The present invention comprises a method and apparatus for automatic discovery of logical links between network devices. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises part of a network management system (“NM”) that manages a discrete set of network devices. The NM sends SNMP queries to individual network devices managed by the NM to obtain interface configuration data for each of the network interfaces of the device. The information requested includes destination information (“next hop” or “neighbor” IP address) for data packets sent from the interface. The NM checks to see whether a logical link corresponding to the received configuration information already exists in a logical link database maintained by the NM. If such a link exists the NM checks to see if the existing information for the link is valid. If the existing link data is valid, no change is made. If the existing information is not valid, or if no corresponding link is found in the link database, the NM creates a new link corresponding to the new configuration information. In one or more embodiments, the NM displays a graphical view of the discovered IP links on a graphical network map.

A data communications network transmits data among and between network devices (sometimes also referred to as "nodes") physically and logically connected to the network. The physical configuration of a network changes as network devices are added or removed from the network and as physical connections between devices are made or changed. The logical configuration of a network changes as logical connections are established between communicating network devices utilizing the physical structure of the network. Network devices include devices that can send and/or receive data, as well as devices that can forward data. Network devices that can forward data are important in all but the very simplest networks. In most networks direct connections do not exist between most network devices. Instead, each network device is connected to a limited number of adjacent network devices. For network devices to be able to communicate when they are not physically connected, the two communicating network devices rely on intermediate network devices to forward communications between them.
Data is commonly transmitted over a data communications network in the form of discrete chunks of data referred to as "packets". A string of data is broken up into packets at the sending network device and sent separately over the network to the receiving network device. The network device receives the individual packets and assembles them in the correct order to reconstruct the original data string. The particular manner in which packets are broken up and transmitted from one network device to another is defined as a "network protocol". One prominent network protocol is the "Internet Protocol", usually referred to by its acronym, "IP", or as the "IP protocol." Another protocol is called "Multi-Protocol Label Switching", or "MPLS".
Data communications networks are often conceptualized as comprising a hierarchy of communications "layers" that establish different types of connections between network devices. The more basic functions are provided at the lower layers, while successively more sophisticated functions are provided at successively higher layers. Different protocols are used to communicate between devices on each layer. Layering allows sophisticated communications functions to be built up using relatively simple protocols at each layer.
One common hierarchical network model is the so-called OSI "seven-layer" model. In the OSI model, each lower layer in the model provides communications capabilities or functions that are utilized by the next higher layer. A schematic illustration of the OSI seven-layer model is shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the seven layers in the OSI model, beginning from the bottom, are physical layer 205, data link layer 210, network layer 215, transport layer 220, session layer 225, presentation layer 230, and application layer 235. In relation to the OSI model, the IP protocol is commonly considered as being associated with the third layer, network layer 215.
In an IP network, each sending and receiving device is assigned a 32-bit address. The address is usually written as a series of four "octets" (e.g., numbers within a range of 0-255) separated by periods. Examples of IP addresses are 127.0.0.1, 220.127.116.11, 22.214.171.124, etc.
Each IP packet sent over an IP network includes the sender's IP address and the recipient's IP address. The recipient's IP address is used to route the packet from the sending network device via intermediate network devices that have IP forwarding capabilities to the recipient network device.
An example of a simple network that illustrates IP forwarding is shown in FIG. 1. The network of FIG. 1 includes two types of network devices: non-IP-forwarding devices 105, 110, 115 and 120 (represented by rectangles in FIG. 1 and which may, for example, comprise personal computers or computer workstations), and IP-forwarding devices 125, 130, 135, 140, 145 and 150 (represented by circles in FIG. 1 and which may, for example, comprise IP routers). The network devices in FIG. 1 are interconnected by a various bidirectional connections or links 160, 162, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174, 176, 178 and 180, represented in FIG. 1 by two-headed arrows. Links 160-180 may comprise direct physical connections between the adjacent network devices, or may comprise logical connections that involve intermediate devices but that are seen by the connected devices as direct connections. For example, network device 110 is connected to network device 130 via link 166. That is, network device 110 knows that if it sends a communication via its interface port that is connected to link 166, the communication will be received by network device 130. It doesn't matter to network device 110 whether link 166 is a single physical connection or a series of physical connections. Logical links such as links 160-180 in FIG. 1 that connect two network devices will be referred to sometimes herein as "IP links". The term "IP links" as used herein includes logical links that use the IP protocol, as well as logical links utilizing other protocols, such as, for example, MPLS.
In the example network of FIG. 1, network device 110 is connected directly (via link 166) only to network device 130. For network device 110 to communicate to any other network device, the IP forwarding capabilities of network device 130 must be used.
In FIG. 1, network device 130 has direct connections to three other network devices in addition to network device 110, to which it is connected via link 166. The other links are links 160, 168 and 176, which connect network device 130 to network devices 125, 135 and 145, respectively. Each of links 160, 166, 168 and 176 are typically connected to separate ports on network device 130. Each port may be a separate physical interface, or two or more ports may share a single physical interface. Each port may have its own IP address assigned to it. In that case, network device 130, as well of each of its ports, may have distinct IP addresses.
Network device 130 of FIG. 1 has been defined to have IP forwarding capabilities. That means it must be able to receive an IP packet (intended for delivery to a network device other than network device 130) from one of the IP links it is connected to and forward it along at least one of the other the IP links it is connected to. In the general case where network device 130 is a typical router, network device 130 will be able to receive and forward IP packets from and to any of the IP links 160, 166, 168 and 176 it is connected to (provided the links are functioning). The other network devices 125, 135, 140, 145 and 150 with IP forwarding capabilities in the example of FIG. 1 are similarly able to receive and forward IP packets from and to any of the IP links they are connected to.
If network device 110 wants to send a communication to, for example, network device 115, there are a number of paths that the communication can take. The most direct path comprises links 166, 176, and 178. However, other paths include the path comprising links 166, 168, 174, 180 and 178, and even the path comprising links 166, 160, 162, 174, 180 and 178.
When network device 110 sends out IP packets to network device 115, it does not know what path each of the packets will take. Network device 110 simply addresses the packet to network device 115 using network device 115's IP number (namely 18.104.22.168 in the example of FIG. 1), and sends it out over link 166 towards network device 130.
What network device 130 does with the packet after it receives it depends on how network device 130 is configured. For example, network device 130 may be configured to forward any packet received from link 166 along link 176. Alternatively, network device 130 may be configured to forward packets along links depending on the destination IP number of the packet. Network device 130 may also be programmed to monitor traffic along each link and to adapt its forwarding scheme to traffic conditions.
How each network device forwards packets depends on the capabilities and configuration of the particular network device. As is evident even from the simple network example of FIG. 1, it is important that network devices that do IP forwarding be properly configured to interoperate with each other to ensure that packets are correctly routed to their destination.
Configuration of network devices within a network comprises an aspect of network management. Network devices may be locally managed or remotely (centrally) managed. Local management of a network device may be accomplished using a workstation or terminal directly connected to the network device. Remote management of a network device may be accomplished from remote terminals or workstations that communicate with the network device via the network, provided the network device is provided with a management protocol that allows remote management. One protocol used for remote management of network devices is the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP provides a set of commands and parameters that allow communication with and configuration of network devices. A person who is responsible for management of a network is commonly referred to as a "network manager." Network management software systems provide tools to network managers that facilitate central management of often geographically dispersed network devices.
To be able to manage a network device, a network manager must know that the network device exists, how it is connected to the network and to other network devices, and what its capabilities are. In addition, the network device must have the capability of being remotely managed, the network management system used by the network manager must be able to communicate with the network device using the correct protocol, and the network manager must be apply to supply any required logins, passwords, or other security information.
The configuration of large networks often changes through the addition, removal and/or replacement of network devices. To properly manage large networks to ensure that IP packets are routed correctly over the network, the network manager must know when data forwarding network devices are added or removed. One system used to discover network devices with data forwarding capabilities is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/029,124 for "Method and Apparatus for Automatic Discovery of Network Devices with Data Forwarding Capabilities" assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
In small local networks, for example those in which the entire network comprises only a handful of network devices, it is relatively easy for a network manager to physically inspect each network device and know from first hand inspection when a network device is added or removed. In large, geographically dispersed networks comprising hundreds of network devices, it would be extremely difficult for the network manager to know from a first hand inspection what the state of the entire network is at any given time.
A network being managed often comprises of a plurality of subnets. A subnet is a group of network devices belonging to a specific block or subset of IP addresses. For example, one type of subnet comprises IP numbers that share the first three octets, as for example 215.223.46.x (where "x" can be any number from 0 to 255). Larger subnets may share only the first two octets (e.g. 215.223.x.y). In addition to subnets, networks may also include individual IP numbers or ranges of IP numbers. A network manager generally will know which subnets are included in the network being managed. However, the network manager will not necessarily know beforehand the IP number of a network device to be added to a network, particularly if the IP number is not within one of the network's known subnets.
In addition to needing to know the identity and physical configuration of the network devices themselves, it is also important for the network manager to be able to monitor logical connections between network devices. A logical connection exists between network devices when at least one port of a first network device is configured so that a message sent out through that port will arrive at a known destination (either a network address or a second network device). The destination may be a particular port or interface on another network device, a particular IP address, or a particular subnetwork.

Method and apparatus for automatic discovery of logical links between network devices


The invention is to improve a toner diffusing efficiency in a toner container, thereby increasing a toner containing capacity. The toner container includes plural screws which diffuse the toner in plural directions and diffuse the toner in different positions. A toner filling efficiency in the collecting container is improved by providing plural toner diffusing points within the toner container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner container having a screw for conveying toner in the container, and an image forming apparatus having such a collecting container.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the conventional image forming apparatuses utilizing toner, there is known an image forming apparatus having a toner container for recovering the toner which has been used or is no longer used in the image forming apparatus. Among such toner containers, also known is a container having a device for more efficient filling of the toner. For this purpose, for example utilized is a technology of conveying the toner to an approximately central part of the toner container thereby achieving efficient filling of the toner container.
However, in case of introducing the toner into a toner container having a large bottom area and a smaller thickness in comparison with the bottom area, the toner cannot be filled sufficiently only using such a device. Particularly in a case of handling a toner of a high cohesive property such as residual toner, it is difficult to increase the filling efficiency of the toner.

Toner container having screw for conveying toner and image forming apparatus having toner container


Apparatuses and method for communication includes controlling one or more local area base stations and allocating resources of a common random access channel between the local area base stations, the resources including preambles and informing the local area base stations and user equipment within a given area about the allocation.

Wireless communication systems are constantly under development. Developing systems provide a cost-effective support of high data rates and efficient resource utilization. One communication system under development is the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE). An improved version of the Long Term Evolution radio access system is called LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). The LTE is designed to support various services, such as high-speed data, multimedia unicast and multimedia broadcast services.
One aspect under development is the concept of small cells. It has been proposed that under a macro cell serving a large area there would be a number of smaller cells with local area coverage. The small cells could reduce the power consumption at both base stations and user equipment side, offload traffic from the macro cell, and also potentially enable some new service types in the future.
It has been proposed that the small cells may be similar to Remote Radio Heads (RRH) which operate as individual cells but some of the processing, such as the baseband processing, may be done in a central entity. On the other hand, the small cell nodes may be more independent of the macro node. Thus, all the processing may be done in the small cell nodes but a specified interface may be deployed between a macro node and a small cell node.

Apparatus and method for use in a communication system


The invention is directed to a process for providing a gas having a minimum pressure and a composition that includes a major component to an end application, said process comprising the following steps:. a) providing a first gas having said major component in a first concentration to said end application; PA1 b) providing means for measuring the pressure of said first gas being delivered to said end application; PA1 c) providing a second gas having a second concentration of said major component of said first gas which exceeds said first concentration; PA1 d) providing a third gas having a third concentration of said major component of said first gas which is less than said first concentration; PA1 e) providing means for mixing said second and said third gases so as to produce a fourth gas at at least said minimum pressure and which has said major component in a fourth concentration; wherein, PA1 f) when said means for measuring the pressure of said first gas to be received at said end application detects a deficiency with respect to said minimum pressure, said deficiency is offset by the addition of said fourth gas.

In recent years there has been increasing need for industrial gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen for example, in such diverse applications as steel making, aluminum production, pharmaceutical production and glass making. Although gases for such applications have conventionally been supplied by vaporizing liquid ("bulk") oxygen or bulk nitrogen stored on site in cryogenic storage vessels, it is often more cost effective to generate such gases using on-site vacuum and/or pressure swing adsorption (V/PSA) air separation systems or membrane air separation systems.
To assure uninterrupted gas supply, such on-site gas generating systems typically use vaporized liquid to replace (i.e. back up) the on-site generated gas in the event of a gas generating system outage due to electric power interruption, mechanical failure, etc. In addition, such liquid vaporizing systems are also used to supplement the on-site generated gas flow when the application's gas requirement exceeds on-site plant capacity. Unfortunately, compositional differences between the on-site generated gas and the back-up/supplemental vaporized liquefied gas can render the gas supply system unsuitable for some applications, thereby preventing them from realizing the lower costs associated with using on-site generated gases. When, for example, V/PSA oxygen product, which is typically between 90 and 95 volume percent (vol. %) oxygen (the balance being substantially nitrogen and argon), is backed up using liquid oxygen, which is typically at least 99.5 vol. % oxygen, the oxygen concentration in the product from the gas supply facility can suddenly change by between 4.5 and 10 vol. % during a V/PSA plant outage.
An example of an application where such a substantial or material change in oxygen concentration is unacceptable is in glass finishing. Such operations include glass forming, polishing, edge-firing, glazing and quartzworking, and typically use many oxy-fuel burners which are set up using manual combustion controls. In such operations the above described fluctuations in the oxygen concentration of the combustion oxidant can cause changes in flame temperature thereby influencing glass formability, and changes in flame stoichiometry, which affects the color of certain glasses. While it may be possible to adjust the ongoing combustion process to compensate for oxidant compositional changes, this is often operationally impractical due to numerous manual controls, a limited number of operator personnel, and/or little or no advanced notice of the oxidant change.
Thus there is a need in the art for a highly reliable, cost-effective means to back up or supplement non-cryogenic on-site gas supply systems serving composition-sensitive applications.

Process and apparatus for backing-up or supplementing a gas supply system


An apparatus and Method for distributed monitoring of endpoint devices using gateway servers is provided. With this apparatus and method, a healthcheck engine is provided on each of the gateway servers having endpoint devices that are to be monitored. The healthcheck engine periodically or continuously sends requests to the endpoint devices that they respond with a hostname transmitted to them. If the endpoint responds, a list of monitored endpoints is updated with a new timestamp indicating the time when the response was received. If a response is not received, a determination is made as to whether one or more time thresholds has been exceeded. If so, a Tivoli Enterprise Console event corresponding to the particular threshold exceeded, is sent to the TEC server.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally directed to an improved computing system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for monitoring the health of systems management software components in an enterprise.
2. Description of Related Art
The management of heterogeneous distributed computer systems is a complex task that can involve various operating systems, distributed network services and system management tasks. International Business Machines, Inc. has created a system for centralized control of a distributed environment, which can include mainframes, UNIX or NT workstations, personal computers, and the like. This system is known as the Tivoli Management Environment of which, the Tivoli Management Framework is the base component on which Tivoli applications are built for management of distributed computing systems. Information about the Tivoli Management Environment and Tivoli Management Framework can be obtained from the Tivoli web site at http://www.tivoli.com/support/public/Prodman/public_manua ls/td/ManagementFramework3.7.1.html, for example.
The Tivoli Management Environment (TME) framework provides the foundation for managing resources in a distributed environment. The TME framework provides a set of system management services that enable a user to install both the framework and selected applications on multiple heterogeneous systems. Once installed and configured, the framework provides a robust foundation for managing TME resources, policies and policy regions.
A resource, or managed resource, as the term is used in the present application, is any hardware or software entity (machine, service, system or facility) that is represented by a database object. Managed resources are subject to a set of rules and must be a supported resource type in a policy region. Managed resources include, but are not limited to, managed nodes, task libraries (a container in which an administrator may create and store tasks and jobs), profiles (a container for application-specific information about a particular type of resource), profile managers (a container that holds profiles and that links a profile to a set of resources, called "subscribers"), monitors (a program that resides in the endpoint (workstation which has the Tivoli Management Agent program running in it), and performs the task of monitoring a resource/program—e.g. disk space, process, memory etc.), bulletin boards (a mechanism to which notices may be posted so that the framework and applications may communicate with the human administrator), workstations, software, and the like.
A policy is a set of rules that is applied to managed resources. A specific rule in a policy is referred to as a policy method. An example of a policy is that all user accounts must have passwords, and password aging must be enabled. These rules may take the form of software, shell scripts, written procedures and guidelines, and the like.
A policy region is a group of managed resources that share one or more common policies. Policy regions are used to model the management and organizational structure of a network computing environment. The policy region contains resource types and a list of resources to be managed.
The TME framework, in its most basic sense, is comprised of one or more Tivoli Management Region (TMR) servers and one or more managed nodes. A TMR server is a server that holds or references a complete set of software, including the full object database, for a Tivoli management region. A Tivoli management region is defined as a Tivoli management region server and its associated managed nodes. The TMR server includes the libraries, binaries, data files, and graphical user interfaces needed to install and manage a TME. The TMR server maintains the TMR server database and coordinates all communications with TME managed nodes. The TMR server also performs all authentication and verification necessary to ensure the security of TME data.
A TME managed node runs the same software that runs on a TMR server. Managed nodes maintain their own databases, which can be accessed by the TMR server. When managed nodes communicate directly with other managed nodes, they perform the same communication and/or security operations performed by the TMR server. The primary difference between a TMR server and a managed node is the size of the database maintained.
One configuration of a TME framework requires a two-tiered approach: TMR servers communicating with managed nodes or personal computer managed nodes. FIG. 1A illustrates such a configuration. As shown in FIG. 1A, a single TMR server 110 manages the resources of managed nodes 120–140 which also manage their own resources. Thus, the TMR server 110 will maintain a database relating to each of the managed nodes 120–140, and the managed nodes 120–140 will maintain a database relating to their own respective resources.
With such a configuration, operations on each client device, or endpoint, of each managed node 120–140 required a call to the TMR server 110 to update information on the server database. For a large installation, this communication load is substantial. Additionally, operating system imposed limits on the number of clients a system can communication with at one time limits the size of a Tivoli Managed Region (TMR) to no more than approximately 200 clients.
In another configuration, as shown in FIG. 1B, a three-tiered approach is taken. In this configuration, a TMR server 150 is coupled to gateways 160 and 170, and a managed node 180. With the reduced number of managed nodes in the TMR, the amount of communication with the TMR server is significantly reduced. Endpoints 175, or clients, do not communicate with the TMR server 150, except during the initial login process. All endpoint 175 communications go through the gateway 170. In most cases, the gateway 170 will provide all of the support an endpoint needs without requiring communication with the TMR server 150. In a smaller workgroup-size installation, the gateway 170 may be created on the TMR server 150.
The TME framework provides the ability to subdivide an enterprise network into multiple TMRs, and then to connect them with either one or two-way connections. Installations composed of managed nodes and personal computer managed nodes often require multiple TMRs for a variety of reasons. Installations using endpoints and endpoint gateways rarely need more than one TMR.
While the Tivoli Management Environment (TME) monitors many aspects of system and network operations, it does not provide a mechanism to monitor itself. Thus, while the TME may be able to handle problems with various components of the systems and networks, errors or failures of the TME itself will not be identified and appropriate corrective action may not be performed until some other dependent component fails. Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an apparatus and method that monitors the health of systems management software components, such as components of the TME, in an enterprise.

Apparatus and method for distributed monitoring of endpoints in a management region

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical assembly of alert light has two optical halves obtained by symmetrically dividing the optical assembly along an optical reference plane. Each optical half has a base with one side corresponding to the optical reference plane and having a junction surface. A light entrance portion and a light exit portion are on two opposite sides of the optical reference plane. The two optical halves are assembled to form the optical assembly of alert light with the junction surfaces of the two optical halves attached to each other. Accordingly, the structural simplification of the divided optical halves facilitates the molding of the optical halves and reduces limitations in manufacturing the optical halves, thereby satisfying the demands of different light form, light projection angles and product shapes in generating diversified alert lights.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical assembly, and, more particularly, to an optical assembly of an alert light.
2. Description of the Related Art
As having the advantages of being compact in size, low-power-consuming, and durable, light-emitting diode (LED) has gradually replaced conventional light bulbs to become one of the major lighting sources, and has been extensively applied to the fields of all sorts of lighting applications and alert lights.
As far as the composition of a conventional LED alert light is concerned, the conventional LED alert light includes an LED module and an optical lens module. Depending on the number of LED in the LED module, the optical lens module is integrally formed with multiple lens units. The lens units are sequentially aligned in the form of a straight line. A light entrance end of each lens unit corresponds to an LED of the LED module to thereby constitute an LED alert light.
Although the conventional LED alert light can be applied to products with alert features, the optical lens module of the conventional LED alert light employs multiple integrally-formed lens units, and under the constraint of forming technique, each lens unit of the optical lens module takes the form of a cone with a cone apex angle approximately at 120 degrees. The conical shape of the lens units makes the integrally-formed optical lens module inflexible for significant changes and hard to adapt to the requirements of different forms of light projection. As a result, conventional alert lights can be designed to provide single-side straight-line light projection but fail to provide arced, wavy or annular light projection in response to the demand of diversified alert lights.


The invention in several embodiments includes an apparatus and a method for predicting whether store instructions can be safely executed out-of-order. The apparatus, includes at least one execution unit, a reorder buffer adapted to holding a plurality of instructions from an instruction sequence for execution by the execution units, and a memory storage device adapted to holding a collision history table. The collision history table has entries for load instructions of the instruction sequence Each of the entries is adapted to predicting when the associated load instruction is colliding.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to processors and computers, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for predicting when a load instruction can be executed out-of order before a prior store instruction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some processors are referred to as out-of-order processors, because these processors do not execute all instructions in the order of the original instruction sequence. A first type of out-of-order processor employs out-of-order execution to improve the performance of a single execution unit, for example to keep the execution unit operating during delays associated with caches retrieving data from the main memory. A second type of processor has multiple execution units and uses out-of-order methods to enhance performance by keeping these execution units operating concurrently much of the time. Flexible instruction execution in out-of-order processors may improve the overall performance.
FIG. 1 illustrates a simple out-of-order processor 2. An instruction fetcher and decoder 4 continually fetches and decodes instructions from a memory 6. The decoded instructions are transferred to a reorder buffer 8 in an order that preserves the original instruction sequence. The reorder buffer 8 is a memory device that is organized like a table. Each occupied entry 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 of the reorder buffer 8 contains an instruction label 16, a memory address or instruction pointer (IP) 18 for the instruction, one or more status bits 20, and a result location 21 for execution results. The reorder buffer 8 has a circular organization with pointers 22, 24 directed to the oldest and newest instructions 14, 9 transferred therein, respectfully. A controller 26 sends instructions from the reorder buffer 8 to execution units 28, 30, 32. The controller 26 checks the status bits 20 of the entries 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 to determine which instructions are unexecuted, i.e. status bits indicate "undone." Then, the controller 26 sends unexecuted instructions 9, 10, 12 to the execution units 28, 30, 32. Preferably, the fetcher and decoder 4 tries to keep the reorder buffer 8 full, and preferably, the controller 26 tries to execute instructions in the reorder buffer 8 as fast as possible by using the possibility of executing instructions out-of-the-order of the original instruction sequence. After an instruction is executed, the controller 26 stores the execution results to the result location 21 associated with the executed instruction 11, 14 and changes the status bit 20 to "done." A retirement unit 34 periodically reads the status bits 20 of the entries 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 of the reorder buffer 16 and retires executed or "done" instructions, 14 by sending the results to memory or registers 36. The retirement unit 34 retires the executed instructions 11, 14 in an order that strictly follows the original instruction sequence.
Referring to FIG. 1, the processor 2 preferably still executes a dependent instruction, e.g., the load entry 11, only after completing the execution of the instruction on which the dependent instruction depends, e.g., the store entry 12. Load instructions, such as the load instruction 9, that load data from an address that is not the address that data is stored to by an earlier store instruction, concurrently in the reorder buffer 8, are independent and may be executed in advance of their position in the instruction order. In the prior art, the retirement unit 34 checked additional status bits 20, indexing dependencies before retiring executed instructions. If the status bits 20 indicated that the dependent instruction was executed before the instruction on which it depended, as illustrated by the load and store entries 11, 12 of FIG. 1, the retirement unit 34 flushed the execution results of the dependent instruction from the reorder buffer 8 and reset the status bits 20 of the dependent instruction for re-execution, i.e. the entry 11 for the load instruction in FIG. 1. These flushes and re-executions slowed processor operation. Of course, not advancing the execution of any instructions out-of-order may also slow the processor by introducing clock periods during which instructions are not executed.
Referring to FIG. 1, the entry 11 for the load instruction cannot be safely executed before the entry 12 for the store instruction, because the store instruction is earlier in the instruction sequence and stores data to the address from which the load instruction loads data. Such store and load instructions are generically known as colliding load and store instructions. Though the entries 11, 12 are clearly colliding at the time illustrated in FIG. 1, the processor 2 often does not know that a generic store instruction will collide with a subsequent load instruction when the controller 26 wants to send the load instruction for execution. In such cases, executing the load instruction first is risky, because the processor may subsequently learn that the load is colliding and have to make a costly flush of the reorder buffer 8. Techniques that predict colliding store instructions may help avoid costly flushes while still allowing the advancement of the execution of load instructions.
The prior art has used deterministic techniques to determine when a store instruction will store data to the same address as a subsequent load instruction, i.e. collide with the load. Software and hardware techniques have enabled advancing the execution of loads before earlier stores when the associated data addresses could be determined with certainty. Nevertheless, experience indicates many other load instructions may be safely executed before earlier stores in the instruction sequence even though the absence of a collision cannot be guaranteed with certainty.
The prior art also contains other techniques for speculative advancement of the execution of load instructions. In speculative advancement, the load instructions are provisionally executed before earlier store instructions when it is probable that the load and store instructions involve different data addresses, i.e. are probably not colliding. In one prior art method, the load instruction is marked provisional after being executed before an earlier store instruction. The method stores a verification instruction at the original data address of the provisionally executed load instruction. The data address is checked for modification before retirement of the load instruction from the reorder buffer 14. Purely hardware devices have also been used to speculatively predict colliding store and load pairs. A load predicted to be colliding is either not advanced before the store member of the pair, or data from the store instruction is forwarded so that the load instruction can be safely executed in advance. The prediction of colliding store and load instruction pairs is complicated and may involve substantial processor resources. Furthermore, these prior art techniques miss some load instructions that can be safely executed earlier, and opportunities for faster processor operation are lost.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

Method and apparatus for predicting when load instructions can be executed out-of order


A matrix switcher which is applied to a switcher system of a broadcasting station, connects a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines at any points, and outputs source video signals to be supplied from desired output lines, more particularly a matrix switcher capable of easily confirming inputs corresponding to the outputs. An operation panel 40 of the switcher system in which a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs are freely connected by switching is provided with cross point buttons 40A for selecting a plurality of inputs, source name display units 40N for displaying the source names being input, delegation buttons 45A selecting a plurality of outputs, and output source name display units 45N displaying the source names to be selected and output. Where the predetermined output is selected in the delegation button 45A, the source name displayed on the output source name display unit 45N is changed to a source name newly selected by the cross point button 40A. By this, all of the source names selected at present at outputs can be directly confirmed at a glance.

As a switcher system for a broadcasting station, a matrix switcher having a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines has been used. This matrix switcher is an apparatus which outputs source video signals supplied to the input lines from the desired output lines by switching cross points at which these input lines and output lines are connected.
Such a matrix switcher is provided with a control panel having a plurality of operation buttons for switching the plurality of cross points. This control panel is also referred to as an operation desk. The operator can freely switch cross points by using the operation buttons on this control panel.
In recent broadcasting stations systems, however, the number of input devices such as video cameras and VTRs connected to one matrix switcher and the number of output devices such as disc recorders and servers have been increasing as a general trend. For example, when assuming that 10 input lines and 10 output lines are provided and taking an increase of the input and output devices into account, this means an existence of 100 cross points. Conventionally, in order to individually switch these 100 cross points, 100 operation buttons have been arranged on the control panel.
However, there is a limit to the surface area on the control panel, and it is difficult to arrange still more buttons than this. Further, in recent broadcasting stations systems, the number of input devices such as video cameras and VTRs connected to one matrix switcher and the number of output devices such as disc recorders and servers have been increasing even more. Accordingly, it can be considered that the number of the cross points will further increase. Arrangement of more than 100 buttons on the control panel has been difficult in terms of space.
Further, on the control panel of a conventional matrix switcher, only a plurality of operation buttons for switching the cross points have been provided. For this reason, in order to recognize from which source device a signal being output from a certain output line is being supplied, the operator has to examine the cross point with the input line set on the output line and further examine the source device connected to that input line. For this reason, it is difficult for the operator to quickly recognize from which source device the signal being output from a certain output line is being supplied. Particularly, in broadcasting stations systems, there are case where the switched video is being broadcast on the air in each home as is, for example, the case of a live broadcast, and a real time property is required at the time of transmission of the video. Therefore there has been a demand for the operation time of the operator to be shortened as much as possible and for errors in the operation to be reduced.


A circuit for interfacing between a digital-television circuit for producing pixel data for television images and a computer graphics display permits rapid scaling and positioning of live television images on the graphics display. In a preferred embodiment, the digital-television/computer-graphics interface circuit of the invention includes memory for storing a horizontal-scaling bit pattern and a vertical-scaling bit pattern. Such a preferred interface circuit is adapted to receive digital-television pixel data from the digital television circuit and, on a pixel-by-pixel basis depending on the state of corresponding bits in the horizontal-scaling bit pattern, to skip the pixel in the case of image contraction and to replicate the pixel in the case of image expansion. The preferred interface circuit is also adapted to receive digital-television pixel data on a television-line by television-line basis and, depending on the state of a corresponding bit of the vertical-scaling bit pattern, to skip the entire line of pixel data in the case of image contraction or to replicate the line in the case of image expansion. The interface circuit may include a hardware vector generator for generating scaling bit patterns in accordance with a procedure analogous to a vector-drawing procedure used in graphics displays, such as the "Bresenham procedure."

Displaying a television image on a graphics screen generally requires a television signal defining the image to be digitally sampled and stored in a digital memory referred to as a frame buffer. Sampling and storage permits a time base of the television-image signal to be corrected - including, if necessary, a time compression of the television-image in order to show both television images and graphics images on the same screen. If it is desired to position a television image in an arbitrary window of the graphics screen, it will ordinarily be necessary to scale the dimensions of the television image down or up in the process of sampling. For some applications, it may be desirable that the image itself not be a full-screen image, but to be an arbitrary window located within the full-screen image.
FIG. 1 shows the mapping of a television source window 2 designated Ws into a high-resolution display-screen destination window 4 designated Wd. The following additional designations are used in FIG. 1: Ls--the number of lines in the full-screen television image; Ps--the number of samples representing an active part of the full-length television line; Xs,Ys--the width and height, respectively, of the television window measured in number of pixels and lines; xs and ys--coordinates of a pixel in the television window, relative to the upper left corner of this window; ps, ls--coordinates of the upper left corner of the television source window relative to the full television screen. Correspondingly, Ld designates the number of lines of the high-resolution destination screen. Pd represents the number of pixels read from the frame buffer and video refreshed during an active line of the high-resolution raster; Xd and Yd represent the length and height, respectively, of the destination window in the high resolution display where the television source window is to be mapped; xd, yd--coordinates of a pixel inside the destination window; pd, ld--coordinates of the upper left corner of the destination window relative to the upper left corner of the high-resolution display screen. For displaying a television image on a graphics screen, several features are desirable:
The full-size television screen image should correspond to the high-resolution display screen in terms of number of pixels per line and number of lines.
The sampling process should preserve a correct format ratio of image height to width. In other words, an object shape should not be distorted in the sampling process. For example, a circle should not become an oval.
It is advantageous to be able to select the ratio of height of the television source window to the height of the graphics-display destination window to be any desired rational number. Similarly, it is advantageous to be able to select the ratio of the width of the television source window to the width of the graphics-display destination window to be any desired rational number. Moreover, the selection of the two transformation ratios should be mutually independent. This provides for the mapping of an arbitrarily-chosen rectangular television window into any arbitrary rectangular graphics-display window.
The existing approaches attempting to satisfy the requirements set forth above involve an analog-scaling technique or a pixel-interpolation technique, both of which typically require bulky and expensive hardware.
The analog-scaling technique generally requires that sampling frequencies be manipulated or that the frequency of a video refresh clock be changed Neither of these two frequency-adjustment methods works well in vertical direction. Moreover, they typically provide only a restricted set of transformation ratios.
The pixel-interpolation hardware must be fast enough to satisfy live video-image sampling requirements. Moveover, the interpolation must be done on pixels of three colors (red, green and blue) in parallel. Consequently, interpolation hardware for color television is tripled in comparison with interpolation hardware for monochrome television images. In addition, the standard television coding schemes,--NTSC (USA, Japan),
(Germany, England), or SECAM (France, U.S.S.R)--are all based not on red/green/blue ("RGB") color video representation, but on luminance/chrominance ("Y/C") color video representation. Luminance/chrominance representation allows the video composite signal to take about half the bandwidth--each separately--than the bandwidth required for transmission of three signals encoding one of the three primary colors. Similarly, storage of digitized luminance/chrominance signals requires about half the memory than is required for storing digitized signals representing three primary colors.
For the reasons noted above, conventional analog-scaling methods and pixel-interpolation methods are principally limited to still-image capture systems, or to display of monochrome television images, or to television images of substantially reduced size and with substantially reduced frame-refresh frequency.
In general conventional analog scaling and interpolation techniques are too expensive to be used for displaying live television images on the graphics displays of low and medium cost workstations.
A recently-introduced digital-television technique is based on the luminance/chrominance representation of color television images for decoding, processing and storage. Depending on the television standard, the digital-television technique uses only one or two fixed standard sampling frequencies to provide digital processing of a television image, including digital decoding and brightness and hue control. The sampling frequency is chosen in view of certain characteristics of the television signal. In particular, the sampling frequency is fixed and is defined by reference to a multiple of the color subcarrier frequency in order to simplify the decoding and control of the color television signal. For example, one digital-television technique, referred to as the "ITT Intermetall" system uses a sampling frequency of 14.32 MHz which is four times the NTSC subcarrier frequency of 3.58 Mhz. In the ITT Intermetall system, each active television line is represented by 760 samples of luminance information and 380 samples of chrominance information. Each sample of luminanace is represented by 8 bits and each sample of chrominance is represented by 8 bits. The data structure is illustrated in FIG. 2. Chrominance C consists of two components, respectively designated "R-Y" and "B-Y." With digital data representing each of the three components luminance Y, R-Y chrominance and B-Y chrominance available, data representing the red R, green G and blue B primary colors may be derived according to certain rules. The ITT Intermetall procedure also includes a time-multiplexing technique to represent the luminance and chrominance information as 12-bit samples.
A second digital television technique is designated "CCIR 601" or the "4:2:2 standard." The digital-television system uses a sampling frequency of 13.5 Mhz which is approximately a multiple of horizontal frequency used in the SECAM or PAL color television system, namely 625 lines per frame, 50 frames per second, and a multiple of the horizontal frequency used in the NTSC color television system, namely 525 lines per frame, 60 frames per second. When using the 4:2:2 standard for sampling of NTSC television images, every active line is represented by 720 samples for luminance and 720 samples for chrominance.
The Philips Company markets integrated circuits for digital television processing which are based on the 13.5-Mhz sampling frequency, but which provide reduced chrominance resolution, as in case of the ITT Intermetall system. A time-multiplexing technique is also used to represent the sampled luminance/chrominance data by 12 bits per sample. For each television line, the Philips circuits provide 720 samples for luminance and 360 samples for chrominance.
There are several problems with adapting one of the conventional digital-television techniques to display television images on high-resolution graphics displays. Two problems arise from the use of a fixed sampling frequency and time multiplexing of luminance/chrominance data.
Use of a fixed sampling frequency precludes the use of the conventional analog-scaling approach to image transformation described above which involves changing the frequency of the sampling clock. Moreover, the time-multiplexed luminance/chrominance data format does not permit the use of the conventional pixel-interpolation technique for color pixels, without first taking additional time-consuming steps to convert the luminance/chrominance data to pixels representing the primary colors. After processing by the pixel-interpolation technique, the resulting pixels, which still represent the primary colors, must be converted back to the original luminance/chrominance format if the data is to be stored most compactly in digital memory.
A serious problem with adapting a conventional digital-television technique for displaying a television image on a high-resolution graphics display is that virtually no conventional graphics display uses the combination of number of pixels per line and number of lines per screen employed in the conventional digital-television schemes. Moreover, digital luminance/chrominance samples from a television line typically have an effective height-to-width ratio of substantially less than one. In contrast, conventional graphics displays, ordinarily have pixels with an effective height-to-width ratio of approximately one; that is, conventional graphics displays have essentially "square" pixels. The difference in effective height-to-width ratios is a consequence of differences in the requirements for the video clock in conventional graphics displays and for the sampling clock in conventional digital-television systems.
More specifically, the frequency of the video clock for a graphics display is generally based on requirements for the resolution of the display screen, relative to a size of a rectangular matrix of pixels displayed on the graphics display. Also, as noted above, the pixel height-to-width ratio is generally equal to essentially one in a graphics display. Use of such a "square" pixel makes it easier to calculate the coordinates of the pixels for representing vectors or polygons to be displayed on the display screen.
The width-to-height ratio of an active display area of a screen--be it a display screen of a graphics display or a television screen--is referred to as the "screen format ratio." Thus, for example, in a conventional graphics display with an effective pixel height-to-width ratio of essentially one and a screen format ratio of four to three, the number of pixels in an active line is equal to 4/3 of a number of active lines. The Video Graphics Adaptor for IBM "PS/2" workstation family has a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, which corresponds to a screen format ratio of 4/3. Another IBM graphics adaptor designated model No. 8514A has a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels, which also corresponds to a 4/3 screen format ratio. The present-day standard television receiver also has a screen format ratio 4 to 3, however, one proposed standard for high-definition television ("HDTV") has a screen format ratio of 16 to 9.
The problems of attempting to adapt conventional digital television techniques to show live television images on a conventional graphics display become even more complicated for window applications.

Color television window for a video display unit

International Business Machines Corporation


An encoder includes an encoder scale having a predetermined cyclic pattern, and at least one detection unit configured to detect a cyclic displacement according to movement of the encoder scale. The encoder further includes a signal elimination unit configured to subtract, from an output signal of the at least one detection unit, one of an entirety of a DC signal component, which is free from dependency on a relative displacement of the encoder scale, and a signal component that is proportional to the DC signal component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an encoder.
2. Description of the Related Art
An encoder is an apparatus that generates a plurality of cyclic signals with different phases. The cyclic signals are supplied to a processing circuit for counting cycles, thereby allowing a direction of progress, a position, a displacement, a velocity of displacement, etc., to be measured. A conventional encoder is disclosed, for instance, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 6-26817.

Encoder having a signal elimination unit


A pair of additional reflectors are disposed face to face under a light source. The reflective surfaces of the respective additional reflectors are formed of paraboloids of revolution, with the first focal point of the reflective surface of a reflector as a focal point, and with an optical axis as the central axis of the revolution. As a result, retroreflective light from both reflectors is incident on the upper reflective region of the reflector. Thus, the spreading of the retroreflective light can be reduced based on the enhanced efficiency of utilizing the luminous flux of the light source, to the extent of the presence of the retroreflective light, as compared with the related art structure, wherein a spherical reflective surface centering on the light source is provided.

This application claims benefit and priority from the following application: Japanese Patent Application No. P2003-008914, filed Jan. 16, 2003, the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle headlamp arranged to emit low beams of light, using a projector type lighting device unit.
2. Background of the Related Art
In the related art, vehicle headlamps for emitting light forward from vehicles use projector type lighting device units. The related art projector type lighting device unit is designed to converge rays of light from a light source disposed on an optical axis extending in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle closer to the optical axis, and to reflect the light forward by means of a reflector. As a result, the reflected light is emitted in the forward direction of a lighting device through a projection lens installed in front of the reflector.
When the projector type lighting device unit is used as a lighting device unit for emitting low beams of light, a shade is provided between the projection lens and the reflector to shield part of rays of the light reflected from the reflector.
In connection with the foregoing related art arrangement, related art JP-Y2-2558801 (Japanese Registered Utility Model Publication Number: 2558801), the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a projector type lighting device unit for emitting low beams of light. The projector type lighting unit includes a shade having a spherical reflective surface centering on a light source formed on the back side of the shade. Additional related art, the contents of which is also incorporated herein by reference, includes JP-A-2002-175709 (Japanese Application Publication Number: 2002-175709), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,467.
In such a related art projector type lighting device unit for emitting low beams of light, most of the light reflected in the lower reflective region of the reflector and directed to the projection lens is shielded by the shade. Therefore, a related art problem arises from low efficiency in utilizing the luminous flux of the light source.
However, as described in the above-identified JP-Y2-2558801 reference, light incident on a spherical reflective surface formed on the back side of the shade from the light source is sent back to the position of the light source, whereby the retroreflective light can be utilized as light incident on the upper reflective region of the reflector.
Since the light source has a fixed size, the retroreflective light from the spherical reflective surface spreads considerably, as compared with direct light from the light source. Therefore, a luminous distribution pattern formed by the retroreflective light reflected in the upper reflective region of the reflector becomes less uniform in the luminous intensity distribution.
Accordingly, the foregoing related art has various problems and disadvantages. For example, but not by way of limitation, light distribution control utilizing the retroreflective light is performs extremely poorly.


Packet round trip times (RTT) within a communication network are measured and from those measurements information regarding congestion conditions within the network is extracted. The RTT measurements are organized into an invariant distribution (a histogram) and an analytical tool which is designed to reveal periodicity information (such as a Fourier or wavelet transform, etc.) is applied to the distribution to obtain a period plot. From this period plot, bandwidth information (indicative of the congestion conditions and/or link capacities within the network) can be obtained.

Many communication networks, such as the Internet, rely on packet switching technologies (e.g., X.25, frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode, etc.) to transport variable or uniform blocks (usually termed packets or cells) of data between nodes. The term packet will be used herein to collectively refer to any such block of information. Such networks generally perform two major functions: routing and congestion control. The object of routing is to deliver, correctly and sometimes in sequence, the packets from a source to a destination. The object of congestion control is to maintain the number of packets within the network (or a region or sub-network thereof) below a level at which queuing delays become excessive. Due to finite resources, packets may be dropped rather than queued.
In essence, a packet switched network is a network of queues communicatively coupled together by communication links (which may be made up of various physical media). At each network node (e.g., a switch or router), there exist one or more queues of packets for each outgoing link. If the rate at which packets arrive and queue up exceeds the rate at which packets are transmitted, queue size grows without bound and the delay experienced by a packet tends towards infinity.
In an ideal case, network throughput, and hence network use, should increase to an offered load up to the physical capacity of the network and remain at capacity if the load is further increased. This ideal case, however, requires that all nodes somehow know the timing and rate of packets that will be presented to the network with no overload and no delay in acquiring this information; a situation which is not possible. If no congestion control is exercised, as the load increases, use increases for a while. Then, as the queue lengths at various nodes begin to grow, throughput actually drops. This is due to the fact that the queues are constrained to a finite length by the physical size of the memories in which they exist. When a node's memory (i.e., its queues) is full, it must drop (i.e., discard) additional incoming packets. Thus, the source is forced to retransmit these packets in addition to any new packets it might have. This only serves to worsen the situation. As more and more packets are retransmitted, the load on the network grows and more and more nodes become saturated. Eventually, even a successfully delivered packet may be retransmitted because it takes so long to get to its destination (whereupon it may be acknowledged by the destination node) that the source actually assumes that the packet was lost and tries to retransmit it. Under such circumstances, the effective capacity of the network can be virtually zero.
Contrary to what one might believe, the solution to this problem is not simply to allow the queue lengths to grow indefinitely. Indeed, it has been shown that even where queue lengths are allowed to be infinite, congestion can occur. See, e.g., John Nagle, "On Packet Switches with Infinite Storage", Network Working Group, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 970 (1985). One reason that this is true is that packets are often coded with an upper bound on their life, thus causing expired packets to be dropped and retransmitted, adding to the already overwhelming volume of traffic within the network.
It is clear that catastrophic network failures due to congestion should (indeed, must) be avoided and preventing such failures is the task of congestion control processes within packet switched networks. To date, however, the object of such congestion control processes has been to limit queue lengths at the various network nodes so as to avoid throughput collapse. Such non-TCP techniques require the transmission of some control information between the nodes and this overhead itself tends to limit the available network bandwidth for data traffic. Nevertheless, a good congestion control process maintains a throughput that differs from a theoretical ideal by an amount roughly equal to its control overhead.
Even these "good" congestion control processes, however, are not good enough. Studies of traffic flow across the Internet show that bandwidth of the various communication links is underutilized even in the presence of congestion. That is, even though excess capacity exists on the communication links that couple various nodes of the Internet to one another, packets are still being dropped within the network. One reason that conventional congestion control processes have failed in this fashion is that such processes do not take into account the true nature of network traffic.
Existing congestion control approaches have generally viewed network traffic (e.g., the generation of new packets to be injected into a network) as essentially random processes. However, recent work in the area of traffic modeling has shown that network traffic is in fact chaotic in nature. None of the currently proposed congestion control methodologies capture or exploit this characteristic.
Other studies from the academic community have shown that the time series of network traffic throughput is not Poisson, but fractal. Namely, the "bursty" behavior seen in a time series at a given time scale is also seen at all other time scales. This "self-similarity" is one of the signatures that characterize a fractal time series. However, as explained in the above-referenced co-pending application, the present applicants have discovered that this "self-similar" signature is not present for heavily congested network traffic. Instead, the present applicants have verified that the traffic generated without any TCP protocol exhibits a fractal time series if the files transmitted are drawn randomly from a Pareto distribution of file sizes. The Fourier power spectrum in this case is a power law that on a log—log scale is linear, as shown in FIG. 1. This power law behavior is another signature of a fractal time series. The present applicants have also discovered that traffic flow with TCP protocol is also fractal, but only if the network topology is under-supplied with traffic. In this situation, the only significant portion of the TCP protocol responsible for the traffic dynamics is the receiver's window size. See FIG. 2. However, when the network topology is congested with traffic, the packet losses coupled with the non-linearity of the TCP congestion avoidance algorithm results in a time series that loses its fractality and multi-fractality. The corresponding Fourier power spectrum shows no power law behavior and is shown in FIG. 3. Even though the time series is not fractal, it is still chaotic.
The term "chaos" is used to describe the apparently random behavior exhibited by many deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems. Such systems manifest a rather remarkable phenomenon in that their deterministic property implies that all future states are determined from the present state. Thus, on one hand there is complete future knowledge of the system, while on the other there is seemingly random motion.
Chaos then is the long-term aperiodic behavior of a deterministic, nonlinear, dynamical system that exhibits sensitivity to initial conditions. Aperiodicity is the property that orbits never repeat themselves exactly; however they may get arbitrarily close to doing so, as observed in periodic windows. The other, perhaps more important, property is the sensitivity of the system to tiny perturbations. Consider two given points in phase space that are distinct but lie arbitrarily close to each other, then one might assume that their orbits will remain close forever. In fact, just the opposite is observed; the orbits separate exponentially in a bounded region of state space.
As indicated above, current congestion control processes simply do not take the chaotic network traffic characteristics into account and, therefore, cannot be expected to be optimum solutions to the congestion problem. To understand why network traffic is chaotic in nature, consider the Internet infrastructure and a series of packet transmissions between a source and a receiver within the Internet.
The Internet infrastructure is complex, with many interconnections between routers. For a given router, there are both incoming connections from various sources and outgoing connections to various receivers. For the most part, the transmissions are controlled using the well-known transmission control protocol (TCP). Very early in the development of the modern Internet, it was discovered that some control over the manner in which packets were injected into the network by the source was needed.
Originally, TCP allowed a source to inject multiple packets into a network, up to a limit corresponding to a window or buffer size advertised by the receiver. Although such a scheme may work where the source and the receiver are connected to the same local area network, it was soon found that where routers having finite buffer sizes are disposed between the source and the receiver, problems arise as these routers soon run out of space to hold the incoming packets. To combat this problem Jacobson and Karels developed a "slow start" procedure wherein the source limits the rate at which it injects new packets into the network according to the rate at which acknowledgements of successful receptions are returned by the receiver. Van Jacobson and Michael J. Karels, "Congestion Avoidance and Control", Proceedings of SIGCOMM '88 (Stanford, Calif., August 1988), ACM.
Under the slow start procedure, a so-called congestion window is added to the source's TCP implementation. When a connection is established with a resource on another network, this congestion window is initialized to one segment (e.g., the segment or packet size advertised by the resource or a default packet size). Each time an acknowledgement is received, the congestion window is incremented and the source is allowed to inject a number of packets up to the minimum of the current congestion window size or the receiver's advertised window. Over time, the source's congestion window will grow exponentially until at some point the capacity of the intervening network is reached and some intermediate router begins dropping packets. This is an indication to the source that its congestion window has gotten too large. See, e.g., W. Richard Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1: The Protocols (1994) and Gary W. Wright and W. Richard Stevens, TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 2: The Implementation (1995).
At this point, and where the slow start process is run in concert with a conventional congestion avoidance procedure, the source resets its congestion window to one, and the process repeats up to the point at which the congestion window becomes half the size at which packet loss occurred previously. After this point, the congestion avoidance process takes over and begins incrementing the congestion window in a linear fashion (rather than in an exponential fashion as under the slow start process) in response to receiver acknowledgements.
This sudden change from an exponentially growing number of packets being injected to a linearly growing number of packets being injected presents a discontinuity. Such discontinuities are observed at the intervening router for each of the connections it is servicing. Moreover, the discontinuities appear at random as there is no synchronization between the different sources injecting packets into the network. It is the interaction between the discontinuities that result from the operation of the TCP and the randomness at which they are manifest at the routers within the network that gives rise to the chaotic nature of network (e.g., Internet) traffic.
In such a system it would seem that there is little or no ability to estimate congestion conditions, especially congestion conditions downstream of a point of interest. Nevertheless, in order to control congestion, the ability to accurately make such estimates is critical. The present invention addresses these needs.

Method for determining network congestion and link capacities


Provided is an injection nozzle and a molding apparatus which ensure injection pressure by suppressing resin leakage even when a resin material having a low viscosity is used. In injection molding, it is especially important that the injection nozzle and a fixed die are excellently kept in contact with each other and that the resin is not leaked. Resin leakage from between the injection nozzle and the fixed die lowers molding pressure, increases molding shrinkage of the resin, and directly affects the qualities of a molded product resulting in generation of a sink, transfer failure and the like. Since an O-ring in a circumferential groove of the nozzle closely comes in contact with a concave spherical surface while elastically transforming on the entire circumference, leakage is effectively suppressed even the resin is a heat-curable resin having a low viscosity.

A molding apparatus capable of injection molding of high-precision optical elements using a resin material is known. In the general molding apparatus, as shown in Patent Literature 1, a movable die is mounted on a movable side die plate, and pressure is applied to it against the fixed die mounted on a fixed die plate. Then, an injection nozzle is made closely come in contact with the outside of the fixed die, and resin is injected into the cavity of the die through the nozzle hole of the injection nozzle and the sprue of the fixed die, whereby the resin is solidified, and a molded product is obtained.    Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-272558


An electrode assembly for an arc tube which is free from the difficulty that tearing of a foil occurs in pinch-sealing the arc tube. One end portion of an electrode bar is overlapped with a molybdenum foil, and the electrode bar is connected to the molybdenum foil by spot-welding the overlapped portions of the two members, except for the tip end part of the end portion of the electrode bar, whereby the molybdenum foil is prevented from being damaged by the rectangular corner of the end portion of the electrode bar.

The present invention relates to an electrode assembly which is sealingly fitted in an arc tube forming a light source of a discharge lamp unit. More particularly, the invention relates to an electrode assembly for an arc tube in which a molybdenum foil is connected to an electrode bar by spot welding, and to a method for manufacturing the electrode assembly.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an arc tube. The arc tube 1 includes a pair of electrode assemblies 3 inserted into a glass tube, the latter being sealed at both ends to form pinch-seal portions 2b which sealingly fix the electrode assemblies 3, and a closed glass ball 2b between the pinch-seal portions 3. The electrode assemblies 3 have respective electrode bars 5 which protrude into the glass ball 2b, and lead wires 6 which extend to the outside from the respective pinch-seal portion 2a. More specifically, each of the electrode assemblies 3, as shown in FIG. 5, includes an elongated molybdenum foil 4. The electrode bar 5 is welded to one end of the molybdenum foil 4, and the lead wire 6 is welded to the other end of the molybdenum foil 4. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 8 designates spot-welded regions of the electrode assembly.
In manufacturing the electrode assembly 3, as shown in FIG. 7, the molybdenum foil 4 and the electrode bar 5 are overlapped with each other, and then spot-welded with the overlapped portions 7 clamped with spot-welding electrodes 8aand 8b. In general, the electrode bar is made of tungsten, and therefore its weldability with the molybdenum foil is not high. Hence, the welding operation is carried out with the electrode bar 5 and the molybdenum foil 4 pressed against each other. As a result, sometimes the soft molybdenum foil 4 is scratched by the rectangular corner 5a.sub.1 of the end portion 5a of the electrode bar 5, and thus it can be cracked. Since the electrode bar 5 is formed by cutting a belt-shaped electrode bar material into a predetermined length, the electrode bar 5 may have burrs at the end 5a.sub.1, or acute-angled cut ends. In such a case, the above-described difficulty in the manufacture of the electrode assembly is especially prevalent. If the molybdenum foil 4 is cracked, then, in the pinch-sealing step employed in manufacturing the arc tube, the molybdenum foil may tear, as shown in FIG. 8.

Arc tube electrode assembly and method for manufacturing same


A method for controlling a printing apparatus includes printing, via a printing unit, an image on a sheet according to image data to generating one copy of printed product, conveying, among one set of a plurality of index sheets, a number of index sheets designated by a user, to add the designated number of sheets to the one copy of printed product generated by the printing unit, conveying, after conveying sheets corresponding to the one copy of printed product, remaining index sheets among the set of a plurality of index sheets to discharge the remaining index sheets, and conveying the index sheets to be added to the one copy of printed product at a first conveyance speed, and conveying the remaining index sheets at a second conveyance speed that is higher than the first conveyance speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a control method for a printing apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a printing apparatus which, in response to a demand from the printing market, is capable of handling various paper types. Such paper types include plain paper, recycled paper, and thin paper. Further, the paper types include color paper, heavy paper, coated paper, bond paper, overhead projector (OHP) sheet, labeling sheet, postcard, tab sheet, and punched sheet. Each paper type is characteristic in grammage (i.e., weight), shape, and surface texture. It is thus necessary for the printing apparatus to perform printing of images appropriate for each paper type.
In general, the printing apparatus performs image printing which is appropriate for such different conditions by switching and controlling an image forming speed and a paper conveyance speed for each paper type. In the case of printing on plain paper, the printing apparatus employs a predetermined speed (hereinafter referred to as a unit speed), and in the case of printing on heavy paper or tab sheets, the printing apparatus employs a speed that is half the speed for printing on plain paper (hereinafter referred to as a ½ speed). Further, in the case of printing on paper of greater grammage (i.e. heavier paper), the printing apparatus switches to a speed that is ⅓ of the speed for printing on plain paper (hereinafter referred to as a ⅓ speed).
A user specifies the above-described settings using a user interface, on which the user registers the paper type for each paper feed stage in the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus thus operates according to the paper type registered by the user. It is necessary for the printing apparatus to perform control accordingly to maintain image quality. However, it is disadvantageous in terms of productivity when the printing apparatus prints at a slow speed so that processing time becomes longer for such paper type.
The user can register the paper type for each paper feed stage assuming that the printing apparatus forms an image on the registered type of paper. However, depending on an operation mode designated by the user, there are cases where no image is formed on the paper. The operation modes include one-sided/two-sided setting, a color mode (i.e., monochrome or color) setting, a reduction layout setting, a front-cover/inserted-sheet/back-cover setting, and a tab sheet setting, which are set for each job. Further, there are settings such as automatic discharge of surplus tab sheets (hereinafter referred to as discharge of remaining tab sheets), and a partition setting, which are set to the printing apparatus instead for each job. If the user specifies such a setting on the printing apparatus, the setting is applied to all jobs.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-248672 discusses realizing a function for automatically discharging the remaining tab sheets when a plurality of types of tab sheets is used. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-222794 discusses discharging the remaining tab sheets when a job is interrupted. Since the remaining tab sheet discharge function is for discharging the surplus tab sheets, any images are not formed on the tab sheets.
In a conventional printing apparatus, sheets are simply conveyed at a speed corresponding to the paper type set in the paper feed stage even in the case where the printing apparatus is not to form an image on the sheets. In such a case, time may be unnecessarily consumed. More specifically, when the printing apparatus performs the remaining tab sheet discharge function, the printing apparatus automatically discharges, after printing a document, a number of sheets as the surplus tab sheets as follows. The printing apparatus automatically discharges a number of sheets corresponding to a difference between a number of tab sheets to be inserted in a printed product and a number of divisions on the tab sheets set in the paper feed stage. The printing apparatus then acquires a set of tab sheets to be used in printing a subsequent document.
The printing apparatus may print an image on the tab sheet to be inserted in the document. Since a thickness of the tab sheet is greater than that of plain paper, it is desirable for the printing apparatus to control the image forming speed and the paper conveyance speed of the tab sheet to be slower, such as at the ½ speed. In the case of performing the remaining tab sheet discharge function, the printing apparatus only discharges the surplus sheets, so that it is not necessary to convey the sheet at the ½ speed, which is time-consuming. However, even in such a case, the printing apparatus performs control to convey the tab sheets at a slower speed as compared to the normal speed.

Printing apparatus, control method for printing apparatus, and storage medium


A method for transferring desired digital video or audio signals. The method comprises the steps of forming a connection through telecommunications lines between a first memory of a first party and a second memory of a second party. The first memory has the desired digital video or audio signals. Then, there is the step of selling electronically by the first party to the second party through telecommunications lines, the desired digital video or audio signals in the first memory. Then, there is the step of transferring the desired digital video or audio signals from the first memory of the first party to the second memory of the second party through the telecommunications lines while the second memory is in possession and control of the second party. Additionally, there is a system for transferring digital video or audio signals.

The three basic mediums (hardware units) of music: records, tapes, and compact discs, greatly restricts the transferability of music and results in a variety of inefficiencies.
CAPACITY: The individual hardware units as cited above are limited as to the amount of music that can be stored on each.
MATERIALS: The materials used to manufacture the hardware units are subject to damage and deterioration during normal operations, handling, and exposure to the elements.
SIZE: The physical size of the hardware units imposes constraints on the quantity of hardware units which can be housed for playback in confined areas such as in automobiles, boats, planes, etc.
RETRIEVAL: Hardware units limit the ability to play, in a sequence selected by the user, songs from different albums. For example, if the user wants to play one song from ten different albums, the user would spend an inordinate amount of time handling, sorting, and cueing the ten different hardware units.
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION: Prior to final purchase, hardware units need to be physically transferred from the manufacturing facility to the wholesale warehouse to the retail warehouse to the retail outlet, resulting in lengthy lag time between music creation and music marketing, as well as incurring unnecessary and inefficient transfer and handling costs. Additionally, tooling costs required for mass production of the hardware units and the material cost of the hardware units themselves, further drives up the cost of music to the end user.
QUALITY: Until the recent invention of Digital Audio Music, as used on Compact Discs, distortion free transfer from the hardware units to the stereo system was virtually impossible. Digital Audio Music is simply music converted into a very basic computer language known as binary. A series of commands known as zeros or ones encode the music for future playback. Use of laser retrieval of the binary commands results in distortion free transfer of the music from the compact disc to the stereo system. Quality Digital Audio Music is defined as the binary structure of the Digital Audio Music. Conventional analog tape recording of Digital Audio Music is not to be considered quality inasmuch as the binary structure itself is not recorded. While Digital Audio Music on compact discs is a technological breakthrough in audio quality, the method by which the music is sold, distributed, stored, manipulated, retrieved, played and protected from copyright infringements remains as inefficient as with records and tapes.
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION: Since the invention of tape recording devices, strict control and enforcement of copyright laws have proved difficult and impossible with home recorders. Additionally, the recent invention of Digital Audio Tape Recorders now jeopardizes the electronic copyright protection of quality Digital Audio Music on Compact Discs or Digital Audio Tapes. If music exists on hardware units, it can be copied.
Thus, as is apparent from the above discussion, the inflexible form in which the songs are purchased by an end user, and the distribution channels of the songs, requires the end user to go to a location to purchase the songs, and not necessarily be able to purchase only the songs desired to be heard, in a sequence the end user would like to hear them. This is not limited to just songs, but also includes, for example, videos.
Accordingly, it is an objective of this invention is to provide a new and improved methodology/system to electronically sell and distribute Digital Audio Music or digital video.
A further objective of this invention to provide a new and improved methodology/system to electronically store and retrieve Digital Audio Music or digital video.
Another objective of this invention is to provide a new and improved methodology/system to electronically manipulate, i.e., sort, cue, and select, Digital Audio Music or digital video for playback.
Still another objective of this invention is to offer a new and improved methodology/system which can prevent unauthorized electronic copying of quality Digital Audio Music or digital video.

System and method for transmitting desired digital video or digital audio signals


Provided is a technique capable of improving isolation characteristics between a plurality of signal paths through which RF signals pass, without using ground electrodes or the like. Wiring electrodes 10a and 20a through which RF signals do not pass simultaneously are formed so as to be adjacent to each other in a central region of a component mounting surface 2a of a circuit board 2, and wiring electrodes 11a and 21a through which RF signals pass simultaneously are formed so as to be distanced from transmission paths 10 and 20. Accordingly, the RF signals do not simultaneously pass through the transmission paths 10 and 20, which are disposed near each other, and thus there is no risk that the RF signal passing through one of the signal paths will interfere with the RF signal passing through the other signal path.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to composite modules including circuit boards on which a plurality of communication systems that communicate using the respective predetermined frequency bands are provided.
Description of the Related Art
Cellular phone terminals configured to be capable of communicating through a plurality of communication standards, such as GSM® (Global System for Mobile Communications), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), PCS (Personal Communications Service), and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), are being provided in recent years. Recently, mobile information terminals such as laptop computers, smartphones, and so on are also being configured to be capable of communicating through a plurality of wireless LAN standards, as typified by IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n or the like. A mobile communication terminal such as a cellular phone terminal or a mobile information terminal that is compliant with a plurality of communication standards in this manner includes a composite module having a circuit board in which a plurality of communication systems, which communicate using the respective predetermined frequency bands defined by those standards, are provided.
A demultiplexing circuit, a switching circuit, and the like for supplying a communication signal (RF signal), which is in a predetermined frequency band inputted from the exterior, to the communication system corresponding to that RF signal, an amplifying circuit such as a power amplifier (PA), a low-noise amplifier (LNA), and the like for amplifying signals inputted from the exterior, signals outputted to the exterior, and so on, are provided on the circuit board of a composite module in which a plurality of communication systems are provided. Meanwhile, mobile communication terminals are becoming smaller in size, and as such, the high-frequency circuit components installed in mobile communication terminals, such as those described above, are also becoming smaller and more highly integrated. Furthermore, the high-frequency circuit components of which each communication system is configured are disposed in close proximity on the circuit board, wiring electrodes that connect the high-frequency circuits provided in each communication system and form signal paths for the RF signals are disposed in close proximity, and so on.
Due to such proximate disposal, there is a risk that the isolation characteristics between the communication systems and the high-frequency circuits will degrade. There is a further risk that the RF signal amplified by the amplifying circuit entering an antenna switching circuit, which includes a demultiplexing circuit, a low-pass filter, and the like, will result in signal loss in the demultiplexing circuit, the antenna switching circuit, and so on, and that the RF signal flowing through the antenna switching circuit entering the amplifying circuit will cause the amplifying circuit to oscillate and become unstable. There has also been a risk that the RF signals in the respective communication systems will interfere with each other and degrade the communication quality in the communication systems.
Accordingly, thus far, a plurality of through-hole electrodes connected to ground electrodes have been provided in locations, of the circuit board on which the composite module is provided, where superior isolation characteristics are required, such as between the respective communication systems, the respective high-frequency circuits, and the respective wiring electrodes that form signal paths through which RF signals pass, in order to prevent the isolation characteristics from degrading between the respective communication systems, the respective high-frequency circuits, and the respective signal paths (see Patent Document 1, for example). For example, a conventional composite module 500 shown in FIG. 4 includes a circuit board 501 within which a plurality of wiring electrodes are provided and a plurality of electrical components 502 mounted on a component mounting surface 501a of the circuit board 501; here, wiring electrodes that configure an amplifying circuit are formed on a left-side region of the circuit board 501, and wiring electrodes that configure a switching circuit are formed on a right-side region of the circuit board 501.
Furthermore, a shield electrode 503 is provided on the component mounting surface 501a of the circuit board 501, at a border between the left-side region in which the amplifying circuit is provided and the right-side region in which the switching circuit is provided, and a plurality of through-hole electrodes 504 that are connected to the shield electrode 503 and that are formed in the layering direction of the circuit board 501 are provided in tandem along the depth direction in FIG. 4. By connecting the through-hole electrodes 504 to a plurality of ground electrodes 505 provided within the circuit board 501, the RF signals are suppressed from interfering with each other between the amplifying circuit provided in the left-side region of the circuit board 501 and the switching circuit provided in the right-side region of the circuit board 501.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-151123 (paragraph 0043, FIG. 4, abstract, etc.)