An improved system and method of automating the integration of different Energy Management Systems (EMS) electrical power grid databases into a single power grid database. This method imports proprietary EMS raw data from various vendors' formats into a Common Information Model (CIM) with specific connectivity extensions and produces an electrically connected power systems database that can be viewed or edited. Direct network topology conversion from one EMS vendor data format to another is also supported. Two generated databases can then be selectively integrated and maintained to produce a fully populated network topology without disclosing EMS vendor specific proprietary information. The new, possibly larger, database can then be added to yet another database that is similarly processed.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the sending and receiving of electrical system data between different Energy Management Systems (EMS). Currently, there are approximately one dozen large EMS vendors and many small vendors. Each EMS vendor data format is inherently incompatible with any other EMS data format. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automated system and method to integrate, convert and maintain power grid information from various EMS vendors' data formats into a single electrically-connected database.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The electric power industry has long enjoyed a regulated monopoly over the generation and transmission of electrical power and can influence service, policy and pricing to the consumers within their specific geographical area. Electrical power transfers are based on detailed network models encompassing only a specific geographical area with significantly less detailed network models of the surrounding area. Transferring power outside of the limited geographical area containing detailed electrical network models is problematical simply because of the lack of a unified network model. Consequently, such electrical power transfers are very limited in their range and frequency.
As a result of recent changes in Federal and State regulations, electric utilities are transitioning to a competitive market. The impact of competition is driving the market to seek out low cost energy producers and create a larger commodity market for electric power. Consequently, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has mandated change through the issuance of Orders 888 and 889 (dated Apr. 24, 1996) and Order 2000 (dated March 2000) to encourage wholesale competition. Order 888 requires utilities to provide all power producers open access to the Transmission Grid and Order 889 requires utilities to establish electronic systems to share information about available transmission capacity. Order 2000 requires the creation of a Market-Reliability System to be implemented to ensure the reliability of the grid and provide non-discriminatory transmission access by 2005.
Accurately calculating the capacity of the transmission system and efficiently managing congestion on the system requires that much larger detailed models of the network must be constructed that spans entire regions rather than one utility area. These models are the foundation upon which grid facility status and changes are monitored, risks managed and power transfers scheduled. Without this fundamental model information (which does not exist), grid reliability and security is at risk and dependable market trading is impaired. Keeping models up to date will become an even more demanding task when the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) policy on exchange of real-time network data is deployed on Sep. 1, 2001. Compliance with this policy will require automated model updating processes.
The operation (generation, transmission and distribution) of electrical power facilities employ a proprietary Energy Management System (EMS) that is tightly coupled to a particular operating system, computer manufacturer and a specific version of the associated application program(s). Examples of EMS vendors and application programs include the following: GE/Harris, ALSTOM, ESCA, Siemens, ABB, Open Systems International (OSI), TeleGyr, Power Technologies (PSS/O) and Power Computer Applications (PCA). The nature of the various EMS vendors is to closely guard their proprietary secrets of operation, which includes the format of their data. The present state of the art is such that sending or receiving electrical power data and models from different EMS vendors is difficult at best to perform without significant advance notice. Minimal transactions between different EMS formats are typical due to the time required to translate the data formats from one EMS vendor's format to another.
The lack of a detailed power system network topology when spanning two or more EMS vendor data formats can result in electrical power scheduling failures. Consider the network topology for these three bordering companies: company A, company B, and company C. Company A has topological connections only to company B. Company B has topological connections only to company C. When company A schedules a power transfer to company C, company B does not know about the power transfer although the actual wires are in the company B area. The scheduling error occurs when company B attempts to send power through the same lines that are already in use by companies A and C. This case is not rare, but is risky since company B does not model A or C to determine the effect of the transfer in company B.
Generally, at least 24 hours advance notice is required by any given EMS vendor to send or receive electrical power to a different EMS due to the problems associated with scheduling dynamic balancing between the generation capacity and demand load for a given time interval starting from different data formats. This time period can be a significant limiting factor in the case of an unpredictable emergency caused by natural phenomena such as a hurricane or unusually high temperatures during the summer months.
The problem of sharing data between different EMS vendors in a timely fashion has been partly addressed in the development of a standard exchange model known as the Common Information Model (CIM) sponsored by the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI). The CIM is an abstract model that represents all of the major objects typically contained in an EMS power model. A typical EMS data format will contain power system resources such as the following: companies, divisions, substations, transformers, generators, busbars, A/C lines, D/C Lines, capacitor banks, reactor banks, energy consumers (loads), breakers, switches, conductors, connectivity nodes, fuses, jumpers and grounds at various voltage levels.
The current CIM was based on U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,982 to Nuttall et al. Feb. 18, 1997. This patent relies on a single source information model that separates the data format and relationships through the use of surrogate keys as described on page 11 of the above patent. Changing a surrogate key would make all objects associated with the key change. The primary concern was to allow various programs access to a single data source. The primary concern here is with network models and building a single network model database from raw data of various formats. There is a lack of instruction on how to convert various data formats into the CIM structure and further a lack of instruction on how to merge data from multiple CIM compliant databases. Nuttall et al. does teach how to construct a discrete hierarchical relationship based on physical quantification. However, these relationships have inherent limitations that must be expanded in order to produce and maintain composite network models as described herein.
Significant effort is required to convert the various EMS data formats into the CIM structure due in part because of the different terminology used in each EMS to describe the same physical equipment. A database capable of recalling specific power systems equipment requires significant programming effort simply because of the vast amount of equipment involved and the numerous types of equipment to be classified. The various EMS vendors differ in their internal data format and the relationships between the various elements or equipment. The actual migration of raw EMS extracted data (in their proprietary formats) into the CIM structure requires computer programming skills and specific electrical power modeling knowledge.
When an EMS vendor converts their internal data format to the same CIM structure, the geographically bordering EMS must also convert their data to the CIM structure. Electrical power transfers are generally limited to about 1000 miles due to the degradation of electrical flow though the wires. This distance could span multiple EMS data formats. Typically, power transfers occur mainly on bordering EMS vendors; however, with open access it may become more common that three or more different EMS vendor data formats are involved in any given electrical power flow transaction.
The data contained in the CIM structure from two or more different EMS data types must be integrated into a single power grid model to properly analyze a power transfer request. The process of integrating two or more power grid databases is not included in the CIM specification. Combining these models currently requires extensive manual effort to ensure that the electrical connections are correct and properly electrically terminated. None of the current EMS vendors have converted their proprietary power systems data to the CIM structure.
One of the primary manual tasks involved in the power grid consolidation is resolving the naming of substations and the various power system equipment types such that the names are unique and can be reconstructed. For example, most EMS network topology models in any given area have a substation named "airport". A given EMS format may require that all substation names are unique and typically the foreign substation must be renamed. Another instance of naming convention problems is when power utility companies merge with bordering companies having the same or different EMS data formats. The company network topologies must be combined and again, unique naming of the power systems equipment presents the problem even when the newly acquired utility has the same EMS format. Yet another example of naming convention problems is when one EMS vendor allows duplicate names for specific power systems equipment and this is an error condition in the foreign EMS vendors' system. Additionally, the character length of the names for the various power system equipment varies from vendor to vendor. One EMS vendor may only allow eight characters for the equipment and another EMS vendor may allow up to 16 characters or more for the same equipment. Consolidating the 16 or more character names into an eight-character field presents additional naming problems. The naming conventions, given the number of substations and related power system resources, which may number in the thousands and tens of thousands, are of great concern.
Tie Lines are inter-substation transmission lines that typically connect between two different EMS data formats. These are used to transmit or receive electrical power between different companies. Transformers are similarly used between companies when the source and target voltage levels are different. The target locations are considered outside of the source substation's network. Modeling is generally sparse in terms of the power system equipment detail for the target network topology due to the limited information provided by the target company and the proprietary nature of the EMS in the target substation.
Another manual process involves extracting and integrating only a portion of the foreign network topology into the source's EMS network topology. This is labor intensive again due to the requirement that the resulting combined network topology must have proper connectivity. One or more alternating or direct current Tie Lines connect between the source and target area substations. The target area substation also has connections to other substations in the target company and perhaps to other companies such that severing the connections during a merging process causes non-terminated nodes that must be resolved and reconnected. Typically, several manual iterations of this process are required to properly electrically terminate the target substation's externally linked equipment. This problem is further compounded by the modeling efforts of the source substation's sparse representation of the target substation's network. Integrating the source and target substations requires that the source substation must first remove the existing sparse representation of the target substation before adding the more detailed representation of the target substation to obtain the complete network topology.
The actual electrical power grids are represented in a wide variety of data formats. The planning and network topology models show increasing levels of power grid detail. EMS vendors do not provide the same level of detail for all of the power systems related equipment. The manual effort required to generate a fully populated network topology is monumental when there are no starting references other than the application programs controlling the power flow.
The graphic representation of a substation is referred to as a One-Line. The One-Line diagram contains industry standard symbols that represent specific devices commonly found in a substation. These manually or automatically generated diagrams are currently used for source material when modeling external power systems equipment. Another method currently used is to manually text edit one or more specific EMS raw data file(s) from the target substation(s) into a corresponding text formatted file to join the data. These manual processes are again duplicated when new power systems equipment is added or removed to update the current representation of the physical hardware. Obviously, these methods are time consuming and prone to human error. Indeed, this virtual "Tower of Babylon" represented in the various EMS formats is a major contributing factor for the government intervention.
Based on the aforementioned problems described above, the technical problem exists to do the following:                1) Find an automated method to integrate power system data from multiple EMS vendor's data formats into a single power systems database that is properly electrically connected, easily updateable and maintains EMS vendor specific data format confidentiality;        2) Find a method to automatically convert from one EMS vendors' data format to another EMS vendor's data format; and        3) Facilitates compliance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders 888, 889 and 2000.

System and method for integrating electrical power grid and related data from various proprietary raw data formats into a single maintainable electrically connected database


A photovoltaic power generation system includes a photovoltaic array including photovoltaic modules, the photovoltaic power generation system further includes a control apparatus configured to display output characteristics of the photovoltaic array and power generating conditions of the photovoltaic array in synchronization.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photovoltaic power generation system capable of synchronously obtaining output curve characteristics of a photovoltaic array (a PV array) and power generating conditions using, e.g., a supervisory remote control apparatus in a state that a large-scale photovoltaic power generation system or a clustered grid-connected photovoltaic power generation system is installed on the spot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Patent Literature 1 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-201827) discloses a configuration in which a power conditioner has a built-in curve tracer to judge output abnormality of a photovoltaic power generation system in a state that the photovoltaic power generation system is installed in the field.
This curve tracer measures a direct current (I) associated with a direct-current voltage (V) of a photovoltaic cell, traces a direct current (I)-direct-current voltage (V) curve from the measurement values, and displays this trace result in a display unit, whereby visually confirming this display unit enables judging whether the photovoltaic power generation system is normal or abnormal.
In the invention disclosed in Patent Literature 1, solar radiation intensity or an air temperature as power generating conditions for evaluating an output from the photovoltaic power generation system is not traced, and evaluation based on comparison with characteristic estimated value from reference conditions (1 KW/m2, 25° C.) of the photovoltaic cell is difficult.
Further, in a large-scale system including photovoltaic power generation systems, since each power conditioner has the built-in curve tracer, many curve tracers cannot be managed and controlled in synchronization with each other, and evaluation based on comparison with outputs from the photovoltaic power generation systems under the same power generating conditions is difficult.

Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation


A process of mixing methyldiethanolamine to water to produce a first mixture. 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol is added to the first mixture to form a second mixture. The second mixture is then heated while mixing to form a third mixture. Piperazine is then added to the third mixture to form a solvent.

There is growing pressure for producers of greenhouse gases to dramatically reduce their atmospheric emissions. Of particular concern is the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. One method of reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions is through its capture at a point source and subsequent storage in geological or other reservoirs.
The process for capturing CO2 from power station and other combustion device flue gases is termed post combustion capture (PCC). The most mature commercially available technology for PCC is solvent-based chemical absorption/release of CO2. When the widespread rollout of PCC technology is realized, enormous quantities of solvent such as ammonia and amine will be required. To put this in perspective, a typical 2.4 GW generator burning pulverized black coal produces approx. 30-50 tons CO2/min, or 680 kmol/min. The potential environmental impacts of solvents and solvent degradation products (produced via oxidative and thermal processes) needs consideration, especially as release to the local environment through solvent slippage at this scale may be inevitable.
Chemical absorption of CO2 may be performed with amine based processes and alkaline salt-based processes. In such processes, the absorbing medium reacts with the dissolved CO2. Amines may be primary, secondary, and tertiary. These groups differ in their reaction rate, absorption capacity, corrosion, degradation, etc. In alkaline salt-based processes, the most popular absorption solutions have been sodium and potassium carbonate. As compared to amines, alkaline salt solutions have lower reaction rates with CO2.
With primary and secondary alkanolamines the nitrogen atom reacts rapidly and directly with carbon dioxide to bring the carbon dioxide into solution according to the following reaction sequence:2RNH2+CO2⇄RNHCOO−+RNH3+  (1)
where R is an alkanol group. The carbamate reaction product (RNHCOO−) must be hydrolysed to bicarbonate (HCO3−) according to the following reaction:RNHCOO−+H2O⇄RNH2+HCO3−  (2)
In forming a carbamate, primary and secondary alkanolamine undergo a fast direct reaction with carbon dioxide which makes the rate of carbon dioxide absorption rapid. In the case of primary and secondary alkanolamines, formation of carbamate (reaction 1) is the main reaction while hydrolysis of carbamate (reaction 2) is a secondary consideration. This is due to stability of the carbamate compound, which is caused by unrestricted rotation of the aliphatic carbon atom around the aminocarbamate group.
Unlike primary and secondary alkanolamines, tertiary alkanolamines cannot react directly with carbon dioxide, because their amine reaction site is fully substituted with substituent groups. Triethanolamine ((HOCH2CH2)3N) and methyldiethanolamine ((HOCH2CH2)2NCH3) are examples of tertiary alkanolamines which have been used to absorb carbon dioxide from industrial gas mixtures. Molecular structures of sterically hindered amines are generally similar to those of non-hindered amines, except sterically hindered amines have an amino group attached to a bulky alkyl group. For example, 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (NH2—C(CH3)2CH2OH). Instead, carbon dioxide is absorbed into solution by the following slow reaction with water to form bicarbonate.R3N+CO2+H2O—HCO3−+R3NH+  (3)
In order to increase the rate of CO2 absorption, especially for aqueous tertiary alkanolamine solutions, promoters have been added to the solutions. Promoters such as piperazine, N,N-diethyl hydroxylamine or aminoethylethanolamine, is are added to an absorption solution (chemical or physical solvent). Yoshida et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,931) used various aminoalkylols in combination with either piperidine, piperazine, morpholine, glycine, 2-methylaminoethanol, 2-piperidineethanol or 2-ethylaminoethanol. EP 0879631 discloses that a specific piperazine derivative for liquid absorbent is remarkably effective for the removal of CO2 from combustion gases. Peytavy et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,754) used methyldiethanolamine with an activator of the general formula H2N—CnHn—NH—CH2—CH2OH, where n represents an integer ranging from 1 to 4. U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,233 relates to a process for removing CO2 from gases by washing the gases with absorbents containing piperazine as an accelerator. Nieh (U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,803) relied on aqueous solution of N-methyldiethanolamine and N,N-diethyl hydroxylamine counter currently contacted with gases to remove CO2 or other acid gases. Kubek et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,104) found that the absorption of carbon dioxide from gas mixtures with aqueous absorbent solutions of tertiary alkanolamines is improved by incorporating at least one alkyleneamine promoter in the solution.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,609,049, 8,273,155 and 8,192,531 attempt to utilize solvent blends to increase the rate of CO2 absorption. U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,609,049, 8,273,155 and 8,192,531 attempt to overcome these problems by using catalysts and additional promoters such as carbonic anhydrase and ammonia. Use of an enzyme in a CO2 absorber situation requires additional technologies and equipment to be added to refineries.
There exists a need to effectively remove CO2 from flue gases through use of a novel amine solvent blend that does not utilize additional catalysts and promoters.


A device for generating semantic folder annotations is provided. The device includes a semantic folder editor which enables a user to create attribute-value pairs corresponding to a semantic folder(s). The device is capable of downloading ontolog(ies) and associated data from an ontology server which may be utilized to determine relationships between the attribute-value pairs created by the user. The device includes an annotations generator which specifies the semantic folder descriptions of the semantic folders based on attribute-value relationships determined by the ontolog(ies). The device is capable of allowing a user to insert an object(s) into a semantic folder(s) and the annotations generator assigns all attribute-value pairs corresponding to the semantic folder to the object(s). The annotations assigned to object(s) may be stored in a semantic triple store. The device further includes a search engine which may be employed by a user to search semantic folders to locate an object(s).

The World Wide Web has developed primarily as medium of content for human consumption. Automating tasks on the Web (such as information retrieval, synthesis of information, etc.) is difficult because human interpretation is often required to make information content useful. Offering relief, a new architecture for the Web is emerging, known as the "Semantic Web." In broad terms, the Semantic Web encompasses efforts to create mechanisms that augment content with formal semantics, thereby producing content suitable for automated systems (e.g., intelligent software agents) to consume. The Semantic Web permits more automated functions on the Web (e.g., reasoning, information and service discovery, service composition, etc.), easing the workload of its users.
The Semantic Web will also pave the way for true "device independence" and customization of information content for individual users. Information on the Web can now exist in a "raw form" and any context-dependent presentation can be rendered on demand (more generally, the Semantic Web represents a departure from the current "rendering-oriented" Web). It is important to note that the Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one in which information, when given this well-defined meaning, better enables computers and people to work in tandem. The Semantic Web is an initiative aimed at making data on the World Wide Web (WWW) more machine processable so that applications can gain maximum benefit from this data.
In the Semantic Web, content and services can be described using representation languages such as RDF (Resource Description Framework) (See e.g., Frank Manola and Eric Miller, RDF Primer, W3C RECOMMENDATION (Feb. 10, 2004) the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety) and OWL (Ontology Web Language). (For more information on OWL, see Deborah L. McGuinness & Frank van Harmelen (eds.), OWL Web Ontology Language Overview, W3C RECOMMENDATION (Feb. 10, 2004) the contents of which is incorporated herein in its entirety) In this regard, representations often refer to ontologies or specifications of conceptualizations that, in turn, enable reasoning via the use of logic rules. More particularly, ontologies may define domains by specifying, for example, concepts (i.e., classes), relationships between concepts, properties of concepts (i.e., slots), restrictions on properties (i.e., facets), individuals (i.e., instances), or the like. Ontologies may include, for example, personal information management (PIM) ontologies, location ontologies, temporal ontologies, social network ontologies, composite capability/preference profiles (CC/PP) schema, Web service ontologies (e.g., OWL-S, Web Service Modeling Ontology—WSMO), policy ontologies, and the like. For more information on the Semantic Web, see Berners-Lee, Hendler, and Lassila, The Semantic Web, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, 284(5):3443, May 2001.
The application of Semantic Web technologies to Web services may be referred to as Semantic Web services whereby descriptions of service interfaces are associated with formal semantics, allowing software agents to describe their functionality, discover and "understand" other agents' functionality and invoke services provided by other agents. Furthermore, it may be possible to combine multiple services into new services. Work on Semantic Web services is at least partially driven by the possibility to automate things that formerly have required human involvement, consequently leading to improved interoperability.
As known to those skilled in the art, RDF and OWL are two key Semantic web standards. These standards make machine consumption easy by use of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to uniquely identify resources. Moreover, both of these standards provide a common data model and a machine processable language to exchange information. For instance, both OWL and RDF use the RDF data model and both use Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based syntax (RDF/XML) machine processable language to exchange information. Additionally, RDF and OWL maintain a common vocabulary with unambiguous formal semantics. To be precise, RDF may utilize RDF Schema (RDFS) as a language for describing vocabularies in RDF. Similarly, OWL which is also a vocabulary language extension of RDF and RDFS may utilize constructs defined by RDF and RDFS.
Data models that use RDF or OWL enable applications to integrate data created by heterogeneous sources and allows derivation of implicit relationships between resources (as referred to in the art as inferencing). (As referred to herein inferencing typically means the process of applying rules that describe what can be derived (for example, what types of relationships can be added to resources) and the conditions under which such derivations (additions) are undertaken. Both RDF and OWL have an associated set of rules that allow implicit relationships between resources to be derived. For example, a resource named "Felix" is of type "Cat", and "Cat" is a subclass of "Mammal." By virtue of RDF's standard inference rules the information that "Felix" is also of type "Mammal" can be derived.) As known to those skilled in the art, RDF is a language for representing information about resources in the WWW. It is particularly intended for representing metadata about Web resources, such as the title, author, and modification date of a Web page, as well as copyright and licensing information about a Web document, or the availability schedule for a shared resource. However, by generalizing the notion of a Web resource, RDF can additionally be used to represent information about things or objects that can be identified on the Web, even when the things or objects cannot be directly retrieved via the Web. Some examples include, but are not limited to, information concerning availability of items from on-line shopping store (e.g., information about specifications, prices, availability, etc.), or the description of a Web user's preferences regarding information that he/she may want delivered to them.
As known to those skilled in the art, RDF is premised on the notion of identifying things (i.e., objects) using Web identifiers such as URIs and describing resources in terms of simple properties and property values. The use of URIs enables RDF to represent simple statements, concerning resources, as a network (also known as a "graph") of nodes and arcs representing the resources, as well as their respective properties and values. For instance, consider FIG. 1 in which an RDF graph describing attributes of a person named Eric Miller is provided. More particularly, in FIG. 1 a group of statements, such as "there is a person identified by http://www.org/People/EM/contact#me 73, whose name is Eric Miller 75, whose e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com 77 and whose title is Dr." is illustrated. As shown in FIG. 1, the RDF graph demonstrates that RDF may utilize URIs to identify an individual(s), for example, Eric Miller 75 identified by the URI http://www.w3.org/People/EM/contact#me 73. FIG. 1 also illustrates kinds of things such as for example, a person, which is identified by URI http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact#Person 71. Similarly, FIG. 1 illustrates properties of those things, for example, a mailbox of that person identified by URI http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact#mailbox and values of those properties.
As shown below in Table 1, RDF also provides XML-based syntax (RDF/XML) for recording and exchanging the graphs shown in FIG. 1. The example below in Table 1 also illustrates a portion of the RDF in RDF/XML corresponding to the graph in FIG. 1.
TABLE 1Example: RDF/XML Describing Eric Miller<?xml version="1.0"?><rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"   xmlns:contact="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact#"> <contact:Person rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/People/EM/ contact#me">  <contact:fullName>Eric Miller</contact:fullName>  <contact:mailbox rdf:resource="mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com"/>  <contact:personalTitle>Dr.</contact:personalTitle> </contact:Person></rdf:RDF>
It should be noted that unlike conventional hypertext, RDF URIs may refer to any identifiable thing or object, including things or objects not retrievable on the WWW (such as, for example, the person of Eric Miller). The result is that in addition to describing such things or objects as Web pages, RDF can also describe vehicles, organizations, businesses, people, news events, etc. In addition, RDF properties have URIs to precisely identify relationships that exist between the linked items. In this regard, resources such as, documents, e-mails, web pages, bookmarks, and the like, located on a desktop of a terminal (e.g., personal computer, laptop computer, mobile telephone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc.) of an end-user may be identified using an ontology such as RDF (or an ontology such as OWL) even if these resources may not be retrieved on the WWW.
In today's information age, a user often organize resources on their desktop by carefully selecting a folder organization scheme which best suits the user. Typically, when a user creates a folder, he has in mind a set of attributes and/or properties that are satisfied by all objects which would belong to the created folder. It is commonplace for a user to employ a meaningful folder name and organization hierarchy to capture the attributes and properties of objects. As the data on a user's desktop grows, the user often encounters a situation in which his original organizational scheme seems insufficient. The result is that the user may be unable to locate files stored in folders or may expend a large amount of time in locating files.
In order to provide flexibility in facilitating a user's organization of resources stored on his terminal, semantic file systems have been proposed which provide a way for a user to perform attribute-based searches on files. That is to say, techniques have been proposed for using a semantic file system which specifies attribute-value pairs to annotate a folder's content. However, these techniques are generally deemed deficient given the lack of tools to create and query the annotations easily. For example, these techniques may require the user to learn a particular formal language or formalism in which the annotations and/or queries have to be described. Additionally, in some semantic file systems, the attributes of resources or objects associated with a particular folder are assigned based on user inputs which may be deficient from an organizational standpoint and require enormous amounts of repetition and time. Consider a semantic file system such as Google's e-mail service GMail which allows users to add multiple categories (i.e., "type" attributes) to a single object (e.g., e-mail). It should be understood that merely stating the type of an object is not sufficient for organizing resources in a folder because it is not expressive enough. For example, the topic of an e-mail could be a person which serves as one attribute, and the sender (serving as another attribute) could also be a person. If a person named Tom is both the sender and the topic of an e-mail, it becomes difficult to adequately express both these attributes (i.e., topic and sender) without ambiguity.
Against this backdrop, there may be need to utilize benefits of Semantic Web technology to simplify the process of attribute assignment as well as to generate a semantic file system which creates attribute-value pairs to annotate the content of a folder stored on a user's terminal. In this regard, it may be advantageous to provide a method of creating annotations for resources stored in a folder on a terminal by using attribute-value annotations to browse or locate resources in an easy and convenient manner.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for making semantic annotations for easy file organization and search


An image sensor device includes a plurality of color filter units arranged in an array, each of the color filter units comprising an array of n*m color filters, and n and m are integers equal to or greater than 3. The plurality of color filter units includes a plurality of first color filter units, a plurality of second color filter units, and a plurality of third color filter units. The color filters of the first color filter units are transmissive to light beams within a first wavelength range, the color filters of the second color filter units are transmissive to light beams within a second wavelength range, and the color filters of the third color filter units are transmissive to light beams within a third wavelength range.

Solid state image sensors are necessary components in many optoelectronic devices, including digital cameras, cellular phones, and others. Conventional solid-state image sensors for color analog or digital video cameras include typically charge-coupled devices (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) photodiode array structures which include a spectrally photosensitive layer below one or more layers patterned in an array of color filters and above which resides a surface-layer array of micro-lens elements. The elementary unit of the image sensor is defined as a pixel. The basic technology used to form the CMOS image sensor is common to both sensor types.
The CMOS image sensor includes a photo detector detecting light and a logic circuit converting the detected light into an electric signal representing data regarding the detected light. For the image sensor to detect and provide a color image, it typically must employ both the photo detectors receiving the lights and generating and accumulating charge carriers and a color filter array (CFA), i.e., a plurality of color filter units sequentially arranged above the photo detector. The CFA typically uses one of two alternative three-color primary configurations, either red R, green G and blue B (RGB) configuration or one of yellow Y, magenta M and cyan C (CMY). And a plurality of micro-lenses is positioned above the CFA to increase the photo-sensitivity of the image sensor.

Image sensor device having color filter arrays and image processing method thereof

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for suppressing or eliminating nonlinear current drawing characteristics, while at the same time substantially eliminating high order current harmonics. In accordance with various aspects of the present invention, an energy transfer system, for example a pulse width modulator (PWM) flyback converter (22), comprises an inductor (L) interposed between the AC line voltage and the load (R.sub.load), with a controllable switch (26) provided between the inductor (L) and the negative supply leg of a rectifier circuit (10). The duty cycle of the converter switch (26) is suitably controlled to produce a substantially constant DC output from the converter (22). Proper synchronization of the converter switch (26) ensures that the current through the inductor (L) and the output current through the load (R.sub.load) remains in phase with the AC supply voltage. Thus, a power factor on the order of unity is maintained while substantially eliminating nonlinear current drawing characteristics.

For an ideal utility power delivery system characterized by an AC line voltage V.sub.in, a line impedance Z.sub.in, and an AC current I.sub.in, the power delivered to a load is the dot product of the voltage across the load and the current running through the load, or P.sub.out =V.sub.out *I.sub.out cos(q) where q represents the phase difference between the voltage across the load and the current running through the load. Maximum power is thus most efficiently delivered to the load when the phase angle of the current coincides with the phase angle of the voltage at the load (cos(q)=1), corresponding to a power factor of one.
Power distribution systems typically supply power for loads which are both purely resistive as well as loads which exhibit impedances having substantial reactive components, for example electric motors, power supplies (converters), fluorescent and HID lighting, and the like. The reactive component of load impedance, whether capacitive or inductive, shifts the phase angle of the current running through the load with respect to the supply voltage, resulting in a proportional decrease in power factor at the load and corresponding reduction in the efficiency of the power distribution system. Stated another way, for power factors less than one, an electric utility power company must provide more "power" than is actually consumed by the various loads connected to the power distribution system.
Power factor correction techniques are generally well known. Typically, electronic devices having a reactive component equal in magnitude but opposite in sign to the reactive component of the impedance exhibited by the load are placed in parallel with the load; for example, the common technique is to place a bank of capacitors in parallel across an inductive motor to cancel the inductive reactance produced by the motor. In this way, the power factor is corrected to unity, and the overall impedance of the load appears purely resistive from the perspective of the source (e.g. the power company).
Reactive loads which draw current in a nonlinear fashion are considerably more problematic, however, particularly to the extent that the line current harmonics resulting from the nonlinearities are reflected back to the power source.
Presently known power converters, for example AC-DC converters, and in particular those employing silicon rectifiers, tend to exhibit discontinuous supply line current drawing characteristics, i.e., nonlinear load characteristics. In such systems, current flowing through the load is typically zero until the AC supply voltage exceeds a first DC conduction threshold voltage defined by, inter alia, the rectifier circuit. Thereafter, the current through the load increases sharply, limited primarily by line impedance. The current level again returns to zero as the AC supply voltage drops below a second DC conduction threshold voltage, typically defined by the filter capacitor and the rectifier circuit. Consequently, the diode conduction angle is restricted to a relatively small angular region centered around .pi./2 radians in the AC line voltage, which constitutes a comparatively small fraction of the total potential conduction angle provided by a rectified sine wave. As a result of this reduced conduction angle, substantially all of the power consumed by the load is drawn during a small portion of the AC cycle, resulting in very high current peaks and, hence, very high peak-to-RMS current ratios (crest factors). In addition, these nonlinear current drawing characteristics produce high frequency harmonics which are reflected back to transformer cores in the distribution system.
These high crest factors and harmonic components negatively affect the utility company's ability to adequately provide power to an increasingly complex universe of consumers. For example, it is known that transformer core losses are a function of the square of the frequency of reflected current harmonics. Moreover, high crest values require that the total generating capacity and the transformers used by utilities to produce electrical power be of sufficient size to supply the needed crest current. The capital cost to the utility companies to provide the extra generating capacity and large transformers is extraordinary.
Moreover, as more nonlinear electronic equipment (e.g., computers) is connected to existing power distribution systems, high frequency noise generated by nonlinear loads tends to interact with other electronic equipment on the same power distribution line, which may result in a degradation in the reliability of these devices, for example manifesting as a loss of data system integrity for computer systems.
Passive methods to reduce the nonlinear current drawing effects of power consumption devices typically involve the use of an inductive-type filters used in conjunction with the load. These filters, however, are quite large and expensive.
Active methods to reduce nonlinear current consumption have also been constructed, but they too are unsatisfactory in several regards. For example, many active correction schemes employ a feedback loop using a non-filtered voltage wave shape to correct the current waveform which is detected at the AC input. While these active systems generally yield good power factor characteristics, they tend to amplify the deleterious effects of harmonic distortions present on the voltage waveform of the AC input line.
An apparatus for suppressing or eliminating nonlinear current drawing characteristics of a load is thus needed which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.


An apparatus for adjusting a front-end front wheel assembly rake angle are disclosed. An individual wishing to convert a chopper-type motorcycle into a “stock” type motorcycle (or vice-versa) can easily do so without disassembly of the front wheel assembly. The apparatus comprises a main frame member having a front end, a front wheel assembly rotatably connected to the front end, and means for adjusting a rake angle of the front wheel assembly without disassembly of the front wheel assembly.

The steering and stability characteristics of motorcycles, bicycles and other similar types of vehicles can be varied and altered in a number of different ways. For example, altering the front wheel assembly rake and trail angles can change the steering and stability characteristics of a motorcycle. The rake angle is defined as that angle which the steering axis of the front wheel assembly of the motorcycle has relative to an imaginary vertical axis or plane. Thus, if an imaginary vertical plane is passed through the steering head assembly of a motorcycle, the rake angle is that angle formed between such plane and the steering axis of the front wheel assembly. The horizontal distance of the forward wheel's axle from a pre-defined measure is generally referred to as a motorcycle's trail. A motorcycle's trail has been defined as the horizontal distance by which a vertical plane, passing through the front wheel axle trails the point of intersection of the steering axis with a horizontal ground.
Variations in the rake and trail angle of a motorcycle will provide different ride and steering characteristics. For example, in a chopper-type motorcycle, the rake angle may be quite large, such as 35 degrees or more. This design allows motorcycles to be very stable at high speeds on straight roads and also is very comfortable to ride for long distances. However, chopper-type motorcycles are difficult to steer on winding roads, as they generally require much upper body strength to maneuver the motorcycle. On the other hand, if the rake angle is considerably smaller, i.e., 28 degrees or less, the motorcycle steering will be quite sensitive and responsive, but the stability of the motorcycle on a fast straight section of road tends to be considerably less than desirable. Also, riding for a considerable distance tends to be uncomfortable, as the rider is positioned in more of an upright position than would be on a chopper-type motorcycle.
Heretofore, motorcycle owners have had to choose between chopper-type motorcycles and "stock" motorcycles (i.e., those motorcycles having a relatively small rake angle). However, certain motorcycle designs have been devised which allow changing of the rake angle depending upon road conditions and motorcycle use. In particular, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,866,946 and 4,082,307, U.K. Pat. No. 570,439 and Italian Pat. No. 523,424 all disclose various mechanical arrangements which permit the rake angle of the front fork assembly of a motorcycle to be changed. While each of the designs disclosed in these particular patents are specifically different, they all achieve fork angle change basically in the same manner. This manner requires that the motorcycle be stopped, that the operator then disassemble portions of the motorcycle steering head assembly to remove or alter components thereof in order to change the rake angle, and that the operator then reassemble the steering head components with the rake angle at its new position. Should the operator subsequently choose to again change the rake angle due to new road conditions or the like, the same cumbersome and time consuming procedure is required. Thus, while the rake angle of such motorcycle front wheel assembly designs is variable, it certainly cannot be varied conveniently. Moreover, these designs do not permit variance of the fork angle during actual operation of the motorcycle.
Another shortcoming of motorcycles today is that they are typically mass-produced and do not allow a purchaser a customized "fit". The purchaser is forced to buy the motorcycle "as is" and must then alter it to accommodate his or her body.
Consequently, there is a need for a motorcycle front wheel assembly design wherein the rake angle can be easily changed as desired by the motorcycle operator to permit larger rake angles during straight away motorcycle operation and shorter rake angles during turning and off-road operations.

Adjustable front wheel assembly for vehicles


The following disclosure describes a wood-product based door or window component including a wood-product based core having opposing first and second surfaces and at least a first side edge. Overlaying at least part of the first surface is a first overlay structure that includes a resin-impregnated paper, and overlaying at least part of the second surface is a second overlay structure that includes a resin-impregnated paper. The wood product based core has an edge band attached to the first side edge, and the edge band includes a resin-impregnated paper. The edge band is attached so that a portion of the wood-product based core is between the resin-impregnated paper of the edge band and the resin-impregnated paper overlaying the first and second surfaces.

The present invention relates generally to wood-product based structures and more particularly, to wood-product based door and window components.
Solid wood door and window components have been widely used for many years. Solid wood is popular because of its attractive appearance. However, solid wood also has many disadvantages. For instance, due to the present scarcity of quality timber, solid wood is expensive. Solid wood tends to crack, split, or warp when exposed to temperature and humidity variations. In addition, solid wood often requires repeated staining and/or painting to maintain the finish and prevent the wood from degrading. In an attempt to alleviate some of these disadvantages and still keep the attractive appearance of solid wood, composite wood door and window components were developed. Composite wood typically includes a natural hardwood veneer attached to a core made of lesser-grade wood, thereby preserving the appearance of solid wood and reducing the overall cost.
Composite wood sometimes includes a resin-impregnated paper overlaying portions of the core and/or veneer. The resin-impregnated paper increases the composite wood""s moisture resistance thereby decreasing the amount of cracking, splitting, and warping that occurs. Furthermore, exposed portions of the resin-impregnated paper hold paint and stain longer than the veneer or core.

Wood-product based door or window component and method of making the same


An electrical connector assembly includes a first electrical connector, a second electrical connector, and a connecting member. The first electrical connector includes an insulative main body with a receiving recess defined therein. The second electrical connector includes an insulative main body with a receiving recess defined therein. The connecting member is slidably engaged in the receiving recess of the first electrical connector and is configured for being slidably engaged in the receiving recesses of the first and second connectors simultaneously, thereby combining the first and second connectors together.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly to an electrical connector assembly providing reliable mechanical interconnection.
2. Description of Related Art
There exists in the art an electrical connector known as a serial advanced technology attachment (serial ATA) connector which is generally used for disk drives and other storage peripherals. The serial ATA connectors according to the serial ATA standard feature fewer electrical contacts than other conventional electrical connectors and are relatively tiny in configuration. In use, there are problems with the cable end serial ATA connectors being easily loosened, and even become accidentally disengaged from the corresponding mating connectors by external forces, and so the interconnection between the cable end serial ATA connectors and the corresponding mating connectors of disk drives or other storage peripherals is unreliable.
Generally, the cable end serial ATA connector includes a power connector and a separate signal connector. Hence, if the power connector and the signal connector could be combined together via some coupling member, the power connector and the signal connector would not so easily be removed from the corresponding mating connectors by accident.
What is desired, therefore, is an electrical connector assembly with the power and signal connectors combined together to provide reliable mechanical interconnection.


A writable and erasable flexible medium 2 as display is stored in a cylindrical magazine type case 3 as a scroll so that the flexible medium can be rewound. Write and read can be executed by means of a CPU, write head, scanner, etc., contained in the case 3, and additional write, erasion, etc., with a write pen 5 can also be performed as desired.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a display unit and in particular to a display unit using a scroll-like flexible medium which is writable and erasable at high speed and continuously displayable.
2. Description of the Related Art
Background display units include display units using liquid crystal used for applications from monochrome LCD of a watch, a camera, etc., to color LCD of a color TV, a personal computer, etc., LED used mainly for segment display, etc., and plasma enabling a large-sized and flat color display to be formed by discharge light emission.
However, with the background display units of liquid crystal, LED, plasma, etc., if power is turned off, display also all disappears, and the display operation of power reduction and storage holding type capable of holding display if power is turned off cannot be performed. Therefore, if an attempt is made to leave a display image, an image printing method on a printer, etc., is only available, thus paper is consumed each time printing is executed.
In recent years, displays capable of performing the display operation of storage holding type with a writable and erasable record medium by applying an electric field, heat, or magnetism have also been developed.
For example, a sheet-like electric field display is introduced as xe2x80x9cgyricon electric paperxe2x80x9d in journal xe2x80x9cSID 98 DIGESTxe2x80x9d p.1010 to p.1013. That is, it is a display 0.12 to 0.8 mm thick comprising dichroic spheres 25 to 100 m in diameter bonded between polyester sheets. An electric field (for example, 40 nanojoule/square centimeter) is applied to the space between the polyester sheets, whereby the dichroic spheres are rotated and are inverted in direction and the color appearing so far disappears and another color appears. After the sphere is once rotated, it is deposited on the wall face of the hollow storing the sphere, thus after the electric field is removed, the state is still maintained. That is, the record state is continuously displayed. An electric field is given reversely, whereby the record is erased.
A sheet-like heat display is introduced in, for example, xe2x80x9cDenshi jouhou tuushin gakkai gijyutu kenkyuu houkoku CPM83-18.xe2x80x9d That is, if external heat is applied to a heat medium for setting the temperature of the medium to a predetermined temperature or more, a color different from the initial color is presented; if the medium is cooled, the color is restored to the former color. For example, Ag2HgI4 is available as the material and the color becomes yellow at a predetermined temperature or less and becomes orange at the predetermined temperature or more. Ag2HgI4 is applied onto a transparent polyester film and this film and another transparent polyester film are placed to form a sandwich via an adhesive layer. Information is recorded with a thermal head, is held at normal temperature or by a heater, and is erased electronically with an electronic cooler using the Peltier effect. The display is placed on a row for line-sequential display or is placed like a plane for plane-sequential display.
A sheet-like magnetic display is also known. Using a magnetism phenomenon in which a magnet attracts iron powder, magnetic energy is given to a record medium through a record head, whereby magnetic powder (toner) is attracted. The magnetic powder is continuously attracted onto the record medium because of residual magnetism still after the magnetic energy is removed. For erasion, the residual magnetism is demagnetized by an erasion head. For example, xcex3-Fe2O3, Coxe2x80x94Nixe2x80x94P, CrO2, etc., is used as the magnetic powder material.
A display unit has been known wherein such continuously displayable record media under electric field control, heat control, or magnetism control are used to make up a display panel or are concatenated like a ring for forming endless paper and the display panel or endless paper is combined with a line head and wherein when information is changed, the head is driven at the same time as the endless medium rotates or the head moves, and new display contents are rewritten.
However, the display made up of such record media is like a panel or endless paper and lacks portability or practical utility.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a scroll-type display wherein by writing an image onto a scroll-like writable and erasable flexible medium using an electric or magnetic write head, high-speed image rewrite display is enabled on the flexible display medium, wherein the display operation of power reduction type is enabled so that display of the written image can be held if a drive source is removed, and wherein an image can be displayed in such a manner that the writable and erasable flexible display medium can be fed out from and inserted into a magazine like a scroll.
In this invention, there is provided a continuously displayable scroll-type display storing a writable and erasable and continuously displayable flexible medium like a scroll as display in a cylindrical magazine type case so that the flexible medium can be wound and/or rewound.
According to a favorable embodiment, the display displays the image based on an electrophoretic effect or magnetic-phoretic effect in the flexible medium.
According to further aspect, the flexible medium contains a mix layer of a particle containing a color substance and a fluid opaque medium.
According to another aspect, the flexible medium contains a mix layer of a particle containing a magnetic substance and a fluid opaque medium.
According to another feature, a display control section containing a CPU for controlling display of the flexible medium is placed in the cylindrical magazine type case.
According to the described configuration, the scroll-like flexible display medium is fed out from the magazine and an image is displayed, then it can be rewound into the magazine. A display is produced under the personal computer control and additional write and write are enabled according to personal computer information. An image can be written onto, erased from, and read from the scroll-like flexible display medium as desired. It is also made possible to communicate with an external computer. The surface of the flexible medium is traced with the additional write pen, whereby display can be added and erased.

Continuously displayable scroll-type display


A controller and method for refreshing a display device with data linearly stored in a video memory having a row addressable memory array and serial access memory are disclosed. The circuit for controlling the video memory includes a row address generator for addressing a row of data in the memory array. A circuit is provided for initiating a split row transfer of a half addressed row of the memory array to the corresponding half of the serial access memory while data are shifted out of the other half of the serial access memory. A tap pointer generator is also provided to alternatively point to the different halves of the memory array rows.

The raster scan display is commonly utilized both in computer systems and in commercial televisions. An image displayed on the screen comprises an array of pixels arranged in rows and columns. The screen is usually refreshed sequentially scan line by scan line from top to bottom. Presently, the refresh rate is usually not lower than 30 Hz. A frame buffer stores the screen refresh pixel data. When any pixel datum in the frame buffer is updated, the screen is refreshed, and the corresponding pixel on the screen is changed.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional raster display system. The display system 10 is utilized to display an image on the CRT screen 12. Pixel data which is displayed on the screen 12 is stored in a frame buffer 14. In the conventional display system 10 of FIG. 1, the frame buffer 14 is a dynamic RAM (DRAM).
When the host computer 16 is ready to refresh the DRAM 14, an address is sent to the DRAM 14 from the host computer 16 via the address bus 15 and the multiplexer (MUX) 18. Data to be entered in the DRAM is sent from the host computer 16 to the random access port 20 of the DRAM 14 via the bus 30. Additionally, host access control signals are sent via line 8 to a memory controller circuit 7 which transmits various control signals, such as CAS, RAS, etc., via line 9 to the DRAM 14.
To perform a screen refresh operation, an address is sent from the graphic controller 22 to the DRAM 14 via the bus 17 and the multiplexer 18. The pixel data to be transmitted to the screen 12 in the screen refresh operation is read out of the DRAM 14 at the random access port 20 and is transmitted via the bus 30 to the shift register 24 which serves as a parallel-to-serial converter. The data is converted from digital to analog form using the Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) 26 and then transmitted to the screen 12. The timing of the shift register 24 is controlled by a video timing signal generated by the graphic controller 22 and transmitted to the shift register 24 via the line 19. The graphic controller 22 is connected to the host computer 16 via the bus 11 and also generates the vertical synchronization signal (VSYNC), the horizontal synchronization signal (HSYNC) and the horizontal and vertial blanking signals which are transmitted via lines 21 to the screen 12 and the DAC 26.
The display system 10 of FIG. 1 has a significant disadvantage. The major problem is that the bus 30 leading to and from the random access port 20 is utilized to receive data from the host computer 16 for frame buffer refresh and to transmit data to the screen 12 for screen refresh. As is known, an increase in screen resolution will increase the time required to refresh the screen. When the required time to refresh the screen reaches a certain level, the host computer 16 will not be able to gain control over the bus 30 and random access port 20 to perform frame buffer refresh operations. This conflict over use of the random access port 20 and bus 30 results in a decrease in the efficiency of operation of the display system.
One way to avoid this kind of conflict is to implement the frame buffer as a video RAM (VRAM) instead of a simple DRAM. A 256K*4 VRAM 40 is illustrated in FIG. 2. The VRAM 40 of FIG. 2 comprises a DRAM array 42 having 512 columns and 512 rows. The VRAM 40 has both a random access port 44 and a serial port 45. The serial port 45 is illustratively formed by a serial access memory (SAM) 46 implemented with a shift register. An entire row of data from the DRAM 42 is transferred to the SAM 46 via lines 47A, 47B and transfer pass gate 43 by an operation which is called a read data transfer (RDT). When a read data transfer operation is carried out, a row of data of the DRAM 42 is transferred to the SAM 46. Thereafter, the data of the SAM 46 may be serially shifted out of the I/O port 49. This is achieved by means of a serial counter 48 which receives a serial clock (SC) as an input. The serial counter increments with each clock of the serial clock thereby outputting a different pixel datum from the SAM 46. Alternatively, the serial counter 48 includes a pointer which points to a starting location in the SAM 46. In this mode of operation, data is serially shifted out of the SAM 46 starting at the location pointed to by this pointer. Illustratively, a TMS44C250 VRAM manufactured by Texas Instruments operates in a fashion similar to the VRAM 40 of FIG. 2.
FIG. 3 illustrates a video display system 10'. The system 10' of FIG. 3 is similar to the system 10 of FIG. 1. The differences are that the frame buffer is now implemented by the VRAM 40 instead of the DRAM 14 as in FIG. 1. In addition, the parallel-to-serial converter 24 is eliminated. In the system 10' of FIG. 3, a frame buffer refresh operation transfers data from the host computer 16 to the random access port 44 of the VRAM 40 via the bus 47. On the other hand, to carry out a screen refresh operation, data is transferred from the serial port 45 in bits-serial format (e.g., 4-bit wide serial format) to the DAC 26 for conversion to analog form for refreshing the display on the screen 12. In the display system 10', the serial clock for use by the serial port 45 of the VRAM 40 is supplied by the graphic controller 22 via the line 48.
In short, in the system 10' of FIG. 3, frame buffer refresh operations and screen refresh operations take place via different ports and utilize different buses, so that the two processes are isolated from each other. Therefore, conflict between the two types of operations over access to the random port 20 and bus 30 of FIG. 1 are substantially resolved.
The problem with the system 10' of FIG. 3 is that the VRAM 40 utilized therein makes very inefficient use of memory capacity. This is illustrated through use of the following example. Consider the case where the screen 12 has a resolution of 900 scan lines with 1152 pixels per scan line. The pixels in each scan line of the display screen are labeled 0,1, . . . , 1151. The scan lines are labeled 1, . . . , 900. The memory arrays of a 256*4 VRAM for storing one 900*1152 frame of pixels for a screen with this format are illustrated in FIG. 4.
The memory capacity of FIG. 4 is divided into two banks, labeled BANK 1 and BANK 2. Each bank comprises four memory arrays. The memory arrays of BANK 1 are labeled VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. Similarly, the memory arrays of BANK 2 are labeled VRAM0,VRAM1,VRAM2,VRAM3. Each memory array is 2.sup.9 .times.2.sup.9 which means that it has 512 rows and 512 column locations per row. Every column location of each row may store the datum of one pixel. The 512 rows of each memory array are labeled 0,1, . . . , 511 in FIG. 4. In this memory arrangement, each row of the VRAMs, VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 is used to store one scan line of the display. The 512 columns of each memory array are labeled 0,1, . . . , 511 in FIG. 4.
The pixels 0, . . . , 1151 of scan line 1 of one frame for the screen 12 are stored in the memory arrays of FIG. 4 as follows. Every fourth pixel starting from 0, i.e. pixels, 0,4,8, . . . , 1148 of scan line 1 of the display screen frame occupy column locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 0 of the first memory array VRAM0 in BANK 1. Every fourth pixel starting from 1, i.e. pixels 1,5,9, . . . , 1149 of scan line 1 of the display screen frame occupy column locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 0 of the second memory array VRAM1 in BANK 1. Similarly, every fourth pixel starting from 2, i.e., pixels 2,6,10, . . . 1150 of scan line 1 of the display screen frame occupy column locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 0 of the third memory array VRAM2 of BANK 1. Finally, pixels 3,7,11, . . . , 1151 of scan line 1 of the display screen frame occupy column locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 0 of the fourth memory array VRAM3 of BANK 1.
In a similar manner, pixels 0,4,8, . . . , 1148 of scan line 2 of the display screen frame occupy column locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 1 of memory array VRAM0 of BANK 1. Pixels 1,5,9, . . . , 1149 of scan line 2 of the display screen frame occupy column locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 1 of memory array VRAM1 of BANK 1, and so on. Thus, the pixels of scan lines 1, . . . , 512 of the display screen frame occupy positions 0,1, . . . , 287 of rows 0,1, . . . , 511 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 of BANK 1.
Scan lines 513,514, . . . , 900 of the display screen frame occupy positions 0,1, . . . , 287 of rows 0,1, . . . , 387 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 of BANK 2 in a fashion similar to the storage in BANK 1. For instance, scan line 513 of the display screen frame is stored on row 0 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 of BANK 2. Pixels 0,4,8, . . . , 1148 are stored in locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 0 of the first memory array VRAM0 of BANK 2. .Pixels 1,5,9, . . . , 1149 are stored in locations 0,1, . . . , 287 of row 0 of the second memory array VRAM1 of BANK 2, and so on. As can be seen from FIG. 4. 50.6% of the space in the VRAMs is unused.
Data is transmitted to the screen 12 of FIG. 3 from the memory of FIG. 4 as follows. To display scan line 1 of the display screen, during a vertical blanking interval, the row 0 of each memory array VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 in BANK 1 is transferred to the SAM 46 (FIG. 2) in a read data transfer (RDT) operation. The data in the serial port, from locations 0,1, . . . , 287 is then transferred in bits-serial format to the screen. During the horizontal blanking interval following the display of the scan line 1 of the display screen, the pixel data in row 1 of each memory array VRAM 0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 in BANK 1 is transferred to the SAM 46 (FIG. 2). The data stored at positions 0,1, . . . , 287 in the SAM 46 (FIG. 2) are then transferred serially to the screen to refresh scan line 2 of the screen display. Then scan lines 3,4, . . . , 512 of the screen display are refreshed in the same manner. The process continues until the scan line 513 of the display screen is refreshed. At this point, row 0 of each memory array VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 in BANK 2 is transferred to the SAM 46 (FIG. 2) and the data of positions 0,1, . . . , 287 are serially transferred to the display screen. Then, scan lines 514, . . . , 900 of the display screen may be refreshed in a similar manner.
Alternatively, the pixel data may be stored in a special memory storage arrangement if a VRAM with split row transfer is used. A VRAM 60 with split transfer capability is illustrated in FIG. 5A. The VRAM 60 comprises a memory array, such as DRAM 62, which illustratively has 512 rows.times.512 columns. The columns are labeled near the top of FIG. 5A. The VRAM 60 includes a random access port 64 through which pixels may be written into the DRAM 62. The VRAM 60 also has a serial port 65 with split row transfer capability. Thus, the serial port 65 can perform both conventional read data transfer (RDT) operations and split row transfer operations. In a read data transfer, the SAM 66 acts as single shift register unit. A row of the DRAM 62 is addressed by loading a row address into the row address register 127. The gate units 67 and 68 are simultaneously enabled so that an entire addressed row of 512 pixels is transferred to the SAM 66. Pixels are transmitted serially via the serial I/O 73, starting at the position of column 0 in the SAM 66, synchronously with the serial counter 74. The outputted pixel data appear on line 75.
In a split row transfer operation, the SAM 66 is split into two halves 66A, 66B. The lower half 66A contains bit positions 0,1, . . . , 255 and the upper half 66b contains bit positions 256, 257, . . . , 511. In the case of a split row transfer only one of the gate units 67 or 68 is enabled so that only the upper half or the lower half of the VRAM 60 row addressed by the row address register 127 is transferred, respectively, to the upper half or the lower half of the SAM 66. A split row transfer operation makes use of the tap pointer implemented by the transfer control logic circuit 71. When a split read transfer cycle is initiated, the half of the SAM 66 pointed to by the tap pointer (i.e. upper or lower half) is loaded with the corresponding half row of data of the DRAM 62 currently addressed by the row address register 127. It should be noted that in a split row transfer operation, data may be transferred into one half of the SAM 66, while data is being read out of the other half. An example of a VRAM 60 with split row transfer capability is the TMS44C251 available from Texas Instruments.
As with the VRAM 40 (FIG. 3), the serial counter 74 has an input for receiving a starting location pointer for the serial output of the SAM 66. By means of this pointer, the SAM 66 will begin shifting out the pixel data from the location specified by this pointer. Thus, the serial output of the SAM 66 can be controlled to skip over selected pixel data.
Also depicted in FIG. 5A is a serial I/O control circuit 76. This circuit receives an input labeled SE which serves to enable or disable the I/O circuit 73. Thus, the serial output of the VRAM 60 may be selectively shut off.
FIG. 5B illustrates a special arrangement for storing the scan lines of pixel data of a 900*1152 display screen using 256K*4 VRAMs 60 (FIG. 6) which may execute a split row transfer. Here only one bank of 4 memory arrays, designated VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3, is used. As before, the display screen scan lines are labeled 1,2, . . . , 900, and the column locations within each scan line are labeled 0,1, . . . , 1151. The VRAM rows are labeled 0,1, . . . , 511 and the column locations of each row are labeled 0,1, . . . , 511.
The rows of each memory array VRAM0,VRAM1,VRAM2,VRAM3 are divided in half. The lower half of each array row, i.e., locations 0,1, . . . , 255, is used for storing the first 1024 pixel data of the odd scan lines of the display screen. The upper half, i.e. locations 256,257, . . . , 511 is used for storing the first 1024 pixel data of the even scan lines of the display screen.
The storage of the pixels is as follows. The first 1024 pixels, i.e. 0,1, . . . , 1023, of scan line 1 of the display screen are stored in column positions 0,1, . . . , 255 of row 0 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. As before, every fourth pixel from 0, i.e. 0,4, 8, . . . , 1020 is stored in locations 0,1, . . . , 255 of row 0 of the first memory array VRAM0. Likewise, every fourth pixel from 1, i.e. 1,5,9, . . . , 1021 of the display screen is stored in locations 0,1, . . . , 255 of row 0 of the second array VRAM1. Every fourth pixel from 2, i.e. 2,6,10, . . . , 1022 is stored in locations 0,1, . . . , 255 of the third array VRAM2. Finally, every fourth pixel from 3, i.e. 3,7,11, . . . , 1023 is stored in locations 0,1, . . . , 255 of the fourth array VRAM3.
The first 1024 pixels of the remaining odd scan lines 3,5, . . . , 899 of the display screen are stored in column positions 0,1, . . . , 255 of the four memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 in a similar fashion. In other words, the first 1024 pixels of the odd scan lines occupy the lower half of the rows 0,1, . . . , 449 of the four memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3.
The last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of each odd display screen scan line, i.e. pixels 1024,1025, . . . , 1151, are stored in the upper half of the bottom rows, i.e. 511,510, . . . , 454 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. Pixels 1024,1028, . . . , 1048 of scan line 1 of the display screen are stored in column locations 256,257, . . . , 289 of row 511 of the first memory array VRAM0. Pixels 1025,1029, . . . , 1049 of scan line 1 of the display screen are stored in column locations 256,257, . . . , 289 of row 511 of the second memory array VRAM1. Pixels 1026,1030, . . . , 1050 of scan line 1 of the display screen are stored in column locations 256,257, . . . , 289 of row 511 of the third memory array VRAM2. Finally, pixels 1027,1031, . . . , 1051 of scan line 1 of the display screen are stored in column locations 256,257, . . . , 289 of row 511 of the fourth memory array VRAM3.
In a similar fashion, the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of the third display screen scan line are stored in the thirty-two column locations adjacent the last 128 pixels of the first scan line, i.e. locations 290,291, . . . , 321. Thus, the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of scan lines 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15 of the display screen are stored in the upper half of row 511 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. Scan lines 17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31 of the display screen are stored in the upper half of row 510 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. In this fashion, the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of each odd display screen scan line are stored in the upper half of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 from row 511 to row 454.
The storage of the even scan lines of pixels of the display screen is as follows. Pixels 0,1, . . . , 1023 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in column positions 256,257, . . . , 511 of row 0 of the four memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM 3 in a fashion similar to row 1 of the display screen. That is, pixels 0,4,8, . . . , 1020 of scan line 2 of the screen display are stored in row 0, positions 256,257, . . . , 511 of the first memory array VRAM0. Pixels 1,5,9, . . . , 1021 of scan line 2 of the screen display are stored in row 0, positions 256,257, . . . , 511 of the second memory array VRAM1. Pixels 2,6,10, . . . , 1022 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in row 0, positions 256,257, . . . , 511 of the third memory array VRAM2. Finally, pixels 3,7,11, . . . , 1023 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in row 0, positions 256,257, . . . , 511 of the fourth memory array VRAM3.
The first 1024 pixels of each even scan line 2,4,6, . . . , 900 of the display screen are stored in column positions 256,257, . . . , 511 of the four memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 in a similar fashion. In other words, the first 1024 pixels of the even scan lines occupy the upper half of the rows 0,1, . . . , 449 of the four memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3.
The last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of each even display screen scan line, i.e. pixels 1024,1025, . . . , 1151 are stored in the lower half of the bottom rows 511,510, . . . , 454 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. Pixels 1024,1028, . . . , 1148 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in column locations 0,1, . . . , 31 of row 511 of the first memory array VRAM0. Pixels 1025,1029, . . . , 1149 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in column locations 0,1, . . . , 31 of row 511 of the second memory array VRAM1. Pixels 1026,1030, . . . , 1150 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in column locations 0,1, . . . , 31 of row 511 of the third memory array VRAM2. Finally, pixels 1027,1031, . . . , 1151 of scan line 2 of the display screen are stored in column locations 0,1, . . . , 31 of row 511 of the fourth memory array VRAM3.
In a similar fashion, the last one hundred pixels of the fourth scan line of the display screen are stored in the thirty-two column locations adjacent the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of the scan line 2, i.e. locations 32,33, . . . , 63. Thus, the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of scan lines 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16 of the display screen are stored in the lower half of row 511 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. Scan lines 18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32 of the display screen are stored in the lower half of row 510 of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3. In this fashion, the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of each even display screen scan line are stored in the lower half of the memory arrays VRAM0, VRAM1, VRAM2, VRAM3 from row 511 to row 454.
The screen refresh operation is slightly different than with the example of FIG. 4 before. To display scan line 1 of the display screen, a split row transfer is executed to move the lower half of row 0 of the DRAM 62 (FIG. 5A) into the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A). Thus, after this transfer, the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A) stores the first 1024 pixels of scan line 1 in its lower half. While the data of this half row is serially outputted from the VRAM 60 (FIG. 5A), another split row transfer is performed to move the data of the upper half of row 511 of the DRAM 62 (FIG. 5A) into the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A), including the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of scan line 1. Thus, after the lower half row is outputted from the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A), the serial counter pointer may be set to point to the location in the SAM 66 of the first of the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels. The last one hundred pixels of scan line 1 of the display screen may thereafter be serially outputted from the VRAM 60 (FIG. 5A).
After the display of display screen scan line 1, a horizontal blanking interval occurs. The upper half of row 0 of the DRAM 62 (FIG. 5A) (containing the first 1024 pixels of display screen scan line 2) is transferred, Via a split row transfer to the upper half of the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A). The serial counter pointer is set to point to the first pixel datum of the upper half and pixels are shifted out of the SAM (FIG. 5A). While pixel data are serially shifted out of the upper half of the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A) a split row transfer is performed to move the last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of display screen scan line 2 from the lower half of DRAM 62 (FIG. 5A) row 511 to the lower half of the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A). Again, after pixel 1024 of the display screen row is shifted out, the serial counter pointer may be set to point to the location of the first of the one hundred twenty-eight pixels in the lower half of the SAM 66 (FIG. 5A). The last one hundred twenty-eight pixels of scan line 2 may then be shifted out. This process continues for all of the display screen scan lines.
As can be seen, the circuit of FIG. 5B uses much of the VRAM 60 (FIG. 5) without wasting space. However, the display of pixels on the display screen is highly complex. The complexity increases for displays of dimensions not divisible by 32, or displays having odd dimensions.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a display system which makes more efficient use of memory resources.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a video display system whose structure is independent of a specific screen resolution.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a video display system which is adaptable to any screen resolution without complicated circuitry.

Resolution independent screen refresh strategy

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A method of manufacturing a polymer-insulated conductor. The method includes the steps of a) providing a conductor having a first cross-sectional shape, b) passing the conductor through a conductor-shaping die to shape the conductor such that the conductor obtains a second cross-sectional shape, wherein frictional heat is developed in the conductor, thereby setting the conductor in a heated state, c) applying molten polymer to the conductor when the conductor is in the heated state to obtain a polymer-coated conductor, and d) shaping the polymer-coated conductor by means of a polymer-shaping die to thereby obtain the polymer-insulated conductor.

Electrical conductors may for example be used in power transmission and distribution applications, and in power transformation. In these applications it is desirable to electrically insulate electrical conductors such that they do not short-circuit and thereby damage electrical equipment and/or cause injury to people.
GB 943 151 discloses an example of a method of insulating electric cables and conductors with an insulating plastic material. The conductor is drawn through a bath of molten plastic material and thereafter through a die. The die has a conical hole, and the cone angle is 6-12 degrees, and the smallest diameter of the conical hole is 20-30% larger than that of the uncoated conductor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,173 discloses an apparatus for the manufacture of a coated filament such as a magnet wire. The method may comprise heating the filament, depending on the coating material utilized and the wire properties desired. In this case, the filament is heated by means of a heating device to a temperature of about decomposition temperature. In most applications the filament is heated to about the melting point of the coating material. The filament then travels through a die where the coating is applied.
For high voltage and medium voltage applications it is especially important that the electrical insulation provided around a conductor is reliable, as for example, the electrical insulation may progressively be destroyed due to repeated corona/partial discharges generated within the insulated electrical conductor.
The electrical insulation of many existing electrically insulated electrical conductors is hence prone to progressive destruction.

Method of manufacturing a polymer-insulated conductor


Hanging close organizers providing highly rigid and highly stable shelves for supporting shoes and garments are relatively inexpensive to manufacture while, at the same time, provide a relatively large number of potential positions at which the rigid shelves may be securely yet removably positioned. A collapsible fabric body includes a plurality of straps disposed and stitched vertically within the interior of the body. The straps are stitched to the overall body along the majority of the length of each strap. Periodic gaps in the stitching, at horizontally aligned, predetermined positions along the length of each strap, form slots, or slot regions. Each of four horizontal side hooks, disposed proximate an associated corner of a removable shelf, may be advanced axially through an associated slot. A distal protrusion or barb of each side hook serves to further secure each shelf in place, inhibiting unwanted slippage or inadvertent removal of a shelf.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to closet organizers for the storing of articles of apparel such as shoes and clothing and, more particularly, to closet organizers that are hung from and supported by closet rods or similar cylindrical supports.
2. General Background of the Invention
Closet organizers for supporting and storing shoes and articles of clothing, and that are hung from a closet or similar cylindrical supports, have been known for quite some time. Today, such closet organizers are often collapsible to facilitate their transportation and storage when empty, having a body made of a fabric material and having shelving that is at least semi-rigid, sometimes made of fiberboard or a similar material.
Some prior art closet organizers, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,847,066, include a relatively limited number of fabric pockets, or partitions, with each pocket accepting a filler member such as cardboard and creating a plurality of fixed, identically-sized compartments. Such organizers do not provide any user selection of storage compartment height, and are relatively complex in construction, particularly with respect to the attachment of the individual top and bottom portions of each pocket to the fabric shell of the organizer Moreover, the pockets of such organizers may not firmly support the filler members or inserts, leading to compartment bottoms that may sag somewhat when loaded with articles of clothing, particularly heavier garments.
Other prior art closet organizers, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pub. No. 2005/0140253, include adjustable sized compartments, and removable shelves. Such organizers, however, are relatively complex in construction and relatively expensive to manufacture, as multiple locking strips are required to be attached to the organizer at each potential position that a shelf may be attached.

Hanging closet organizer with rigid adjustable shelves


A database management system may be operated by a third-party provider that hosts the system in a datacenter and provides access to the system to end users on behalf of various entities. Limits on total capacity consumption may be imposed, but may result in service outages when capacity consumption exceeds those limits. Requests to perform operations on the system may be classified. The request classifications may be associated with policies for admitting or rejecting the request. One or more token buckets representative of capacity available to the request to perform the operation may be used to determine to admit the request and updated based on the cost of performing the operation.

Database management systems ("DBMS") may be operated by a third-party provider that hosts the DBMS on servers in a datacenter and provides the DBMS as a service to various entities such as corporations, universities, government agencies, and other types of customers. In order to host the DBMS and provide the service to the various entities, the provider typically maintains significant resources in hardware, software, and infrastructure. In addition, the provider may incur various ongoing costs related to operating the DBMS such as power, maintenance costs and the salaries of technical personnel. Accordingly, in order to provide a responsive service to the various entities, the provider may attempt to maximize the capacity and utilization of the hardware and other resources installed at its data centers.

Input-output prioritization for database workload