The invention includes a number of methods and structures pertaining to integrated circuitry. The invention encompasses a method of forming an integrated circuit comprising: a) forming an insulative material layer over a first node location and a second node location, the insulative material layer having an uppermost surface; and b) forming first and second conductive pedestals extending through the insulative material layer and in electrical connection with the first and second node locations, the conductive pedestals comprising exposed uppermost surfaces which are above the uppermost surface of the insulative material layer. The invention also encompasses an integrated circuit comprising: a) a first node location and a second node location within a semiconductor substrate; b) a transistor gate electrically connecting the first and second node locations; c) an insulative material layer over the semiconductor substrate, the insulative material layer comprising an uppermost surface; d) a first conductive pedestal extending through the insulative material layer and in electrical connection with the first node location; e) a second conductive pedestal extending through the insulative material layer and in electrical connection with the second node location; f) the conductive pedestals comprising uppermost surfaces which are at a common elevational height relative to one another and are above the uppermost surface of the insulative material layer in a region proximate the pedestals.

A commonly used semiconductor memory device is a DRAM cell. A DRAM cell generally consists of a capacitor coupled through a transistor to a bitline. A continuous challenge in the semiconductor industry is to increase DRAM circuit density. Accordingly, there is a continuous effort to decrease the size of memory cell components.
Another continuous trend in the semiconductor industry is to minimize processing steps. Accordingly, it is desirable to utilize common steps for the formation of separate DRAM components. For instance, it is desirable to utilize common steps for the formation of the DRAM capacitor structures and the DRAM bitline contacts.
A semiconductor wafer fragment 10 is illustrated in FIG. 1 showing a prior art DRAM array 83. Wafer fragment 10 comprises a semiconductive material 12, field oxide regions 14, and wordlines 24 and 26. Wordlines 24 and 26 comprise a gate oxide layer 16, a polysilicon layer 18, a silicide layer 20 and a silicon oxide layer 22. Silicide layer 20 comprises a refractory metal silicide, such as tungsten silicide, and polysilicon layer 18 typically comprises polysilicon doped with a conductivity enhancing dopant. Nitride spacers 30 are laterally adjacent wordlines 24 and 26.
Electrical node locations 25, 27 and 29 are between wordlines 24 and 26 and are electrically connected by transistor gates comprised by wordlines 24 and 26. Node locations 25, 27 and 29 are diffusion regions formed within semiconductive material 12.
A borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) layer 34 is over semiconductive material 12 and wordlines 24 and 26. An oxide layer 32 is provided between BPSG layer 34 and material 12. Oxide layer 32 inhibits diffusion of phosphorus from BPSG layer 34 into underlying materials.
Conductive pedestals 54, 55 and 56 extend through BPSG layer 34 to node locations 25, 27 and 29, respectively. Capacitor constructions 62 and 64 contact upper surfaces of pedestals 54 and 55, respectively. Capacitor constructions 62 and 64 comprise a storage node layer 66, a dielectric layer 68, and a cell plate layer 70. Dielectric layer 68 comprises an electrically insulative layer, such as silicon nitride. Cell plate layer 70 comprises conductively doped polysilicon, and may alternatively be referred to as a cell layer 70. Storage node layer 66 comprises conductively doped hemispherical grain polysilicon.
A conductive bitline plug 75 contacts an upper surface of pedestal 55. Bitline plug 75 may comprise, for example, tungsten. Together, bitline plug 75 and pedestal 55 comprise a bitline contact 77.
A bitline 76 extends over capacitors 62 and 64 and in electrical connection with bitline contact 77. Bitline 76 may comprise, for example, aluminum.
The capacitors 62 and 64 are electrically connected to bitline contact 77 through transistor gates comprised by wordlines 26. A first DRAM cell 79 comprises capacitor 62 electrically connected to bitline 76 through a wordline 26 and bitline contact 77. A second DRAM cell 81 comprises capacitor 64 electrically connected to bitline 76 through wordline a 26 and bitline contact 77. DRAM array 83 comprises first and second DRAM cells 79 and 81.

Integrated circuitry, DRAM cells, capacitors, and methods of forming integrated circuitry, DRAM cells and capacitors


An information processing apparatus may include an acquiring unit to periodically acquire, from an apparatus, information indicating an amount of power consumption stored for each of power supply states of the apparatus, a computation unit to compute a ratio of the amount of power consumption for each of the power supply states included in the information, for each information acquired by the acquiring unit, and an output unit to output information indicating a change in the ratio, based on an order of the information acquired.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and a computer-readable recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the recent demands on environmentally friendly and energy saving (or the so-called "green") systems, there are also demands for a green image forming apparatus (hereinafter also referred to as "apparatus"), such as a printer, a copying machine, and a MFP (Multi Function Peripheral). For example, apparatus models having low power consumption may be preferred on the market. Information related to the power consumptions of apparatuses manufactured by major manufacturers is published by designated organizations, and may be used as one of the important criterions used by a user when purchasing the apparatus. In addition, even after purchasing the apparatus, the user (or corporation) may be interested in knowing the amount of power consumption of the apparatus in the office.
Conventionally, a technique has been proposed to comprehend the amount of power consumption of the apparatus. For example, according to the technique proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-72253, the user may predict the amount of power consumption that may be saved by using a certain apparatus model.
However, the apparatus set up in the office may be expensive, and it may be difficult to simply replace the apparatus with another apparatus. The user who uses the apparatus based on a lease contract may replace the apparatus more easily, however, replacing the apparatus during the lease contract may consequently increase management costs.

Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and computer-readable recording medium


A built-in self-test (BIST) circuit is configured to divide data output bits of a RAM macro into a plurality of groups each consisting of 2 bits, and provide a 1-bit comparator of a signature analyzer for each group to share one 1-bit comparator by respective two data output bits. A selector of a bit changer sequentially selects a data output bit from each group, and the 1-bit comparator sequentially compares output data for the selected data output bit with expected value data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a BIST circuit for conducting a test on memory using a comparator-type signature analyzer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one of test facilitating design techniques for large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs), there is a built-in self-test (BIST). This is for performing self diagnosis by providing a test circuit in the LSI and comparing a responded output of a circuit to be tested with respect to a test pattern generated by the test circuit, with an expected value.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the configuration of a conventional random access memory built-in self-test (RAMBIST) circuit. As shown in FIG. 1, in a signature analyzer 1 of the conventional RAMBIST circuit, a 1-bit comparator 11 is provided for each of data output bits A[0] to A[n−1] in a RAM macro 2. In this configuration, the data output from each of the data output bits A[0] to A[n−1] in the RAM macro 2 is compared with expected value data generated by a data generator 3, for each corresponding bit by the 1-bit comparator 11. A controller 4 controls respective operations of the signature analyzer 1 and the data generator 3.
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of another configuration of the conventional RAMBIST circuit. In the RAMBIST circuit shown in FIG. 2, a signature analyzer 1 is provided for each read port with respect to a multi-port type RAM macro 5 having a plurality of read ports (in the example shown in the figure, A and B ports). In this configuration, the data output from each read port of the RAM macro 5 is compared with the expected value data generated by a data generator 3, for each corresponding read port, by the respective signature analyzer 1. The controller 4 controls respective operations of the signature analyzers 1 and the data generator 3.
However, with a rapid progress of technology, the number of the RAM macros mounted on one chip is recently increasing. Accompanying this, the number of read ports and the number of data output bits increase considerably, causing a problem in that the chip area increases due to an increase in number of the signature analyzers.


A sign assembly includes a base material, a filmic substrate imaged with a design, and a sign assembly frame that includes a sign framing member of fixed position in relation to the base material. The sign framing member includes a projecting portion terminating at an inside edge of the sign framing member. The display sign is adhered to the base material. The inside edge of the sign framing member is located within the projected area of the display sign and is spaced from the base material and the filmic substrate. The display sign is capable of being applied through an opening defined by the inside edge of the sign framing member. The space between the inside edge of the projecting portion and the display sign includes a void.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a sign assembly comprising a base material, for example window glass, a sign framing member, and a sign display which is removable and replaceable.
2. Description of Related Art
Filmic display signs are well known. Self-adhesive film and static cling film window graphics are also known, in which a substrate material, for example a self-adhesive pvc or polyester film, is imaged with a design, such as an information sign or advertisement, and adhered to the surface of a window. Also known are see-through window graphics, for example, according to US RE37,186 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,805 comprising a partially imaged transparent panel allowing through-vision in one or both directions.
A major problem with such self-adhesive signs is that the stronger the adhesive, in terms of initial "tack", the more difficult it is to reposition a sign if it is initially applied in an incorrect position or alignment, for example at a slope to the vertical, or with creases. High long term tensile, shear and peel strength also cause problems in the removal of such signs and are a significant part of the lifetime cost of so-called "space advertisements", "point-of-sale" and other advertisements or signs which are regularly changed. Another inconvenience and cost is caused by adhesive staying on the window after removal of the film, so-called "adhesive transfer." With alternatively available low tack and/or long term low adhesion pressure-sensitive adhesives or static cling films, the signs are easily removable, for example by a vandal wishing to take the sign. For this reason, frames are sometimes adopted to trap the sign against the base material, such as a window, to make unwanted removal more difficult.
Framing systems include so-called sprung clip profiles or sign framing members incorporating a cam profile which reacts again a resilient base material such as a fibre board. These prior art framing systems trap the edges of the imaged substrate and the sign framing members are in direct contact with the display sign. Hinged frames for containing display signs are also known, a rectangular frame assembly being typically hinged along one side of the frame, to enabling opening and insertion of a display sign.
In order to prevent the hinged, sprung or cam profiles being opened by a member of the public, one or more locking devices are typically incorporated. This unlocking, opening, closing and relocking adds to the time and cost of changing a display sign. Also, such mechanical hinged, spring clip or cam framing systems are typically of light construction and easily subject to vandalism, for example forced opening.


A hearing aid which has a casing accommodating one or more second to electric signal converting transducers (11,12) and a signal path from the transducer (11,12) to a receiver which provides a sound signal at the ear of the user. The signal processing is provided in the signal path to ensure a signal amplification/attenuation according to the needs of the user. A battery (6) is accommodated in the casing and a battery lid is arranged with a first side (1) facing the surrounding and a second side (2) facing the interior of the casing whereby the battery lid is operable for replacement of the battery. The battery lid has a recess (3) for receiving at least one sound to electric signal converting transducer (11,12) and a sound transmission path is provided between the first side (1) of the battery lid and the at least one transducer (11, 12).

In the ear (ITE) hearing aids should be as small as possible and inserted as deeply as possible into the ear canal of the user. This is a general wish from the users of hearing aids. Today the limits of miniaturization are reached in that both the battery lid and the microphone must be placed in the faceplate of the shell. The faceplate is the part of the shell facing the surrounding environment, when the hearing aid is placed within the ear canal. In prior art hearing aids the battery lid and the microphone entrance are placed side by side, and therefore both take up space. The object of the invention is to provide a hearing aid, which is as small as possible, and which is insertable deeper into the ear canal than prior art hearing aids.
In behind the ear style hearing aids it is also a wish from the user that they be as small as possible. A further object of the invention is to provide a hearing aid wherein the microphone or microphones are accommodated in a space saving fashion.

Hearing aid with a microphone in the battery compartment lid


An N modular redundancy method, system, and computer program product include a computer-implemented N modular redundancy method for neural networks, the method including selectively replicating the neural network by employing one of checker neural networks and selective N modular redundancy (N-MR) applied only to critical computations.

The present invention relates generally to an N modular redundancy method (where N is an integer greater than 0), and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a system, method, and computer program product for the use of small neural network checkers and selective N modular redundancy (N-MR) applied only to critical computations.
Conventionally, N Modular Redundancy (N-MR) is a fault detection/correction technique that can be applied to generic systems, but also to neural networks (eg., both convolutional and recurrent). N-MR provides a way to improve the resilience of computed systems to run-time faults. N-MR is applied at a level of a complete neural network and not at the level of individual computation.
However, while N-MR can replicate graph(s) (e.g., directed acyclic graphs) to check accuracy, N-MR is often prohibitively expensive as it requires replicating computation by a factor of N either temporally (e.g., through serially repeating computation N times) or spatially (through N redundant hardware units operating in parallel).
Thus, there is a need in the art for a structure of neural networks that allows for N-MR techniques with lower cost.

Reducing the cost of n modular redundancy for neural networks

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


In a tape lead bonding system, lead frames (3) are moved on a tape substrate (2) from a first station, where a first camera (12) takes an image of one half of one lead frame, to the next station, where a second camera (16) takes an image of the second half of the lead frame, while, at the same time, the first half of the next lead frame is being imaged by the first cameras(12). Both images of the particular lead frame (3) are then inspected by an inspection computer (15) before that lead frame reaches a bonding station so that bonding of a semiconductor die (21) to the lead frame (3) can be halted if a defect in the lead frame (3) is found. The system operates at the speed of the bonding unit (22), with out requiring the system to be slowed down to allow a full inspection of each lead frame (3) before the bonding step.

As is known, the lead frame is formed of a plurality of leads extending between an inner lead end for connection to the semiconductor die and an outer lead end for connection to a pin. The inner lead ends are relatively closely spaced together and arranged around the perimeter of a "window", in which the semiconductor die is to be bonded and the outer lead ends are relatively more separated than the inner lead ends so as to facilitate connecting the outer lead ends to individual pins of a semiconductor package.
Although the lead frame is mounted on a tape substrate for ease of handling on an automated manufacturing line, the lead frames are nevertheless somewhat fragile and can easily be damaged so as to have bent or broken leads or foreign matter inserted between the leads. Usually, the die and lead frame are tested after bonding and any such damaged devices can be rejected. But, if the rejection only occurs after the bonding step, then the whole device, including the die, is rejected, even if the fault lies in the lead frame.
Accordingly, it has been proposed to inspect the tips of the inner lead ends prior to bonding. An Inner Lead Bonder (ILB) manufactured by Shinkawa includes a visual inspection system for pre-bonding lead defect detection. The system can be programmed either to inspect all leads (100% inspection) or perform random checking at positions that are chosen manually. The followings steps are used to program the system to operate random checking:
1. Locate a first fiducial mark, i.e. the inner lead frame corner. PA1 2. Locate a second fiducial mark, i.e. the inner lead frame corner at the other side. By using two fiducial marks, the system can handle both translation and rotation of the inner frame under inspection. PA1 3. Learn the first lead group at the chosen region. The lead tip centers are computed at this stage. PA1 4. Repeat step 3 until all required areas are covered. PA1 a tape guide for receiving and guiding a tape substrate having lead frames mounted at intervals therealong; PA1 a first camera for imaging a first portion of a lead frame when the tape substrate is at a first position in the tape guide; PA1 a second camera for imaging a second portion of the lead frame when the tape substrate is at a second position in the tape guide; PA1 at least one lighting unit for lighting the tape substrate at the first and second positions from behind the tape substrate relative to the first and second cameras; PA1 an inspection computer coupled to the first camera to receive a first image of the first portion of the lead frame and coupled to the second camera to receive a second image of the second portion of the lead frame, the inspection computer including an inspection unit for detecting the leads in the first and second images and for generating an alarm signal if it detects broken or bent leads or foreign matter bridging between leads. PA1 a source of tape substrate having lead frames mounted at intervals therealong, the lead frames incorporating leads; PA1 at least one tape guide for receiving and guiding the tape substrate from the source to position adjacent lead frames at first and second stations; PA1 a first camera at the first station for taking a first image of a first portion of a lead frame when the lead frame is at the first station; PA1 a second camera at the second station for taking a second image of a second portion of the lead frame when the lead frame is at the second station; PA1 an inspection computer coupled to the first camera to receive the first image and coupled to the second camera to receive the second image, the inspection computer including an inspection unit for detecting the leads in the first and second images and for generating an alarm signal if it detects broken or bent leads or foreign matter bridging between leads; PA1 a bonding unit at a third station for receiving the lead frames on the tape substrate from the inspection apparatus and for automatically bonding semiconductor dies to the received lead frames, the bonding unit being controlled to stop operation if the inspection computer has generated the alarm signal. PA1 guiding a first lead frame on the tape substrate to a first station having a first camera thereat; PA1 taking a first image of a first portion of the first lead frame using the first camera and transmitting the first image to an inspection computer; PA1 guiding the first lead frame to a second station having a second camera thereat; PA1 taking a second image of a second portion of the first lead frame using the second camera and transmitting the second image to the inspection computer; PA1 inspecting the inner ends of the leads in the first and second images by the inspection computer and generating an alarm signal if broken or bent leads or foreign matter bridging between leads is detected; PA1 guiding the first lead frame to a third station having a bonding unit thereat; and PA1 bonding a semiconductor die to the first lead frame if no alarm signal has been generated by the inspection computer. PA1 overlaying scanlines perpendicular to the inner ends of the leads on each of the first and second images; PA1 detecting whether each of the leads extends over all the required scanlines and generating the alarm signal if not all the leads extend over all the required scanlines; PA1 overlaying scanlines parallel to the leads on each of the first and second images; and PA1 detecting whether any of the scanlines are crossed by the leads or other matter and generating the alarm signal if one or more of the scanlines are crossed.
For 100% inspection, the system will go via all the leads by using the above learning procedures. During operation, the two fiducial marks are first located so that the translation and rotation parameters can be obtained. Then a camera will move to each pre-programmed region using the offset parameters obtained previously. The leads at each inspection region will be found from each local window learned previously. If there is no lead found in the window, it prompts a broken lead defect. If all the leads are found in this region, it then computes the lead spacing between leads in order to detect lead bent defect.
However, this Shinkawa system uses a single camera to image the lead frame from above and inspects the lead frame part-by-part by moving the camera, thus requiring substantial time for a full inspection of each lead frame. Since the visual inspection process is embedded in the whole manufacturing process, utilising the vision system reduces the throughput of the bonding machine by about 40%. Although the Shinkawa system can inspect any part of the inner lead ends, it can only inspect a small region at a time and therefore requires several inspection steps to cover the entire inner lead ends. Furthermore, since the Shinkawa system is designed to inspect only the inner lead ends, defects such as foreign material inserted near the Polyimide Window are ignored. This results in undetected defects in lead frames, which are thus utilised in the die bonding process and incurs unnecessary waste of die.

Method for inspecting lead frames in a tape lead bonding system


A racket handle is provided which includes a handle member and a rod member forming a lower section of the racket frame. The handle member includes an outer pipe member and an inner pipe member defining a longitudinally extending closed annulus. The rod member is insertable within a bore formed by the inner pipe member and extends to a closed section or end of the inner pipe member. An elastic ring is mounted in the annulus between the inner and outer pipe member to absorb vibrational forces.

The present invention relates to a shock absorbing or vibration-proof racket handle.
Prior art racket handles are generally formed of foamed plastic which have not damped vibration effectively. Prior art racket handles with damped vibration capabilities are generally complicated in overall structure. Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a prior art racket handle 50 which is provided for vibration damping and is relatively simply structured. Such prior art racket handles are composed of an elastic ring 51 and a pipe 52. In such systems, the elastic ring 51 is installed within the pipe 52, however, it has been found difficult to assemble the racket handle with such a combined structure.


A semiconductor device comprises a multiple-terminal integrated circuit formed on a substrate. The integrated circuit is formed on the upper surface of the substrate and electrically connected to a plurality of external terminals arranged on an under surface of the substrate. Part of a sealing member is embedded in a plurality of through-holes. The through holes are provided in the substrate to be in the vicinity of the plurality of external terminals. The sealing member seals the upper surface of the substrate, with the integrated circuit formed thereon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device used as a one-sided package device, wherein a multiple-terminal integrated circuit is formed on a circuit substrate, and only one side on which the integrated circuit is formed is sealed by resin.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, there have been developed one-sided package devices wherein an integrated circuit with not less than 200 terminals is formed on a glass epoxy substrate. The circuit is provided on only one side of the substrate, and that side is sealed by resin. These devices can be manufactured at low cost and easily mounted on a mounting substrate.
The conventional one-sided package semiconductor device will now be explained with reference to the plan view of FIG. 1, the under surface view of FIG. 2 and a sectional view taken along III--III line of FIG. 1.
An integrated circuit 3 with many terminals is adhered to an element portion 1a of a glass epoxy resin substrate 1 with paste 2 such as adhesive agent or solder. One side of the substrate, on which the integrated circuit 3 is formed, is sealed by resin 4.
A plurality of electrode pads 3a are provided on the periphery of the integrated circuit 3. The pads 3a are connected to a plurality of conductive paths 1b by metal wires 5, respectively. The element portion 1a surrounds the periphery of the integrated circuit 3 provided on the upper surface of the glass epoxy substrate 1.
The conductive paths 1b are connected to external terminals 6. The terminals 6 are arranged over the periphery and sides of the upper surface of the glass epoxy substrate 1 and the under surface thereof.
For simplicity, an integrated circuit having only a few terminals is exemplified here.
Since a one-sided package device of the above structure requires only a small amount of resin 4 for sealing, it can be manufactured at low cost. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the one-sided package device of this type can be easily mounted on a mounting substrate by means of surface-to-surface mounting. More specifically, it can be manufactured by connecting the external terminals 6 provided on the under surface of the glass epoxy substrate 1 to the conductive paths 11a provided on the mounting substrate 11 by the solder 12. However, this method results in the following disadvantages.
When a one-sided package device is mounted on a mounting substrate 11, heat is usually applied. Here, asymmetry of the one-sided package device causes a difference in heat conduction, often resulting in connection defects 12a of solder 12.
Specifically, the glass epoxy substrate 1 and the resin 4 differ in heat conduction, and the temperature of the substrate 1 increases more slowly than that of the resin 4. Due to this, the temperature difference between them occurs during the mounting of the device.
Consequently, if the temperature of the external terminals 6 does not increase sufficiently, solder-using connections will become unstable.
Additionally, another conventional one-sided package device wherein bump electrodes 7 are provided on the under surface of the glass epoxy substrate 1 to serve as external terminals, is shown in the plan view of FIG. 5, the under surface view of FIG. 6 and the sectional view of FIG. 7 taken along VII--VII line of FIG. 5. The one-sided package device of this type has similar disadvantages to those mentioned before.
Namely, as shown in FIG. 8, in the one-sided package device having the bump electrodes 7 used as external terminals, when the bump electrodes 7 are connected to the conductive paths 11a on the mounting substrate 11 by bump-like solder 13, there often occurs connection defects such as an unconnected portion 13a or a short-circuited portion 13b. Besides, there is a possibility of water ingress to the interface between the sealing member and the substrate.

Semiconductor device having a multiple-terminal integrated circuit formed on a circuit substrate


A pattern segmentation apparatus and a pattern recognition apparatus can improve the segmentation precision of a character touching pattern. The pattern segmentation apparatus includes a feature amount extraction unit for extracting the feature amount of an image, a feature amount setting unit for setting the feature amount of a category, a feature amount comparison unit for comparing the feature amount of the category with the feature amount of the image, and a segmentation unit for segmenting a portion corresponding to the feature amount of the category from the image based on the comparison result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern segmentation apparatus and a pattern recognition apparatus, and more specifically to an application in which a one-character area is to be segmented from a character string image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional character recognizing process, it is necessary to segment a pattern corresponding to a character from a character string image. In this segmenting process, there are three main processes, that is, a labeling process, an overlap integrating process, a vertical integrating process (for horizontal writing), or a horizontal integrating process (for vertical writing). However, when two or more characters touch each other, or when two or more characters are written as incorporated into each other, these characters cannot be correctly segmented. Therefore, in the conventional segmenting process, the following method has been adopted to correctly segment the above described touching characters.
(1) A black pixel projection histogram (vicinal distribution) in the character string direction is generated, and the point of the minimum value is defined as a section point.
(2) The upper and lower outline of a character string is traced, and the point of the minimum value is defined as a section point.
However, some shapes of characters or the touching portions between characters do not indicate the minimum value of the vicinal distribution or the outline of touching points. Therefore, in the conventional method, there has been the problem that characters cannot be correctly sectioned at the touching point.
When the state of an image is not good, and when the image has a number of uneven portions in a pattern, a large number of section points are generated. Therefore, the entire system cannot be free from a bad influence of excess division according to a hypothetic verification.

Pattern segmentation apparatus and pattern recognition apparatus


Variables such as injection pressure and injection velocity are detected at a predetermined sampling cycle for each molding cycle and the variables for a plurality of past molding cycles starting from the latest molding cycle are stored. Change patterns of the stored variables of the respective molding cycles are displayed in the form of graphs in which the first axis represents time (the number of times of sampling), the second axis represents the variable values, and the third axis represents the molding cycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitor for monitoring a state of molding in an injection molding machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
States of various variables such as injecting velocity, injecting pressure, and the like during injection in an injection molding cycle can be regarded as indicators of good or bad of a molding state. Therefore, the various variables during molding are sampled and graphed on a display and molding conditions are adjusted and evaluated and stability of molding is judged based on the graphs. Especially in evaluating the stability of the molding, waveforms are drawn one upon another through a plurality of molding cycles so that how the waveform fluctuates through the respective cycles and cycle-to-cycle variation in the waveform can be grasped.
In order to grasp how the waveform fluctuates and changes through the molding cycles, order of the drawn waveforms of the molding cycles needs to be judged. However, if the waveform graphs are drawn one upon another, the waveforms overlap each other and it becomes difficult to discriminate the changes in waveforms in the molding cycles from each other. Therefore, there is a known method in which the latest waveform graph and preceding waveform graphs are drawn in different colors to discriminate the changes in the waveforms in the molding cycles over time from each other (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-26724, for example).
Moreover, there is also known art in which a shot number (molding cycle number) is designated on a horizontal axis (first axis), an injection start position or an amount of cushion is designated on a vertical axis (second axis), a lot is designated on a third axis, and relative relationships between three kinds of monitoring data are displayed in three dimensions (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-273773, for example).
In order to judge the stability of the molding state, it is preferable that how the various variables change and vary over time in a single molding cycle can be grasped and also that the changes and variations in the variables in the molding cycles can be observed and discriminated from each other. In other words, it is preferable that changing and varying patterns of the respective variables in the single molding cycle can be grasped and that variations and changes in the patterns in the plurality of molding cycles can be discriminated from each other. In the above-described prior-art method described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-26724 in which the molding waveform patterns are displayed in different colors, the latest waveform pattern and the past waveform patterns can be discriminated from each other based on the different colors because they are in different colors. However, the past waveform patterns are in the same color and both the past waveform patterns and the latest waveform pattern are drawn one upon another. Therefore, the waveform patterns overlap each other and it is difficult to discriminate variations, changes, and trends in the variations in the waveform patterns from each other.
In the method described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-273773, the waveform patterns in lots can be compared with each other to grasp differences between the lots. However, it is impossible to grasp how the variable varies and how a waveform pattern varies and changes in a single molding cycle and to judge stability of molding.


A retail method over a wide area network. The wide area network includes a point of sale computer station, a network service provider server operated by a network service provider, a customer computer station used by a customer and connected to the wide area network through the network service provider server, and a transaction server having access to identification information of the network service provider and the point of sale computer station. The method includes the steps of connecting the customer computer station to the point of sale computer station, purchasing goods from the point of sale computer station by the customer, validation of the purchasing by the transaction server and the network service provider server, charging the customer for the purchase. The step of charging includes a transaction including the steps of billing an account of the customer by the network service provider server a transaction sum and billing by the transaction server an account of the network service provider server the transaction sum. The retail method also includes supplying the goods to the customer and remitting a portion of the transaction sum to a vendor operating the point of sale computer station.

The Internet is a worldwide network of interconnected computers and computer networks. The Internet includes Internet service providers (ISPs) who provide Internet access to a large number of subscribers or users who pay the ISP a fee for the access. The subscribers can be individuals or organizations and can access the Internet by connecting to the ISP using modems over the general switched telephony system (GSTN), or cable television networks, or other types of communication line infrastructure. The Internet also includes vendors who advertise products and services over the Internet and solicit orders from users. Commercial transactions over the Internet can be performed in a variety of ways. A preferred way of payment is by credit card. However, because of security reasons there is great reluctance of the users to transmit credit card account information over the Internet. Additionally, in situations were the transaction amount is small, for example, a few dollars or less, it may not be practical for a vendor to use a credit card transaction. PCT international publication No. WO 97/03410 to Egendorf discloses a method for Internet billing. According to which an ISP can bill a billing acount of a customer for products or services purchased from a vendor over the Internet, avoiding the need to communicate the customer's credit card or account number over the Internet. However, the method is limited in that each ISP has to establish agreements with a multiplicity of vendors some of which may not be subscribers of the ISP. Furthermore, each vendor has to establish separate agreements with a multiplicity of ISPs to be able to use the method of WO 97/03410 for performing transactions with customers of different ISPs.


An electronic chef's fork is provided which displays indicia such as food type and degree of doneness for a selected food type and temperature and which includes control areas by which the user of the electronic chef's fork selects the meat type. The operational circuitry of the device allows the user to select among an array of food type options and to thereby designate a degree of doneness for the selected type of food. A prompt message is provided to indicate the degree of doneness attained for the selected food type when the device is inserted into the food.

The invention generally relates to an apparatus and attendant method for determining the extent to which food has been cooked. The invention is designed to indicate when food has been cooked as desired and to prevent overcooking or burning of food products. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved electronic chef's fork which correlates cooking food internal temperature to the extent that the food has been cooked in accordance with a preselected "doneness" value. A message or signal is emitted by the device so as to inform the user that a degree of doneness has been achieved for a particular selected food or meat.
Various food products are of the type which can be prepared or cooked in accordance with taste preferences of the person or persons expected to consume the food item. This is especially prevalent with respect to meat food items. Typical such items include individual cuts of meat, food in the form of steaks, chops, patties, roasts, rolls, racks, portions, and the like. For some such meat products, a selection often is made from multiple different extents of cooking in order to provide foods having different degrees of "doneness". For example, meats such as beef, veal and lamb are traditionally cooked according to taste preferences, including rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done. With other food products, all of these different varieties of doneness usually are not followed or chosen, whether due to tradition or to a concern or perception that certain foods are to be well-cooked.
In the past, food thermometers have been used for indicating the amount that the food product is cooked, referred to herein as its "doneness". Most of these previous food thermometer devices incorporate a probe which is inserted into the food. The probe is in operative communication with a temperature measuring device. In some prior art units, the user must have inserted the probe into the food item prior to, or in the early stages of cooking, particularly when the food is being cooked in an enclosed oven, grill or the like.
Often, many of the prior units incorporate a food thermometer which provides a direct reading of the temperature of the cooking food at the location of the probe. With this approach, the user must be aware of the significance of the temperature insofar as it correlates to the extent of doneness which is desired or required for a particular type of meat, for example.
Other cooking thermometer devices provide an indicator, such as a pop-up element, when a threshold temperature is reached in accordance with a predetermined extent of doneness. This latter approach can be especially useful for food products which are not cooked according to selected doneness levels, but they achieve an accepted doneness level at a single selected temperature. In general, cooking thermometer devices of this type are not adjustable. In addition, typically no means are provided for informing the user whether the "done" signal had just occurred or had occurred previously. In the latter event, the desired degree of doneness could have been far surpassed by the time the user recognizes that the signal had been given. This can result in burning or overcooking of a food product.
Cooking thermometers which only report the temperature require a knowledgeable user and diligent monitoring of temperature changes. Cooking thermometers which provide only a doneness indication function typically are not adjustable and likewise require careful and diligent attention to avoid overcooking so that cooking can be stopped or reduced promptly after the doneness indicator has become evident.

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A microprocessor system integrated on a chip having one or more address generation devices, at least one memory location, and at least one peripheral unit. The address path is divided into two portions having a first logic unit conditioning the address from the one or more address generation devices on the first portion of the address path for gating onto the second portion of the address path. The first logic unit converts a single 16 bit address location into two 8 bit address locations. The first logic unit maintains a first address on the second address path when the CPU is in a next address pipeline mode. A second logic unit selects a memory architecture so that the system can address DRAM units having a various number of rows and/or columns.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a high performance microprocessor architecture and, more particularly to a high performance microprocessor address bus architecture.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a typical prior art address bus architecture 100 which includes a mux 102 to select between an address ADDR.sub.-- CPU, indicated at 104, generated by a CPU (central processing unit-not shown) and an address ADDR.sub.-- DMA, indicated at 106, generated by a DMA (direct memory access device-not shown). A select input 108 from a bus master selects which address is output onto the address bus (ADDR) 110. Also shown are peripherals that are connected to address bus 110. The peripherals include an SCU (a serial communications unit) 112, a DMA (a direct memory access unit) 114, a WDT (watchdog timer) 116, a TMR (a timer unit) 118, and a PMU (power management unit) 120. As is known in the computer art an address contains specific information that "notifies" a targeted peripheral that the peripheral has information that needs to be placed on a data path (not shown) for use by other components in the computer.
The prior art devices, as represented by the device shown in FIG. 1, are adequate for those instances when the memory unit has a given memory architecture, that is, a given number of bits to address a location in the memory. However, when it is desired to address other memory architectures, the prior art devices were unable to address them. As is known in the computer art, memory devices which can be made up of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) in which the address input is made up of a row address and a column address, are manufactured with different architectures. For example, some have a nine bit row address and a nine bit column address, others have a ten bit row address and a ten bit column address, and others could have a ten bit row address and an eleven bit column address. As can be appreciated, the prior art device shown in FIG. 1 could not address any DRAM architecture.
In addition, the prior art devices, represented by the device shown in FIG. 1, are incapable of addressing a different size memory, that is, information or data stored in an eight bit data size memory if the CPU or DMA only generates memory addresses based upon the presumption that the information or data is stored in 16 bit data size memory.
Furthermore, the prior art devices, represented by the device shown in FIG. 1, are incapable of adapting if the CPU is in a next address pipeline addressing mode. The prior art device, for example, would latch the next address to the bus before the memory was ready for it.
What is needed, therefore, is an address bus architecture that is (1) capable of addressing different size DRAM architectures, that is (2) capable of addressing different size memory, for example, eight bit memory locations as well as sixteen bit memory locations, that is (3) capable of handling memory addresses when the CPU is in a next address pipelining mode, and that is (4) capable of testing the core memory independently.
The inventors designed a computer architecture that involved the integration of a 386 core processor with many on-chip peripherals. One of the design goals was for the 386 microprocessor to be able to perform memory cycles at 33 MHz and V.sub.cc =5 volts made in CS22 technology (a technology utilized at the assignee of this application). A second design goal was that the architecture must work with both 8 bit data size and 16 bit data size memories as well as with DRAM memory. The address output from the 386 microprocessor is pipelined in some read/write cycles but in not all cycles. The microprocessor has an input pin called "NA" which acts as a request signal to the microprocessor to pipeline the address outputs for the next read/write cycle.
However, the integrated design did not have an extra pin to make NA available outside the chip. This means that the address outputs of the integrated design could not be pipelined outside the chip even if the microprocessor pipelines the addresses inside the chip. This required logic to be designed in the address output path to accommodate pipelining inside the integrated chip.
In addition, it was required that the integrated chip be able to provide row and column addresses directly to DRAM memory. This required logic needs to be designed in the address output path.
In order to test the core processor memory independently, it is required that the core address outputs be made directly available at pads in testmode (TSTMOD).
To accommodate all of these requirements a special address path design was necessary.
In addition, to achieve the fastest timing, a special scheme was developed to connect the onchip peripherals to different segments of the address path. Decoding addresses to determine if an eight bit or a sixteen bit memory was being addressed needed to be done as early as possible. Therefore, address decode logic was placed closest to the core address outputs. Since the core always executes as if 16 bit data size memory was being addressed, and since it was required for the integrated design to be able to work with 8 bit data size memories, it was necessary for a state machine to be added to create 2 cycles for each core read/write cycle when necessary to address an 8 bit data size memory.
It was also necessary to place the address decode logic for on-chip control registers closest to the core address outputs. This helped to make the control register read/write cycles in the least number of cpu clocks.


A method and system for concurrent data processing, and an integrated circuit having programmable logic therefor, are described. A multi-threaded application is parsed into respective threads. Data value variables, data operators, data processing order of execution, and data result variables are identified from the threads. A code listing is generated associated with each of the threads for the data value variables, the data operators, the data processing order of execution, and the data result variables identified. Source and destination address information is associated with the data value variables and the data result variables. The source and destination address information is ordered to preserve the data processing order of execution. A configuration bitstream is generated for instantiating thread-specific processors in programmable logic, the thread-specific processors associated with the threads each having at least a portion of the data operators.

Programmable logic devices ("PLDs") are a well-known type of integrated circuit that can be programmed to perform specified logic functions. One type of PLD, the field programmable gate array ("FPGA"), typically includes an array of programmable tiles. These programmable tiles can include, for example, input/output blocks ("IOBs"), configurable logic blocks ("CLBs"), dedicated random access memory blocks ("BRAMs"), multipliers, digital signal processing blocks ("DSPs"), processors, clock managers, delay lock loops ("DLLs"), and so forth. Notably, as used herein, "include" and "including" mean including without limitation.
One such FPGA is the Xilinx Virtex® FPGA available from Xilinx, Inc., 2100 Logic Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95124. Another type of PLD is the Complex Programmable Logic Device ("CPLD"). A CPLD includes two or more "function blocks" connected together and to input/output ("I/O") resources by an interconnect switch matrix. Each function block of the CPLD includes a two-level AND/OR structure similar to those used in Programmable Logic Arrays ("PLAs") and Programmable Array Logic ("PAL") devices. Other PLDs are programmed by applying a processing layer, such as a metal layer, that programmably interconnects the various elements on the device. These PLDs are known as mask programmable devices. PLDs can also be implemented in other ways, for example, using fuse or antifuse technology. The terms "PLD" and "programmable logic device" include but are not limited to these exemplary devices, as well as encompassing devices that are only partially programmable.
For purposes of clarity, FPGAs are described below though other types of PLDs may be used. FPGAs may include one or more embedded microprocessors. For example, a microprocessor may be located in an area reserved for it, generally referred to as a "processor block."
A design is conventionally instantiated in programmably configurable circuitry of an FPGA ("FPGA fabric") using a hardware description language ("HDL"). However, implementing a design for concurrent processing using an HDL is a tedious task owing to maintaining a correct order of execution of data processing as data propagates through programmed programmable logic. Accordingly, a more convenient way to implement a user application in an FPGA for concurrent processing is needed.
Others have suggested using multiple microprocessors for concurrent processing. However, microprocessors conventionally are limited to a fixed set of instructions, and thus instructions outside of the fixed set may be slow to execute. Additionally, such microprocessors conventionally have to decode instructions as part of data processing, which slows processing.
Still others have suggested using multi-Application Specific Instruction Processor (ASIP) architectures, such as may be used in network processors. In for an ASIP architecture, a user's code is parsed to identify instructions not part of a set of conventional instructions. The instructions identified are then used to augment the decode logic of a conventional microprocessor to provide the set of conventional instructions with additional customized instructions. Conventionally, network processors use multi-threaded processing units with a customized instruction set and customized memory architectures. However, ASIP architectures are still limited with respect to concurrent processing by limitations of decoding instructions, as well as limited by the number of microprocessors.
To address a more robust programming environment, others have suggested programming in Handel-C to port C programs to FPGA fabric. However, Handel-C is conventionally a language that requires cycle accurate information, where each statement is associated with a single clock cycle. However, programmers may want to write a program listing to merely execute in a sequence without being limited to knowledge of clock cycle accurate information.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and useful to provide means for providing concurrent processing in an FPGA that avoids one or more of the above-mentioned limitations.

Micro-coded processors for concurrent processing in a programmable logic device


A beach bed includes a flexible, thin-walled plane made from synthetic material, e.g. PVC. It is made up of a central part and a peripheral inflatable part separated by means of one or more heat seals, whereby the inflatable part, when inflated, form a boxed-in area around the central part. The inflatable part, when inflated is provided with at least one part that is raised relative to the rest of the inflatable part. With an item of this design it is possible for the user to make himself comfortable on a sandy surface and at the same time prevent sand from blowing on himself and any items he has placed in the central part. Furthermore, a beach towel may be coupled to the beach bed. Moreover, advertising may be printed on the central part of the beach bed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to inflatable items. More particularly, this invention relates to an inflatable beach bed for recreational use.
2. State of the Art
When lying on the beach a beachgoer usually uses a beach towel. The main disadvantage of a beach towel is that a person lying on top of the towel generally comes into contact with blowing sand in a very annoying way. In addition, a beach towel does not always stay in place and may partly become covered in sand.
One alternative is for a beachgoer to use an air mattress to raise himself off the sand and reduce the chance that sand will blow upon him. However, air mattress have several disadvantages for beach use. First, an air mattress usually requires a large amount of air for inflation. Time spent inflating an air mattress is time taken away from the beach experience. In addition, the relatively large inflatable volume of an mattress requires expending a large amount of effort to inflate the air mattress. Second, the air mattress raises the beachgoer off the sand, such that the beachgoer no longer has the desired experience of the feel of the sand beneath him.


A computer network serviced by a maintenance subsystem holds a control processing module (CPM) holding a Data Path Array as interface to a main memory module and I/O Module. A maintenance controller in the CPM has a preloaded Flash Memory unit holding all the necessary operating addresses and data which can be rapidly transferred via a special wide parallel high speed data bus to a data path array unit for subsequent conveyance to a channel microcode block in a main memory module. The operating data include channel microcode data necessary for the I/O Module to communicate with different types of peripheral devices.

A simplified network illustrating a computing system is seen in FIG. 3A which shows the basic elements of a central processing module (CPM) 10, a Main Memory Module 40 and an Input/Output Module 50. These modules are interconnected via a dual system bus structure designated as having two system busses 22a and 22b. These busses are interchangeable system busses and provide parallel redundant transfer paths.
The network of FIG. 3A is seen enhanced with the addition of a Maintenance Subsystem Module 60 which is shown in FIG. 3B. The Maintenance Subsystem Module 60 provides both diagnostic functions to all of the modules in the network but is also required to initialize all the system modules and to "start-up" the system for operation. In FIG. 3B, the Maintenance Subsystem 60 is shown connecting to all of the system modules by means of a dashed line series of connections 64a, 64b and 64c. These connections represent the basic maintenance connections of a JTAG integrity system such as is specified in IEEE 1149.1. The IEEE 1149.1 specification describes an industry standardized type of interface which provides a bit-serial data transfer between the various targeted modules of the network and the Maintenance Subsystem 60.
All the various system modules in the network are setup or "initialized" for system operation through the bit-serial interface lines 64a, 64b, and 64c. This type of interface is a system compromise between cost and performance. It is inexpensive cost-wise, since it is standard and only uses a few wires and since it is a bit-serial data transfer operation.
However, the bit-serial aspect of data transfer also makes it a very slow operation when massive amounts of information must be transferred. However, in many systems this is tolerable because the system initialization does not require an excessive amount of data transfer to most of the interconnecting modules in a network.
In the architecture of FIG. 3B, the case is presented where inordinate and significant time periods are wasted when initialization is effectuated by only using the standard JTAG interface, especially when it is desired to transfer "channel microcode" instructions for the I/O module 50.
One type of central processing module 10 is shown in FIG. 2 connected to a Maintenance Subsystem 60. The Maintenance Subsystem 60 includes a maintenance processor 64 with several peripheral units attached, such as cartridge tapes 61, hard disk 62, and floppy disk 63. These devices can be used to provide the large database information that may be necessary to set-up the system for operation. The serial interface between the Maintenance Subsystem 60 and the central processing module 10 (CPM) is shown on bus lines 60si which connect the maintenance processor 64 from the maintenance subsystem over to the maintenance controller 12 of the CPM module 10.
Also seen in FIG. 2 are the major elements of the processor logic in the CPM 10. These include the processor 14, the Data Path Array 20, the Control PAL 16 and the microcode RAM 18 which holds the instruction codes for the processor 14. It will be seen that the processor 14 can access the major system modules 40 and 50 via the system busses 22a and 22b through the on-card Data Path Array 20. The Data Path Array converts from the on-card high speed processor bus 14b over to the slower inter-module system busses 22a and 22b. The soft, flexible Control PALs 16 is used to provide control of these busses and also the data path array operations.
In FIG. 2, the dashed lines are used to show the on-card versions of the serial JTAG connections which are indicated as 12p, 12c and 12d. Once initialization of a system has been completed in FIG. 2, these JTAG connection lines are no longer essentially used.
Another view of the computer network is illustrated in FIG. 3C where the Input/Output Module 50 is seen to have a dedicated unit for Channel Adapters 50ca and where the main system memory module 40 is seen to have a dedicated section 40cm. for holding the channel microcode designated 40cm. The Input/Output Modules 50 connect to various peripherals and are under control of the Channel Adapters 50ca which provide the appropriate protocol and timing for communication purposes.
The channel microcode unit 40cm of FIG. 3C is a dedicated repository for channel microcode instructions which enables the Channel Adapters 50ca of the Input/Output Module 50 to control and communicate data transfers between I/O module 50 and the peripherals 70.
For efficiency of design and of production, it is most desirable to make as few types of unique hardware units as possible, that is to say, it is optimum to use identical hardware to accomplish many different tasks. Thus, the I/O module 50, although it must interface with many different types of peripheral devices 70 (for example, SCSI disks, tapes, printers, etc.) may optimally use identical or very similar hardware to accomplish this. Each type I/O device (peripheral) is interfaced with its own individual Channel Adapter 50ca. These channel adapters which are used are essentially identical hardware. Then to allow each adapter to properly interface to the different peripheral units, there is required device protocols, there is required a unique "driver" software using the "channel microcode" to run each of the channel adapters 50ca.
At the original system initialization time period, the Maintenance Subsystem 60 is sensitive to the system I/O device configurations and connections. Because of this, it must load the appropriate "channel microcode" into the appropriate locations in Main Memory 40, shown as unit area 40cm in FIG. 3C. When the I/O module 50 is initialized and running, it will then access the appropriate devices "channel microcode" from the unit 40cm of the main system memory 40, and then bring this into the Channel Adapters 50ca for normal system operation.
The power of having "soft" microcode routines is useful in that somewhat standardized I/O hardware can be used to implement numerous varied types of I/O device connectivity. This flexibility comes at the cost of having to load up (Write) the channel microcode into the dedicated channel microcode unit 40cm of Main Memory 40 and this must be done each time that the system is initialized.
Now, such systems, as indicated in FIG. 3C, are essentially shown in loading the channel microcode since it was normally done through the JTAG bus 60si which has various sub-bus lines 64a, 64b, and 64c. The presently described system will be seen to function to eliminate the long time periods necessary to transfer microcode information from the Maintenance Subsystem 60 to the main system memory 40.
Earlier architectures and systems were very inefficient in regard to the loading of channel microcode such as seen in FIG. 3C. If the logic and architecture were implemented only as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3C, then it would still be possible to provide for the necessary writing of channel microcode into Main Memory 40. But however, there would be a quite significant delay, even to the extent of several minutes, for each individual occasion that the system was initialized. Thus, in the systems of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3C, it could be remarked that there were two levels (i) (ii) of inefficiency in regard to the loading up and writing in of channel microcode into the Main Memory Module 40.

Fast write initialization method and system for loading channel adapter microcode


In one general aspect, a method can include obtaining, by a computing device, a lid accelerometer vector for a lid accelerometer included in a lid portion of the computing device, and obtaining, by the computing device, a base accelerometer vector for a base accelerometer included in a base portion of the computing device. The method can include calculating a value for a lid angle based on the lid accelerometer vector and the base accelerometer vector, and identifying an operating mode for the computing device based on the calculated value of the lid angle, the operating mode being one of a laptop mode and a tablet mode.

A user can interact with a computing device in multiple ways. For example, the computing device can be a laptop or notebook computer that can include a lid and a base. The lid may include a display (which can be a touchscreen). The base may include one or more of, for example, a keyboard, a pointing stick, mouse buttons, a touchpad, and/or a trackpad.
A user of the computing device can interact with one or more of the input devices when providing input to and/or otherwise controlling the operation of an application running on the computing device. For example, the user may interact with the computing device by making direct contact with (e.g., touching with one or more fingers) the touchscreen. The computing device may be capable of being placed/transformed into multiple different positions or configurations. For example, the computing device may be configured to operate in a closed position, an open position, a tablet position, a tent position, or a laptop position. The user may interact with the computing device when it is placed in each of these positions or configurations. In some cases, the configuration or position of the computing device can be determined. A user interface for the computing device may be customized or modified based on the determined configuration of the computing device, making user interactions with the computing device a more pleasurable experience.

Detecting an operating mode of a computing device using accelerometers


The pigment dispersion composition having a good dispersibility, a good transparence and an anti-coating properties, which contains 0.5 to 50 parts by weight of an inorganic pigment, at least one type of dispersant selected from the group consisting of a sodium salt, an ammonium salt and an amine salt of an acrylic resin, an acryl copolymer resin, a polycarbonic acid, a condensation product of aromatic formalin sulfonate, and water or a solvent miscible with water.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pigment dispersion composition having a good dispersibility and a good transparence, with such excellent anti-coating properties that the composition does not have an adverse influence on other materials, i.e. soaking into other coatings. The present invention further discloses a display apparatus such as a cathode ray tube and a method of manufacturing the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A color cathode ray tube is an example of a display apparatus for displaying an image by using emitting light from a phosphor layer. Conventionally, various methods for improving the contrast or color purity of such a display device have been proposed.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publications Nos. 48-17263, 52-63060 and 64-7457 each disclose a method in which a pigment layer having the same color as that of the emitting color from the phosphor layer is provided between the face plate and the phosphor layer.
Further, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 52-77578 discloses a method of forming a pigment layer by adding a pigment into a pre-coating solution before the phosphor layer is applied. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publications Nos. 53-69577 and 56-160746 each mention a method of embedding phosphor particles into a pigment layer which was made sticky.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 53-65654 discloses that a phosphor screen is formed by forming a pigment layer containing a binder in the inner surface of a panel and then applying a phosphor suspension containing a photo-sensitive binder on the pigment layer, thereafter exposing the suspension to light and developing.
However, the above-described methods entail the below-described drawbacks, and therefore it is difficult to actually employ such a phosphor film having a pigment filter layer. First, the transparence of the pigment layer is insufficient, and the performance of the filter is poor, thus making it not possible to achieve good contrast properties. Second, the method involves a limited condition for work, and therefore defect-free filter layers cannot be constantly obtained.
According to the method of manufacturing a phosphor screen disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 64-7457, the pigment layer is formed by the slurry method, and after a while, the phosphor layer is formed by further using the slurry method. As a result, the number of the steps involved is twice as many as a general method, and the production cost is increased.

Pigment dispersion composition, display apparatus, and method of manufacturing the apparatus


The oxygen generation composition utilizes a catalyst selected from the group consisting of copper oxide, nickel oxide, and mixtures thereof, to catalyze the reaction or a chlorate or perchlorate based oxygen generating composition, smooth oxygen generation, improve the rheology of an operating chemical oxygen candle, and to facilitate the mixing of the candle ingredients. The oxygen generation composition typically comprises about a metal powder as a fuel; a catalyst selected from the group consisting of copper oxide, nickel oxide, and mixtures thereof; an additive as a chlorine remover and reaction rate modifier; and an oxygen source selected from the group consisting of alkali metal chlorates, alkali metal perchlorates, and mixtures thereof. The oxygen generating composition can optionally further include a binder.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to oxygen generating compositions, and more particularly concerns improved oxygen generation compositions containing a catalyst selected from copper oxide, nickel oxide, and a combination thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Chemical oxygen generating compositions based upon the decomposition of alkali metal chlorates or perchlorates have long been used as an emergency source of breathable oxygen, such as in passenger aircraft, for example. Oxygen generating compositions utilizing alkali metal chlorates or perchlorates are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,198,147; 5,279,761; and 5,298,187; each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
A typical chemical oxygen generating candle may have several layers with different compositions and thus different reaction rates. Multiple layers are used in the candle instead of a single formula to help match the oxygen generation requirements, which vary with time as an airplane descends following a loss of cabin pressure. Different applications have different oxygen generation requirements. The candle typically has a generally cylindrical shape with a taper, with a recess at one end to hold an ignition pellet, which is typically ignited by firing a primer. The heat from the ignition pellet then ignites the reaction of the candle body and generates oxygen.
An aircraft oxygen generator is commonly preprogrammed according to the descent profile of a given type of airplane, and must meet the minimum oxygen flow requirement at all times during a descent. A conventional formulation of the oxygen generating composition generally can include an oxygen source such as a chlorate or perchlorate, a metal powder fuel such as iron powder, and cobalt oxide as a catalyst. Cobalt oxide has a very high catalytic activity in the decomposition of sodium chlorate, so that only a small amount of cobalt oxide (typically as low as 0.1%) is necessary to catalyze the decomposition of sodium chlorate. Such small amounts of the catalyst are difficult to uniformly distribute in a mixture of such an oxygen generating composition, so that an uneven distribution of cobalt oxide can result in variations in reactivity from core to core, and can result in low yields of satisfactory oxygen generating candles or cores. Oxygen generating compositions formulated with cobalt oxide and an inhibitor such as calcium hydroxide can have localized regions having a high cobalt oxide concentration and a low calcium hydroxide concentration occur due to imperfect mixing, with a far higher decomposition rate than other localized regions with a low cobalt oxide and a high calcium hydroxide concentration, leading to erratic and unpredictable performance.
Prolonged mixing is typically used to reduce irregularities in the distribution of the ingredients in cobalt oxide based oxygen generating compositions, increasing the difficulty in manufacturing and increasing manufacturing costs. However, loss of cobalt oxide in the mixer container such as on the mixer walls during preparation of core mixtures can also occur, resulting in performance variations from lot to lot. In addition, cobalt is a strategic metal, and is expensive.
Oxygen generating compositions utilizing manganese oxide as a catalyst for decomposition of chlorate or perchlorate to generate oxygen are known. However, use of manganese oxide as a catalyst produces a high concentration of chlorine in the oxygen gas released. A ferrate catalyzed formulation is also known, which also utilizes barium peroxide to modify the reaction. However, barium peroxide is toxic, and disposal of expended and scrap oxygen generators containing barium peroxide is expensive. It would be desirable to provide an improved oxygen generating formulation in which a uniformity of distribution of ingredients is easier to achieve, which will produce a greater uniformity of performance, and is easier to manufacture than conventional formulations. The present invention meets these needs.

Oxygen generating compositions catalyzed by copper and nickel oxides


Methods of using thiazolidine derivatives of formula (I) to treat cancer, inflammation, or other disorders related to the activities of protein phosphatases PTPN12 or PTPN2 in a mammal are disclosed. Pharmaceutical compositions containing such derivatives are disclosed

Protein tyrosine phosphorylation is an important mechanism for transmitting extracellular stimuli in biochemical and cellular events such as cell attachment, mitogenesis, differentiation and migration (see e.g., Li, Liwu et al., Seminars in Immunology (2000), Vol. 12, pp. 75-84, and Neel, B. G. et al., Current Opinion in Cell Biology (1997), Vol. 9, pp. 193-204). Kinases and phosphatases are enzymes that help regulate many cellular activities, particularly signaling from the cell membrane to the nucleus to initiate the cell's entrance into the cell cycle and to control other functions.
Phosphorylation is important in signal transduction mediated by receptors via extracellular biological signals such as growth factors or hormones. For example, many oncogenes are kinases or phosphatases, i.e. enzymes that catalyze protein phosphorylation or dephosphorylation reactions or are specifically regulated by phosphorylation. In addition, a kinase or phosphatase can have its activity regulated by one or more distinct kinase or phosphatases, resulting in specific signaling cascades.
All protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) have a conserved catalytic domain characterized by a signature sequence (I/V) HCXXGXX(S/T) (SEQ ID NO: 1). Biochemical and kinetic studies have demonstrated that the cysteine residue found in this signature sequence is essential for catalytic activity of PTPs since this mutation of this cysteine completely abolishes PTP activity. See, Flint, A. J., etal., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 94 (1997), pp. 1680-1685.

Methods of using thiazolidine derivatives to treat cancer or inflammation


The spool comprises, on the one hand, a working part presenting, projecting on a side element, a winding sleeve and a drive hub joined together by an annular part sectioned in S form and contractable, on the other hand, a transparent part presenting, projecting on a side element, annular elements joined together by a part sectioned as a square and likewise contractable; welds are provided between these parts and made in order not to disturb the geometry of the spool.

A spool of this type is described in French Patent No. 2 147 473 and its corresponding United Kingdom Patent GB 1393607. It comprises only two parts made of moulded plastics material: an opaque one which is intended to support, alone, the tape during high-speed winding and unwinding thereof and the other, transparent, which is intended to be fixed in very supple manner in the first.
The opaque part is designed and produced to be very resistant. Firstly, the plastics material constituting it is reinforced with glass fibers. Secondly, its particular monolithic structure is, in principle, undeformable; in fact, this opaque part comprises a side element integral with a winding sleeve and a drive hub via a massive part. In this part are formed housings in which penetrate fingers integral with the transparent side element. The massive part then comprises very thick elements constituted by two rings joining an intermediate sleeve to the winding sleeve and to the drive hub, respectively. This massive part is very rigid and its rigidity is increased by ribs located between said housings and in particular joining the two sleeves together.
Consequently, the opaque part is very rigid and should be capable of supporting the efforts which stress it without deformation of the winding sleeve and without even partial transmission of these efforts to the drive hub which should therefore not be deformed.
In fact, the winding is slightly deformed when the magnetic tape is wound and this results in the magnetic tape pad not being geometrically perfect in that its side faces are not strictly plane and the tape floats laterally by a short measure during its advance, which disturbs the quality of the recording and the restitution of the signals. This also results in the disymmetrical contraction of the winding sleeve being accompanied by a tightening of the drive hub on the driving pin, rendering dismantling of the spool, not smooth and easy, but difficult due to the wedging.
These shortcomings occur even though the deformation of the winding sleeve is in fact very slight.
In order to avoid them, the step to be taken has always been the same: rigidify and reinforce the resistance of the central part of the spool. In this way, three-part spools made of plastics material employ a box structure in which the two lateral parts cooperate with an intermediate part.
This structure should, in principle, be satisfactory but, in practice, presents the same defect, even though it is attenuated.
In the two-part spool, the transparent side element comprises, on the one hand, projecting fingers penetrating in the housings in the opaque working part and, on the other hand, a central tubular sleeve of short height fitted around the drive hub. Free spaces are provided between the transparent fingers and the opaque sleeves as well as between the central transparent sleeve and the drive hub. Assembly of the two parts is obtained by depositing, before assembly, an adhesive which remains supple upon use, which replaces said spaces; consequently, the transparent part does not participate in the resistance of the opaque part.
On the contrary, in the three-part spool, assembly is effected by ultrasonic welding. Experience has shown that it is extremely difficult to effect such welding, as it is associated with the control of the clearance between the parts to be joined, which clearance is difficult to master due to the large number of identical moulds which are necessary to mass-produce the spools. Moreover, it is virtually impossible to render compatible any one of the moulds for manufacturing one part with any one of the moulds for manufacturing the second part and with any one of the moulds for manufacturing the third part, without having to make frequent adjustments or having to use specific assembly tools.
Under these conditions, either the clearance is too great and the relative positioning of the parts of the spool is defective, or the clearance is insufficient and the geometrical quality of the tape pad is doubtful, the transparent part not being able to vibrate freely.
It is an object of the present invention to design and produce a two-part spool so that all the difficulties of moulding and assembly are transferred to the opaque part and the resistance of the spool is ensured essentially by the opaque part virtually without the participation of the transparent part.
In this perspective, the present invention adopts a step contrary to the teaching of the prior art: it waives constituting a box structure between the winding sleeve and the drive hub, with or without the transparent part. Despite that, the invention aims at improving the quality of the tape pad of the two-part spool and at preventing the drive hub from contracting upon use, ensuring on the working part, between the winding sleeve and the drive hub, a supple connection thanks to which the sleeve may contract, but whilst conserving its cylindrical nature, whilst the hub must not deform at all, and concomitantly ensuring on the transparent part, between its inner projecting elements, a likewise supple connection thanks to which the above-mentioned mode of deformation of the working part is not disturbed but, on the contrary, corrected; it is not a question of a participation in the resistance but of a correction to the second degree of a possible lateral deformation of the supple connection of the opaque part. The purpose mentioned above is also attained by connecting the drive hub to the rest of the spool by means assimilable to a median semi-articulation and by placing between the two parts two ultrasonic welding beads under conditions such that the cylindrical nature of the tape pad is not affected and that the geometry of the spool as a whole is not disturbed.
Furthermore, the invention aims at the flatness of the side element of the opaque part being perfectly ensured and stabilized upon use in that the moulding of the central part of said opaque part and the winding of the magnetic tape must not influence nor disturb the flatness of said side element.


A foamed polyolefin sheet is formed by extruding a molten polyolefin resin, which contains a blowing agent, into a low-pressure zone through an annular die provided at an end of the extruder to form a foamed tubular body, bringing the foamed tubular body into contact with a peripheral surface of a cylindrical cooling device to cool the foamed tubular body and then slitting the thus-cooled foamed tubular body and then slitting the thus-cooled foamed tubular body in the direction of extrusion to open same. The cylindrical cooling device is divided into an upstream section and at least one other spaced downstream sections. The internal pressure of the foamed tubular body is increased to from about 5.times.10.sup.-4 to 3.times.10.sup.-2 kg/cm.sup.2 (G) between the die and the upstream section of the cylindrical cooling device and also between at least two adjacent sections of the cylindrical cooling device to apply tension to the foamed tubular body at the inner wall and prevent the formation of corrugations.

1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the production of a foamed polyolefin sheet.
2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, foamed polyolefin sheets have each been produced by extruding a polyolefin resin, which contains a blowing agent, into a low-pressure zone through an annular die provided at an end of an extruder to form a foamed tubular body, bringing the foamed tubular body into contact with a peripheral surface of a cylindrical cooling device to cool the foamed tubular body and then slitting the thus-cooled foamed tubular body in the direction of extrusion to open same. In this conventional process, it is however difficult to increase the ratio (blow ratio) of the diameter of the annular die to the diameter of the cylindrical cooling device because the extensibility of the extruded foamed tubular body drops abruptly. When the blow ratio is small, the foamed tubular body cannot be extended sufficiently. As a result, corrugations occur in the resulting foamed sheet, resulting in problems such that these corrugations deteriorate the external appearance of the product, lower the accuracy upon cutting the sheet and also reduce the accuracy of bonding namely, form portions having good strength and those having poor strength when employed for lamination. It is preferred that a blowing agent employed for the production of such foamed sheets is inexpensive. Economical butane is suitable from this standpoint. The use of a blowing agent having a high foaming speed, like butane, is accompanied by the problem that the occurrence of corrugations becomes particularly remarkable. It has therefore been desired to develop a process which can provide foamed polyolefin sheets, which contain less corrugations, by using an inexpensive blowing agent such as butane.

Process for the production of foamed polyolefin sheets


A method for putting a glass plate to a target position includes (a) putting the glass plate at a preliminary position above an air table that discharges air upwardly, by moving a suction member that supports the glass plate through suction; (b) releasing suction of the suction member, while air is discharged upwardly from the air table, thereby floating the glass plate at the preliminary position above the air table; and (c) moving a pressing member in a horizontal direction, while the pressing member is in abutment with a top surface of the glass plate and while air is discharged upwardly from the air table, thereby moving the glass plate in the horizontal direction from the preliminary position above the air table to the target position above the air table by a frictional force generated between the pressing member and the glass plate.

The present invention relates to a system for putting plate members (e.g., glass plates) to target positions, particularly to a system for automatically supplying glass plates (standing in a pallet) one by one with high speed into a bending furnace (equipped with hearth beds) in the production of curved glass plates for vehicular and industrial uses.
In the case of bending window glasses for vehicles such as automobiles, it is possible to use various bending methods depending on dimensions and shapes of glass plates. In particular, in the case of producing automotive side window glasses, it is common to use a bending furnace with hearth beds due to its very high productivity.
It is necessary to supply glass plates into such bending furnace by taking a first glass plate positioned at the forefront of glass plates standing in a pallet etc. and then by putting the first glass plate on a conveyor table in a manner to bring the first glass plate into abutment with flights (positioning guides), which are fixed to and driven by a conveyor chain. With this, the first glass plate floating over the conveyor table is guided into the bending furnace by the flights.
Due to very high productivity of a bending furnace with hearth beds, it is necessary to supply glass plates one by one with high speed into the bending furnace, too. This, however, involves some difficulties. For example, when a first glass plate positioned at the forefront of glass plates standing in a pallet etc. is taken with high speed, a second glass plate next to the first glass plate may also be pulled by the first glass plate, due to a temporary reduced pressure between the first and second glass plates. This phenomena "blocking" must be suppressed in order to achieve a high-speed supply of glass plates one by one into the bending furnace. Furthermore, it is necessary to conduct positioning of each glass plate in order to accurately bring each glass plate into abutment with flights.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-7-61597 discloses an apparatus for transferring glass plates (standing in a pallet) one by one. This apparatus is equipped with a mechanism for removing each interleaf paper between two glass plates.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-11-35150 discloses an apparatus for taking glass plates one by one to safely introduce glass plates into a glass cutting machine, etc.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-2000-296435 discloses a method for positioning glass plates with shapes other than rectangle.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-6-247594 discloses an apparatus for positioning glass plates with shapes other than rectangle.
Japanese Utility Model Publication JP-U-5-82941 discloses an apparatus for transferring glass plates one by one. This apparatus has a frame, suction cups formed on the frame, and a reference sensor and two additional sensors. These three sensors are disposed at three apexes of a triangle and serve to adjust the angle of the frame relative to a glass plate that is positioned at the forefront of the glass plates.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-2-43143 discloses a robotic suction hand for transferring plate members one by one by applying suction.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-7-315570 discloses an apparatus for separating a first glass plate at the top of a pile of glass plates from a second glass plate next to the first glass plate by ejecting compressed air.

System for putting glass plates to target positions


A processor receives a signal and determines whether an application has registered a signal handler therewith for handling the signal. In response to determining that the application has registered the signal handler, the processor transmits the signal directly to the signal handler of the application for handling the signal, without an operating system in relation to which the trusted application is running intervening. In response to determining that the trusted application has not registered the signal handler, the processor transmits the signal to a signal handler of the operating system for handling the signal.

Signals within computing systems are generated by, communicated between, and handled by (i.e., processed by) multiple different software and hardware components. Hardware or software may generate the signals. The signals may be transmitted to appropriate software handlers in one type of memory, such as kernel space, and then transmitted to other software handlers in another type of memory, such as user space. The former and latter software handlers may communicate back and forth multiple times to handle some types of signals. Signals can include hardware-generated exceptions and interrupts, as well as software-generated interrupts.

Application-level signal handling and application-level memory protection

International Business Machines Corporation


A disposable hyperbaric oxygen chamber which is constructed of a flexible, thin-walled, polyethylene plastic bag which is of sufficient size to permit the entry of almost the entire body of an animal, most frequently that of a human, within the bag. The mouth of the bag is pleated so that the pleats can be bunched together into localized bulges to concentrate the volume of oxygen over the area of a wound such as a skin ulcer, lesion or injury. The wall of the bag includes at least one gas supply connector for connecting with a gas supply tube. The wall of the bag also includes a drain connector which is to be connected to a drain tube for removing of accumulated liquid within the internal chamber. The wall of the bag also includes at least one hand access opening which includes a thin-walled tubular glove member with this tubular glove member being locatable exteriorly of the wall of the bag or interiorly of the wall within the internal chamber. The caregiver's hand is to be connectable with the tubular glove member, and when the tubular glove member is located within the internal chamber of the bag, manual operations can be performed directly onto the body of the patient without breaking of the airtight environment of the internal chamber.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hyperbaric chamber and more particularly to a hyperbaric chamber for topically applied gas which includes oxygen which is portable and disposable and is designed to be used in connection with the torso and two or more limbs of an animal, such as a human body, creating a sealed environment for the application of oxygen containing gas to hasten healing of wounds such as skin ulcers, lesions and injuries on a patient's body.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Hyperbaric oxygen chambers have long been known. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers are for the purpose of introducing of pressurized oxygen into an encapsulated environment with this oxygen to promote the healing of various types of wounds. Specifically, it has been discovered that the treatment of wounds within an hyperbaric oxygen chamber promotes healing and suppresses bacterial infection.
When hyperbaric oxygen chambers were first introduced, such took the form of a rigid, heavy structure resembling an iron lung. The entire body of the patient, up to the neck of the patient, was placed within the chamber. One of the disadvantages of this type of hyperbaric oxygen chamber is that the patient had to be moved to the chamber. Also, because of the size and weight of the hyperbaric oxygen chamber, this type of hyperbaric oxygen chamber was quite expensive and therefore a typical hospital may only have one or two such chambers making it difficult to find the time to use the chamber(s) in conjunction with many different patients. Additionally, because of the possibility of transferred infection from one patient to another, time and effort had to be expended to clean the chamber between uses. All in all, such "iron lung" type of hyperbaric oxygen chambers were not convenient.
As time progressed, hyperbaric oxygen chambers became more sophisticated resulting in the production of a portable hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Not only was the hyperbaric oxygen chamber portable, it was inexpensive permitting the hyperbaric oxygen chamber to be disposed of after usage. These more sophisticated hyperbaric oxygen chambers came in various sizes some of which could basically encapsulate the entire torso of the patient or smaller versions of the chamber which would be used to encapsulate only small portions of the torso, such as an arm or a leg. However, the portable hyperbaric oxygen chambers of the prior art had certain shortcomings. One of the shortcomings is that it is important that the portable hyperbaric oxygen chamber assume a very loose fit around the patient's body so that a substantial volume of oxygen will be subjected to the wound. A close fit of the chamber to the body is undesirable. Many of the portable hyperbaric oxygen chambers of the prior art failed to adequately provide this type of loose fit.
Another shortcoming had to do with the connection of the gas supply tube to the chamber which may consist of a plastic bag. Frequently, the gas supply tube would have a tendency to kink right at the connection with the portable chamber which most often comprises a flexible thin-walled plastic bag. This kinking would result in diminishing or completely shutting off of the supply of gas into the internal chamber of the bag. In order for the hyperbaric chamber to work satisfactorily, a constant continuous supply of gas is required.
Another shortcoming of the prior art hyperbaric oxygen chambers is that at times a patient may be located in the chamber for a period of several hours, and this patient may even be unconscious. The patient may urinate. The prior art types of hyperbaric oxygen chambers were not constructed in a manner to facilitate the removal of the urine.
Another shortcoming of the prior art hyperbaric chambers is that there was no way to perform any kind of manual procedure on the patient through the wall of the chamber (bag). For example, sometimes it is necessary to move the patient or move a particular portion of the patient's anatomy from one location to another. Also, at times it is desirable to do some massaging to a particular area of the patient's body. Satisfactory contact with the patient's body is usually not possible with the prior art type of portable hyperbaric oxygen chambers because the wall thickness of the chamber is too great to facilitate manual procedures.
Another shortcoming is the lack of maintenance of the intrachamber pressures at a narrow range necessary for healing of skin ulcers, lesions and injuries. In order to maximize the growth of new blood vessels within the wound and retard the excessive formation of scar tissue, the pressures within the hyperbaric oxygen chamber must be maintained at all times within a narrow window of pressures within the chamber. Such a narrow "window" of pressure maintenance is not known in the prior art.

Shape-adaptable topical hyperbaric oxygen chamber