A plastic device for inserting a catheter or the like into a body, wherein the forward end of the device acts as a dilator and has an offset axial opening along one side for a relatively small needle to pass through. The main portion of the device has a lumen for holding a catheter or the like. The forward end of the lumen is terminated by a slanted guide wall. The device eliminates the need for a separate guidewire and allows the use of a small diameter needle to minimize damage to the body wall.

This invention relates to the insertion of an elongated member, such as a catheter, into a body and, more particularly, to an improved device for both dilating a puncture hole in the body and for subsequently providing a guide for the insertion of an elongated member into the body through the puncture hole.
In the following discussion, specific reference will be made to inserting a catheter into a blood vessel. However, it will be appreciated that similar problems arise when inserting other elongated members into a body. Thus, guidewires, optical fibers, stents, etc., are often inserted into a body by forming a puncture hole and guiding such a member into the body through the puncture hole. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to aid in the insertion of any such elongated member into a body, and use of the term "catheter" is intended to cover all such elongated members.
Vascular dilators are commonly used when inserting a catheter into a blood vessel in order to widen the hole formed by the initial needle or scalpel puncture so that the use of the dilator gradually enlarges the hole. In a typical procedure, a hollow needle is percutaneously inserted into the blood vessel and an elongate, slender guide member, such as a guidewire, is advanced through the interior of the hollow needle into the blood vessel. The needle is then removed over the guide member, leaving the guide member in place in the blood vessel and extending proximally out of and through the patient's skin. The hole left by the needle in the blood vessel typically is too small to permit the catheter to be passed therethrough. A dilator is provided to widen the hole. Dilators commonly are in the form of a flexible plastic tube having a guide member lumen adapted to be passed over the guide member. The dilator is of uniform wall thickness except for a distal portion which tapers in a distal direction to the circular distal outlet opening at the distal end of the dilator. The wall thickness of the dilator at the distal tip is relatively thin to facilitate its entry into the hole made by the needle. As the dilator is advanced over the guide member through the puncture hole, the tapered distal portion presents a progressively wider diameter to the puncture hole, thus gradually enlarging the hole. The dilator is then removed and the catheter is advanced over the guidewire and through the enlarged puncture hole into the blood vessel. The guide member is then withdrawn, leaving the percutaneously placed catheter in place in the blood vessel. This procedure possesses a number of disadvantages. For example, to accommodate the guide member, a relatively large needle is required to penetrate the wall of the blood vessel. Also, a disposable guide member is required.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a catheterization device wherein only a relatively small diameter needle is utilized and no separate guide member is needed.

Device for dilating a puncture hole in a body and for guiding the insertion of an elongated member into the body


A coupler includes a first hook assembly comprising a first hook adapted to receive a first associated attachment pin and a second hook assembly comprising a second hook adapted to receive a second associated attachment pin. The second hook assembly selectively pivots under force of an actuator relative to the first hook assembly by an actuator. The actuator comprises a screw jack that includes a locking sleeve to prevent unintended rotation of the screw member. The actuator can be a hydraulic cylinder and the coupler can include a locking cam that moves between a retracted position and an extended position, with a supplemental lock that selectively prevents movement of the locking cam from the extended position to the retracted position. In such case, the actuator is operatively coupled to the second hook assembly and the locking cam.

The present invention relates to couplers used to secure attachments such as buckets, impact hammers, shears, etc. fixedly and operatively to the distal end of an arm of a tractor, backhoe, excavator or other type of arm-equipped construction/agricultural equipment. As is generally well known, couplers, also referred to as "quick couplers," are used as an alternative to a pin-on connection for fixedly and operatively securing an attachment to the distal end of an arm which is, in turn, secured to a boom of a construction/agricultural machine such as a backhoe or excavator.
Spread-style couplers are generally known. These couplers are connected to an arm by a pin-on connection at a first pivot point and are connected to a control link by a pin-on connection at a second pivot point. These prior couplers include first and second hooks that open in opposite directions oriented outwardly away from each other. In use, the hooks are collapsed toward each other are placed between first and second pins of a bucket or other attachment and the hooks are then spread-apart from each other, using a screw jack, hydraulic cylinder or other means. Upon being spread sufficiently far apart, the first hook engages the first pin of the attachment and the second hook engages the second pin of the attachment which results in the attachment being operatively connected to the arm.
It has been deemed desirable to provide a spread-style coupler with a supplemental lock system that prevents undesired attachment decoupling when the coupler is not located in a proper decoupling position. Specifically, for safety, it has been deemed desirable to provide a spread-style coupler with a mechanical supplemental lock system that prevents attachment decoupling unless the coupler is curled sufficiently relative to the machine arm so that the attachment cannot fall uncontrollably from the coupler upon movement of the first and second hooks inwardly toward each other.

Spread-style coupler with supplemental lock system


A direct memory access controller has a data register for transferring data from a source to a destination address. A pattern register is provided and a data comparator is coupled with the data register and the pattern register for comparing the content of the data register with the content of the pattern register. A control unit coupled with the comparator controls the data flow and stops a data transfer if the comparator detects a match of the data register and the pattern register.

Direct memory access controller (DMA) are typically used in microprocessor systems, integrated microcontrollers, etc. DMA controllers are used to perform a data transfer from and to memory to and from a peripheral independently from the central processing unit of the computer system. To this end, a DMA controller can be seen as a second programmable processing unit with limited capabilities. Generally, a DMA controller is instructed to transfer a specific amount of data from a source location to a destination location. The source can be within a memory, for example, a data memory of a microcontroller, memory of a peripheral, or data generated by or accessible within a peripheral, such as an analog to digital converter, a port, a capture compare unit, etc. The destination can also be within a memory, thus, allowing high speed transfers within a memory device of a computer system or microcontroller. However, the destination can also be a peripheral, such as a digital to analog converter, a port, etc. To transfer data from a source to a destination the DMA controller must receive the respective source and destination addresses. In addition, each transfer length needs to be specified. To this end, the DMA controller needs to receive either the length of the data transfer or the start and end address of the data to be transferred. There, thus, exists a need for a more flexible DMA controller.

Direct memory access controller with flow control


A method of enabling CRPR in an ETM. In an exemplary embodiment, the method includes locating a plurality of clocks defined within a core. The method may also include determining if one of the plurality of clocks are clocking data both within the core and outside of the core. A CRPR clock for an output pin of a last cell in a clock path common to an internal register clock pin and one of the plurality of clocks clocking data clocking data both within the core and outside of the core may be defined. A static timing analysis tool may be employed to calculate the CRPR from the CRPR clock.

The main issue which continues to plague integrated circuit design including system-on-a-chip (SoC) technologies is timing. In order to address the issue of timing, a number of different static timing analysis tools including Primetime® (Primetime® is a trademark registered to SYNOPSYS) have been developed. Primetime® is a full-chip, gate-level static timing analysis tool which is capable of analyzing millions of gates in a short time period and thus, allowing multiple analysis runs in a given day. A static timing analysis tool such as Primetime® analyzes timing errors and noise due to crosstalk as well as IR drop with complex clocking schemes including gated clocks. Further, a static timing analysis tool may include a timing model extraction feature which may be used to increase designer productivity by reducing analysis runtime and memory usage. For example, Primetime® includes a timing model extraction feature that automatically generates a high-level model from a gate-level netlist. In addition, static timing analysis tools may support CRPR in order to remove artificially-induced pessimism from a timing report between a launching and capturing device. Typically, CRPR is most applicable in the on-chip variation (OCV) mode which is the mode associated with the greatest timing variations. In the absence of CRPR, the actual timing properties of a circuit may be skewed by delay variation in clock networks and thus, led to the belief that the circuit may operate at a lower frequency than the actual silicon implementation.
Although present static timing analysis tools have improved integrated circuit performance, such systems are limited under certain circumstances. For example, it is often problematic to get the ETMs to match the timing of the gate level netlist. The ETM may be a timing abstraction which hides the gate level netlist from the customer. However, such configuration also results in a loss in information including information regarding the exact clock delay of a path versus a data delay.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method for enabling clock CRPR in ETMs which overcomes the aforementioned limitations associated with the present methods for CRPR.

Timing constraints methodology for enabling clock reconvergence pessimism removal in extracted timing models


A turbine airfoil with a leading edge cooling air supply channel located along the leading edge region of the airfoil to supply cooling air from an outside source and a series of serpentine flow cooling circuits positioned along the leading edge of the airfoil connected to the cooling supply channel to pass cooling air through the series of serpentine passages in a direction from the airfoil root to the airfoil tip. The series of serpentine circuits includes legs on the pressure side and the suction side of the leading edge. Cooling air from the supply channel is metered into the first leg of the serpentine circuit located near the root, flows through a series of serpentine circuits along the leading edge of the airfoil, and flows out to the tip through a tip hole in the last leg of the last serpentine circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluid reaction surfaces, and more specifically to leading edge cooling of airfoils in a gas turbine engine.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
A gas turbine engine includes a turbine section in which a high temperature gas flow passes through the rotor blades and stationary vanes or nozzles to extract energy from the flow. The efficiency of the gas turbine engine can be increased by providing a higher flow temperature into the turbine. However, the temperature is limited to the material capabilities of the parts exposed to the hot gas flow.
One method of allowing for higher turbine temperatures is to provide cooling of the first and second stages of the turbine. Complex internal cooling passages have been disclosed to provide high cooling capabilities while using lower flow volumes of cooling air. Since the cooling air used in the turbine airfoils is typically bleed off air from the compressor, using less bleed off air for cooling also increases the efficiency of the engine.
A Prior Art first stage turbine blade is shown in FIG. 1. The turbine blade 10 includes a cooling air supply cavity 11 along the leading edge with drilled film cooling holes forming a leading edge showerhead 12 arrangement and suction side film cooling holes 13 supplied with cooling air form the supply cavity 11. a mid-chord cooling supply channel 14 supplies cooling air to a 3-pass serpentine flow cooling circuit with a second leg 15 and a third leg 16 in which each of the three channels 14,15,16 includes pressure side film cooling holes 17 to discharge film cooling air from the respective channel onto the airfoil surface to provide film cooling. A trailing edge cooling supply channel 18 supplies cooling air to the trailing edge and discharges cooling air through pressure side film cooling holes and trailing edge exit holes 20 arranged along the trailing edge of the airfoil. Exit cooling slots could also be used to discharge the cooling air from the supply channel 18 and out the trailing edge region of the airfoil. FIG. 2 shows a cross section side view of the prior art turbine blade of FIG. 1 with the three cooling supply channels and the 3-pass serpentine flow cooling circuit in the mid-chord region of the blade. Cooling air is also discharged out the blade tip through blade tip cooling holes as shown by the arrows in FIG. 2.
In the prior art first stage turbine blade leading edge cooling construction of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a single pass radial flow cooling circuit is used for the airfoil leading edge region. However, the single pass radial flow cooling channel with the drilled film cooling holes design is not the best method of utilizing the cooling air and results in a low convective cooling effectiveness.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,502 B2 issued to Lee et al on Mar. 14, 2006 entitled THERMAL SHIELD TURBINE AIRFOIL. Discloses an airfoil with a longitudinal first inlet channel (56 in this patent) connected by a row of impingement holes (48 in this patent) to a longitudinal channel (42 in this patent), being connected by a plurality of film cooling holes (50 in this patent) to the leading edge surface of the airfoil. In the Lee et al patent, the longitudinal channel is also connected to bridge channels on the pressure side and suction sides of the longitudinal channel. Only one multi-impingement channel is used in the Lee et al invention to supply film cooling holes as opposed to the three separate multi-impingement channels of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,147 issued to Hall et al on Aug. 22, 1989 entitled COOLED GAS TURBINE BLADE discloses an airfoil with a showerhead arrangement having a cooling air supply cavity (24 in this patent), an impingement cavity (28 in this patent) connected to the cooling supply cavity by three slots (26 in this patent), and three film cooling holes (30 in this patent) connected to the impingement cavity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,118 B2 issued to Lutum et al on Apr. 30, 2002 entitled COOLED BLADE FOR A GAS TURBINE discloses a similar showerhead arrangement to that above of the Hall et al patent. A cooling air supply cavity (50 in this patent) is connected to an impingement cavity (47 in this patent) through two impingement cooling holes (49 in this patent), and three film cooling holes (48 in this patent) are connected to the impingement cavity. Both of the Hall et al and Lutum et al patents lack the first impingement cavity and the second impingement cavity in series, and the multi-impingement cavities of the present invention.

Turbine airfoil with near-wall serpentine cooling


A GPRS system having multiple GGSNs connected to a public network, for providing a packet-based mobile service, comprises: an SGSN for controlling a connection operation according to a session request of a mobile terminal for receiving the packet-based mobile service, and transmitting a packet according to a connected session; a multiple GGSN unit including a plurality of sub GGSNs, selected by the SGSN according to a session request by the mobile terminal, for transmitting and receiving packets; a DNS for storing DNS names and IP information in the GGSNs of the multiple GGSN unit according to selection of the SGSN; an operator network for managing the DNS and communication; and an edge router for performing packet routing between the GPRS system and the public network.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a GGSN (gateway GPRS supporting node) in a GPRS (general packet radio service) system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a GPRS system having multiple GGSNs and a method for selecting a GGSN for increasing system capability through distribution and enabling fluent management according to traffic variation.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A GPRS system is a packet-based radio communication service, which became available in 2000, guaranteeing mobile phone and computer users access to the Internet without interruption at the 56 through 114 Kbps data speeds.
Because of fast data transmission by the GPRS system, the users may take part in video conferences, and use a mobile device as well as a notebook computer to perform interactive communication with multimedia web sites.
The GGSN links an inner GPRS network of the GPRS system to a public network. All the packets transmitted by a mobile station are provided to the public network through the GGSN, and all the packets on the public network are transmitted to the mobile station through the GGSN.
Therefore, the GGSN functions as a gateway for performing routing between the inner network and the public network.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a general GPRS system.
Referring to FIG. 1, the GPRS system comprises an SGSN (serving GPRS supporting node) 101, a GPRS network 102, a GGSN 103, an operator network 104, an FA (foreign agent) 105, a DNS (domain name system) 106, a DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) 107, an edge router 108, and a public network 109.
The SGSN 101 is session-connected to the GGSN 103 selected in response to a session request by a terminal so as to perform packet transmission in the connected session state.
The operator network 104 is provided between the GGSN 103 and the public network 104 so as to perform communication with subsidiary devices including the DNS, the DHCP 107, and the FA 105 in addition to the GGSN 103.
Also, the edge router 108 adjacent to the public network 109 is a final end of the GPRS system, it operates a routing protocol including the RIP (routing information protocol) and the BGP (border gateway protocol), and performs a security function in the like manner of a firewall or the IPSEC (Internet protocol security protocol.)
The next two points regarding the GGSN 103 in the GPRS system as shown in FIG. 1 need to be considered.
First, the GGSN 103 functions as a gateway between the public network 109 and the GPRS network 102. When a problem occurs in the GGSN, the GPRS system no longer provides any service, and in particular, users who employ static IPs (Internet protocols) cannot set sessions.
To solve the above-noted problem, the GGSN 103 is realized as fault-tolerant hardware and software, and a method for using both hardware and software is sometimes used. However, this method increases the cost of building GGSNs with respect to the standby mode, and wastes resources since the GGSN does not have a processing function in the standby mode.
Second, the GGSN 103 may also function as a packet router because it is a final end of GTP (GPRS tunneling protocol) messages tunneled by the GTP.
Therefore, general packets transmitted and received by application programs of a mobile station are provided within the GGSN 103, and the general packets are routed by an IP layer. Hence, the GGSN 103 has a performance problem that commercial routers on the Internet have.
To solve the problem, an efficient hardware and software structure is required so as to process traffic reached by the GGSN 103 without delays.
However, the traffic required from the GGSN 103 is not determined at the instant of arrangement, and the required traffic may be increased or decreased depending on the number of users on the public network 109. Therefore, the GGSN 103 needs flexible processing performance in preparation for traffic increase and decrease.

GPRS (general packet radio service) system with multiple GGSNS (gateway GPRS supporting nodes) and method for selecting GGSN

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


The present invention relates to a method for anonymously registering, storing and using body material of an individual, and/or information derived from the body material, wherein the anonymity can only be removed with the assistance of the individual himself, comprising the following steps, to be performed in suitable sequence, of: (a) collecting the body material of the individual; (b) determining a distinguishing biological characteristic of the body material; (c) linking the distinguishing biological characteristic to the body material by means of an anonymous coding system; (d) optionally using the body material for the purpose of obtaining information; (e) storing the body material and/or the information derived therefrom; and (f) if desired, returning the body material and/or making the information derived therefrom available to the individual only after a biological characteristic of the individual corresponding with the biological characteristic of the body material has been determined, and it has been established that the biological characteristic of the individual is identical to the biological characteristic of the body material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for anonymously registering, storing and using body material of an individual, and/or the information derived from the body material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Owing to the rapidly progressing developments in medical science and biotechnology, use is increasingly being made of the storage for a shorter or longer time of diverse types of body material of people. The stored body material can for instance be used to derive information therefrom at some point in time for the benefit of the person himself, or for medical science and/or biotechnology in general. Storage of body material for a longer period may for instance be desired to create the possibility of being able to utilize the material at a later stage, for instance in order to treat the individual. In addition to storing stem cells from blood from the umbilical cord, it is possible to further envisage the storage of sperm cells, egg cells, embryonic cells and/or bone marrow cells.
In addition to the requirements set in the medical-biological field regarding handling and storage of cells and/or tissues in respect of quality and safety, there are generally also set requirements regarding the management of the personal data of the depositors of the body material, so that the confidentiality of the medical and biological data obtained during testing of and/or treatments with/of the body material can be guaranteed. The registration, storage and the use of non-anonymous material and non-anonymous data are thus subject to legal limitations, since ethical and judicial problems could otherwise result. Non-anonymous data could for instance result in discrimination of the depositors by employers, insurance companies and/or other bodies. Not only does such a system of non-anonymous data have the above stated limitations, the management and the responsibility for protecting personal details moreover lies with the registering body without the depositors being able to exert any direct influence or make checks thereon. It therefore occurs that in some cases the body material and/or the data obtained therewith are registered, stored and/or used anonymously, i.e. such that no connection can be made to the person from which the body material originates, and whose personal data is thus no longer retrievable. This has the drawback however that the material and the data obtained therewith could never be made available again to the relevant person from whom the material originates.

Method for anonymously registering, storing and using body material and/or information derived therefrom


In a tracklaying gear of a road finishing machine or a feeder with a drive chain wheel comprising circumferential teeth and being rotatably driven about an axis, and at least one idler wheel freely rotating about an axis inside a caterpillar track damping layers having damping material and exclusively radial sliding guides are integrated in the drive chain wheel and/or the idler wheel between the axis and the caterpillar track.

The idler wheel of a generic tracklaying gear disclosed in WO 03/018388 A comprises an outer part with a U-shaped cross-section consisting of individual segments, and an inner part mounted to be rotatable about the axis which engages, with a thickened outer rim, the U-groove of the outer part from the inside. Each segment is movably fixed in the thickened rim via two axial pins. On both sides of a centric surrounding collar at the outer side of the rim, elastomer rings of an approximately rectangular cross-section are inserted with pre-tension and relatively movably support the outer part on the inner part with a radial as well as an axial clearance on both sides. Due to the pre-tension of the elastic rings, these have load-transmitting abilities in the axial as well as in the radial direction. There is no direct, exclusively radial sliding guide between the inner and the outer parts. The transverse pins fixing the segments form a drive type fastening between the outer and the inner parts with a form-fit in the circumferential direction.
In the idler wheel or the drive chain wheel of the generic tracklaying gear disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,013 A, the respective outer annular part is connected with the inner, hub-like part only via pretensioned elastomer rings inserted between them. In the inner part, at an axial side, a pendulum balancing system with rolling elements distributed in the circumferential direction and with a ring radially movable relative to the inner part by the rolling elements is provided. In addition to the damping rings between the outer and the inner parts, on the outer parts, additional external elastomer rings are inserted in positioning grooves.
In the idler wheel of a tracklaying gear of US 2010/0141026 A, at the circumferential flange of the inner part, ring bodies are externally fixed on both sides by means of straining screws which project with broadened shoulder parts to the outside beyond the outer periphery of the peripheral flange and receive a base part of an outer ring with a T-shaped cross-section between them such that the inner diameter of the base part has a radial clearance to the outer diameter of the peripheral flange. In positioning grooves of the two ring bodies opened to the outside, elastomer rings are inserted on both sides of the base part which are pre-tensioned such that they obtain load-transmitting abilities and transmit radial as well as axial loads. The inner walls of the ring bodies are tensioned against the outer walls of the peripheral flange of the inner part, while the outer walls of the base part of the outer ring each maintain an axial clearance to the inner walls of the ring parts, so that the outer ring is centered by the pre-tensioned elastomer rings radially and axially with respect to the inner part. The degree of the axial clearance can be between 0.5 to 2.0 mm per side, so that the outer ring can have an axial moving part with respect to the inner part of up to 4.0 mm and thus no exclusively relative sliding guide is given.
In an idler wheel disclosed in JP 56138068 A, two outer parts are circumferentially mounted on the periphery of the inner metallic part such that they define a circumferential groove between them which is open to the outside. In the circumferential groove, a pressurized elastomer hose is provided between the inner walls of the outer parts and the outer periphery of the inner part, the hose acting upon an annular member radially to the outside and against a joint sleeve of a track joint, the annular member being of a material worn by friction which is different from the metal material of the inner and outer parts. The annular member has an H-section and can enlarge or reduce its radius in adaptation to an expansion or contraction of the pressure hose.
In a tracklaying gear of U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,932 A, instead of standardized circumferential teeth, a profiling is attached at the outer periphery of the drive chain wheel which is designed similar to the tread of a wet tire and which has diamond-shaped elevations to engage with the caterpillar track and channels situated in-between to discharge penetrated impurities. This circumferential teeth structure is either formed of the metal material of the drive chain wheel, or it is attached by welding or casting and thus consists of a metallic material. Also due to the polygon effect in the driving operation of the tracklaying gear, the caterpillar track or the links of the caterpillar track cyclically hit the drive chain wheel which generates loud noise and undesired wear.
In a tracklaying gear of a road finishing machine disclosed in EP 2 050 664 A, a solid rubber jacket is vulcanized onto the circumference of the metallic idler wheel, via which the idler wheel is in contact with the caterpillar track. The solid rubber jacket must take on the total load and transmit it to the metallic part of the idler wheel which can result in strong wear and a floating driving feel.
In a tracklaying gear disclosed in US 2007/0029878 A, the idler wheel and the drive chain wheel are completely fabricated of metal, and the load is transmitted into the running gear suspension via metallic contact surfaces, so that the inevitable impacts of the caterpillar track lead to the generation of loud noise.
In the tracklaying gear shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,270 A, the drive chain wheel (tumbler) and the idler wheel are metallic, resulting in loud running noise.
EP 0 721 879 B1 discloses two external, axially separated rubber linings in an idler wheel.
US 2002/0113489 A discloses ring segments at the circumference of a running wheel of a tracklaying gear which are coupled to the hub part via transverse pins contained in rubber sleeves. The rubber sleeves are placed in saucer-type recesses in the ring segments in the circumference of the hub part. The ring segments are movably coupled to one another via transverse pins. A radial guidance of the outer lining of this running wheel is not possible.
DE 3 537 665 A relates to a multi-part idler or running wheel for tracklaying gears wherein between the inner and outer parts of the running wheel, two annular damping layers are inserted and a raised guide collar is provided in the center, and bearing shoulders are provided on both sides. There is no clear radial guidance.
DE 2 617 342 A discloses a tumbler in which between two outer crown gears which are rigidly connected to the hub, two rubber linings are externally attached on the hub on which the caterpillar track can support itself and between which a guiding indentation for the lateral guidance of the caterpillar track is kept clear.
The object underlying the present invention is to provide a tracklaying gear of the type mentioned above which is characterized by low operating noises in the driving operation with a stable guidance of the caterpillar track.


The alarm circuit uses speed detection so that at a fan slowdown speed below a critical low level, a buzzer alarm starts sounding at a low warning volume and then as the fan slows down further the volume increases; that is, the buzzer volume or the buzzing frequency is inversely proportional to the fan speed. The circuit advantageously can be used for a wide range of fans. A pulse detector of a first stage comparator of this circuit detects the pulses or speed of the fan. More particularly, a power supply isolation resistor with an AC coupling capacitor block the DC voltage levels at the fan so that only the AC or pulse component of the fan is picked up. The isolation resistor prevents the power source from attenuating the pulses. The second stage comparator of the circuit sets the fan speed at which the alarm is to start buzzing and powers the buzzer accordingly. Particularly, the pulses are amplified by the first stage comparator and they periodically discharge a charging capacitor. If the pulses are too infrequent, the capacitor will charge up to the level of an error comparator which will trip and sound a buzzer. Since the circuit uses only discrete components and one (multi-vendor) QUAD comparator for all signal processing including alarm activation, it is inexpensive. It is also very small allowing for greater mounting flexibility.

The present invention relates to devices or circuits for monitoring and/or detecting the speed and/or failure of a fan and particularly when the fan is used to cool critical electronic components of a computer.
Many of the prior fan alarm circuit designs attempted to differentiate between running current of the fan and "not running" current. However, this difference is very small when compared with the difference in either current for different sized fans. Thus, a different alarm circuit was required for each size of fan and for fans with different bearings such as sleeve or ball bearing. Additionally, the inherent motor noise pulses required special filtering, because these motor pulses invariably were greater than the difference in running versus none running current. However, using different circuitry is very expensive and requires complicated tracking and logistics to ensure that the proper alarm circuit is installed.
Examples of prior art fan and/or temperature sensors or monitors are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,479,115 (Holzhauer), 4,843,378 (Kimura), 4,977,375 (Toth), 5,115,225 (Dao et al.), 5,436,827 (Gunn et al.), 5,517,175 (Brown et al.), 5,534,854 (Bradbury et al.), and 5,574,667 (Dinh et al.). (The entire disclosures of each of these patents are hereby incorporated by references.) Many of the prior art alerting systems disclosed in these patents have numerous components resulting in high costs and large units. Since the units are large, the locations where they can be mounted are limited.
One common use for the fans is to cool hard disk drives in computer systems. To efficiently handle larger amounts of data storage, larger hard drives have been and are being developed. These drives turn faster, generating larger amounts of heat. If the cooling fan for that drive slows down too much or otherwise fails, the drives can be damaged if they are not quickly shut-off or the fans quickly replaced. The drives may not spin, errors in data may result and/or they may not acknowledge requests for information. Thus, it is even more critical in today's environment that there be a reliable indication of fan slowdown or failure so that corrective action can be quickly taken to prevent the problems discussed above. Early detection also allows corrective action to be taken before the drives are shut down to prevent or minimize loss of data in progress or other problems caused to open files.

Fan pulse alarm using two stage comparator for speed detection


It is therefore the object of the present invention to disclose a device for power calibration of an oscillator in the high-frequency range, which has a reduced number of components and/or has less-expensive components. A method for power calibration of an oscillator is also to be disclosed, which eliminates the disadvantages of the known methods, that is, determining the output power of the oscillator via an additional, expensive component. To that end, the input (31) of the control module (40) is embodied as electrically connectable to the HF switch (comprising (22) and (24)) and the output (34) of the control module (40) is embodied as electrically connectable to the HF switch and/or to the amplifier. If the HF switch is then not acted upon by an input signal (pulse or direct voltage), but instead if the voltage is measured at the control input (30) of the HF switch, then the required controlled variable (the HF output power) is achieved, since the PIN diodes of the HF switch rectify the apply HF power and generate a proportional direct voltage.

With a pulse radar sensor, distances of objects can be determined very exactly. Therefore, a pulse-radar-based device in vehicles is suitable for instance as a parking aid or as a precrash sensor, or for detecting objects in the region of what is known as the blind angle. In all these usage instances, the goal is to monitor the near surroundings of a vehicle for whether obstacles that could be collided with are located in that region and to find the distance between these obstacles and the vehicle. Pulse radar sensors have an oscillator in the gigahertz range. In the course of mass-production development, it is desirable to be able to perform frequency and power calibrations for such oscillators in an automated way.
It is known to perform the power calibration for an oscillator via a buffer amplifier that directly follows the oscillator. The amplifier is connected to the oscillator output via an HF switch, which as a rule has two diodes. This buffer makes it possible to vary the HF output power by changing the drain voltage of the amplifier, which may be implemented as a simple transistor. After a power determination at the output of the buffer, it is possible with the aid of the control module (such as a closed control loop) to readjust the drain voltage, and thus over the course of temperature and process and component fluctuations, a constant output power can be attained. An upper limit to this output power is set by certification regulations, and this upper limit should always be fully exploited if maximum power is to be obtained. The measured HF output power serves in this case as a controlled variable, for readjusting the drain voltage of the "buffer" final control element. In the prior art, it is known for a detector diode, which generates a direct voltage proportional to the power, to be used as a measuring member. This detector diode is coupled to the line, and the regulation is designed in accordance with the characteristic curve of the diode, including the coupling.
A disadvantage of the known devices in the prior art is particularly the use of an expensive semiconductor (the detector diode), as well as the not inconsiderable space required for this component.

Device and method for power calibration of an oscillator


An improved knee probe for probing electrical devices and circuits is provided. The improved knee probe has a reduced thickness section to alter the mechanical behavior of the probe when contact is made. The reduced thickness section of the probe makes it easier to deflect the probe vertically when contact is made. This increased ease of vertical deflection tends to reduce the horizontal contact force component responsible for the scrub motion, thereby decreasing scrub length. Here “thickness” is the probe thickness in the deflection plane of the probe (i.e., the plane in which the probe knee lies). The reduced thickness probe section provides increased design flexibility for controlling scrub motion, especially in combination with other probe parameters affecting the scrub motion.

Testing of electrical devices and circuits has been an important component of electronic manufacturing processes for some time. Such testing typically entails probing a circuit with a fixture including multiple flexible probes, each probe making electrical contact to a contact pad on the circuit chip. Various practical issues that have arisen in this context have been addressed in the prior art, especially in connection with providing reliable, low-resistance electrical contact.
It is well known that electrical contact between the probe and the contact pad can be hampered by the presence of non-conductive material on the pad and/or the probe (e.g., a thin oxide film). Accordingly, considerable attention has been devoted to details of how the tip of the probe moves relative to the contact pad in order to improve the resulting electrical connection. This relative motion is usually referred to as a scrub motion. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,178 considers a probe having a shape which provides a scrub motion which is primarily a rocking motion without appreciable sliding. U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,843 considers a probe having a canted tip portion to facilitate penetration of the passivation layer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,529,021 considers a probe arrangement where the probe tip can be made to move in a reciprocating manner to reduce contact resistance.
As circuit manufacturing technology continues to evolve to smaller critical dimensions, new practical issues relating to probing tend to arise which are not fully addressed by prior art approaches. For example, the decreasing size of contact pads as critical dimensions are reduced leads to increasingly demanding requirements on the ability to precisely control the probe scrub motion. Excessive scrub motion can cause loss of electrical contact, if the probe moves off the contact pad.
Accordingly, it would be an advance in the art to provide greater control of probe scrub motion.

Knee probe having reduced thickness section for control of scrub motion


The present invention relates to an electrostatic discharge protection device. The electrostatic discharge protection device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a substrate, an electrostatic discharge absorbing layer having a plating film formed on the substrate, electrodes disposed on the substrate to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined interval with the electrostatic discharge absorbing layer interposed therebetween, and an insulating layer for covering the substrate and the electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic discharge protection device and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an electrostatic discharge protection device with improved electrostatic discharge characteristics and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrostatic discharge protection device is widely used to protect predetermined electronic components from electrostatic discharge (ESD). A typical electrostatic discharge protection device consists of a device body, electrodes disposed on the device body to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined gap, a functional layer filled between the electrodes, etc. The device body may be a ceramic sheet that consists primarily of alumina etc, a varistor sheet, low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC), etc. The electrodes are formed by performing a thin-film process, such as a sputtering process, on the device body. And the discharge layer is formed of a mixture of metal, insulator, epoxy, etc. Further, the functional layer is formed using a sputtering process or by mixing a conductive inorganic material with an insulating inorganic material.

Electrostatic discharge protection device and method for manufacturing the same


A system and method are described for self-diagnosing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The system and method correlate an HVAC control mode of a particular HVAC unit with an energy usage for the particular HVAC unit in order to match normal patterns in energy usage with the HVAC control mode. This correlation allows the system and method to identify potential problems with the particular HVAC unit based on deviations from normal patterns.

Traditional thermostats monitor the temperature at location inside a building and turn either a heating system or an air conditioning system in response to changes in the monitored air temperature. More recently, programmable thermostats have allowed the owner or manager of a building to adjust the temperature set point by day or week and time of day, allowing more control over HVAC systems and reduced energy consumption from changing the set point when the building is vacant or unused. New intelligent thermostats are now entering the market that allow for remote access and control. A significant variation in these remote accessible thermostats is available in the market, which are solely dedicated to control and access of HVAC system.
In addition to intelligent thermostats, many standalone metering and sub metering devices are available to measure energy at different load point and report it to the users. These meters are all configured and scale the data at the point of measurement so that they can measure individual load. For example, if a 3-phase load is to be metered, the prior art would require this to be field configured as such with proper hardware setup. Also, in the event multiple load point is measured, they remain isolated measurements. In some cases, these types of measurements are sufficient to provide the useful information, however, the data is limited to overall usage or the usage of specific loads without any ability to group or characterize the loads.
While energy monitoring is becoming more common, no one has combined the energy usage monitoring for HVAC loads with control steps. Combining HVAC control with electrical energy usage data gathering for any targeted load in the building allows the association of the HVAC control mode (idle, cool, heat, fan etc.) with the energy pattern of the corresponding HVAC. This correlation can be very useful and can be utilized to trend and pattern match, which can reveal any exception in the equipment behavior leading to proactive maintenance alerts when combined with other measured variables such as supply air temperature, to pin point exact failure mechanism such as a broken fan belt or a frozen compressor unit.

Method of auto association of HVAC energy with control signal for self diagnostics of the HVAC system


The efficient regulation of cholesterol synthesis, metabolism, acquisition, and transport is an essential component of lipid homeostasis. The farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is a transcriptional sensor for bile acids, the primary product of cholesterol metabolism. Accordingly, the development of potent, selective, small molecule agonists, partial agonists, and antagonists of FXR would be an important step in further deconvoluting FXR physiology. In accordance with the present invention, the identification of novel potent FXR activators is described. Two derivatives of invention compounds, bearing stilbene or biaryl moieties, contain members that are the most potent FXR agonists reported to date in cell-based assays. These compounds are useful as chemical tools to further define the physiological role of FXR as well as therapeutic leads for the treatment of diseases linked to cholesterol, bile acids and their metabolism and homeostasis.

The following discussion of the background of the invention is merely provided to aid the reader in understanding the invention and is not admitted to describe or constitute prior art to the present invention.
The efficient regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis, metabolism, acquisition and transport is an essential function of mammalian cells. High levels of cholesterol are associated with atherosclerosis, a leading cause of death in the western world and a major risk factor correlated with the occurrence of coronary heart disease and stroke. Until recently, recommendations for the treatment of hypercholestemia were focused on the use of statins, which inhibit the de novo biosynthesis of cholesterol, and the use of bile acid sequestering agents. While statin-based agents are still in widespread use as cholesterol-lowering drugs, an evolving understanding of the mechanisms controlling cholesterol homeostasis has led to new molecular targets as candidates in therapeutic intervention.
Cholesterol metabolism is controlled through a complex feedback loop involving cholesterol itself and bile acids (which are primary oxidation products), and through secretion in the gut, the single most critical regulators of cholesterol absorption. The nuclear receptors LXR (liver X receptor) and FXR (farnesoid X receptor) are the specialized sensors of cholesterol and bile acids that control transcription of networks encoding key metabolic enzymes. For example activation of LXR by oxysterols (i.e., mono-oxygenated cholesterol metabolites) leads to the up-regulation of CYP7A1, the enzyme that catalyzes the rate limiting step in the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids. In turn, bile acids such as chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA, 1, a low affinity endogenous agonist for FXR, whose structure is shown below) are potent ligands for FXR, whose activation leads to down-regulation of CYP7A1, leading to the completion of the feedback circuit.
In this circuit FXR induces the expression of a transcriptional repressor SHP (small heterodimer partner) which in turn binds to LRH-1 (liver receptor homolog), which is required in CYP7A activation. Additionally, both LXR and FXR are implicated in the regulation of several other gene products involved in cholesterol absorption, metabolism and transport.
Thus, the identification of potent, selective, small molecule FXR agonists, partial agonists and antagonists would be powerful tools and would have many potential applications. For example, such compounds would facilitate the in vivo analysis of FXR physiology in vivo. In addition, such compounds, in conjunction with DNA arraying technology, might allow for the discovery of new gene products under the control of FXR. Further, FXR modulators might find potential utility in the treatment of cholestasis and other disease states associated with aberrant levels, flow and release of bile acids. Moreover, in the absence of a crystal structure of FXR, a thorough structure-activity relationship (SAR) study of ligands that modulate the activity of FXR would allow for the delineation of the structural requirements for ligand binding and might aid in the design of future ligands and potential therapeutics.

Non-steroidal farnesoid X receptor modulators and methods for the use thereof

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies


A method for dynamic generation of synthetic images employs Delaunay mesh generation. Only the terrain portions of which a significant variation in the detail level takes place are processed in real-time, this significant variation being determined by the angular error, from the observer's point of view, and relative to the various points of the terrain, which would be committed if these points were not processed, only the angular error greater than a certain threshold being taken into account.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for dynamic generation of synthetic images with automatic detail level, as well as to a device for implementing this method.
2. Discussion of the Background
The real-time image synthesis machines used in flight simulators can generate almost fully realistic images, in particular by large-scale use of photographic textures. However, the maximum number of polygons which can be displayed at each image cycle is still their main limitation.
Unfortunately, this number is found to be very poorly used in some situations. This is because the same attention is paid to the distant facets as to the close facets, irrespective of the observer's visibility distance. However, during calculation, the pertinence in the image of the distant facets is very small compared to those found close to the observer. Some attempts have been made in the past to simplify the long-distance landscape. However, it has been found that they are not very effective and are too constringent in terms of the database generation.
It is possible to visualize real terrains in synthetic images by virtue of the existence of altimetric maps resulting from radar or satellite observations. These altimetric data are generally in the form of a two-dimensional grid giving the altitude at each point.
The terrain model (algorithms and data structures) which manages these altimetric data should take into consideration the following three requirements which are essential, in particular for aircraft pilot simulators:
Faithfulness
The characteristic aspects of the relief (peaks, valleys) are very important visual references for pilots and influence the quality of their training and their decisions during a mission. Faithfully representing the ridge lines is therefore an essential criterion for any cartographic model.
Economy of Information
For equal precision, the number of polygons representing a given terrain directly influences the response times of a real-time simulator (rendition, collision, roll, intervisibility, etc.). Since the roughness of a terrain is not regular, the mesh generation should adapt to the relief, and be coarse in zones with constant slope and fine in undulating parts.
Speed of Generation
Since the simulation databases may cover thousands of km.sup.2, their generation cost is directly linked with the use of high-performance algorithms which make it possible to integrate the various data sources (planimetry, altimetry, photometry) in a minimal amount of time.
Since the databases of aircraft simulators are in general very extensive, the number of facets representing the terrain is considerable. However, the visual system can display in real-time only a few thousands of facets. In order very rapidly to eliminate those which are not in the field of view, region pre-truncation is carried out. During the modelling of the database, the terrain is partitioned into rectangular zones referred to as regions. Simple pyramid-box intersection calculations make it possible to select the visible regions and thus eliminate a very large number of facets.
This division is also very useful if the database cannot be loaded into memory in one block. It is then sufficient to load only the regions lying in a sphere which is centred on the observer and has a radius equal to the visibility distance. This local database is updated as the observer moves: the regions leaving the sphere are dumped and replaced by those entering it. It is thus only memory space which limits the size of the databases.
For smaller visibility distances (<10 km) and a moderately undulating terrain, region pre-truncation is found to be sufficient in order to guarantee the image calculation frequency. Beyond this, the workload management of the visual system remains problematic. Overloading the visual system with polygons results in image jumps following cycle overflows. This situation is scarcely acceptable for a real-time flight simulator. The only remedy currently available is to simplify the zones of the database where the display "jams". This solution is expensive and not very practical. Furthermore, for large visibility distances, the relief is simplified far too much.
Only sophisticated detail level algorithms can greatly reduce the number of facets displayed without degrading the quality of the image. These algorithms have arisen from the following observation: the pertinence of a polygon of the terrain, that is to say the number of pixels which it occupies on the screen, decreases as the polygon becomes further away. If nothing is done, some of the graphics power of the machine is wasted on clipping, projecting, texturing, etc. polygons which, in the end, only occupy one or two pixels on the screen. The entire difficulty therefore consists in simplifying a terrain seen by a mobile observer without compromising the pertinence of the image.
Faced with the mathematical and algorithm complexity, no simulator manufacturer has integrated a device of this type truly effectively.
A first approach consists in precalculating various detail levels for each region and in switching from one level to another in real-time. Unfortunately, this method has many drawbacks:
Dependence on the Regions
Since the regions here fulfill the role of boundaries between detail levels, the quality of the switching depends on their sizes.
Memory Requirement
The memory requirement limits the number of detail levels per region and penalizes the dynamic loading of the database. Furthermore, this number varies as a function of the relief of each region.
Excessively Abrupt Switching
As the number of detail levels of a region decreases, the abruptness of the switching increases. These image artefacts are a great problem for the pilot.
In order to remedy these problems, hierarchical terrain models have been envisaged. A hierarchy of detail levels within the same data structure (quad tree, Delaunay pyramid) only stores the changes for moving from one detail level to another, which gives a significant memory saving. The tree structure is followed in order to select the triangles to be displayed as a function of the required precision.
Three major drawbacks remain
Overall Detail Level
The construction of the successive detail levels is based solely on a precision criterion, independently of an observer's position. The order in which the points appear is fixed, whereas the pertinence of the points does indeed vary as a function of the observer's position.
Modifications to the Terrain are Impossible
These hierarchical data structures are rigid and do not allow any modification to the terrain in real-time. It would be necessary to reconstruct the entire tree structure, which is too expensive.
Additional cost of generating the database.
The generation of the database remains something which is very expensive. The constraints linked with real-time complicate the modelling of the scene.

Method for dynamic generation of synthetic images with automatic detail level, and implementation device


A lubricant composition is disclosed that comprises lubricating oil and a mixture of at least two antioxidants, the first antioxidant being a secondary diarylamine and the second antioxidant being a substituted para-phenylenediamine. Also disclosed is a method of increasing the oxidation stability of a lubricating oil comprising adding thereto at least two antioxidants, the first antioxidant being a secondary diarylamine and the second antioxidant being a substituted para-phenylenediamine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improving the oxidation stability of lubricants, especially hydrocarbon based lubricating oils, by adding thereto a combination of a secondary diarylamine and a substituted para-phenylenediamine.
2. Description of Related Art
Lubricants, such as those used in a variety of machinery, are susceptible to oxidative deterioration during storage, transportation, and usage, particularly when such lubricants are exposed to high temperatures and iron catalytic environments, which greatly promote their oxidation. This oxidation, if not controlled, contributes to the formation of corrosive acidic products, sludge, varnishes, resins, and other oil-insoluble products, and may lead to a loss of designated physical and tribological properties of the lubricants. It is therefore a common practice to include an antioxidant in lubricants to prevent, at least to some extent, oxidation, so as to extend their useful life. Lubricant compositions containing various secondary diarylamines as antioxidants are widely known in the art. The use of para-phenylenediamines is also known, although to a lesser extent.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,451,642 discloses para-phenylenediamines as useful antioxidants for lubricating oil compositions for use in environments where iron-catalyzed oxidation reaction can take place.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,501 discloses a stabilizer system consisting of an aromatic amine with at least two aromatic rings, including para-phenylenediamine, and an organic aliphatic sulfur compound, which is said to be suitable for stabilizing mineral hydrocarbon lubricating oils, synthetic hydrocarbon oils, and polyalkylene glycol oils.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,614 discloses substituted para-phenylene diamines that are said to be effective antioxidants capable of protecting crankcase lubricating oils from thickening and sludge formation after prolonged exposure to oxygen at elevated temperature.
WO 94/22988 discloses a fuel composition said to improve the antiwear and viscosity controlling properties of an internal combustion engine lubricating oil during operation of the engine. Small amounts of the fuel composition combine with the engine lubricating oil during engine operation and this provides an antioxidant boost to the lubricating oil. Preferably the fuel contains at least 57 g/1000 liters of a substituted dicyclic aromatic amine which is free of benzylic hydrogen atoms such as a mono- and/or di-α-methyl styrene alkylated phenylenediamine and/or a hindered phenol such as a monostyrenated mono-isobutenated cresol or di C16 alkyl phenol. A synergistic effect is said to be demonstrated by a mixture of the aromatic amine and hindered phenol.
IN 151,316 discloses the use of N,N′-di-sec-butyl-p-phenylenediamine as antioxidant for a solvent extracted, dewaxed and hydrofinished mineral oil based lubricating oil composition for heavy duty air compressors.
JP 53,051,206 discloses N,N′-2-naphthyl-p-phenylenediamine as an antioxidant to improve the oxidation stabilities of ester or mineral oil based lubricating oils that also contain disulfides.
JP 59,020,392 discloses a lubricant composition comprising N,N′-di-sec-butyl-p-phenylenediamine for pressure forming of oil tanks. The lubricant composition also contains hindered phenolic antioxidant.
Polish PL 149,256 discloses the use of phenyl-naphthyl-para-phenylene diamine for polyalkylene glycol based fire resistant hydraulic fluids.
Soviet Union Patent 1,155,615 discloses a mineral oil and cephalins based lubricant composition comprising diphenyl-para-phenylenediamine for cold deformation of metals.
The foregoing disclosures are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Heretofore, there has been no recognition of the use of secondary diarylamines in a particular combination with substituted para-phenylenediamine that provides unexpected synergistic results in stabilizing lubricants, e.g., lubricating oils, especially those intended for use in a demanding environment, such as where high temperature and metal catalyzed oxidative reactions may take place.

Lubricant compositions stabilized with multiple antioxidants


Aspects of the present invention describe a system and method for a user of an event-driven simulation environment and/or embedded software debugger interface to step through the source code of components modeled by the environment/debugger, including the embedded software or hardware model source code. In a virtual platform modeling hardware components, bare-metal software programs, and high-level software applications or processes, the source code of each modeled component may be stepped through during simulation. Insertion points for breakpoints or watchpoints may be detected during a traversal of the source code of each component being modeled in the virtual platform and such breakpoints inserted automatically.

Aspects of the present invention relate generally to the field of system development and test, and more specifically to event-driven simulation of electronics.
Simulation of hardware components can be modeled at various levels of abstraction using event-driven simulation. Processor models implementing Instruction Set Simulators (ISS) in combination with hardware simulators can be used to simulate cross-compiled embedded software, for example, an operating system (OS). A collection of hardware models running such embedded software is known as a Virtual Platform (VP). However, when developing VPs and the corresponding actual systems which they model, issues with incorrect or unexpected interactions between the hardware and software components of the system can occur. Debugging these issues is often complicated by VP environment limitations, which typically restrict observability and controllability of the hardware models and embedded software simulation. Furthermore, because a separate debugger is often required for each processor core, with the rapid expansion of the number of cores in modern platforms, connecting separate debuggers to each modeled processor is often not feasible.
Additionally, applications running on top of the embedded software may create unexpected errors and require verification and testing. However, application verification and testing is often done separately, and with application specific debuggers, typically requiring execution of a debugger application or debug server for each software application being tested. Furthermore, because these debuggers typically run on the same operating system on which the application is being tested, this can create atypical system conditions and reduce the effectiveness of the test and debug process.
Conventionally, to debug an issue which spans various levels of the hardware and software components of the system, a hardware simulator control interface is used to view and debug the hardware components of the system, a separate software debugger with its own user control interface is connected to each processor model to debug the bare-metal software of interest in the system and one or more debug servers must be run on any embedded OS to connect additional debuggers, each debugger having a control interface.
Using multiple debuggers, and therefore multiple control interfaces, can cause additional difficulties. For example, when a simulation is stopped at one control interface, other control interfaces can be either blocked, or may not have accurate state information if they are unblocked. Additionally, the user must switch between different tools and control languages to see the state of different aspects of a system controlled with multiple different interfaces. Furthermore, command scripting to reproduce debug scenarios is awkward and sometimes impossible, as it can require separate scripts for each control interface.
Additionally, when using multiple control interfaces, elements across multiple hardware states, bare-metal software states, OS process states and/or high level application states cannot be easily specified, retrieved, or identified. Then using these elements as part of a breakpoint condition or action is nearly impossible. Conventionally, a user must manually record needed software or hardware state information as it is available during a simulation and mentally or externally evaluate the condition of the simulation from the information recorded. This may require coordinating multiple breakpoints in different control interfaces. Similarly, in the conventional environment, a user must manually set breakpoints in order to step through the instructions of the modeled components.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system to efficiently debug and analyze components of a virtual platform, including by allowing a user to control and observe the state of the various hardware and software components, including high-level application software, modeled in the virtual platform.
Additionally, there is a need in the art for a system that allows a user to step through the source code of the embedded software at various levels of the software stack as well as the source code representing the hardware models, as the modeled components are executed in the simulation.
Additionally, there is a need in the art for a system that allows a user to manage breakpoints, including by inserting breakpoints that stop the simulation and/or the embedded software running on the processor models and return to a control interface within the simulation to evaluate elements of the hardware and the software states or to perform other breakpoint operations.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Simulation observability and control of all hardware and software components of a virtual platform model of an electronics system


An energy-saving apparatus and method for a portable terminal are disclosed in the present document. The apparatus includes: an electricity meter module, configured to detect battery power consumption parameters under driving of a data acquisition module; the data acquisition module, configured to drive the detection of the electricity meter module, and output the collected battery power consumption parameters to a data analysis module; the data analysis module, configured to estimate power consumptions of all running devices at present in the terminal according to the input battery power consumption parameters, and output a power consumption optimization instruction to a power consumption optimization execution module; and the power consumption optimization execution module, configured to adopt corresponding power consumption optimization approaches according to the input power consumption optimization instruction.

With the rapid development of technologies such as the embedded technology and mobile communication technology and so on, functions of portable terminals such as mobile phones are increasing constantly, for example, smartphones which have strong function extensibility are very popular among the majority of users.
However, a series of the 3rd-Generation (3G) network applications such as a color screen with large size and high definition, a processor with faster speed, a media player function, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) or a bluetooth function and a mobile television possessed by the smartphones all will consume a great amount of electrical energy at the present. The durability of battery has gradually become a bottleneck of the development of all the smartphones.
Moreover, with regard to almost all the mobile phones including the smartphones nowadays, the battery power is displayed by using a simple bar diagram, and it is so rough that the situation of the actual operation of the battery supply changing over time cannot be reflected, which makes the user experience pretty poor.
According to the needs of implementing more functions and applications, how the mobile phones displays the electrical power of battery in real time and reduces the power consumption of battery to further enhance the user experience has become one of focuses in the industry.
Currently, in the existing technical schemes, one part is to begin with certain partial components of the terminal and perform local adjustment on the power consumption; and another part is that the terminal displays the power consumption and electrical power of the battery through data acquisition and a plurality of algorithms.
With regard to the former scheme mentioned above, for example, with the concept of energy-saving charger for terminal raised by the Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., the efficiency of battery charging is optimized; for another example, in the Chinese patent CN200710172331.3: Light sensation energy saving system and light sensation energy saving implementation method in mobile phone, light sensors are used to judge the external light intensity, and adjustment is performed on the power consumption of components such as Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) backlight and button light and so on; some other mobile phones optimize the power consumption by improving the circuit design and manufacturing process and so on. All the above schemes can only perform local adjustment on the power consumption in the mobile phones, but they are extremely limited for power consumption optimization of the entire mobile phone.
With regard to the latter scheme mentioned above, for example, with the softwares Nokia Energy Profiler developed by the Nokia with respect to their own mobile phone products, data such as the power consumption and supply voltage of the battery can be tested in real time, and the current battery life can be estimated based on this; and users can use these application softwares to observe the electrical power of the mobile phone battery at any time. Though a power consumption status of the mobile phone can be queried globally with these schemes, since it is required to collect and calculate the electrical power to run such software, on one hand, the data will not be totally accurate, and on the other hand, additional burden also will be added to a Central Processing Unit (CPU), thereby increasing the terminal power consumption; meanwhile, these application softwares also will cause certain faults at times. Moreover, these application softwares are short of interactivity, and it is not easy for the general users to comprehend the given power consumption data, thus it is also difficult for the users to make corresponding responses, thereby failing to achieve the purpose of saving energy for the terminal in use.

Energy-saving device and method for portable terminal


A smart video memory (10) is provided that includes data storage (12 and 18), a serial access memory (19), and a processing core (14 and 16) for executing instructions stored in the data storage area (12 and 18). Externally, smart memory (10) is directly accessible as a standard video memory device.

Advances in processor technology have allowed for significant increases in processing speed. However, in applications that are intensive in off-processor chip memory accesses, such as speech, signal, and image processing applications, the gain in raw processing speed is often lost because of relatively slow access times to the off-chip memories. This problem is further aggravated since memory technology has focused on increased device density. With increased device density, the maximum bandwidth of a system decreases because multiple bus architectures are defeated. For example, a graphics application requiring storage of a 480.times.240 sixteen-bit image has four times the bandwidth if eight 256K memory chips are used, rather than two of the more dense 1 megabyte chips.
Several strategies have been proposed to overcome these difficulties. One such solution involves using an application specific integrated circuit ("ASIC") to offload time-intensive tasks from the host CPU to increase overall system throughput. This alternative, however, requires one ASIC for each function to be offloaded, and requires dedicated memory for each ASIC. Consequently, a higher overall system cost is involved, and the system throughput is increased only for those tasks for which the ASIC was designed to handle, and not for tasks in general.
Another alternative involves the use of a co-processor. Such a solution allows for tasks to be offloaded from a host CPU and allows system memory to be shared by both the host CPU and the co-processor. With this system, however, total system bandwidth is decreased because of arbitration between the host processor and the co-processor. Furthermore, well-developed software is required to make full use and provide for "seamless integration" of the co-processor.
Another alternative involves the use of an application specific processor for offloading tasks from a host CPU. This alternative may require an expensive dedicated static RAM ("SRAM") for use by the application specific processor. Thus, this alternative involves increased system cost. Furthermore, the SRAM is not available even when the attached application specific processor is idle, and well-developed software is needed for "seamless integration".
As another solution to these difficulties, significant research and effort has been directed towards multiprocessing systems for increasing throughput as the limits of decreasing processor cycle times are approached. However, difficulties in designing multiprocessing systems, developing communication protocols for such systems, and designing software support routines have deterred proliferation of multiprocessing systems. Nonetheless, many applications in signal, speech and image processing are structured and lend themselves to partitioning and parallel processing.
These problems present themselves in many environments, and a particular area in which incrased processor to memory bandwidth is critical is graphics and imaging processing, since significant amounts of memory and associated data processing are required.
Thus, a need has arisen for a device and method allowing for execution of several self-contained graphics and imaging tasks in parallel within existing architectural frameworks. Furthermore, a need has arisen for improving processor to memory bandwidth in graphics and imaging applications without significant cost increases and without requiring customized, specific solutions for increasing system throughput.

Method and apparatus for improved graphics/image processing using a processor and a memory


A static random access memory (SRAM) device a pair of cross-coupled, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters configured as a storage cell for a bit of data, a first pair of transfer gates configured to couple complementary internal nodes of the storage cell to a corresponding pair of bitlines during a read operation of the device; and a second pair of transfer gates configured to couple the storage cell nodes to the pair of bitlines during a write operation of the device, wherein impedance between the bitlines and the storage cell nodes during the write operation is less than that for the read operation, wherein impedance between the bitlines and the storage cell nodes during the write operation is less than that for the read operation.

The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit memory devices, and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for improved SRAM device performance through use of a double gate topology.
A typical static random access memory (SRAM) includes an array of individual SRAM cells. Each SRAM cell is capable of storing a binary voltage value therein, which voltage value represents a logical data bit (e.g., "0" or "1"). One existing configuration for an SRAM cell includes a pair of cross-coupled devices such as inverters. With CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology, the inverters further include a pull-up PFET (p-channel) transistor connected to a complementary pull-down NFET (n-channel) transistor. The inverters, connected in a cross-coupled configuration, act as a latch that stores the data bit therein so long as power is supplied to the memory array. In a conventional six-transistor cell, a pair of access transistors or pass gates (when activated by a word line) selectively couples the inverters to a pair of complementary bit lines.
The design of SRAM cells has traditionally involved a compromise between the read and write functions of the memory cell to maintain cell stability, read performance and write performance. The transistors which make up the cross couple must be weak enough to be overdriven during a write operation, while strong enough to maintain their data value when driving a bitline during a read operation. The transfer gates that connect the cross coupled nodes to the true and compliment bitlines affect both the stability and performance of the cell. In one-port SRAM cells, a single pair of transfer gates is conventionally used for both read and write access to the cell. These gates are driven to a digital value to switch the transfer gates between an on and off state. The optimization of a transfer gate for a write operation would drive the reduction of the on-resistance (Ron) for the device. On the other hand, the optimization of a transfer gate for a read operation drives an increase in Ron in order to isolate the cell from the bitline capacitance and prevent a cell disturb.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to optimize the read and write performance of an SRAM device notwithstanding the inherent tradeoff aspects described above, and in a manner that reduces device area while still maintaining cell stability.

Apparatus for improved SRAM device performance through double gate topology

International Business Machines Corporation


Methods and processes for reducing alkylation catalyst poisoning are described herein. Such methods generally include providing a dehydrogenation system including a dehydrogenation reactor and a separation system, wherein the separation system includes a first column and a second column, introducing an alkyl aromatic hydrocarbon into the dehydrogenation reactor, contacting the alkyl aromatic hydrocarbon with a dehydrogenation catalyst disposed within the dehydrogenation reactor to form a dehydrogenation output stream comprising a vinyl aromatic hydrocarbon, passing at least a portion of the dehydrogenation output stream to first column, recovering a first overhead fraction including benzene and a first bottoms fraction from the first column, passing at least a portion of the benzene from the first column to an alkylation system including an alkylation catalyst, passing the first bottoms fraction from the first column to the second column, recovering a second overhead fraction and a second bottoms fraction from the second column, withdrawing offtest from effluent streams selected from the dehydrogenation output stream, the first bottoms fraction, the second bottoms fraction and combinations thereof to form withdrawn offtest and introducing the withdrawn offtest into the separation system downstream from the first column.

In many processes, benzene and toluene are recovered from catalytic dehydrogenation systems and fed to alkylation/transalkylation processes. However, nitrogen compounds and other compounds present in the recovered benzene may poison the alkylation catalyst, therefore requiring more frequent regeneration and/or replacement of such catalyst.
Therefore, a need exists to utilize the recovered benzene and toluene in alkylation processes while reducing the poison effect of the nitrogen containing compound(s) and impurities on the alkylation catalyst.

Treatment of alkylation catalyst poisons with dehydrogenation


A process and apparatus to increase the recovery of ethane, propane, and heavier compounds from a hydrocarbon gas stream is provided. The process can be configured to recover ethane and heavier compounds or propane and heavier compounds, depending upon the market conditions. The process utilizes an additional reflux stream to the absorber column that is lean in ethane and propane compared to the deethanizer overhead. The additional reflux stream is taken as a side stream of the residue gas stream that is cooled, condensed, and then fed at the top of the absorber to enhanced C3+ recovery. The additional lean reflux stream can also be taken as a side stream of the first vapor stream from the cold separator.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the recovery of ethane compounds from hydrocarbon gas streams. More particularly, the present invention relates to the recovery of ethane compounds from hydrocarbon inlet gas streams using multiple reflux streams.
2. Description of Prior Art
Many prior art processes exist for the recovery of ethane compounds from hydrocarbon inlet gas streams. An example ethane recovery process can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,377 issued to Foglietta. Residue recycle processes are capable of obtaining high ethane recoveries (in excess of 95%), while recovering essentially 100% of C3+. Such processes, though impressive in achieving high recoveries consume a lot of energy in terms of compression. In order to reduce energy consumption while still maintaining high recoveries, an additional source of reflux is required. The requirements for this reflux stream are that it should be lean in desirable components (C2+) and be available at a high pressure. Prior art schemes have identified some alternate sources of reflux. The process disclosed here has a unique way of obtaining such a reflux stream. This reflux stream is used as intermediate reflux thereby reducing flow of the main reflux stream and hence energy consumption. In this process, an inlet gas is cooled by heat exchange with other streams in the process, without first splitting the inlet gas stream. As the inlet gas stream is cooled, liquid can be condensed and separated to form a first liquid stream and a first vapor stream. The first vapor stream is expanded in a turboexpander to further cool the stream. The cooled stream is then introduced to a demethanizer column at an intermediate feed position. The first liquid portion from the separator is expanded and directed to the demethanizer at a relatively lower feed position. The overhead stream from the demethanizer is heated, and compressed to a higher pressure and then divided into a volatile gas residue fraction and a compressed recycle stream. The compressed recycle stream is cooled sufficiently to substantially condense it by contacting it with the side reboilers as a part of the demethanizer column. The compressed recycle stream is further cooled and expanded to a lower pressure and supplied to the demethanizer column at a top feed position to reflux the column. The Foglietta process described above achieves a relatively high recovery efficiency of 95% and greater for ethane and heavier compounds.
A need exists for an ethane recovery process that is capable of achieving a recovery efficiency of at least 95%, but with lower energy consumption compared to prior art processes. A need also exists for a process that can take advantage of temperature profiles within a process to reduce the amount of external energy requirements that are needed to achieve high recovery efficiencies.

Residue recycle-high ethane recovery process

ABB Lummus Global, Randall Gas Technologies


A battery holder for use with a battery-powered sensor may be configured such that removing the battery involves at least two distinct motions. The battery holder may include a cradle and a resilient retention strap configured to be deflectable between relaxed and deflected positions. With the retention strap in the relaxed position, the cradle and the retention strap may cooperate to retain the battery in the inserted position within the battery holder. The battery may be removed by first manipulating the retention strap from the relaxed position to the deflected position, and then using a distinct second motion to remove the battery from the holder. The battery holder may be configured to substantially prevent movement of the battery relative to the cradle when the battery is in the inserted position. The battery holder may be configured to facilitate insertion of the battery into the holder in a desired orientation.

Load control systems may include one or more sensors configured to communicate with a load control device to effect an operation of the load control device. A sensor may cause the load control device to switch or dim an associated electrical load (e.g., a lighting load). In this regard, the sensor may operate as a control device with respect to a load control device. Examples of such sensors include light sensors, shadow sensors, occupancy/vacancy sensors, temperature sensors, and the like. Such sensors may be configured to be attached to one or more surfaces, such as a wall or ceiling, for example.
FIG. 1 depicts an example load control system 10. As shown, the load control system 10 includes a load control device 20 (e.g., a dimmer switch) and a battery-powered sensor 50 (e.g., a daylight sensor). The sensor 50 includes a housing 52 having a base portion 54 and a cover portion 56 that is releasably attached to the base portion 54. The load control device 20 is configured to be coupled in series electrical connection between an alternating current (AC) power source 30 and an electrical load 40 (e.g., a lighting load) for controlling the amount of power delivered to the electrical load 40. The load control device 20 may be mounted, for example wall-mounted in a standard electrical wall box.
The sensor 50 may be associated with (e.g., assigned to) the load control device 20, for example during a setup procedure of the RF load control system 10. The sensor 50 may be configured to wirelessly communicate digital messages to the load control device 20, for example via radio-frequency (RF) signals 60.
A sensor may be battery powered, and may include a battery holder configured to retain the battery in the sensor. Battery holders of known sensors may be configured such that the battery may be removed from the battery holder via a single motion. FIG. 2 depicts an example prior art battery holder 70 that may be used with a battery-powered sensor (e.g., the sensor 50 depicted in FIG. 1). As shown, the battery holder 70 may include a cradle 72 configured to at least partially retain a battery 120 within the battery holder 70. The cradle 72 may include a wall 74 that extends around a portion of a perimeter of the cradle 70. The wall 74 may define an opening 76 through which the battery 120 can be inserted into, or removed from, the cradle 70.
The battery 120 may be removed from the battery holder 70 using a single motion. For example, the battery 120 may be slid out of the cradle 70 by applying a force F to the battery 120 along a direction radially outward from the center of the cradle 70, toward the opening 76. The force F may be applied to the battery 120 using a finger, for example, which may cause the battery 120 to slide out of the battery holder 70 through the opening 76. An example of a sensor having a battery holder similar to the battery holder 70 depicted in FIG. 2 is described in greater detail in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0139965, published Jun. 16, 2011, entitled DAYLIGHT SENSOR HAVING A ROTATABLE ENCLOSURE, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Ease of battery removal from the battery holder of a sensor may be desirable, for example from an end user perspective, but makes the sensor vulnerable to having the battery become separated from the battery holder undesirably. For example, if the battery holder is dropped, an impact force imparted to the battery holder may cause the battery to be ejected from the battery holder.

Monolithic battery holder having resilient retention strap for use in battery-powered sensor


A biaxial linear-motion micro drive apparatus includes: a mounting base A on an upper surface of a Z-direction sliding base; a Z-direction micro actuator fixed within the mounting base A and connected with a Z-direction micro-motion platform connected with an X-direction sliding base; Z-direction guide rail strips arranged on the Z-direction sliding; two Z-direction guide rail blocks provided on one Z-direction guide rail strip fixedly mounted on a lower surface of the X-direction sliding base; a mounting base B provided on an upper surface of the X-direction sliding base; an X-direction micro actuator in the mounting base B and connected with an X-direction micro-motion platform connected with an XZ biaxial motion platform; two X-direction guide rail strips arranged on the upper surface of the X-direction sliding base; two X-direction guide rail blocks provided on each X-direction guide rail strip mounted on a lower surface of the XZ biaxial motion platform.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of precision numerical control machine tool, and applies to a precision linear feeding mechanism of an end effector capable of enduring a large load and mounting tools or work-pieces. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a biaxial linear-motion micro drive apparatus.
2. Background Art
With the development of science and technology, a demand for ultra-precision machining accuracy has tended to nanometer scale, and thus a precision and ultra-precision numerical control machine tool at the micron scale, submicron scale and nanometer scale has become one of important developing directions of advanced numerical control machine tools. Machine tool feeding system is one of key factors affecting the overall performance of the machine tool. Performance of the machine tool feeding system is affected greatly by drive, transmission and guide mechanisms. One of effective ways of improving the feeding accuracy of the ultra-precision machining machine tool is to employ the combination of a macro drive and a micro drive, in which machining size and profile are achieved by the macro drive and error compensation in size and profile is carried out by the micro drive, thereby meeting a demand for ultra-precision machining.
Combination of the macro drive and the micro drive in the existing linear feeding motion includes two manners: one manner is that the macro drive and the micro drive are in series directly, that is, a macro feeding of each feeding axis is achieved by driving a macro motion sliding platform through the macro drive, and a micro feeding thereof is achieved by driving a micro motion sliding platform using a micro actuator mounted on the macro motion sliding platform, for example, a machine tool requiring a macro drive and a micro drive in X-axis and Z-axis may employ such a manner in which an X feeding axis is achieved by making the macro drive and the micro drive in X-axis be in series directly and a Z feeding axis is achieved by making the macro drive and the micro drive in Z-axis be in series directly; the other manner is that a macro drive mechanism and a micro drive mechanism are separated from each other, the micro drive mechanism may be designed as an independent part and mounted in any other position, for example, a machine tool requiring a macro drive and a micro drive in X-axis and Z-axis may employ such a manner in which macro drives in X-axis and Z-axis are provided separately and micro drives in X-axis and Z-axis are designed to be independent X-axis and Z-axis micro drive parts.

Biaxial linear-motion micro drive apparatus