An apparatus and method for supporting multiple types and configurations of random access memory devices in a single dual in line memory module (DIMM) socket architecture is provided. Typically, this architecture allows a user to select either SDRAM or EDO to be located in the socket(s) without substantially altering the connectivity between circuit components. A switching arrangement, that can be either active switches or fixed circuit traces, is used to selectively interconnect various control and addressing functions inherent in the microprocessor to appropriate pins of the memory device socket(s) depending upon whether EDO or SDRAM is used. In general, the address lines of the microprocessor are interconnected through a multiplexer and buffer arrangement that divides the address lines into two groups. The address bits are transmitted to the pin connections during each of the row address cycle and the column address cycle of the memory. The interconnections between the multiplexer/buffer and the random access memory are arranged so that a variety of standardized address pin configurations are supported by the same socket.

Most microprocessor-based computing devices, used to execute a variety of application programs, include a microprocessor and a separate addressable random access memory (RAM) each residing in a separate package or "circuit chip" on a printed circuit motherboard. The memory stores and retrieves data in a matrix according to a predefined addressing scheme. The microprocessor typically accesses data stored in multi-bit words at various locations within the memory over corresponding multi-bit address lines. According to the addresses provided to the memory, data words are output over an output bus that is, in turn, interconnected with the microprocessor and with a variety of other data handling devices both on the board and remote from the board.
To facilitate assembly, maintenance and replacement of computing components, each circuit chip package is applied to a multi-pin socket that is, in turn, permanently mounted on the motherboard. One popular socket arrangement for accommodating random access memories is the so-called dual in-line memory module (DIMM) socket. This socket generally defines one hundred individual pin connections in a preferred arrangement. Each pin is at a standardized location on the socket and is designated by a standard "pin number." In general, the microprocessor, DIMM socket and other circuit components are connected by a series of discrete lines that are permanently placed on the motherboard, and that, consequently, are not reconfigurable. In other words, a particular pin of the microprocessor is permanently tied to a particular pin on the DIMM socket. This limits the ability of the dim socket to support memory devices other than those specifically designed to interface with certain interconnections or pins. However, the physical geometry of the dim socket is such that it can support several different types and sizes of memories. For example, the socket can accommodate the popular extended data out random access memory (EDO) available in a plurality of memory densities from 1 megabytes up to 32 or 64 megabytes. The addressing scheme for each of such devices is often slightly different. In particular, each different size, and array configuration (number of rows versus columns) requires more, less or different address pins to be employed. This means that simply attaching different-sized memory into the same DIMM socket on a motherboard will not guarantee that the desired microprocessor address pins are connected with the proper addressing functions of the microprocessor. In particular, each EDO device may contain a different number of row versus column address pins.
The use of the newer synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) is becoming more popular in a variety of memory device applications. The SDRAM has specific timing and control requirements that differ from EDO and other types of memory. These requirements implicate different pin connections than EDO throughout a variety of sizes and configurations.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus and method for supporting a variety of different memory types, particularly, EDO and SDRAM within a single socket with minimal changes to the underlying socket architecture. The underlying architecture should be simple to configure for the different size memories in either EDO or SDRAM. It should not require excessive amounts of additional software or hardware to enable the configuration.

Method and apparatus for support of multiple memory types in a single memory socket architecture


A method for diagnosing or giving a prognosis for anxious temperament or trait-like anxiety in a human or non-human primate subject comprising the steps of (a) obtaining DNA from a blood or saliva sample from the subject and (b) quantifying methylation in a set of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) selected from SEQ ID NOs:1-75 or DMR-associated genes selected from DIP2C, GRB10, INPP5A, C17ORF97, PDXK, CACNA2D4, TRAPPC9, CRTC1, MEGF6, HIVEP3, OPCML, PITPNM2, ZFPM1, RAP1GAP2, NFATC1, RNF126, FSTL3, GNAS, SH3BP2, NEURL1B, MAD1L1, HSPA12B, IGF2, PEG10, PEG3, SLC16A3, SYTL1, and ZIM2, wherein a significant change methylation indicates the present of anxious temperament or trait-like anxiety, wherein the change is relative to DNA from a second human or non-human primate who does not have anxious temperament or trait-like anxiety. Also disclosed is a biomarker panel of DMR and DMR-associated genes for the diagnosis or prognosis of anxious temperament or trait-like anxiety.

Anxiety is frequently characterized by a negative affective response that is associated with the anticipation of encountering a potential threat. Trait-like anxiety in humans and non-human primates is associated with stable individual differences in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation and amygdala function. HPA activation results in the release of cortisol, and increased cortisol concentrations in children and adolescents can be linked to inhibited behaviors and anxiety that often persist throughout life.
Additionally, a loss of the 'natural' circadian decline in afternoon/evening cortisol levels has been correlated with shyness and later alterations in behavior, including internalizing problems, suggesting that late-in-the day cortisol levels in children and adolescents may be an index of early life and current stress exposure as well as altered behaviors. High afternoon cortisol levels in childhood are also negatively correlated with amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity in adolescents and adults, indicating that a disruption in amygdala function is related to trait-like anxiety. In fact, anxiety prone individuals show greater amygdala activation during emotion processing tasks, further supporting a central role of the amygdala in processing of fearful stimuli.
Moreover, lesions in the central nucleus of the amygdala of non-human primates results in decreased adrenocorticortropic hormone (ACTH) concentrations before and after stressful conditions. Finally, higher and prolonged amygdala metabolism following a stressful challenge results in increased anxiety-like behaviors (e.g., freezing) in young rhesus monkeys, suggesting that the timing of amygdala activation and deactivation, in both humans and rhesus monkeys, is associated with trait-like anxiety.
Genetic data suggest that common anxiety disorders like generalized and social anxiety disorders are ˜20%-40% heritable and that environmental factors—potentially including epigenetic modifications—likely account for much of the remaining variability. Studies using adult post-mortem brain tissue support a role for DNA methylation (i.e., 5-methylcytosine [5mC]) in the development of anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.

Blood DNA methylation biomarker diagnostic test for anxiety and depressive disorders


An analytic separation arrangement includes a system of tubes including a separation zone, preferably a separation column, which tubes upstream the separation zone are connected with reservoirs for a carrier and a chemical sample to be seperated and analyzed, and downstream the separation zone are connected with a waste container for the carrier containing the sample and also are connected with transporting means for the carrier and the sample. The tube system is associated with an optical detector for monitoring changes in the absorption, in the fluorescence or in the optical activity of the carrier when it is transported through the tube system and past the optical detector, which is arranged in the path of the carrier behind the separation zone but in front of the waste container. Between the separation zone and the optical detector there is arranged in the path of the carrier a refractive index equalizing unit. Prior to being transported past the optical detector the carrier, which is comming from the separation zone, is directed through the refractive index equalizing unit, where its refractive index is preferably constantly monitored and where upon detection of changes of the refractive index of the carrier the deviation is compensated by adding to the carrier a compensating agent.

The invention relates to a method for the analysis of chemical samples according to the preamble of claim 1. The invention also relates to a separation arrangement as used for example in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) according to the preamble of claim 4.
In the field of modern chemical analysis various chromatographic techniques are employed for their high separation efficiencies. Thus separation methods such as gas chromatography, microbore liquid chromatography, capillary supercritical fluid chromatography, capillary zone electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography are most commonly used. Associated with the separation systems are various kinds of different detectors. For example in high performance liquid chromatography the most popular detectors are the ones, which employ optical detection methods to measure changes in the absorption, in the luminescence, more particularly in the fluorescence, in the optical activity in general or in the refractive index of the carriers. As a major drawback the changes in absorption, in fluorescence or in optical activity, which are to be detected, are very often associated with changes of the refractive index of the carrier.
The change of the refractive index of the carrier results very often in a non-linear response of the detector, in an increased noise level or even in a spurious response of the detector. It is apparent that these effects are detrimental to the quality of the analysis of a chemical sample and in some cases render quantitative evaluations of chromatograms impossible. Aware of these drawbacks instrument-manufacturers have tried to solve these problems by improving the design of such separation systems and of the associated detector cells as outlined e.g. in an article by A. E. Bruno in Analytical Chemistry 1989, 61, pages 876 to 883. Now, while the approach of the instrument-manufacturers has had some success in reducing the influences of refractive index changes the problem still has not been satisfactorily resolved and to date no truly refractive index insensitive separation system has been designed. In their article Bruno et. al. also point out that the disturbing refractive index effects are partially a result of a complex dynamic distortion of the optical path, due for example to Schlieren effects, which make it even more difficult to obtain a proper correction of the distorted chromatograms.
It is therefore an object of the instant invention to avoid these drawbacks of the prior art separation methods and the respective prior art separation systems. In particular it is an object to eliminate the detrimental effects due to variations of the refractive index of the carrier during the separation.
All these and still further objects are achieved by a separation method comprising the steps outlined in the second part of claim 1 and by an analytic separation arrangement comprising the features claimed in claim 4.
The object is solved in particular by a separation method for the analysis of chemical samples, wherein a chemical sample is introduced into a carrier, which is transported through a system of tubes and past an optical detector, and together with the carrier is transported through a separation zone, preferably a separation column, and wherein after passing the separation column the carrier and the sample, which then is separated into its components, are transported past the optical detector, which is preferably constantly monitoring the carrier with respect to changes in absorption, in fluorescence or in optical activity. According to the invention prior to being transported past the optical detector the carrier, which is comming from the separation zone, is directed through a refractive index equalizing unit, where its refractive index is preferably constantly monitored and where upon detection of changes of the refractive index of the carrier the deviation is compensated by adding to the carrier a compensating agent.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the carrier is transported inside the refractive index equalizing unit through a refractive index detector, which is connected with a controller unit. Upon detection of a deviation of the refractive index of the carrier, the controller unit controls the amount of compensating fluid, which is added to the carrier via a mixing chamber arranged upstream the refractive index detector, until the nominal value of the refractive index of the carrier is reached again.
The flexibility of the inventive method is increased even more, if depending on the detection of positive or negative refractive index deviations, a controlled amount of compensating agent having a refractive index lower or higher respectively than the refractive index of the carrier is added.
An analytic separation arrangement according to the invention comprises a system of tubes including a separation zone, preferably a separation column, which tubes upstream the separation zone are connected with reservoirs for a carrier and a chemical sample to be separated and analyzed, and downstream the separation zone are connected with a waste container for the carrier containing the sample and also are connected with transporting means for the carrier and the sample. The tube system is associated with an optical detector for monitoring changes in the absorption, in the fluorescence or in the optical activity of the carrier when it is transported through the tube system and past the optical detector, which is arranged in the path of the carrier behind the separation zone but in front of the waste container. Between the separation zone and the optical detector there is arranged in the path of the carrier a refractive index equalizing unit.
In a preferred embodiment according to the invention the refractive index equalizing unit comprises a refractive index detector, a mixing chamber, which is arranged upstream the refractive index detector in the path of the carrier and is connected to a reservoir for a compensating agent, and a controller unit, which on the one hand is connected with the refractive index detector and on the other hand with a dispensing device associated with the reservoir for the compensating agent.
The flexibility of the analytical separation arrangement according to the invention is considerably increased if the mixing chamber is connected with two reservoirs for two kinds of compensating agents, one having a refractive index higher than the nominal value of the refractive index of the carrier and the other having a refractive index lower respectively. Thus it is possible to compensate a wide range of deviations from the nominal value of the refractive index of the carrier, positive deviations as well as negative ones. Preferably the refractive indices of the compensating agents differ considerably from the nominal value of the refractive index of the carrier.
It is advantageous for the sensitivity and the accuracy of the analytical separation arrangement, when the total active volume of the refractive index equalizing unit, comprised of the volumes of carrier in the mixing chamber, the refractive index detector and the tubing interconnecting these two elements, is smaller than the volume of the optical detector.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the total active volume of the equalizer amounts from about 0.5 .mu.l to about 1 ml, preferably to about 10 .mu.l. In even more miniaturized embodiments of the invention, for example in on-chip realizations, the active volume of the equalizer can amount to as little as about 1 nl.
It is particularly advantageous that the set-up of the inventive analytical separation arrangement can be simplified by using low rate syringe pumps having a pumping rate from about 1 .mu.l/min to about 100 .mu.l/min as the dispensing devices.
It is to be noted that the set-up of the invention is even more simplified by the fact that the controller unit is an off-the-shelf microcomputer-controlled DC-motor controller for the syringe pumps.

Analytic separation arrangement and method for the analysis of chemical samples


The gain control signal generating unit generates a gain control signal, using a signal yielding the greatest level among signals of the respective signal processing units. The gain standardizing unit stores, in the offset storage units, offsets corresponding to gain deviations occurring in the respective signal processing units when gains of the variable gain amplifiers are uniformly controlled using the gain control signal. The offsets are added to the gain control signal for each signal processing unit, and the variable gain amplifiers are controlled, using the respective offset-added gain control signals. Under the control of the calibration control unit, the calibration signal supply unit and offset determining unit supply a calibration signal and a gain control signal for calibration, respectively. The offset determining unit determines offsets to standardize the levels of signals of the signal processing units, and updates the offsets storage units with the determined offsets.

Wireless communication devices that selectively communicate with a target device in a desired direction by using an adaptive array system have already been put to practical use.
The adaptive array system generally comprises: a plurality of antennas; signal processing units, each of which processes either the transmitting or received signals of one of the plurality of antennas; and a directivity processing unit to form a desired directional pattern of the entire antennas by assigning amplitude and phase differences to the transmitting and received signals of each antenna.
Each signal processing unit of the adaptive array system is operated under automatic gain control (AGC) to ensure the dynamic range of the received signals.
An example of such automatic gain control in an adaptive array system is disclosed, for instance, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. H03-70221. The adaptive array system has a signal processing unit (branch) with respect to each antenna, and performs automatic gain control in a manner that signals obtained by a single, representative signal processing unit are used to uniformly exercise feedback control on gains of the respective signal processing units. According to this technique, the input signal magnitude in the adaptive array is much the same before and after automatic gain control is applied, exerting no influence on the control of the adaptive array.
However, according to the above-mentioned automatic gain control of the conventional technology, a problem remains that, even if feedback control is performed uniformly on the respective signal processing units by using the same signals obtained from one signal processing unit, the gains of the respective signal processing units are not completely standardized due to variations and time-course changes in elements making up each signal processing unit.
In particular, the adaptive array system forms a desired receiving directional pattern by assigning appropriate amplitude and phase differences to the received signals obtained from the respective received signal processing units. And the respective transmitting signal processing units form a transmitting directional pattern that is the same as the receiving directional pattern by assigning, to the transmitting signals, the same amount of amplitude and phase differences at the reception.
Consequently, there is a problem that, when gain deviations exist among the respective received signal processing units, the receiving directional pattern and the transmitting directional pattern become inconsistent if the amplitude differences of the respective received signal processing units are processed as the amplitude differences of the respective transmitting signal processing units.


This invention relates to the design of a Modular Aerospace Plane (MAP) comprising a forward fuselage section, a main wing section, a tail section and wing attachments. Various sections can be integrated to offer a variety of aircraft characteristics, performance and missions. This modular design offers a new method of aircraft fabrication, maintenance, repair and ground handling to reduce costs for the manufacturers, owners and operators. The forward fuselage and tail sections may utilize a parachute device whereby these sections can separate in an emergency and safely lower the occupants to the ground.

It has been a long felt need to design an aircraft with the ability to fly various missions, whereby, the plane can quickly change between a Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft, a surveillance or weapons platform, a commercial transport, a supersonic aerospace vehicle or a plane to loiter at high altitudes. Previous work on variable sweep wings aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat, The F-111 Aardvaark, and the B-1B Bomber have been able to improve take off and landing performance over other supersonic vehicles yet they suffer major shifts in aerodynamic balance and reduced supersonic performance with the additional weight and complexity of the variable sweep wings. Previous work on the oblique wing has not produced a production aircraft and furthermore, still faces safety and technological challenges. Neither the variable sweep wing nor the oblique wing concepts have produced a commercial vehicle.
A further long-term desire has been for an aircraft to safely fly supersonic over long distances with good take off and landing characteristics. Although attempts have been made for the before mentioned goals, the Concorde has been the only commercial vehicle produced. However, the Concorde has recently been abandoned. All of these concepts have used a delta or highly swept wing design, which attributes to many of the problems associated with these supersonic planes. In general, the low lift to drag characteristics of these planes creates problems such as increased fuel consumption, smaller payloads, high heat loads and poor take off and landing characteristics. At transonic speeds, the delta wing design also experiences major shifts in aerodynamic balance and subsequently, the Concorde must utilize an intricate system to move fuel around to help control its weight and balance.
Safe air transportation has always been a primary concern. Current safety methods rely on the aircraft to survive a vehicle malfunction or failure. Small military aircraft use ejection seats or individual parachutes. No current system is operating in which one or more of the modules or sections of an aircraft is designed to separate from the stricken parent vehicle in an emergency and safely carry the crew and passengers to earth.
The high cost and economics of current aircraft manufacturing, maintenance, training and flight-testing contributes to much of the expense of aircraft ownership and operations. An economical vehicle could be easily constructed of modular sections to provide a variety of aircraft platforms, which would utilize common cockpits, aircraft systems and structures. Such an aircraft would dramatically reduce the cost of training, manufacturing and maintenance. The modular method of construction enables the basic MAP to be quickly configured with specialized or replacement modules and avoid long periods of aircraft downtime.
The present invention helps to solve some of the major problems associated with the prior art by using Stable Center of Lift (SCL) wings, whereby improving lift to drag, aerodynamic control, balance and permits the utilization of wing attachments. The various wing attachments offer the optimum wingspan, size and configuration for different speed envelopes. Designing the main wing as a module which accommodates wing attachments makes it possible to replace wing attachments with little down time, reduce the wingspan for better ground handling and simplify transportation by shipping the main wing module and wing attachments separately.
These objects, together with other objects and methods, which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed.


A method is disclosed for handling packet data. The method includes assembling request packets for transmission along a plurality of serial lanes. For each lane, at least a portion of the request packets are framed into a request link frame having a plurality of words. The request link frame is defined by a preset word length. Request training words are inserted into the request link frame at intervals corresponding to the preset word length. Response packets are queued, where the response packets include response training words having an associated latency based on the programmed interval of the request training words.

Serial interfaces play an important role in high-speed chip-to-chip signaling. By transferring serialized data along a serial data path, or link, chip pin counts may be minimized while increasing data rates between the chips. While numerous serial protocols exist to enable transmission and receipt of high-speed packet data, very few adequately address latency issues that may arise during data transmission and reception.
For example, many protocols employ training words to periodically update link parameters to maintain optimal link operation. The training words may be transmitted and received at initialization, or periodically sent and received at regular intervals. In this manner, certain alignment, scrambling, and error detection functions may be carried out to minimize link downtime.
One specific protocol, known as the Interlaken serial protocol, organizes training words into per-lane "meta-frames" that also include a portion of a data packet payload, the data payload being spread across multiple meta-frames, and in-between meta-frames. Each link partner that communicates via the protocol establishes a programmed meta-frame word length that repeats during normal link operations, effectively inserting the training control words into meta-frame words for each link every meta-frame interval.
FIG. 1 illustrates a generalized organization of data and training words along multiple serial lanes LANE0-LANE3 in accordance with the Interlaken protocol. A first data payload field 102 for the packet is shown with a plurality of data words DATA that are striped along the serial lane interface beginning with Lane 0 (as shown by the arrows interconnecting each column of data words). Each lane is organized into multiple link frames 104 that each include several of the data words along with multiple training words TRAIN. The meta-frames have programmable word lengths that repeat every associated programmed interval. In the example of FIG. 1, the programmed meta-frame length is shown as eight words.
One problem with the Interlaken protocol involves non-deterministic latency associated with transmitting request link frames from one chip at a first frame length and receiving related response frames from the other chip at a different programmed link frame length. FIG. 2 illustrates the problem, which results, for one reason, because of the independence between the respective meta-frame programming on each chip. Example A shows a round-trip latency of "Latency A" that includes the latency associated with a request link frame RQ_FM_A framed according to the Interlaken meta-frame methodology, and additional latency associated with a response link frame RESP_FM_A also framed in accordance with the Interlaken protocol. Example B shows the same arrangement, but with the response words beginning with RESP_FM_D responding sooner than frame RESP_FM_A, thus exhibiting a shorter latency "Latency B" than the latency from Example A. Thus, although the latency in the second example is less than the first, queuing logic on the requesting chip often needs to account for at least the worst-case latency in order to efficiently pipeline response packets to the request chip core circuitry. This is undesirable from an efficiency and bandwidth standpoint.
Thus, the need exists for a serial data method and apparatus that minimizes non-deterministic latency for a serial link while still providing periodic training capabilities in the system.
Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the drawing figures.

Serial link training method and apparatus with deterministic latency


A duct for cooling multiple components in a processor-based device. The duct has an inlet cooling duct section for a cooling airflow focused toward a processor region. The duct also has at least one exit cooling duct section for the cooling airflow extending from the inlet cooling duct section and focused toward a component region, wherein the cooling airflow is successively transportable through the processor region followed by the component region. A processor-based system having a focused cooling duct. The focused cooling duct comprises an inlet cooling duct section for a cooling airflow having a fan receptacle, and a plurality of exit cooling duct sections for the cooling airflow extending from the inlet cooling duct section and focused toward component regions, wherein the cooling airflow is successively transportable through the inlet cooling duct section followed by the plurality of exit cooling duct sections. The processor-based system also comprises a plurality of components disposed in the component regions.

Computer systems and other processor-based devices utilize a variety of cooling systems, such as fans and heat sinks, to maintain the components at acceptable operating temperatures. Depending on the particular application, one or more fans may be provided to flow air across the components. For example, a computer system may have one or more casing fans, processor fans, and other component-specific fans. Unfortunately, the relatively cool inlet airflows may be mixed with the air heated by internal components, thereby increasing the temperature of the inlet airflows. As the inlet airflows are heated by the internal components, the inlet airflows become relatively less effective at transferring heat away from specific components due to the reduced temperature differential between the inlet airflows and the specific components.

Duct for cooling multiple components in a processor-based device

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method and system for adjusting a process for identifying settings visited by a consumer based at least in part on electronically-derived consumer location data. A method and system are provided for gathering location data for consumers and identifying points of interest (POIs) visited by the consumers based on the location data. Based on a comparison of settings identified by a process to settings that are identified in data collected from external data sources, the system may determine whether to adjust the visit detection process. The system may adjust the visit detection process by adjusting a way in which settings are defined in a data set, by adding or removing settings from a data set, and/or by changing a manner in which the visit detection process determines whether a location corresponds to a setting in the data set.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems for analyzing and gathering information on and/or from consumers. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention are directed to techniques for collecting relevant and timely data from and about consumers to make inferences and predictions in combination with electronically-captured location data.
Discussion of Related Art
Businesses can often benefit from knowledge about the behavior of their customers or prospective customers. For example, a business may offer certain products or undertake a marketing strategy based on its beliefs regarding who its customers are. If these beliefs are inaccurate, though, the business' efforts may be misdirected and the business may fail to maintain old customers or attract new customers.
Efforts have been previously made at collecting information about consumers who may be customers and prospective customers of a business. In some such techniques, a researcher may ask consumers about their identities, preferences or behaviors using direct questioning. These questions may be designed to solicit particular information about consumers, such as regions in which a business' customers live, a socioeconomic grouping of consumers, how often the consumers shop at the business, factors influencing purchasing decisions, and their consuming preferences. Written or oral questionnaires, one-on-one interviews, brief point-of-sale questions at the business, focus groups, and telephone or online surveys are examples of ways in which information about consumers can be collected using direct questioning.
This same information may be voluntarily provided by consumers when the consumers register for a service. This may be the case when consumers are registering for discount programs or for services offered commercially by the business. Thus, when a consumer subscribes to services offered by the business, direct questions may solicit information that may be used to acquire information about the individual consumer and for the general class of that business' consumers. The acquired information may then be analyzed to determine information useful to the business.

Adjusting a process for visit detection based on location data


System and method for searching a data structure are disclosed. The method includes providing a data structure that includes a plurality of data entries stored in an external random access memory (RAM) and a portion of the data structure is stored in an internal cache memory, performing one or more hash functions on each entry of the data structure to generate an encoding that maps to a location in the external RAM, maintaining a count of encodings that map to the location in the external RAM, receiving a search string, performing the one or more hash functions on the search string to generate an index to the count of encodings, and searching the data structure in accordance with the count of encodings stored in the internal cache memory and in the external RAM.

There are numerous conventional data structures utilized in maintaining and searching data for varies applications. For example, a binary search tree (BST), which is also referred to as an ordered or sorted binary tree, is a node-based binary tree data structure. In a binary search tree, the left subtree of a node contains only nodes with values (keys) less than the node's value (key); the right subtree of a node contains only nodes with values greater than the node's value; and both the left and right subtrees are also binary search trees. Generally, the information represented by each node is a record rather than a single data element. However, for sequencing purposes, nodes are compared according to their values (keys) rather than any part of their associated records. Another example is a red-black tree, which is a type of self-balancing binary search tree, used to implement associative arrays. The red-black tree is also referred to as symmetry binary B-tree. It can perform search, insert, and delete in O(log n) time, where n is total number of elements in the tree. In other words, a red-black tree is a binary search tree that inserts and deletes in such a way that the tree is always reasonably balanced. Yet another example is an AVL tree, which is a self-balancing binary search tree. In an AVL tree, the heights of the two child subtrees of any node differ by at most by one. Lookup, insertion, and deletion of a node of the AVL tree take O(log n) time in both the average and worst cases, where n is the number of nodes in the tree prior to the operation. Insertions and deletions may require the tree to be rebalanced by one or more tree rotations. For an AVL tree, the balance factor of a node is the height of its left subtree minus the height of its right subtree (or vice versa) and a node with balance factor 1, 0, or −1 is considered balanced. A node with any other balance factor is considered unbalanced and requires rebalancing the tree.
One of the drawbacks of the conventional data structures is that they employ an automatic tree balancing algorithm that when one branch of a node in the tree has more than one level than the other branch of the node. This can cause many unnecessary rebalancing operations even though the data structure meets certain performance requirements prior to the rebalancing operation. Such unnecessary rebalancing operations can have adverse impact to the performance of the system. Another drawback of the conventional data structures is that during the rebalancing operations, the data structures are unable to service data access requests until the arrangement of nodes in the search trees have been completed. This temporary pause during the rebalancing operations can also adversely affect the performance of the system.
With the above conventional data structures, parts of the data may be stored in an on-chip cache memory and other parts of the data may be stored in an external memory. Typically, the time required to access data from external memory is significantly longer than the time required to access data from an on-chip cache memory. As data being added or removed, their corresponding nodes are added and removed from the data structure. As a node is removed from a data structure, its sub-branches may also be removed from the data structure. A Bloom Filter is a common technique used to determine certain aspect of whether a data is still in the data structure or not.
In general, a Bloom Filter is a space-efficient probabilistic data structure that is used to test whether a data (an element) is a member of the data structure (a set). The Bloom Filter algorithm allows for false positives, but does not allow for false negatives. In other words, a query of the Bloom Filter can return that a data is "inside the data structure (set), which may be wrong because of possibility of false positive" or "definitely not in the data structure (set)". In the case of a false positive, it is considered that the data is either in the on-chip cache or in the external memory. But after the search, it would be determined that the data does not exist in the data structure, and time and computing resources can be lost in the search. With the Bloom Filter, data can be added to the data structure, but not removed from the data structure. One of the drawbacks of the Bloom Filter is that as more and more data are added to the data structure, the probability of false positive increases, which can adversely affect the performance of the system.
Therefore, there is a need for system and method that address the drawbacks of the conventional data structures and approaches.


Packaging methods and packaged semiconductor devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a packaging method includes providing a first die, partially packaging the first die, and forming a plurality of solder balls on a surface of the partially packaged first die. An epoxy flux is disposed over the plurality of solder balls. A second die is provided, and the second die is partially packaged. The plurality of solder balls is coupled to the partially packaged second die.

Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment, as examples. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon. Dozens or hundreds of integrated circuits are typically manufactured on a single semiconductor wafer and then singulated by sawing the integrated circuits along a scribe line. The individual dies may then be packaged separately, in multi-chip modules, or in other types of packaging.
The semiconductor industry continues to improve the integration density of various electronic components (e.g., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.) by continual reductions in minimum feature size, which allow more components to be integrated into a given area. These smaller electronic components also require smaller packages that utilize less area than packages of the past, in some applications.
One type of smaller packaging for semiconductor devices that has been developed is wafer level packaging (WLP), in which dies are packaged in packages that may include a redistribution layer (RDL) that is used to fan out wiring for contact pads of the integrated circuit die so that electrical contact can be made on a larger pitch than contact pads of the die. Another type of packaging for semiconductor devices is referred to as a bump on trace (BOT) package, in which dies or "flip-chips" are attached or soldered to traces on the BOT packages.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A pipelined microprocessor is a capable of avoiding pipeline stalls caused by data hazards in which a load instruction information registration section 1 registers information relating to load instructions into a load instruction information storing section 3 in advance, an address calculation section 3 calculates a predicted load address before accessing a load address obtained by executing the load instruction by a pipeline processing section, a calculation result judgement section 7 judges whether or not the predicted load address is correct. Thereby, following instructions will use data as the execution result of the load instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pipelined microprocessor and a load address prediction method used in the pipelined microprocessor, and more particularly, it relates to a pipelined microprocessor and a load address prediction method for the pipelined microprocessor which are capable of avoiding occurrences of pipeline stall or bubble caused by data hazards.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, most high speed pipelined microprocessors are formed based on pipeline designs in order to achieve high performance computing. This pipelining is an implementation technique in modern art.
This pipeline processing or computing executes a part of an instruction in one stage. However, there is the pipeline hazard to reduce performance of a pipelined microprocessor.
As the types of this pipeline hazard, there are following three types (1) to (3):
(1) Structural hazards; PA1 (2) Data hazards; and PA1 (3) Control hazards. PA1 (4) The pipeline inter-lock; and PA1 (5) The instruction scheduling.
The structural hazard arises from resource conflicts, the data hazards arise when the execution of an instruction depends on the results of a previous instruction, and the control hazard arises from discontinuity of executions of instructions such as branch instructions in pipeline processing and the like.
Those hazards reduce performance of pipelining processing because those hazards, the structure hazards, the data hazards and the control hazards make it caused to disturb the flows of the pipelining processing. There is a data hazard caused by execution of load instructions.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a pipeline of five stages used in the microprocessor R3000. In FIG. 1, IF designates an instruction fetch stage, ID denotes an instruction decode and register fetch stage, EX indicates an execution and effective address calculation stage, MA designates an memory access stage and WB denotes a write back stage.
Hereinafter, we will now explain the data hazard caused from load instructions with referring to FIG. 1 which shows the five stage pipeline structure.
At first, we will consider a data hazard caused by a load instruction based on an instruction sequence shown in FIG. 2.
In the example shown in FIG. 2, the LW instruction does not read out data item from a memory until the MA stage is completed. On the other hand, the ADD instruction requires a data item that is also read out by the LW instruction at the same timing as the timing of the MA stage executed in the LW instruction. Therefore, the data hazard is occurred. In order to avoid the occurrence of the data hazard, the following two methods (4) and (5) are used:
The pipeline interlock is that an occurrence of the data hazard is detected and execution of pipeline processes are halted until the hazards are eliminated.
In the case of the LW instruction shown in FIG. 2, executions of following instructions are halted until the target data item is read out from a memory.
FIG. 3 shows an example of the pipeline stall. In general, performance of a pipelined microprocessor is reduced during a pipeline stall because no instruction is executed.
The instruction scheduling is a method in which an execution sequence of instructions is changed by using an compiler in order to avoid an occurrence of the pipeline stall. For example, the instruction sequence shown in FIG. 2 can be re-arranged in order to avoid the occurrence of the hazard, namely the pipeline stall. If the hazard can not be eliminated, the compiler insert an NOP (no operation) into the instruction sequence. This NOP reduces the performance of the pipelined microprocessor because the NOP executes no operation.
Today, a memory access operation is divided into and then performed in a plurality of stages according to increasing of execution speed of pipelined microprocessors because the memory access operation does not be completed in one cycle. For example, the microprocessor R4000 requires three stages (DF, DS, TC) shown in FIG. 5 in order to execute a memory access operation.
When a plurality of stages are required for a memory access operation, the time period of a pipeline inter-lock caused by an instruction hazard becomes long. This causes the decreasing of performance of the pipelined microprocessor. For example, there is the literature "Performance evaluation of GHz-Class for RISC pipeline architecture", Japan IEICE technical report. Computer systems, CPSY95-4, pp.25-32, 1995 which reports that approximately 10 percentages in the entire execution time of the microprocessor R4000 is used for processing pipeline stalls based on load hazards.
Furthermore, the method based on the instruction scheduling has a limit. For example, there is a literature, "IMPACT: AN ARCHITECTURAL FRAMEWORK FOR MULTIPLE-INSTRUCTION-ISSUE PROCESSORS", PROC. OF 18TH ANN.INT'L SYM. ON COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE, PP.266-275, JUNE, 1991, which reported that performance of a super-scalor processor is decreased by approximately 30 percentages because the number of instructions to be used for an instruction scheduling is lacking.
As described above, the pipeline stalls caused by the data hazards and the like reduces the performance of the conventional pipelined microprocessors accompanying with increasing of the number of memory access cycles in the trend toward increasing the operation speed of pipelined microprocessors.

Pipelined Microprocessor and load address prediction method therefor


A computer readable recording medium bearing a printer driver program for controlling a print device, which is installed in a print job data processing apparatus constituting a printing system together with the printing device, the printer driver program comprising computer executable instructions of; receiving a print job data from an application program which has a print command; analyzing the received print job data from the application program to identify respective objects included in the page description language data; calculating a position where each object is arranged on a printable area designated depending on output paper size; and modifying the object to allow the object to be accommodated within the printable area, thereby accomplishing a correct print operation such that a print region designated by a user is accommodated to a predetermined output paper size without depending on a function of an application.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer readable recording medium bearing a printer driver program for editing print job data and a print data processing apparatus in which the printer driver program is installed.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the field of a conventional print data processing system, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent laid-open publication Hei 11-1915057, a technique which performs a print operation in accordance with an output paper size designated by changing an output magnification of print job data is proposed, or as described in Japanese Patent laid-open publication 2000-330908, a technique which performs a print operation in accordance with an output paper size edited and designated by a user herself/himself by using an application having a user interface for editing a Markup Language Source is proposed.
However, in a conventional print data processing system, when the print data processing system performs a print operation by using an application which does not have a means for setting and changing the details of a layout such as arrangements of pages, letters, graphics, and the like and does not have a function for editing print data, there is a problem in which a designated print region cannot be printed within an output paper size.

Computer readable recording medium bearing a printer driver program and print data processing apparatus


A stencil printing machine 1 is provided with a stencil drum 16 and a opposite 17 which are a pair of cylindrical parts located with their external peripheral surfaces being close to each other, a stencil sheet 15 being detachably wound on the external peripheral surface of the stencil drum 16, and serves to perform stencil printing process by rotating the stencil drum 16 and the opposite 17 in order that the external peripheral surfaces thereof are located close to each other and moved in the same direction while the stencil sheet 15 is pressed against the opposite 17, and by making the stencil sheet 15 in contact under pressure with a sheet of paper 22 passing between the stencil drum 16 and the opposite 17 by the pressing force of the stencil drum 16. The stencil drum 16 is detachably mounted on the stencil printing machine and provided with storage units 201 to 203 for storing information about the pressing force of the stencil drum 16 against the opposite 17.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stencil printing machine in which a stencil sheet wound on a stencil drum is pressed against a opposite which is located close to the stencil sheet, like a press of the internal pressing type, in order to perform stencil printing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing stencil printing machines includes, for example, a type which is equipped with an internal pressing mechanisms. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram representatively showing one example of the stencil printing machines of the prior art internal pressing type.
As illustrated in the same figure, the prior art stencil printing machine is composed of a printing mechanism 4 having a stencil drum 16 and a opposite 17 which are located with their external peripheral surfaces being close to each other inside of a machine body 50, a paper feed mechanism 5 serving to feed paper 22 as placed on a paper feed tray 23 to the printing mechanism 4, and a sheet discharge mechanism 6 serving to the printed paper 22 to a sheet discharge tray 34.
The stencil drum 16 as described above is provided with a stencil sheet wound on the external peripheral surface thereof. The stencil drum 16 is designed to be detachable from the machine body 50 in order that another stencil drum can substitute therefor in accordance with a desired color and so forth and that the stencil drum as detached can be used in another stencil printing machine.
Also, the stencil drum 16 is provided with an internal pressing roller 47 therein for outwardly pressing the internal peripheral surface of the stencil drum 16. The internal press roller 47 is linked with a printing press motor 48 through a spring 49 in order that the driving power of the printing press motor 48 is transmitted to the internal press roller 47 through the pressing force of the spring 49 to control the pressing force of the internal press roller 47 toward the internal peripheral surface of the stencil drum 16. The printing press motor 48 is driven by making use of a directive pulsed signal as selected. The pressing force of the internal press roller 47 can therefore be controlled by adjusting the directive pulsed signal.
In accordance with the configuration of such a conventional stencil printing machine, therefore, the external peripheral surface of the stencil drum 16 is moved together with the external peripheral surface of the opposite 17 located close thereto in the same direction during the rotation thereof, while the stencil sheet wound on the stencil drum 16 is pressed against the paper 22 passing between the stencil drum 16 and the opposite 17 by driving the printing press motor 48 in accordance with the directive pulsed signal as selected, so that an image formed on a stencil sheet is printed onto the paper 22 in accordance with the stencil printing mechanism.
However, in the case of the conventional stencil printing machine as described above, the respective stencil drum and the respective machine body can be endued with dispersed characteristics due to the dispersion of the accuracy of setting the stencil drum 16 and the printing mechanism 4 and so forth.
Accordingly, in the case that another stencil drum can substitute for the stencil drum 16 or that the stencil drum 16 as detached is used in another stencil printing machine as described above, a desired pressing force can no longer be obtained, even when the printing press motor 48 is driven with the same directive pulsed signal because of the dispersion of the characteristics as described above, resulting in dispersion of printed images whose densities become sometimes low and sometimes high.
Namely, for example, in the case that the stencil drum 16 is replaced with a stencil drum 16xe2x80x2 as illustrated in FIG. 3, the pressing force against the stencil drum 16xe2x80x2 deviates from a desired value due to an error dxcex8 in the driving angle of the internal press roller 47 so that the image as printed with the stencil drum 16xe2x80x2 is different than that as printed with the stencil drum 16 because of the differential accuracy of setting the stencil drums.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the shortcomings as described above. It is an object of the present invention to provide a stencil printing machine capable of preventing the printing quality of images from being dispersed due to the dispersion of the accuracy of setting the respective stencil drums and the like.
In order to solve the problems as described above, a stencil printing machine recited in claim 1 comprises a stencil drum and a opposite which are a pair of cylindrical parts located with their external peripheral surfaces being close to each other, a stencil sheet being detachably wound on the external peripheral surface of said stencil drum, and serving to perform stencil printing process by rotating said stencil drum and said opposite in order that the external peripheral surfaces thereof are located close to each other and moved in the same direction while said stencil sheet is pressed against said opposite, and by making said stencil sheet in contact under pressure with a sheet of paper passing between said stencil drum and said opposite by the pressing force of said stencil drum, wherein said stencil drum is detachably mounted on said stencil printing machine and provided with a storage unit for storing information about the pressing force of said stencil drum against said opposite.
In accordance with the present invention as recited in claim 1, it is possible to prevent the pressing force from varying due to dispersed characteristics of the stencil drums which are caused by the dispersion of the accuracy of setting the stencil drum and so forth. Namely, the information about the respective pressing forces of the respective stencil drum is stored in the storage unit provided for the respective stencil drum and is used for adjusting the printing press as applied. It is therefore possible to prevent printed images from being lightened or darkened.
Also, a stencil printing machine recited in claim 2 comprises a stencil drum and a opposite which are a pair of cylindrical parts located with their external peripheral surfaces being close to each other, a stencil sheet being detachably wound on the external peripheral surface of said stencil drum, and serving to perform stencil printing process by rotating said stencil drum and said opposite in order that the external peripheral surfaces thereof are located close to each other and moved in the same direction while said stencil sheet is pressed against said opposite, and by making said stencil sheet in contact under pressure with a sheet of paper passing between said stencil drum and said opposite by the pressing force of said stencil drum, wherein said stencil drum is detachably mounted on said stencil printing machine and wherein a machine body of said stencil printing machine is provided with a storage unit for storing information about the pressing force of said opposite against said stencil drum.
In accordance with the present invention as recited in claim 2, it is possible to prevent the pressing force from varying due to dispersed characteristics of the stencil printing machines which are caused by the dispersion of the accuracy of setting the printing mechanism of the stencil printing machine and so forth. Namely, the information about the respective pressing forces of the respective stencil printing machines are stored in the storage unit provided for the respective stencil printing machines and is used for adjusting the printing press as applied. It is therefore possible to prevent the qualities of the printed images from being dispersed.
Furthermore, in accordance with the present invention as recited in claim 3, a stencil printing machine recited of claim 2 further comprises a standard pressing force determination unit for determining a standard pressing force; a correction value calculation unit for calculating a correction value by the use of the information about the pressing force as stored in said stencil drum and the information about the pressing force as stored in said machine body; and a calculation unit for calculating the pressing force by the use of said standard pressing force and said correction value.
In accordance with the present invention as recited in claim 3, while standard pressing forces are determined, the correction is conducted by the use of the correction values calculated with respect to the standard pressing forces for the respective stencil printing machines and the respective stencil drums. It is therefore possible to prevent the printing press as applied from being dispersed due to the dispersion of the characteristics of the individual stencil printing machines and the individual stencil drums even when an arbitrary combination of one of the stencil printing machines and one of the stencil drums is used.


A system can detect leading and trailing edges of documents, and document thickness with a single transducer. The transducer operates to measure the displacement of an idler pinch roller by a passing document.

Workers in the item-transport arts are aware of the need for better means to monitor item-movement for instance, such can now be commonly done with optical sensors placed in the item path and used to detect leading and trailing edges of a passing item. But such optical sensors would not be used to measure document thickness. Document thickness information is useful for the employment of downstream "smart" devices that can adjust their parameters so that documents are handled more reliably. Such optical sensors can be located in the guide-walls of a transport track--but, there, they can catch leading edges of documents and cause jams, and/or they can malfunction because of paper dust collecting on them.
This invention is directed toward alleviating the foregoing difficulties. This invention is not sensitive to paper dust; e.g., because it uses idler-monitoring transducer (sensor) means that is not interposed in the document transport path, and because such can be totally enclosed protectively (e.g., by different means known to those familiar with the art). With such an idler-monitoring sensor (not located in the document path), the risk of document jam is reduced or eliminated, and reliable document handling is promoted.
"Idlers" (Idler pinch rollers) are commonly used in document transports in conjunction with a fixed drive roller (e.g., as in FIG. 1). A passing document will thrust an idler roller transversely (i.e., normal to the document transport path) to accommodate various document thicknesses. An object hereof is to operatively associate such an idler roll with a pivot arm and related detector (sensor) means to detect the degree of arm-displacement caused by a passing document; e.g., doing so to obtain various data about the passing document from such a detector (i.e. sensor for "idler transducer"); also, desirably one can locate such a transducer well out of the document path, and can employ a variety of different kinds of transducers to sense such arm-displacement. In this way, this invention will not rely on detect means to directly sense the presence or condition of a document; also, the electrical output from such a transducer can be used to measure document thickness and to detect passage of its leading and trailing edges.
A system according to this invention can detect leading and trailing edges of documents, and document thickness, with a single transducer. Also, various electrical utilization circuits can use the electrical output of the transducer for indicating document presence and/or condition. Such a transducer can operate very simply and reliably, merely measuring the displacement of an idler pinch roller by a passing document.
This invention takes advantage of elements that already exist and uses this idler-displacement as information that can be processed to obtain additional information about the document: e.g., location of leading and trailing edges, length of document, document thickness, interdocument spacing, etc. Worker will realize that this invention can be used for document sorters, mail sorters, copiers, punch card transports, envelope stuffing machines, money feeders, and automatic teller machines.
Thus, another object is to alleviate at least some of the foregoing problems and effect at least some of the foregoing results. A related object is to do so for an set of transport rollers used to advance documents or the like; especially where an idler roll is mounted on mount means whose displacement may be monitered to indicate document size, condition, etc.


The present invention relates to a CD-ROM holder that is suitable for binding by being saddle stitched, sewn, or the like.

The present invention generally relates to bookbinding and, more particularly, to a CD-ROM holder suitable for binding.
I have previously outlined a new and useful CD-ROM holder suitable for binding in my issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,349, the text and drawings which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. The present invention represents an improved design, which may be used with books having stitched or sewn bindings.
The present invention relates to a CD-ROM holder that is suitable for binding by being saddle stitched, sewn, or the like.
In one form of the invention, a CD-ROM holder suitable for binding is disclosed, comprising a first sheet of heat-sealable material; a second sheet of heat-sealable material overlying said first sheet of heat-sealable material; a plurality of first heat seal lines joining said first sheet to said second sheet and defining a pocket sized to receive the CD-ROM; and a tear line formed in said first and second sheets and spaced from the pocket; wherein the holder may be bound by saddle stitching and easily unbound by dividing the holder along said tear line.


Safe and economical electrochemically active nanocomposites based on metal fluoride compounds useful in rechargeable battery cell electrodes. When incorporated as the active electrode material in lithium battery cell systems, the nanocomposites enable high, stable specific capacities.

The Li-ion battery is the premiere high-energy rechargeable energy storage technology of the present day. Unfortunately, its high performance still falls short of energy density goals in applications ranging from telecommunications to biomedical. Although a number of factors within the battery cell contribute to this performance parameter, the most crucial ones relate to how much energy can be stored in the electrode materials of the device.
During the course of development of rechargeable electrochemical cells, such as lithium and lithium-ion battery cells and the like, numerous materials capable of reversibly accommodating lithium ions have been investigated. Among these, occlusion and intercalation materials, such a carbonaceous and graphitic compounds, and transitions metal oxide spinels, have proved to be particularly well-suited to such applications. However, even while performing reasonably well in such recycling electrical storage systems of significant capacity, many of these materials exhibit detrimental properties, such as marginal environmental compatibility and safety, which detract from the ultimate acceptability of the rechargeable cell devices. In addition, some of the more promising materials are available only at costs that limit widespread use.
Materials of choice in the fabrication of rechargeable battery cells, particularly highly desirable and broadly implemented Li-ion cells, have for some considerable time centered upon graphitic negative electrode compositions which provide respectable capacity levels in the range of 300 mAh/g. Complementary positive electrode materials in present cells comprise the less effective layered intercalation compounds, such as LiCoO2 which generally provides capacities in the range of 150 mAh/g. Alternative intercalation materials, such as LiNiO2 and LiMn2O4, have more recently gained favor in the industry, since, although exhibiting no greater specific capacity, these compounds are available at lower cost and, further, provide a greater margin of environmental acceptability.
Due to the increasing demand for ever more compact electrical energy storage and delivery systems for all manner of advancing technologies, from biomedical to telecommunications, the search continues for battery cell materials capable, on the one hand, of providing greater specific capacity over wider ranges of cycling speeds, voltages, and operating temperatures while, on the other hand, presenting fewer environmental hazards and greater availability at lower processing and fabrication costs. Searches for more effective positive electrode materials in particular have become far-reaching with attention turning more frequently to the abundant lower toxicity transition metal compounds, which are typically accessible at economical costs.
In this latter respect compounds of iron, e.g., iron oxides, attracted some attention. However, although exhibiting electrochemical activity, iron oxides were found to function appropriately only at voltages which are too low for practical implementation in rechargeable lithium and lithium-ion battery cells.
Upon further consideration of the economic advantages possibly attainable in transition metal compounds, interest shifted to examination of the more active fluoride compounds. Investigations into such use of these fluorides confirmed, however, that, while the open structures of the transition metal fluorides support the good ionic conductivity essential, in part, for useful electrode performance, the large band gap induced by the highly ionic character of the metal:halogen bond results in poor electronic conductivity. Without this latter essential conductive property to complement proven ionic conductivity, the transition metal fluorides were considered virtually useless as lithium battery electrode materials.
Despite the inconsequential performance of the transition metal fluorides in typical rechargeable cell fabrications, the theoretical promise of output voltages in the range of 3 V, due to the high ionicity of the compound bonds, prompted some further investigations into metal halides for use in electrode compositions. Increasing the electrical conductivity of iron trifluoride (FeF3) was attempted by incorporating it in an electrode composition comprising the admixture of about 25 parts acetylene black to 70 parts of FeF3. Arai et al., 68 J. POWER SOURCES 716-719 (1997). The performance of such a cell, despite the impractically low charge/discharge rate which extended over a 60 hour cycle period, was marginal at a discharge capacity over 4.5 to 2.0 V of only about 80 mAh/g vis-à-vis a theoretical (le transfer) capacity of 237 mAh/g. Subsequent independent fabrication and testing of similar battery cells at more realistic 4 hour cycle rates would yield no more than about 50 mAh/g.
What is needed are electrical energy-storage and delivery systems that provide high specific capacity over wide cycling-speed ranges, voltages, and operating temperatures; are environmentally friendly; and also are readily available at practical processing and fabrication costs.


A sensor system comprises a process transducer, a unpowered vibration sensor, and a process transmitter. The process transducer is disposed within a thermowell and configured to produce a first sensor signal. The unpowered vibration sensor is configured to produce a second sensor signal reflecting vibration of the thermowell. The process transmitter is configured to receive, process, and transmit the first and second sensor signals.

The present invention relates generally to process sensor systems, and more particularly to thermowell sensor housings for fluid sensors in industrial process monitoring systems.
Industrial process transmitters and sensor assemblies are used to sense various characteristics of process fluids flowing through a conduit or contained within a vessel, and to transmit information about those process characteristics to a control, monitoring and/or safety system remotely located from the process measurement location. Each process transmitter may be connected to one or more sensor and/or actuator assembly. Sensor assemblies may sense a variety of process parameters, including pressure, temperature, pH or flow rate. Process transmitters are typically electrically connected sensor assemblies via sensor wires used to transmit current- or voltage-based analog sensor output signals reflecting at least one such process parameter. Each transmitter reads these sensor output signals, and converts them into a measurement of the process parameter. Finally, the transmitter sends the information to the control system.
Sensor assemblies for sensing process fluid temperatures and changes in temperature commonly include at least one temperature sensor housed in a thermowell extending into the fluid flow. Thermowells are designed to be in physical contact with process fluids and to shield the temperature sensor from physical damage caused by direct contact with the fluid, e.g., impacts, corrosion, etc., while efficiently conducting heat between the fluid and the temperature sensor. Thermowell reliability is of critical importance in process monitoring, as broken or damaged thermowells can allow leakage of hazardous process fluids, and expose delicate and/or expensive sensors to process fluids. Severe thermowell damage can cause thermowells to detach, potentially causing further damage to downstream equipment.
Vibration is a principal cause of damage to thermowells and enclosed temperature sensors, making vibration damping and prevention critical to sustained operation of sensor assemblies in process fluids. Impingement of process flow on a thermowell creates turbulence in the process fluid via vortex shedding. This turbulence has a characteristic wake frequency fw determined by a plurality of factors, including the geometry of the thermowell and conditions and flow rate of the process fluid. Vortex shedding can cause harmful thermowell vibrations when wake frequency fw is close to fr, a natural resonance frequency of the thermowell. Accordingly, thermowells are often designed using predicted wake frequencies fw to avoid fw=fr resonance conditions. During the lifetime of a thermowell, however, changes in process conditions can cause shifts in fw and/or fr that increase the likelihood of resonance conditions.


A segmentation circuit includes a digital noise shaper responsive to a stream of digital input words for producing a stream of first digital subwords, and a subtractor for subtracting each of the first digital subwords from a corresponding one of the digital input words to produce a stream of second digital subwords that are noise-shaped. The first and second digital subwords have smaller word lengths than the digital input words. The sum of each of the first and second subwords is equal to the corresponding digital input word. When the digital input words are noise-shaped, the first and second digital subwords are both noise-shaped. The segmentation circuit may be used in a noise-shaping digital-to-analog converter having a multi-bit loop quantizer.

Recently, sigma delta, or noise-shaping, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters have come into widespread use. This type of converter uses a relatively coarse quantizer, usually a single bit, embedded in a feedback loop. The feedback loop causes the large quantization noise of the quantizer to become shaped in the frequency domain such that the noise over a small range of the spectrum is very low. The out-of-band noise is then removed by a digital filter in the case of an analog-to-digital converter, or an analog filter in the case of a digital-to-analog converter. Sigma delta converters exhibit excellent linearity and low quantization noise.
While early noise-shaping converters commonly used a one bit quantizer, multi-bit loop quantizers have recently received considerable attention. A multi-bit loop quantizer improves the performance of a sigma delta converter very significantly, especially with respect to signal-to-noise ratio, for a given oversampling ratio. The most serious drawback to multi-bit noise-shaping converters is that the matching of analog bit weights affects the linearity of the converter. The matching must be as good as the desired resolution of the converter. For example, a true 16-bit converter would require analog component matching to one part in 2.sup.16. Thus, one of the most important advantages of noise-shaping converters, namely that there is no requirement for precise analog component matching, is lost.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,142, issued Apr. 4, 1995 to Adams et al, discloses a noise-shaped scrambling technique that relieves the burden of tight analog component matching. The quantized noise-shaped word is first converted to a "thermometer code", where for an N-bit quantized word, 2 .sup.N equally-weighted elements are used. In the thermometer code, the number of output bits set to one is equal to the input value. The fact that the output bits are equally weighted allows dynamic mapping of digital input bits to analog elements of the digital-to-analog converter. By using an array of swapping elements whose state is controlled by the data itself, analog mismatch errors cause shaped noise to appear in the output spectrum. Therefore, most of the noise energy is outside the band of interest.
In this prior art technique, the required number of swapper cells is proportional to (M/2)*LOG.sub.2 (M) where M=2.sup.N, N being the number of bits used in the noise-shaping quantizer. For example, when a 4-bit word is converted to a 16-level thermometer code, the number of swapper cells is 8.multidot.4=32.
In many cases, it is desirable to use a large number of bits in the loop quantizer of the sigma delta converter. For example, using a larger number of bits in a digital-to-analog converter results in a smaller amount of out-of-band quantization noise. This in turn relaxes the requirement on the analog low pass filter that follows the converter. Unfortunately, using a large number of bits in the loop quantizer causes the area and power of the circuit, typically implemented as a monolithic integrated circuit, to grow to impractical levels. For example, a 6-bit loop quantizer would require a thermometer encoder having 64 output bits and a 64 element digital-to-analog converter, each of the elements being a capacitor, a current source or a voltage source.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a noise-shaping converter using a multi-bit quantizer, wherein the above drawbacks are alleviated.

Digital-to-analog converter using noise-shaped segmentation


A method and connector to connect a first shielded cable to another electrical element, such as a second shielded cable, is disclosed. The first and second shielded cables comprise a cable shield applied over an insulated conductor. The connector comprises a contractible opening with a shield connector, such as a spring clip, located on the inner surface of the opening and contractible therewith. The opening can be resiliently deformable from a biased position, which permits easy insertion of the first cable, to an unbiased or contracted position, which can frictionally hold the first cable. To insert the first cable, the opening is biased to the biased position. Upon insertion of the cable to an inserted position, the opening is allowed to resiliently deform about the first cable, such that the first cable is frictionally held in the opening and the shield connector is in electrical contact with the cable shield of the first cable. A shield conductor, such as a wire, is electrically connected to the shield connector and extends to the exterior of the housing for electrical connection to another electrical element, such as the shield of the second cable or to ground. An electrical contact is attached to the insulated conductor which can mate to an electrical contact on the second conductor thereby electrically connecting the conductors.

In the past, there have been many different types of electrical connectors to connect shielded cables. However, the prior art connectors all suffer from the disadvantage that a separate electrical connection must be made to the shield before the shielded cable is inserted into prior art connectors. In other words, a shield conductor must be electrically connected to the shield of the shielded cables prior to insertion of the cable into the prior art connectors. It is also often necessary to attach an electrical contact, such as a plug or receptacle, to the conductor of the shielded cable. The shielded cable must then be inserted into the prior art connectors, taking care not to dislodge the shield conductor from the shield or the electrical contact from the conductor.
Furthermore, the shield conductor must be electrically insulated from the conductor and the electrical element. This requires that the shield conductor and electrical contact extend from two different openings in the connector, thereby requiring the person assembling the connector to guide the electrical contact out one opening in the connector, and guide the shield connector out a separate opening in the housing. This is made particularly difficult if the connector is to be waterproof because the openings through which the electrical contacts and shield conductors must pass are small and well insulated.
Accordingly, there has been a need in the art for an improved connector and method for connecting the shield conductor to a shield cable which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art. In particular, there has been a need in the art for a connector which does not require an electrical connection to the shield to be made before insertion of the cable into the connector, thereby avoiding the need to guide the shield conductor through an opening in the housing during installation. In addition, there has been a need in the art for a connector which has a shield connecting device located inside the connector, such that the shield conductor is automatically electrically connected to the shield of the shielded cable when the shielded cable is inserted into the connector.