A battery electric vehicle charging station is disclosed, having grid and vehicle connections with a DC charger and controller that selectively charges the vehicle battery directly with DC power in a first mode and converts DC power from the vehicle battery to drive an inverter in a second mode to provide AC power to a power grid.

The present disclosure relates generally to a charging station that can selectively provide DC power to charge a battery based vehicle on a determined mode of operation. Because battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) (collectively called Plug-In Vehicles (PEVs)) have only recently been introduced in mainstream market channels, electric vehicle charging infrastructure is limited in the United States and elsewhere. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), including PHEVs, include hybrid technology allowing the vehicle to operate using fossil-fuel for propulsion and battery charging, and some electric vehicle designs provide an on-board internal combustion engine dedicated to driving a generator to charge the vehicle battery. If on-board propulsion or charging facilities are depleted or unavailable and the vehicle battery presently has a low state of charge (SOC) for the electric propulsion system, the vehicle must be brought to a charging station before the battery is completely depleted.
A typical charging system includes a station operatively coupled to an AC power source. The PEV generally includes an AC charger that can receive AC power from an AC power source. However, the PEV operates on direct current (DC) power from an on-board vehicle battery, and AC chargers must convert AC power to DC power via internal rectifier circuitry to charge the vehicle battery, and this conversion creates an undesirable loss of energy. Thus, there is a need for improved PEV charging systems and techniques by which charging inefficiencies can be reduced while providing flexibility in charging options.

Grid connected solar battery charging device for home and vehicle energy management


A method for predicting petroleum expulsion. A chemical structure of a kerogen is defined and a plurality of reaction products of the kerogen under geologic heating rates are identified. The plurality of reaction products are grouped into a plurality of product lumps based on their chemical composition and predicting petroleum expulsion for each of the plurality of product lumps based on secondary cracking reactions.

This section is intended to introduce various aspects of the art, which may be associated with exemplary embodiments of the present invention. This discussion is believed to assist in providing a framework to facilitate a better understanding of particular aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that this section should be read in this light, and not necessarily as admissions of prior art.
Basin modeling is the process of using either proprietary or commercially available software to assess charge risk by integrating diverse geological and engineering data types into a model of one or more petroleum systems active in an area being explored. The scale of the model may range in size from a single drilling prospect to an entire basin.
There are several commercial basin simulators that are widely used in academia and industry. These known simulators base the kinetics of petroleum generation on some form of a series of parallel first order reactions, usually expressed by the Arrhenius Equation as a discrete spectrum of activation energies (Ea). These models comprise a distribution of Ea's at fixed or variable spacing (typically 1 kcal/mole) using a single or varying frequency factor (A). The parameters for these models are based on various laboratory experiments. Some known models rely on simple compositional models that are rooted in a petroleum modeling computer program called PMOD developed and made available by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Additionally, some models offer compositional yield models based on forms of pyrolysis, including open-system pyrolysis. Other models use a compositional yields model based on open and closed-system pyrolysis. Models that predict compositional yields as defined by varying chemical lumps are expressed typically by the bulk kerogen yield kinetic model (discrete Ea's fixed or varying A) where the percentage of each chemical lump is defined for each individual Ea.
One known basin simulator has models of petroleum generation/expulsion that are either two component (gas/oil) or three component (dry gas/wet gas/oil). Generation is modeled using standard discrete energy kinetics derived from open-system pyrolysis for main-stage oil/gas generation and a late-gas generation model for methane formation from reacted kerogen residue. Both processes are modeled using the first order kinetics with a distributed Ea and fixed A. The expulsion model is based on filling available rock pore space to a defined threshold. Secondary cracking reactions are Oil→Gas in the two-component model or Oil→Wet Gas and Wet Gas→Dry Gas in the three-component model. Hence, only the gas/oil ratio or GOR changes as a function of oil cracking with the oil remaining at a fixed composition and quality. In reality, the composition of petroleum changes in a systematic fashion with increasing thermal stress. Polar compounds and large polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons or PAH are depleted, while the distribution of the surviving hydrocarbons shifts toward smaller species. The net-effect on oil quality is an increase in American Petroleum Institute gravity (referred to as API gravity herein) and GOR and a decrease in sulfur and nitrogen.
Many known modeling techniques employ data that is derived from laboratory experiments. A potential problem relating to laboratory data involving high temperatures is that the coupled processes of generation, expulsion, and secondary cracking may be perturbed and follow mechanisms and pathways that do not occur under geologic conditions. For example, open system pyrolysis experiments measure gas-phase products that are transported from the source rock place in a heated sample holder to a flame ionization or mass spectrometer detector. Hence, expulsion is controlled mostly by volatility. In closed-system pyrolysis experiments, product yields may be defined in terms of gas-phase volatility, solubility in organic solvents, or as free-floating bitumen in hydrous systems. However, the factors that control petroleum expulsion and chemical fractionation in geologic settings, such as kerogen retention and relative solubilities are typically greatly perturbed by the high temperatures required for generation under observable time intervals (typically less than three days though experiments lasting up to five years have been conducted).
Since expulsion and generation cannot be reliably simulated as a coupled process, laboratory experiments have great difficulty in resolving primary generation from secondary, potentially non-realistic, reactions. In closed system experiments, it is often very difficult to resolve whether the measured products evolve directly from kerogen decomposition or from the thermal cracking of confined products that are not normally retained in a natural system environment. The artificial confinement of metastable species also may promote condensation reactions, forming new organic solids. Open system experiments pose the opposite effect; that is, the rapid removal and quenching or detection of metastable products that may remain in natural systems and undergo secondary cracking reactions. Laboratory simulations typically fail to account accurately the retention that occurs in natural geologic systems at much lower temperatures and removal of products as kerogen matures under geologic conditions. Research has shown that all laboratory artifacts cannot be eliminated and that some models may produce unrealistic bitumen compositions.
If laboratory experiments are inherently flawed, an accurate prediction of the thermal decomposition of kerogen and its product yields rests in constructing a theoretical framework based on fundamental principles. That is, the definition of mechanisms and kinetic rates of elementary reactions, which may be measured with high confidence, to molecular assemblages that reflect the complexity of kerogen. With such a model, it should be possible to predict the generation and expulsion under various laboratory and geologic conditions. While there have been numerous studies that formulated reaction schemes and associated kinetics to explain the results of specific laboratory experiments or field observations, there have been few attempts at constructing a comprehensive model that can account for petroleum generation and expulsion under a wide range of conditions. Some attempts have been made at constructing reaction models that account for product yields from experiments conducted under a variety of laboratory conditions and apply the model to a geologic setting. However, these models are phenomenological and rely on the extrapolation of laboratory-derived kinetics to geologic heating rates. An improved method of modeling basin performance, including predicting petroleum production, is desirable.

Method for predicting composition of petroleum


A method and system provides dynamic power control based on thermal sensitivity of a processor system. The method and system includes a circuit that reduces the clock frequency for the processor system in response, to thermal characteristics satisfying a pre-determined threshold that allows maximal thermal temperature limit utilization without substantially degrading processor performance.

The present invention relates generally to a processor system. It particularly relates to a method and system for processor dynamic power control based on thermal sensitivity.
Power consumption in current high-performance processor systems often leads to high temperatures for the processor components. The high processor temperatures, especially for processors using surface-mounted technology, leads to power feedback due to failures (e.g., shorts) produced, in the processor circuits. Commonly, processor systems operate with two high temperature limits, an electrical maximum power limit, and a maximal thermal design point (maximal TDP). The lower limit, the maximal TDP, is a temperature threshold where if processor thermal (relating to heat) temperature exceeds this threshold, then the processor may continue to function but could encounter problems if operating above this temperature for any substantial amount of time. The upper limit the electrical, maximum power limit, is a temperature limit where the processor will malfunction if attempting to operate above this limit. Therefore, processor systems must reduce power consumption in response to nearing these high temperature limits to avoid malfunction. A traditional method was to completely shut down the processor (stop-clock method) allowing the processor temperatures to cool below the high temperature limits before the processor is re-started. However, completely shutting down the processor and having to watt for re-start severely degrades processor system performance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for thermal sensitivity based dynamic power control of a processor


A field effect transistor (FET) with a source electrode and a drain electrode distanced apart from each other on a semi-conductor substrate, and a gate electrode consisting of a uniform layer of reduced graphene oxide encapsulated semiconductor nanoparticles (rGO-NPs), wherein the gate electrode is disposed between and contacts both the source and drain electrodes. Methods of making and assay methods using the FETs are also disclosed, including methods in which the rGO-NPs are functionalized with binding partners for biomarkers.

Nanomaterials, such as silicon nanowires (SiNWs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene, have gained much attention for use in electrical biosensors due to their nanoscopic and electrical properties. See, for example, Cui et al., Science 2001, 293, 1289; Patolsky et al. Protoc. 2006, 1, 1711; Bradley et al. Nano Lett. 2004, 4, 253; Chen et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 1563; Star et al., Nano Lett. 2004, 4, 1587; Tang et al., Nano Lett. 2006, 6, 1632; Lu et al., ACS Nano 2008, 2, 1825; and Mao et al., Adv. Mater. 2010, 22, 3521.
For instance, SiNWs and CNTs can be integrated into field-effect transistors (FETs) to detect small amounts of target biomolecules with high sensitivity and selectivity by measuring electrical disturbances induced by the binding of these biomolecules to the surface of the nanostructure. See, for example, Woolley et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 2000, 18, 760; and Zheng et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 2005, 23, 1294. The detection of biomarker proteins with high sensitivity and selectivity is vital for the early diagnosis of many diseases such as cancer and HIV. For this purpose, carbon-based nanomaterials like CNTs and graphene have become attractive for fabricating highly sensitive FET-based biosensors. See, for example, Du et al., Anal. Chem. 2010, 82, 2989; Jung et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 5708; Lu et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 4785; Ohno et al., Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 3318; and Shan et al., Anal. Chem. 2009, 81, 2378. In particular, the use of graphene in FET-based biosensors is becoming more and more appealing not only due to its unique properties such as higher 2-D electrical conductivity, superb mechanical flexibility, large surface area, and high chemical and thermal stability, but also due to its ability to overcome the limitations of CNTs such as variations in electrical properties of CNT-based devices and the limited surface area of CNTs. See, for example, Avouris, Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 4285; Novoselov et al., Science 2004, 306, 666; Kim et al., Nature 2009, 457, 706; Li et al., Science 2009, 324, 1312; Novoselov et al., Nature 2005, 438, 197; Zhang et al., Nature 2005, 438, 201; Geim et al., Nat. Mater. 2007, 6, 183; Jiao et al., Nature 2009, 458, 877; and Du et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 2008, 3, 491.
Nevertheless, there have been only a few reports on developing graphene FET-based biosensors, and their potential as biosensors has not been fully explored. See, for example, Dong et al., Adv. Mater. 2010, 22, 1649. It would therefore be desirable to develop nanoscopic graphene-based biosensors that are simple in device structures, small in size, and allow label-free detection and real-time monitoring of biomarkers, all of which are useful criteria for biosensors.

Graphene-encapsulated nanoparticle-based biosensor for the selective detection of biomarkers

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY


A system for motorized control, by a user, of water delivery to an interior of a tub, spa or shower includes a plurality of ports and a flow control device. The device includes a motor, a controller, a first pipe, and a second pipe. The first pipe includes a plurality of inlets. The second pipe is movable relative to the first pipe, and the second pipe includes a plurality of outlets in fluid communication with the plurality of ports. The motor is connected with the first pipe or the second pipe and the controller is coupled with the motor and programmed by a user. The controller is programmable to allow water flow from one or more of the ports in a preselected flow patten at preselected intervals of time. Moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by the controller serves to cause communication of an inlet of the plurality of inlets with a first outlet of the plurality of outlets. The first outlet is in fluid communication with a first port of the plurality of ports. The communication of the inlet with the first outlet serves to allow flow of water from a water source to the inlet to the first outlet to the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe also serves to block a second outlet of the plurality of outlets with a solid portion of the first pipe. The second outlet is in fluid communication with a second port of the plurality of ports. The blocking of the second outlet with the solid portion serves to prevent flow of water from the water source to the second port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.

This invention relates, generally, to water flow into tubs, spas or showers and, more particularly, to motorized control of water delivery through ports in tubs, spas or showers.
Tubs, spas or showers generally have a number of fluid flow ports or nozzles. Each flow port usually transmits or jets water or a water-air froth into the tub, spa or shower. Enhanced treatment or enjoyment for a user typically results from increased control over the flow of fluid to the tub, spa or shower.
One design employs a multi-ported valve having a handle to allow a user to rotate an inner cylindrical member relative to an outer cylindrical casing for selective alignment of ports of the inner cylindrical member and ports of the outer cylindrical member, for selective flow among a water supply and recirculating system, a spa, and a swimming pool. For instance, the user can manually rotate the handle to align a first port for flow of water to the spa and a second port for flow of water from the spa, and then the user can further manually rotate the handle to stop the flow of water to move from the spa and instead align the first port for flow of water to the swimming pool and align the second port for flow of water from the swimming pool. These first and second ports are the only ports for water flow between the valve and the spa for between the valve and the swimming pool. For example, the manual rotation of the handle by the user does not allow selection among individual ones, sets, or subsets of ports for water flow into the spa. Such a design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,413 issued to Valdez.
Another configuration includes an air valve for spas and baths. Air is drawn from the air valve to a jet by a venturi effect created by coupling of a water pump to the jet. A knob is manipulated by a user to selectively cause full, partial, or no air flow from the air valve to the jet. The air valve includes a housing having a port and a slot, and a barrel having a port. A user can turn the knob connected with the barrel, to cause selective flow or blockage of air, by selectively aligning the port of the barrel with the slot or port of the housing, or by selectively blocking the port of the barrel by aligning neither the slot nor port of the housing with the port of the barrel. In this configuration, only one jet delivers water from the pump to the spa or bath. The manual turning of the knob by the user does not allow selection among individual ones, sets, or subsets of ports for water flow into the spa or bath. The manipulation of the knob simply selects the quantity of air content in the flow through the jet. Such a configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,768 issued to DeSousa et al.
Thus, a need exists for increasing selectability and/or controllability of water delivery to a tub, spa or shower in which a flow control device comprises a controller and motor with the controller being programmed by a user. A need also exists for improving controllability, selectability, ease, accuracy, repeatability, effectiveness, efficiency and/or performance in use of individual ones, sets, or subsets of ports in a tub, spa or shower through which water is delivered by the programming of a controller of a flow control device by a user.
Pursuant to the present invention, shortcomings of the existing art are overcome and additional advantages are provided through the provision of motorized control of water delivery to ports of a tub, spa or shower.
In one aspect of the invention, a system for user control, of water delivery to an interior of a tub, spa or shower includes a plurality of ports and a flow control device. The plurality of ports are located on a surface of the tub, spa or shower, and are configured to transmit water to the interior of the tub, spa, or shower. The flow control device is in communication with a water source. The device includes a motor, a controller, a first pipe, and a second pipe. The first pipe includes a plurality of inlets. The second pipe is movable relative to the first pipe, and the second pipe includes a plurality of outlets in fluid communication with the plurality of ports. The motor is connected with the first pipe or the second pipe and the controller is coupled with the motor and programmed by a user. Moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by said controller to a position of the plurality of positions serves to cause communication of an inlet of the plurality of inlets with a first outlet of the plurality of outlets. The first outlet is in fluid communication with a first port of the plurality of ports. The communication of the inlet with the first outlet serves to allow flow of water from the water source to the inlet to the first outlet to the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe to the position also serves to block a second outlet of the plurality of outlets with a solid portion of the first pipe. The second outlet is in fluid communication with a second port of the plurality of ports. The blocking of the second outlet with the solid portion serves to prevent flow of water from the water source to the second port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The position can comprise a first position of the plurality of positions. The inlet can comprise a first inlet of the plurality of inlets. Moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by the controller to a second position of the plurality positions can serve to cause communication of a second inlet of the plurality of inlets with the second outlet. The communication of the second inlet with the second outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the second inlet to the second outlet to the second port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe to the second position can serve to cause communication of a third inlet of the plurality of inlets with the first outlet. The communication of the third inlet with the first outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the third inlet to the first outlet to the first port to the interior of tub, spa or shower.
The moving of the first pipe or second pipe to the second position can serve to block the first outlet with a second solid portion of the first pipe. The blocking of the first outlet with the second solid portion can serve to prevent flow of water from the water source to the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The first inlet and the solid portion can be located in a first circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The second inlet can be located in a second circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The second circumferential portion can be different from the first circumferential portion.
The first pipe can comprise a plurality of circumferential portions. The first inlet can be located in a first circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The second inlet can be located in a second circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The solid portion can be located in a third circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The third circumferential portion can be located between the first and second circumferential portions.
The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by the controller to the second position can serve to cause second communication of the first inlet with the first outlet. The second communication of the first inlet with the first outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the first inlet to the first outlet to the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The second communication of the first inlet with the first outlet can serve to allow a decreased rate of flow of water from the water source to the first inlet to the first outlet to the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe to the position can serve to cause communication of a second inlet of the plurality of inlets with a third outlet of the plurality of outlets. The third outlet can be in fluid communication with a third port of the plurality of ports. The communication of the second inlet with the third outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the second inlet to the third outlet to the third port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe to the position can serve to block a fourth outlet of the plurality of outlets with a second solid portion of the first pipe. The fourth outlet can be in fluid communication with a fourth port of the plurality of ports. The blocking of the fourth outlet with the second solid portion can serve to prevent flow of water from the water source to the fourth port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
Moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by the controller to a second position of the plurality of positions can serve to cause communication of a third inlet of the plurality of inlets with the second outlet and cause communication of a fourth inlet of the plurality of inlets with the fourth outlet. The communication of the third inlet with the second outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the third inlet to the second outlet to the second port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The communication of the fourth inlet with the fourth outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the fourth inlet to the fourth outlet to the fourth port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The controller may be programmable to allow water from the water source to flow from one or more of the ports in a preselected flow pattern at preselected intervals of time.
The first port and the third port can be located on different parts of the surface about an intended location for a user in the tub, spa or shower.
An air supply conduit can be in fluid communication with the first port. The flow of water through the inlet to the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower can serve to draw air from the air supply conduit for transmission, with the flow of water, through the first port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The device can include a relief valve configured to provide pressure relief approximately at a particular level of fluid pressure in the device. The relief valve can be in fluid communication with an additional port located on the surface of the tub, spa or shower.
A second plurality of ports can be located on the surface of the tub, spa or shower. The second plurality of ports can be configured to transmit water to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. A second flow control device can be in fluid communication with the water source. The second device can include a second motor, a third pipe, and a fourth pipe. The third pipe can include a second plurality of inlets. The fourth pipe can be movable relative to the third pipe, and the fourth pipe can include a second plurality of outlets in fluid communication with the second plurality of ports. The second motor can be connected with the third pipe or the fourth pipe and the controller can be coupled with the second motor. Moving of the third pipe or the fourth pipe by the second motor controlled by the controller to a second position of the second plurality of positions can serve to cause communication of a second inlet of the second plurality of inlets with a third outlet of the second plurality of outlets. The third outlet can be in fluid communication with a third port of the second plurality of ports. The communication of the second inlet with the third outlet can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the second inlet to the third outlet to the third port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The moving of the third pipe or the fourth pipe to the second position can also serve to block a fourth outlet of the second plurality of outlets with a second solid portion of the third pipe. The fourth outlet can be in fluid communication with a fourth port of the second plurality of ports. The blocking of the fourth outlet with the second solid portion can serve to prevent flow of water from the water source to the fourth port to the interior of tub, spa or shower.
In another aspect, a system for user control of water delivery to an interior of a tub, spa or shower includes a plurality of ports and a flow control device. The plurality of ports are located on a surface of the tub, spa or shower, and are configured to transmit water to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The flow control device is in communication with a water source. The device includes a motor, a controller, a first pipe, and a second pipe. The first pipe includes a plurality of inlets. The second pipe is movable relative to the first pipe, and the second pipe includes a plurality of outlets in fluid communication with the plurality of ports. The motor is connected with the first pipe or the second pipe and the controller is coupled with the motor and programmed by a user. Moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by the controller to a position of the plurality of positions serves to cause communication of an inlet set of the plurality of inlets with a first outlet set of the plurality of outlets. The first outlet set is in fluid communication with a first port set of the plurality of ports. The communication of the inlet set with the first outlet set serves to allow flow of water from the water source to the inlet set to the first outlet set to the first port set to the interior of the tub, spa or shower. The moving of the first pipe or the second pipe to the position also serves to block at least one outlet of a second outlet set of the plurality of outlets with a solid portion of the first pipe. The at least one outlet is in fluid communication with at least one port of a second port set of the plurality of ports. The blocking of the at least one outlet with the solid portion serves to prevent flow of water from the water source to the at least one port to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The position can comprise a first position of the plurality of positions. The inlet set can comprise a first inlet set of the plurality of inlets. Moving of the first pipe or the second pipe by the motor controlled by the controller to a second position of the plurality of positions can serve to cause communication of a second inlet set of the plurality of inlets with the second outlet set. The second outlet set can be in fluid communication with the second port set. The communication of the second inlet set with the second outlet set can serve to allow flow of water from the water source to the second inlet set to the second outlet set to the second port set to the interior of the tub, spa or shower.
The first pipe can comprise a plurality of circumferential portions. The first inlet set and the solid portion can be located in a first circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The second inlet set can be located in a second circumferential portion of the plurality of circumferential portions. The second circumferential portion can be different from the first circumferential portion.
The first outlet set can comprise a subset of the second outlet set. The first port set can comprise a subset of the second port set.
Thus, the present invention advantageously provides a system that improves controllability, selectability, accuracy, effectiveness, efficiency and/or performance of a flow control device for water communication with ports of a tub, spa or shower through the programming of a controller by a user. The invention also increases selectability and/or controllability of water delivery to a tub, spa or shower in which a controller of a flow control device is programmed by a user. In addition, the invention improves controllability, selectability, ease, accuracy, repeatability, effectiveness, efficiency and/or performance in use of individual ones, sets, or subsets of ports in a tub, spa or shower through which water is delivered by the programming of a controller of a flow control device by a user.

Motorized control of water delivery through ports of tub, spa or shower


A non-volatile memory device, and a method for accessing the non-volatile memory device are provided. The non-volatile memory device is connected to a host via a bus. The non-volatile memory device comprises an MCU. By independently processing the particular commands using only the auxiliary circuit, the MCU can cease to operate, thus saving power. By setting the bus into power saving mode when the non-volatile memory device is busy, the host and the non-volatile memory device would not communicate mutually, thus, saving power.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-volatile memory device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a non-volatile memory with an auxiliary circuit that independently processes commands along with a microprocessor control unit.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
A hard disc is an essential device for a computer, which stores various kinds of data, such as programs, document files, music files, and etc. Conventionally, hard discs that meet the parallel ATA standard are widely used in the computer industry. However, with the improvement of fast transmissions, a new standard has been developed: the serial ATA standard. Although the serial ATA standard has fast transmission, using the serial ATA standard consumes more power than using the conventional parallel ATA standard. As a result, if the serial ATA standard is used, the bus of this hard disc has to operate at a much faster oscillation frequency. Generally, the oscillation frequency is much faster than the oscillation frequency of a conventional hard disc, for example, the bus of a hard disc meeting the SATA standard operates at an oscillation frequency of 3,000 MHz or 1,500 MHZ, and the bus of a conventional hard disc normally operates at an oscillation frequency lower than 133 MHz. That result is greater power consumption.
Some rules of the serial ATA standard allow the bus of this hard disc to get into the rest modes of different levels. For example, the serial ATA standard defines a partial status where the hard disc could wait 10 μs before processing the next operation. Meanwhile, a hard disc getting into the slumber status could wait no longer than 10 ms to process a next operation.
For the current design of non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory can't transfer data in certain situations, which are denoted as an erasing waiting time, a reading waiting time and a writing waiting time in below. The erasing waiting time, reading waiting time, and writing waiting time are operation time of the non-volatile memory. For the writing waiting time, a typical current flash write procedure comprises the steps of: (A1) sending command/address to the flash memory; (B1) waiting a short time; (C1) transferring data to the flash memory in high speed; (D1) waiting 300 us˜800 us; and (E1) reading a status of the flash memory and completing this writing. The steps A1, B1, D1, or E1 could be parts the writing waiting time.
For the reading waiting time, a typical current flash read procedure comprises steps of: (A2) sending command/address to the flash memory; (B2) waiting a short time: (C2) transferring data from the flash memory in high speed; (D2) reading a status of the flash memory and completing this reading. The steps A2, B2 or D2 could be the reading waiting time.
For the erasing waiting time, a typical current flash erase procedure, it's the time the flash memory can't transfer data during the erase process. Therefore, all steps of erasing could be the erasing waiting time.
Meanwhile, all the operations of the hard disc are controlled by the microprocessor control unit (MCU). For some particular operations, using the MCU may increase the power consumption as well.
Thus, it is important to develop a new hardware and software structure for a hard disc that can save power.

Non-volatile memory device, and method of accessing a non-volatile memory device


Interleaver for scrambling an information word, the information word having a multitude of digits, for obtaining a permuted information word. The interleaver includes a first interleaver stage for a row-by-row arranging of the digits of the information word in a plurality of first rows and first columns, and a second interleaver stage for scrambling the digits of one of the first rows by interchanging at least two digits of the one first row in order to obtain a first scrambled row, and for replacing the one of the first rows by the first scrambled row. The first interleaver stage is configured for reading the first row, which is replaced based on the first scrambled row, in a column-by-column manner in order to obtain the permuted information word.

The present invention relates to interleavers as employed, for example, in the field of information and encoding technology for scrambling information.
In the field of conventional technology, interleavers are employed, e.g., in data communication. There, binary digits are often transferred in the form of transmit symbols, which are then, in transmission e.g. via a mobile radio channel, interfered with. As in most cases several successive symbols are affected by an interference, which is customarily referred to as burst errors, scrambling techniques are employed. This means that individual digits in an original information word are scrambled such that same are no longer successive in the transmission. This results in the fact that, in the occurrence of burst errors and subsequent descrambling, the burst errors will be ripped apart and thus distributed across the information word. These technologies may also be used in the storage of data, such as with audio CDs, for example. Ideally, the burst errors occurring are ripped apart, thus leading to individual errors that are correctable. For the scrambling and/or descrambling, so-called interleavers are used.
In telecommunications, error-correcting codes are used for the protection from transmission errors. Here, convolution encoders, block encoders, etc. may be employed, for example. There, turbo codes are one of the highest-performance code classes, and their capability of correcting transmission errors outperforms that of convolution codes by far, cf. Claude Berrou, Alain Glavieux, and Punya Thitimajshima: "Near Shannon-Limit Error-Correcting Coding and Decoding: Turbo Codes", Intern. Conf. on Communication, pages 1064-1070, 1993.
Turbo-code interleavers are an integral component of turbo encoders as well as of the associated turbo decoders. FIG. 11 illustrates a schematic block diagram of such a turbo encoder 1100. The turbo encoder 1100 comprises a 1st component encoder 1105, a turbo code interleaver 1110, a 2nd component encoder 1115 and a puncturer 1120. An information word, i.e. a vector consisting of information bits that may for example be specified by an index range from 0 to Infoword_Len−1, Infoword_Len corresponding to the word length, is encoded by feeding a 1st copy directly to the puncturer 1120, a 2nd copy of the vector to the 1st component encoder 1105 and a 3rd copy to the turbo-code interleaver 1110. The turbo-code interleaver 1110 permutes the bits of this sector, i.e. it resorts these bits or digits, changes their order and forwards the thus permuted vector of the same length of Infoword_Len to the 2nd component encoder 1115.
Both component encoders 1105 and 1115 are generally the same and represent a recursive convolution encoder providing at least one parity bit, or several, as the case may be, at its output or outputs per input bit. In FIG. 11, two parity bits each for the two component encoders 1105 and 1115 are shown.
FIG. 12 shows an example of a component encoder, which may be realized in the form of a convolution encoder, for example. FIG. 12 shows an example of a recursive convolution encoder having 2 parity bits per input bit and a memory length of 3. FIG. 12 shows 3 flip-flops 1200, 1205 and 1210, which are linked to one another via summation members and coupling branches. The example represented in FIG. 12 shows that, for one input bit present at the input 1215, 2 parity bits each are output at the outputs 1220 and 1225. Furthermore, the 3 flip-flops 1200, 1205 and 1210 correspond to 3 one-bit memories realizing the memory length 3. Each of the 3 flip-flops 1200, 1205 and 1210 stores one bit, i.e. binary "0" of "1", for one unit of time and outputs same at the respective output. At the beginning of the next unit of time, the bit present at the input of a flip-flop is stored and then output. Therefore, the arrangement in FIG. 12 may also be considered a conventional shift register. The plus symbols mark the summation members, i.e. those nodes at which binary additions are performed, the binary addition corresponding to the binary EXOR operation. In the lower part of FIG. 12, a feedback branch 1230 is to be seen, by means of which the content of the shift register is fed back to its input 1215. Therefore, FIG. 12 shows an example of a convolution encoder that may be employed as a component encoder in the representation of FIG. 11.
According to the example of FIG. 11, the parity bits of the component encoders 1105 and 1115, the systematic bits, which correspond to the information bits, are provided to a puncturer 1120. From FIG. 11, it can be seen that the puncturer 1120 comprises 5 inputs and only one output. In the puncturer 1120, a parallel-serial conversion of the 5 inputs to the one output takes place, wherein, however, bits present at the inputs may also simply discarded and not forwarded to the output. This may be controlled via a puncture pattern, for example, which determines which bits of the 5 inputs are to be forwarded to the output. The puncturer may, for example, forward to the output each systematic bit but only each 2nd bit of the 4 parity-bit inputs. As, for each information word to be transferred, a total of Infoword_Len bits are present at each of the 5 inputs, a maximum of 5×Infoword_Len bits may be output.
A suitable puncture pattern may serve to achieve an adjusted quantity of Codeword_Len bits being output by the puncturer so that the length of a code word output, which is comprised of the code bits, will be Codeword_Len. The ratio Infoword_Len/Codeword_Len is the code rate of the turbo code. For the above example, the code rate may be adjusted from ⅕ to 1 by the puncturer.
After transmission of the code bits, i.e. the code word, via a transmission channel, bits interfered with in the receiver, for example, which may be present there in the form of soft bits, are processed. In other words, binary digits may be represented at a higher resolution in the receiver, i.e. for a binary digit "0" or "1" transmitted, several binary digits may be used in a receiver. In this manner, reliability information of the individual binary digits may be taken into account in the decoding, for example. A turbo decoder now has the task of correcting transmission errors.
A turbo decoder adapted to the turbo encoder shown in FIG. 11 is shown in FIG. 13. The turbo decoder comprises a de-puncturer 1300, a 1st component decoder 1305, a 2nd component decoder 1310, a turbo-code interleaver 1315 and a turbo-code deinterleaver 1320. The structure of the turbo decoder shown in FIG. 13 already shows that the turbo-code interleaver 1315 and the turbo-code deinterleaver 1320 are of central importance.
A turbo decoder operates in an iterative manner, i.e., in contrast to Viterbi decoders for convolution codes, here, each component decoder is not used only once but once per iteration, wherein several iterations may be performed, the typical number of iterations ranging from 3 to 8. The de-puncturer 1300 determines the systematic bits as well as the parity bits of the 1st component and the 2nd component from the code bits received. The parity bits of the 1st component are fed to the 1st component decoder 1305 and the parity bits of the 2nd component are fed to the 2nd component decoder 1310. In each iteration, the 1st component decoder 1305 calculates, based on its inputs, i.e. based on the parity bits of the 1st component, on the systematic bits, as well as on the extrinsic information of the 2nd component, an output signal, which may be referred to as extrinsic information of the 1st component.
For each of the Infoword_Len systematic bits, there is also extrinsic information, i.e., this output of the 1st component decoder 1305 is a vector of pieces of Infoword_Len extrinsic information. Apart from that, the 1st component decoder 1305, via a 2nd output, provides a vector of Infoword_Len decoded, i.e. estimated, information bits. The two vectors of the systematic soft bits and the extrinsic information of the 1st component are permuted in the turbo-code interleaver 1315, i.e., each vector is scrambled individually and with the same permutation as in the turbo encoder, as is represented in FIG. 11, for example.
Similarly, the 2nd component decoder 1310 calculates as an output, based on its inputs, a vector of the length Infoword_Len of pieces of extrinsic information of the 2nd component. Same is fed back to the 1st component decoder 1305 via the turbo-code deinterleaver 1320 so that the former may begin the next iteration. During the iterations, the 1st and the 2nd component decoders 1305; 1310 exchange their respective extrinsic information via the turbo-code interleaver 1315 and the turbo-code deinterleaver 1320, respectively. Here, the turbo-code de-interleaver 1320 corresponds to the turbo-code interleaver 1315 such that a vector of the length Infoword_Len, once having been permuted by the turbo-code interleaver 1315 with the result thereof afterwards having been permuted by the turbo-code deinterleaver 1320, is again identical to the original vector.
Among other things, the turbo-code interleaver 1315 serves to ensure high distances between the permuted code words. In general, the Hamming distance between code words may be used as a measure, which corresponds to the number of bits in which 2 code words A and B differ from each other. If code word A is transferred, code word B will instead erroneously be selected by the receiver when these bits were corrupted by the channel. This is the case as soon as half of these bits are corrupted. Naturally, the probability of a wrong code word B being selected becomes smaller as the Hamming distance between A and B increases, cf., e.g., Todd K. Moon "Error Correction Coding", Wiley, 2007, ISBN 978-0-471-64800-0.
Now, the turbo-code interleaver 1100 or 1315 is to see to it that the distances between each possible code word A and all other possible code words B are rendered large. Solving this task may be explained in a somewhat simplified manner as follows. The Hamming distance between 2 code words A and B may be calculated as the Hamming weight of vector A plus B, the weight meaning the number of ones of the vector. As mentioned above, the plus symbol here represents a binary addition, which corresponds to an XOR operation between one bit of A and B each, i.e. bit 0 of A is linked to bit 0 of B, Bit 1 of A is linked to bit 1 of B, bit 2 of A is linked to bit 2 of B, and so on.
Turbo codes are linear, i.e. they possess the property that A plus B is a valid code word when A and B are valid code words. Therefore, as the code word A, the zero vector may also be assumed a transferred code word. Then, the distances to all other code words B are simply the Hamming weights of these other code words. Due to the linearity property, the distance distribution, i.e. the histogram of the distances occurring to all possible code words B, is identical for each code word A and therefore also for the zero vector. If same is assumed the code word A, the distance distribution will be identical to the weight distribution of all possible code words.
According to the above explanations, a turbo encoder, such as represented in FIG. 11, outputs a zero vector at its output when its input is a zero vector. Based on the above considerations, the aim of the turbo-code interleaver 1110; 1315 therefore is seeing to it that a maximum weight is generated at the output when a vector other than the zero vector is present at the input.
The minimum weight dmin of all code words is of particular importance as, in a transmission of the zero word, corruption towards the minimum weight code words is most probable. Analogously, in transferring any code word A, what is most probable is a corruption towards a code word B, which has a minimum distance of dmin to code word A.
It is the minimum distance dmin which also largely determines the shape of the word error rate graph. In such word error rate graphs, the word error rates WER (i.e. the ratio of the incorrectly decoded code words to the total number of code words transferred) are plotted versus an increasing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a static non-frequency-selective channel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). In FIG. 10a, such a graph is represented by means of a dashed line. Observing this line, it can be seen that same comprises a portion between 1.2 and 1.6 dB, in which the WER graph drops more steeply, followed by a shallower graph portion, which is referred to as the so-called error floor. The position of the error floor is mainly caused by the code words having the minimum distance dmin from the code word transferred.
For commercial systems, it is therefore desired that such an error floor be naturally limited, as too high a WER renders the data transmission unreliable, i.e. causes signal failures, and as the WER may also not be substantially reduced within the error floor, even by increasing the SNR.
For this reason, a considerable amount of research work has been invested in the reduction of the error floor since the turbo codes emerged, cf., for example, Marco Breiling, "Analysis and Design of Turbo Code Interleavers", Shaker Verlag, Aachen, 2002 ISBN 3-8322-0302-8, and S. Crozier and P. Guinand: "High-performance low memory interleaver banks for turbo-codes", in Proc. of the 54th IEEE Veh. Tech. Conf (VTC'01), Atlantic City, pp. 2394-2398, October 2001.
For this purpose, manifold approaches for optimizing also turbo-code interleavers were made, as several proposals were made regarding the UMTS standardization (UMTS=Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), cf. Johan Hokfelt, Ove Edfors, and Torleiv Maseng: "Interleaver design for turbo codes based on the performance of iterative decoding", Intern. Conf. on Communications, Communications Theory Mini Conference, pages 93-97, 1999.
The above considerations already show that the generation of weight in the turbo encoder should be taken into account so as to make the methodology behind the design of turbo-code interleavers comprehensible. A code word having the weight dmin will not come into existence unless the information word has a lower weight, as same itself contributes to the code word in the form of a systematic portion. When the information word is represented by a vector having one single one: 00 . . . 010 . . . 0, then what happens in the 1st component encoder 1105 is the following: before this one enters the component encoder 1105, the latter outputs only zeros at its outputs as the internal shift register of the component encoder 1105 contains zeros only, cf. FIG. 12.
After the one has reached the component encoder, the shift register will no longer contain only zeros, and, by means of the feedback branch 1230, the flip-flops 1200, 1205 and 1210 will no longer all at the same time be zero for the rest of this information word. This means that, as of the point in time at which a single one is input, this component encoder will provide many ones at its outputs 1220; 1225. Thus as a rule, the two streams of parity bits have a large weight, and code words generated by one single one correspondingly also have a large weight.
The picture is different when, at the input of a component encoder, there is present a vector with two ones having a certain distance to each other, wherein, here, distance is meant in the sense of a spacing of the two positions within the vector. The component encoder shown in FIG. 12 provides a small output weight for the following input vectors among others:    00 . . . 0100000010 . . . 0,    00 . . . 01000000000000010 . . . 0,    00 . . . 010000000000000000000010 . . . 0,i.e. each time the distance of the ones is a multiple of 7 positions. The portion of the vector between the beginning and the terminating one, including these ones, is in the following to be referred to as an error pattern. This term originates from the fact that these patterns are responsible for code words erroneously output by the decoder in a faulty transmission of the zero code word. Each first one results in the shift register no longer containing zeros only and therefore beginning to output bits unequal to zero, while the terminating one sees to it that the shift register will again contain zeros only, i.e. return to the so-called zero state, and that therefore only zeros will be output thereafter.
While 10000001 is an error pattern, 1000001, i.e. the distance between the ones is 6 positions only, and 100000001, i.e. the distance is 8 positions, and so on, are not an error pattern, i.e. here the shift register does not, with the 2nd one, return to the zero state and therefore will subsequently continue to output ones.
Therefore, for increasing dmin, a turbo-code interleaver should permute a maximum of error patterns at the input of the 1st component decoder 1305, the error patterns generating parity bits of a possibly only low weight, such that same are mapped to sequences at the input of the 2nd component decoder 1310, same being no error patterns and therefore having to generate a high parity weight.
As already explained above, the quality of the turbo-code interleaver directly affects the error floor of the word error rate graph. One further important issue is the implementability of the turbo-code interleaver. In principle, each turbo-code interleaver is implementable as an address table, i.e. for each input bit of the 1st and/or 2nd component, a table sequentially states the address this bit is to be read from and/or written to, for the respective other component encoder to be able to process same. The process of interleaving may be expressed as reordering information bits in memories: when, prior to interleaving, an information bit is to be found in address i of a first memory, then, after interleaving, it will be found in address Addr[i] of either also the first or a second memory. For 10,000 information bits, for example, this address table would comprise 10,000 entries, each having 14 bits, for the representation of addresses up to 10,000. These addresses may be stored in a separate ROM (ROM=read only memory) or RAM (RAM=random access memory), which involves substantial expenditure in the implementation. This problem is made even more critical when the turbo code is to support several word sizes, such as is frequently the case in modern communications systems, for example. In this case, a separate table would be necessitated for each word size, with the RAM and/or ROM demands summing up.
For this reason, ambitions directed at selecting an algorithmically representable turbo-code interleaver are starting to be made in the field of conventional technology also. Here, the permutation address for each information bit is calculated by means of a regulation that may be represented by few arithmetic operations as well as the use of few parameters. These parameters may assume different values for each word size and be stored in small RAM and/or ROM tables.
In the early phases of turbo codes, random permutations were frequently chosen as turbo-code interleavers, as is represented in FIG. 14, for example. FIG. 14 shows a random turbo-code interleaver based on an interleaver length of 1146 bits. The representation in FIG. 14 shows the bit position of the 1st component on the ordinate and the bit position of the 2nd component on the abscissa. The respective allocation is represented by a cross, wherein the distribution of the crosses indicates the random nature of the turbo-code interleaver. With respect to random interleavers it is shown that same, with almost 100% certainty, will permute error patterns at the input of the 1st component decoder to error patterns at the input of the 2nd component decoder, with the result of a code word having a low weight being generated, cf. Sergio Benedetto and Guido Montorsi: "Unveiling Turbo Codes: Some Results on Parallel Concatenated Coding Schemes", IEEE Trans. on Inform. Theory, 42(2):409-428, 1996.
The WER of a random interleaver is shown next to other ones in FIG. 10a in the form of a dashed line and designated with "RAND ILV." and. Here, the error floor is clearly recognizable. One further drawback in random interleavers is that they are not representable in an algorithmic manner, thus having to be stored in the form of a table.
In the context of conventional technology, linear congruent interleavers are further known. As opposed to random interleavers, these interleavers are strictly describable in mathematical terms. The address Addr[i] of an information bit i may be calculated according to the formulaAddr[i]=(C×i)mod K, wherein mod represents the modulo operation, K is the information word size and C is a constant that is relatively prime with respect to K and represents the increment between successive addresses. These interleavers have a high error floor, which is why they are only rarely employed in practice.
In the early phases of the turbo codes, rectangular interleavers were also used in research instead of the random interleavers. One example of a rectangular interleaver is represented in FIG. 15. FIG. 15 shows a rectangular representation with 3 rows and 4 columns with the respective read and/or write indices entered in the respective elements. As FIG. 15 shows, the information word size is equal to the product of row and column numbers. The bits to be permuted are written to same in a row-by-row and read from same in a column-by-column manner. The performance of these interleavers is also insufficient.
The extreme examples of the random interleaver on the one hand and the rectangular interleaver or linear congruent interleaver on the other hand show that both too random and too structured a setup of a turbo-code interleaver will result in poor efficiency of the code.
From the literature, s-random interleavers are further known, cf. S. Dolinar and D. Divsalar: "Weight Distributions for Turbo Codes Using Random and Nonrandom Permutations", Jet Propulsion Lab, TDA Prog. Rep., 42-122: 56-65, 1995, wherein the permutation is pseudo-random to a certain degree, with, however, randomness being subjected to some limitations with regard to the distances the positions of 2 arbitrary bits in the 1st and 2nd components are allowed to have. These s-random interleavers serve to achieve a relatively good performance of the turbo code. The drawback here is that, similar to the random interleavers, no algorithmic calculation formula of the interleaver may be given.
An interleaving possessing many properties of the s-random interleaver, while still be algorithmically describable, is the dithered relatively prime interleaver, cf. S. Crozier and P. Guinand: "High-performance low-memory interleaver banks for turbo-codes", in Proc. of the 54th IEEE Veh. Tech. Conf (VTC'01), Atlantic City, pp. 2394-2398, October 2001. This interleaver is a mixture of pseudo-randomness and structure and has prescribed distances of the bit positions. It is based on the linear congruent interleaver with an additionally superimposed local permutation so as to break up the rigid structure of the linear congruent interleaver.
A further known interleaver is the UMTS or 3GPP interleaver (3GPP=Third Generation Partnership Project), see W-CDMA 3GPP TS 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Multiplexing and channel coding (FDD), as well as Hirohito Suda and Akira Shibutani: "Interleaving method, interleaving apparatus, turbo encoding method, and turbo encoder", European Patent 1 030 455 B1, 1999. The basic principle behind the turbo-code interleaver used in the 3GPP standard is a rectangular interleaver, in the following referred to as a frame interleaver, in which, in addition, intra- and inter-row interleaving is performed. This means that first, in a 1st step, the information bits are written to a rectangular interleaver in a row-wise manner. Subsequently, additional permutations are performed within each row, which is the so-called intra-row interleaving, the permutation in each row being different. In the 3GPP interleaver, this permutation is performed based on cycles generated in a Galois field by means of raising a primitive element to a higher power. The intra-row interleaving thus being generated is roughly equivalent to pseudo-random permutation.
Subsequently, in a 3GPP interleaver, complete rows are interchanged, which is the so-called inter-row interleaving. Intra- and inter-row interleaving having been effected, the rectangular frame interleaver permuted such is read column by column.
In the case of the 3GPP interleaver, additional expenditure is necessitated for adapting the interleaver to the word size. For this purpose, dummy bits are appended to the information word prior to permutation so that the word supplemented such completely fills a rectangular interleaver, wherein the length of the filled-up input word will then result from the product of row and column numbers. After the permutation, these dummy bits are removed, i.e. a so-called pruning is performed. The permutation in the 3GPP interleaver is therefore comprised of a series of individual operations.
The drawback caused by the treating of dummy bits, i.e. the insertion, the part in the permutations performed and the removal thereof, is that additional processing time, consumption of resources, such as additional storage requirements, and additional implementation expenditure, i.e. complexity, will be necessitated.
For doing without the actual adding and subsequent removing of the dummy bits to or from the "true" information bits, what would be useful is calculating the index of an interleaved information bit directly, i.e. after the complete interleave process and the reading from the interleaver memory. What would also be desired is a calculation regulation capable of directly indicating the index of an information bit in the interleaved information word, as it would result from the above-mentioned process of dummy-bit addition, interleaving and dummy-bit removal, without, however, this adding and removing of dummy bits having to actually be effected.
There is, however, no way of giving a simple calculation regulation as the 3GPP interleaver has the following drawback: the frame interleaver of this standard is a rectangular interleaver, the number of elements of which is the product of the row and column numbers. As the block size may be arbitrarily chosen, inevitably—as described above—additional dummy bits are inserted and removed after the interleaving. After the insertion of the dummy bits, all rows of the frame interleaver have the same length, which is why all intra-row interleavers will operate with the same row length. Therefore, the dummy bits are generally scattered across the entire frame interleaver by means of the intra- and inter-row permutations. In addition, the number of dummy bits may differ in the individual rows. The irregular distribution of the dummy bits across the entire frame interleaver does not allow any simple direct calculation for the index of the interleaved information bit (after intra- and inter-row permutation and reading-out) as these irregularities need to be accounted for in the formula.
In the cdma2000 or 3GPP interleaver (see CDMA-2000 3GPP2 C.S0002-C Version 2.0 Physical Layer Standard for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems Revision C, and Douglas N. Rowitch and Fuyun Ling: "Turbo Code Interleaver using Linear Congruential Sequence", U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,991 B1, 1998, and Steven J. Halter: "Random-Access Multi-Directional CDMA2000 Turbo Code Interleaver", U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,303 B2, 2001) too, basically, a frame interleaver in the form of a rectangular interleaver is used, in which intra- and inter-row interleaving is performed. Here, the intra-row interleaving is based on linear congruent interleaving, which is also to effect a quasi-random permutation, while the inter-row interleaving is achieved by means of a digit-wise reversal of the bit representation of the respective row index (bit reversal).
The 3GPP2 interleaver also necessitates additional effort for adapting the interleaver to the word size chosen, as the product of row and column numbers is normally unequal to the information word size. Therefore, 2 candidate addresses are generated for one information bit, the addresses positioned between zero and the product of the row and column numbers. In case the first candidate address is valid, i.e. lies between zero and the information word size, it is used, otherwise it is discarded and the second candidate address is used, which in this case is valid in each case (this may be proven for the algorithm used).
While the frame interleaver of the 3GPP2 standard is a rectangular interleaver, the information word size may here be selected at certain levels, and each information word size has its own parameter sets for the interleaver. As a rule, the information word sizes are unequal to the number of elements of the rectangular frame interleaver (product of row and column numbers). Although, with this interleaver design, no filling up of the frame interleaver with dummy bits is necessitated, here, too, simple direct calculation of the address of an information bit is not possible.
For it is a characteristic feature of the 3GPP2 interleaver that the address calculation regulation contains a counter-value unequal to the index of the bit to be permuted. For example, if a block size of 378 bits is chosen, then the bit index will range from 0-377, while the counter-value transitions through all values from 0 to 511. For calculating the address of the bit having the index zero, the counter-value of zero is used, but as early as for the bit having the index 3, it is not the counter-value 3, which is discarded, but 4 that is used. This is due to the algorithm from the 3GPP2 standard, which generates candidate addresses that for some indices are invalid. This is caused by the fact that the inter- and intra-row interleaving will assume that each row or column is complete and of the same length.
Without the above-mentioned counter and the generation of possibly invalid candidate addresses, the calculation thereof is not feasible. This method is disadvantageous exactly in the generation of invalid addresses, which need to be discarded, which in turn results in more processing time and/or higher implementation expenditure for the parallel generation of two addresses.

Interleaver for scrambling and information word

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V.


A liquid measuring device comprises a cap which is adapted to fit on a liquid container. A reservoir adapted to hold a dose of liquid is mounted on the cap. The reservoir has a opening in the top which is covered by a removable reservoir cap. A tube runs from the inside of the liquid container through the cap and upward into the reservoir. The liquid is forced from the container, through the tube and into the reservoir by squeezing the sides of the container inwardly. Similarly, liquid can be forced back into the container by turning the device upside down and squeezing inward on the sides of the reservoir. The liquid measuring device is adapted to fit any size pharmaceutical bottle or other liquid containers and may be reused.

Bottles and other types of containers have long been used for dispensing various types of liquids, including beverages, medications, liquid soap, detergents, and fuel. In many instances, the user will want to dispense only a certain amount of the liquid from these containers. This is especially true with liquid medications where the user only needs to dispense a predetermined dose of the liquid.
There are certain goals involved in dispensing a predetermined amount of liquid from a container. First, the user will want to avoid dispensing any more liquid than is necessary so as to avoid wasting it, especially where the liquid is expensive, as is often the case with medications.
Second, the user will want to avoid spilling the liquid on themselves or other objects. This is especially the case where the liquid is staining. Further, it is often extremely important that the user obtain an accurate amount of liquid, such as with medications. For instance, with babies and small children it is extremely important that the child not receive more than his/her designated dosage of liquid medication since even slightly too much of the medication can often be harmful or toxic.
Attempts to achieve the above-mentioned goals have varied throughout the years. One method of dispensing medication has been to simply pour the liquid medication into a teaspoon. This method, however, often results in inaccurate dosing since, due to the differences in design and capacity, teaspoons can hold anywhere from 4 to 7.5 ml of liquid. This margin of error is compounded as the number of teaspoonfuls per dose increases. With babies and small children especially, this error in dosing can result in harmful side effects and even toxicity. Further, unless the user has a particularly steady hand, much of the liquid being poured onto the spoon gets spilled or wasted.
Another method of measuring liquid is to pour the liquid into a separate measuring device. This method of measuring is usually more accurate than the teaspoon method. However, using a separate measuring device often requires the user to go through the process of pouring liquid from its container into the device, pouring back excess liquid into the container, then repeating these steps until the correct dose is finally obtained. Further, especially when measuring small quantities of liquid, the measuring device is quite small and it is still easy to spill liquid while pouring it into the device and while pouring excess liquid back into the container.
Many containers have been designed which include a device for the dispensing of controlled-volume increments of liquid. Generally, in operation, the user squeezes the container, causing the liquid to move upwardly into a smaller container. Once the desired amount of liquid is in the smaller container, the user stops squeezing the primary larger container. The liquid is prevented from returning to the main container due to pressure or physical impediments. These devices, however, suffer from a number of disadvantages.
For example, many of the proposed devices which operate by pressurizing the primary larger container are prone to inaccuracy and erratic operation brought about by pressure differences within the container. These pressure differences tend to impede the flow of fluid out of the dispenser, resulting in inaccurate dosages.
Other similar devices generally allow for pressure equalization by allowing air to enter the container simultaneously with the withdrawal of liquid medication therefrom. This method, however, requires a complex mechanical construction of the container to allow for this simultaneous exchange of air and liquid. These complex devices are generally not economical to manufacture.
Further, if the user squeezes too much liquid into the smaller container or reservoir of these devices, the devices do not allow for the return of liquid back into the main container once it enters the reservoir. Thus, the user must dump out the excess liquid, which is then wasted.
In addition, containers having a built-in liquid measuring device are expensive to manufacture and require the user to throw away the entire device after the liquid in the container has been used.
Therefore, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved method and device for measuring predetermined amounts of liquids.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a method and device for measuring predetermined amounts of liquids which provides accurate dosing.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a method and means for measuring predetermined amounts of liquids wherein less liquid is wasted due to a decrease in the amount of spillage.
Yet a further objective of the present invention is the provision of a method and device for measuring predetermined amounts of liquids wherein less liquid is wasted by return of liquid in excess of the dosage to the main container.
Still a further objective of the present invention is the provision of a method and device for measuring predetermined amounts of liquids which may be applied to a variety of styles and sizes of liquid containers.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a method and device for measuring predetermined amounts of liquids which is economical to manufacture and convenient to use.
These and other objectives will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Liquid measuring device and method of using same


To improve uneven wear resistance performance while maintaining drainage performance. A tyre is provided with a plurality of inclined grooves in a tread portion. Each of the inclined grooves extends from a crown region to a shoulder region. Each of the inclined grooves includes a first portion arranged on the crown region side, a second portion arranged on the shoulder region side, and a third portion connecting between the first portion and the second portion. The third portion has a groove width smaller than the first portion and the second portion. The first portion, the second portion, and the third portion are inclined to the same side with respect to the tyre circumferential direction.

Patent Document 1 below has described a motorcycle tyre provided with a central inclined groove arranged in the vicinity of a tyre equatorial plane and extending obliquely and outwardly in a tyre width direction from the tyre equatorial plane side. A rotational direction of the motorcycle tyre is specified. In the central inclined groove, at an end portion thereof, an outer groove edge in the tyre width direction is formed by an arc-shaped portion, and a groove depth thereof is gradually decreased in the reverse rotational direction.


A supporting mechanism comprises a movable unit and a fixed unit. The movable unit is movable in a reference plane. The fixed unit has a rectangular frame that is connected with the movable unit, that is composed of strips perpendicular to the reference plane, and that is fixed to another part of the fixed unit. The fixed unit movably supports the movable unit through an elastic transformation of the rectangular frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supporting mechanism, and in particular to supporting a movable unit through an elastic transformation.
2. Description of the Related Art
An anti-shake apparatus (An image blur correcting device) for a photographing apparatus is proposed. The anti-shake apparatus reduces hand-shake effect by moving a hand-shake correcting lens or an imaging sensor on a plane that is perpendicular to the optical axis, in a manner corresponding to the amount of hand-shake which occurs during imaging.
Japanese unexamined patent publication (KOKAI) No. H06-46314 discloses a supporting mechanism of an anti-shake apparatus that supports a movable unit (a hand-shake correcting part) through an elastic member.
However, because the movable unit is supported by a plurality of elastic members, the construction of the supporting mechanism becomes complex.


Maximum conjunction probability calculations are refined by addressing rectangular object shapes, even though their orientation may not be known. Object dimensions and relative miss distance, coupled with the aspect ratio of the projected combined covariance, are used to determine the size and orientation of the covariance as well as the object orientation that produces the maximum probability. In treating the objects as rectangles instead of spheres, the probability calculation becomes more realistic by accounting for object shape. In the absence of object attitude information, a footprint is created that completely defines the region where the two objects might touch. This footprint can then be rotated to determine the orientation that produces the largest probability, making it the most conservative estimate for the given conjunction conditions. Sufficiency of the positional data is accessed to meaningfully support the calculations by using the associated standard deviation to demarcate a probability dilution region.

Probability calculations for collision and impingement analysis need to ensure sufficient accuracy to give meaningful results. Because all operational decisions are ultimately made with respect to the amount of acceptable risk, the action threshold should not be based on an unacceptable miss distance or keep-out angle but rather on an unacceptable probability. NASA currently uses a risk-based approach with the International Space Station and Space Transportation System, where avoidance maneuvers are initiated if the collision probability becomes unacceptably high. If the positional uncertainty is very large, a Gaussian calculation will produce a low conjunction probability. Although mathematically correct, the resulting probability may give a false sense of confidence that a conjunction is not likely to occur. Such a low probability may, in fact, indicate that the data is not of sufficient accuracy to produce an operationally meaningful result.
For satellite tracking, the accuracy of positional covariance matrices resulting from Least Squares Orbit Determination of sparse data is questionable. Covariance matrices formed in this manner often provide overly optimistic results. Frisbee and Foster noted in "A Parametric Analysis of Orbital Debris Collision Probability and Maneuver Rate for Space Vehicles," NASA JSC 25898, August 1992, that "the primary problem with state error covariances determined from observations of objects in Earth orbit is that they are not truly reflective of the uncertainties in the dynamic environment." To address this concern, they devised a method to scale covariances provided to NASA by Air Force Space Command. The present invention provides a way to address the inaccuracy of covariance matrices by determining a mathematical upper bound that will not be exceeded regardless of positional uncertainty.
Significant work has been done to address the computing of collision and impingement probability for neighboring space objects (see FOSTER, J. L., and ESTES, H. S., "A Parametric Analysis of Orbital Debris Collision Probability and Maneuver Rate for Space Vehicles," NASA JSC 25898, August 1992; KHUTOROVSKY, Z. N., BOIKOV, V., and KAMENSKY, S. Y., "Direct Method for the Analysis of Collision Probability of Artificial Space Objects in LEO: Techniques, Results, and Applications," Proceedings of the First European Conference on Space Debris, ESA SD-01, 1993, pp. 491-508; CARLTON-WIPPERN, K. C., "Analysis of Satellite Collision Probabilities Due to Trajectory and Uncertainties in the Position/Momentum Vectors," Journal of Space Power, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1993; CHAN, K. F., "Collision Probability Analyses for Earth Orbiting Satellites," Advances in the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 96, 1997, pp. 1033-1048; BEREND, N., "Estimation of the Probability of Collision Between Two Catalogued Orbiting Objects," Advances in Space Research, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1999, pp. 243-247; OLTROGGE, D., and GIST, R., "Collision Vision Situational Awareness for Safe and Reliable Space Operations," 50th International Astronautical Congress, 4-8 Oct. 1999, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, LAA-99-IAA.6.6.07; AKELLA, M. R., and ALFRIEND, K. T., "Probability of Collision Between Space Objects," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 23, No. 5, September-October 2000, pp. 769-772; CHAN, K. F., "Analytical Expressions for Computing Spacecraft Collision Probabilities," AAS Paper No. 01-119, AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Santa Barbara, Calif., 11-15 Feb., 2001; PATERA, R. P., "General Method for Calculating Satellite Collision Probability," AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 24, Number 4, July-August 2001, pp. 716-722; and ALFANO, S., "Assessing the Instantaneous Risk of Direct Laser Impingement," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 40, No. 5, September-October 2003, pp. 678-681).
Likewise, some work has been done to examine accuracy requirements associated with those computations (see GOTTLIEB, R. G., SPONAUGLE, S. J., and GAYLOR, D. E., "Orbit Determination Accuracy Requirements for Collision Avoidance," AAS Paper No 01-181, AAS/ALAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Feb. 11-15, 2001, Santa Barbara, Calif.; and ALFANO, S., "Relating Position Uncertainty to Maximum Conjunction Probability," AAS Paper No. 03-548, AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 3-7 Aug., 2003, Big Sky, Mont.).
Typically, one determines if and when a secondary object will transgress a user-defined safety zone. The uncertainties associated with position are represented by three-dimensional Gaussian probability densities. These densities take the form of covariance matrices. For space objects, they can be obtained from the owner-operators or independent surveillance sources such as the US Satellite Catalog (Special Perturbations). When predicting collisions, positions and covariances are propagated to the time of closest approach. Various examples of such prior art collision prediction can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,694 to Donnangelo et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,760,737 to Brenner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,283 to Alfano et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,034 to Patera et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,820,006 to Patera, the details of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
It is possible to find the absolute worst-possible covariance size and orientation that maximizes the probability for a given encounter where the object sizes and rectangular shapes are known. It is also possible to find covariance parameters that maximize the probability for various covariance shapes as determined by the aspect ratio (i.e. the ratio of major-to-minor axes of the projected combined covariance ellipse).
If the maximum probability is below a predefined action threshold, then no further calculations are needed. Such analysis can be insightful even when one only has knowledge of the miss distance and physical object sizes.
Prior art probability computation has been based upon spherical objects. There are many assumptions in this method that reduce the problem's complexity. The physical objects are treated as spheres, thus eliminating the need for attitude information, as illustrated in FIG. 1. For collision analysis, their relative motion is considered linear for the encounter by assuming the effect of relative acceleration is dwarfed by that of the velocity. The positional errors are assumed to be zero-mean, Gaussian, uncorrelated, and constant for the encounter. The relative velocity at the point of closest approach is deemed sufficiently large to ensure a brief encounter time and static covariance. The encounter region is defined when one object is within a standard deviation (σ) combined covariance ellipsoid shell scaled by a factor of n. This user-defined, three-dimensional, n-σ shell is centered on the primary object; n is typically in the range of 3 to 8 to accommodate conjunction possibilities ranging from 97.070911% to 99.999999%.
Because the covariances are expected to be uncorrelated, they are simply summed to form one, large, combined, covariance ellipsoid that is centered at the primary object, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The secondary object passes quickly through this ellipsoid creating a tube-shaped path. A conjunction occurs if the secondary sphere touches the primary sphere, i.e. when the distance between the two projected object centers is less than the sum of their radii. The radius of this collision tube is enlarged to accommodate all possibilities of the secondary touching the primary by combining the radii of both objects.
A plane perpendicular to the relative velocity vector is formed and the combined object and covariance ellipsoid are projected onto this encounter plane. As stated previously, the encounter region is defined by an n-σ shell determined by the user to sufficiently account for conjunction possibilities. Within that shell the tube is straight and rapidly traversed, allowing a decoupling of the dimension associated with the tube path (i.e. relative velocity). The tube becomes a circle on the projected encounter plane. Likewise, the covariance ellipsoid becomes an ellipse, as illustrated in FIG. 3.
The relative velocity vector (decoupled dimension) is associated with the time of closest approach. The conjunction assessment here is concerned with cumulative probability over the time it takes to span the n-σ shell, not an instantaneous probability at a specific time within the shell. Along this dimension, integration of the probability density across the shell produces a number very near unity, meaning the close approach will occur at some time within the shell with near absolute certainty. Thus the cumulative collision probability is reduced to a two-dimensional problem in the encounter plane that is then multiplied by the decoupled dimension's probability. By rounding the latter probability to one, it is eliminated from further calculations.
The resulting two-dimensional probability equation in the encounter plane is given as
                    P        =                              1                          2              ·              π              ·                              σ                x                            ·                              σ                y                                              ·                                    ∫                              -                OBJ                            OBJ                                                                  ∫                                  -                                                                                OBJ                        2                                            -                                              y                        2                                                                                OBJ                      2                                        -                                          y                      2                                                                                exp                                                        [                                                                  (                                                                              -                            1                                                    2                                                )                                            ·                                              [                                                                                (                                                                                x                                  +                                                                      x                                    m                                                                                σ                                  x                                                                                )                                                        2                                                    +                                                                                (                                                                                y                                  +                                                                      y                                    m                                                                                σ                                  y                                                                                )                                                        2                                                                          ]                                                              ]                                                                                ⅆ                  x                                                                  ⅆ                  y                                                                                (        1        )
where OBJ is the combined object radius, x lies along the major axis, y lies along the minor axis, xm and ym are the respective components of the projected miss distance, and σx and σy are the corresponding standard deviations. For the formulation that follows, the aspect ratio AR is incorporated as a multiple of the minor axis standard deviation (AR≧1) and equation (1) is expressed as
                    P        =                              1                          2              ·              π              ·              AR              ·                                                (                                      σ                    y                                    )                                2                                              ·                                    ∫                              -                OBJ                            OBJ                                                                  ∫                                  -                                                                                OBJ                        2                                            -                                              y                        2                                                                                OBJ                    -                                          y                      2                                                                                exp                                                        [                                                                  (                                                                              -                            1                                                    2                                                )                                            ·                                              [                                                                                (                                                                                x                                  +                                                                      x                                    m                                                                                AR                                  ·                                                                      σ                                    y                                                                                )                                                        2                                                    +                                                                                (                                                                                y                                  +                                                                      y                                    m                                                                                σ                                  y                                                                                )                                                        2                                                                          ]                                                              ]                                                                                ⅆ                  x                                                                  ⅆ                  y                                                                                (        2        )
The above equations are also valid for determining the probability of instantaneous line-of-sight impingement. For these instances, the encounter plane is defined perpendicular to the line-of-sight vector and the combined object and covariance ellipsoids projected onto this plane. The axis associated with the line-of-sight vector is then eliminated from the probability calculation. The encounter region is again defined by an n-σ shell determined by the user to sufficiently account for impingement possibilities. As with collision assessment, the instantaneous impingement probability becomes a two-dimensional problem in the encounter plane using equation (2). For the formulation that follows, equation (2) is rewritten as
                    P        =                                            OBJ              2                                      2              ·              π              ·              AR              ·                                                (                                      σ                    y                                    )                                2                                              ·                                    ∫                              -                1                            1                                                                  ∫                                  -                                                            1                      -                                              y                        2                                                                                1                    -                                          y                      2                                                                                exp                                                        [                                                                  (                                                                              -                            1                                                    2                                                )                                            ·                                              [                                                                                (                                                                                x                                    m                                                                    +                                                                      x                                    ·                                    OBJ                                                                                AR                                  ·                                                                      σ                                    y                                                                                )                                                        2                                                    +                                                                                (                                                                                y                                    m                                                                    +                                                                      y                                    ·                                    OBJ                                                                                σ                                  y                                                                                )                                                        2                                                                          ]                                                              ]                                                                                ⅆ                  x                                                                  ⅆ                  y                                                                                (        3        )

Method for determining maximum conjunction probability of rectangular-shaped objects