A position-control stage system is disclosed, which is enhanced in prolusion to turn a turntable relatively to a bed through a bearing and also improved in operating performances including high-speed traveling and high response, even with made as small as allowed in diametral dimension. To this end, a motor includes a primary side having armature windings lying on a circular flat surface of a first retainer member secured to the bed, and a secondary side having a field magnet secured on the turntable. The bearing has an outer race held in place with combination of the bed and the first retainer member, and an inner race held in place with combination of the turntable and a second retainer member.

In recent years, position-control stage systems have been needed to be compact or slim in construction and able to operate with high speed and high response to make sure of high speed movement and accurate position control so as to meet anticipated design requirements in extensively increased fields including semiconductor industries, and the like.
The prior position-control stage system is in general provided therein with an onboard permanent-magnet motor that is comprised of a primary side having armature windings and a secondary side having field magnets, the armature windings being made of three-phase coreless windings wound in annular flat configuration and arranged on a stationary bed in juxtaposition with one another along a circular pattern of a preselected radius of curvature in a way each of which is oriented in a radial direction of the circular pattern. The prior position-control stage system constructed as stated earlier is envisaged making it easier to extend largely an angular movement in circular direction for position control, rendering the position-control stage system itself compact or slim in construction, allowing the position-control stage system to work with high precision in clean environment and further produce the stage system with inexpensive cost. An example of the prior position-control stage systems as stated earlier is disclosed in, for example Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-72960 in which there is installed an onboard motor made up of the primary side having armature windings and the secondary side having field magnets. The armature windings are made of three-phase coreless windings wound in annular flat configuration. The armature windings are arranged on a stationary bed in juxtaposition with one another along a circular pattern of a preselected radius of curvature in a way each of which is oriented in a radial direction of the circular pattern. Magnet segments to provide a field magnet are each made in a rectangular shape. The magnet segments are oriented in radial direction respectively and disposed on a turntable in opposition to the armature windings in a way alternating in polarity circularly.
Disclosed in for example Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-328191 is a stage system with an onboard linear motor, in which just tiny angular position-control may be performed by virtue of the linear motor. The prior stage system is made smaller in construction as well as reduced in the overall height and also improved in response to high-speed operation. The prior stage system is comprised of a first stage lying on a base stage for linear movement in an X-direction relatively to the base stage, a second stage lying on the first stage for linear movement relatively to the first stage in a Y-direction, a turning stage supported on the second stage through a rolling-contact bearing, and a linear motor causing the turning stage to move angularly towards any desired position over a tiny angle in circular direction.
Another Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H05-91710, moreover, disclosed a motor for swinging motion, which is comprised of even permanent-magnet segments for field magnet positioned in a circular direction at regular intervals in a way alternating in polarity circularly around a rotating axis, and armature windings equal in number with the poles of the permanent-magnet segments and lying in opposition to the permanent-magnet segments. Either of the permanent-magnet segments and the armature windings serves as the stator while the other is the rotor in a construction that a yoke is always set on the side of the stator. Moreover, the armature windings to create the propulsion are made equivalent in number in conformity with the number of the permanent-magnet segments for the field magnet to make the motor simple in construction. More specially, the number of the armature windings is selected to an even number as small as allowed so long as ensuring the desired propulsion.
The prior position-control stage systems constructed as stated earlier, although but having been made measurably compact in construction, nevertheless, are thought to still remain even larger in size. With these prior position-control stage systems constructed as stated earlier, moreover, the armature windings are made in annular rectangle in configuration while many magnet segments for the field magnet are also made rectangular in shape in order for the manufacturers to utilize versatile components for the linear motors in other linear motion guide units in favor of the stage systems inexpensive in production cost. That is to say, the prior position-control stage systems recited above have required many armature windings for the armature assembly and many magnet segments for the field magnet to generate propulsion desired to turn the turntable. The armature windings and the magnet segments have been both positioned in circular direction. This circular construction of the armature windings and the magnet segments results in rendering the stage systems large or bulky in contour or in outside diameter thereof. Thus, it remains a major challenge to make the position-control stage system much smaller in construction, even with enhancing propulsion desired to turn a turntable. Moreover, the motor for swinging motion constructed as recited earlier, because of envisaged making position control of the magnetic head in the magnetic disc unit, would be unfit in construction for the stage system to control the workpiece, mounted on the stage system, in circular position.


A semiconductor device has an active region composed of a group III–V nitride semiconductor and ohmic electrodes and a gate electrode each formed on the active region. The active region has an entire surface thereof exposed to a plasma such that a surface potential for electrons therein is lower than in the case where the entire surface is not exposed to the plasma.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device composed of a group III–V nitride semiconductor represented by a general formula (InXAl1-X)YGa1−YN (where 0≦X ≦1 and 0≦Y≦1 are satisfied) and to a method for fabricating the same.
A group III–V nitride semiconductor such as GaN, AlGaN, InGaN, or InAlGaN, i.e., a so-called gallium nitride-based semiconductor is an important semiconductor for an optical device having a short oscillating wavelength such as a semiconductor laser device outputting, e.g., a blue laser beam. The applications of the gallium nitride-based semiconductor are not limited to the optical device. In recent years, attention has been focused on the gallium nitride-based semiconductor for its high dielectric breakdown field strength, high thermal conductivity, and high electron saturation velocity so that gallium nitride-based semiconductor is considered to be promising also as the material of an RF power device.
In an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction structure composed of aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) and gallium nitride (GaN) which are stacked in layers, in particular, electrons are accumulated at a high density in the vicinity of the heterojunction interface between AlGaN and GaN to form a so-called two-dimensional electron gas. The two-dimensional electron gas exhibits a high mobility since it exists spatially separated from a donor impurity used to dope AlGaN. Therefore, the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction structure achieves the effect of reducing a source resistance component when used in a field effect transistor (FET).
Since the distance d from a gate electrode to the two-dimensional gas is normally as small as several tens of nanometers, a ratio Lg/d between a gate length Lg and the distance d, which is termed an aspect ratio, can be held at a large value of 5 to 10 even if the gate length Lg is as small as about 100 nm. Hence, the use of the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction structure offers an advantage of easy fabrication of a FET with a reduced short channel effect and an excellent saturation characteristic.
The electron velocity of a two-dimensional electron in a high-field region of about 1×105 V/cm in the AlGaN/GaN-based heterojunction structure is double or more the electron velocity thereof in a gallium arsenide-based (GaAs-based) FET which is currently prevalent as an RF transistor, i.e., an AlGaAs/InGaAs heterostructure FET. In addition, the density of electrons accumulated at the heterointerface becomes as high as 1×1013/cm2 when the composition of Al in AlGaN is 0.2 to 0.3, which is about three to five times as high as the density of electrons in the GaAs-based device. Accordingly, the FET having a GaN heterojunction structure is considered to be very promising.
However, the FET having a GaN heterojunction structure has the problem that it is difficult to form a gate electrode on the bottom surface of a recess provided in the upper semiconductor thereof, i.e., a so-called recessed gate structure.
The reasons for this is that AlGaN and GaN in, e.g., an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction structure have different lattice constants and therefore an upper semiconductor layer composed of AlGaN cannot be formed sufficiently thick on a lower semiconductor layer composed of GaN and that wet etching is difficult because AlGaN is a chemically extremely stable material. Accordingly, a conventional FET with a GaN-based heterojunction structure mostly has a structure in which ohmic electrodes as source/drain electrodes and a gate electrode are disposed on a principal surface of the upper semiconductor layer composed of AlGaN, not a recessed gate structure.
Thus, in the structure in which the individual electrodes are formed on the same surface, it is difficult to sufficiently reduce the value of a source-to-gate resistance so that excellent physical properties inherent to the materials composing the GaN-based heterojunction structure FET cannot be obtained.
Since the thickness of the upper semiconductor layer composed of AlGaN is particularly small between the gate and source, an electron density in the region lowers directly if a surface potential for electrons is increased by any factor in the fabrication process. No matter how intensively a gate voltage with a positive value is applied to the gate electrode, the electron density in a region under the gate electrode cannot be increased to a value not more than a maximum electron density determined in the region between the source and drain electrodes. The phenomenon in which the surface potential for electrons is increased by any factor in the fabrication process is fatal to the GaN-based heterojunction FET.
This raises a demand for a structure in which the thickness of the region of the upper semiconductor layer composed of AlGaN which is located between the source and drain is increased such that an electron density between the source and gate is not affected by a variation in surface potential, i.e., a recessed gate structure. However, the use of a recessed gate structure in a FET having a GaN-based heterojunction structure is technically difficult, as described above, so that it is necessary to minimize the surface potential between the source and drain.

Method for fabricating a semiconductor device including exposing a group III-V semiconductor to an ammonia plasma

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor structure. The first semiconductor structure includes a first semiconductor material having a band-gap. The first semiconductor structure has a first surface. An insulating layer has first and second opposing surfaces. The first surface of the insulating layer is on the first surface of the first semiconductor structure. A second semiconductor structure is on the second surface of the insulating layer and includes a second semiconductor material having a band-gap that is smaller than the band-gap of the first semiconductor material. A floating electrode couples the first semiconductor structure to the second semiconductor structure.

Semiconductor switching devices include diodes, bipolar transistors, metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistors (FET), etc. Semiconductor switching devices such as silicon switching devices have a broad range of applications. For example, silicon laterally-diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) field-effect transistor (FET) may be used as a power switch in the power electronics industry.

Semiconductor on insulator on wide band-gap semiconductor


Provided is an image processing device capable of obtaining a trimming image including a characteristic part of a target image without having a person to select the characteristic part of the target image. A setting unit sets a plurality of trimming candidate areas in a target image. A calculation unit calculates, with respect to each of a plurality of trimming candidate areas, a total value of edge amounts of pixels in the trimming candidate area. A determination unit determines a trimming area from among the plurality of trimming candidate areas, based on the total value of each of the plurality of trimming candidate areas. An obtaining unit obtains an image in the trimming area.

There has been known a web service employing an interface for displaying a plurality of images aligned. For example, there have been known a service for disclosing a cooking image contributed by a user together with its recipe, a service for disclosing an automobile image contributed by a user, and the like.
In displaying a plurality of images aligned in the above described service, a thumbnail image that is generated by trimming a part of an original image is often used. Conventionally, such a thumbnail image is often generated manually. In recent years, however, an increasing number of web services involving a large amount of such images come to be available, and accordingly, a technique for efficiently generating a large amount of thumbnail images is strongly desired.
As such a technique, there has been known a technique for automatically generating a thumbnail image from an image by trimming at a predetermined fixed position, for example.
Patent Literature 1, for example, discloses trimming so as to generate a trimming image showing a key object that is selected by a user and that is positioned at the center.

Image processing device, method for controlling image processing device, program, and information storage medium


A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for generation of tools and applications for a computer network. An access server, executed by a first computer accesses interface definitions stored in a database. A data access library, coupled to the access server and executed by a second computer, provides the interface definitions to be stored in the database by the access server. A server, coupled to the data access library and executed by a third computer, sends requests to maintain and use stored interface definitions in the database.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to computer networks, and in particular to a tool for application development for object based computer networks.
2. Description of Related Art
An important trend in the industry is the development of client/server architectures in distributed computing environments to support transaction processing applications. Currently, distributed computing environments typically comprise interconnected mainframes, minicomputers, servers and workstations. This integration of mainframes, minicomputers, servers and workstations into a distributive computing environment creates the need for tools capable of operating in this environment, especially tools that assist in development of applications for distributed computing environments.


A multi-input transistor circuit including a plurality of input MOS transistors having gates each serving as an analog voltage input terminal, operating in a non-saturation area and connected in parallel; and circuit for providing a constant drain/source voltage for each of the input MOS transistors, and having a current output point. A multi-input transconductance circuit including first and second MOS transistor groups having gates serving as first and second analog voltage input terminals, respectively, operating in a non-saturation area and connected in parallel; and a circuit for providing constant drain/source voltage for the transistors in each group and connected to a common source connecting point of each of the first and second MOS transistor groups, and having first and second current output terminals. The multi-input transistor and the multi-input transconductance circuit exhibit input-to-output linearity, have a wide dynamic range and are equivalent to an n-gate transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a multi-input transistor and a multi-input transcondutor circuit and, more particularly, to a multi-input transistor and a multi-input transconductor circuit tliat are suited to a signal processing system.
2. Description of the Related Background Art
A multi-input element having a plurality of inputs is employed in a variety of fields ranging from an analog/digital mixing signal processor for performing not only a simple logic operation and a comparison but also a multiplication and an addition. In such a mixing signal processor, it is desired that ratio of the gains between any inputs and outputs should be realized with high accuracy. A transconductor circuit capable of obtaining a current output with respect to a plurality of voltage inputs responds to such a demand. Further, as one example of the multi-input element, there has hitherto been employed a pseudo multi-input MOS transistor (hereinafter simply termed a multi-input MOS transistor) for causing the MOS transistors to operate as if a single MOS transistor having a multiplicity of inputs operates by combining the MOS transistors. This is also one example of the transconductor circuit.
The conventional multi-input transconductor circuit proposed is actualized typically by connecting a plurality of single-unit transconductors in parallel.
A known single transconductor circuit is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,957. The transconductor circuit in which the plurality of transconductors are connected in parallel is stated in, e.g., "A Versatile Building Block: The CMOS Differential Amplifier" written by Saeckinger and Guggenbuehl, IEEE Semiconductor Circuit Journal, Vol.22, No. 20, April 1987, wherein a plurality of differential amplifiers having absolutely the same configuration are disposed in parallel. FIG. 11 illustrates such an example. In this example, the transconductor circuit includes a first differential amplifier constructed of two N-channel MOS transistors Q1, Q2 having gates to which voltages V.sub.PP, V.sub.PN are respectively applied and sources common-connected and thus connected to a current source. This transconductor circuit also includes a second differential amplifier constructed of two N-channel MOS transistors Q3, Q4 having gates to which voltages V.sub.NP, V.sub.NN are respectively applied and sources common-connected and thus connected to a current source. The drains, on the correis sponding side, of the transistors Q1, Q4 and the transistors Q2, Q3 are common-connected. An output current io is obtained from the drain side of the transistor Q4.
According to the above-mentioned construction, however, the current output does not bear a proportional relationship with the input voltage, with the result that a linearity is not obtained. This is not suited to the signal processor system.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,867 discloses a two-input transconductor, wherein there is proposed an actualization of a feedback loop for consecutively adjusting an output common voltage level of the differential amplifier. There arises, however, a problem inherent in the transconductor disclosed therein, the problem being such that mutual conductances do not coincide due to a difference in threshold voltage between the transistors constituting the circuit. For this reason, a capability of dealing with the signals is restricted, and the transconductor has only a small dynamic range.

Multi-input transistor circuit and multi-input transconductance circuit


The present invention resides in a method and apparatii for using a photosensitive element that is photosensitive to light within a predetermined range of exposures to capture images including exposures that are outside of the predetermined exposure range. In this method the photosensitive element is exposed to light from the scene. The light from the scene is fractured into concentrated portions and residual portions; with the concentrated portions directed at concentrated images areas of the photosensitive element to form a pattern of concentrated image elements providing a concentrated image when light from the scene is within a first exposure range. The residual portions of the light are directed at a residual image area of the photosensitive element and form an image in the residual image area when light from the scene is within a second exposure range. Wherein the combination of the first range and second range is greater than a predetermined range of exposure.

In conventional photography, it is well known to record images by controllably exposing a photosensitive element to light from a scene. Typically, such a photosensitive element comprises one or more photosensitive layers supported by a flexible substrate such as film and/or a non-flexible substrate such as a glass plate. The photosensitive layers, which can have one or more light sensitive silver halide emulsions along with product appropriate imaging chemistry, react to the energy provided by the light from the scene. The extent of this reaction is a function of the amount of light received per unit area of the element during exposure. The extent of this reaction is greater in areas of the element that are exposed to more light during an exposure than in areas that are exposed to less light. Thus, when light from the scene is focused onto a photosensitive element, differences in the levels of light from the scene are captured as differences in the extent of the reaction in the layers. After a development step, the differences in the extent of the reaction in the layers appear as picture regions having different densities. These densities form an image of the original scene luminance.
It is characteristic of silver halide emulsions to have a non-linear response when exposed to ambient light from a scene. In this regard a photosensitive element has a lower response threshold that defines the minimum exposure at which the incorporated emulsions and associated chemistry begins to react so that different levels of exposure enable the formation of different densities. This lower threshold ultimately relates to the quantum efficiency of individual silver halide emulsion grains. Typically, all portions of a photosensitive element that are exposed to light at a level below the lower response threshold have a common appearance when the photosensitive element is developed.
Further, a photosensitive element also has an upper response threshold that defines the exposure level below which the emulsion and associated chemistries react so that different levels of exposure enable the formation of different densities. Typically, all portions of an element that are exposed at a level above the upper response threshold will again have a common appearance after the photosensitive element is developed.
Thus photosensitive elements that use silver halide emulsions can be said to have both a lower response threshold and an upper response threshold which bracket a useful range of exposures wherein the photosensitive element is capable of reacting to differences in exposure levels by recording a contrast pattern with contrast differences that are differentiable. The exposure levels associated with these lower and upper thresholds define the exposure latitude of the photosensitive element. To optimize the appearance of an image, therefore, it is typically useful to arrange the exposure so that the range of exposure levels encountered by the photosensitive element during exposure is within the latitude or useful range of the photosensitive element.
Many consumer and professional photographers prefer to use photosensitive elements, camera systems, and photography methods that permit image capture over a wide range of photographic conditions. One approach to meeting this objective is to provide photosensitive elements with extremely wide latitude. However, extremely wide latitude photosensitive elements are fundamentally limited by the nature of the response of the individually incorporated silver halide grains to light. Accordingly, it is common to provide camera systems and photography methods that work to effectively extend the lower response limit and upper response limit of a photosensitive element by modifying the luminance characteristics of the scene. For example, it is known to effectively extend the lower response limit of the photosensitive element by providing supplemental illumination to dark scenes.
It is also known to increase the quantity of the light acting on a photosensitive element without providing supplemental illumination by using a taking lens system designed to pass a substantial amount of the available light from the scene to the photosensitive element during an exposure. However, lenses that pass a substantial amount of light also inherently reduce the depth-of field of the associated camera system. This solution is thus not universally suitable for pictorial imaging with fixed focus cameras since scenes may not then be properly focused. This solution is also not preferred in variable focused cameras as such lens systems can be expensive, and difficult to design, install and maintain.
There is a direct relationship between the duration of exposure and quantity of light from the scene that strikes the photosensitive element during an exposure. Accordingly, another way known in the art for increasing the amount of light acting on a photosensitive element during an exposure is to increase the duration of the exposure using the expedient of a longer open shutter. This, however, degrades upper exposure limits. Further, increased shutter open time can cause the shutter to remain open for a period that is long enough to permit the composition of a scene to evolve. This results in a blurred image. Accordingly, there is a desire to limit shutter open time.
Thus, what is also needed is a less complex and less costly camera system and photography method allowing the capture of images using conventional shutter open times and particularly with cameras having a fixed shutter time.
Another way to increase the quantity of the light acting on a photosensitive element during an exposure is to use a conventional taking lens system to collect light from a scene and to project this light from the scene onto an array of micro-lenses such as an array of linear lenticular lenses that are located proximate to the photosensitive element. An example of this is shown in Chretien U.S. Pat. No. 1,838,173. Each micro-lens concentrates a portion of the light from the scene onto associated areas of a photosensitive element. By concentrating light in this manner, the amount of light incident on each concentrated exposure area of the photosensitive element is increased to a level that is above the lower response threshold of the film. This permits an image to be formed by contrast patterns in the densities of the concentrated exposure areas.
Images formed in this manner are segmented: the concentrated exposure areas form a concentrated image of the scene and remaining portions of the photosensitive element form a pattern of unexposed artifacts intermingled with the concentrated image. In conventionally rendered prints of such images this pattern has an unpleasing low contrast and a half-tone look much like newspaper print.
However, a recognizable image can be obtained from such segmented images by projection under quite specific conditions. These conditions occur precisely when the spatial relationship between the effective camera aperture, the micro-lens array and the light sensitive element established at exposure in the camera is reproduced in the projector. This system can be cumbersome because a functional real image is produced at a position and magnification dictated by the original scene to camera lens arrangement. If a projection lens identical to the camera taking lens is positioned so as to mimic the camera lens to image relationship that existed at image taking, the reconstructed image will appear at the position of the original object with the size of the original object. Other lens and spatial relationship combinations result in incomplete image reconstruction and the formation of the dots and lines reminiscent of newspaper print. Thus, the micro-lens or lenticular assisted low light photography of the prior art is ill suited for the production of prints or for use in high quality markets such as those represented by consumers and professional photographers.
Micro-lens arrays, and in particular, lenticular arrays have found other applications in photography. For example, in the early days of color photography, linear lenticular image capture was used in combination with color filters as means for splitting the color spectrum to allow for color photography using black and white silver halide imaging systems. This technology was commercially employed in early color motion picture capture and projection systems as is described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 2,191,038. In the 1940s it was proposed to use lenticular screens to help capture color images using black and white photosensitive element in instant photography U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,103. In the 1970's, U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,186 disclosed the use of lenticular arrays to create images having increased contrast characteristics. By minimizing the size of the unexposed areas, the line pattern became almost invisible and was therefore less objectionable. Also in the 1970s, it was proposed to expose photosensitive element through a moving lenticular screen U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,334. Finally, in the 1990's linear lenticular-ridged supports having three-color layers and an antihalation layer were employed for 3-D image presentation materials. These linear lenticular arrays were used to form interleaved print images from multiple views of a scene captured in multiple lens camera. The interleaved images providing a three dimensional appearance. Examples of this technique are disclosed by Lo et al. in U.S. Pat No. 5,464,128 and by Ip, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,291. It is recognized that these disclosures relate to methods, elements and apparatus adapted to the formation of 3-D images from capture of multiple scene perspectives that are suitable for direct viewing. They fail to enable photography with shutter times suitable for use in hand-held cameras.
Thus, while micro-lens assisted photography has found a variety of uses, it has yet to fulfill the original promise of effectively extending the lower response threshold of a photosensitive element to permit the production of commercially acceptable prints from images captured at low scene brightness levels. What is needed, therefore, is a method and apparatus for capturing lenticular images on a photosensitive element and using the captured photosensitive element image to form a commercially acceptable print or other output.
It can also occur that it is useful to capture images under imaging conditions that are above the upper response threshold of the photosensitive element. Such conditions can occur with bright scenes that are to be captured under daylight, snow pack and beach situations. Typically, cameras use aperture control, shutter timing control and filtering systems to reduce the intensity of light from the scene so that the light that confronts the photosensitive element has an intensity that is within the upper limit response of the photosensitive element. However, these systems can add significant complexity and cost to the design of the camera. Further, the expedient of using a lens with a more open aperture to improve the lower threshold limit as discussed earlier simultaneously passes more light and degrades the exposure at the upper response threshold. Thus, what is also needed is a simple, less costly, camera system and photography method for capturing images over a range of exposure levels including exposure levels that are greater than the upper response limit of the photosensitive element.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Imaging using silver halide films with micro-lens capture, scanning and digital reconstruction


A load current compensating output buffer circuit and method are disclosed. The circuit includes a buffer amplifier coupled to a supply voltage and the inverting input receives an input voltage and the non-inverting input couples to an output capacitive load. A feedback impedance with a variable resistance circuit and a Miller capacitance in series is coupled to an output of the buffer amplifier and the capacitive load. A pass transistor couples to the supply voltage and the output capacitive load, the pass transistor having a gate terminal coupled to the output of the output buffer amplifier and the feedback impedance, a load current passing through the pass transistor. A sense circuit is configured to sense the load current and apply a control voltage to the variable resistance circuit to vary the resistance of the variable resistance circuit based on the load current.

Output buffers are widely used in analog circuits to drive large external capacitive loads. One typical application for an output buffer is with a low drop-out (LDO) voltage regulator. The LDO voltage regulator is coupled to a capacitive load through an output buffer. A capacitive load may be a battery. The output buffer load current bandwidth and stability limits the overall LDO voltage regulator settling and power up time. For example, in a LDO voltage regulator, the load current may vary from no load current (0 mA) to about 300 mA. This leads to an approximate 300 times increase in the load current bandwidth, making the output buffer unstable due to high frequency poles.
It will be desirable to have output buffers configured to operate efficiently for various load conditions.

Load current compesating output buffer feedback, pass, and sense circuits


This invention generally relates to a method of manufacturing hybrid parts comprising metallic and non-metallic materials at high temperature. During the method, a hollow metallic feedstock heated to a temperature in the austenite region may be placed in a die and filled with a non-metallic material in a viscous condition, after which the feedstock in the die is formed and then controlled-cooled to cause hardening of the non-metallic material in the region of contact between the metallic and non-metallic material. Afterwards, the semi-finished product is removed from the die and cooled to room temperature. The rate of cooling may be adjusted to generate compressive stress in the surface layer of the non-metallic material, which reduces the risk of cracking.

A majority of parts made by forming of metals and alloys generally consist of a single material. Typically, hot closed-die forging is the most widespread and exemplary process for producing steel parts. In this process, a steel feedstock is heated to a forming temperature and then gradually formed in cavities of a die to a shape which corresponds to the required contour of the resulting forged part. Typical final operations include trimming and sizing of the forged part. The forged part is then heat treated by a procedure which is specific to its material and governs the mechanical properties of the product. Hollow parts are typically manufactured by either drilling away the core of a solid forged part or by applying internal pressure through a medium in a die. In the latter case, the medium is fed into a cavity in the feedstock, thereby causing the feedstock to expand and have its outer surface cling to the surface of the die cavity. The advantage of this procedure is that it leads to considerably more lightweight products than solid products without light interior. The disadvantage of hollow shafts is their limited ability to transmit torque due to risk of instability. Instability occurs when the structure collapses due to overload, which causes distortion of the entire part. Solid parts which have no lightweighting cavities typically do not experience this type of collapse of structure. The disadvantage of a solid part is its large weight and the related high costs of material and greater energy consumption in production.
One compromise solution may involve the use of hybrid parts made of two or more materials. For instance, Canadian Patent Application Publication No. CA2759154 describes synthesizing hybrid materials from two groups of metallic materials. The first group comprises aluminium, magnesium, and zirconium alloys and the other contains stainless, carbon, or tool steels and nickel and titanium alloys. Czech Patent No. CZ305990 also describes a hybrid part consisting of a steel casing filled with an aluminium alloy. Thus, today's production of formed hybrid parts only involves combinations of crystalline metallic materials whose specific weight constrains their potential for lightweighting.

Method of manufacturing hybrid parts consisting of metallic and non-metallic materials at high temperature


A vapor compression system includes a first conduit fluidly coupling a liquid collection portion of a condenser and an evaporator, where the first conduit is configured to direct a first flow of refrigerant from the condenser to a first inlet of the evaporator and a second conduit fluidly coupling the liquid collection portion of the condenser and the evaporator, where the second conduit is configured to direct a second flow of refrigerant from the condenser to a second inlet of the evaporator via gravitational force, and where the first inlet is disposed above the second inlet relative to a vertical dimension of the evaporator.

This application relates generally to vapor compression systems, such as chillers, and more specifically to a bypass line or bypass conduit that fluidly connects a condenser and an evaporator.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Refrigeration systems are used in a variety of settings and for many purposes. For example, refrigeration systems may operate as a free cooling system and a mechanical cooling system. In some cases, the free cooling system may include a liquid-to-air heat exchanger, which is used in some heating, ventilating, and air conditioning applications. Additionally, the mechanical cooling system may be a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, which may include a condenser, an evaporator, a compressor, and/or an expansion device. In the evaporator, liquid or primarily liquid refrigerant is evaporated by drawing thermal energy from an air flow stream and/or a cooling fluid (e.g., water), where the air flow stream may also flow through the liquid-to-air heat exchanger of the free cooling system. In the condenser, the refrigerant is de-superheated, condensed, and/or sub-cooled. Refrigerant flows through an expansion valve as it flows from the condenser to the evaporator. Under some operating conditions, a flow of refrigerant from the condenser to the evaporator may be limited or otherwise restricted.


A liquid crystal display device of the present invention is composed of a λ/4 plate 1, a λ/2 plate 2, and a polarizing plate 3 which are provided in this order from the side of a liquid crystal layer 10. Here, an angle formed between an absorption axis of the polarizing plate 3 and an absorption axis of the λ/2 plate 2 is about 45°, an in-plane retardation of the λ/2 plate 2 is set to a value obtained by adding λ/4 to an in-plane retardation of a retardation plate 1, desirably, the λ/4 plate 1, and an optical axis of the λ/4 plate 1 and an optical axis of the λ/2 plate 2 are orthogonal to each other. In this configuration, the optical axis of the λ/4 plate 1 is placed at 150°, the optical axis of the λ/2 plate 2 is placed at 60°, and the absorption axis of the polarizing plate 3 is placed at 15°. This configuration improves display characteristics, that is, performs bright display at a higher contrast ratio and in a wider viewing angle with less dependence on visual field, thereby realizing an excellent reflection-type liquid crystal display device that is very easy to view even in a relatively dim place such as an indoor environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reflection-type liquid crystal display device for use in low power consumption devices such as a portable terminal and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A reflection-type liquid crystal display device performs display by taking environmental light such as interior illumination or sunlight thereinto and reflecting it by a reflector to the observer side. This reflection-type liquid crystal display device has low power consumption because of no need for a backlight and is in wide use for a portable terminal, PDA, and so on.
The reflection-type liquid crystal display device has low power consumption because of performance of display through use of environmental light as described above, but tends to be relatively inferior in display characteristics such as a contrast ratio, viewing angle, and so on. Hence, the following measures are considered to improve the display characteristics.
(Measure 1)
A reflection-type liquid crystal display device is proposed which uses a vertical alignment-type liquid crystal display panel since it can realize a high contrast ratio and high reflection intensity. As shown in FIG. 45A, a quarter-wave (λ/4) plate 101 is arranged here above a front surface of the vertical alignment-type liquid crystal display panel, and black display is performed where the application voltage is turned off.
Regarding this λ/4 plate 101, such a technique is also proposed that the plate is composed of two plates, that is, a half-wave (λ/2) plate 103 and a λ/4 plate 104 as shown in FIG. 45B to reduce wavelength dispersion of birefringence thereof. Note that only a reflecting electrode, a liquid crystal layer, and a transparent electrode are shown representing a liquid crystal panel in FIGS. 45A and B for convenience.
A liquid crystal molecule substantially vertically stands in a state where no voltage is applied to enable realization of ideal black display. Besides, in a state where voltage is applied, when a practical retardation of the liquid crystal layer becomes λ/4, white display is performed. In this reflection-type liquid crystal display device, it is effective to provide a negative retardation plate 102 between the liquid crystal panel and the λ/4 plate 101 in order to improve viewing angle characteristics. The existence of the negative retardation film compensates the retardation of the liquid crystal layer.
(Measure 2)
In the case in which environmental light is reflected by a reflector to the observer side, when the reflector is composed of a smooth mirror surface, display becomes bright in a regular reflection region and becomes dark in other regions, leading to great dependence on viewing angle, and the display in the regular reflection region may have metallic luster. Hence, such there is a known technique in which projections and depressions in dot-like plane shapes are formed on the surface of a reflector to disperse reflection light, thereby realizing display with less dependence on viewing angle and no metallic luster (see Patent Document 1).
Further, a twisted nematic (TN) mode using one polarizing plate (see Patent Document 2) is proposed as a display mode. TN mode is such a mode that liquid crystal having a positive dielectric constant anisotropy is twist-aligned in a horizontal direction, in which incident environmental light is converted into linearly polarized light by a polarizing plate for white display where no voltage is applied by rotating its polarization azimuth 180° by a retardation plate having a retardation of about a quarter of the visible light wavelength and a liquid crystal layer, and for black display where voltage is applied by rotating the polarization azimuth 90° by the retardation plate having a retardation of about a quarter of the visible light wavelength.
(Patent Document 1)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-175126
(Patent Document 2)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-11711
(Patent Document 3)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 11-311784
(Patent Document 4)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 60-256121
(Patent Document 5)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-210423
(Patent Document 6)
United Kingdom Patent Specification No. 1,462,978
(Patent Document 7)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-153802
(Patent Document 8)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-4999
(Patent Document 9)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-35570
(Patent Document 10)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-171788
(Patent Document 11)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-154190
(Patent Document 12)
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-337421
(Non-Patent Document 1)
The journal of the Institute of Television Engineers of Japan Vol. 50, No. 8, pp 1091-1095, 1996
However, the above-described measures for improvement of display characteristics have problems as follows:
In the case of the measure 1, production of the negative retardation film requires a special and very advanced technique, such as, stretching of an optical film in two directions, or application of a special optical substance onto a film being a base, and thus the negative retardation plate is expensive.
A technique for easily realizing this negative retardation film is proposed by Tohoku University. This is produced by layering uniaxially stretched films each having a desired negative retardation and an in-plane retardation the same as the negative retardation which are orthogonal. This case, however, needs many films, leading to a problem that the display becomes thick or expensive.
In the case of the measure 2, liquid crystal anchoring to the interface of a substrate still remains without switching after application of voltage in the TN mode, leading to a problem that black luminance floats and thus a sufficient contrast ratio cannot be obtained. The visibility of display is defined by the brightness and contrast ratio, in which display is easy to view even at a low contrast ratio if it is bright, while display needs to have a high contrast ratio if it is dark (see Non-Patent Document 1). The reflection-type liquid crystal display device performs display by taking environmental light thereinto and reflecting it by a reflector to the observer side, and therefore the display is dark in an indoor environment and insufficient in contrast ratio to become hard to view.
As means for improving the contrast ratio, proposed is a technique for compensating black display by substantially matching a slow axis of a retardation plate with an anchoring azimuth of the liquid crystal layer, and decreasing the retardation of the retardation plate by a retardation remaining in the liquid crystal layer (residual retardation) (see Patent Document 3). The technique has, however, problems that a sufficient contrast ratio cannot be obtained because of colored black display due to wavelength dispersion of the liquid crystal layer greater than that of the retardation plate, and that since the retardation of the liquid crystal layer needs to be increased by the decreased retardation for white display, the driving voltage should be increased to obtain the same contrast ratio.


A media independent interface (MII) is utilized on each processor card of a multi-processor card system in a carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) standard bus configuration to provide a data communications bus. This permits standard Media Access Control (MAC) devices to be used with the MII. The collision domain is implemented by having each active processor card using the data communications bus assert an analog signal on a single conductor of the back plane and sense its voltage value to determine if one or more processor cards are currently accessing the bus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus which permit each processor card of a modular multi-processor card system to communicate with other processor cards including a supervisor module processor card.
2. The Background Art
Modular multi-processor systems are known in the art. Such systems typically include a back plane having a number of receptacles to which processor cards can be attached. It is often necessary or desirable to establish communications among the various processor cards for various reasons. In the past, such communications were sometimes implemented over parallel bus type architectures using large numbers of conductors to pass communications among the processor cards. Such systems, while fit for their intended purposes, have the drawback that they utilize more conductors than necessary to carry out the needed communications. They also require custom drivers and protocols which adversely impact development time, cost, design architecture, debugging and troubleshooting. Such systems are often complex and utilize valuable resources such as the conductors. Other systems have implemented such communications using several separate serial channels based upon RS232 UART devices. This approach resulted in fewer conductors used in the backplane, but the drawback was that the communications speed was limited by the serial performance of the UARTs. It should also be noted that almost all prior implementations of such interprocessor communications systems required centralized arbitration which means that a master had to be present in the system. Failure of a master causes whole communications channels to be shut down.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved method and apparatus for carrying out interprocessor communications while utilizing fewer conductors, higher bandwidth and standard drivers and protocols, thus reducing costs, development time and effort and/or freeing up additional conductor paths for other purposes.

System interprocessor communication using media independent interface-based channel


A multi-tiered system of leveller units for the levelling of recreational vehicles. The leveller units each comprise a planar body, with upper and lower surfaces circumscribed by edges. The body of each unit bears a plurality of pins upwardly extending from spaced locations in the upper surface and has a plurality of pin-engaging pockets formed in the lower surface to matably receive corresponding pins of other similar units. The pins are of slightly smaller size than the corresponding pockets so that when the pins of one unit are associated with the pockets of another, there is provided a loose engagement therebetween. The body may be formed of a discontinuous webbing providing light-weight strength and support to the units to support the large loads placed thereupon.

Recreational vehicles must be maintained in a level, horizontal position when parked in order to ensure comfort and proper operation of appliances, tables, and the like. Hydraulic and electric jacks exist to accomplish this task. These tend however to be both very expensive and difficult to install and operate.
For simpler levelling devices which are intended to fit under one or more of the vehicle's wheels, a variety of difficulties exist including providing complete height adjustability, bi-directional driving ability, and a functional, non-slip surface onto which the vehicle's tires can solidly mount and rest.

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Power management techniques for a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of a wireless communication device (WCD) are described tat make use of a unique identifier for the SIM. In particu1ar a processor within the WCD reads a first unique identifier from the SIM when power is initially supplied to the WCD, and stores the first unique identifier within a computer-readable medium within the WCD. During a power management cycle, where power is terminated and then re-supplied to the SIM, the processor again receives a unique identifier from the SIM and compares the second unique identifier with the stored unique identifier. These tecbniques are useful in detecting whether the attached SIM has been exchanged for a different SIM while powered down during a power management cycle.

A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), such as a Removable User Identity Module (R-UIM), Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), or GSM SIM, contains information relating to a user of a wireless communication device (WCD). A typical WCD may take the form of a cellular radiotelephone, satellite radiotelephone, a PCMCIA card incorporated within a computer, a PDA equipped with wireless communication capabilities, and the like.
A SIM typically includes a controller and memory housed in a card-like structure. The memory may contain user information including, for example, a subscriber/user identifier, a phonebook providing a stored bank of telephone numbers, messages, billing codes, encryption sequences for secure wireless data communication, and other useful information that can be retrieved during use. The memory also may store applications that are accessed by the WCD, e.g., for over-the-air service provisioning, cryptography, web browsing, or mobile commerce.
Typically, a SIM is removable, enabling a user to install the SIM in, or remove the SIM from, a WCD. The SIM can be removed from a first WCD, for example, and installed in a second WCD. In this manner, the SIM enables the user to transfer user information from one WCD to another WCD. This can be especially useful when the user travels to regions supported by different wireless protocols, which may require the use of a different WCD.
A SIM includes a relatively simple electrical interface, including an input/output (I/O) port for exchanging serial data with another device such as a WCD, a clock input for receiving an external clock signal, and a reset input for receiving a reset signal. A SIM ordinarily receives power from the device in which it is installed.
A WCD typically is powered by a rechargeable power source such as a Lithium Ion battery. Power consumption by the SIM can be a significant factor in overall WCD power consumption. A SIM consumes battery reserves and can reduce standby time for the WCD. Accordingly, efficient management of power consumption by a SIM is highly desirable.

Subscriber identity module verification during power management


There is disclosed a silver halide color photographic material having at least one silver halide emulsion layer, wherein the silver halide emulsion layer comprises a magenta coupler and a compound that can break the aggregation of azomethine dye formed from said magenta coupler and the oxdized product of the color-developing agent. The silver halide color photographic material exhibits an excellent effect that the light-fastness of image dye and the color reproduction are good.

1H-pyrazolo[1,5-b][1,2,4]triazole coupler and 1H-pyrazolo[3,2-c][1,2,4]triazole coupler are excellent in spectral absorption characteristics compared with 5-pyrazolone couplers, and therefore are used in some color photographic materials. However, the light-fastness of the magenta dye image formed from these couplers is still not satisfactory when the coupler is used alone, and therefore further improvement thereof is desired.
Thus, attempts to enhance the light-fastness of image dyes by combining the above pyrazolotriazole couplers with various antioxidants have been proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,679 and JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 262,159/1985. An attempt to improve the light-fastness of image dyes by combining the above pyrazolotriazole couplers with a metal complex has been made, as known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,153. Attempts to improve the light-fastness of image dyes by combining the above pyrazoloazole couplers with amine compounds, as described in JP-A Nos. 246052/1987 and 95,439/1988, have also been proposed.
On the other hand, various interesting behaviors have been found by the studies of dyes derived from the pyrazoloazole series coupler. That is, for example, these dyes are liable to aggregate and the dyes aggregated are more liable to be decomposed by the irradiation of light than those not aggregated. An invention to improve the light-fastness of image dye by changing the structure of coupler molecule has been made by utilizing this finding inversely. That is, JP-A No. 65,245/1986 discloses that the light-fastness of image dyes of couplers having an alkyl group directly connected through the secondary or the tertiary carbon atom to the skeleton of a pyrazoloazole coupler is remarkably improved.
Although these proposals much improve the light-fastness of image dyes, development of a further new technique for improving the light-fastness is greatly desired in color photography wherein image dyes are ideally required not to change permanently.

Silver halide photographic material containing a magenta coupler and a compound that can break the aggregation of an azomethine dye


Methods and systems for authenticating a user account based on a password are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes receiving input defining a sequence of characters included in an entered password, ignoring characters between a first position in the sequence of characters and a second position in the sequence of characters, and validating the password based on non-ignored characters in the sequence of characters.

As computing as become increasing pervasive in both economic and personal life, the importance of securing computing information has become paramount. Headlines over the past several years have highlighted the dangers of weak computer security, which may lead to information theft, malicious computer use via the installation of malware, and other problems.
Many computer resources are protected via a combination of username and password. After authentication information matching a valid username and password for an account is provided, access to certain computer resources associated with a user account may be granted. If a nefarious actor were to obtain a valid username and password for a computer account, those computer resources are at risk of malicious use. One method used to obtain valid usernames and passwords is to observe a user typing this information in at their keyboard. Sophisticated malicious actors may even employ magnification devices such as binoculars or telescopes, coupled with video recording equipment, to enable observation of typed user names and passwords from safe and inconspicuous distances. Key loggers may also be installed nefariously to capture keys typed by a user. Therefore, improved methods of protecting this information are desired.

Methods for increasing authentication security


A work vehicle includes an engine, a selective catalytic reduction apparatus, a fuel tank, and a reducing agent tank. The selective catalytic reduction apparatus treats exhaust from the engine. The fuel tank includes a fuel tank body retaining fuel and a fuel supply port which supplies fuel to the fuel tank body. The reducing agent tank includes a reducing agent tank body retaining a reducing agent used in the selective catalytic reduction apparatus and a reducing agent supply port which supplies the reducing agent to the reducing agent tank body. The fuel supply port protrudes from the fuel tank body toward a first direction left or right with respect to a center axis line in the front and back direction of the vehicle. The reducing agent supply port protrudes from the reducing agent tank body toward a second direction opposite to the first direction.

The present invention relates to a work vehicle which is provided with a working implement.
A post-treatment apparatus which treats exhaust from an engine is mounted in a work vehicle such as a motor grader (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2011-529538). The post-treatment apparatus is connected to the engine through a connecting pipe. It is preferable that the post-treatment apparatus include a diesel particulate filter (DPF) apparatus and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) apparatus (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2012-097413). The DPF apparatus reduces particulate matter in the exhaust. The SCR apparatus reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx) in the exhaust.


A storage device with a health status check feature is disclosed. In one embodiment, the storage device keeps track of the number of erase cycles performed on the memory of the storage device. The storage device also stores a value of the predicted limit on the number of times that erase cycles can be performed on the memory. In response to a request from a host device for the health status of the memory, the storage device can provide the host device with information about how many erase cycles have been performed on the memory as compared to the predicted limit.

Some magnetic, mechanically-rotating storage devices, such as some magnetic hard disk drives (HDD), can provide information to a host device to indicate how "healthy" the disk drive is (i.e., its ability to erase and hold data consistently). For example, some magnetic hard disk drives have a Self-Monitoring Analysis Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) feature in which, in response to receiving a number of commands from the host device, the magnetic hard disk drive reports back a number of metrics, such as the amount of storage written, the amount of free space, the temperature of the hard disk drive, and the number of bad blocks. The host device can combine these metrics into a formula to create a measure of how healthy the hard disk drive is.
In enterprise storage environments, some magnetic hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) solutions also uses the S.M.A.R.T feature, along with a number of proprietary mechanisms to determine the health of a storage device. Namely, the amount of storage historically written to the storage device, combined with the number of failing blocks as well as historical user bit error calculated from error correction code (ECC) formulae, can be used to determine how "healthy" the remaining flash is on the storage device.
While health status reporting has been used with magnetic hard disk drives and enterprise storage hard disk and solid state drives, there is no such reporting mechanism currently available for consumer solid-state storage devices, such as Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, microSD memory cards, Compact Flash (CF) memory cards, and universal serial bus (USB) devices. Some such devices are able to keep track of when blocks of memory are no longer able to accept a write command and internally mark that block as bad. When there are no good blocks of memory left, the memory device puts itself in a read-only mode and no longer accepts erase and write commands from a host device.

Storage device with health status check feature


Embodiments of the present invention offer an improved PDP that offers a lowered discharge initiation voltage as well as improved efficiency of discharge. The PDP may satisfy the equation 180≦(A+B)+P×0.1≦240 in which A is a distance between opposite recessed portion of a pair of a first electrode and a second electrode; it is a distance between opposite projection portions of the pair of the first electrode and the second electrode, and P is a gas pressure of a discharge gas contained in the discharge space. In another embodiment a gas pressure of a gas trapped in a discharge space (e.g., “cell” or “discharge cell”) may be over 450 Torr. Additionally, each opposing end of the first electrode and the second electrode may include a recessed portion and a projection portion such that a gap interposed between the opposing end portions varies in width.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (PDP), and more particularly, to a PDP having high discharge efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many years, television screens have been manufactured using cathode-ray-tube (CRT) technology. In a CRT television, an electron gun shoots a beam of electrons inside a glass tube. The electrons impact phosphor atoms at the screen (e.g., the wide end of the tube). In response, the excited phosphor atoms light up. Illuminating various areas of the phosphor coating with different colors at particular intensities produces the television image. Crisp images are the hallmark of CRT televisions, but such devices are bulky because a wide screen requires a correspondingly long electron gun in order for the electron stream to reach all parts of the screen.
A newer technology is the plasma display panel (PDP), which offers a wide screen that is relatively thin (e.g., approximately 6″). Put simply, a PDP forms an image by illuminating thousands of pixels, each made of a red, blue, and green fluorescent light. Like a CRT television, a PDP produces a full spectrum of colors by varying the illumination intensity of the different lights.
The central element in each fluorescent light is a plasma, e.g., a gas comprised of free-flowing ions and electrons. When an electric current is run through the plasma, free electrons collide with the gas atoms, causing them to release photons of energy. The gas atoms mostly used in PDP's emit ultraviolet photons that are invisible to the human eye, but which may be used to excite visible light photon, as explained below.
In a conventional PDP, xenon or neon gas is trapped in hundreds of thousands of tiny cells positioned between two plates of glass. Strips of electrodes are sandwiched between the glass plates, on both sides of the cells. Mounted above the cells are the transparent display electrodes, which are surrounded by an insulating dielectric material and covered by a magnesium oxide protective layer. Behind the cells, along the neon glass plate, are the address electrodes. Both the address electrodes and the display electrodes extend across the entire screen to form a grid. In the grid, the address electrodes are arranged in vertical columns and the display electrodes are arranged in horizontal rows. To ionize the gas in a particular cell, a computer associated with the PDP charges the electrodes that interact at that cell. It does this many times per second, charging each cell in turn.
When intersecting electrodes are charged (e.g., a voltage difference is created between them), electric current flows through the gas in the cell. This generates a fast flow of charged particles, which stimulates the gas atoms to release ultraviolet photons.
The inside walls of each cell are coated with a phosphor material (e.g., a material that absorbs the energy of an incident ultraviolet photon and emits a visible light photon). Thus, when impacted by the ultraviolet photons, the red, blue or green phosphor material emits red, blue or green light. Because every pixel is made up of a subpixel containing a red light phosphor, a subpixel containing a blue light phosphor and a subpixel containing a green light phosphor, the colors blend together to generate the overall color of the pixel.
By varying the pulses of current flowing through each cell, the PDP computer can decrease or increase the intensity of each subpixel color to create many combinations of red, green and blue. In this manner, a PDP can be made to produce different colors across the entire spectrum.
PDPs are categorized into alternating current (AC) PDPs and direct current (DC) PDPs. In a DC PDP, each electrode is directly exposed to the gas contained in a discharge cell, and voltage applied to each electrode is directly applied to the gas. In an AC PDP, respective electrodes are separated from the gas by a dielectric layer and do not absorb charged particles generated in discharge. Instead, the charged particles form wall charges, and the wall charges cause discharge.
Referring to FIG. 1 a conventional PDP includes first and second substrates 10 and 11 having inner surfaces facing each other. Address electrodes 12 and a dielectric layer 13 are sequentially formed above the second substrate 11. Barrier ribs 14 separating cells and preventing electric and optical cross talk between the pixels are formed on the dielectric layer 13. A fluorescent layer 15 is formed on the inner surface of each of the cells.
X electrodes X and Y electrodes Y are formed on the first substrate 10 such that the X electrodes X and the Y electrodes Y intersect the address electrodes 12 at right angles. Each of the X electrodes X includes a transparent electrode 16x and a bus electrode 17x, and each of the Y electrodes Y includes a transparent electrode 16y and a bus electrode 17y. The X electrodes X and the Y electrodes Y intersect the address electrodes 12 at respective cells.
A dielectric layer 18 covering the X electrodes X and Y electrodes Y is formed on the inner surface of the first substrate 10. A protection layer 19 composed of MgO is formed on the dielectric layer 18. A gas, such as xenon or neon, is injected into the cells interposed between the first and second substrates 10 and 11.
A voltage is applied to the address electrode 12, and to one of the X electrodes X, and the Y electrodes Y. Subsequently, an address discharge occurs between the electrodes. Discharged particles then migrate to the lower surface of the dielectric layer 18 of the first substrate 10. A sustain discharge occurs at the surface of the dielectric layer 18 by applying predetermined voltage between a X electrode X and a Y electrode Y of a particular cell. As a result, the gas contained in the cell is ionized to form a plasma, and a fluorescent substance coated on an inside surface of the cell is excited to produce a colored pixel.
Referring to FIG. 2, the sustain discharge occurs between the transparent electrodes 16x and 16y of the X electrodes X and the Y electrodes Y across a predetermined gap G1.
Optimally, initiation of the sustain discharge should occur in a wide area such that a discharge starting with the gap G1 is spread over an entire cell. However, when a conventional gap G1 is formed at predetermined intervals as shown in FIG. 2, initiation of the sustain discharge occurs locally, causing the spread of the discharge to be non-uniformly distributed. Consequently, a uniform field over the entire surface of the transparent electrodes 16x and 16y is not formed when the discharge is generated by applying a voltage to the X electrodes X and the Y electrodes Y, which are sustain discharge electrodes. Because a uniform field is not created, there is a portion of the transparent electrode that contributes little to the discharge. This unnecessary portion decreases the discharge efficiency of a discharge cell, and also decreases luminance by covering (e.g., blocking) an area of the discharge cell.
A solution is needed that increases the discharge efficiency of each cell by ensuring a more uniform distribution of the sustain discharge.

Plasma display panel having improved efficiency


A trampoline includes a frame and a jumping bed which preferably has hook elements on its underside. The jumping bed is connected to the frame via a plurality of annular strap sections, which each extend at least partially around the frame and are inserted into the hook elements. The hook elements have a first receiving section and a second receiving section. These are arranged separated from one another in such a way that the two loop ends of the strap section, which are produced by the looping of the strap section around the frame and are inserted into the hook element, do not, or substantially do not, come in contact with one another. This structure considerably extends the life in comparison with conventional trampolines.

The invention relates to a trampoline with a base, which includes a frame, and with a jumping sheet, which preferably includes hook elements on its underside, the jumping sheet being connected to the frame by means of a plurality of annular strap sections, which each extend at least partially around the frame and are secured to the hook elements. The invention is also directed to a hook element for trampolines.
Trampolines are widely used in physiotherapy and in the leisure area.
In the case of so-called mini-trampolines, a distinction is made between trampolines with a spring suspension and a rubber strap ring suspension. In the case of a spring suspension, the jumping sheet is secured to the frame by means of spiral springs. Such a suspension makes considerable acceleration forces available and is thus suitable, in particular, for sports training with high demands on the cardiovascular system.
In the case of a rubber strap ring suspension, one or more elastic straps or strap sections are used, which connect the jumping sheet to the frame. The larger elasticity of such a fastening produces "softer" deceleration of the body and is thus primarily suitable in the case of joint and back problems, in rehabilitation, for relaxation and combating stress and for children.
Only a single elastic strap was originally provided in strap suspensions, see for example DE 299 19912 U1. The strap is wound alternately about the frame of the trampoline and pulled through loops arranged on the underside of the jumping sheet. It has, however, transpired in practice that the known trampoline has disadvantages in operation. Thus the fastening of the jumping sheet to the frame is perceived to be complex. Furthermore, tilting of the jumping sheet with respect to the frame can occur in use. In particular, however, the entire strap must be replaced if only one point on the strap is abraded or worn.
There has therefore been a move to suspending the jumping sheet on a plurality of annular strap sections, which are preferably fastened to the underside of the jumping sheet and are looped around the frame. Such a trampoline is disclosed in, for instance, DE 102 26707 B4 emanating from the applicant. By contrast with the suspension of the jumping sheet with only a single strap, the individual strap suspension combines a number of advantages. Above all, the durability is significantly increased. Furthermore, replaceability is also better (and cheaper). If a strap section is worn, it is simply replaced individually. The other strap sections remain untouched. Finally, the individual strap suspension always ensures correct centering of the jumping sheet.
The individual strap suspension has basically proved to be satisfactory. There is, however, the endeavour to improve the known trampoline. This applies, in particular, with regard to the wear resistance of the suspension.

Trampoline and hook element for trampoline


A constant-pressure operating valve is provided to allow communication between a canister passage connected to a canister and a fuel tank passage connected to a fuel tank and to selectively terminate the communication between them. The constant-pressure operating valve is opened when the internal pressure of the fuel tank exceeds a predetermined value, thereby allowing the fuel vapor in the fuel tank to flow into the canister. Further, when the engine is in operation, the constant-pressure operating valve can be opened, for example, through the action of solenoid, irrespective of the internal pressure of the fuel tank. If the constant-pressure operating valve is opened when the internal pressure of the fuel tank is less than the predetermined value, then the fuel vapor in the fuel tank is drawn into the canister, and so even if the lid of the fuel tank is opened in this condition, the amount of the vapor escaping into the atmosphere is limited.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel vapor control valve device adapted to be fitted between a fuel tank and a canister for storing fuel vapor therein.
2. Description of Related Art
As a valve device of the kind specified, there is known a fuel vapor control valve arrangement comprising a canister passage communicating with a fuel tank, a first communication passage and a second communication passage which connect the canister passage and the fuel tank passage, a constant-pressure operating valve for opening and closing the first communication passage, and a differential pressure operating valve for opening and closing the second communication passage, the arrangement being made such that the constant-pressure operating valve opens the first communication passage when the internal pressure of the fuel tank exceeds a predetermined value, thereby allowing the fuel vapor to flow from the fuel tank into the canister, and the differential pressure operating valve opens the second communication passage only when the internal pressure of the canister becomes higher than that of the fuel tank and the difference between the internal pressure of the canister and that of the fuel tank exceeds a predetermined value, thereby allowing the fuel vapor to flow from the canister back into the fuel tank. Further, the constant-pressure operating valve is of an absolute pressure operating type adapted to be actuated on the basis of the atmospheric pressure wherein its valve body is formed by a diaphragm, one side of which faces the first communication passage and the fuel tank passage, and the other side of which is open to the atmosphere.
In case of the above-mentioned construction, however, the constant-pressure operating valve and the differential pressure operating valve are arranged to be independently and automatically opened and closed in response to change in the internal pressure of the fuel tank. Therefore, when the internal pressure of the fuel tank is less than a predetermined value, there occurs a condition that although the constant-pressure operating valve is closed, the fuel tank is filled with fuel vapor to some degree. If a lid closing a filling port of the fuel tank is opened in this condition, for example, for refuelling purposes, the fuel vapor filling the space in the fuel tank may exhaust into the open air as refuelling proceeds. Hereupon, it becomes necessary to reduce the amount of emission of fuel vapor into the atmosphere in such a case. To achieve this purpose, the fuel in the fuel tank is always sent into the canister irrespective of the internal pressure of the fuel tank until the engine is stopped for refuelling to thereby reduce the amount of fuel vapor remaining in the fuel tank when the lid is opened as far as possible.
To meet the above requirements, the fuel tank passage should communicate with the canister passage by a third communication passage at a place separate from the constant-pressure operating valve and the differential pressure operating valve, and open and close the third communication passage by a third valve which is opened when the engine is in operation. However, provision of such a third communication passage and third valve causes an increase in the number of component parts and also an increase in the size of the entire fuel vapor control valve device because of the need for further extension of the canister passage and the fuel tank passage.
To solve the problems presented above, the invention of this application has for its principal object to always capture fuel vapor in the canister when the engine is in operation without having to provide a third valve separate from the constant-pressure operating valve and the differential pressure operating valve, and for its additional object to avoid an increase in the size of the fuel vapor control valve device in such a case.


A multi-threaded in-order superscalar processor 2 is described having a fetch stage 8 within which thread interleaving circuitry 36 interleaves instructions taken from different program threads to form an interleaved stream of instructions which is then decoded and subject to issue. Hint generation circuitry 62 within the fetch stage 8 adds hint data to the threads indicating that parallel issue of an associated instruction is permitted with one of more other instructions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, this invention relates to the field of instruction issue control, and the processing associated therewith, for multi-threaded in-order superscalar processors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide multi-threaded superscalar processors for reasons including increasing instruction execution throughput. Most known multi-threaded superscalar processors are out-of-order machines such as the Intel Pentium4, IBM Powers and Compaq Alpha 21464 microprocessors. Typically such out-of-order superscalar processors keep separate issue queues for different instruction types, such as branch, ALU and memory access instructions. Instructions that are ready to be issued are issued to the corresponding execution unit from the separate queues. Techniques such as register renaming are used to increase the ability to issue multiple instructions in parallel without generating data hazards and to support the pipelined nature of the execution units. The control of the issue of instructions in such out-of-order systems is highly complex and the issue stage will often comprise a large number of gates, consume considerable power and give rise to speed limiting critical paths. Nevertheless, when maximum instruction execution throughput is the overriding priority, the overhead of supporting such complexities within the issue stage are justified.
It is also possible to apply multi-threaded processing to in-order superscalar processors. Following the program order within each thread, and accordingly accepting the static scheduling of the instructions imposed by the programmer when writing the program, significantly simplifies the overhead associated with the issue stage of the instruction pipeline. Multi-threaded execution using the superscalar execution mechanisms permitting multiple instructions to execute in parallel may nevertheless be supported to increase performance with multiple program threads executing in parallel and the program order being followed within each of those threads. Processors following this model may have a better combination of features such as performance, complexity, cost, power consumption and the like for certain applications, e.g. mobile processing applications where a high power consumption resulting in a short battery life is undesirable. One known multi-threaded in-order superscalar processor is the Porthos network packet processor having 32-thread support and capable of scheduling three instructions to the functional units in parallel. A discussion of the Porthos processor can be found in S. Melvin, M. Nemirovsky, E. Musoll, J. Huynh, R. Milito, H. Urdaneta and K. Saraf, "A Massively Multithreaded Packet Processor", Workshop on Network Processors held in conjunction with The 9th International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture, Feburary 2003.
The Porthos processor issues at most one instruction from one thread at a time and this can adversely impact the overall performance in certain cases. For example, if only one thread is ready to issue instructions at a time, then only one instruction at a time can be issued even though there are two other issue slots available. This simplification in the Porthos processor allows a simplified issue stage to be formed since it reduces the requirement for data hazard checking and other forms of checking and the control necessary when more aggressive issue is performed in a manner seeking to increase performance by issuing as many instructions as possible in parallel even when they may originate from the same thread and accordingly require significant data hazard and other checking before issue.
It is desirable to maintain the simplicity and speed of a multi-threaded in-order superscalar processor relative to the out-of-order processors. Nevertheless, it is desirable to be able to support relatively aggressive instruction issue control so as to increase instruction throughput whilst not rendering the issue stage within the instruction pipeline a performance limiting part of the overall design, such as by introducing one or more critical paths within a complex issue stage capable of supporting aggressive instruction issue control. Furthermore, reducing the circuit overhead associated with instruction issue control whilst still achieving a good degree of performance is desirable.

Instruction issue control within a multi-threaded in-order superscalar processor


A workpiece regrasping system for a robot. The system includes a manipulator grippable a workpiece; a deck member having a deck surface on which a workpiece is placeable; a support mechanism rotatably supporting the deck member about an axis parallel to the deck surface; a workpiece-orientation control section for controlling the manipulator so as to grip a workpiece at a first point of the workpiece and to bring the workpiece into abutment with the deck surface of the deck member, and configured to displace the workpiece together with the deck member about the axis, while maintaining a mutually abutted condition, until the workpiece occupies a desired orientation, with at least a part of a weight of the workpiece being carried on the deck surface; and a regrasping control section for controlling the manipulator so as to temporarily release the workpiece placed on the deck surface in the desired orientation and to regrasp the workpiece at a second point different from the first point. The workpiece-orientation control section may control an operation of the manipulator, or control a rotational drive section for the deck member, while maintaining the workpiece in abutment with the deck surface, to displace the workpiece to the desired orientation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a workpiece regrasping system for a robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a configuration wherein a robot performs handling of a workpiece, there is a case, as in the orientation of a workpiece which should be gripped or held by a hand (or a workpiece orientation), where the workpiece orientation desired by the robot does not coincide with an actual workpiece orientation provided at an actual working site (such as, the orientation of the workpiece placed on a predetermined jig, or the orientation of the workpiece fed from a machine tool). For example, in an operation for picking up a workpiece by a hand and placing it on a pallet, such an inconvenience may occur that an actual workpiece orientation just before a picking-up step is different from a desired workpiece orientation on a pallet on which the workpiece is placed (e.g., the difference of a 90° orientation, between the vertical and horizontal orientations of a rectangular parallelepiped body).
In such a case, it is required for the robot to perform the handling of the workpiece (e.g., the transfer of the workpiece to the pallet) after the actual workpiece orientation is changed to the desired workpiece orientation. If the workpiece is light in weight, it is possible for the robot performing a handling operation to previously change the actual workpiece orientation to the desired workpiece orientation by the handling operation and then to pick up the workpiece placed in the desired orientation. However, if the workpiece is heavy, such as a large-sized motor or an engine component, the handling operation for changing the workpiece orientation generally applies an excessively large load to a wrist of the robot, so that it is difficult, in practice, for the robot to change the workpiece orientation. Conventionally, simple and effective countermeasures against this problem have not yet been proposed.


Performance of a storage system with data distributed substantially, evenly across a cluster of storage nodes can be dynamically managed according whether quality of service (QoS) rules based on one or more performance capacities according to performance class is satisfied, wherein each QoS rule includes a boundary condition and a threshold expressing performance guarantees to a respective performance class. Determining for each QoS rule, whether a respective boundary condition satisfies a respective threshold based on measured capacity for a performance metric corresponding to the respective boundary condition; and if so, setting a first QoS parameter associated with the set of QoS rules and throttling access to the storage system by a first client associated with a first performance class based on the first QoS parameter to enforce the performance guarantees to the first performance class.

The following description is provided to assist the understanding of the reader. None of the information provided is admitted to be prior art.
In data storage architectures, a client's data may be stored in a volume. Typically, the volume's data resides on a small percentage of drives in a storage cluster. This arrangement leads to issues of hot spots where portions of the cluster are over-utilized while other portions of the cluster are under-utilized. For example, if a client is performing a large number of accesses of data in the volume, the load attributed to the small percentage of drives in which the data is stored increases, resulting in a hot spot. This arrangement may result in a client experience that is inconsistent across all volumes of the cluster as some clients may experience good performance if their data is stored on portions that are under-utilized and some clients experience poor performance if their data is stored on over-utilized portions.
One way of attempting to provide a better client experience is using quality of service based on client prioritization. For example, clients may be assigned different priority levels. Based on these priority levels, access requests (e.g., read and write requests) for various clients are prioritized. Clients' access requests are dispatched based on the load of the cluster and a priority assigned to each client. For example, a client having a higher priority may have more access requests processed than another client having a lower priority during times when the cluster is experiencing higher load. Using the priority system only allows for a slightly better client experience. For example, priorities do not guarantee a specific, consistent level of performance and are based on the idea that the cluster is dividing its full performance among all clients all the time. One reason for this is that a single client's effects on performance of the cluster are not capped, when the system is stressed, the system always runs slow regardless of how many customers are on the system since it is still running prioritized. Prioritization also makes it difficult for customer to understand the actual performance they are receiving, because prioritization does not extend an understandable idea to customers of the actual performance the customers are getting. Also, prioritization does not allow administrators to control how the system supports multiple customers and how the customers drive the system to load.

Rule-based performance class access management for storage cluster performance guarantees


A control method of a memory device including a storage area formed of a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, includes updating a file stored in the storage area by using a file system which supports an incremental write method, recording, in the storage area, an allocation table representing a correlation between a logical address indicating a recording position of the file and a virtual address representing a virtual recording position of the file and management information of the allocation table, and recording position information representing a recording position of the management information in a position information area of the storage area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory device and a control method thereof and, more particularly, to a memory device having a nonvolatile semiconductor memory and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Memory cards including a flash memory that is as a kind of nonvolatile semiconductor memory are used as music data or video data recording media. As the file system of the memory card, for example, a file allocation table (FAT) file system is used. The FAT file system assumes a medium capable of high-speed random rewriting such as a hard disk. In random writing, data is written at random in a free sector independently of the addresses of sectors (units of write areas recognized by the file system).
A typical example of a flash memory used in a memory card is a NAND flash memory. A NAND flash memory can erase data only in blocks. One block includes a plurality of write units, i.e., pages. To rewrite only part of data recorded in a block, it is necessary to write new data to rewrite old data in a new erased block and copy non-rewritten data from the old block containing the old data (data to be rewritten to the new data) to the new block. This process is called a "move-write (collateral copy)". The move-write is done by copying non-rewritten data. Hence, frequent occurrence of a move-write greatly increases the overhead.
In the FAT file system, FAT data is rewritten every time file cluster data is rewritten. For this reason, if the FAT file system is employed as a file system to manage a NAND flash memory, a move-write occurs every time cluster data is rewritten, resulting in lower file rewrite speed.
An associated technique is disclosed, which efficiency manages data stored a block-erase-type flash memory (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-143764).

Memory device and control method thereof