A liquid crystal composition having material properties for an STN mode, a low threshold voltage, a small temperature dependency thereat, a high stability to heat and ultraviolet rays, and a small frequency dependency of a dielectric anisotropy (xcex94xcex5) at a low temperature. The liquid crystal composition comprises a first component of the formula (1), and a second component selected from the general formulas (2-1) to (2-4), without any liquid crystalline compound having a dielectric anisotropy value (xcex94xcex5) of 5 or more and three or more six-membered rings, as another component:

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nematic liquid crystal composition and a liquid crystal display element. More particularly, it relates to a liquid crystal composition suitably usable for a liquid crystal display element using a super twisted nematic (STN) display mode, and a liquid crystal display element using this liquid crystal composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
As liquid crystal display modes, there have been proposed a twisted nematic (TN) mode, a supertwisted nematic (STN) mode, an active matrix mode, etc., which have been practically utilized one after another. Among these modes, the STN mode proposed by T. J. Scheffer et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett., 45 (10), 1021 (1984)] wherein the alignment of liquid crystal molecules in the upper and lower substrates is twisted at an angle of 180xc2x0 to 270xc2x0 has been adopted in liquid crystal display elements for personal computers and the like.
In recent years, the STN mode has been also used in liquid crystal display elements for potable information terminals such as electric pocket notebooks and small size note type personal computers which are often used outdoors.
The general characteristics required for the STN mode have been the following paragraphs (1) to (4), but for a liquid crystal material usable for the STN mode of outdoor use, the following characteristics of the paragraphs (5), (6) and (7) are further required.
(1) To make a steepness (xcex3) in a voltage-transmittance curve (a V-T curve) of a liquid crystal composition close to 1 as much as possible, for the purpose of attaining a high contrast of a liquid crystal display element.
(2) To lower a viscosity (xcex7) of the liquid crystal composition as much as possible, for the purpose of shortening a response time of the liquid crystal display element.
(3) To permit taking a suitable optical anisotropy (xcex94n) of the liquid crystal composition in accordance with a cell thickness of the liquid crystal display element, for the purpose of attaining an optimum contrast of the liquid crystal display element.
(4) To exhibit a nematic phase of liquid crystal composition within a wide temperature range, for the purpose of expanding a temperature range of an environment where the liquid crystal display element is used.
(5) To lower a threshold voltage (Vth) of the liquid crystal composition, and to reduce a temperature dependency (xcex4) of the threshold voltage of the liquid crystal composition, for the purpose of reducing the size of a battery which is a power source for driving the liquid crystal display element.
(6) To exhibit a high stability of the liquid crystal composition to heat and ultraviolet rays, for the purpose of preventing the deterioration of the liquid crystal composition to semi-permanently maintain a display quality of the liquid crystal display element.
(7) To reduce a frequency dependency of a dielectric anisotropy (xcex94xcex5) in a low temperature range, i.e., to exhibit a constant value of xcex94xcex5 in a higher frequency range (a large value of F10 which will be mentioned below), for the purpose of enabling the display at a low temperature range (xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C. or lower).
As the liquid crystal compositions for use in the STN mode having a relatively low threshold voltage and a relatively good temperature property at the threshold voltage (i.e., a small temperature dependency), there are mentioned compositions described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 300582/1995, 300585/1995, 300584/1995, etc.
These liquid crystal compositions disclosed therein, however, have a drawback that they are poor in the stability to heat and ultraviolet rays, as shown in comparative examples of the present application. In addition, WO 96/11897 aims to provide a novel liquid crystalline compound having a large dielectric anisotropy and a remarkably low viscosity as a liquid crystalline compound for a low voltage in the various modes including the active matrix mode and the STN mode, and a liquid crystal composition containing the same. Herein, there is disclosed a composition containing a compound having xe2x80x94CF2Oxe2x80x94 as a bonding group and 3,5-difluoro-4-cyanophenyl as a terminal group (Composition Examples 19 to 22). Composition Example 19 disclosed herein is similar to the composition of the present invention, but as shown in the comparative example of the present application, it still has the drawbacks of a bad steepness, a high threshold voltage and a large temperature dependency at the threshold voltage.
As mentioned above, the various liquid crystal compositions have been investigated, but as for the liquid crystal composition for the STN display mode of the outdoor use, it is now required to satisfy the properties of the above paragraphs (5) and (6) in addition to the properties of the above paragraphs (1) to (4).
Furthermore, in the use for a mobile phone and the like, it is intended to perform a high duty for the purpose of expansion of displaying capacity. Accordingly, an actual driving frequency becomes higher and higher. As the driving frequency becomes higher, the movement of the liquid crystalline molecules at a low temperature cannot follow the change of the frequency of voltage, so that some serious problems rise, for example, a ghost phenomenon occurs, and the display is impossible owing to the decrease of contrast. In order to avoid such an insufficient display, there is more and more strongly required the liquid crystal material having an excellent frequency dependency (a small frequency dependency) of xcex94xcex5 at a low temperature range mentioned in the above paragraph (7), i.e., the liquid crystal material capable of maintaining a constant value (of xcex94xcex5) up to a higher frequency.
The specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 251186/1998 discloses, in Examples 46, 47 and 49, the liquid crystal compositions extremely similar to those of the present invention, but these compositions do not solve the problem of the present invention that a frequency dependency of xcex94xcex5 in a low temperature range mentioned in the above (7) is to be improved as shown on the comparative example below.
The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal composition which satisfies general properties required for an STN mode and which especially has a low threshold voltage, a small temperature dependency thereat, a high stability to heat and ultraviolet rays, and a small frequency dependency of a dielectric anisotropy (xcex94xcex5) at a low temperature.
The present inventors have extensively investigated compositions using various liquid crystalline compounds in order to solve the above problem, and as a result, it has been found that the problem can be solved by a composition comprising two specific components of a first component and a second component, and further excluding a specific component as another component therefrom. Thus, the present invention has now been achieved on the basis of the finding.
The liquid crystal compositions of the present invention will be described by the following paragraphs (1) to (4).
(1) A liquid crystal composition comprising:
a first component comprising a compound represented by the general formula (1), and
a second component comprising at least one compound selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by the general formulas (2-1), (2-2), (2-3) and (2-4), without any liquid crystalline compound having a dielectric anisotropy value (xcex94xcex5) of 5 or more and three or more six-membered rings, as another component:
wherein R1 represents an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms in which one methylene group may be replaced by an oxygen atom or xe2x80x94CHxe2x95x90CHxe2x80x94; R2, R3 and R4 each independently represent an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms in which one methylene group may be replaced by an oxygen atom or xe2x80x94CHxe2x95x90CHxe2x80x94 and one or more hydrogen atoms may be substituted by fluorine atoms; R5 represents an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms in which one methylene group may be replaced by an oxygen atom; R6, R7 and R9 each independently represent an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms; R8 represents an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms in which one methylene group may be replaced by an oxygen atom; A1, A2, A3 and A5 each independently represent a trans-1,4-cyclohexylene group or a 1,4-phenylene group; A4 represents a 1,4-phenylene group or a 1,4-phenylene group substituted by one to four fluorine atoms; Z1 represents xe2x80x94Cxe2x89xa1Cxe2x80x94 or a single bond; m and n each independently represent an integer of 0 or 1; and X1, X2, X3, X4 and X5 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a fluorine atom.
(2) A liquid crystal composition according to the above-mentioned (1) wherein the contents of the said first component and the said second component are 5 to 50% and 10 to 85%, respectively, with respect to the total weight of the liquid crystal composition.
(3) A liquid crystal composition according to any one of the above-mentioned (1) and (2), which further contains a third component comprising a compound represented by the general formula (3)
wherein R10 represents an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms in which one methylene group may be replaced by an oxygen atom or xe2x80x94CHxe2x95x90CHxe2x80x94; A6 represents a trans-1,4-cyclohexylene group, a 1,4-phenylene group or a 1,4-phenylene group substituted by one to four fluorine atoms; Z2 represents xe2x80x94COOxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94C2H4xe2x80x94 or a single bond; and X6 and X7 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a fluorine atom.
(4) A liquid crystal composition according to the above-mentioned (3), wherein the contents of the said first component, the said second component and the said third component are 5 to 50%, 10 to 85%, and 5 to 40%, respectively, with respect to the total weight of the liquid crystal composition.
A liquid crystal display element of the present invention is shown by the following paragraph (5).
(5) A liquid crystal display element comprising the liquid crystal composition according to any one of the above-mentioned paragraphs (1) to (4).

Liquid crystal composition and liquid crystal display element

Abstract: wherein R1 to R8, A1 to A5, Z1, m, n and X1 to X5 are defined in the specification.


A system for securely storing data in a memory includes a memory (1) and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) (2). The memory is divided into a plurality of fixed-size blocks (10) for storing data. Each block includes a plurality of data pages (101), and a parity check page (102) storing check codes for checking and recovering byte data. Each data page includes a plurality of byte addresses for storing byte data including a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check), and a complement of the CRC in the hexadecimal system expressed as CRC′. The CPU is for calculating a CRC for each data page according to byte data of the data page, calculating a CRC′ based on the CRC of the data page, and for identifying and correcting any incorrect bit data. A related method is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic memory systems, and especially to a system and method for securely storing electronic data in a memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
A traditional storage medium in a computer system is the hard disk. More recently, hard disks have begun to be replaced by non-volatile semiconductor memories. An array of non-volatile random-access memories (NVRAMs) or non-volatile flash memories can substitute for hard-disk memory storage. The memory devices use electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) technology for storage cells. Floating polysilicon gates in these storage cells remain charged and intact when power is lost, providing non-volatile storage. These flash-memory systems are frequently used as a mass-storage replacement for a hard disk of a personal computer. Although these memories can store data when power is lost or when operation of the computer is improper, the correct data in a memory may be overlaid. In other words, there is no guarantee that the data stored is correct.
The art of memory storage has been described in publications such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,566 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Correcting a Multilevel Cell Memory by Using Interleaving" and issued on Mar. 19, 1998. This patent provides an apparatus and method for correcting errors in multilevel cell memory. The multilevel cell memory comprises multilevel cells for storing two or more data bits, with the data bits being sorted into two or more data words. Error correction codes are generated for each of the two or more data words, and are provided for checking for errors in the data words, and for correcting any errors found. However, operating the method in the memories expends considerable time and resources. In addition, the accuracy of error checking and error correcting is not high. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for securely storing data in a memory which can overcome the above-described problems of unwieldiness and inexactness.

System and method for securely storing data in a memory


The process, in which there is carried out localized surface metallization of pieces of composite material, of the type covered on their surface with a layer (CC) of an electrically conductive material, itself coated with an electrically insulating protective layer (P) such as paint or the like, is characterized in that in line with each zone of said painted surface dedicated to a hole to be metallized, there is carried out a scraping off down to the conductive layer (CC), with the help of a metallic edge pressed resiliently and moved over the surface of the piece, stopping of the scraping off being controlled consecutively upon reaching or exceeding a predetermined threshold of electrical conduction between the conductive layer (CC) and the metallic edge and, finally, the various holes of the piece are pierced and shaped.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the localized surface metallization of pieces of composite material and more particularly of pieces, particularly adapted to be mounted on aircraft, constituted of a composite material covered with a layer of an electrically conductive material to protect against lightning or against too strong electric charges for example, and, of a protective coating of the surface of said metallic layer, formed by a layer of paint, of anodization, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
After producing by moulding, these pieces are then pierced in different locations to be able to be fixed to the place to which they are destined. Certain of the pierced points will be used as contact points for grounding.
As the pieces are painted or coated with an electrically insulating corresponding protective layer, it is necessary to free the periphery of the selected holes to expose the electrically conductive layer, this operating being called metallization. This has been done until now by a long, difficult and costly process which consists in the following steps:
moulding the composite piece with the layer of conductive material at the surface (generally a metallic sheet of aluminum or bronze for example).
piercing/shaping of holes with the aid of a computer-controlled machine.
manually masking, with the aid of small sticky dots, the holes before undergoing metallization.
painting the piece, the term xe2x80x9cpaintingxe2x80x9d here meaning, as well as in the description which follows, any protective coating covering the conductive layer of the piece.
unmasking the holes and manually removing the dots.
manually clearing the holes that were not masked (non-metallized holes) to open the holes filled with paint.
manually finishing of the holes to be metallized. This last operation is delicate, long, difficult and adapted to cause defective metallization.
Thus, despite the presence of the dots, the paint leaks even under the dots, thus forming a layer of paint at the periphery of the holes to be metallized. It is thus necessary to scalp this periphery to remove any trace of paint, as well as any portion of the resin of the composite material adapted to cover the conductive layer, generally a metallic cloth which is embedded at least partially in said resin.
This exposure of the conductive layer is carried out by a worker who introduces into the bore the free end of a metallizing brush driven in rotation and strips the peripheral region of the opening of the bore. Then, visually, the worker verifies the work that has been carried out. If paint remains, he does it again. Generally, he repeats a large number of times for a same piece, with the risk of going too far, which is to say also removing pieces of the conductive layer. The integrity of this latter is thus lessened, which risks degrading the quality of the electrical contact later established for the purpose of grounding.
The risk of damaging the integrity of the conductive layer is not small, in contrast to the layer of paint which itself is very thin, the piece being moreover most often contoured, such that in the same region there can be found, in one place, some paint, and a little ways away, a portion of removed conductive layer.
Such a process thus gives rise to long production cycles and variable quality, in addition to the cost arising from the skilled work of the metallization.
So as to overcome these drawbacks, various paths have been followed, such as improvement of the metallizing brushes, the use of various assemblies of metallizing brushes, or else recourse to sanding or abrasives.
None of these techniques is a completely satisfactory solution to the problems of metallization, particularly because of the requirement for the use of visual examination by the worker and the risk, present no matter what the means used, of going too far in removing the paint.
The present invention has precisely the aim of solving these problems by providing a metallization process adapted to carry out automatically optimum metallization, which is to say with controlled exposure, if desired total exposure of the conductive layer, without impairing the physical integrity of this latter.
To this end, the invention has for an object a process for localized surface metallization of pieces of composite material, of the type covered with a surface layer of an electrically conductive material, itself coated with an electrically insulating layer, such as paint or the like, characterized in that after moulding of said piece of composite material with said conductive surface layer, all the surface of said paint or the like is coated on the conductive layer side of the piece, then, in line with each region of said surface dedicated to a hole to be metallized, there is carried out a scraping off or leveling until the conductive layer is exposed, with the help of a metal edge that is pressed resiliently and moved against the surface of the piece, the end of the scraping off being controlled consecutively upon reaching or exceeding a predetermined threshold of electrical conductivity between said conductive layer and said metallic edge and, finally, the various holes of the piece are pierced and shaped.
Such a process can be practiced by a computer-controlled machine carrying out all the steps of said process, automatically, and on pieces that can have complicated shapes, particularly irregular surfaces.
The invention also has for its object a metallizing tool particularly suited for carrying out scraping off or leveling according to the above process.
This tool, more particularly adapted to be mounted on a milling head of a multi-axle digitally-controlled machine, is constituted by a rotating spindle provided at its end with a transverse arm carrying at one end a counterweight and at its other end a tool-carrying arm articulated on said transverse arm about an axis orthogonal to the axis of the spindle, said tool-carrying arm being turned toward said axis of the spindle and carrying a plate of carbide or the like, positioned so as to form a negative cutting angle and to define a scraping edge whose one end is in line with the axis of the spindle, return means being provided between the transverse arm and the tool-carrying arm resiliently to press the plate or the like against the surface to be scraped off, said plate being electrically connected to a contact detector which itself is connected, on the one hand, to the conductive layer of the piece to be metallized by a removable connection and, on the other hand, to the digital control of the multi-axle machine, said detector comprising a current generator and controlling the stopping of said rotatable spindle when it reaches or exceeds a predetermined threshold of intensity of current flowing between the conductive layer and the plate.
Said threshold of current intensity is of course variable and depends particularly on the quality of metallization that is sought.
When the carbide plate touches the conductive material of the piece, the current passes and the intensity of this current is a good indicator of the degree of stripping of the conductive layer.
Preferably, the carbide plate is mounted on the arm oscillatingly, by an axle about which the plate can pivot so as continuously to match the surface to be scraped off, particularly when it is convex or concave.
According to one embodiment, the electrical connection between the plate and the contact detector is effected by an electrical conductor connecting the plate to a collector arranged on the rotating spindle and in contact with a brush itself connected to said detector.
Preferably, such a connection can be divided for detecting anomalies in this connection, for safety purposes.

Method for providing metallized areas on surface by electrically detecting removal of insulating layer


A powder feeding assembly for feeding a flame-melting device is disclosed. The powder feeding assembly includes a powder holding chamber with a screening member and a brush assembly disposed therein. The brush assembly includes at least one bristle element having a distal and a proximal end. The distal end is disposed proximate to the screening member. Powder held in the powder holding chamber is urged through one or more openings in the screening member by rotating the brush assembly. The powder is then delivered to an input section of the flame-melting device for processing.

Flame-melting is a process whereby powders are fed into a device that uses high temperature to transform the particles into crystalline and/or amorphous materials. Powders are fed into the flame-melting device by powder feeders such as vibratory, screw, twin-screw, drum, and gas suspension feeders. These feeders can be used to deliver powder feed stock to the flame-melting apparatus at a controlled rate. Feed rate is typically controlled volumetrically or by a mass loss. In the feeder types currently used, when feeding fine powders that have less than ideal flow properties, difficulties are encountered. First, transporting the powder in a continuous, stable manner without bridging (as described in the following paragraph) is a concern. Second, supplying the powders within a given size or particulate range without significant agglomeration is also a concern.
In many instances, when feeding powders (i.e., powders that lack free-flow properties) through a feeder, such as a screw or a vibratory feeder, the powders may pack to a high density and form a packed bed that further limits the transport of powders. Such packing typically results in a situation where the powder is removed from the powder bed where the screw makes physical contact with the powder bed, but the remainder of the powder remains packed. This packing forms a structure that inhibits flow (i.e., "bridging" occurs). When bridging occurs, either the powder transport ceases, or it becomes intermittent (when pieces of this dense pack break, there is powder transport). This is a highly undesirable situation.
Several of the feeders known today address the first problem by using a combination of various powder transport techniques. For example, a screw-type feeder may be placed on a vibrating platform or include a mechanical mixer within the powder feed container. However, there is still further a need to improve the problem of agglomeration of the powder being fed. Further, for example, although gas atomization aids in reducing agglomeration, the gas flow that accompanies the powder is not always desirable, as the carrier gas flow may interfere with the rest of the process. Furthermore, for example, gas suspension feeders are not typically capable of feeding powders at high rates desired for some processes.
Vibratory feeders tend to have the powders agglomerate into larger than desired sizes, and the feed rate pulsates. Disadvantages of vibratory feeders include, powders agglomerating into undesirable larger sizes, as well as undesirable variable feed rates.
One undesirable characteristic of gas suspension powder delivery systems is that the use of excess carrier gas, an undesired byproduct of the powder feed, tends to cool the flame temperature. This is because a relatively high pressure of gas (i.e., a relatively high carrier gas flow rate) is needed to suspend and carry the powder particles. The result is a relatively low powder concentration in the gas. In addition, there is a practical limit on the amount of powder that can be suspended in the carrier gas, typically depending on the density and particle size of the powder. Therefore, feeders based on gas atomization are generally limited to relatively lower rates of powder feed. Further, the gas used to feed the powder may interfere with the melting of the powder by the flame. For example, the feed gas can mix with the combustion inputs, such as fuel and oxygen, and result in a significantly cooler flame temperature, which is undesirable. This can be especially problematic at higher feed rates.
Using brush feeders, powders tend to agglomerate into larger than desired sizes. Using screw, brush, and atomizer combinations, a screw inside a cylindrical feed shoot transports powder to the rotating brush. Powder is blown out the brush and entrained in gas flow. The disadvantage is that excess gas is needed to suspend the powder and is an undesired byproduct of the feed, and the extra gas can cool down the flame temperature.
Rotating drum feeders also have a problem with the tendency to have the powders agglomerate into larger than desired sizes, and powders often bridge on the rotating drum feeders.
There is a need in the art for a powder feeder that avoids bridging of nonflowing powders, clumping of powders being fed, is capable of breaking down large agglomerates, controls the size of the feed powder particles, while at the same time providing a uniform feed rate.


A system, method and computer program product are provided for generating an application. An interaction with a first application is recorded for capturing a functionality of the first application. An interaction with a second application is also recorded for capturing a functionality of the second application. A pattern is generated based on the recorded interactions. An application is generated based on the pattern. The interactions recorded in the pattern are repeated upon replay of the pattern for providing the functionalities of the first and second applications. A method for executing the pattern-based application is provided. Upon receiving a request for data, a pattern for retrieving the requested data is selected. The pattern is replayed. The recorded interaction is conducted as specified in the pattern for obtaining the requested data. The requested data is received.

The term application is a shorter form of application program. An application program is a program designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program. Examples of applications include word processors, database programs, Web browsers, development tools, drawing, paint, image editing programs, and communication programs. Applications use the services of the computer's operating system and other supporting applications. The formal requests and means of communicating with other programs that an application program uses is called the application program interface (API).
In computing, a program is a specific set of ordered operations for a computer to perform. In the modem computer that John von Neumann outlined in 1945, the program contains a one-at-a-time sequence of instructions that the computer follows. Typically, the program is put into a storage area accessible to the computer. The computer gets one instruction and performs it and then gets the next instruction. The storage area or memory can also contain the data that the instruction operates on. (Note that a program is also a special kind of "data" that tells how to operate on "application or user data.")
Programs can be characterized as interactive or batch in terms of what drives them and how continuously they run. An interactive program receives data from an interactive user (or possibly from another program). A batch program runs and does its work, and then stops. Batch programs can be started by interactive users who request their interactive program to run the batch program. A command interpreter or a Web browser is an example of an interactive program. A program that computes and prints out a company payroll is an example of a batch program. Print jobs are also batch programs.
When a program is created, it is written using some kind of computer language. The language statements are the source program. The developer then "compiles" the source program (with a special program called a language compiler) and the result is called an object program (not to be confused with object-oriented programming). There are several synonyms for object program, including object module and compiled program. The object program contains the string of 0s and 1s called machine language that the logic processor works with. The machine language of the computer is constructed by the language compiler with an understanding of the computer's logic architecture, including the set of possible computer instructions and the length (number of bits) in an instruction.
From the above, it should be apparent that it takes weeks to create an application, even for a skilled programmer. Consider the following example. Company A want to develop an enterprise travel application. The application is to be constantly running, monitoring a human resources database for details on when executives are traveling, then going into a travel site (such as Travelocity.com, etc.) and checking flight times, checking confirmations, etc. The application is also to access a rental car site and make reservations. Upon completing the aforementioned tasks, the application is to allow each employee to check the status of his or her itinerary. The application is also to send alerts to the manager and/or administrative assistant of the employee regarding the travel arrangements.
To create such an application, a developer has to program the application to access several types of databases and gather data, process the data, and send the processed data out to potentially several types of devices (PC, phone, PDA, Blackberry, etc.). One skilled in the art will appreciate the time that must be spent when writing the code for such an application, ensuring that all API's are properly coded to, etc.
What is needed is a method of creating an application quickly and efficiently without requiring the typical weeks and months of coding and debugging.
Another problem inherent in the prior art is that most applications are created for the desktop. In an enterprise situation, a client-server implementation is most typical. However, only one client can interact with a particular session of the software. As modern businesses expand, they will grow to rely on enterprise-wide applications. Thus, pervasive computing will become the rule.
What is needed is a way to provide pervasive (vs. desktop) applications that are accessible throughout an enterprise on various types of devices and via multiple modes of connection.
Web services (sometimes called application services) are services (usually including some combination of programming and data, but possibly including human resources as well) that are made available from a business's Web server for Web users or other Web-connected programs. Providers of Web services are generally known as application service providers. Web services range from such major services as storage management and customer relationship management (CRM) down to much more limited services such as the furnishing of a stock quote and the checking of bids for an auction item. The accelerating creation and availability of these services is a major Web trend.
Users can access some Web services through a peer-to-peer arrangement rather than by going to a central server. Some services can communicate with other services and this exchange of procedures and data is generally enabled by a class of software known as middleware. Services previously possible only with the older standardized service known as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) increasingly are likely to become Web services. Besides the standardization and wide availability to users and businesses of the Internet itself, Web services are also increasingly enabled by the use of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as a means of standardizing data formats and exchanging data. XML is the foundation for the Web Services Description Language (WSDL).
Several companies provide the building blocks for creating Web services. However, one problem inherent in creating Web services is that a developer is limited by the number of building blocks he or she has access to. In other words, the developer has a "fixed menu" of building blocks, and must write code for any additional functionality desired.
What is needed is a methodology for reusing exiting functionality rather than having to create custom applications for each desired function. Such a methodology would allow companies to leverage existing infrastructure, thereby saving money.

System, method and computer program product for application development using a visual paradigm to combine existing data and applications


A method of forming an integrated circuit device comprises forming a metal pillar over a semiconductor substrate. The method also comprises forming a solder layer over the metal pillar. The method further comprises forming a metallization layer comprising a cobalt (Co) element, the metallization layer covering the metal pillar and the solder layer. The method additionally comprises thermally reflowing the solder layer to form a solder bump, driving the Co element of the metallization layer into the solder bump. The method also comprises oxidizing the metallization layer to form a metal oxide layer on a sidewall surface of the metal pillar.

Flip-chip packaging utilizes bumps to establish electrical contact between a chip's Input/Output (I/O) pads and the substrate or lead frame of the package. Structurally, a bump structure contains a bump and a so-called under bump metallurgy (UBM) located between the bump and an I/O pad. A UBM generally contains an adhesion layer, a barrier layer and a wetting layer, arranged in this order on the I/O pad. The bumps themselves, based on the material used, are classified as solder bumps, gold bumps, copper (Cu) pillar bumps and bumps with mixed metals. Recently, copper interconnect post technology is proposed. Instead of using solder bump, the electronic component is connected to a substrate by means of copper post. Compared with solder bump technology, the copper pillar bump technology achieves finer pitch with minimum probability of bump bridging, reduces the capacitance load for the circuits and allows the electronic component to perform at higher frequencies. A solder alloy is still necessary for capping the bump structure and joining electronic components as well.
Cu pillar bump flip-chip assembly has the following advantages: (1) better thermal/electric performance, (2) higher current carrying capacity, (3) better resistance to electro-migration, thus longer bump life, (4) minimizing molding voids—more consistence gaps between Cu pillar bumps. Also, a lower cost substrate is possible by using Cu pillar controlled solder spreading, eliminating lead-free teardrop design. Current process employs a photoresist layer with an opening, and forms a Cu pillar capped with a metal layer cap within the opening of the photoresist layer. However, the formation of the metal layer cap often leads to defects before and/or after the photoresist stripping process. In addition, copper has a tendency to be oxidized during the manufacturing process. Oxidized copper pillars may lead to poor adhesion of an electronic component to a substrate. The poor adhesion may cause serious reliability concerns due to high leakage currents. Oxidized copper pillars may also lead to underfill cracking along the interface of the underfill and the copper pillars. The cracks may propagate to the underlying low dielectric constant (low-k) dielectric layers or to the solder used to bond the copper pillars to the substrate.
A sidewall protection layer is therefore needed to prevent copper oxidation, but the conventional method of processing the Cu pillar sidewall suffers from high process costs and interface delamination issues. Currently, an immersion tin (Sn) process is employed to provide a tin layer on the Cu pillar sidewalls, but there are still concerns regarding process costs, thickness limitations in the immersion Sn layer, adhesion between Sn and underfill, and issues of solder wetting onto sidewalls and solder under-cooling effect, which is a challenge for fine pitch package technology in new generation chips.

Copper pillar bump with cobalt-containing sidewall protection layer

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.


A slicing tool works with a solid modeling system to partition the geometric representation of a three-dimensional part into a series of simpler sub-parts the union of which replicates the original part in a manner that introduces a minimal number of new surfaces in each sub-part and in total. This approach uses the existing analytic surfaces that define the part geometry to partition the part and selects a partition from a quality metric based on the number of trimmed surfaces of the part being partitioned and the candidate sub-parts. This approach greatly reduces the complexity of any downstream solid modeling applications that perform combinatorial surface operations on the geometric representation of the series of sub-parts to analyze physical characteristics such as radiation, mechanical, optical, thermal, structural or biological of the original part.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the partitioning of three-dimensional parts such as mechanical, optical or biological parts into simpler representations to support downstream solid modeling applications that perform combinatorial surface operations on the geometric representations of the series of sub-parts to analyze physical characteristics such as radiation, mechanical, optical, thermal, structural or biological of the original part.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many modern computer-aided processes must subdivide space in and surrounding a solid geometry of a part of interest such as a mechanical, optical or biological part to perform their computations. Such subdivision is a necessary cost of doing business, but can become computationally prohibitively expensive when the geometry becomes even moderately complex. One example of this is radiation transport computation. To model what happens when radiation impinges on a part, the transport application must consider both bounding surfaces (how many particles pass through the surface) and the regions contained by the surfaces (how many particles are absorbed or cause secondary emission of radiation). Traditional simple-minded meshing partitioning would introduce far too many new (unnecessary) surfaces and volumes. Because computational time is a function of the combinations of surfaces, the resulting increase goes as the number of trimmed surfaces, factorial—even a small increase can double or triple the time required. Larger increases rapidly make computation impossibly slow.
Existing partitioning schemes include octrees (see Yerry, Mark A. and Mark S. Shephard "Automatic Three-Dimensional Mesh Generation By The Modified Octree Technique", International Journal For Numerical Methods in Engineering, John Wiley, Num 20, pp. 1965-1990, 1984), bounding boxes and bounding polyhedra. The latter two are often referred to as meshing. Octrees are used recursively, utilizing three perpendicular slice planes along the X, Y and Z planes, respectively, that rotely bisect a bounding box around the part to partition a space into eight regions of equal volume. This approach is simple but generally introduces twenty-four new surfaces for each application of partitioning, which runs counter to the stated goal of not introducing complexity. Bounding boxes are also simple and can use geometric information from the object, but are only good for partitioning rectangular regions. Curved or non-boxlike regions will not become simpler under this partitioning scheme. Bounding polyhedra can also be applied similarly, but unless the region to be partitioned contains geometry congruent to the polyhedra, offers no advantage when trying to simplify.

System and method for partitioning CAD models of parts into simpler sub-parts for analysis of physical characteristics of the parts


The present disclosure relates to the area of assistive technology, and specifically discloses an apparatus and method for teaching proper letter sizing and spacing to autistic children and others having deficiencies in the areas of visual processing, motor control and sensory processing, through the use of a novel writing guide and graduated method for using same.

1. The Technical Field
The present invention relates to assistive technologies and in particular a novel writing guide and graduated system for teaching autistic children or others with handwriting difficulties, proper handwriting skills and specifically, proper letter sizing and spacing.
2. The Prior Art
It is observed that autistic children as well as others having deficiencies in the area of visual processing, motor control and sensory processing often experience great difficulty in mastering handwriting, and specifically, handwriting with proper sizing and spacing between letters. While the prior art discloses devices in the form of writing guides, such guides are typically limited to teaching handwriting by limiting the overall height of individual letters and promoting the writing along a generally straight horizontal line, but do not teach or control the sizing and spacing between individually written letters.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved apparatus for teaching writing skills that addresses sizing and spacing between individually written letters.

Apparatus and system for teaching proper letter sizing and spacing to autistic children and others with deficiencies in the areas of visual processing, motor control and/or sensory processing


An inspection apparatus for tomographing an object includes a moving unit and a rotating unit, which is disposed on the moving unit and rotates the object to be tomographed. A method for tomographing an object includes steps of disposing an object on an inspection apparatus; rotating the object by operating the inspection apparatus; and tomographing the object.

The research on the nondestructive inspection technologies is quite important for the development of industry and trade. These techniques play important roles in the industrial quality management and in the agricultural pest quarantine. For example, in the agriculture, after entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), several countries need the accurate quarantine for the agricultural products and the associated technologies after adopting the globalization. Although the traditional sampling operated by human and the microscopic anatomy inspections are effective, the human errors often occurred under the pressure of fast custom clearance. Besides, it is hard to distinguish whether the surface damage of the fruits is made by the collision or by the pest, and the long-term experiences are necessary for the correct judgment. However, if the perspective images of the internal parts of the fruits acquired by the nondestructive methods are available as the objective quarantine standards, the impact of the damage of pests on agriculture and ecosystem can be avoidable.
Regarding the nondestructive inspection methods, the most frequently used one is X-ray. Therefore, the X-ray tomography becomes one of the most important technologies for the nondestructive methods. When the internal features of the inspected object are complicated or even overlapped and intervened, the general planar scanning cannot provide sufficient resolutions. The tomography can make up this insufficiency and provide the more detailed information to the users. For the industrial applications, the quality control engineer can clearly indentify the internal structures to improve the yield rate; for the agricultural applications, the quarantine officials can easily observe the detail symptoms or the canals bored by the pests. Therefore, the invasion of the alien pests can be avoided, and the edible security can be improved.
However, not every type of the X-ray machines can perform the tomography. Moreover, there are some problems of the professional computerized tomography machines including the mammoth dimensions, expensiveness and unavailability to some operation places.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is the schematic diagram showing the computerized tomography machine of the prior art. The tomography machine 1 includes a bed 10 set up on the floor, and the object 2 to be inspected is disposed on the bed 10. In FIG. 1, the object 2 to be inspected is a person. The tomography machine 1 further includes an emitter head 14 and the sensing element 16, both of which are configured on the rotating rack 12b, which in turn is pivotally configured on the stand 12a. Usually, there is a motor inside the stand 12a for rotating the rotating rack 12b, and the stand 12a is set up on the floor by means of the foundation 12. The tomography machine 1 can obtain the absorption curves of the object 2 with 360 degrees through the rotation of the rotating rack 12b. These signals are used for the reconstruction of the crossing section images. Since the images are based on the object 2, the geometric central axis must be aligned to superimpose the rotating axis 100. Accordingly, the emitter head 14 and the sensing element 16 can accurately rotate around the geometric central axis of the object 2, so the object 2 can be exposed within the irradiation area of the X-ray.
It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the mammoth dimensions of the computerized tomography machine 1 majorly results from the bed 10 and the rotating rack 12b, which occupies the most space. Due to the rotation of the rotating rack 12b, no article can be disposed in the space swept by the rotating rack 12b, otherwise the collisions between the article and the emitter head 14 or between the article and the sensing element 16 will occur. Thus, in order to install the tomography machine 1, the accommodated space can not be too small. However, for the production lines of the products or for the packaging lines and the conveyer belts of the fruits and vegetables, the conventional tomography machine 1 is too big. Furthermore, during the tomographing, the object 2 is moving along the rotating axis 100 so as to obtain the images of 360 degrees in different sections of the object 2. For the human body as the object 2, these sections include chest, head, abdomen, etc. However, the moving way of the object 2 is not applicable to the operation of the production lines. Moreover, the location of the object 2 may interfere with the conveyer belt of the production line, and this condition would cause the inaccurate result of the tomography. In addition, since the dimensions of the emitter head 14 and the sensing element 16 are mammoth, the rotating speed thereof is slow, and it is not cost-effective and applicable for the production lines where the efficiency is highly emphasized.
In order to solve the above mentioned problems, the development team of the present invention has done a lot of analyses on the drawbacks of the conventional technologies. Finally the portable inspection apparatus for x-ray tomography is invented and is able to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional technologies.

Portable inspection apparatus for X-ray tomography


Methods of forming conformal films that reduce the amount of metal-containing precursor and/or silicon containing precursor materials required are described. The methods increase the amount of film grown following each dose of metal-containing and/or silicon-containing precursors. The methods may involve introducing multiple doses of the silicon-containing precursor for each dose of the metal-containing precursor and/or re-pressurizing the process chamber during exposure to a dose of the silicon-containing precursor. The methods of the present invention are particularly suitable for use in RVD processes.

Layers of dielectric film are used in several applications in sub-micron integrated circuits (ICs) fabrication. Four such applications are shallow trench isolation (STI), premetal dielectric (PMD), inter-metal dielectric (IMD) and interlayer dielectric (ILD). All four of these layers require silicon dioxide films that fill features of various sizes and have uniform film thicknesses across the wafer.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has traditionally been the method of choice for depositing conformal silicon dioxide films. However, as design rules continue to shrink, the aspect ratios (depth to width) of features increase, and traditional CVD techniques can no longer provide adequately conformal films in these high aspect ratio features.
Two alternatives to CVD are atomic layer deposition (ALD) and rapid vapor deposition (RVD). ALD methods involve self-limiting adsorption of reactant gases and can provide thin, conformal dielectric films within high aspect ratio features. ALD methods have been developed for the deposition of silicon oxide film. RVD processing (also known as pulsed deposition layer (PDL) processing) is similar to ALD in that reactant gases are introduced alternately over the substrate surface. An ALD-based dielectric deposition technique typically involves adsorbing a metal containing precursor onto the substrate surface, then, in a second procedure, introducing a silicon oxide precursor gas. The silicon oxide precursor gas reacts with the adsorbed metal precursor to form a thin film of metal-doped silicon oxide. In RVD the silicon oxide film can grow more thickly. Thus, RVD methods allow for rapid film growth similar to using CVD methods but with the film conformality of ALD methods.
The cost of chemicals needed to deposit a given amount of oxide is inversely proportional to reactant conversion. Reactant conversion in a RVD reactor is typically significantly lower than one and is dependent on process conditions. Thus, in conventional RVD (and ALD) reactors, a significant amount of the silicon-containing precursor is not utilized. Because conformal deposition processes require reactants of high purity, recovering the silicon-containing precursor in a recycle stream is impractical. Unreacted precursor is lost. In addition, the amount of oxide deposited for a given dose of metal-containing precursor is limited, requiring more metal-containing precursor.
What is therefore needed are improved methods for forming conformal films that reduce the amount of metal-containing precursor and/or silicon-containing precursor required to deposit a given amount of film on a substrate.

Optimal operation of conformal silica deposition reactors


In one embodiment, a storage controller comprises a first I/O port that provides an interface to a host computer, a second I/O port that provides an interface to a storage device, a processor that receives I/O requests generated by the host computer and, in response to the I/O requests, generates and transmits I/O requests to the storage device, and a memory module communicatively connected to the processor. The memory module comprises logic instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to collect performance data and availability data for a plurality of logical devices (LDEVS) managed by the storage controller, and present the performance data and availability data to a reporting interface.

The described subject matter relates to data storage in electronic computing, and more particularly to intelligent logical unit provisioning.
Effective collection, management, and control of information have become a central component of modern business processes. To this end, many businesses, both large and small, now implement computer-based information management systems.
Data management is an important component of computer-based information management systems. Many users implement storage networks to manage data operations in computer-based information management systems. Storage networks have evolved in computing power and complexity to provide highly reliable, managed storage solutions that may be distributed across a wide geographic area, and across physical storage devices that are under the management of a storage controller (i.e., internal) or outside the management of a storage controller (i.e., external).
Adroit management of storage network resources contributes to the effective management of storage networks. Existing management interfaces provide limited information for managing storage resources. Management interfaces that provide additional management information would be useful.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An object of the present invention is to provide wiring board design system and wiring board design method to determine a component and a wiring pattern in real-time when designing a wiring on a circuit board. The wiring board design system provides a cloud service for a terminal which is used by users via a network. When to arrange components on the circuit board, while pushing out automatically wirings which are overlapped with the components on the arranging position, the wiring board design system secures a space on that can arrange the component. The wiring processing is performed automatically and the fine adjustment such as rotation, movement of arranged components is performed automatically if necessary. The processing for equalization is performed so as to be the equal wiring density on the circuit board.

Currently, the wiring board design work for designing a wiring of a wiring board is broadly divided into a circuit diagram design and a layout design. The layout design is mainly divided into a work for arranging electronic components on a circuit board and a wiring design for connecting terminals of the electronic components at each signal including an electric source. This wiring design is also said as a pattern design. Conventionally, in a wiring design of a wiring board, it is a common method drawing a wiring after determining a position, where an electronic component is arranged, and obtaining a rewiring while evaluating its wiring cost, etc.
The conventional wiring design is a method that draws a new wiring pattern pushing away a wiring pattern drawn earlier and then the wiring pattern is determined finally. In other words, it is the technique to draw a new wiring pattern between the wiring drawn earlier. The layout design must determine whether can be wired successfully the circuit board on which arranged components and furthermore must work successfully as required. Also, it is generally required that to wire with as less wiring layers as possible to reduce cost. Every year, while a signal speed becomes faster, the complexity of the design of the arrangement and the wiring increases more and more and the designing becomes a work spending a lot of a man-hour.
The study of an automatic arrangement and wiring by a computer began several decades ago, and it became a necessary design technique for large-scale LSI design recently. For example, in Patent Document 1, a wiring course decision method and a wiring course decision system, calculating wiring patterns between terminals, for wiring design of a wiring board including parts having many pins such as a multi-tip module (MCM) and a printed circuit boards (PCB) are disclosed.
A process of lead wiring which is from a component terminal is executed before the entire wiring processing and further the wiring processing is performed by moving the components connected to the wiring target on the virtual wiring board for performing optimally the lead wiring process. However, because shapes of electronic components used for PCB designs vary, a practical automatic arrangement system is not yet commercially available. Today, a wiring design becomes one of the most difficult works and is performed mainly by the "intuition" based on the longstanding experiences of designers. The layout design is performed in order of the previous step of arranging design and the next step of the wiring design.
When the arrangement design does not carry out well, the wiring design does not go well. It is difficult to determine how the arrangement design function because the wiring has not actually been done yet when the arrangement design is completed. In the wiring design, it is understood that there is a necessity to redo the arrangement after the most of the wiring is finished and then the arrangement design and the wiring design may be redone. This leads to increase the design time and man-hour. Therefore, it will be costly.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-267302.
However, in conventional method, a work to draw the wiring after arranging the components on the circuit board is performed. In other words, wiring works start after finishing the arrangement of all components on the board. Currently, the downsizing of outline design and the enhancement of system function of electronic and electric products and the like are making the flowplan and the component arrangement of the wiring board more difficult problems. Because shapes of the components for PCB design vary and the wiring density is high, a practical automation system has not been developed yet.
Some wiring processing and the like are wired automatically by a software or a wiring simulation. For the high-speed circuit design, simulations and analyses are essential. However, it takes time to prepare layout after arranging components on the circuit board of the previous step. Therefore, preparing a layout, analyzing it, correcting the layout by reflecting the analyzing results, repeating all these cycles becomes high production cost and is not practical.
Conventionally, the judgement was mainly relied on Lutz distribution which is the distribution between terminals of components, but the Lutz is just a straight line connecting only terminals and has low accuracy in a complex wiring board design. Therefore, a real-time processing that draws wires while placing the components is required. Further, the conventional wiring board design system is not possible to design simultaneously from remote locations. By providing a management of electronic components on the cloud using a wiring board design database, there is a need to provide new information rapidly and to reduce the cost by using this central management.

Wiring board design system and wiring board design method


An instrument includes a holder for holding a medium, a cap capable of covering a tip end portion of the medium, and a knock member provided to be capable of knocking to attach and detach the cap. The cap is connected to the knock member via a rotational transform mechanism. The rotational transform mechanism advances the cap in accordance with one knock of the knock member in the axial direction, the rotational transform mechanism rotates the cap around an axis parallel to the axial direction, then retreats the cap, so that the state in which the cap covers the tip end portion of the medium and the state in which the cap allows the tip end portion of the medium to be exposed are switchable for each knock of the knock member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an instrument capable of protecting a tip end portion of a writing or applying medium held in a holder by covering the tip end portion with a cap when not in use.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a writing instrument, for example, it is necessary to cover a tip end portion of a writing medium when it is not used in order to protect the tip end portion of the writing medium, to prevent a writing medium from being dried, or not to contaminate surroundings, and to this end, a cap is generally fitted onto a tip end portion of the holder to be attachable and detachable.
However, with the conventional cap, both hands have to be used to remove the cap, its attaching and detaching operation is troublesome, and it is feared that the removed cap is lost.
Therefore, Japanese Patent No. 2714780 proposes a capless writing instrument which can project and retreat a tip end writing portion with a knocking operation without a cap and includes a mechanism for preventing leakage, drying and backflow of ink. In this patent publication, a guide through which a front part of the writing medium can penetrate is provided inside a body of the writing instrument so as to be movable in a longitudinal direction and to restrain the forward movement of a specified amount or more, a seal lid of which inner surface is constituted by an elastic body is provided at a tip end of this guide so as to be openable and closable, and a string-shaped member is connected to the seal lid, so that the string-shaped member pulls the seal lid to closely attach the tip end of the writing medium to the elastic body of the seal lid when the writing medium is housed, and when the writing medium moves forward, pulling of the thread-shaped member is loosened to release the sealed state of the seal lid.
However, in the writing instrument described in the above-described patent, the stroke length advancing the writing medium to project it from the tip end of the body becomes long because it is necessary to provide a space for the seal lid to open and close inside the body.


A method and mechanism are managing caches. A cache is configured to store blocks of data based upon predictions of future accesses. Each block is partitioned into sub-blocks, and if it is predicted a given sub-block is unlikely to be accessed, the sub-block may not be stored in the cache. Associated with each block is a mask which indicates whether sub-blocks of the block are likely to be accessed. When a block is first loaded into the cache, the corresponding mask is cleared and an indication is set for the block to indicate a training mode for the block. Access patterns of the block are then monitored and stored in the mask. If a given sub-block is accessed a predetermined number of times, a bit in the mask is set to indicate that the sub-block is likely to be accessed. When a block is evicted from the cache, the mask is also transferred for storage and only the sub-blocks identified by the mask as being likely to be accessed may be transferred for storage. If previously evicted data is restored to the cache, a previously stored mask is accessed to determine which of the sub-blocks are predicted likely to be accessed. The lower level storage may then transfer only those sub-blocks predicted likely to be accessed to the cache.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of computer systems and, more particularly, to memory systems in computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, the cost, performance, and power consumption characteristics of computer systems have been driven by the processors included in the system. More recently, however, trends in processor design have begun to shift attention to the main memory system. For example, chip multithreading (CMT) is becoming a more popular processor design. A CMT processor includes hardware on a single chip to concurrently process multiple independent software threads. The processor hardware may be shared among the threads, improving efficiency in the use of the processor hardware. However, having multiple threads in execution increases the demands on the memory system. While threads may be related to the same overall application and may share memory, in general each thread may have its own memory locations that it is accessing for instruction fetches and data. Thus, for the same number of processor chips as a non-multithreaded processor, more memory may be required to provide reasonable performance. As another example, chip multiprocessing (CMP) is becoming popular in which multiple independent processors are included on the same processor chip. Again, memory requirements may increase on a per processor chip basis.
Generally speaking, a larger main memory system translates to increased costs. First, the number of memory chips is increased, which clearly drives the cost up. Second, to provide an appropriate level of performance with a larger memory size (in terms of latency and bandwidth, for example), expensive implementation techniques may be required. For example, multiple memory controllers coupled to sections of the overall main memory may be required, additional banks of memory coupled to a given memory controller may be required, etc. Third, providing low latency, high bandwidth access to a large main memory may result in increased power consumption of the memory system (as compared to traditionally-sized memory systems). The increased power consumption may increase cooling requirements and power supply requirements for the computer system, which may also increase cost.
In addition, while new multi-core CMT and CMP processor chips may promise a high compute bandwidth, the requirement that bandwidth in and out of the chip scale linearly with the number of cores may severely constrain future systems. Consequently, the off-chip bandwidth may ultimately constrain CMT/CMP chips as the cache capacity on-chip will likely not be able to scale with the number of cores. As a result, techniques that can reduce bandwidth needs across the chip boundary become important.
One approach to dealing with this bandwidth bottleneck due to cache misses is to increase the amount of on-chip cache. However, increasing the size of on-chip caches reduces the area which can be devoted to processing cores.
Another approach involves partitioning a cache block frame into sub-blocks and associating a valid bit with each of the sub-blocks. On a cache miss, only the missing sub-block is loaded into the cache. Other approaches have sought to keep track of valid bits at the word level to reduce coherence transactions caused by false sharing. However, such approaches do not predict future accesses and do not avoid future misses.
Another approach is to compress off-chip traffic in order to minimize the bandwidth required to perform writeback operations. While compression of the on-chip caches may improve performance, additional latencies may be introduced due to the decompression overhead which is required.
What is desired are methods and mechanisms that can effectively reduce bandwidth and reduce misses.

Method and mechanism for cache compaction and bandwidth reduction


In a level shift circuit including: an inverter circuit having a series circuit of a Pch-type transistor and an Nch-type transistor, which re connected between electrodes of a floating power supply; and a transistor Q1 in which a drain terminal and a source terminal are connected between an input terminal of the inverter circuit and a ground, wherein a drain terminal and source terminal of a transistor Q2 are connected between one terminal of the floating power supply and the drain of the transistor Q1, and a drain terminal and source terminal of a transistor Q3 are connected between a control terminal of the transistor Q2 and the ground.

In a drive circuit of a high voltage power element, a level shift circuit that transmits a low voltage logic signal to a gate control portion of a high side output element is indispensable. Heretofore, for this type of level shift circuit, a mode of transmitting the signal by using a high voltage MOSFET has been used.

Level shift circuit and power supply device


Transmitting data from a source to a destination, includes receiving the data from the source and providing the data to the destination using a network, where the data is acknowledged to the source as being successfully received at the destination prior to all of the data being provided to the network. The source may be a primary storage device. The destination may be a secondary storage device. The data may be provided from the source in a first format and may be provided to the network in a second format that is different from the first format where the first format may be RDF and the second format may be TCP/IP or UDP. The destination may receive the data in a first format different from a second format used to transmit the data over the network. The first format may be RDF and the second format may be TCP/IP or UDP.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to computer storage devices, and more particularly to communication between storage devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage device containing a plurality of host interface units (host adapters), disk drives, and disk interface units (disk adapters). Such storage devices are provided, for example, by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass. and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,939 to Yanai et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,394 to Galtzur et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,147 to Vishlitzky et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,208 to Ofek. The host systems access the storage device through a plurality of channels provided therewith. Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage device and the storage device provides data to the host systems also through the channels. The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage device directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units. The logical disk units may or may nor correspond to the actual disk drives. Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage device unit allows the host systems to share data stored therein.
In some instances, it may be desirable to copy data from one storage device to another. For example, if a host writes data to a first storage device, it may be desirable to copy that data to a second storage device provided in a different location so that if a disaster occurs that renders the first storage device inoperable, the host (or another host) may resume operation using the data of the second storage device. Such a capability is provided, for example, by the Remote Data Facility (RDF) product provided by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass. With RDF, a first storage device, denoted the "primary storage device" is coupled to the host. One or more other storage devices, called "secondary storage devices" receive copies of the data that is written to the primary storage device by the host. The host interacts directly with the primary storage device, but any data changes made to the primary storage device are automatically provided to the one or more secondary storage devices using RDF. The primary and secondary storage devices may be connected by a data link, such as an ESCON link. The RDF functionality may be facilitated with an RDF adapter (RA) provided at each of the storage devices.
RDF allows synchronous data transfer where, after data written from a host to a primary storage device is transferred from the primary storage device to a secondary storage device using RDF, receipt is acknowledged by the secondary storage device to the primary storage device which then provides a write acknowledge back to the host. Thus, in synchronous mode, the host does not receive a write acknowledge from the primary storage device until the RDF transfer to the secondary storage device has been completed and acknowledged by the secondary storage device.
A drawback to the synchronous RDF system is that the latency of each of the write operations is increased by waiting for the acknowledgement of the RDF transfer. This problem is worse when there is a long distance between the primary storage device and the secondary storage device; because of transmission delays, the time delay required for making the RDF transfer and then waiting for an acknowledgement back after the transfer is complete may be unacceptable.
It is also possible to use RDF in an a semi-synchronous mode, in which case the data is written from the host to the primary storage device which acknowledges the write immediately and then, at the same time, begins the process of transferring the data to the secondary storage device. Thus, for a single transfer of data, this scheme overcomes some of the disadvantages of using RDF in the synchronous mode. However, for data integrity purposes, the asynchronous transfer mode does not allow the primary storage device to transfer data to the secondary storage device until a previous transfer is acknowledged by the secondary storage device. Thus, the bottlenecks associated with using RDF in the synchronous mode are simply delayed by one iteration because transfer of a second amount of data cannot occur until transfer of previous data has been acknowledged by the secondary storage device.
Another possibility is to have the host write data to the primary storage device in asynchronous mode and have the primary storage device copy data to the secondary storage device in the background. The background copy involves cycling through each of the tracks of the primary storage device sequentially and, when it is determined that a particular block has been modified since the last time that block was copied, the block is transferred from the primary storage device to the secondary storage device. Although this mechanism may attenuate the latency problem associated with synchronous and semi-synchronous data transfer modes, a difficulty still exists because there can not be a guarantee of data consistency between the primary and secondary storage devices. If there are problems, such as a failure of the primary system, the secondary system may end up with out-of-order changes that make the data unusable.
Thus, it would be desirable to have an RDF system that exhibits some of the beneficial qualities of each of the different techniques discussed above without the drawbacks. Such a system would exhibit low latency for each host write regardless of the distance between the primary and the secondary and would provide consistency (recoverability) of the secondary in case of failure.


A toy play set contains a set of playing cards used to play at least one predetermined card game. The toy play set includes a generally elongated body having a closed configuration in which ends and a side wall generally surround a hollow interior and an open configuration in which the hollow interior is at least partially accessible. The cards are identically shaped and sized and sufficiently small to be completely stored within the body in its closed configuration. The body includes an internal spindle, and each of the cards has an opening allowing it to be mounted on the spindle.

This invention generally relates to toy play sets and, more particularly, to a toy play set for containing and playing a game, such as a card game. It is known to provide play sets for use with games. Conventional play sets are not well-suited for use by a child while riding in a vehicle, such as a car. It is believed that a play set adapted for use by a child riding in a car would be desirable.


A housing for holding electrical and/or electronic components with a housing opening and with an entry fitting which is rotationally located in the housing opening, the entry fitting having a cylindrical holding part in which an annular groove is formed, and being held by a fastener in the housing. In the housing, the entry fitting can be securely attached to the housing with simple means and installation of the entry fitting, with the housing otherwise closed, is possible in that, for axially securing the entry fitting in the housing opening, there is an open plastic snap ring which is provided with a feed bevel which is guided in the annular groove, and which, in the installed state of the entry fitting, is locked at least partially in a groove in the housing opening.

1. Filed of Invention
The invention relates to a housing for holding electrical and/or electronic components, with a housing opening and with an entry fitting which is rotationally located in the housing opening, the entry fitting having a cylindrical holding part in which an annular groove is formed, and being held by a fastener in the housing. In addition, the invention relates to an entry fitting for rotary arrangement in the opening of a housing of an electrical or electronic device, especially an optical, inductive or capacitive proximity switch.
2. Description of Related Art
The initially described housing can be especially the housing of a sensor, for example, of an inductive, capacitive or optical proximity switch. Within the housing, there are the actual sensor element and other electrical and electronic components, for example, an evaluation circuit. For electrical connection to other devices, for example, a central control, the housing has an entry fitting which is used as a cable or plug outlet.
Such a housing is known for example from German Patent DE 197 18 392 C2. In the known housing, the entry fitting has a snap projection with a slotted locking bead, using which the entry fitting can be locked in the housing opening. In addition to this snap connection, on the housing, there are undercuts and on the entry fitting, there are stabilization shoulders which can be caused to engage the undercuts and which are made complementary to the undercuts. The execution of the undercuts and the stabilization shoulders which additionally connect the entry fitting and the housing to one another results in that the forces acting on the entry fitting no longer need be accommodated solely by the snap connection.
In order to prevent unintentional detachment of the entry fitting from the housing opening, it is moreover provided that, from the housing interior, a cylindrical blocking element is placed in the snap projection, by which it is ensured that the locking bead of the snap projection cannot move radially to the inside, by which detachment of the snap connection would occur. By the above described measure, the entry fitting can be securely anchored to the housing, but for this reason, a very special execution both of the housing and also of the entry fitting is necessary.
Another housing of the initially described type is known from German Patent DE 199 52 643 C1. In this housing, an entry fitting can also be selectively attached in different positions in the housing opening. Here, the housing opening is made as a hub hole, and the entry fitting can be fixed by means of a locking clip which is integrated on the housing cover and/or on the housing bottom. The locking clips have catch hooks, by means of which the entry fitting can be fixed in different rotary positions. The approach described in German Patent DE 199 52 643 C1 also requires a special configuration of the housing, especially of the housing cover and/or of the housing bottom.
Finally, German Patent DE 101 19 910 C1 discloses a housing with an entry fitting which is located to be able to turn in the housing opening, in which to fix the entry fitting in a first or a second rotary position, there is an insertion part which is fixed in the housing interior, with an insert, the insert being surrounded by the cylindrical holding part of the entry fitting, and there being catch means which interact on the holding part and the insert.
It is common to all known housings that the catching and fixing of the entry fitting in the housing opening must take place with an at least partially opened housing, i.e., the housing can only be closed after installation of the entry fitting. If the housing, as stated initially, is the housing of a proximity switch, based on the conditions of use of the proximity switch, it is often necessary for the proximity switch to be potted for protection of the electrical and electronic components which are located in the housing. However, potting of a proximity switch is, of course, only possible when all electrical and electronic components are located in the housing and the housing, except for an opening for adding the potting resin, is sealed. Therefore, in the known housings, installation of the electrical and electronic components, and especially the potting of the housing, are possible only after installation of the entry fitting.
Due to the plurality of different proximity switch versions which are used in practice, there is a requirement for making the proximity switch as modular as possible in order to reduce the number of the proximity switches kept in a warehouse. For example, otherwise identical proximity switches can differ only in that they have a plug outlet, a cable outlet or a terminal space for the wires of an electrical cable. To do this, differently made entry fittings are necessary. In a modular structure of the actual housing and of the entry fitting, the two components could be produced and stored separately from one another, and accordingly, assembled only when necessary.

Housing for holding electrical and/or electronic components


A mixture of C.sub.16 -C.sub.28 alkyl glucosides (A) and C.sub.16 -C.sub.28 fatty alcohols (B) in a weight ratio (A):(B) of between 20:1 and 1:9 possesses foam inhibiting properties even when highly diluted. The mixture is suitable for use in the food industry, and is preferably employed in a chemically inert liquid carrier oil that is immiscible with water.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a product based on a mixture of alkyl glucosides and aliphatic alcohols which may be used as a foam inhibitor, particularly in the food industry.
Considerable significance is attributed to foam inhibition in the food industry, for example in the production of sugar, in fermentation processes and in the recovery of yeast. By addition of suitable auxiliaries, foaming has to be reduced to a such a level that it does not interfere with the industrial production process.
Certain surface-active substances, for example huminic acids, proteins, protein and starch degradation products, pectins and saponins, such as occur widely in nature, are responsible for the troublesome and, normally, stable foams.
The formation of unwanted foams can be a serious obstacle to production in industrial plants, for example, because the capacity of the plant cannot be utilized or because considerable losses of the starting material used can occur as a result of foaming. Particular difficulties through excessive foaming can occur in a sugar factory in the clarifiers and also in the carbonizing tanks and evaporators.
The auxiliaries used for foam regulation have to be substantially removed during the working up of the end product, for example during the refining of sugar, so that they do not burden the end product. In addition, all the auxiliaries used in the production of foods have to be odorless and free from any taste and, of course, physiologically safe.
In addition, foam inhibitors which enter wastewater after use have to be completely biodegradable.
For economic reasons and to keep the quantities of additives in foods as small as possible, foam inhibitors of particularly high performance are required. High-performance foam inhibitors are distinguished by the fact that they develop their effect without any delay, i.e. spontaneously, achieve a high degree of defoaming and remain effective.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Foam inhibitors which have been proposed for use in the food industry include inter alia fatty acid monoglycerides, fatty acid polyglycol esters, polyalkylene glycols, alkylene oxide adducts with alkyl phosphoric acids, branched fatty alcohol alkoxylates and oligosaccharide alkoxylates and also natural fats and oils. Although rapidly and completely biodegradable, these foam inhibitors are not sufficiently spontaneous in their foam-inhibiting effect and do not remain effective for sufficiently long periods.
The problem addressed by the present invention was to provide foam inhibitors for the production and processing of foods which, even when added in very small quantities, would show excellent spontaneous foam-inhibiting activity and would retain that activity for long periods and, physiologically, would be completely safe. At the same time, they would be completely and rapidly biodegradable without forming metabolites in sewage treatment plants.
It is known that alkyl glucosides are readily degradable and non-toxic. However, it is also known that alkyl glucosides having C.sub.12-1, alkyl chains are powerful foam generators.
Alkyl glucosides are mainly produced by two methods. In the direct synthesis method, glucose is directly reacted with an excess of fatty alcohol in the presence of an acid as catalyst to form the glucoside while, in the transacetalization method using a lower alcohol or glycol as solvent and reactant, a lower alkyl glucoside is initially formed, then reacting with a long carbon chain fatty alcohol in the following step to form the end product.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,828 describes the production of a ternary mixture of alkyl oligoglucosides, alkyl monoglucosides and the corresponding free C.sub.11-32 alkanols by the transacetalization process with butanol. To obtain products having reduced viscosities where long-chain alkanols are used, the transacetalization reaction is optionally terminated prematurely so that parts of the butyl glucoside still remain in the reaction mixture. After working up in the usual way, the higher fatty alcohol used in excess is for the most part removed in vacuo, generally to values of less than 2% by weight.
By contrast, European patent application 96 917 describes an improved process for acid-catalyzed direct synthesis with C.sub.8-25 fatty alcohols, in which a monosaccharide, preferably glucose, is added in such a quantity that never more than 10% unreacted monosaccharide is present in the reaction mixture. After working up in the usual way, including removal of the excess fatty alcohol in a thin-layer evaporator, the process gives a product containing 20 to 70% by weight alkyl monoglucoside, less than 10% mono- and polysaccharides, less than 2% by weight free fatty alcohol and, for the rest, alkyl polyglucosides.
It has now been found that certain products containing alkyl glucosides have an interesting foam-inhibiting effect.

Mixture of alkyl glucosides and alcohols as foam inhibitors


It is an object of the invention to reduce mixing of an impurity from a friction stir welding tool, reduce abrasion of the tool, and prevent the tool from being easily broken even though an object to be worked formed by a metal or an alloy having a high melting point of 1350° C. or more is friction-stir-welded.

As a method of welding a metal, a technique of a friction stir welding method is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1 or 2). The friction stir welding method which brings objects to be worked into contact with each other or brings objects to be worked into almost contact with each other to regulate an elongate bonding region, moves a friction stir welding tool inserted into the bonding region while rotating the friction stir welding tool, and welds the objects to be worked by using frictional heat. The friction stir welding method is a welding method which can welds metals such as iron or aluminum alloy to each other but also different materials to each other.
As a friction stir welding method, welding for aluminum and an aluminum alloy each having a relatively low melting point is frequently examined. It is slightly reported that a friction stir welding method is applied by using a metal or an alloy having a high melting point of 1350° C. or more as a high melting point as an object to be worked. However, a technique which welds platinum having a high melting point is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 3).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application National Publication (Laid-Open) No. 7-505090
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application National Publication (Laid-Open) No. 9-508073
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2004-090050

Tool for friction stir welding, method of welding with the same, and processed object obtained by the same

Abstract: The friction stir welding tool according to the invention can friction-stir-weld a metal or alloy having a high melting point of 1350° C. or more as an object to be worked. At least a portion brought into contact with the object to be worked has a composition containing iridium, containing rhenium, ruthenium, molybdenum, tungsten, niobium, tantalum, rhodium, or two or more of them, and containing zirconium, hafnium, lanthanum, cerium, samarium, gadolinium, scandium, yttrium, or two or more of them, and has a Micro Vickers Hardness of 300 Hv or more.


A safety device includes a discharge device for discharging an electric energy store in response to a deformation of the energy store, that is impending or has occurred.

Batteries for electrochemical storage frequently contain aggressive substances which, when set free, may lead to the endangerment of persons and objects. In some energy stores, for instance, in the case of lithium ions ("Li ion"), there is the additional danger of fire and/or explosion, since the electrolyte used is combustible. As a result, conventional batteries and capacitors are constructed in such a way that they are able to withstand the mechanical stresses that are to be expected, without a jacket of the battery being injured, so that transition of the dangerous substances into the surroundings of the energy store is prevented.
In spite of this, damage to the jacket is never quite to be excluded. In the field of motor vehicles, for example, in which a battery may be used for supplying the vehicle electrical system or for driving something, in case of an accident, even a well secured battery may be greatly deformed and may burst open. The ignition of the exiting electrolyte may take place during the deformation or later, quite possibly even after several seconds or minutes.
An object of the present invention is to provide a safety device and a safety measure for the protection of persons and material from an energy store that is damaged by deformation.


An embodiment of the invention provides an apparatus and method of selecting a color for a border frame. The apparatus and method permit a selector to be placed on an object image and select a color for the border frame, based on a location of the selector on the object image.

In current digital camera technology, a user can select a border frame around an image in a picture. A current digital camera typically has a border feature where the user can preview the picture in order to see how the picture appears with a selected border frame color. In one current solution, a user is limited to selecting the border frame color from among a fixed set of colors in a color palette (a selection of colors or a color set). In another current solution, the digital camera automatically picks the border frame color from a color palette with a fixed limited number of color values. Current solutions also use the color palette in order to pick a border frame color for gray-scale (black and white) images. Since the color palette is used for determining a border frame color of a gray-scale image, the current solutions perform the unnecessary step of analyzing inappropriate non-grayscale color selection possibilities for the border frame. Therefore, the current technology is limited in its capabilities and suffers from at least the above constraints and deficiencies.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An organic light emitting diode display includes a substrate including a display region displaying an image and a peripheral region surrounding the display region, a plurality of pad wires formed in the peripheral region of the substrate, and a plurality of bumps formed between the plurality of pad wires. The organic light emitting diode display blocks or relieves impact which is generated when a temporary upper protective film is half-cut and applied to a plurality of pad wires or an insulating layer by forming a plurality of bumps between the plurality of pad wires, thus preventing a damage to the pad wires or the insulating layer.

Field
The described technology relates generally to an organic light emitting diode display and a manufacturing method thereof.
Description of the Related Technology
An organic light emitting diode display includes organic light emitting elements constituted by a hole injection electrode, an organic emission layer, and an electron injection electrode. Each organic light emitting element emits light by energy generated when an exciton generated by combining an electron and a hole in the organic emission layer falls from an excited state to a bottom state, and the organic light emitting diode display displays a predetermined image by using this light emission.
Since the organic light emitting diode display has a self-luminance characteristic and a separate light source is not required, unlike a liquid crystal display, a thickness and a weight thereof may be reduced. Further, since the organic light emitting diode display exhibits high quality characteristics such as low power consumption, high luminance, and rapid response speed, the organic light emitting diode display receives attention as a next generation display device.
The organic light emitting element may be deteriorated by internal factors such as deterioration of the organic emission layer by oxygen from indium tin oxide (ITO) used as the electrode material, and deterioration by a reaction between interfaces of organic material layers constituting the organic emission layer, and may be deteriorated by external factors such as external moisture, oxygen, or ultraviolet rays (UV). Particularly, since external oxygen and moisture significantly affect a life-span of the organic light emitting element, a packaging technology for sealing the organic light emitting element is very important.
The organic light emitting element needs to be thinly manufactured and/or to be manufactured so as to be easily bent so that the organic light emitting element is applied to various applications. A thin film encapsulation (TFE) technology has been developed in order to manufacture the organic light emitting element, which is thin and bendable. The thin film encapsulation technology is a technology in which one or more inorganic layers and organic layers are alternately laminated on the organic light emitting elements formed in a display region of a substrate to cover the display region with a thin film encapsulation layer. The organic light emitting diode display having the thin film encapsulation layer may be easily bent and is advantageous to slimness in the case where the substrate is formed of a flexible film.
The organic light emitting element including a flexible film as the substrate may be damaged during a manufacturing process (for example, a cutting process and the like) because the organic light emitting element is vulnerable to external impact. As described above, a structure of an organic light emitting element that can prevent damage due to a process accompanying the impact, and a manufacturing method thereof are required.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Organic light emitting diode display and manufacturing method thereof