For transferring packets between a wireless data transfer device and a mobile communication network, temporary block flows are formed, and information is transferred in these block flows in one or more packet data traffic channels either in the first direction from the mobile communication network to the wireless data transfer device or in the second direction from the wireless data transfer device to the mobile communication network. In the method, information about the end of the block flow is set in a packet to be transmitted in a block flow when data transfer has stopped. When the transfer of packets in the first direction has stopped, at least one enquiry message is also sent from the mobile communication network to the wireless data transfer device.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method according to the preamble of claim 1, a data transfer system according to the preamble of claim 13, and a wireless data transfer device according to the preamble of claim 18.
(2) Description of Related art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
The term "wireless data transfer system" is generally used to mean any data transfer system, which enables a wireless data transfer connection between a wireless data transfer device (MS) and fixed parts of the system when the user of the wireless data transfer device is moving in the operating region of the system. A typical wireless data transfer system is the Public Land Mobile Network PLMN. Most of the wireless data transfer systems that exist at the time of filing this application belong to so-called second generation wireless data transfer device systems, an example of which is the widely known GSM system (Global System for Mobile telecommunications). The present invention is especially suitable for the packet-switched wireless data transfer device systems being developed now. An example of these wireless data transfer device systems used in this specification is the GPRS system (General Packet Radio Service), the standardization of which is under way now. It is clear that the invention can also be applied in other wireless data transfer device systems in which packet-switched data transfer is applied.
The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a new service being developed for the GSM wireless data transfer device system. The operational environment of the GPRS system comprises one or more subnetwork service areas, which are combined as a GPRS backbone network. The subnetwork comprises several Support Nodes (SN), examples of which used in this specification are the Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN), which are connected to the mobile network (typically via a connection unit to the base station) so that they can offer packet switched services to the wireless data transfer devices via the base stations (cells). The mobile network offers packet-switched information transfer between the support node and the wireless data transfer device. Different subnetworks, in turn, are connected via the GPRS Gateway Support Nodes (GGSN) to an external data network, such as a Public Switched Data Network (PSDN). The GPRS service thus enables packet-switched transfer of information between a wireless data transfer device and an external data network, whereby certain parts of the mobile network form an access network.
In order to use the GPRS services, the wireless data transfer device performs at first a GPRS attach, by which it notifies that it is ready for the transmission of packet data. The attach forms a logical link between the wireless data transfer device and the support node SGSN, and thus enables the transmission of short messages (SMS, Short Message Services) via the GPRS network, paging via a support node and notification of packet data to the wireless data transfer device. While the wireless data transfer device is attaching to the network, the support node performs the mobility management (MM) operation and user identification. In order to transmit and receive information, a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) is activated, whereby a packet data address to be used in a packet data connection is specified for the wireless data transfer device, and thus the address of the wireless data transfer device is known in the gateway GPRS support node. When the attach is performed, a data transfer connection is established with the wireless data transfer device, the support node and the gateway GPRS support node, and a protocol (such as (X.25 or IP), a connection address (e.g. X.121 address), Quality of Service and Network Service Access Point Identifier (NSAPI) are specified for the connection. The wireless data transfer device activates a packet data connection with an Activate PDP Context Request, in which the wireless data transfer device gives the Temporary Logical Link Identity (TLLI), the type of the packet data connection, the address, the required Quality of Service, the Network Service Access Point Identifier and possibly also the Access Point Name (APN).
The Quality of Service specifies, for instance, how Packet Data Units (PDU) are handled during the transfer in the GPRS network. The Qualities of Service defined for connection addresses, for example, are used to control the order of transmission, buffering (packet queues) and the rejection of packets in the support node and the gateway GPRS support node especially in situations where there are packets to be sent in two or more connections simultaneously. Different qualities of service specify different delays for the transfer of packets between different ends of the connection, different bit rates, and the number of packets rejected may be different in connections with different qualities of service. Four different Quality of Service classes have been formed in the GPRS system, and these classes specify the Quality of Service offered by the LLC layer to the connection.
Reliability determines whether acknowledgement is used (ARQ) or not (no ARQ) in the Logical Link Control (LLC) and Radio Link Control (RLC) layer in data transfer. In addition, reliability determines whether protected mode is used in non-acknowledged data transfer, and whether the GPRS backbone network uses the TCP or UDP protocol in the transfer of packets that belong to the connection.
The attached FIG. 1 shows the operation of a known LLC protocol layer 101 in the wireless data transfer device and in the GPRS support node. Block 102 represents the operations of the known RLC/MAC (Radio Link Control/Media Access Control) layer that are needed between the LLC layer 101 and the wireless data transfer device (not shown). Correspondingly, block 103 represents the operations of the known BSSGP (Base Station Subsystem GPRS Part) layer that are needed between the LLC layer 101 and the closest serving GPRS support node (not shown). The interface between the LLC layer 101 and the RLC/MAC layers is called the RR interface, and the interface between the LLC layer 101 and the BSSGP layers is called the BSSGP interface.
Above the LLC layer 101, there are the known GPRS mobility management operations 104, the SNDCP operations 105 and the short message service operations 106, which belong to layer 3 in the layered structure described here. Each of these blocks has one or more connection points to the LLC layer 101 for connecting to its different parts. The logical link control block 107 has a Logical Link-GPRS Mobility Management (LLGMM) control connection to block 104. The mobility management information is routed via the LLGMM connection between the blocks 104 and the first LLE (Logical Link Entity) block of the LLC layer. The second 109, third 110, fourth 111 and fifth 112 LLE block are connected to block 105 via corresponding connections. These blocks are also called QoS 1, QoS 2, QoS 3 and QoS 4 according to the Quality of Service of the packets handled by these blocks. The sixth LLE block 113 of the LLC layer is connected to the block 106 via the LLSMS (Logical Link-Short Message Service) connection. The Service Access Point Identifiers of the first 108, second 109, third 110, fourth 111, fifth 112 and sixth LLE block are 1, 3, 5, 9, 11 and 7, respectively. Each of these LLE blocks is linked in the LLC layer to the multiplexing block 114, which processes connections via the RR interface to block 102 and further to the wireless data transfer device, as well as connections via the BSSGP connection to block 103 and further towards the support node SGSN.
The connection between the multiplexing block 114 and block 102 of the lower level towards the wireless data transfer device is called the transmission pipe. All packet data flows between the upper parts of the LLC layer and the lower layers 102 go through the same multiplexing block 114 and transmission pipe. For the packet data transfer of the LLC layer 101 in the GPRS system, it is possible to create Temporary Block Flows (TBF) between the wireless data transfer device and the mobile network. Such a temporary block flow can be started either by the wireless data transfer device or the mobile network. These temporary block flows are temporary block flows of the RLC/MAC layer, in which information of the LLC layer is transferred. A temporary block flow may be intended for data transfer either from the mobile network to the wireless data transfer device, which is denoted shortly by DL TBF (Downlink TBF) in the signalling diagrams of FIGS. 2, 3a and 3b, or from the wireless data transfer device to the mobile network, in which case it is denoted by UL TBF (Uplink TBF).
FIG. 2 is a signalling diagram of prior art packet data transfer, in which temporary block flows are used. The block flow is preferably formed by means of a control channel, such as PCCCH or CCCH, by configuring a packet channel PDTCH. This is represented by block 201 in FIG. 2. When the temporary block flow has been formed, the transfer of packets is started (arrow 202). Each RLC packet sent by the mobile network to the wireless data transfer device contains a Final Block Indicator (FBI). The purpose of this final block indicator is to inform the wireless data transfer device when the mobile network no longer has information to be sent to the wireless data transfer device in the block flow, whereupon this temporary block flow can be stopped. In order to receive packets, the wireless data transfer device switches to the Packet Transfer Mode and starts listening to the packet data channel and receiving packets.
The mobile network sets information about this in the last packet to be transmitted (arrow 203), for example by setting the final bit of the packets in the packet header field to the value true (e.g. the logical mode 1). Then the wireless data transfer device knows that it was the last packet received in this block flow. This packet also contains the Relative Reserved Block Period (RRBP) field, in which the mobile network can inform the wireless data transfer device in which time slot the wireless data transfer device can send the acknowledge message. Having received this last packet, the wireless data transfer device transmits an acknowledgement message (204) to the mobile network in the given time slot and starts a timer (block 205), such as T3192 in the GPRS system, for time-out consideration. If the RLC Acknowledged Mode has been used in the block flow, the wireless data transfer device sends as acknowledgement the Packet Downlink Ack/Nack message, in which the Final Ack Indicator (FAI) is set to the value true, preferably the logical mode 1. The value of this final bit notifies the mobile network that retransmission of packets is not needed (any more), because all packets have been received. If the RLC Unacknowledged Mode has been used in the block flow, the wireless data transfer device sends the Packet Control Ack message as the acknowledgement message. The wireless data transfer device still continues listening to the packet data transfer channel PDTCH in case the wireless data transfer device would have to send the acknowledgement message again, until the time set in the timer T3192 has expired. After this, the wireless data transfer device switches to the idle state. A timer is also started in the mobile network, such as T3193 in the GPRS system, when the mobile network has received the acknowledgement message from the wireless data transfer device. After the time specified in the timer has expired, the mobile network releases the temporary block flow.
If the wireless data transfer device has packets to be sent in the idle mode, the wireless data transfer device cannot start sending these packets directly, but it must at first switch from the idle mode to the active mode (packet transmission mode). After this, the wireless data transfer device starts the procedure for forming a temporary block flow in the control channel, such as the above mentioned PCCCH or CCCH control channel (block 206). The transfer of packets from the wireless data transfer device to the mobile network can be started after the temporary block flow has been formed. The signalling performed during the formation is represented by arrows 207 and 208, and the configuration of the packet channel by block 209. The time needed for the request for resources and the formation of the temporary block flow may be as much as several seconds. In practice, an arrangement like the one described above delays the transfer of packets, because the wireless data transfer device must first wait for the end of the time-out consideration and switch to the idle mode before a new temporary block flow can be formed. In addition, establishing the connection causes extra loading of the control channel. Situations like the one described above arise especially in connection with the signalling processes, in which the wireless data transfer device must send a reply to a message sent by the mobile network substantially immediately.
If the mobile network has asked, in connection with the transmission of packets, the wireless data transfer device to send acknowledgement messages, the wireless data transfer device can inform the mobile network of the need to send packets in these acknowledgement messages. However, the mobile network does not always ask for acknowledgements, and so in a situation like this the wireless data transfer device does not have a chance to ask for resources for the transfer of packets before the acknowledgement after the reception of the last packet. Because at this stage the temporary block flow has ended and no transmission time slot has been reserved for the wireless data transfer device, the wireless data transfer device cannot send a request for resources. This means that the wireless data transfer device must switch to the idle mode and back before it can ask for resources for the transmission of packets.
Even when the acknowledged mode is used, there may be problems in sending the block flow request on time. The wireless data transfer device can set a Channel Request Description IE in the acknowledgement message, whereby the mobile network may try to allocate resources for establishing a temporary block flow from the wireless data transfer device to the mobile network. In this situation, the mobile network sends a resource allocation message (such as Packet Uplink Assignment) to the wireless data transfer device, after which the wireless data transfer device can start the transmission of packets. However, in all situations the wireless data transfer device does not have time to ask for the allocation of resources before it has to send the acknowledgement message. The reason for this may be, for instance, that packets of an application layer (e.g. information related to an Internet browser, such as information of a home page) are being transmitted in an RLC packet received by the wireless data transfer device in a block flow, in which case the packet must be moved from the RLC layer to the LLC layer. In the LLC layer, the LLC frame structure is dismantled and transferred to the TCP/IP layer via the SNDCP layer. From the TCP/IP layer, the information contained by the packet is transmitted to the application. After this, the application can form a reply message, for example, to be transmitted further via the mobile network. Reverse measures are then performed, i.e. the information of the application layer is transformed via the intermediate layers to information of the LLC layer and further to RLC packets. The time taken by this whole process may be so long that information about the need to transmit packets is not received in the RLC layer before the acknowledgement message of the RLC layer is sent to the mobile network.
In the GPRS system, the wireless data transfer device has a time of 13–26 TDMA frames (one frame is ca. 4.615 ms) to send an acknowledgement message. This time is influenced by the value of the RRBP field in the packet transmitted by the mobile network. This means that the upper layers of the protocol stack have approx. 60 to 120 ms of time to form the packet to be transmitted and move it to the RLC layer. In practical situations this does not often succeed, and thus the wireless data transfer device must first switch to the idle mode before a temporary packet flow from the wireless data transfer device to the mobile network can be formed.

Allocation of resources in packet-switched data transfer


A new and distinct cultivar of Stachys plant named ‘NPN 001’, characterized by its low spreading to trailing plant habit; freely branching habit; vigorous growth habit; relatively large leaves; and relatively large light purple-colored flowers.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Stachys plant, botanically known as Stachys aethiopica and hereafter referred to by the name 'NPN 001'.
The new Stachys is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in George, South Africa. The objective of the program is to create new strong Stachys cultivars with numerous large flowers and unique flower colors.
The new Stachys originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor of two unnamed Stachys aethiopica selections, not patented in 2000. The cultivar NPN 001 was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in George, South Africa.
Asexual reproduction of the new Stachys by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in George, South Africa since November, 2000, has shown that the unique features of this new Stachys are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


Disclosed is an alternative fuel composition derived from the conversion of biomass at an elevated temperature, with conversion optionally in the presence of a catalyst, which is capable of reducing, and thereby improving, a low temperature property of a distillate. A process is also disclosed for mixing such renewable composition with the distillate.

With rising costs and environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels, renewable energy sources have become increasingly important. Renewable energy sources are low in aromatic content and provide a substitute for fossil fuels and a means of reducing dependence on petroleum oil. There is a growing interest in the use of aromatic lean biofuels as renewable transportation fuels.
Renewable energy sources include biofuels. Biofuels may be produced from a biomass feedstock to render pyrolysis oil (which is relatively soluble in water) and bio-oil. Biomass may also be gasified, subjected to a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and fractionated to render low aromatic components. In addition, triglycerides may be extracted from crops or algal sources and then deoxygenated to provide renewable fuel blending components with low aromatic content. Each of these renewable energy sources may be fractionated such that one or more fractions fit into a traditional and desirable fuel boiling point range.
In addition to being used to produce a renewable energy source, a Fischer-Tropsch process may also be used to produce an aromatic lean component as a substitute for fossil fuel. Exemplary of such non-renewable distillates are non-oxygenated feedstocks (which may be derived from gasification of coal or natural gas) subjected to a Fischer-Tropsch process downstream.
All of these low aromatic distillates lack important fuel properties. For instance, refined petroleum distillate fuels need to exhibit low temperature properties in order to be suitable for the area and season in which they are to be used. For instance, when the temperature drops below the cloud point of the distillate fuel, operating difficulties may appear due to wax crystal dropout. Such operating difficulties can include the plugging of fuel filters and fuel lines. The consequences may be catastrophic. For instance, in the case of jet fuel distillate fuels, fuel filter plugging can lead to an interruption of fuel flow to the turbine engines.
The low temperature property of a distillate fuel can be reduced to some extent by adding a product with a lower wax content, such as a low wax heating oil or kerosene, or by using cold flow improver additives, which can be expensive depending on the required level of low temperature property suppression.
However, as stated above, some renewable fuels such as some bio-distillates and some Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons are themselves in need of an additive or admixture of some kind to reduce/suppress their low temperature properties and thereby extend their useful operating range to lower temperatures.
It should be understood that the above-described discussion is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope or subject matter of the appended claims or those of any related patent application or patent. Thus, none of the appended claims or claims of any related application or patent should be limited by the above discussion or construed to address, include or exclude each or any of the above-cited features or disadvantages merely because of the mention thereof herein.
In an aspect, there remains a need for a fuel which is aromatic lean and which may be used as an alternative to fossil fuels. Such alternative fuels need to substantially exhibit the properties of fossil fuels.
In another aspect, there remains a need for a composition produced from a renewable source, and process of using such, which is capable of reducing low temperature properties of distillates.
In still another aspect, there exists a need for improved distillate fuels having one or more of the attributes or capabilities described or shown in, or as may be apparent from, the other portions of this patent.

Method of using renewable fuel composition


A sal fat fraction is obtained by dissolving sal fat in hexane at a temperature above 20.degree. C. and cooling the solution to 5.degree. C. to 12.degree. C. The cooled solution is seeded with 0.05% to 0.5% by weight sal stearin and then cooled to a temperature below -5.degree. C. A solid fraction is removed from the solution and hexane is removed from the liquid fraction to obtain a sal fat fraction which has a solid fat content at 20.degree. C. of 0% by weight and a solid fat content at 10.degree. C. below 4.5% by weight.

This invention relates to a sal olein as a constituent of the oily phase of cosmetic compositions.
Cosmetic compositions in emulsion form contain fats which are capable of providing the desired properties of application to the skin, i.e. essentially softening, lubricating, nourishing and protective properties to keep the skin supple and to protect it against atmospheric aggressions.
Fats of vegetable origin which have been proposed as suitable ingredients of the oily phases include sal fat which comes from stones of the fruit of the tree "Shorea robusta." According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,981, for example, sal fat provides above all the required qualities of suppleness of the skin coupled with a softening effect. However, from the point of view of physical properties, this fat has the disadvantage of negatively modifying the crystallization of the oily phase of the emulsions containing it, the effect of which is to shorten their stability as a function of time and, in addition, to give the emulsions a less attractive appearance by reducing their fineness and their lustre.
Processes for the solvent fractionation of sal fat into stearin and olein are already known. For example, published patent application WO 83.00 418 mentions the use of acetone or 2-nitropropane; Japanese patent application JP 81.127,694 related to the fractionation of sal fat with hexane in two stages. The olein obtained by these processes is solid or semi-solid at ambient temperature (approximately 20.degree. C). The problem addressed by the present invention was to provide a fat in the form of sal olein which, while having the cosmetic properties of sal fat, would not have any of its physical properties harmful to the quality of the emulsions.

Sal olein, a process for its preparation and cosmetic compositions containing it


A barrier for retarding fire comprises water-permeable fabric for covering a substantial area, the fabric having at least 9 pockets per square foot, each pocket having a volumetric capacity of between about 0.03 cubic inches and about 17 cubic inches, wherein substantially all of the pockets contain between about 0.01 and about 2 grams of superabsorbent polymer per cubic inch of volumetric capacity of the pockets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for retarding fire, particularly to a fire-retardant barrier for retarding fire from burning a building.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wildfires are known periodically to threaten residential areas and damage or destroy homes. Typically, home owners have significant warning as to the likelihood of a fire passing through their residential area so that preventative steps can be taken to avoid damage.
Water has been known for millennia for its ability to prevent or extinguish fires due to its high heat capacity and high heat of vaporization. One method that has been used for retarding fire from burning a building is spraying water on the roof and exterior walls of a building. However, this method is not particularly effective because water tends to flow off the building, limiting the amount of water that can be placed on and adhered to the building's surfaces. Water also tends to evaporate quickly, especially in the heat of a fire. Covering a building with a tarp able to absorb water is also known, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,362.
It has been reported that foams or superabsorbent polymer gels formed by adding water to superabsorbent polymer powders have been used as a fire-retardant. However, forming and applying the foam or gel requires special equipment. Only limited amounts of gel or foam can be placed on a surface before the gel or foam begins to slough off. The gels and foams also can require significant cleanup after a fire has passed. Also, the concentrated polymers used to form gels typically are flammable, so that storage of the concentrated polymers can be hazardous.
Superabsorbent polymers have also been used for protection in extreme temperature situations, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,912 for a "Protective Multi-Layered Liquid Retaining Composite."
What is needed is a method that provides effective retardation of a fire and an apparatus for retarding fire that is easy and safe to store, easy to apply to an object, and that is easy to clean up after a fire has passed.


Systems and methods of logging in a well include utilizing a solidifying fluid, such as magnetorheological fluid, in at least one annulus surrounding a logging tool. Given production tubing may remain in the well during the logging as desired for efficiency, space between the production tubing and a casing string may form the annulus. Filling the annulus with the solidifying fluid and selective activation of the solidifying fluid to a solidified state during the logging limits interference in data collected as a result of transmitting across the annulus. Deactivation of the solidifying fluid to a liquefied state enables recovery of the solidifying fluid from the well after the logging. Embodiments employ the logging in various applications, such as assessing a cemented casing string in well abandonment operations.

Well logging creates a record (a well log) of geologic formations penetrated by a borehole or of certain characteristics of a well and well conditions. Annular areas in the well surrounding tools lowered into the borehole to produce such well logs can create problems with measurements taken by these tools. In particular, the tools often rely on transmission of logging waves, such as sonic waves, through the annulus, which can interfere with the measurements when filled with fluids in a liquid or gas phase.
Logging can occur during any phase of a well's history, such as drilling, completing, producing, or abandoning. In an example regarding well abandonment, the well often needs to be logged to review the existing cement behind the casing string of the well before beginning abandonment operations. Time consuming and expensive removal of the production string provides one option used in the past to mitigate the interference caused by liquid in the annulus between the production tubing and the casing string.
Therefore, a need exists for systems and methods utilizing selective solidification of annular material, such as a magnetorheological fluid, for well logging.

Logging with selective solidification of annular material


Upset forging is utilized to join formed wire (40) to metal tubing (20). The ends (41) of formed wires (40) are passed completely across the width of the tube and heating electrodes (74) positioned only on the side of the tubing (20) from which the ends protrude and only the protruding ends (41) are heated to a plastic state. Back plates (30) are employed about the ends (41) to facilitate the upset forging process. An improved ISOFIX support is provided wherein a wire (40) is mounted across the width of a tube (20) and a bracket (30) placed over the wire (40) in contact with the tube (20) and these components are held together by upset forging the wire ends (41).

Wire forming manufacturing allows the rapid creation of custom parts by shaping wire feed stock often having diameters of about 0.25 inches, though wire forming is practiced over a wide range of wire diameters. When wire formed components are joined together, typically by spot welding, relatively strong and lightweight frames may be created. Wire formed structures have found widespread acceptance throughout the automotive industry due to the strength, weight, and resiliency of these parts.
Joining wire formed components to flat metal parts has not presented substantial difficulties for the wire forming industry. The wire may in some cases be welded to the flat component or even more advantageously might pass through an aperture in the flat component, in which case electric current may be applied to the wire on each side of the aperture thereby heating the end of the wire that has proceeded through the aperture to a plastic state. When heated, the metal wire may be deformed against the flat part to form a hot upset weld. Hot upset forging or welding is a well known technique for enlarging elongated work pieces at selected points and is described generally in Bachmann, U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,567.
Although the ability to join formed wire to flat metal pieces is desirable and necessary, in many instances it is preferable to join wire formed pieces to metal tubing. Hollow metal tubing generally provides a greater strength to weight benefit than solid flat metal pieces. Traditionally, wire formed parts have either been welded to metal tubes or mounted in brackets welded to the metal tubes, however, the spot welding processes typically used have required relatively long cycle times, have not produced sufficiently uniform welds, and have resulted in defects and rattles because of weld splatter and weld slag. Prior attempts to utilize resistance heating and upset forging techniques when joining wire forms to tubing have not been successful because the entire segment of wire passing through the hollow tube as well as the end portion extending from the tube have been heated to a plastic state. Attempts to upset the portion of the wire extending through the tubing have generally resulted in simply creating a mass of metal within the tube.

Resistance welded wire to hollow tubing joints and method


A method (and apparatus) for executing a main program having a series of machine-executable instructions in one of a program binary representation and an object code representation, including establishing a first pipeline for executing the main program and establishing a second pipeline for executing a meta-program to at least one of fetch and store meta-program information of the executing of the main program and a result of an analysis of the executing the main program. The program binary representation or object code representation of the main program is not modified by establishing the second pipeline or by executing the meta-program.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to processors in data processing systems and in particular to the binary (or object code) representation of programs and the way in which the binary representation is used for carrying out computation in such processors. More specifically, the invention relates to a novel binary representation of programs, and the apparatus and methods for fetching and executing the new enhanced binary representation in a processor, thereby enhancing the program's execution characteristics such as execution time, power consumption, and security.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is the liaison between a program and hardware which runs the program. That is, the ISA specification defines the programmer's view of the processor and isolates the programmer from the intricacies of processor design and organization helping him or her to concentrate on developing the software. The ISA specification includes the list of instructions and their formats, number and types of registers used by the instructions, memory addressing modes, virtual memory specification, etc.
The main advantage of the layer of abstraction provided by an ISA is that the same program binaries (object code) can be executed on different physical implementations of the ISA. Conversely, the ISA abstraction gives freedom to the designer of a processor to make significant changes to the physical implementation of the processor, but still making the processor "binary compatible" to existing programs. However, the layer of abstraction provided by the ISA also has some disadvantages.
First, the ISA is often not "expressive" enough to convey the program semantics in an efficient manner. More particularly, the ISA does not do a good job of conveying compile-time/static program analysis information and run-time history information. This information can be potentially used for improving the power, performance, security and reliability of a computing system.
It is often possible to further optimize the code to make the best use of the hardware features available in a specific implementation of the processor. However, recompilation may not be possible when source code of the program is not available, affecting the performance of old binaries.
Yet another problem with the ISA is that it does not allow the program execution history information to be made available to subsequent runs of the program, thus forcing the hardware to rediscover the same information over and over again, some of which could have been avoided and thereby leading to inefficiencies.
Thus, a need exists to address some of the disadvantages of the layer of abstraction provided by the ISA. Preferably, a solution that addresses these disadvantages would also be backward compatible in that it would allow any conventional ISA-compatible machine to be able to continue to execute binary code as it currently does, should the conventional machine not be compatible with the solution for enhancement of performance by addressing current disadvantages of the ISA.

Method and apparatus for a computing system using meta program representation

International Business Machines Corporation


Uniformity of plasma density and potential are increased by reducing plasma confinement through use of a non-uniform, graded magnetic field by asymmetric energization of electromagnets with a waveform including harmonics of a fundamental frequency. The magnetic field strength or intensity decreases in the direction of ExB drift of energetic electrons within the plasma which tends to cause additional ionization in the plasma and a gradient of plasma density and potential. Thus, increase in ionization due to ExB drift is balanced by reduction of plasma confinement. Uniformity of average exposure to the plasma is further increased by rotation of the magnetic field. Uniformity of plasma potential or wafer bias is further improved by modulation of the radio frequency (RF) power used to form the plasma in synchronism with decreases in the magnetic field during switching for magnetic field rotation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the manufacture of semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to the performance of reactive ion etching and the reduction of damage to semiconductor wafers and earlier formed structures during reactive ion etching.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scaling of electronic element structures to smaller sizes in semiconductor integrated circuits having increased integration density (to obtain improvements in propagation speed, noise immunity and economy of manufacture) has increased the criticality of many wafer processing operations. At the same time, there has also been a trend to increase wafer size to permit process costs to be spread over an increasing number of chips which may compromise the accuracy with which processing can be performed. For example, reactive ion etching is generally considered to be a relatively rapid, well-controlled process useful at numerous stages of integrated circuit manufacture but has presented criticality which has compromised manufacturing yields in modern integrated circuit designs.
During reactive ion etching, a plasma generated by radio frequency (RF) electric field energy and confined by a magnetic field (to increase plasma density and allow reduction of RF energy and bias) is used to develop charged species (electrons and ions). An etchant is introduced into the chamber 15 and ionized and the ions are accelerated toward a wafer by an electric field to etch the surface thereof in a manner well-understood in the art. The speed of the etching process and throughput of the apparatus in which it is conducted is dependent on the density of the plasma adjacent a particular region of the wafer and it is generally desirable to form a plasma with a high density of charged species. By the same token, however, the density of plasma to which the wafer is exposed must, at least on average, be substantially uniform to achieve the same etch rate at all points on the wafer surface particularly for very large diameter wafers.
Reactors for the performance of reactive ion etching must accommodate at least one wafer and thus are of sufficient size to allow local variations and non-uniformity in density of the plasma. Therefore, it has become the practice to use a rotating magnetic field above the wafer to cause the plasma to be repeatedly swept across the surface of the wafer to increase uniformity of exposure of the wafer to the plasma even when the plasma density is not uniform.
However, both increase in size of reactor chambers to accommodate larger wafers and increases in process criticality as electronic elements are scaled to smaller sizes has resulted in damage to wafers due to plasma non-uniformity becoming a significant factor in manufacturing yield. At larger reactor or wafer sizes, a magnetron effect causes a gradient of plasma density across the wafer. The gradient of plasma density, in turn, produces a variation of plasma potential across the wafer because of the tendency of energetic electrons from the plasma to drift in a direction perpendicular to both the magnetic field and the electrical field, referred to as the ExB drift. This drift of electrons causes additional ionization which produces further energetic electrons to contribute to the electron drift and further contribute to the gradient of plasma density across the wafer. It can be understood that this effect will increase for larger reactor and wafer sizes and can become great enough to damage thin gate oxide films in FET arrays and other structures which become very thin when scaled to smaller sizes for higher integration density.
On the other hand, if no magnetic field is used to increase plasma density, an increased bias voltage of about 1 KV or higher is necessary to maintain a sufficient density of plasma above the wafer for reactive ion etching to proceed at an acceptable rate. However, this large bias voltage is sufficient to cause X-ray damage to oxides and lattice damage to the wafer. Therefore, it is the practice to use both a magnetic field and reduced electric field bias for reactive ion etching. However, the ExB drift (and its effect on non-uniform plasma density) is, of course, a function of both electrical and magnetic field strength or intensity and the plasma density developed, which, for a given reactor or wafer size, effectively places a limitation on the magnitude of both the electrical bias and magnetic field which can be used, limiting throughput of the reactor.
An article entitled "Reduction of Charge-up Damage in Magnetron RIE" by Yukimasa Yoshida, published in Electrochemical Society Proceedings, Vol 95-5, pages 236-245, reports that uniform magnetic fields near the wafer surface cause damage and that damage can be reduced by using a non-uniform magnetic field in a magnetron RIE reactor using a rotating plurality of permanent magnets to obtain increased uniformity of plasma density and plasma potential. However, permanent magnets do not allow the magnetic field to be varied to optimize the plasma density or magnetic field gradient in accordance with desired manufacturing process parameters and require substantial mechanical support and mechanisms to rotate them and, hence, are impractical for integrated circuit production. On the contrary, RIE reactors which have become standard in the industry generate rotating magnetic fields by applying varying currents to stationary coils in a sequence to provide a rotating magnetic field. Such arrangement do not readily lend themselves to the simultaneous production of a rotating magnetic field which is also non-uniform since any variation of coil geometry which would create magnetic field non-uniformity would be superposed with other non-uniformities from other coils as the magnetic field was rotated. That is, the gradient in magnetic field strength which might be developed for one coil would not be maintained for a plurality of coils energized by currents of differing phase to obtain field rotation. Further, since the coils currently existing in current commercial reactors constitute an expensive component thereof, alteration of coil geometry is not economically feasible to obtain a suitable non-uniformity of a magnetic field which must also rotate.

Reduction of semiconductor structure damage during reactive ion etching


A liquid container having a vessel integrally formed and recessed within the container for holding cigars of various sizes, and a sealable opening in the container's bottom.. The vessel extends vertically into the chamber from the opening in the bottom of the bottle and includes tapered sidewalls. The diameter at the top end of the vessel is smaller than the vessel's diameter at the bottom at the point of the opening to enable the cigar to be easily extracted from the vessel and, if desired, an unfinished cigar to be reinserted into the vessel. The vessel can be closed and sealed at the bottom to keep the cigar fresh and humidified. A device is inserted into the vessel behind the cigar for use in holding the cigar securely in place when the vessel is closed. To provide humidification, a device comprised of a porous material containing water can be inserted into the vessel along with the cigar.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a vessel for containing liquid and, more particularly, to a combination vessel with a receptacle therein for holding a cigar or another type of tobacco product.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Cigar smoking has become increasingly more popular over the past several years, with cigar production and sales escalating at an almost feverish pace. Cigars are enjoyed in a variety of ways, including after a meal, with coffee, and especially with wine, liquor, or an aperitif. Traditionally, liquor and other spirits have often been marketed in their own uniquely packaged containers. Some brands use specially designed containers, typically glass bottles, that may vary in size and shape to enhance product identity by distinguishing one product from another. Examples of these are the Chevas Regal, Crown Royal and Jack Daniels brands.
Cigars, like alcoholic beverages, have always been sold and distributed as an entirely separate product, either as an individual item or in boxes, for example, of 20 or 25 cigars. Individual cigars are often packaged in cellophane wrappers or in metal tubes to keep in their freshness and preserve their quality. The tubes usually bear the name of the cigar brand, including a logo, and some additional interesting and attractive graphics to give the container a more unique appearance. The same applies to cigar boxes and similar types of containers. Nevertheless, though often sold in the same stores, cigars and alcoholic beverage products have never been packaged together as a single entity for mass marketing.
The device of the present invention provides the means to attractively package certain alcoholic beverages and cigar products together in a single container, and the means to store and keep the cigar fresh in a humidified environment within a separate and secure vessel inside the container. The vessel is also structured to ensure and preserve the physical integrity and high quality of the premium cigar inside.
The invention also provides a container with means to store and humidify a partially smoked cigar to maintain its freshness for later use. Given that the cigar is held within a vessel inside a liquor or alcoholic beverage container, a person can now readily enjoy the pleasure of a drink with the cigar of his or her choice. The invention also provides the means to easily extract the cigar from the vessel and return it there for storage within a securely sealed and humidified environment. And finally, the invention provides a device which gives the amusing and illusory appearance of a cigar suspended inside a bottle within the liquid contents.

Container for liquid and tobacco product


Among first and second stators of a torque converter supported on a fixed part by a one-way clutch corresponding to the stators, the number of second stator blades of the second stator on the downstream side in the direction of flow of oils larger than the number of first blades of the first stator on the upstream side, and the maximum value t2 for blade thickness of the second stator blade is smaller than the minimum value t1 for blade thickness of the first stator blade. Therefore, it is possible to ensure that there is a sufficient gap (β) between a trailing edge of the first stator blade and a leading of the second stator blade, thus preventing the flow of oil from being stopped by the gap (β), and it is possible to align effectively the flow of oil by means of the second stator blades.

A torque converter for an automobile includes a pump impeller connected to a crankshaft of an engine, a turbine runner connected to a main shaft of a transmission, and a stator supported on a casing via a one-way clutch, drives the turbine runner by means of a flow of oil generated by the pump impeller, and aligns, by means of the stator, the flow of oil that has passed through the turbine runner and been deflected, thus circulating oil along the pump impeller, the turbine runner, and the stator.
FIG. 14 (A) shows a row of blades of a stator 01 of a conventional high torque ratio type torque converter, and a stator blade 02 thereof has a large camber in order to achieve a high torque ratio. With regard to such a torque converter, in a region where the speed ratio (output rotational speed/input rotational speed) is small, oil that has passed through the turbine runner flows into the stator blade 02 from the ventral surface side and flows smoothly (arrow a), but in a region where the speed ratio is large, since oil that has passed through the turbine runner flows into the stator blade 02 from the dorsal surface side (arrow b), there is oil flow separation on the ventral surface side of the stator blade 02 where the camber is strong, and there is the problem that the torque ratio (output torque/input torque) becomes less than 1 or the capacity coefficient (input torque/input rotational speed) decreases greatly.
Conventionally, in such a case a one-way clutch supporting the stator 01 on the casing is disengaged, and the stator 01 is made to idle in the direction of arrow c, thus suppressing any decrease in the speed of the stator blade 02 and thereby improving performance.
FIG. 15 shows changes, in response to speed ratio, of the torque ratio and the capacity coefficient of a high torque ratio type torque converter (solid line) and a high capacity type torque converter (broken line). The high torque ratio type torque converter has an excellent torque ratio in a low speed ratio region compared with the high capacity type torque converter, but there is the problem that the capacity coefficient in a high speed ratio region is still low.
In order to further improve the capacity coefficient in the high speed ratio region, as shown in FIG. 14 (B), an arrangement in which a stator blade 02 of a stator 01 is divided into a first stator blade 02a on the upstream side in the direction of flow of oil and a second stator blade 02b on the downstream side in the direction of flow of oil, and the first stator blade 02a and the second stator blade 02b are supported on a casing by respective one-way clutches so that they can idle independently from each other is known from Patent Document 1 below.
Due to the stator blade 02 being divided into the first stator blade 02a and the second stator blade 02b in this way, the first stator blade 02a is first made to idle in response to an increase in speed ratio, thus allowing the function of the second stator blade 02b in aligning the flow of oil to be exhibited, and in response to a further increase in the speed ratio both the first stator blade 02a and the second stator blade 02b are made to idle, thus preventing oil flow separation.


A dual HDTV/NTSC receiver includes a microprocessor for controlling a tuner for synthesizing the carrier frequencies of HDTV signals and NTSC signals. The HDTV signals are inherently of much lower power than the NTSC signals. The tuner initially synthesizes the carrier frequency of a desired HDTV signal which is attempted to be detected in an narrow band synchronous detector. Detection of the HDTV signal produces a high lock detect signal which causes the microprocessor to enable an HDTV processing channel. If no HDTV signal is detected, the lock detect signal remains low and the microprocessor controls the tuner for synthesizing the carrier frequency of the NTSC co-channel television signal. A high lock detect signal from the narrow band synchronous detector, indicating detection of the NTSC co-channel causes the microprocessor to enable the NTSC processing channel. A system for automatically programming the receiver and memorizing which type signal is present on each television channel is also shown.

This invention relates generally to an HDTV receiver and particularly to an HDTV receiver that is also capable of receiving NTSC signals.
In the recently announced Digital Spectrum Compatible High Definition Television System (DSC/HDTV) jointly developed by Zenith Electronics Corporation and AT&T Corporation, spectrum compatibility with co-channel NTSC signals is achieved. Because of the digital nature of the HDTV signal, it is of inherently lower power and the ratio of the HDTV signal power to the NTSC signal power is very low, on the order of 14 dB. In the case of a receiver situated between an HDTV service area and an NTSC service area, the desirable to undesirable signal power ratio for the NTSC signal is about 28 dB and for the HDTV signal is about 0 dB. It is planned that all HDTV receivers will be capable of receiving both HDTV signals and NTSC signals. The present invention is directed to a dual HDTV/NTSC television receiver that automatically selects the appropriate signal when tuned to a "television channel."
In the presently proposed all digital DSC/HDTV system, the video source signal has 787.5 lines per frame, 59.94 frames per second and is progressively scanned at 47,203 Hz (three times the NTSC rate) and has a 34 MHz bandwidth. The aspect ratio is 16:9 and there are 1280.times.720 active pixels in a frame, with the pixels being square. 1575 lines are displayed in 1/29.97 seconds. The HDTV signal has a NTSC like transmission format with one HDTV data frame corresponding in time to one NTSC field. There are also HDTV data fields and HDTV data segments that correspond to NTSC fields and NTSC horizontal lines, although there is no correlation between the HDTV data fields and data segments and NTSC fields and NTSC horizontal lines, respectively, on an individual basis. The HDTV signal has a suppressed carrier and is transmitted with a small pilot to aid in channel acquisition. The spectrum of the HDTV transmitted signal is shown in FIG. 1 with the corresponding carriers of the HDTV and a co-channel NTSC signal illustrated therein. The response curve has a flat portion 32 situated between a Nyquist slope 34, 36 at each end, with the HDTV carrier frequency being positioned 895 KHz from the NTSC picture carrier. This frequency distance is Fcs/4, where Fcs equals 3.58 MHz. The transmitter for the HDTV suppressed carrier arrangement is fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,975, mentioned above.

Dual HDTV/NTSC receiver using sequentially synthesized HDTV and NTSC co-channel carrier frequencies


The present invention discloses a pipeline-based central processing unit, wherein the pipeline is partitioned into base pipeline stages and enhanced pipeline stages according to functions, the base pipeline stages being activated all the while, and the enhanced pipeline stages being activated or shutdown according to requirements for performance of a workload. The present invention further discloses a pipeline-based central processing unit, wherein the pipeline is partitioned into base pipeline stages and enhanced pipeline stages according to functions, each pipeline stage being partitioned into a base module and at least one enhanced module, the base module being activated all the while, and the enhanced module being activated or shutdown according to requirements for performance of a workload.

Power/energy and environment problems are gaining more and more concern of people. In IT infrastructure, there are thousands of computing devices running in the world every day, such as mobile phones, desktops, servers etc. However, relevant statistics show that the resource utilization efficiency of these computing devices is quite low. For example, the utilization efficiency of x86 server represented by Intel stands at 10% to 15% only.
People have been fighting against power consumption issues from different levels, e.g., to design low power consumption chipsets with advanced technologies or to adjust the operating voltage and frequency according to workloads.
All modern processors, i.e. CPUs, are fabricated with CMOS technologies. CMOS power consumption is divided into dynamic power consumption and static power consumption. Static power consumption means standby power consumption even when devices do not implement any action, which is mainly caused by leakage currents of transistors. Dynamic power consumption is mainly the power consumption for turnover actions when transistors are operating. Dynamic power consumption is the main source of CPU power consumption, so the solution of dynamic power consumption in a CPU is the key to the reduction of the total CPU power consumption. As is well known in the art, dynamic power consumption is illustrated by formula (1):PDYNAMIC=CL·NSW·V2DD·f  (1)in which PDYNAMIC is dynamic power consumption, CL is the total equivalent capacitance, NSW is the ratio of switching action to system clock, VDD is the supply power, and f is operating frequency. As is clear from formula (1), dynamic power consumption is proportional to the total equivalent capacitance. If the total equivalent capacitance can be reduced, dynamic consumption can be reduced linearly, and the total CPU power consumption can be decreased accordingly. In chip design, the capacitance is equivalent to the transistors to carry out operations. Therefore, to reduce the transistors carrying out operations in chips is equal to reduce the equivalent capacitance, and thus power consumption can be decreased.
Modern integrated processors, such as microprocessors and digital signal processors, are commonly designed using a complex pipelined architecture. In a CPU, pipeline and data/instruction feeding logics are the most active components which occupy a fairly large part of the total CPU power consumption. According to statistics, pipeline occupies about ⅓ of the total power consumption. Therefore, to decrease the power consumption of pipeline can reduce the power consumption of processors effectively.
The concept of pipeline references assembly pipeline in industrial production. Specifically, in a CPU, several (e.g. six) circuit units with different functions form an instruction processing pipeline, and then an instruction is divided into six steps implemented by these circuit units. Through the instruction superimposing method, an instruction can be completed in one CPU clock cycle, so the CPU computing speed is enhanced. Typically, these circuit units with different functions on a pipeline are called processing stage (or called "stage" optionally). Each stage executes a specific function and transfers the processing result to the next stage.
In an early pipelined structure, there are only pipeline stages that fulfill basic functions. The most classical one is a five-stage pipelined structure whose detailed functions comprise: instruction fetch (IF), instruction decoding (ID), execution (EX), memory access (MEM) and write back (WB). Among them, instruction fetch IF is for fetching an instruction from PCs and random memories (RAM) and outputting the instruction to the next stage; instruction decoding ID is for decoding the fetched instruction; execution EX usually includes an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) for executing the decoded instruction; memory access MEM is for accessing a memory to acquire operation data; and write back WB is for writing the result of execution to a register or memory for later use. With these pipeline stages fulfilling basic functions, CPU can execute computing tasks. Let's define this design methodology of ARM-like CPU as "design for efficiency (DFE)."
With the development of the production process for integrated circuits and the increasing reduction of the dimension of transistors, more transistors can be integrated on a single chip, and the requirement on the computing performance imposed by people gets more and more stringent at the same time. Therefore, some functions for improving the computing performance have been added to CPU pipeline design, and the number of stages of a pipeline also increases gradually, such as 13 stages, 19 stages, or even 30-odd stages. The five-stage pipelined structure outlined above is elaborated, and the five basic functions are distributed over more stages, and the function fulfilled in each stage gets increasingly complicated. These additional functions for improving the computing performance, for example, may include: superscalar, hazards detection, branch prediction, register renaming, issue selection, reorder buffer, data forwarding, speculative execution, dynamic scheduling etc. Among them, superscalar simultaneously executes multiple processes by building in a plurality of pipelines. In other words, superscalar implements multiple tasks using more transistors, i.e. trades space for time. Hazards detection, also called out-of-order execution, means dispatching, not in an order specified by the program, a plurality of instructions to respective pipeline stages to be processed, but first making analysis and judgment according to the operating state of each pipeline stage and the fact whether an instruction to be processed can be executed in advance, and then according to the result of judgment, sending the instruction which can be executed in advance to corresponding pipeline stages for execution, i.e. making full use of idle pipeline stages to cause CPU internal circuits to operate at a full load and thereby improving the speed of CPU operating programs. Branch prediction involves CPU dynamic execution techniques, in which instructions are executed in an original order when there is no conditional branch in the instructions and when there is a conditional branch in instructions, decision is made, according to the result of processing the instructions in pipelines, as to whether the instructions are executed in an original order. Branch prediction means it is able to predict, before the result of the previous instruction is produced, whether a branch is transferred, so corresponding instructions can be executed in advance. As a result, pipelines are prevented from idle wait, and the CPU computing speed is enhanced. Other additional functions are added for the purpose of performance enhancement. Let's define this design methodology of Pentium-like CPU as "design for performance (DFP)".
FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b illustrate a typical pipelined architecture having 19 stages in modern processors, in which, in addition to the basic functions requisite for carrying out tasks mentioned above, there are various complex functions used for performance enhancement and some pipeline stages include multiple modules.
As is clear from the architecture design of modern processors described above, the addition of a large number additional functions, although bringing about higher performance and faster speed for the computation of processors, is implemented by more transistors, thereby occupying a larger chip area and consuming more power. For example, the mainstream PC configuration in 1995 was 486d×2−66 CPU with the power consumption of 2.5 W; at present, Pentium 4 (Presocott) has a peak power of 255 W, an idle power of 120 W. This records an average increase of over 60 times.
Further, we have noted that there is a severe resource waste in existing computing devices: almost all CPUS of computing devices are under utilization or have an extremely low utilization efficiency. For example, assume a desktop CPU can operate at a high frequency of 3.2 GHz, whereas such a high computing power, i.e. its peak performance, is needed only during 5% of the time in a day, and a low-frequency CPU with simple pipelines can fulfill the computing task during 95% of the time. However, due to the complicated pipeline design used by the CPU, the aforesaid pipeline stages and/or modules for improving the computing performance are still invoked during 95% of the time even if there is no need for a quite high computing performance. Therefore, the use of these pipeline stags and/or modules occupies a large amount of energy without any meaningful output, which wastes power. Furthermore, with the advancement of computer technologies, users are more concerned with which manner is the most electricity-saving, i.e. has the lowest power consumption on the premise of meeting the performance requirements.
It can be seen from the analysis provided above that since these computing devices operate at a low load at most time, there is a large energy saving space in these computing devices. If the power consumption of computing devices can be reduced without impairing the performance or minimizing the performance loss, then energy and environment problems will be alleviated greatly.
In IEEE 2001, Proceeding of the 28th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA'01), an essay entitled "Power and Energy Reduction Via Pipeline Balancing" (hereinafter referred to as reference document 1) proposes a pipeline balancing (PLB) technique. This technique adjusts the width of pipelines based on the amount of parallelism within a program and achieves the purpose of reducing the power consumption by adopting relatively wide pipelines when the amount of parallelism is relatively high and adopting relatively narrow pipelines when the amount of parallelism is relatively low. Its essence is superscalar technique. This technique reduces power consumption in a certain extent, whereas it has limitations: it decides the width of pipelines based on the amount of parallelism within a program only, regards a pipeline as a unit and thus is a relatively coarse power consumption management technique. Therefore, this technique is not applicable in at least two cases. One case is, for example, when the amount of parallelism within a program is very high but the requirement on performance is not very high. For example, during browsing a web page, a browser will naturally browse from the top down according to his reading habit. If the content of the lower portion is displayed slightly later than the content of the upper portion, it does not affect the user's browsing experience and can be accepted by the user. According to the PLB technique, however, the adoption of relatively wide pipelines will present all content on the web page to the user at the same time. Although the performance is very high, the user's experience makes no difference. Additionally, more power will be consumed. The other case is, for example, during processing programs that cannot be processed in parallel, such as audio play and the like, only relatively narrow pipelines can be adopted according to the PLB technique. Although power consumption can be saved, performance cannot be improved.
The prior art outlined above reduces CPU power consumption in a certain extent from an aspect, whereas its application is rather limited and it does not achieve the optimal balance between performance and power consumption. Therefore, there is a need for a mechanism which can effectively reduce power consumption and meet certain performance requirements and is applied to CPUs in various environments.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for activating and shutting down individual enhanced pipeline stages based on stage priority and performance requirements


In a semi-coaxial cavity resonator in which an inner conductor is fixed to an outer conductor with a screw, an inner cavity where the inner conductor does not engage with the screw is provided to extend from a bearing surface of the inner conductor to a region of an internal thread hole formed inside the inner conductor which does engage with the screw, thereby providing a region where the screw is deformable. Accordingly, deviation in perpendicularity of the screw relative to the bearing surface, deviation in perpendicularity of the internal thread hole of the inner conductor, and the like, may be accommodated by the deformation of the screw, and the bearing surface of the inner conductor is brought into contact with a bottom surface of an outer conductor evenly and reliably, thereby suppressing intermodulation distortion from occurring.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semi-coaxial cavity resonator, a filter using it, and a communication apparatus using it.
2. Background Art
Conventionally in use are a semi-coaxial cavity resonator having a casing comprising an integrally formed outer conductor and inner conductor made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, and a filter using the semi-coaxial cavity resonator. The resonator and the filter are formed by machining or die casting, and each has a closed space arranged inside thereof by fixing with screws a panel provided with an adjusting screw, so that this may function as a resonator or a filter. The material of the resonator and the filter is not limited to being aluminum or an aluminum alloy, and especially when being formed by machining, various materials are applicable, such as Invar, copper, a copper alloy, or iron. Generally, the material is used after it is processed with surface treatment by plating or the like. An exemplary structure of such filter is disclosed in Patent Document 1, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-24404.
FIG. 1 is a semi-coaxial cavity resonator according to a conventional example. FIG. 1(a) is a plan view showing a semi-coaxial cavity resonator with an upper panel thereof removed, and FIG. 1(b) is a cross sectional view taken along a line B-B. An inner conductor 31 is integrally formed in a casing 32, on a bottom surface 32b and inside an outer conductor 32a.
In a filter using the semi-coaxial cavity resonator having the integrally formed outer conductor and inner conductor made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, a coefficient of linear expansion of the material is large, and accordingly, frequency variation with temperature is large. In particular, in a filter in which a dielectric resonator and a semi-coaxial cavity resonator are combined, since the frequency variation with temperature of the dielectric resonator is extremely small, the frequency response of the filter may be disordered unless the frequency variation with temperature of the semi-coaxial cavity resonator is reduced. Using an Invar material to form a part of the semi-coaxial cavity resonator may provide a filter causing almost no frequency variation with temperature, however, the manufacturing cost and the weight of the semi-coaxial cavity resonator may increase. To solve such problems, Patent Document 2, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-254085, discloses an example of a filter in which variation in characteristics due to the variation in temperature, is reduced, by using aluminum for forming a casing which defines an outer conductor, and by using an iron material or an Invar alloy for forming an inner conductor of a semi-coaxial cavity resonator.
As described above, when a metal having a relatively small coefficient of linear expansion is used for the inner conductor, in relation to an aluminum casing, which is the outer conductor, a semi-coaxial cavity resonator having extremely small variation with temperature may be provided by optimizing the length of the inner conductor. In this configuration, since the inner conductor and the outer conductor are made of different metals, the inner conductor and the outer conductor must be formed separately, and each of these is processed with a predetermined surface treatment, and then the inner conductor must be attached to the outer conductor.
Since a portion where the inner conductor is attached to the outer conductor is a region to which the highest current is applied in the semi-coaxial cavity resonator, if the electrical contact at that region is partially defective, large intermodulation distortion may occur.
The intermodulation distortion occurs when variation in voltage and variation in current plot non-linear forms locally in the device. Generally, this may occur when a surface condition of a conductor to which high current is applied is poor, when the conductor has a sharp edge, or when a defect is present at a contact portion of the conductors. The defect present at the contact portion of the conductors to which the high current is applied is the most critical factor for causing the large intermodulation distortion to occur.
In order to suppress the occurrence of the intermodulation distortion in the semi-coaxial cavity resonator in which the inner conductor is fixed to the outer conductor with a screw, the outer circumference of a fixing portion of the inner conductor is fixed to the outer conductor with an evenly applied, tight axial tension, and electrically smooth contact is secured over the outer circumference.
As a way of attaching the inner conductor to the outer conductor reliably and tightly, a fixture using a screw is the most appropriate and the cheapest, with the least worker-hours. FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of a fixing portion of an inner conductor and an outer conductor of a semi-coaxial cavity resonator, in which the inner conductor and the outer conductor are separately formed, according to a conventional example. An inner conductor 19 is fixed at a bottom surface 3a of an outer conductor 3 with a screw 2. In this example, because of various factors, such as perpendicularity of the central axis of an internal thread provided at the inner conductor relative to a bearing surface 20, perpendicularity of the screw 2, and parallelism of the bottom surface 3a of the outer conductor 3 relative to a bearing surface of the screw, the intensity distribution of the contact portion between the bearing surface 20 of the inner conductor and the bottom surface 3a of the outer conductor 3 may result in non-uniformity after the inner conductor is fixed with the screw. Accordingly, even though the bearing surface 20 seems to be in contact with the bottom surface 3a, a part of the contact portion may not achieve the electrically smooth contact state, thereby causing the large intermodulation distortion to occur.

Semi-coaxial cavity resonator, filter using the same, and communication apparatus using the same


A differential biquad filter includes positive and negative single ended circuits connected between first and second power supply terminals. Each single ended circuit includes a single input terminal; a transistor having a control terminal, and first and second main terminals; a single output terminal corresponding to the control terminal of the transistor; first and second conductances connected between the single input terminal and the control terminal of the transistor; a first capacitance connected between the control terminal of the transistor and the second main terminal of the other single ended circuit; and a second capacitance connected between the node between the first and second conductances on one hand and the second main terminal of the transistor on the other hand. The differential biquad filter also includes a fifth capacitance connected between the second main terminals of each transistor of each single ended circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrical filters and in particular to lowpass biquad filters.
2. Description of the Related Art
A lowpass filter is a filter for attenuating or damping the frequency band beyond a given frequency, also called the filter cutoff. Thus the amplitude response of a lowpass filter is different for frequencies either above or below the filter cutoff.
Lowpass filters, such as Butterworth, Chebychev or Bessel filters, have been used for years in the signal processing of signals in a reverberant or high clutter background. These high order filters present poles only and generally consist of several biquad filters, or biquads. A biquad filter is generally a filter with a two pole and two zero filter topology, i.e., with a second order transfer function in the s-domain both in the numerator or denominator. The poles and zeroes are directly linked to the elimination capacities of the biquad filter. Other types of biquad filters, as will be described later on, can include only poles, with a denominator of a biquadratic form.
Commonly used implementations of lowpass filters require a lot of operational amplifiers (OP-Amp) and other components, resulting in complex circuit architectures, high current consumptions and low noise performances. Noise specifications as low as −130 dBc/Hz, as required for example in GSM applications, are difficult to achieve. This is largely due to the contribution of the current sources and sinks generally implemented in the lowpass filters.
For low noise applications, a high order filter uses biquads with high Q factors. The Q factor of a biquad is related to the tangent of the biquad pole position (tan θ) by the equation: tan θ=√{square root over (4Q2−1)}. Q factor and tan θ are two ways of indicating the pole positions of a biquad filter, the higher their value is, the harder the circuit is to design, as explained here after.
A 2Nth order lowpass filter (N being a non-nil integer), for example a Butterworth filter, is made of 2N poles. All 2N poles have the same magnitude, but present different angles θ, and thus different values of tan θ. However the 2N poles are actually made up of N pole-pairs, known as complex conjugate pairs. The purpose of the biquad filter is to provide a single pole-pair (thus two poles). Thus, to build a 2Nth order Butterworth filter, N cascading biquad filters are needed, each providing two poles, or a complex conjugate pole-pair.
For instance, a 2nd order lowpass Butterworth filter with a cutoff frequency |P|, one biquad filter is used to provide a pole-pair of magnitude |P| and tan θ=1. A 4th order lowpass Butterworth filter with cutoff frequency |P| will require 2 biquad filters in series, one to provide a pole-pair of magnitude |P| and tan θ=0.414 and a second to provide a pole-pair of magnitude |P| and tan θ=2.414. A 6th order low-pass Butterworth filter with cutoff frequency |P| will use three biquad filters in series, one to provide a pole-pair of magnitude |P| and tan θ=0.268, a second to provide a pole-pair of magnitude |P| and tan θ=1, and a third to provide a pole-pair of magnitude |P| and tan θ=3.732.
As the order of the filter increases, more biquad filters are used, and the tan θ (or Q) values of the last biquad filter gets higher. This large value of tan θ can be problematic, as the ratio of component values is often related to tan2θ.


A brush holder holding a brush has a brush-accommodating hole accommodating the brush. A heat release groove is formed on one surface of peripheral surfaces forming the brush-accommodating hole. The heat release groove is formed at the side of the peripheral surface, of the brush holder, confronting a side surface of the brush at which a pig tail is fixed such that the heat release groove extends in a thickness direction of the brush holder which partitions a first space located at a side in which an armature is accommodated from a second space located at an opposite side in which an electromagnetic switch is accommodated. The heat release groove communicates the first and second spaces with each other. A wall surface of the heat release groove confronting the side surface of the brush is inclined such that the distance between the side surface and the wall surface becomes gradually greater rearward from the commutator surface in a thickness direction of the brush holder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a starter for starting an engine and, more particularly, to a starter having an improved brush holder.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the engine compartment of a vehicle has become dense with auxiliary devices to allow the engine to have high performance and high function. In such a situation, there is a demand for the development of a compact starter to load the vehicle with a lot of auxiliary devices.
To comply with such a demand, it is proposed in Laid-Open Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-332229 that the slidable contact surface of a disk or surface commutator of an armature is disposed substantially perpendicularly to the rotation shaft of the armature. This construction allows the starter to be compact because the entire axial length of the armature is shorter than the conventional one having a cylindrical commutator. Further, in the starter, an electromagnetic switch for controlling the supply of electric current to the armature is positioned axially rearward from the armature. This construction allows the starter to have more auxiliary devices than the biaxial type conventional one in which the electromagnetic switch is positioned radially outward from the starting motor.
However, in the above starter, the movement of the armature is allowed to some extent in the axial direction of its rotation shaft so that the thrust of the armature does not become zero. Because, if the thrust becomes zero, mechanical loss increases and output decreases. In this construction, the armature moves axially due to fluctuation of a load applied to the armature in its rotation when the engine is driven. In addition, the vibration of the engine is amplified, because the electromagnetic switch is positioned rearward from the armature in its axial direction. Consequently, the brush is incapable of stably contacting the surface of the commutator, which deteriorates the commutation and reduces the longevity of the brush. In consideration of the abrasion of the brush, it is necessary to provide the starting motor with a long brush.
Because the electromagnetic switch is positioned rearward from the armature in its axial direction, the brush is proximate to the electromagnetic switch. Therefore, subjected to the heat generated by the electromagnetic switch, the temperature of the brush rises. Consequently, the longevity of the brush is reduced owing to the increase in the resistance generated between the contact of the surface of the commutator and the surface of the brush caused by a temperature rise in both contact surfaces. In addition, the brush holder made of resin for holding the brush has a low degree of thermal conductivity and surrounds the brush to firmly hold the brush therein. Thus, it is difficult to release the heat generated by the brush. This is also the reason which shortens the longevity or life of the brush.
Further, in the above starter, the slidable contact surface of the commutator of the armature is substantially perpendicular to the rotation shaft of the armature, and the electromagnetic switch is positioned at the side opposite to the armature side with respect to the brush holder holding a plurality of brushes which contact the commutator. In keeping the insulation performance of the electric-conductive portion of an electromagnetic switch, the holder is required to be provided with a partitioning wall to prevent the powder of the brush generated by the slidable contact of the surface thereof with the surface of the commutator from penetrating into the space in which the electromagnetic switch is positioned.


According to one embodiment, in an organic electroluminescence device, a first substrate has a first refractive index n1. A second substrate is joined to an upper surface of the first substrate and has a second refractive index n2 higher than the first refractive index n1. Multiple wedge-shaped metal lines are buried in the second substrate in such a manner that one side of the wedge-shaped metal line is flush with an upper surface of the second substrate. A transparent electrode is formed on the upper surface of the second substrate and the multiple metal lines. An insulating layer is formed on a portion of the transparent electrode opposed to the multiple metal lines. An organic light emitting layer is formed on the transparent electrode on which the insulating layer is formed. A metal electrode is formed on the organic light emitting layer.

An organic electroluminescence device is a light emitting device making use of light emission from radiative deactivation of excitons. The excitons are generated by applying a voltage to the organic light emitting layer interposed between a pair of electrodes, and by thereby recombining electrons and holes injected from a cathode and an anode, respectively, into an organic light emitting layer.
There have heretofore been known organic electroluminescence devices using substrates (shaped substrates) processed into the form of mesas in order to enhance light extraction efficiency from an organic light emitting layer (Optics Letters, 22, 396 (1997)).
In such an organic electroluminescence device, a high refractive index layer having a higher refractive index than an organic light emitting layer is formed on a glass substrate, then the high refractive index layer and the glass substrate are shaped to have mesas, and the organic light emitting layer interposed between a transparent electrode and a metal electrode is formed on the high refractive index layer.
Moreover, a metal mirror is formed on sidewalls of the mesa, a polyimide layer to planarize the mesa is formed on the metal mirror, and a metal line contacting the transparent electrode is formed on the polyimide layer.
When light enters the high refractive index layer from the organic light emitting layer, the light traveling in a lateral direction inside the high refractive index layer is reflected by the metal mirror and is bent to travel toward the glass substrate so that the light can be extracted out of the organic electroluminescence device.
In the organic electroluminescence device, the light travels in the lateral direction inside the high refractive index layer while repeating total reflection by an interface between the high refractive index layer and the glass substrate and specular reflection by the metal electrode. Since the high refractive index layer is thin, the light is inevitably reflected a large number of times per unit length.
As a result, the light traveling in the lateral direction is rapidly attenuated in accordance with the number of reflections. Thus, as a distance between adjacent mesas, i.e., a distance between metal lines increases, the light reaching the metal mirror decreases and an improving effect of light extraction efficiency is impaired. This causes a problem of difficulty in producing an organic electroluminescence device with a larger area.
Moreover, there is another problem that manufacturing the organic electroluminescence device requires a lot of time and cost because manufacturing processes of the organic electroluminescence device are complicated.

Organic electroluminescence device including auxiliary electrodes


Maturation signals provided via cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)/Exchange proteins activated by cAMP (Epac) signaling during in vitro generation of blood cells from reprogrammed cells or pluripotent stem cells achieve superior function of hematopoietic cells differentiated from stem cells. The cAMP/Epac signaling enables an increased efficiency of production of precursor to blood and to blood cells. These generated blood cells can be utilized for therapeutics, treatments, disease prevention, drug discovery, personalized medicine, regenerative medicine, cell and tissue generation, universal donor banks and related methods and compositions.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) replenish hematopoiesis throughout the lifetime of an individual and can be transplanted into patients to treat malignant and non-malignant blood disorders. However, there is often a lack of qualified or willing donors, and some conditions require autologous transplants. Therefore, significant numbers of patients (estimated 20-30% patients) who require a bone marrow transplant cannot receive the life-saving treatment because they do not have access to sufficient numbers of HLA-matched HSCs. Even more patients would benefit from having a more suitably matched donor to reduce the unwanted effects of graft vs. host disease. Additional patients where an alternative source of HSCs would be beneficial are: where contaminating malignant cells or premalignant cells from traditional HSC sources (e.g. bone marrow) are present, or where there is an inability to mobilize autologous HSCs due to the disease itself (e.g. multiple myeloma) or following secondary and tertiary chemotherapy regimens (i.e. relapsed patients where the stored stocks of autologous HSCs have already been transplanted). Depending on the source of somatic cells for deriving the iPS cells, or for deriving blood cells from direct reprogramming protocols, these pluripotent or reprogrammed cell derived HSCs and blood cells may in fact be superior to traditionally harvested HSCs and blood cells in terms of: 1) reduced acquired mutations (e.g. if iPS cells were derived from neonatal cell sources), 2) unlimited expansion ability, 3) reduced rejection issues, 4) no contaminating cells from the original tumor present, and 5) the ability to genetically correct mutated genes in cells from patients using existing technologies such as Talens, zinc-finger endonucleases, or the more recent CRISPR/Cas DNA recombination system. Moreover, recent advances in the ability to generate T-cells specifically designed to target and destroy malignant cells following their differentiation from pluripotent and reprogrammed cells (See Lindencrona et al. Int J Cancer 2004, Vizcardo et al. Cell Stem Cell 2013), means that transplantations could be performed with simultaneous HSC and anti-tumor T-cells. As such, the ability to generate new blood and new blood stem cells would be able to serve an immediate demand for donor cells for many patients, and potentially offers an exponential increase in use as the surrounding technologies advance. Some blood cells generated using in vitro protocols may be able to be form without going through an HSC stage, depending on numerous factors including whether newly generated blood cells have gone through developmental stages of maturation to an adult HSC such as coming from precursors of the hematopoietic system that do not generate HSCs but do generate blood cells. Further differentiation of HSCs may also support the development of mature cells such as erythrocytes or erythroid cells for transplantation, and for the production of artificial blood products, which could greatly relieve the burden placed on the blood donation system, in which donor shortages frequently lead to shortages in the blood supply. Accordingly, there is a need to develop an alternative source of HSCs and other blood cells with features and properties similar to adult donors, where there is a high degree of matching of the HLA types. HSCs, blood cells generated from pluripotent stem cells, or blood cells generated from reprogrammed somatic cells (whether the cells are reprogrammed directly into hematopoietic cells, or reprogrammed into precursors of the hematopoietic system, such a endothelial cells with hemogenic potential) are examples of cells that would meet this need.
Methods for isolating cells, cell reprogramming, generating pluripotent and multipotent cells, and tissue, organ, and stem cell therapies, are needed for a variety of therapeutic applications, including personalized and regenerative medicine. A variety of human stem cells and other cell types are known, including embryonic stem cells, isolated during early embryonic development, and somatic stem cells such as mesenchymal or adult stem cells. Somatic cells can be reprogrammed into more primitive stages of similar or related developmental lineages, or into pluripotent stem cells, or alternatively they may be reprogrammed into altogether different cell lineages which then may be able to differentiate into multiple types of cells of that lineage. For example in the formation of blood cells, fibroblasts have been reprogrammed into erythrocyte progenitors and endothelial cells have been reprogrammed into hemogenic endothelial cells.
For example, human umbilical cord blood from newborn infants has been used as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation to patients with hematological disorders and malignancies for decades, due to the high proportion of blood stem cells present in the material. In another example, cells may be isolated from amniotic fluid. The in vitro generation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells by differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells) or from cells reprogrammed directly into blood related lineages such as mesoderm, endothelium, or blood cells directly, requires controlled conditions that regulate numerous factors. For example, BMP4 (Bone morphogenetic protein 4) is required to stimulate efficient mesodermal tissue differentiation from pluripotent stem cells. Another example is that retinoic acid signaling is required in the development of hematopoietic stem cells as they emerge. While other factors have been identified, there are likely numerous additional factors which have not yet been identified that play a role in generating blood. Moreover, the de novo generation of blood in vivo and the generation of blood in vitro will also likely differ as developmental programs cannot yet be exactly mirrored in vitro. However, in vitro systems that direct generation of blood may allow for greater control and thereby greater frequency and efficiency of blood cell generation.
For the blood cells to be suitable for transplantation and long-term engraftment, generated HSCs must be capable of homing, self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation into all lineages of the hematopoietic system including erythrocytes. Molecular signals received during the development of the hematopoietic system are required in order for HSCs to possess these features. Present methods of generating de novo blood cells in vitro do not adequately provide these signals, and thus do not yield sufficient numbers of cells nor cells with the required characteristics. The present disclosure provides novel methods of generating HSCs and blood cells that address the some of the shortcomings of the presently available methods.
Molecular signaling in cells involved in the development of blood, including upstream signaling in a precursor to blood, such as endothelial cells or actual blood cells, is important for the survival, maturation, and proliferation of stem cells ultimately leading to functional hematopoietic cells. It has also been suggested that signaling in development may provide maturation signals or epigenetic marks that allows for specific functional as the cells reach their adult stage. Norepinephrine signaling has recently been shown to be required during murine embryonic development to produce repopulating HSCs. However its role in human development and more importantly in the development of blood from in vitro based systems such as pluripotent stem cell differentiation, or direct reprogramming of cells towards blood or blood precursors was previously unknown.
Several studies have recently reported important functions of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) for hematopoiesis, in HSC function as well as in HSC specification during embryonic development. Direct interaction of the PNS with HSCs has also been suggested given the expression of the β2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) on HSCs, reported in human cord-blood CD34+CD38− cells, as well as on the nascent HSCs in murine AGM. In addition, this receptor is up-regulated in mobilized HSCs and upon in vitro exposure to G-CSF and GM-CSF, suggesting an important role of adrenergic signaling for HSC egress from the bone marrow (BM). Indeed, administration of epinephrine to mice increased HSC egress from the BM. The same article also reported that exposure of cord-blood CD34+CD38− cells to catecholamines enhanced their motility in vitro as well as their ability to repopulate NOD-SCID mice.
Likewise, regarding the adult BM niche and HSC mobilization, it has been shown that synchronization of HSC egress from the BM with the circadian rhythm is mediated by norepinephrine-secreting via sympathetic fibers in the bone marrow. The relevance of the adult bone marrow PNS components for HSC function has been suggested to be related to the role of adrenergic innervation in BM hematopoietic recovery following genotoxic insults, as well as by the evidence of TGF-β signaling regulation by neural crest-derived non-myelinating Schwann cells, essential for bone marrow HSC maintenance.
During development, the evaluation of the interaction between the developing PNS and HSC emergence has been limited. However, in the murine AGM it has been suggested that there is an interaction in which the spatio-temporal correlation of neural crest migration and maturation in the vicinity of the dorsal aorta (DA) coincides with emergence of the first HSCs. These Neural Crest structures contain the precursors for the peripheral nervous system and are gradually established next to the mouse DA, from days E8.5 to E14.5. They further mature and express tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme for catecholamine production, from day E10.5 onwards, coinciding developmentally with the emergence of the first hematopoietic cells from the ventral side of the DA.
It has been suggested that there could be a connection between the developing PNS and the emergence of the first HSCs in the DA, that neural crest-derived cells could provide signals to the DA, triggering hematopoietic cell emergence and conceivably promoting their maturation into functional HSCs. This hypothesis was recently confirmed in a Gata3−/− mouse study, where secretion of catecholamines by the developing PNS was indeed demonstrated to be essential for the emergence and function of the first HSCs, likely through ADRB2 signaling.
Accumulating evidence suggests that hematopoietic development originates from endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT). Single cell transcriptional analyses of murine cells in a blood development contexts shows cells comprising of both endothelial and hematopoietic lineages, with a continuum of cells having endothelial to hematopoietic signatures. These cells include precursors of HSCs, hemogenic endothelium, as well as other precursors of the blood lineage, and newly emergent blood cells and committed blood cells. The newly identified EHT subpopulations which are precursors to blood cells are an interesting cell type for further discovery as the hematopoietic lineages potentials—the types of blood cells capable of being generated by the differing precursors—are likely already predefined. Thus the EHT, conversion to blood, of precursor cells or reprogrammed cells requires specific signals to be able to generate blood cells with specific features.

Methods and compositions for generating hematopoietic cells