A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit system includes: providing a semiconductor substrate; implanting a well region, having a first conductivity, on the semiconductor substrate; patterning a gate oxide layer on the well region; implanting a source, having a second conductivity, at an angle for implanting under the gate oxide layer; selectively implanting a dopant pocket, having a third conductivity that is opposite the second conductivity, at the angle for forming the dopant pocket under the gate oxide layer; and implanting a drain, having the third conductivity, for forming a transistor channel asymmetrically positioned under the gate oxide layer.

A field-effect transistor (FET) may be a transistor that relies on an electric field to control the conductivity of a "channel" in a semiconductor material. A FET, like all transistors, may be thought of as a voltage-controlled current source. Some FETs may use a single-crystal semiconductor wafer as the channel, or active region. A terminal in a FET may be one of a gate, a drain, or a source. The voltage applied between gate and source terminals may modulate the current between the source and the drain.
Millions of such FET devices may be connected to form a microprocessor, a memory, or a logic interface chip. As the number of the FETs increases and the available energy is diminished, new approaches must be developed that allow the standard operation with significantly less voltage.
Portable products, such as cellular telephones, personal video players, cameras, camcorders, and portable video games are battery powered. These products must be capable of performing across a wide and reduced voltage range. The physical geometries of these FET devices have not deviated very much while their size has greatly been reduced.
Some of the latest developments in FETs may include High-K/metal gate (HK/MG) FETs may operate between 0.8 and 1.0 volts, Trigate FETs may operate between 0.6 and 0.9 volts, III-V/Ge QW FETs may operate between 0.5 and 0.6 volts, and Sub-threshold-slope Transistors for Electronics with Extremely-low Power (STEEP) transistors may operate between 0.25 and 0.4 volts. Transistors in the STEEP group may include ionization metal oxide semiconductor (IMOS) transistors, Green Field Effect Transistors (gFET), or Tunneling Field Effect Transistors (TFET).
Historically the reduction in gate length geometries in the deep sub-micron semiconductor processes has been accompanied by an increase in leakage current. The goal of the newest generations of deep sub-micron technologies is to shorten gate length technologies, decrease the threshold voltage (Vt) without having an increase in the leakage current (Ioff) or short channel effect (SCE). The SCE can not be controlled in today's technology due to junction sheet resistance and gate tunneling.
Today's conventional devices use diffusion based technologies which may limit the sub-threshold-slope to approximately 60 mV. The applications of today require transistor devices that can scale the Vdd required for reliable operation.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit system with band to band tunneling. In view of the increasing trend toward higher integration and lower voltage batteries, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Integrated circuit system with band to band tunneling and method of manufacture thereof


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a backing up method, device, and system for a virtual machine. The backing up method for a virtual machine includes a backup server mounting a snapshot initial volume of a to-be-backed-up original volume of a virtual machine in a primary storage device to the backup server, creating an initialization backup volume on a backup storage device and mounting the initialization backup volume to the backup server, and backing up an original data block of the original volume to the initialization backup volume.

With development of computer technologies, virtualization technologies are widely promoted and applied. Multiple virtual machines may be created on a physical machine by using a virtualization technology to form a virtualization platform and the multiple virtual machines share a physical resource; and for a user, these virtual machines work like real computers completely.
Data of a virtual machine is saved on a bottom storage device, and to ensure reliability of the data of the virtual machine, the data of the virtual machine generally needs to be backed up. In the prior art, for a virtualization platform that supports a cluster file system, a backup of data of a virtual machine may be implemented through an image of the cluster file system or in a storage live migration manner. However, in the backup process, processor and memory resources of the virtualization platform are both greatly consumed, thereby affecting performance of an upper application of the virtual machine.

Backing up method, device, and system for virtual machine


Genetically modified compositions, such as non-viral vectors and T cells, for treating cancer are disclosed. Also disclosed are the methods of making and using the genetically modified compositions in treating cancer.

Despite remarkable advances in cancer therapeutics over the last 50 years, there remain many tumor types that are recalcitrant to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or biotherapy, particularly in advanced stages that cannot be addressed through surgical techniques. Recently there have been significant advances in the genetic engineering of lymphocytes to recognize molecular targets on tumors in vivo, resulting in remarkable cases of remission of the targeted tumor. However, these successes have been limited largely to hematologic tumors, and more broad application to solid tumors is limited by the lack of an identifiable molecule that is expressed by cells in a particular tumor, and lack of a molecule that can be used to specifically bind to the tumor target in order to mediate tumor destruction. Some recent advances have focused on identifying tumor-specific mutations that in some cases trigger an antitumor T cell response. For example, these endogenous mutations can be identified using a whole-exomic-sequencing approach. Tran E, et al., "Cancer immunotherapy based on mutation-specific CD4+ T cells in a patient with epithelial cancer," Science 344: 641-644 (2014).
The disclosed compositions and methods herein can be used for the identification of cancer-specific T Cell Receptors (TCRs) that recognize unique immunogenic mutations in a patient's cancer and to treat any type of cancer within a patient. Insertion of these transgenes encoding the cancer-specific TCR into T cells using non-viral (e.g., CRISPR, TALEN, transposon-based, ZEN, meganuclease, or Mega-TAL) methods are innovative approaches that opens new opportunities for extending immunotherapy to many cancer types.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services


A hinge including a stiffened leaf. The hinge may generally comprise a first longitudinally-extending leaf having a base portion and a mounting portion offset and preferably parallel to the base portion that defines a cavity. The mounting portion may contain at least one hole for attaching the leaf to a hinged object with a fastener. In one embodiment, the hole further includes an annular reinforcement disposed in the cavity proximate to the hole. The hole may be conical in shape and may extend into the reinforcement to receive and support a conically-shaped fastener head. The hinge is suitable for thin leaf construction and continuous full-length hinge applications.

The present invention relates to continuous hinges for use with architectural doors and frames. More particularly the invention relates to forming hinge leaves for continuous hinges to facilitate and improve their secure attachment with threaded fasteners by stiffening the metal leaves of such hinges through embossing or other means to produce a unique surface structure. The invention further relates to a hinge leaf fastener hole configuration and structure, and methods for forming the same, to optimize the choice of fasteners and improve the strength of such holes. These features will facilitate interchangeability of the invention with other continuous hinges, in both new and hinge replacement applications by providing a hinge that may be made to fit industry standard door opening clearance gaps. Other advantages of the invention include providing the means to make hinges that are more fire-resistant, less prone to shipping damage, and visually more appealing.
Hinges that are continuous, i.e., hinges that attach a door to its frame or to another door for a substantial part of the length of the joined portions, are well known. Such hinges take various forms, including hinges which are formed from sheet metal by stamping and curling "knuckles", or essentially cylindrical receptacles, along the length of a strip which will accept a longitudinal pin, wire or rod. The knuckles are separated by spaces of generally equal length so that the opposing knuckles of a second hinge member may be interposed between the knuckles of the first hinge member and joined by the pin, wire or rod. Such hinges are commonly known as "piano" hinges, and are used, in addition to pivoting the covers for piano keyboards, for building athletic lockers, furniture, equipment enclosures and for building architectural doors and frames, or wherever a secure hinging system is required. U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,975, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a hinge of this type, which has been improved by a variety of means to mechanically articulate a covering member to enhance its appearance as well as to improve its protection from environmental deterioration and other hazards.
Another form of continuous hinge, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,422, which is incorporated herein by reference, teaches a continuous hinge with two hinge members rotatably mounted about the edges of a C-shaped, elongated clamp that defines an internal channel. Gear segments at the edges of the hinge members are meshed with each other to pivotably connect the hinge members. One or more thrust bearings disposed in recesses of both hinge members prevent relative movement of the hinge members along their axes of rotation. The bearings occupy most of the cross-sectional spaces within the clamp and have bearing surfaces on their ends that are generally parallel to, abut, and support the recess end surfaces of the hinge member recesses. Another configuration of a continuous hinge is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,879, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses hinge members with gear segments meshed with the clamp instead of, or in addition to, being meshed with each other.
The continuous hinges described above are characterized by hinge leaf members that are substantially flat so as to lie flush with the hinged objects (e.g., door, door frame and jamb, etc.) to which they are mounted. FIGS. 1A-C depict such a typical flat hinge leaf configuration. These flat hinge leaves, however, may lack sufficient strength and are prone to warpage and damage when made of relatively thin material, such as sheet steel. Due to the thinness of the material, they also may not be usable with standard fasteners used in the door hinge industry, such as No. 12 flat top, conical head self-tapping screws (either full or undercut head designs), and require special fasteners or modification of standard fastener offerings. The dimensions for such standard No. 12 screws are established per American Society of Mechanical Engineers National Standard ASME B18.6.4-1998, entitled "Thread Forming and Thread Cutting Tapping Screws and Metallic Drive Screws (Inch Series)," issued Dec. 31, 1999.
Some of the continuous hinges of the kinds described above have gained wide acceptance in the building construction industry. However, because of the variety of materials and processes used in their fabrication, together with their widespread availability from different sources, little attention has been given to interchangeability from one manufacturer's offerings to another, or between different choices of hinge leaf material such as aluminum or steel. Because of its typically greater strength, steel leaves can be made thinner than their aluminum counterparts that must be made thicker to achieve comparable strength. This is particularly important in industrial and commercial door installations with tall (sometimes 9 feet or more high) and heavy doors where strong hinges are required. Because extruded aluminum hinges are typically less expensive, they have become somewhat of the industry standard for continuous hinges, except where building codes require fire resistant door installations (as discussed below) or other considerations require selection of thinner steel hinges. As shown in FIG. 1C, a 5/16  inch gap has virtually become the industry standard door-to-jamb clearance gap for aluminum hinges. This gap is filled by aluminum hinge leaves (two) which are typically 1/8  inch thick each and a 1/16  inch clearance between the leaves when closed. As is apparent, if a steel hinge having thinner leaves is desired to be substituted for the aluminum hinge, there is insufficient leaf thickness to fill the standard 5/16  inch gap, requiring costly and inconvenient door and/or frame modifications. Even though the thinner leaves could be set wider apart by forming the knuckles to create a wider separation between them when the leaves are parallel, this would leave a large gap between them, which is undesirable because it would allow excessive air infiltration as well as permit warping and large distortions of the leaves under conditions of building fires in which steel hinges are principally intended. Accordingly, there is a need for a hinge with thinner leaves that can accommodate the standard 5/16  inch clearance gap, thereby allowing interchangeability between steel and aluminum hinges.
Differences in resistance to the effects of fire and other operational hazards between continuous hinges that may be manufactured of different materials has made it difficult to exchange or replace hinges with others more suitable for a particular location in a building or for a different operating requirement. Hinges made of steel are more fire resistant, but hinges made of aluminum, while less so, are cheaper but have thicker leaves. Frequently, misinterpretation of complex building codes by architects and designers results in the installation of new hinges made of the wrong material (e.g., aluminum), or changes in building codes require the replacement of existing aluminum hinges with steel hinges that meet the more stringent fire rating criteria so that the lunge installation can be brought up to code.
The consequences of upfront errors by architects and designers that may occur in the specification of a particular hinge for a particular door assembly in new building construction or retrofit applications may be also be severe. Unlike separate hinges, known as "butt" hinges or mortise hinges that can be inlaid into the jamb or rabbet of a door frame and into the hinged edge of a door, continuous hinges are generally applied to the surfaces of the jamb and door edge. This requires that a space or clearance gap of sufficient width is provided between the door and its frame to accept the thickness of the two hinge members that form the continuous hinge assembly. As discussed above, if the continuous hinge is manufactured from aluminum extrusions, for example, the required leaf thickness may be far greater than is needed if the hinge members are fabricated from sheet steel in order to achieve the proper support for doors of equal weight and service requirements. This has often meant that the clearance allowance for such doors and frames must be determined by the architect or builder only after the selection of the continuous hinge has been made. Frequently, the hinge specification must be changed during the construction sequence, because different hinge materials may be required for compliance with fire or other complex regulations, or must be changed during the useful life of the building because various building codes may be changed, or because the building may be used for subsequent, unanticipated purposes which require such changes. As can be appreciated, continuous hinges which vary in thickness simply because of their materials of construction can create costly delays in the construction sequence and costly replacements of improperly sized frames and doors when errors in specification occur.
The present invention advantageously addresses these hinge replacement or substitution issues for the first time with a thin leaf hinge design that can be made to fit into substantially the same standard 5/16  inch clearance gap that is allowed for cheaper aluminum hinges. Current thin leaf hinges that are commercially available offer no such comparable interchangeability, resulting in the costly substitution of a new door and/or frame to meet the clearance requirements of alternate hinging systems.
Another difficulty arises in the fastening of continuous hinges to their doors and frames. To avoid making the requisite door-to-frame clearance excessive, countersunk flat head screws are used to minimize the projection of the screw heads above the surfaces of the hinge leaves. When hinges are manufactured of thick plates, as is done with short, mortised hinges (commonly known as "butt" hinges) or with thicker aluminum continuous hinge leaves, this is normally not a problem. The material is generally thick enough to provide a conical or other shaped recess that is sufficiently deep to accommodate the screw head within the thickness of the material. Accordingly, standard flat full conical head screws (see FIG. 2A) may sometimes be used. If the leaf material is not sufficiently thick enough to allow a full conical screw head form to be machined or embossed into the hinge leaf, standard flat undercut conical head screws (see FIG. 2B) can be used. Such screws have heads which take the form of an inverted trapezoid in cross-section (in contrast to an inverted triangular cross-section which meets the body of the screw). Undercut flat head screws, while useful for reducing the required depth of the countersink in hinges and similar hardware items, restrict the strength of the attachment, particularly if the head thickness is reduced too much. It will be appreciated that the proportion of the screw head diameter and thickness to the screw thread size must be maintained within certain limits if the screw fastener is to be optimized for its holding capability. If the head of the screw is too large in diameter in relation to its thickness and the body size of the screw, it could be so weak as to break in normal service, and it might be too thin to accept standard screwdriver tips commonly used with conventional screw driving tools that cooperate with the recess formed in the screw head.
If the screw heads are made the slightest bit thicker than the gauge of the hinge leaves, the screw head will "bottom" against the door or frame material before the leaf is forced and held tight against its supporting surface, resulting in a loose and weak hinge installation. Accordingly, the screw head thickness cannot exceed the thickness of the hinge member material, or the screw will not hold the hinge member tightly to the door or the frame. Because aluminum continuous hinge leaves are generally thicker than their steel counterparts, screw fasteners can be more robust in their design and construction, often allowing the use of standard flat conical head screws (see FIG. 2A) or standard undercut flat conical head screws (see FIG. 2B). With steel hinges made of relatively thin-gauge fabricated sheet metal, however, these standard fastener offerings are often unsuitable having screw heads that exceed the thickness of the hinge leaf material by an unacceptable tolerance. Thus screw heads must be severely undercut for use with the thin-gauge steel hinges, thereby weakening them. The alternative to disproportionately thin-headed screws, with large heads that can break or often pull through the screw holes in the hinge members, is to use smaller screws with proportionately smaller heads. However, this sacrifices shear strength and holding power, because unlike mortise or butt hinges which rely on the door and frame cutouts for door support, doors hung with continuous hinges must rely primarily on the strength of the screws alone to support the weight of the door. Clearly, strong screws that are properly designed with sufficiently deep and well-formed holes to accept standard full head or standard undercut head fasteners present a better, more cost-effective solution than increasing the strength of the connections by adding a larger numbers of inadequate, severely undercut fasteners to the hinge leaf installation. Accordingly, there is a need for a thin leaf hinge that permits using standard fasteners with their inherent strength advantages over severely undercut or undersized fasteners.
As this invention advantageously provides with thinner metal leaves that are formed with a raised mounting portion to accept the screws, the foregoing difficulties are avoided. Not only can a thicker screw be used, but the countersunk hole can be formed with a reinforcement below the leaf that provides conical walls that are actually deeper than the gauge of the leaf material alone. Thus instead of a screw hole recess which has countersunk walls that are no deeper than the metal thickness, which limits the screw type to either small screws or screws with extremely undercut thin heads, either of which can easily be pulled through the screw hole opening, a more robust screw head design can be employed that will take full advantage of a more fully formed countersink and standard fasteners.
The handling and shipping of continuous hinges presents yet another problem. Hinges fabricated of steel sheet metal in long lengths are easily bowed, dented, and bent during their shipment, handling at the jobsite, or during installation. Yet another disadvantage of sheet metal hinges is difficulty in maintaining proper appearance after installation, because the screw tension at widely separated screw locations along the length of each hinge member distorts the material, producing highly visible waviness and unsightly reflections in the finished installation. This is particularly unacceptable for commercial installations. Thus there is a need for a thin leaf hinge that addresses these leaf distortion problems.
The present invention advantageously addresses these problems by providing a multi-level or -planar hinge leaf having raised mounting portions which act to stiffen the leaves, thereby reducing the actual distortion and masking the remaining distortion produced by the fasteners (especially if the fasteners are applied with non-uniform pressure typical of on-site building construction practices with hand-held tools).
Equally important is the screw hole forming technique itself. With thin gauge hinge leaf materials, the screw holes can be punched, but a secondary operation is often required to machine a bevel around the rim of the hole to accept the conical edge of a flat head screw. Otherwise, only those types of screws which have a head that projects above the surface of the hinge leaf could be employed, making the installation both unsightly and producing a wide gap between the hinges leaves in the closed position. In other manufacturing techniques, a slightly beveled rim can be stamped around the edge of each hole, but the depth and conformity to the screw head design is limited by the extremely high forces required in "coining" these edges and the durability of the forming punches to withstand the pressures needed to produce metal flow within the material thickness of the leaves. Moreover, these limits of press-formed conical shapes require that the initial hole be initially stamped to a much larger diameter than the body or shank of the screw would normally otherwise require, because the limited ability of the metal to flow into a conical shape limits the bevel to the outer edges of the hole. Flat head countersunk screws contact such screw holes around their outer edges only, creating hinge leaf screw pull-through problems when the leaf is being fastened to a hinged object and screw breakage because of the leverage effect between the outer edges of severely undercut thin-headed screws and their sharp edged (stress concentration notch) transition to the screw body. Thus there is a need for an improved method of forming fastener holes in hinge leaves.
The leaf design of the present invention advantageously allows fastener holes to be punched through thin gauge leaves, and then formed into a conical recess which can be much deeper than the gauge of the material by creating a reinforcement below the screw hole on the underside of the leaf. This forming process can be done in one or more steps as appropriate, and utilizes embossing, or deformation, as opposed to machining or coining. The depth of such countersinks allows the use of standard screws with thicker, stronger heads. In addition, the formation of holes of this kind inherently work-hardens the hinge leaf in the area of the deformation, producing a ring of toughened material to help prevent screw pull-through.
Another advantage of the raised or embossed hinge leaf design is the formation of a recess or cavity on the underside of each leaf (between the leaf and hinged object) which can be filled with intumescent fire-resistant materials. These materials, in the presence of extreme heat, such as occurs in building fires, swell to many times their original thickness. They can be applied in the form of a coating or paste within the recess of the ribbing or embossing without any additional space required for application. In the presence of fire, each leaf will be pressed outward from the surface of the door or frame to which it is fastened, which can create an effective fire barrier by wedging the door tightly against the jamb on the opposing side of the door. Because widely accepted fire testing procedures (see National Fire Protection Association Code 80 Testing) do not require doors to operate at the conclusion of a fire test, such wedging action takes full advantage of the strength of each component of the door and frame system by forcing the full length of each leaf against the other, which helps to form a fire seal as well as a mechanical wedge.


A lap-based exercise device for conditioning abdominals and arms is provided. It includes a horizontal first pair of parallel members, which pair defines an elongate trough that concurrently receives one end of a rigid spanner bar and a linked one end of an associated band tensioning means. The other end of the spanner bar is pinned to a second pair of upstanding, spaced apart members pressing the torso, with such upstanding members being linked at their lower ends to the longitudinal ends of the first pair via a second torso-side crossbar. A third crossbar is pinned to the outer longitudinal ends of the first parallel pair and includes a pair of manually grippable means for activation of the device. Upon curling movement of the grippable means toward the user torso, the spanner bar and the operatively linked tensioning means provide the counter resistance which allows for a smoother range of arcuate arm motion for the exerciser. A chest-initiated movement involves the chest moving towards the user lap for abdominals exercise and a hand-initiated movement involves the leg oriented cross bar moving towards the user's chest.

The need for practical and efficient devices suited for muscular toning and human body conditioning is a long established one. There are a variety of exercise devices, including powered machines, that selectively challenge different sets of body muscles. One area of sought exercise is directed to the abdominal, biceps, and triceps muscle sets. One such device described in the patent literature as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,425 (granted Aug. 3, 1993 to J. V. Miller et al). The Miller patent teaches a device that involves direct, over the inherent range of motion for the prior art device, that its resistance level increases linearly, as opposed to a preferred constant plus consistent resistance level throughout the device range of motion.
The prior art device lacks the mechanical features and architecture that can provide biceps toning in the course of using a curling motion. This feature is made more evident by resort to FIGS. 11-17, of Miller on its one preferred embodiment. FIGS. 11 and 12 show the extreme postures effected in using the device upright and crouched. Looking to Miller's FIGS. 15, and 16, an elastic band 124 is rigged over spaced-apart, opposing hook ends 120/134, so that user exertion on cross bands 40/41 results in a linearly increasing resistance as the finite length band 134 is extended. Miller also lacks a structural element positioned perpendicular to the user's body, thereby precluding a curling exercise.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a portable abdominal and arms exercise device that can be used alternately for abdominal toning, biceps muscle toning, forearm muscle toning, and triceps muscle toning by simple realignment of its operating position.
It is another object of the invention to provide an exercise device which incorporates a preferred constant resistance level feature occurring throughout the defined range of motion for the device user.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a device employing a linkage-based system versus a direct resistance system yielding a lineal and consistent resistance throughout its range of motion.
A yet further object of the invention is to provide a portable unit that folds up for easy shipment and/or storage.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a device which precludes the need for positioning of the hands adjacent the user's chest (as seen with Miller '425 FIGS. 11 and 12), rather by steadying the device just within the user thighs, thus making for a concise and focused abdominal exercise.

Abdominals and arms muscles exercise device


An electrical connector includes an insulating body, a plurality of ground terminals, and a plurality of signal terminals, the latter two of which are fastened to the insulating body. The insulating body includes a base board having a first tread and a plurality of protruding portions extending from the base board. Each of the protruding portions has a second tread and a riser connected to the second tread and the first tread. A portion of at least one of the ground terminals embedded in the base board includes a ground shoulder arranged adjacent to the first tread. A portion of at least one of the signal terminals embedded in the base board and one of the protruding portions includes a signal shoulder arranged adjacent to the second tread of the corresponding protruding portion. Top edges of the ground shoulder and the signal shoulder have a gap there-between.

Conventional connectors are required to transmit signals at higher and higher speeds, so that terminals of the conventional connectors need to satisfy stricter design requirements. For example, the conventional connector includes an insulating body and a plurality of terminals inserted into the insulating body, but a portion of each of the terminals arranged adjacent to the insulating body has a high characteristic impedance that is disadvantageous to high-speed transmission of signals.


A processing device identifies a set of software threads having instructions waiting to issue. For each software thread in the set of the software threads, the processing device binds the software thread to an available hardware context in a set of hardware contexts and stores an identifier of the available hardware context bound to the software thread to a next available entry in an ordered list. The processing device reads an identifier stored in an entry of the ordered list. Responsive to an instruction associated with the identifier having no dependencies with any other instructions among the instructions waiting to issue, the processing device issues the instruction waiting to issue to the hardware context associated with the identifier.

Multi-threaded parallel processing technologies have been employed in high-performance processors to reduce the impact of high-speed processor instruction execution latency caused by long pipelines. Multi-threaded parallel processing technologies have improved instruction per cycle performance and efficiency over other processor designs. Multithreading is a well-known technique for both hardware and software acceleration. The Delencor HEP processor was designed by Bruton Smith circa 1979 (see "www-ee.eng.hawaii.edu/˜nava/HEP/introduction.html" for more details). In this design, multiple instructions may be executed from a single thread. One requirement of the design of the Delencor HEP processor was that each software thread had to complete the current instruction prior to issuing a subsequent instruction. When each hardware thread unit (hereinafter "a context" or "hardware context" to distinguish it from a software thread) issues an instruction and progresses in sequence, it may be termed barrel multithreading or round robin scheduling.
In a multithreaded processor, all threads of execution operate simultaneously. In barrel multithreading, each hardware thread unit or context may be permitted to execute an instruction simultaneously but only one context may issue an instruction on a cycle boundary. Therefore, if there are C contexts, C cycles are required to issue an instruction from all contexts. All contexts execute simultaneously but only one context may issue instructions on a particular clock cycle. Each clock cycle, the contexts issue instructions and the thread that executes are implied to be permitted to execute by incrementing the context number.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a barrel multithreading execution sequence. In this example, a processor dispatches threads to contexts one instruction per clock cycle in the specific order of T0->T1->T2->T3->T4->T5->T6->T7->T0 . . . , going all the way around the chain until completing the circle and arriving again at T0. In a processor with 8 contexts, 8 clock cycles are required to dispatch a thread to all 8 contexts. Further, a single context (e.g. T0) may only issue an instruction once every 8 clock cycles.
FIG. 2 shows an example of execution of two instructions in a non-pipelined processor. To execute the two instructions addi and muli, each instruction progresses through four stages of operation. "addi" represents add immediate where the register r2 is added with the immediate value 8 and the result is stored in register r0. "muli" represents multiply immediate where register r3 is multiplied with the immediate value 4 and the result is stored in register r8. In the first stage, instruction fetch (IF), the instruction addi is fetched from memory and decoded. In the second stage, register read (RD), the operand r2 is read from a register file. In the third stage, execute (Ex), the operand from register r2 is added with the immediate value 8. In the fourth stage, write back (WB), the result is written into register r0. After the result is written, the next instruction (muli) is fetched. Thus, to execute N instructions, 4N clock ticks are required.
Pipelining is a technique that overlaps execution of multiple instruction by noting that, when an instruction leaves a particular stage of execution, that stage is dormant and if another instruction is available to execute, the latter instruction can begin execution prior to the completion of the previous instruction. FIG. 3 shows an example of pipelined overlapped execution. In a perfectly pipelined machine without hazards, rather than requiring 4N clock cycles to execute N instructions, perfect pipelining reduces the clock cycles to N+3.
However, pipelining may not be without hazards. FIG. 4 shows an example where the result of addi is required by the muli instruction. If the instruction is permitted to execute as shown in Error! Reference source not found., an incorrect result would be returned because the result is not placed into r0 until after the muli instruction reads r0. This is known as a read after write (RAW) hazard. To avoid this hazard, the pipeline must be interlocked and thus stall, creating what are known as pipeline bubbles. Pipeline interlocking may introduce non-determinism into the system. If N instructions have no hazards, then the execution time is N+3 clock cycles. If every instruction has a hazard then the execution time is 3N+1 cycles. A typical program P will be bounded by N+3<=P<=3N+1.
FIG. 5 shows an example of an execution sequence of a set of instructions in a barrel-threaded pipelined processor. In this example, three independent threads are executing on a pipelined processor that shares execution units. A first thread executes the original addi/muli instruction sequence 502, 504. In the absence of interrupts or long latency loads, there are never any pipeline interlocks because instructions 506, 508 from a second thread and a third thread, respectively, are inserted into the pipeline. Thus, the first thread does not encounter any hazards. In this example, N instructions will always complete in N+3 cycles without any hazards. However, those N instructions must be distributed across a sufficient number of threads to guarantee hazard-free execution. A drawback is that if only a single thread is present in the system, the single thread it will always require 3N+1 cycles to execute the program even if the instructions are hazard free.
A number of techniques have been developed in order to improve the performance of single threaded programs executing on multithreaded processors. One such technique is simultaneous multithreading (SMT) employed in a processor (see "www.cs washington.edu/research/smt/index.html" for more details). SMT has been employed in Intel's Hyper-Threading as described in "Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, Technical User's Guide," IBM's POWER5 as described in Clabes, Joachim et al. "Design and Implementation of POWER5 Microprocessor," Proceedings of 2004 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference," Sun Microsystems's Ultra SPARC T2 as described in "Using the Cryptographic Accelerators in the UltraSPARC T1 and T2 Processors," Sun BluePrints Online, Sun Microsystems, retrieved 2008-01-09, and the MIPS MT as described in "MIPS32 Architecture," Imagination Technologies, Retrieved 4 Jan. 2014.
Typical SMT-based processors have required each thread to have own set of registers and additional tracking logic at every stage of a pipeline within the SMT-based processor. This increases the size of hardware resources, specifically thread tracking logic needed to implement the design of the SMT-based processor. The thread tracking logic employed by the SMT-based processor is not only required to trace the execution of a thread but also is required to determine whether the thread has completed execution. Because the SMT-based processor may employ a large number of actively executing hardware contexts, the size of CPU caches and associated translation look-aside buffers (TLB) need to be large enough to avoid hardware context thrashing.
Although SMT technology may improve single-threaded performance, the above-identified control circuit complexity renders it difficult to apply SMT technology to embedded processors that require low-power consumption.
With simultaneous multithreading, multiple hardware thread units (hardware contexts) may issue multiple instructions each cycle. When combined with superscalar techniques such as out-of-order processing, the additional hardware required for SMT is not significant. However, care must be taken in the thread dispatch to ensure that all threads may issue instructions. To facilitate this, various techniques have been developed, including priority inversion and preemptive scheduling.
An advantage of simultaneous multithreading is that a single thread may issue instructions to the pipeline every clock cycle. Thus, a program P with only a single thread may execute in the N+3 cycles on a 4-stage pipeline in the absence of hazards. In reality, SMT's are almost always implemented with superscalar issue logic so that the number of required clock cycles are even further reduced by N+3/IPC (instructions per cycle). A key consideration of SMT processors is that execution time is no longer deterministic. However, single threaded performance is significantly enhanced at the expense of additional complex hardware.
To overcome SMT control circuit complexity and reduce power consumption, other forms of multi-threading technologies have been developed. Block multi-threading and interleaved multithreading have been proposed. Unfortunately, block multi-threading technology has been restricted to microcontrollers and other low-performance processors. Conventional interleaved multi-threading technology, also known as token-triggered multi-threading, has simplified control circuitry but performance suffers when there are fewer software threads than available hardware contexts in the processor. This technology been promoted in certain high-performance low-power processors. A representative example of token-triggered multi-threading technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,842,848.
Conventional token-triggered multi-threading employs time sharing. Each software thread of execution is granted permission by the processor to executed in accordance with its own assigned clock cycles. Only one software thread per clock cycle is permitted to issue commands. A token is employed to inform a software thread as to whether the software thread should issue an instruction in the next clock cycle. This further simplifies hardware context logic. No software thread may issue a second instruction until all software threads have issued an instruction, if a software thread has no instruction available to issue, a no operation (NOP) is issued by the hardware context. Processor hardware ensures that each software thread has the same instruction execution time. The result of an operation may be completed within a specified guarantee period of time (e.g., clock cycles). Accordingly, no instruction execution related inspection and bypass hardware is needed in the processor design.
Conventional token-trigger multi-threading technology simplifies the hardware issue logic of a multi-threaded processor and, accordingly, may achieve high performance with very little power consumption. However, compared with SMT technologies, the performance improvement of a conventional token-trigger multi-threading processor is limited if there are fewer software threads having executable instructions during a clock cycle than available hardware contexts. In such circumstances, hard contexts that do not have software threads assigned to them must issue NOPs.
In order to avoid interference between software threads and to simplify the hardware structure, conventional token triggered multithreading employs a time sharing strategy that can cause a small number of instructions to be executed per cycle. This reduces the processing speed of a single-threaded operation. For example, if the software instruction for context T1 is not in the cache and requires a reload from external memory, due to the slow speed of the external memory, T1 has to wait for many cycles to reload instructions. If context T0 has an instruction ready, it still must wait to issue the instruction at clock cycle C1. However, because of the structural limitations of the time shared data path, clock cycle C1 can only be used by context T1 and in this case the hardware context must issue a NOP.
In the worst case of a single software thread of execution, the performance of a corresponding conventional token-triggered processor is 1/T (where T is the number hardware contexts). In a 10-threaded token-triggered processor running at 1 GHz, the performance of the processor is effectively reduced to 100 MHz.
To avoid thrashing and simplify the tracking circuits between hardware context threads, in the Sandblaster 2.0 processor, each hardware context has its own separate instruction memory as described in "The Sandblaster 2.0 Architecture and SB3500 Implementation Proceedings of the Software Defined Radio Technical Forum (SDR Forum '08)," Washington, D.C., October 2008. Unfortunately, the individual instruction memories cannot be shared between hardware contexts. This may result in underutilized memory resources in addition to reduced performance when the number of software threads is fewer than the number of hardware contexts.

Multithreading using an ordered list of hardware contexts

Optimum Semiconductor Technologies, Inc.


A device for sensing the angular or turning movement of a moving vehicle is disclosed. At a pre-set point in the turn, the sensing device will provide a signal to the suspension system to change from "soft" to "stiff" suspension and thus prevent any further tilting of the vehicle.

As shown in the prior art, the conventional spring and shock absorber system is used in automobiles to reduce shock or concussion when the vehicle strikes a bump or, in general, when the wheel movement of the vehicle over a roughness in the surface of the road moves the auto's axle toward the frame or body of the vehicle. The shock absorber is mounted between the automobile frame and the axles. It usually consists of a piston and dampening means inside a cylinder partially filled with fluid. When the wheel hits the bump, instead of the axle communicating the shock directly to automobile frame, the piston is pushed upwardly or downwardly. The fluid in the specially-designed cylinder, with or without additional shock dampening means, resists and decelerates the movement of the piston thus offsetting the force of the bump. The hydraulic fluid, rather than the frame, absorbs most of the shock. The ease with which the piston can compress the fluid determines the so-called "hardness" of the ride.
When a vehicle moves around a curve in the road, the suspension permits the vehicle body to rotate slightly about its longitudinal axis in response to the rolling force exerted on the body during the turn. Typically, vehicle passengers experience this effect as a tilt of the vehicle body, with the side of the body on the outside of the curve being relatively lower than the side of the body on the inside. Further, the vehicle body tends to pitch forward so that the front of the body is relatively lower than the rear. The pitch and roll combine to incline the vehicle body toward the front corner on the outside of the turn.
The prior art is replete with anti-roll systems that may be added to the conventional shock absorber systems. In general, these systems are complex requiring several additional pieces of equipment in a space that is already crowded. These systems counteract vehicle roll by providing lifting forces acting between the vehicle body and the axle or suspension on the outside of the curve or by providing a vehicle lowering force acting between the body and axle or suspension on the inside turn side of the vehicle. Some anti-roll systems in the prior art provide complementary lifting and lowering forces on both sides of the vehicle simultaneously with the accompanying array of equipment. A typical tilt or sway control apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,353 issued in 1960 to L. B. d'Avigdor. In this apparatus, the inventor provides at each side of the vehicle, between the axle and the body, a body raising and lowering motor device including an expandable pneumatic chamber and means for supplying air to and discharging it from the chamber to regulate the volume of the chamber. This air supply and exhaust means is controlled by electrically operated valves in response to an electrically operated switch mechanism. The switch mechanism responds to centrifugal force and to gravity, and is thus affected by both tilting and lateral acceleration of the vehicle.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved tilt control apparatus, improved over the prior art in both effectiveness and in simplicity.
It is a further object to provide a novel sensing system to activate the tilt control apparatus but will not interfere with the vehicle's conventional shock absorber system.
It is still further object to provide such sensing means for tilt control by mere modification of the vehicle's conventional shock absorber system.
Because of the large force generated by the tilt of the heavy vehicle, a strong support structure is necessary at the frame and at the axle for tilt control. Since the conventional shock absorbers in existing vehicles are usually placed in the strongest area, it is also an object of this invention to incorporate the sensing means and the tilt-controller into the vehicle and the shock absorber systems currently in use, which will permit easy and economical insertion into existing vehicles.
It is another object to provide operable tilt control for a suspension system that requires air or fluid injection (as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,343) or uses a mechanical response to stiffen the suspension. In a rapidly moving vehicle, such systems usually require about 0.3 second to react. Hence, it is an object of this invention to provide sensing means that will anticipate the need for tilt control.
In summary, the object of the present invention is to improve the vehicle's handling under adverse conditions in terms of high speed evasive maneuvers by providing responsive steering (the so-called "stiffride" position) as well as in normal turning where the stiff ride position reduces the roll or tilt of the vehicle but does not change from "soft" to "stiff" ride to make the occupant suffer through each bump in the road while the vehicle is moving on a straightaway as he would if the stiff position were engaged full time.


A circumferential seal arrangement has one or more expanding carbon rings and a rotating runner concentric to and radially outside of the carbon rings. Cooling oil is injected directly onto the outer circumferential surface of the runner and also in the direction of the bearings. The runner shields the seal interface from the cooling oil. To facilitate scavenging of oil from the cavity between the bearings and seal assembly and thereby further reduce the amount of oil reaching the seal interface, a disk pump is mounted on the main shaft between the runner and the bearing. As the main shaft rotates,, the disk pump slings oil adhering on its surfaces into an annular oil purge channel. The sealing arrangement also incorporates a discourager which forms a barrier to direct oil leaking through the seal interface to an overboard drain.

In a gas turbine engine, the turbine is of multi-stage construction. Each stage comprises a rotating multi-bladed rotor and a nonrotating multi-vane stator. The blades of each rotor are circumferentially distributed on a disk connected to the main shaft. The shaft is rotatably supported by bearings. The turbine drives the compressor by way of the main shaft in response to aerodynamic interaction of the rotor blades and stator vanes with the high-energy gases expelled from the combustor.
The shaft-supporting bearings are disposed in a bearing compartment. During engine operation, friction in the rolling bearings and the rotating runners of associated seals generates heat. To cool the bearings and seals, a system for injecting oil into the bearing compartment is provided.
To prevent the escape of oil from the bearing compartment in main shaft applications, a conventional practice is to install circumferential seals with under-cooled runners, such as that depicted in FIG. 1. The term "circumferential seal" as used herein is intended to encompass a generic type of sealing device which consists primarily of a plurality of arcuate carbon material segments arranged circumferentially in abutting relationship to form a continuous ring which opposes a corresponding circumferential surface of a runner, forming a seal or rubbing interface therebetween.
In accordance with the conventional circumferential sealing arrangement depicted in FIG. 1, two segmented non-rotating carbon rings 2 and 2' are secured to the seal housing structure 4. Carbon rings 2 and 2' are urged into contact with the outer circumferential surface of the runner 6 by respective garter springs 8 and 8'. The runner 6 is connected to the main shaft 10 and rotates therewith.
Each garter spring encircles the outer diameter of the carbon segments of the respective sealing ring and provides a radially inwardly directed force. The carbon segment ends contain overlapping tongue and socket joints (not shown) to restrict leakage at the end gaps.
In accordance with this conventional arrangement, a windback seal 12 is machined into the seal housing structure 4. The windback seal generally consists of an open helical thread through which small quantities of oil may be discouraged from collecting at a sealing interface due to the "windage" generated by the outer circumferential surface of the rotating runner.
Circumferential seals are used to separate ambient areas of high pressure air (P.sub.a) from an oil wetted area at lower pressures (P.sub.s) and serve two major functions. First, circumferential seals prevent the leakage of oil from the lower pressure (P.sub.s) bearing compartment (i.e., oil sump 14). Second, circumferential seals minimize the flow rate of the hot air from the high pressure area to the oil wetted sump 14.
The conventional circumferential seal arrangement shown in FIG. 1 is a tandem air-air and air-oil seal design (two carbon rings) with an air pressurization system 16. Two carbon rings are used because the oil sump pressure is higher than the ambient pressure (P.sub.s > P.sub.a) in this application. Pressurized air having a pressure higher than P.sub.s is supplied to the space between the carbon rings 2, 2' to ensure a positive air-to-oil sealing, that is, the pressure differential is such that air tends to flow into, not out of, the oil sump across any gap in the carbon seal.
For sealing applications where the internal engine ambient pressure is higher than the oil sump pressure (P.sub.a > P.sub.s), the one carbon ring seal design shown in FIG. 2 can be used.
In these respective embodiments, the pressure drop between the high and low pressure ambients is taken across the stationary carbon ring 2 or rings 2 and 2'. A rubbing force is generated at the interface 18 of each carbon ring and the rotating runner 6. The frictional forces at the interface 18 generate significant amounts of heat. This heat must be either absorbed by the seal housing 4 and runner 6 or otherwise removed from the seal region.
Without adequate heat extraction, heating of the rubbing interface can become excessive, especially when the sealing pressure drops and rubbing speeds are high. An excessively high temperature at the interface can cause severe damage to the seal. In particular, oil coke can fill up the seal bore reliefs, recess grooves and end gaps of the carbon ring. In addition, excessive wear of the carbon segments and cracking and grooving of the runner coating and surface can occur. It can also result in excessive oil leakage through the seal and correspondingly high oil consumption.
The conventional technique to avoid over-heating in the vicinity of the seal interface is to cool that vicinity with oil. In particular, it is advantageous to inject cooling oil under the runner. When an under-cooled runner is used (see FIG. 1), an oil injector 20 is provided with two outlets 22 and 24. The oil jet 27 exiting the injector via outlet 24 cools the bearing, generally indicated by the numeral 26 in FIG. 1. The oil jet 28 exiting the injector via outlet 22 is directed toward the peripheral edge of the runner. The oil jet 28 is scrolled to the inner circumferential surface 30 of runner 6 to remove the heat conducted from the rubbing interface 18 to the outer circumferential surface of the runner.
The thorniest problem associated with this under-cooled design is the thin film depth and sluggish velocity of the oil on the inner circumferential surface 30 of the runner 6. In most engine lubricating systems, due to factors such as space limitation and windage deflection of the oil jet, the oil jetting under the runner cannot be made to impinge directly under the rubbing interface with high wiping velocity. Therefore, heat absorption by the sluggishly moving oil film must occur by very slow molecular diffusion. The resulting heat transfer coefficient is very low.
In addition, it is likely that the oil jet directed toward the runner in accordance with the conventional sealing arrangement will be partially deflected by the runner/shaft windage. The windage stream also causes oil jet fanning. The deflected and/or fanning oil jet can easily miss the runner annulus and scroll into the windback seal, resulting in excess oil ingestion at the seal. Oil shearing between the carbon bore and the outer circumferential surface of the runner will generate significantly more heat than that generated by dry frictional rubbing. Therefore, the temperature of the rubbing interface 18 will become much higher.

Expanding circumferential seal with upper-cooled runner


The disclosure discloses an aryl hydrocarbon receptor modulators of formula (I), and pharmaceutically acceptable salts,

Due to changes of environment and lifestyle, incidence of cancer increases with each passing day. Coupled with its high fatality rate, cancer is a serious threat to human's health. Although there has been significant progress in medical treatment of certain cancers and targeted drugs and immune therapy have improved survival rate of patients greatly, in the past 20 years, the total of 5 year survival rate of all cancer patients increased only 10% monthly. And due to resistance or uncontrolled migration and rapid growth of malignant tumors, detection and treatment of cancer are extremely difficult.
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a kind of intracellular transcriptional regulatory factor which can sense stimulation of xenobiotic in external environment and mediate toxic reactions. AhR after activation can regulate expression of many genes in chromosome and promote decomposition of xenobiotic. Previous studies have shown that this signal is also involved in several important biological processes, such as signal transduction, cellular differentiation and apoptosis. Relationship between AhR and immune regulation has also been a hotspot of research. Previous research has shown that AhR can participate in differentiation and function of T cells, macrophages and DC. In addition, AhR also plays a key role in immune rejection reactions after organ transplantation. Study has found that to activate AhR in body of mice by use of dioxin can reduce their survival rate after viral infection and differentiation and proliferation rate of virus-specific COB8 T cells are also affected. For example, another compound of DIM and derivatives thereof have activity of inhibiting tumor (Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 2001, 66, 147). DIM is currently in phase II clinical trials for treatment of prostate cancer and cervical cancer. Natural products ICZ and FICZ are both AhR agonist, and can anti-asthmatic (Chem. Rev., 2002, 102, 4303; Chem. Rev., 2012, 112, 3193; J. Biol. Chem. 2009, 284, 2690). Malassezin (Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2001, 9, 955). Aminoflavonone, developed by NCI, is in phase I clinical trials. 3-hydroxymethyl indole (indole-3-carbinol), in phase II clinical trials, is used as chemical protection agent and immune stimulant. Phortress is an AhR agonists developed by Pharminox Univ. of Nottingham, and is in phase I clinical trials for treatment of solid tumors (Br. J. Cancer, 2003, 88, 599; Mal. Cancer Ther. 2004, 3, 1565). Tanshinone I is a natural AhR ligand for antitumor chemoprotectant (Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2011 Apr. 1; 252 (1): 18-27). 2-(indolylacetyl-3-yl) furan (Food Chem. 2011, 127, 1764-1772). ITE is a natural endogenous AhR agonist having effect of anti-liver cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2002, 99, 14694-9; CN102573470; WO2016040553).

Abstract: R′ is H, CN, CH2(OH)R0, CmH2m+1, CnH2n-1, CnH2n-3,

Abstract: two Ra is independently H, or two Ra together form ═O or ═N—W3—R1; A is a C6 to C10 aromatic ring, or a C2 to C10 heteroaromatic ring containing 1 to 5 heteroatom from N, O and S, or 4 to 7 membered non-aromatic heterocyclic ring containing 1 to 3 heteroatom from N, O and S and C═N, which are with no substituent or substituted by 1 or 3 R; Q is R, or a C6 to C10 aromatic ring or a C2 to C10 heteroaromatic ring containing 1 to 5 heteroatom selected from N, O and S, which are with no substituent or substituted by 1 or 3 R; R is Rc connected with C or RN connected with N.


An all terrain vehicle includes a frame, an engine unit suspended from the frame, a fuel tank mounted on the frame, and a fuel pump disposed within the fuel tank. A protrusion protruding downward is provided on a bottom surface of the fuel tank and at a portion opposing a fuel suction vent of the fuel pump. The protrusion is arranged so that the protrusion opposes a throttle body connected to the engine unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of all terrain vehicles (ATVs) More particularly, the present invention relates to the placement of a fuel tank and a fuel pump in a structure in which the fuel pump is disposed within the fuel tank.
2. Description of the Background Art
In these types of all terrain vehicles, for example, the type described in the Japanese laid-open document 2004-308602, an engine is mounted within the vehicle body frame, a saddle type seat is provided at the rear side of the engine, and a fuel tank is disposed below the saddle type seat. The fuel tank is arranged such that when viewed from the width direction of the vehicle, the fuel tank appears to be on the right side of a muffler, while when viewed from the front-rear direction of the vehicle, the fuel tank appears to be on the rear side of a rear suspension.
In addition, according to the Japanese laid-open document 2004-308602, a depression portion protruding from below is formed on the bottom wall of the fuel tank, and an absorption vent of the fuel pump is provided within the depression portion.
In the case of such a conventional vehicle where the fuel tank is disposed on the right side of the muffler and rear side of the rear suspension, in order to prevent the fuel tank from being heated by the muffler and interfered with by the rear suspension, a gap is to be provided between the fuel tank and the muffler and between the fuel tank and the rear suspension. As a result, the capacity of the tank is constrained.
Alternatively, to avoid such capacity constraint, the fuel tank can also be disposed in front of the seat and above the engine. However, in order to avoid interfering with the engine and depending on how the fuel tank is disposed, the location of the fuel tank may become inconveniently high.


As a data bus control enable signal is set to “H,” a PMOS turns on when a bi-directional bus is not in use (i.e., when a data bus active signal is “L”), so that the bi-directional bus is pulled down through a pull-down resistor. When the data bus control enable signal is set to “L,” the PMOS turns off, thus holding the bi-directional bus in a high-impedance state. By setting the data bus control enable signal in accordance with the specifications of a peripheral device connected thereto, the state of the bi-directional bus can be arbitrarily set when it is inactive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interface circuit between a control apparatus and an input/output device, and more particularly, to a reduction in power consumption in an interface circuit of the ATA standard.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings is a schematic diagram of a conventional interface circuit. The interface circuit is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai (Laid-Open) No. 2003-234649.
This interface circuit is a bi-directional data bus of the ATA standard which is widely employed as an interface for connecting a control apparatus such as a computer to a peripheral device such as a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive and the like. While the data bus is defined to have a 16-bit width in the ATA standard, this figure shows components associated with only one of 16 bits.
In a system conforming to the ATA standard, a connection between a control apparatus 101 and a peripheral device 121 is made by connectors 111 and a cable 112. Also, the standard defines that the control apparatus 101 adds only a damping resistor 102 to a data bus on its internal board and the peripheral device 121 adds only a damping resistor 122 to the data bus on its internal board.
A controller 103 in the control apparatus 101 has a three-state buffer 105 for controlling the output of output data DO1 to a bi-directional bus 104 in accordance with an output enable signal /OE1 (where "/" means an inverse logic). The controller 103 also has a buffer 106 for fetching a signal on the bi-directional bus 104 as input data DI1. Likewise, a controller 123 in the peripheral device 121 has a three-state buffer 125 for controlling the output of output data DO2 to a bi-directional bus 124 in accordance with an output enable signal /OE2, and a buffer 126 for fetching a signal on the bi-directional bus 124 as input data DI2.
The three-state buffer 105, 125 transfers a signal at the input to the output when the output enable signal /OE1, /OE2 applied to control terminal is active (level "L"). The three-state buffer 105, 125 brings the output into a high-impedance state, i.e., a floating state, when the output enable signal /OE1, /OE2 is inactive (level "H").
In such an interface circuit, for example, when data is transferred from the control apparatus 101 to the peripheral device 121, the control apparatus 101 switches the output enable signal OE1 to an active state, and supplies data to be transferred, i.e., output data DO1, to the three-state buffer 105.
In the peripheral device 121, the output enable signal /OE2 remains in an inactive state except when data is transmitted, so that the output of the three-state buffer 125 is in a high-impedance state. Therefore, the data sent from the three-state buffer 105 of the control apparatus 101 is transferred to the bi-directional bus 124 in the peripheral device 121 through the connectors 111 and cable 112. Then, the data on the bi-directional bus 124 is introduced into the peripheral device 121 by the buffer 126 as input data DI2. When data is transferred from the peripheral device 121 to the control apparatus 101, operations reverse to the foregoing are performed.
The interface circuit described above has the following problems.
When neither the control apparatus 101 nor peripheral device 121 is outputting data, the outputs of the three-state buffers 105 and 125 are in a high-impedance state, causing the bi-directional buses 104 and 124 to enter a floating state, respectively. Thus, the input levels of the buffers 106 and 126 connected to the bi-directional buses 104 and 124 are not fixed to "H" or "L" but become close to a logical threshold voltage, causing a through current to flow. This increases consumed current.
To address this problem, one approach may be taken; data bus may be fixed to a pull-up or a pull-down state in the control apparatus. However, some peripheral devices themselves perform this pull-up or pull-down operation, so that it is not desirable to employ the above mentioned approach with all peripheral devices. For example, when the control apparatus pulls down the data bus, and a peripheral device which is pulling up the data bus is connected to the control apparatus, then extra current will flow. Also, some peripheral devices set a voltage level of signals at 5 V, while other devices set the voltage level at 3.3 V, so that the pull-up voltage cannot be uniquely determined even if the control apparatus attempts to pull up.
Another solution is to continue to drive the data bus by the control apparatus even if the data bus is not accessed. However, this is not a definite solution because some peripheral devices are performing the pull-up or pull-down operation, and the data bus may be continuously driven even when no peripheral device is accessing.


A device for maintaining synchronization of a plurality of FPGAs which can easily and precisely maintain the synchronization of the plurality of FPGAs in a device in which two or more FPGAs are interactively connected and operated is provided. The device is included in each of the plurality of FPGAs, and includes a trigger signal generator configured to generate an internal trigger signal itself; a trigger multiplexer configured to select one of the internal trigger signal generated by the trigger signal generator and a trigger signal input from the outside; a delay signal generator including a plurality of stages of flip-flops, each of the plurality of stages of flip-flops configured to delay the trigger signal by one clock cycle; and a synchronization multiplexer configured to select and output one of output signals of the plurality of stages of flip-flops of the delay signal generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for maintaining synchronization of a plurality of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and more particularly, to a device for maintaining synchronization of a plurality of FPGAs which can easily and precisely maintain the synchronization of the plurality of FPGAs in a device in which two or more FPGAs are interactively connected and operated.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As well known, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a semiconductor device including a programmable logic element and an internal line, and a user can implement a desired device by programming a FPGA chip in a state in which the FPGA chip is installed on a board. The FPGA configures a combinational logic using a look-up table (LUT) instead of simple gates such as an AND gate, a NAND gate, an OR gate, and a NOR gate, and can implement a sequential logic since flip-flops are connected in the output stage of the LUT.
In addition to the LUT, the FPGA further includes an adder/multiplier for calculation, a phase locked loop (PLL) block for providing clocks with various forms in the FPGA, a high-speed serial input/output such as a peripheral component interconnect-Express (PCI-Express) or a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA), a central processing unit (CPU) for processing complex calculations, a memory such as a static random access memory (SRAM) or a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), an Ethernet media access control (MAC), etc. The FPGA has been applied in various fields such as a digital unit (DU) for processing a digital signal or a radio unit (RU) for processing a radio signal, etc, of a digital signal processor (DSP), an initial version of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a computer hardware emulator, a baseband emulator, or a centralized/cloud radio access network (CRAN).
Meanwhile, when implementing a device requiring a large amount of logic using the FPGA, for example, the DU or the RU of the CRAN, it may not be sufficient to implement the device using only one FPGA, and in this case, the device may be implemented using a plurality of FPGAs. Accordingly, when constituting the device using two or more FPGAs, the device may be interactively and easily operated only when precisely maintaining synchronization of all FPGAs.
In the device including the two or more FPGAs, a conventional method for maintaining the synchronization of the FPGAs may simultaneously provide a trigger signal by a trigger signal generator for all FPGAs and independently match the synchronization in each of the FPGAs in a state in which the trigger signal generator is separately provided from the device. However, this method has a problem in which costs of the device are increased and also a size of the device is increased since the trigger signal generator is separately provided.
On the other hand, there is a method of adding synchronization information in a header and transmitting the header to a data line. In this case, there is a problem in which data throughput is lowered due to the addition of the synchronization information in the header.

Device for maintaining synchronization of plurality of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)


A template system is provided for laying out the location of telecommunication switching cabinets in a switching center. The template system includes a plurality of fixture templates and a plurality of connector pieces for joining the fixture templates to one another. Each fixture template includes pre-formed marking holes and pre-formed marking slots to mark the layout of the cabinet. The marking holes are used to mark the location of mounting holes in the floor. Marking slots are used to mark the location of access openings for wiring in suspended floor systems. The connector pieces interlock with the fixture templates so that the fixture templates are always spaced a predetermined distance from one another. The interlocking fixture templates and connector pieces minimize the reliance on measurements thereby reducing the number of errors likely to occur when laying out the cabinets.

In a typical telecommunications switching center, the switching equipment is mounted in large cabinets anchored to the floor. The cabinet is supported by support feet which are spaced along the front and rear edges of the cabinet. The support feet are anchored by drilling holes in the floor and placing expansion anchors through the foot into the floor. After the holes are drilled in the floor, the cabinet, with the adjustable support feet attached, is placed where the holes in the floor correspond with the holes in the support feet. Bolts are then used to anchor the support feet to the floor, or threaded under floor structures, and nuts when using elevated floor systems.
One problem which has been encountered in the past when installing telecommunications switching cabinets is maintaining proper spacing between the support feet. A typical telecommunications switching cabinet has a series of mounting nuts which are welded to the bottom of the cabinet a fixed distance apart. The support feet are thread into these preset areas and are adjustable going up or down (used to level the cabinet). If the holes in the floor are measured incorrectly, the support feet will not anchor to the floor properly. Therefore it is important that the holes drilled into the floor are accurately located.
In the past, a floating template and measuring tape was used to locate the holes for the support feet in the floor. The floating template was shaped like the footprint of the cabinet and included pre-formed holes to mark the location of the holes for the support feet. The template would be located by measuring its distance from a known reference, such as a previously installed cabinet. Once the template was located, the holes for the support feet would be marked and drilled. This process would be repeated for each cabinet installed.
This method for laying out cabinets has a number of disadvantages. First, this method requires a great deal of care in making measurements to properly locate all of the support feet. Consequently, this method is relatively time consuming and costly. Further, no matter how much care is exercised, some measurement errors are bound to occur. When measurement errors do occur, the support feet will not be aligned properly and the cabinets cannot be anchored correctly. Consequently, it takes additional time to detect and correct the errors further increasing the cost of installing the cabinets. Furthermore, if holes are drilled incorrectly into concrete, the results can be devastating. If holes are drilled incorrectly into elevated floor systems, the floor could possibly be damaged beyond repair.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method of laying out telecommunications switching cabinets which decreases the time it takes to install the cabinets and reduces the number of errors.

Layout template for telecommunications switching cabinets


A long distance service bureau assists subscribers in selecting a long distance carrier for a long distance, or tariff, call. The long distance service bureau includes a rate table memory and a service logic element. The rate table memory stores rate data, representing tolls charged by various long distance carriers, and subscriber preference data, representing a subscriber's preferences for certain ones of the various long distance carriers. The service logic element controls the rate table memory. The service logic element periodically communicates with the various long distance carriers to retrieve rate data changes, stores the rate data changes in the rate table memory, and downloads only the rate data changes to local equipment of the subscriber during idle periods of the subscriber's local equipment.

Systems and methods consistent with the present invention are directed to a long distance service bureau that periodically polls long distance carriers for current rate information and stores user carrier preference information to automatically determine, or to allow a user to determine, a long distance carrier to use for a particular long distance, or tariff, call.
Traditionally, users selected long distance carriers for their long distance, or tariff, calls one of two ways. First, a user could designate a default long distance carrier through which all of the user's telephone calls were automatically routed. This type of selection was inherently insufficient because it did not take into consideration the different rates offered by other long distance carriers when the user placed the telephone call.
Second, a user could manually select a long distance carrier through which to route the user's telephone call. Such manual selection of a long distance carrier allowed the user to choose, for example, the long distance carrier offering the least expensive toll at the time the user placed the telephone call. Although permitting greater freedom of choice, manual long distance carrier selection presents several problems for the user. For example, to choose a long distance carrier other than the designated default long distance carrier, the user must manually select every telephone call. Moreover, to maximize the effectiveness of manual long distance carrier selection, the user must either be knowledgeable regarding various long distance parameters, or have ready access to such information. To select the long distance carrier offering the least expensive rate, for example, the user must know all of the available long distance carriers, as well as their various rates. To complicate matters, long distance rates for a particular long distance carrier vary not only from day to day, but from hour to hour as well.
Several recent systems address these traditional problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,914 issued to Blumhardt discloses a system for real-time selection of a long distance carrier. The system employs an advanced intelligent network having a service control point that retrieves carrier rate information, such as tolls charged for particular calling days and calling times, for various long distance carriers from a network database. When a user places a telephone call, the service control point determines the long distance carrier having the least expensive toll for the day and time of the telephone call, and automatically routes the call using that long distance carrier.
The system of the Blumhardt patent has two inherent problems: it lacks flexibility and does not provide reliable carrier rate information. Flexibility is a problem because selecting the lowest-cost carrier may not always be the carrier the user wants for a particular call, since, for example, not all long distance carriers offer the same quality connection. Reliability is a problem because Blumhardt provides no mechanism for updating the carrier rate database so the carrier rate information becomes outdated due to the variable nature of the rates of the various long distance carriers.
A system that addresses one of these problems is U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,728 issued to Treat. This patent discloses a telephone call monitoring, metering, and selection device that displays the rates offered by various long distance carriers to a user so that the user can select the carrier of his choice. The device requires the user to manually enter the identity of the various carriers and their access numbers and rates so that the device can display such information to the user when the user desires to place a telephone call. Because this system depends upon manual input of the rate information, however, the user must continuously update the rate information to current information.
Another system that addresses this problem is U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,395 issued to Berenato. This patent discloses a telephone line selector that polls the various long distance carriers for current rate information each time a user places a telephone call. When the user dials a long distance telephone number, the telephone line selector temporarily suspends the user's call while it calls each long distance carrier to obtain current rate information. Once the telephone line selector determines the lowest cost long distance carrier, it routes the user's telephone call on the lowest cost carrier, using the dialed telephone number. Because this system updates all of the rate information for the long distance carriers each time the user places a long distance call, however, the system tends to be undesirably slow.
In light of the above systems, a need exists to rapidly provide users with current rate information while also permitting automatic carrier selection for particular calls.


A laser system (52A) is illustrated having a laser cavity (54) that generates a laser beam (78). An outcoupling resonator box (62) has a reflective mirror (70) therein. A return resonator box (64) has a reflective mirror (72) therein. A first solid window assembly (66) is disposed between the outcoupling resonator box (62) and the laser cavity (54). A second solid window assembly (68) is disposed between the return resonator box (64) and the laser cavity (54) so that the beam (78) is directed through the solid window assemblies (66), (68) during operation of the laser system, thereby isolating the usually caustic environment of laser cavity (54) from that of mirrors (70), (72) that are housed in said resonator boxes (62), (64), without the use of isolation valves and optical tunnels as in traditional arrangements.

High-power chemical lasers such as Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Lasers have been proposed for various military applications and other industrial applications. In chemical lasers, chemical reactions are used to produce exited atoms or molecules in a flow of suitable mixture of rarefied gases. Gas containing excited species is flowed through a laser cavity or resonator where optical energy is extracted from the excited species by means of an optical resonator. Required flow throughput and pressure are produced by vacuum pumps which draw the gas mixture through the laser cavity. High-energy chemical lasers for military applications often produce hundreds of kilowatts of optical power. The corresponding gas throughput in the range of 10–100 Torr pressure requires vacuum pumps with pumping speeds on the order of several hundred thousand liters per second. Military applications for high-power chemical lasers include tactical air defense which necessitates deployment of laser weapons in forward positions on the battlefield. Such laser weapons must be transportable and, therefore, of limited size and weight. In addition, the laser weapon should be concealable and undetectable by the enemy.
High-energy chemical lasers can be classified as either 1) hydrogen-halide or 2) Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL). Hydrogen-halide lasers typically involve a reaction of hydrogen and/or deuterium with fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine in diluent gases of nitrogen, helium, or alike, to produce hydrogen and/or deuterium halide molecules in excited vibrational states from which laser energy can be extracted. Exhaust from the laser cavity of a hydrogen-halide laser is typically a mixture of gases at high temperature (up to 1000 degrees Centigrade) including HF (and/or DF), N2, and possibly small amounts of H2 (and/or D2), O2 and H2O.
On the other hand, COIL lasers typically involve reaction of chlorine in diluent gases such as nitrogen or helium, with aqueous solution of alkaline hydrogen peroxide to produce intermediate excited specie known as singlet delta oxygen. Singlet delta oxygen is subsequently mixed with iodine vapor to generate iodine atoms in electrically excited state and suitable for extraction of laser energy. Exhaust from a COIL laser cavity is typically a mixture of gases at near ambient temperature including nitrogen or helium and oxygen with small amounts of chlorine, iodine, and water.
The laser cavity or gain region is typically separated from the resonator boxes using an isolation valve and a flow straightening optical tunnel on either end of the cavity region. The overall length, the two valves, and two tunnels increase the mass of the system. Such systems may be employed in transportable-type systems, such as but not limited to airplanes, ground-vehicle mounted, or sea-based. Reducing the mass of transportable-type systems is a desirable goal. It should be also noted that these systems are mounted to a bench or fixture. The length of the bench must be the sum of the length of the laser cavity plus the resonator boxes lengths plus the lengths of the optical tunnels and the isolation valves. Such systems also include a vacuum pump and purge gases that are used to create a positive pressure in the resonator boxes so that flow direction of the gases is out of the box through the cavity and diffuser and the gases do not back flow into the resonator boxes. It should be noted that back flow of the laser cavity exhaust may cause caustic damage to the precision optics inside the resonator boxes. It also should be noted that the optical isolation valves completely block the line of sight of the lasers when not open. The closed valve prevents the monitoring of the optics within the boxes thereby limiting the ability to make the as-required adjustments to the optics for alignment of the laser optical resonator. Each valve has an associated actuator system that also increases the mass of the laser system.
It would therefore be desirable to reduce the mass of a laser system to be suitable for use in a mobile-based or transportable-type system.
It would therefore also be desirable to have a low mass means of preventing laser cavity exhaust back flow into the optical enclosures.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a low mass means of unobstructed inter-optical enclosure line-of-sight that facilitates optical resonator alignment.

Resonator box to laser cavity interface for chemical laser


An ADC (12) in an optical receiver (1) generates a sample signal composed of time series samples by oversampling a received signal that is an electrical signal converted from an optical signal by a light receiving unit (11). A symbol timing detection unit (132) of a DSP unit (13) detects a symbol timing in the sample signal. When it is determined that a symbol timing is appearing at a longer interval than a predetermined interval based on this detection result, a symbol timing adjusting unit (133) skips one or more samples included in the sample signal to read out samples at the predetermined interval, while when it is determined that the symbol timing is appearing at a shorter interval than the predetermined interval, the symbol timing adjusting unit inserts the same samples as one or more samples included in the sample signal immediately after the one or more samples to read out the samples at the predetermined interval.

Current optical subscriber access networks in Japan have a PON (Passive Optical Network) architecture as illustrated in FIG. 8 in which a plurality of subscriber devices are connected to one station-side device via optical fibers and optical couplers. FIG. 8 illustrates N subscriber devices (where N is an integer of 2 or more) each represented as Subscriber Device #1 to Subscriber Device N. This architecture allows optical fibers to be laid more economically than connecting station-side devices and subscriber devices on a one-on-one basis via optical fibers.
Multiplexing techniques are necessary for single versus multiple communications such as PONs in order to transmit and receive upstream signals from a plurality of subscriber devices to one station-side device, and downstream signals from one station-side device to the plurality of subscriber devices, without collision or signal loss. Currently used PON systems apply a TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) technique as a multiplexing technique in which the station-side device allocates an individual time slot to each subscriber device for transmission and reception, and a DBA (Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation) technique as an L2 (Layer 2) control for allocating communication time slots for upstream signals to each subscriber device. As illustrated in FIG. 9, in an upstream communication in a TDM-PON that uses DBA, each subscriber device transmits an upstream signal as a frame at the time when signal transmission is allowed. In FIG. 9, frames transmitted from Subscriber Devices #n (where n is an integer of 1 or more and N or less) are represented as Fn, and times at which frames Fn are transmitted are represented as tn. Such upstream signals have the following two characteristics.
(1) The signals received at the station-side device are intermittent (with a no-signal time between signals) rather than continuous because they have been transmitted from each subscriber device at different times.
(2) The signals received at the station-side device vary in characteristics such as signal intensity and distortion for each subscriber device that transmitted the signals because of the individual differences of frequency characteristics of respective subscriber devices and because of different conditions of transmission channels (such as distance) between each subscriber device and the station-side device.
Signals having above features are referred to as TDM-PON upstream burst signal (hereinafter, burst signal).
As illustrated in FIG. 10, the frame of a burst signal (hereinafter, burst frame) is generally composed of three parts, a preamble part, a payload part, and an end-of-burst. The payload part is a real signal part. The preamble part that performs signal synchronization, equalization of received signal level, etc., is added before that, and the last end-of-burst is the time including a fall time or the like of a laser. Currently commercially available PONs use OOK (On-Off Keying) as a signal modulation method. The OOK identifies 1-bit per symbol signals by intensity of light.
Meanwhile, in view of the prospect of more advanced use of small cells in mobile communication networks for handling the rapidly increasing mobile traffic, utilization of PON techniques as an economical method of accommodating small cells is currently discussed. The conditions such as transmission distance and transmission rate are more demanding for accommodating a mobile communication traffic than an optical subscriber system, and it is considered that DD (Direct Detection) systems composed only of analog components (herein referred to as analog DD system) and adopted as the detection technique in current PONs have limitations for this application. Accordingly, techniques relating to application of detection systems that use DSP (Digital Signal Processing), which will enable support of various modulation methods an analog DD system can hardly realize, and enable compensation of transmission-induced signal distortion, to PONs, are being discussed.
The most popular detection system that uses DSP is digital coherent detection, which is a combination of digital technology and coherent detection, and it offers the advantages of using DSP mentioned above, as well as enjoys the benefit of coherent detection that is a dramatic improvement in light receiving sensitivity. Optical receivers that use digital coherent detection are already commercially available for core/metro networks and elemental technologies have been established (see, for example, NPL 1).
In any detector/receiver systems that use DSP including the digital coherent detection, what processing DSP performs differs depending on the target system, or what is to be compensated for. In general, multiple processing schemes are used in combination. For example, when a higher-order modulation system that allows transmission of signals of 2 bits or more per symbol is to be adopted, a demodulation process can be performed by DSP. Or, when DSP is combined with coherent detection, in particular intradyne detection, signal distortion (that appears in the form of signal point rotation in the IQ plane) caused by a frequency difference between the signal light and local light is compensated for through calculation by DSP. Equalization of waveform distortions for improving the minimum light receiving sensitivity is another example of processing commonly performed by an optical receiver that uses DSP.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a common configuration of an optical receiver that uses DSP, which is installed in a station-side device, for example. A light receiving unit converts a received optical signal into the electrical signal. An ADC (Analog/Digital Converter) converts the received signal that has been converted into the electrical signal into a digital signal and inputs the same to a DSP unit. The DSP unit performs various steps of signal processing to the input digital signal. The number of ADC differs depending on the configurations of the system and optical receiver such as whether polarization division multiplexing is applied or not, and whether or not there is phase information.
The ADC, in converting the input analog signal into a digital signal, oversamples the analog signal at a sampling rate m times higher than the symbol rate (m>1) as illustrated in FIG. 12. In the example of FIG. 12, m=3, and the 1 symbol interval time T in FIG. 12 equals to 1/symbol rate.

Signal processing apparatus and optical receiver

NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION