A system and method for emulating SCSI reservations using network file access protocols is provided. The system and method enable applications or operating systems on a networked computer designed to utilize SCSI reservations on only locally attached storage to also access networked data storage. The emulation occurs transparently to higher levels of operating systems or applications so that the applications or operating systems which are designed to only access locally attached storage may be enabled to access networked storage.

Data communication in a computer network involves the exchange of data between two or more entities interconnected by communication links. These entities are typically software programs executing on hardware computer systems that include locally attached storage devices. Depending on their roles within the network, these computer systems may serve as intermediate network nodes or end nodes. Examples of end nodes may include client and server systems coupled to a communication link, such as a point-to-point link, shared local area network, wide area network or virtual private network implemented over a public network, such as the Internet.
A server is a computer configured to provide specific services. When operating according to a client/server model of information delivery, the server may be configured to allow many clients to access its services. In this model, the client may comprise an application executing on an operating system that "connects" to the server over the computer network. Each client may request the services of the server by issuing protocol messages (in the form of packets) to the server over the network. The server then responds to the client request by returning the requested services in the form of packets transported over the network.
A filer is a server configured to provide file service relating to the organization of information on storage devices, such as disks. The filer may be embodied as a storage system including a storage operating system that implements a file system to logically organize the information as a hierarchical structure of directories and files on the disks. Each "on-disk" file may be implemented as a set of disk blocks configured to store information, such as data, whereas the directory may be implemented as a specially formatted file in which information about other files and directories are stored.
An example of an application running on a client is the Microsoft® Exchange application available from Microsoft Corporation, of Redmond, Wash. Microsoft Exchange is a messaging and collaboration software product that provides a variety of applications for group interaction using networked computer systems. An Exchange application can run on a variety of operating systems including, for example, the Microsoft Windows® NT™ or Microsoft Windows® 2000 operating system. A file system designed for use with the NT or Windows 2000 operating system is the NT file system (NTFS). In NTFS, each unit of information associated with a file, including its name, its owner, its time stamps and its data contents, is implemented as a file attribute. Both files and directories have attributes, wherein each attribute consists of a single stream or sequence of bytes. This implementation facilitates the addition of more attributes, including data content attributes, to a file. The NTFS file system is well-known and further described in Inside the Windows NT File System by Helen Custer, Microsoft Press, 1994.
The conventional Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) protocol is a block access protocol configured to access storage devices (disks). Many computer systems use the SCSI protocol to access data on storage devices locally attached to the systems. Many systems also support facilities adapted to access network attached storage through file access protocols, such as the Network File System (NFS) and Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocols. Applications running on a client system can access files contained on either locally attached or network attached storage.
There are differences, however, in the interpretation of data that is exchanged using block access protocols compared to file access protocols. A block access protocol, such as the SCSI protocol, "assumes" that the storage device is composed of a sequence of blocks, each containing either data or available space for storing data. Requests for retrieving (reading) or storing (writing) data contain references for block numbers and data lengths. As a result, an application issuing a SCSI request (i.e., a SCSI requester) must have knowledge of the metadata mapping between the desired data and the physical location of that data on the storage device.
In contrast, file access protocols assume that the server contains a file system on which file data is stored. The file system generally refers to structuring of data and metadata on storage devices, such as disks, which permits reading/writing of data on those disks. The file system also includes mechanisms for performing these operations. While different file access protocols provide different semantics, each protocol fundamentally provides access to file system constructs, such as directories and files. The file server is responsible for mapping the files to its storage system.
A filer generally provides higher data capacity, data storage speed and data access speed than disks locally attached to a client. It is therefore often desirable for a client system to utilize a filer for networked data storage. However, some applications running on a client are unable to utilize networked data storage because the file system operations provided by the file access protocol may not fully match the operations provided by the file system residing on the client. For example, some operations that are available on the NTFS file system used with the Windows 2000 operating system are not available over the CIFS protocol. One solution that allows those applications that require block-based file systems is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/188,250, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,584,279 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAPPING BLOCK-BASED FILE OPERATIONS TO FILE LEVEL PROTOCOLS, by Dennis E; Chapman, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
While generally, only one host computer is connected to a SCSI bus, it is possible for multiple controllers to be interconnected to a SCSI bus. Additionally, as the SCSI protocol operates across multiple forms of networks, such as Fibre Channel, Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocols, and InfiniBand, shared access to SCSI storage is widely implemented. Whenever this shared access occurs, there is a possibility of multiple controllers contending for the disks or other resources on the SCSI bus. To allow multiple hosts to coordinate their access to a shared storage device, the SCSI protocol includes a reserve and release mechanism that allows hosts to establish, release, or revoke exclusive access to a specific SCSI device. This exclusivity allows limited write access to the storage device and optionally, limited read access to the storage device as well. These SCSI reservations and their attributes are described in further detail in SCSI-3 Primary Commands published by the American National Standards Institute, Inc., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Many clustering systems use SCSI reservations for synchronization within the cluster. For example, the Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) uses SCSI reservations to determine which system should be the cluster master. MSCS does this by relying on one system being able to require a SCSI reservation on a shared disk (the quorum disk). A Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server System that is bidding to be a master of a MSCS cluster attempts to acquire a SCSI shared read reservation on the quorum disk. If the system acquires the reservation, then it succeeds in becoming the cluster master, however if it fails to obtain a SCSI reservation, then another system is the master of the cluster.
As described above, a file server or filer generally provides higher data capacity, data storage speed and data access speed than disks locally attached to a client. However, file servers may prefer to use a file-based protocol, such as the Network File System (NFS) protocol, and are therefore, incompatible with a cluster requiring directly attached SCSI disks. Consequently, such a file server cannot be reserved using SCSI reservations, and therefore can not be utilized with cluster products that employ SCSI reservation semantics, such as the Microsoft Clustering System.
While the above-described patent application, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAPPING BLOCK-BASED FILE OPERATIONS TO FILE LEVEL PROTOCOLS, describes a SCSI block-based system and method for mapping a read and write operations to a file level protocol, a reliable methodology for allowing SCSI reservations to be utilized with a file server attached to a clustering system is required.

System and method for emulating SCSI reservations using network file access protocols


During connection setup with a first radio access network, a multimode mobile station sends an unprotected initial signaling message that includes information about those encryption algorithms that the multimode mobile station supports when it communicates in a second radio access network. The first radio access network saves some or all the information. Then it composes and sends an integrity-protected message that includes information about the encryption algorithms supported by the multimode mobile station in the second radio access network.

A third generation mobile communications system is in Europe named UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). It is a part of the International Telecommunications Union's IMT-2000 system. UMTS/IMT-2000 is global wireless multimedia system which provides higher transmission speed (2 Mbit/s) than the existing mobile networks.
FIG. 1 shows with a simplified block diagram a GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network and a UMTS network. The main parts of the network are user terminals 100 and a network part that comprises the GSM base station subsystem BSS 105 and the UMTS terrestrial radio access network UTRAN 101 (which is a wideband multiple access radio network currently being specified in the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project)) and a core network CN 104. The radio interface between a user terminal and the UTRAN is called Uu and the interface between the UTRAN and the 3G core network is called Iu. The interface between the GSM base station subsystem BSS and general packet radio service GPRS core network is called Gb and interface between the GSM base station subsystem BSS and GSM core networks is called A. The user terminals can be multi-mode terminals, which can operate using at least two radio access technologies, in this example UMTS and GSM. The UTRAN consists of a radio network subsystems RNS 102 that further consists of radio network controller RNC 103 and one or more nodes B (not shown in FIG. 1). An interface between two RNS is called Iur. The interface between the user terminal and the GSM base station subsystem BSS is simply called "Radio Interface". The GSM base station subsystem BSS consists of the base station controllers BSC 106 and the base transceiver stations BTS 107. The core network nodes, e.g. the (GSM) Mobile Switching Center MSC and the (GPRS) serving GPRS support node SGSN, can be capable of controlling both types of radio access networks—UTRAN and BSS. Another possible network configuration is such that each radio access network (UTRAN and BSS) has its own controlling core network node, MSC and SGSN, respectively—2G MSC, 2G SGSN and 3G MSC, 3G SGSN—but all these core network elements are connected to one and the same home location register HLR (not shown in FIG. 1), which contains all static user information, e.g. the billing of users can be controlled from one location even when the user terminals are able to operate via several different radio access networks.
The radio interface protocols which are needed to set up, reconfigure and release the radio bearer services are discussed shortly in the following. The radio interface protocol architecture in the access stratum consists of three different protocol layers which are from top to bottom: the radio network layer (L3), the data link layer (L2), and the physical layer (L1). The protocol entities in these layers are the following. The radio network layer consists of only one protocol, which in the UMTS radio interface is called RRC (Radio Recourse Control) and in the 2G GSM radio interface is called RR (Radio Resource protocol). The data link layer consists of several protocols in the UMTS radio interface called PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol), BMC (Broadcast Multicast Control protocol), RLC (Radio Link Control protocol), and MAC (Medium Access Control protocol). In the GSM/GPRS radio interface, the layer 2 protocols are LLC (Logical Link Control), LAPDm (Link Access Protocol on the Dm channel), RLC (Radio Link Control), and MAC (Medium Access Control protocol). The physical layer is only one 'protocol', which has no specific name. All the mentioned radio interface protocols are specific for each radio access technique, which means that they are different for the GSM radio interface and the UMTS Uu interface, for example.
In the UMTS, the RRC layer offers services to higher layers i.e. to a non access stratum NAS via service access points which are used by the higher protocols in the user terminal side and by the Iu RANAP (Radio Access Network Application Part) protocol in the UTRAN side. All higher layer signaling (mobility management, call control, session management, etc.) is encapsulated into RRC messages for transmission over the radio interface.
All telecommunication is subject to the problem of how to make sure that the information received has been sent by an authorized sender and not by somebody who is trying to masquerade as the sender. The problem is particularly evident in cellular telecommunication systems, where the air interface presents an excellent platform for eavesdropping and replacing the contents of a transmission by using higher transmission levels, even from a distance. A basic solution to this problem is the authentication of the communicating parties. An authentication process aims to discover and check the identity of both the communicating parties, so that each party receives information about the identity of the other party and can rely on the identification to a sufficient degree. Authentication is typically performed in a specific procedure at the beginning of the connection. However, this does not adequately protect subsequent messages from unauthorized manipulation, insertion, and deletion. Thus, there is a need for the separate authentication of each transmitted message. The latter task can be carried out by appending a message authentication code (MAC-I) to the message at the transmitting end and checking the MAC-I value at the receiving end.
A MAC-I is typically a relatively short string of bits based in some specified way on the message it protects and on a secret key known both by the sender and by the recipient of the message. The secret key is generated and agreed on typically in connection with the authentication procedure at the beginning of the connection. In some cases the algorithm that is used to calculate the MAC-I based on the secret key and on the message is also secret, but this is not usually the case.
The process of authentication of single messages is often called integrity protection. To protect the integrity of signaling, the transmitting party computes a MAC-I value based on the message to be sent and the secret key using the specified algorithm, and sends the message with the MAC-I value. The receiving party recomputes a MAC-I value based on the message and the secret key according to the specified algorithm, and compares the received MAC-I and the calculated MAC-I. If the two MAC-I values match, the recipient can trust that the message is intact and has been sent by the authorized party.
FIG. 2 illustrates the computation of a message authentication code in the UTRAN. The length of the MAC-I used in UTRAN is 32 bits.
The UMTS integrity algorithm used in block 200 is a one-way cryptographic function for calculating the Message Authentication Code (MAC-I) based on the input parameters shown in FIG. 2. The one-way function means that it is impossible to derive the unknown input parameters from a MAC-I, even if all but one input parameter are known.
The input parameters for calculating the MAC-I are the actual signaling message (after encoding) to be sent, a secret integrity key, a sequence number COUNT-I for the message to be integrity protected, a value indicating the direction of transmission, i.e. whether the message is sent in uplink (from the user terminal to the network) or downlink (from the network to the user terminal) direction, and a random number (FRESH) generated by the network. COUNT-I is composed of a short sequence number SN and a long sequence number called hyper frame number HFN. Only the short sequence number is normally sent with the message; the HFN is updated locally at each communicating party.
The computing block 200 calculates the message authentication code by applying the afore-mentioned parameters to the integrity algorithm, which is called f9 algorithm in 3GPP Release'99 specifications. It is possible that more algorithms will be available in future releases of new specifications. Before integrity protection is started, the user terminal informs the network, which integrity algorithms it supports, and the network then selects one of these algorithms to be used for the connection. A similar mechanism regarding the supported algorithms is also used for the ciphering.
FIG. 3 illustrates a message to be sent over e.g. a radio interface. The message is a layer N protocol data unit (PDU) 300, which is transferred as a payload in layer N−1 PDU 301. In the present example, layer N represents the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol in the radio interface and layer N−1 represents the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer. The layer N−1 PDU normally has a fixed size, which depends on the physical layer (the lowest layer, not visible in FIG. 2) channel type used and on the parameters, e.g. modulation, channel coding, interleaving. If layer N PDUs are not exactly the size of the payload offered by layer N−1 as is normally the case, layer N-1 can utilize functions like segmentation, concatenation, and padding to make layer N−1 PDUs always a fixed size. In the present application we are concentrating on a layer N PDU consisting of the actual signaling data and the Integrity Check Info. The Integrity Check Info consists of the MAC-I and the message sequence number SN needed at the peer end for the recalculation of MAC-I. The total length of the message is then a combination of the signaling data bits and the Integrity Check Info bits.
FIG. 4 illustrates intersystem handover from a radio access network to a GSM base station subsystem. For simplicity only one mobile switching center is shown in the FIG. 4. Actually it consists of a GSM (2G or second generation) mobile switching center MSC and a UMTS (3G or third generation) mobile switching center, which may be physically either one or two separate MSC's. Interaction between these two mobile switching centers (if they would be two separate entities) is not essential in view of the actual invention and therefore it is not described in the following.
At the beginning, a connection exists between the user terminal and the radio access network, which in this particular example is a UTRAN. Based on various parameters, e.g. the neighboring cell load information, measurements from the user terminal, and the existence of GSM cells in the nearby geographical area as well as existence of the user terminal capabilities (to support also GSM mode), the radio access network may initiate an intersystem handover to base station subsystem BSS. First, the UTRAN requests the user terminal to start intersystem measurements on GSM carriers by sending a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message 400 containing intersystem specific parameters. When the criteria (as described in the MEASUREMENT CONTROL message) to send a measurement report is fulfilled, the user terminal sends a MEASUREMENT REPORT(s) 401. Intersystem handover decision is then made at the UTRAN. After the decision a serving radio network controller SRNC, which is located in the UTRAN, sends a RELOCATION REQUIRED 402 message through Iu interface to the mobile switching center (3G MSC). Once after receiving, the message the mobile switching center (2G MSC) sends a HANDOVER REQUEST message 403 to a target base station subsystem, containing information, such as the ciphering algorithm and ciphering key to be used for the connection, and the MS classmark information, indicating, for example, which ciphering algorithms are supported by the user terminal. Thus, it is possible that either the mobile switching center MSC selects the ciphering algorithm and indicates only the selected algorithm to the base station subsystem BSS, or that the mobile switching center MSC sends a list of possible ciphering algorithms to the base station subsystem BSS, which then makes the final selection. The MS classmark information was sent by the user terminal to the mobile switching center MSC at the beginning of the (UMTS) connection. It is also possible that the MS classmark information is sent from the user terminal to the UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) at the beginning of the (UMTS) connection. When an inter-system handover from UMTS to GSM is triggered, the MS classmark information is forwarded from UTRAN to MSC. When a GSM base station controller receives the message it makes reservation from the indicated GSM cell and responds by sending back a HANDOVER REQUEST ACK message 404 indicating that the requested handover at the base station subsystem BSS can be supported and also to which radio channel(s) the user terminal should be directed. The HANDOVER REQUEST ACK 404 also indicates that the requested handover algorithm has been accepted, or, if the HANDOVER REQUEST 403 contained several algorithms, which handover algorithm has been selected. If the base station subsystem BSS is not able to support any of the indicated ciphering algorithms, it returns a HANDOVER FAILURE message (instead of 404) and the mobile switching center MSC indicates failure of the handover to the UTRAN. At stage 405, the mobile switching center (3G MSC) responds with a RELOCATION COMMAND message over the Iu interface to the message sent at stage 402 from the serving radio network controller located in the UTRAN. The RELOCATION COMMAND carries in a payload e.g. the information about the target GSM channels together with the cipher mode information. The UTRAN commands the user terminal to execute the handover by sending an INTERSYSTEM HANDOVER COMMAND 406 message including channel information for the target GSM. In addition, other information may be included, such as the GSM cipher mode setting information, which indicates at least the ciphering algorithm to be used in the GSM connection. After having switched to the assigned GSM channels, the mobile station normally sends four times the HANDOVER ACCESS message 407 in four successive layer 1 frames on the main DCCH. These messages are sent in GSM access bursts, which are not ciphered. In some situations it may not be necessary to send these HANDOVER ACCESS messages, if so indicated in the INTERSYSTEM HANDOVER COMMAND 406. The terminal may receive a PHYSICAL INFORMATION 408 message as a response to the HANDOVER ACCESS messages. The PHYSICAL INFORMATION message contains only the GSM Timing Advance information. Reception of a PHYSICAL INFORMATION message causes the terminal to stop sending access bursts. The HANDOVER ACCESS messages, if used, trigger the GSM base station controller in the base station system to inform about the situation to the mobile switching center (2G) with a HANDOVER DETECT message 409.
After lower layer connections are successfully established, the mobile station returns a HANDOVER COMPLETE 410 message to the GSM base station subsystem on the main DCCH. When receiving the HANDOVER COMPLETE message 410, the network releases the old channels, in this example the UTRAN channels. In FIG. 4, three messages from this release procedure are shown, although in reality many other messages between network elements, which are not shown in FIG. 4, would be needed. These three messages are first the HANDOVER COMPLETE message 411 from GSM base station subsystem to the mobile switching center, then a IU RELEASE COMMAND 412 through Iu interface to the UTRAN or more accurately to the serving radio network controller. The third message is the IU RELEASE COMPLETE message 413.
The ciphering key to be used after the intersystem handover is derived with a conversion function from the ciphering key used in UTRAN before the handover. This conversion function exists both in the mobile station and in the mobile switching center, thus no extra procedures over the radio interface are needed. As described above, the GSM ciphering algorithm to be used after the intersystem handover is selected either by the MSC or by the BSS and informed to the mobile station (in messages 405 and 406). The GSM Ciphering algorithm capability (included in the GSM MS classmark information elements) is in current specifications transparent to the UTRAN. However, the GSM MS classmark information elements are sent from the mobile station to UTRAN during the RRC Connection Establishment procedure, to be later forwarded to the core network during the inter-system handover to GSM.
FIG. 5 is a signaling diagram showing the basic connection setup and security mode setup procedure used in the 3GPP UTRAN. FIG. 5 shows only the most important signaling between a mobile station and a serving radio network controller residing in the radio access network on the one hand and the serving radio network controller and a mobile switching center or a serving GPRS support node on the other.
Establishment of a radio resource control (RRC) connection between the mobile station and the serving radio network controller is performed through Uu interface 500. During RRC connection establishment, the mobile station may transfer information such as the user equipment security capability and the START values, which are required for the ciphering and integrity protection algorithms. The user equipment security capability includes information about the supported (UMTS) ciphering algorithms and (UMTS) integrity algorithms. All the values mentioned above are stored for later use in the serving radio network controller at stage 501. Also the GSM Classmark information (MS Classmark 2 and MS Classmark 3) is transmitted from the mobile station to UTRAN during RRC connection establishment, and it can be stored for later use in the serving radio network controller.
Next the mobile station sends an initial higher layer message 502 (which can be e.g. CM SERVICE REQUEST, LOCATION UPDATING REQUEST or CM RE-ESTABLISHMENT REQUEST) via the serving radio network controller through a Iu interface to the mobile switching center, including e.g. the user identity, a key set identifier KSI and the MS classmark indicating, for example, the supported GSM ciphering algorithms when intersystem handover to the GSM is initialized. The network initiates authentication procedure which also leads to generation of new security keys 503. Next, the network decides the set of UMTS Integrity Algorithms UIAs and UMTS Encryption Algorithms UEAs from which the UIA and UEA for this connection has to be selected 504. Then, at stage 505, the mobile switching center sends a SECURITY MODE COMMAND message to the serving radio network controller, in which it informs the used ciphering key CK, integrity key IK, and the set of permissible UIAs and UEAs.
On the basis of the user equipment security capabilities stored at stage 501 and the list of possible UIAs and UEAs received from the mobile switching center at stage 505, the serving radio network controller selects the algorithms to be used during the connection. It also generates a random value FRESH to be used as input parameter for the integrity algorithm (FIG. 2) and for the ciphering algorithm. It also starts deciphering and the integrity protection 506.
A first integrity protected message SECURITY MODE COMMAND 507 is sent through the radio interface from the serving radio network controller to the mobile station. The message includes the selected UIA and UEA together with the UE FRESH parameter to be used. In addition, the SECURITY MODE COMMAND contains the same UE security capability which was received from the user equipment during the RRC connection establishment 500. The reason for replaying this information back to UE is to give the user equipment a possibility to check that the network has received this information correctly. This mechanism is necessary, since the messages sent during RRC connection establishment 500 are not ciphered nor integrity protected. A message authentication code MAC-I, used for the integrity protection, is attached to the SECURITY MODE COMMAND message 507.
At stage 508 the mobile station compares whether the received UE security capability is same as that which has been sent during the RRC connection establishment procedure 500. If the two UE security capabilities match, the mobile station can trust that the network has received the security capability correctly. Otherwise, the UE releases the RRC connection and enters idle mode.
If comparison is successful the mobile station responds with a SECURITY MODE COMPLETE message 509. This is also an integrity protected message; thus before sending this message the mobile station generates the MAC-I for the message.
When the serving radio network controller receives the message it verifies it, at stage 510, first by calculating the expected message authentication code XMAC-I and then comparing the calculated XMAC-I with the received MAC-I. If the values match, the serving radio network controller sends a SECURITY MODE COMPLETE message 511 to the mobile switching center including e.g. information of the selected UIA and UEA.
In the UTRAN radio interface integrity protection is a function of the radio recourse control protocol between the user terminal and the radio network controller. All higher layer signaling is integrity protected by the radio resource control protocol layer because all higher layer signaling is carried as a payload in specific radio recourse control messages (e.g. INITIAL DIRECT TRANSFER, UPLINK DIRECT TRANSFER, DOWNLINK DIRECT TRANSFER). The problem is that no authentication can be performed before the first higher layer message is sent, which is carried in the INITIAL DIRECT TRANSFER. This leads to a situation where the very first higher layer i.e. the non-access stratum message 502 cannot be integrity protected.
A major problem arises from the fact that integrity protection is not yet in effect when the first messages are sent during RRC Connection Establishment (step 500 in the FIG. 5). Without integrity protection there is always a risk that an intruder changes the encryption algorithm information included in the messages at step 500 into the value "GSM encryption algorithms not available". In the case of GSM, the core network receives this information with the mobile station classmark CM information elements (CM2 and CM3) that are included in the RELOCATION REQUIRED message (message 402 in FIG. 4). When the user equipment carries out an intersystem handover, e.g. from the UTRAN to the GSM base station subsystem BSS (FIG. 4) the mobile switching center recognizes that the UE does not support any GSM ciphering algorithms and must set up the connection in the GSM BSS with no ciphering. Now it is easy to the intruder to start eavesdropping of the call.

System for ensuring encrypted communication after handover


Improved methods and structures for testing of SAS components, in situ, in a SAS domain. A first SAS component is adapted to generate stimuli such as error conditions to elicit a response to the error condition from a second SAS component coupled to the first in the intended SAS domain configuration. In one aspect, a SAS device controller generates stimuli applied to a SAS expander coupled thereto and verifies proper response from the SAS expander. In another aspect, a SAS expander generates stimuli applied to a SAS device controller coupled thereto and verifies proper response from the SAS device controller. Stimuli may be generated by custom circuits or firmware/software within the first component. Vendor specific SAS SMP transactions may be used to cause the first component to enter the special verification mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to serial attached SCSI ("SAS") domains and more specifically to testing of responses to stimuli applied to SAS device controllers or SAS expanders.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Small Computer Systems Interface ("SCSI") is a set of American National Standards Institute ("ANSI") standard electronic interface specification that allow, for example, computers to communicate with peripheral hardware. Common SCSI compatible peripheral devices may include: disk drives, tape drives, Compact Disc-Read Only Memory ("CD-ROM") drives, printers and scanners. SCSI as originally created included both a command/response data structure specification and an interface and protocol standard for a parallel bus structure for attachment of devices. SCSI has evolved from exclusively parallel interfaces to include both parallel and serial interfaces. "SCSI" is now generally understood as referring either to the communication transport media (parallel bus structures and various serial transports) or to a plurality of primary commands common to most devices and command sets to meet the needs of specific device types as well as a variety of interface standards and protocols.
The collection of primary commands and other command sets may be used with SCSI parallel interfaces as well as with serial interfaces. The serial interface transport media standards that support SCSI command processing include: Fibre Channel, Serial Bus Protocol (used with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1394 FireWire physical protocol; "IEEE 1394") and the Serial Storage Protocol (SSP).
SCSI interface transports and commands are also used to interconnect networks of storage devices with processing devices. For example, serial SCSI transport media and protocols such as Serial Attached SCSI ("SAS") and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment ("SATA") may be used in such networks. These applications are often referred to as storage networks. Those skilled in the art are familiar with SAS and SATA standards as well as other SCSI related specifications and standards. Information about such interfaces and commands is generally obtainable at the website http://www.t10.org.
Such SCSI storage networks are often used in large storage systems having a plurality of disk drives to store data for organizations and/or businesses. The network architecture allows storage devices to be physically dispersed in an enterprise while continuing to directly support SCSI commands directly. This architecture allows for distribution of the storage components in an enterprise without the need for added overhead in converting storage requests from SCSI commands into other network commands and then back into lower level SCSI storage related commands.
A SAS network typically comprises one or more SAS initiators coupled to one or more SAS targets often via one or more SAS expanders. In general, as is common in all SCSI communications, SAS initiators initiate communications with SAS targets. The expanders expand the number of ports of a SAS network domain used to interconnect SAS initiators and SAS targets (collectively referred to as SAS devices or SAS device controllers).
It is a particular problem to thoroughly test SAS device controllers and SAS expanders as regards the full complement of possible responses to command, status or data exchanges and associated anomalous conditions. For example, it is a particular difficulty to verify proper operation of a SAS device controller or SAS expander in response to certain anomalous communication conditions such as BREAK, BROADCAST, and NAK conditions, or CRC errors, or invalid protocols or packets, etc.
Prior techniques address this testing dilemma through external SAS emulators to generate a variety of stimuli including anomalous conditions and SAS analyzers to detect and verify the response from the SAS device controller or SAS expander under test. An exemplary SAS emulator may be programmed by a user to generate particular desired sequences and apply the desired sequences as a stimulus to the attached SAS expander or SAS device controller. The response generated may then be captured and analyzed to verify proper operation. Though the emulation and analyzer features may be integrated in a single test component, such external SAS analyzers and emulators can be costly devices. Furthermore, coupling an external test component to the SAS device controller or SAS expander under test may induce undesirable characteristics into the system under test. Since the external SAS analyzer or emulator must couple into the transport media coupled to the SAS device controller or SAS expander under test, by definition the analysis and testing is not performed in a real world environment in which the system may be normally configured.
It is evident from the above discussion that a need exists for improved testing of SAS device controllers and SAS expanders in an environment more closely resembling real world application environments in which the SAS device controller or SAS expander may be configured.

Methods and structure for testing responses from SAS device controllers or expanders


A system for reminding a user to remove a credit card from a credit card machine is provided. Such system includes a credit card machine for recording information stored on a credit card. Further provided is a mechanism for producing sound upon the actuation thereof. Finally, a trigger assembly is connected to the credit card machine for actuating the mechanism for producing sound when the information of the credit card is read.

1. Related Disclosure Document
This invention set forth in this application was first disclosed to the United States Patent Office Jan. 13, 1997 by way of a disclosure document under the title CARDMINDER and assigned number 411022. The present invention was further disclosed to the United States Patent Office Feb. 10, 1997 by way of a disclosure document under the title EASYPICK and assigned number 415414.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for reminding a user to remove a credit card from a credit card machine and more particularly pertains to producing an audible sound while a credit card is situated within a credit card machine and further facilitating the removal thereof.
3. Description of the Prior Art
The use of credit card machines is known in the prior art. More specifically, credit card machines heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of manually registering credit cards are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
In this respect, the system for reminding a user to remove a credit card from a credit card machine according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of producing an audible sound while a credit card is situated within a credit card machine and further facilitating the removal thereof.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved system for reminding a user to remove a credit card from a credit card machine which can be used for producing an audible sound while a credit card is situated within a credit card machine and further facilitating the removal thereof. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.

System for reminding a user to remove a credit card from a credit card machine


In an improved construction of a memory device, the memory device includes a first group of pins via which a command/address signals are received and via which data signals are received, and a second group of pins via which the command/address signals are received and via which data signals are output. When the data signals are input to the first group of pins, the command/address signals are received via the second group of pins. When the data signals are output from the second group of pins, the command/address signals are received via the first group of pins.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, to data input/output pins and command and address input pins of a memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional semiconductor memory device such as a DRAM includes address pins A, command pins C, and pins DQ via which data is input or output.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional memory device 100. The conventional memory device 100 includes a memory core 101, a write/read pipeline unit 103, a command and address decoder (command/address decoder) 105, a clock buffer 107, and an input/output (I/O) buffer 115. The I/O buffer 115 includes a data input buffer 109, a command and address input buffer 111, and a data output buffer 113. The I/O buffer 115 further includes a plurality of command and address input pins 117 connected to the command and address (command/address) input buffer 111, chip selection (CS) pins 119 connected to the command and address decoder 105, data I/O (DQ) pins 121 connected to the data input buffer 109 and the data output buffer 115, and a clock input (CLK) pin 123 through which a clock signal is input to the conventional memory device 100.
In the conventional memory device 100, the command and address input pins (command/address pins) 117 are separated from the data input pins 121. That is, the command and address input pins 117 are used to receive and transmit only external command and address signals, and the data I/O pins 121 are used to receive and output only data.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the conventional memory device 100 selectively performs exclusively a read operation or a write operation at a specific instant in time. That is, the conventional memory device 100 is not capable of receiving data simultaneously with outputting data via the data I/O pins 121 at a specific instant in time.
Of course, both the read and write operations can be simultaneously performed in response to a proper combination of commands in the conventional memory device 100. However, since inputting of data to the I/O pins 121 for the read operation is not performed concurrently with outputting of data from the data I/O pins 121 for the read operation, the write operation must be performed following the read operation, or the read operation must be performed following the write operation. In other words, the data I/O pins 121 experience a time gap between the write operation and the read operation during which they are dormant. In the conventional memory device 100, after one of the read operation and the write operation is completed, the other can be performed, and thus, the switching between read and write operations can have a negative effect on data processing speed and overall system efficiency.
To increase the speed of inputting/outputting data, it has been suggested that the data I/O pins DQ be divided into data input pins D and data output pins Q and that they be configured independently of each other so as to receive and output data via different pins. In this case, since data is received and output using different signal lines, the time difference between data input and data output operations is reduced, thereby enabling the memory device 100 to very effectively process the data. However, since all command and address input pins, data output pins, and data input pins are required, that is, a large number of pins are required, such a configuration leads to semiconductor module design problems owing to the high pin count.


The present invention provides biocompatible vesicles comprising semi-permeable, thin-walled encapsulating membranes which are formed in an aqueous solution, and which comprise one or more synthetic super-amphiphilic molecules. When at least one super-amphiphile molecule is a block copolymer, the resulting synthetic vesicle is termed a “polymersome.” The synthetic, reactive nature of the amphiphilic composition enables extensive, covalent cross-linking of the membrane, while maintaining semi-permeability. Cross-linking of the polymer building-block components provides mechanical control and long-term stability to the vesicle, thereby also providing a means of controlling the encapsulation or release of materials from the vesicle by modifying the composition of the membrane. Thus, the encapsulating membranes of the present invention are particularly suited for the reliable, durable and controlled transport, delivery and storage of materials.

Membranes that are stable in aqueous media are heavily relied upon for compartmentalization by biological cells. For instance, the outermost plasma membrane of a cell separates the inside of a cell from the outside and, like most cell membranes, it is a self-assembled, complex fluid of biological molecules, primarily lipids and proteins. Only a few molecules, such as water and small, uncharged organic molecules, significantly permeate the membrane. A biomembrane also possesses stability and other thermo-mechanical properties that are not unrelated to passive permeability and are certainly central to cell function (see, e.g., Lipowsky and Sackmann, Eds., Structure and Dynamics of Membranes from Cells to Vesicles, Handbook of Biological Physics, vol 1 (Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 1995); Bloom et al., Q. Rev. Biophys. 24:293 (1991)).
The same characteristics of permeability and thermo-mechanical stability—in addition to biocompatibility—also affect how lipid vesicles that are assembled in vitro and that are also known as liposomes can effectively encapsulate and deliver a long list of bioactive agents (Needham et al., in Vesicles, M. Rosoff, Ed. (Dekker, New York, 1996), chap. 9; Cevc & Lasic in Handbook of Biological Physics, chaps. 9–10, 1995; Koltover et al., Science 281:78 (1998); Harasym et al., Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 40:309 (1997)). The typical liposome is comprised of one or more bilayer membranes, each approximately 5 nm thick and composed of amphiphiles such as phospholipids. Each bilayer exists as a temperature and solvent-dependent lamellar phase that is, in its surface, in a liquid, gel, or liquid-gel coexisting state. Because of a certain intrinsic biocompatibility of phospholipid vesicles, many groups have developed them for use as encapsulators and delivery vehicles. Vesicles surrounded by a lipid bilayer can range in diameter from as small as tens of nanometers to giants of 0.5–40 microns.
Phospholipid vesicles are materially weak and environmentally sensitive. Transit through the digestive tract, for example, can expose liposomes to a host of solubilizing agents. Repeated transit through the microcirculation can also tear apart giant phospholipid vesicles which cannot withstand high fluid shear. Smaller phospholipid vesicles may not fragment, but they tend to adhere, and are thus cleared from circulation. Circulating cells suppress their own adhesion partly through a brushy biopolymer layer, known as the glycocalyx, which faces the environment. The glycocalyx has, to some extent, been mimicked in liposome systems by the covalent addition to lipids of hydrophilic polyethyleneglycol (PEG) polymer chains. To maximally extend a vesicle's circulation lifetime (about ten hours), a suitable PEG weight ranges between about two and five kilograms/mole.
To further counteract mechanical forces imposed on their membranes, cells often also possess a sub-membranous network of cross-linked proteins (Alberts et al., in Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd ed., pp489–493 and 800-1, Garland Publ., Inc., New York, 1999). The red blood cell, as an example, survives repeated deformation through the microcirculation without fragmentation, but only because it has a cross-linked network of peripheral membrane proteins. Without such a network, the cells cannot withstand such circulation for more than a few hours even with a glycocalyx (Schmid-Schoenbein et al, Blut 52(3):131 (1986)). With a normal membrane network, red blood cells circulate in humans for more than 100 days. In terms of measurable properties, the network imparts a shear elasticity that is only achievable with a cross-linked structure.
Past efforts to enhance the stability of lipid lamellae against shear and other factors, resulted in the synthesis of many different modified lipid molecules with polymerizable double bonds. Such bonds were located either at the surfactant head group, or more commonly, at different locations on the hydrophobic tails (Fendler et al., Science 223:888 (1984); Liu et al., Macromolecules 32:5519 (1996)). This approach clearly had the ability to generate covalently inter-connected poly-amphiphiles when reacted after self-assembly into membranes per ordinary lipids. However, a fully, covalently interconnected network of lipids requires complete cross-linking of the membrane of a vesicle, and the full extent of cross-linking achievable with cross-linkable lipids appears to be difficult to ascertain. O'Brien's group (Sisson et al., Macromolecules 29:8321 (1996)) has used solubility in hexafluoropropanol to estimate a degree of polymerization up to at least 1000. This corresponds to a vesicle diameter of about 10 nanometers, if one assumes complete cross-linking within and between layers of the bilayer, and a typical lipid area of about 0.5 square nanometers per lipid. Detergent induced leakage of entrapped solutes was strongly inhibited by cross-linking. It is clear, however, that no fully cross-linked lipid vesicle larger than several hundred nanometers has been reported.
A cross-linkable amphiphile related to cross-linkable phospholipids has been made by Komatsu et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119:11660 (1997)). Tetrakis(aminophenyl)porphyrin contains four hydrophobic bixin side chains that each terminate in a small hydrophilic carboxylate group and harbor approximately ten (photo)reactive double bonds along the backbone of each bixin chain. When dissolved in the organic solvent, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and rapidly injected into a one-eighth volume of water and sonicated, the synthetic molecules reportedly formed vesicles. However, the resulting membranes are porous. Irradiation led to what was claimed to be the first spherical membrane structure of molecular thickness, which was considered a single, dehydratable, balloon-shaped polymer molecule insoluble in a predominantly organic solvent, such as 95% ethanol. Electron micrographs showed spherical particles of less than 100 nm, while collapsed particles studied by atomic force microscopy were reported to have a height of about 7 nm. Whether the cross-linked shells were truly semi-permeable vesicles or were highly porous macromolecular shells, as Komatsu et al. suggested, leaves open the question of whether, to date, a wholly cross-linked vesicle of any size has actually been produced. Certainly, no cross-linked vesicle larger than several hundred nanometers has been reported.
Small amphiphiles of natural origin, such as phospholipids have inspired the engineering of high molecular weight analogs, which also self-assemble into complex phases in aqueous media similar to those observed for phospholipids. For example, vesicles have been assembled in aqueous solution by Uchegbu et al., J. Pharm. & Pharmacol. 50:453 (1998)) using the naturally occurring macromolecule chitosan modified by the covalent attachment of many fatty acid pendant groups. The resulting self-assembled vesicles were 300–600 nanometers in diameter, and were shown to be bio- and haemocompatible. Although such modified natural products have disadvantages of variability in the natural polymer and a lack of precise control in covalent modification, the assembly of membranes from amphiphiles of high molecular weight has the potential to improve vesicle stability. The overall approach has similarities to lipid cross-linking, but a primary distinction lies in the fact that, with cross-linking, self-assembly of the membrane must occur first.
Many semi-orpartially synthetic, amphiphilic molecules are also significantly larger (in molecular weight, volume, and linear dimension) than phospholipid amphiphiles, and have therefore been called "super-amphiphiles" (Cornelissen et al., Science 280:1427 (1998)). Cornelissen et al. used polystyrene (PS) as a hydrophobic fraction in their series of non-synthetic, natural block copolymers designated PS40-b-(isocyano-L-alanine-L-alanine)y. For y=10, but not y=20 or 30, loop structures, referred to small collapsed vesicles, having diameters ranging from tens of nanometers to several hundred, and a bilayer thickness of 16 nanometer were mentioned as existing under a single acidic buffer condition (0.2 mM Na-acetate buffer, pH 5.6). However, bilayer filaments and superhelical rods existed, without explanation, under the same solution conditions, thus making the stability of the collapsed vesicles, relative to the other microstructures, highly uncertain for the studied dipeptide-base copolymer. Furthermore, no demonstration of semi-permeability was reported, and reasons for apparent vesicle collapse were not given, further raising questions of vesicle stability.
Additional spherical shell structures smaller than a few hundred nanometers, and which required the presence of organic solvents mixed into water to drive their formation, include those assembled from various block copolymers as observed by Yu et al., Macromolecules 31:1144(1998); Ding et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 102:6107(1998); Henselwood et al., Macromolecules 31:4213 (1998)). However, there appears in the prior art only one example of a wholly synthetic super-amphiphile that has the unpredicted capacity to self-assemble in aqueous solution, albeit only under moderately acidic pH conditions, into a vesicle-like microstructure, and that is the reported work of Cornelissen et al., 1998, although even those structures were of questionable state and stability.
Both amphiphiles and super-amphiphiles can exist in a broad variety of microphases and bulk phases that include not only lamellar, but also hexagonal, cubic, and more exotic phases (see review by Lipowsky and Sackmann, in Handbook of Biological Physics, 1995; Bates, Science 251:898 (1991). Based on the work of Hajduk et al. (see, J. Phys. Chem. B 102:4269 (1998)), the ability of super-amphiphilic block copolymers to form lamellar phases in aqueous solutions can be regulated by both synthetic tuning of polymer chemistry and physical variables, such as concentration and temperature. Evidence has now accumulated that in dilute solutions certain diblock copolymers, such as polyethyleneoxide-polyethylethylene (PEO—PEE, wherein PEO is structural equivalent to PEG), can form not only worm-like micelles (Won et al., Science 283:960-3 (1999)), but also unilamellar vesicles (Discher et al., Science 284:1143 (1999)).
In addition, because of the synthetic control over molecular composition, properties of membranes assembled from super-amphiphiles can be controlled in novel ways. For instance, a super-amphiphilic polymer can be made far more reactive than a much smaller phospholipid molecule simply because more reactive groups can be designed into the polymer. The principle was first illustrated for the aforementioned worm-like micelles in which polyethyleneoxide-polybutadiene (PEO—PBD) mesophases were successfully cross-linked into bulk materials with completely different properties, notably an enhanced shear elasticity (Won et al., 1999). The resulting microstructures, though assembled in water, could withstand dehydration, as well as exposure to an organic solvent, such as chloroform. In the absence of cross-linking, microstructures of amphiphiles and super-amphiphiles are generally unstable to treatments that could otherwise prove very useful for a range of applications that might benefit from, for example, sterilization, or long-term dry storage.
Despite recent advances, there remained until the present invention a long felt need in the art for stable, aqueous-formed vesicles which could be more broadly engineered but still have demonstrable features in common with a biomembrane or a mimic, including: biocompatibility, selective permeability to solutes, the ability to retain internal aqueous components and control their release, the ability to deform yet be relatively tough and resilient, and the ability to extensively cross-link within the membrane in order to withstand extreme environments.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Polymersomes and related encapsulating membranes

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania


An aircraft motion control mechanism for regulating aircraft motion from a location remote from an aircraft body portion. The aircraft auxiliary control mechanism has at least one control surface support arm connected to and extending from the aircraft body portion, and an auxiliary flow control surface connected to the support arm. By pivotally controlling the movement of the support arm, the auxiliary flow control surface is operative to deflect airflow to regulate orientation of the aircraft. In addition, the auxiliary flow control surface may further deflect the airflow by deflecting about the support arm.

The present invention relates generally to an auxiliary or primary control structure, and more particularly to a forward pivoted full flying control tail boom hinged with a fuselage/wing of an aircraft.
Lift is a mechanical force generated by interaction and contact between a solid body and a fluid for holding an aircraft in the air. For an aircraft, the lift is typically generated by the deflecting down the air flow, then the air deflects the airfoil up based on the Newton's Third Law of Motion. In another approach, by producing more movement of the air towards the top surface of a wing, a higher velocity of wind on the top side of the wing and a lower velocity of wind on the underside of the wing are resulted. This normally achieved by configuring the wing with a curved shape. According to Bernoulli's Law, the lower velocity on the underside of the wing creates a higher pressure, and the higher velocity creates a lower pressure to pull the wing up.
The amount of lift generated depends on how much the flow is turned; and therefore, the aft portions of wings of most aircrafts are designed with hinged sections to control and maneuver the aircrafts. FIG. 1 shows a typical airplane 10 including a fuselage 12, a pair of wings 14, and a horizontal fixed stabilizer 16 at the tail of the fuselage 12. Hinged at the leading edge of the wings 14 are a pair of slats 18, and hinged at the trailing edge of the wings 14 are a pair of flaps 20 for generating and adjusting the lift of the airplane 10 and a pair of ailerons 24. The areas of the ailerons 24 are relatively small compared to the flaps 20. In addition to the wings 14, the tail 16 may also control the lift by hinging a pair of elevators 22 at the trailing edge of the stabilizer 16. The major part of the lift comes from the wings 14, but the horizontal stabilizer 16 also produces some lift which can be varied to maneuver the aircraft. By deflecting the flaps 20 and the elevators 22 down, more lift is are generated. On the contrary, if either the flaps 20 or the elevators 22 are deflected up, less lift (or negative lift) is generated. Based on stability concern for the aircraft 10 as shown in FIG. 1, the aerodynamic center is typically located aft of the center of gravity (c.g.). Therefore, when the flaps 20 and/or the elevators 22 are deflected down to increase lift, a counterclockwise rotation about the center of gravity of the airplane 10 is generated. On the contrary, when the flaps 20 and/or the elevators 22 are deflected up to decrease lift, a clockwise rotation about the center gravity of the airplane 10 is created. The pitch motion, that is, the rotation about the center of gravity created by the deflection of the aft section of the wings thus results in an opposite inclination of the intended motion of the airplane, which is further described as follows.
In addition to the shape of the aircraft, the lift also depends on how the aircraft moves through the air, that is, the inclination of the aircraft. The inclination is normally expressed by the angle that the airfoil inclined from the flight direction, which is referred as the angle of attack. The larger the angle of attack is, the more amount of lift is generated. However, when the angle of attack reaches a critical point to generate a turbulent flow that lifting off the boundary layer of air from the surface of the airfoil, the lift is lost, and the aircraft is in a stall condition. The relationship between the inclination of the aircraft, that is, angle of attack, and the lift is as shown in FIG. 2.
For the airplane 10 as shown in FIG. 1, the elevators 22 are often used to control the pitch motion. That is, when more lift is generated by the wings 18, instead of being deflected down to generate more lift, the elevators 22 are deflected up to eliminate the pitch motion. Accordingly, the upward deflection of the elevators 22 negates the lift required for the intended motion of the airplane 10. It is very unlikely that such kind of airplane can attain the maximum lift potential and the trimming condition at the same time.
In addition to the pitch motion generated by the deflection of the flaps 20 and the elevators 22 of the wings 14 and the tails 16, roll motion will be caused by the deflection of the pair of the ailerons 24. The ailerons 24 are normally deflected in pair, with individual ailerons deflected in opposite directions. For example, when one of the ailerons 24 is deflected up to cause one of the wing tips moving down, the other of the ailerons 24 is deflected down to cause the other wing tip moving up. The airplane 10 is thus banked, and the flight path of the airplane 10 is curved. The geometry of the ailerons 24 are normally symmetric to generate a pair of substantially identical forces. However, considering the banking motion of the aircraft 10, the forces generated by the ailerons 24 produces a torque to cause the aircraft to spin about the principle axis of the aircraft 10. The spinning motion about the principal axis of the airplane 10 generates roll motion, which is typically controlled by the ailerons 24 operated to negate the banking motion of the aircraft 10.
On some lately developed aircrafts such as the all-wing aircrafts that require high ratio of lift coefficient to drag coefficient (L/D), tails are often eliminated to minimize drag that resists the motion of the aircrafts. The wings are thus the only structure that can deflect the air flow to generate more lift; and at the same time, the only structure to trim the aircrafts. As is well known to those skilled in aerodynamic design, the lift is determined by a product of a lift coefficient, the density of air, square of velocity, and the area of the wings. The lift coefficient incorporates the dependencies of the shape and the inclination of the aircraft. Therefore, to design a high altitude loitering aircraft, a high cruise lift coefficients (CL) is required for efficiency. As mentioned above, in aircrafts with the maximum ratio of lift to drag such as the all-wing aircrafts, tail area is minimized or even eliminated, the lift coefficient thus solely depends on the shape of the wing and the inclination of the aircraft caused by the deflection of the wing. Therefore, the all-wing aircrafts are further limited in their ability to trim to the higher angles of attack required to achieve their maximum lift coefficients. In other words, the all-wing aircrafts may be unable to efficiently counter the pitching moment while attaining the maximum lift potential.

Forward pivoted full flying control tail boom


A minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) system includes a controller, a lubricant module coupled to a tool spindle of a machining apparatus, and a pneumatic module coupled to the spindle. The lubricant module is configured to supply lubricant at pressure to the tool, as controlled by the controller. Likewise, the pneumatic module is configured to supply pressurized air to the tool, as controlled by the controller. The controller is configured to direct the lubricant module to supply lubricant prior to the controller receiving a START signal from a machine tool controller. Optionally, the lubricant pressure level is predetermined based on known characteristics of the tool that is coupled to the spindle. Optionally, the START signal is anticipated by referring to a signature/profile of the operational steps of a machining process where a timeline or time table of lubrication request intervals are identified.

Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) systems can be used to deliver lubricant through a cutting tool in a CNC machine. Such MQL systems measure and track the quantity of lubricant being applied to the cutting region, as well as ensure that the lubricant is being applied in a continuous or near-continuous manner during cutting. Such tracking and lubricant delivery goals are made complicated in MQL systems that deliver lubricant to tools through the machine spindle because such systems have a wide potential range of lubricant flow rates, e.g., 1 to 500 ml/hr., and are required to deliver this liquid accurately and quickly against a varying backpressure, e.g., up to 10 bar. Such MQL systems also operate under conditions where flow is repeatedly turned ON and OFF, and where different tools are switched out, resulting in frequent pausing of lubricant delivery.

Minimum quantity lubrication system and method


The invention relates to a system comprising a coder that has an alternation of North and South magnetic poles separated by transitions extending along a helix of pitch p and of angle α, the magnetic track having Npp pairs of North and South poles and a polar width Lp measured along a normal to the transitions which are: Npp=πa/l and Lp=p·cos α. The invention also includes at least one sensor able to detect the rotating magnetic field in a plane perpendicular to the magnetic track and to the transitions by means of a mounting of at least two sensitive magnetic elements. The mounting being disposed at a radial reading distance from the magnetic track and being arranged to deliver signals in quadrature.

In many applications, it is desired to know in real-time and with optimum quality at least one rotation parameter of a rotating member, such as its position, its speed, its acceleration or its direction of movement.
To do this, document WO-2006/064169 proposes the use of a coder intended to be integral with the mobile member and whereon a magnetic track is formed which is able to emit a pseudo-sinusoidal magnetic field at a reading distance from a sensor comprising several sensitive elements.
Advantageously, each sensitive element can comprise at least one pattern with a Tunnel Magneto Resistance (TMR) material base of which the resistance varies according to the magnetic field detected, as described for example in document WO-2004/083881.
To determine a movement parameter of the mobile member according to the change in the magnetic field detected, document WO-2006/064169 provides a combination of the signals representing the resistance of each one of the sensitive elements to deliver two signals in quadrature and of the same amplitude which can be used to calculate the parameter.
Document WO-2018/051011 proposes a system for determining in which the track of the coder has an alternation of North and South magnetic poles separated by transitions with each one extending along an Archimedean spiral. In relation with an axial reading of the magnetic field delivered by the coder, this embodiment makes it possible to dissociate the number of magnetic poles, the width of the latter and the diameter of the coder. It is thus possible to have few poles while still having magnetic signals with good sinusoidality.
Moreover, some applications require a radial reading of the magnetic field delivered by the coder, due to constraints concerning the space available. To do this, coders are known comprising a body that has a cylindrical periphery on which the magnetic track is formed, the track having magnetic transitions aligned with the axis of rotation.
In this embodiment, the width of the poles is the ratio of the circumference to the number of poles, which gives rise to a problem with coders with a low number of pairs of poles, typically less than 6, since the polar width becomes substantial, of about ten millimetres.
These wide poles deliver a magnetic signal of which the sinusoidality is poor with a low read gap, becoming rich in odd harmonics, improper for precise angle measurement, requiring moving away from sensitive elements of the magnetic track, which goes against the amplitude of the signal and therefore good detection thereof by the sensitive elements.
In addition, wide poles require a thickness of the coder which is also more substantial to preserve a sinusoidality and an amplitude that are sufficient for the magnetic signal. This is not favourable to the integration of the coder in small areas and complicates the method of magnetisation, because a greater thickness of material has to be saturated magnetically.
We also know from document JP-2003-97971 a system in which two sensors are arranged with respect to a magnetic track for measuring the same unidirectional component of a magnetic field at two locations, the locations being determined so that the signals delivered by the sensors are in quadrature.
The invention aims to perfect prior art by proposing a system for determining with radial reading of the magnetic field delivered by a coder, wherein the compromise between the periodicity and the amplitude of the magnetic field detected can be satisfied without inducing any specific size constraints for the coder, and this in relation with a magnetic coder with a low number of pairs of poles.
The coder with radial reading according to the invention is such that the polar width of each one of the poles is independent of the number of pairs of poles, thus being able to reconcile a low number of pairs of poles with an adequate positioning of the sensitive elements relatively to the sinusoidality and to the amplitude of the magnetic field to be detected.
To this effect, the invention proposes a system for determining at least one rotation parameter of a rotating member, the system comprising:                a coder intended to be associated rotationally with the rotating member in such a way as to move jointly with it, the coder comprising a body having a cylindrical periphery with a radius around an axis of revolution, the periphery having an alternation of North and South magnetic poles of width l which are separated by transitions, each one of the transitions extending along an helix of pitch p and of angle α so as to form a multipolar magnetic track which is able to emit a periodic magnetic field which is rotating in a plane perpendicular to the magnetic track and to the transitions, the track having Npp pairs of North and South poles and a polar width Lp measured along a normal to the transitions which are such that: Npp=πa/l and Lp=p·cos α;        at least one sensor able to detect the rotating magnetic field emitted by the coder by means of a mounting of at least two sensitive magnetic elements, the mounting being disposed at a radial reading distance from the magnetic track and being arranged to deliver signals in quadrature.

System for determining at least one rotation parameter of a rotating member


An electronic computing device can be configured to act as a text-entry device and a cursor control device for a second device. The first device can include a touch-sensitive display capable of receiving text inputs and cursor inputs for controlling operations performed on the second device which is communicatively coupled to the first device. The first device can be configured such that selection of a field displayed by the second device can cause information such as text from a focus field to be displayed by the first device. The second device can be configured to send information pertaining to the focus field to the first device. The information can include a warning that the maximum length of input for the focus field has been, or is about to be, exceeded.

Computers can be communicatively coupled to peripheral devices such as a keyboard and a mouse. The peripheral devices can be "dumb devices" configured for one way communication from the peripheral device to the computer.
The peripheral devices can perform data entry, command entry, and cursor navigation on the computer. In this way, the peripheral device can act as a cursor navigation tool for a cursor displayed on the computer display. Also, a peripheral device can act as a text-entry device for entering text that is displayed on the computer display. What is needed is a peripheral device that performs two way communications with the computer.

Presenting context information in a computing device


A data processing apparatus stores continuous area management information which associates head position information of each continuous area on the storage medium with a continuous size thereof. The data processing apparatus specifies position information of a data read position corresponding to a specific position with reference to the continuous area management information in response to a data read request from the specific position in information data, and reads out some or all of the information data from a read position on the storage medium corresponding to the specified position information.

Conventionally, a data processing apparatus which allows the user to easily recognize the contents of still images and the like and to easily manage files of still images and the like upon playing back still images, motion images, and audio stored in a storage medium using a memory card having a solid memory element as the storage medium is known. A digital still camera or the like can play back not only data sensed/stored by itself but also data stored by another data processing apparatus, as long as data is stored on a compatible storage medium.
Such data processing apparatus can load and play back data from a detachable non-volatile memory. Even when a non-volatile memory is built in and is not detachable, another data processing apparatus is connected to store and save data there, and the saved data can be loaded and played back.
In case of a digital still camera or the like, not only data obtained by another data processing apparatus but also image data obtained by photoelectrically converting an optical image photographed by a photographing lens by a photoelectric conversion element, and audio data obtained by A/D converting an audio signal stored via a microphone are temporarily saved in a volatile memory, and the image and audio data are transferred to and saved in a storage medium. Also, playback is made by transferring the image and audio data from the storage medium to the volatile memory.
However, such conventional data processing apparatus adopts a file system (e.g., FAT (File Allocation Table) file system or the like) that seeks and plays back a target file by seek unit that seeks used cluster information in only the forward direction. In the data processing apparatus with such file system, when a playback process is done by randomly accessing data by quick forward scan or reverse scan, a seek time required to access the target data position becomes less negligible with increasing file size, thus imposing stress on the user.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program


A low power bandgap circuit device that generates temperature independent reference voltages and/or zero temperature coefficient currents is disclosed. The circuit comprises a first pair of transistors, an amplifier, a star connected resistive network, and a second pair of transistors, wherein zero temperature coefficient currents are generated through mirroring and reuse of current from the star connected resistive network.

A bandgap reference circuit device is a temperature independent voltage reference circuit used in integrated circuits. Typically, bandgap reference circuit devices produce a fixed or constant voltage and are generally insensitive to power supply variations, temperature changes, and/or device loading. Consequently, as a result of these features, the bandgap reference circuit device is one of the most popular high performance voltage reference circuits employed in the integrated circuit industry today. Nevertheless, extant bandgap reference circuit devices have drawbacks, some of which will be noted with reference to the various embodiments described herein.

Low power bandgap circuit device with zero temperature coefficient current generation


Disclosed herein are an apparatus and a method for controlling an automatic gain of an inertial sensor. The automatic gain control apparatus of an inertial sensor includes: an inertial sensor; a driving unit; a detection unit; a state determination unit generates an AGC control signal according to the state of the driving mass; and a control unit that includes an AGC controlling to compensate for the driving displacement of the driving mass when the state of the driving mass is abnormal and performs a control to wake-up the AGC or convert the AGC into a sleep mode according to the AGC control signal input from the state determination unit to operate the AGC at the corresponding driving rate.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for controlling an automatic gain of an inertial sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inertial sensor has been used in various applications, for example, military, such as an artificial satellite, a missile, an unmanned aircraft, and the like, an air bag, electronic stability control (ESC), a black box for a vehicle, a hand shaking prevention camcorder, a mobile phone, motion sensing of a game machine, navigation, and the like.
The inertial sensor is classified into an acceleration sensor that may measure a linear motion and an angular velocity sensor that may measure a rotation motion.
Acceleration may be calculated by Newton's law of motion "F=ma", where "m" represents a mass of a moving body and "a" is acceleration to be measured. Further, angular velocity may be calculated by a Coriolis force "F=2 mΩ×v", where "m" represents the mass of the moving body, "Ω" represents the angular velocity to be measured, and "v" represents the motion velocity of the mass. In addition, a direction of the Coriolis force is determined by an axis of velocity v and a rotating axis of angular velocity Ω.
The inertial sensor performs an automatic gain control to continuously maintain a constant performance, regardless of the change in time or surrounding environment so as to accurately sense a targeted signal.
In this case, the most important characteristic of an automatic gain control apparatus of an inertial sensor is IC power consumption, in particular, when the inertial sensor is designed to be mounted in a mobile device, the automatic gain control apparatus requires design methods for operating IC at low power consumption if possible, while performing various functions required by a host.

Apparatus and method for controlling automatic gain of inertial sensor


In an elastic wave device including an input side electrode and an output side electrode being a resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers (RSPUDT) provided with respective pairs of bus bars opposing to each other on a piezoelectric substrate and a number of excitation electrode fingers extending in a comb-teeth shape so as to respectively cross each other from the respective bus bars, the elastic waves are repeatedly reflected and amplified between the central part of the input side electrode and the central part of the output side electrode along the direction of extension of the respective bus bars by the excitation electrode fingers of the input side electrode and the output side excitation electrode, the elastic wave device includes a damper at least on either one of the input side bus bar or the output side bus bar in an area between the central part of the input side electrode in the direction of movement of the elastic waves and the central part of the output side electrode in the direction of movement of the elastic waves so that the energy leaked out into the bus bar is absorbed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elastic wave device which repeatedly reflects an elastic wave between an input side electrode and an output side electrode device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A SAW (surface acoustic wave) filter being an elastic wave device is used, for instance, in the transmitting and receiving unit of a portable terminal, and there is a device using a resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers (RSPUDT) as its example. FIG. 10 shows the structure of a SAW filter of this kind, in which 11 is a piezoelectric substrate. The piezoelectric substrate 11 includes an input side resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers (RSPUDT) 12, an output side resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers (RSPUDT) 13 and a shield electrode 14. The respective resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers 12 and 13 include bus bars 15a and 15b, a number of exciting interdigital transducers 16 for reflecting the SAW and a number of dummy electrodes 17 which are shorter than the interdigital transducer 16 and not contributing to the excitation. The role of the dummy electrode 17 will be explained later. In general, the one-way electrode shows a wide filter characteristic being the characteristic of a transversal type filter when the reflection of the electrode is weak, while when the reflection is stronger, its internal reflection becomes stronger, and the electrode shows narrow filter characteristics close to the characteristics of a resonator type filter.
In the resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers which has a strong internal reflection, the reflection plane confining SAW energy exists in the propagation direction of the SAW (on the extensional direction of the bus bar). The reflection plane exists in the vicinity of the center in the propagation direction of the SAW in respective interdigital transducers 16 on the input side and the output side. The one-way electrodes 12 and 13 are configured such that by utilizing multiple reflections between the reflection planes so that the SAW can be strongly propagated only in one direction from the input side to the output side. In addition, the width and the distance of arrangement of the interdigital transducer 16 are appropriately adjusted so that the SAW is propagated in this way.
In such a SAW filter 1 having the resonant single-phase unidirectional transducers 12 and 13, of which internal reflection is strong as described above, the SAW energy is concentrated on the reflection planes, which causes the following problems. For instance, the surface wave 10a which propagates through an electrode finger formation area 18 surrounded by a chain line in the figure as shown in FIG. 11A originally advances in a rectangular shaped wave, however, it sometimes happens that as the wave reflects and propagates, its waveform is deformed, and the wave is incident on a boundary between the electrode finger formation area 18 and the bus bars 15a, 15b. When the electrode finger formation area 18 is taken as a medium, the bus bars 15a, 15b and the electrode finger formation area 18 are different in medium from each other where the medium is concerned, and due to the difference in medium, the wave incident on the boundary surface causes reflection. Then, the lateral mode waves run high vertically distributing relative to the propagating direction of the SAW for which the electrode finger formation area 18 serves as a wave guide. The rectangular wave 10a becomes a sine wave 10b being a primary mode (ordinary mode) as shown in FIG. 11B, and further, a higher mode wave in a lateral mode such as the wave 10c in a tertiary mode, a fifth mode, a seventh mode or the like (these are not shown) appears.
When only the sine wave 10b moves forward through the electrode finger formation area 18, the SAW filter 1 shows a filter characteristic shown by a solid line in FIG. 12A, and the above-described respective higher mode waves have propagation areas where the signs of the electric charges induced in the interdigital transducers 16 are opposite to each other. In other words, when the higher mode waves propagate over the electrode finger formation area 18, for instance, a positive charge is induced in a certain interdigital transducer 16, and a negative charge is induced at another interdigital transducer 16, so that the balance of the energy of the electric charge in the electrode finger formation area 18 is disturbed. Then, the energy of the electric charge leaks out from the center side of the electrode finger formation area 18 into the vicinity of the bus bar 15a and 15b respectively, which causes an influence in the excitation of the interdigital transducer 16, so that an amplitude characteristic exhibiting the peak on the higher band area than the central frequency of the sine wave 10b appears, for instance, shown by a chain line and a two-dot chain line in FIG. 12A. When the sine wave 10b and higher mode waves repeat reflection in the electrode finger formation area 18 and resonate so as to be in a resonance mode, the characteristics of the respective waves are added to become a filter characteristic shown in FIG. 12B. In other words, the SAW filter 1 is, as shown by the area surrounded by the chain line, to possess a characteristic in which the spuriousness appears in a damping band on the higher band side than the pass band. As above, generation of higher mode waves in a lateral mode and occurrence of resonance are verified in a simulation study in non-Patent Document 1.
Then, in the SAW filter 1, the length of the interdigital transducer 16 is adjusted and the dummy electrode 17 is disposed, and further, the ratio of the aperture (W) of the electrode finger to the width of opening (WO) of the electrode finger from the respective bus bars 15a and 15b is adjusted. By this adjustment, when the higher mode wave is propagated, the electric charge opposite in sign to the electric charge induced by the interdigital transducer 16 existing on the extension is induced in the dummy electrode 17, so that the positive and negative charges in the electrode finger formation area 18 are cancelled so as to be close to zero. Thus, by preventing lowering of the excitation of the interdigital transducer 16, reduction of the spuriousness is expected. Such an electrode configuration (W/WO configuration) is described in Patent Document 1.
In such a W/WO configuration, when the width of crossing W is large, the spuriousness in the lateral mode is likely to occur in a plurality of cases, though it is possible to reduce the occurrence of the spuriousness by narrowing the aperture W, there arises problems that the desired filter characteristic cannot be obtained due to the high impedance and widening of the band width. Thus, since there is limitation on controlling the W/WO ratio, it is still insufficient to reduce the energy of the electric charge generated by the higher mode waves, and the energy still remaining in a high level leaks out into the vicinity of the bus bars 15a and 15b from the central side in the direction of distribution of the lateral mode, resulting in generation of the spuriousness.
Patent Document 2 shows a SAW filter in a configuration such that a damper is applied on the bus bar part parallel to the direction of propagation of waves. The SAW filter, however, is a transversal type filter using an apodized electrode, and has a configuration in which there is no occurrence of internal reflection in the electrode finger formation area. The damper is used for the purpose of preventing reflecting waves from a tip terminal face parallel to the direction of propagation of the SAW, and not for the purpose of reducing the spuriousness in a higher lateral mode. Therefore, the invention described in Patent Document 2 is not to solve the problems which the above-described spuriousness creates. Patent Document 3 describes a SAW filter which has a damper applied on a bus bar of an input/output electrode thereof and reduces generation of spuriousness by preventing unification of bulk waves and pseudo surface acoustic waves. However, there is no reference to the position of the damper on the bus bar.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 9-260996
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 9-205341
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 6-232682
[non-Patent Document 1] Marc Solal et al. Design Modeling and Visualization of Low Transverse Modes R-SPUDT Devices 2006 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium


In a method for fabricating a semiconductor device, interconnect grooves are formed in an insulating film on a substrate, and then a copper film is formed on the insulating film to fill the interconnect grooves. Subsequently, portions of the copper film existing outside the interconnect grooves are polished to form interconnects, and then a cleaning process is performed on the resulting substrate. Thereafter, moisture remaining around a portion of the insulating film exposed between the interconnects is removed in a vacuum.

(a) Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device fabrication method and particularly relates to a copper interconnect formation step included in a fabrication process of a semiconductor device.
(b) Description of Related Art
In recent years, semiconductor products made of silicon have become finer and more sophisticated. Accompanied with this trend, the semiconductor products make heavy use of copper interconnects. However, it is extremely difficult to subject copper to dry etching. Therefore, the following method for forming a copper interconnect (damascene technique) is typically employed which includes a series of steps of: forming an interconnect groove by dry etching of an insulating film; forming a barrier film in the formed interconnect groove by sputtering technique and then filling the groove with copper by electrolysis plating; and removing excess-barrier and copper films present outside the interconnect groove and planarizing the surface by chemical mechanical polishing.
In the above-described step of performing chemical mechanical polishing in the damascene technique, after the copper and barrier films are subjected to chemical mechanical polishing, a cleaning process is performed for removing particles such as abrasive and metal contaminants remaining on a substrate surface, and then a drying process is performed on the substrate. A currently dominant system for such a procedure is a so-called dry-in, dry-out system in which a series of processes of chemical mechanical polishing, cleaning, and drying is carried out within the same apparatus, and apparatuses operating in this system go mainstream. An exemplary chemical mechanical polishing apparatus capable of carrying out this through process is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-36477. The proposed apparatus carrying out a through process of polishing, cleaning, and drying is characterized in that in order to keep the cleanliness of a cleaning and drying unit, a water flow separates an atmosphere in a polishing unit from an atmosphere in the cleaning and drying unit. Also, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-51481 proposes an apparatus characterized in that in order to enhance the throughput of a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus, two or more drying rooms are provided in the subsequent stage of a cleaning process unit to allow a parallel drying process. These conventional apparatuses carrying out a through process employ, as a drying mechanism, spin drying technique, dry gas blowing technique, lamp heating technique, or IPA drying technique.
Recently, a problem has arisen that moisture still remaining on the substrate after the polishing and clearing processes described above affects the reliability of a copper interconnect. Specifically, in the case where there is moisture on the surface of a portion of an insulating film provided between copper interconnects after chemical mechanical polishing, if the substrate in this state is let to stand for more than a given period of time until the next process is conducted thereon, part of copper constituting the interconnect migrates (moves) due to that moisture. This results in creation of a thin copper layer on the insulating film. The thin copper layer thus created grows by a current flowing through the interconnects during operation of the semiconductor device. If the growing copper finally reaches the adjacent interconnect, a short circuit may be made between the interconnects.
FIGS. 7A to 7D are plan views for illustrating the mechanism of occurrence of failure causing the short circuit between the interconnects mentioned above. Note that FIGS. 7A to 7D show copper interconnects 101 provided with barrier films formed in interlayer insulating films 100, and also show the state in which moisture remains in a portion of the interlayer insulating film 100 positioned between the copper interconnects 101.
As shown in FIGS. 7A to 7D, the moisture 102 remaining in the portion of the interlayer insulating film 100 positioned between the copper interconnects 101 causes migration 103 of copper constituting the interconnects 101 (see FIG. 7B). When this migration is developed (see FIG. 7C), a short circuit failure 104 between the interconnects will finally arise (see FIG. 7D). Such an occurrence of short circuit failure between the interconnects may in turn cause defects of the fabricated semiconductor product, so that this is a big problem for the reliability of the semiconductor product. Therefore, it is important to sufficiently remove the moisture remaining on the substrate after chemical mechanical polishing.
After the chemical mechanical polishing is performed in the damascene technique mentioned above, as shown in a plan view of FIG. 8A and a sectional view of FIG. 8B, defects 202 caused by copper corrosion are likely to be created on the surface of the copper interconnect 201 provided with the barrier films formed in the interlayer insulating film 200 on the substrate. Thus, since the copper corrosion defects 202 are likely to be created on the surface of the copper interconnect 201 formed in the interlayer insulating film 200, a treatment for preventing the surface of the copper interconnect 201 from corroding is required by the time a film formation step is implemented as the next process step. Generally, the treatment for preventing this corrosion is performed in such a manner that an anticorrosive is added to an abrasive used for chemical mechanical polishing of the barrier film to subject the surfaces of the copper interconnects to anticorrosive treatment during the chemical mechanical polishing of the barrier film. As the anticorrosive, use is made of triazole-based compounds, their derivatives, or water-soluble agent containing their mixture. Among them, the most commonly used anticorrosive is benzotriazole (BTA). BTA reacts with copper to produce a stable compound, Cu—BTA, and the produced Cu—BTA is used as a coating to prevent corrosion of the copper interconnect. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.2001-196379 proposes a method which includes the step of applying, to a substrate, a solution with not an abrasive but an anticorrosive contained therein to form an anticorrosive layer after or during chemical mechanical polishing.

Method for fabricating semiconductor device