Techniques and tools relating to annotating program source code facilitate inferring annotations from source code based at least in part on a description (or specification) generated with a programmable tool. Described techniques and tools provide flexibility in annotation inference across different code bases and program states or properties of interest, and can reduce the overhead of adding annotations to “legacy” source code. For example, a specification is generated with a programmable specification tool that is separate from an inference engine. In the inference engine, one or more annotations for a computer program are inferred based at least in part on the specification.

As computer programs have become increasingly complex, the challenges of developing reliable software have become apparent. Modern software applications can contain millions of lines of code written by many different developers, and each developer may have different programming skills and styles. In addition, because many large applications are developed over a period of several years, the team of developers that begins work on an application may be different than the team that completes the project. Therefore, the original authors of software code may not be available to error-check and revise the code during the development process. For all of these reasons, despite recent improvements in software engineering techniques, debugging of software applications remains a daunting task.
The basic concepts of software engineering are familiar to those skilled in the art. For example, FIG. 1 shows a technique 100 for developing a computer program according to the prior art. First, at 110, a program is created/edited by one or more developers. Then, at 120, the program is debugged (e.g., using a debugging tool). At 130, if the program contains bugs to be fixed, or if other revisions are desired, the editing/debugging cycle continues. After debugging and editing, the source code is compiled into executable code. FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a system for compiling source code according to the prior art. A compiler 200 compiles source code written in a high-level language in source files 205 into executable code 210 for execution on a computer. The executable code 210 can be hardware-specific or generic to multiple hardware platforms. The compiler 200 can use, for example, lexical analysis, syntax analysis, code generation and code optimization to translate the source code into executable code. In addition, many compilers have debugging capabilities for detecting and describing errors at compile time.
The size and complexity of most commercially valuable software applications have made detecting every programming error in such applications nearly impossible. To help manage software development and debugging tasks and to facilitate extensibility of large applications, software engineers have developed various techniques of analyzing, describing and/or documenting the behavior of programs to increase the number of bugs that can be found before a software product is sold or used. Such techniques include instrumentation, in which additional error-checking code is added to a program, and the writing of program specifications to describe the behavior of programs. Program specifications can be written in specially-designed specification languages, which follow their own syntactic rules for describing program behavior. However, specification languages are often complex, and writing a specification for a complex program can be similar in terms of programmer burden to re-writing the program in a new language.
As programs become larger and more complex, it becomes increasingly beneficial to split programs into modules whose behavior can be understood in isolation by programmers and verification tools. Annotations can be used to describe behavior of program modules (e.g., functions) and programs as a whole (e.g., when annotated modules are analyzed in combination) by making assertions about program states. Although annotations on source code help programmers and verification tools interpret the behavior of programs and program modules, the overhead of adding annotations to source code (particularly in the case of previously developed, or "legacy," source code) has limited their use. In addition, the set of properties that are important for analyzing program behavior varies widely across programs, as do the ways in which data flows within programs. For instance, locking behavior may be important for multi-threaded programs but not for sequential programs, while buffer size information may be important for programs written in C or C++ but not for programs written in Java or C#.


A swing seat for increased capacity wherein swing extends along a longitudinal axis and the swing seat comprises a first seat portion and a second seat portion coupled to the first seat portion. The first seat portion is a safety seat having a base portion for seating a child and a support frame for supporting a child in an upright position, and the first seat portion is arranged to swing in a general swinging direction substantially coinciding with the longitudinal axis. The second seat portion is arranged in line with the first seat portion along the longitudinal axis so that the first and second seat portions are both aligned to swing together in the general swinging direction.

In playgrounds there are often several play elements, such as playground swings, which usually are a popular attraction in the playground. Commonly, the swing is arranged hanging from a structure by, for instance, a chain or wire. In most cases a swing comprises one seat, which allows one child to swing. This may be a problem, since a swing set is rather big and in many cases the number of swings cannot satisfy the need for the number of children who want to play with the swings. Also, many of the smaller children need a parent's attention which can make it even more crowded in the swing area. This problem is partly solved by the swing presented in EP2067510, in which a swing is provided with two or more seats next to each other (i.e., side by side). With this solution two or three children may swing sitting next to each other. However, there is always a need for increasing the capacity of the swings at a playground.


An image forming apparatus includes: a casing; a belt unit including a first roller, a second roller positioned higher than the first roller and a belt; image bearing members; developer containers; a removing member; an accommodating member; and a conveying member. The image bearing members includes a first image bearing member and a second image bearing member. The removing member is positioned adjacent to the second image bearing member and below an imaginary plane. The accommodating member accommodates the waste toner removed by the removing member, and is positioned adjacent to the first image bearing member and above the imaginary plane. The accommodating member is mounted in and removed from the casing along with a first developer container corresponding to the first image bearing member. The conveying member conveys the waste toner removed by the removing member to the accommodating member.

One electrophotographic image forming apparatus known in the art (hereinafter referred to as a first conventional image forming apparatus) includes a plurality of photosensitive members on which electrostatic latent images are formed. One such image forming apparatus known in the art includes four process cartridges and an image-forming unit to support the process cartridges. The process cartridges are provided for each of four colors used in the image forming apparatus and each include a photosensitive drum. In this image forming apparatus, a waste toner box serving to accommodate waste toner therein is provided in the image-forming unit at a leading end portion (i.e. downstream end portion) thereof in a direction in which the image-forming unit is pulled out of the apparatus. This conventional image forming apparatus also includes a belt-waste-toner conveying tube for conveying waste toner from a belt-cleaning device to the waste toner box.
Further, one electrophotographic image forming apparatus known in the art (hereinafter referred to as a second conventional image forming apparatus) is a printer including a device body that accommodates a sheet-feeding unit for supplying sheets of paper, and an image-forming unit for forming images on the sheets supplied by the sheet-feeding unit. The image-forming unit further includes a plurality of process cartridges arranged at intervals in a front-rear direction and respectively supporting photosensitive drums, and a transfer unit for transferring toner images formed on the photosensitive drums onto the sheets supplied from the sheet-feeding unit. One such color printer that has been proposed provides the sheet-feeding unit with conveying rollers for supplying the sheets to the image-forming unit, and provides the transfer unit with a conveying belt positioned in confrontation with the plurality of photosensitive drums for conveying the sheets. In this conventional color printer, the conveying rollers are disposed apart from and obliquely above and forward of the transfer unit so as to overlap the transfer unit when projected in the front-rear direction.
Further, one electrophotographic image forming apparatus known in the art (hereinafter referred to as a third conventional image forming apparatus) includes a plurality of photosensitive members on which electrostatic latent images are formed, and a plurality of developing units that supply developer to corresponding photosensitive members. One such image forming apparatus has a plurality of process cartridges corresponding to colors used in the image forming apparatus. Each process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a developing roller disposed on the upper rear side of the photosensitive drum, and a supply roller disposed on the upper rear side of the developing roller. The space in the process cartridge above the developing roller and the supply roller serves as a toner-accommodating chamber for accommodating toner.

Removable waste toner storage configuration for an image forming apparatus


A flexible heat transfer assembly between a cryogenic refrigerator cold head sleeve and magnetic resonance imager thermal shields includes a plurality of rope-lay stranded copper ropes, each containing a large number of section.

This invention relates to a flexible thermal connection between a cryogenic refrigerator and a magnetic resonance imager (hereinafter "MRI") superconducting magnet.
As is well known, a magnet coil can be made superconducting by placing it in an extremely cold environment, such as by enclosing it in a cryostat or pressure vessel containing liquid helium or other cryogen. The extreme cold reduces the resistance of the magnet coil to negligible levels, such that when a power source is initially connected to the coil (for a period, for example, of 10 minutes) to introduce a current flow through the coil, the current will continue to flow through the coil due to the negligible coil resistance even after power is removed, thereby maintaining a magnetic field. Superconducting magnets find wide application, for example, in the field of MRI.
In a typical MRI, the pressure vessel, which is contained within a vacuum vessel, is surrounded by a plurality of concentric heat shields. Each successive heat shield is at a slightly higher temperature than the cryogen in order to thermally isolate the pressure vessel from ambient temperatures on the outside of the vacuum vessel, which may be in the order of some 300.degree. C. higher than the cryogen temperature. The thermal shields are maintained at their cold temperatures by a cryogenic refrigerator which typically is contained within a stainless steel cold head sleeve cylinder with thermal connections between the cold head and the thermal shields. The thermal connection between the cold head and the thermal shields must be thermally conductive and efficient, and operate in the presence of vibration generated by the movement of the piston within the cryogenic refrigerator and the resultant movement of the cold head relative to the heat shields. In addition, the thermal connection must withstand the wide change in temperatures to which the assembly is subjected in cooling the superconducting magnet from ambient temperature to a temperature in the range of absolute zero (-270.degree. C.), and also must withstand, yet not affect, the strong magnetic fields present within the MRI, and the requirement of magnetic field homogeneity. Still further, the thermal connection must also withstand the thermal and mechanical forces resulting from differential expansion of materials during cool-down.
Flexible connections such as flat, braided cable have not proven to be completely satisfactory in meeting all of these overlapping and/or conflicting requirements.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to be able to provide a flexible thermal connection between the cryogenic refrigerator and the thermal shields and/or the magnetic cartridge of a superconducting MRI magnet which operates in such a harsh environment yet which minimizes the transmission of motion and vibration to the heat shields in order to minimize the effects of the cryogenic refrigerator operating mechanism on magnetic field homogeneity and the resultant image quality of the MRI system.

Flexible thermal connection system between a cryogenic refrigerator and an mri superconducting magnet


An air distribution system for electronic components utilizes an air supply unit with a silencer unit. The silencer unit attenuates sound associated with the air unit blowers with inlet and discharge silencers. The blowers have check valves which provide for isolating each blower for continued operation even with one blower. The cooling air is transported to a circuit board module stack from the blowers through ducts and a bank of rod valves. The valves allow maximum air flow to the modules with minimum resistance. The ducts have a flexible portion which have quick disconnects and act to isolate the modules from vibrations and static. The modules utilize channels in an air plate with different sized baffles to provide even distribution of cooling air to the printed circuit boards.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for air cooling printed circuit board modules which minimizes the spacing of the boards and minimizes the associated sound.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for cooling printed circuit boards are well known. Conventional methods utilize either air cooling across the faces of the boards or liquid cooling circulating liquid within a plate attached to the board when configured as a board module. Liquid cooling has been used for most, but not all, super computer applications as previous air cooling techniques could not accommodate three-dimensional packing density with short signal path lengths required by the high frequency and high integrated circuit count super computers. However, liquid cooling has several drawbacks as there are higher facilities cost for heat exchange units and refrigerant condensing units which are required. In addition, liquid cooling also has a higher operating cost due to higher electrical power needs and substantially more mechanical parts. Liquid cooling requires more floor space and higher initial costs due to increased associated mechanical machinery. Liquid cooling also uses expensive and highly evaporative dielectric coolants which pose safety hazards, thus requiring additional safeguards for handling the coolant liquid.
Although air cooling may be preferred for the reasons stated above, there are several drawbacks that must be overcome to provide adequate air cooling. Prior systems have used a centrifugal blower, but the centrifugal blowers cannot provide the pressure required using miniature heat sinks and also have a very high temperature rise as the air passes through the blower. Use of rotary positive displacement blowers provides sufficient pressure, flow rate, and reduced temperature rise, but creates different problems regarding noise control. Positive displacement blowers have noise in lower frequencies, in the range of 125-250 hertz, which must be silenced with a combination of reactive and dissipative silencers. Desired computer room noise levels in the range of 75 decibels could not be obtained using standard commercial silencers even when used in a tandem arrangement. To achieve improved noise levels, a larger volume silencer was required and/or large pressure drops would be experienced. In computer room environments, space is very valued and additional space required for the silencing equipment can often not be spared.
Due to the high costs involved in operating super computers and other high density integrated circuits, there must be provided oversizing and redundancies to ensure that system downtime is reduced to a minimum.
In addition to providing space for external cooling machinery, the boards or modules must be sufficiently spaced to allow enough air flow across the boards to carry the excess heat away. There are applications wherein high density is important. Board density with air cooling may be lower than that required to obtain comparable cooling capacity from a liquid cooled system. This increases the volume of the stack of boards or board modules due to the increased spacing between the boards.
Air cooling also has problems associated with uneven flow and pressures. Entrance ends of the cooling area are likely to have less flow than an opposite end of the chamber and the mid portions of the chamber. Attempts to equalize the flows and pressures across an area typically require increasing the size of manifolds or employing complicated duct systems. Such uneven cooling leads to oversizing of the cooling system to accommodate localized hot spots in the boards which may occur due to uneven flow and eddies which may form in the air currents
The problem of providing adequate even cooling without excessive size and control is increased when control valving is required Flow may need to be varied due to increased heat generation or changes in the surrounding environment.
It can be seen then that an improved apparatus and method for cooling stacks of circuit board modules are required which provide adequate cooling and minimize the associated noise and space required for ventilation. It can also be seen that it would be advantageous to utilize air for cooling rather than liquids if comparable board densities and comparable cooling are obtained.

Air distribution system and manifold for cooling electronic components


Method for providing shock absorbing packaging wherein fragile, dangerous, or otherwise valuable cargo can be shipped through normal or abnormal shipping routes while absorbing acceleration and deceleration shock forces which would otherwise damage such cargo.

1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reducing shock to objects during shipping or transport. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus wherein objects to be shipped are placed within a first container which is suspended within a larger second container through the use of elastic members. Desirable results can be obtained with the present invention when members are used which support inner box within outer box through the use of repulsive forces, which push opposing sides of an inner box away from opposing sides of an outer box or through the use of attractive forces, which pull opposing sides of an inner box to opposing sides of an outer box.
Costly fragile or volatile and dangerous hazardous objects which are trucked, shipped, or mailed over distances are often subject to rough handling which may include dropping, kicking, tossing, general mishandling by persons, or numerous other abuses. These incidents typically occur when the objects are no longer under the control of the person who packaged them.
2. Description of Related Art
The history of shock absorption is well known, especially with anyone who has driven an automobile, where shock absorbers, or "shocks", provide the passengers with a smoother ride while the car is moving.
Various methods and apparatuses for protecting delicate, valuable, and breakable objects are generally known. These are typically referred to as packaging materials. These packaging materials often take the form of bubble-wrap, foam peanuts, blocks, and/or foam padding. Typically, for example, an extremely fragile item which is desired to be shipped to a remote location will be "double-boxed". This means the object itself is padded and snugly packaged inside an inner box. The inner box is then in turn wrapped snugly with additional packing material, and thereafter stuffed into a larger outer box. With double-boxing, although the fragile objects themselves will be well protected from intentional or unintentional abuses (as if the outer box becomes crunched etc.), the object may still be vulnerable to damage due to shock forces which are experienced by the package. In other words, if the package is dropped during transit, the object's internal structure may be damaged through the sudden deceleration which is well known and understood as a shock force. If the particular object needing packaging protection is an antique vacuum tube (as was the exact case which inspired the present invention), which has an internal structure within an outer glass envelope containing the vacuum. This internal structure can actually break the outer glass envelope of the vacuum tube, from the inside. This is due to the sudden shock force which is generated when the package is dropped. Damage to the vacuum tube can occur even if the inner structure of the vacuum tube does not damage the glass envelope itself. The shock force and/or vibration therefrom can be enough to displace or de-position any related structure, so that the original operating characteristics of the vacuum tube are greatly changed. As a further example, a light-bulb can be irreparably damaged by a shock force, its filament can detach or break when the package is dropped.
In another example, a rare and invaluable Chinese vase can suffer damage produced by shock force when the package is dropped. The instantaneous deceleration-induced shock felt by the actual vase in spite of having the best package padding, could still be sufficient to cause the vase to break. Even if the vase does not break, a hairline-crack can be formed. This would still be devastating to the owner of the vase. Even if a hairline-crack is not observed, the impact may weaken the vase by an imperceptible amount which would contribute to its long term accelerated degradation.
It should also be noted that the U.S. Postal Service does not insure any package for shock-induced damages.
Since conventional packaging materials and methods often fail to prevent damage to shipped objects which result from a shock force, there is thus a present need for a method and apparatus which greatly reduces the likelihood of damage occurring to shipped objects which results from a shock force.


A lightweight, optimally efficient, easily serviced, piston-in-sleeve high pressure accumulator is provided. The accumulator includes one or more cylindrical composite pressure vessel separate end cap manifolds. A piston slidably disposed in a thin impermeable internal sleeve in the accumulator separates two chambers, one adapted for containing a working fluid and the other adapted for containing gas under pressure. Gas is provided in a volume between the impermeable internal sleeve and the composite pressure vessel wall. Additional gas is optionally provided in gas cylinders. Further components are provided for withstanding harmful effects of radial flexing of the composite vessel wall under high pressures, and from stresses present in use in mobile applications such as with a hydraulic power system for a hydraulic hybrid motor vehicle.

1. Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles
Hybrid powertrains are an increasingly popular approach to improving the fuel utilization of motor vehicles. The term "hybrid" refers to the combination of a conventional internal combustion engine with an energy storage system, which typically serves the functions of receiving and storing excess energy produced by the engine and energy recovered from braking events, and redelivering this energy to supplement the engine when necessary. This decouples the production and consumption of power, thereby allowing the internal combustion engine to operate more efficiently, while making sure that enough power is available to meet load demands.
Several forms of energy storage are known in the art, with electrical storage using batteries being the best known. Recently, hydraulic hybrids have been demonstrated to offer better efficiency, greater power density, lower cost, and longer service life than electric hybrids. A hydraulic power system takes the form of one or more hydraulic accumulators for energy storage and one or more hydraulic pumps, motors, or pump/motors for power transmission. Hydraulic accumulators operate on the principle of storing energy by compressing a gas. An accumulator's pressure vessel contains a charge of gas, typically nitrogen, which becomes compressed as the hydraulic pump pumps liquid into the vessel. The liquid thereby becomes pressurized and may be used to drive the hydraulic motor when released. A hydraulic accumulator thus utilizes two distinct working media; one a compressible gas and the other a relatively incompressible liquid. More generally, an accumulator utilizes two distinct working media, at least one of which is a gas and the other a gas or a fluid. Throughout this disclosure, the term "gas" shall refer to the gaseous medium and the term "fluid" shall refer to the gaseous or the liquid working medium, as is customary in the art.
2. High Pressure Accumulator Designs in the Present State of the Art
In the present state of the art, there are three basic configurations for hydraulic accumulators: spring type, bladder type and piston type.
Spring type is typically limited to accumulators with small fluid volumes due to the size, cost, mass, and spring rates of the springs.
Bladder accumulators typically suffer from high gas permeation rates and poor reliability. Some success has been achieved by replacing the elastic bladder with a flexible metallic or metallic-coated bellows structure, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,936 to Sasaki et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,051 to Drumm et al. However, a principal shortcoming of this approach lies in the potential for the bellows to experience stresses and longitudinal disorientation that may rapidly lead to failure under a severe duty cycle, such as would be present in an automotive power system application.
Of the three basic configurations in the present state of the art, the piston type is the least costly design that can store desirable volumes of fluid. In addition, properly designed piston accumulators are physically robust, efficient, and reliable.
Standard piston accumulators are also well represented in the art. In a standard piston accumulator, the hydraulic fluid is separated from the compressed gas by means of a piston which seals against the inner walls of a cylindrical pressure vessel and is free to move longitudinally as fluid enters and leaves and the gas compresses and expands. Because the piston does not need to be flexible, it may be made of a gas impermeable material such as steel. However, the interface between the piston and the inner wall of the cylinder must be controlled tightly to ensure a good seal, and the degree of dimensional tolerance necessary to ensure a good seal may increase the cost of manufacturing. It also requires that the pressure vessel be extremely rigid and resistant to expansion near its center when pressurized, which would otherwise defeat the seal by widening the distance between the piston and cylinder wall. This has eliminated the consideration of composite materials for high pressure piston accumulator vessels, as composite materials tend to expand significantly under pressure (e.g., about 1/10 of an inch diametrically for a 12 inch diameter vessel at 5,000 psi pressure).
As a result of the foregoing, standard piston accumulator vessels tend to be made of thick, high strength steel and are very heavy. Standard piston accumulators have a much higher weight to energy storage ratio than either steel or composite bladder accumulators, which makes them undesirable for mobile vehicular applications (as such increased weight would, for example, reduce fuel economy for the vehicle). More specifically, piston accumulators for the same capacity (i.e., size) and pressure rating are many times heavier (e.g., by up to 10 times) than an accumulator with a lightweight composite pressure vessel design, as would be preferred in such applications where accumulator weight is an issue. Therefore, despite their potentially superior gas impermeability, piston accumulators are largely impractical for vehicular applications.
3. Prior Art Regarding Piston-in-Sleeve Accumulator Designs
One piston accumulator concept utilizes a piston and sleeve assembly, in which the piston resides within and seals against a cylindrical sleeve that is separate from the inner wall of the pressure vessel. As defined herein, the term "sleeve" includes a hollow member substantially incapable of withstanding stresses that would be applied thereto were a full pressure differential of the accumulator to be applied across the hollow member. This piston-in-sleeve approach provides at least two benefits over the prior art for high pressure accumulators, namely (i) separating the pressure containment function of the vessel wall from its piston sealing function, allowing an effective seal to be pursued with a sleeve independently of issues relating to pressure vessel construction, and (ii) providing an intervening or "interstitial" volume between the sleeve and vessel wall which may be filled with the charge gas to allow tailoring of the ratio of gas to fluid to optimize performance and which also allows shaping" the pressure profile of the discharged fluid. In each of U.S. Pat. No. 2,417,873 to Huber, U.S. Pat. No. 2,703,108 to McQuistion, U.S. Pat. No. RE24,223 to Ford, and later U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,094 to Tovagliaro, the use of a piston and sleeve assembly on a high pressure accumulator is taught. Such designs comprise a generally thick-walled strong cylindrical pressure vessel constructed of a steel alloy, and a metal sleeve which is thin relative to the vessel walls. The sleeve is permanently attached to the inner surface of one end of the pressure vessel near its circumference, creating (with the piston) a closed or "inside" chamber for the working fluid. The other end of the sleeve extends toward the other end of the vessel and is generally left open to create an "outside" chamber that consists of the open volume of the sleeve, the remaining volume of the pressure vessel, and the intervening/interstitial space between the outer wall of the sleeve and the inner wall of the pressure vessel, each filled with the gaseous medium of the accumulator.
In operation of these prior art piston-in-sleeve accumulator designs, the sleeve must be tightly retained and centered within the vessel to prevent radial movement, for example, due to vibrations in use with mobile (e.g. aircraft) applications. Sleeve movement would fatigue the rigid fixed end of the sleeve possibly leading to leakage due to cracking, distortion, or wear of the sealing gasket if one is present. This requires the sleeve to either be stiffened by connecting it at points to the vessel wall, or requires the sleeve to be thicker than the minimum that would be necessary to withstand the small pressure differentials normally encountered in charging and discharging. Further, the outer walls of the vessel must be thicker than would be necessary for pressure containment alone because the walls must be prevented from expanding and thus loosening the sleeve or distorting it from the true circular form necessary for piston sealing.
Prior art piston-in-sleeve designs also uniformly contain the fluid within the closed (inside) chamber, with the charge gas residing on the other side of the piston and in the interstitial space between the sleeve and vessel wall. This fluid-inside, gas-outside arrangement is used in the prior art for at least two reasons. First, as mentioned above, the prior inventors sought a resistance to structural splitting. Second, this arrangement is naturally preferable because it maximizes the fluid capacity and hence energy capacity of the device. That is, the working medium that resides inside the sleeve may be discharged completely, while some portion of the medium outside the sleeve will always remain trapped in the interstitial space; because working capacity is determined by how much fluid may be discharged, it is a natural choice to have the fluid reside on the inside of the sleeve and gas on the outside.
Like standard piston accumulators discussed above, these prior art piston-in-sleeve accumulators are unacceptably heavy for a hydraulic hybrid motor vehicle application or other application where accumulator weight is a significant issue. Notably, U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,094 to Tovagliaro attempts to reduce the weight of such piston-in-sleeve accumulators through the use of lightweight composite materials in place of steel for the pressure containment function in the vessel wall. However, the Tovagliaro device still requires an internal metallic core to the vessel wall (in addition to the composite envelope, likely at least in part to resist permeation of the gas under pressure out through the composite vessel wall) and a thickened metal area at one (flat) end of the accumulator (to enable providing a removable end cap and to tightly retain and center the sleeve, as discussed above). As such, the Tovagliaro device would still remain undesirably heavy for a hydraulic hybrid motor vehicle application, and would also entail significantly greater manufacturing cost than desired (e.g., because of complexity of the design and entailing vessel construction with both a composite envelope and metallic core and end). In addition, the internal metallic core (or liner) used in conjunction with composite materials would be unacceptable for use in hydraulic hybrid vehicles. The intense duty cycle experienced by the accumulator (i.e., the extremely large number of charge-discharge cycles, in some cases exceeding one million cycles) and the significant radial expansion of composite materials (about 1/10 of one inch diametrically for a 12 inch diameter vessel at 5,000 psi pressure) together would result in expected fatigue failure of the metal core or liner.
In addition, the flat end construction (on at least one end) of prior art piston accumulators also adds significantly to the complexity, weight and cost of the accumulator.
The most recent attempt to resolve these short-comings is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,016 to Moskalik. The Moskalik device employs a thermoplastic sleeve, with a carbon-fiber wound pressure vessel shell. The Moskalik device also places the fluid outside the core, thus the fluid fills the interstitial spaces. There are several significant short-comings with this design. First, the physical size of the accumulator is larger than necessary to enclose the same volume of useful working fluid as the fluid in the interstitial spaces cannot be used. Second, as will be described below, optimal accumulator design requires that the gas volume be greater than the fluid volume. Third, the design cannot be serviced—any failure of any component requires that the entire cylinder be discarded. Fourth, the thickness of the pressure vessel wrapping is thicker than needed because the wrapping must counter both axial and tangential loads. Fifth, the design does not provide the means to protect the integrity of the sleeve should the fluid pressure exceed that of the gas pressure.
4. Disadvantages of the Prior Art
In summary, as has been explained above, despite the many years of development for accumulator designs, the prior art has thus far failed to provide a high pressure accumulator design that is modular, lightweight, low cost, durable under stresses, easy to assemble and maintain, all while providing optimal performance. Prior art bladder accumulators have unacceptable permeation. Prior art metal bellows accumulators are not sufficiently durable under stresses. Prior art piston accumulators of all types are unacceptably heavy and costly. As a result, the prior art has failed to provide a high pressure accumulator that is satisfactory for hydraulic hybrid motor vehicle applications, as is desired for the present invention.


Disclosed herein is an illegal copy prevention system and method. In short, an anti-copy prevention system of the present invention includes, a chipless RFID disk having a print layer distributed with metal fibers; an Optical Disk Drive (ODD) reading, recorded information when mounted with the chipless RFID disk; and a reader installed in the disk drive to sense whether metal fibers distributed at the printed layer exists and a unique ID contained in the metal fiber.

An RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system is a contactless recognition system for transmitting and processing object information and work environmental information.
An RFID system that has appeared since 1980s is called a radio recognition system, a radio frequency identification system or a radio identification system.
RFID systems are basically comprised of an RFID tag storing data, and an RFID reader having a reading function of data stored in the RFID tag.
The RFID tag is comprised of an RFID tag chip and an antenna manufactured in semiconductor, and may be categorized into a passive type and an active type based on operation characteristic.
A passive type is a formation of operating by supplying energy from a propagation signal of an RFID reader, and an active type is a formation of an RFID tag embedded with an electric cell for unaided operation.
Radio frequency identification technologies used in an RFID system have advantages of a direct contact like a barcode or an unnecessary scanning within a visible light band.
Owing to such advantages, an RFID system has been evaluated as a barcode system-replaceable system and has a prospect of its availability range also expanding steadily.
As an RF (Radio Frequency) band used in an RFID system, there exist 30-500 kHz band as a low frequency band, 850-950 MHz and 2.4-2.5 GHz bands as high frequency bands.
Herein, a low frequency band has a relatively short recognition range, that is, lower than 1.8 m, and a high frequency band has a relatively long RF recognition, that is, more than 27 m.
Hence, depending on whether a recognition range should be long or satisfied to be only short, it is possible to apply and employ an RFID system using an RF signal of a corresponding frequency band.
Such an RFID system is attached on a certain item, and comprised of an RFID tag storing information on that item, and an RFID reader communicating with the RFID tag.
The RFID reader modulates and sends out an RF (Radio Frequency) signal having a specific carrier frequency.
When an item attached with the RFID tag is placed within a read zone of the RFID reader, the RFID tag receives a signal sent by the RFID reader, and transmits pieces of predefined information stored in an intra-memory to the RFID reader in response to a received signal.

System and method for preventing illegal copy


An enhanced frame relay access device (FRAD) capable of bidirectional interfacing between Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) protocol and Frame Relay protocol is utilized to economically transport SS7 signaling and link management information between SS7 networks via a Frame Relay protocol digital communications network. In an outgoing data transfer, the enhanced SS7 FRAD interface determines and eliminates redundant signaling unit information found in an SS7 data stream before packaging the essential information into a frame "payload" and introducing the frame into the Frame Relay network. For incoming data transfers, the SS7 FRAD extracts the frame payload data and regenerates the appropriate SS7 signaling units to maintain a continuous and synchronous data stream on the SS7 network. In the event communications with an SS7 facility is not possible (for example, an SS7 network or facility is down), the SS7 FRAD communicates its operational status to other SS7 FRADs by sending a proprietary coordination and status information frame across the Frame Relay network. A plurality of SS7 FRADs are configurable to provide multiple efficient links between different SS7 facilities over the Frame Relay network. In addition, each FRAD is individually customized to provide special functions such as encryption/decryption and data compression/decompression.

During the last half-decade "fast packet" multiplexing specifications and "frame switching" services such as Frame Relay (FR) have become increasingly popular as an efficient and economical means to transport large quantities of data across existing wide area digital data transmission networks (WANs). This is due, at least in part, to the fact that a frame switching approach to digital data transmissions necessarily limits each user of the network to only an amount of bandwidth actually needed for a particular given communication, thus, freeing up bandwidth for other users. In a frame switching scheme, digital data is communicated throughout the digital network in bursts or packets called "frames" which are variable in size. The Frame Relay packet data protocol now used to access many WANs evolved from the well known CCITT (now known as the International Telecommunications Union - Telecommunications Standardization Sector or ITU-TS) X.25 packet interface specification by removing certain features that are no longer needed given the many recent improvements in digital signal transmission technology. Essentially, the ITU-TS Frame Relay access interface protocol is similar to statistical multiplexing with the added condition that each frame contains information from only one user. The Frame Relay protocol as provided by ITU-TS recommendations 1.441, Q.921 and ANSI Ti.602, which are hereby incorporated by reference, provide the definition for the arrangement of digital information within a frame. Basically, each frame packet is composed of three parts: 1) an address, 2) a variable-length information field or "payload" and 3) a CRC or checksum for error checking (as illustrated, for example, in FIG. 3).
Physically, a conventional Frame Relay network is implemented by interconnecting Frame Relay access/interface "nodes" with a wide area digital data transmission network. At each Frame Relay node there are interface connections to users and/or switches to other nodes. The protocol and the arrangement of the physical network is designed so as to allow a user to reach many other users through a single connection to the network by simply changing the frame address. The Frame Relay network of itself does not terminate or process any protocol nor change or interpret the user data transported. Frame Relay is transparent to user data. A Frame Relay switch at a node either sends (relays) a particular frame over a particular network connection based on the frame address and a set of routing tables relating addresses to specific network connections or else discards the frame for any form of error. Consequently, Frame Relay is basically a "connection-oriented" protocol that establishes a logical connection for the duration of the communication and is currently implemented only as a permanent virtual circuit (PVC) service. (SVC service will probably exist in the future).
Although the Frame Relay protocol and network offers an economical alternative data transport mechanism, much of the installed data terminal equipment (DTE) of preexisting local area networks (LANs) cannot access a Frame Relay network because the DTE of the local network lacks support for the protocol. An external device called a Frame Relay Access Device (FRAD) solves this problem by functioning as an interface between a Frame Relay network and other existing data sources. Typical data source protocols supported by conventional FRADs include X.25, TCP/IP/Ethernet, SNA, Token Ring, and High Level Data Link Control (HDLC). However, as of this writing, applicants are aware of no commercially available FRAD which supports the SS7 (Signaling System No. 7) protocol.
The ITU-TS Signaling System No. 7 (SSN7 or SS7) protocol is currently implemented worldwide as the signaling system protocol for most digital telco trunk systems. Within the United States, the standard for telco network signaling is the so called SS7 protocol, as defined by ANSI standards Nos. T1.110 through T1.116, hereby incorporated herein by reference. Basically, SS7 is a general purpose common channel signaling (CCS) protocol. By definition, in a CCS signaling method a single channel conveys, by means of labeled messages, signaling information related to a multiplicity of circuits, or other information such as that used for network management. CCS can be regarded as a form of data communication that is specialized for various types of signaling and information transfers between processors in telecommunication networks. The SS7 protocol for CCS is optimized for operation over 64 kbps and 56 kbps digital channels, although it is also employed over analog channels at lower data rates (e.g.,4.8 kbps).
Telecommunications (telco) networks, as distinguished from digital data transport networks, actually comprise two logical networks. The first, conventionally referred to as a "transport" network, is a network which carries voice, data and other subscriber oriented signals between communications endpoints. The second is a digital signaling network over which various network elements communicate signaling messages to one another in order to control the operation of the transport network. Those elements include, for example, service switching points (SSPs) various databases or service control points (SC) deployed within the network and signaling transfer points (STPs), which route the signaling messages among the other elements. Thus, for example, messages transmitted over the signaling network are used to set up and tear down circuits interconnecting calling and called locations. They are also used to access and obtain information from such databases as calling card databases and databases which contain information about how to route "800" and other special service telephone calls.
Conventionally, a signaling system uses signaling links for transfer of signaling messages between SSPs and SCPs. Arrangements are provided to ensure reliable transfer of signaling information in the presence of transmission disturbances or network failures. These include error detection and correction on each signaling link. In addition, signaling systems of this sort usually must be equipped with a redundancy of signaling links, and include functions for automatic diversion of signaling traffic to alternative paths in case of link failure. Consequently, the operation of a telco signaling system with diverse facilities spread over a large geographical area or attempts to integrate separate or expand local regional signaling systems into a large WAN can be prohibitively expensive and difficult to maintain. A cost effective and low maintenance alternative mechanism for interconnecting and expanding telco signaling systems would provide a much needed solution.
Since frame switching services have grown in popularity and reliability, digital data transmission networks employing Frame Relay protocol have increased in number as well as geographic coverage, and moreover, have become a very ecomonical alternative service for transporting digital data reliably over long distances. Therefore, the present invention contemplates utilizing existing Frame Relay infrastructures to economically interconnect and expand various SS7 facilities.
Unfortunately, using a Frame Relay network to transport SS7 traffic is feasible in theory but inefficient. This is because the SS7 protocol defines user data handling and link managing procedures that continually use all available link bandwidth. For example, in an SS7 protocol communications link "signaling units" are continuously transmitted whether or not message information is actually transferred. Accordingly, running SS7 protocol over a Frame Relay network using a conventional frame relay access device (FRAD) would require a CIR (Committed Information Rate) greater than the standard data rate of an SS7 link (i.e., since SS7 protocol alone would utilize the entire bandwidth, SS7 plus FR would not be possible). Therefore, the present invention contemplates a viable approach: select only the non-redundant and essential SS7 protocol signaling units from an SS7 data stream to transport across the Frame Relay network and subsequently reconstruct the appropriate SS7 protocol data stream at a destination interface. This approach eliminates the need to occupy all the available bandwidth of the Frame Relay network and essentially provides a seamless and economical logical data link between geographically separated SS7 facilities.
In accordance with the present invention, a specially enhanced frame relay access device, the SS7 FRAD, recognizes and eliminates redundant information from an SS7 protocol data stream signal source and encapsulates essential SS7 signaling units into Frame Relay (FR) protocol packets for introduction into a Frame Relay network. The SS7 FRAD also performs the complementary interfacing functions including extracting and decapsulating SS7 data from received FR frames and the generating of a complete and continuous SS7 data stream. Basically, SS7 FRADs are used in pairs. By connecting the FR interface of one SS7 FRAD to the FR interface of a mate SS7 FRAD across a digital data network, a pair of SS7 FRADs can be made to support the operation of a single SS7 link. Moreover, the present invention further contemplates a signaling system arrangement wherein various SS7 facilities (different networks and/or signaling/transfer points) can be interconnected in an economical fashion by exchanging signaling units and other information across an existing Frame Relay network through the use of two or more enhanced FRAD interfaces in accordance with the present invention.

Frame relay access device and method for transporting SS7 information between signaling points


A switch circuit for passing or blocking a high-frequency signal includes a correction circuit for correcting an impedance component that exists in the switch circuit and that changes asymmetrically with the direct-current potential as a reference such that impedance as seen from either high-frequency terminal changes symmetrically with the direct-current potential as a reference in response to positive and negative changes that take the direct-current potential of the high-frequency signal as a reference.

Conventionally, circuits that employ diodes or circuits that employ field-effect transistors (FETs) have been known as switch circuits for passing or blocking a high-frequency signal.
FIG. 1 shows a switch circuit of the background art that uses FETs, this FIG. 1 being a circuit diagram showing the configuration of a SPDT (Single-Pole Double-Through) switch circuit.
The SPDT switch circuit shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a first switch unit 21 and a second switch unit 22 of the SPST (Single-Pole Single-Through) for passing or blocking a high-frequency signal.
First switch unit 21 is connected between first high-frequency terminal 1 and second high-frequency terminal 2 that receive and supply a high-frequency signal, and second switch unit 22 is connected between first high-frequency terminal 1 and third high-frequency terminal 3 that receive and supply a high-frequency signal. First high-frequency terminal 1 is common to first switch unit 21 and second switch unit 22.
First switch unit 21 is of a configuration provided with a plurality of FETs connected in a series (in FIG. 1, three FETs 31-33), the two ends of this series being connected to high-frequency terminals 1 and 2, respectively. FETs 31-33 are connected in a series, the drain or source of one of FETs 31-33 being common to the source or drain of a neighboring one of FETs 31-33. The gate electrode of each of FETs 31-33 is connected to control terminal 11 by way of a respective one of resistance elements 41-43.
Similarly, second switch unit 22 is of a configuration provided with a plurality of FETs connected in a series (in FIG. 1, three FETs 34-36), each of the two ends of this series being connected to a respective one of high-frequency terminals 1 and 3. FETs 34-36 are connected in a series, the drain or source of one of FETs 34-36 being common to the source or drain of a neighboring one of FETs 34-36. The gate electrode of each of FETs 34-36 is connected to control terminal 12 by way of a respective one of resistance elements 44-46.
The gate electrodes of FETs 31-36 that are used in the switch circuit are typically formed with a large gate width, and a high resistance of several kΩ-several hundred kΩ is used in resistance elements 41-46 that are connected to the gate electrodes.
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the configuration of an FET provided in the switch circuit shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 2, the FET is of a configuration provided with drain 161, source 162, and gate electrode 151 formed on conductive channel 141. Resistance element 171 is connected to gate electrode 151 by way of through-hole 181.
When the FET shown in FIG. 2 is connected in a series as in the circuit shown in FIG. 1, source 162 should be common to the drain of the adjacent FET, and drain 161 should in turn be common to the source of the adjacent FET. In addition, resistance element 171 should be connected between the gate electrode of each FET and the control terminal (control terminals 11 and 12 shown in FIG. 1).
As described hereinabove, in an SPDT switch circuit, the gate width of each FET is formed large, resulting in an increase in parasitic capacitance and a deterioration of switch characteristics. Deterioration in characteristics is therefore suppressed in the configuration shown in FIG. 2 by arranging the gate electrode in a known meandering shape.
Explanation next regards the operation of the switch circuit of the background art shown in FIG. 1.
In the switch circuit shown in FIG. 1, the input of a high-level or a low-level control signal to control terminal 11 provided in first switch unit 21 and control terminal 12 provided in second switch unit 22 controls the ON/OFF of first switch unit 21 and second switch unit 22. If complementary input of high-level and low-level binary control signals is applied to control terminal 11 and control terminal 12 at this time, the high-frequency signal that was applied as input from first high-frequency terminal 1 can be supplied as output from second high-frequency terminal 2 or third high-frequency terminal 3, and one of the high-frequency signals applied as input from second high-frequency terminal 2 and third high-frequency terminal 3 can be supplied as output from first high-frequency terminal 1.
However, the properties demanded of a switch circuit such as shown in FIG. 1 include low transmission loss of the high-frequency signal and high isolation across high-frequency terminals. In addition to these properties, low nonlinear distortion is also crucial.
Nonlinear distortion generated in a switch circuit is present in the nonlinear characteristics provided by the various elements of a switch circuit. In particular, in a multiport switch circuit such as a one-input n- (where n is a positive integer) output SPnT switch circuit or an n-input m- (where m is a positive integer) output nPmT switch circuit, there are more signal paths in the OFF state than signal paths in the ON state, and the signal paths in the OFF state are therefore the chief source of nonlinear distortion. This nonlinear distortion is generated because the capacitance of the FET in the OFF state is greatly changed by the potential of the high-frequency signal applied to the FET. In particular, of the nonlinear distortion, even-order distortion such as secondary harmonic distortion (2f0 distortion) or secondary intermodulation distortion (IMD2 distortion) is generated because the impedance when a positive potential is applied to an FET in the OFF state and impedance when a negative potential is applied change asymmetrically. The positive potential here described refers to a normal-direction potential with respect to a prescribed direct-current potential and the negative potential refers to a negative-direction potential with respect to the direct-current potential. This direct-current potential is not necessarily the ground potential.
In a FET in the OFF state, the gate-source capacitance (Cgs) and gate-drain capacitance (Cgd) each vary in response to the change in applied potential as shown in FIG. 3. This shows that the values of Cgs and Cgd also vary when the high-frequency signal applied from the high-frequency terminal changes in the normal direction and negative direction taking the direct-current potential as a reference. In the case of characteristics in which Cgd and Cgs do not intersect at the direct-current potential of the high-frequency signal due to, for example, divergence in the alignment of exposure at the time of fabrication of the FET, the impedance of the FET changes asymmetrically with the direct-current potential as a reference when a high-frequency signal is applied, and different voltage amplitudes are distributed across the gate-drain and across the gate-source, resulting in the occurrence of even-order distortion. Still further, when resistance elements are connected to the FET, the impedance of these elements also changes asymmetrically with the direct-current potential as a reference.
A FET in the OFF state can be considered equivalent to a capacitance element, and the above-described "asymmetrical change in impedance" can therefore be thought of as an asymmetrical change of the capacitance of the FET. However, in the switch circuit of the background art shown in FIG. 1, resistance elements 41-46 are connected to the gate electrodes of each of FETs 31-36 to prevent leakage of a signal from the gate electrode to the control terminal. Accordingly, the influence of the impedance of these resistance elements 41-46 cannot be ignored.
However, in the switch circuit of the background art, increasing the value of each of resistance elements 41-46 that are connected to the gate electrodes of the FETs allows the influence of the impedance of these elements to be ignored.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-341485 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a configuration provided with two parallel signal paths for canceling the distortion component by inverting the phase of the distortion component of one signal path and then adding the distortion components of the two signal paths. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-042138 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 2) discloses a configuration for reducing the strength of the distortion component of a desired frequency by optimal setting of the length of the signal path, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-323030 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 3) proposes a configuration for limiting the generation of distortion by stabilizing the voltage that is applied across the drain and source of an FET.
Still further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-223902 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 4), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-065060 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 5), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-072993 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 6), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-086420 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 7), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-211265 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 8), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-073815 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 9), and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-258766 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 10) disclose configurations in which a capacitance element or resistance element is connected across the gate and drain or the gate and source of an FET to decrease loss or distortion of a switch circuit.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-211265 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 11) discloses a configuration in which, based on the premise that reducing distortion necessitates the suppression of variation of Vgs of an FET, a circuit composed of FETs, resistance elements and capacitance elements is connected between the high-frequency terminal and gate electrode of an FET.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-307232 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 12) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-018315 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 13) disclose configurations for broadening the power range of a high-frequency signal that normally operates without saturation; and Japanese Patent No. 003813869 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 14) discloses the reduction of distortion by correcting the asymmetry of capacitance.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-017416 (hereinbelow referred to as Patent Document 15) discloses a configuration that realizes the reduction of transmission loss of a high-frequency signal, the improvement of isolation properties between high-frequency terminals, and the reduction of distortion by turning ON/OFF the connection of a resistance element inserted between a control terminal and the gate electrode of an FET to change the resistance.
Of the switch circuits of the above-described background art, the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires the provision of a plurality of signal paths (wiring), and therefore suffers from the drawback of increased layout area. The configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1 suffers from the additional problem that the distortion component of frequencies close to that of the input signal cannot be eliminated.
The configuration disclosed in Patent Document 2 enables reduction of distortion of a desired frequency, but because the distortion component occurs at only one frequency, cannot be applied to the reduction of distortion components that occur at a plurality of frequencies.
The configuration disclosed in Patent Document 3 stabilizes switch operation by stabilizing the voltage applied across the drain and source of an FET. However, the effect of limiting even-order distortion cannot be obtained by the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 3.
The configurations disclosed in Patent Documents 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 broaden the power range of a high-frequency signal that normally operates without saturation and can thus reduce the distortion that occurs when a high-power high-frequency signal is applied as input. In other words, the configurations disclosed in Patent Documents 4 to 10 are not intended for the reduction of distortion that occurs when a high-frequency signal is applied as input at power that is within normal operating range without saturation. In addition, the configurations disclosed in Patent Documents 4 to 10 sometimes exhibit even greater distortion due to the addition of resistance elements and capacitance elements in the direction in which the impedance, as seen from a high-frequency terminal, changes asymmetrically with the direct-current potential as reference.
The configurations disclosed in the above-described Patent Documents 1 to 10 do not eliminate the generation source of distortion itself and are therefore prone to problems such as a limited amount of reduction of distortion or the deterioration of other characteristics.
The configuration disclosed in Patent Document 11 suppresses variation of Vgs to suppress variation of the capacitance of an FET resulting from change in the bias voltage, but the effect of reducing distortion is insufficient because variation of not only the Vgs but also the Vgd must be suppressed in order to suppress variation of the capacitance of an FET.
The configurations disclosed in Patent Documents 12 and 13 are directed to broadening the power range of a high-frequency signal that normally operates without saturation and is not intended for reducing distortion that occurs when a high-frequency signal is applied as input at power within a normal operating range and that is not saturated.
Patent Document 14 describes the correction of the asymmetry of capacitance to reduce distortion but makes no disclosure regarding the generation source of distortion and therefore does not adequately describe how capacitance can be made symmetrical. In addition, the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 14 suffers from the problem of increased power consumption due to the flow of current between control terminals by way of interposed resistance elements.
The configuration disclosed in Patent Document 15 employs an FET that is a nonlinear element to realize variable resistance and therefore suffers from the problem that distortion is made even greater.


Drawn and ironed aluminum can bodies are made from aluminum having a gauge thickness of 0.01075 inches or less, in which the bottom profile meets customer requirements for bottom performance in terms of buckle, drop and growth, without requiring the bottom profile to be reformed in a separate bottom profile reforming step.

A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the can manufacturing art, and more particularly to a novel construction and arrangement of the bottom portion of a drawn and ironed can body and method for making such a can body.
B. Description of Related Art
It is well known to draw and iron a sheet metal blank to make a thin-walled can body for packaging beverages, such as beer, fruit juice or carbonated beverages. In a typical manufacturing method for making a drawn and ironed can body, a circular disk or blank is cut from a sheet of light gauge metal (such as aluminum). The blank is then drawn into a shallow cup using a cup forming equipment. The cup is then transferred to a body maker where the can shape is formed. The body maker re-draws and irons the sidewall of the cup to approximately the desired height, and forms dome and other features on the bottom of the can. The dome and other feature on the bottom edge of the can are referred to herein as the "bottom profile" of a drawn and ironed can body.
Can body manufacturing techniques are described in the patent literature. Representative patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,305,210; 6,132,155; 6,079,244; 5,984,604, and 5,934,127, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Domer assemblies for drawing and ironing machines are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,179,909; 4,620,434; 4,298,014, all assigned to National Can Corporation, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
In current practice, after the can is formed in the body maker, the can is sent to a separate necking and flanging station, where the neck and flange features are formed on the upper regions of the can. The flange is used as an attachment feature for permitting the lid for the can, known as an "end" in the art, to be seamed to the can. The last station in the necker-flanger is a reformer station. This station includes a set of tools for reforming the bottom profile of the can in order to increase the strength of the bottom profile. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,222,385 and 5,697,242, both assigned to American National Can Co., describe a can body reforming apparatus and methods for reforming can bodies to increase the strength of the bottom profile. Ihly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,127 also describes can bottom reforming apparatus. Other patents of interest include Gouillard, U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,155 and Saunders et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,210. After necking, flanging and bottom reforming, the top edge of the can is trimmed.
Long ago, when cans were made from a relatively heavy gauge aluminum, a bottom profile could be formed by the body maker that did not require a separate reforming operation in order to increase the strength of the bottom of the can. The separate reforming operation was not necessary due to the relatively thick aluminum gauge material providing the required strength. However, under current practice, aluminum stock used for drawn and ironed beverage cans is of a much thinner gauge than it used to be, in order to reduce the amount of material used to make a can. Consequently, it is much more difficult to provide a can bottom profile resulting from the shaping performed by the body maker that possesses the strength required to meet customer requirements for bottom performance. Thus, in accordance with the present practice of the assignee of this invention, after formation of the can by the body maker, the separate bottom reforming step is performed to further form or shape the bottom of the can in order to increase the strength of the bottom profile and allow it to meet customer requirements in terms of can bottom performance.
The bottom performance of a drawn and ironed can body is typically characterized by three independent and distinct criteria: can growth, drop, and buckle. Can growth refers to a deformation of the can bottom due to the pressurized contents of the can causing the bottom of the can to extend further in the axial direction. The can is pressurized to 90 PSI, the pressure is removed, and the growth g is measured. The phenomenon is shown in FIG. 1. The can bottom profile prior to pressurization is shown in dashed lines, the bottom profile after pressurization is shown in solid lines. The bottom profile 10 includes a nose portion 12 which defines a circumferential stand or base on which the can sits. The bottom profile 10′ after growth shows the nose portion 12′. Growth occurs by an unrolling action of the nose 12, wherein the material forming the nose moves away from the region of the dome 14. Growth resistance is thus a measure of the stiffness of the bottom profile—how much pressure can the can withstand before the nose 12 unrolls, and the amount g of can growth at a given pressure. As is known in the art, the tighter the radius of the nose 12 is, the more pressure required to "unroll" the nose and incur can growth. Hence, bottom profile reforming typically involves reforming the nose so as to decrease the nose radius to improve can growth characteristics.
Drop refers to a measurement of the height at which a can, filled with water and pressurized with nitrogen to 60 pounds per square inch, is dropped and lands square on a steel platform, which results in a reversal (either whole or partial) of the dome in the bottom of the can, such that the can will no longer stand without tipping. The drop height starts at three inches and increases one inch until the failure criteria is reached. Typically, 10 or more cans are tested and the average and standard deviation are reported as results. During a drop test, the sudden dynamic load of the liquid increases the pressure on the dome. The result is shown in FIG. 2. The figure shows the dome 14′ (solid line) just prior to the dome reversal. The dome at 14′ in the Figure is not the final shape of the dome at failure, as in the final configuration the dome completely reverses, as shown. The following results are observed, as shown in FIG. 2: The nose is restrained from unrolling (as shown in FIG. 1) by the steel platform; the inner leg or chime 16 rotates outwardly and results in a negative angle; a more shallow dome results; and the dynamic load of the liquid in the can causes a local collapse of the dome 14. The dome becoming shallower does not constitute a failure; the inability to stand a can without tipping is considered a failure.
Buckle refers to the internal pressure limit (e.g., 100 PSI) at which point the dome in the bottom of the can reverses. Like the growth issue described previously, dome reversal involves a dynamic "rolling" at the nose of the can. See FIG. 3. Dome reversal occurs when there is no more leg material available to the roll (nose), additionally the leg angle tilts inwardly by a considerable margin (positive angle). A design goals for increasing buckle is to provide a deeper dome depth, reforming to tilt the leg angle outward (provide a negative chime angle) and provide a larger nose radius and dome corner radius to provide more material for the dynamic rolling of the nose.
As is known in the art, and as indicated by the above discussion, changing the parameters or values of the various features of the can bottom profile (dome radius of curvature, stand diameter, nose radius, chime angle, etc.) tend to effect the ability of the can to meet the above-referenced bottom performance criteria. However, a change in a particular value in the can bottom profile may result in a positive improvement in one criteria (such as minimize can growth), but at the same time negatively affect one or more of the other parameters (such as, for example, lower the buckle limit and lower the drop limit). Complicating the situation is the fact that can bodies are made from a very thin gauge of aluminum material, and as the material becomes thinner, it becomes increasingly difficult to design the can body that meets all the bottom performance criteria.
Further considerations of the design of the bottom of a can are reduction in bottom wrinkling and reduction in bottom thinning. These considerations, in addition to the previously described goals of increasing bottom performance in terms of buckle, drop and growth, typically oppose each other. In other words, the steps a designer may take to improve can bottom performance may actual work against reducing bottom wrinkling or bottom thinning.
Accordingly, there has been a need in the art for a new and improved can body which optimizes the various can bottom design parameters such that it not only meets the bottom performance criteria required by the industry, using current gauge material for the can body, but allows the can body to be formed without requiring a separate reforming process to strengthen the bottom profile. This need is particularly strong in today's environment since the can body reforming process can represent the most consistent bottleneck in high-speed can manufacturing operations. It has been the experience of the inventors that the reforming tools require more frequent maintenance and are more prone to problems than the other equipment used in the process. Furthermore, to the extent that the bottom reformer can be completely eliminated, it represents a savings in capital expense, since the equipment does not have to be purchased, and savings of labor and energy consumption.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a bottom profile design for a thin walled drawn and ironed can body made from 0.01075 inch gauge material or thinner which does not require a separate reforming step in order for the can body to meet customer (industry) strength requirements for bottom performance, passes a drop test of at least 5½ inches, and has acceptable bottom wrinkling and bottom thinning characteristics.

Bottom profile for drawn and ironed can body


A primer composition for application to a substrate to promote adhesion of a room-temperature-vulcanizable silicone rubber coating, comprises (A) an aminosilane material, (B) a chlorinated polyolefin and (C) a room-temperature-curable polydiorganosiloxane. The aminosilane material (A) is a primary amine-functional silane or the reaction product of a primary amine-functional silane with an epoxy-functional silane or an alpha, omega-dihydroxypolydimethylsiloxane oil.

Silicone rubber fouling-resistant coatings are described for example in GB-A-1307001, GB-A-1470465, GB-A-1581727, GB-A-2141436, EP-A-16195 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,778. RTV silicone rubber coatings have also been suggested as coatings inhibiting the adhesion of ice, for example on the superstructure and topsides of ships.
A problem in the use of such RTV silicone rubber coatings is that it is difficult to make them adhere well to substrates. This problem is discussed in EP-A-16195 which proposes applying the RTV silicone rubber as a cladding on a fabric backing.
Various primer compositions have been suggested for room-temperature-vulcanisable silicone rubber antifoulings. U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,778 proposes a crosslinkable silicone paste. EP-A-89066 proposes a mixture of an epoxysilane and a silane containing an unsaturated hydrocarbon group. JP-A-53-137231, JP-A-53-137233 and JP-A-53-137234 propose various elastomeric materials such as polyurethane, natural rubber, chloroprene or neoprene rubber or butyral/silicone rubber. EP-A-323906 and EP-A-329375 propose a silicone resin containing an aminosilane.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,421 describes the use of chlorinated polyethylene as a primer for improving adhesion of coatings on polyolefin surfaces.


A fuel injector is provided having a needle valve element and a nozzle member with a central bore configured to slidingly receive the needle valve element. The fuel injector also has a spring configured to bias the needle valve element toward a closed position. In addition, the fuel injection assembly has a guide element configured to reduce a lateral movement of the needle valve element. The fuel injection assembly further has a fluid flow restricting device configured to restrict the flow of a fluid through the needle valve element and create a fluid pressure differential between the fluid upstream and downstream of the fluid flow restricting device.

Common rail fuel systems typically employ multiple fuel injectors to inject high pressure fuel into the combustion chambers of an engine. Each of these fuel injectors may include a nozzle assembly having a cylindrical bore with a nozzle supply passageway and a nozzle outlet. A needle check valve may be reciprocatingly disposed within the cylindrical bore and biased toward a closed position where the nozzle outlet is blocked. In response to a deliberate injection request, the needle check valve may be selectively moved to open the nozzle outlet, thereby allowing high pressure fuel to flow from the nozzle supply passageway into the combustion chamber.
For emissions reduction and increased engine performance, it is desired to decrease the volume of fuel delivered to a combustion chamber during an initial stage of a fuel injection event. One way to ensure accurate small volume delivery is to reduce the check seat diameter of the check valve. However, if the size of the check seat diameter is reduced, the check seat impact load needs to also be reduced to maintain injector integrity. Such a reduction may be accomplished by reducing the size of the biasing spring because the biasing spring is a significant contributor to the check seat impact load. It has been found, however, that reducing the size of the biasing spring requires a supplemental force to close the needle check valve.
An example of a fuel injector that includes a device providing a supplemental force for closing the needle check valve can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,788 (the '788 patent) issued to Augustin on Mar. 13, 2007. The '788 patent discloses a fuel injector having a needle check valve, which is biased toward a closed position by a biasing spring. A sleeve is disposed over a portion of the needle valve creating a metering landing, which effectively enlarges the diameter of the needle check valve at that location. The metering landing selectively overlaps a metering edge of a metering bore to define a fuel flow passage. During a fuel injection event, fuel is permitted to flow to the needle check valve creating enough pressure to counteract the force of the biasing spring. This allows the needle check valve to move to an open position. When the needle check valve moves toward the open position, the metering landing moves away from the metering edge, and the fuel flow passage is enlarged. The enlarged fuel flow passage allows fuel to flow freely from an upper surface of the metering landing to a lower surface of the metering landing and ultimately through an outlet of the fuel injector assembly. When it is desired to end fuel injection, fuel is prevented from flowing to the needle check valve, thereby decreasing the fuel pressure counteracting the force of the biasing spring. This allows the biasing spring to move the needle check valve toward a closed position and reduces the size of the fuel flow passage by moving the metering landing toward the metering edge. As the size of the fuel flow passage is reduced, the flow of fuel from the upper surface of the metering landing to the lower surface of the metering landing becomes restricted. This restricted flow produces a greater pressure above the upper surface of the metering landing than below the lower surface of the metering landing, thereby creating a force that assists the biasing spring to close the needle check valve.
Although the '788 patent discloses a fuel injector having a device that provides a supplemental force for closing the needle check valve, the fuel injector design may not adequately control the magnitude of the supplemental force. In particular, the size of the fuel flow passage varies during the closing and opening events. In addition, the design of the fuel injector may allow the needle check valve to move laterally, further varying the size of the fuel flow passage. The variable size of the fuel flow passage may produce unpredictable pressure differentials between the fuel above the upper surface of the metering landing and the fuel below the lower surface of the metering landing. Such unpredictable pressure differentials may ultimately lead to operational failures when closing the needle check valve due to excessive or insufficient supplemental forces.
The disclosed system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.

Fuel injector nozzle with flow restricting device


There are provided a pressure-sensitive adhesive and other compositions which free radical cured mixtures in which a halogenated hydrocarbon was present during free radical cure, of at least one unsaturated elastomeric polymer and at least one organic additive which is substantially nonresponsive to the action of free radicals and present in an amount sufficient to modify the properties of the cured elastomeric polymer.

This invention is directed to reducing the energy required to improve the properties of multicomponent polymer systems which form pressure-sensitive adhesives.
More particularly, the invention is related to the use of halogenated crosslinking agents for radiation (EB & UV) curing of adhesives containing unsaturated elastomeric polymers, such as unsaturated block copolymers, especially, though not limited to, styrene-isoprene block copolymers, e.g., linear SI, SIS, multi-armed (SI).sub.x. Halogenated materials significantly enhance the facility of free-radical materials crosslinking of pressure-sensitive adhesive formulations containing unsaturated elastomers, leading, at lower levels of free-radical generating energy, to a higher degree of crosslinking, which is manifested by the formation of more insoluble gel, lower swelling ratios, and significant improvements in adhesive performance at elevated temperatures.
Conventional crosslinking systems for such adhesives have been based upon the use of polyfunctional acrylates or methacrylates. Polythiols have also been effectively used. These materials exhibit a number of disadvantages: for example; curing may cause a considerable loss of peel and tack, and the thermal instability of the crosslinkers requires in-line static mixing immediately prior to coating for hot melt processes. Many of the halogenated materials, in contrast, are thermally stable and are ideally suited to hot melt (100% solids) processing, although they may also be used in solution or emulsion processes.
Properties of unsaturated pressure sensitive adhesive compositions can be improved by use of actinic radiation, such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation; electron beam (EB) radiation. Normally, the adhesive is applied to facestock and/or a release liner and subjected to a suitable curing action to improve such properties as elevated temperature shear.
One means of cure is electron beam (EB) radiation. While the facestock and/or release liner can sustain electron beam dosages up to a certain level, e.g., 80 to 100 kiloGray (kGy), going beyond that level can result in degradation of components of adhesive label and tape constructions such as the face stock and/or release liner and/or adverse reactions between the adhesive and the silicon release agent of the release liner.
Increased radiation requirements, whether EB or actinic, will reduce the speed at which an adhesive coated substrate can pass under the radiating surface or increase the number of radiating surfaces. Both are costly.
The present invention is directed to reducing the energy required to achieve a positive modification in a pressure sensitive adhesive formed of at least two components, one an unsaturated elastomeric polymer component, the other an organic additive component which is one or more organic additives which are at least dispersable in the elastomeric component. Typically, the organic additive component is provided to tackify or plasticize the elastomeric component.


The present invention provides a transmitter. In one embodiment, the transmitter includes a coefficient circuit configured to generate coefficients of a set of basis waveforms that represent channel quality metrics and a transmit circuit that transmits the coefficients. The present invention also provides a receiver. In one embodiment, the receiver includes a receive circuit configured to receive coefficients of a set of basis waveforms that represent channel quality metrics and a reconstruction circuit configured to reconstruct the channel quality metrics from the coefficients.

Per-tone control of a cellular OFDM system provides a scheme where the base station allocates an OFDM tone to a particular user who has the best channel conditions for that tone, so as to maximize the average throughput of the system. In contrast to a per-tone rate control of a cellular OFDM, a single-rate scheme allocates all of the OFDM tones to a particular user who has the best channel quality indicator (CQI) and communication is established using a fixed modulation and coding scheme (MCS) across all the tones. The per-tone rate control scheme achieves the maximum multiplexing gain possible whereas the single-rate scheme achieves the maximum diversity gain possible.
The feedback requirement for per-tone rate control on the uplink is directly proportional to the number of OFDM tones, while on the downlink, the broadcast requirement is proportional to the number of users serviced in the cellular system and the number of modulation and coding schemes in the MCS set. Thus, it is imperative that efficient feedback and scheduling schemes for a high load, multi-carrier system with a large number of data carriers be employed.
In a multi-user, multi-carrier cellular OFDM system employing per-tone rate control, the base station has to know the amplitude of the channel frequency response of the different users, so that it can assign each OFDM tone to the user with the best channel conditions for that tone. One way to effect this feedback is to communicate the channel frequency response across the data tones from each user to the base station. The feedback requirement with this scheme is directly proportional to the number of data tones, and is operationally prohibitive in a system with a large number of data carriers.
A simple feedback scheme may be developed if realistic physical channels can be modeled accurately with a few uncorrelated filter taps. The user then feeds back the quantized channel taps to the base station. The base station estimates the amplitude of the channel frequency response from the channel taps that are fed back. This scheme requires a feedback rate proportional to the number of filter taps modeling the channel between the base station and the user. The disadvantage with this scheme is that, since channel coefficients change randomly from one time instantiation to another, the effective feedback rate is also proportional to the rate of change of channel coefficients, which is usually high for a fading wireless channel.
The single-rate scheme minimizes the feedback on the downlink when compared with a per-tone rate control scheme, since only one user and MCS information has to be transmitted for all the OFDM tones. Here, the downlink feedback is immensely reduced as the base station has to inform the users of only one allocated user and MCS information. However, without further information, the uplink feedback requirement remains the same, as each user has to communicate the CQI for all the data tones.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an enhanced way to overcome these disadvantages and limitations.

Feedback and scheduling schemes for a communications system


In a dynamic drive type matrix display apparatus having a scan drive circuit for sequentially driving a number of scan electrodes of a display panel and a data drive circuit for simultaneously driving a number of data electrodes of the display panel, the data drive circuit is divided into a plurality of data drive sub-circuits, and data of one scan to be transferred to a shifter register of each of the data drive sub-circuits is stored in a memory circuit once, and thereafter, simultaneously transferred in parallel to the shift registers of all the data drive sub-circuits.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus, and more specifically to a data transfer system for transferring data to a data drive circuit of a dynamic drive type display apparatus.
2. Description Of Related Art
A typical conventional display apparatus includes a signal control circuit receiving a vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal and generating a scan control signal, a driver signal and a latch signal. In response to the scan control signal, a scan drive circuit sequentially drives a number of scan electrodes of a display panel. On the other hand, a data drive circuit receives a data signal and a clock signal and is controlled by the driver signal and the latch signal so as to drive a number of data electrodes of the display panel. The data drive circuit is composed of for example a driver, a latch and a shift register. The clock signal is a dot clock in synchronism with the data signal.
With the above arrangement, the display panel is driven in a line sequential scanning manner from a first line to a final line in accordance with the horizontal synchronizing signal, and this scanning is repeated 7ith reference to the vertical synchronizing signal. For this purpose, during one period of the horizontal synchronizing signal, a number of items of data corresponding to display cells of one scan line are serially supplied to the shift register of the data drive circuit in synchronism with the clock signal, and after the data has been written to the shift register, a content of the shift register is transferred from a parallel output of the shift register to the latch. The display cells on one scan line selected by the scan drive circuit is energized or deenergized by the driver of the data drive circuit on the basis of the data held in the latch during one period of the horizontal synchronizing signal, namely, in one scanning period.
The above mentioned conventional display apparatus is such that the data signals are serially transferred to the shift register. Therefore, since a required frequency of the clock signal and the data signal increases in proportion with increase of a display capacity, the shift register having a high operating frequency has been required.

Display apparatus having shift register of reduced operating frequency


A graphics memory system of a graphics display system which utilizes a batching architecture in conjunction with detached Z buffering to minimize paging overhead is disclosed. The graphics memory system comprises a memory controller, which receives a batch of pixels from the graphics display system when a 3D rendering mode is in effect. Each pixel has a color and a corresponding Z coordinate. The memory controller performs a Z comparison test wherein Z coordinates of the batch are compared with existing Z coordinates read from a frame buffer to determine whether each new color of the batch associated with the compared Z coordinate should be written into the frame buffer. If the results of a Z comparison test pass, the new pixel color and Z coordinate are queued for writing into the frame buffer. A preferred embodiment of the graphics memory system uses two memory controllers, with each memory controller accessing its own frame buffer. Each frame buffer may be a RAM storage device. Each memory controller processes a portion of the batch with the image or color portion of a particular pixel processed in one memory controller associated with the Z coordinate of the same pixel is processed in the other memory controller. This allows the memory controllers to access their respective frame buffer memories independently, thus maximizing utilization of the memory bus.

Many high performance graphics memory systems "attach" the memory for the Z coordinate, commonly referred to as the Z buffer, to the memory for the pixel color, commonly referred to as the image buffer, so that the Z coordinate and the color values for the pixel can reside in the same memory page, i.e., the same row address, of the frame buffer memory of the graphics memory system. In these types of systems, a pixel is processed by reading the old Z coordinate for the pixel from the Z buffer, comparing the old Z coordinate with a new Z coordinate, and, if the new Z coordinate passes the Z comparison test, writing the new Z coordinate and the associated pixel color into the Z buffer and image buffer, respectively, of the frame buffer memory. Once these steps have been performed, the next pixel is processed in an identical manner.
The Z comparison test is performed to determine whether the new pixel (i.e., the Z coordinate and color) is in front of the old pixel on the screen and needs to be written into the frame buffer memory or whether it can be discarded. If the Z coordinate associated with an X,Y screen coordinate is behind the Z coordinate contained in the Z buffer memory that is associated with that same screen coordinate, the new pixel can be discarded because the new pixel would not be viewable on the display monitor even if it was displayed. This situation corresponds to a Z comparison failure.
Since the Z coordinate and the color for a particular pixel are stored in the same page in the frame buffer memory, attachment of the Z coordinate to the pixel color eliminates the need for "re-paging", i.e., closing the current page of memory and opening a new page of memory when switching between Z coordinate accesses and color accesses. However, attachment of the Z coordinate to the color produces an undesirable side effect as well, namely, it reduces the size of a page in XY screen coordinates. A page of synchronous graphics RAM (SGRAM) memory may store, for example, 1024 bytes. If this page is shared for 16-bit pixel color and Z coordinate values, then only 512 bytes are available to be used for the colors while the other 512 bytes must be used for the Z coordinates. Thus, the shape of the page in two-dimensional screen coordinate space might be 32×8 pixels, whereas if the memory for Z coordinates were detached and moved into a different page, the shape of the page in accordance with this example, could be 32×16 pixels. The taller page would be advantageous for both vectors and triangles.
Another undesirable side effect caused by attaching the Z memory to the pixel color memory so that each pixel can be processed to completion before processing begins on the next pixel, is that bus inefficiencies result. Specifically, processing a pixel to completion before beginning processing on the next pixel wastes bus bandwidth because each time the memory bus is "turned around", i.e., changed from reads to writes or from writes to reads, dead states must be utilized to avoid bus contention problems and to satisfy pipe latencies.
Graphics operating systems for personal computers (PCs) usually allocate Z buffer memory independently from allocations for image buffer memory. Therefore, for PC graphics operating systems, it is preferable to utilize a graphics memory architecture that detaches the Z buffer from their associated image buffer to provide independent allocation for this memory. However, as stated above, detachment of the Z buffer from the image buffer requires that the frame buffer memory be re-paged each time accesses to the frame buffer memory are switched between Z coordinate accesses and color accesses, which can eliminate advantages attributable to the resulting larger page size.
Accordingly, a need exists for a graphics memory system that utilizes detached Z buffering to obtain the advantages thereof while eliminating the inefficiencies associated with re-paging when switching between a Z access and the associated color access for each pixel.

Graphics memory system that utilizes detached-Z buffering in conjunction with a batching architecture to reduce paging overhead

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


To accomplish both fast track access and low power consumption in an apparatus for recording or reading out a signal onto or from a track of a recording medium. The actuator control apparatus uses a tracking error signal (TES), which is a signal whose level varies, with the time taken for a pickup to cross one track being used as a cycle. It detects the velocity of the pickup from the time interval (Ti) of the mean level crossing by TES, and provides an actuator with a signal having a pulse width (Tf) proportional to the time interval of the mean level crossing by TES, in synchronization with the crossing of the mean level by TES.

The present invention is related to an apparatus for recording or reading out a signal onto or from a track of a recording medium such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for performing the control of an actuator for moving a pickup for recording or reading out a signal onto or from a track to a target track (hereinafter referred to as track access). In this specification, "recording" is a concept including erasing, and "optical disk" is a concept including magneto-optical disks.

Track crossing apparatus and method using the difference between pick-up velocity and a predetermined velocity

International Business Machines Corporation