This invention computes by constructing a lattice of states. Every lattice of states corresponding to correct execution satisfies the temporal logic formula comprising a Definitive Axiomatic Notation for Concurrent Execution (DANCE) program. This invention integrates into a state-lattice computational model: a polymorphic, strong type system; visibility-limiting domains; first-order assertions; and logic for proving a program correctness. This invention includes special hardware means for elimination of cache coherency among other things, necessary to construct state-lattices concurrently. The model of computation for the DANCE language consisting of four, interrelated, logical systems describing state-lattices, types, domains, and assertions. A fifth logical system interrelates the other four systems allowing proofs of program correctness. The method of the present invention teaches programs as temporal formulas satisfied by lattices of states corresponding to correct execution. State-lattices that are short and bushy allow application of many processors simultaneously thus reducing execution time.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for the execution of plural computer programs being executed by a multiplicity of processors in a parallel configuration, and more specifically to performing multiple state transitions simultaneously.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
New Parallel Language Needed
I surveyed ways to program parallel machines. Despite contentions to the contrary, I do not consider SIMD (single-instruction, multiple-datastream) machines like the Connection Machine (CM-2) to be parallel processors. SIMD machines are restricted to performing the same operation in many cells and thus can perform only a narrow range of applications. Most applications require much data-dependent branching that degrades performance on SIMD machines, such as the Cray YMP-8 and CM-2 alike. FORTRAN, with a vectorizing compiler, is appropriate for SIMD machines. Every attempt to wring efficient, massive parallelism from conventional FORTRAN programs has failed. Only programs expressed with a language embodying an inherently parallel model of computation can execute efficiently in parallel.
The challenge to those wishing to exact optimum performance from highly parallel processors is to coordinate activities in processing nodes that are doing different things. Modifications to special-purpose languages like LISP and PROLOG to incorporate futures and guards, respectively, are problematic, addressing restricted application domains of largely academic interest.
Then there are the many extensions of sequential languages. Such extensions fall into two classes: "processes" and "doall". Ada is perhaps the best example of a process-based language. Each Ada task (i.e. process) represents a single thread of control that cooperates with other tasks through message passing. Communicating Sequential Processes described in "Communicating Sequential Processes," C. A. R. Hoare, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 21, No. 8, August 1978 forms the underlying model of computation for message-passing, process-based languages. However, deciding whether an arbitrary collection of processes is deadlock-free is undecidable and proving that a particular collection of processes is deadlock-free is onerous. Furthermore, such pairwise communication and synchronization is unnecessarily restrictive thus limiting the degree of parallelism. Finally, a programmer writes (essentially) a plurality of sequential programs, rather than a single, parallel program. The "doall" is just a FORTRAN do-loop in which all the iterations are instead performed concurrently; again a collection of sequential programs.
Current, Conventional, Concurrent Computing
Traditional, sequential computing causes a sequence of states to be created so that the last state holds the data desired. FIG. 1 illustrates sequential computing starting at an initial state (101), proceeding through intermediate states (103), and terminating in a final state (102). The values of program variables at a particular instant of time comprise a state, depicted as circles. In state diagrams, time always flows down the page, that is, the state at the top of the figure occurs first followed by the state(s) connected by a line. Broken lines indicate repetition or "more of the same."
In "parallel" execution several sequences of state transitions occur concurrently. FIG. 2 depicts parallel execution in doall style. The state diagram shows state transitions occurring as "parallel" sequences. The conception of parallel processing as a collection of sequential executions characterizes the prior art that this invention supersedes.
Two mechanisms allow communication between sequential processes: message-passing or shared-memory. Load balancing and problem partitioning have produced many academic papers for either message-passing or shared-memory paradigms--nearly all yielding poor performance.
Mutual exclusion (MutEx) via message passing (i.e. for distributed systems, no shared state) is horribly inefficient. If the application needs MutEx often, performance will suffer. "An Algorithm for Mutual Exclusion in Computer Networks," Glenn Ricart & Ashok K. Agrawala, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 24, No. 1, January 1981, for a discussion of prior art O(N) request/reply algorithm, which really needs O(N.sup.2) messages when everyone wants the lock. "A.sqroot.N Algorithm for Mutual Exclusion in Decentralized Systems," Mamoru Maekawa, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, Vol. 3, No. 2, May 1985, reduces messages to O(.check mark.N) with an elegant multidimensional geometry. Sanders' generalized MutEx algorithm in more convoluted terms in her article, "The Information Structure of Distributed Mutual Exclusion Algorithms," Beverly A. Sanders, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, Vol. 5, No. 1, August 1987. She considers deadlock freedom (absence of possibility that computation ceases because every process is waiting to acquire a lock held by a different process), but the basic model which she proposes needs further augmentation to detect and recover from deadlock. Of course, only a wordy explanation substitutes for correctness proof. Therefore the desired interference freedom provided by MutEx is not achieved. Raymond in "A Tree-Based Algorithm for Distributed Mutual Exclusion," ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, Vol. 7, No. 1, February 1989, further reduced the number of messages to O(logN) by increasing the latency, which could easily become a significant burden if processes need the lock briefly.
Controlling access to shared variables is so difficult that designers have resorted to the message-passing model in which all state variables are local to some process and processes interact exclusively, via exchange of messages. Inevitably, two different kinds of system-wide operations barrier synchronization and remote state acquisition are required by the algorithm or application. They are notoriously inefficient. Barrier synchronization ensures that all the parallel computations in one phase are completed before the next phase is begun. Remote state acquisition occurs when the application's data cannot be partitioned disjointly so that all processes use values exclusively from its partition held in local memory. For example, advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research seeks to analyze brain scans and call to the attention of the radiologist any anomalies. Three-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) is necessary for filtering and extraction of interesting features. The data consists of a 1 k by 1 k by 1 k array of floating point intensities. The first phase of the algorithm maps nicely by putting a 1 k by 1 k plane in each of 1 k processors. However integrating the third dimension finds the data in the worst possible distribution--every computation needs values that are possessed by each of the 1 k processors|
Barriers are an artifact of the popular yet problematic process paradigm. A static collection of sequential processes alternately work independently and wait for laggards. FIG. 3 depicts four processes (201) synchronized with barriers (204). Each process is actively computing (202) and then wait idly (203) until all other processes reach the barrier. The best known algorithms for barrier-synchronization take O(logP) time (with a large constant) for both message-passing and shared-memory models. This corresponds with the depth of a tree using either messages or flags.
A large body of academic work has been produced for both message-passing and parallel, random-access machine (PRAM) models, i.e. shared memory. Barrier synchronization in a message-passing model requires O(logP) time where P is number of processors, with a big constant proportional to message transmission latency. See "Algorithms for Scalable Synchronization on Shared-Memory Multiprocessors," John M. Mellor-Crummey and Michael L. Scott, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, Vol. 9, No. 1, February 1991.
Consider an ideally parallelizable application that requires synchronization. A single processor would require N steps (time, T.sub.8) to perform the application with L iterations of a single loop each requiring N/L steps. When parallelized, barrier synchronization is required at the end of each iteration taking logP steps. Real systems take many steps for each level of the synchronization tree. So the parallel time for each iteration, T.sub.i is N/(L*P)+logP and the whole application T.sub.p, is T.sub.i *L or N/P+L*logP steps. Speedup, S, is the ratio of sequential time to parallel time, T.sub.s /T.sub.p. Efficiency, E, is the speedup obtained divided by the number of processors used, S/P. In this case, E=T.sub.s /T.sub.p *P=N/(N+P*L*logP).
______________________________________ Total work to be done T.sub.s = N steps (sequential) Number of loop iterations L Sequential time per iteration N/L Parallel time per iteration T.sub.j = N/(L*P) + logP Total parallel time T.sub.p = T.sub.i *L = N/P + L*logP Speedup S = T.sub.s /T.sub.p = N*P/(N + P*L*logP) S = P/(1 + (L/N)*P*logP) Efficiency E = S/P = N/(N + P*L*logP) E = 1/(1 + (L/N)*P*logP) - O(1/logP) ______________________________________
When the number of processors is small, N>>P*L*logP, the efficiency can be quite good, close to 1. But as more processors are used (N.apprxeq.P) the barrier synchronization overhead begins to dominate even when only a single barrier is needed.
Therefore, an application needing barrier synchronization on any conceivable message-passing architecture (N.apprxeq.P), the minimum time of execution will be O(logP), the best speedup possible is O(P/logP), the efficiency can be no better than O(1/logP). Little wonder that efficiencies of even 10% are hard to achieve on parallel processors like CM-2, CM-5, NCube, Paragon, and T3D. They can perform no better than their theoretical model.
______________________________________ Order parallel time T.sub.p = O(logP) Order speedup S = O(P/logP) Order efficiency E = O(1/logP) ______________________________________
Parallel Random-Access Machines (PRAMs) suffer similar fate. When most people think of "shared-memory" they imagine a PRAM--a bunch of sequential processors that can read and write the same memory locations. Many PRAM variations exist. Whether the memory locations can be accessed concurrently or exclusively and what happens for concurrent accesses constitute most of the PRAM model differences. Even unrealistic operations like storing the median or geometric mean of all concurrent writes still inflicts an O(logP) penalty for barrier synchronization same as message-passing.
Sequential algorithms have been traditionally analyzed using Turing machines. Both the time (number of steps) and the space (number of tape squares) are used to measure the complexity of a computation. Additionally whether the Turing machine has a unique next action (deterministic) or a set of possible next actions (nondeterministic) substantially affects the complexity measure of a computation.
The following paragraphs summarize three chapters of a recent book on parallel algorithms entitled "Synthesis of Parallel Algorithms", John H. Reif, editor, Morgan Kaufmann, 1993, that I believe is state-of-the-art computer science theory for shared-memory computers. The following sections quote heavily those authors (Faith E. Fich, Raymond Greenlaw, and Phillip B. Gibbons) and will be indented to indicate quotation.
PRAMs attempt to model the computational behavior of a shared-memory parallel processor. The alternative is shared-nothing, message-passing parallel processors, which are popular these days. PRAMs have many variations and have a large body of published scholarship. Fich, Greenlaw, and Gibbons cover the main kinds of PRAMs, which I deem represent the conventional wisdom about how to think about parallel computation. This paradigm has, so far, not yielded efficient, general-purpose, parallel processing. Thus the motive for the present invention.
Fich's chapter begins with a concise definition of a "synchronous" PRAM.
"The PRAM is a synchronous model of parallel computation in which processors communicate via shared memory. It consists of m shared memory cells M.sub.1 . . . , M.sub.m and p processors P.sub.1, . . . , P.sub.p. Each processor is a random access machine (RAM) with a private local memory. During every step of a computation a processor may read from one shared memory cell perform a local operation, and write to one memory cell. Reads, local operations, and writes are viewed as occurring during three separate phases. This simplifies analysis and only changes the running time of an algorithm by a constant factor." (Underline mine.) PA1 "A forking PRAM is a PRAM in which a new processor is created when an existing processor executes a fork operation. In addition to creating the new processor, this operation specifies the task that the new processor is to perform (starting at the next time step)." PA1 Phase 1: Each processor that wants to write marks its dedicated cell from the p EREW cells used for each PRIORITY cell. PA1 Phase 2: By evaluating (in parallel) a binary tree of all processors that want to write the highest priority processor is found. PA1 Phase 3: The winning processor writes the "real" memory cell. PA1 "Existing MIMD machines are asynchronous, i.e., the processors are not constrained to operate in lock-step. Each processor can proceed through its program at its own speed, constrained by the progress of other processors only at explicit synchronization points. However in the (synchronous) PRAM model, all processors execute a PRAM program in lock-step with one another. Thus in order to safely execute a PRAM program on an asynchronous machine, there must be a synchronization point after each PRAM instruction. Synchronizing after each instruction is inherently inefficient since the ability of the machine to run asynchronously is not fully exploited and there is a (potentially large) overhead in performing the synchronization. Therefore our first modification to the PRAM model will be to permit the processors to run asynchronously and then charge for any needed synchronization." (underline mine) PA1 Additionally shared memory accesses are charged more than local accesses: "To keep the model simple we will use a single parameter, d, to quantify the communication delay to memory. This parameter is intended to capture the ratio of the median time for global memory accesses to the median time for a local operation." PA1 Given n numbers stored one per global memory location, and the following four types of instructions: L:=G, L:=L+L, G:=L and "barrier," where L is a local cell and G is a global cell, then the sum of n numbers on an Asynchronous PRAM with this instructions set requires .OMEGA.(B log n/log B) regardless of the number of processors. This is interesting because Multitude can sum n integers in O(1) time| Gibbons concludes with "subset synchronization" in which only a subset of processors in the machine need synchronize. Since the barriers involve fewer processors, and thus are shorter, summing numbers runs marginally faster. PA1 induction basis: Prove that P holds for n=0. PA1 Induction step: Prove that P holds for n+1 from the induction hypothesis that P holds for n. PA1 hundreds, thousands, or more processors may be efficiently used; PA1 program correctness may be proved; PA1 special data structures may be created that allow many elements within the data structure to be simultaneously accessed without locking, blocking, or semaphores; PA1 the meaning of every language construct is precisely and mathematically defined; and PA1 during program execution, processors may simultaneously self-schedule or post work for other processors to do.
Throughout Fich's paper she assumes a synchronous PRAM: single-instruction, multiple-datastream (SIMD). This allows her to ignore synchronization costs and hassles in her analyses. The synchronous PRAM cannot model MIMD machines with their independent, data-dependent branching is and uncertain timing. Having all processors read-execute-write each step sidesteps sticky issues like what happens when a memory cell is read and written simultaneously. Furthermore the execute part of a step can perform any calculation whatsoever| So the lower bounds derived for various algorithms concentrate solely on shared-memory accesses while totally ignoring the real computation--data transformation in the execute part of the step.
Fich describes "forking" PRAM in which new processors are created with a fork operation (as in Unix). A forking PRAM can dynamically describe parallel activities at run-time. (Regular PRAMs have a fixed set of processes/processors.) But a forking PRAM still is a collection of sequential execution streams, not a single, parallel program.
After defining a forking PRAM Fich never mentions it again. But she does make claims for PRAMs about "programmer's view," "ignoring lower level architectural details such as . . . synchronization," and "performance of algorithms on the PRAM can be a good predictor of their relative performance on real machines," that I completely disagree with. Since PRAMs exemplify the process paradigm (collection of sequential executions) they may adequately predict performance of algorithms and architectures similarly afflicted (all machines built so far), but certainly not what's possible.
Most distinctions between PRAMs involve memory access restrictions. The most restrictive is called exclusive-read exclusive-write (EREW). Ensuring that two processors don't write to the same memory cell simultaneously is trivial with a synchronous PRAM since all operations are under central control. The other four memory access restrictions are: concurrent-read exclusive write (CREW), COMMON, ARBITRARY, and PRIORITY. The last three restrictions differ in how concurrent writes are handled. With COMMON, values written at the same time to the same cell must have the same value. With ARBITRARY, any value written in the same step may be stored in the memory cell. With PRIORITY, the value written by the highest priority process (lowest process number) is stored in the memory cell.
Obviously an EREW program would run just fine on a CREW machine; the concurrent read hardware would not be used. The five memory restrictions Fich uses nest nicely in a power hierarchy: EQU PRIORITY>ARBITRARY>COMMON>CREW>EREW
Fich then spends much of her chapter showing how many steps it takes one PRAM to simulate a single step of another.
Proving that EREW can simulate a step of PRIORITY using O(log p) steps and p*m memory cells takes Fich two pages of wordy prose. Essentially the simulation takes three phases:
Since the height of the binary tree is O(log p) it takes O(log p) steps for an EREW PRAM to emulate a PRIORITY PRAM. Much of Fich's chapter is devoted to convoluted schemes by which one model simulates another without mentioning any applications that benefit from a more powerful and expensive model.
Gibbons finally provides a reasonable PRAM model in the very last chapter of this 1000 page book. None of the other authors constrain themselves to reasonable models, thus limiting the value of their work. In Gibbons' PRAM model:
I invented the Layered class of multistage interconnection networks U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,468, LAYERED NETWORK, Larson et al., May 23, 1989! specifically to keep d small. For the Multitude architecture (interconnected by a Layered network) the ratio of time for global memory accesses to local memory accesses is about 3 to 4. This compares with a ratio of local memory access time to cache hit time of 20 to 30.
Gibbons' asynchronous PRAM model uses four types of instructions: global read, global write, local operation, and synchronization step. The cost measures are:
______________________________________ Instruction Cost ______________________________________ local operation 1 global read or write d k global reads or writes d + k - 1 synchronization barrier B ______________________________________
The parameter B=B(p), the time to synchronize all the processors, is a nondecreasing function of the number of processors, p, used by the program. In the Asynchronous PRAM model, the parameters are assumed to obey the following constraints: 2.ltoreq.d.ltoreq.B.ltoreq.p. However a reasonable assumption for modeling most machines is that B(p).di-elect cons.O(d/log p) or B(p).di-elect cons.O(d/log p/log d).
Here again is evidence of a logP performance hit for barrier synchronization.
A synchronous EREW PRAM can be directly adapted to run on an asynchronous PRAM by inserting two synchronization barriers, one after the read phase and write phase of the synchronous PRAM time step. Thus a single step of a synchronous PRAM can be simulated in 2B+2d+1 time on an asynchronous PRAM. Therefore a synchronous EREW PRAM algorithm running in t time using p processors will take t(2B+2d+1) time on an asynchronous PRAM--a significant penalty. Gibbons shows how to maintain the O(Bt) running time but use only p/B processors by bunching the operations of B synchronous processors into a single asynchronous processor thus getting more work done for each barrier synchronization.
Gibbons transforms an EREW algorithm for the venerable "all prefix sums" operation for an asynchronous PRAM yielding an O(B log n/log B) time algorithm which isn't too bad. Gibbons presents asynchronous versions of descaling lemmas (performing the same application with fewer processors) which tack on a term for the barrier synchronizations. Still he uses many barriers in order to obtain behavior similar to synchronous PRAMs. Only when applications are synchronized just when they need it, and those needed synchronizations are really fast, B.apprxeq.d.apprxeq.1, will scaled-up parallel processing be possible, which is the contribution of this invention and Layered networks.
Gibbons considers several algorithms that run in O(B log n/log B) time. In particular, he proves an interesting theorem about summing numbers:
So the best PRAM model I could find charges PRAM algorithms for their "cheating," but still offers no insights about how to efficiently compute on an MIMD machine.
Temporal Logic
Moszkowski in his Executing Temporal Logic Programs Cambridge University Press, 1986! presented a temporal-logic programming language. His language, Tempura, allows description of parallel execution (unsatisfactorily) within a single program expression. The foundation for Tempura is interval temporal logic. A Tempura interval is a non-empty sequence of states. A state is determined by the values of program variables at a particular instant of time. The sequence of states that form an interval provide a discrete notion of time.
The semantics of Tempura were much different than any I had previously encountered. Instead of programs being a step-by-step recipe for how to do the computation, they were logical formulas that are "satisfied" by constructing a "model" that makes the formula "true." Unfortunately the models constructed are simply sequences of states--the process model underlying PRAMs.
The semantics of what is referred to herein as DANCE programs, although also temporal logic formula based, are satisfied by constructing models with a different and superior mathematical structure that allows efficient execution on a plurality of computational engines. It is this mathematical structure that forms the core of this invention.


Disclosed herein is a flame retardant thermoplastic resin composition that has superior scratch resistance and mechanical properties, satisfying requirements for the appearance of housing materials resulting from a recent increase in volume of electrical and electronic products, and that contains a phosphorus-based flame-retarding agent, satisfying requirements for fire safety and prevention of environmental problems. The resin composition with scratch resistance comprises a base resin comprising (A) about 30 to about 90 parts by weight of a polycarbonate resin, (B) about 15 to about 50 parts by weight of a polymethylmethacrylate resin and (C) about 5 to about 50 parts by weight of a polyethylene terephthalate-based resin, and (D) about 5 to about 30 parts by weight of a phosphorus-based flame-retarding agent based on 100 parts by weight of the base resin. The composition may further comprise about 1 to about 30 parts by weight of an impact modifier based on 100 parts by weight of the base resin.

Polycarbonate (PC) resins are polymer resins that have superior mechanical strength, transparency, thermal stability, self-extinguishing properties, dimensional stability, and the like, and that have many uses for electrical and electronic products, vehicle components, and the like.
Because polycarbonate resins have a polymer structure that can facilitate flame retardancy, polycarbonate resins can be used as typical flame-retarding agents and easily achieve flame retardancy.
In particular, because PC resins can form char, a PC resin combined with a phosphorus-based flame-retarding agent can easily achieve flame retardancy without environmental problems. Moreover, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,745, U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,394, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,924, compositions formed by melting and blending PC and a rubber-modified styrene-based resin (ABS resin) can further improve processiblity.
However, although PC resins and PC/ABS resins have merits in terms of high processiblity and superior impact resistance, both PC resins and PC/ABS resins have weak scratch resistance, so that products made of such PC resins or PC/ABS resins have low scratch resistance.
Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) resins not only have excellent scratch resistance and weather resistance, but also superior surface-glossing, bonding properties, and mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, elastic modulus, etc. PMMA resins are widely used in ornamental articles, signboards, illuminating materials, various kinds of construction materials, bonding agents, modifiers of other plastic materials, and the like.
However, PMMA resins have a lower impact resistance, compared with that of other plastic materials, and are likely to be fractured by an external impact. Moreover, because PMMA exhibits a limiting oxygen index of 17 required for continuous burning and does not form char upon combustion, it is difficult to impart flame retardancy to PMMA.
This difficulty is closely related to the easy formation of monomers as by-products of thermal decomposition, during which PMMA is sequentially subjected to chain scission followed by β-scission, as set forth in Polymer (published by Elsevier Science, LTD., Volume 44, pp. 883-894, 2003).
Therefore, when producing a flame retardant resin by blending only PC resin and PMMA resin, a large amount of a flame-retarding agent must be used due to the low flame retardancy of PMMA. If the amount of PMMA resin is reduced to ensure flame retardancy, however, it is difficult to attain superior scratch resistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,786 discloses a composition with superior weld line strength, which is formed by adding phosphoric ester as a flame-retarding agent and PMMA to PC and ABS resins. However, because the composition of the disclosure has a relatively small amount of PMMA to impart scratch resistance, and the PC and ABS resins in the composition have low scratch resistance, the composition may not have adequate scratch resistance.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins have excellent wear resistance as well as good mechanical properties and superior chemical resistance and thus can be advantageous for improving scratch resistance.
However, PET-based resins have the disadvantages of reduced flame retardancy and low notched-impact resistance.
Currently, as the appearance of housing materials becomes more and more important as the size of electrical and electronic products increases, resins are required to have scratch resistance. In addition, the use of flame retardant resins is emphasized to ensure fire safety. Furthermore, to address environmental concerns, there is an increasing interest in eliminating halogen containing substances from the resins. It is very difficult, however, to produce a resin that can meet all the requirements as described above using conventional techniques.
Therefore, there is still a need to develop a thermoplastic resin composition that can satisfy all requirements for superior scratch resistance, fire safety, and prevention of environmental problems while maintaining its mechanical properties.

Scratch-resistant flameproof thermoplastic resin composition


A logging tool and method for winding a multi-component induction (MCI) antenna is presented. The method eliminates unwanted dipole signals that are created by the voltage drop that takes place in the transmitter. The antenna is made of at least two parts physically separated, one on each side of the mandrel. The winding method is performed in a way that creates at least four windings arranged to eliminate dipole signals attributable to an asymmetric voltage distribution. The midpoint of the conductive wire that for is the antenna windings may be electrically attached to the tool body. This method is suitable for the winding of the cross-components X and Y of the MCI coil arrays.

Drillers and oil field operators use electromagnetic logging tools to measure a wide variety of subsurface formation parameters including, e.g., resistivity and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) responses. Such tools often energize a transmitter antenna with an alternating current to emit electromagnetic energy through the borehole fluid and into the surrounding formations. The emitted energy interacts with the borehole and formation to produce signals that are detected and measured by one or more receiver antennas. By processing the detected signal data, a profile of the formation can be determined. Such information is useful for well exploration and production.
The antennas on these tools are generally formed as multi-loop coils of conductive wire. The conductive wire sustains a voltage drop when the transmitters are driven and the signals are induced into the receivers. Depending on the winding pattern for the coils, such voltage drops can create an unwanted dipole signal that adversely affects the measurements. In addition, such voltage drops can cause undesirable cross-coupling between the antennas, further contaminating the tool's measurements. These issues do not appear to have been adequately addressed in tools having transverse (X- and Y-) antennas.

Coil winding methods for downhole logging tools


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a barrier structure over a substrate. The method further includes forming a channel layer over the barrier structure. The method further includes depositing an active layer over the channel layer. The method further includes forming source/drain electrodes over the channel layer. The method further includes annealing the source/drain electrodes to form ohmic contacts in the active layer under the source/drain electrodes.

Due to high current density, high breakdown voltage, and low ON resistance, High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) are suitable for use in power applications. An HEMT structure includes a channel layer and an active layer. A two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is generated in the channel layer, adjacent an interface with the active layer. The 2DEG is used in the HEMT structure as charge carriers. A consideration in designing HEMT structures involves breakdown voltage improvements. A breakdown voltage of an HEMT structure is a gate voltage at which the drain current sharply increases. A high breakdown voltage indicates the ability of the HEMT structure to withstand a high gate voltage without being damaged and/or exhibiting irregular current behaviors.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a barrier structure

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.


A technique is provided for determining ownership interest allocation for a business, wherein transactions of contributors with the business are grouped into contributor transaction classes (CTCs), and a contribution value is calculated for the contributor transactions in each CTC to indicate the contribution of each transaction to the value of the business, using one or more performance metrics for each CTC, and lastly, at least one ownership interest award rule for a contributor is determined, based on the calculated contribution values for the CTCs. The technique can be performed with a digital computer and can provide real-time dynamic measures of ownership interest allocation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to business determinations of ownership interest allocation and, more particularly, to methods and systems for determining equity structures of businesses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Businesses may be formed and may operate as corporations. The corporation issues shares of stock, which thereafter may be independently bought and sold. Often, the shares of stock in some corporations may be widely held by various funds, individuals, and even other corporations. The purchase of all the shares of stock in a corporation is one means of buying, or taking over, a corporation. Thus, the price of a share of corporate stock may fluctuate over the life of a corporation. More recently, awards of corporate shares (and options to purchase corporate stock) have been widely used as an inducement for executive recruitment, and stock option plans for employees generally have become highly competitive and, often, quite lucrative. As the share price of many corporations soars, interest in owning shares in those corporations has dramatically increased among businesses and the general public.
There may be many circumstances under which it would be advantageous to determine an allocation of an ownership interest, such as corporate stock, to be granted, sold, or traded. For example, it may be important for a corporation to develop a strategy for allocating stock among key executives and employees as part of stock options plans, for improved recruitment, greater employee morale, and increased employee retention. It would be advantageous to determine how to allocate stock in one corporation to another, as part of a corporate acquisition. Finally, it may be desirable to reward corporate customers (either businesses or individuals) with shares of corporate stock, particularly for the customers having the greatest impact on a corporation's business. For example, stock equity in a corporation may be granted to those customers with the largest purchases of corporate products. These various parties or groups to be allocated shares of stock may be viewed as entities competing for equity allocation.
Many allocations of corporate equity or other ownership interest occur on an ad hoc basis, in response to market forces and common industry practices. This makes creating and managing employee stock option plans difficult. Customer award plans also are made more difficult to implement. In addition, corporate mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations are made less precise, consistent, and accurate. It would be advantageous to employ a systematic assessment of equity allocation among competing entities, to ensure consistent application of criteria and accurately determine the amount of stock to be awarded.
From the discussion above, it should be apparent that there is a need for systematically determining an allocation of ownership interest for a business, based on contributions to the furtherance of the business. The present invention fulfills this need.

Dynamic determination of ownership interest based on contribution


An organosilane masterbatch containing (a) 2-20 parts by weight of rubber, (b) 0-60 parts by weight of filler, (c) 5-55 parts by weight of organosilane and (d) 0-10 parts by weight of dispersing agent. A process for preparing the organosilane masterbatch by mixing the rubber, filler, organosilane and dispersing agent in a banbury or kneader, extruding and cutting into pieces. Rubber mixtures containing the organosilane masterbatch can be used in rubber mixtures.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to organosilane masterbatches, processes for their preparation, their use in rubber mixtures and products derived from or containing the organosilane master batches.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional organosilane compositions consisting of or consisting essentially of 30 to 60 weight-% of one or more organosilanes and 70 to 40 weight-% of carbon blacks are known (U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,438). Known organosilane compositions do not incorporate well into rubber compounds and may form in homogeneous mixtures. Disadvantages of known organosilane compositions include high bead abrasion of the granulate form during transport.
It is known that unvulcanized elastomer compositions can be prepared in multi-stage processes which include substantially dispersing a particulate filler selected from modified carbon blacks and sulfur crosslinking agent into a sulfur crosslinkable hydrocarbon elastomer to produce a substantially unvulcanized elastomer masterbatch. A sulfur crosslinking agent comprising sulfur or a sulfur donor is also added as a crosslinker for the hydrocarbon elastomer. The substantially unvulcanized elastomer composition is then prepared in at least one subsequent stage of the multi-stage process, for example by mechanical work-up of the masterbatch (U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,956).
A disadvantage of conventional elastomer compositions is that the rubber content is high when different rubbers are present in the masterbatch.


A liquid crystal display screen detecting device is provided. The liquid crystal display screen detecting device comprises: a supporting unit configured to have two opposed support frames; a conveying unit configured to carry a liquid crystal display screen to be detected and move on the support frames; a driving unit configured to drive the conveying unit; and a detecting unit configured to detect the liquid crystal display screen to be detected.

It is known that, both upper and lower sides of a liquid crystal display screen are required to be detected when the liquid crystal display screen is detected. Generally, the liquid crystal display screen to be detected is operated by a mechanical hand with a suction nozzle, then the liquid crystal display screen to be detected is checked; if the liquid crystal display screen on a suction nozzle side is to be detected without a detection blind zone, the liquid crystal display screen should be further suctioned and lifted from the other side. However, these actions of the mechanical hand such as suctioning and lifting, moving and laying down and so on can cause physical damage to the liquid crystal display screen, resulting in poor product; and the maintenance workload for the mechanical hand itself and its ancillary equipment is heavy; in addition, if both sides of the liquid crystal display screen are detected at one time, the suctioned region cannot be detected, resulting in a detection blind zone.

Liquid crystal display screen detecting device

BOE (HEBEI) MOBILE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A virtual library apparatus emulates a library apparatus by storing a logical volume on a cache disk. The library apparatus has a first storage medium and a second storage medium. The virtual library apparatus includes a disk volume, a determining unit, a monitor, and a copying unit. The disk volume forms the cache disk. The determining unit determines the logical volume to be copied. The monitor monitors access load to the disk volume and selects the disk volume having the smallest access load on the basis of the monitoring result. The copying unit copies the determined logical volume from the first storage medium to the selected disk volume, and copies the copied logical volume from the disk volume to the second storage medium.

1. Field of the Technique
The present technique relates to a virtual tape-library apparatus that is between a host computer and a tape library apparatus, and stores tape data received and transmitted between the host computer and the tape library apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional virtual library system.
A virtual library system 101 connected to a host computer 201 has a virtual library apparatus 102 and a tape library apparatus 103. The virtual library apparatus 102 has a cache disk 111.
Further, the tape library apparatus 103 has a storage medium 121 for the virtual library apparatus 102 and an external storage medium 122.
The virtual library system 101 virtualizes a tape volume, and emulates the tape volume on the cache disk 111. Therefore, the virtual library system 101 does not have the concept of medium discharge provided for the conventional tape library apparatus 103. Then, the virtual library system 101 has an export function/import function, as a system for discharging the stored logical volume and for realizing an operation of external storage.
With the export function, a plurality of logical volumes stored in the storage medium 121 for the virtual library apparatus 102 are copied in a lump to the external storage medium 122 having a large capacity. The copied external storage medium 122 is externally extracted and is stored to an external archive.
With the import function, the external storage medium 122 externally-extracted from the virtual library system 101 with the export function is input to another virtual library system 101, thereby restoring the logical volumes.
In general, the logical volume in the virtual library system 101 is stored to the storage medium 121 for the virtual library apparatus 102 with a large capacity.
With export function/import function, upon executing the copying/restoring operation of the logical volume, the determined logical volume is copied to the cache disk 111 once. Further, at the import time, the logical volume is copied to the storage medium 121 for the virtual library apparatus 102 from the copied cache disk 111 and, at the export time, the logical volume is copied to the external storage medium 122.
As the cache disk 111, a disk array device is used and the cache disk 111 comprises a plurality of disk volumes. Further, the disk volumes are divided into a plurality of logical volumes. If the logical volume is assigned to the disk volume once, it is not subsequently changed.
Therefore, in frequent access to the logical volumes assigned to the same disk volume, the load is large. Further, access performance of the cache disk 111 deteriorates, thereby causing a case in which a normal processing capacity is not exhibited.
In particular, with the export function/import function, a large number of logical volumes are read and written once and the processing capacity is thus extremely reduced. FIG. 1 shows an example of causing the large load in a disk volume A in the export processing.

Library apparatus, library system and method for copying logical volume to disk volume in cache disk with smallest access load


A printing system (250) includes a printing subsystem (255) in the form of a printer assembly (14). The printing subsystem (255) includes a printer housing (257) in which a print engine (259) resides and a memory (261) for storing data indicating the position of labels on media. The contents of memory (261) can be obtained from an end user application (270) which may supply the position data to the printing subsystem (255) in a print data stream. Pre-programmed position data is read from a tag (88) on print media (28) having multiple tags embedded thereon. The pre-programmed position data is compared to position data received in a print request data stream to determine the position of at least one tag on the print media.

Inkjet and laser printers have become commonplace equipment in most workplace and home computing environments. Today, many printers are multi-functional assemblies capable of printing on a large array of print media including letterhead, paper envelopes and labels. A recent innovation in the printing industry involves the manufacturing of print media with embedded radio frequency signatures in the form of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders or tags. These tags, sometimes called "Smart Labels", may be used with a variety of existing printing methods.
Embedded print media generally comprises a backing material (sometimes referred to as the "web") upon which a label is applied, with a RFID tag sandwiched in between the label and the backing material. There may be one or more labels on the web and the sheet, as presented, may be part label and part plain paper. In some cases, there may be more than one tag arrayed across the width and down the length of the media such that multiple columns and/or rows of tags are contained on the print media.
Another similar type of embedded print media is known as "Smart Paper" in which RFID tags are embedded into the media without labels. One application for Smart Paper is in the area of secure document storage where access to information printed on a document is controlled by use of data control mechanisms such as Access Control List ("ACL") embedded in a tag on the media. To control access, a radio frequency reader/programmer situated near a control point, such as an access control cabinet, can check the ID of a user wanting to access the cabinet against the ACL on the tag on the media. If the ID of the user and the ACL do not match, an alarm can be invoked to notify of an attempted breach in security. In addition, the information on the ACL can be spread among a plurality of tags on a single sheet of print media to accommodate multiple accesses by multiple users while saving media costs.
One of the benefits of printing labels on a cut-sheet printer such as a laser or inkjet printer is that the relatively wide format allows for multiple columns of labels to be used. The use of multiple columns improves the overall rate at which the labels can be printed. At the same time, because the customer can print more than one label for each sheet printed, the relative cost of each label is greatly reduced.
Accordingly, printing of on media with embedded RFID tags is rapidly becoming a growing area of label printing. Each tag on a sheet can be printed with certain data, and the RFID tag embedded within that media can be used to allow individualized processing of user associated data. For example, a shipping label might have the delivery address and a package tracking ID printed on it, while the corresponding tag would be programmed with the same information. The delivery information can then be read from the tag, whether or not the package is positioned so that the tag is visible.
It is desirable that the same efficiencies found in multi-label sheets of traditional label media be realized in RFID embedded media. The problem this presents is the need to correlate the printed data on the sheet with the data programmed into each tag. As such, a means of locating each tag's physical position on the sheet during the printing and programming process in order to ensure that the correct data is programmed into each tag would provide numerous advantages.

Systems and methods for determining physical location of RFID tags on embedded print media


A topographic profile of a structure is generated using atomic force microscopy. The structure is scanned such that an area of interest of the structure is scanned at a higher resolution than portions of the structure outside of the area of interest. An profile of the structure is then generated based on the scan. To correct skew and tilt of the profile, a first feature of the profile is aligned with a first axis of a coordinate system. The profile is then manipulated to align a second feature of the profile with a second axis of the coordinate system.

The present invention relates to scanning probe microscopy, and more particularly to using atomic force microscopy to produce an image profile representative of a structure.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a metrology technique that is useful for measuring and imaging surface features of structures having dimensions in the nanometer and micrometer range. AFM may be used to scan structures made of any material in a short period of time to produce high resolution two-dimensional and three-dimensional images of the structure. AFM is an important tool for measuring dimensions of devices in the semiconductor industry, including magnetic recording devices and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices.
The lateral resolution of an image produced from an AFM scan of a structure is defined by the scan area size and the number of pixels in the image. Thus, in order to increase the lateral resolution of an image, the size of the scan area may be reduced or the amount of data in the image (i.e., the number of pixels) may be increased. However, a reduction in the size of the scan area removes contextual details around the scanned area of interest, which makes determining the relative sizes and positions of features within the structure difficult. On the other hand, to increase in the amount of data in the scan, the scan speed may be reduced, which decreases measurement throughput and may result in drift errors in the image. The increased amount of data in the scan also wastes the limited available data on areas outside of the areas of interest in the scan.
In addition, the small dimensions of the scanned structure result in missed details or the introduction of artifacts into the resulting image. For example, when scanning a structure including features having significant topographical transitions, feedback overshoot may occur at the transition locations, resulting in lost details in the representative image at the transition locations. In addition, a scan of a flat or planar feature in the structure may result in a curving or bowing artifact in the resulting image at the location of the flat or planar feature. This may be caused by the relative sizes and shapes of the scanning probe tip and the scanned feature. Image curvature may also occur when the scanning probe tip moves faster in one direction than the other along the structure surface because environmental vibrations, thermal drifting, and air flow along the probe tip may affect the image in the slower scan direction.

Atomic force microscopy scanning and image processing


The disclosed apparatus relates to a printer for connecting to a computer, the printer comprising, a cutting mechanism for cutting media fed into the printer, wherein the printer receives instructions from software stored in the computer regarding location of cut lines for cutting the media.

This invention relates to adhesive labels, and more particularly relates to a printer and related software application for allowing the shape of an adhesive label to be selectively chosen and cut.
Printing on labels has become very common in recent years as computers with databases of information that are convenient to print onto stickers have become more prevalent. Many people print labels for such things as address labels for holiday cards, or name badges for gatherings such as conventions, or labels for file folders or to print labels for CD's and DVD's as well as the jewel cases for these CD's and DVD's.
Most printers today can print on special label paper. However, the dimensions of the pre-cut labels have to be entered into the software to assure that the printing is done within the borders of each label. This often requires trial and error as the user learns where the printer thinks the borders of each label are, often resulting in wasting expensive label paper, ink, and time. And if a different size label is needed, the person must purchase additional pre-cut label paper even as the existing paper goes unused.
Certain companies sell pre-cut labels in hundreds of precut label shapes, sizes, and media. In addition to this large proliferation of precut label templates, they also provide software that helps consumers to align their text, clipart, graphics, etc. onto their label templates. Microsoft Word incorporates some of these templates to help a user to get the printing to fit the template correctly.
The pre-cut labels may not necessarily suit all purposes, however, and a user may envision alternate sizes and shapes for a particular application, however such alternate sizes and shapes may not be available. The only alternative for such a user is to hopefully find a pre-cut label that is big enough to be cut with scissors into the desired shape after it has been printed upon. The resulting label, however, may not look professionally made, and would be extremely difficult to replicate.

Printer system and software for adhesive labels


A display apparatus includes a display panel including a plurality of pixels exhibiting a brightness change range with respect to an applied voltage and a hue change range with respect to the applied voltage, and a control portion where a color image signal is inputted therein and a display signal is outputted to the display panel. The control portion includes a signal generator for generating and outputting a brightness display signal in the brightness change range, a hue display signal in the hue change range, and a signal for indicating a mixing ratio between the brightness display signal and the hue display signal, from the inputted color image signal. The display panel effects display, on the basis of the signal for indicating the mixing ratio, at a plurality of pixels in which pixels displaying in the brightness change range and pixels displaying in the hue change range are mixed.

There are currently a large number of color display technologies, which are widely used in a printing technique such as a printer or the like, a display device, etc. These color display technologies are roughly classified into:                1. a method wherein gradation is reproduced through pseudo-halftone representation such as dithering by means a device capable of displaying a discontinuous gradation color, and        2. a method wherein halftone is reproduced by means of a device capable of displaying a substantially continuous gradation color.
With respect to 2, it is possible to effect full-color display with no problem. For example, in a liquid crystal device using color filters of three colors of RGB, the respective display colors have analog gradation performance, so that it is possible to effect complete full-color display by spatial additive color mixture principle. Further, in a time-division color liquid crystal display method, light sources for three colors of RGB are switched at high speed and in synchronism therewith, a display device is subjected to among gradation control at high speed, so that it is possible to effect complete full-color display by timewise additive color mixture principle.
Even in the case where the display device itself has no gradation displayability, it has also been known that a substantially continuous gradation color can be displayed by effecting display at high speed through an ON/OFF operation. For example, plasma display panel (PDP) which has been widely popularized as a flat television, an organic EL display of the type wherein gradation display is effected by time division, a digital mirror device (DMD) which controls a display state by switching a mirror surface formed on a semiconductor substrate at high speed, and a method similarly using a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC), and the like are applicable.
As the color display technology other than the displays, there has been known a multi-value continuous gradation recording method using a density gradation method such as a laser intensity modulation in a laser-writing type printer or the like.
On the other hand, with respect to 1, it is put into practical use in the printer technology such as ink jet or laser beam, a bistable-type FLC display device, and the like. In these, a minimum display unit itself only has a discontinuous gradation displayability but pseudo-halftone display is effected by combining a plurality of display units and using the spatial additive color mixture effect.
This method includes one wherein the display medium itself can be controlled continuously but discontinuous gradation display is effected due to constraints of a control circuit. For example, a liquid crystal display device for effecting pseudo-full color display by using inexpensive driver ICs for 4 bit gradation in combination with dithering has been put into practical use.
Further, in the above described PDP, a phenomenon which is called pseudo-contour is visually recognized at the time of displaying motion picture in some cases. However, there is also a technique for obviating it by the spatial additive color mixture effect such as dithering. This is such a technique as to remedy a phenomenon that discontinuous gradation display is effected due to a visible factor at the time of displaying motion picture even in the case where a substantially continuous display is effected with respect to a still picture (image). In other words, there is also such a case where the above described case of 2 is applied to the still picture and the above described case of 1 is applied to the motion picture.
As described above, there are various display devices and color display is widely popularized but all the existent display methods are classified into the above described two methods. More specifically, the classified methods are only two methods consisting of a method of reproducing full-color display as it is by means of a device having an analog gradation displayability and a method of effecting pseudo-halftone display by using a device having a digital-like (discontinuous) gradation displayability in combination with a plurality of unit pixels and using the spatial additive color mixture effect.
On the other hand, e.g., in display of an interference color by an electrically controlled birefringence (ECB) effect in liquid crystal, in the case where an optical path difference in small, it is possible to effect continuous brightness modulation, and in the case where the optical path difference is larger than a predetermined value, the method is such a color display method that hue is changed while substantially retaining a brightness. In this case, only two display states of ON and OFF are present. More specifically, the method can be said to be a display mode in which analog gradation display and digital gradation display are co-present in a single pixel. This can be said to be a particular display method which is not applicable to any of the above described two methods.
As a method of providing multiple colors by using the color display based on the ECB (effect), a method wherein a plurality of pixels placed in different display states are combined has been disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 03098112. In this patent, a point that a unit pixel capable of effecting ECB color display is divided into two or more portions in an ECB-based color display device and different voltages are applied to the two or more portions to effect multi-color display has been disclosed.
Color display using the ECB effect has been little put into practical use. This is because a gradation displayability is inferior to those of other display methods. Although a proposal has been made by the above described patent document with respect to such a method that the unit pixel is divided and the respective ECB colors are combined to provide multiple colors, a gradation display method capable of providing a higher definition intermediary color has been required.

Display apparatus and image forming apparatus


An electronic paper is mounted on a paper mounting unit on which the electronic paper is mounted detachably. When a user operation is performed on the display screen of the electronic paper, the user operation position with respect to the display screen of the electronic paper is detected by the operation position detecting unit of the paper mounting unit. The data corresponding to the detected user operation position with respect to the display screen of the electronic paper is transmitted to the electronic paper via mutual communication units. The nonvolatile display unit of the electronic paper displays the data. This enables the data corresponding to the user operation on the electronic paper to be displayed on the nonvolatile display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic paper recording apparatus for causing desired information to be recorded and displayed on an electronic paper using a paper-like nonvolatile display unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a paper-like nonvolatile display unit called electronic paper has been developed. The electronic paper has a display surface capable of displaying and holding images with no power supply and is thin and flexible, although not as thin or flexible as actual paper. Being supplied with an electric source, the electronic paper can write and erase an image and display and hold various contents, including text and images (e.g., refer to Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-039834, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-312227, and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-058081).
Text data and image data displayed on an electronic paper have been created by an information processing terminal, such as a personal computer, and, together with a power supply, have been received and input at a communication terminal provided at the paper end. Therefore, contents displayed on the electronic paper are limited to text data previously input with the keys or image data previously drawn and created. Handwritten data, such as characters and pictures handwritten or drawn directly on the electronic paper, can be neither written nor displayed and held as on ordinary paper.


An insulating support for a ground electrical power supply track is provided. The insulating support is intended for a terrestrial transport system, in particular of the tramway type, and is in the form of a profile-member of insulating material which includes a substantially planar upper face intended to receive elements of the electrical power supply track and a planar lower face intended to be supported directly or indirectly on the ground. The profile-member is provided with a longitudinal groove is arranged on the upper face in order to receive a conductive track element. The profile member is also provided with a web which connects the upper face to the lower face. At least one longitudinal supply conduit intended to receive a supply line of the network extends through the web. The groove and each supply conduit are arranged centrally and symmetrically about a longitudinal center plane of the support perpendicular relative to the upper face.

There are ground-based electrical power supply systems which allow vehicles of the tramway type to capture, via a friction shoe, the electrical traction energy required to move them and unattractive aerial lines to be dispensed with, in particular in the region of junctions.
Such a system is described in the patent application EP 1 043 186 A 1. The system described involves a ground-based electrical power supply assembly which comprises a series of segments of conductive contact tracks which are mutually isolated and at least partially exposed, an electrical line which is intended to be permanently supplied with electrical power, means which are capable of selectively connecting the track segments to the electrical line and track supports of an insulating material which each have a cross-section which is generally "I"-shaped.
On the upper portion of the supports, there are provided two parallel grooves, which are arranged in a symmetrical manner about a longitudinal center plane which is perpendicular relative to the extension plane of the upper portion, and which are capable of receiving an alternating sequence of conducting and insulating elements in the form of bars.
In the web of the profile-member of the supports, there are arranged four internal rectangular passages which are capable of receiving metal bars of a high-voltage electrical line. The passages are arranged in pairs at one side and the other of a longitudinal center plane which is orthogonal relative to the upper surface which separates the profile-member of the support into two, in an offset manner at each side.
At one side and the other of the longitudinal center plane there is engraved a detection notch, the two notches forming a pair which is intended to receive cables of a detection loop of a nearby magnetic field.
With this system, the communication signal supported by a magnetic field of the detection loop is interfered by spurious signals which are produced inside the two bars.
The technical problem addressed is to reduce the intensity of the spurious signals which interfere the communication signal supported by the magnetic field of the detection loop.

Insulating support for electrical power supply tracks


A storage capacitor having a scattering effect is positioned in a substrate for use in a thin film transistor array loop. The storage capacitor is characterized by having a rough layer overlapped by a medium layer and a passivation layer. The storage capacitor further has a reflective layer with high reflectivity so as to provide the storage capacitor with the scattering effect toward an external light source. A method of manufacturing the storage capacitor by two photolithography processes is also shown.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more specifically, to a storage capacitor adapted for use in a thin film transistor array loop and method of making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, cathode ray tube (CRT) displays have been progressively replaced by liquid crystal displays (LCDs) due to their better characteristics such as high resolution, small size, low driving voltage, and low power-consumption. In the early days, the LCDs adopted transmissive type panel and required a back light module that could provide a planar light source so that the LCDs were visible in the dark or where the light is dim. Later, reflective type panels were developed for reducing the weight and size of LCDs. The reflective type panels utilize the environment light as light sources instead of the back light module.
In conventional technologies, if a scattering effect toward the external light is required, a reflective layer has to be installed in the transmissive type panel so as to form a reflective type panel or a transflective type panel. However, this reflective layer sacrifices the aperture ratio. According to the conventional technologies, several superfluous photolithography processes are required to implement the reflective layer. First, a photolithography process is performed to form teeth-like protrusions on the surface of pixel electrodes, and a flow process is performed to smoothen the protrusions. Then, a high reflective material is deposited onto the surface with protrusions, and at least one photolithography process is performed to form a reflective layer having the scattering effect in a portion of each pixel electrode. It is evident that the conventional method will increase cost and reduce productivity due to several superfluous photolithography processes.

Storage capacitor having a scattering effect and method of manufacturing the same


A chamber for use in a submersible pump assembly. The submersible pump assembly has a submersible motor which is connected to a power source and which will drive a submersible pump in the submersible pump assembly. A motor protector with expansion chamber is connected to the submersible motor. The expansion chamber and submersible motor are filled with motor oil. The expansion chamber has a housing and a reactant disposed in the housing interior for reacting with and reducing the concentration of contaminants present in the well fluid that are harmful to components of the motor protector.

This invention relates to a motor protector for oil-filled submersible electric motors and, more particularly, to a motor protector having a prolonged operational life and increased resistance to chemical attack.
A variety of fluids is pumped from subterranean zones with a variety of different types of pumps. In the production of petroleum, it is common to employ electric submersible systems for lifting the fluids collected in the well. Such systems generally include a submersible pump and a submersible oil-filled electric motor separated by a seal or protector assembly. The seal or protector functions, in part, to provide a reservoir of motor fluid in communication with the electric motor, to allow for thermal expansion and contraction of the motor fluid, and to keep the well fluid out of the motor. Well fluid generally comprises salt water, particulate solids and other contaminants that are deleterious to the motor.
There are two types of motor protectors commonly used in the field. One type is referred to as a bladder or bag protector. The bladder, positioned within the protector assembly housing, provides a positive barrier between the well fluid outside the bladder and the motor fluid within. It is made of an elastomeric material that flexes to provide a variable capacity chamber thus accommodating volume changes in the motor oil. Generally, a vent through the housing is utilized to allow entry and expulsion of well fluid between the housing interior and the well bore as required by the expansion and contraction of the elastomeric bladder.
The other common type of motor protector is normally referred to as a "labyrinth" type protector. The labyrinth design uses a series of cavities and vertical labyrinth paths to keep the well fluid and the motor fluid separated. The two fluids are in direct contact; therefore, the effectiveness of the device depends on the difference in specific gravity and the immiscibility between the well fluid and the motor fluid. The design allows for expansion and contraction of the motor fluid by providing a vent through the housing wherethrough well fluid can enter or be withdrawn from the adjacent cavity in response to changes in motor fluid volume.
The motor protectors are often used in combination. For example, one or more labyrinth-type protectors may be used above or below one or more bladder protectors. Usually, motor fluid in the bladder communicates directly with a passage to the motor. Therefore, a failure of the elastomeric material comprising the bladder creates a short path for well fluid subsequently penetrating the bladder to reach the motor.
The bladder is usually made of a high-temperature, high-performance elastomer that is resistant to the harsh conditions encountered downhole. However, there is still a need to reduce the chemical attack of well fluid contaminants or impurities on the elastomer and thus prolong the operational life of the bladder elastomer itself and ultimately the motor protector and submersible motor assembly.

Motor protector and method for chemical protection of same


Detecting infrared radiation from a rodent in a cage using an infrared sensor array with a field of view that corresponds to a moving area of the rodent to determine position, velocity, head position, etc. and determining a behavior of the rodent based on the detected infrared radiation.

There are a variety of invasive and non-invasive techniques for monitoring animals such as rodents. For example, capturing video data from a rodent's cage is one way to track movement and deduce other behaviors of the rodent. Video tracking however, has a number of significant drawbacks. The data is typically high bandwidth data and large amounts of such data can quickly accumulate. Furthermore, the quality and usefulness of video data of a rodent cage environment can depend on available lighting and sometimes requires additional lighting that may cause the rodent to modify its behavior. One additional complication of using video data is that automatic image analysis may be difficult. In order to provide automatic scene analysis, the various frames of the video data can be segmented into different objects so that movement of one or more of the objects can be tracked through a series of frames. Such segmentation and analysis can add computational complexity and overhead.
Invasive techniques for tracking some aspects of animal behavior are known such as Electroencephalographic (EEG) and Electromyographic (EMG) recordings. However, the surgery, surgery recovery, and signal scoring, among a number of other factors, limit their application to relatively small-scale studies.
Infrared radiation is a property of rodents, as well as other animals, and is capable of measurement by non-invasive means. Mammalian skin, irrespective of its color, radiates as a near perfect black-body. Similarly, the surface of an avian body also emits infrared radiation. Furthermore, the energy radiated by a black-body at room temperature is mostly infra-red, which can be captured and converted to an image using an infrared (IR) sensor.
One typical sensor for detecting movement is a passive infrared pyroelectric (PIR) sensor, such as those commonly used in security and room occupancy sensing. However, PIR sensors can only detect movement based on sudden temperature change. Furthermore, these types of sensors adapt to the environment in as little as a few minutes. Thus, the PIR sensor can become blind to a resting test subject within a relatively short period. This susceptibility can adversely impact a sensor's accuracy for detecting animal behaviors tied to low level signals such as behaviors during sleep and rest.

Monitoring using passive infra-red sensing


A catalyst for purifying an exhaust gas includes a substrate, a catalyst carrier layer, a catalyst ingredient and a hydrocarbons supplier. The catalyst carrier layer is formed on the substrate. The catalyst ingredient is loaded on the catalyst carrier layer. The hydrocarbons supplier is disposed in the substrate, and supplies supplementary hydrocarbons into the catalyst carrier layer so as to securely react the supplementary hydrocarbons with NO.sub.x included in an exhaust gas. Hence, the catalyst can purify not only CO but also NO.sub.x over a wide temperature range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catalyst for purifying an exhaust gas. Specifically, it relates to a catalyst which can efficiently purify nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.x), included in an exhaust gas, even if the exhaust gas contains oxygen more than necessary for oxidizing carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC).
2. Description of the Related Art
As a catalyst for purifying an automotive exhaust gas, there has been employed a 3-way catalyst so far which oxidizes CO and HC and simultaneously reduces NO.sub.x. For example, the 3-way catalyst has been known widely which comprises a honeycomb-shaped substrate formed of cordierite, or the like, a catalyst carrier layer formed of .gamma.-alumina, or the like, and formed on the substrate, and a noble metal catalyst ingredient selected from the group consisting of platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh), and loaded on the catalyst carrier layer.
The purifying performance of the conventional exhaust gas purifying catalyst depends greatly on an air-fuel ratio of a fuel which is supplied to an engine. For example, when the air-fuel ratio (i.e., A/F ratio) is large, or when the air-fuel ratio is on a fuel-lean side (i.e., when a concentration of a fuel is small in an air-fuel mixture ), the content of oxygen is large in an exhaust gas emitted from the engine. Thus, the oxidizing reactions of purifying CO and HC are active, but the reducing reactions of purifying NO.sub.x are inactive. On the other hand when the air-fuel ratio is small, or when the air-fuel ratio is on a fuel-rich side (i.e., when a concentration of a fuel is large in an air-fuel mixture), the content of oxygen is small in an exhaust gas emitted from the engine. Thus, the oxidizing reactions are inactive, but the reducing reactions are active.
When driving an automobile, especially when driving an automobile in urban areas, the automobile is accelerated and decelerated frequently. Consequently, the air-fuel ratio varies frequently in the range of from the values adjacent to the stoichiometric point (air-fuel ratio: 14.6) to the fuel-rich side (i.e., in an oxygen-lean atmosphere). In order to satisfy the low fuel consumption requirement under the driving conditions such as in the above-described urban areas, it is necessary to operate an automobile on the fuel-lean side where the air-fuel mixture containing oxygen as excessive as possible is supplied to the engine. However, the thus lean-burn-controlled engine emits an exhaust gas which contains oxygen in a large amount. As a result, the reducing reactions of purifying NO.sub.x are inactive. Hence, it has been desired to develop an exhaust gas purifying catalyst which can satisfactorily purify NO.sub.x included in the exhaust gas which is emitted from the lean-burn-controlled engine, and which contains oxygen in a large amount.
Under the circumstances, a novel exhaust gas purifying catalyst was proposed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 4-118,030. This exhaust gas purifying catalyst employs a catalyst carrier layer formed of mordenite which has an HC adsorbing ability. When the temperature of an exhaust gas is low, the exhaust gas purifying catalyst adsorbs HC. When the temperature of the exhaust gas increases, the exhaust gas purifying catalyst releases HC. The released HC reduce No.sub.x included in the exhaust gas. As a result, the exhaust gas purifying catalyst can exhibit an improve NO.sub.x conversion.
Another novel exhaust gas purifying catalyst was proposed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (KOKAI No. 6-69,317. As illustrated in FIG. 11, this exhaust gas purifying catalyst comprises a substrate 1, a catalyst carrier layer 2, and a catalyst ingredient (not shown), and is subjected to a supply of supplementary HC from an upstream side of an exhaust gas flow. The supplementary HC can be propylene, or the like. When an exhaust gas is in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, the supplementary HC are forcibly supplied to the exhaust gas purifying catalyst from an upstream side of an exhaust gas flow. Consequently, HC are compulsorily supplied to and absorbed on the catalyst carrier layer 2 so that the oxidizing reactions, which the absorbed HC effect, decrease the atmosphere around the active cites of the exhaust gas purifying catalyst down to the stoichiometric point (air-fuel ratio: 14.6). The exhaust gas purifying catalyst thus purifies NO.sub.x, which are included in the exhaust gas of an oxygen-rich atmosphere.
The exhaust gas purifying catalyst proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 4-118,030 ( has the catalyst carrier layer which is formed of mordenite. The mordenite exhibits an HC absorbing ability. However, the exhaust gas purifying catalyst was found to have the following disadvantages when the exhaust gas purifying catalyst was tested under the following testing conditions:
a 10%-fuel-lean air-fuel mixture was combusted in an automobile engine; PA1 the resultant exhaust gas included NO in an amount of 250 ppm, HC in an amount of 1,000 ppmC (a value converted into a carbon content), O.sub.2 in a amount of 10% by volume, CO in an amount of 150 ppm, CO.sub.2 in an amount of 6.5% by volume, and the balance of N.sub.2 ; and PA1 the exhaust gas flowed at an SV (i.e., space velocity) of 67,000 hr.sup.-1. As illustrate in FIGS. 10 (A) and 10 (B), the exhaust gas purifying catalyst exhibited an increasing conversion against HC included in an exhaust gas. The HC conversion increased to 100% as the temperature of the exhaust gas elevated. On the contrary, the exhaust gas purifying catalyst exhibited a decreasing conversion against NO.sub. x, included in the exhaust gas, as the temperature of the exhaust gas elevated. PA1 a substrate; PA1 a catalyst carrier layer formed on the substrate; PA1 a catalyst ingredient loaded on the catalyst carrier layer; and PA1 means for supplying hydrocarbons into the catalyst carrier layer, the means disposed in the substrate.
The disadvantageous phenomena are believed to occur as follows. The released HC is effected to preferentially carry out their own oxidizing reactions by the catalyst ingredient. As a result, the reducing reactions of NO.sub.x are less likely to take place.
In this instance, even if HC are supplied from an upstream side of an exhaust gas flow as illustrated in FIG. 11, HC cannot be utilized effectively to purify NO.sub.x in an elevated temperature range. This drawback is believed to be caused by the following mechanism. In an elevated temperature range, HC have been oxidized independently around the surface of the catalyst carrier layer 2, and cannot be diffused into the inner side of the catalyst carrier layer 2.


Ecopots having a large number of holes permeable to the culture solution and air are used for disposing seeding and seedling pots or for planting seedlings and are hung in the space in a house, a bucket for collecting the drips of the culture solution is placed below each pot for collecting the residual solution to thereby prevent the infection by pathogens, and a balancing toy-like hanger hung vertically from a hook hung movably from a shelf pole in the house via a loop clutch, an ecopot hanging chain, a main melon stem attracting cord, a melon fruit hanging cord and so forth are used to render the ecopot hung from the ecopot hanging chain orientation-variable in all directions so that oxygen may be fed abundantly to the rooting zone of the horticultural plant and the plant may receive the sunshine with ease.

The cultivation of melon and strawberry, which are well known as protected horticulture products, is generally carried out by direct seeding or planting of seedlings into a cultivation bed (rooting zone medium) as in the cultivation device or cultivation method described in Japanese Kokai (Laid-open) Publication H07-327514 or Japanese Kokai (Laid-open) Publication H05-227848, and it is known that oxygen is fed to the roots of the plant under cultivation by cultivation soil tillage and/or the period of solar ray irradiation is prolonged as far as possible to thereby promote the growth of stems, leaves and fruits and the maturation of fruits.
In practicing such a cultivation method, the working posture required in cultivating the cultivation soil, which compels a long time of bending forward and maintaining an inefficient position, is nothing but heavy labor. Thus, there is the possibility that lumbago and other health problems due to the bending forward posture during the long time maintenance of working may arise among cultivation workers.
The technique of nutriculture which comprises circulating a culture solution to feed nutrients to the rooting zone of each plant is in use as a method for solving such problems as mentioned above. This cultivation method does not use cultivation soil but causes a culture solution to artificially circulate via artificially made grooves and the roots of plants are planted therein. Nutriculture is thus a cultivation method using no medium in the cultivation bed and, therefore, the orientation of the plant under cultivation can be varied with ease according to the direction of the sunshine, and the systematized equipment for supplementing nutrients and oxygen to the culture solution makes it unnecessary to perform tillage or weeding, and workers are released from the painful bending forward posture. However, there is a problem, namely the possibility of plants being infected by pathogens that have entered into the culture solution circulating to feed water and nutrients to the rooting zone of each plant.
According to the present invention, a culture solution feeding pipe is connected to each porous ecopot for cultivation which is hung in a space below a shelf pole in the house, and the culture solution is thus fed to each ecopot. Thus, measures are taken to prevent infection by pathogens and isolate the ecopots from the source of infection by placing a collecting bucket below each ecopot while feeding water and nutrients and oxygen to the rooting zone of each plant through the culture solution fed to each ecopot via the piping. By employing such a variable and efficient space utilization type cultivation method, the present invention provides a novel cultivation method according to which the orientation of stems, leaves and fruits can be varied freely toward the sunshine to enrich fruits of the plant under cultivation and increase sugar accumulation therein and, at the same time, the standing and facing working posture can be realized and which has the possibility of supplying a large number of high-quality melon or strawberry to the market.
The cultivation bed of the present invention can be expected to be effective, also as a measure for alleviating the above-mentioned problems in nutriculture, in preventing infection by pathogens and isolating plants from the source of infection. An example of melon cultivation is shown in FIG. 1. The method of the present invention is a cultivation method characterized in that the medium is placed in each porous ecopot for cultivation for a long period from good seedling production to field cultivation and harvest and that the cultivation ecopots and seedling pots and other cultivation materials after use are reused as a regenerated medium.

Variable and efficient space utilization type cultivation method


An improved thrust bearing has a shaft with a runner coupled to the end of the shaft. The runner has a first sealing face that extends radially from the shaft. A bearing has a fluid passage for supplying fluid to a fluid reservoir. The fluid reservoir may be in the runner or in the bearing. The bearing has a second sealing face opposite the first sealing face of the runner. The first sealing face has a recess that is in fluid communication with the fluid reservoir. Fluid from the fluid reservoir flows into the recess during rotation of the runner. As the shaft and the runner rotates, fluid from the recess deposits between the first sealing face and the second sealing face to lubricate the surface. The recess preferably has a pocket portion and a wedge portion. The wedge portion is in fluid communication with the pocket portion. As the shaft rotates in a predetermined direction, the pocket portion is on the leading edge of rotation of the recess. The pocket is in fluid communication with the fluid reservoir. The wedge reduces in thickness from the pocket to the trailing edge of the recess. The pocket and wedge each contribute to increased resistance of the shaft to axial thrust.

The present invention relates to bearings for a rotating assembly, and more specifically to a thrust bearing for counteracting axial thrust acting on a rotating shaft.
Thrust bearings may be used in a wide variety of rotating machinery such as, but not limited to, pumps, turbines and motors. Thrust bearings limit axial movement of the rotating body that is subject to a force acting in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation. Thrust bearings, however, permit the rotation of the rotating body. Sources of axial thrust include the weight of a rotor or pressure differentials within a rotating machine.
One type of thrust bearing is a roller-type. Roller-type thrust bearings use ball or cylindrical bearings to prevent the axial movement of a shaft. This type of bearing, however, is undesirable since they must be machined to highly accurate dimensions and thus are expensive. Roller-type bearings are also prone to failure if minor lubrication contamination or high operating temperatures are experienced.
Another type of thrust bearing is a sliding contact bearing. The rotating portion of the bearing is called the runner and the stationary portion of the sliding contact bearing is called the bearing. A sliding contact bearing uses a lubricant between the bearing and the runner to reduce sliding friction. A fluid film thrust bearing maintains an unbroken film of lubricant between the bearing and the runner to achieve low frictional drag and a low rate of wear. These positive attributes are achieved since the bearings and runner do not come in contact during operation.
There are two basic types of sliding contact thrust bearings; the hydrostatic type and the hydrodynamic type. In prior art FIG. 13, a port 110 through a bearing 112 is used to provide a fluid pressure between bearing 112 and a rotating shaft 114. The fluid pressure within cavity 116 is used to counteract the axial thrust represented by arrow 118. If the axial thrust and the fluid pressure within cavity 116 are in balance, the rotating shaft 114 will not change axial position. During normal operation of rotating machinery, however, the axial force acting on rotor may vary. Thus, the sliding contact thrust bearing of prior art FIG. 13 does not possess the ability to regulate the fluid pressure within cavity 116.
Referring now to prior art FIG. 14, a runner 120 is mounted on the end of rotating shaft 114. An orifice plate 122 is used to regulate the flow of pressure into port 110. Bearing 112 has sealing faces 124 that are directly opposite the runner 120. If an axial force on rotating shaft 114 forces the rotating shaft closer to bearing 112, the increased pressure within cavity 116 will force runner 120 away from sealing surfaces 124. Conversely, if an axial force forces rotating shaft 114 in a direction away from bearing 112, pressure from within cavity 116 will be released between runner 120 and sealing surfaces 124. Orifice plate 122 regulates the flow of fluid into cavity 116. If runner 120 moves a distance away from bearing 112 because of low axial force, then the lubricant flow rate would increase if no orifice plate 112 is present. By limiting the flow of fluid into cavity 116, the pressure in fluid reservoir reduces and causes runner 120 to move toward bearing 112.
A hydrostatic type sliding contact thrust bearing such as that illustrated in prior art FIGS. 13 and 14 are not suitable for certain rotating machine applications such as pumps or turbines since a flow passage must be provided through the center of the bearing.
Referring now to prior art FIG. 15, a hydrodynamic bearing is illustrated. In this embodiment, a bearing 126 has a tapered channel 128 filled with fluid represented by arrows 130. A runner 132 rotates in a direction represented by arrow 134. Axial force is represented by arrow 136. As runner 132 rotates in the direction of arrow 134, fluid is drawn out of tapered channel 128 into the gap 138 between runner 132 and bearing 126. Essentially, the fluid represented by arrows 130 is dragged from tapered channel 128 by the surface of runner 132. The pressure in the tapered channel increases with the speed of the runner, with decreasing clearance between runner 132 and bearing 126, and by increasing the viscosity of the fluid.
Referring now to prior art FIG. 16, bearing surface 142 contains tapered channels 144 such as that shown in prior art FIG. 15. As runner 146 rotates near bearing surface 142, fluid is provided by port 148 to cavity 150 and into tapered channel 144. Tapered channels 144 are in fluid communication with the cavity 150 to provide a source of fluid into tapered channels 144 to maintain a supply of fluid on bearing surface 142. In this configuration, the deep portion is represented by 152, and the shallow portion of tapered channel 144 is represented by 154. The direction of rotation of runner 146 in this configuration is in the counterclockwise direction.
In certain situations each of the configurations shown do not provide sufficient lubrication between the runners and the bearings. The inadequate lubrication reduce the life of the thrust bearing. Further, neither of the configurations shown provide for a flow passage through the center of the bearing. Many pumps require an axial flow passage through the center of the bearing.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an improved thrust bearing which provides increased lubrication between a rotating runner and a bearing and which further has the capability of being adapted to accommodate a flow passage through the center of the bearing.


High-quality content reproduction is to be realized.

In recent years, AV (Audio/Visual) devices that involve digital signals such as audio signals and video signals have spread, and there are various kinds of interfaces suggested for transmitting digital signals between such AV devices. Those interfaces include widely-known ones compliant with the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 standards, the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) standards (HDMI being a registered trade name), and the like.
According to the HDMI Specification, a TMDS clock synchronized with TMDS (Transition Minimized Differential Signaling) data is normally transmitted from a source device to a sink (repeater) device, and the sink (repeater) device reproduces the TMDS data in synchronization with the TMDS clock.
A repeater device normally includes an expensive, high-performance clock source so as to realize high-quality audio reproduction. According to the above described HDMI Specification, however, a clock generated by an inexpensive clock source included in the source device needs to be used in reproduction, and reproduction using a clock generated by the high-performance clock source in the repeater device cannot be performed.
Also, in an application to generate video images by receiving digital data of video/audio content from more than one source device, clocks supplied from the respective source devices are not synchronized with one another. Also, the transmission formats are generated in the source devices, and therefore, the sink device needs to have a large-sized buffer and a format conversion function. In view of this, it is difficult to realize such an application.
FIG. 10 shows an outline of specifications according to the existing HDMI Specification. An HDMI transmitter exists in a source device, generates digital data of video/audio content to be transmitted and its reference clock, and transmits the digital data and the reference clock to an HDMI receiver in a sink (repeater) device as a connection destination through TMDS channels #0, #1, and #2, and a TMDS clock channel. The TMDS clock to be transmitted is equivalent to the pixel clock of the video content.
The relationship between a TMDS clock and a clock for audio reproduction, or a CTS (Cycle Time Stamp) and an N parameter, are transmitted as an ACR (Audio Clock Regeneration) packet independently from the source device to the sink (repeater) device. As a result, an audio clock can be generated from a TMDS clock in the sink (repeater) device.
In the above described HDMI specifications, the quality of the clock for reproduction depends on the quality of the clock source such as a crystal oscillator provided in the source device. It is well known that the quality of the clock for reproduction has a very large influence on reproduction of digital video/audio content. Particularly, in audio reproduction, the quality of content reproduction relies greatly on the quality of the clock.
Therefore, particularly in repeater devices, a high-quality clock source with a reduced jitter is often provided so as to realize high-quality audio reproduction. However, in a connection according to the HDMI Specification, high-quality reproduction using the high-quality clock source provided in a repeater device cannot be performed.
Patent Document 1 suggests a method of realizing higher-quality reproduction of audio data superimposed and transmitted in the same phase by the sink (repeater) device superimposing a clock for audio reproduction on differential transmission through an HEAC channel of an HDMI. At the same time, a clock for audio data to be transmitted from the sink (repeater) device through a TMDS channel can also be transmitted by using this suggestion.

Transmission device, transmission method, reception device, reception method, and transmission/reception system

Abstract: A transmission clock is supplied from a sink (repeater) device to a source device via a clock signal line. The source device sends content data to the sink (repeater) device via a predetermined number of differential signal lines in synchronization with the transmission clock supplied from the sink (repeater) device. High-quality content reproduction can be performed in the sink (repeater) device, without the use of any additional lines other than the differential signal lines and the clock signal line. For example, upon receipt of a transmission clock supply request from the source device, the sink (repeater) device supplies the transmission clock to the source device.