A thermal workload distribution controller receives, for each of multiple thermal controlled areas, at least one current thermal measurement from at least one separate thermostat node. The thermal workload distribution controller selects a particular thermal controlled area from among the multiple thermal controlled areas that is most optimal to receive additional heat based on the at least one current thermal measurement received for each of the thermal controlled areas. The thermal workload distribution controller distributes at least one workload to a server node associated with the particular thermal controlled area, wherein the heat dissipated by the server from executing the workload affects a thermal environment of the particular thermal controlled area.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to control systems for temperature management and more particularly to managing workload distribution among computing systems to optimize heat dissipation by the computing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A data center is generally housed in a data center room, or other space, that houses numerous electronic systems. In one example, the electronic systems are arranged in racks and multiple racks are arranged into a row. In another example, the electronic systems are housed in server stacks.
Electronic systems can be configured to house different combinations of components including servers, networking equipment, and storage devices. The components may be embedded in a number of printed circuit (PC) boards, where the PC boards may include a number of subcomponents, such as processors, micro-controllers, video cards, memories and other devices that each dissipate heat during operation.
In a data center room, power is required to run the electronic systems, however, power is also required to remove heat dissipated by the components of the electronic systems. As the number of components in an electronic system and number of electronic systems in a data center room increases, more power is required to remove the heat dissipated by the electronic systems during operation and control the thermal environment in the data center room.
In many data centers a thermal control system, such as a Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) unit, is installed to monitor and maintain the air temperature in the entire room. Separately, each system in the data center room may include one or more fans, each controlled by a separate fan controller that controls fan speeds within electronic systems, to control airflow within each system enclosure.
In addition to data center rooms, electronic systems operating in any location dissipate heat.

Managing workload distribution among computing systems to optimize heat dissipation by computing systems

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of forming powder metals materials and parts. More specifically, certain embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of forming powder metals materials and parts by densifying at least a portion of a surface of the materials and/or parts after sintering and prior to densifying one or more core regions of the materials and/or parts. Other embodiment provide powder metal parts, such as gears and sprockets, having surface regions that are uniformly densified to full density to depth ranging from 0.001 inches to 0.040 inches, and core regions that can have at least 92 percent theoretical density and further can have essentially full density, or full density. Still other embodiments relate to brazed, welded, plated and gas-tight powder metal parts and components that can be made in accordance with the various non-limiting methods disclosed herein.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of forming powder metal materials and powder metal parts. More specifically, certain embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of forming powder metal materials and/or powder metal parts by densifying one or more surface regions of the materials and/or parts after sintering and prior to densifying one or more core regions of the materials and/or parts. Other embodiments provide powder metal parts, such as gears and sprockets, having surface regions and core regions having essentially full density. Still other embodiments related to brazed, welded, plated and gas-tight powder metal parts and components that can be made in accordance with the various non-limiting methods disclosed herein.
The mechanical properties of powder metal ("P/M") materials tend to increase with increasing density. That is, as the density of a P/M material approaches the full or theoretical density of the material, the properties of the P/M material will approach those of the wrought material. As used herein, the term "theoretical density" means the true density of a material (or a part made therefrom) when fully densified into a product with no pores. Thus, as used herein, phrases "theoretical density of a powder metal material" or "theoretical density of a powder metal part" means the true density of the powder metal material (or part) when the material or part is fully densified into a product without any pores.
Conventional structural P/M materials made from iron-base alloys using single-press and sinter P/M forming processes typically yield P/M materials having densities ranging from 6.8 grams per cubic centimeter ("g/cc") to 7.2 g/cc, depending upon the alloy. However, these densities are generally only about 86 to 92 percent of the theoretical density of the material.
Processes that have been used to increase the density of P/M materials and parts include, for example: double press and double sinter processes ("DP/DS"); high fatigue alloy processes ("HFA"), which are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,180, which is hereby specifically incorporated by reference herein; and powder forging processes ("P/F"). Examples of typical densities that can be achieved for P/M materials or parts made from iron-base alloys using one of the aforementioned processes are given below in Table I:
TABLE ITYPICAL COREPERCENT THEORETICALPROCESSDENSITIES (g/cc)DENSITYDP/DS7.3-7.592.8-95.3%HFA7.45-7.6594.6-97.2%P/F 7.7-7.8597.8-99.9%
While PM materials and/or parts produced via conventional DP/DS and HFA processes generally have the densities indicated in Table 1 in both the surface and the core regions of the part, PM materials and/or parts produced via conventional P/F processes generally have a slightly lower density in the surface regions of the part than in the core regions of the part. That is, core regions of conventionally powder forged P/M parts typically range from 97.8 to 99.9 percent of the theoretical density (or "percent theoretical density"), whereas surfaces typically have densities ranging from 97.8 to 99.0 percent theoretical density. As used herein, the term "core" or "core regions" means regions of the material or part interior to the surface. As used herein, the term "surface" means of the region of the material or part extending from an exterior of the material or part inwardly to a depth of about 0.040 inches. Further the term exterior refers to any externally disposed region of the material or part regardless of geometry. Thus, for example, the exterior of a tubular part includes the exterior defined by the outer wall of the tube, the exterior defined by the inner wall of the tube, and the exterior portions defined by the ends of the tube. As used herein, the term "depth" refers to the distance measured inwardly from an exterior of the part or material.
More particularly, in conventional P/F processing, a P/M part (or blank) that has been heated to around 1800° F. is placed into a forging die held at about 600° F. such that at least a portion of the surface of the part contacts the die surface during forging. Since the die is cooler than the part, the portions of the surface region of the part that are in contact with the die cool and becomes less formable than the interior of the part. As a result, forging does not increase the density of these surface portions to the same degree as the core regions of the part. Accordingly, these surface portions of the part typically exhibit more porosity than the core regions. This porosity is undesirable in certain applications as it creates areas of stress concentration during fatigue, which can result in premature fatigue failure.
One process that can increase the surface density of P/M materials and parts is surface rolling. In this method, a master, which has the desired final shape, is forced under pressure against a P/M part (or blank) which has been previously processed to a density of about 6.8 to 7.5 g/cc. Since the part is both lower in density and softer than the master, on contact with the master, the part can be conformed to the geometry of the master. At the points of contact with the master, the surface of the part can be densified to essentially full density or full density. As used herein, the terms "essentially full density" and "essentially fully dense" mean at least 98 percent of the theoretical density of the material (or part). As used herein the terms "full density" and "fully dense" mean greater than 99 percent of the theoretical density of the material (or part).
However, while the portion of the surface of a cylindrical part that is subjected to surface rolling can generally be uniformly densified to essentially full density (or full density) to depth ranging from to 0.010 inches to 0.020 inches, when parts having irregular surface geometries are subjected to surface rolling, the depth to which essentially full density (or full density) can be achieved can vary significantly within the densified portion of the surface. As used herein, the term "uniformly densified" means that at least 90% of the portion of the surface of a material or part that is subjected to densification is densified to the specified density and to the specified depth.
For example, when portions of the surface in the tooth root and/or flank regions of a gear are subjected to surface rolling, while some portions of the surface subjected to rolling can be densified to essentially full density (or full density) to a depth ranging from 0.010 inches to 0.020 inches, other substantial portions of the surface subjected to rolling can remain essentially undensified or achieve essentially full density (or full density) to a depth of less than 0.001 inches. In other words, the rolled surface is not uniformly densified to essentially full density (or full density) to a depth ranging from 0.010 to 0.020 inches. Accordingly, it can be difficult to attain sufficient depth and uniformity of densification by surface rolling when the part to be densified has irregularly shaped surfaces. Therefore, although surface rolling can be used to uniformly densify the surface of cylindrical P/M materials and parts, this method is less effective on irregularly shaped surfaces such as gear teeth, sprockets, and cams.
Further, although surface rolling as described above can increase the surface density of pressed and sintered P/M materials and parts, typically, the density of core regions of the P/M materials and parts remains the same as it was before rolling—i.e., 6.8 to 7.5 g/cc. While it is possible to densify one or more core regions of the PM materials and parts using one of the aforementioned processes (for example DP/DS, HFA, or P/F) prior to surface rolling one or more surface regions of the part, because the P/M material is relatively "hard" after these processes, surface rolling is generally not as effective in increasing the density of the surface of the part after these processes as immediately after sintering.
Additionally, while surface densification of P/M materials or parts, for example by surface rolling or shot peening, prior to sintering can have the effect of increasing the density of the surface of the materials or parts prior to further processing (such as by DP/DS, etc.), because the mechanical properties of the P/M materials or parts in the green state (i.e., unsintered state) are relatively low, surface densification prior to sintering is not practical for many applications. More specifically, subjecting a green P/M part to a surface densification process can result in cracking, breakage, or roughening of the part. This is particular true for parts having irregular features or small cross-sections, for example teeth or splines, which can be easily damaged during handling in the green state.

Powder metal materials and parts and methods of making the same


A method and system provides a stored value token that comprises a notebook with a plurality of sheets fastened together by a binding device. The sheets may have one or more parallel lines for guiding handwritten text. The lines may be formed from ink. The notebook may further comprise a cover and a back. The cover may have human-readable media that identifies the token as a gift card and that may illustrate the type of consumer goods which may be purchased by with the notebook stored value token. The human-readable media can be formed from ink which is placed on a sheet that is attached to the cover by an adhesive. The back of the notebook stored value token can comprise a machine-readable code can that can be applied to a sheet which is attached to the back of the notebook stored value token by an adhesive.

Stored value tokens that include, but are not limited to, gift cards, are often purchased such that the intended recipient of the gift card may use the value associated with the gift card to purchase one or more consumer products. When an intended recipient receives a gift card, the recipient may not have an immediate idea of what consumer product that he or she may want to purchase with the gift card.
On some occasions the intended recipient of a gift card may know immediately what he or she may want to purchase with the gift card. However, later, when the gift card recipient steps inside the store associated with the gift card, the recipient may forget his or her previous idea for use of the gift card.
In other instances, depending upon the value associated with a gift card, the gift card recipient may be able to purchase a plurality of consumer products with the gift card. The gift card recipient may also have one or more household projects that could require several different consumer products. The gift card recipient may write down on a piece of paper separate or detached from the gift card, the plurality of consumer products that may be purchased with the gift card. However, the gift card recipient may forget or misplace the paper containing the list of consumer products that may be purchased with the gift card when he or she attempts to use the gift card.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and system that allows a recipient of a gift card to accurately track what consumer products the recipient may desire to purchase with the gift card. There is a further need in the art for a method and system that combines a device for receiving writings with a gift card such that the device and gift card are coupled together and cannot be easily separated, unless desired by the user.

Method and system for providing a notebook stored value token


A method for preventing gate to source/drain bridging and reducing junction leakage by preventing defects in the source/drain region in the fabrication of a silicided polysilicon gate is described. A polysilicon gate electrode on a semiconductor substrate and associated source and drain regions within the semiconductor substrate are provided wherein spacers are formed on the sidewalls of the gate electrode. A layer of titanium is deposited over the gate electrode, spacers and source and drain regions within the semiconductor substrate. Arsenic ions are implanted into the titanium layer. The semiconductor substrate is annealed for a first time whereby the titanium layer is transformed into a titanium silicide layer except where the titanium layer overlies the spacers. The titanium layer overlying the spacers is stripped to leave the titanium silicide layer only on the top surface of the gate electrode and on the top surface of the semiconductor substrate overlying the source and drain regions. The semiconductor substrate is annealed for a second time whereby the titanium silicide is transformed into a lower resistance phase. An insulating layer is deposited over the surface of the semiconductor substrate covering the gate electrode. Metallization with electrical connections is provided to complete the fabrication of the integrated circuit device.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuit devices, and more particularly, to a method of preventing source/drain defects and preventing gate to source/drain bridging during salicidation in the fabrication of integrated circuits.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the fabrication of integrated circuits, a silicide is often formed overlying a structure to be contacted by a higher level conducting layer. A silicide is often formed on top of a polysilicon gate and overlying the source and drain regions within a substrate. Typically, a titanium layer is deposited over the wafer. The wafer is subjected to a thermal process which causes the underlying silicon to react with the titanium layer to form titanium silicide. FIG. 1 illustrates a partially completed integrated circuit device of the prior art. A gate electrode 16 has been formed on the surface of a semiconductor substrate 10. Source and drain regions 20 have been formed within the substrate. Sidewall spacers 18 are typically composed of silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. A layer of titanium 24 is deposited over the surface of the wafer. A rapid thermal process causes the silicon atoms within the polysilicon gate and the substrate to diffuse into the titanium layer and react with the titanium to form titanium silicide 26, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The titanium layer 24 over the sidewall spacers 18 and the field oxide regions 12 is not reacted and can be removed easily. However, silicon from the gate and from the substrate can diffuse into the titanium layer overlying the sidewall spacers causing titanium silicide to form overlying the spacers as well. This is the so-called bridging problem. The titanium silicide layer over the spacers shorts the source/drain to the gate leading to malfunction of the device.
Also, if the titanium silicide 26 grows too thick, the interface between the titanium silicide 26 and the silicon 10 will be very rough, causing spiking through the source/drain junction, as indicated by 27. This will cause junction leakage. Furthermore, the thicker the titanium silicide, the higher the stress underlying the titanium silicide layer. This high stress results in silicon lattice defects 29 near the junction, leading to junction leakage also.
In an attempt to solve the bridging problem, Arsenic has been implanted into the substrate before the titanium layer is deposited to suppress bridging. However, the large mass of the Arsenic implant will damage the silicon and cause it to become amorphous. U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,212 to Wang et al teaches large angle implantation of nitrogen into the titanium layer to form titanium nitride in the upper portion of the titanium layer over the gate and the source/drain regions and within the whole of the titanium layer over the sidewall spacers thus preventing formation of titanium silicide over the spacers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,921 to Yoshida et al teaches depositing a titanium film, then an amorphous silicon film over a planned source/drain region. A rapid thermal process with nitrogen forms titanium silicide under the amorphous silicon layer. The source/drain regions are formed by implanting through the titanium silicide and amorphous silicon films wherein the implantation is within a specific dosage range dependent on the titanium silicide thickness in order to form shallow junctions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,112 to Pfiester et al also form shallow junctions by implanting germanium before the titanium deposition and salicidation. Ions are implanted through the titanium silicide to form source/drain regions wherein the germanium reduces the diffusion allowing for shallow junctions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,024 to Anjum et al teaches deposition of Argon ions after titanium deposition so as to reduce silicide growth over the source/drain regions. This allows the thickness of the titanium silicide layer to be controlled in order to reduce defects.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A luminous gas discharge display including two opposing hermetically sealed plates and a pair of low profile electrode assemblies. At least one of the plates is formed of a transparent material and at least one of the plates includes at least one channel terminating in at least one opening through the plate containing an ionizable gas to define a gas discharge path. The electrode assemblies are positioned externally of the glass plates and in communication with channel. Each electrode assembly includes an outer substrate, an intermediate conductive layer deposited on the outer substrate and an inner emissive layer deposited on the intermediate conductive layer opposite the opening. The intermediate conductive layer provides electrical contact between a voltage source and the inner emissive layer to ionize the ionizable gas and produce a gas discharge display.

Luminous signs employing a gaseous discharge and the methods for making these signs have been disclosed in several patents. In general, these signs are made by using two or three glass plates where in one or two of the plates is formed a groove or cavity corresponding to the desired display. The cavity is hermetically sealed and attached to a gas entry port incorporating a set of electrodes. In the manufacturing process the cavity is evacuated and a quantity of gas, such as neon, is introduced into the cavity through the gas entry port. The gas is then ionized by applying a voltage across the electrode set. The ionized gas, in turn, causes the display to illuminate.
Heretofore, the electrodes typically consisted of a metal cylinder open on one end and enclosed in a glass tube and having a metal wire which passes through the glass tube to contact the metal cylinder. The electrodes must be prepared prior to use by heating the electrodes to a high temperature under vacuum sufficient to form a metal rich oxide film over the electrodes. The oxide film is of a type commonly associated with thermoionic cathodes, for example, primarily barium oxide. It will be appreciate that heating the electrodes decomposes the metal carbonates to form a metal rich oxide surface which is the electrode surface. The electrodes are typically heated by applying an electric current between the electrodes. It will be appreciated that the metal oxide electrode surface requires formation at temperatures approaching 900 degrees celsius. A gas discharge of a high current sufficient to cause heating of the electrodes to the necessary temperature is ignited typically using air. This approach is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/658,352, entitled "Luminous Gas Discharge Display", incorporated herein by reference.
Removing the contaminants from the sign improves the life of the sign. The contaminants which are removed during the formation of the electrode are best removed by heating the entire flat sign or tube. However, it will be appreciated that the process of forming the electrodes can also cause strong heating of the channel or tube and also cause breakage in the case of flat panel signs.
Although the many known variations of electrodes for luminous signs have been proven to perform satisfactorily, further improvements of electrodes for luminous signs and methods of manufacture are desired.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a low profile electrode assembly for a luminous gas discharge display and a method of manufacturing the electrode assembly that overcomes problems of the prior art. For example, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a low profile electrode assembly for a luminous gas discharge display that does not require intense heating of the electrode to form the electrode. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a low profile electrode assembly which is mounted on the rear of a luminous gas discharge display external of the display. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrode assembly which produces a spray discharge in a suitable ionizable gas. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a durable electrode assembly which is immune to typical vacuum contaminants and provides a long life performance. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing electrodes of a luminous gas discharge display that is simple and economical.

Low profile electrode assembly for luminous gas discharge display and method of manufacture


There is disclosed a method of preventing privileged web browser extensions installed in a web browser from interfering in interactions between a user of the web browser and a web application server accessible via the web browser, the method including transmitting a web browser-intelligible file to the web browser (including a custom element designating an enclave portion); creating a sandboxed page; copying at least part of the enclave portion to the sandboxed page to create a local enclave; embedding the sandboxed page in a first iframe for rendering; embedding the first iframe in a second iframe; providing an API for the local enclave using web-accessible resources for access to entities outside the local enclave; providing a software agent in the second iframe to act as a proxy between the first iframe and external entities; and encapsulating the second iframe in a shadow document object model associated with a host page.

Modern browsers allow and even encourage users to install extensions to support more useful features, such as search toolbars, advertisement blockers, password managers, and so on. However, the ubiquity of browser extensions also raises security and privacy concerns, as the extensions are granted privileged capabilities and inherently have access to sensitive user data. It has been identified with strong evidence that such malicious extensions can produce sophisticated attacks, including credential hijacking, spying, distributed denial of service (DDOS), advertisement injecting, man-in-the-browser attacks, payment frauds, and so on. Consequently, the security and privacy concerns of browser extensions are becoming increasingly pressing to an enormous user base, which is also expected to grow continuously.
To address the above pressing concerns, browser vendors leverage pre-publication review procedures to detect malicious and vulnerable extensions on a large scale. Representative malicious and vulnerable extension detection systems include WebEval, EmPoWeb, VEX, Sentinel, Hulk, and Ex-ray. Also, typical detection tools include behaviour-based detection, static resources analysis, machine learning based detection, and comprehensive approach.
In spite of the efforts made by browser vendors, there still exists an arms race between the attacker and defenders, and it is always easier for the attackers to derive more sophisticated attacks. As an illustrating example, it is shown in "Trends and lessons from three years fighting malicious extensions", N. Jagpal et al, 24th {USENIX} Security Symposium, 2015, pp. 579-593, that an attacker can work out immune, crafty, dynamic malicious extensions that bypass almost all the existing detection mechanisms. Aside from the inherent limitation of detection-based defence strategy, the process of publishing an extension is under potential risks because of the centralized online stores such as Chrome Web Store and Firefox Browser Add-ons. When a developer account is compromised, the attacker can leverage the privileges as well as the reputation of the victim account to publish a buggy extension or tricky patch.
From the perspective of users, though the installation of extensions fully relies on the consent of users, it is still difficult for users to identify malicious extensions from hard-to-verify information posted to the online store such as descriptive text, supplementary screenshots, and detailed user reviews as well as coarse-grained pop-up specifying all the privileges of the extension to be installed. Once the extension is installed with user consent, malicious browser extensions could access the user data stealthily without any post-installation notification to users. Clearly, existing industry-deployed practices that mostly rely on advanced detection mechanisms provided by browser vendors plus consents from users are not sufficient to protect users from malicious browser extensions. Moreover, with the current browsing environment where browser extensions are adopted by users broadly, web applications become a disadvantaged party that gains no benefit from the browser extensions but takes the full risk of potential data exfiltration and hijacking. To defend the threats from malicious extensions, web application providers are eager to re-balance web applications and browser extensions by empowering the ability to deny privileged access from browser extensions.
The present invention aims to address problems such as this in the prior art.


A semiconductor device according to the present invention has reduced inductance on a power supply line, a grounding line, and signal lines. In this invention, to reduce the length of the power supply connection and that of the grounding connection, a power supply metal post and a grounding metal post are respectively provided on a power supply lead of a semiconductor chip and grounding lead of the semiconductor chip perpendicular to the leads. The metal posts protrude from the resin encapsulating the chip and are connected to lands or a conductive circuit pattern on a printed circuit board. Furthermore, a planar conductor commonly connecting the power supply or grounding potentials is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which is a packaged semiconductor chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 is a perspective view, partially broken away to show the internal structure, of a conventional quad-flat-packaged (QFP) semiconductor device. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view illustrating mounting of the semiconductor device of FIG. 7 on a printed-circuit board. The QFP semiconductor device is of the type in which the leads are located on the four side surfaces of the package.
A semiconductor device 1 includes a semiconductor chip 2 packaged in a molding resin 6 which forms the package. The semiconductor chip 2 is die bonded to a die pad 3 with a soldering material 3a. The semiconductor chip 2 has a plurality of electrode pads 2a on the peripheral edge of an upper surface thereof. A plurality of leads 4, each including an inner lead 4a located within the molding resin 6 and an outer lead 4b exposed from the molding resin 6, are provided around the semiconductor chip 2. An inner end portion 4c of each of the inner leads 4a is electrically connected to a corresponding electrode pad 2a on the semiconductor chip 2 by a thin metal wire 5 made of, for example, gold (Au) or the like.
To join the thin metal wire 5 to the inner end portions 4c of each of the inner leads 4a, each inner end portions 4c is plated, such as with silver (Ag). The outer lead 4b of each of the leads 4 which is exposed from the molding resin 6 is curved in a desired form.
The semiconductor device 1 arranged in the manner described above is mounted on a printed circuit board 7, as shown in FIG. 8. On the printed circuit board 7, a plurality of lands 8 are located at positions corresponding to the outer leads 4b of the semiconductor device 1 to be mounted thereon. The lands 8 are connected to an interconnection pattern (not shown), and the outer end portion of each of the outer leads 4b of the semiconductor device 1 is connected and fixed to the corresponding land 8 by solder 9. To mount the semiconductor device 1 on the printed circuit board 7, a solder paste is applied to the printed circuit board 7 by screen printing or the like, the semiconductor device 1 is mounted on the printed circuit board 7 together with other electric parts (not shown), and then the entirety is heated to melt the solder and thereby mount the semiconductor device. The interconnections formed in the printed circuit board 7 include a grounding line 10a and a power supply line 10b.
In the aforementioned conventional semiconductor device, the leads are fanned out on the same plane as that of the semiconductor chip. Consequently, as the number of leads increases, the length through which the leads are extended also increases. The leads may be extended, for example, 10 mm or more. Hence, the length of the power supply lead and the grounding lead, which should have a low inductance, increases, precluding a reduction in the inductance. Furthermore, if it is desired to increase the width of the power supply lead and the grounding lead in order to reduce the inductance thereof, fan out of the other signal leads is made impossible. This results in a reduction in the number of leads.

Semiconductor device having particular power distribution interconnection arrangement


An angularly adjustable angularly adjustable electrical conduit fitting includes an articulate metal conduit bendable at least 90 degrees about an arc having an inside radius of curvature not exceeding 12 inches, the conduit in its preferred from being between 19 3/4 and 20 3/4 inches long in a contracted state and being extendable by between 21% and 23% of its contracted length and having at one end a conduit coupling and at its opposite end a conduit or wall opening connector.

The present invention relates generally to improvements in electrical distribution devices and it relates particularly to an improved angularly adjustable electrical fitting.
In transmitting electricity from a source point to a point of application, it is a common practice to enclose the current carrying cable in rigid metal conduit of limited flexibility to protect the cable from ambient conditions or physical damage and to protect the surroundings from any damage which may be caused by the current carrying cable if not properly enclosed. In the case of rigid conduit, the conduit is available in limited lengths and must be connected end-to-end and at their terminals are usually anchored to walls which are traversed by the cable. Difficulties are frequently encountered in coupling the conduits or anchoring them to an aperture wall since the conduits to be connected are frequently relatively displaced or angularly related. Moreover, in anchoring the conduit end to a wall such as at a circuit breaker or terminal box, the problems of the varying positions are inclinations of the conduit are encountered. Various types of electrical conduit fittings are employed such as angle or straight couplings of known solid construction but these do little to solve the problems of misalignments and other positional discrepancies and being rigid and solid devices are expensive, difficult to compensate for positional and angular variations of the conduit terminals, require the use of many different forms, are time consuming in their application, are of little adaptability and flexibility and otherwise leave much to be desired.

Armored flexible electrical conduit with fittings


A method and system for controlling one or more emissions includes introducing ammonia to react with at least a portion of sulfur trioxides in an exhaust emission and result in at least one or more ammoniated compounds. At least a portion of fly ash particles and the ammoniated compounds in the exhaust emission are precipitated. At least a portion of the ammonia from the precipitated ammoniated compounds is recovered with heat from the exhaust emission and the recovered ammonia is reused.

Exhaust emission from coal fired furnaces or boilers such as those used in power plants, may contain a variety of different gases depending on the type of coal being burned. The amounts at which some of these gases could be emitted into the environment are regulated. For example, there are restrictions on the amount of nitrogen oxides which could be emitted into the atmosphere.
To reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides emitted into the environment, selective catalytic reactors have been added into the exhaust systems of coal fired furnaces and boilers such as at power plants. Ammonia is injected into a selective catalytic reactor (SCR) and mixes with the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust emission to produce pure nitrogen and water, thus reducing the amount of emitted nitrogen oxides.
Unfortunately, this retrofit of selective catalytic reactors to coal fired furnaces and boilers such as in power plants to reduce nitrogen oxides can also result in visible emissions known as "blue plume." This begins with the oxidation of a relatively small portion of the sulfur dioxides in the exhaust emissions to sulfur trioxide. Sulfur trioxide and water vapor readily combine to form an acid mist. Small amounts of water vapor, which may or may not be sufficient to convert enough sulfur trioxide to acid mist to become visible, are available in the exhaust gases both from humidity in the combustion air and products of combustion of the small amount of hydrogen in the coal. If there is insufficient water in the exhaust gases, blue plume may form downstream of the plant stack after the sulfur trioxide combines with atmospheric moisture. Finally, if the plant has a wet SO2 scrubber, there is abundant moisture present to convert a high fraction of the sulfur trioxide to acid mist and a substantial portion of this mist escapes the scrubber. The source of moisture merely controls where the acid mist is formed and, thereby, how visible it will be.
In any case, sulfuric acid mist is formed which can come down to the surface of the earth as acid rain. The long term health effects of sulfur trioxide or blue plume are not well known. The amount of sulfur dioxide catalyzed to sulfur trioxide and thence to acid mist is a relatively small fraction of the total sulfur from the coal burned. Nevertheless, the problem of blue plume is of great concern as evidenced by the purchase of most of the town of Chesire, Ohio by American Electric Power Co. (AEP) because of blue plume emitted from AEP's power plant which was upwind of the town of Chesire.
Several methods for essentially eliminating the acid mist and associated blue plume resulting from sulfur trioxide have been proposed. At least one has been reported successful. This method involves injecting ammonia (at much higher dosages than are used in the SCR) to the exhaust gas at a point where its temperature has been reduced to the range of about 250–300° F. (although the injection is sometimes carried out at higher temperatures). At this temperature, the ammonia reacts readily with the sulfur trioxide to form a number of possible compounds, the most notable of which are ammonium sulfate and ammonium bisulfate. The formation of these compounds by this reaction can capture a very high fraction of the sulfur trioxide thereby eliminating the conversion to acid mist and formation of blue plume.
This method of controlling blue plume, while highly effective, has several disadvantages. First, the large usage of ammonia constitutes a substantial expense. Second, if insufficient ammonia is injected, the reaction produces mostly ammonium bisulfate which is a very sticky, somewhat liquid substance at these temperatures. Ammonium bisulfate can quickly build up on downstream equipment and cause operational problems. Finally, even when sufficient ammonia is used to assure predominately ammonium sulfate (a dry powder) is formed, the ammoniated compounds are collected with and detrimental to the quality of the fly ash. The most advantageous use for fly ash (highest value and largest quantity) is in concrete as a partial replacement for Portland cement. Even the smaller quantities of ammoniated compounds that sometimes results from SCR use are problematic for this use of fly ash. The much larger amounts of these compounds from blue plume control by ammonia injection make the ash completely unusable. Unusable ash is typically disposed of in landfills. However, since many of the ammoniated compounds (such as ammonium sulfate) are water soluble, it is not clear that landfill disposal will be acceptable for ash containing large quantities of these compounds.

Emission control systems and methods thereof


A system and method for improving the page crossing performance of a data prefetcher is presented. A prefetch engine tracks times at which a data stream terminates due to a page boundary. When a certain percentage of data streams terminate at page boundaries, the prefetch engine sets an aggressive profile flag. In turn, when the data prefetch engine receives a real address that corresponds to the beginning/end of a new page, and the aggressive profile flag is set, the prefetch engine uses an aggressive startup profile to generate and schedule prefetches on the assumption that the real address is highly likely to be the continuation of a long data stream. As a result, the system and method minimize latency when crossing real page boundaries when a program is predominately accessing long streams.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method for improving the page crossing performance of a data prefetcher. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for identifying a time at which a data stream's prefetched cache lines approach the end of a real page, and aggressively prefetch the data stream's subsequent cache lines that resume on a different real page of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microprocessors use a prefetch engine to anticipate upcoming program requirements for data located in distant caches and system memory. By using a prefetch engine, a microprocessor prefetches data and locates the data in local cache when the program calls for the data. This mitigates substantial latency associated with retrieving the data if, instead, the microprocessor waits until the program calls for the data.
A microprocessor may use a data stream prefetch engine to detect data streams, which may be defined as a sequence of storage accesses that reference a contiguous set of cache lines in an increasing or decreasing manner. In response to detecting a data stream, a prefetch engine is configured to begin prefetching data up to a predetermined number of cache lines ahead of the data currently in process. Data stream prefetch engines, however, are often implemented such that they prefetch only up to the end of a real page of data, which greatly simplifies their implementation due to the fact that the prefetch engines are not required to track effective addresses of the data streams or retranslate addresses within a data stream.
A challenge found is that when a data stream crosses a page boundary, the continuation of the stream in a new real page appears like a new data stream altogether. In current implementations, a new stream startup profile is typically "conservative" in nature. A conservative startup profile does not start prefetching cache lines until the application loads data that causes at least two consecutive cache lines to miss the cache, and begins prefetching ahead of the line currently being loaded by the program slowly, gradually prefetching farther ahead as the application loads more and more lines along the stream until it is prefetching the desired lines ahead of the demand loads.
For example, when an existing prefetch engine is in a conservative, or "normal" startup profile and a program loads line "I," the prefetch engine speculates that the program might next load line I+1 and record the address for line I+1 in a prefetch request queue. When the program sometime later loads an address in line I+1, the prefetch logic detects the load and might send an L1 prefetch for line I+2 while also setting the address in the prefetch request queue to line I+2 (advancing the address in the request queue to the next line it expects the program to load). When the program later loads an address from line I+2, the prefetcher might send an L1 prefetch for line I+3, and L2 prefetches for lines I+4 and I+5, etc. Note, however, that the prefetch engine does not prefetch across a page boundary. As such, once the prefetch engine reaches a page boundary, the prefetch engine terminates its prefetching.
A challenge found is that for a long stream that crosses one or more page boundaries, the data stream interruption and the process of reacquiring the data stream impairs performance by adding stalls equal to multiples of the memory latency due to added cache misses at the beginning of each page and the re-ramping of the prefetches.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that improves the page crossing performance of a data prefetch engine.

System and method for improving the page crossing performance of a data prefetcher

International Business Machines Corporation


Techniques for determining a new industry classification for a company are described. An industry classifier can access company data of a company and profile data of an employee of the company. Additionally, a plurality of updated classifications associated with the company can be accessed from an industry taxonomy database. A featurization process can calculate a classification score for each updated classification based on the accessed data. Additionally, the featurization process can determine a new industry classification for the company based on the calculation. Subsequently, a company page updater can update a company page associated with the company by adding the new industry classification to the company page.

An online social networking service can maintain information on members, companies, organizations, employees, and employers. The online social network may maintain a company page for a company, which can include office location, number of employees, company description, industry, and other company information. Often, some useful company information may be outdated, missing, or otherwise unavailable to a member of the online social networking service.


A method and system for repairing a redundant array of disk drives. A failed drive in a redundant array is reconstructed by reconstructing the failed drive to a mirrored subsystem formed by a temporary disk drive and the disk drive slot associated with the failed drive. The failed drive is replaced by a replacement drive and the mirrored subsystem copies data from the temporary disk drive to the replacement disk drive.

RAID technology can provide high availability to data, while allowing data integrity even though a disk drive may fail. When there is a failure, the data located on the failed drive must be re-created using data from the surviving drives. For example, one common RAID configuration, called RAID-5, includes several disk drives, where data is written in a "stripe" across the drives, consisting of corresponding data sectors on each drive, in which one of the data sectors stores parity data for the other data sectors in the stripe. These several disk drives form a redundancy group. If one of the drives suffers a failure rendering its portion of a stripe inaccessible, the lost data is reconstructed from the other drives via computation methods well known in the art, such as employing an exclusive-or operation among the data sectors on the other drives.
A second example of a redundancy group is a RAID-3 array. A RAID-3 array includes several disk drives, where the data in a data block is written in a stripe across the drives, consisting of corresponding data sectors on each drive. One of the drives stores parity data for the other sectors in the stripe and data is written in parallel to each drive. Data reconstruction if a drive fails is accomplished through a process similar to the process employed for a RAID-5 array.
In another RAID configuration, called "RAID-1," two disk drives form a redundancy group. Identical data is written to each disk drive, creating a subsystem with full data redundancy, through an operation called "mirroring." If one drive fails, the configuration continues to operate without interruption, using the other disk drive. The subsystem restores consistency of data as required between the two disk drives by copying data missing on one drive to the other drive.
In a further RAID configuration, called "RAID-0", data is written in a "stripe" across two or more disk drives, consisting of corresponding data sectors on each drive. Error correction data blocks are not created for the stripe in a RAID-0 configuration. While this configuration does not provide redundancy for the data, this configuration does provide for increased throughput as compared to storing the data on a single disk drive. A hybrid configuration, called "RAID-1/0" combines the striping of RAID-0 with the mirroring of RAID-1. A RAID 1/0 array forms a redundancy group including at least four disk drives, divided into mirrored pairs, as in a RAID-1 array. Data is then striped across the set of mirrored pairs, as in a RAID-0 array.
Other RAID configurations offer varying degrees of data redundancy and varying levels of performance for characteristics such as disk data transfer rate.
A conventional method for reconstruction of a failed disk drive in a redundancy group in a disk drive array is to provide a temporary disk drive for the failed disk drive and then to reconstruct the data, that was on the failed disk drive, to the temporary disk drive. During the reconstruction operation the remaining disk drives in the redundancy group are accessed and data that was on the failed drive is regenerated by applying an error correction operation (such as an exclusive-or on data blocks and a corresponding parity block or a copy operation in a RAID-1 array.) This reconstruction operation on the temporary disk drive proceeds to completion. Thereafter, data can be copied to a permanent replacement disk drive inserted into the physical location of the failed disk drive.

Method and system for repairing a redundant array of disk drives


An injection molding apparatus (5) comprising:                an actuator (10) comprising a rotor (60) driven by a drive device (174) that consumes electrical energy (187) that generates heat,        a thermal conductor (500) comprised of a thermally conductive material,        a clamp plate (80) being mounted in thermal communication with the thermal conductor,        a conductive surface (500s) of the thermal conductor being urged into contact with the clamp plate (80) under a spring force (SF) exerted between the actuator (10) and the thermal conductor (500), the heat (197) generated by the electrical energy (187) being conducted from the actuator housing (12) to the clamp plate (80).

Cooling mechanisms for fluid driven actuators, hydraulic or pneumatic, that direct heat from a manifold away from the actuator but not heat generated by the actuator itself to a cooled metal plate are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,349,244 and 8,562,336 and in WO2015/183332 and WO2016153704, the disclosures of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference as if fully set forth herein.


A commercial washing machine that can be easily repaired and inspected and a washing method of the same are disclosed. The commercial washing machine includes a machine body for performing a predetermined washing cycle to laundry placed therein, a money depositing device mounted at one side of the machine body for allowing a user to deposit money therein, a control unit for controlling the washing cycle of the machine body, and a termination signal input device electrically connected to the control unit for allowing a signal for terminating the washing cycle in progress to be inputted thereto from the outside. The washing method includes detecting whether money has been deposited, performing a washing cycle including a washing operation, a rinsing operation, or a spin-drying operation according to the selection of a user, and terminating the washing cycle according to a termination signal inputted from the outside, irrespective of whether the remaining operations exist.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing machine, and more particularly, to a commercial washing machine that is capable of terminating a subsequent operation(s) of an overall washing cycle during a certain operation prior to the subsequent operation(s) and a washing method of the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a laundry machine is a machine that cleans clothes and bedclothes (hereinafter, referred to as "laundry") through various processes, such as washing, rinsing, spin-drying, and drying, to remove contaminant from the laundry. Representative examples of the laundry machine include a washing machine and a drying machine.
Based on the purpose of use thereof, the washing machine may be classified as a household washing machine or as a commercial washing machine. The household washing machine is a general washing machine that is installed in a house to allow a user to do laundry using the washing machine without payment of laundry charges, whereas the commercial washing machine is a special washing machine that is installed in an apartment house or a place of business, such as a Laundromat, to require users who wish to do laundry using the washing machine to pay predetermined laundry charges and perform a washing operation for a predetermined period of time only when the payment of the predetermined laundry charges is completed.
As can be seen from the above description, the commercial washing machine is jointly used by an unspecified number of users, and therefore, the commercial washing machine is characterized in that the commercial washing machine is designed and manufactured such that the commercial washing machine exhibits higher profit efficiency, stability, and maintainability than the household washing machine.
Also, a commercial drying machine, which dries wet laundry using hot air and by mechanical actions, is generally used separately from the commercial washing machine, which washes, rinses, and spin-dries laundry using water and detergent and by mechanical actions to remove contaminant from the laundry.
In recent years, of course, a washing-and-drying machine, which is capable of washing, rinsing, spin-drying, and drying laundry in a batch fashion, has been placed on the market. However, the drying capacity of the washing-and-drying machine is less than the washing capacity of the washing-and-drying machine, the price of the washing-and-drying machine is relatively high, and the structure of the washing-and-drying machine is complicated, with the result that the commercial use of the washing-and-drying machine is not very popular.
For this reason, the commercial washing machine and the commercial drying machine are installed together at a place of a predetermined size. Preferably, a plurality of commercial washing machines and a plurality of commercial drying machines are installed to improve profit efficiency through the use of the commercial washing machines and the commercial drying machines by a plurality of users.
Generally, the commercial washing machine is constructed in a structure in which, when a user deposits money in the commercial washing machine, the commercial washing machine detects the deposit of the money through a reader mounted in the commercial washing machine and allows a user to manipulate the commercial washing machine.
According to the manipulation of the user, as shown in FIG. 1, the commercial washing machine performs a washing cycle including a washing operation (S2), a rinsing operation (S3), a spin-drying operation (S4), and a draining operation (S5).
Meanwhile, the commercial washing machine is continuously used by an unspecified number of users, with the result that there is a great possibility that the commercial washing machine will break or malfunction more frequently than the household washing machine. Consequently, an owner of the commercial washing machine inevitably has the commercial washing machine repaired frequently or inspected periodically.
However, when the commercial washing machine is operated to confirm whether the commercial washing machine malfunctions at a certain operation of an overall washing cycle during the repair or the inspection of the commercial washing machine, the operation of the commercial washing machine is stopped only after the remaining operations are performed even though the inspection of the certain operation is completed.
For example, when the commercial washing machine is operated to detect the abnormality of the rinsing operation, the operation of the commercial washing machine is stopped only after the remaining operations, i.e., the spin-drying operation and the draining operation, are performed even though the determination as to whether the rinsing operation is abnormal or not is completed.
Consequently, more than necessary time is required for repair and inspection of the commercial washing machine. Furthermore, for a Laundromat where a plurality of commercial washing machines are installed, the repair and inspection of the commercial washing machines are carried out for a long time, with the result that the owner of the Laundromat may suffer loss of profits. In addition, the increase of time necessary for the repair and inspection of commercial washing machines may incur user's inconvenience and distrust.

Commercial washing machine and washing method of the same


The present invention provides for a practical and entertaining form of recreational transportation, easily transportable to weekend events. It is a compact transport kart (10), designed to carry at least one human passenger. It also transports its passenger across open road, or off-road terrain. The transport kart provides advantages and benefits over the prior art through use of a most unique type of body element (20), comprising of, or substantially resembling, a common ice-chest or common cooler. The body element can be selected of sufficient size and shape to also carry additional passengers, plus can be configured to carry ice and refreshments. The transport kart includes a power source (23) for propulsion, plus a set of wheels (21) and (22) mounted for rotation. A rotational output from the power source is drivingly connected to at least one of those wheels, therefore providing for a most unique and entertaining form of transportation.

1. Discussion of Problem
It happens far too often when one wishes they could pull out some type of compact transport device from the back of their vehicle, to carry them to their final destination. This might occur when one arrives at a weekend event and then realizes that they must then walk a significant distance to actually reach the site of that event. Some events can be so large, that the walk from the parking lot to the event, is nearly a mile. Still other events can require miles of walking, just to see all the attractions.
Having to walk long distances to get to ones event is unacceptable. Having to walk long distances within an event is unacceptable. To make matters worse, one might have also wished to bring some refreshments along, and must now struggle to carry a heavy cooler over that long trek, or worse yet, have to leave those refreshments behind.
This is only one example of when someone might wish for some type of compact transport device. The problem at hand is a lack of such a device, one which is compact and light enough to be easily loaded to take to an event, yet be up to the task of transporting one or more passengers across various terrain. It would also be desirable if that device could be capable of carrying ones ice and refreshments as well.
2. Discussion of Prior art
There are many known recreational type vehicles that could certainly provide for ones weekend transportation. One could additionally carry an ice-chest or cooler onboard, to carry ones refreshments.
All these devices however were designed for other tasks, making them larger, heavier, and more awkward than actually needed for the task at hand. This prevents one from being able to easily transport such a device to a weekend event. In addition, some have limitations in performing the task required, and some are just too expensive to justify.
An example of one such transport vehicle might be a golfcart. It could certainly be used to transport oneself, and one could certainly carry a cooler onboard. Hauling a golfcart however is no simple chore. Golfcarts are quite large and very heavy, requiring a large truck or trailer to transport them. In addition, they are limited to use on only open road, or gentle off-road terrain. If one could indeed transport a golfcart, one would quickly realize that it requires a substantial amount of room to operate and maneuver. This would certainly be a problem when attending a crowded event. The extra room needed to maneuver also limits its use off-road, especially in wooded areas, such as parks and campgrounds. A 4-wheel ATV might be used instead, which is better suited for both rougher terrain, and tighter conditions. These again are heavy, plus complex, therefore expensive machines, and again require a truck or trailer to transport them. One would also need to securely strap a cooler somewhere onboard for adequate carrying of ones refreshments. Yet another alternative might be to use a go-kart type vehicle, with some type of mounting means to securely carry the cooler. Go-karts once again require a truck or trailer to haul them, and also require a substantial amount of room to operate and maneuver because of their wide stance. In addition, most go-karts ride low to the ground, which limits their off-road use as well. Yet even another option might be a scooter or motorcycle, or other two-wheeled device. A framework or bracketry would again be required to carry a cooler full of ones refreshments. The cooler however would have to be quite limited in size because of its high mounting position along with the need to maintain proper balance while operating such two-wheeled devices. This is especially important when there is some quantity of water mixed with ones ice and refreshments sloshing around within the cooler. This limits their off-road usefulness as well.
In addition to all the above, if one utilizes any of the prior art, one would certainly be denied entry into events that prohibit motorized transit.
Accordingly, some of the shortcomings and disadvantages of using such prior art include:                the heavy weight of these devices,        their large physical size,        the difficulty in loading these awkward devices for transport,        the requirement of a truck or trailer to haul them,        the extra room needed to operate and maneuver these devices,        their complexity,        their high cost,        their limitations in off-road use,        the need to still carry a cooler if taking refreshments along,        an additional rack or support means to secure that cooler for transit,        and denied entry into events which prohibit motorized transit.

Practical and entertaining recreational vehicle


A connector incorporating a module, in which an incorporated electrical component may be cooled efficiently and reliably, is provided. A transmission apparatus disposed inside a main body cover of a module-incorporating connector is provided with a ceramic board at which an electrical component and such are mounted. A metal cover touches an upper face of the electrical component. A portion of the metal cover is disposed in an insertion portion of the main body cover. Heat generated by the electrical component is propagated via the metal cover to the insertion portion of a first cover member. When the module-incorporating connector is connected to a socket of a device, the insertion portion is disposed inside an exterior case, in which temperature is controlled by an air conditioner, and cooling is performed reliably and efficiently.

The Present Disclosure relates generally to a connector and, more particularly, to a connector incorporating a module, which is inserted into a socket of a device and communicates electronic signals between the socket side device, and incorporates an optical module with optical components and electrical components, and is used by being connected to an optical fiber for optical signal communication between devices.
Typically, optical modules are equipped with optical components, such as laser diodes and the like, and electrical components, such as driver integrated circuits and the like, and that convert electrical signals to optical signals. An example of such an optical model is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-040318, the contents of which are fully incorporated in its entirety herein. Further, various kinds of connectors that incorporate this kind of module and that are electrically connected to sockets of devices have been considered.


An image analysis method for multicenter study includes, by a multicenter study support system, recruiting and selecting a plurality of agency systems to perform multicenter study, and then distributing an analysis guide and an analysis program corresponding to a purpose and condition of the multicenter study to each of the agency systems, by each of the agency systems, collecting analysis data acquired through the analysis guide and the analysis program and then uploading the analysis data to the multicenter study support system, and by the multicenter study support system, collecting and processing the uploaded analysis data, and then sharing the data processing result with each of the agency systems.

1 Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an image analysis method and system for multicenter study, and more particularly, to a method and system for multicenter image analysis study, which allows a plurality of agencies participating in the multicenter study to acquire, analyze and share an image for multicenter study under the same analysis environment.

Image analysis method for multicenter study and system thereof

Wonkwang University Center for Industry-Academy Cooperation


A hydraulic steering assembly applies a force to a tiller arm of a marine, outboard propulsion unit and rotates the propulsion unit about a steering axis between a center position and hard over positions to each side of the center position. The propulsion unit is supported for arcuate movement about a tilt axis which is generally perpendicular to the steering axis. The steering assembly includes a hydraulic steering cylinder with an elongated piston rod reciprocatingly mounted within the cylinder for movement along a piston rod axis. A pair of support arms are pivotable about the tilt axis and are connected to the piston rod, allowing arcuate movement of the rod about the tilt axis, while maintaining the rod axis parallel to the tilt axis. A member is pivotally mounted on the tiller arm for pivoting about a first axis which is parallel to the steering axis. The cylinder arm is connected to the cylinder and extends radially outwards from the piston rod axis. The cylinder arm is pivotally connected to the member for pivoting about the second link axis which is parallel to the piston rod axis. The cylinder arm moves through a partially rotated position when the propulsion unit rotates from the center position to either hard over position. The second link axis and the rod axes are on a plane parallel to the steering axis at the partially rotated position.

Hydraulic steering systems for marine craft having outboard motors are well known and desirable accessories. Conventionally such steering systems have a steering wheel located remotely from the motor and associated steering components. A hydraulic pump is located on the steering wheel and is hydraulically connected to a steering assembly by hydraulic lines. The steering assembly is mounted on the outboard propulsion unit, or units in the case of marine craft having a plurality of outboard propulsion units, and includes a hydraulic cylinder with a piston rod which reciprocates and thus steers the propulsion unit about a steering axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,920 to Hall et al., teaches that the traveling cylinder can be attached to the tiller arm by a slider mechanism wherein a lost motion connection is established between the tiller arm and the cylinder in order to compensate for the arcuate movement of the tiller arm. Alternatively, a drag link mechanism can be pivotally attached between one end of the cylinder and the tiller arm. These mechanisms have certain limitations discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,801 to McBeth.
McBeth discloses a connector which provides a strong and simple universal connection between the hydraulic steering assembly and the tiller arm of the engine. This eliminates a lost motion type slider. However, the mechanism requires significant rotation of the support brackets about the tilt axis of the motor. This rotation may be inhibited by such factors as poor maintenance, including the overtightening of nuts and other components or by corrosion, for example. If the support brackets are thus inhibited from rotating, then the steering action is impaired. This possibility has prevented widespread commercial acceptance of the McBeth steering assembly, even though it appears to provide significant advantages over the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved hydraulic steering assembly for outboard motors which overcomes disadvantages associated with the prior art.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an improved hydraulic steering assembly for outboard motors which reduces significantly rotation of the support brackets about the tilt axis of the motor, thus allowing continued steering even when rotation of the brackets is impaired.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide an improved hydraulic steering assembly for outboard motors which is simple and reliable in construction and is relatively easy to install and maintain.

Outboard hydraulic steering assembly with reduced support bracket rotation


Electronic devices may be provided with antenna structures. The antenna structures may include an antenna support structure covered with patterned antenna traces. An antenna support structure may be mounted in an electronic device so that a surface of the antenna support structure that is covered with patterned antenna traces lies flush with a planar surface of the electronic device housing. A display cover layer or other planar structure may be attached to the surface of the antenna support structure and the planar surface of the housing adhesive. Injection molding and extrusion techniques may be used in forming a support structure with elongated parallel cavities. An injection molding tool may have a mold core supported by a support structure at one end, supporting engagement features at the ends of mating mold core structures, or support pins. Molded interconnect devices may be soldered to laser direct structuring components to form antennas.

This relates generally to electronic devices and, more particularly, to forming antennas for electronic devices.
Electronic devices such as computers are often provided with antennas. For example, a computer monitor with an integrated computer may be provided with antennas that are located along an edge of the monitor.
Challenges can arise in mounting antennas within an electronic device. For example, the relative position between an antenna and surrounding device structures and the size and shape of antenna structures can have an impact on antenna tuning and bandwidth. If care is not taken, an antenna may become detuned or may exhibit an undesirably small efficiency bandwidth at desired operating frequencies. Unsatisfactory antenna mounting configurations have the potential to compromise the structural integrity of an electronic device. Methods for forming antenna structures should be cost effective and capable of producing high-performing antennas, so as to avoid undesired expense and shortcomings in wireless performance.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved antennas for use in electronic devices.

Methods for forming elongated antennas with plastic support structures for electronic devices


An ECU sets target value of a system voltage based on an electric power loss of a motor generator and an inverter and controls a voltage boost converter. The ECU calculates the target value of the system voltage using a function expression generated, for each operating point of the motor generator, by approximating a loss characteristic which represents change of the electric power loss with respect to change of the system voltage, by a quadratic expression or a linear expression of the system voltage.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-81682 (PTD 1) discloses a motor drive control apparatus including an inverter which is capable of driving a motor by selectively using a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) voltage and a rectangular-wave voltage, and a voltage boost converter which is capable of boosting an inverter voltage relative to a battery voltage. In this motor drive control apparatus, a map to be used for setting a target post-boost voltage for a motor MG2 is generated in advance. This map defines a relationship between the rotational speed and a torque command value and a target post-boost voltage for motor MG2, which is a target value of the post-boost voltage. This map is used to derive a target post-boost voltage corresponding to a target operating point of motor MG2. By way of example, the map to be used for setting a target post-boost voltage for motor MG2 is generated in such a manner that makes a loss of a motor drive system as small as possible at each motor MG2's operating point in a voltage boost region and that defines a target value of the post-boost voltage which can cancel an induced voltage at that operating point (see PTD 1).

Motor drive apparatus and vehicle including the same, and method for controlling motor drive apparatus


A duct lining insulation system for lining variable air volume boxes, air handling units, and ducts for heat ventilation and air conditioning has a sheet of a flexible, closed cell foam composition, said sheet having a face with a substantially smooth surface and having a coating of a pressure sensitive adhesive on a second face of the sheet, further providing that the pressure sensitive adhesive has a volatile content that is sufficiently low so that the adhesive gives off substantially no volatiles.

Field of the Invention
Duct lining insulation for lining variable air volume boxes, air handling units, and ducts for heat ventilation and air conditioning is provided.
Although there is a wide variety of insulative materials available, insulation which is suitable as duct lining is extremely limited due to the rigorous requirements which duct lining materials should ideally meet. For the best duct lining insulation, this insulation should: 1) give off substantially no volatile, 2) give off substantially no fiber, 3) have the exposed surfaces of the insulation be smooth so that it presents a poor surface for air-borne contaminates to stick to, 4) not be water wicking (absorbent), and 5) be capable of fixing the insulation to the duct surface. In addition to this, it would be even more advantageous to have an efficient insulating material with a low thermal conductivity to allow thin layers to be used, thus taking up less space.
Fiberglass is presently used as duct lining insulation. The fiberglass, however, does tend to take up water. While this attraction to water is a disadvantage, the ability to absorb water allows water based adhesives to be used to fix the fiberglass insulation to the duct. The use of water based adhesives avoids the problem of volatile which other types of adhesives would have. The fiberglass itself, furthermore, must be wrapped or coated to obtain a smooth surface and to contain the fibers of glass which otherwise would be given off.
It would, however, be advantageous to be able to use a more efficient insulation than fiberglass which would allow thinner layers of insulation to be used, provided, however that such an insulation which would also meet the other requirements for duct lining insulation. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an insulation system using more efficient insulation which also meets the above listed requirements for duct lining insulation.


A method for monitoring a communication link between a device under test (DUT) and automated test equipment is disclosed. The method comprises monitoring data traffic associated with testing a DUT using a protocol analyzer module, wherein the data traffic comprises a flow of traffic between the DUT and a protocol core of a programmable logic device, wherein the protocol analyzer module is integrated within the programmable logic device, wherein the programmable logic device is controlled by a system controller and is operable to generate commands and data to test the DUT, and wherein the protocol core is operable to generate signals to communicate with the DUT using a protocol associated with the DUT. The method further comprises saving results associated with the monitoring in a memory associated with the protocol analyzer module and transmitting the results upon request to an application program executing on the system controller.

Automated test equipment (ATE) can be any testing assembly that performs a test on a semiconductor device or electronic assembly. ATE assemblies may be used to execute automated tests that quickly perform measurements and generate test results that can then be analyzed. An ATE assembly may be anything from a computer system coupled to a meter, to a complicated automated test assembly that may include a custom, dedicated computer control system and many different test instruments that are capable of automatically testing electronics parts and/or semiconductor wafer testing, such as system-on-chip (SOC) testing or integrated circuit testing. ATE systems both reduce the amount of time spent on testing devices to ensure that the device functions as designed and serve as a diagnostic tool to determine the presence of faulty components within a given device before it reaches the consumer.
ATE is typically used to test anywhere from one to several hundred devices under the test (DUTs) at the same time. In order to verify that the ATE is communicating properly with the DUTs, workbench equipment such as oscilloscopes and protocol analyzer can be used. These devices are typically bulky, cumbersome and inordinately expensive. Further, they require highly trained engineers to use and to interpret the data. As a result, these devices are not generally suitable for production facilities.
Protocol analyzers, for example, are passive diagnostic tools that collect, organize, and display protocol traffic occurring on a serial link. Protocol analyzers use large amounts of memory to store the traffic, typically many gigabytes. The stored traffic represents one of two forms of data: raw and protocol. In raw mode the protocol analyzer saves the serial data bit for bit in its memory. In protocol mode the protocol analyzer first decodes and descrambles the data prior to saving the data to memory. In both cases, the protocol analyzer uses a prohibitively large amount of memory to store all the diagnostic data for an engineer to be able to analyze.
There are many situations where it is useful to have a standard protocol analyzer but financial, space and memory constraints limit the ability to have one. In such cases, lab engineers are not left with many choices for monitoring the signaling and communication link between the ATE and the DUTs.
Further, one of the drawbacks with conventional ATE is that they typically only report pass/fail results. In other words, the ATE only reports whether one or more devices under test (DUTs) passed or failed the respective test being executed. The ATE is not configured to identify root causes of device failure that occur during qualification testing. Typically, the ATE will not have any hardware or software-based tools built into it that would enable engineers to easily diagnose problems with the DUTs.
In a typical testing environment, the engineers operating the ATE will need to identify the cause of failure manually by collecting data logs and performing analysis on the logs. This approach is labor intensive, error prone and not scalable. It may also not yield the desired result since there may not be enough information available to the engineers to determine which data logs to analyze or how to find the root causes of device failure within the data logs. Further, traditional ATE systems do not contain any intelligence built into the hardware that would help engineers capture and automatically interpret and analyze diagnostic information pertaining to the tests.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Smart and efficient protocol logic analyzer configured within automated test equipment (ATE) hardware


In a driving method of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor active pixel, timing of a transmission control signal and a reset control signal generated in a read-out section is performed in advance in a reset section. A potential wall between a photodiode area and a transmission transistor having a size corresponding to one generated in the read-out section is generated in the reset section in advance and the photodiode area is filled with charges. A dead region is reduced in the read-out section. In the reset section, the transmission transistor connecting a collection node to accumulate the signal charges generated from the photodiode and the floating diffusive node is turned on at least one time, and a difference between an initial voltage of the collection node and a voltage of the reset level of the floating diffusive node is reduced.

An image sensor captures an image by using a semiconductor device's feature of reacting to external energy, for example, photons. Light generated from an object existing in nature has an intrinsic energy value in a wavelength thereof. A pixel of the image sensor detects the light generated from the object and converts the detected light to an electric value.
FIG. 1 is a timing diagram of driving an image sensor using a 4-transistor CMOS active pixel, in which data is read out in a correlated double sampling (CDS) method. FIG. 2 is a view illustrating the conventional 4-transistor CMOS active pixel to explain a section of a photodiode and an electronic potential for each area based on the timing diagram of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 2, the 4-transistor CMOS active pixel includes a transmission transistor 11 to connect a photodiode area A1 and a floating diffusion node area A3, and a reset transistor 13 to initialize the photodiode area A1. A photodiode PH is formed to a predetermined depth from a surface of a semiconductor which is a dark current source, to reduce dark current. Thus, a potential wall or a potential well is formed in a portion K to connect the transmission transistor 11 and the photodiode PH according to the state of injection of a semiconductor impurity.
Since the potential well characteristically makes electric charges remain as they are, most semiconductor manufacturing companies manufacture pixels in the form of the potential wall while excluding the potential well form. Also, semiconductor manufacturing companies have developed to improve a process to minimize the potential wall. However, since the size of the potential wall varies according to a difference in processing conditions, it is very difficult to remove the potential wall with a processing technology.
As the potential wall is larger, the amount of electric charges which do not move to the floating diffusive node FD and remain in the photodiode pH increases so that a dead region of an image sensor increases. The increase of the dead region is more remarkable when data is read out by using the correlated double sampling method as shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, a reset sampling signal RSH is a signal to sample and store reset data, i.e., an electric potential in the initial state of a floating diffusive node FD. A signal sampling signal DSH is a signal to sample and store signal data, i.e., an electric potential of the floating diffusive node after charges generated from the photodiode PH are received.
In the electronic potential shown in FIG. 2, a solid line n1 indicates an electronic potential in a state in which the transmission transistor 11 and the reset transistor 13 are all turned on, that is, in a reset section of FIG. 1. As it can be seen by the solid line n1 in FIG. 2, even when the transmission transistor 11 and the reset transistor 13 are all turned on, a predetermined amount of extra charges remain in the photodiode area A1 by the potential wall w1 formed at a boundary surface K between the photodiode PH and the transmission transistor area A2. In this state, when the transmission transistor 11 is turned off, a detection operation of the photodiode Ph is initiated at a point t1. When the detection operation is terminated and a detected signal charge is read out, a reset transistor GRX is turned off to isolate the floating diffusive node FD at a point t2. Then, the electric potential of the floating diffusive node FD is lowered. As a result, when the transmission transistor 11 is turned on at a point t3 the potential wall at the boundary surface K between the photodiode PH and the transmission transistor 11 becomes an amount "w1+w2" higher than in a reset state, that is, a case indicated by the solid line n1. (The electric potential at the point t3 is shown by a dotted line n2 of FIG. 2.) Thus, when the transmission transistor 11 is turned on to read out signal data, charges generated in the initial state remain in the photodiode area A1 until the electric potential of the photodiode Ph becomes an amount "w1+w2". That is, the dead region of a pixel continues.
FIG. 3 is another timing diagram of driving an image sensor using the 4-transistor CMOS active pixel. Referring to FIG. 3, a convention method of driving an image sensor using a 4-transistor CMOS active pixel is described below. First, as a transmission control signal TX in a section T11 is deactivated (t11), a collection node that is a port at the N side of the photodiode PH is electrically separated from an external power voltage. In a section T12, the photodiode PH collects signal charges generated in response to light at the collection node. In a section T13, when a reset control signal RX is deactivated as "low" (t12) and a sampling signal SH is primarily activated (SH1), a voltage level of a data line that is an output port of an active pixel is sampled. The voltage level of the sampled data line is a voltage dropped by a predetermined drop voltage from a voltage of the floating diffusive node FD that is a reset level vrst. The drop voltage indicates a threshold voltage of a driving transistor which is gated by the floating diffusive node FD.
In a section T14, during which the transmission control signal TX is activated as "pulse" (t13), the charges at the collection node are transferred to the floating diffusive node FD. Thus, the voltages at the floating diffusive node and the collection node become a data level vdat generated by a charge sharing phenomenon. Then, the voltage level of the data line is sampled in response to a second activating pulse SH2 of the sampling signal SH. The voltage of the sampled data line becomes a voltage dropped by the drop voltage from the voltage at the floating diffusive node that is the data level vdat, like the reset level.
Consequently, a difference between the voltage levels of data lines sampled by the first activation SH1 and the second activation SH2 of the sampling signal SH is the same as a difference (vrst-vdat) between the reset level vrst and the data level vdat.
However, according to the conventional method of driving an active pixel of an image sensor, the reset level vrst is a voltage dropped by a first threshold voltage VT1 from the external power voltage VDD. The first threshold voltage VT1 is a threshold voltage of a reset transistor which is gated by the reset control signal RX and electrically connects the floating diffusive node FD to an external power voltage port. The initial voltage of the collection node is a voltage dropped from the external power voltage VDD by a value which is greater between the first threshold voltage VT1 and the second threshold voltage VT2. The second threshold voltage VT2 is a threshold voltage of the transmission transistor which is gated by the transmission control signal TX and connects the collection node to the floating diffusive node.
According to general image sensor design and manufacturing processes, a case in which the second threshold voltage VT2 is greater than the first threshold voltage VT1 occurs. In this case, while the reset level vrst is determined by the first threshold voltage VT1, the initial voltage of the collection node is determined by the second threshold voltage VT2.
A considerable deviation may occur in the first threshold voltage VT1 and the second threshold voltage VT2 according to the image sensor manufacturing process. As a result, the difference between the initial voltage at the collection node and the reset level vrst becomes irregular.
In the conventional method of reading out data of an image sensor by using the correlated double sampling method, the difference between the initial voltage at the collection node and the reset level vrst becomes irregular so that a low brightness feature of the image sensor is deteriorated.

CMOS active pixel and method of driving the same


A readout device is provided for use in a ring laser angular rate sensor assembly which has improved low rate performance. Low rate performance is improved by reducing sources of backscatter thus not allowing light to be reflected back into the optical signal carrying medium. Backscatter is reduced by placing the optical sensors directly upon the gyro output mirror, thus causing the optical sensors to be dithered along with the laser block. By dithering the optical sensors, any backscatter caused by these elements is dealt with by dithering. While the optical sensors are dithered, the readout apparatus continues to utilize the advantages of a case mounting.

The present invention relates to readout devices for use in ring laser angular rate sensors. The present invention provides a readout device that displays improved performance at low input rates.
Ring laser angular rate sensors or ring laser gyroscopes are fairly well known in the field of angular rate sensing. Examples of ring laser gyroscopes are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,650 which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In summary, two counter propagating light beams are maintained within a closed loop path to form a rotation sensing device. Rotation of this device around an axis which is normal to a plane containing the closed loop path causes the relative path lengths in either direction to change. Detections of these changes in path length can be used to measure the rate of rotation.
A common problem occurs when the angular rate sensors are rotated at a very low rate. If the angular rate sensor is held still in inertial space for a period of time the counter propagating light beams tend to resonate together or "lock-in". once the two beams lock-in to one another it is then not possible to detect differences in relative path length.
In order to avoid lock-in the angular rate sensor is rotationally oscillated or dithered. If the readout signal is averaged over a period of time the average rotation rate of the oscillation signal is zero. Therefore this oscillation or dither will not affect the sensitivity of the gyro. The dither signal or rotational oscillation of the ring laser gyroscope can be removed from the output signal by either geometrically eliminating the affects of this oscillation or electronically removing the dither signal. To eliminate the dithering geometrically the optical elements making up the readout must be appropriately placed. Once appropriately placed the change in path length due to dithering is cancelled out by the scale factor of the gyroscope.
To accomplish geometric removal of the dither signal or "dither stripping" some of the optic elements making up the readout device must not be connected to the laser block itself. Therefore, during dithering the laser block itself is rotationally oscillated while the readout optics are not.
Numerous readouts are traditionally placed on the ring laser angular rate sensor to perform numerous other functions. An example of these functions are laser intensity sensing to assure the optical signals within the ring laser angular rate sensor are resonating at a sufficiently strong level.
Backscattering also effects the performance of the gyro. Specifically, the low-rate linearity is detrimentally affected by backscattering.
One source of lock-in is backscattering. Backscattering occurs when the optical signal propagating in one direction within the ring laser gyro is scattered back into the gyro but in the opposite direction. Backscattering can be due to sources within the laser cavity or sources outside the laser cavity. Since it is desirable that the optical signals within the ring laser gyro oscillate independently at their particular frequencies, backscatter is detrimental as it causes an unwanted coupling influence between the two optical signals. Gyro dither is effective in mitigating the effect of scatter sources that oscillate along with the gyro block, however dithering is not effective in mitigating the effects of case mounted components. There are numerous sources of back scattering including the readout optics used, optical sensors attached to the laser gyro or the gyro case, and even the laser gyro case itself.
Referring now to FIG. 1 there is shown a prior art readout system. A laser block 10 contains a number of tunnels or bores 12 which create a closed loop path within laser block 10. Bores 12 carry the optical signals which make up the angular rate sensor. Upon one corner of laser block 10 there is an output mirror 14 which is partially reflective and partially transmissive. Output mirror 14 allows a portion of the optical signals within laser block 10 to be transmitted through output mirror 14 while another portion of the optical signals is reflected back into the adjoining bore 12. Shown as lines on FIG. 1 are a counter clockwise signal or CCW signal 20 and a clockwise signal or cw signal 22. While FIG. 1 represents only one corner of the ring laser gyro it is understood that the gyro block 10 makes up a closed loop path with mirrors on the corners of the closed loop path. CCW signal 20 is transmitted through output mirror 14 and toward a corner cube 16 which is mounted to the gyro case (not shown). Corner cube 16 causes CCW signal 20 to be translated and reflected back towards output mirror 14. Upon meeting an upper surface 24 of output mirror 14 CCW signal 20 is reflected off surface 24 and directed onto an optical sensor 18. Meanwhile, CW signal 22 is transmitted through output mirror 14 and directly onto optical sensor 18. Optical sensor 18 receives a combination of CCW signal 20 and CW signal 22. Those skilled in the art will recognize that this combination of these two signals can be used to detect rotation.
In summary, the effects of dithering are cancelled out by the scale factor of the gyro. Dithering causes a change in the path lengths of the optical signals. This change in path length is then designed to be exactly cancelled out by the gyro scale factor. However, changes in path length due to common rotation of both the gyro block 10 and the gyro case will still be detected.

Case-mounted RLG readout having block mounted optical sensor


A multiple clip hair fastener with a plurality of claw clips directly attached to the next. The clips are fastened to separate sections of hair while each clip remains directly attached.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention and method relates to a claw clip hair fastener. More particularly a plurality of claw clips connected directly to each other in various formations to create a multitude of new hairstyles.
2. Description of Prior Art
Many people like to put their hair up in various styles. One way to put the hair up is to clip a plurality of sections of hair and secure them with individual hair clips. This process is effective and stylish but it is difficult for a non-hairstylist to achieve, especially when trying to keep the clips in alignment. It is also a time consuming process.