This invention relates to an image display device having: an adjusting circuit that adjusts image signals to be inputted based on an adjusting value to be sequentially up-to-dated; a non-linear converting circuit at a stage after the adjusting circuit, the non-linear converting circuit that converts inputted signals into signals in a non-linear manner, a display brightness characteristics value detecting circuit at a stage after the non-linear converting circuit, the display brightness characteristics value detecting circuit that sequentially detects a display brightness characteristics value that is directed to lightness of a display image from the inputted signals; a brightness refraining value outputting circuit that sequentially outputs a brightness refraining value that refrains lightness of the display image based on the display brightness characteristics value; and an adjusting value outputting circuit that applies conversion having characteristics being inverse with relative to a converting characteristics of the non-linear converting circuit or conversion being approximate to the former conversion, to the brightness refraining value to output the adjusting value.

The present invention relates to an image display device.
An image display device is known that has an ABL circuit and a contrast adjusting circuit. Especially, the ABL circuit is known that performs control process so that an average display brightness of a screen does not become too large for convergence of beams, or so as to refrain a consumption electric power and the like.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open application No. 2000-221941 discloses a configuration that performs the ABL, in which an automatic brightness control circuit is used, and also a brightness level is adjusted for pixel data by each of pixels of an image to be sequentially supplied from an A/D converter so that an average brightness of the image displayed on a screen of PDP lies within a predetermined range. Here the brightness level is adjusted before each of ratio between emission numbers of each of sub-fields is set in a non-linear manner and an inverse-γ conversion is performed.
Generally, an image signal is transmitted or recorded after following γ conversion under an assumption that the image signals are displayed using a CRT display device as illustrated in FIG. 12. The γ conversion allows the image signals to be non-linearly converted such as converted by power of 0.45 corresponding to input-emission characteristics of the CRT display device. When such image signals are displayed on a display device such as SED, FED or PDP having linear input-emission characteristics, an inverse-γ conversion serving as conversion represented by power of 2.2 as illustrated in FIG. 13 is needed for inputted signals. On the other hand, when inputted signals are displayed on a display device such as LCD, an appropriate conversion is performed that meets the characteristics of such a display device.
FIG. 14 shows a block diagram of an image signal processing device to be provided in a normal image display device having luminescence characteristics being different from luminescence characteristics of CRT for inputted signals such as SED, FED, PDP or LCD. An actual image signal processing device has many other processing circuits. However, in FIG. 14, only circuit blocks are picked up relating to the present invention.
An image signal processing device illustrated in FIG. 14 is provided with an A/D converter 1001, a signal processing section 1002, an average brightness detecting section 1003 and a gain calculating section 1004. The A/D converter 1001 inputs analog inputted image signals s101 and outputs digital image signals s102. The signal processing section 1002 inputs the digital image signal s102 and performs signal processing such as inverse-γ conversion, brightness/chromaticity-adjustment or a contour emphasis processing and thereafter outputs display signals s103. The average brightness detecting section 1003 inputs the digital image signals s102, detects an average brightness of each of frames, and thereafter outputs an average brightness control signals s104. The gain calculating section 1004 inputs an average brightness signal s104 and outputs a brightness control signal s105.
The A/D converter 1001, the signal processing section 1002, the average brightness detecting section 1003 and the gain calculating section 1004 are operated based on various timing signals generating according to a synchronous signal of the input image signals s101.
However in the configuration of FIG. 14, the average brightness can be obtained by summing up the digital image signals s102 while an actual image displayed using a display device is formed using display signals s103 that are signal-processed by various process manners, in which the inverse-γ conversion is typical. Especially, through the inverse-γ conversion, non-linear conversion like conversion of power of 2.2 as illustrated in FIG. 13 is performed. As a result, the average brightness is more lowered and also there is no one-to-one relationship between the average brightness of the digital image signal s102 and the average brightness of the display signal s103 processed by the inverse-γ conversion. Therefore the average brightness signal s104 to be detected by the average brightness detecting section 1003 has an error with relative to the average brightness to be actually displayed on the display device, resulting in that accurate average brightness information has not been able to be obtained.


An elevator car position detecting apparatus includes plates arranged at selected operation points defined along the elevator path, in such arrangement that one operation point is distinguishable from another operation point. Position detectors are provided on a car so that as car moves past the operation points the position detectors communicate with corresponding plates without contacting the plates. The position detectors associated with the corresponding plates generate signals indicating that the elevator car has reached the corresponding position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elevator car position detecting apparatus for detecting the position of an elevator car when the car is near one of the ends of the path of the elevator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-280174 describes an elevator car position detecting apparatus as illustrated in FIG. 4. Referring to the figure, arms 2a to 2e are horizontally projected from a wall 1 of the path along which an elevator car 6 is moved up and down. The arms 2a to 2e are arranged vertically in order of length. More specifically, the lowest arm 2a is the shortest, and the uppermost arm 2e is the longest. A cam 3 is fixed to the end portions of the arms 2a to 2e and has inclined portions 3a to 3d. A switch 5 is attached to the car 6.
The switch 5 comprises: a roller 50 which is associated with the cam 3 as the car 6 ascends; a lever 51 which turns about a fulcrum 52 when the roller 50 is associated with the cam 3; springs 52a and 52b connected to a lower portion of the lever 51 so as to maintain the lower portion of the lever substantially in the vertical posture when the roller 50 does not receive an external force; and switch box 54 containing switches (described below) which are operated as the lever 51 turns.
Components contained in the switch box 54 will be described with reference to FIG. 5. The lever 51 is connected at the lower end to a horizontal bar 53. Contacts 51a to 51d are connected to the horizontal bar 53. A contact 54a faces the contact 51a, spaced from the contact 51a by an air gap g1. Similarly, contacts 51b to 54d face the contacts 53b to 53d, spaced by air gaps g2 to g4, respectively. The size relation of the air gaps g1 to g4 are: EQU g1<g2<g3<g4
The four pairs of contacts, 51a and 54a to 51d and 54d, form four separate switches 55a to 55d.
The operation of the above-described conventional elevator car position detecting apparatus will be described.
When the car 6 is far from the top end of the path and therefore the roller 50 is not associated with the cam 3, the lever 51 assumes a vertical posture (as shown in FIG. 5) and all the switches 55a to 55d are off. When the roller 50 becomes associated with the inclined portion 3a of the cam 3 as the car 6 ascends, the lever 51 turns in the direction indicated by the arrow R in FIG. 5 and thus connects the switch 55a. The switch-on signal thus generated is sent to a control unit (not shown), thus informing that the car has reached the inclined portion 3a. As the car 6 further ascends so that the roller 3a is associated with the inclined portion 3b, the lever 51 further turns in the direction indicated by the arrow R, thus connecting the switch 55b. In the same manner, as the roller 50 becomes associated sequentially with the inclined portions 3c and 3d, the lever 51 further turns to sequentially connect the switches 55c and 55d. In this manner, the switch-on signals generated by the switches 55a to 55d inform the control unit that the car 6 has reached the corresponding positions.
Then, as the car 6 descends from the top position, the switch 55d is first disconnected, and the switch 55a is last disconnected. The control unit thus monitors the position of the car 6.
Although the above description has been made with reference to the case where the car 6 is near the top terminal floor, it will be easily understood, without further description, that the position of the car 6 can be monitored in a similar manner when the car 6 is near the bottom terminal floor.
The above Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-280174 also describes a position detecting apparatus comprising: a detector which is attached to an elevator car and has a light emitter and a light receiver; and a stepped light-shielding plate which is attached to the path of the elevator car and insertable into a gap between the light emitter and the light receiver without contacting either the light emitter or receiver. The patent application further states that such a position detecting apparatus can also be achieved by utilizing magnetism, for example, employing a magnetism-shielding plate instead of the light-shielding plate.
However, because the above-described conventional detecting apparatuses employing cams connected to the paths of the elevator cars detect the position of an elevator car on the basis of the positions of the inclined portions of the cam, the size of the gap between the elevator car and the wall of the path significantly affects the precision of the position detection, thus requiring precise installation and adjustment of the elevator, which is not easy. Even if precise installation and adjustment is achieved, the gap size varies as the elevator is used. In several years, the detection precision deteriorates to such a level that re-adjustment is required. Further, the conventional apparatus produces noise when the roller contacts the cam. The noise problems can be eliminated by a non-contact position detecting apparatus. However, both the contact and non-contact types require as many cam surfaces or shielding plates as the positions to be detected, and as many detection elements, e.g., switches. To increase the number of positions to be detected, the number of these components must be proportionally increased.

Elevator car position detecting apparatus


An operating system having a multitude of subsystems is provided where each subsystem performs a distinct function and may register with other subsystems to receive notification (or callbacks) upon the ocurrence of certain events. Moreover, the subsystems are programmed in such a manner where in the event of a fault (or exception) they can be instructed to cease the calling of other subsystems, thereby allowing each of the subsystems to complete its distinctive task without commencing further additional activities. When all of the activities have ceased, the state of the system as indicated by the parameters at the various registers and addresses are saved. At this time, the system can initiate a service call for an attendant through one of the provided mechanisms or routine calls. Moreover, the system can initiate an intermission (play stoppage) routine using full audio and video capabilities to explain to the player in a user-friendly manner the problems encountered and play a video clip or the like in entertaining and occupying the player.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally related to fault tolerant recovery systems, and in particular, a fault-tolerant software system which maintains audio and visual capability in the event of a fault.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Game machines displayed in public entertainment localities are made available for public usage in exchange for payment. This is particularly the case for casinos and game parlors where there are a large number of machines. However, these machines occasionally malfunction and enter into a lock up state, ceasing all functions and leaving the player stranded. The player at the malfunctioned machine would either abandon the machine after a few attempts at "fixing" the machine, or wait for an attendant's assistance. In waiting for an attendant's assistance, it would be desirable to maintain the player's interest and keep the player occupied. One way of accomplishing this goal is to show a computer driven video clip using the existing hardware and software already provided by the machine. The content of the video clip can be determined by the management and can be periodically updated. In essence, the video clip can be thought of as a commercial or infomercial of some type.
In order to have the game machine play such a video clip with full audio and visual effects, the operating system software for the machine must be set up in a manner such that in the event of a fault, the integrity of the operating system, including the audio and video modules, are maintained.
Systems designed from presently available technologies handle faults in a very simplistic manner. Generally speaking, these systems would simply freeze up or display a simple message across the screen. In view of the presently available technology and the desire to play video clips in the event of a fault, a new system design is needed.

Method and apparatus for managing faults and exceptions


The present invention provides an improved way to calculate a replacement way within a processor cache that is effective with different combinations of hardware address translation cache miss handling, software address translation cache miss handling, and hint lock bits. For some embodiments, LRU bits used to select an entry for replacement are updated only if software address translation cache miss handling is disabled. Further, for some embodiments, LRU bits may be modified to change the way a binary tree structure is traversed to avoid selecting a hint locked entry for replacement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to address translation caching and, more particularly, to determining cache entries for replacement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing systems often include central processing units (CPUs) to perform operations relating to the processing of data. The data processed by a processor may include instructions, which are executed by the processor, as well as data which is manipulated by the processor using the instructions. Computing systems also include memory used to store data and instructions for later use.
To provide for faster access to data and instructions, as well as better utilization of the CPU, the CPU may have several caches. A cache is a memory which is typically smaller than the main memory of the computer system and is typically manufactured on the same die (i.e., chip) as the processor. Cache memory typically stores duplications of data from frequently used main memory locations. Caches may also store virtual memory translation information such as segment tables and page tables. These tables aid in the translation of virtual memory addresses to the corresponding physical memory address. When a processor wishes to read from a memory location in main memory, the processor will check the memory cache first to see if a duplication of the main memory location is present in the cache. If so, the processor uses the data in the cache. If the data is present in the cache it is commonly referred to as a "cache hit". If the data is not present in the cache, then the data must be fetched from main memory. This is commonly referred to as a "cache miss".
Due to the limited size of cache memory within the processor, data within the cache that has not been used in a relatively long time is replaced with the data fetched from main memory due to a cache miss. This is based on the theory that it is more likely that the fetched data will be requested sooner than the data replaced.
Some CPUs use hardware logic to determine what data within the memory cache is to be replaced. This is commonly referred to as hardware miss handling. Hardware miss handling often uses a combination of a least recently used (LRU) table and lock bits associated with the cache entries to determine which data location or locations to replace with data fetched from main memory.
An LRU table contains information relating to how often different cache entries have been used. More specifically the table may be able to determine which entries are the least recently used entries. The lock bits are bits on each cache entry within the cache that may be set to indicate that the cache entry should not be replaced with data fetched from main memory.
Some CPUs allow software to determine how a miss is handled for address translation. When a miss occurs when software address translation cache miss handing is enabled on the CPU, a cache miss causes an exception. The exception results in an interrupt so that software executing on the CPU can fetch the missing memory and determine where in the address translation cache the data fetched from memory needs to be placed. Software address translation cache miss handling does not use the hardware LRU table to determine where to place fetched data into the cache.
Problems arise in modern CPUs when both hardware and software address translation cache miss handling are enabled at the same time. One problem is which entries to replace when both hardware and software address translation cache miss handling are enabled, and there are locked entries within the cache. For example, if hardware miss handling were enabled and all entries had their lock bits asserted, the hardware would still be able to replace the entity. However, if software address translation cache miss handling was enabled as well, and all entries had their lock bits asserted, the hardware would not replace a cache line entry. Rather, hardware would cause an exception. Another problem is how to update the LRU table when hits occur under software address translation cache miss handling.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved way to calculate the replacement way within a memory cache that is effective with different combinations of hardware miss handling, software address translation cache miss handling, and lock bits.

Pseudo LRU algorithm for hint-locking during software and hardware address translation cache miss handling modes

International Business Machines Corporation


A self-centering prosthetic disc to replace a disc in the spine, the disc having two opposing convex surfaces where the point of maximum vertical dimension is non-central. The disc may be utilized alone or in combination with one or two vertebral attachment members, the vertebral attachment members having concave surfaces corresponding to the convex surfaces of the disc.

The invention relates in general to a medical device structured to serve as a replacement for damaged, diseased, pathologic, degenerated or ruptured intervertebral discs, and more particularly to such a device which is self-centering and maintains the proper spatial relationship between adjacent vertebrae while allowing for movement of the adjacent vertebrae in a manner similar to and consistent with the range and type of motion found prior to pathology, degeneration or rupture.
In addressing the problems of pathologic, degenerated or ruptured intervertebral discs, the solutions have generally focused on immobilizing the adjacent vertebrae by fusion or replacement of the damaged disc with a prosthetic disc, where the prothesis is designed to allow for some motion between the adjacent vertebrae. A successful disc replacement requires a prosthetic device which remains properly positioned between the vertebrae, maintains the vertebrae in proper spaced relation, allows for a range of motion while maintaining proper alignment of the spine and vertebrae in the frontal and sagittal plane during such motion, is biocompatible and is of sufficient durability to withstand loading cycles of up to 100 million or more.
There have been numerous patents issued in this field. Some patents involve replacement discs composed of a compressible or elastic material, some involve discs comprising matrices to enhance bone growth into the discs, some involve discs composed of both rigid and non-rigid materials, and some involve rigid discs. Of the later type, some are designed to remain detached from the adjacent vertebrae while others are designed for direct connection to the vertebrae. Multi-component replacement discs are known where the plural components are free to move relative to each other. The major drawback from the known devices is that the range, angle and type of movement does not properly mimic the natural range, angle and type of motion found in the actual human disc, while maintaining proper frontal and sagittal alignment of the spine.
It is an object of the replacement intervertebral disc of the present invention to provide a device which substitutes for a human disc and successfully replicates the range, angle and type of movement between the adjacent vertebrae, where the disc is composed of a durable, rigid, biocompatible material of high fatigue strength so as to withstand millions of loading cycles without failure or degradation. It is a further object to provide such a disc having two generally convex surfaces which generally correspond to the disc being replaced and the concave shape of adjacent vertebrae, where the maximum dimension between the two convex surfaces is not central to the main body of the disc, where the disc is self-centering to preclude disc impingement into the spinal canal, and where proper intervertebral spacing is maintained by joining the two opposing convex surfaces by a generally vertically oriented wall member. It is a further object to provide such a disc where the convex surfaces are not in parallel relationship so as to better replicate the configuration of a human disc and proper spinal alignment.


A method testing physical properties of bulk powder materials uses acceleration forces induce a change in physical configuration of a powder sample. Various different properties may be determined by relationships between the applied acceleration and the associated detected change in configuration event. In various embodiments powder strength, friction angle, or other properties may be determined. Novel methods and devices are provided.

The present invention relates to devices and methods to measure bulk unconfined properties, such as yield strength, of powders using minimal material. The traditional method of measuring the bulk strength of a powder is to place material in some form of shearing device that allows a consolidation load to be placed on top of the material. The material is then sheared to bring it to a steady shear load condition measured by load cells. The consolidation load is decreased, and the sample is sheared again to measure the peak shear stress. This procedure is typically repeated five to seven times at different shear loads, and all of this data is used to compute a single measurement of unconfined yield strength. The shear cells utilized to accomplish this task hold between 75 cc (cubic centimeters) and 400 cc material and may require multiple fillings. This prior art procedure is complex and requires a trained technician to perform these tests. These devices generally produce a value that is repeatable to only about 30 percent. Often sufficient material is not available for a detailed analysis using these standard methods. This is especially true in the formulation stage of the product or process design.
The inability to characterize properties such as the bulk cohesive strength of powders using prior methods can lead to significant production losses in pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, pigment, chemical, and other industries that handle bulk powders. Companies often desire to characterize bulk properties prior to process design, but have insufficient quantities of material to accomplish this by standard means. Failure to characterize the bulk cohesive properties leads to process failure and costly redesigns, extending time-to-market and wasting company resources. In addition, product quality is strongly influenced by the degree of cohesion a bulk powder material possesses. The ability to obtain a measurement of cohesive flow properties early in the design process provides valuable information to guide product development.
What is needed are new precise methods and devices to measure bulk properties such as strength of powder materials, those new methods and devices should require only minimal quantities of powder material and capable of being carried out by relatively low-skilled persons.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Device and method to measure bulk unconfined properties of powders


A method for removing dissolved solids from a waste stream, such as that produced in flue gas scrubbing, through an evaporation-crystallization process operated at relatively low temperature. A waste stream is directed into an evaporator and heated at a temperature of less than 60° C. at a pressure below atmospheric pressure. The waste stream is concentrated through the evaporation process and forms a slurry stream having crystallized solids. At the low temperature of evaporation, the solids crystallize at substantially lower temperature and the solution has a substantially lower boiling point elevation than at atmospheric pressure. The slurry stream is directed to a solid-liquid separator where the crystallized solids in the slurry stream are separated, producing a solid cake and mother liquor.

Burning or gasifying coal or petcoke produces a gas containing various contaminants. In coal-fired power stations, flue gas desulfurization (FGD) is often employed to scrub most of the sulfur dioxide from flue gas. Similarly, a gas scrubbing step is utilized in most gasification processes used for coal and petroleum coke to produce syngas. In wet scrubbing processes, an alkaline agent dissolved in water, reacts with and removes contaminants from the flue gas. Wet scrubbers typically require continuous blowdown to limit the accumulation of corrosive salts and suspended solids washed from the gas stream.
Most wet scrubbers typically spray the flue gas with a slurry containing limestone (CaCO3). Sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the flue gas reacts with the limestone to form calcium sulfite (CaSO3). This product is further oxidized to produce gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) by introducing air into the scrubber. Although the compositions of scrubber waste streams vary depending on the fuel type and scrubbing reagent used, the waste streams are generally a chloride solution saturated with gypsum and contain calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and trace amounts of heavy metals. These salts are extremely soluble and have high boiling point elevations.
Contaminants found in a flue gas waste stream from a flue gas scrubber using limestone to remove contaminants are given below in Table 1.
TABLE 1TypicalContaminantConcentrationsCalcium4250mg/lMagnesium950mg/lSodium590mg/lPotassium25mg/lIron15mg/lChloride10,000mg/lSulfate1320mg/lNitrate90mg/lFluoride12mg/lSilica28mg/lTotal Suspended Solids5,000mg/lm-Alkalinity280mg/l as CaCO3
Contaminants found in a flue gas waste stream from a flue gas scrubber using dolomitic limestone to remove contaminants are given in Table 2.
TABLE 2TypicalContaminantConcentrationsCalcium1,200mg/lMagnesium9,900mg/lSodium1,700mg/lPotassium50mg/lZinc4.6mg/lChloride9,000mg/lSulfate28,000mg/lBromide20mg/lTotal Suspended Solids7,000mg/l
Often, these waste streams cannot be discharged into the environment without chemical treatment. Traditionally, wastewater from a limestone scrubbing process requires at least two precipitation/flocculation stages due to the wide variation in the optimum pH values for the precipitation of the metals present. In addition, the presence of selenium, nitrates, and organics in the purge stream often require biological treatment prior to discharge. Such treatment methods may reduce the suspended solids, metals, acidity and oxygen demand, but do not reduce the chloride or total dissolved solids.
Moreover, as discharge limits become more stringent, physical, chemical and biological treatment methods may not reduce concentrations to the levels required for discharge of some chemical species. When conventional treatment methods are unable to treat scrubber waste streams to produce an effluent that meets the requirements of a discharge permit, an evaporation process may be employed. Evaporation processes evaporate substantially all the water from the waste stream and remove substantially all dissolved solids from the waste stream, resulting in a zero liquid discharge into the environment.
There are generally two approaches that have been used to achieve zero-liquid discharge of blowdown from wet scrubbers using evaporation. The first approach includes an initial clarification process to reduce suspended solids in the influent water stream. Clarified water flows to an evaporator tank where it is neutralized with acid before the water stream is preheated in plate heat exchangers. Preheated water is then deaerated using steam from the evaporator. Typically, most of the water is evaporated in a falling film evaporator at atmospheric pressure. A rotary or spray dryer is used to remove the remaining water and produce a dry solid which is sent to a landfill.
The second approach involves chemically softening the scrubber blowdown after an initial clarification process. Generally, lime and soda ash are added to the scrubber blowdown to cause substantially all of the magnesium and calcium ions to precipitate as magnesium hydroxide and calcium carbonate respectively. The precipitate is settled and removed from the scrubber blowdown. Typically, the softened scrubber blowdown is neutralized with acid before the water stream is preheated and deaerated. The scrubber blowdown is then sent to a falling film evaporator or multiple effect evaporator to vaporize the water and concentrate the scrubber blowdown. The concentrated blowdown is further evaporated in a forced circulation evaporator. A slurry of precipitated salts formed in the forced circulation evaporator is sent to a centrifuge or pressure filter to separate the solids from the water.
When evaporating solutions containing high solubility salts such as calcium, magnesium or ammonium chloride at atmospheric pressure, the temperature increases as the concentration increases. Thus, many waste stream evaporation systems operate at very high temperatures. However, many salts hydrolyze at high temperatures leading to corrosion of the evaporation system. Thus, many evaporators require the use noble alloys to withstand corrosion.
Conventional evaporation-crystallization processes for waste streams containing salts have numerous drawbacks and shortcomings. As discussed above, many processes require clarification of the feed stream prior to evaporation. In addition, conventional processes use chemicals to soften or otherwise condition the feed prior to evaporation. Clarification processes require clarifiers and the use of chemicals which increase the footprint of the treatment system as well as the capital costs and overall maintenance. Therefore, there is a need for an evaporation-crystallization process that is economical, efficient, and which is highly effective in removing contaminants from waste streams without the use of clarification or chemical conditioning.

Method for removing dissolved solids from aqueous waste streams


The invention is directed towards a connector with a guiding portion having a housing, a connecting interface having a plurality of conductive terminals, and a first guiding post disposed along the housing, whereby the first guiding post has a sloping guiding portion.

Advanced Technology Attachment ("ATA") is an interface standard for electronic data storage devices, whereby a controller is integrated on a device itself and serves as a communication interface between the device and a motherboard. Parallel ATA ("PATA") and Serial ATA ("SATA") are two subsequent interface standards developed from early ATA technology. However, the PATA interface has a limited transmission bandwidth, and is inadequate for modern applications using central processing units ("CPU") with higher processing speeds. The SATA interface has largely replaced PATA as the interface of choice, because it features higher transmission efficiency, among other advantages.
A conventional SATA connector is shown in FIG. 1. The interface of a conventional SATA connector generally includes one end disposed on a hard drive 10 while another end is generally disposed on a printed circuit board (PCB) 11. This connecting method is generally completed by engaging the hard drive 10 and the PCB 11 in a horizontal direction 12. Such an mating arrangement usually requires a fixed-size receiving space 13 to provide the hard drive 10 with some leeway in movement during insertion, and also to prevent the hard drive 10 from colliding with other members 14 during insertion. Although the fixed-size receiving space 13 is necessary, it is not space efficient. Moreover, the horizontal direction 12 of force required for mating of the hard drive is not a natural direction in which a user exerts force, thus hindering the efficiency of insertion or removal of the hard drive.
Another exemplary prior art SATA connector is illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B. As shown, one end of the conventional SATA connector is disposed on a hard drive 20 while another end thereof is disposed on a PCB 21. This SATA connector is different from FIG. 1's conventional SATA connector, in that an adaptor 201 is arranged at the end of its interface and disposed on the hard drive 20. The corresponding end of the interface disposed on the PCB 21 is rotated upwards 90 degrees so that the two corresponding ends of the interface are engaged along a vertical direction 22. However, this mating arrangement requires an additional adaptor 201, which adds additional manufacturing costs as well as additional complexity.
Moreover, Taiwan Utility Model Patents No. M346145, M353509, M376971, and M385131 disclose technical features relevant to the guiding portions of the connectors; Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M278110 discloses technical features relevant to the positioning post of a connector; Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M315421 discloses technical features relevant to the complementary track of a connector. However, the aforementioned features are not desirable in practice.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a connector with a guiding portion that is capable of improving the aforementioned prior art detects, efficiently utilizing a smaller receiving space to tightly mate a SATA connector.

Tyco Electronics Holdings Bermuda) No. 7 Ltd.


In an embodiment, a method includes receiving, at a data processing system, a packet from a first component in a first remote network in an overlay network. In an embodiment, a method includes determining whether a largesend option is supported on a set of paths between the first component and a second component, the second component in a second remote network in the overlay network. In an embodiment, a method includes sending, responsive to determining a largesend option is supported on a subset of the set of paths, a packet on the subset of the set of paths.

A data processing environment comprises a variety of hardware, software, and firmware networking components. A physical network, also called an underlay, is a network defined using such components.
Techniques are available presently to construct a logical network, also known as a software defined network (SDN) overlay (hereinafter "overlay" or "overlay network"), from such networking components. Essentially, networking components are abstracted into corresponding logical or virtual representations, and the abstractions are used to define the overlay. In other words, an overlay is a logical network formed and operated using logical representations of underlying networking components.
Physical networks usually exist within the demarcated boundary of the data processing environment whose networking components are utilized in the physical network. Unlike a physical network, an overlay can be designed to span across one or more data processing environment. For example, while a physical network may be contained within a datacenter, an overlay may span across one or more datacenters.
As an example, a logical representation of a networking gateway can participate in an overlay, such that a function attributed to the logical representation of the networking gateway in the overlay is actually performed by the underlying networking gateway component in the underlay.
In an overlay, because the actual networking components that perform the networking functions are abstracted into logical entities representing the networking functionality offered by those components and not the actual implementations of those functionalities, something is needed to direct that networking functionality into a functioning logical network. An SDN controller is a component that manages and operates the logical networking components within an overlay.
Henceforth in this disclosure, any reference to a component within the context of an overlay is a reference to a logical or virtual representation of the component, which participates in the overlay, unless expressly distinguished where the reference is made.
A virtual machine (VM) comprises virtualized representations of real hardware, software, and firmware components available in a data processing system. The data processing system can have any number of VMs configured thereon, and utilizing any number of virtualized components therein. The data processing system is also referred to as a computing node, a compute node, a node, or a host.
In large scale data processing environments, such as in a data center, thousands of VMs can be operating on a host at any given time, and hundreds if not thousands of such hosts may be operational in the data center at the time. A virtualized data processing environment such as the described data center is often referred to as a "cloud" that provides computing resources and computing services to several clients on an as-needed basis.

Tuning TCP largesend parameter in VXLan cloud environments

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


In a method of estimating a camera attitude, based on the past-detected position of a marker and an appropriate camera attitude provided during current frame imaging, the position of the maker to the current frame is approximately predicted. Through extraction of points which are near the predicted marker position (marker neighboring points), a group of points are obtained. An attitude of the camera (rotation matrix and translation matrix) which optimizes an estimation function is obtained for re-estimating the camera attitude, where the estimation function needs, as its condition, a distance between the marker neighboring points included in the point groups and an estimation plane on which the marker is positioned. The point groups include many points extracted from the neighborhood of the marker, so that the preliminarily estimated approximate camera attitude can be corrected and estimated with higher accuracy even in an environment with occlusion.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system for estimating an attitude of a camera.
2. Related Art
In recent years, mobile devices having a large amount of processing for computing power, such as smartphones, have become rapidly popular. Most of these information terminals include a camera as an imaging device. The information terminals provide communication features that simply use audio information and text information. In addition, the information terminals also include communication features that use image information. In accompaniment with the growing popularity of such mobile devices, users are becoming increasingly familiar with technology referred to as augmented reality (AR) and technology for restoring a three-dimensional shape of a subject from captured images. In AR technology, for example, when an image of a target object is captured by the camera in the information terminal, a comment related to the target object is superimposed on the image and displayed. For example, the following non-patent reference 1 reports a method for three-dimensional measurement using a red, green, blue, and depth (RGB-D) camera.
In technologies such as those described above, calibration of a coordinate system of an environment captured in a two-dimensional image and a coordinate system of an actual environment is performed. To perform the calibration, the position and the attitude of the user (camera) is required to be known.
Therefore, in the field of AR technology, a following method is proposed. In the method, a marker of which the position, shape, and color are already known is disposed in advance in the actual environment. An image of the marker is captured by the camera. The attitude of the camera is then estimated by the image being analyzed. Since the past, a rectangular marker has often been used as such a marker (for example, refer to the following non-patent reference 2).    [Non-patent reference 1] Lieberknecht S., Huber A., Ilic S., Benhimane S., "RGB-D Camera-based Parallel Tracking and Meshing," The 10th IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, October 26-29 (2011)    [Non-patent reference 2] Kato, et al., "An Augmented Reality System and its Calibration based on Marker Tracking," Journal of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 607-616 (1999))
To calculate the attitude of the RGB-D camera using the marker, first, the rectangular area of the marker is recognized by the RGB-D camera. Then, the camera attitude is estimated using the coordinates of the apexes of the rectangle.
However, three-dimensional space has a front/back relationship in addition to the two-dimensional relationships that are up/down and left/right. Therefore, a state occurs in which an object that is present in front hides a subject that is behind it. This state is referred to as occlusion. In an environment having numerous cables and components, these cables and components cause occlusion to occur at numerous perspectives. When a portion of the marker is hidden as a result of occlusion, detection of the rectangular area becomes difficult. Accurate estimation of the camera attitude becomes difficult.

Method and system for estimating attitude of camera


A digital value obtained from a preceding circuit element is temporarily stored and made available for a subsequent circuit element at a controlled moment of time. The digital value is received through a data input. A triggering signal is also received, a triggering edge of which defines an allowable time limit before which a digital value must be available at said data input to become available for said subsequent circuit element. Between first and second pulse-enabled subregister stages, an internal digital value from the first pulse-enabled subregister stage and information of the changing moment of said digital value at the data input in relation to said allowable time limit are used to ensure passing a valid internal digital value to the second pulse-enabled subregister stage. Said second pulse-enabled subregister stage makes said valid internal digital value available for said subsequent circuit element. A timing event observation signal is output as an indicator of said digital value at said data input having changed within a time window that begins at said allowable time limit and is shorter than one cycle of said triggering signal.

Processing of data in integrated circuits may take place in pipelines where the outputs of one or more previous combinational logic units are to constitute the inputs of one or more subsequent combinational logic units. The intermediate results are stored in registers between said combinational logic units. A clock signal synchronizes the propagation of digital values through the pipeline; in particular the storing of values into the registers. Some of the basic building blocks for use as said registers are latches and flip-flops.
An important difference between a latch and a flip-flop is that a latch is transparent during the whole pulse of a clock signal (or enabling signal, or any other pulsed control signal): its output may acquire the appropriate value even as a function of an input value that arrives late, i.e. even if the input value changes its state after the beginning of the current clock pulse. A flip-flop will lock its output as a function of the input value(s) at a triggering edge of the clock pulse, so any changes in input values after that can only affect the output at the next triggering edge of the clock pulse. Single edge triggered flip-flops can only change their state at one (rising or falling) edge of the clock pulse, while double edge triggered flip-flops may change their state at both rising and falling clock edges.
In an ideal circuit each circuit element makes its output settle early enough before the data is read into the subsequent circuit element on the appropriate clock pulse. In practical circuits this is not always the case. If a previous circuit element in the pipeline is late in making its output settle, the subsequent circuit element may operate incorrectly or in an unpredictable way. In the worst case a time error like this may seriously derail the whole execution of an algorithm, and even in controlled cases it may require rolling back the processing and flushing erroneous data from the pipeline, causing delay and unnecessary consumption of energy.
Integrated circuits that run on extremely low supply voltages are particularly prone to time errors, because the low supply voltage boosts the effect of e.g. random structural differences between transistors and other micro-scale components in the circuit that theoretically should be identical to each other but in practice are not. One solution would be to maintain the supply voltage high enough, with a suitable safety margin, but that would work against the aim of minimizing the energy consumption of the circuit.
Latches may be more tolerant against time errors than flip-flops, because a late arriving input bit to a latch just causes a corresponding delay before the output of the latch settles at the appropriate value (as long as the delay was shorter than the clock pulse enabling the latch). If a subsequent combinational logic is quick enough, it may even catch up the delay so that at the input of the next circuit element the processing is on time again. This is called time borrowing: the operation of the latch allows a preceding circuit element to "borrow" some processing time from a subsequent circuit element. Conventional flip-flops do not allow time borrowing because they lock their output at an edge of the clocking pulse. However, flip-flops have certain other advantages that would advocate preferring them in designing integrated circuits.
A solution known as the Razor is a kind of flip-flop capable of at least detecting time errors. FIG. 1 illustrates the Razor principle. Initially the multiplexer 101 connects its upper input to output, so input data D1 goes to the main flip-flop 102, which reads it in on the rising edge of the clock pulse CLK. If the input data had settled in time, the same input value went into the shadow latch 103, which is controlled by a delayed clock CLKD. Identical outputs of the main flip-flop 102 and the shadow latch 103 go to the XOR gate 104, the output of which (named ERROR) remains low. If, however, the value of D1 changes after it was read into the main flip-flop 102, the outputs of the main flip-flop 102 and the shadow latch 103 are different. The ERROR signal will go high, which in turn makes the multiplexer 101 change its active input, eventually restoring the correct value from the shadow latch 103 to the main flip-flop 102 at the next rising edge of the CLK signal. A known drawback of the Razor approach is that a timing violation of the main flip-flop 102 may cause metastability in the output Q1. The metastability can propagate to the subsequent circuit element in the pipeline. The error correction mechanism also introduces an obligatory delay of one whole clock cycle before the output of the main flip-flop 102 is restored to the correct value.

Method and arrangement for ensuring valid data at a second stage of a digital register circuit


An improved device for measuring pressures, comprising a silicon membrane or diaphragm which is exposed, on its two faces, to two pressures whose difference is to be measured. A resonant element is provided on one face of the diaphragm, which is treated by selective chemical etching, and is mechanically coupled to the diaphragm so that its resonance frequency varies as a consequence of the deformation undergone by the diaphragm.

The present invention relates to the measurement of pressures in the industrial field.
Pressure measurements are used extensively in process instruments and in control systems.
Conventional sensors use variations in the resonance frequency of a structure which is already oscillating due to the elastic deformations caused by external mechanical factors such as force, acceleration, pressure, etcetera, also of the differential-mode kind.
Conventional resonance sensors do not allow to achieve high performance in terms of resolution.
Moreover those sensors have a high cost and entail considerable construction difficulties owing to the complex system for the excitation of the resonant element and for signal acquisition.
Finally those sensors require an overpressure protection system which is external to the sensor and is generally very complex and difficult to provide.

Pressure measuring membrane with resonant element vibrating orthogonal to membrane movement

Consorzio Abb Per Lo Sviluppo Tecnologico


A roof system for a vehicle includes a panel assembly having a transparent roof panel (14), a privacy panel (18), and a transparent display panel (16). An image generator (40) is configured to display an image on the display panel (16) and a control system operates the image generator (40) and actuates the privacy panel (18) between a transparent mode and an opaque mode. The system may also includes a perimeter trim member (20) having a perimeter ventilation system surrounding the panels. The transparent display panel (16) may also be provided with a user interface region having instruments, displays and touch-activated switches (52). The system may also include ambient lighting bands (60) adjacent to the perimeter of the panels.

The present inventions relate generally to a roof system for a vehicle. More specifically, the present inventions relate to a vista roof system capable of displaying images on a roof panel in a vehicle and permitting occupants of the vehicle to view through the roof panel. The present inventions also relate to a ventilation system for use with a vista roof system and ambient lighting bands and a user-interface segment on the panel.
Roof panels for use in vehicles are generally known. For example, conventional roof systems may include a transparent panel or window along the roof of the vehicle to permit occupants within the vehicle to "see through" the roof and view overhead external surroundings. However, the view provided through such transparent roof panels is typically limited to the surroundings, scenery and lighting available at the particular location of the vehicle. In another example, "sunroofs" and "moon-roofs" for vehicle roofs are also generally known for permitting a vehicle user to "open" a transparent or non-transparent portion of the vehicle roof for viewing, ventilation, etc. However, the view provided by such sunroofs and moon-roofs are also typically limited to the surroundings, scenery and lighting available at the particular location of the vehicle, and may in some cases require opening the roof to obtain the view. In a further example, video display panels mounted to a roof panel and configured to "fold down" for viewing by occupants of the vehicle are also generally known. However, such display panels typically do not also provide capability of direct viewing of the vehicle's surroundings through the display panel. Further, such display panels typically do not include built-in touch-control devices and ventilation capacity.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a roof system having a generally transparent panel (e.g. glass panel, etc.) configured for viewing of the external surroundings by occupants of the vehicle. It would also be desirable to provide a roof system having a display panel formed on, in, or with the transparent panel to display images (e.g. video images, etc.) on the transparent panel for viewing by the occupants of the vehicle (e.g. when viewing of external surroundings is unavailable, undesirable, not preferred, etc.). It would be further desirable to provide a roof system having a transparent display panel configured to receive and display various images for viewing by occupants of the vehicle. It would be further advantageous to provide the transparent display panel in a wide variety of sizes and shapes for use in a roof panel of a vehicle. It would also be advantageous to provide a transparent display panel that permits viewing the external surroundings in one mode and that receives uploaded data for displaying images on the roof in another mode. It would be further advantageous to provide an image source or generator configured to provide data to the transparent display panel for display images as desired by an occupant of the vehicle. It would also be advantageous to provide a transparent display panel with touch-control actuation switches. It would be further advantageous to provide structure surrounding the transparent display panel to provide ventilation to or from the vehicle cabin.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a roof system for a vehicle having any one or more of these or other advantageous features.


Methods and apparatus for managing capacity in a Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) network. An exemplary method embodiment includes operating a Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD) of a cell to perform the steps of: receiving a power down message; decreasing, in response to the power down message, UE inactivity timer length for one or more UEs from a first length to a second length; and continuing to transmit packets to UEs at an edge of the cell. An exemplary system embodiment includes: a CBSD of a cell that comprises: a network receiver that receives a power down message; a first processor that controls the first CBSD to decrease, in response to the power down message, UE inactivity timer length for one or more UEs from a first length to a second length; and a wireless transmitter that continues to transmit packets to UEs at an edge of the cell.

In a Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) network, Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices CBSDs serve as access points which can support communications sessions between a user equipment device (LIE) using a CBSD and another device attached to a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network with which the UE is communicating. The communications with the UE may involve a communications session which may be and sometimes is a voice, video or data session.
While data sessions may be short lived in some cases, video sessions, as well as some data sessions may normally last for several minutes or even longer.
A CBRS network often includes one or more Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs) with relatively small coverage areas as compared to a macro base station or access point. In a CBRS network, interference is managed through power management of CBSD devices by a management device in the network referred to as a Spectrum Access System (SAS). When a new CBSD is turned on, the management device will instruct nearby CBSDs transmission power levels to be turned doyen or decreased in order to decrease electromagnetic interference to this newly created/activated device.
A power down operation by a CBSD in response to a power reduction instruction from a management device will result in a reduction in the data capacity and/or transmission range of a CBSD which implements the power down instruction. As a result, the number of UEs which can be supported by a CBSD subject to a power down command will be reduced as compared to before the power down command is implemented. This can result in a disruption of service as a CBSD may no longer be able to service the same number of UEs after a power down command and/or some of the UEs being serviced prior to a power down command may have difficulty communicating at the same data rates or be out of range of the CBSD subject to a power down command.
Thus it should be appreciated that the powering down of an active CBSD due to a new, e.g., neighboring CBSD, being added to a system can disrupt ongoing communications sessions resulting in the possible dropping of the session. Interruption of video sessions, and/or halted and/or low quality video sessions e.g., can be annoying and is often considered a sign of poor service quality. Similarly, even in cases were a session is not dropped the loss of packets, e.g., dropping of packets in a CBSD transmit buffer can be undesirable since it can result in the loss of video packets causing defective video in a video session. In the case of data sessions the loss of packets and/or dropping of the session is also undesirable as data may be lost and/or a new session may need to be established.
Re-establishment of a communications session or establishment of a new communications session due to radio link problems such as those which may occur when a CBSD powers down are not only desirable but can involve a fair amount of session establishment signaling to re-establish a session or establish a new session.
From the above, it should be appreciated that it would be desirable if methods and/or apparatus could be developed which would allow for a CBSD to reduce its transmit power when a new CBSD is added to the system without requiring termination of communications sessions which are ongoing at the CBSD which is controlled to implement the power down operation. For communications sessions which will no longer be supportable as a result of a power down instruction it would still be desirable if a CBSD could complete transmission of packets already included in its transmit buffer so that those sessions for which additional packets will not be received can be completed without loss of packets despite the receipt of a power down instruction.

Capacity management methods and apparatus for use in a citizens broadband radio service network


A dynamic power control system for controlling power utilization on a local level in a power sub-network of a power grid is presented. The power sub-network is configured with switchable power nodes, each having an associated priority level and each having a switch element that operates to switch coupling and uncoupling of first and second subsets of power lines in the sub-network. A sub-network controller monitors utility information that is associated with one of a plurality of system priority levels each of which is associated with one of a plurality of switch state configurations of the respective switch states of the switchable power nodes in the power sub-network, and effects the switch states of the switchable power nodes to comply with the switch state configuration associated with the received utility information.

The present invention relates generally to power utilization and more particularly to a method and apparatus for controlling power utilization in a power sub-network of a power grid based on external global power parameters.
Large-scale electrical power distribution occurs over what is known in the industry as a power grid. More particularly, a power grid is an expansive network of high-voltage power transmission lines interconnected at hundreds of power generating stations and distribution substations. The stations and substations are typically owned by various utility companies, which manage distribution of power to various sectors of the grid, including distribution of power to consumers over lower-voltage power lines that are stepped-down via transformers. The substations essentially operate as power hubs, directing current from branches with power surplus to branches needing additional power. The power substations thus operate to attempt to equalize distribution of power across the sectors of the grid and to allow the utilities to buy and sell electricity from each other. Substations may also transform some of the power to a lower voltage level and direct it onto lower-voltage distribution lines that service local sectors. End consumers in the local sectors are fed through service lines that are connected to the lower-voltage distribution lines.
Ohm's law is a basic law of the relationship between voltage, resistance, and current. The relationship can be expressed as I=V/R (or current=voltage divided by resistance). This means that there is an inverse relationship between resistance and current, assuming the voltage is held constant. In a discussion of how electricity is delivered from the electrical power grid to the consumers of that electricity, it is a fair statement to say that it is the intent of the electrical utility to provide a constant voltage for the electrical service delivered to the consumers, and as much current as consumers desire. It is also true that the consumers dictate the quantity of current being drawn at the intended voltage by varying the load (1/resistance) that the overall power grid experiences through the switching on or off of electricity consuming devices such as lamps and motors. As a result, in view of the fact that voltage is intended to be fixed by the utilities and that consumers dictate the load based upon their usage, that the current being drawn can be viewed as the dependent variable in this relationship.
The electrical power grid is designed to be a balanced system encompassing a number of power providers whose contributions vary as necessary in order to meet the overall current requirements of the electricity consumers. The grid or transmission infrastructure can be viewed, for the purposes of this patent, as a number of adjacent transmissions lines linking the electricity producers and consumers, and over which the current is carried. For the purposes of this patent, the transmission lines refer to all of the components that are not part of the electricity producer, not part of the electricity consumer, and that are necessary for carrying current between the producers and consumers.
By design, these adjacent or effectively parallel transmission lines divide and balance the carrying of the current necessary to satisfy the consumers load, or demand, such that no individual transmission line is damaged by attempted to carry an amount of current in excess of its current carrying capacity.
There are typical two approaches taken by the utility service to react to a situation where a transmission line is experiencing excessive current. The first approach is to employ a current limiting device in series with the system load. These devices typically react to increases in heat from the overloading transmission line and become increasingly resistive to current flow as the temperature of the transmission line increases. Use of devices like these limits the current being carried over the transmission line, but results in either adjacent transmission lines having to carry more current to meet effective demand, or in the consumer experiencing decreased voltage at their location. Decreased voltage at the consumer's site is not acceptable since it can damage voltage sensitive equipment that is expecting the voltage of the electrical service to remain within reasonably tight acceptable limits.
The second option to react to excessive current on a transmission line is to disconnect the transmission line that is overloading via the use of a manual or automated control device before damage to the transmission line can occur. Unfortunately this approach has two negative side effects. First, when one of the adjacent transmission lines between the producers and the consumers of electrical current is disconnected, whether intentionally or due to a fault, it places a greater current burden on the remaining adjacent transmissions lines. This additional current is know as a fault-current, and follows from Ohm's law which dictates that the full current required to satisfy the demand still be delivered (assuming voltage is to be held constant), and is therefore divided over the remaining transmission lines as necessary to achieve this. In this scenario, each of the adjacent transmission lines will now be carrying an amount of current that is greater than the current it carried prior to the fault having occurred—thus, their proportion of the total current they carry increases.
As the adjacent lines near the point of overloading, automated controllers disconnect them from the grid, increasing the number of fault-current loads on other lines exponentially. If not controlled properly, disconnecting transmission lines that are overloaded can thus result in a cascading failure of the entire transmission system as the same total current is attempted to be carried over a reduced number of available transmission lines, possibly causing other transmission lines to become overloaded themselves and shutdown.
The objective to shutting down an overloaded transmission line is two-fold. First, it is to protect the transmission line and its components from damage resulting from the excessive current and resultant heat. The second reason is that often by shutting down a transmission line, the load will be disconnected from the electrical grid, which will reduce the current required to satisfy the remaining load connected to the grid. This is a pruning of the power demand in order to reduce the current to within levels that the transmission lines can support.
This approach to addressing the problem suffers from the fact that the granularity at which the electrical grid can prune itself is extremely coarse. Typically the granularity is at the neighborhood or regional scale, but in the case of the blackouts of 2003, the scale of the blackouts became much greater.
There are two fundamental ways to address the issue of excessive current through parts of the transmission system. The first is to increase the current carrying capability of the transmission system. This approach faces several challenges including resistance at the state and local regulatory levels, significant expense, and difficulty gaining right of way for expansion of the transmission system.
The second approach is to reduce the electrical demand during times of excessive current draw. Reducing demand proportionally reduces the current required, and reduces the risk of damage from excessive current on the existing transmission system. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. Voluntary reductions in demand are attempted through the use of "realtime pricing" or "demand pricing". With demand pricing, there is a financial disincentive to using power during high use periods. Clearly this approach can, at best, only have a probabilistically positive effect on current draw, and at the present time could not be depended upon as a means to control current draw during an unforeseen incident such at the blackouts of 2003.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a technique for enabling the control of electrical demand at a much finer granularity and in a much more selective way, than previously possible. As a result, during an electrical disturbance, operators of the electrical grid would be able to request the reduction of electrical load as necessary to reduce the current on the transmission lines in an automated way with the result being that load is reduced according to the electricity consumers preferences for what is shutdown.
It would also be desirable to have a technique for allowing electricity consumers to fully take advantage of the increasing trend in "realtime electricity pricing", or "demand electricity pricing". In realtime or demand electricity pricing, the price for electrical power is adjusted many times over the course of the day to better reflect the true cost of electricity production and transmission rather than being set less frequently based on averaging models. The advantage of this approach would be that it allows consumers to adjust their consumption in response to changes in pricing. However, in order to take full advantage of this approach, the consumers need to be made aware of these price changes, and have a means for quickly adjusting their consumption in response to the changes in price. This invention allows consumers to respond in an automated fashion to rapid changes in the price of electricity. This ability provides potentially significant savings for consumers, and can significantly reduce the peak electricity demand as seen by the electricity producing utilities. If peak electricity demand is reduced, then the current carrying capabilities of the electricity transmission system are also reduced.
Separately, the utility companies, recognizing that there is a market for providing fast Internet services to households, are endeavoring to provide Internet service using the power system wiring. To achieve this, several technologies have been invented, referred to as Broadband Power Line (BPL) technologies, which use the existing Utility Service power lines to provide a data communication channel that can be used to provide Internet access to a customer. BPL technologies are primarily intended to be inter-premises technologies. They are designed to provide Internet access to the home or business, in the same way that DSL and Cable networking companies currently do.
Separately, intra-home networking is popular, but prior to the availability of wireless networking, required wiring the premises for data using one of several cable standards that are well known to someone skilled in the art.
There are existing products available for utilizing the existing premises electricity wiring for the purposes of home networking. Some of these products are based on the HomePlug standard. Products are available that allow one to bridge Ethernet communications into the HomePlug network which utilizes the electrical wires in the house. These bridges are plugged into a wall outlet, and provide a standard 10-Base-T or 100-Base-T RJ-45 connector to connect the computer to. By utilizing two of these devices, the computers are networked, with the communications path taking advantage of the existing in-house, or "premises", wiring. HomePlug enables the use of the premises electrical wiring to allow a communications network within the premises electrical network.

Dynamic control system for power sub-network


A spindle supporting box structure, wherein longitudinal parts forming both ends of lateral parts at each of right and left longitudinal side faces facing, with a spindle therebetween, in a direction almost perpendicular to longitudinal side faces facing in a front-back direction are formed by longitudinal tubular members having suitable flexural rigidity. A damping structure wherein required frameworks of structures are formed by tubular members and wherein concrete is filled in the tubular members and then solidified. As an alternative, a powdery damping material or a jelly damping material is airtightly sealed in the tubular members. An inner space of one or more of the tubular members is made into a gas pressurized tank wherein a balance cylinder is connected to the gas pressurized tank and wherein the gas in the gas pressurized tank directly acts on a cylinder chamber of the balance cylinder.

The present invention relates to a damping structure, a spindle supporting box structure, a gas supply related device, and a balance cylinder gas actuated device for machine tools. The damping structure may be a general structure or a partial structure for machine tools.
A base as one unit of a structure for machine tools and a column as a box structure for supporting a spindle are designed to have little mechanical vibration in order to increase workability for machine tools.
Therefore, components of the base and column are thickened, or provided with reinforcing ribs to increase the rigidity thereof.
Especially in a column which supports a spindle to move up and down, keeping the rigidity of the column is important. A conventional example is shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B. FIG. 10A is a perspective view of a column to which a spindle is mounted so as to move up and down. FIG. 10B is a horizontal cross sectional view of the upper part of the column.
As shown in these figures, the column is generally formed by assembling plate members. Namely, flat plates 11a, are fixed to longitudinal side faces 11a, 11b, 11c, and 11d, respectively, and then connected with each other. Besides, longitudinal ribs 102 and lateral ribs 103 are fixed to the inside of each flat plate 101, thereby increasing the of the whole column rigidity.
Reference number 12 is a spindle device having a spindle 12b. The spindle device 12 comprises a supporting guide base 12a, and a spindle driving motor which is not shown here. Rails 14, 14 fixed on the front side face plate 11a are guiding the spindle device 12 up and down by means of the supporting guide base 12a. The spindle device 12 is actuated up and down by an unshown driving device.
The above means such as thickening components or adding reinforcing ribs to increase rigidity have a high cost. Therefore, recently outer peripheries of base components are surrounded by plates, and then concrete is filled therein. Or, concrete blocks are fixed to required parts afterwards.
In a small machine tool, it is easy to surround outer peripheries of a base with plates and fill concrete therein. However, in a big machine tool, it is troublesome or sometimes rather unsuitable. Besides, as years go by, concrete is constricted due to water evaporation, and breaks away from the plates, thereby decreasing rigidity as well as causing noise.
Moreover, fixing concrete blocks afterwards is generally troublesome. Besides, as described above, concrete changes as years go by, thereby distorting a structure and decreasing machine accuracy.
On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B, there is a column wherein slits s, s are formed at front and back longitudinal side faces 11a, 11b, respectively, and wherein a spindle 12b is mounted across the slits s, s so as to move up and down.
FIG. 11A is a perspective view of a column to which a spindle is mounted, and FIG. 11B is a horizontal cross sectional view of the upper part of the column.
In the column shown in these figures, the front and back longitudinal side faces 11a, 11b can not keep strong rigidity, and the connection between right and left longitudinal side faces 11c, 11d seems to break away, thereby causing a lack of rigidity of the whole column.

Spindle supporting box structure, a damping structure, a gas supply related device, and a balance cylinder gas actuated device for machine tools


In a reverse-bias control circuit for a voltage-driven switching element which turns on upon receiving a forward-bias voltage and turns off upon receiving a reverse-bias voltage, a step-down circuit is included which serves for stepping down a reverse-bias voltage after a time delay which is substantially equal to the turn-off delay of the voltage-driven switching element. The control circuit further includes a recovery circuit for stopping operation of the step-down circuit after a delay which is substantially equal to the total turn-off time of the voltage-driven switching element. The reverse-bias control circuit serves to reduce the reverse-bias voltage, thereby blocking surge-voltage disturbances, without increasing the turn-off delay time.

The present invention relates to a reverse-bias control circuit for blocking a surge voltage generated by turn-off of a voltage-driven switching element such as a power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) or an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). Such transistors may be used as high-speed switching elements of inverters for controlling, e.g., machine-tool motors, robots, or air conditioning devices, or in outage-protected power systems for office automation devices and medical equipment.
The present invention represents a major improvement over the prior art which is discussed herein with reference to FIG. 5 (a circuit diagram for a conventional switching circuit with an IGBT as a voltage-driven switching element) and FIG. 6 (a timing diagram for turn-off in a conventional switching circuit).
When a voltage-driven switching element such as the IGBT 1 is to be switched by applying a bias voltage V.sub.GE from the drive circuit 2 between the gate terminal G and the emitter terminal E of the IGBT, it is known that the speed of turn-off can be increased by dropping the turn-off time t.sub.off to 1 microsecond or less, e.g., by changing the bias voltage V.sub.GE step-wise from the forward-bias voltage +V.sub.GE to -V.sub.GE. As a further benefit during turn-off, malfunctioning due to so-called single-transistor noise can be prevented.
Concomitantly, however, the rate of change (di/dt) of the collector current IC during turn-off may become so great that a surge voltage V.sub.SG is generated by superposition, on the wave front of the voltage V.sub.CE between collector C and the emitter E, of a voltage resulting from resonance of the collector-current change with the main-circuit internal inductance of the module, or with the external inductance in the module-connecting wiring. Breakdown failure can occur if the surge voltage exceeds the withstand voltage of the IGBT.
It is known that the di/dt-characteristics of a voltage-driven switching element such as an IGBT, for example, have a reverse-bias voltage dependence, and that di/dt can be reduced by decreasing or stepping down the reverse-bias voltage V.sub.GE. However, simply decreasing the reverse-bias voltage results in an increased turn-off delay time t.sub.d (see FIG. 2) and in increased loss, so that the range of safe reverse-bias operation is narrowed. Inconveniently, moreover, when two IGBT's are connected in series in an inverter circuit, the dead-zone time for preventing short circuits from above and below must be increased, because the device response characteristics are impaired.

Reverse-bias control circuit for a voltage-driven switching element


Provided is a printed circuit board having coplanar LC balance, comprising: an insulation layer, printed circuit patterns formed on the insulation layer, power source wirings supplying power in the printed circuit patterns, and at least three signal wirings formed between the power source wirings, wherein widths of signal wirings far from the power source wirings are wider than widths of signal wirings adjacent to the power source wirings to achieve LC balance, thereby reducing the skew between signal wirings and improving the quality of signal transfer.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printed circuit board, and more particularly, to a printed circuit board that has coplanar LC balance by differentiating the widths of signal wirings that can be used in semiconductor packages and module boards, and also as a mother board.
2. Description of the Related Art
A developing trend in semiconductor devices and consumer electronics including the same is the pursuit of higher speed, higher performance and smaller size based on a high degree of integration. To achieve high speed, the quality of digital signals on a communication channel must be high. Further, a minimum amount of skew is desired in communication channels having the same function among several communication channels in the devices. As used here, skew refers to a difference in signal transfer delay time generated in communication channels having the same function.
To minimize skew in semiconductor devices and consumer electronics, an interconnect wiring formed by communication channels and pins in the devices should be formed so that a loop inductance, which is an L component, and a self capacitance, which is a C component, can be matched to achieve LC balance. Conventionally, LC balance is achieved using a transmission line structure such as a microstrip, a strip-line, a coplanar waveguide, etc.
However, LC balance according to conventional techniques inevitably increases the number of metal wiring layers of a printed circuit board used in the semiconductor devices and consumer electronics or the area of the printed circuit board. In contrast, in line with the recent development trend for semiconductor devices and consumer electronics, the number of metal wiring layers of a printed circuit board and/or the area of the printed circuit board should be reduced as much as possible. Accordingly, recent printed circuit boards include various interconnect wiring topologies besides a point-to-point connection. Therefore, more than three signal wirings may be arranged between power source wirings in an interconnect wiring on a coplanar printed circuit pattern.
Particularly, in the case of a printed circuit board of DRAM semiconductor packages having a board on chip (BOC) structure, all interconnect wirings are formed in a printed circuit board having a single-layer structure. Thus, signal wirings for command and address and power source wirings are formed adjacent to each other. Also, semiconductor packages using a printed circuit board having a multi-layer structure can also have a structure in which signal wirings for command and address and power source wirings can be formed adjacent to each other.
In this case, LC balance cannot be achieved only by adjusting the length of interconnect wirings because adjacent signal wirings and power source wirings affect each other during operation of the semiconductor package.
The present invention addresses these and other disadvantages of the conventional art.

Printed circuit board having coplanar LC balance

Maetan-dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do


A friction clutch, in particular for a motor vehicle, has a wear state indicating arrangement for indicating a state of wear of friction linings of the friction clutch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a friction clutch having wear compensation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wear occurs in friction clutches over the duration of their operating life in the region of friction linings of a clutch disk of the friction clutch. The wear produces a change in the force characteristic of an energy accumulator if the wear is not compensated for, thereby changing the required actuating force over the life of the clutch. The change in required actuating force is especially apparent during manual actuation of the clutch. The occurring wear also requires that the clutch disks be replaced when the friction linings are almost completely worn out but before the linings are completely worn to maximize the life of the clutch lining and prevent damage which may occur when the linings are completely worn.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a friction clutch and a thrust plate assembly for a friction clutch in which the need to replace a clutch disk is detected early.
According to the present invention, the object is met through a friction clutch including a wear state indicating arrangement.
The wear state indicating arrangement supplies information to the user of the vehicle having this type of friction clutch regarding the status of wear of the clutch or whether or not the clutch disk has reached a replacement state in which it is are required to be replaced by a new clutch disk. The indication makes it possible to avoid operating the vehicle over a long period when the clutch disk is completely worn out, which could lead to damage to other components and, in particular, would result in that the required torque could no longer be transmitted via the clutch.
The friction clutch may, for example, comprise a housing and a pressure plate arranged in the housing and connected with the housing so as to be substantially fixed with respect to rotation relative to it and displaceable in the direction of an axis of rotation relative to the housing. The pressure plate has a friction surface region for contacting a counterfriction surface on a friction lining of a clutch disk or similar element. The wear state indicating arrangement is designed to indicate the wear occurring substantially in the region of friction linings of the clutch disk.
To gather information about the state of wear in a simple manner, the friction clutch according to the invention may comprise at least one element which is displaceable when wear occurs. In this embodiment, the wear state indicating arrangement is designed to indicate wear based on the displacement of the at least one element.
In an arrangement which is especially simple to build, the wear state indicating arrangement may comprise at least one indicating element which is arranged so as to be rotatable at the friction clutch. The at least one indicating element is arranged so that it is set in rotation by the displacement of the at least one element.
A wear state indicating arrangement of this kind continuously indicates the wear state of the clutch.
In one embodiment, the at least one element may comprise a first toothed area in a meshed engagement with a second toothed area provided at the at least one indicating element.
In another embodiment form, the at least one element may have at least one indicating mark which moves when the at least one element is displaced relative to at least one reference mark. Accordingly, the wear state indicating arrangement comprises at least one indicating mark and at least one reference mark. The relative position of the indicating mark and the reference mark indicates the wear state of the friction clutch so that it is possible to continuously track the wear state of a friction clutch and of the clutch disk.
In another embodiment form, the wear state indicating arrangement comprises at least one indicating member which is pretensioned or is pretensionable toward a wear indicating position. In this embodiment, the at least one indicating member moves corresponding to the displacement of the at least one element toward the wear indicating position.
The at least one indicating member may be held by the at least one element in a wear-free indicating position, i.e., a position which indicates that there is no wear, until the at least one element has been displaced into a predetermined position corresponding to when the friction linings are nearly fully worn. When the at least one element is displaced to the predetermined position, the at least one element releases the at least one indicating member and the at least one indicating member is allowed to move to the wear indicating position. In this type of wear state indicating arrangement, the transition of the at least one indicating member from the wear-free indicating position to the wear indicating position indicates that the clutch disk has now entered a wear state that may not yet be critical at the moment, but which requires replacement of the clutch disk as soon as possible.
In a simple embodiment, the at least one indicating member may be pretensioned or pretensionable by centrifugal force in the wear indicating position.
Further, the at least one indicating member may have a first contact area by which the at least one indicating member contacts the at least one element in the wear-free indication position and a second contact area by which the at least one indicating member contacts the at least one element after moving into the wear indicating position.
Since modern friction clutches often employ wear compensation adjustment devices that automatically compensate for occurring wear and that generally contain structural component parts which are displaced in a compulsory manner when wear occurs and when wear compensation is carried out, it is suggested according to another aspect of the present invention that the at least one element is at least a part of a wear compensating adjustment device via which wear is compensated. For example, the at least one element may comprise an adjusting ring which is essentially rotatable about the axis of rotation when wear occurs.
It is especially advantageous to indicate the wear state when using a friction clutch with a wear compensating adjustment device because it would not be known through a changing actuation force that the clutch has reached a critical state. That is, when a clutch comprises a wear compensation device, there is no change in actuation force as the wear progresses. Therefore, the actuation force provides no indication to the user even when the clutch has reached a critical state with respect to wear.
The clutch according to the invention may comprise an energy accumulator supported at a clutch housing on one side and at a pressure plate via the wear compensating adjustment device on the other side.
The present invention is further directed to a thrust plate assembly for a friction clutch according to the invention, wherein the wear state indicating arrangement according to the present invention is provided at the thrust plate assembly.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.