A dynamic entertainment playing card having a flexible electronic display and a processor is configured to change state during a card game based on input received by the card during the card game and applied to a set of game rules by the processor. The card display is configured to display changing images on the face of the card during game play according to the changing card state.

Traditional card games, such as poker, contract bridge, and the like, have been played using a predetermined number of deck cards. For example, a conventional deck or pack of playing cards is composed of fifty-three or fifty-four cards, namely, thirteen spades, thirteen hearts, thirteen clubs, thirteen diamonds and one or two jokers. In most card games, a conventional deck (or decks) of playing cards is shared among players joining a game.
In the gaming industry there is a significant volume of gambling which occurs at live table games that use playing cards. Exemplary live table games include blackjack, poker, baccarat, and others. These and many other games all involve play using playing cards. The use of playing cards has a number of associated limitations and disadvantages which have plagued the gaming industry.
The use of playing cards at live table games typically involves several operational requirements which are time-consuming. These operations are conveniently described as collecting, shuffling and dealing the cards. In many card games there is also a step of cutting the deck after it has been shuffled.
In the collecting operation, a dealer typically collects the cards just played at the end of a hand of play. This is done in preparation for playing the next hand of cards. The cards are best collected so all are in a face-down or face-up condition. The cards also are typically straightened into a stack with the long sides and short sides aligned. These manipulations take time and are not typically appreciated by either the dealer or players as enhancing the play and entertainment value of the game.
In many games the cards collected at the end of the hand are deposited in a discard rack, which collects the played cards until the time a new stack is obtained or the stack is shuffled. In some games the cards are immediately shuffled into the stack either manually or using a shuffling machine. More typically, the cards are collected and then shuffling is performed later by the dealer.
When conventional shuffling is needed, it involves a break in the action of the table game and consumes a significant amount of time. Shuffling is also the most time-consuming operation in preparing for the next hand. Thus, shuffling is of substantial financial significance to the gaming industry because it requires significant time and reduces the number of hands which can be played per hour or other period of time. In light of this, there has been interest by casino owners to develop practices which allow more games to be played in a given amount of time. Accomplishing this without detracting from the players' enjoyment and desire to play the game is a challenging and longstanding issue for casino owners and consultants in the gaming industry.
An additional consideration in the casino industry is the costs associated with shuffling machines. Shuffling machines currently available have costs in the thousands of dollars. Such machines save time in performing the shuffling process, but still require time to load, operate and unload. These factors reduce the savings associated with reduced shuffling time and effort.
Another form of cards used for entertainment are trading cards. Some forms of trading card can be rare and difficult to obtain. Playing cards, as distinguished from trading cards, are often readily available. This is especially true of the well-known decks of fifty-two (or fifty-three or fifty-four) playing cards. Many different games can be played with a single deck of this type of playing cards. The number of games possible is limited for the most part only by the imagination of the players. Playing cards themselves, individually and collectively, usually have no value other than their amusement value. Similarly, some card games require decks especially printed for the game. Cards of this nature have little value other than their value for the playing of the particular game for which they are printed.
Many games played with conventional playing cards are games of chance. Games of chance can have rules that either require the random selection of cards or depend in some other way upon the occurrence of events outside the control of the players. Other games played with conventional cards may require strategy. Strategy games usually limit the level of strategy with restrictive rules of play.
However, collectible card games have made a significant impact on both the trading card industry and on the game industry. Collectible cards suitable for use in playing games of this nature are also known as fantasy trading cards. Exemplary fantasy trading cards represent fictional characters and situations.
One such game is a fantasy game utilizing figures such as sorcerers, wizards, monsters, and other combatants as subject matter. Another such game utilizes a science fiction universe previously created for television and movie entertainment. Fantasy games may often include cards that are rarer than other cards. However, determining which cards may be more rare is not integral when using the cards, rather each card or combination of cards has characteristics that may be used in strategic game play.
Conventionally, a wide variety of such fantasy trading card games have been also proposed, each of which has its fans. In contrast to the conventional card decks, such fantasy trading card games are usually played with decks of cards which are different from one another (and may not have an equal number of cards). However, it is to be noted that many of the fantasy trading card games are common to one another in the viewpoint of being played through the following three stages.
At the first stage, players of each fantasy trading card game gather their cards from various kinds of cards that have been issued in order to build their collection. Each species of card has a different effect in the game and in many cases, the more effective a card is, the fewer numbers of that card are issued (i.e., better cards are often rarer). A pack of cards is often sold with opaque packaging so that players cannot identify the contents or species of cards packaged before they purchase them. As a result, decks purchased by players would have different card constructions from each other, and if a player wants to build a powerful deck, the player has to collect (and possibly trade) cards.
At the second stage, each player selects a number of cards from their collection to build a deck. Usually, a card has ability points and properties, and an ability point may be modified according to its property. Furthermore, there are cards that have special effects in addition to or instead of ability points and properties. Therefore, in order to build a desirable deck, each player must not only collect cards with high ability points but also select cards suitable for their game strategy, taking into consideration various cards' properties and special effects. A good player may build a suitable deck if the player knows their opponent's card list.
At the third stage, two (or more) players individually prepare their decks from their collections of cards and thereafter start a trading card game among them. They draw one or more cards for their hands from their decks and then each of them puts a card from his hand on a game field by turns. Card-to-card matches are made between cards on the field repeatedly and after a series of matches a winner or a loser of the game is decided.
At the first stage mentioned above, players have fun collecting cards to strengthen their collections. A card provider (e.g., a company that creates and distributes the cards) who provides the fantasy trading card game should increase the number of types of cards to enhance each player's game experience. However, to ensure that players enjoy the game, game balance should be preserved. While some players may clamor for more powerful cards, unchecked increases in the introduction of powerful cards is likely to destroy the balance of game. Specifically, if a lot of species of cards that have high ability points are introduced, then players who have acquired these cards may become too powerful for beginning players to enjoy playing the game with them.
Many fantasy trading card games have been computerized as video games. Compared with the live fantasy trading card games, such conventional computerized trading card games do not allow for the collection and trading of individual cards between players, thereby omitting some of the fun from the collecting phase of the trading card games. Likewise, it is difficult to incrementally increase the number of card species within a video game beyond what was originally included in the video game. Accordingly, a great number of card species and cards have to be prepared in advance in each computerized trading card game before the beginning to supplying the game to players. On the other hand, paper-printed trading card games can easily increase card species simply by issuing new card species in addition to the existing card species. Players with the new card(s) and players without new cards can still play the game together.
Other forms of trading cards include collectible cards for disbursing and collecting information about public figures. For example, trading cards representing figures in the entertainment industry can depict music performers or television and movie personalities. More familiar types of trading cards are the well-known baseball and other sports player cards. Baseball cards are often provided with a photographic depiction of an athlete along with biographic and statistical information concerning various athletes and teams. Other cards dealing with sports figures are also available and are used by sports enthusiasts for collecting information about athletes and sports teams.
Additionally, trading cards directed to niche markets continue to develop. The sports and non-sports subject matter can be as varied and obscure as women's bowling, bass fishing and National Historical Parks. However, the most successful sets are those with wide appeal that contain opportunities to have ongoing content for the cards. This partly accounts for the success of sports cards. However, any type of cards can be used by enthusiasts of the subject matter as trading cards.
Enthusiasts may exchange trading cards with other enthusiasts in order to obtain cards that are needed to complete sets of related cards or to obtain cards that are not readily available. Collectors can also buy and sell trading cards for their economic and historic value. Since some trading cards are more common than others, the monetary value of a card can depend on its availability.
In addition to new card games and software games for playing card games, communications between electronic devices have also improved in recent years. Communication networks are well known in the computer communications field. By definition, a network is a group of computers and associated devices that are connected by communications facilities or links. Network communications can be of a permanent nature, such as via cables, or can be of a temporary nature, such as connections made through telephone or wireless links. Networks may vary in size, from a local area network ("LAN"), consisting of a few computers or workstations and related devices, to a wide area network ("WAN"), which interconnects computers and LANs that are geographically dispersed, to a remote access service, which interconnects remote computers via temporary communication links. An internetwork, in turn, is the joining of multiple computer networks, both similar and dissimilar, by means of gateways or routers that facilitate data transfer and conversion from various networks. A well-known abbreviation for the term internetwork is "internet." As currently understood, the capitalized term "Internet" refers to the collection of networks and routers that use the Internet Protocol ("IP"), along with higher-level protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol ("TCP") or the Uniform Datagram Packet ("UDP") protocol, to communicate with one another.
In addition to improvements in communications, recent developments in display technologies and electronic components now allow certain types of thin, flexible, and/or lightweight circuits suitable for displaying images and text. For example, various forms of electrophoretic displays (e.g., e-paper, e-ink, color e-ink and the like) provide non-volatile display technologies that may be used to form images on a display surface that does not change, even when not connected to a power supply (or in some forms they only require a relatively small amount of power to display an image). Likewise, new forms of liquid crystal display ("LCD") panels may be produced as flexible panels that can display color images (some electrophoretic displays cannot display color).
In addition to display technologies, numerous improvements in power technology now allow for thin and/or flexible batteries and other power sources (e.g., photo voltaic, ambient, radio frequency and the like). However, these display and power technologies have yet to be applied to the gaming and trading card arenas.


An optical recording medium capable of recording and erasing information, includes a first dielectric layer, a recording layer, a second dielectric layer, a light reflection and heat dissipation layer, and an overcoat layer which are successively overlaid on a substrate, the recording layer including a phase-change recording material which includes as constituent elements Ag, In, Sb, Te, and N and/or O with the respective atomic % thereof being .alpha., .beta., .gamma., .delta. and .epsilon. (the total atomic % of N and/or O), which are in the relationship of: 0<.alpha..ltoreq.6, 3.ltoreq..beta..ltoreq.15, 50.ltoreq..gamma..ltoreq.65, 20.ltoreq..delta..ltoreq.35, 0.ltoreq..epsilon..ltoreq.5, provided that .alpha.+.beta.+.gamma.+.delta.+.epsilon.=100, and (2) having a recrystallization upper-limit linear speed in a range of 2.5 to 5.0 m/s. A recording method and a reproduction method, using this optical recording medium, are proposed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical recording medium, in particular, a phase-change optical recording medium comprising a recording material capable of causing changes in the phase thereof by the application of a light beam thereto, thereby recording, reproducing and overwriting information therein; and a recording and reproducing method using the above-mentioned phase-change optical recording medium, which is applicable to optical memory devices, particularly, rewritable compact disc (hereinafter referred to as CD-rewritable or CD-RW).
2. Discussion of Background
There is conventionally known a phase-change optical recording medium which utilizes phase changes between a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase or between one crystalline phase and another crystalline phase as one of the optical recording media which are capable of recording, reproducing and erasing information by the application thereto of electro-magnetic waves, such as a laser beam. This kind of phase-change optical recording medium enables the overwriting of information by the application of a single laser beam thereto, although it is difficult to perform such overwriting operation, using magneto-optical memory. An optical system of a drive unit for the phase-change optical recording medium is simpler in mechanism than that for the magneto-optical recording medium, so that research and development of recording media of this kind has been actively conducted in recent years.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,441, so-called chalcogen-based alloys, such as Ge--Te, Ge--Te--Sn, Ge--Te--S, Ge--Se--S, Ge--Se--Sb, Ge--As--Se, In--Te, Se--Te and Se--As, are conventionally used as recording materials for the phase-change optical recording media. In addition, it is proposed to add Au to the above-mentioned Ge--Te based alloy to improve the stability of the recording material and also to increase the crystallization rate thereof as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 61-219692. Furthermore, the addition of Sn and Au to the Ge--Te based alloy, and the addition of Pd to the same are respectively proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 61-270190 and 62-19490 for the same purposes as mentioned above. Furthermore, a recording material comprising a Ge--Te--Se--Sb alloy with a specific composition, and a recording material comprising an Ge--Te--Sb alloy with a specific composition are respectively disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 62-73438 and 63-228433 for improvement of the recording and erasing repetition properties of a recording medium comprising each recording material.
However, not all the properties required for the phase-change rewritable optical recording medium are satisfied by the above-mentioned conventional phase-change optical recording media. In particular, as the most important targets to be reached, the improvement of recording sensitivity and erasing sensitivity, the prevention of the reduction of erasing ratio at overwriting, and the extension of the life of recorded and unrecorded portions are not yet reached by the above-mentioned conventional phase-change optical recording media.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-251290, there is proposed an optical information recording medium which is provided with a recording layer comprising a single layer of a compound of a multi-component system composed of substantially three or more components in a crystalline state. It is asserted that the single layer of the compound of a multi-component system composed of substantially three or more components contains a compound composed of three or more components with a stoichiometric composition, for example, In.sub.3 SbTe.sub.2, in an amount of 90 atom % or more in the recording layer. It is furthermore asserted that recording and erasing characteristics can be improved by using this kind of recording layer. However, this optical information recording medium has the shortcomings that the erasing ratio is small and that the laser power required for recording and erasing is not sufficiently reduced.
Furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 1-277338 discloses an optical recording medium which comprises a recording layer comprising an alloy with a composition represented by the formula of (Sb.sub.a Te.sub.1-a).sub.1-b M.sub.b, wherein 0.4.ltoreq.a.ltoreq.0.7, b.ltoreq.0.2, and M is one element selected from the group consisting of Ag, Al, As, Au, Bi, Cu, Ga, Ge, In, Pb, Pt, Se, Si, Sn and Zn. In this reference, it is asserted that a basic system of the above-mentioned alloy is Sb.sub.2 Te.sub.3, and that the addition of Sb to this alloy in an excessive amount in terms of atomic percentage makes it possible to attain high-speed erasing operation and improve the repetition properties, and that the addition of the element M can further enhance the high-speed erasing performance. In addition to the above advantages, this reference asserts that an erasing ratio obtained by the application of DC light is large. However, this reference does not show any specific erasing ratio at overwriting operation, and according to the experiments conducted by the inventors of the present invention, non-erased portions were observed in the course of the overwriting operation and the recording sensitivity obtained was insufficient for use in practice.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 60-177446 discloses an optical recording medium which comprises a recording layer comprising an alloy with a composition represented by formula of (In.sub.1-x Sb.sub.x).sub.1-y M.sub.y, wherein 0.55.ltoreq..times..ltoreq.0.80, 0.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.20, and M is one element selected from the group consisting of Au, Ag, Cu, Pd, Pt, Al, Si, Ge, Ga, Sn, Te, Se and Bi. In addition, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-228433 discloses a recording layer of an optical recording medium, which comprises an alloy with a composition of GeTe--Sb.sub.2 Te.sub.3 --Sb (excess). The recording sensitivity and erasability required for the recording medium cannot be satisfied by any of the above-mentioned conventional optical recording media.
In addition, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 4-163839 discloses an optical recording medium provided with a recording layer comprising a Te--Ge--Sb alloy, with the addition thereto of nitrogen atom; Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 4-52188 discloses an optical recording medium provided with a recording layer comprising a Te--Ge--Se alloy, with at least one element of Te, Ge or Se being a nitride; and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 4-52189 discloses an optical recording medium provided with a recording layer comprising a Te--Ge--Se alloy, with nitrogen atom being adsorbed thereby.
These conventional optical recording media do not have sufficient characteristics for use in practice, in carticular, with respect to the improvement of recording sensitivity and erasing sensitivity, the prevention of the reduction of erasing ratio at overwriting, and the extension of the life of recorded and unrecorded portions.
With the rapid spread of compact discs (CD), write-once compact discs (CD-R) capable of writing data therein only once have been developed and placed on the market. In the case of the write-once compact discs (CD-R), however, once erroneous data is written in the CD-R, the written data cannot be corrected, so that it cannot help discarding the CD-R. Under such circumstances, there has been a demand for a rewritable compact disc that can be used in practice.
As one example of the above-mentioned rewritable compact discs, a magneto-optical recording medium has been developed, but has the shortcomings that overwriting operation is difficult to perform, and that the compatibility with CD-ROM or CD-R is poor. Under such circumstances, researches have been actively made for development of a practically usable phase-change optical recording disc which can ensure, in principle, the compatibility with the CD-ROM or CD-R.
Research and development activities for such a rewritable compact disc, using the phase-change optical recording medium, are reported, for example, in the following references: "Proceedings of the 4th Symposium on Phase-Change Recording" p.70 (1992), Furuya et al.; "Proceedings of the 4th Symposium on Phase-Change Recording" P.76 (1992), Jinno et al.; "Proceedings of the 4th Symposium on Phase-Change Recording" p.82 (1992), Kawanishi et al.; Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 32 (1993) p.5226, T. Handa et al.; "Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Phase-Change Recording" p.9 (1993), Yoneda et al.; and "Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Phase-Change Recording" p.5 (1993), Tominaga et al. However, the overall performance of the rewritable compact discs reported in these references is satisfactory, for instance, in view of the drawbacks with respect to the compatibilities with CD-ROM and CD-R, recording and erasing performance, recording sensitivity, permissible repetition number of overwriting operations, permissible repetition number of reproducing operations, and shelf stability. These drawbacks are mainly ascribed to low erasability caused by the composition and structure of a recording material employed in each compact disc.
Under such present circumstances, there is increasingly demanded for development of a phase-change recording material with high erasability and high recording and erasing sensitivities, and also for development of a phase-change rewritable compact disc with excellent overall performance.
To meet this demand, the inventors of the present invention have discovered and proposed Ag--In--Sb--Te based recording materials, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 4-78031 and 4-123551; Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31 (1992) 461, H. Iwasaki et al.; "Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Phase-Change Recording" p.102 (1991), Ide et al.; and Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 32 (1993) 5241, H. Iwasaki et al.
In October of 1996, "Compact Disc Rewritable PART III: CD-RW Version 1.0", which is generally called "Orange Book", was issued as the standards for the rewritable compact disc (CD-RW).
Furthermore, special attention has been paid to a digital video disc (DVD) and a DVD-RAM as the major optical recording media for the coming century. As a matter of course, the aforementioned rewritable compact disc is required to have reproduction compatibility with the DVD. However, recording signals of the conventional CD-RW do not exhibit any sufficient reflectance and modulation degree near a wavelength of 650 nm which corresponds to a reproduction wavelength of the DVD, so that the conventional CD-RW do not have sufficient signal characteristics for use in practice.
The above-mentioned standard book "Compact Disc Rewritable PART III: CD-RW Version 1.0" describes the standards for the rewritable compact disc for 2.times. nominal CD speed (2.4 to 2.8 m/s). However, a long recording time is required at such a low linear speed, so that a demand for a rewritable compact disc capable of performing high speed recording has been increased.
In accordance with the development of the CD-RW, drive systems for the CD-RW have also been actively developed, and matching tests between the CD-RW and the drive systems therefor have been made. The results of such matching tests indicate that in some drive systems, errors increasingly occur at the reproduction at 6.times. nominal CD speed or more (7.2 m/s or more), so that it has been confirmed that such high linear speed reproduction is difficult to perform by such drive systems. Furthermore, it is confirmed that in some drive systems, an optimum recording light power for the CD-RW cannot be determined by an "Optimum Power Control procedure" (hereinafter referred to as OPC procedure) which is defined in the aforementioned "Compact Disc Rewritable PART III: CD-RW Version 1.0".
The phase-change optical recording medium such as the CD-RW is initialized in the course of the manufacturing thereof, with a recording layer of the recording medium being crystallized, using an initializing apparatus. The initialized state of the recording layer has a significantly sensitive effect on the overwriting performance of the recording medium. The initialized state also significantly depends upon the initializing apparatus employed. In order to control the initialized state of each recording medium, it is necessary that the initializing apparatus be traced and identified with each recording medium. However, a system for performing such trace control has not yet been developed.
CD-RW is handled with the hand, so that dirt such as oil and dust may be deposited on the front and back surfaces of the disc. If this takes place, a cloth will be usually used to wipe the surfaces of the disc. are covered with dirt such as oil and dust. However, since a standard substrate of the disc is made of polycarbonate, if the surface of such a polycarbonate substrate is wiped to remove such dirt therefrom with a cloth, the surface of the substrate of the CD-RW is scratched, and there is a risk that recording and reproduction cannot be performed any longer due to the scratches formed on the surface of the substrate. To avoid such a problem, it is proposed to provide a hard coat layer such as an ultraviolet-curing resin layer on a non-grooved surface of the substrate, that is, a mirror surface of the substrate. Such a UV-curing resin layer has already been used in the magneto-optical recording disc. However, the coating of the UV-curing resin needs an extremely delicate coating technique, starting from a predetermined position in an extremely narrow area from a molding mark formed on the substrate by injection molding to an innermost groove edge on the substrate. Such delicate coating technique has not ever been applied to the fabrication of a commercially available phase-change optical recording medium. This is because uneven coating of the hard coat layer, no matter how the unevenness is slight, inevitably causes improper initialization of the recording medium.
Generally, the innermost groove edge is concentrically located at a distance of 22 mm from the center of the disc in the optical recording disc such as CD-RW, while in the magneto-optical recording disc, the innermost groove edge is located at a distance of 25 mm or more from the center thereof, so that the innermost groove edge of the optical recording disc is closer by 2 mm or more to the injection molding mark of the substrate than the innermost groove edge of the magneto-optical recording disc. Therefore, in the case of the phase-change optical recording disc, it is extremely difficult to provide the UV-curing resin layer on the substrate thereof with stable reproducibility.
A phase-change optical disc comprising an Ag--In--Sb--Te based recording layer is conventionally known to exhibit excellent recording performance. However, a phase-change optical recording disc which can securely ensure the compatibility with the CD-R, and satisfy the above-mentioned overall performance required for the rewritable compact disc has not yet been provided.

Optical recording medium and recording and reproducing method using the same


A method for preventing the formation of contaminating polymeric films on the backsides of semiconductor substrates includes providing an oxygen-impregnated focus ring and/or an oxygen-impregnated chuck that releases oxygen during etching operations. The method further provides delivering oxygen gas to the substrate by mixing oxygen in the cooling gas mixture, maintaining the focus ring at a temperature no greater than the substrate temperature during etching and cleaning the substrate using a two step plasma cleaning sequence that includes suspending the substrate above the chuck.

Yield enhancement is a goal in virtually all manufacturing processes including manufacturing processes used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. In the semiconductor manufacturing industry where device feature sizes can be in the nanometer range, there is a close correlation between device yield and contamination levels. Semiconductor devices are especially sensitive to particle contamination and the presence of one very small particle can destroy an entire semiconductor device. It is therefore desirable to reduce particle contamination in each of the multitude of manufacturing processes used to form a semiconductor device.
Dry etching processes, also referred to as plasma etching processes, are carried out to etch various films at various stages of the semiconductor manufacturing operation and produce various device features. Multiple plasma etching operations are generally required to form a semiconductor device. One shortcoming of such plasma etching operations is the generation of polymers as etch by-products within the etching chamber. The polymers can adhere to various surfaces within the etch chamber and become dislodged, contaminating the chamber. One particularly prevalent and problematic location where polymer buildup is common, is the backside of a semiconductor substrate being etched, particularly at the peripheral edge of the substrate. When a polymer film is formed on the peripheral edge of a semiconductor substrate, any jarring of the substrate or movement of the substrate which causes the edge of the substrate to contact another surface, typically causes the polymeric film to delaminate and flake. This generates particles that may fall immediately on the top, device side of the substrate or at least contaminate the chamber in which the substrate is located, which may ultimately result in device contamination and failure. The generation of backside polymeric films is especially prevalent in dielectric etching operations, in particular etching operations that utilize CxFyHz chemistries such as C5F8, C4F6, CH2F2, and CHF3. Using conventional technologies, the polymer buildup on the backside of the substrate being etched, particularly on the beveled peripheral edge, may include a thickness ranging from 1000 angstroms to 6000 angstroms. Such a thick polymer film can result in the generation of considerable particle contamination which can destroy devices and lower yield.
It would therefore be desirable to provide etching processes, in particular plasma etching processes for etching dielectric materials, that eliminate or at least reduce the formation of contaminating polymeric films on semiconductor substrates.

Method and apparatus for backside polymer reduction in dry-etch process

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A condensed single block PAL plus PLA architecture utilizing a rectangular shape is shown. By interleaving the ORterms of the PLA array with the Pterms of the PAL array, a significant amount of die space is saved when incorporating the circuit with silicon. The decode routing required is now simplified and the propagation delay skews through the array are also reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to programmable logic array architectures. More particularly, it relates to a single block PAL plus PLA architecture.
2. The Prior Art
The basic building blocks of a programmable logic device (Pld) are the Product-term and the ORterm. Within each of these terms exists several programmable logic blocks (cells). When the outputs of several such cells are `ANDed` the term is called a `Product-term`, and when outputs are "ORed` the term is called an `ORterm`.
The construction of a programmable logic array requires the joining of two array blocks commonly known as a `PAL` and `PLA` array. The construction of the `PAL` array is made by stacking several product-terms and `ORing` sequential clusters of their outputs into a fixed width OR gate. The construction of the `PLA` array is similar to that of the `PAL` array except the output of each product-term functions as an input to an array of ORterms.
The basic PLD contains a single PAL array or PLA array, or one of each. When constructing complex PLDs (CPLDs), multiple blocks of PAL and PLA arrays are used. These array structures are generally L-shaped, and as such, prevent the efficient placement of multiple blocks of these arrays on silicon. Under this circumstance, not only is silicon die space wasted, but decode routing is more complicated, and propagation delays through the PLA become more skewed.

Condensed single block PLA plus PAL architecture

Philips Electronics North America Corporation


In loop processing by an electronic computer that simultaneously executes a plurality of instructions, a loop optimization system according to this invention comprises loop analyzing means for judging whether or not the process of expanding iterations of instructions in a loop into one iteration is performed based on at least one of the number of operations in each iteration in the loop and the number of memory access instruction; loop expanding means for converting a given number of iterations in an instruction sequence of the loop into an equivalent instruction sequence where those iterations are expanded into one iteration; and loop optimizing means for rearranging instructions in the developed loop so that different repetitious operations may be allocated to separate processing units for simultaneous execution.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a loop optimization system in an electronic computer capable of executing plural sequences of instructions in parallel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, plural sequences of instructions are designed for serial processing by the electronic computer, which executes instructions, one at a time, according to the instruction sequence.
Pipelining techniques have been introduced for the high-speed processing of an instruction sequence. In this technique, the execution of instructions is divided into a plurality of stages, and the instructions belonging to the different stages thus obtained are carried out simultaneously. This approach can shorten the cycle time, thereby shortening the processing time of the entire instruction sequence. Such a pipeline system, however, still executes only one instruction per cycle, far from two or more instructions per cycle of parallel execution.
In recent years, systems performing parallel execution on an instruction level have been introduced, which enables execution of more than one instruction per cycle. The VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) system and the superscalar system are two typical ones of this type.
In the VLIW system, a predetermined number of instructions are defined as a single execution unit, and the computer always executes the set of instructions at the same time. Here, the computer does not have to judge whether a plurality of instructions to be executed are able to be carried out simultaneously, which simplifies control, thus making it possible to construct the system using a small amount of hardware and attain shorter cycle times. However, it is necessary for a compiler or an expert to judge whether the processing is suitable for parallel execution and base on the result, allocate appropriate instructions in advance.
The superscalar system has hardware that interprets a plurality of instructions designed for serial processing to determine whether they can be executed in parallel, and that when finding parallel execution possible, carries out more than one instruction in parallel. In this system, the judgment of whether instructions are suitable for parallel execution is left to special hardware, which assures that even an ordinary program is executed, keeping compatibility with serial executions. To improve the performance of the superscalar system, it is essential to perform the scheduling of instructions as with the VLIW system in order to place the operation units in an operating state as long as possible, depending on information such as hardware resources or data dependence.
For the parallel execution system, especially for an instruction rearranging system to speed up the execution of loop portions in a program, a software pipelining system is available which allocates one iteration of loop to a unique hardware resource and simultaneously executes virtual iterations of loops using separate processing units in a pipeline manner.
For example, it is assumed that software pipelining is executed by a VLIW computer composed of a floating point unit, a memory (load, store) unit, an integer unit, and a branch unit. It is also assumed that a floating point add instruction and a multiply instruction have a delay of 2 cycles.
A loop written in the C language in FIG. 1A will be explained.
If scalar variables b and c have been loaded into the register, the following four processing stages will complete one iteration of loop:
(1) Loading into A[i]
(2) Multiplying A[i]*b
(3) Adding A[i]*b+c
(4) Storing the result
Therefore, a set of instructions in a conventional serial computer may be obtained as shown in FIG. 1B. Since the software pipelining deals with each stage using a separate unit, the executing state at each clock is such as shown in FIG. 1C. With the steady state of loop execution at clocks 7 and 8, load and mul at the k+3 time iteration, add at the k+1 time iteration, and store at the k time iteration are processed in a multiplex manner. This software pipelining allows efficient loop processing without idling the units (for addition, multiplication, loading, and storing) the hardware has. The VLIW and superscalar systems require the above rearrangement to be carried out by the compiler without handling (modifying) the source program.
In the loops in FIGS. 1A through 1C, use of software pipelining enables efficient rearrangement, but does not always provide the maximum parallel processing capabilities the processor has. The reason will be explained below.
The portions indicated by `-` in FIG. 1C are delay cycles in calculation. Generally, in the VLIW and superscalar systems, each processing unit often undergoes pipeline control. If an independent operation instruction is available for such a delay cycle, it is possible to supply that instruction to each processing unit to insert it in a delay cycle for higher parallel performance. In this example, however, there is no appropriate operation for this purpose. Thus, even if the original loop has empty instruction slots, because of very simple processing, those slots cannot be filled with suitable instructions, sometimes failing to achieve the maximum parallel performance.
For example, the loop in FIG. 2A is a simple loop with only one addition. Instructions corresponding to the loop of FIG. 2A is shown in FIG. 2B. Three-stage software pipelining of the instruction only provides the executing state in FIG. 2C. In this case, although another independent additional operation can be inserted into two clocks of the delay cycle in the add operation, those 2 clocks are wasted because there is no appropriate instructions available for them. Therefore, for such a loop, direct use of software pipelining in the VLIW or superscalar system cannot provide the maximum parallel processing capabilities by making full use of the operation units the system has.
As noted above, when the number of operation instructions in one loop iteration, the number of memory access instructions, and the number of operation units the processor has harmonize with each other, loop optimization by software pipelining provides efficient parallel execution. When the loop has a small number of operations, however, some of the operation units in the processor lie idle, resulting in less effective parallel operation.
As described above, conventional software pipelining for the VLIW or superscalar system has a problem: when a loop in a program has a small number of operations compared with the number of operation units the processor has, it is impossible to perform parallel execution using all the operation units in the processor, making it unable to achieve satisfactory parallel processing performance.
The related literature of this invention includes S. Weiss and J. E. Smith, "A STUDY OF SCALAR COMPLICATION TECHNIQUES FOR PIPELINED SUPERCOMPUTERS," Proc of 2nd ASPLOS, 1987, pp. 105-109, and M. Lam, "Software Pipelining: An Effective Scheduling Technique for VLIW Machines," Proceeding of the SIGPLAN' 88 Conference on Programming Language and Implementation, Jun., 22-24, 1988, pp. 318-328.


An antenna member, associated orthogonal antenna arrangement and method are disclosed. The antenna member is configured such that an orthogonal antenna arrangement may utilize two or three identical ones of the disclosed antenna member. Accordingly, the antenna member includes a support member defining a through hole which includes a predetermined configuration. Furthermore, an arrangement of conductive members is supported by the support member and surrounds the through hole such that an antenna pattern is defined along an axis which extends through the through hole. The predetermined configuration of the through hole is such that a two orthogonal axis antenna subassembly may be formed by receiving a first one of the antenna members in the predetermined configuration of the through hole of a second one of the antenna members in a way which arranges the axes of the first and second antenna members orthogonally with respect to one another. A three axis orthogonal antenna assembly may be formed by receiving the two orthogonal axis antenna subassembly in the predetermined configuration of the through hole of a third one of the antenna members in a way which positions the axis of the antenna pattern defined by the third antenna member orthogonally with respect to the axes of the antenna patterns defined by the first and second antenna members.

The present invention is related generally to multi-axis antenna arrangements and more particularly to an orthogonal multi-axis antenna arrangement in which the center of the overall antenna pattern is established with a relatively high degree of precision at a known point of intersection along two or three antenna axes. An associated method is disclosed.
Establishing the location of an electromagnetic signal source is important in a range of different applications including, but not limited to locating an underground boring tool using a locating signal which is transmitted from the boring tool. Generally, in such applications, antennas such as, for example, dipole antennas are used to measure the signal strength of the locating field along orthogonally opposed axes at one or more above ground locations. The measured signal strengths are then used to calculate the position of the boring tool. Unfortunately, however, locating applications which contemplate high levels of precision are typically limited by inaccurate signal strength measurements when prior art multi-axis antenna arrangements are used. The inaccuracy can be attributed to two significant sources: (1) it is inherently difficult to establish the origin/center of the antenna pattern of these prior art antenna arrangements in a very precise way and (2) particularly in the instance of a three axis orthogonal antenna arrangement, it is improbable that the three antenna axes actually intersect at one point such that electromagnetic field measurements taken by the arrangement actually represent, as nearly as possible, the electromagnetic field strength at a single point. In fact, when three dipole antennas are used, it is submitted that intersection of the three antenna axes at a single point which also comprises the center point of the antenna pattern of each of the dipoles is not possible.
The above incorporated U.S. application discloses a number of embodiments of a highly advantageous locating system for use in not only locating, but tracking an underground boring tool. In each of these embodiments, one or more above ground receivers include antenna clusters which are used to receive the dipole electromagnetic locating signal that is emanated from the underground location of the boring tool. In order to satisfy the need for an accurate orthogonal antenna, a highly advantageous cubic antenna arrangement is disclosed for use as the antenna cluster in the above ground receivers.
While the cubic antenna arrangement disclosed in the above incorporated application remains highly effective in solving the problems encountered in precision measurement of locating signal strength, the present invention discloses another highly advantageous and heretofore unseen antenna arrangement which also provides for precise measurement of a locating field at a single point and which further provides for remarkable ease of manufacture; high levels of manufacturing repeatability; highly stable, consistent performance; and reduced complexity in associated signal conditioning circuitry.

Orthogonal antenna arrangement and method


A system and method for content sharing includes acquiring, by a processing device, a plurality of data objects from data sources, storing the plurality of data objects in a data warehouse, generating a high-level index that is shared by the plurality of data objects, generating a plurality of low-level indices that each provides a respective low-level index for a respective one of the plurality of data objects, and providing the plurality of data objects on the content sharing platform for query or search using the high-level index and the plurality of low-level indices.

Data are made publicly available and provided across the globe by governments, companies, private and public institutions, and the like. The data obtained may be in the form of data sets, reports, one or more tables, and/or one or more articles, and in various formats. Although many petabytes of public and enterprise data are available, it is practically impossible to discover connections among the vast and valuable data because the data are stored in numerous independent systems, and/or locations and the formats of the data vary.
The aforementioned of publicly available data in numerous independent locations and in different formats are not ideal. Accordingly, a new data system is desired to facilitate acquisitions, searches, and providing results of structured and unstructured data sets.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A web page identified by a URL stored in a downloads queue is downloaded, and hyperlinks in the downloaded web page are identified. Each hyperlink is screened by parsing the hyperlink (optionally only the URL of the hyperlink) to identify features comprising character strings, computing for each feature values for one or more meta-features indicative of the hyperlinked web page being in a target language, aggregating the meta-feature values to generate a score for the hyperlink, and adding the URL of the hyperlink to the downloads queue conditional upon the score satisfying a screening criterion. The downloading, identifying, and screening are iteratively repeated to perform web crawling, and an index of web pages in the target language is constructed based on analysis of content of the downloaded web pages. The meta-features may include a transliterated target word meta-feature, a language code meta-feature, a country code meta-feature, or so forth.

The following relates to the web crawling arts, database crawling arts, database mining arts, and related arts.
Web crawling is a process by which indexes are constructed for Internet search engines. The technique operates recursively, by indexing a current web page, and then following the hyperlinks to other web pages contained in the current web page and indexing those linked web pages, and so forth. Web crawling thus leverages the existing hyperlinked superstructure of the Internet to efficiently index web pages. The indexing can be respective to various aspects of the web page. In topic focused web crawling, a particular subject of interest is indexed. This can be based, for example, on the occurrence of keywords related to the subject, and the web page can be assigned a score based on the count of occurrences or other suitable metric or metrics of relevant keywords. As the Internet is global in extent, there is also interest in indexing documents respective to language. For example, a user may want to limit the search results to the user's native language, or knowledge of the language in which a web page is written can be leveraged to perform machine translation of the web page into the user's native language.
Web crawling may be untargeted, i.e. every page is to be indexed respective to a wide range of aspects. Alternatively, in focused web crawling, the goal is to index respective to a particular aspect, that is, respective to the focus of the web crawling. As illustrative examples, focused web crawling may be used to locate web pages specifically related to climate change, or may be used to locate pages in a specific language, such as Hindi.
While web crawling is a common application, more generally crawling can be applied to any database containing documents hyperlinked to other documents in the database (and, optionally, to other documents outside the database). As another variant, web crawling can be constrained to a particular domain or portion of the Internet, e.g. to a particular wiki.

Language-oriented focused crawling using transliteration based meta-features


A personal boat carrying apparatus is provided for supporting a kayak or similar boat on a user during a portage to make portaging a kayak easier and less uncomfortable. The apparatus is lightweight but durable and has a body with a curved and arched center portion for resting on the shoulders of a user carrying the kayak, and two opposite body ends. Each body end has a support arm which pivots from a closed position to one or more open positions. The pivoting support arm provides multiple open positions to allow the apparatus to support kayaks and similar boats of different widths and configurations. Each support may have a swiveling bracket for engaging the gunwale of the cockpit of the kayak or similar boat. When the support arms are in the closed position, the apparatus may be compactly stored in the boat or elsewhere.

Kayaks and similar types of boats are designed for use in bodies of water and are cumbersome to carry over land. Various wheeled trolleys and carts are available to assist users transport their boat to water without having to carry it on their shoulders. However, such wheeled devices are only suitable on substantially even terrain such as paved surfaces. In rougher terrain, the user must portage. Portaging refers to the practice of carrying one's boat over land, for example, to avoid an obstacle in a river or to carry one's boat from one body of water to another.
A typical kayak weighs about 45 to 55 pounds (excluding any gear of the user) and has an open space on the top of the boat called a cockpit in which the kayaker sits to navigate the kayak when it is in water. A fisherman's kayak is similar to a typical kayak except that the cockpit area is much larger to accommodate fishing gear. The kayak cockpit of both types of kayak is surrounded by a gunwale (which refers to the top edge of the side of the boat), but there is no aspect of the cockpit that is designed to assist the user carry the kayak over land.
Two people may carry a kayak over land using the handles at the front and back of the boat. However, a second person may not be available or convenient in every circumstance. Where no second person is available to assist with carrying a kayak, a kayaker would typically flip the kayak over and put it on one of his or her shoulders. Carrying the kayak in this fashion may be unstable and fails to evenly distribute the weight of the boat across the kayaker's musculature. Carrying a kayak in this manner is also tiring and uncomfortable for the portager, especially over long durations.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improvements in the art.


An electrical discharge detector (30) which detects electrical discharge generated at a machining gap; a pulse generator (41) which generates a pulse signal which stops after the commencement of electrical discharge in response to the electrical discharge detector; first switching circuits (22A, 22D) which apply voltage pulses of one polarity in response to the pulse signal; second switching circuits (22B, 22C), which apply voltage pulses of the opposite polarity to the machining gap in response to the pulse signal; a flip-flop (46) which retains one of two states; a gate circuit (42, 43) which supplies a pulse signal to the first switching circuit when one state is retained in the flip-flop, and supplies a pulse signal to the second switching circuit when the other state is retained in the flip-flop; circuits (CK, 48, 49) which supply a high frequency pulse to the flip-flop for the duration of the pulse signal; a circuit (44) which supplies a single pulse to the flip-flop each time the pulse signal is inactive; and a machining current supply circuit (10), which supplies a machining current to the machining gap after the commencement of electrical discharge.

When a direct current voltage is supplied to a gap while water or a water-based dielectric fluid is supplied to a machining gap formed between a conductive workpiece and a tool electrode, the quality of the workpiece, which is typically held at a positive polarity relative to the tool electrode, may be adversely affected by electrical corrosion due to an undesirable flow of current through a dielectric fluid having a reduced electrical resistivity. In order to suppress this electrolytic effect, Japan Patent Publication 5-37766 discloses an electrical discharge machining power supply comprising a first power supply, which applies a high frequency alternating current voltage to the machining gap, and a second power supply, which supplies a direct current to the machining gap immediately upon commencement of an electrical discharge. In this disclosure, the first power supply is applied to the machining gap through a connecting circuit such as a transformer or capacitor. Therefore, a portion of the current fed from the second power supply to the machining gap may flow through the connecting circuit to the first power supply, reducing machining energy.

Electrical discharge machining apparatus and electrical discharge machining method


A light emitting element comprises: a printed circuit board, a chip disposed on a first face of the printed circuit board, a first encapsulation body and a second encapsulation body. The first encapsulation body covers the chip, and the second encapsulation body covers a second face of the printed circuit board or a part of the second face of the printed circuit board. A first pipe and a second pipe are extended respectively from two positions of the first encapsulation body and are respectively connected to two positions of the second encapsulation body. Fluid is encapsulated within the first encapsulation body, the first pipe, the second encapsulation body and the second pipe.

The core component of a light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor chip, which comprises two parts, i.e., a P-type semiconductor and an N-type semiconductor. When the two semiconductors are joined to each other, a "PN junction" is formed therebetween. When the current acts on the chip through wires, electrons will be pushed toward the P-type semiconductor region, in which electrons from the N-type semiconductor recombine with holes in the P-type semiconductor and at last emit energy in the form of photons.
If the heat dissipation problem of an LED can not be solved, the LED will have a high junction temperature. According to the Arrhenius law, the service life of the LED may be prolonged twice for each decrease by 10° C. of the junction temperature. Therefore, it is the key for improving the service life of LED to solve the heat dissipation problem of the LED.

Light emitting element, backlight module, liquid crystal display device

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


The present invention provides a display device for a vehicle that includes a speed display unit that displays a vehicle speed on a speed scale; and a supply-rate display unit that displays a supply rate that is a fuel supply amount per a give time on a supply-rate scale. In this display device for a vehicle, the speed scale and the supply-rate scale are arranged in parallel with a constant distance therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle for displaying a fuel amount supplied to an engine that drives the vehicle, as well as a vehicle speed and a rotation rate of the engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to drive an engine to provide power for a vehicle, petroleum fuel such as gasoline and light oil is used. To enhance economical efficiency during an engine driving operation, it has been desired to reduce fuel consumption, that is, to enhance fuel efficiency.
Fuel efficiency depends on driver's driving behaviors, and his or her economical driving may result in a better fuel efficiency. In order to encourage a driver to perform an economical driving operation, it has been suggested to provide a driver with a display showing fuel consumption as well as a current fuel-injection rate, as disclosed in JP H03-56827 A.
However, JP H03-56827 A discloses a display of a fuel efficiency calculated based on past average values of vehicle speed and fuel consumption. It has been difficult to determine how a current driving operation such as an accelerator pedal stroking affects the fuel efficiency.
Since fuel-injection rate significantly varies depending on the vehicle speed, the fuel efficiency during a higher-speed driving at a greater fuel-injection rate may be equal to that during a lower-speed driving at a smaller fuel-injection rate. Thus, it is difficult to determine whether or not the current driving operation such as an accelerator pedal stroking is economically enough, simply by observing the current fuel-injection rate by sight.


A train protection device, which decides a position of an own train on track by using GPS satellites, includes: a GPS reception unit; a tachogenerator unit; a track-information storage unit; and a position decision unit. The position decision unit decides the position of the own train based on the GPS signal, the reception state value, the running distance from the reference position, the current speed, and the information of a track on which the own train runs. When the reception state value is equal to or larger than a threshold, the position decision unit decides a position as a current train position by adding, with respect to a forward direction of the track on which the own train runs, a correction value.

Conventionally, as a method of detecting a running position of a train, a method capable of: accumulating values, each of which is obtained by multiplying the number of wheel rotations obtained from a tachogenerator by a wheel diameter; and obtaining a running distance and calculating a position based on the accumulated running distance while using position information of a ground coil of a train protection device placed on a track as a reference is widely known. Meanwhile, Patent Literature 1 mentioned below discloses a technique capable of calculating a position based on position information of the GPS (Global Positioning System), a yaw angular velocity, and speed information of a tachogenerator, thereby improving positional accuracy.
In Patent Literature 1 mentioned below, when the reception reliability of GPS information is high, an own-train-position detection system calculates a position of the own train based on the GPS information. When the reception reliability of the GPS information is medium, the own-train-position detection system calculates a track curvature based on the yaw angular velocity and the information of the tachogenerator while using the GPS information as the reference and compares this curvature with known track curvature information to identify the position of the own train. When the reception reliability of the GPS information is low, the own-train-position detection system uses the running distance provided by the tachogenerator as the reference and compares the track curvature calculated based on the yaw angular velocity and the speed information with the known track curvature information to identify the position of the own train. The track curvature information is obtained by recording the yaw angular velocity, the speed, and the position information in a preliminary test run, associating the recorded information with the curvature, and storing the associated information.

Train protection device and train position decision method


An image forming apparatus, including an image forming unit, a body accommodating the image forming unit, and a cover configured to form a part of an exterior covering of the body, is provided. The cover includes a first rib formed to protrude from an inner surface of the cover and extend longitudinally along the inner surface of the cover. The first rib extends to incline with respect to a horizontal plane to be higher at one end on a first side of the image forming apparatus and lower at the other end on a second side of the image forming apparatus. An upper surface of the first rib extends continuously from the one end to the other end and is discontinued at the other end, the other end of the upper surface of the first rib being separated from the exterior covering.

1. Technical Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a cover, which covers laterals of a body of the image forming apparatus to form exterior faces of the body.
2. Related Art
A conventionally known image forming apparatus may include a plurality of covering parts that form exterior faces of a main body of the image forming apparatus. In such an image forming apparatus, processing devices such as a photosensitive unit, a developer device, a fixing device, a motor, and circuit boards may be disposed inside the covering parts.


A computer including a central processing unit, a cooling fan, an operating system (OS), a temperature sensor sensing a temperature within the CPU, a mode selector for selecting one of a fan off mode and a fan on mode for the cooling fan, a microcomputer controlling the cooling fan based on a selected mode, and outputting a selection signal corresponding to the selected mode, and a BIOS controlling a clock frequency of the CPU based on a sensing result of the temperature sensor if the BIOS receives the selection signal corresponding to the fan on mode from the microcomputer, and allowing the OS to control the clock frequency of the CPU if the BIOS receives the selection signal corresponding to the fan off mode. Here, a computer system can permit a user to turn on/off a cooling fan and efficiently control heat generated from the CPU.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems, media, and control methods for a computer, and more particularly, to a system, medium, and method for controlling a computer system to turn on/off a cooling fan to cool down a central processing unit (CPU) based on a user's choice, and to efficiently control heat generated from the CPU while the cooling fan is turned off.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, integration levels of chips and clock speeds of CPUs have dramatically increased, enhancing performance of computer systems. However, the CPUs have become heated to very high temperatures due to the increased clock speeds of the CPUs, thereby resulting in the CPUs becoming defective or permanently damaged.
To prevent the CPU from becoming defective or damaged due to this CPU overheating, various solutions have been recommended. One of these solutions is to install a cooling fan near the CPU, sense temperatures within the CPU, and correspondingly turn on/off the cooling fan based on the sensed temperatures.
FIG. 1 is a control block of a conventional computer system using a cooling fan 130 to cool down a central processing unit (CPU) 170. As illustrated, the computer system can include a thermal diode 162 whose resistance changes in relation to changes in temperature within the CPU 170, a temperature sensor 164 sensing a voltage change, in accordance with the changing resistance of the thermal diode 162 and generating a corresponding temperature sensing signal, and a microcomputer 110 driving the cooling fan 130 based on the temperature sensing signal from the temperature sensor 164.
The conventional computer system has an advantage of offering stable operation of the CPU 170 by cooling down the CPU 170 using the fan 130, but it also suffers from a problem of noise being generated by the cooling fan 130.
Therefore, inventors of the present invention have found that a user may want to turn off the cooling fan 130 to reduce the noise generated therefrom if the user is working on the computer in a quiet place or performing simple word processing, for example.
On the other hand, if the user is working in a graphically heavy environment, requiring greater use of the CPU 170, the CPU 170 becomes heated to very high temperatures, and thus the cooling fan 130 also needs to be driven at maximum speed, requiring the user to endure the noise generated therefrom. This problem also needs to be solved.

System, medium, and control method for a computer


An event analysis apparatus configured to analyze events including alarms generated in a plurality of devices and operations targeting the devices is provided. The event analysis apparatus includes an event log collection unit configured to collect an event log including an occurrence date and time of the event, a device identifier (ID) of the device in which the event occurs, and an event type ID of the event, an event log storage unit configured to convert the event log into an event matrix representing presence and absence of occurrence of each device event obtained by coupling the device ID and the event type ID in time series and save the event matrix; and an event analysis unit configured to calculate a conditional probability between the device events to construct a Bayesian network by dividing the event matrix into blocks, each of which has a predetermined reference time width and determining the presence and absence of the occurrence of each of the device events in each of the blocks, and decide a device event as a cause of a device event of an analysis target or a device event to be generated later using the constructed Bayesian network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an event analysis apparatus which analyzes events such as an alarm generated in an industrial plant or an operation procedure of an operator and extracts a cause-and-effect relationship of the event, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program analyzing the events, and a method for analyzing the events.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-284529, filed Dec. 27, 2012, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In a distributed control system or the like which controls a field device group of a sensor, an actuator, etc. using control systems such as field controllers distributed and arranged in an industrial plant, an event analysis apparatus which acquires and analyzes events such as an alarm generated in the plant or an operation procedure of an operator is known.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an event analysis apparatus of the related art. As illustrated in FIG. 12, the event analysis apparatus 300 includes an event log collection unit 310 and an event display unit 320.
Events such as operation recording of an operator for a control system 340 or an alarm may be saved by the control system 340 as a log and saved by a historian 350. The event log collection unit 310 collects the event log from either or both sides and records the collected event log on a storage device provided internally or externally.
The event log collection unit 310 performs a statistical process of calculating an occurrence frequency or ratio of each event or the like for a collected event group, and displays an event list, a histogram indicating situations of the occurred events, a result of the statistical process, etc. on a display device 330 via the event display unit 320. A user can promote efficiency improvement of plant operation and the like by referring to information displayed on the display device 330.
The related art is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2007-164463, J. Pearl, "Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Plausible Inference," Morgan Kaufmann, 1988, and Hiroki Suyari, "Introduction to Bayesian Network (1)," MEDICAL IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 21, No. 4, September 2003.

Event analysis apparatus, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program analyzing events, and method for analyzing events over variable time width


An athletic shoe is described, provided with an inflatable tongue or bladder for a more secure fit to the user's foot. The bladder may include a plurality of chambers with a valve disposed therebetween to selectively inflate the chambers. The inflatable tongue or bladder has a lightweight pump disposed thereon. Inflatable footwear having an inflation bag under the foot is also disclosed. The inflation bag is formed by two sheets of material that are welded together. Interior welds are provided to moderate the thickness of the inflation bag. A foam layer having apertures is positioned adjacent to the inflation bag. The apertures overlie the interior welds and are sized larger than the interior welds. Also described is a slider valve that enables selective inflation of individual bladder chambers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improved athletic shoes of the type having flexible uppers and, more particularly, to athletic shoes suitable for exercise activities, for example, for basketball, aerobics, tennis or for activities such as running. The invention is also directed to an underfoot support system which provides improved shock absorption (cushioning) and support.


A method, system, and computer program product for calculating the residual stress equilibrium of two elastoplastic cylinders coldworked by expansion to obtain interference fit. The deformation state due to an internal expansion load applied to an inner cylinder that will result in interference of the inner cylinder with the outer cylinder can be calculated. The deformation state due to an unloading of the internal expansion load that will result in assembly of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder can be calculated. The residual stresses, residual displacement and residual strains in the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder, whether they are eventually interference fitted or not, can all be calculated and recorded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for assessing whether an inner cylinder that initially achieves a clearance fit with an outer cylinder will assemble with the said outer cylinder after an expansion process has occurred. The present invention also relates to a method, system, and computer program product for calculating a residual stress state of the two cylinders subsequent to applying an internal expansion load to the inner cylinder and then releasing the internal expansion load.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to protect borings from wear and fatigue, a solution has been to install rings by various processes such as force fitting or cold expansion. When assembling, for example, a ring inside the boring of a receiving part, one is primarily concerned with moderating stress concentration in the edge of the boring by creation of a compressive field of residual stresses. However, the variety of the geometries, the potential use of two different materials, uncertainties due to the dimensional tolerances, and the relative importance of the induced deformations can render the study of the factors which influence this otherwise technically simple process quite difficult.
A great deal of work has been completed on problems relating to loading thick cylinders, hooping or expansion of borings.
However, to date, no analytical study sufficiently treats the residual stress equilibrium of two free to slip concentric cylinders coldworked by a loading-unloading expansion process.

Method, System, and computer program product for calculating the residual stress equilibrium of two concentric cylinders coldworked by a loading-unloading expansion process


Thus, the instant invention is directed toward an oil for diesel engines comprising an admixture of (A) a major amount of an oil of lubricating viscosity, (B) at least 4 mass % dispersant, (C) at least 0.3 mass % of a metal phenate, (D) less than 0.1 mass % friction modifier, (E) less than 0.3 mass % of ashless sulfurized phenols and, (F) less than 0.12 mass % neutral calcium sulfonate.

Over the years, the heavy duty trucking market has adopted the diesel engine as its preferred power source due to both its excellent longevity and its economy of operation. Specialized lubricants have been developed to meet the more stringent performance requirements of HD diesel engines compared to passenger car engines.
Starting in the late 1980's, changes in the U.S. emission laws began to force significant changes in heavy duty diesel engine design. Although not all of these changes had an impact on lubricants, taken as a whole, they generally required higher quality lubricants to maintain acceptable performance in the redesigned engines.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) has responded to these increasing performance requirements by raising the heavy duty oil quality levels from CD to CE, CF-4 and, most recently, CG-4.
As we look to the future, HD diesel emissions limits will tighten once again in 1998 with a 20% reduction in NOx. ASTM is already hard at work on a new performance category identified as PC-7 (proposed category-7), aimed at meeting the performance needs of 1998 engines.
The PC-7 category is being designed to give significant improvements in diesel detergency, soot and wear control for HD lubricants. Several new diesel engine tests are being developed for this category such as the:                Caterpillar 1P single cylinder test engine to evaluate piston deposits        Mack T-9 six cylinder test to examine ring and liner wear        Cummins M11 test to evaluate soot-related valve train wear, filter plugging and sludge.
The PC-7 category will also include some of the engine tests from previous categories but with more stringent test limits.

Crankcase lubricant for heavy duty diesel oil


Electronic ballast system for fluorescent lights. A power oscillator connected to the primary winding of a power transformer for operation at a predetermined frequency in the range of 10 KHz to 5 MHz, and a ballasting network is connected to the secondary winding of the transformer and to one or more fluorescent lamps. The ballasting network is resonant at a frequency within about .+-.10 percent of the predetermined frequency, and in some embodiments, the resonant frequency of the ballasting network remains the same regardless of the number of lamps connected to it.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to fluorescent lighting and, more particularly, to an electronic ballast system for fluorescent lamps.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, electronic ballasts have been provided for use with fluorescent lamps. Examples of such ballasts are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,245,178 and 4,631,449.
Electronic ballasts typically operate at frequencies on the order of 10 KHz to 100 KHz, and are designed to provide high circuit efficiency, high reliability, and low cost. While the physical size and weight of ballasts are dependent upon operating frequency, with higher frequencies permitting ballasts to be smaller in size and lighter in weight, reductions in size and weight have not been easy to achieve.
In order to reduce losses, multiple wires or Litz wires have been used for transformer windings, but they add substantially to the cost of manufacture. The cost can be reduced somewhat by using single conductor, continuous windings on power transformers. However, that substantially reduces the coefficient of coupling and can result in high leakage flux which puts a heavy stress both on the transformer itself and on any switching devices or diodes used in the high energy path. In addition, leakage flux can also produce high voltage spikes and can cause electromagnetic interference in the nearby environment.
The higher flux drives and higher circulating currents required for reactive loading of a power transformer in prior systems can also increase core loss as well as loss in the windings themselves. To avoid such losses, it has heretofore been necessary to use larger cores and multiple conductors in the transformer windings.

Electronic ballast system for fluorescent lamps


In sequence data composed of a plurality of event sets with their execution sequence predefined, each of the event sets includes event data indicative of an event to be executed and trigger data defining timing for executing the event. Once a user manually instructs progression instructing operation while the individual events are being executed in accordance with the timing defined by the corresponding trigger data, the next event is executed immediately even before arrival of the next event execution timing. According to another aspect, the trigger data include trigger data of a first type that defines the event execution timing the event by use of an absolute time and trigger data of a second type that defines the event execution timing by use of a relative time between the events, and the sequence data may mixedly include the trigger data of the first and second types. Any one of the two time information can be used appropriately in accordance with characteristics of the individual events. For example, for one event having close relevancy to another event to be executed earlier than the one event, the relative time information is used.

The present invention relates to an improved event data reproducing apparatus and method suited for use, for example, in digital mixers, an electronic apparatus using the improved event data reproducing apparatus and/or method, and a computer program for the event data reproduction.
Recent digital mixers are provided with a function (so-called "scene recall function") of storing, in memory, parameter values set via faders, volume control operator members, etc., ON/OFF states of various buttons and other settings or setting states of the digital mixer as "scene data" and then reproducing the thus-stored settings (scene data) in response to one-touch operation by a user or human operator. Thus, by recording in advance mixing settings in various scene setting states, e.g. in theatrical performances, concerts and the like, the digital mixers allow necessary mixing settings (setting states) to be quickly reproduced.
Further, digital mixers employed particularly in production of video and music content are provided with a so-called "automix" function. Namely, in these digital mixers provided with the "automix" function, parameters, such as fader levels, panning and send levels of individual channels are recorded in advance as "automix data" in association with time codes. Then, once "automix data" to be reproduced is designated and the corresponding time codes are supplied to the mixer, the parameters are automatically set to values corresponding to the supplied time codes. In this way, fader levels etc. can be automatically set in synchronism with the time codes recorded together with materials, such as video/music data (see, for example, "DM2000 Instruction Manual", published by Yamaha Corporation in February, 2002, Pages 157-181.
In rehearsals of concerts and theatrical performances, the number of human operators of a digital mixer is sometimes less than that in a real (non-rehearsal) performance before the audience. If, in such a case, the scene recall function can be performed automatically, then it is possible to significantly lessen the burden of the human operators. Even during the real performance, part of the scene recall may sometimes be safely performed automatically. In such a case, once the "scene recall" is designated as an automix parameter, the scene recall can be effected automatically.
However, in actual concerts, theatrical performances, etc. before the audience, there may occur some time "deviations" from previously-estimated times, or needs to deal with unexpected events. Further, during rehearsals, "redoing", "skipping", etc. of some of the scenes occur frequently. With a technique where the "scene recall" is merely included as an automix parameter, it is practically impossible to deal with such unexpected events. This is because editing of the automix data is generally cumbersome and laborious and thus difficult to deal with instantly.
Further, when there have occurred changes in the recalling timing of a plurality of scenes under the above-mentioned circumstances, the conventional digital mixers would require the human operator to manually adjust all execution timing having changed. Consequently, the conventional digital mixers present the problem that the execution-timing editing operation tends to be very cumbersome. Further, when a particular scene has been recalled at given timing, the execution timing of one or more scenes following the particular scene is sometimes determined on the basis of respective time differences from the particular scene. In such a case, it should be very convenient if the execution timing of the other scenes can be automatically determined when the execution timing of the particular scene has been changed.

Event data reproducing apparatus and method, and program therefor


The present invention relates to a food processor and a cover thereof. The food processor cover comprises a feed tube which extends upwardly from an upper cover surface, a safety rod assembly, a locking device, and a feed tube lid assembly pivotally mounted on said feed tube; said feed tube lid assembly includes a safety food entrance. By enlarging the size of feed tubes and food entrances, larger sized food is able to go through in larger quantities.

Normally a food processor comprises a cover with a feed tube extending from an upper surface, a food pusher which moves in the feed tube, a working bowl, which is disposed under the cover and used in combination with the cover, and a base housing to support the working bowl. A driving device is disposed inside the base housing, and a blade tool is mounted on the driving device and positioned in the food processor working bowl. An entrance for food is disposed at the top of the feed tube by which food can be pushed by the food pusher into the working bowl to be tightly compressed onto the blade of blade tool so as to be processed easily. Usually, food processors are equipped with some spare blade tools to meet different food processing requirements. After being processed, the food drops down from the working blade tool into the working bowl. To avoid injuries caused by users putting their hands through the feed tube into the working bowl while the machine tool is in operation, Underwriter Laboratories Inc. (UL) made the following safety regulations on the feed tube size of the food processor cover: the average of the major and minor axes should be less than 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) as well as the major axis should be less than 3 inches (76.2 mm), and the distance from the top surface of the feed tube to the surface of the machine tool should be more than 4 inches (101.6 mm). Furthermore, Underwriter Laboratories Inc. (UL) regulated that if the average of the major and minor axes is less than 2 inches (50.8 mm), the distance from the top surface of the feed tube to the surface of the machine tool should be more than 3.5 inches (88.9 mm).
Cover feed tubes made in accordance with the above mentioned regulations have their limitations, i.e. only relatively small and long food is able to be pushed into food processor to be processed. For example, most potatoes are approximately 50 mm in diameter, which results in that only one potato can go through the feed tube at a time. Moreover, when the food is too large to go through the feed tube, because of the size limitations stated in the safety regulations above, it has to be cut down into small pieces to fit into the feed tube and accordingly, food processing procedures are increased and also inconvenient. At present, no better solution is available to solve this problem.


A heat exchanging arrangement is integrated within a gas turbine engine case that at least partially encloses a gas turbine engine. The gas turbine engine has an upstream end and a downstream end which are defined by a core fluid flow through the gas turbine engine. The heat exchanging arrangement includes at least one flow passage defined within the gas turbine engine case having an inlet port and an outlet port. The at least one flow passage is configured to direct at least a portion of a fluid flowing through the gas turbine engine from between a downstream position and an upstream position while traveling between the inlet port and the outlet port.

The present disclosure relates to gas turbine engines, and in particular, to an integral engine case precooler that can provide cooling of air that is discharged from a gas turbine engine.
Gas turbine engines are widely used in aircraft propulsion, electric power generation, and ship propulsion. In all gas turbine engine applications, efficiency is a prime objective. Improved gas turbine engine efficiency can be obtained by operating at higher temperatures, necessitating the provision of cooling for components in the hottest portions of gas turbine engines, typically in the turbine section. Cooling is provided by flowing relatively cool air from the compressor section of the engine through passages in the turbine components to be cooled. Moreover, some compressor stage discharge air is typically diverted to be provided to other systems (i.e., downstream components) for various purposes including actuation and control, heat exchange, and for providing cabin air. During operation, compressor stage discharge air is at a temperature that is higher than is desired for some purposes, thereby requiring that the diverted discharge air flow through an external heat exchanger for cooling to a lower temperature. Hot air can also be drawn from other components on a gas turbine engine (e.g., turbine discharge), requiring cooling. Therefore, the space and cooling requirements of downstream components (e.g., an external heat exchanger) must be considered in the design of a gas turbine engine. The higher operating temperatures that provide improved gas turbine engine efficiency can place greater demands on the space and/or cooling requirements of an external heat exchanger that is used for cooling the diverted compressor stage discharge air.


An electronic candle comprises a candle housing including a plurality of insertions secured in the interior thereof, a bulb protective cap fixed on the top surface of the candle housing, a circuit board engageably fitted into the interior of the candle housing and including a LED arranged on the top surface thereof, a power switch, an electrically conductive ring and an electrically conductive compression spring all in turn secured on the bottom surface thereof, and by way of a chamber surrounded by the ring and the insertions, a cell may be received therein, a bottom lip covered at the bottom of the candle housing, thereby assembling related components easily and lowering production costs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic candle, and more particularly to an electronic candle that may be operated safely so as to replace the traditional candle, and to lower related components and production costs thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
A prior art candled is employed for a decoration, a celebration or a religious ceremony, etc. However, a fire may occur in practical use due to carelessness, hence a variety of electronic candles have been developed in recent days.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,939 issued on Feb. 20, 2007, to Ching-Tien Tsai discloses an electronic simulation candle including a housing, a lamp shade, a battery box, a circuit board, and a bottom cover.
The housing has a candle shape and has a top face formed with a through hole, an inside provided with a plurality of threaded studs and an opened bottom having an inner wall formed with an annular groove and a periphery formed with a positioning depression.
The lamp shade has a candle flame shape. The lamp shade is secured on the top face of the housing by bonding and has a lower end formed with a reduced mounting portion inserted into the through hole of the housing.
The battery box is mounted in the housing and includes a circular plate having a mediate portion formed with a hollow portion and a periphery formed with a plurality of fixing holes secured to the threaded studs of the housing by screws, an annular frame mounted on a bottom face of the plate, two spaced fixing pieces mounted on the bottom face of the plate, and a plurality of threaded posts mounted on the periphery of the plate. The frame has a periphery formed with a positioning lug.
The circuit board is fixed on the battery box by bonding and located in the housing. The circuit board has a first side provided with two light emitting members and mounted in the lamp shade and a second side provided with a power switch extended through the hollow portion of the battery box and located between the fixing pieces of the battery box, a conducting spring extended through the hollow portion of the battery box into the frame of the battery box, and a conducting elastic plate extended through the hollow portion of the battery box into the frame of the battery box. The two light emitting members and are located at different height levels and connected to the circuit board by two conducting wires. The power switch is controlled in a manual, vibration or optical sensitive manner.
A battery is mounted in the frame of the battery box and rested on the conducting spring and the conducting elastic plate.
The bottom cover is mounted in the annular groove of the housing and rested on the battery. The bottom cover has a plurality of locking holes secured to the threaded posts of the battery box by screws. The bottom cover has a side formed with a conical through hole, and the power switch has a drive lever extended through the through hole of the bottom cover. The bottom cover has a periphery formed with a positioning protrusion positioned in the positioning depression of the housing and a positioning opening to position the positioning lug of the battery box.
Nevertheless, such an electronic simulation candle has more related components, thus causing a complicated assembly and higher production costs.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.


An organic electroluminescent device including a transparent substrate; transparent electrodes extended in one direction on the substrate; connecting electrodes for current supply formed in a crossing direction of the transparent electrodes, not to overlap the transparent electrodes, on one side of the substrate; scan-electrodes formed on the connecting electrodes; an insulation layer formed to cover a predetermined area of the substrate, the transparent electrodes, the connecting electrodes, and the scan-connecting electrodes except the emission parts of the transparent electrodes and the contact parts of the scan-connecting electrodes, wherein the area (AE) of the emission part, the number (N) of the emission parts formed on a scan line, and the area (AC) of the contact part are determined under the formula of [(AE×N)/100 ≦AC]; an organic layer formed on the emission parts of the transparent electrodes; and a scan electrode layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescent device. In particular, the present invention relates to the organic electroluminescent device forming a contact part contacting with a scan electrode layer on a scan-connecting electrode, and supplying electric current to an emission part through the contact part.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic electroluminescence is a phenomenon forming an exciton by combining an electron and a hole supplied through the cathode and the anode, respectively, in an organic layer, and emitting light with specific wavelength by energy of the exciton.
FIG. 1 is a top view showing the organic electroluminescent device using the organic electroluminescence. FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line of II-II of FIG. 1.
The organic electroluminescent device has a general structure as shown in FIG. 2. The organic electroluminescent device comprises a transparent substrate 1, an ITO transparent electrode 2 for the anode, patterned in one direction on the transparent substrate 1, an insulation layer 3 deposited on the remaining area except an emission part 20 of the organic electroluminescent device, a wall 4 formed in the crossing direction to the extended direction of the transparent electrode 2 on the insulation layer 3, an organic layer 5, and a metal scan electrode layer 6 for the cathode.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line of III-III of FIG. 1. The scan electrode layer 6 placed between the walls 4 along the line of III-III of FIG. 1 is defined as a scan line.
An ITO connecting electrode 10 is provided to supply the current to the scan electrode layer 6 of the organic electroluminescent device as shown in FIG. 3. ITO is a metal made by doping tin oxide (SnO2) to indium oxide (In2S3), and so has satisfactory transparent property, but has a problem of high electric resistance.
Therefore, a method to supply the current to the scan electrode layer 6 fluently, as shown in FIG. 3, is one to form a scan-connecting electrode 11 made of a lower electric resistance material than ITO on the connecting electrode 10.
The organic electroluminescent device gradually requires supply of increased current in order to increase the emission area and to achieve the display with high brightness. However, the contact resistance by contact of the different kinds of materials is generated between the scan-connecting electrode 11 and the scan electrode layer 6. Thus, if the contacting area is not more than a certain size, that is, unless the contact resistance is less than a certain value, the brightness is decreased because the current cannot be sufficiently supplied into the organic electroluminescent device.
In this case, desired brightness cannot be obtained even though the applied voltage is sufficiently increased. Another problem therein is that the organic electroluminescent device is deteriorated by heat generated from the contact resistance by the increased amount of current.
This can be explained by Ohm's law (I=V/R), wherein V means voltage, I means current, and R means resistance. Here, the voltage (V) should be increased in order to increase the current (I) for high brightness. However, if the contact resistance (R) generated between the scan-connecting electrode 11 and the scan electrode layer 6 is increased, the effect of the increased voltage (V) is offset.
Also, the increase of resistance (R) causes a problem to increase heat (Q) generated therefrom because the heat (Q) per hour generated by resistance (R) is defined as Q=I2×R.

Organic electroluminescent device comprising a contact part on a scan-connecting electrode