A dock leveler that is mounted in a recessed pit and having a deck as wide as necessary to provide access to the transport vehicle. A lip is mounted to the front of the deck of the leveler and pivoted in a conventional manner. At each side of the lip are narrower lip segments. The bumpers are supported with vertical plates so that the plates may fit in the gap between the lip and the lip segments. Thus the lip segments may be stored behind the bumpers and the effective width of the lip may be greater than the space between the bumpers. The lip segment has a back edge that abuts the front of the deck when extended, or may be of the xe2x80x9cbarrier lipxe2x80x9d configuration where the rear of the lip is extended above the top of the deck to provide a run-off guard when the lip is pendent. The lip may also extend linearly. Each lip segment has a hydraulic cylinder and a control valve or may be manually selected. There is a control circuit which can selectively activate any of the lips.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to loading dock equipment and in particular to dock levelers that are used to span the distance between a loading dock and the bed of a vehicle. Specifically, it deals with a specific type of lip for a dock leveler.
2. Prior Art
A conventional loading dock for transport vehicles typically has a dock leveler with a dock bumper placed on each side of the dock opening mounted on the dock face in a fixed position. The width of the dock leveler is usually limited to a maximum width of seven feet because if the bumpers are placed wider apart there is a risk that the vehicle, which is limited in width, may miss the bumper and strike the dock leveler. Consequently, the probability of damage is relatively high if the vehicle strikes the end of the leveler. Some specialty dock levelers are wider than seven feet to provide space for wider than normal cargo. Examples of these devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,881,414 and 6,070,203. U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,849 illustrates a dock leveler with bumpers that fold away to accommodate wide loads, but with all of these devices the width of lip is still limited by the space between the dock bumpers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,954 describes a dock leveler with a lip that extends linearly rather than rotating in the conventional manner. However the distance between the bumpers would still limit the width of the leveler.
Segmented lips are generally known. These are manually operated by the dock worker.
There is a need for a dock leveler which has a lip that is wider than the distance between the dock bumpers. One method of shipping cargo employs two rows of wheeled carts on a transport vehicle. When a row of carts is pulled from the transport vehicle onto the loading dock, the outer wheels of the carts will extend beyond the seven foot width of a conventional dock leveler lip. Thus the wheels of the cart may fall into the gap between the back of the transport vehicle and the front of the dock bumper, and the movement of the carts may be impeded.
A potential problem with increasing the width of the lip is interference with the side of the transport vehicle if the vehicle is not properly centered on the loading dock. This problem is not unique to wide lips. Such interference is possible even on standard width lips if the door opening of the vehicle is not much greater than the width of the lip. Dock levelers having a lip with a selectable segment at one or both sides have been constructed but with manual activation requiring the operator to reach behind the lip to engage a latch. Such lips did not allow the width of the lip to exceed the distance between the bumpers.
Given the problems in the prior art, it is an object of this invention to define a dock leveler that has the versatility to employ a lip of different widths.
It is another object of this invention to provide for a dock leveler that allows a wide lip to be safely used.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a dock system employing a segmented lip that allows the operator to select and operate the lip segments automatically from the dock floor.
This invention is a dock leveler having a lip with selectable segments at either side. The segments may remain pendent or be selected to be extended with the lip. The lip may be of conventional configuration placed between the dock bumpers or may be wider than the space between the bumpers. Thus the lip may be almost as wide as the opening in the back of the transport vehicle and all the wheels of the cart may roll easily from the bed of the transport vehicle over the lip and onto the dock leveler. If the transport vehicle is not properly centered on the loading dock then the operator may select more lip segments on one side than the other.
The first preferred embodiment of this invention employs a dock leveler that is mounted in a recessed pit of conventional construction. The dock leveler may be as wide as necessary to provide access to the transport vehicle. A lip is mounted to the front of the deck of the leveler and pivoted in a conventional manner. At each side of the lip are narrower lip segments. The bumpers are supported with vertical plates so that the plates may fit in the gap between the lip and the lip segments. Thus the lip segments may be stored behind the bumpers and the effective width of the lip may be greater than the space between the bumpers. The lip segment itself may be of conventional configuration where the back edge of the lip abuts the front of the deck when extended, or it may be of the xe2x80x9cbarrier lipxe2x80x9d configuration where the rear of the lip is extended above the top of the deck to provide a run-off guard when the lip is pendent. While either lip configuration may be used with this invention, the lip segments are preferably of conventional configuration so that the segments that are left pendent do not obstruct movement of wide cargo over the dock leveler. Each lip segment has a hydraulic cylinder and a control valve. The operator may observe the relationship of the transport vehicle and the dock leveler and then move switches on the control panel to select the segments that are to be extended with the lip.
The second preferred embodiment is similar to the first except that the lip segments are selected manually and extended mechanically as the lip extends. They are retracted mechanically as the lip retracts.
The third preferred embodiment is similar to the second except that the lip segments are selected manually and extended by springs that urge them to the extended position. They are retracted as the lip retracts.
The fourth preferred embodiment is similar to the first except that the dock leveler has a lip that retracts linearly rather than by rotation. The segments may be extended and retracted hydraulically or mechanically as in the previous embodiments.


The invention relates to a large manipulator, especially for truck mounted concrete pumps. A chassis bears a mast base rotatable about a vertical pivot and an articulated mast consisting of at least three arms. The arms can be pivoted to a limited extent about horizontal, mutually parallel axes in pairs in relation to the adjacent base or arm by means of a drive system. The articulated mast is actuated via a remote control device with control levers. In order to ensure a clear allocation of the movements of the control lever and the articulated mast, the invention proposes that the remote control device have a computer-supported co-ordinate transmitter controllable via the control lever for the drive systems via which, in one path of adjustment of the control lever, the drive systems for the pivots can be actuated independently of the drive system for the pivot of the mast base with the accomplishment of an extending or retracting movement of the articulated mast for a predetermined height of the tip of the mast. In the other path of adjustment of the control lever perpendicular to the first path, a rotary movement of the articulated mast about the pivot is triggered via the co-ordinate transmitter independently of the movement in the axes with a predetermined height of the tip of the articulated mast.

Truck mounted concrete pumps of this type are mobile tools, which can be utilized with a full 360.degree.-swing range of the mast base with the articulated mast at an extended horizontal position. The operator is responsible for controlling the self-propelled concrete pump and for the positioning of the concrete end hose at the last arm of the articulated mast. He must thereby control more than two rotatoric degrees of freedom of the articulated mast through the associated driving systems during the movement of the articulated mast in the nonstructured three-dimensional work space while paying attention to the conditions at the edge of the building site. With the use of proportional radio telecontrols the operator's work was made easier in such a manner that the operator is no longer linked with a cable spacially to the self-propelled concrete pump. However, there exists furthermore the risk that uncontrolled movements at the end hose can occur during a single-axis operation, thus endangering the building site personnel. To make handling of the large manipulator easier, instead of the individual control of the rotatoric degrees of freedom of the articulated mast it has already been suggested to move the end hose through suitable computer-assistance in a Cartesian x-, y-, z-coordinate system with the help of control levers, whereby a frame-fixed or building-site-fixed coordinate system can be selectively chosen. ("Computer Controlled Concrete Distribution", Dr. -Ing. Hartmut Benckert, Putzmeister-Werk, Pages 111-119, 8th Int. Symposium on Automation and Robotics, IPA (FHG) Stuttgart 1991). However, this type of operation has proven to be rather complicated in many cases since the operation of the control levers needed for this cannot be easily brought into harmony with the optically recognizable sequences of movement of the articulated mast.
Starting out from this the basic purpose of the invention is to improve the conventional large manipulator of the above-disclosed type in such a manner that it will be possible for the operator to control any points in the area within the reach of the articulated mast by simple manipulations of the operating elements.

Large manipulator, especially for self-propelled concrete pumps


A method for processing noise interference in a serial AT Attachment (SATA) interface. The method includes the steps of detecting whether there is an error in CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) checksum or whether an R_ERR primitive (reception error primitive) is received, detecting whether a FIS (Frame Information Structure) is a data type if there is any error and returning back to error state detecting step if there is no any error, detecting whether the FIS is a ATAPI packet command CDB (Command Descriptor Block) when the FIS is the data format, and writing a special tag to the CDB and returning back to the error detecting step.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for processing noise interference, and more particularly to a method for processing noise interference according to an error feedback mechanism of an ATA/ATAPI (AT Attachment with Packet Interface).
2. Description of the Related Art
The serial ATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, hereinafter referred to as SATA) is an interface specification commonly promoted by the companies of APT, Dell, IBM, Intel, Maxtor, Seagate, etc. The SATA specification is applied to the transmission interface of a hard disk drive or an optical disk drive to replace parallel ATA/ATAPI interface that has been used for a long time. The SATA interface specification specifies two pairs of differential signal lines to replace the original 40 or 80 signal lines connected in parallel. Serializing the original data can reduce the size and voltage and increase the speed. The specification also introduces some new functions, such as flow control and error resending, to control the data stream in a simple way.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration showing communication layers in the SATA specification. As shown in FIG. 1, the SATA interface connects a host 11 to a device 12. The device 12 may be an optical storage device or a hard disk drive, or other devices with the SATA interface. The communication layers in the SATA specification include four layers, which are respectively a first layer (physical layer), a second layer (link layer), a third layer (transport layer) and a fourth layer (application layer). The physical layer is responsible for converting digital and analog signals. That is, the physical layer receives and converts a digital signal sent from the link layer into an analog signal and sends the analog signal to the other end. The physical layer also receives and converts the analog signal, which comes from the other end, into a digital signal and outputs the digital signal to the link layer. The link layer encodes and decodes the digital data. That is, the link layer encodes the data coming from the transport layer and outputs the encoded data to the physical layer. On the other hand, the link layer decodes the data coming from the physical layer and outputs the decoded data to the transport layer. The transport layer constructs and deconstructs the FIS (Frame Information Structure). The detailed definition of the FIS can be found in the SATA specification. The application layer is in charge of buffer memory and DMA engine(s).
During the serializing process, the sending device converts the parallel data (e.g., data in bytes or words) into a serial bit data stream. In addition to the typical data, the SATA specification defines some data control codes with four bytes, which are referred to as primitives, for controlling the sending and power management of the sending device and the receiving device. For example, a X_RDY primitive (transmission data ready primitive) represents that the sending device is ready to send data, and a R_RDY primitive (receiver ready primitive) represents that the receiving device is ready to receive data.
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration showing a packet sent through the SATA interface. Two devices communicate with each other to send the packet according to the X_RDY primitive (transmission data ready primitive) and the R_RDY primitive (receiver ready primitive). Then, the sending side sends a packet content, which is packed by a SOF primitive (start of frame) and an EOF primitive (End of frame). After the packet content is sent completely, the sending side sends a WTRM primitive (wait for frame termination primitive). If there is no any error about the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) check in the link layer, the receiving side responds with a R_OK primitive (reception with no error primitive) after it receives the WTRM primitive. If there is an error about the CRC check, the receiving side responds with a R_ERR primitive (reception error).
The FIS is for transferring the task file register and data. Two examples will be described in the following. FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration showing a task file register FIS from a host to a device. That is, a task file register written from the host to the device is shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration showing a data FIS from the host to the device or from the device to the host. That is, the data sent from the host to the device or from the device to the host is shown in FIG. 4.
In order to prevent the error caused by noises, the SATA specification specifies a resending mechanism. Almost all type of FISs (e.g., Register-Host to Device FIS or Set Device Bits-Device to Host FIS) are resent when a R_ERR primitive was received so as to ensure that the receiving device can receive the correct control information. However, the data FIS does not have this protection mechanism. When the data error occurs, the device cannot be protected by the resending mechanism under the condition of noise interference because the data FIS is not resent. Thus, the error data may be received. In a more serious condition, some portions of primitives may be mistaken as data bits, thereby making the number of data sets to be sent to the device greater than it should be. In some cases, this error may halt the system.
In addition, in the device (e.g., an optical storage device) using the data FIS to send the ATA/ATAPI CDB (Command Descriptor Block), the CDB cannot be protected according to the resending mechanism because the data FIS is not resent. Thus, the device receives an abnormal control command, which causes a larger influence than in the case of sending the normal data using the data FIS.

Method for processing noise interference


There is provided a self-routing optical switch array formed by connecting m stages of optical switches and set so as to satisfy the relation: EQU .lambda..sub.a1 <.lambda..sub.1 <.lambda..sub.a2 .lambda..sub.2 <. . . <.lambda..sub.an <.lambda..sub.n. . . <.lambda..sub.am <.lambda..sub.m <.lambda..sub.s. where .lambda..sub.n is wavelength of an absorption edge of a switching region of an nth stage of the optical switch array; .lambda..sub.an is wavelength of destination signal light multiplexed with information signal light used in an optical switch located at the nth stage, and .lambda..sub.s is wavelength of the information signal light.

The present invention relates to optical components in optical information processing and optical communication systems, and in particular to large-capacity optical exchanges for exchanging broad-band high-speed optical signals.
Conventional semiconductor waveguide optical switches, optical switch arrays, and integrated semiconductor waveguide optical switches used in optical exchanges are described in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, J-SAC-6, pp. 1262-1266, 1988.

Self-routing optical switch and optical switch array


Fracturing methods include introducing a relatively high concentration of a surfactant in an initial portion of one or more fluids used in a fracturing treatment and then cutting or ramping back to a relatively low concentration of the surfactant in the remaining fluid used in the treatment. By using such a method, the volume of surfactant to provide superior treatment can be reduced significantly from the normal recommendations, leading to a high cost savings while still obtaining the desired effect upon cleanup.

Surface-active materials (surfactants) are used in fracturing operations to promote well cleanup following the use of water-based fracturing fluids. These products are generally blends of surfactants in solvent systems that keep the surfactants stable in storage, but are easily pumped and diluted in frac fluids to become active. Performance of the surface-active materials is generally based on cost to provide reduction in interfacial tension and reduction in contact angle, both which facilitate the removal of water from a porous media (for example, a proppant packed fracture) with mixtures of gas or oil by preventing or breaking emulsion formation. These products are mostly marketed as commodity materials and are very price sensitive.
Prior technology calls for adding a minimum concentration of one or more surface-active materials (surfactants) to the one or more fluids used in fracturing of a treatment zone required to cause the desired effect on cleanup throughout the entire fracturing treatment. Large volume fracturing treatments can require large volume of surfactant-based products to promote well cleanup.
In low permeability fracturing such as shale fractures, there is little fluid lost to the formation so that nearly all the fluid goes to creating fractures. As fluid is injected into a fracture to extend the fracture, the leading front of the fracture will be greatly reduced in the concentration of surfactant that is in the fluid at that point owing to the fact that surfactants tend to adsorb to the fracture face. Therefore, the leading edge of the fracturing fluid contains an inadequate amount of surfactant to affect the desired surface energies. In addition, any fluid that does leak off into the formation will not contain sufficient surfactant. To combat this problem, higher surfactant concentrations are used than are actually required.

Adjusting surfactant concentrations during hyraulic fracturing


A rubber composition for golf balls includes (A) a base rubber, (B) two different metal salts of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids having 3 to 8 carbon atoms, (C) a metal salt in which at least one bonding site is a fatty acid of 9 or more carbon atoms, and (D) a crosslinking initiator. Letting component (B) include (B-1) an unsaturated metal carboxylate in a high compounding weight and (B-2) an unsaturated metal carboxylate in a low compounding weight, the ratio (B-2)/(B-1) is from 4 to 20 wt % and the ratio (B-2)/(C) is from 20 to 115 wt %. By using this rubber composition in a golf ball core, the golf ball can be endowed with both good spin properties and good durability on impact.

Golf balls lately are predominantly either two-piece solid golf balls or three-piece solid golf balls. These golf balls generally have a structure in which a cover of one layer or a plurality of layers made of various types of resin materials encases a core made of a rubber composition. The core accounts for most of the golf ball volume and exerts a large influence on ball properties such as rebound, feel and durability. Recently, a number of disclosures have been made in which the cross-sectional hardness of the core is suitably adjusted so as to impart a specific core hardness gradient, thereby optimizing the spin properties of the ball on full shots with a driver or an iron and thus enabling the ball to travel an increased distance.
Methods for adjusting the cross-sectional hardness of the core include, for example, suitably adjusting the compounding ingredients in the core rubber composition or the vulcanization temperature and time. With regard to the compounding ingredients in the core rubber composition, it is possible to select the types of co-crosslinking agent and organic peroxide used and to adjust their contents. In terms of co-crosslinking agents, the use of methacrylic acid, acrylic acid and metal salts thereof is known in the field of golf balls.
For example, JP-A S59-75932, JP-A S60-60866 and JP-A H03-207709 describe the joint use of given amounts of zinc acrylate and zinc methacrylate in the base rubber. Also, JP-A 2015-177511 (and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 7,342,073) disclose art in which a co-crosslinking agent and zinc methacrylate are used together with a halogenated organosulfur compound.
However, although the golf balls in these prior-art publications do relate to art in which zinc acrylate and zinc methacrylate are jointly compounded, the principal object is to enhance durability; such art is unable to provide satisfactory spin properties. Moreover, because fatty acid metal salts are not included in the composition, a hardness profile capable of conferring satisfactory spin properties is not obtained. In addition, there is a concern over chemicals adhering to mixing equipment such as a kneader or roll mill, lowering productivity.

Rubber composition for golf ball, and golf ball


A main valve unit is rotatably provided in a main valve accommodation space connected to a first opening portion. A fail-safe valve unit is provided in a fail-safe valve accommodation space connected to a second opening portion. The main valve unit controls flow rate of cooling water flowing from the first opening portion to a radiator via a main water passage formed in a housing depending on a rotational position thereof. The fail-safe valve unit is closed when temperature of the cooling water is lower than a predetermined value, to thereby block off flow of the cooling water to the radiator. The fail-safe valve unit is opened when the temperature of the cooling water is higher than the predetermined value, to thereby allow the flow of the cooling water to the radiator. Each of the first opening portion and the main valve accommodation space is fluidically separated from the second opening portion and the fail-safe valve accommodation space by a partitioning wall formed in the housing.

The cooling-water control valve device is known in the art for controlling a flow rate of cooling water for the internal combustion engine (hereinafter, the engine). For example, in the cooling-water control valve device (hereinafter, the water valve device) disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2016-188702, a valve member of a main valve unit is rotatably provided in a main valve accommodation space for controlling the flow rate of the cooling water to be supplied to the engine.
The water valve device of the above prior art has a fail-safe valve unit provided in a fail-safe valve accommodation space. The fail-safe valve accommodation space is communicated to the main valve accommodation space and a main water passage, through which the cooling water flows from the main valve accommodation space to an outside of the water valve device (for example, a radiator). When temperature of the cooling water is lower than a predetermined value, the fail-safe valve unit is closed so as to block off flow of the cooling water from the fail-safe valve accommodation space to the main water passage. On the other hand, when the temperature of the cooling water is higher than the predetermined value, the fail-safe valve unit is opened so as to allow the flow of the cooling water from the fail-safe valve accommodation space to the main water passage. When the main valve unit becomes unable to rotate in the main valve accommodation space, the flow of the cooling water from the main valve accommodation space to the radiator via the main water passage is blocked off. Then, the temperature of the cooling water is increased. When the temperature of the cooling water becomes higher than the predetermined value, the fail-safe valve unit is opened so as to supply the cooling water (the temperature of which is increased by the engine) to the radiator through the fail-safe valve unit. As above, it is possible to prevent a possible over-heat of the engine, even when the main valve unit becomes unable to rotate.
In the above water valve device, the fail-safe valve accommodation space is communicated to the main valve accommodation space. In a case that extraneous material enters the main valve accommodation space and the main valve unit is locked by such extraneous material, the main valve unit may be broken in the main valve accommodation space. Then, a broken piece of the main valve unit may enter the fail-safe accommodation space and the broken piece may be adhered to a valve portion of the fail-safe valve unit. In such a case, functional failure may occur in the fail-safe valve unit.


An optical element for use in front of a light source for obtaining a skylight appearance, and a luminaire are provided. The optical element comprising a plurality of light transmitting cells in a raster structure, a diffuser and an edge wall. A light source emits light towards the raster structure. The raster structure collimates a part of the light and transmits a further part of the light in a predetermined spectral range. White light and colored light that is transmitted by the raster structure may impinge upon the side wall of the optical element. One face of the side wall is a region of specular reflectivity and will reflect the light that impinges upon it back into the chamber that is formed by the cooperation of the raster structure, the diffuser and the edge wall. Light exits the optical element through the diffuser.

Published patent application WO 2012/140579 A2 discloses an optical element for use in front of a light source for obtaining a skylight appearance, a lighting system and a luminaire. Light from the light source is transmitted into a light transmitting cell. The cell has a light transmitting channel with a wall. The wall is at least partly reflective and/or transmissive in a predefined spectral range to obtain a blue light emission.

Optical element for obtaining a skylight appearance and a luminaire


The teachings herein provide authorization control enabling the co-existence of legacy mobile terminals (20) that do not support Closed Subscriber Groups (CSGs), and non-legacy mobile terminals (20) that do. New behaviors are defined for a CSG femtocell base station (10) (referred to as a Home NodeB or HNB), and for a base station gateway (14) (referred to as a HNB Gateway or HNB GW) that couples the HNB (10) to a Core Network (CN) (22). The HNB (10) and/or the HNB GW (14) determine whether a terminal (20) attempting to gain connection through the HNB (10) supports CSGs. If not, the HNB GW (14) performs access control and rejects the connection attempt if authorization fails. If the terminal (20) is recognized as supporting CSGs, the HNB GW (14) defers access control to the CN (22) by automatically accepting registration/connection requests from the HNB (10) for CSG-capable terminals (20). In such cases, the CN (22) is relied upon for access control, including any CSG authorization of the terminal (20). The HNB GW (14) indicates to the CN (22) whether or not access control was performed for the terminal (20).

Specification work is ongoing by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for home base stations in Wideband CDMA/Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (WCDMA/UTRAN) and in E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN), which is the next generation of Radio Access Network (RAN). These specifications contemplate using a UTRAN base station to provide home or small area coverage for a limited number of users. The Home Node B (HNB) would provide normal coverage for its end users and would be connected to a mobile core network via a Home NodeB Gateway (HNB GW) using some kind of IP based transmission. The coverage provided by such an arrangement is called femtocell in this document.
One of the main drivers of this new concept of providing Local Access is to provide cheaper call or transaction rates/charges when connected via the HNB, as compared to when connected via the Node B—i.e., it may be cheaper to connect to a wireless communication service provider's core network using an IP-based link provided by a local access point, than to connect through a wide-coverage base station in the provider's cellular network.
The HNB would, in most cases, use the end user's already existing broadband connection (e.g. xDSL, Cable) to achieve connectivity to the mobile operator's HNB Gateway (HNB GW). Over the broadband connection and other possible intermediate IP networks (e.g. the internet), a HNB communicates with the HNB GW in the operator's network via an IPsec tunnel (Internet Protocol security architecture according to RFC 4301). The IPsec tunnel, which is established between the HNB and a Security Gateway (SEGW), protects the border of the operator's network and the communication between the HNB and the HNB GW.
Further, the E-UTRAN standards for 3GPP Release-8 introduce the concept of Closed Subscriber Groups, referred to as CSGs. Later releases of the UTRAN standards also may adopt the CSG concept. Also several 3GPP working groups are currently conducting research and discussions on approaches that can be adopted for access controls of CSGs. In any case, with CSG, particular HNBs can be associated with certain mobile terminals, or other user equipment (UE), meaning that only the associated terminals are allowed to access the HNB(s). The allowed CSGs are stored in a given terminal, in a so called CSG Whitelist (that is also known as Allowed CSG List). Each HNB broadcasts a "CSG Indicator" and the CSG Identity allocated to it in System Information (SI). Thus, a terminal that "hears" a CSG being broadcast by a given HNB can determine whether the broadcasted CSG identity matches a CSG identity in the CSG Whitelist stored in the terminal. If so, the terminal knows that it is allowed to access that HNB.
The 3GPP requirements are that the "owner" of the HNB (or, equivalently, a Home eNodeB, HeNB) shall, under network operator supervision, be able to add, remove and view the list of CSG members. Because of this CSG-based access control arrangement, additional authorization control shall be performed in the operator's Core Network (CN). That is, for CSG terminals, the CN can check the CSG ID with UE Identity, to decide whether a given UE (terminal) should or should not be allowed access to a particular CSG.
However, a major difference in CSGs between the E-UTRAN and UTRAN standards relates to "legacy" issues. Because 3GPP Release-8 is the first release for E-UTRAN and it includes CSG support from the outset, there will be no legacy E-UTRAN UEs that do not support CSG. The case is different, however, for UTRAN, as previous releases of the UTRAN standard did not support CSG (e.g., Release-99). As such, UTRAN/3G HNB solutions will need to work with UEs that support CSG, and with those that do not.
The standardization work in 3GPP for UTRAN/3G HNB solutions is currently two-fold. The 3GPP TSG RAN3 is working with a solution that will support legacy UEs. In addition, it is also assumed that solutions supporting CSG-capable UEs will be standardized, either in Release-8 and/or in Release-9. Particularly, in UTRAN HNB standardization it has been agreed to introduce a UE registration procedure to support the access control in HNB GW for legacy terminals, i.e. terminals that do not support the CSG concept.

Access control for terminals in UTRAN FEMTO system


A method of operating a screen baseball system includes registering a personal rank of a user by a game management unit, displaying a pitching motion on a screen and starting a pitching action according to a selected pitch type, performing a simulation along a trajectory of a batted ball converted from batting detection data of a batter among users, and displaying an image on the screen by the game management unit, photographing a batting image of the batter and storing the batting image in a database by a game photographing unit such that the batting image is utilized for user training and character development programs, and transmitting simulation information and batting image data displayed, to a game shop, in which another user is positioned, in real time by a game server to play a game on line if the another user is positioned in a remote place.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of operating a screen baseball system, and more particularly to a method of operating a screen baseball system, capable of maximizing the profit of a shop by employing various game matches, popularizing the supply of a system by utilizing game information for a user training program and a character development program, and saving the manipulation time and the efforts of a user and an operator and the manufacturing cost by utilizing an application of a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a pitcher casts a ball, a catcher receives the ball, and a batter hits the ball to score a point in a baseball.
In the batting practice of a batter, if one person casts a ball, the batter may bat the ball. In addition, the batter may carry out the batting practice by batting a ball fling and coming using a baseball batting practice device to periodically shoot a baseball.
Further, if a user is a beginner, a woman, or a child, the user may bat a tee-ball fixed to a support positioned at a predetermined height by a bat.
As described above, since baseball requires some persons and a relatively large space, an ordinary person has limitations of human power, time, and a space in freely interesting the baseball.
In order to solve the problem, conventionally, batting cages have been provided with pitching machine. In the case of the batting cages, it is substantially impossible for a user to select a pitch type or cope with various conditions.
Further, since a game depending on batting progresses, reality and interesting are remarkably degraded in "strike", "out", or "scoring".
Meanwhile, recently, indoor golf driving ranges or screen golf driving ranges having maximized spatial utilization have been increased to allow a user to practice golf as one of indoor sports using a ball.
In the case of a typical screen golf system, a predetermined projection apparatus projects images on the front surface of a screen and reproduces the images, and a batter fixedly places a golf ball to a predetermined position and hits the golf ball into a virtual space projected onto the screen to progress a game.
However, in the case of golf, since only a hitter is required, and a ball to be hit is stopped, a game may progress or an image may be realized without a serious problem. On the other hand, in the case of baseball, a virtual ballpark must be formed, a pitcher and a batter are required, and a ball must be moved with reality along a predetermined trajectory according to pitching and batting. Accordingly, there is a limitation when a screen golf system is applied to baseball.
Further, in the case of baseball, factors to determine "strike" or "ball" are required, various offensive and defensive actions are optionally and dynamically made and a score is dynamically calculated. Accordingly, the baseball basically differs from the golf in game factors, so that the application of the screen golf system to the baseball is actually impossible.
As patent documents for prior arts, there are KR 10-2007-0110544 A and JP2005-204947 A.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of operating screen baseball system


A toner comprising: a toner particle containing a toner base particle containing a binder resin and a colorant, and a resin particle fixed to a surface of the toner base particle; and an inorganic fine particle A, wherein the surface of the toner particle has protruded portions originating in the resin particle, an average length (D) of long sides of the protruded portions is 50 nm to 300 nm, an average Height (H) of the protruded portions is 25 nm to 250 nm, the average long-side length and the average height of the protruded portions satisfies a specific relationship, and an average value of a compactness of the inorganic fine particle A is 0.40 to 0.80, and the attachment rate of the inorganic fine particles A is 0.1% to 5.0% by area.

Field of the Invention
The present Invention relates to a toner for use in an image-forming method for developing electrophotographic end electrostatic images.
Description of the Related Art
In a common electrophotographic method, a latent image is formed on an image-bearing member (photoreceptor drum), toner is supplied to the latent image to obtain a visible image, and the toner image is transferred to paper or another transfer material and then fixed by heat or pressure on the transfer material to obtain a copied article. Printers using a high-speed one-component developing system have been used to satisfy demands for smaller alia, higher speeds and greater stability. Because the toner and the charging water contact each other less in a one component developing system than in a two-component developing system using a carrier, a relatively large stress must be applied to the toner to obtain the charge quantity, and consequently the load applied to the toner is known to be high.
For the toner used in a one-component developing system, a spherical toner with a sharp particle size distribution is desirable because it provides excellent transferability and fine line reproducibility among other features. However, in system in which the toner is cleaned from the photoreceptor drum with a cleaning blade, cleaning becomes more difficult the greater the circularity of the toner. One reason for this is thought to be that a high degree of circularity causes the toner to roll, making it more likely to slip through the contact nip between the cleaning blade and the photoreceptor.
One strategy chat has been adopted for preventing faulty cleaning with a conventional spherical toner is to increase the linear pressure applied to the edge of the blade in a blade-type cleaning system, thus preventing the spherical toner from slipping through. However, simply increasing the linear pressure nay lead to such problems as increased cracking of the blade edge, abnormal noise caused by blade chatter vibration, and increased wear to the photoreceptor due to contact with the blade. Thus, toner cleaning performance must be improved without relying solely on linear pressure in order to meet future needs for higher speeds and longer operating lives.
To this end, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-208492 proposes a toner with improved functionality obtained by fixing a resin particle with various additional functions to the surface of a toner base particle.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-8555 proposes a toner wherein the attachment force of the toner has been reduced by keeping the embedding ratio of a resin particle within a specific range.


A method of manufacturing a coated turbine vane (34) comprises manufacturing a turbine vane (34) having a platform (44) and an aerofoil (42) extending from the platform (44), a curved transition (60) connects the platform (44) to the aerofoil (42) and a recess (64) is provided in the curved transition (60) from the platform (44) to the aerofoil (42). A bond coating (70) is deposited on the platform (44), the aerofoil (42), the curved transition (60) and the recess (64). A ceramic thermal barrier coating (72) is deposited on the platform (44), the recess (64) and the curved transition (60) by plasma spraying. The recess (64) reduces the size of the step due to the ceramic thermal barrier coating (72) and hence improves the aerodynamics of the turbine vane (34).

A gas turbine engine comprises a turbine including one or more stages of turbine vanes and one or more stages of turbine blades. Each stage of turbine vanes comprises a plurality of circumferentially spaced turbine vanes and each stage of turbine blades comprises a plurality of circumferentially spaced turbine blades. The stages of turbine vanes and turbine blades are arranged alternately in flow series. The turbine vanes are mounted on static structures of the gas turbine engine whereas the turbine blades are mounted on rotatable structures of the gas turbine engine. A turbine vane generally comprises an aerofoil and two platforms and the aerofoil extends between and is secured to the platforms whereas a turbine blade generally comprises an aerofoil, a platform and a root and the aerofoil and root are secured to and extend in opposite directions from the platform.
The turbine vanes and turbine blades are located in a position downstream of a combustion chamber of the gas turbine engine and are exposed to gases at very high temperatures. In order to enable the turbine vanes and turbine blades to operate at these high temperatures the turbine vanes and turbine blades are manufactured from superalloys, are impingement and/or film cooled and are provided with thermal barrier coatings.
The platforms of the turbine vanes require a considerable amount of thermal protection whereas the aerofoils of the turbine vanes require a lesser amount of thermal protection. The thermal protection of the platforms of the turbine vanes comprises a metallic bond coating and a ceramic thermal barrier coating. The metallic bond coating is deposited onto the platforms by plasma spraying and the ceramic thermal barrier coating is deposited onto the metallic bond coating on the platforms by plasma spraying. The ceramic thermal barrier coating may have a thickness of up to 1 mm. Without these coatings on the platforms of the turbine vanes the platforms would be burnt away quickly resulting in a short service, operating, life for the turbine vanes. The aerofoils of the turbine vanes rely on film cooling to control the temperature of the aerofoil in conjunction with thermal protection. The thermal protection of the aerofoils of the turbine vanes also comprises a metallic bond coating and a ceramic thermal barrier coating. The metallic bond coating is deposited onto the aerofoils by plasma spraying and the ceramic thermal barrier coating is deposited onto the metallic bond coating on the aerofoils by physical vapour deposition (PVD), e.g. electron beam physical vapour deposition. The ceramic thermal barrier coating may have a thickness of up to 0.12 mm.
The turbine vanes have a fillet radius, a curved transition, from the aerofoil to the respective platform and the fillet radius is designed to optimise the aerodynamic performance of the turbine vanes.
However, the difference in the thickness of the ceramic thermal barrier coatings mentioned above on the platforms and the aerofoil of a turbine vane results in a step at the junction between each platform and the aerofoil rather than a smooth fillet radius, smooth curved transition, from the platform to the aerofoil. The step at each junction between the aerofoil and the platform of the turbine vane produces undesirable aerodynamic losses and thermodynamic characteristics. The aerodynamic losses from the steps at the junctions between the aerofoils and the platforms of the turbine vanes produce performance losses in the turbine and the gas turbine engine as a whole which results in increased fuel consumption.
The present disclosure seeks to provide a method of coating a turbine vane and a coated turbine vane which reduces or overcomes this problem.

Method of manufacturing a coated turbine blade and a coated turbine vane


A digital transmitter channel optimization device can be employed within or in conjunction with a transmitter to perform a number of techniques in the digital domain to account for distortion introduced in the transmitter. The optimization device can be configured to perform such techniques on an arbitrary signal to thereby allow the optimization device to be used with virtually any transmitter. The optimization device may be particularly beneficial in wideband systems where accounting for distortion can be difficult to accomplish using existing techniques.

The present invention is generally directed to an electronic device that can be incorporated into or used in conjunction with a generic transmitter to perform a number of channel optimizations on an arbitrary signal prior to the signal being amplified by a downstream power amplifier.
FIG. 1 provides an example of a generic transmitter 100 that can be configured to receive an analog input signal from a baseband processor or modulator 105, perform necessary processing on the signal, and then output the processed signal to an antenna 110 for transmission. Generic transmitter can include a frequency upconverter (or mixer) 100a to convert the analog input signal to the proper frequency (assuming the signal generated by modulator 105 is not already at the proper frequency), a variable gain control 100b (e.g., amplifier, attenuator or combination of both), and a power amplifier 100c for amplifying the upconverted signal prior to transmission.
When output from modulator 105, the analog input signal typically will have little to no distortion. However, the components of transmitter 100 will typically introduce distortion in various forms including group delay variation, nonlinear distortion, and frequency flatness among others. This is especially true when the input signal is a wideband signal (e.g., a signal having a bandwidth between 500 MHz and 1 GHz). Although a number of techniques exist for accounting for the distortion introduced by transmitter 100, it can be difficult to successfully account for all distortion especially in wide bandwidth systems.

Digital Transmitter channel optimization device


The cutting of semiconducting crystals with a wire saw is facilitated with a cutting fluid comprising a polyalkylene glycol neutralized with an un-neutralized or partially neutralized polymeric acid that has a molecular weight of 500 to 1,000,000 and contains more than three acid groups per molecule.

Wire saw cutting is widely used in slicing semiconducting crystals, such as silicon ingot, gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium phosphide (GaP), and the like to produce wafers for making electronic and photovoltaic devices. The wire saw slicing works through abrasive grinding action provided by an abrasive slurry consisting of a cutting fluid and abrasive particles, generally of silicon carbide (SiC), suspended in the fluid. The cutting fluid plays a critical role in achieving efficient and precise slicing by (i) suspending and carrying abrasive particles and swarf (i.e., semiconductor crystal chips produced the cutting of the crystal), (ii) lubricating the workpiece, and (iii) removing the frictional heat generated at the cutting site.
Polyalkylene glycols (PAG), in particular polyethylene glycols (PEG), are commonly used as semiconductor crystal cutting fluids. The demand for semiconductor wafers continues to grow, especially in the photovoltaic market, and with it a demand for a more cost-effective production of silicon wafers. The cost and quality of silicon wafer production can be improved by boosting cutting speed, increasing wafer yield, reducing total thickness variation (TTV) of wafers, reducing saw marks and warp, decreasing wafer thickness, and prolonging the lifetime of cutting wires. All these improvements require higher performance cutting fluids that can more effectively disperse the abrasive, e.g., SiC particles, and crystal, e.g., silicon, swarf particles.
One known solution is to add a dispersant, such as polyelectrolyte, to the PAG to produce formulated PAG-based cutting fluids. However, this additional formulation step increases the complexity and cost of the cutting fluid production. The invention is to produce PAG materials as cutting fluids with improved dispersing ability for SiC and Si particles but does not need the additional step of adding dispersants.

Cutting fluids with improved performance


A semiconductor device and a fabricating method thereof are provided. The semiconductor device includes: a trench disposed within a substrate, the trench comprising an upper trench part that is wider than a lower trench part in width; a gate disposed in the trench; an interlayer insulating layer pattern disposed above the gate in the upper trench part; a source region disposed within the substrate and contacting a sidewall of the upper trench part; a body region disposed below the source region in the substrate; and a contact trench disposed above the body region and filled with a conductive material.

1. Field
The following description relates to a semiconductor device, and to, for example, a semiconductor device having a trench whose upper width is wider than a lower width thereof, and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is a type of semiconductor device that is well known in the semiconductor industry. One type of MOSFET is a vertically-conducting trench MOSFET.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view schematically illustrating a MOSFET.
Referring to FIG. 1, a MOSFET 10 includes trenches 17. The trenches 17 each include a polysilicon gate 21 that is insulated from a body region 15 by a gate insulating layer 19. A source region 23 contacts a side surface of each trench 17. The gate insulating layer 19 insulates the gate 21 from a metal layer 30. A semiconductor substrate 11 forms a drain of the MOSFET 10.
Still referring to FIG. 1, a reference numeral A denotes a trench width, B denotes a contact opening, and C denotes a gap between the trench and the contact opening. When the MOSFET 10 is biased in an ON state, a current vertically flows between the source region 23 and the semiconductor substrate 11.
In the ON state, a current capability of the MOSFET 10 is in reverse proportion to ON resistance Rdson between drain and source. Hence, to improve the current capability of the MOSFET 10, the ON resistance Rdson has to be lowered.
One method of lowering the ON resistance of the MOSFET 10 is to increase density of the trench 17, namely, the number of trenches per unit area. This is achieved by reducing a cell pitch. However, the degree to which the cell pitch of the MOSFET may be reduced is limited by certain features included in the MOSFET cell and the processes used for fabricating the MOSFET.
In a MOSFET, a source region is generally formed on a semiconductor substrate in a horizontal direction from a trench to lower the ON resistance. This increases the density of the MOSFET cell per unit area.
In order to lower the ON resistance of the MOSFET, the number of trenches per unit area has to be increased. However, a process of setting a gap between the trench and the contact opening on a surface is required in order to form the source region on the semiconductor substrate in the horizontal direction from the trench. Consequently, there is a limit to the degree to which the trench gap may be reduced, and this further limits the degree to which the ON resistance of the MOSFET may be lowered.

Semiconductor device having a trench whose upper width is wider than a lower width thereof, and a method for fabricating the same


A pitman arm incorporates a preloaded pivot joint that has a stud that rotates and angulates. The preloaded pivot joint is designed so that different internal components transfer the respective lateral loads, axial compression loads and angulation loads of the stud.

This invention relates generally to pivot joints and more particularly to preloaded pivot joints that are used in automotive steering linkages.
U.S. Pat, No. 2,009,401 issued to George H. Hufferd and Matthew P. Graham Jul. 30, 1935 discloses a typical preloaded pivot joint for a steering linkage system comprising a housing, a stud and a spring loaded bearing seat inside the housing. The stud rotates and angulates with respect to the housing. The angulation capability is provided by two concentric part spherical members on the inner end portion of the stud that engage a fixed bearing seat in the housing and the spring loaded bearing seat respectively. In this design, the lateral loads of the stud are transferred to the housing by the fixed bearing seat while the axial compression loads are transferred by the spring loaded bearing seat and its associated spring. The pivot joint does not, have any internal mechanism for limiting angulation and so the stud angulates freely until the stud makes metal-to-metal contact with the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,053,556 issued to David E. Klocke and Vincent J Ryszewski Sep. 11, 1962 discloses a preloaded pivot joint for the idler arm of an automotive steering linkage that has a stud that rotates but does not angulate. The Klocke joint comprises a housing, a stud, and a compression spring inside the housing. The Klocke stud has a part spherical portion that engages a fixed bearing seat in the housing under the bias of the compression spring. The Klocke stud has a cylindrical extension at the inner end that is disposed in a thin plastic sleeve housed in a hat-shaped well of the housing cover. The cylindrical extension, the thin plastic bushing and the hat shape of the cover well combine to prevent the stud from angulating any substantial degree so that the stud is limited essentially to rotation. In this design the lateral loads of the stud are taken by the fixed bearing seat, the axial compression loads are taken by the compression spring and the angulation loads are taken by the thin plastic sleeve. However, as indicated above, the thin plastic sleeve virtually eliminates stud angulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,737 issued to Edward J. Herbenar Mar. 23, 1976 also discloses a preloaded pivot joint for an automotive steering linkage. The Herbenar pivot joint likewise comprises a housing, a stud and a compression spring inside the housing. The stud has a part spherical portion that engages a fixed bearing seat in the housing under the bias of the compression spring. In this instance the compression spring is in the form of a relatively thick bushing of flowable resilient material such as rubber, polyurethane and the like. The resilient bushing is axially split and has a tapered bore. The stud has a tapered extension at the inner end that is disposed in the tapered bore of the resilient bushing so that the resilient bushing performs two functions. The resilient bushing biases the part spherical portion of the stud into engagement with the fixed bearing seat and the resilient bushing also accommodates limited angulation of the stud. In this design the compressive loads of the stud and the angulation loads of the stud are taken by the same member, i.e. the axially split, resilient bushing with the tapered bore. Thus the design inhibits freedom in selecting an axial preload independently of angulation considerations and vice-versa. Moreover the design incorporates a biasing spring that tightens the axially split bushing around the tapered extension of the stud which then resists rotation of the stud.


A microprocessor includes a first bus and a second bus capable of operating simultaneously, a single port memory divided into a plurality of banks, a bus switch circuit provided between the plurality of banks and the first and second buses, and a processor core connected to the first and second buses and the single port memory. The bus switch circuit may be controlled statically, independent of activities on the buses, or may be controlled dynamically according to the activities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to microprocessors in which a plurality of resources use memories and memory devices therefor, and more specifically, to a microprocessor in which a plurality of resources share a single memory, and which permits no wait accesses in parallel.
2. Description of the Background Art
A microprocessor has a plurality of resources that access an internal memory, the resources including a data access control unit and a command fetch control unit. It is desired that these resources operate in parallel with one another, and thus, it is desirable that these resources are allowed to access the internal memory in parallel and with no wait.
Conventionally, such no wait access has been enabled by providing a memory dedicated for each internal resource. For example, a conventional microprocessor with Harvard architecture has a memory dedicated for data and a memory dedicated for commands, and these memories are allocated to the data access control unit and the command fetch control unit via a bus dedicated for data and a bus dedicated for commands, respectively. Thus, it is possible to perform command fetch and data access in parallel with no need of arbitration, which improves throughput of pipelined execution of instructions within a processor.
In such a conventional microprocessor, however, memory capacity dedicated for a corresponding resource is fixed. Therefore, different chips made of combinations of different memory capacities have been required for specific microprocessors with specific memory capacities required by specific applications.
An object of the present invention is to provide a microprocessor which allows a plurality of resources to access a memory in parallel with no wait, and which is readily reconfigurable in accordance with a change in memory capacity, and a memory device therefor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a microprocessor which allows a plurality of resources to access a shared memory in parallel with no wait, and which is readily reconfigurable in accordance with a change in memory capacity allocated to respective resources, and a memory device therefor.
A still another object of the present invention is to provide a microprocessor which allows a plurality of resources to access a memory in parallel with no wait, which is readily reconfigurable in accordance with a change in memory capacity, and which also is able to handle an illegal access to the memory without excessively increasing the amount of hardware, and a memory device therefor.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a microprocessor which allows a plurality of resources to access a shared memory in parallel with no wait, which is readily reconfigurable in accordance with a change in memory capacity allocated to respective resources, and which also is able to arbitrate memory access contention without excessively increasing the amount of hardware, and a memory device therefor.
A microprocessor according to the present invention includes: a first bus and a second bus capable of operating simultaneously; a single port memory divided into a plurality of banks; a bus switch circuit provided between the plurality of banks and the first and second buses; and a processor core connected to the first and second buses and the single port memory.
Each of the plurality of banks can be selectively coupled to the first and the second buses by the bus switch circuit. The banks can separately be allocated to the plurality of resources coupled to the first and second buses. Simply changing the number of banks to be allocated will alter the memory capacity allocated to each resource.
Preferably, the bus switch circuit includes a plurality of bus switches each provided between corresponding one of the plurality of banks and the first and second buses, and controlled by bus designating information given to the corresponding bank.
The bus switches can be controlled independent of activities on the first and second buses, by providing the bus switching circuit with the bus designating information. The bus designating information may be provided directly to the bus switch via an external pin, or may be written into a storage element temporarily and then provided via this storage element to the bus switch.
Each bank of the memory can be allocated to a resource independent of the activities on the buses. Therefore, when memory capacity to be allocated to each resource is known, it is possible to configure the microprocessor optimally in advance.
Each of the plurality of bus switches may further include an exception generating portion which detects occurrence of an access to a corresponding bank on a bus that is other than the bus coupled to the corresponding bank, generates an exception, and applies it to the processor core. If a resource generates an access to a bank that is not originally allocated thereto, the access must be handled as an illegal access. According to the present invention, the exception can be generated when such an access is detected, and is supplied to the processor core. Thus, it is possible to handle the illegal access by a program performed on the processor core, without having to add special hardware.
Each of the plurality of bus switches may include a selector circuit for dynamically selecting either the first bus or the second bus based on the activities thereon, to couple an input/output path of a corresponding bank to the selected bus.
This enables dynamic allocation of banks to respective resources based on the activities on the first and second buses, instead of allocating the banks to the resources in advance. Thus, it is possible to determine memory capacity to be allocated to each resource, not in a unit of a bank, but in a unit that is smaller than the bank.
The selector circuit may include an access request detecting portion that detects an access request on either the first bus or the second bus, and couples the bus with the access request to the input/output path of the corresponding bank. A bus is coupled to a designated bank only when an access request to the bank is actually generated on the bus. Thus, it is possible to flexibly reconfigure the microprocessor for applications in which banks cannot be allocated in advance.
The selector circuit may further include a simultaneous access detecting portion that detects occurrence of simultaneous access requests to a same bank on the first bus and the second bus, and generates an exception that will be applied to the processor core. When access requests to the same bank occur simultaneously, these contending requests must be arbitrated. In the microprocessor of the present invention, an exception is generated and supplied to the processor core. Thus, the access requests can be arbitrated by an exception handling program performed on the processor core. Therefore, it is possible to arbitrate access requests without having to add excessive hardware.
The memory device according to another aspect of the present invention is a memory device for use in a microprocessor having a processor core coupled to first and second buses, which includes a single port memory divided into a plurality of banks, and a bus switch circuit provided between the plurality of banks and the first and second buses.
The plurality of banks of the memory device can be selectively allocated to the first and second buses, and therefore, the respective banks can be allocated to resources connected to the first and second buses. The memory capacity to be allocated to each resource can readily be altered by changing the number of the banks to be allocated.
The method of operating the microprocessor according to a still another aspect of the present invention includes: the step of preparing bus designating information corresponding to the plurality of banks, and the step of operating a plurality of bus switches such that input/output paths of corresponding banks are selectively switched to the first bus or the second bus, according to the corresponding bus designating information.
The plurality of banks of the memory device can be selectively allocated to the first and second buses, respectively. The memory capacity to be allocated to each resource can readily be altered by changing the number of banks to be allocated.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Microprocessor allocating no wait storage of variable capacity to plurality of resources, and memory device therefor


A zoom lens system includes, in order of from an object side to an image side: a first lens unit which does not move for zooming; a second lens unit moving during zooming; a third lens unit moving during zooming; and a fourth lens unit which does not move for zooming. The first lens unit includes a negative lens, a positive lens, a positive lens, and a positive lens, and when an Abbe number ν and a partial dispersion ratio θ of a material of the negative lens are denoted respectively by νn and θn, an average value of Abbe numbers ν and an average value of partial dispersion ratios θ of materials of the positive lenses are denoted respectively by νpa and θpa, and a refractive power of the negative lens is denoted by φn, the following expressions are satisfied: −1.75×10−3<(θpa−θn)/(νpa−νn); and 9.1×10−3(1/mm)<|φn|.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system, which is suitable for use in a broadcasting television (TV) camera, a video camera, a digital still camera, and a silver-halide camera, and also to an image pickup apparatus including the zoom lens system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been demanded a zoom lens system having a high zoom ratio and high optical performance for image pickup apparatus such as a television (TV) camera, a silver-halide camera, a digital camera, and a video camera. As the zoom lens system having a high zoom ratio, there is known a four-unit zoom lens system which includes a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power for zooming, a third lens unit having a negative refractive power for correcting image plane variation, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. As to this four-unit zoom lens system, there is known a four-unit zoom lens system having a high zoom ratio, in which an optical material having an anomalous dispersion characteristic is used, so that chromatic aberration is corrected appropriately and a high optical performance is provided (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,831,771 and 6,825,990).
A four-unit zoom lens system having a structure described above may support a high zoom ratio relatively easily. In order to obtain high optical performance in this four-unit zoom lens system, it is important to correct longitudinal chromatic aberration at the telephoto end appropriately. It is easy to correct the longitudinal chromatic aberration appropriately if an optical material having an anomalous dispersion characteristic is used. However, it is difficult to correct the chromatic aberration appropriately by simply using a lens made of the optical material having an anomalous dispersion characteristic. In order to obtain high optical performance over the entire zoom range in the four-unit zoom lens system described above, it is an important factor to set appropriately a lens structure of the first lens unit which is fixed during zooming and a material of each lens included in the first lens unit. In this regard, in order to correct the longitudinal chromatic aberration appropriately on the telephoto side, it is important to set an appropriate difference between dispersions of materials of the positive lens and the negative lens in the first lens unit. If this setting is performed inappropriately, it is difficult to correct the longitudinal chromatic aberration appropriately at the telephoto end.

Zoom lens system and image pickup apparatus including the same


A microprocessor evaluation system evaluates a microprocessor circuit by using analysis-specific custom corners that are derived specifically for the analysis of interest. Circuit parameters specific to the analysis of interest are applied to a proposed design to derive the custom corners, which will trigger violations more accurately than corners selected using traditional methods. The custom corners could also be reused in between design phases to reduce redesign simulation time. Local process parameters could be taken into account using worst-case local parameter offsets to detect violations in a far more accurate manner than using generic guard-band budgets.

The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The physical product of any design will vary from an idealized design due to imperfect manufacturing conditions. The competitive world of microchip design requires that design engineers test new designs having inherent construction variations quickly and accurately. Design engineers can test microchip designs using a design-of-experiments (DOE) technique by simulating a new design with process corners that represent the extreme attributes when parameters vary. Fully exhaustive simulations using all process corners are highly accurate but may take days to run, whereas simulations using only a few process corners take only minutes to run, but may not detect the best and worst-case scenarios.
Simplistic FEOL (Front End of Line) traditional corners can be chosen by simulating a circuit where the NMOS and PMOS transistors have no variation (referred to as typical), when they are at their fastest, and when they are at their slowest, which would provide five corners to test (i.e. typical, fast-fast, fast-slow, slow-fast, and slow-slow). However, traditional FEOL corners are overly simplistic, and frequently represent impossible worst-case scenarios.
A design engineer might perform simulations that sweep through a range of values at predetermined intervals across corners, but randomized techniques require many repeated iterations to provide accuracy which wastes time. Relationships between performance targets and statistical model parameters could be used to strategically choose corner models, however it is difficult to derive statistical model parameters that would provide accurate worse-case scenarios.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method that derives and tests process corners specifically for different design analysis.


A bi-rotational microwave oven turntable/rotisserie having a turntable which is moved in a closed path within the oven cavity while being concurrently rotated about a central axis of the turntable. A rotisserie device is associated with the turntable and includes a spit portion which is caused to rotate about the longitudinal axis thereof as an incident of rotation of the turntable about its central axis. The rotisserie, in turn, is rotated about a fixed axis defined by an input drive shaft. The turntable may be rotated by a gear meshing with a tooth portion of a hub journaling the drive shaft. The gear defines an axis of rotation of the turntable which may be rotatably carried on a support portion of the rotisserie device. The turntable may have a toothed periphery meshing with a tooth member fixed to the rotisserie spit portion for effecting rotation of the spit portion as an incident of rotation of the turntable relative to the support portion. The turntable is disposed subjacent the spit portion and the dish configuration thereof may serve to receive and collect juices dropping from the food products on the spit portion as well as for retaining juices and the like expressed from the food products carried on the turntable itself.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to microwave ovens and in particular to means for movably carrying food products in the oven cavity thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been conventional to provide gear drives for rotating the spit portion of a rotisserie for roasting meat and the like. One example of such a structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,738,328 of Milton H. Spielman.
It has further been conventional to utilize microwave electromagnetic radiation for heating food products and the like. One example thereof is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,172 of Max Wildemann wherein sausages are heated by microwave energy as they are passed through a waveguide while being turned about their longitudinal axes.
It is further conventional to rotate objects being heated by microwave radiation in a microwave oven cavity, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,632,838 of George W. Schroeder.
The use of such a rotatable platform in an oven for cooking food products and the like is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,987 of Louis H. Fitzmayer.
Albert H. Reuther shows, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,530, a multiple domestic appliance combination wherein a rotisserie is provided in an oven portion thereof, which rotisserie includes a spit driven by a suitable motor mounted in the rear wall of the range.
Herbert A. Puschner teaches the use of a traveling conveyor for heating foodstuffs and the like in a microwave oven cavity in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,483.
Peter H. Smith shows an electronic oven in U.S. Pat. No. 3,300,615 wherein a turntable is rotated during the food cooking process to effect uniform cooking of the food product.
Louis H. Fitzmayer, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,135, shows another electronic oven with a rotatable turntable in the cavity thereof.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,151, Yasuo Shin shows a microwave cooking apparatus wherein the turntable is removable so as to be disposed directly on the dining table after supporting the foodstuffs rotatably in the oven cavity during the cooking thereof.
Vladimir Kripchnikov et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,070, teach the use of a rotatable frame carried within the oven cavity and carrying dielectric cells onto which the food products are placed.
Ryuji Suzuki et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,512, show a turntable drive mechanism for use in an electronic oven wherein rotation of the turntable is induced by rotation of the rotary carriage by the effect of magnetic forces of the traction developed through the bottom wall of the oven between magnets on the turntable and magnets on the rotary carriage.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,778, Junzo Tanaka et al show a magnetic coupling means for use in rotating a rotary table in a microwave oven cavity.
Koichi Tateda shows in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,442 a microwave oven browning unit which is adjustably positionable within the oven cavity.
Thus, a large number of different devices have been developed in the microwave oven art for use in rotating foodstuffs being heated in the oven cavity or for effecting movement of the foodstuffs therein to provide improved uniform heating of the foodstuffs during the cooking operation.

Bi-rotational microwave oven turntable/rotisserie


A method of transferring a substrate with a transfer unit including at least one fork having a substrate support portion, and a sensor arm having a sensor mounted thereon, for transferring the substrate between a substrate holding member and a substrate support member, includes the steps of arranging a position detecting plate on a rest portion of the substrate support member, obtaining position information of the position detecting plate by detecting the position of the position detecting plate with respect to the reference position of the transfer unit by the sensor arm, and transferring the substrate by controlling the position of the transfer unit on the basis of the position information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of transferring a plate-like substrate, e.g., a semiconductor wafer, between a substrate holding member and a substrate support member.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a semiconductor manufacturing process includes a step of subjecting a substrate to a heat treatment, e.g., a semiconductor wafer, and a heat treatment apparatus for performing batch heat treatment of a large number of substrates is recently used to achieve required heat treatment efficiently. In a heat treatment apparatus of this type, when a large number of substrates transferred from a substrate holding member, e.g., a carrier, are supported by an arbitrary substrate support member, the substrate support member is loaded in a reaction vessel. After predetermined heat treatment is performed, the substrate support member is directly removed from the reaction vessel. As the substrate support member, a wafer boat made of quartz is usually used.
Semiconductor wafers are transferred to the wafer boat by a transfer unit. The operation of the transfer unit is controlled by a control mechanism in accordance with a predetermined pattern. The operation of the transfer unit must be accurately performed for an actually installed wafer boat.
The wafer boat must be periodically cleaned as reaction products and the like attach to contaminate it during a heat treatment step and the like. It is, however, almost impossible to install a cleaned wafer boat in a state strictly the same as that of the wafer boat before cleaning. More specifically, it is very difficult to completely restore the installation position or posture of the wafer boat after the wafer boat is cleaned. A deformation or distortion is sometimes caused in the wafer boat due to cleaning and heating at a temperature of 1,000.degree. C. or more. Furthermore, wafer boat replacement is sometimes performed. In such a case, when the transfer unit is operated in accordance with the same operation pattern as that employed before cleaning or replacement, the semiconductor wafer cannot be appropriately supported by the wafer boat, and is incompletely supported by the wafer boat. Then, the semiconductor wafer may drop, or sometimes the wafer boat may be knocked down by a semiconductor wafer which is to be supported to the wafer boat by the transfer unit.
From these situations, when a new wafer boat is installed, the operation pattern of the transfer unit must be adjusted (subjected to teaching) so that a transfer operation matching to the wafer boat is executed.
Conventionally, teaching of the transfer unit is manually performed. More specifically, when the forks of the transfer unit are inserted in the wafer boat, the operator finely adjusts the forks by visually confirming adjustment state of the vertical movement, swing movement, and forward-and-backward movement of the forks such that the positions of the forks and the support grooves of the wafer boat relative to each other become appropriate, thereby performing this teaching in accordance with visual confirmation in a trial-and-error manner.
However, since this teaching is performed by confirmation and adjustment of the positions of the forks of the transfer unit with respect to all the support grooves of the wafer boat, this requires a very large operation load and a long operation time, while it cannot always obtain high reliability.


A turf collecting apparatus has a pan for collecting turf plugs discharged from an aerator. The pan is rotatably mounted on a frame so that the pan is freely rotatable within the frame. The connector is located on the frame at a point so that when the aerator is moved to a raised position, the pan is freely rotatable under the force of gravity to dump the turf plugs from the pan. The pan also has a counterweight connected thereto to cause the pan to rotate back to a collecting position after the turf plugs are dumped from the pan.

The present invention relates to aerators for aerating ground such as lawns and golf course fairways and greens by removing plugs of turf therefrom. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for collecting turf plugs after they are removed from the lawn, fairway or green by the aerator.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,881,844, 3,022,833, 4,148,362 and 4,422,510 disclose apparatus for the provision of vertical channels in grass, fields, meadows, etc. (hereinafter aerators or aerating machines).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,088,209 discloses apparatus for cutting and removing plugs of turf including a collector means for collecting the turf plugs. The collector means comprises a bag-like body 54 and an open collecting chamber or receptacle 55 pivotally connected to a collector frame via a fulcrum shaft 57. Pull-springs 64, connected between the frame of the collector means and stationary points on the carriage of the apparatus, operate to yieldably swing the collecting means inwardly. The collector receptacle may be emptied by manually swinging the same rearwardly and upwardly against the tension of the pull-springs 64.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,578 discloses a plug catcher for a green aerator which temporarily catches the small plugs of turf as they are extracted by a turf-aerating machine. The catcher is relatively easy to attach and remove from the gleaning edge, that is, the front or leading edge. Once attached, the catcher is located only a small fraction of an inch from the ground, this distance being regulated effectively by locating this edge closely adjacent to the ground contact points of the rear supporting wheels of the aerator. The catcher is essentially a platform and is illustrated as having a wall making it box-like. The catcher is substantially balanced upon ground-contacting casters with the front end releasably latched onto the axle of the aerator and extending below the axle, immediately to the rear of the aerator's plug extractors, so that the gleaning edge brushes the grass of the fairway turf and is positively held in this turfengaging position to sweep the extracted plugs into the box-like enclosure of the catcher. Two axle-engaging latch hooks, one at each side, are provided for attaching and handling the catcher, which when loaded with extracted turf plugs is lifted from the aerator machine and ordinarily emptied into a truck or cart. However, handling the aerator and catcher requires at least two people.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,293 discloses a turf plug catcher comprising a pan 16 having side walls 20, 22 rotatably connected to rigid pan support members 40 by pins 42 and 44. Hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders 48 are connected to the side walls 20, 22 and are used to dump the pan and return it to a collecting position. To dump the pan 16, an operator first lifts the aerator and then actuates the hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders 48 moving the pan 16 to and from the dumping position. The hydraulic system requires additional hydraulic connections to a tractor or the like, and is mechanically complex and expensive to manufacture and maintain.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,322 discloses a lawn sweeper with a hamper 16 for collecting debris swept up from a lawn. The hamper is supported on support plates 70 and pins 72 that are located rearwardly of the center of gravity of the hamper support so that when the hamper is loaded with debris, the hamper remains at its forward or normal loading position. The hamper may be dumped by manually elevating or raising-the hamper to a rear dumping position using lifting handle 84, or by pulling on handle 92 which pulls cable 90 to rotate the hamper to the dumping position.


An apparatus for filtering a drilling fluid. The apparatus comprises a cylindrical flange member having a first and second passage and a cylindrical sleeve having an internal fishing neck. An attachment pin attaches the flange member to the cylindrical sleeve. The apparatus further comprises a screen member attached to the cylindrical sleeve. In one embodiment, the first and second passage are disposed off-centered so that four bore holes are created. The attachment pin cooperates with a groove formed on the sleeve""s outer diameter surface. The apparatus may further include a pulling tool. The pulling tool contains a plurality of dog members disposed about a mandrel, and a spring that urges the dog members into engagement with a protuberance on the mandrel. The apparatus further comprises a shear pin attaching the dog members to the mandrel and wherein the shear pin is disposed within a slot so that the dog members can move axially relative to the mandrel. In one embodiment, the screen member is a cylindrical ribbed body. A method of cleaning a drilling fluid is also disclosed.

This invention relates to an apparatus for filtering a well bore fluid. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, this invention relates to an apparatus positioned in a tubular member in order to filter a well bore fluid. The invention also describes the method of filtering the well bore fluid with the apparatus.
The use of drilling fluids for the drilling of oil and gas wells is well known. The drilling fluid serves many purposes, including suppression of reservoir pressure, lubrication of the drill pipe, and cooling of the bottom hole assemblies, etc. The bottom hole assemblies may contain individual components such as bits, stabilizers, measurement while drilling tools, etc. Many times, the bottom hole assemblies contain electronic sections such as microprocessors that are used to collect and/or transmit data collected by sensors placed in the bottom hole assemblies.
Drilling fluids may contain many different types of components such as mud, chemicals, drill cuttings, metal shavings, etc. The particle size of these various components vary from microns to inches. Additionally, rig crews may inadvertently drop tools, glooves, rags or other unwanted materials into the well bore. The unwanted and/or undesirable solids, hereinafter. referred to as debris, is highly harmful. For instance, the debris can cause failures in the electrical components of the bottom hole assemblies. Therefore, operators find it desirable to filter the drilling fluid of the debris.
Many methods of filtering well bore fluid exists. One present method includes placing a filter in the tubular members while the tubular members are being run into the well bore. The prior art devices presently available utilize a cylindrical screen that have an external fishing neck. However, these types of devices have many disadvantages. For instance, the openings contained in the top end have a limited flow through area. Additionally, the external fishing neck has an inherent weak point at the stem making it possible for the stem to break off while in the tubular members, which would be highly undesirable and/or dangerous, as those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus for filtering a drilling fluid. There is also a need for a filtering device that can be retrieved from a well bore safely and quickly. Further, there is a need for a filtering device that efficiently filters the drilling fluid while still allowing maximum flow through capabilities. These needs, as well as many others, will be met by the invention herein disclosed.
A system for filtering a drilling fluid in a tubular string is disclosed. A first tubular member having a box end and a second tubular member having a pin end is provided. The box end is threadedly connected to the pin end, and wherein the connection forms a cavity. The connected tubular members have an internal bore therethrough.
The system comprises a cylindrical flange member having a first passage and a second passage, and wherein the cylindrical flange member is fitted into the cavity. The system further comprises a cylindrical sleeve having an internal bore, and wherein the internal bore contains a fishing neck. The cylindrical sleeve contains a first opened end and a second opened end. An attachment member that attaches the cylindrical flange member to the first opened end of the cylindrical sleeve is included.
The system further includes a screen member extending from the second opened end of the cylindrical sleeve, with the screen member having a plurality of openings. A pulling tool for engagement with the fishing neck is also included, with the pulling tool comprising: a mandrel with a first end and a second end; a plurality of dog members disposed about the mandrel; a spring urging the dog members into engagement with the mandrel""s first end; and wherein the dog members have a shoulder that cooperates and engages with the fishing neck. The pulling tool may further comprise a shear pin attaching the dog members to the mandrel, and wherein the mandrel contains a slot, and wherein the shear pin is disposed within the slot so that the dog members can move axially relative to the mandrel.
In one embodiment, the first passage and the second passage are disposed off-centered so that the first passage includes a first bore hole and a second bore hole, and the second passage includes a third bore hole and a fourth bore hole and wherein the attachment member comprises a first shear pin through said first and second bore hole and a second shear pin through said third and fourth bore hole. The cylindrical flange member may contain a first sealing surface that cooperates with the cavity in order to seal the cylindrical flange member relative to the internal bore.
In one embodiment, the screen member is a cylindrical ribbed body. In another embodiment, the screen member is a cylindrical body having openings therein.
A method of cleaning a drilling fluid of debris within a plurality of tubular members is also disclosed. The tubular members are threadedly connected, and the plurality of tubular members include a first tubular member having a box end and a second tubular member having a pin end. The box is threadedly connected to the pin, and wherein the box and pin cooperate to form a cavity. The method comprises placing a screen apparatus within the first tubular member. The screen apparatus comprises: a cylindrical flange member, with the cylindrical flange member having a first and second passage, and wherein the cylindrical flange member is fitted into the cavity; a cylindrical sleeve having an internal bore that contains a fishing neck; and a screen member attached to the cylindrical sleeve.
The method further includes seating the cylindrical flange member within the cavity, and passing the drilling fluid through the internal bore. Next, the drilling fluid is flown through the screen member and debris is collected within the screen member. The method includes providing a pulling tool. The pulling tool contains: a mandrel with a first end and a second end; a plurality of dog members disposed about the mandrel; a spring urging the dog members into engagement with the mandrel""s first end; and wherein the dog members have a shoulder that cooperates and engages with the fishing neck of the cylindrical sleeve.
The method further includes lowering the pulling tool into the tubular member and contacting the dog members with the cylindrical sleeve. The dog members are allowed to contract about the mandrel. The protuberance is allowed to pass the fishing neck, and the pulling tool is lowered. The dog members then are allowed to engage the shoulder of the fishing neck. Thereafter, the pulling tool may be raised.
The method further comprises shearing the first and second shear pin and releasing the cylindrical sleeve from the cylindrical flange. Next, the pulling tool is pulled with the attached screen member from the tubular member. The tubular members are pulled from the well bore, and the tubular members are threadedly disconnected. The cylindrical flange is retrieved.
Also disclosed is an apparatus for filtering a drilling fluid. The apparatus comprises a flange member having a first and second passage. A cylindrical sleeve having an internal bore is included, with the internal bore containing a fishing neck. The apparatus further includes means for attaching the flange member to the sleeve and a screen member attached at a second opened end of the sleeve. In one embodiment, the first passage and the second passage are offset from center so that four bore holes are formed. In the preferred embodiment, the attaching means includes a first shear pin through the first and second bore holes and cooperating with a groove on outer diameter of the cylindrical sleeve and a second shear pin through the third and fourth bore holes and cooperating with the groove on the outer diameter of the cylindrical sleeve. In one embodiment, the flange member has a first seating surface that cooperates with a cavity that is formed from the pin and box connection.
The apparatus may further include a pulling tool. The pulling tool includes a mandrel, a plurality of dog members disposed about the mandrel, and a spring urging the dog members into engagement with the mandrel""s first end. The dog members will have a shoulder that cooperates and engages with the fishing neck of the sleeve.
An advantage of the present invention includes the filtering of the drilling fluid so that down hole tools are protected from debris. Another advantage is that the apparatus has a completely open top end for full flow of the fluid into the screen. Yet another advantage is that the embodiments disclose different types of screens, namely a ribbed screen, perforated openings, and/or wire mesh. Still yet another advantage is in the event that the filter is inadvertently left in the tubular string, the design allows for retrieve from the tubular string, with retrieval possible to many thousand of feet below the surface of the earth.
A feature of the present invention includes the screen has cylindrical walls. The screen has an open top end and a base with openings therein. Another feature is the flange that is connected via shear pins to the fishing neck. Yet another feature is use of a disclosed wire line pulling tool to retrieve the apparatus from the tubular string within a well bore. Still yet another feature includes the ability to pull significant forces via the wire line in order to retrieve the novel apparatus.