An image forming apparatus having a developing apparatus using a development system in which toner is moved by means of a traveling wave electric field. The image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of developing apparatuses having toner conveyance members which convey toner by means of a phase-shift electric field created by voltages of n phases applied to a plurality of electrodes, to a region opposing an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; and a voltage application device which applies a voltage having an average potential value between the potential of the image portions of the latent image on the image carrier and the non-image portions of same, to the electrodes of the toner conveyance members of the respective developing apparatuses.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and image forming method, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus and image forming method comprising a developing apparatus which performs development by transferring a powder by means of a traveling wave electric field.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses are known, such as printers, facsimile machines, copying machines, plotters, combined printer/fax/copying machines, and the like, which use an electrophotographic process in which an image carrier is charged, a latent electrostatic image is formed thereon, and this electrostatic latent image is developed by depositing powder of a coloring material, or the like, (hereinafter, called "toner" or "toner particle") on the latent image, whereupon the toner image is transferred to a recording medium (such as a transfer material, paper, recording paper, intermediate transfer body, or the like).
An image forming apparatus of this kind is known, as described for example in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3530124 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 1"), in which a developer conveyance device is provided to convey the developer by creating a traveling wave electric field through applying a multi-phase voltage to a plurality of electrodes arranged at a predetermined interval, and in a developer apparatus having a developer conveyance device of this kind disposed in the developing region opposing the image carrier which carries the electrostatic latent image on the surface thereof, the developer conveyance device comprises a plurality of electrodes arranged in the form of an endless loop, the plurality of electrodes being divided into a plurality of units and a device being provided in order to control the voltage applied to each unit, in such a manner that a multi-phase voltage can be applied to each unit, independently.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-198675 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 2") and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-258601 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 3"), for example, propose a developing apparatus using a developing method which includes horizontal movement (conveyance) and vertical movement (hopping) of powder by means of electrostatic force, an image on the surface of an electrostatic conveyance member being developed by causing powder to jump up with a component of movement in the direction of travel, by means of a transference electric field. This developing apparatus for developing latent images on an image carrier by depositing powder on the image carrier comprises a conveyance member having a plurality of electrodes, disposed facing the image carrier, which generate a traveling wave electric field in order to move the powder. An electric potential of n phases is applied to the electrodes of the conveyance member, thereby forming an electric field in directions which directs the powder toward the image carrier in the image portion of the latent image, but which does not direct the powder toward the image carrier, in the non-image portions.
On the other hand, as described in PRIOR ART 3, an image forming apparatus is also known in which a photosensitive body is positively charges by a corona charger, a negative electrostatic latent image is formed thereon by exposure to light (namely, an electrostatic latent image in which the surface potential of the photosensitive body is reduced in the positions of the image lines that have been exposed to light), a yellow toner image is then formed by developing the latent image in a developing apparatus using a developing roller, whereupon the yellow electrostatic latent image is erased by removing the charge from the photosensitive drum with a de-charging lamp, and the steps of charging, exposure, development and charge removal are repeated in a similar fashion, thereby successively forming toner images of magenta, cyan and black on the photosensitive body. When all of the toner images have been formed in this way, the electrostatic latent image is de-charged optically by means of the de-charging lamp, and the toner images are transferred electrostatically to normal paper, by means of a corona charger. This image forming apparatus is based on a system (known as a color superimposition method, or image-on-image method) in which a corona charge is applied through the toner layer formed on the photosensitive body, thereby charging the photosensitive body, and toner layers of other colors are superimposed on top of the existing toner image. A similar method is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 08-003673 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 4"), for example, which uses a jumping development method as described below.
Other image forming apparatuses are also known, for instance, as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-6578 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 5") and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-197781 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 6"), an apparatus which performs development by means of a method known as "jumping" development, in which a superimposed DC voltage and AC voltage is applied between an image carrier and a development roller, thereby transferring the toner from the development roller to the image carrier by means of a non-contact method, or as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-329947 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 7") or Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-31146 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 8"), an apparatus which uses an electrostatic conveyance plate, conveys toner to a position opposing the image carrier, and causes the toner to vibrate, float or assume smoke-like behavior, the toner being separated from the conveyance surface by means of a force of attraction generated between the toner and the image carrier and being deposited onto the surface of the image carrier, or as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-31147 (hereinafter, called "PRIOR ART 9"), an apparatus which uses an electric field curtain.
Furthermore, with respect to the developing bias of the development apparatus, as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3-21967 (hereinafter called "PRIOR ART 10"), for example, an image forming apparatus is known in which the peak voltage of the developing bias is changed in accordance with the variation of the electrostatic capacitance C2 between an image carrier and a developer carrier, by introducing a capacitor C1 and a resistor R, connected in parallel to each other, in series to the output side of the bias power supply, and furthermore, a variable capacitor C3 is introduced in parallel with the electrostatic capacitance C2.
In an image forming apparatus based on a color superimposition method (image-on-image method) as described above, if a contact type developing apparatus is used, which moves toner to a region opposing an image carrier by means of a developing roller (developing sleeve) that rotates while carrying a two-component developer comprising a magnetic carrier and toner, as described in PRIOR ART 3 above, then the image is disturbed, for instance, due to the preceding toner image formed on the image carrier being disrupted by the magnetic effects created during subsequent development processes, and hence the image quality declines markedly.
Therefore, in an image forming apparatus of this kind, when using a non-contact type developing apparatus, image disturbance is prevented by setting extremely strict conditions, by which L4>L3/10 and L4>10 (μm), where the thickness of the photosensitive body is taken to be L4, 500<|Vs|<1000 (V), where Vs is taken to be the surface potential of the photosensitive body, 10<L1<40 (μm), where L1 is taken to be the thickness of the toner layer A deposited on the photosensitive body, 10<L2<50 (μm), where L2 is taken to be the thickness of the toner layer B on the toner carrier, 50<L3<150 (μm), where L3 is taken to be the interval between the toner layers A and B. Furthermore, the direction of movement of the surface of the toner layer A and the surface of the toner layer B are set to be the same direction of travel and their speeds of movement are set to be substantially the same.
However, since a good image can only be obtained when the surface potential of the image carrier, the thickness of the toner layer on the image carrier, the thickness of the toner layer on the developer carrier, the speed of movement of the surfaces of the toner layers, and the like, comply with extremely strict conditions in this way, then there is a problem in that such as apparatus cannot effectively be put into practice.
Furthermore, in the image forming apparatus described in PRIOR ART 4, color superimposition is carried out by using a jumping development method, but since jumping development is not a unidirectional development method, then similarly to a case where the aforementioned contact-type developing apparatus is used, the toners already deposited on the photosensitive body may be disturbed during development of the other colors, and toners of different colors may become mixed into the developing devices during development, thus giving rise to color mixing, and the like. In addition, jumping development generally requires a development potential of the order of 400-600 V, and when developing a plurality of colors, it is difficult to ensure a suitable differential in the development potential, thus leading to a decline in reproducibility.
A current and future issue in image forming apparatuses using an electrophotographic process is how to meet requirements relating to image quality, cost and the environment. In the case of image quality, when forming a color image, there is the issue of how to develop one isolated dot having a diameter of only 30 μm, in the case of a 1200 dpi resolution, and more desirably, how to be able to develop images without leaving any borders. Furthermore, with regards to costs, in the case of a personal laser printer, for instance, it is important to lower the total cost which includes not only the unit cost of the developing unit and developing agent, but also the costs of maintenance and final disposal. Moreover, in terms of the environment, it is particularly important to prevent the scattering of toner, which consists of very fine powder, either inside or outside the apparatus.
From these perspectives, the EH development method proposed previously in PRIOR ART 2, and the like, which uses an EH (Electrostatic transport & Hopping) development technique in which a powder is made to jump, with a movement component in the direction of travel, on the surface of an electrostatic conveyance member, by means of a phase-shift electric field (traveling wave electric field), is a unidirectional development method which does not involve contact with the image carrier and which provides excellent performance in that it is capable of developing, for instance, an isolated dot of only 30 μm diameter in a 1200 dpi image as described above.
Technologies relating to the present invention are also disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-198744 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 3,376,199.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method using electrostatic transport and hopping


A method and apparatus for executing target application programs with employment of a supervisor that is coupled to the executing target application through a conventional status reporting port of the computer. Events that represent execution errors or unexpected behavior are provided to the reporting port, or discovered through the reporting port, and the supervisor responds to such events by perusing a configuration that is tailored to the executing target application. For each reported event, the supervisor retrieves one or more actions that the configuration file specifies for the reported events and executes the specified actions. The configuration file includes actions that aim to effect a recovery, from reported events, including restart application, or a thread of the application, based on checkpointed data, restart target application as soon as it becomes idle, and suspend a thread when a thread starvation condition exists.

This invention relates to fault recovery in software systems.
A stored program controlled computer system comprises a basic processor with an operating system (OS) that provides a first-level user interface. Examples of operating systems are UNIX (a trademark of UNIX System Laboratories) and WINDOWS (a trademark of Microsoft). Programming languages such as C and C++ and their runtime environments provide a second-level user interface to facilitate programming on a computer system. Sometimes, even higher-level languages such as Java (a trademark of Sun Microsystems) and their runtime environments form a third-level user interface to further ease application programming. Each higher lever user interface attempts to reduce the expertise required of the computer system's programmer while (typically) reducing the programmer's control over the computer system.
Increasingly, server systems—which are computer systems that serve a plurality of clients—are partially or completely implemented in the Java programming language.
Most such servers have stringent availability requirements, which translate to a need for very reliable software. One reason for Java's popularity in server embodiments is the perception that Java's features help writing reliable code quickly. A variety of mechanisms are available in Java that help avoid many programming errors that are common in other languages. This includes, for example, pointerless programming, automatic garbage collection, type safety, the integration of threads as objects, and an extensive library of convenience classes. Other mechanisms, such as Java's exception handling, encourage writing code that recovers from errors, thereby adding to the reliability of the resulting program.
Even a very reliable server, however, is likely to encounter an execution error at some point in time. The behavior of a server in response to an error is another factor that strongly influences its availability, and here, too, Java has certain advantages. For example, if an error occurs in a Java program that is not caused by a virtual machine fault and which violates the semantics of the Java language, then the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) raises an exception and either invokes the appropriate user-supplied exception handler or, in the absence of such an exception handier, terminates the failed thread (a thread is a concurrent unit of execution inside a process, numerous threads can execute in a particular process, and numerous processes can be part of an application, and a thread can depend on another thread). This type of controlled reaction to an error often isolates the error to the failed thread. This stands in contrast to a language such as C and C++, where errors can spread without immediate detection and containment, and are often caught only by the operating system, which can result in the complete failure of the parent application.
To illustrate this point, consider a server implemented in C or C++ with no additional fault tolerance provisions. Suppose this server had a dedicated client handler thread for each current client and that one of the client handler threads modifies an array element beyond the allocated range of the array. There are several possible outcomes of this error. One is the corruption of data in the server that may lead to serious failures later on. Another possible outcome is the access of a memory location outside the address space of the server process. The operating system will detect this memory access attempt and shut down the entire server application (fail-stop behavior), potentially resulting in the loss of work that the server had performed on behalf of other clients that depended on the application that is shut down, and the temporary loss of availability of the application for all of the server's clients.
On the other hand, when the server is implemented in Java and one of its client handler threads attempts to modify an array element that is beyond the allocated range of the array, the Java virtual machine will immediately detect the error and raise an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. There is a good chance that the server does not include a programmer-supplied exception handler for this exception, and, in such a case, the JVM terminates the offending client handler thread. Thus, the JVM contains the failure in the offending thread, and all of the other client handler threads are unaffected, continuing to be available to their clients. In other words, the failed thread is terminated but neither the parent application, nor the other clients of that application are affected.
Although this Java failure behavior, which can be called graceful degradation, is superior to the C/C++ failure behavior with respect to server availability, it is not ideal. Graceful degradation does not restore the availability of a server. It merely limits the damage done by a failure. If the failed thread is pivotal, in the sense that the proper functioning of a server depends on it, graceful degradation will not enable the server to continue providing its intended service. Even if the failed thread is non-pivotal, graceful degradation will prevent immediate disastrous results, but the availability of the server will degrade, and may gradually worsen to a point where the server will cease to function. This type of failure can be particularly insidious because graceful degradation, unlike fail-stop behavior, allows the server to operate with reduced availability, which can be difficult to detect by the users and administrators of the server.
There is also a wide range of failures that the Java runtime environment (JRE), i.e., the combination of JVM and Java runtime library, does not detect at all. This includes failures such as thread starvation, thread deadlock, excessive garbage collector activity, machine or process crash, thread hangs, etc. The reason is that, basically, all that the JRE does is log a stack trace of a failed thread. While this is certainly helpful, it is often insufficient for debugging purposes.
The art has attempted to assist programmers with failure analysis and recovery tools. One such tool is described by Huang et al in "NT-SwiFT: Software Implemented Fault Tolerance on Windows NT," Proceedings of the 2nd USENIX Windows NT Symposium, pp. 47–55, Seattle, Wash., USA, August 1998. This tool can detect the crash of a watched target application and restart a crashed application. However, it can only catch failures with a fail-stop behavior, and such failures are relatively rare in Java programs because of Java's graceful degradation behavior. They occur only due to a fault in the Java virtual machine, due to a fault in a native code attachment to a Java application, or due to external influences such as a machine crash or a forceful shutdown of the target application through an operating system command, e.g., a kill signal.
Bernhard Plattner in "Real-Time Execution Monitoring," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE-10(6), pp. 750–764, November 1984, describes a supervisor for real-time applications called a real-time monitor. However, the functionality of, and the real-time constraints for, this real-time monitor require special hardware support and the need for two machines, as well as access to the source code of the target application.
An application supervisor for the ADA programming language is described by DiMaio et al in "Execution Monitoring and Debugging Tool for ADA Using Relational Algebra," Proceedings of the ADA International Conference on ADA in Use, pp. 109–123, 1985. Like the real-time monitor, the ADA supervisor lets the user specify failure detection and recovery policies. However, the ADA supervisor requires source code editing of the target program and subsequent recompilation.
The Meta system described by Marzuilo et al in "Tools for Distributed Application Management," IEEE Computer, 24(8) pp. 42–51, August 1991, is a toolkit for writing external application supervisors for distributed target applications, written in C and running, for example, on UNIX. Meta allows the placement of powerful generic and customized sensors (probes placed in the target application that can be queried to deliver information about the program or the program state) and actuators (code fragments that affect program execution). While Meta allows the coordinated supervision of all remote components of a distributed application, it requires detailed knowledge of, changes and additions to, and recompilation of the target source code.

Automatic failure detection and recovery of applications


An aspect includes receiving, at a software-defined networking (SDN) controller, a request from a requestor to identify a flow of a data packet in a computer network. The data packet includes a data packet header. It is determined, based on the data packet header, that the data packet includes one of a peripheral component internet express (PCIe) data packet and a multi-root input/output (MR-IOV) data packet. It is also determined that the flow of the data packet requires a virtual tunnel between a source network device and a destination network device. The creation of the virtual tunnel is initiated and the requestor is instructed to send the packet from the source network device to the destination network device via the virtual tunnel. The requestor is also instructed to use the virtual tunnel for sending subsequent packets having the same flow and received prior to the virtual tunnel being shut down.

The present invention relates generally to software-defined networking (SDN), and more specifically, to SDN tunneling extensions.
Ethernet networks are typically employed in local area networks (LANs) that include a plurality of network switches. A number of communication protocols have been developed and continue to evolve to enhance Ethernet network performance for various environments. For example, an enhancement to Ethernet, called data center bridging (DCB), converged enhanced Ethernet (CEE) or data center Ethernet (DCE), supports the convergence of LANs with storage area networks (SANs). Other protocols that can be used in a data center environment in conjunction with Ethernet include, for instance, fibre channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Internet wide area remote direct memory access protocol (iWARP), remote direct memory access over converged Ethernet (RoCE).
In traditional network architectures there is no centralized network control. Routing tables located locally in network devices, such as switches, bridges, gateways, routers, or firewalls, are individually configured to direct network traffic to neighboring nodes of the network. The network devices may make control decisions and forward network traffic accordingly. In software-defined networking (SDN), network traffic routing decisions are centrally controlled and made by a controller that creates tables to define flow paths through the network. The controller decouples control decisions about where traffic is sent from network devices that forward traffic to a selected destination.

Software-defined networking tunneling extensions

International Business Machines Corporation


A light conversion structure ensuring good light transmission and less deterioration and capable of controlling light to a desired color tone and emitting a highly bright light, and a light-emitting device using the same. The light conversion structure is a light conversion structure including a layer formed of a ceramic composite, which absorbs a part of a first light to emit a second light and transmits a part of the first light, and a fluorescent layer for the control of color tone, which is formed on the surface of the ceramic composite and which absorbs a part of the first light or a part of the second light to emit a third light and transmits a part of the first light or a part of the second light, wherein the ceramic composite includes a solidified body where at least two or more metal oxide phases are formed continuously and three-dimensionally entangled with each other, and at least one metal oxide phase in the solidified body includes a metal element oxide capable of emitting fluorescence.

With the recent implementation into practice of a blue light-emitting diode, studies are being aggressively made to develop a white light-emitting diode using the blue diode as the light emission source. The white light-emitting diode is lightweight, uses no mercury and has long life, and therefore demand is expected to rapidly expand in the future. As for the white light-emitting diode, a diode obtained by coating a blue light-emitting element with a mixture of cerium-activated YAG (Y3Al5O12:Ce) powder and epoxy resin is usually employed (see, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-208815).
However, a highly bright light-emitting device cannot be obtained using a mixture of cerium-activated Y3Al5O12 (YAG:Ce) powder and epoxy resin, because the light is absorbed by the surface defect of the fluorescent powder. Particularly, the above-described effect increases in a layer comprising an epoxy having dispersed therein a fluorescent substance, because complicated reflection and transmission are repeated on the fluorescent powder surface. Also, the refractive index of the fluorescent substance is larger than resin, and therefore the total reflection occurs inside the fluorescent substance every time light passes through the fluorescent substance, and as a result, a large absorption of light is occurs. For these reasons, a highly bright light-emitting diode cannot be obtained for a white light-emitting diode which has a construction in which a fluorescent substance is dispersed in a resin.
Furthermore, the color of YAG:Ce fluorescence is approximately x=0.41 and y=0.56 in the CIE chromaticity coordinates and when mixed with the blue excitation light at 460 nm, since the color tone is controlled on a line connecting the chromatic coordinate of blue light-emitting diode and the chromatic coordinate of YAG:Ce, the color produced is not white, but becomes white mixed with a blue green-color, so that only a white color insufficient in the red component can be realized. In order to solve this problem, another fluorescent powder capable of emitting a red fluorescence is mixed with the YAG:Ce fluorescent powder and this powder mixture is mixed with the resin, thereby adjusting the color tone. In this way, controlling the color tone of a light-emitting diode, a method of mixing a second fluorescent powder, kneading the mixture with a resin, and coating the kneaded product on a light-emitting element to obtain a color tone that was formerly unachievable is being widely employed.
As described above, in conventional light-emitting diodes, a white light-emitting diode that assures a highly bright light after a change in color tone has not been obtained. In addition, there is a problem in that deterioration occurs due to use of an organic material, such as resin at a portion close to the light source.
It could therefore be advantageous to provide a light conversion structure ensuring good light transmission, high brightness and less deterioration, and capable of controlling the light to a desired color tone. It could also be advantageous to provide a light-emitting device, such as light-emitting diode, using the light conversion structure.

Light conversion structure and light-emitting device using the same


A projectile is provided, in accordance with the present invention that includes a gas seal, an absorption zone, a core material containment area, a mass of material within the containment area and an actuator member. The containment area is characterized by the ability to peel back upon itself on impact, thereby releasing the mass of core particles after impact. The actuator, is releasably fixed to the hull open end, and has a stem member that projecting into the mass of material. Prior to initial impact the actuator maintains the core material within the containment area hull and, up initial impact, the actuator is continues to be propelled forward, along with the core material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fragmentation type projectile for antipersonnel use, and more particularly, to a fragmentation type projectile having increased stopping power and after initially hitting a target, having a decreased lethal range.
2. Related Art
The problems associated with ammunition missing, or going through the target, and hitting an innocent bystander has long been acknowledged. Various methods of resolving the problem have been approached; however, none have eliminated the inadvertent injuries and deaths.
Various forms of smooth bore shotgun projectiles, specifically buckshot and slugs, originally designed for use in hunting big, and/or dangerous game animals, are well known in the art. Although these designs are the most common types of shotgun ammunition used by the law enforcement community, their excessive destructive capabilities have always presented liability problems in law enforcement situations.
These projectiles are designed for deep penetration in game animals weighing up to one thousand pounds. With only a fractional loss of energy, they will completely penetrate a human sized target. The small percentage of energy transference to the target makes these hunting projectiles very inefficient and dangerous for use in crowded urban environments. Both slugs and larger sizes of buckshot are capable of passing through multiple residential type interior walls, and/or non-masonry exterior walls, while retaining lethal energy.
Shotgun projectiles have been designed typically to have either a single projectile, or core element (slug), or multiple projectiles, or core elements (shot or pellets). In the multiple projectile, or core element design, a shot cup or core material containment area protects the projectiles from deformation inside the shotgun barrel and upon exit from the barrel separates from the core elements prior to impact.
Typically, this shot cup or core material containment area is slit and peels back during flight, due to wind resistance. The pellets then travel in a progressively spreading pattern and impact a target as a collection of individual particles whose impact area is dependent upon the distance the pellets have traveled.
A target struck by small, less dangerous multiple individual pellets receives very little post impact trauma or blunt trauma injury, as the individual pellets displace minimal kinetic energy, which is lost rapidly during flight or upon the first impact. By way of contrast, a slug and to a lesser extend large buck shot, generally hits with enough kinetic energy and penetration to produce blunt trauma injury, over penetration of an initial target and lethality for an extended period of travel beyond. The difficult problem of achieving a balance between the safer, small and inefficient individual pellet impact and the dangerous, but effective slug impact, is not only achieved by the process and projectile of the present invention, but is achieved in a controlled manner.
The disclosed unique type of projectile will penetrate an initial barrier, create a secondary incapacitation zone of several feet or greater if so desired, and then become non-lethal down range. It is through a controlled expansion process that the present ammunition achieves a result that is different from any ammunition ever designed.


A liquid crystal display of the present invention includes: a pair of substrates, at least one of which is transparent; a liquid crystal layer being interposed between said pair of substrates; electrodes for applying an electric field to liquid crystals molecules in said liquid crystal layer; active switching elements connected with said electrodes; an alignment film being formed on a surface of at least one of said pair of substrates, said surface being contacted with said liquid crystal layer; and an optical device for controlling a transmission of light in cooperation with alignment of said liquid crystal molecules in each pixel, said means being located on at least one said pair of substrates; wherein an aligning direction of each liquid crystal molecule in each pixel is ranged between xe2x88x922 degrees to +2 degrees with respect to an average aligning direction xcex81c of said liquid crystal layer.

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display. More particularly, the present invention provides an In-plane switching (IPS) type liquid crystal display, in which an electric field is formed laterally to its substrates and applied to a liquid crystal layer, having a wide viewing angle, a high contrast ratio and an excellent display quality.
In a liquid crystal display interposing a liquid crystal layer between a pair of substrates, at least one of them being transparent, some display mode have been used as a display method. Examples of the display mode which have widely been used include a twisted nematic (TN) mode. According to this mode, an electric field is applied to a liquid crystal layer to control its rotary polarization, thereby controlling a transparency of the liquid crystal layer and obtaining display of image.
On the other hand, there has been an in-plane switching (IPS) mode for applying, to a liquid crystal, an electric field which is almost parallel with a substrate by using interdigital shaped electrodes (hereinafter referred to as an interdigital electrode) or the like. According to this mode, an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal to control birefringence of the liquid crystal, thereby switching display of images. Japanese Patent No. 2743293 has disclosed that the IPS mode has a greater angle of view characteristic than that in a conventional TN mode.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a part of a conventional liquid crystal display using an IPS mode which is formed by a liquid crystal having a positive dielectric anisotropy. FIG. 9 shows an electrode substrate 51, two kinds of interdigital pixel electrodes 53 and 54 formed on the electrode substrate 51, a counter substrate 52, and liquid crystal molecules included in a liquid crystal layer 60 which constitute a liquid crystal panel in the liquid crystal display. As shown in FIG. 9, the electrode substrate 51 having the interdigital pixel electrodes 53, 54 and the counter substrate 52 are provided in parallel with each other and the liquid crystal layer 60 including the liquid crystal molecules is present between the electrode substrate 51 and the counter substrate 52. As shown in FIG. 10(a), the electrode substrate 51 and the counter substrate 52 are subjected to an alignment treatment in a direction of angle 55, thereby the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer 60 are provided to have an angle of xcex81c with respect to a length-wise direction of pixel electrode 53 and 54.
Next, a display principle of the liquid crystal display will be described with reference to FIG. 11. FIG. 11 is a partial view showing the liquid crystal display using the IPS mode. FIG. 11 shows only the liquid crystal panel and two polarizing plates in the liquid crystal display. Referring to the liquid crystal panel, particularly, there are shown the electrode substrate 51, interdigital pixel electrodes 53 and 54 (only one pixel electrode is shown respectively), the counter substrate 52 and liquid crystal molecules included in the liquid crystal layer 60 (only seven molecules are shown). In FIG. 11, the reference numeral 53 denotes a first pixel electrode, the reference numeral 54 denotes a second pixel electrode, the reference numeral 51 denotes an electrode substrate, the reference numeral 52 denotes an counter substrate, the reference numeral 59 denotes a first polarizing plate and the reference numeral 58 denotes a second polarizing plate. As shown in FIG. 11, the first polarizing plate 59 is provided such that a direction of a major axis of the liquid crystal molecule is parallel with a direction of a transmission axis of the first polarizing plate 59 (show in a double headed arrow) and a direction of a transmission axis of the second polarizing plate 58 (also shown in a double headed arrow) is orthogonal to that of the first polarizing plate 59. Directions of aligning treatments of alignment films (not shown) formed on the electrode substrate 51 and the counter substrate 52 are both parallel with the transmission axis of the first polarizing plate 59 or the second polarizing plate 58.
In a state in which no voltage is applied (that is, an electric field is not formed between the first pixel electrode 53 and the second pixel electrode 54 as shown in FIG. 11A), a linearly polarized light incident on the liquid crystal layer 60 has an oscillation direction parallel with the liquid crystal molecule and does not receive a birefringence effect during passage through the liquid crystal layer. Therefore, a direction P of oscillation of the light passing through the counter substrate 52 is orthogonal to the transmission axis of the second polarizing plate 58 and the light transmitted through the counter substrate 52 cannot be transmitted through the second polarizing plate 58 and is set in a dark state.
In a state in which voltage is applied (that is, the electric field is formed between the first pixel electrode 53 and the second pixel electrode 54) as shown in FIG. 11B, the liquid crystal molecule is rotated in the direction of the electric field (the degree of the rotation depends on a magnitude of the electric field) while maintaining a parallel orientation with respect to the surfaces of the electrode substrate 51 and the counter substrate 52. For this reason, the linearly polarized light incident on the liquid crystal layer 60 receives the birefringence effect to be changed into an elliptically polarized light Q and a certain quantity of the light passes through the second polarizing plate. The quantity of the light transmitted through the second polarizing plate is changed depending on a rotating angle xcex8 of the liquid crystal molecule. The rotating angle xcex8 of the liquid crystal is a function of an applied voltage (V). Thus, display of image can be carried out by changing voltages to be applied to the first pixel electrodes 53 and the second pixel electrodes 54.
At this time, an intensity of the transmitted light is expressed in the Equation 1:
I=Ioxc2x7sin2(xcfx80R/xcfx80)xc2x7sin2(2xcex8)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(Equation 1)
Wherein Io represents an intensity of the light incident on the first polarizing plate 59, xcex represents a wavelength of the light, and R represents a retardation which is represented by an optical path difference (xcex94n)xc2x7d between an ordinary light and an extraordinary light, xcex94n representing an absolute value (|nexe2x88x92no|) of a difference between a refractive index no of the ordinary light and a refractive index ne of the extraordinary light in the liquid crystal. As is apparent from the Equation 1, the transmitted light has a maximum intensity with xcex8=xcfx80/4.
FIG. 12 shows a change in a quantity of the transmitted light with a variation in a voltage to be applied between the first pixel electrode 53 and the second pixel electrode 54. When the applied voltage is increased, the rotating angle of the liquid crystal molecule becomes greater and the quantity of the transmitted light is increased. xcex8 in the Equation 1 corresponds to the average aligning direction of the liquid crystal layer realigned by an electric field formed laterally to the substrate.
Usually, the TN mode is used in a normally white mode in which white display is carried out without the application of an electric field and black display is carried out with the electric field applied. At this time, more black display can be obtained by the application of a higher electric field to the liquid crystal. As a result, a high contrast ratio can be achieved.
On the other hand, the IPS mode is used in a normally black mode in which the black display is carried out without the application of the electric field and the white display is carried out with the electric field applied. FIGS. 9 and 10 show sectional and plan views showing a conventional IPS mode, respectively. In a liquid crystal display using an IPS mode, xcex8=0 is theoretically obtained in the Equation 1 without the application of the electric field so that light is not transmitted. However, the pixel electrodes 53 and 54 actually have certain thickness. Therefore, when an aligning treatment such as rubbing is performed, a region 62 having an aligning direction shifted from the angle 55 of the aligning treatment as well as a region 61 having an aligning direction almost coincident with the angle 55 of aligning treatment is formed.
By the region 62 having the aligning direction shifted, transmission of light is caused in spite of the black display. This is a serious problem when a high contrast ratio is to be implemented by using the IPS mode as a practical liquid crystal display. Moreover, in the case in which this region is generated in a rubbing direction, it is visible as a stripe-shaped mura having a varied brightens. Therefore, there is a problem in respect of display quality.
In particular, in the IPS mode liquid crystal display equipped with active switching elements such as TFTs (thin film transistors), on the substrate there are electrodes for applying the lateral electric field to the liquid crystal, active switching elements for selectively applying voltages to the electrodes, and signal wirings for applying electric signals to the switching element as well as the electrodes. That is, surface irregularities of several hundreds to several thousands nm (nanometer) caused by the electrodes, switching elements and wirings are formed on the substrate. Furthermore, in which a color filter is formed on the counter substrate in order to carry out color display, colorants contained in the filter, seams formed between pixels, a black matrix, and the like cause surface irregularities on the counter substrate. These irregularities on the substrates make an uniform alignment of the liquid crystal to be disturbed, and therefore problematic.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 333151/1998 has disclosed a method preventing the generation of said stripe-shaped mura caused by deflected distribution of rubbing cloth staples. In this method, projections to fix the deflected distribution of rubbing cloth staples are formed on the periphery of the substrate. However, the detailed conditions of rubbing process are not described.
Furthermore, it is also possible to form or widen a black matrix on the counter substrate in order to block the light passing through the region in which aligning direction of liquid crystal is shifted. With the black matrix, undesired leakage of light is prevented, so that high contrast ratio is obtained. However, an aperture ratio of the substrate (i.e. that of liquid crystal panel) is decreased with the black matrix, thereby a luminance of white image is reduced.
Moreover, a contrast ratio is greatly affected by a relationship between the aligning direction of the liquid crystal on two interfaces where the liquid crystal and each substrate come in contact with each other and an absorption axis of a polarizing plate provided on the outside of each substrate.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has been made.
As shown in FIG. 1, a liquid crystal display according to the present invention comprises a pair of substrates 1, 2 and a liquid crystal layer 5 between the substrates. One of said substrates is provided with pixel electrodes 3, opposed electrodes 4 and active switching elements (not shown) to apply electric fields, which are substantially parallel to the substrate, to liquid crystal molecules included in the liquid crystal layer 5. Further, the liquid crystal display of the present invention comprises optical devices (e.g. polarizing plates) 7, 8 to selectively pass the light. Furthermore, either or both of the substrates 1, 2 are provided with alignment films 6a, 6b on their surface facing the liquid crystal layer, thereby aligning directions of liquid crystal molecules in each pixel are set to be in a range of xc2x12 degree with respect to an average aligning direction xcex81c of the liquid crystal layer 5 without applying electric fields.
The liquid crystal layer 5 designates liquid crystal molecules interposed between the substrates 1, 2. Moreover, the average aligning direction xcex81c of the liquid crystal layer, which is shown in FIG. 8 diagrammatically, is computed with following equation 2.
xcex81c=xcexa3(xcex8ixc3x97Si)/S(i=1, 2, 3 . . . )xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(Equation 2)
In the equation, xcex8i designates an aligning direction of liquid crystal, Si designates an area of regions having the aligning direction of xcex8i, and S designates an area of effective display region through which the light transpire to display images. It should be noted that separators, such as polymer beads, for maintaining prescribed distance between two substrates may be dispersed into the liquid crystal layer, regions around the separators in which aligning directions are varied are excluded from the area S.
That is, the average aligning direction xcex81c of the liquid crystal layer is computed with following steps. Firstly, the effective display region is divided into the regions according to their aligning direction xcex81, xcex82, xcex83, . . . . Then, the area S1, S2, S3, . . . of each region is multiplied by its aligning direction xcex81, xcex82, xcex83, respectively, and products xcex81xc3x97S1, xcex82xc3x97S2, xcex83xc3x97S3, . . . are summed up. Lastly, the sum of the products is divided by the area S of the effective display region, therefore the average aligning direction xcex81c is obtained.
Here, an aligning direction xcex8i of liquid crystal in each region is defined and measured as follows. A pair of substrates sandwiching a liquid crystal layer is interposed between two polarizing plates having their absorption axes orthogonal to each other (i.e. cross nicole arrangement). When the liquid crystal layer with the substrates is rotated in relative to the polarizing plates, the intensity of light passing through the liquid crystal layer and the polarizing plates varies. Therefore, an angle between the absorption axis of one polarizing plate and length-wise direction of pixel electrodes on the substrate wherein the intensity of light passing through the region becomes minimized is assumed as aligning direction xcex8i of liquid crystal in this region.
With referring to FIGS. 7(a) to 7(c), an aligning direction of liquid crystal in one region is explained. In an example shown in FIG. 7(a), a liquid crystal molecule on the electrode substrate and a liquid crystal molecule on the counter substrate as well as the other liquid crystal molecules have almost same aligning direction, i.e. xcex81c. On the other hand, in an example shown in FIG. 7(b), an aligning direction of a liquid crystal molecule on the electrode substrate is not equal to that of a liquid crystal molecule on the counter substrate, however an average aligning direction in this region is xcex81c. FIG. 7(c) shows an alignment of the liquid crystal in which each liquid crystal molecule is realigned under application of electric field by the pixel electrodes, wherein xcex81c corresponds to an angle at which a quantity of transmitted light, i.e. light passing through the liquid crystal and the polarizing plates sandwiching the liquid crystal and having their axes orthogonal to each other, is minimized.
Moreover, it is preferable that the alignment film formed of an organic substance should be used for controlling the orientation of the liquid crystal. In order to relieve the irregularities on a surface of the substrate, particularly of a substrate on which active switching elements are formed, so as to obtain an uniform aligning direction, it is effective to flatten the irregularities of the substrate by means of an insulating materials. To form an aligning film thickly is also effective to relieve the irregularities. Furthermore, a flattened layer may be provided on the surface of the substrate and an aligning film may be formed on the flattened layer.
The alignment treatment of the liquid crystal is carried out by a rubbing method, and it is preferable that a rubbing strength L shown in Equation 3 should be 50 mm or more.
L=Nxc3x97ld(1+2xcfx80rn/(60V))xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(Equation 3)
wherein N represents the number of times of rubbing [number], ld represents an amount of deformation of rubbing cloth [mm], r represents a radius of a rubbing roller [mm], n represents the number of revolution of the roller per minutes [rpm] and V represents a stage moving speed [mm/s].
With reference to FIG. 6, a rubbing process for aligning the liquid crystal will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, a roller 72 on which a velvet-like rubbing cloth 73 made of rayon or cotton and having a small staple length is wound is rotated at n times/min. in a direction of an arrow R. At the same time, a substrate 74 having an alignment film formed is mounted on a stage 71 and is moved at a constant speed V in a direction of an arrow S. The rubbing cloth 73 on the roller 72 is pushed against the substrate 74 on the stage 71 and deformed, therefore the deformation of the rubbing cloth is assumed to an amount of deformation ld. A rubbing direction of the substrate 74 thus rubbed is represented by a composite vector of a speed vector at which the rubbing cloth 73 rubs the substrate 74 and a moving speed vector of the stage 71. In general, the speed at which the rubbing cloth 73 rubs the substrate 74 is much higher than the moving speed of the stage 71. Therefore, the rubbing direction is obtained by projecting the rotating direction of the rubbing roller onto the substrate.
In some cases in which a surface of the substrate is flattened, an effective aligning treatment can be achieved even if the rubbing strength L is set to 50 mm or less. However, since the flattening process causes an increase in the number of manufacturing steps, a decrease in an effective voltage to be applied to a liquid crystal and a rise in cost, it is not preferable. On the other hand, if the rubbing strength L is increased, mura in a displayed image appears easily. Therefore, it is preferable that the rubbing strength L should be 300 mm or less.
Moreover, it is preferable that the aligning direction of the liquid crystal molecule in the interface of one substrate and that of the liquid crystal molecule in the interface of the other substrate should be almost equal to each other. The expression of xe2x80x9calmost equalxe2x80x9d implies that an angle defined by both aligning directions is 0 to 3 degrees.
In the present invention, moreover, it is preferable that an optical device for selectively passing the light according to the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules should be a pair of polarizing plates provided on the outside of the substrates respectively and absorption axes of the polarizing plates should be almost orthogonal to each other. The expression of xe2x80x9corthogonalxe2x80x9d implies that the angle formed by the absorption axes of the polarizing plates ranges from 85 degrees to 95 degrees. More preferably, the angle ranges from 88 degrees to 92 degrees.
Moreover, it is preferable that the relationship between a direction xcex8p1 of the absorption axis of the polarizing plate closer to an observer and the average aligning direction xcex81c of the liquid crystal should be set to |xcex81c|xe2x88x922+xe2x89xa6|xcex8p1|xe2x89xa6|xcex81c|+3xc2x0 or the relationship between a direction xcex8p2 of the absorption axis of the polarizing plate which is more distant from the observer and the average aligning direction xcex81c of the liquid crystal should be set to |xcex81c|xe2x88x922xc2x0xe2x89xa6|xcex8p2|xe2x89xa6xcex81c|+3xc2x0. At this time, when the liquid crystal panel is seen from the substrate 1 side, xcex81c, xcex8p1 and xcex8p2 represent, as a positive direction, a rotation in which the liquid crystal molecule is rotated by applied electric field.
Furthermore, it is preferable that the absorption axis xcex8p1 of one of the polarizing plates and the average aligning direction xcex81c(bk) of the liquid crystal during black display are almost equal to each other. The expression of xe2x80x9calmost equalxe2x80x9d implies that an angle formed between the absorption axis and the average aligning direction is 0 to 3 degrees.
It is preferable that the aligning direction of the liquid crystal molecules in each pixel should range within xc2x12 degrees with respect of the average aligning direction xcex81c of the liquid crystal layer.


The present invention includes a main circuit and a circuit to be tested. An observation node and a control node are connected to the circuit to be tested. A pin is connected via an analog switch and a digital switch to these nodes. The test circuit controls the switch and input and output of test data. The test circuit has one bi-directional digital pin. A control signal and observation data are input to and output from an analog circuit through an analog test pin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated circuit device and a testing method thereof. Specifically, the invention relates to an integrated circuit device having a digital and/or analog circuit parts and a testing circuit for executing the testing of the digital circuit part and the analog circuit part, and relates to the testing method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As integrated circuits become more dense and complex, it has become increasingly important to test circuits after they have been manufactured to guarantee quality and correctness. The increase in density and complexity has also made the physical availability of pins on a microchip a problem, and it has become important to design circuits which have the reduced number of external pins used.
Although various circuit specific methods have been developed for testing digital circuits of integrated circuit devices, most modern designs employ the scan testing method. This method usually employs four or more external testing pins including a pin to select the mode of scan flip-flop circuits in the digital circuit parts to be tested in a scanning mode or a normal operation mode, an input pin for inputting control data, an output pin for outputting observation data, and a clock pin for inputting a clock signal. In addition, this scan testing method is not suited to test circuits with analog control or observation nodes.
Since the conventional integrated circuit device and its testing method are constructed as above, plural external testing pins may be required for the integrated circuit device, whereby there are problems in which the size of the integrated circuit device cannot be minimized as well as the analog circuit parts cannot be tested suitably.

Device and method for testing integrated circuit including bi-directional test pin for receiving control data and outputting observation data


In a vehicle including a plurality of devices (14, 16, 60, and 70 to 74) for operating so as to cause a yaw rate of the vehicle to approach a target yaw rate, a target control amount Δγt for the yaw rate for causing a yaw rate γ of the vehicle to approach a target yaw rate γt is calculated (S20 to S60), for each device, a ratio of a change amount of the yaw rate to an energy loss amount caused by an operation is calculated as an efficiency (S80 to S100), the target control amount is sequentially distributed to the plurality of devices in descending order of the efficiency, to thereby calculate individual target control amounts for the plurality of devices (S110 to S160), and the operations of the respective devices are controlled based on the individual target control amounts (S170).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle travel control apparatus, and more particularly, to a vehicle travel control apparatus including a plurality of travel motion state control devices for operating so as to cause a travel motion state of a vehicle to approach a target travel motion state.
2. Description of the Related Art
When the vehicle receives an external force during travel, the travel motion state of the vehicle deviates from a target travel motion state. For example, when the vehicle receives a crosswind during the travel, a leeward lateral force acts on the vehicle, and a yaw moment deflecting a travel direction of the vehicle leeward is generated by the action of the lateral force, and an unnecessary yaw rate is thus generated on the vehicle.
There have been known various travel motion state control devices for operating so as to cause the vehicle travel motion state to approach the target travel motion state, thereby preventing the travel motion state of the vehicle from deviating from the target travel motion state. Those travel motion state control devices provide a braking/driving force difference between left and right wheels, or increase slip angles of the wheels to increase cornering forces of the wheels, to thereby generate a control yaw moment against the yaw moment caused by the external force acting on the vehicle. Moreover, there has also been known a travel motion state control device for using an aerodynamic force to generate the control yaw moment.
For example, in Japanese Patent No. 3463375, there is disclosed a control device for using control of distributing a driving force between the left and right wheels and an aerodynamic device such as side air spoilers, thereby generating and controlling the control yaw moment against the yaw moment caused by the crosswind.
An energy is required to operate the travel motion state control devices. In addition, a travel resistance of the vehicle is increased, for example, due to an increase in rolling resistances of the wheels or an air resistance of the vehicle, which results from the operations of the travel motion state control devices. A loss of energy is generated by those factors. Even a device highest in an effect of controlling the travel motion state may have a large loss in the energy, and the control effect and the loss in the energy change depending on the travel state of the vehicle and the state of the external force.
However, the related-art vehicle travel control apparatus including the plurality of travel motion state control devices capable of generating the control yaw moment controls the travel motion state by using a device or combination of devices highest in the control effect. As a result, even if the travel motion state of the vehicle can be effectively controlled, energy efficiency of the control of the travel motion state may deteriorate, resulting in deterioration of fuel efficiency of the entire vehicle.


A directional light sensor may be provided having an array of beam steering elements and an array of corresponding light sensors. Each beam steering element may be configured to direct light from a given angle onto a particular light sensor so that the angular distribution of light may be mapped onto a planar grid of light sensors. Each beam steering element may be formed using holographic, refractive, diffusive or other structures for redirecting a beam of light. An electronic device may be provided having a directional light sensor. The directional light sensor in the electronic device may provide ambient light data or user input data to the electronic device. A test system may be provided having a directional light sensor for gathering ambient light data during testing and manufacturing of an electronic device.

This invention relates generally to a novel light sensor configuration and, more particularly, to a directional light sensor having position dependent light sensing capabilities and applications derived therefrom.
Ambient light sensors are often used for sensing the intensity of ambient light in the environment surrounding the ambient light sensor. For example, electronic devices such as portable computers are sometimes provided with an ambient light sensor. The portable computer is often configured to adjust the intensity of a display based on ambient light intensity information from the ambient light sensor.
Conventional ambient light sensors are capable of sensing the total intensity of all ambient light incident on the ambient light sensor. However, in some situations it may be desirable to be able to map the intensity of the ambient light to the direction from which the ambient light is emitted.
It would therefore be desirable to provided improved ambient light sensors.


[Problem] A cutting tool to which a cutting insert can be firmly fixed is provided.

A technique for fixing a replaceable cutting insert to a cutting tool main body with an internally provided lever is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to Patent Document 1, an inclined surface is provided in a through hole of the cutting insert and a protruding portion provided on the lever is pressed against the inclined surface. As a result, a force is generated to pull the cutting insert into the placement surface of the cutting tool main body.

Abstract: [Means for Resolution] Provided is a cutting tool where a replaceable cutting insert having a hole for fixing is mountable. The cutting tool includes a main body portion, a lever, a pin, and a screw. The main body portion has a placement surface where the cutting insert is placed, a side wall coming into contact with at least one side surface of the cutting insert, a lever accommodating hole, a pin accommodating hole, and a screw accommodating hole. The screw presses a rear end portion of the pin by being tightened. A tip portion of the pin presses the lever by the rear end portion being pressed against the screw. The lever has a concave surface configured by a line segment parallel to a reference axis and, by the concave surface being pressed against the tip portion of the pin, a head protruding into the hole of the placed cutting insert presses an inner wall of the hole and presses and fixes the cutting insert against and to the placement surface and the side wall.


Some aspects of the present embodiments provide a plurality of exterior lighting devices that are communicatively linked and capable of simultaneous (or near simultaneous) activation. At least a subset of the lighting devices may have cameras that enable live viewing (and/or later viewing of recorded footage) of the area around each lighting device (e.g., by the property owner, by law enforcement, or by any other authorized person or entity), and speakers that are capable of providing live verbal warnings (and/or automatic audible warnings) to intruders. Some of the present embodiments may enable the user to remotely control the light and/or sound emitted from the lighting devices.

Home security is a concern for many homeowners and renters. Some exterior lighting devices include motion sensors that activate the lights when motion is detected. Such exterior lighting devices may startle would-be burglars when the lights suddenly turn on unexpectedly. These systems can thus deter crime in and around a property.

Communication-linked floodlight controllers with audio/video recording and communication features


An information processing apparatus includes: a first memory; a second memory different in processing speed from the first memory; and a processor including: a memory controller that is coupled to the first memory and the second memory and that controls an access to the first memory and an access to the second memory; and a plurality of controllers that access to the first memory or the second memory. The processor is configured to suppress a writing frequency of data into the second memory by controlling one or more first controllers that access the second memory among the plurality of controllers in accordance with a result of monitoring a state of writing the data into the second memory.

In an information processing apparatus such as a server or a Personal Computer (PC), an access to a main storage device exemplified by a memory, such as a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), is made by a processor such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU).
A processor includes one or more CPU cores (sometimes simply referred to as "cores") and a memory controller (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as "MC"). The core executes a process (may be referred to as a "program") that accesses data stored in the memory, and the MC controls an access to a memory serving as an access target of the process to be executed.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-006366
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-004861
In recent years, memories adopting the next generation memory technique have appeared. As such a memory, a memory adopting, for example, Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as "PMEM" or "PM") (registered trademark) employing 3D XPoint (registered trademark) technique is known.
A PMEM is lower in processing performance (in particular, writing performance) as compared with a DRAM, but has an inexpensive unit price per capacity and a large capacity. As an example, a PMEM has one-tenth the processing performance of a DRAM and a ten times the storage capacity (size of the storage region) of a DRAM.
Like the DRAM, the PMEM can be mounted on a memory slot, such as a Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) slot. For the above, the MC controls accesses both to the DRAM and the PMEM. In other words, the DRAM, which is an example of a first memory, and the PMEM, which is an example of a second memory being different in process performance (process speed) from the DRAM, coexist in the same storage (memory) layer.
For example, when multiple processes including a process for accessing the DRAM and a process for accessing the PMEM are executed in parallel in a single processor, a conflict sometimes occurs between a process on the DRAM and a process on the PMEM in the MC.
Accordingly, such a conflict of processes in the MC may increase a processing time (processing delay) of at least one process, for example.

Information processing apparatus and method to control memory access and computer-readable recording medium having stored therein control program to control memory access


An exercise device includes a support frame and a running platform supported by the support frame. The support frame includes a front, a rear, a left side, and a right side and defines a horizontal plane having a longitudinal axis and a lateral axis. The running platform includes at least one support member extending longitudinally between the front and the rear of the support frame. A left track and a right track are each rotatably connected to the at least one support member and the support frame for lateral rotation. The left track and the right track are each operable between a horizontal position and an inclined position. The left and right tracks are substantially parallel to the horizontal plane in the horizontal position and are laterally rotated relative to the horizontal plane in their respective inclined positions.

Conventional exercise treadmills provide a horizontal running surface which allows a user to perform running, walking, and other exercise routines in small and confined spaces. Some exercise treadmills utilize an inclining track which allows a user to simulate an outdoor exercise environment in which slopes and hills are encountered. Use of an incline provides a user with a varied exercise experience while also allowing changes in intensity and targeting of different muscle groups. The incline of conventional treadmill tracks is adjusted by raising or lowering the front or forward end of the track. There is a need for an exercise device having a track with a laterally inclined surface to provide the user with the ability to vary the stress placed on the user's ankles.


A method of forming a dielectric layer is provided. A first dielectric layer is formed on a substrate having metal layers formed thereon. The first dielectric layer includes overhangs in the spaces between two neighboring metal layers and voids under the overhangs. The first dielectric layer is partially removed to cut off the overhangs and expose the voids and therefore openings are formed. A second dielectric layer is formed on the dielectric layer to fill up the opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of forming a material layer for semiconductor manufacturing process, and more particularly, to a method of forming a dielectric layer for semiconductor manufacturing process.
2. Description of Related Art
Dielectric layers play an important role in semiconductor manufacturing process as they can isolate adjacent devices or metal lines from short circuit. In the conventional metal interconnection manufacturing process, the dielectric layer is deposited on the semiconductor substrate after the metal lines are formed. The plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD) is conventionally used for forming the dielectric layer. However, as semiconductor manufacturing process has come into the stage of deep sub-micron technology, the distance between metal lines shrinks considerably; thus, the conventional PECVD is no longer applicable for filling the dielectric layer into the gaps between the metal lines. Therefore, a High density Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition (HDPCVD) process has been newly developed.
HDPCVD process has been widely applied in the field because it has the advantages such as good gap-filling capability, high quality of thin film and less metal contamination. HDPCVD process utilizes a high-efficiency plasma generator, such as Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP), Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) or helicon wave to generate high density plasma reactive source. In addition, a separate RF bias power supply can be applied to the wafer, such that the positive ions of the plasma will bombard the deposited film surface, thereby having the effect of eliminating voids and/or seams.
Along with the minimization of devices, the gaps between the metal lines become smaller and smaller while the aspect ratios thereof are higher and higher; thus, overhangs may be formed in the spaces between metal lines when HDPCVD process is applied. Voids may be formed when two adjacent overhangs are very close, such that the spaces between the metal lines can not be completely filled by the dielectric layer.


A system and method facilitating image smoothing is provided. The invention includes an image processor having an image receptor and an image smoother. The invention provides for the image smoother to alter the value of a don't care pixel based, at least in part, upon a weighted average of care pixels.

The amount of information available via computers has dramatically increased with the wide spread proliferation of computer networks, the Internet and digital storage means. With such increased amount of information has come the need to transmit information quickly and to store the information efficiently. Data compression is a technology that facilitates effectively transmitting and storing of information
Data compression reduces an amount of space necessary to represent information, and can be used for many information types. The demand for compression of digital information, including images, text, audio and video has been ever increasing. Typically, data compression is used with standard computer systems; however, other technologies make use of data compression, such as but not limited to digital and satellite television as well as cellular/digital phones.
As the demand for handling, transmitting and processing large amounts of information increases, the demand for compression of such data increases as well. Although storage device capacity has increased significantly, the demand for information has outpaced capacity advancements. For example, an uncompressed image can require 5 megabytes of space whereas the same image can be compressed and require only 2.5 megabytes of space. Thus, data compression facilitates transferring larger amounts information. Even with the increase of transmission rates, such as broadband, DSL, cable modem Internet and the like, transmission limits are easily reached with uncompressed information. For example, transmission of an uncompressed image over a DSL line can take ten minutes. However, the same image can be transmitted in about one minute when compressed thus providing a ten-fold gain in data throughput.
In general, there are two types of compression, lossless and lossy. Lossless compression allows exact original data to be recovered after compression, while lossy compression allows for data recovered after compression to differ from the original data. A tradeoff exists between the two compression modes in that lossy compression provides for a better compression ratio than lossless compression because some degree of data loss is tolerated. Lossless compression may be used, for example, when compressing critical text, because failure to reconstruct exactly the data can dramatically affect the quality and readability of text. Lossy compression can be used with images or non-critical text where a certain amount of distortion or noise is either acceptable or imperceptible to human senses. Data compression is especially applicable to digital representations of documents (digital documents). Typically, digital documents include text, images and/or text and images. In addition to using less storage space for current digital data, compact storage without significant degradation of quality would encourage digitization of current hardcopies of documents making paperless offices more feasible. Striving toward such paperless offices is a goal for many businesses because paperless offices provide benefits, such as allowing easy access to information, reducing environmental costs, reducing storage costs and the like. Furthermore, decreasing file sizes of digital documents through compression permits more efficient use of Internet bandwidth, thus allowing for faster transmission of more information and a reduction of network congestion. Reducing required storage for information, movement toward efficient paperless offices, and increasing Internet bandwidth efficiency are just some of many significant benefits associated with compression technology.
Compression of digital documents should satisfy certain goals in order to make use of digital documents more attractive. First, the compression should enable compressing and decompressing large amounts of information in a small amount of time. Secondly, the compression should provide for accurately reproducing the digital document.
One important aspect of compression of digital documents is compression of color bitmaps, for example, when an image of a document is generated by scanning a page of a printed catalog. A typical application is electronic archival of catalog pages, for example. Such pages usually contain a mixture of content, such as color picture, text on flat-color background or text superimposed on textures or pictures. Although any color picture bitmap compression technique such as JPEG can be used, better reconstruction quality can be obtained by segmenting the original image bitmap into layers and compressing each layer separately.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for collecting coverage data. In one embodiment, a method is provided for collecting coverage data for a code portion which, when compiled and linked, becomes a module of a program. The method comprises configuring the code portion settings such that when the module is instrumented coverage data will be gathered for the module; and instrumenting the code portion according to the settings and only for those statements for which no coverage data exists. Coverage data can then be collected, for example, each instance the module is executed, each instance the module is executed as part of a particular program, or each instance the module is executed by a particular user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing and more particularly to gathering coverage data for program code.
2. Description of the Related Art
Development of software requires frequent testing and debugging. One aspect of testing is collecting coverage data. Coverage data includes a variety of statistics for the program being tested. Today, coverage data is often collected by code coverage tools which identify which statements of a program being tested have been executed. Utilizing code coverage tools requires a user to instrument their program first and then collect coverage data while running the various tests. Instrumentation involves replacing opcodes at the beginning of each statement such that when the statement is executed a trap occurs. The code coverage tool catches the trap and notes that the statement has been covered by marking it as such in a data file.
One disadvantage of the foregoing approach is that code coverage is performed for an entire program, rather than a particular piece of code. Thus, a user must collect coverage data for each program containing a particular piece of code, even though the user is interested only in that particular piece of code.
The disadvantages of the foregoing approach are even greater in a multiuser software development environment. Specifically, while coverage data may be collected for each of the various developers of a particular team of developers, a comprehensive picture of what code has been covered by the team is not possible. Though some code coverage tools do allow developers to merge coverage data from several runs, this is a time-consuming process. Also, merging coverage data does nothing to reduce the instrumentation burden since the programs must be fully instrumented every time coverage data is to be collected. Further, isolating the use of shared library routines and obtaining associated coverage data can be difficult, especially when the routines are bound to various test programs. Using conventional code coverage tools, obtaining coverage data for such shared library routines requires that each user of the development team collect and merge coverage data each time a program is run and further requires that the merged coverage data for each user is merged with the coverage data collected by the other users of the development team.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method which allows for collecting coverage data in a manner which overcomes the foregoing disadvantages.

Code coverage with an integrated development environment


An image forming apparatus having a first toner container storing a toner to be supplied to a developing device, and a second toner container storing a toner to be supplemented to the first toner container. A first and a second sensor are mounted on the wall of the first toner container at a comparatively high level and a comparatively low level, respectively. When the first sensor senses the absence of the toner, the toner is supplemented from the second toner container to the first toner container. When the second sensor senses the absence of the toner, the toner supplementing ability is increased to increase the amount of toner supplement from the second toner container to the first toner container.

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having an image carrier and a developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to produce a corresponding toner image.
With an electronic copier, facsimile transceiver, printer or similar image forming apparatus of the type using an image carrier, e.g., a photoconductive element, it is a common practice to electrostatically form a latent image on the image carrier by, for example, exposing it imagewise and then convert the latent image to a toner image by a powdery developer. When a developing device included in the apparatus is implemented with a two component type developer, i.e., a mixture of toner and carrier, it is supplemented with a toner from time to time since it sequentially consumes it. This is also true with a developing device of the type using a one component type developer, i.e., a toner.
It has been customary to provide the apparatus with a toner container storing a toner to be supplemented to the developing device and to supplement, when the amount of toner remaining in the container becomes short or zero, a toner from a toner cartridge or toner bottle to the container, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 280528/1988. However, this scheme has a problem that the capacity and, therefore, the amount of toner supplement available with a toner cartridge or toner bottle is limited. Specifically, when a great number of images are continuously formed, the operator has to supplement a toner to the toner container frequently, consuming time and labor.
In the light of this, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 173683/1990, for example, discloses an image forming apparatus using another or second toner container in addition to the above-mentioned or first toner container. A toner stored in the second container is conveyed to the first container by, for example, a conveyor member and a tubing which guides the toner being transported by the conveyor member. When the amount of toner remaining in the first toner container becomes short or zero, the toner is supplemented from the first container to the second container. Likewise, when the amount of toner remaining in the second container becomes short or zero, a toner is supplemented to the second container. This approach frees the operator from the time- and labor-consuming supplementing work over a long period of time and thereby promotes easy operation of the apparatus. This is especially true when the second container is provided with a great capacity.
However, even the scheme using the first and second toner containers has a problem left unsolved, as follows. When the developing device consumes a particularly great amount of toner, the amount of toner to be supplied from the first toner container to the developing device increases too sharply for the supplement from the second container to the first container to follow. Then, it is likely that the first container runs out of toner despite that the second container is filled with the toner. Although the image forming operation of the apparatus may be interrupted for a moment and then resumed after the supplement of a predetermined amount of toner from the second container to the first container, this would lower the image forming efficiency.
To eliminate the above problem, an arrangement may be made such that the ability to convey the toner from the second container to the first container is enhanced so as to feed, when the absence of toner in the first container is sensed, a great amount of toner from the second container to the first container at a time. This, however, brings about another problem that the great amount of toner is conveyed while suddenly filling up the tubing of the conveying means and, therefore, apt to block up the tubing. Should the conveying means be so constructed as to transport a great amount of toner, the structure would be scaled up to increase the cost. Moreover, when the toner consumption by the developing device decreases after the increase, the amount of toner being supplemented to the first container will become excessive, blocking up the first container.
While the second container provided in addition to the first container reduces the number of times that the operator or serviceman has to supplement a toner, not all of the users need the second container which adds to the cost. Preferably, therefore, the second container should be put on the market as an optional unit, so that a user who does not need it may purchase the image forming apparatus only. In the image forming apparatus without the second container, a toner is supplied to the developing device from the first container only. When the amount of toner remaining in the first container becomes short or zero, the operator supplements a toner to the container from, for example, a toner cartridge.
On the other hand, in the case of the image forming apparatus with the second container, the operator supplements a toner to the second container. The apparatus is so constructed as to allow the operator to supplement a toner contained in, for example, a toner cartridge even to the first container for thereby serving the needs of users who do not want the second container. The operator, therefore, is apt to supplement a toner to the first container by accident. Then, an excessive amount of toner would be filled in the first container to block it up or to exert an excessive load on an agitator disposed in the container for agitating the toner and, in the worst case, damage the agitator. In addition, even when the operator is expected to supplement a toner to the second container, the condition which allows a toner to be supplemented to the first container as well would confuse the operator.


The invention relates to methods for managing state information associated with user agents in systems utilizing the wireless application protocol. According to the invention, the user agent indicates in the header information of a WAP message such as a request to the cookie proxy that the user agent currently has a session having associated state information, when the user agent has received header information indicating the presence of a cookie during the current session. This informs the cookie proxy that it should continue storing the cookies associated with the current session. When the cookie proxy receives for the next time a WAP message without such indication, it can assume that a new session has started, in which case the cookie proxy can discard all cookies bound to the previous session unless certain parameters of certain cookies explicitly indicate that they should not be discarded at that moment. Further, in an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cookie proxy can indicate to the user agent that it has no cookies associated with the current session. The invention allows the synchronization of the user agent and the cookie proxy.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods for managing state information associated with user agents in systems utilizing the wireless application protocol. Especially, the invention is related to such a method as specified in the preamble of the independent method claim.
2. Description of Related Art
The following terms and acronyms will be used throughout the application:                WAP Wireless Application Protocol        HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol        WML Wireless Markup Language        Client a device or a software application that initiates a request for a connection with a server        Cookie Proxy an intermediate program that acts as a user agent for the purpose of managing cookies and cookie storage on behalf of other user agents        Origin Server the server, on which a given resource resides or is to be created, often referred to as a web server or an HTTP server        Proxy an intermediate program that acts as both a server and a client for the purpose of making requests on behalf of other clients        User a person, who interacts with a user agent to view, hear or otherwise use a resource        User Agent a user agent is any software or device that interprets WML, WMLScript or other content
On the World Wide Web, the HTTP State Management mechanism stores state information in a file known as a cookie on the client This mechanism is defined in RFC2109. The same mechanism can also be used over the WAP protocols, since HTTP headers are used to convey all state and state manipulation information. RFC2109 defines a means whereby an origin server can request that a small unit of state information i.e. a cookie is stored in the user agent, and included in subsequent requests to the origin server. A variety of controls are available to the origin server, allowing it to control when the cookie is included in subsequent requests, when the cookie expires as well as other state management and transport controls. According to RFC2109 the user agent is responsible for cookie management.
According to the draft specifications for WAP HTTP state management at the time of writing this patent application, a cookie proxy can be used to store manage cookies on behalf of the user agent. Such an approach is described in the patent application WO 99/64967, for example. The advantage of such an approach is the saving of memory capacity and processing capacity in a mobile communication device, and also to save the resources of the air interface. The cookie proxy is an HTTP proxy or proxy equivalent such as a WAP Gateway that manages cookies on behalf of WAP user agents that do not implement the HTTP state function directly. The cookie proxy is responsible for managing and storing cookies on behalf of the user agents, and modifies HTTP requests and responses to and from the user agent to implement this function. However, the cookie proxy concept has a problem, which has not been solved previously. According to RFC2109, some cookies may be bound to the user agent session. Because of this, there should be a method for the cookie proxy to detect when a new session is activated and cookies bound to the previous session should be discarded. This means that the user agent and the cookie proxy must be somehow synchronized. However, the specification drafts existing at the time of writing of this patent application do not specify any ways to remedy this problem.