An automatic shirt pressing apparatus includes at least a loading station, a pressing station and a movable support upon which a plurality of shirt receiving bucks are mounted for movement between the loading and pressing stations. A buck vacuum supply arrangement is associated with each of the bucks. A movable vacuum supply tube is arranged to successively be removably connected to the buck vacuum arrangement of each of the bucks when the buck located at the loading station, to travel with each of the bucks to a pressing station while remaining connected thereto and to be disconnected from the buck vacuum arrangement once a pressing operation is initiated. A method of pressing a shirt using such an automatic shirt pressing apparatus is also described. The method includes the steps of dressing a shirt on a respective buck located at a loading station, supplying a vacuum negative pressure to a vacuum arrangement of the respective buck located at the loading station to hold at least a front tail of the shirt against the respective buck, maintaining the vacuum negative pressure supplied to the vacuum arrangement of the respective buck continuously and uninterruptedly while moving the respective buck from the loading station to a pressing station, initiating pressing of the shirt against the respective buck, releasing vacuum negative pressure supplied to the vacuum arrangement of the respective buck once the pressing of the shirt has commenced, and returning the vacuum source to the loading station independently of the buck located in the pressing station.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic shirt pressing apparatus which includes a vacuum system. The present invention also relates to a method for using such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various apparatus and methods are known for pressing garments, specifically shirts. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,241,373, 3,070,268; 3,174,662 and 5,065,535 disclose shirt pressing machines which rotate a plurality of bucks between at least a dressing or loading station and a pressing station. Above-mentioned Pat. No. 5,065,535 is commonly owned with and the inventors are the same as the inventors of this invention. This patent discloses a basic indexing system similar to the one described herein.
It is known that fully dressing or buttoning the front of a shirt to be pressed is too time consuming and therefore impractical. Thus, various means have been developed to hold the front tail of a shirt against the buck for transport to the pressing station and for subsequent pressing of the shirt. Typically, the means are either a rod or an elongated plate which clamps the front tail of the shirt against the buck. These known devices, however, suffer from the disadvantage that when the shirt is pressed in the pressing station, an imprint of the rod or plate is pressed into the front tail of the shirt. Removal of the rod or plate just prior to pressing is not practical as the shirt may become displaced on the buck before pressing. The displacement of the shirt results in improper pressing of the shirt in the form of unwanted folds or wrinkles.
To remedy the disadvantage of obtaining a pressed shirt with an impression of the bar or plate along the front tail of the shirt, an automatic shirt pressing apparatus including a vacuum system for holding the front tail of the shirt against the buck has been developed. This known vacuum system operates using a two chamber vacuum system to apply a vacuum to hold the shirt against the buck at both the loading station and the pressing station. However, during the transfer of the shirt from the loading station to the pressing station, the vacuum is released for a brief moment and the shirt is released momentarily. When the vacuum is reestablished, the shirt may not be in its original position and wrinkles or unwanted folds may be pressed into the shirt as a result. Thus, while this known vacuum system avoids leaving the impression of a holding means in the front tail of the shirt, it does not provide satisfactory results.

Automatic shirt pressing apparatus including a vacuum system and associated method


A system and method for providing dynamic device virtualization is herein disclosed. According to one embodiment, the computer-implemented method includes providing a hypervisor and one or more guest virtual machines (VMs). Each guest VM is disposed to run a guest user process and the hypervisor is split into a device hypervisor and a compute hypervisor. The computer-implemented method further includes providing an interface between the device hypervisor and the compute hypervisor. The compute hypervisor manages an efficient use of CPU and memory of a host and the device hypervisor manages a device connected to the host by exploiting hardware acceleration of the device.

In a computer system, the term virtualization means hiding an implementation of components or abstracting details. In a rudimentary computing environment of a single tasking, one single program (or task) controls the entire computer system.
With the advent of multi-tasking computers, an operating system (OS) facilitated the efficient sharing of hardware devices across multiple tasks. An OS primarily provides functionalities for process management, memory management, and device management. For process management, an OS runs one task at a time on a central processing unit (CPU) for a predetermined quantum of time until the task is preempted by the OS to relinquish the CPU time for another task at the end of the predetermined time. For memory management, regardless of the size of the physical memory available on the computer system, the OS allows each task to have the full addressable range of memory, so that each task can address the entire address space. The mapping of physical addresses to virtual addresses of a given task is controlled by a kernel of the OS through a mechanism referred to as demand paging. During the execution of a task, all references to the code and data locations are given with respect to their virtual addresses. In early computer architectures, the translation of virtual address to physical address was performed in software, therefore the translation was painstakingly slow.
To overcome the performance limitation of software virtual address translation, processors (e.g., INTEL® i386) started to use hardware page tables to transparently perform the translation between virtual addresses and physical addresses. To facilitate faster context switching between the user process and the OS kernel via system calls, many OS'es like Linux started to map the kernel virtual address space into the address space of the task itself. For instance, in 32-bit Linux, three-fourths of memory (0x00000000 through 0xbfffffff) is assigned for the user address space and one-fourth of memory (0xc0000000 through 0xffffffff) is assigned for the kernel address space.
The OS permits that each task has an exclusive control over CPU and memory during the time slice of its execution. But for other devices such as graphics processing unit (GPU), storage devices, network interface card (NIC), the OS directly manages these devices and exercises discretion to ensure the appropriate use of these devices. For example, some devices may need to be exclusively used by one task (e.g., a printer), while others may be concurrently shared among multiple tasks. Some device operations need to be performed atomically while others may be interleaved.
S/360 system by IBM® launched in 1964 was the first attempt of system virtualization of the physical computer. System virtualization makes multiple instances of guest OS'es to run on the same hardware by a supervisory software layer called a hypervisor or a virtual machine manager (VMM). The hypervisor or VMM is interchangeably referred to as a host. Original system virtualization ran the OS in a de-privileged mode (i.e., non-supervisor mode). Based on their mode of deployment, hypervisors are classified into two types. Type 1 hypervisor boots directly on the bare metal (like a classical OS) and brings up the guest OS'es on top of the hypervisor layer. Examples of type 1 hypervisor include, but are not limited to, VMWARE® ESX hypervisor and XEN® hypervisor. Type 2 hypervisor, also referred to as a hosted hypervisor, runs inside a host OS that boots on the bare metal but the actual hypervisor is a user-mode component. Examples of type 2 hypervisor include, but are not limited to, VMX of VMWARE® Desktop, and QEMU of Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM).
During the early days of system virtualization, compute virtualization, i.e., virtualization of CPU and memory, posed technical challenges. For CPU virtualization of INTEL®/AMD® x86, when an OS runs in a de-privileged level, some sensitive instructions behave differently in the lower privilege levels without faulting. If the instruction had faulted (as happens in "trap-and-emulate" processor architectures), the hypervisor or host would get the opportunity to control and fix the anomaly. For example, if the OS runs in a lower privilege (e.g., Ring 1) than the designated privilege level (e.g., Ring 0), the processor simply executes these sensitive x86 instructions in Ring 1 with different semantics instead of faulting. Dynamic translation and OS paravirtualization techniques were devised to deal with sensitive instructions. Later processor manufacturers (e.g., INTEL®, AMD®) came up with efficient hardware architectures to handle CPU virtualization, for example, INTEL® virtual technology (VT) and AMD-V.
For memory virtualization, a guest virtual address that is translated to a guest physical address requires an additional level of translation to access physical memory destination of the host. Efficient hardware architectures such as INTEL® extended page table (EPT) and AMD®'s nested page table (NPT) address memory virtualization by providing hardware support for translating guest virtual address to host physical address.
After the compute virtualization was harnessed with efficient hardware architecture, the focus of the computing industry shifted to I/O virtualization. I/O virtualization involves virtualization of devices such as GPUs, storage devices, and NICs. Depending on the deployment type for system virtualization, there are three tiers of I/O virtualizations.
Tier 1 I/O virtualization is connectivity virtualization. Tier 1 I/O virtualization focuses on the optimization of the data center floor to improve the efficiency of physical connectivity, cabling, routing/switching, power distribution etc. For example, XSIGO® data center fabric minimizes physical connections across servers and provides a high speed and low-latency interconnect among servers.
Tier 2 I/O virtualization is hardware device virtualization. Tier 2 I/O virtualization focuses on making multiple virtual hardware endpoints available for use across multiple physical servers. Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) defines standards for single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) and multi root I/O virtualization (MR-IOV). Both SR-IOV and MR-IOV aim at making single physical devices such as a GPU or NIC behave as if they are composed of multiple logical devices. Each of the multiple logical devices of a physical device, referred to as virtual functions (VFs), appears to OS'es as a virtual device such as an individual GPU or NIC. Each VF is exclusively assigned to a guest OS. Tier 2 I/O virtualization also involves PCI Express (PCIe) virtualization, for example, VirtenSys and Aprius. VirtenSys extends PCIe bus outside a group of servers to a switch from which PCIe-connected peripherals such as Ethernet NICs and fiber channel HBAs are shared by the servers, avoiding each of them requiring their own NIC and HBA. Aprius allows servers to share peripheral devices at PCIe bus speeds over a virtual PCIe bus network.
Tier 3 I/O virtualization is software device virtualization that runs inside the server boxes based on hypervisors or VMMs. Tier 3 I/O virtualization focuses on enhancing the overall scalability and utilization of devices like GPUs, storage devices and NICs. Tier 3 I/O virtualization enables concurrent use of I/O devices by multiple guest OS'es. Initially, tier 3 I/O virtualization used to emulate hardware devices in software. A virtual device driver that is loaded into a guest OS emulates device operations in software by communicating with a software layer in the host (e.g., a hypervisor). The virtual device driver cooperates with the native device drivers of the host to perform the I/O operations. Software device virtualization is generally slow because virtual device drivers are not designed to exploit device-specific optimization (e.g., hardware acceleration). However, software emulation provides good platform coverage because no specific knowledge of the hardware device is required.
The next advancement in tier 3 I/O virtualization was device paravirtualization. Device paravirtualization employs a split-driver architecture by providing a front-end driver in the guest OS and a back-end driver in the hypervisor or host. The back-end driver, also referred to as a VMM driver interface, works with the native device driver of the host or hypervisor. Paravirtualized drivers can be generic (e.g., class drivers such as network, block drivers) or device-specific. When paravirtualized drivers have device-specific intelligence, they permit guest OS'es to exploit hardware acceleration available in the actual hardware device. Thus, paravirtualization enables concurrent access to a hardware device yet providing close to native performance. To achieve best performance, device-specific paravirtualization requires each device manufacturer to write paravirtualized split-drivers for each device/OS/hypervisor combination. Due to the requirements for paravirtualized split-drivers and prohibitive development and sustenance costs, manufacturers slowly distanced away from device paravirtualization as a solution for software device virtualization. However, because hardware device virtualization (e.g., SR-IOV) drivers require guest-host collaboration with high amount of device-specific intelligence to perform operations such as coordinating power management of devices, split-drivers of paravirtualization still remains a viable solution for I/O virtualization.
The next advancement in tier 3 I/O virtualization was direct device assignment. INTEL and AMD added hardware support for device virtualization. INTEL® VT for directed I/O (VT-d) and AMD's I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) allow a single guest OS instance to exclusively own a device (e.g., a GPU, a storage device, a NIC) while none of the other guests or even the host would be able to use the device while the device is in use. The guest OS may use a native device driver to control the device while VT-d and IOMMU took care of performance issues in software device virtualization such as DMA redirection and interrupt redirection. This allows for a single guest OS to achieve close to native performance for the device, but the exclusive ownership of the device hindered the acceptance of the direct device assignment by the virtualization community. For this reason, direct device assignment is also referred to as a "fixed pass through."
VMWARE®-mediated pass through is a specialized case of direct device assignment (or fixed pass through) that exploits internal architecture details of devices. For example, GPUs support multiple independent contexts and mediated pass-through proposes dedicating just a context, or set of contexts, to a virtual machine (VM) rather than the entire GPU. This enables multiplexing but incurs additional costs. The GPU hardware must implement contexts in a way that they can be mapped to different virtual machines with a low overhead and the host/hypervisor must have enough knowledge of the hardware to allocate and manage GPU contexts. In addition, if each context does not appear as a full logical device, the guest device drivers must be able to handle it. Mediated pass-through lacks interposition features beyond basic isolation. A number of tactics using paravirtualization or standardization of a subset of hardware interfaces can potentially unlock these additional interposition features. For example, the publication entitled "TA2644: Networking I/O Virtualization," VMworld 2008 by Howie Xu, at al. contemplated analogous techniques for networking hardware.
PCI-SIG provides single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) that allows device manufacturers to create a single physical device that behave like multiple devices. An SR-IOV device has a single physical function (or physical device) controlled by the hypervisor or VMM, and multiple virtual functions (or virtual devices) each of which can be assigned exclusively to a guest OS. In the case of direct device assignment, VT-d or IOMMU assumes the responsibility for DMA and interrupt redirection. SR-IOV provides better concurrency in the use of the device but still restricted by the finite number of virtual functions that could be accommodated on the hardware device. SR-IOV is gradually gaining adoption in the virtualization community although data centers have to go through extensive infrastructure changes to benefit from SR-IOV.
Nokia contemplated tier 3 device virtualization solution using a system call bridge in United States Patent Application No. 2013/0072260 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Facilitating Sharing Device Connections." The system call bridge is built on the assumption that if a guest OS were to remotely make system calls to the host OS (with appropriate translations in the case of heterogeneous OS'es), host devices could be transparently shared on the guest OS'es. This is a process referred to as system call virtualization. However, system call virtualization that remotes only device operations is impractical or undesirable because the process execution, memory management, information and device management, in that case, will be entirely performed by the host OS. Devirtualization was conceived as a special case of a system call bridge where the operations on selected device files alone are remotely called by the host OS. For example, United States Patent Application No. 2013/0204924 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Providing Application Level Transparency via Device Devirtualization" describes devirtualization.
Devirtualization popularized paravirtualization by removing the need for one driver per each of device/OS/hypervisor combinations. By removing device-specific knowledge from a paravirtualized driver, a single pair of generic (i.e., front-end and back-end) drivers can be used to virtualize many types of devices (e.g., GPUs, sensors) while facilitating (1) the concurrent use of the device across guest OS'es, resulting in higher scalability and utilization of the device and (2) hardware acceleration offered by the device to be used by guest OS'es, resulting in close to native performance. Devices such as GPUs or sensors that do not require a fast response without high volumes of asynchronous operations or DMA/interrupts greatly benefit from devirtualization. Since the devirtualization drivers are devoid of knowledge of any specific devices, the guest OS is required to redirect the virtual file system (VFS) operations for the devirtualized devices (e.g., Linux file_operations) to the devirtualization client driver that works in tandem with the devirtualization host driver on the virtualization host to operate on host devices through the host native device drivers.
Devirtualization virtualizes devices in shared memory domains (e.g., single computers) as well as distributed memory domains (e.g., across a network of computers). For shared memory domains, devices are shared between guest OS'es running on a hypervisor on a shared memory system, thus it is an intrinsic devirtualization. On the other hand, for distributed memory domains, devices are shared between multiple discrete computers (e.g., between a smartphone and a tablet), thus it is an extrinsic devirtualization. Devirtualization has its own limitations, but most importantly devirtualization fails to provide coherent user space device interfaces (e.g., entries in Linux /dev, /sys, /proc filesystems) because the device-specific knowledge out of these drivers was abstracted in favor of genericity of device virtualization. A technical report entitled "Making I/O Virtualization Easy with Device Files" by Ardalan Amiri Sani, et al., Technical Report 2013-04-13, Rice University, April 2013. describes the limitations of devirtualization.
System virtualization infrastructures (e.g., XEN®, KVM, VMWARE® VMI) provided the efficient communication mechanism for a guest OS to context switch into the host. These are similar to system calls that allow applications context switch into the kernel. Context switches can be achieved by software interrupts or VMCALL. Software Interrupts are similar to the system calls and switch to the appropriate ring level to gain the privilege to perform host operations. INTEL® VT provides the VMCALL instruction for a guest to perform an immediate context switch to the host. In VMCALL instruction, one of the arguments indicates a special function that the guest wants the host to perform on its behalf, and the rest of the arguments are operation-specific.
Address space virtualization achieved a significant performance gain for an intrinsic devirtualization. Address space virtualization provides a hybrid address space (HAS) that includes a single address space for the host kernel and guest user mappings while performing devirtualized system call operations in the host and allowing the host kernel to directly access system call arguments (and other information) via virtual address pointers in the guest user application's memory space.
The use of HAS allows enhanced page sharing across OS domains in hypervisor-based system virtualization. Prior examples of page sharing architecture include, but not limited to, XEN® grant tables and VMWARE® transparent page sharing (TPS). For XEN® grant tables, selected memory mappings are shared across guest OS domains (sometimes with the host) to avoid redundant copies of data dealt by device drivers. For VMWARE® transparent page sharing (TPS), when multiple guest OS instances of the same OS function simultaneously, a large number of pages remain identical. The hypervisor shares the backing physical (copy-on-write) pages in the virtual address space of the different guest OS instances. HAS-based page sharing enables a host kernel to directly access any portions of the guest application memory.
The performance of devices such as GPU, storage and NIC usually limits the user experience on a computer system whether it is a physical computer or a virtual computer running on a hypervisor. Operating systems such as Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android provide native device drivers as closed-source or binary distributions. Some device manufacturers make available an open-source version of their drivers, but they usually withhold many of their intellectual property of their drivers. An efficient software device virtualization architecture works seamlessly and transparently across multiple devices, even when only binary level closed-source drivers are available. In such a case, the software device virtualization architecture particularly precludes any specific knowledge about the devices, or access to sources for the devices drivers to be able to efficiently perform software device virtualization.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamic device virtualization for use by guest user processes based on observed behaviors of native device drivers


A high strength, high toughness, low carbon/low manganese steel is provided that is further resistant to stepwise cracking and sulfide stress cracking. The steel can be produced by conventional or thin slab casting techniques using normal speeds, with low manganese segregation levels. The steels are excellent candidates for linepipe applications in severe sour gas service.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a high-strength linepipe and structural steel that is resistant to hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) in sour service.
2. Description of Related Art
A continuing need exists to develop steels having high strength which can provide extended service life as linepipe in sour gas (H.sub.2 S) service. High strength linepipe for this sour service has heretofore been produced from low carbon-manganese steel, and strengthened by the addition of niobium and/or vanadium. Manganese levels for such steels have typically been in the range of 0.90 to 1.20 weight percent, when it is expected that the linepipe will be used in the most severe service conditions. For the purposes of this disclosure, manganese levels in the aforesaid range of 0.90-1.20 weight percent will be referred to as being "relatively high" manganese contents for low carbon-manganese steels.
While providing resistance to cracking due to exposure to sour gas, these steels are prone to manganese sulfide stringer formation, due to the relatively high level of manganese employed in the steel. This is the case even where the steel has very low sulfur levels (<0.003 wt. percent), because the Mn:S ratio is very high (>40,000:1). In order to combat this tendency to form manganese sulfide stringers, the inclusion of calcium, which causes preferential formation of globular or angular calcium oxysulfide inclusions, has become the standard practice. Rare earth metals have also shown the ability to reduce the tendency of the steel to form manganese sulfide stringers. However, both calcium and rare earth additions are expensive and can give rise to processing difficulties such as generation of excessive fumes, nozzle blocking or poor cleanliness ratings.
In casting linepipe steel, from a processing standpoint, steels having manganese contents above 1.0 weight percent are also prone to centerline segregation when casting speeds are high. Further, centerline segregation can occur when proper superheats are not maintained and/or when machine maintenance and water cooling practices are poor.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a high strength steel which is suitable for extended use in wet, sour gas service.
It is a further principal object of the present invention to provide a high strength steel having a very low manganese content, yet which is resistant to sour gas (H.sub.2 S) degradation.
It is an additional important object of the present invention to provide a high strength steel composition, suitable for sour gas service, which can be continuously cast at the high, normally desired, speeds employed in casting non-linepipe steel compositions.
It is a further important object of the present invention to provide a high strength steel composition that avoids the need to treat the alloy with calcium or rare earth metals in order to reduce the formation of manganese sulfide stringers.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a high strength, high toughness steel that is remarkably resistant to stepwise cracking and to sulfide stress cracking.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a high-strength steel that has a very low carbon and manganese content as compared to high strength steels currently used in sour gas service.

Linepipe and structural steel produced by high speed continuous casting


A log information management apparatus acquires a card ID from an IC card to set a remaining processing flag to the IC card. The log information management apparatus determines whether the remaining processing flag is set to the IC card before the remaining processing flag is set after the card ID is acquired. The log information management apparatus cause an image forming apparatus to perform a job, and causes a storage device to store a job history based on completion of the performance of the job. The log information management apparatus writes a job history relating to the card ID in the IC card in which the remaining processing flag is determined to be set. The log information management apparatus releases the remaining processing flag after writing the job history.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a log information management apparatus for an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus, a method for controlling the log information management apparatus for the image forming apparatus, and a recording medium in which a control program of the log information management apparatus for the image forming apparatus is stored, more specifically to a log information management apparatus for an image forming apparatus, which manages a job history performed by a user, the image forming apparatus, a method for controlling the log information management apparatus for the image forming apparatus, and a recording medium in which a control program of the log information management apparatus for the image forming apparatus is stored.
2. Description of the Background Art
Examples of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) having a scanner function, a facsimile function, a copying function, a printer function, a data communication function, and a server function, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, and a printer.
In the image forming apparatus, there is a system in which a user is authenticated using an IC (Integrated Circuit) card to permit only the authenticated user to use the image forming apparatus. In the system, when the user brings the IC card into contact with (or close to) a card reader that is connected to or incorporated in the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus authenticates the user to permit the user to login.
Pieces of log information such as a login date and time of the user, a history (hereinafter occasionally referred to as a job history) of a job performed by the user in past times, and billing information are stored in the image forming apparatus or a server connected to the image forming apparatus. There has been proposed a technology of writing the log information in the log information IC card. According to the technology, the user can confirm the log information on the user using the IC card.
For example, in a program disclosed in Document 1, an information processing apparatus identifier, a user identifier, and an operation log on an input device, which are stored in a portable storage medium, are read when the storage medium is connected to an interface of a history management server, and the pieces of history data are stored in a memory of the history management server.
Document 1 Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2006-172074
Because it takes time to end the job since the job is performed, it takes time to fix the job history. Specifically, in the case of the job of facsimile transmission, although a manipulation of the user is ended when a destination number is input to scan a document, occasionally it takes several minutes to complete the transmission since the user ends the manipulation when the other party is on another line or when it takes time to transmit a large amount of data. In the case of job to scan the document to transmit image data of the document by an electronic mail, it takes time to complete the transmission because image processing and the mail transmission processing arc executed after the image is scanned. It takes time to receive a reply of an error from a mail server when the mail is not delivered.
Particularly, in the case that usage of the image forming apparatus is charged to withdraw a billing amount (usage charge) from electronic money saved in the IC card, the billing amount is not fixed unless the job is completely ended. Therefore, it is necessary that the IC card be held on the card reader until the job is completely ended to fix the billing amount, and it is necessary that the IC card be released after the billing amount is written.
Although the IC card has an advantage that the login can be performed only by touching the card reader, when the job history is written in the IC card, it is necessary that the IC card be held (locked) on the card reader until the job history is fixed even after the login. Therefore, unfortunately user-friendliness of the IC card is degraded. In the configuration in which the IC card is held on the card reader, it is necessary to perform manipulations to put in (hold) the IC card on the card reader and to take out (release hold of) the IC card from the card reader. Therefore, unfortunately user-friendliness of the IC card is degraded.
Additionally, in the configuration in which the IC card is held on the card reader, the card reader is enlarged to increase cost.
In the case that the billing information on the usage of the image forming apparatus is not written in the IC card, it is necessary to provide a server that manages the billing information, which results in the enlargement of the system.

Log information management apparatus for image forming apparatus, which manages job history performed by user

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


Electrostatic filter in which the enclosure (2) is fitted with a flexible membrane (12) , behind which an acoustic wave generator (14) is placed and which vibrates the gaseous contents of the filter to detach retained dust and clean the filter.

This invention relates to an electrosatic filter with a process for fast cleaning without breaking confinement.
Electrostatic filters are composed of electricity conducting elements brought to different voltages by means of a DC voltage generator. Powerful electrostatic charges are created between these elements, between which a gas current passes carrying dust: particles making up this dust, ionized naturally or after a prior operation, are attracted by the conducting elements and deposited on them. Electrostatic filters have proved to be very useful for purifying gases containing large quantities of impurities such as combustion gases; they are frequently used on the inlet side of very high efficiency filters which retain the finest particles but which would become dirty too quickly if the gases reached them directly.
However, it is inevitable that electrostatic filters also become dirty, despite the relatively large gaps between conducting elements, so that cleaning processes are provided.
Brushes or scrapers are usually used that are applied along the length of the conducting elements, but this significantly complicates the filter. One possibility that was considered was to separate accumulated impurities by vibrations, by shaking or applying shocks on the sides of conducting elements, but this requires a large amount of energy and it is not always easy to determine the optimum conditions for vibrations to clean efficiently, and in any case mechanical vibrations could damage the filter.
Ultrasonic transducers are used in patent FR-A-2,638,659, through openings in the filter enclosure. These transducers are terminated by a rigid metal ground acting as an ultrasound emitter. This design can only be satisfactory in an aqueous environment, and therefore is not suitable for removing dust from gas.
Note also the author's certificate SU-A-927,317, in which cleaning is done by brushes and a reversal of the electrostatic field and in which detached particles are guided by sirens, the acoustic waves from which are propagated in the filter without contributing directly to cleaning. The sirens are engaged in the filter without being separated from filter elements by any membrane or partition, which compromises the confinement. Finally, the sirens must operate continuously during cleaning, and the resulting noise level is very annoying.

Electrostatic filter with process for fast cleaning without breaking confinement


Cristobalite-containing silica glass is provided wherein .alpha.-cristobalite in the shape of a small sphere or a small, round-edged or sharp-edged, three-dimensional region is dispersed in the silica glass matrix. The diameter of each .alpha.-cristobalite sphere or region is, in the range of 0.1 um to 1000 um, and the content of the .alpha.-cristobalite is at least 10 wt. %. The cristobalite-containing silica glass is produced by heating a mixture of two kinds or more of crystalline silicon dioxide powder with melting points different from each other by 20.degree. C. or more. The mixture contains silicon dioxide having the highest melting point in the range of 10 wt. % to 80 Wt. % and is heated at temperatures ranging from the lowest melting point to a temperature lower than the highest melting point.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to new cristobalite-contained silica glass, a method of producing the silica glass and a silica glass jig made of the silica glass the surface of which is covered with a vapor-deposited thin film. More particularly, it relates to cristobalite-containing silica glass having .alpha.-cristobalite in the shape of a small sphere or a small, round-edged or sharp-edged, three-dimensional region dispersed in the silica glass matrix, a method of producing the .alpha.-cristobalite-contained silica glass and a silica glass jig made of the silica glass best used in a plasma etching process of semiconductor device fabrication.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Silica glass has been heretofore used in fields such as for a jig for use in semiconductor device fabrication and the like, wherein high purity, heat-resistance and chemical resistance are required, since silica glass is generally good in heat-resistance, chemical resistance and is also good in processability and cleanablity. With the recent advance in packing density of constituent elements in a chip of a very-large-scale integrated circuit, conditions under which a jig is used has been getting severer, so that it has become earnestly required that firstly any element never comes out at any extent from the jig in a semiconductor device fabrication process and thereby the jig does not contaminate a semiconductor device being fabricated, and, secondly, the jig is not subjected to thermal deformation, even at a treating temperature of higher than 1000.degree. C. In such a technical situation, crystal-containing silica glass which is excellent in not only heat resistance, but also purity has drawn attention. For example, a crystal-containing silica glass is proposed in a published document of Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 3-45029, which silica glass is produced by sintering a mixture of crystalline quartz and amorphous quartz. Another crystal-contained silica glass is proposed in Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp 263-270, Jun. 1, 1959, in which a crystal phase is created in the silica glass matrix by doping aluminum and the like as a crystal forming agent.
However, since the crystal-contained silica glass described in Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 3-45029 is produced by sintering, gaps are generated among small crystals in the silica glass matrix, and thereby the mechanical strength is low and the thermal expansion coefficient is smaller than that of silica glass. When a jig made of such crystal-containing silica glass is used in a chemical vapor deposition process for a semiconductor device fabrication and is cooled in a cooling process, a thin polysilicon or silicon nitride film deposited on the surface of the jig shrinks to a great extent and develops cracks therein, since the thermal expansion coefficients thereof, which are 1.times.10.sup.-6 /.degree.C. or larger, are by far larger than that of the silica glass. Dust generated by peeling-off due to the cracks of part of the film causes the following problems. The dust floating in the atmosphere of the chemical vapor deposition process can contaminate a semiconductor device being fabricated. The cracks further advance into the body of the jig to finally break down the jig.
Because the crystal-contained silica glass proposed in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society above mentioned uses a crystal forming agent to form a crystal phase in the silica glass matrix, it has presents the problem that the crystal forming agent diffuses out impurities to thereby contaminate a semiconductor device being fabricated, when the jig is used in a temperature higher than 1000.degree. C.
Further, with the same recent advance in packing density of constituent elements in a chip and the trend for finer patterning in the chip of a very-large-scale integrated circuit, precision processing on a finer scale, on the order of submicrons, has been applied to a silicon wafer and the traditional etching treatment of the silicon wafer has to also change to the plasma etching treatment. In the plasma etching treatment, a silica glass jig has a risk of being etched itself in a special gas atmosphere and as a result, the silicon wafer has a risk to be contaminated by generated particles from the jig. In light of the above drawback, a silica glass jig the surface of which is covered with a vapor deposited thin film made of metal or ceramic thereon has been proposed, but since the thermal expansion coefficient of silica glass is usually smaller than those of the metal or ceramic, the thin film contracts to a great extent and thereby has the problem that a crack occurs in the thin film when it is used in a high temperature treatment of a silicon wafer. This problem has blocked the practical application of a thin film on the surface of a jig.

Method of producing cristobalite containing silica glass


The present invention relates to a composition and method for storage and controlled release of hydrogen. In particular, the present invention relates to the use of borohydride based solutions as a hydrogen storage source and a catalyst system to release hydrogen therefrom.

Hydrogen is a "clean fuel" because it can be reacted with oxygen in hydrogen-consuming devices, such as a fuel cell or combustion engine, to produce energy and water. Virtually no other reaction byproducts are produced in the exhaust. As a result, the use of hydrogen as a fuel effectively solves many environmental problems associated with the use of petroleum based fuels. Safe and efficient storage of hydrogen gas is, therefore, essential for many applications that can use hydrogen. In particular, minimizing volume and weight of the hydrogen storage systems are important factors in mobile applications.
Several methods of storing hydrogen currently exist but are either inadequate or impractical for wide-spread consumer applications. For example, hydrogen can be stored in liquid form at very low temperatures. Cryogenic storage, however, only provides a volume density of 70 grams of hydrogen per liter, which is clearly insufficient for consumer applications. In addition, the energy consumed in liquefying hydrogen gas is about 60% of the energy available from the resulting hydrogen. Finally, liquid hydrogen is not safe or practical for most consumer applications.
An alternative is to store hydrogen under high pressure in cylinders. However, a 100 pound steel cylinder can only store about one pound of hydrogen at about 2200 psi, which translates into 1% by weight of hydrogen storage. More expensive composite cylinders with special compressors can store hydrogen at higher pressures of about 4,500 psi to achieve a more favorable storage ratio of about 4% by weight. Although even higher pressures are possible, safety factors and the high amount of energy consumed in achieving such high pressures have compelled a search for alternative hydrogen storage technologies that are both safe and efficient.
Other methods of hydrogen storage include the use of chemical compounds that either (i) chemically react with water or other species to generate hydrogen or (ii) reversibly adsorb and then release the hydrogen. However, these methods and compounds suffer from many deficiencies, which make them unsuitable for use in consumer applications. These deficiencies include, high cost, poor safety, poor hydrogen storage capacities, decreased reversibility, poor hydrogen generation capacities, poor control of hydrogen generation, and high system complexities.
In view of the above, there is a need for safer, more effective methods of storing and recovering hydrogen. In addition, there is a need to meet the above requirements while minimizing overall system volume and weight. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide safer and more efficient methods for storing and generating hydrogen. These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent from the detailed description and examples that follow


Apparatus for stabilizing a test specimen in a compression/tension testing machine. The apparatus supports the test piece along its lengthwise edge or edges to prevent unwanted Euler buckling, however in a manner so as not to prevent sublaminate buckling. In one embodiment the apparatus supports the test piece along both of its lengthwise edges while engaged between the grips of the test machine. In a second embodiment, the apparatus supports the test piece along only one of its lengthwise edges. In a third embodiment, the apparatus includes grip plates which are mounted to the test machine and which engage a portion of the test specimen while the remainder of the specimen is supported along its lengthwise edges by stabilizer plates.

When manufacturing various parts it is desirable to test the parts themselves or certain specimens from these parts for mechanical strength. For example, in the airplane industry, some of the airplane parts are made out of composite materials. It is desirable to test specimens of these parts for compression strength.
There are large machines available to accomplish this testing. For example, during compression testing, the specimen, such as a flat piece of laminate (sometimes referred to as a "coupon"), is supported by a conventional test specimen holder (also referred to as a "fixture") between the grips of the testing machine. The machine compresses the coupon in a lengthwise direction until it fractures whereupon the machine provides a readout of the force required to fracture the coupon. Support for the coupon along its lengthwise axis is required during compression testing to prevent Euler column buckling. However the coupon should be supported in a manner so that sublaminate buckling of the specimen or any natural failure mode of interest is not restricted. In addition, during the compression testing it is sometimes desirable to attach a extensometer (or strain gauge) to the coupon to measure the amount of deformation of the coupon during compression.
Existing -compression fixtures support t faces of the test specimen. While these fixtures restrict the Euler column buckling they also restrict the valid sublaminate buckling failure mode. Specimen designs based on stable column sections have been used to measure compression properties of composites. These specimens have very restrictive application ranges and are not suitable for general applications.
Furthermore, these conventional fixtures have a large contact area with the test specimen which allows for some of the test load to be transferred to the fixture itself resulting in an erroneous measurement of the coupon's compression strength in a nonconservative manner. Also, an opening must be cut into the fixture to allow for open and filled hole compression tests. This makes it difficult to perform measurements of strain in the vicinity of the opening. And furthermore, conventional fixtures cannot be easily modified for compression testing where it is desirable to support only one lengthwise extending edge of the test specimen.
Other conventional support devices have been disclosed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 683,184 by Rockwell discloses a clamp having four rectangularly arranged blocks connected together in pairs by compression and expansion screws. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 2,350,060 by Montgomery and U.S. Pat. No. 2,368,900 by Templin disclose compression testing devices for thin specimens wherein the devices each include a pair of T-shaped jaws having small diameter rollers to engage the side surfaces of the specimen. And, U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,070 by Ralfs et al discloses a laminate compression tester which includes a pair of adjustable stabilizing jaws having end segments which engage specimen grips of a testing machine.

Apparatus for supporting a test specimen for compression testing


A driving apparatus for a light source is provided with a light generating unit including a light source which emits a light component polarized in a first predetermined direction and another light component polarized in a second, perpendicular direction. The first and second light components are emitted in amounts which vary depending on the total emitted light output. A light splitter is provided for splitting the two polarized components in different splitting ratios into first and second light paths. A photodetector detects the light intensity in the first light path, and a control unit controls the light generating unit so as to maintain the light intensity in the second light path at a predetermined state based on the detection output of the photodetector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source driving apparatus for monitoring a part of the light emitted from a light source such as a semiconductor laser and controlling said semiconductor laser based on the result of said monitoring, thereby achieving APC control for maintaining a constant light quantity or modulation control for obtaining a desired exposure, and to a system such as an image recording apparatus utilizing said light source driving apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
A semiconductor laser light source tends to show unstable light output for example, because of temperature change. Particularly, when such semiconductor laser is employed as the light source of a scanning optical system requiring a predetermined output intensity such as in a laser beam printer, it is necessary to effect so-called APC (automatic power control) by splitting and monitoring a part of the emitted light and effecting feedback on the drive current to maintain a predetermined light output.
The light emitted from a semiconductor laser is generally a mixture of the laser oscillated light linearly polarized in an oscillating direction parallel to the active layer and the LED oscillated light randomly polarized in all the directions, and, since the proportion of the laser oscillated light increases rapidly when the drive current exceeds the threshold value of laser oscillation as shown in FIG. 8, the ratio of mutually orthogonal polarized components is variable depending on the magnitude of the drive current.
For this reason, when the conventional APC is performed by splitting a part of the light emitted from the semiconductor laser, the monitoring light beam has been obtained, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,584, in such a manner that so-called non-polarizing beam splitter S capable of splitting mutually orthogonal polarized components in same proportions is employed as shown in FIG. 9, and a photodetector D is located on a split optical path LR. An alternative method has been obtained in which only a specified polarized light component is taken out from the emitted light by, for example, a polarizing beam splitter, and then a monitoring light beam is obtained from said polarized component by an ordinary beam splitter, thereby maintaining a constant ratio between the monitoring light beam and the light output.
On the other hand, in the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 584,263 filed on Sep. 18, 1990, a method for modulating the semiconductor laser have been proposed in which the laser is capable of providing a desired exposure regardless of variation in temperature, without relying on the APC mentioned above. An outline of one embodiment of said proposed method is such that the semiconductor laser is driven with a waveform whose output of light gradually increases, a part of said light output is monitored by a photodetector, and the output of the laser is allowed to increase until it reaches a predetermined value corresponding to the desired exposure.
However, the non-polarizing beam splitter and the polarizing beam splitter mentioned above require extremely complex manufacturing steps for obtaining special characteristics, in comparison with those for the ordinary beam splitter (splitting two polarized components with different proportions). For example the splitting face of these beam splitters is generally composed of multi-layered optical thin films, which, requiring at least 7 to 8 layers, cannot easily provide uniform characteristics and involve a high production cost.
In the non-polarizing beam splitter, satisfactory characteristics may be obtained with a single-layered thin metal film, but the film thickness in such case has to be strictly controlled, for example, in a range of several nm to over 10 nm, and the formation of such thin film in uniform manner is extremely difficult.
Also, the above-explained structure employing the polarizing beam splitter requires another beam splitter, so that it not only elevates the production cost of the entire apparatus but also deteriorates the efficiency of utilization of the emitted light.
Furthermore, even if the intensity ratio of the emitted light and the monitoring light can be always maintained constant, the monitoring light becomes proportionally weaker if weak emitted light is desired, so that S/N ratio of the detection signal from the photodetector becomes low to hinder adequate feedback control.

Light source driving apparatus and system utilizing the same


An ejection recovering unit includes tube pumps which generate pressure for performing ink enforced discharge of ink jet heads by sequentially deforming flexible tubes under pressure. Pressing rollers are spring biased toward a direction of preliminary pressurizing a spring for sequentially pressure deformation of tubes. This suppresses an increase in drive torque due to dispersion of accuracy of tubes, pressing rollers and mounting parts thereof. A guide is provided to place the corresponding roller in a state corresponding to a pressurizing state before the guide presses the corresponding tube. This prevents any change in torque due to sudden production of the pressurizing state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and a recovering mechanism for an ink jet head, and particularly relates to a recovering unit for maintaining the ink jet head of an ink jet recording apparatus in a normal ink ejection state or recovering the ink jet head to the normal ejection state.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the conventional ink jet recording apparatus, there is one which has a recovering pump arranged for the purposes of maintaining an ink jet head in a normal ink emission state or recovering the ink jet heads to the normal state when clogging takes place in an orifice or orifices. Ink is sucked out of the orifice or orifices, using vacuum produced by the recovering pump. Examples of such technique include the use of a tube pump as the recovering pump (for instance, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 73352/1991 and 73354/1991. The tube pump produces vacuum by changing a volume in each flexible tube.
FIGS. 1A and 1B diagrammatically illustrate the tube pump. An opening of a cap 30 is brought into contact with a ink jet head 1 to perform capping of a face 1A on which orifices are formed. The cap 30 is provided in the rear side thereof with another opening, which is connected to a tube 3 as a member of the tube pump. A pressurizing roller 5 is provided to each tube 3 for pressurizing, and a shaft 5A thereof is rotatably supported to a guide roller 4. The guide roller 4 is rotatably mounted at a shaft 4A thereof to a pump base 6. The pump base 6 has an arcuate groove 6A formed concentrically with the shaft 4A of the guide roller 4.
When in such a construction, the guide roller 4 is rotated in the direction of the arrow a by a drive mechanism (not shown), the pressurizing roller 5 on the guide roller 4 is brought into contact with the tube 3 in the portion X in FIG. 1A to press the tube 3, so that the tube is resiliently deformed to bring the cross-sectional area of the interior thereof at the portion X to substantially naught. The guide roller 4 is further rotated in the direction of the arrows a from this state. This makes the pressurizing roller 5 to rotate in the direction of the arrow b in a following manner, collapsing the tube 3. The pressurizing roller 5 is temporarily stopped at a portion Y of the tube 3 as shown in FIG. 1B. During this operation, negative pressure is produced in the face 1A of the head 1 due to change in volume of the interior of the tube while the roller 5 presses the tube 3 between the portions X and Y thereof. The negative pressure enables suction of ink from the orifices. A waste ink container 7 is arranged downstream of the tube 3 for containing ink sucked from the orifices.
Such a tube pump is advantageous in that it is simple in construction and it is capable of constitute a small and low cost suction recovering unit. The inventors however have found that the tube pump can raise problems below.
The amount of overlapping of the pressurizing roller 5 with the corresponding tube 3 (the amount of penetration of the pressurizing roller 5 upon the tube 3) depends on the distance from the axis of the guide roller 4 to the axis of the pressurizing roller shaft 5A, the outer diameter of the pressurizing roller 5, the shape of the arcuate groove 6A concentric with the guide roller 4, the thickness of the tube 3, plays to these members, etc. The minimum amount of penetration which bring the cross-sectional area of the interior of the tube 3 to substantially naught must be determined in view of a tolerance of each of the members. In the case where the amount of penetration of the pressurizing roller 5 increases due to the tolerance, the torque to drive the pump, that is, the torque to rotate the guide roller 4 in the direction of arrow a, must be also increased. This necessitates the torque of a pump drive motor to be enlarged, and therefore it is like to raise a cost of the motor. In the case of excessively large amount of penetration, wear of the tubes is accelerated, durability of the tubes is deteriorated, and hence the tubes are liable to be broken.
For the purpose of obtaining a small and low cost recording apparatus, in the case where a motor is commonly used as the pump drive motor and a recording medium feeding motor (vertical or subscanning motor) or a carriage drive motor (horizontal or main scanning motor), the following problems are likely to be produced: the motor can be stepped out due to change in torque at an instant when tubes 3 are pressed by the pressurizing roller 5 or are released from the pressurizing rollers 5; accuracy of feed of the recording medium is adversely affected; the picture of printing is deteriorated in quality due to nonuniform scanning.
In the case where a plurality of heads are used, a plurality of tubes 3 and pressurizing rollers 5 are provided. Thus, an increase in the amount of penetration according to the tolerance of each component become larger as the increase of the number of the heads. This makes influences of the problems previously described larger.

Ink jet recording apparatus and recovering mechanism thereof


A system configured to dry containers before a date coding process includes a blower assembly, an air manifold and a bracket assembly. The blower assembly includes a centrifugal air blower. The air manifold is connected to the blower assembly and includes a plurality of air nozzles. The air nozzles are configured to be positioned over a conveyor line, wherein the air nozzles are configured to expel air moved by the centrifugal air blower. The bracket assembly is configured to adjustably mount the air manifold over the conveyor line, wherein the bracket assembly allows the air manifold to be horizontally and/or vertically adjusted with respect to the conveyor line.

Various containers, such as beverage cans, canned foods and soft drink bottles, are date coded. Before the date code is printed on these containers, impurities and water are first blown off of them to ensure that the date code is firmly and accurately printed. Once the containers are dry and free of contaminants, they may be marked with date codes or the like.
Typically, many food and beverage plants blow water and other impurities off containers through various commercial compressed air driven nozzles. These nozzles typically consume larger amounts of compressed air and may be costly to operate over the course of a year.


A method, computer system, and a computer program product for sharing a peering connection parameter is provided. The present invention may include receiving a peering connection order from a user. The present invention may also include assigning at least one shared secret to the received peering connection order. The present invention may then include receiving a request from a network service provider of the user for at least one connection parameter associated with the received peering connection order, wherein the received request includes the at least one shared secret for the received peering connection order. The present invention may further include, in response to determining that the at least one shared secret included in the received request is valid, returning the at least one connection parameter associated with the received peering connection order to the network service provider of the user.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more particularly to cloud computing.
Users of cloud services often bridge their cloud-premises networks and their traditional, remote-premises networks with dedicated network connections. The dedicated network connectivity provides a secure, reliable, and low latency connection to move data between the remote network environments and the cloud network environments of a mutual user. When connecting or peering a cloud-premises network and a remote-premises network of the mutual user, direct exchange of information between a cloud service provider and a network service provider is often necessary. This direct exchange may lead to security concerns, such as, oversharing of information between the cloud service provider and the network service provider about the mutual user.

Secure sharing of peering connection parameters between cloud providers and network providers

International Business Machines Corporation


A pressure detecting apparatus has a pressure detecting device that converts a strain caused by a stress exerted thereto to an electrical signal, and outputs the converted electrical signal. The apparatus has a housing base including a housing recess that houses the pressure detecting device therein, and a connecting material interposed between the pressure detecting device and the housing recess. The connecting material connects the pressure detecting device and the housing recess with a tensile elongation percentage of about 400% or higher. The pressure detecting apparatus facilitates preventing thermal stress from adversely affecting the detection performance thereof, and produces excellent thermal response.

The present invention relates to a pressure detecting apparatus that converts the pressure detected thereby to an electrical signal and outputs the converted electrical signal. Specifically, the present invention relates also to a pressure detecting apparatus that exhibits excellent thermal response.
Usually, the semiconductor pressure sensor chip that employs the so-called piezoresistance effects has been used for a pressure detecting apparatus for measuring the intake air pressure on the air intake side of an engine in the electronic controlled fuel injection apparatus for automobiles. Since the operational principles of the pressure detecting apparatus that employs the semiconductor pressure sensor chip as described above are well known, the detailed descriptions thereof are omitted. The pressure detecting apparatus includes a bridge circuit consisting of semiconductor strain gauges formed on a diaphragm made of a material that exhibits piezoresistance effects such as single crystalline silicon. A pressure is detected by taking out the gauge resistance changes, caused in the semiconductor strain gauges by the diaphragm distortion, from the bridge circuit in the form of an electrical signal.
Now the pressure detecting apparatus briefly described above will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional pressure detecting apparatus. FIG. 6 is an expanded cross-sectional view showing a part of the conventional pressure detecting apparatus shown in FIG. 5. Referring now to these drawings, a pressure detecting apparatus 500 includes a pressure detecting device 501, that is a semiconductor pressure sensor chip, mounted on a housing base 502 of a resin molding, that is a package casing of pressure detecting apparatus 500. A housing recess 503 for housing pressure detecting device 501 therein is formed in housing base 502.
Pressure detecting device 501 is mounted on housing base 502 in such a configuration, in which pressure detecting device 501 is bonded by die-bonding with an adhesive 504 to housing recess 503 formed in housing base 502. Pressure detecting device 501 is electrically connected, via bonding wires 506, to lead terminals (lead frames) 505 integrated into housing base 502 by insertion molding such that lead terminals 505 are extending through housing base 502.
For reducing the stress exerted from housing base 502 in the structure described above, pressure detecting device 501 is bonded to a pedestal 507 made of glass by the anodic bonding technique known to those skilled in the art such that a vacuum reference space is formed between pressure detecting device 501 and glass pedestal 507. A gel protecting material 508 covers the surface 501a of pressure detecting device 501 and adheres pressure detecting device 501 to housing base 502 in such a manner that gel protecting material 508 contains bonding wires 506 therein. Protecting material 508 protects pressure detecting device 501 from the contaminants contained in the not-shown medium, the pressure thereof is to be measured with pressure detecting apparatus 500, and transmits the medium pressure to pressure detecting device 501. Protecting material 508 is also disposed between the side face of detecting device 501 and the side face of housing recess 503.
A housing cover 510 formed of a molded resin material includes a tube-shaped pressure transmitting section 509 having a cylindrical inner surface 509a (cf. FIG. 5). Housing cover 510 is mounted on and fixed, with an adhesive, to the opening side end portion of housing recess 503 in housing base 502 such that a pressure detecting space 511 consisting of a space connected to pressure transmitting section 509 is formed (cf. FIG. 5). The medium pressure to be measured is transmitted to pressure detecting space 511 through pressure transmitting section 509 in housing cover 510. Pressure detecting apparatus 500 detects the pressure difference between the transmitted medium pressure to be measured and the vacuum reference room pressure as a pressure change, converts the detected pressure change to an electrical signal in pressure detecting device 501, and outputs the converted electrical signal. Thus, the absolute medium pressure is measured.
For meeting the various demands for pressure detecting apparatus 500 such as down-sizing of entire pressure detecting apparatus 500, realization of very precise detection characteristics and realization of very high reliability, the opening size of housing recess 503 is optimized so that a clearance optimum for reducing the stress exerted from housing base 502 may be obtained between pressure detecting device 501 and housing base 502 (cf. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-247903).
In pressure detecting apparatus 500 having the structure as described above, the deformation of housing base 502 caused by an external stress exerted from housing cover 510 or by a thermal stress due to a severe measurement environment associating drastic temperature changes adversely affects the detection performances of pressure detecting device 501, impairing the thermal response of pressure detecting apparatus 500.
The thermal response is one of the evaluation items for performances tests indicating the detection performances change caused by the environmental temperature change, e.g. from a high temperature to a low temperature. In the pressure detecting apparatus, the thermal response thereof is not good, variations are caused between the initial detection performances and the detection performances after a temperature change is caused.
If the loading amount of adhesive 504 for mounting pressure detecting device 501 on housing base 502 is too large, adhesive 504, which has bulged out of the gap between the bottom surface 503a of housing recess 503 and the bottom surface 507a of pedestal 507 creeps up the clearance between pressure detecting device 501 and housing base 502, that is, the gap between the side face 507b of pedestal 507 and the side face 503b of housing recess 503 as shown in FIG. 6. Therefore, the stress caused, for example, by the deformation of housing base 502 in the direction indicated by the outline arrows in FIG. 6 directly affects the detection performances of pressure detecting device 501, impairing the thermal response of pressure detecting apparatus 500.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a pressure detecting apparatus that facilitates reducing the adverse effects of thermal stress on the detection performances to the extreme thereof and exhibits excellent thermal response.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention and the associated drawings.

Fuji Electric Device Technology Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides a display control semiconductor integrated circuit having therein a RAM, capable of repairing a defective bit included in the RAM and improving the yield without significantly increasing the occupation area. A liquid crystal controller/driver in which a RAM for storing display data is provided in a chip and the storage capacity of the built-in RAM is determined according to the size of a display screen of a liquid crystal panel to be driven, includes a fuse circuit for setting a defect address, and a comparing circuit for comparing the defect address set in the fuse circuit with an input address. The liquid crystal controller/driver also has a redundant circuit, when the addresses match each other, for replacing the input address with an address that instructs the spare memory area and supplying the address to an address decoder.

The present invention relates to a display controller having therein a RAM (Random Access Memory) that stores display data and controlling a display device, further, a technique effectively applied to a display controller formed as an integrated semiconductor circuit. For example, the invention relates to a technique effectively used for a liquid crystal control semiconductor integrate circuit for driving a liquid crystal display panel.
In recent years, as a display of a portable electronic device such as a cellular phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), generally, a dot-matrix-type liquid crystal panel in which a plurality of display pixels are two-dimensionally arranged in a matrix is used. In the device, a liquid crystal display controller (liquid crystal controller) formed as a semiconductor integrated circuit and controlling display of the liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal driver for driving the liquid crystal panel under control of the controller, or a liquid crystal controller/driver having therein a liquid crystal controller and a liquid crystal driver are/is mounted.
Hitherto, in the liquid crystal controller/driver (including the liquid crystal controller), a RAM for storing display data is provided in the chip. The storage capacity of the built-in RAM is generally determined according to the size of the display screen of the liquid crystal panel to be driven and is smaller than that of a general memory. In addition, a so-called redundancy circuit for repairing a defective bit is not provided.
The reason why the storage capacity of the built-in RAM is set to the size of the screen of the liquid crystal panel is as follows. Even if the capacity of the built-in RAM is set to the size of storing display data of one screen of the liquid crystal panel in the liquid crystal controller/driver, the proportion of the RAM in the chip area is relatively large. Consequently, increase in the storage capacity directly causes increase in the chip cost. In the built-in RAM having the capacity of storing display data of one screen, deterioration in the yield due to a defect in the RAM is so significant. It is not so necessary to provide a redundancy circuit, and increase in the chip size by providing a redundancy circuit can be avoided.
The technique of setting the storage capacity of the built-in RAM to the size of storing display data of one screen of a liquid crystal panel is described in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-347646.

Display control semiconductor integrated circuit


A heat-curable silicone rubber composition whose cure provides silicone rubber with excellent high-voltage electrical insulating properties. The heat-curable silicone rubber composition comprises:. (A) polyorganosiloxane gum described by average compositional formula EQU R.sub.a SiO.sub.(4-a)/2, PA1 where R represents substituted and unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon groups and a is a number from 1.95 to 2.05 and that contains at least 2 silicon-bonded alkenyl groups in each molecule, PA1 (B) microparticulate silica, PA1 (C) zinc carbonate powder or basic zinc carbonate powder, and PA1 (D) organoperoxide.

This invention relates to heat-curable silicone rubber compositions. More particularly, this invention relates to a heat-curable silicone rubber composition whose cure yields silicone rubber that has a high mechanical strength and excellent electrical insulating properties and in particular excellent high-voltage electrical insulating properties.
Room temperature-curing silicone rubber compositions that contain zinc carbonate powder are already known (Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku)Number Sho 53-15939 (15,939/1978)). These silicone rubber compositions cure to yield highly flame-retarded silicone rubbers. However, the cure of this type of silicone rubber composition develops gradually at room temperature in the presence of moisture through a condensation reaction, and several days are required for such compositions to cure completely. Moreover, the cured product has a low mechanical strength and cannot be used in some applications.
As a result of extensive investigations directed to solving the problems described above, the inventors discovered that the admixture of large amounts of zinc carbonate powder or basic zinc carbonate powder into a particular heat-curable silicone rubber composition provides silicone rubber with a high mechanical strength and excellent electric properties and in particular excellent high-voltage electrical insulating properties. The present invention was achieved as a result of this discovery.
Specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide a heat-curable silicone rubber composition that is cured by heating and thereby provides silicone rubber with a high mechanical strength and excellent electrical properties and in particular excellent high-voltage electrical insulating properties.

Heat-curable silicone rubber composition


Mechanism for moving a furniture door, apt to be placed on a lateral side of the piece of furniture and to move a door by a system of levers, the mechanism comprising a spring unit acting on the system of levers to balance the weight force of the door during opening, wherein the spring unit is pivotally mounted and acts directly on a main or thrust lever, mounted rotating around an axis, by a pin housed in a first cam slot formed in the lever and in a second cam slot placed in a fixed position with respect to the lateral side of the piece of furniture.

It is desirable to provide a mechanism for moving a door of an item of furniture, more particularly, but not exclusively, a door of an item of kitchen furniture with lift opening.
Remaining in the area of kitchen furniture, the lift opening doors can be of the so-called vertical, oblique, folding, flap with or without hinges opening type, as will be made clearer here below, according to the arrangement and configuration of the levers of movement of the door, which normally comprise a main lever or thrust lever and a secondary accompaniment lever.
Various spring mechanisms are available commercially which assist during lifting of the door and keep it in position of total or partial opening, opposing the weight force of the same.
Known mechanisms have complicated motion systems and drives in order to go to act on the main or thrust lever of the door, in order to maintain it in equilibrium in the various positions, and are therefore found to be costly.
Additionally, the spring pack of these mechanisms has to be set up and calibrated for every particular application, interchangeability of the spring pack on the basis of the dimensions and of the weight of the door not being normally possible.
It is desirable to eliminate disadvantages of known systems.
More particularly, it is desirable to provide a mechanism for moving a door of an item of furniture which has a reduced number of components and which is therefore simple and economical to produce and which is at the same time highly reliable.
It is also desirable to provide such a movement mechanism which can be used, without substantial changes, for doors with vertical opening, with oblique opening, with folding opening, with flap opening with or without hinges.
It is also desirable to provide such a mechanism which, aside from the type of opening of the door, can be fixed always in the same position on a lateral side of the item of furniture.
It is also desirable to provide the possibility of interchanging the spring pack as a function of the weight of the door.
A mechanism for moving a door of an item of furniture is provided according to an aspect of the invention.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention will be disclosed in the dependent claims.
Substantially, the mechanism for moving a furniture door, according to an aspect of the invention, apt to be placed on a lateral side of the furniture item and to move a door by means of a system of levers, comprises a spring unit acting on said system of levers in order to balance the weight force of the door during opening, wherein said spring unit is pivotally mounted and acts directly on a main or thrust lever, mounted rotating around an axis, by means of a pin housed in a first cam slot formed in the lever and in a second cam slot placed in a fixed position with respect to the lateral side of the furniture item.

DONGTAI HARDWARE PRECISION (HONG KONG) LIMITED


A connection between a secure shared space and an external system is created with a connector tool. The connector tool code is included in an independent agent called a “bot” that is created by a software developer. Bots run in the background in an automated and unattended manner in a specialized enterprise integration server. Each bot has a unique identity and runs under an account assigned to the enterprise integration server. A bot can be invited to a shared space much as another collaborator. Bots can also invite others to shared spaces. All bots running in the enterprise integration server are administered by a centralized administrative control. This allows account and identity policies to be established and global behaviors, including authentication settings, startup options and scope to be determined centrally. The centralized control allows simple installation, configuration and deployment and administrative control of bot operation and access. It also allows for logging and monitoring of system behavior.

Collaboration involves the ability for each member in a group of members, called "collaborators" to automatically transmit information to, and receive information from, other collaborators in the group. In order to facilitate such collaboration, various systems have been developed that allow such information to be transmitted between personal computer systems, communication appliances or other communication devices, including handheld and wireless devices. Collectively, these devices will be referred to a "computers" in this description.
Computer-based collaboration may occur over a network, such as the Internet, wherein each of the users is located at a computer connected to the network. One collaboration model currently in use is a "peer-to-peer" model in which direct connections are established over the network between each of the collaborator computers. Information generated by each collaborator is then sent directly to each other collaborator.
When peer-to-peer collaboration systems send information over the Internet, additional care must be taken to insure that the communications are secure. While the Internet is ideally suited for collaboration because it has the ability to connect widespread users with diverse hardware and software, communication over the Internet is not generally considered secure because messages sent over the Internet are typically funneled to third-party infrastructure where communications can be intercepted and confidences violated. Consequently, in peer-to-peer collaboration systems that use the Internet, the collaboration data is typically contained within private shared spaces on each computer. Security is maintained by carefully controlling access to these spaces and checking identities of collaborators and by encrypting all communications that pass over the Internet between collaborators.
The latter type of collaboration system is described in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/357,007 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACTIVITY-BASED COLLABORATION BY A COMPUTER SYSTEM EQUIPPED WITH A COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, filed Jul. 19, 1999 by Raymond E. Ozzie, Kenneth G. Moore, Robert H. Myhill and Brian M. Lambert; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/356,930 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACTIVITY-BASED COLLABORATION BY A COMPUTER SYSTEM EQUIPPED WITH A DYNAMICS MANAGER, filed Jul. 19, 1999 by Raymond E. Ozzie and Jack E. Ozzie; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/356,148 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRIORITIZING DATA CHANGE REQUESTS AND MAINTAINING DATA CONSISTENCY IN A DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER SYSTEM EQUIPPED FOR ACTIVITY-BASED COLLABORATION, filed Jul. 19, 1999 by Raymond E. Ozzie and Jack E. Ozzie and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/571,851 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING SECURE COLLABORATIVE TRANSACTIONS, filed May 12, 2000 by Walter E. Tuvell and Nimisha Asthagiri.
In such peer-to-peer collaboration systems, local data copies are stored on each collaborator's computers and each collaborator gesture or action is duplicated in the local object store of each member's machine. For example, assume that a map is displayed on all collaborators computer. When one collaborator draws a circle on the map, that computer sends a message to the other computers to draw the same circle on the maps in their shared spaces. The system does not need to resend the entire edited map, but rather only the change to the map.
There is often a need for one or more of the collaborators to access an application, system or service that is external to the shared space and may reside on a local device or elsewhere on the network. For example, a collaborator may want to access a Web page on the Internet. In this case, the collaborator enters a URL into a Web browser that is part of the collaboration system and submits the information to the Internet. The collaboration system then sends a message to the other collaborators to cause them to perform the same action. In this case, each of the collaborators individually connects to the Web site and downloads the selected Web page directly into his or her shared space. Such an arrangement is called "multi-point access."
However, in other cases, members of a shared space need access not to external Web-based information, but rather to internal server-based information residing in customer relationship management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, document and knowledge management systems, etc. For example, a consulting team working together with a collaboration system might need access to customer history, current pricing schedules, or best practices guidelines. In such a case, it would be inefficient for multiple members to make independent calls to the centralized server because the server would have to process the same request and provide the same result multiple times. In addition, each computer would require an installed interface with the internal database application and would have to be configured, potentially with extremely sensitive password information that is generally considered inappropriate outside of the enterprise firewall.
Another common customer example uses the reverse relationship: the members of a shared space have created or modified content (e.g., updated a customer record, amended a best practices document with new knowledge). These changes now need to be captured, managed and shared centrally by the appropriate server-based system(s). Again, it would be inappropriate for multiple members of the space to send the single change.
Thus, it would be useful to be able to connect shared spaces to an external application, system or service from a single point in the shared space. It would also be useful to create shared spaces from an external application, system or service and to be able to move data between the shared space and the external system either unidirectionally or bi-directionally. However, in all cases, it is important to insure that such a connection does not compromise the security of the shared space.
Further, it is also desirable that the mechanism that is used to establish the connection be operable with different interfaces and protocols. For example, a connection between a shared space and an external system could be established via interfaces, such as Microsoft Transaction Server, or Microsoft Message Queue or via SOAP for systems that expose objects through Extended Markup Language (XML.) Other protocols such as HTTP or FTP could also be used.

Method and apparatus for connecting a secure peer-to-peer collaboration system to an external system


A sampled amplitude read channel for disk storage systems is disclosed which asynchronously sub-samples an analog read signal significantly below the Nyquist rate (the baud rate) in order to increase the effective data rate without increasing the frequency of the sampling device. Interpolated timing recovery up-samples the asynchronous samples to generate sample values synchronized to the baud rate, and a Viterbi sequence detector detects the recorded digital data from the synchronous sample values. To compensate for the time-varying characteristics of the recording device, a discrete-time equalizer adaptively equalizes the asynchronous sample values using a least mean square (LMS) adaptive algorithm, EQU W.sub.k+1 =W.sub.k -.mu..multidot.e.sub.k .multidot.X.sub.k,. where W.sub.k is a vector of FIR filter coefficients, .mu. is a programmable gain, e.sub.k is a sample error between the FIR filter's actual output and a desired output, and X.sub.k is a vector of samples values from the FIR filter input.

Computer storage systems (such as optical, magnetic, and the like) record digital data onto the surface of a storage medium, which is typically in the form of a rotating magnetic or optical disk, by altering a surface characteristic of the disk. The digital data serves to modulate the operation of a write transducer (write head) which records binary sequences onto the disk in radially concentric or spiral tracks. In magnetic recording systems, for example, the digital data modulates the current in a write coil in order to record a series of magnetic flux transitions onto the surface of a magnetizable disk. And in optical recording systems, for example, the digital data may modulate the intensity of a laser beam in order to record a series of "pits" onto the surface of an optical disk. When reading this recorded data, a read transducer (read head), positioned in close proximity to the rotating disk, detects the alterations on the medium and generates a sequence of corresponding pulses in an analog read signal. These pulses are then detected and decoded by read channel circuitry in order to reproduce the digital sequence.
Detecting and decoding the pulses into a digital sequence can be performed by a simple peak detector in a conventional analog read channel or, as in more recent designs, by a discrete-time sequence detector in a sampled amplitude read channel. Discrete-time sequence detectors are preferred over simple analog pulse detectors because they compensate for intersymbol interference (ISI) and are less susceptible to channel noise. Consequently, discrete-time sequence detectors increase the capacity and reliability of the storage system. There are several well known discrete-time sequence detection methods including discrete-time pulse detection (DPD), partial response (PR) with Viterbi detection, maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD), decision-feedback equalization (DFE), enhanced decision-feedback equalization (EDFE), and fixed-delay tree-search with decision-feedback (FDTS/DF).
In a conventional peak detection read channel, analog circuitry detects peaks in the continuous time analog read signal generated by the read head. The analog read signal is "segmented" into bit cell periods and interpreted during these segments of time. The presence of a peak during the bit cell period is detected as a "1" bit, whereas the absence of a peak is detected as a "0" bit. The most common errors in detection occur when the bit cells are not correctly aligned with the analog pulse data. Timing recovery, then, adjusts the bit cell periods so that the peaks occur in the center of the bit cells on average in order to minimize detection errors. Since timing information is derived only when peaks are detected, the input data stream is normally run length limited (RLL) to limit the number of consecutive "0" bits.
As the pulses are packed closer together on the data tracks in the effort to increase data density, detection errors can also occur due to intersymbol interference (ISI), a distortion in the read signal caused by closely spaced, overlapping pulses. This interference can cause a peak to shift out of its bit cell, or its magnitude to decrease, resulting in a detection error. This ISI effect is reduced by decreasing the data density or by employing an encoding scheme that ensures a minimum number of "0" bits occur between "1" bits. For example, a (d,k) run length limited (RLL) code constrains to d the minimum number of "0" bits between "1" bits, and to k the maximum number of consecutive "0" bits. A typical (1,7) RLL 2/3 rate code encodes 8 bit data words into 12 bit codewords to satisfy the (1,7) constraint.
Sampled amplitude detection, such as partial response (PR) with Viterbi detection, allows for increased data density by compensating for intersymbol interference and the effect of channel noise. Unlike conventional peak detection systems, sampled amplitude recording detects digital data by interpreting, at discrete time instances, the actual value of the pulse data. To this end, the read channel comprises a sampling device for sampling the analog read signal, and a timing recovery circuit for synchronizing the samples to the baud rate (code bit rate). Before sampling the pulses, a variable gain amplifier adjusts the read signal's amplitude to a nominal value, and a low pass analog filter filters the read signal to attenuate channel and aliasing noise. After sampling, a discrete equalizer equalizes the sample values according to a desired partial response, and a discrete-time sequence detector, such as a Viterbi detector, interprets the equalized sample values in context to determine a most likely sequence for the recorded digital data (i.e., maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD)). MLSD takes into account the effect of ISI and channel noise in the detection algorithm, thereby decreasing the probability of a detection error. This increases the effective signal to noise ratio and, for a given (d,k) constraint, allows for significantly higher data density as compared to conventional analog peak detection read channels.
The application of sampled amplitude techniques to digital communication channels is well documented. See Y. Kabal and S. Pasupathy, "Partial Response Signaling", IEEE Trans. Commun. Tech., Vol. COM-23, pp.921-934, Sept. 1975; and Edward A. Lee and David G. Messerschmitt, "Digital Communication", Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1990; and G. D. Forney, Jr., "The Viterbi Algorithm", Proc. IEEE, Vol. 61, pp. 268-278, March 1973.
Applying sampled amplitude techniques to magnetic storage systems is also well documented. See Roy D. Cideciyan, Francois Dolivo, Walter Hirt, and Wolfgang Schott, "A PRML System for Digital Magnetic Recording", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 10 No. 1, January 1992, pp.38-56; and Wood et al, "Viterbi Detection of Class IV Partial Response on a Magnetic Recording Channel", IEEE Trans. Commun., Vol. Com-34, No. 5, pp. 454-461, May 1986; and Coker Et al, "Implementation of PRML in a Rigid Disk Drive", IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 27, No. 6, Nov. 1991; and Carley et al, "Adaptive Continous-Time Equalization Followed By FDTS/DF Sequence Detection", Digest of The Magnetic Recording Conference, August 15-17, 1994, pp. C3; and Moon et al, "Constrained-Complexity Equalizer Design for Fixed Delay Tree Search with Decision Feedback", IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 30, No. 5, Sept. 1994; and Abbott et al, "Timing Recovery For Adaptive Decision Feedback Equalization of The Magnetic Storage Channel", Globecom '90 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference 1990, San Diego, Calif., Nov. 1990, pp.1794-1799; and Abbott et al, "Performance of Digital Magnetic Recording with Equalization and Offtrack Interference", IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 27, No. 1, Jan. 1991; and Cioffi et al, "Adaptive Equalization in Magnetic-Disk Storage Channels", IEEE Communication Magazine, Feb. 1990; and Roger Wood, "Enhanced Decision Feedback Equalization", Intermag '90.
The principles disclosed herein are applicable regardless as to the particular discrete-time sequence detection method employed. The present invention applies to the above-identified sequence detection methods as well as others not mentioned, and even future techniques.
Similar to conventional peak detection systems, sampled amplitude detection requires timing recovery in order to correctly extract the digital sequence. Rather than process the continuous signal to align peaks to the center of bit cell periods as in peak detection systems, sampled amplitude systems synchronize the pulse samples to the baud rate. In conventional sampled amplitude read channels, timing recovery synchronizes a sampling clock by minimizing an error between the signal sample values and estimated sample values. A pulse detector or slicer determines the estimated sample values from the read signal samples. Even in the presence of ISI the sample values can be estimated and, together with the signal sample values, used to synchronize the sampling of the analog pulses in a decision-directed feedback system.
A phase-locked-loop (PLL) normally implements the timing recovery decision-directed feedback system. The PLL comprises a phase detector for generating a phase error estimate based on the difference between the estimated samples and the read signal samples. A PLL loop filter filters the phase error, and the filtered phase error operates to synchronize the channel samples to the baud rate.
Conventionally, the phase error adjusts the frequency of a sampling clock which is typically the output of a variable frequency oscillator (VFO). The output of the VFO controls a sampling device, such as an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, to synchronize the sampling to the baud rate.
As mentioned above, sampled amplitude read channels also commonly employ a discrete-time equalizer to equalize the sample values into a desired partial response (PR4, EPR4, EEPR4, etc.) before sequence detection. To this end, adaptive algorithms have been applied to compensate in real time for parameter variations in the recording system and across the disk radius. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,359 entitled "Adaptation and Training of Digital Finite Impulse Response Filter Within PRML Sampling Data Detection Channel", discloses an adaptive equalizer filter that operates according to a well known least mean square (LMS) algorithm, EQU W.sub.k+1 =W.sub.k -.mu..multidot.e.sub.k .multidot.X.sub.k,
where W.sub.k is a vector of filter coefficients; .mu. is a programmable gain; e.sub.k is a sample error between the filter's actual output and a desired output; and X.sub.k is a vector of sample values from the filter input. In other words, the LMS adaptive equalizer filter is a closed loop feedback system that attempts to minimize the mean squared error between an actual output of the filter and a desired output by continuously adjusting the filter's coefficients to achieve an optimum frequency response.
The prior art LMS adaptive algorithm described above assumes that the analog read signal is sampled at the Nyquist rate (i.e., synchronous to the baud rate), and that the entire signal spectrum is available for adapting the filter coefficients in order to minimize the mean squared error between the actual and ideal channel response. The conventional LMS adaptation algorithm is sub-optimum, however, if the signal spectrum is bandlimited in a sub-sampled read channel in order to attenuate noise due to aliasing.
There is, therefore, a need for an adaptive, discrete-time equalizer filter in a sampled amplitude read channel that can compensate for the adverse effects of bandlimiting the signal spectrum to attenuate aliasing caused by sub-sampling the analog read signal (i.e., sampling below the Nyquist rate).

Adaptive equalization in a sub-sampled read channel for a disk storage system