space level. The volume gain adjustment may be determined by analyzing the amplitude of the audio component of media streamed from a specific application relative to the speaker(s) included with the computing device.

Electronic computing devices such as tablets, e-readers, mobile phones, smart phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are commonly used to provide a user with consumable content. The content may be, for example, an eBook, a web page, an online article or blog, images, a movie or video, or a map, just to name a few types. The computing devices may include one or more speakers to provide audio to a user. Such computing devices may also be useful for displaying a user interface that allows a user to interact with the device, its applications, and its content. The computing device may also include a touch sensitive surface/interface for receiving user input, such as a touch screen or a track pad. The user interface may include, for example, one or more touch screen controls and/or one or more displayed labels that correspond to nearby hardware buttons. A touch screen display may or may not be backlit, and may be implemented, for instance, with a light-emitting diode (LED) screen or an electrophoretic display.

Enhanced audio component in streamed media