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reference is now made to fig1 , which is a simplified pictorial illustration of a mirror - based detector constructed and operative in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , and to fig2 a and 2b , which are simplified sectional illustrations of the detector of fig1 in two alternative configurations . as seen in fig1 , the detector typically includes a mirror having fourteen mirror segments , each defining a corresponding detection zone of the detector . the mirror segments are arranged in a mutually concave arrangement in two rows . as seen in the illustrated embodiment , a sensor 10 is associated with mirror segments 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 and 24 in a top row and with mirror segments 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , 42 and 44 in a bottom row . each of the mirror segments is operative to focus radiation from its corresponding detection zone onto the sensor 10 . the mirror segments 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 and 24 preferably are arranged in a concave arrangement in a circular arc within a housing element 50 . similarly , mirror segments 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , 42 and 44 preferably are arranged in a concave arrangement in a circular arc within housing element 50 . the housing element 50 defines an aperture 52 adjacent which is preferably located a window 54 having a circular cross - section . window 54 preferably is made of a thin material transparent to infrared radiation , such as hdpe , silicon , germanium or any other suitable material . alternatively , other appropriate window shapes may be used . sensor 10 preferably comprises a dual element pyroelectric sensor , such as an lhi - 968 sensor , commercially available from perkin - elmer of freemont , calif ., usa . as seen with particular clarity in fig2 a , it is a particular feature of the present invention that mirror segments 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 and 24 are coated with a coating layer 57 , which is selectively substantially reflective to far infra - red radiation , having wavelengths of 7 - 14 μm and strongly absorbs visible light and near infra - red radiation having wavelengths shorter than 2 μm . preferably , the coating layer 57 is formed of black nickel or black chrome . additionally or alternatively coating layer 57 can also include black copper , black zinc , black cobalt or iron oxide . the coating preferably has a thickness between 0 . 2 and 10 microns . preferably , mirror segments 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , 42 and 44 ( fig1 ) are also coated with a coating layer similar to coating layer 57 . in an alternative configuration , as shown in fig2 b , the selective layer 57 of fig2 a is replaced by a first coating layer 58 , formed of black nickel , and preferably having a thickness between 0 . 2 and 10 microns , deposited onto a reflective coating layer 59 , preferably formed of bright nickel . additionally or alternatively the first coating layer 58 may include black chrome , black copper , black zinc , black cobalt or iron oxide , and the reflective coating layer 59 may be formed of chrome , silver , aluminum , copper , steel or gold , preferably having a bright finish . in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , the mirror segments 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 24 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , 42 and 44 are formed of a substrate base preferably made of a plastic material , such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene ( abs ), or any other suitable material , preferably by injection molding , vacuum forming , or by any other suitable process . the mirror segments are then coated or electroplated , preferably by forming a black nickel coating , which functions as first coating layer 58 , over bright nickel , which functions as reflective coating layer 59 , as shown in fig2 b . reflective coating layer 59 is formed by plating the plastic substrate base with a first conductive layer , such as by electroless nickel plating , followed by electroplating a second layer of bright acid copper over the first conductive layer , further followed by electroplating a third layer of bright nickel over the second layer . this is followed by electroplating a layer of black nickel over the bright nickel third layer , which layer of black nickel functions as first coating layer 58 . alternatively , the bright nickel third layer may be obviated , and the layer of black nickel may be formed directly over the bright acid copper second layer . as a further alternative , the bright acid copper layer may also be obviated , and the layer of black nickel may be formed directly over the first conductive layer . preferably , the first conductive layer is formed by electroless nickel plating or electroless copper , preferably having a bright finish . reference is now made to fig3 , which is a simplified pictorial illustration of a mirror - based detector constructed and operative in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention , and to fig4 a and 4b , which are simplified sectional illustrations of the detector of fig3 in two alternative configurations . as seen in fig3 - 4b , the detector typically includes a mirror having fourteen mirror segments , each defining a corresponding detection zone of the detector . the mirror segments are arranged in a mutually concave arrangement in two rows . as seen in the illustrated embodiment , a sensor , preferably a pyroelectric sensor 60 , is associated with mirror segments 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 and 74 in a top row and with mirror segments 76 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 , 86 and 88 in a bottom row . each of the mirror segments is operative to focus radiation from its corresponding detection zone onto the sensor 60 via at least one intermediate reflecting surface 90 . the mirror segments 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 and 74 preferably are arranged in a concave arrangement in a circular arc within a housing element 92 . similarly , mirror segments 76 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 , 86 and 88 preferably are arranged in a concave arrangement in a circular arc within housing element 92 . the sensor 60 may be located at any suitable location within the housing 92 . the at least one intermediate reflecting surface 90 , here shown as a single intermediate reflecting surface , is located along optical paths defined by mirror segments 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 , 86 and 88 at a location suitable for redirecting radiation from the mirror segments to pyroelectric sensor 60 . in the illustrated embodiment of fig3 - 4b , the sensor 60 is shown mounted at an aperture 93 in mirror segment 68 . it is appreciated that alternatively , the sensor 60 may be located rearward of the aperture , and in such a case may be mounted on a circuit board ( not shown ) which also mounts the mirror segments . in such a case , intermediate reflecting surface 90 may require some optical power . the housing element 92 defines aperture 94 adjacent which is preferably located a window 95 , having a circular cross - section . window 95 preferably is made of a thin material transparent to infrared radiation , such as hdpe , silicon , germanium or any other suitable material . alternatively , other appropriate window shapes , such as a flat window , may be used . sensor 60 preferably comprises a dual element pyroelectric sensor , such as an lhi - 968 sensor , commercially available from perkin - elmer of freemont , calif ., usa . as seen with particular clarity in fig4 a , it is a particular feature of the present invention that mirror segments 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 and 74 are coated by a coating layer 97 , which is selectively substantially reflective to far infra - red radiation , having wavelengths of 7 - 14 μm , and strongly absorbs visible light and near infra - red radiation , having wavelengths shorter than 2 μm . preferably , the coating layer 97 is formed of black nickel or black chrome . alternatively , coating layer 97 can be formed of black copper , black zinc , black cobalt or iron oxide . the coating preferably has a thickness between 0 . 2 and 10 microns . additionally , mirror segments 76 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 , 86 and 88 and / or intermediate reflecting surface 90 may also be coated by coating layer 97 . in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , which provides an enhanced radiation selectivity effect , the mirror segments 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 , 86 and 88 and one or more intermediate reflecting surfaces , such as intermediate reflecting surface 90 , are coated by coating layer 97 . it is appreciated that not all the mirror segments and / or intermediate reflecting surfaces need necessarily be coated with coating layer 97 . one may choose to coat only some of the segments or intermediate reflecting surfaces with coating layer 97 , such that the segments or intermediate reflecting surfaces which are not coated have a bright reflective coating . in an alternative configuration , as shown in fig4 b , the selective layer 97 of fig4 a is replaced by a first coating layer 98 , formed of black nickel , and preferably having a thickness between 0 . 2 and 10 microns , deposited onto a reflective coating layer 99 , preferably formed of bright nickel . additionally or alternatively , the first coating layer 98 may include black chrome , black copper , black zinc , black cobalt or iron oxide , and the reflective coating layer 99 may be formed of chrome , silver , aluminum , copper , steel or gold , preferably having a bright finish . in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , the mirror segments 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 , 86 and 88 , as well as the intermediate reflecting surface 90 , are formed of a substrate base preferably made of a plastic material such as abs or of any other suitable material , preferably by injection molding , vacuum forming , or by any other suitable process . the mirror segments , as well as the intermediate reflecting surface 90 , are then coated or electroplated preferably by one of the processes described hereinabove with respect to fig1 - 2b . it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described hereinabove . rather the scope of the present invention includes both combinations and subcombinations of the various features described hereinabove as well as modifications and variations thereof as would occur to a person of skill in the art upon reading the foregoing specification and which are not in the prior art .	6
fig1 illustrates a vehicle 18 that has an example system 20 configured to autonomously determine edges and use that information for controlling a vehicle . the system 20 includes at least a processor 24 , a camera 26 , one or more light sources 28 , vehicle control components 30 and memory 32 . the processor 24 is in signal communication with the memory 32 , the camera 26 and the vehicle control components 30 and may also be in signal communication with the light sources 28 . the camera 26 records images of a surface and sends the recorded images to the processor 24 . the one or more light sources 28 illuminate the surface based on a predefined protocol while the camera 26 is recording images . the processor 24 analyzes the recorded images to determine the location of an edge based on predefined threshold requirements . edge detection information produced by the processor 24 is sent to the vehicle control components 30 . the vehicle control components 30 then navigate the vehicle 18 based on predefined navigation rules with regard to the detected edge . an example technique for using the system 20 or a portion of the system 20 ( only one illumination source ( light 28 ) includes continuously illuminating the edge in such a way as to create a strong shadow . the processor 24 uses edge detection processing to locate the illuminated edge . another example technique includes alternately illuminating ( i . e . strobe ) from a first angle where a shadow caused by the edge is formed and an opposing second angle where no shadow is formed . the processor 24 detects the edge by taking a difference of image frames of the different light sources and setting a mid - point ( or other value ) threshold on the difference data . if the two light sources are of equal brightness , then the average luminance for the non - shadowed area will be nearly equal . consequently , the difference in the non - shadowed area will be nearly zero while the difference in shadow - non - shadow area will be much larger . other illumination and processing techniques may be used . fig2 a , b illustrate an example of the layout of two side light sources 28 a , b relative to the camera 26 . the exact angle at which the light sources 28 a , b is adjustable depending upon the assumed heights and types of edges that are to be detected . in this example the light sources 28 a , b are placed so that their line - of - sight ( beam angle ) is greater than 20 ° away from the line - of - sight ( centerline ) of the camera 26 . the left light source 28 a is first illuminated onto a surface 40 , thereby exposing areas 42 and 44 of the surface 40 . a gap that is in the shadow between 42 and 44 is not illuminated by light emanating from the light source 28 a . the camera 26 then captures that image and stores it in the memory 32 . next , as shown in fig3 b , the left light source 28 a is deactivated and the right light source 28 b is activated , thereby illuminating the entire area 46 of the surface 40 . the camera 26 then obtains another image and stores it in the memory 32 . then , the processor 24 compares the stored images to determine changes in various image qualities , such as chrominance or luminance . the processor 24 uses the determined changes in image qualities to perform edge detection . an edge is detected when a threshold number of proximate pairs ( or other combinations ) of pixels vary in predefined image quality by a threshold amount . other edge detection techniques may be used on the result of the compared images . in one embodiment , the light sources 28 a , b are strobbed at a predefined frequency relative to the frame rate of the camera 26 ( video ). for example , if a camera has a raw frame rate of 60 hz and two light sources were used then the strobe frequency would be no higher than 30 hz on each strobe light — one for alternate frames . the rate at which the edge needs to be examined depends on the speed of the vehicle , the linearity / dynamics of the edge being tracked , the dwell of the strobe , the ability of the vehicle to coast between edge observations , and other factors . in another embodiment , the light sources 28 a , b are continuously illuminated or can be alternated with various other illumination schemes ( such as strobbing ), thereby allowing the processor 24 to analyze various illumination schemes upon a desired surface . fig3 illustrates a surface 50 that includes a narrow channel 52 that is desired to be detected by the system 20 . in order to provide better illumination enhancement , the second light source 28 b has a line - of - sight with an angular difference from the line - of - sight of the camera 26 that is less than 30 °. the actual angle depends on the depth and width of the slot . it may be in the same plane as the camera 26 or greater than 30 °. the angles of the light sources 28 a , b relative to the camera 26 and the surface 50 are set in order to produce the best illumination results for increasing edge detection by the processor 24 . also , 3 or more lights ( a third light source 28 c ) may be needed to track the slot for left and right deviations depending on its depth / width ratio . fig4 illustrates another application of the system 20 for use in determining a raised edge 58 on a surface 56 . similar to the process described in fig3 a , b , the light sources 28 a , b are alternately illuminated thereby allowing the camera 26 to capture various images with differently angled light sources in order to analyze , compare and determine if an edge ( in this case raised edge ) exists . in one embodiment of the invention , the light source 28 can be any of a number of visible illumination sources , such as fluorescent light , an incandescent light or xenon light . the light source 28 may also produce a non - visible illumination , such as light - emitting diodes ( leds ) for producing infrared light or laser diodes for producing a laser light beam . if a laser light source is used , then mechanisms may be included for scanning the laser beam in a desired pattern along a targeted surface . in other embodiments , more than two light sources may be used at a variety of other angles relative to the camera 26 . also , in a low - light environment a single light source might be capable of producing an adequate shadow for allowing the processor 24 to detect an edge . any combination of illumination sources may be used . also , the illumination source may be restricted to a certain frequency range , such as when illumination in a specific color is desired . in one embodiment , the vehicle 18 ( fig1 ) may be any of a variety of vehicles that would benefit from having improved edge detection capabilities , for example an automated lawn mower . the edge detection capabilities discussed above could be combined with other navigation systems , such as gps , to provide a more comprehensive autonavigation system . if the form of the edge is fixed and known , steps up like a curb on the passenger side of a car , or steps down like the uncut - to - cut edge of turf , then the placement of the light sources and the location of the edge relative to the shadow pattern is also fixed . if the form of the edge is not fixed , the system combines some of the lighting patterns and techniques shown in the figures above to allow the system to deduce the form of the edge based on the contrast patterns produced when it is illuminated from different angles . if the ambient light is low or the frequency of the supplemental light can be filtered from the ambient light , processing the attained images to determine the edge is much more effective since the contrast between the shadow and illuminated surfaces will be greater . while the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described , as noted above , many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . accordingly , the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment . instead , the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow .	6
certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to be taken as a limitation on the embodiments of the systems and methods for electrochemical triglyceride assays . in the drawings , the same reference letters are employed for designating the same elements throughout the several figures . in many embodiments , the intended use may be to test whole blood . there are many advantages provided by an electrochemical triglyceride assay , as compared to an optical assay . in contrast to many optical assays , by having an amperometric triglyceride assay , no membranes are necessary . many current optical assays are dependent on different membrane manufacturers which discontinue membranes at their discretion . calibration of the analyzer may be easier with electrochemical testing . measuring current ( na ) is a standardized process , whereas standardizing reflectance is more difficult . testing electrochemically for triglycerides may result in a cheaper cost per test strip due to less reagent , less raw materials ( membranes , strip carriers , etc . ), and automation of the process . electrochemical test strips are generally inexpensive to produce due to the automation and small amounts of reagent used . the proposed electrochemical triglyceride assay is not dependent on oxygen and , thus , can test both venous and capillary blood . testing triglycerides via electrochemistry may , in many configurations , result in better precision than optical tests . the test range of an electrochemical triglyceride assay may be larger than a reflectance assay in many embodiments . reflectance tests are limited at the high concentrations by the amount of color that can be generated . however , electrochemical assays are able to measure much higher concentrations . this would be beneficial for the triglyceride assay , as we have had requests from those experimenting with animals to have a triglyceride range to 1000 mg / dl or more . in some embodiments , the sample size will be small : ˜ 1 . 2 μl instead of 15 μl as is used in an optical system . in many embodiments , a transfer pipette is not needed to apply blood to a strip , since the blood sample simply is wicked into the sampling port . the triglyceride concentration in blood is an important analyte for healthcare providers to test . high blood pressure , obesity , heart disease , and diabetes are all correlative to high triglyceride levels . in addition , testing triglycerides with total cholesterol and hdl will allow for the calculation of ldl . by having an electrochemical triglyceride assay , a foundation has been laid to create a full electrochemical lipid panel . the following reaction below is one embodiment of a reaction for creating an electrochemical triglyceride test . we have demonstrated proof of concept of reactions 3 and 4 . reactions 1 and 2 currently are practiced in the pts reflectance test strip and , based on these results , will work when fully optimized from the last equation on up . an alternative to using diaphorase may be to incorporate dojindo &# 39 ; s 1 - methoxy pms mediator . also , other mediators more conducive to alkaline conditions may be used in place of potassium ferricyanide . a key aspect of embodiments of an electrochemical test strip for triglycerides is using glycerol - 3 - phosphate dehydrogenase . in many embodiments , the enzyme glycerol - 3 - phosphate dehydrogenase has shown that there is potential for an assay . further optimization of ph , concentration of reactants , experimentation with mediators , etc ., will yield better precision , greater slope , and lower intercept for a triglyceride assay . provided herein is proof of concept of an electrochemical triglyceride assay . fig1 shows a proof - of - concept of electrochemical strip that was made to test glycerol - 3 - phosphate solutions in glycine buffer ph 9 . further optimization should allow for a lower intercept , better slope , and better precision . in addition to having an amperometric triglyceride sensor , in some embodiments , it is possible to incorporate a previous invention using a versatile electrochemical test strip and offer multiple tests with the triglyceride test . while the triglycerides are tested , it may be helpful to check other important analytes such as glucose , cholesterol , hdl , etc . fig2 shows one embodiment of the strip design including a triglycerides detector . shown are four strips 10 . from left to right , the strips 10 have 4 , 3 , 2 , and 1 sample receiving ports 20 . each sample receiving port 20 may have an electrode 30 , a counter electrode 40 , and a reference electrode 50 . the reference electrode 50 may provide for a fill indication , as it will only pass a voltage when the sample reaches the electrode 50 . the contacts 70 , 80 also are visible , which interconnect with the electrodes and connect to contacts in the analyzer when inserted . the strip size does not change depending on the number of assays . in addition , the electrode placement does not change depending on the type of assays . depending on what is desired for the testing scheme , sheets are printed for one , two , three , or four analytes . the spirit behind this invention disclosure is not to limit the size of the panel to only four analytes , but to provide a concept that is protected whether one or ten analytes are tested . also , the electrodes do not all need to be on one side of the strip . superior technology may be able to place electrodes on both sides of the strip , thus allowing for miniaturization . in some embodiments , single analyte test strips are designed to have the same location with at least four associated electrodes . the electrode 60 that appears as an “ h ” is used for strip detection by the analyzer . the remaining assays will have at least three electrodes — one for sample fill detection , and the other two as a counter electrode and a working electrode . these assays are not limited to a set number of electrodes , for it is foreseen in some embodiments that more electrodes may be added for purposes of determining and correcting for hematocrit or other interfering substances . in multiple configurations , reagents may be painted on the electrodes . alternatively , reagents may be printed , coated , dip coated , or otherwise applied , as will be apparent in the field . various types of electrodes may be used as well , including those made of carbon , gold , platinum , copper , or other conductive materials , as will be apparent to those in the field . fig2 displays separate blood sampling ports for each assay . some embodiments may include separate sampling ports , particularly if there could be “ cross talk ” between reagents . in summary , embodiments of a novel idea for an electrochemical triglyceride assay have been presented . it is demonstrated that an electrochemical reaction with glycerol - 3 - phosphate and a mediator is a viable testing technique . an electrochemical triglyceride assay will have a smaller sample size , shorter test time , better precision , and will be cheaper to manufacture . many animal testing laboratories have requested the ability to test triglycerides at values around 1000 mg / dl . while this kind of a range is difficult for a reflectance test , an electrochemical test can easily test high concentrations . this test could be advantageous for rat , mice , rabbit , etc ., testing when the amount of blood taken is critical . provided are multiple embodiments of an electrochemical triglyceride assay . a strip for checking triglyceride levels is a convenient point - of - care ( poc ) assay , but it is best when married to a cholesterol and hdl test to form a lipid panel . we have shown evidence of the first building block to an electrochemical lipid panel . building an electrochemical lipid panel will overwhelm the competition in the poc market . an electrochemical lipid panel will have a smaller sample size , shorter test time , better precision , and will be cheaper to manufacture . while specific embodiments have been described in detail in the foregoing detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings , it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those details could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure and the broad inventive concepts thereof . it is understood , therefore , that the scope of this disclosure is not limited to the particular examples and implementations disclosed herein but is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope thereof as defined by the appended claims and any and all equivalents thereof . note that , although particular embodiments are shown , features of each attachment may be interchanged between embodiments .	6
the disk brakes shown are an opposed type which is one type of disk brakes . fig1 is a plan view of one of such disk brakes embodying the present invention . this disk brake includes a caliper 1 formed with hydraulic cylinders 2 arranged opposite to the disk rotor d and communicating with a fluid inlet 3 , and pistons 4 slidably received in the respective cylinders 2 . fluid pressure introduced through the fluid inlet 3 is applied through passages ( not shown ) leading to the respective cylinders 2 to the back of the pistons 4 . the outer periphery of each piston 4 is liquid - tightly sealed by a piston seal 5 having a piston retracting function . pad pins 8 extending across a window 7 formed in the caliper 1 extend loosely through holes 6 b formed in back plates 6 a of friction pads 6 provided opposite to each other on both sides of the disk rotor d to support the friction pads 6 so as to be slidable in the axial direction of the disk rotor d . the friction pads 6 are adapted to be urged into frictional contact with the disk rotor d under fluid pressure applied to the back of the pistons 4 . when the friction pads 6 are brought into frictional contact with the disk rotor d , braking torque is applied to the pads 6 . this braking torque is borne by torque bearing portions 9 of the caliper 1 . thus , braking force is applied to the members which rotate with the disk rotor , such as a wheel . according to the present invention , the friction pads 6 are kept in frictional contact with the disk rotor d at a predetermined surface pressure even while the brake is not applied . for this purpose , as shown in fig2 a shim 10 is provided between each friction pad 6 and the pistons 4 . the shim 10 has a plurality of integral tongues 10 a pressing against the back plate 6 a of the pad 6 and the end faces of the pistons 4 to resiliently bias the pad 6 and the pistons 4 away from each other . the shim 10 also has claws 10 b straddling the back plate 6 a to set a stroke l of the claws 10 b . the stroke l is determined based on the maximum run - out of the disk rotor . for example , the disk rotor d of a disk brake mounted on a typical rv car has an effective braking radius r ( distance from the axle center to the center of each piston of the disk brake ) of about 130 mm . according to the service manual of such an rv car , the run - out of the disk is not more than 0 . 05 mm within the effective braking radius . besides such normal - temperature run - out , the disk rotor may also run out up to 0 . 15 mm due to thermal deformation during braking because the kinetic energy produced during braking is converted to thermal energy , so that the disk can be heated to about 300 ° c . thus , in such a case , the stroke l should be set at about 0 . 2 mm ( 0 . 05 + 0 . 15 mm ). next , the dragging force produced in a disk brake of an rv is described . suppose here that the disk rotor d of the disk brake shown in fig1 has an effective braking radius r = 130 mm , and a run - out to one side of 0 . 15 mm , and the friction pads have a friction coefficient μ = 0 . 35 . fig6 shows how the dragging force produced in this disk brake changes for each revolution of the disk rotor d when an input fluid pressure of 70 kgf / cm 2 is applied and then released . line x in fig6 indicates fluctuations in dragging torque produced in a known opposed type disk brake . line x was obtained by converting such torque fluctuations into electric signal level fluctuations using a load cell . the line x has peaks x 1 and x 2 exceeding 3 . 5 kgf . cm . such peaks appear because even though the pistons should be retracted 0 . 2 - 0 . 3 mm by the retractor means , proper clearance is not formed between the pistons 4 and the back plates 6 a of the pads 6 due to compression strain of the friction pads 6 and the deflection of the caliper 1 , and thus the resistance to the piston retracting force is instantaneously applied to the pistons . due to the presence of such peaks , the disk rotor d is periodically attacked by the pads and worn unevenly . in the prior art , there is known a disk brake which is free of this problem . this brake has piston retracting means which can retract pistons a distance greater than the sum of the amount of deformation of each pad 6 due to compression strain and the amount of deflection of the caliper 1 , and coupling means for coupling the pads 6 and the pistons 4 together . with this arrangement , when the pistons 4 retract , the pads 6 move with the pistons , separating from the disk rotor d . thus , it is possible to prevent uneven wear of the disk rotor d . but this arrangement has its own problem in that earth , sand and muddy water tend to get into large gap formed between the disk rotor d and the pads 6 while the brake is not applied , thus quickening wear of the friction pads 6 . in order for the disk rotor d to maintain stable interfaces and to keep uneven wear of the disk to less than 15 μm , which is an upper limit of judder - free region , the dragging torque has to be kept under 3 kgf . cm even if the pads are made of a semimetallic material , which is known to severely attack the disk rotor . the above is clear from the graph of fig6 . line y in fig6 indicates fluctuations in dragging torque produced in an opposed type disk brake according to the present invention in which a resilient member is interposed between each friction pad 6 and the piston 4 to keep the pads 6 in frictional contact with the disk rotor d at a predetermined surface pressure . in this arrangement , the dragging force is kept low within a narrow range at around 2 kgf . cm . this is possible because even if the pads 6 are deformed due to compression strain and / or the caliper 1 is deflected , the pistons will reliably retract and separate from the back plates 6 a of the pads 6 by the distance l as soon as the braking pressure is released . that is , while the brake is not applied , a gap is always present between each back plate and the end faces of the pistons 4 . thus , the pistons 4 will never be pushed back while the brake is not applied . while the disk rotors d are usually made from gray cast iron equivalent to fc20 , friction pads 6 are made from various materials . for example , most older pads were made of mainly asbestos fiber and hot - formed with addition of a phenol , a thermosetting resin . but because of its carcinogenicity , asbestos is rarely used in today &# 39 ; s friction pads . semimetallic pads , i . e . pads mainly made of metallic fiber , especially those containing ferrous metallic fiber , are also not preferred now , because such pads tend to rust and also severely attack the disk rotor . now , non - asbestos friction pads in which asbestos fiber in older pads is replaced with aramide ( aromatic polyamide ) fiber are most popular . description is now made on how the amount of wear of the disk rotor is affected by the surface pressure applied to the disk rotor and the friction pads by the resilient members disposed between the pads and the pistons , and by the material of the pads . asbestos , semimetallic and nonasbestos ( each in two kinds ) test pieces ( having a pressed surface area of 3 . 125 cm 2 ) were pressed against a disk rotor d made of fc29 over the area defined by an effective braking radius r = 96 . 5 mm at a surface pressure of 0 . 2 - 1 . 0 kgf / cm 2 under conditions equivalent to the conditions when a vehicle is driven at 130 km / h for 20 hours . the results of this test are shown in fig7 . in fig7 the surface pressure of 1 kgf / cm 2 on the x - axis corresponds to 10 kgf . cm of dragging torque , though this rate depends on the material of the friction pads . according to the present invention , the dragging torque is set at a value not exceeding 3 kgf . cm , which corresponds to the surface pressure of 0 . 3 kgf / cm 2 . thus , as long as the friction pads are non - asbestos pads , the disk rotor will be abraded little . in order to keep the dragging torque at a value not exceeding 3 kgf . cm , the resilient members have to be designed in the manner described below . dragging torque t is given by the following equation : wherein μ is the friction coefficient of the friction pads ; p is the pressure applied by the resilient members ; and r is the effective braking radius of the disk rotor d if for semimetallic material μ = 0 . 35 , p = 0 . 1 kgf , and r = 13 cm , then t = 0 . 91 kgf . cm . further , if the stroke l of the resilient member is 0 . 2 mm , and the spring constant k of the resilient members for absorbing the run - out of the disk rotor d is 0 . 5 kgf / mm , the mounting load p ′ of the resilient members when the stroke l is consumed will be 0 . 1 kgf . thus , tmax = 2μ ( p + p ′) r will be 1 . 82 kgf . cm . even if the mounting load of the resilient member is 50 % larger than the above value , tmax is still 2 . 275 kgf . cm , which is well below 3 kgf . cm , the upper limit . specific embodiments of disk brakes according to the present invention are now described . the disk brakes of these embodiments are all of a type having one piston 4 on one side of the caliper 1 . fig2 is a sectional view of a first embodiment , in which a piston 4 slidably fits in a fluid pressure cylinder 2 formed in the caliper 1 . a piston seal 5 seals around the piston 4 and serves to retract the piston 4 when the fluid pressure is released . a stretchable piston boot 11 is provided which has one end thereof engaged tightly in a boot groove 4 a formed in the piston 4 and the other end in a clip groove 12 formed in the caliper 1 to prevent the entry of earth , sand and muddy water into the cylinder 2 through its open end . a shim 10 in the form of a flat plate is provided between the piston 4 and the friction pad 6 to bias the friction pad 6 against the disk rotor d at a predetermined surface pressure by a predetermined stroke . the surface pressure is set by the flexibility of a plurality of tongues 10 a formed by cutting and raising portions of the shim 10 , while the stroke l is set by claws 10 b provided on the shim 10 so as to straddle the back plate 6 a of the friction pad 6 . this arrangement is economically applicable to any known opposed type disk brake simply by changing the design of the shim 10 . fig3 is a sectional view of a second embodiment , in which a deep - drawn cap 13 having a shoulder 13 a is inserted in the piston 4 so as to be disposed between the piston 4 and the friction pad 6 . a coil spring 14 is received in the cap 13 . while not shown , a shim in the shape of a flat plate may be provided between the cap 13 and the friction pad 6 to suppress brake squeaks . the surface pressure applied to the friction pad 6 is set by the mounting load of the coil spring 14 , while the stroke l is determined by the position of a snap ring 15 fitted in a groove formed in the inner wall of the piston 4 and the position of the shoulder 13 a . the resilient member of this embodiment is durable and easy to mount . fig4 shows a section of a third embodiment , in which a member having a leaf spring 16 is provided between the piston 4 and the friction pad 6 through a shim 10 in the shape of a flat plate and engaged by a plurality of anchors 10 c formed by cutting and raising portions of the shim 10 . the surface pressure applied to the friction pad 6 is set by the flexibility of the leaf spring 16 , while the stroke l is determined by the size of the anchors 10 c . fig5 a and 5b , which are sections taken along line a — a of fig4 show how the shim 10 and the piston 4 are mounted . in the state of fig5 a , the anchors 10 c pass anchor grooves 4 b leading to boot grooves 4 a formed in the piston 4 , while the leaf spring 16 deflects to lines s ( fig4 ) on fixing grooves 4 c provided offset from the anchor grooves 4 b . in this state , the piston 4 is turned in the direction of arrow ( fig5 a ) to slide the leaf spring 16 until it is locked at line t in the grooves 4 c . the resilient member of this embodiment is durable . the disk brake of this embodiment is made up of a small number of parts and easy to assemble . the disk brakes of the embodiments are all opposed type disk brakes for use in rv &# 39 ; s . but the concept of the present invention is equally applicable to floating type disk brakes , i . e . disk brakes having a fluid pressure cylinder or cylinders only on one side of the disk . according to the present invention , the friction pads are always kept in frictional contact with the disk rotor at a predetermined surface pressure . thus , it is possible to prevent earth , sand or muddy water from coming into the gap between the friction pads and the disk rotor even while the vehicle is traveling on a muddy or marshy ground . this makes it possible to stably maintain sufficient braking force and to prevent abnormal wear of the friction members . while the vehicle is traveling on a paved road , the friction pad biasing mechanism prevents uneven wear of the disk rotor , which is a leading cause of a judder of the disk brake .	5
referring to fig1 and 1a , the apparatus according to the invention for feeding a rotary filter by a continuous or trickle flow with a suspension of which the liquid and solid phases are to be separated is made up of two channels 1 and 2 and a feed tank 3 which is disposed at the head end of the two channels . each channel comprises an internal side wall 4 and a bottom or floor 5 , one of the ends 6 of which is sealingly fixed to the feed tank 3 , while the other end 7 is closed by a partitioning wall 8 . each of the channels 1 and 2 which are disposed on respective sides of a disc 9 formed by the sectors 10 and driven by the hollow shaft 11 and which are provided with their floor 5 also has a means , generally 12 , for regulating a space 13 between the floor 5 of the channel and the side surface of the disc 9 , which permits the suspension to be distributed over a disc portion 14 which is involved in the filtration step by a continuous or trickle flow before it is immersed in the suspension 15 , at the level indicated at 16 in trough 17 . for each disc 9 , a feed chamber 3 for the supply of suspension to be filtered is disposed at the head end of the channels 1 and 2 , at the end 6 . the feed chamber 3 is provided with an intake 18 and two outlet openings 19 and 20 , which respectively communicate with channels 1 and 2 . the outlet openings 19 , 20 are individually controllable by adjusting sliding shutters 19a and 20a , which move vertically and which are manually operated by two adjusting fillister head screws 19b and 20b . thus , the flow opening and consequently , flow rate of suspension can be regulated in each channel according to each situation of use . in a particular example , openings 19 and 20 will have a width of 60 mm , and a height regulable between 50 and 200 mm by the shutters . the suspension which is to be subjected to separation of its liquid and solid phases is introduced as indicated by the arrow 21 into the feed tank 3 and then issues therefrom by way of the openings 19 and 20 to feed the channels 1 and 2 which are disposed on respective sides of the disc 9 . the suspension is then distributed over the two faces of the disc portion 14 which is involved in the filtration step by the continuous or trickle flow 22 while the disc rotates as indicated by arrow 23 , well before the portion 14 of the disc is immersed in the suspension 15 contained in the trough 17 . thus , by means of the apparatus according to the invention , for each disc of a rotary filter , it becomes possible for the beginning of the filtration phase to be maintained at a constant height , irrespective of the level of suspension in the trough . referring to fig2 the apparatus according to the invention for feeding the faces of a rotary filter disc by a continuous or trickle flow comprises the channels 1 and 2 which are disposed on respective sides of the disc 9 . each channel is formed by an external side wall 4 , and a bottom or floor 5 disposed at the upper part of the trough 17 . the floors 5 of the channels 1 and 2 have a laterally adjustable block 12 for adjusting the gap 13 between the edges of the adjustable block 12 and the faces of the disc 9 . the adjustable block 12 provides for distributing along the channels 1 and 2 the suspension 24 which flows away through the gap 13 in the form of a trickle - flow sheet of liquid 22 which is subjected to the filtration operation and which flows over the surface 14 of the disc over the entire length of the sector . when the disc is driven in rotation in the direction indicated by the arrow 23 to provide for separation of the liquid and solid phases of the suspension , the solid phase which has formed the cake 25 , having undergone the draining and blowing stages , is diverted by the deflectors 26 which are disposed above the channels 1 and 2 , and passed outside the trough as indicated by the arrow 27 . fig1 a , 2a and 2b show in detail a particular configuration for lateral adjustment of means 12 for regulating the space 13 between the floor 5 of the channel and the side surface of disc 9 . the means 12 shown in the figures comprises a weakly flexible strip 12a formed of metal or plastic which is screwed , riveted or otherwise attached onto the length of a rigid , rectangular plate 12b , formed of metal or plastic , so as to realize an overlap jointed assembly . rectangular plate 12b extends longitudinally along the floor of the channel 5 , and the plate is attached to an upwardly extending lug 12c . two manually operable screws 12d pass through the side wall 4 and are fixed to the lugs 12c with nuts . the screws 12d are in threaded engagement with nuts 12e fixed to side wall 4 , such that adjustment of screws 12d causes horizontal movement of the screws , lugs 12c , plates 12b and strips 12a , with plates 12b in sliding contact with the floor 5 of the channel . in this manner , there is lateral movement of plate 12b and strip 12a , and adjustment of the gap 13 thereby . gap 13 is generally between 1 and 10 mm wide . the various regulating mechanisms are operated together in order to obtain an even distribution of suspension 24 over disc surfaces 14 so as to form a trickle flow sheet of liquid 22 on the whole surface of the disc portion . generally , the initial settings of the regulating mechanisms will be to maintain the regulable openings 19 and 20 at their maximum positions by proper adjustment of shutters 19a and 20a , so a maximum flow rate of suspension can be admitted to each channel . the initial gap 13 between the faces of the disc 9 and the strip 12a will be the minimum gap possible , generally about 1 mm . suspension 21 is then admitted to feed chamber 3 by intake 18 and flows from outlets 19 and 20 . because the openings are at their maximum while the gap is at its minimum , the stream of suspension into the channels 1 and 2 will be excessive , and will overflow the side wall 4 of the channel and the partitioning wall 8 . a first , coarse adjustment is then made by gradually lowering the sliding shutters 19a and 20a until the decreasing flow of suspension is then only slightly overflowing each channel . then , the gap 13 is gradually increased until the equilibrium between the feed flow and the trickle flow is reached and the overflow of suspension is stopped . generally , this coarse adjustment is not sufficient to obtain directly a trickle flow forming a continuous sheet of liquid 22 on the whole disc portion 14 . a second , fine , step by step adjustment is then made by gradually raising the sliding shutters until the increasing flow of suspension is slightly overflowing channels 1 and 2 again . likewise , gap 13 is gradually increased until the equilibrium between the feed flow and the trickle flow is reached again . if a continuous sheet 22 of liquid is not yet achieved , a third adjustment is then made . the final gap will generally be between 1 and 10 mm whatever type of suspension is provided . it is , of course , possible to use means other than sliding shutters to regulate the flow through outlet openings 19 and 20 and means other than 12a through 12e to regulate the gap 13 . any other suitable means for regulating the outlet openings and the gap can be utilized . further , rather than purely manual adjustment of the openings and the gap , it is possible to utilize electrical motors to regulate the openings and the gap , or to utilize pneumatic controls , with such regulating means governed by the flowrate . referring to fig3 the rotary filter is formed by filter discs 9 which are provided with filtering sectors 10 of trapezoidal shape , connected to the hollow horizontal driveshaft 11 . the disc 9 is disposed vertically in the trough 17 containing the suspension 15 to be filtered . when the filter is in operation , the filtering sector passes from the drainage position a to the blowing position b and then to position c for the commencement of filtration by separation of the liquid and solid phases of the suspension , by virtue of the feed thereto of suspension by a continuous flow by means of the apparatus according to the invention , even before the sector concerned is immersed in the suspension 15 contained in the trough 17 . the disc portion 14 is fed ( over each face thereof ) by the continuous trickle flow 22 of the suspension to be filtered , and perform its function of separating the solid and liquid phases by filtration well before the sector is ( partially or totally ) immersed in the trough 17 containing the suspension 15 to be filtered . by referring to fig3 it is possible to verify that , by means of the apparatus according to the invention , for each disc of the rotary filter , it is possible to maintain the beginning of the filtration phase at a constant height irrespective of the level 16 of suspension in the trough 17 , whereas in the prior art , the filtration operation can be carried out only when the whole of the sector 10 is immersed in the suspension 15 contained in the trough 17 . fig3 a shows in cross section the fixed distributor means 40 for accomplishing the blowing , filtration and draining steps . the distributor means 40 includes an outer wall 42 , which surrounds the rotary shaft 11 defining therebetween a space 46 over part of their circumferences . a vacuum outlet 48 is provided for vacuum draining of the filter disc passing drainage position a and a vacuum outlet 50 is provided for filtration of sectors of the filter disc passing filtration position c . an air inlet 52 is provided for blowing of particulate from the disc as it passes blowing position b . the fixed distributor means provides for isolation of the vacuum sections from the blowing section . also shown in fig3 b is a rotary stirrer 60 located at the bottom of trough 17 . the subject - matter of the invention was studied and compared before ( prior art ) and after modification ( invention ) of a disc - type rotary filter comprising : a trough 17 having a capacity of 30 m 3 , a cylindrical driveshaft 11 with a diameter of 0 . 6 meter and comprising seven discs 9 with a diameter of 3 . 9 meters , providing for separation of the liquid and solid phases of an aqueous suspension of al ( oh ) 3 , with a concentration of dry matter of 0 . 25 tonne per cubic meter . the suspension flow on each disc is about 70 to 110 m 3 / hour , so the flow through each regulable opening and gap is about 35 to 55 m 3 / hour . the flowrate is reduced when the solid fraction of the suspension increases . the discharge of the cake 25 is achieved by the two inclined deflectors 26 defining an angle α d with horizontal axis dd &# 39 ;, and positioned on each face of the disc above the horizontal channels 1 , 2 . each filtering disc 9 comprises 24 sectors each representing an angle α s of about 15 ° over the surface of the disc , being defined by the radial edges of the sector , α s being defined by the relationship 360 °/ n wherein n is the number of sectors forming the disc . the filtering support of each sector gives the disc a filtering surface area which is defined by an external radius r equal to 2 . 0 meters and an internal radius of 0 . 5 meter . in the three figures of drawings ( 4 , 5 and 6 ), the position 28 of the sector at the beginning of the blowing operation was fixed at an angle β of 60 ° with respect to the horizontal line dd &# 39 ;, upstream of the filtration step . as shown in fig4 and 5 which illustrate the prior art , the driveshaft 11 is immersed in the suspension to be filtered to a proportion of 50 % ( fig4 ) and 35 % ( fig5 ) of its surface area . as shown in fig4 the above - mentioned position 28 and the position 29 corresponding to total immersion of the sector , that is to say , corresponding to the beginning of the filtration step , when the sector forms an angle β i to the line dd &# 39 ;, define an inactive angle α m which is equal to ( β + β i ). the filtration step begins at position 29 when the sector is completely immersed and is concluded when the sector is in an intermediate position between position 30 at the time at which the sector begins to emerge and a position 31 at which the sector has emerged completely . that mean position and the position 29 define a filtration angle α f which also depends on immersion and the angle α s of the sector , α f being equal in that case to ( 180 °- α s / 2 ). the drainage step begins at the mean position , between positions 30 and 31 , that is to say , at the end of the filtration phase , and is completed when the sector is in position 28 ( commencement of the blowing operation ), those two positions thus defining a drainage angle α e of ( 360 °- α f - α m ). thus , the various angles referred to above are of the following values : referring to fig5 the above - mentioned position 28 and the position 32 corresponding to total immersion of the sector , that is to say , corresponding to the beginning of the filtration step , define an inactive angle α m which is equal to ( β + β i ), β i being the angle defined by the horizontal line dd &# 39 ; and the position 32 of the sector when it is totally immersed . the filtration step begins when the sector is in the complete immersion position 32 and is completed in an intermediate position between position 33 at the time at which the sector begins to emerge and position 34 at which the sector has emerged completely . the intermediate position and the position 32 define the filtration angle α f which also depends on the immersion and the angle α s of the sector . the drainage step begins at the intermediate position between positions 33 and 34 , that is to say , at the end of the filtration operation , and is completed when the sector is in position 28 ( beginning of blowing ), those two positions thus defining a drainage angle α e equal to ( 360 °- α f - α m ). referring to fig6 which illustrates the subject of the invention , the continuous flow feed apparatus takes effect only if the level 16 of the suspension in the trough 17 is below the level 24 of the feed of suspension by way of the channels 1 and 2 ( see fig1 and 2 ). the level 16 corresponds to a degree of immersion of 35 % of the disc , as in the situation shown in fig5 . in the situation shown in fig6 the feed apparatus according to the invention is positioned in such a way that the feed level 24 is disposed at the level of the line dd &# 39 ;. hence , the filtration step begins when the sector is in the position 29 fixing the angle α m which is equal to ( β + β i ). the filtration step begins when the sector reaches the position 29 in which it is completely involved in the continuous trickle flow according to the invention . the filtration step is completed in an intermediate position between the position 33 at the time at which the sector begins to emerge and the position 34 at the time at which the sector has completely emerged . the intermediate position and the position 29 define the filtration angle α f which also depends on immersion and the angle α s of the sector . in the case of the invention , the level 16 of the suspension in the trough , that is to say , the level of immersion of the disc , influences the end of the filtration step , being the position between positions 33 and 34 , but has no influence on the beginning of the filtration step , that is to say , on position 29 , when it is involved in the continuous trickle flow . thus , irrespective of the magnitude of immersion , the angle α m is constant and accordingly the sum of the productive angles α f and α e remains constant whereas in the prior art ( fig4 and 5 ), the angle α m and the sum of the angles α f and α e vary depending on the magnitude of disc immersion . thus , according to the invention , the various angles are of the following values : in the particular case according to the invention where the level 16 in the trough 17 reaches the feed level 24 of the channels 1 and 2 of the apparatus according to the invention , the effect of the flow over the disc is neutralized by virture of the immersion effect , and the situation corresponds to that shown in fig4 giving rise , in regard to the angles α m , α f and α e , to a condition of equality with those shown in fig4 . for a degree of immersion of less than 35 %, when the sector portion which is disposed close to the shaft is no longer immersed , that is to say , passing above the level of the suspension in the trough , the non - immersed portion does not give rise to a breakdown in the vacuum effect , as in the prior art , as that portion was coated with solid phase when it passed through the continuous flow region which is between the level of the suspension in the trough and the level of the feed at 24 . all the values of the angles α m , α f and α e and the sum thereof , α f + α e , are set forth in the following table to permit a comparison to be made between the prior art and the subject of the invention . table i______________________________________angles prior art invention______________________________________ fig4 % immersion 50 % immersion of the driveshaft of the driveshaft equivalent to fig4 α . sub . m 67 . 5 ° 67 . 5 ° α . sub . f 172 . 5 ° 172 . 5 ° α . sub . e 120 ° 120 ° α . sub . f + α . sub . e 292 . 5 ° 292 . 5 ° fig5 fig6 % immersion 35 % immersion of the driveshaft of the driveshaftα . sub . m 120 ° 67 . 5 ° α . sub . f 88 ° 140 . 5 ° α . sub . e 152 ° 152 ° α . sub . f + e 240 ° 292 . 5 ° ______________________________________ in the case of the prior art , it is found that the angles α f and α e vary according to the degree of immersion , which is well known , whereas the angle α m increases consequentially when the level of suspension in the trough falls , giving rise to a reduction in the productivity of the filter since the sum ( α f + α e ) falls simultaneously with the reduction in the degree of immersion ; in the case of the invention , the angle α m is constant irrespective of the level of suspension in the trough while the angles α f and α e vary in accordance with that level , as in the prior art , while retaining in respect of the sum ( α f + α e ) a value which is at least equal to that of the prior art when the degree of immersion is at a maximum ( that is to say 50 %). the sum ( α f + α e ) remains at a maximum when the level of immersion is less than 50 % and remains constant in the case of the invention whereas it decreases simultaneously with the degree of immersion in the case of the prior art . as already stated above , an accidental drop in level in the trough of the filter below a limit which is fixed by the filtering portion of the sector , in the case of the prior art , gives rise to a breakdown in the vacuum because the filtering region of the sector which is close to the shaft is no longer immersed , whereas in the invention , an accidental drop in level in the trough , to the same degree , does not cause the vacuum to be broken since the nonimmersed filtering region of the sector has been previously covered by the solid phase at the time at which the sector was passing through the continuous flow region . it follows from the above - indicated particularity that it is possible voluntarily to vary the level of the suspension in the trough in order to vary the angles α f and α e without having to take action on the distributor means of the filter , whereas such action is essential in the case of the prior art , by simultaneously causing a variation in the angle α m .	1
in fig1 the data processing system of the present invention is shown to include a main store 2 , a storage control unit 4 , an instruction unit 8 , an execution unit 10 , a channel unit 6 with associated i / o and a console 12 . the system of fig1 operates under control of instructions where an organized group of instructions form a program . instructions and the data upon which the instructions operate are introduced from the i / 0 equipment via the channel unit 6 through the storage control unit 4 into the main store 2 . from the main store 2 , instructions are fetched by the instruction unit 8 through the storage control 4 and are processed so as to control the execution within the execution unit 10 . the system of fig1 is , for convenience , compatible with the ibm system / 360 and the ibm / 370 and accordingly , general details as to the operation of data processing systems may be had by reference to the publication : &# 34 ; ibm system / 370 principles of operation &# 34 ;, ibm systems reference library , form ga22 - 7000 - 3 . the above publications are hereby incorporated by reference into this specification for the purpose of teaching the general operation of data processing systems , for identifying nomenclature , and for defining the architectural requirements of the systems / 360 and 370 . by way of introduction , the information format in the above data processing systems organizes eight bits into a basic building block called a &# 34 ; byte &# 34 ;. each byte also typically includes a ninth bit for parity used in error detection . although express mention of the ninth bit in each byte is not generally made throughout this specification , it is assumed that there is a parity bit associated with each byte and that the normal parity checking circuitry is included throughout the system in a well - known manner . two bytes are organized into a larger field defined as a half - word , and four bytes or two - half words are organized into a still larger field called a word . two words form a double word . a word is four consecutive bytes . while these definitions are employed in the specification , it will be understood that words or bytes can equal any number of bits . various data formats may be employed in the environmental system so that instructions and operands may be of different length depending upon the particular operation which is to be carried out . the instruction formats include rr , rx , rs , si , and ss . as a typical example , the rx instruction includes an 8 - bit op code , a 4 - bit r1 code , a 4 - bit x code , a 4 - bit b2 code and a 12 - bit d2 code . the op code specifies one out of 256 instructions . the r1 , x2 and b2 fields each identify one of 16 general registers . the d2 field contains a displacement number between 0 and 2 12 - 1 . as an example of the rx instruction , the ad instruction adds the contents of the register identified by the r1 field to the contents of the main storage location addressed by the sum of the number in the d2 field added to the contents of the register identified by the x2 field again added to the contents of the register identified by the b2 field . the result is placed in the register identified by the r1 field . the rx instructions require two accesses to storage for execution , one to fetch the instruction and one to fetch one of the two operands . rr instructions require one storage access while ss instructions require a minimum of three . in fig2 the program event recorder stores the lower - address ( e ) in a register 322 and the length ( l &# 39 ;) of contiguous addresses to be addressed in a register 307 . the system of fig1 uses the information in the registers 322 and 307 to access information from the storage control unit 4 which in turn fetches and stores information in the main store 2 . in order to detect when the addresses specified by the registers 322 and 307 fall within some control range , the lower limit of the control range is stored in the register 346 ( dtcl ) and the upper limit of the range is stored in the register 347 ( dtcu ). the effective address specified by the register 322 and the control range registers 346 and 347 have their outputs connected as inputs to high - speed carry - lookahead adder structures 1035 through 1038 . the adder structure 1035 detects the w condition which indicates that the lower limit ( dtcl ) exceeds the upper limit ( dtcu ). the adder structure 1036 detects the x condition which is that the lower address e is less than or equal to the upper limit control address ( dtcu ). the adder structure 1037 and associated logic determine the y condition that the upper address ( e + l ) is equal to or greater than the lower limit control address ( dtcl ). the adder structure 1038 determines the z condition which is that the lower address ( e ) is greater than the upper address ( e + l ). the four conditions produced by the adder structures 1035 through 1038 are logically combined in the per logic circuit 1039 which gives an indication of a program event record on its output . the program event record indicates that an address used by the system of fig1 falls between the address limits specified in the registers 346 and 347 . in fig3 the instruction ( i ) unit 8 of fig1 is shown in detail . the i - unit 8 includes a plurality of addressing registers . the addressing registers include the 12 - bit d register 310 for storing the displacement d1 or d2 obtained from the various instruction fields , the 24 - bit wa register 312 for storing an address constant k , the 24 - bit x register 313 for storing the register addressed by the x2 field of the instruction , the 24 - bit b register 314 for storing the contents of the register identified by the b1 or b2 field , and a 24 - bit ia register 316 for storing the instruction address . during the initial instruction fetching sequence , the ia register 316 stores bits 40 through 63 of the 64 - bit program status word ( psw ). bits 32 through 39 of the psw are stored in the psw - 1 register 315 . bits 0 through 31 of the psw are stored in the psw - 2 register 348 . the addressing registers are connected with inputs to the effective address adder 318 which functions to add the contents of the selected addressing registers to form an effective address which is input to the effective address register ( ear ) 322 . the effective address stored in the register 322 , in addition to providing inputs back into the addressing registers , is connected as an input to the storage control unit 4 and specifically , to the buffer address register ( bar ) 363 ( shown in fig5 of the cross - referenced patent ) via bus 362 . from that bar register 363 , the effective address addresses the high - speed buffer ( hsb ) 355 ( shown in fig5 of the cross - referenced patent ) to access the desired instruction . the accessed instruction is one word in length and is stored in the iw register 388 ( shown in fig5 of the cross - referenced patent ) from where it is gated into the instruction buffer ib register 330 or directly via the selection gates 332 into the instruction pipeline 350 . for use in generating the appropriate addresses and loading the addressing registers and for storing operands and other information the i - unit 8 includes an even register stack ( ers ) 338 and an odd register stack ( ors ) 339 . each of the stacks 338 and 339 includes four 32 - bit scratch pad registers , and eight 32 - bit general purpose registers for a total of eight scratch pad registers and sixteen general purpose registers . additionally , the even and odd stacks 338 and 339 each include four 32 - bit registers which together define four 64 - bit floating point registers . the outputs from each of the registers in the stacks 338 and 339 are connected via appropriate gates to readout bus rob1 and to readout bus rob2 . bus rob1 is connected as an input to the 1r register 342 and bus rob2 is connected as an input to the 2r register 341 . the 1r register 342 and the 2r register 341 have their outputs connected via buses 285 and 286 to the execution unit 10 as inputs to the luck 20 and the 1r register also has its output connected to the storage control unit 4 via bus 352 as an input to the store data select gates 386 ( shown in fig5 of the cross - referenced patent ). the buses rob1 and rob2 from the register stacks 338 and 339 also serve as inputs to the addressing registers . in order to gate information into the registers of the stacks 338 and 339 , the result register rr in the execution unit 10 connects as an input to the write even wre register 334 and the write odd wro register 335 , which connect as inputs to the even register stack 338 and the odd register stack 339 , respectively . additionally , the write odd register 335 has its output connected as an input to the control registers 344 through 348 . the output from the control registers 344 through 348 pass through selection gates 343 the output of which is the readout bus rob3 which in turn is connected as an input to the 1r register 342 . the registers 344 through 348 provide a means whereby the control functions generally derived from the pipeline 350 insert their control conditions into the data stream of the data processing system . the instruction fetch and the instruction presentation portions of the instruction sequence are segments pfo , ia , ib1 and ib2 . the initial sequence processing is carried out under the control of the sequencer 325 in fig3 . the sequencer 325 controls the sequential instruction fetching and determines the next sequential instruction . after the prefetch offset ( pfo ), the sequential instruction fetching processing of sequencer 325 is in one of four states , the ia state , the ib1 state , the interlock state , or the wait state . the states are determined by logical determinations responsive to priority and other control signals in the data processing system . the next sequential instruction selection is carried out by the sequencer 325 to select whether the next instruction inserted into the pipeline 350 is obtained from the instruction word iw register 388 , from the s - unit of fig5 or whether the next instruction is derived from the instruction buffer ib register 330 . the determination by sequencer 325 of which instruction is the next to be gated into the pipeline 350 is responsive to various control signals generated throughout the data processing system . the target fetch ( tf ) determines which instruction is to be gated into the iw or ib registers as a candidate for the next instruction to be gated into the instruction pipeline 350 . the target fetch is responsive to various control signals generated throughout the data processing system . the logic circuitry for controlling the states in sequencer 325 are implemented using standard data processing techniques . for example , the sequencer is typically a serial counter which determines that instructions are fetched in a sequential counting order until the ordered sequence is interrupted , for example , by a branch instruction . such techniques are well known in the data processing field . the initial segments pfo , ia , ib1 , ib2 of the instruction sequence are processed under control of the sequencer 325 in fig3 . sequencer 325 operates over the cycles c0 , c1 , c2 and c3 . the prefetch offset segment pfo is carried out during time c0 to c1 which is one clock period and one cycle of the data processing system . during the pfo segment , a number to be added to the contents of the ia register 316 is loaded into the k register 312 and latched at time c1 . during the address formation , ia segment , the registers 310 through 316 are appropriately gated into the effective address adder eaa 318 which adds up to three inputs to form an effective address which is gated into the effective address register ear 322 where that address is latched at time c2 . during the instruction buffering segment ib1 , the effective address from register 322 is gated via bus 362 to the buffer address register bar 363 which is in the s - unit of fig5 . the register 363 is latched at time c3 . the latching of data at time c3 is effective to address the high - speed buffer ( hsb ) 355 . during the buffering segment ib2 the addressed information is accessed from the buffer 355 and is latched in the instruction word iw register 388 at time c4 . at time c4 , the data is introduced into the pipeline 350 . pipeline 350 includes the register and control stages 301 , 302 , 303 , 304 , 305 and 306 . the stages 301 , 302 and 303 each are active for two segments . those stages each store pipeline information and generate control signals during two cycles of time c11 . the information latched in the register of stage 304 is employed for the period from c11 to c12 to generate control signals to perform the check segment of the instruction sequence . at clock pulse c12 , the stage 304 information segment becomes latched in the register of stage 305 . finally , information in the register of the stage 305 is used during the w segment , during the period from c12 to c13 to generate control signals for writing information . thereafter , the information in the pipeline 350 is discarded and is no longer retained . in fig4 the program event recorder is shown in further detail . the register for storing the lower address e is the effective address register 322 in fig3 . the register for storing the lower limit control address ( dtcl ) is the control register ( cr - 10 ) 346 in fig3 . the register for storing the upper limit control address ( dtcu ) is the control register ( cr - 11 ) 347 in fig3 . the register for storing the length field ( l &# 39 ;) is register 307 in fig3 . the length register is loaded by the i unit sequencer 350 prior to the time or concurrently with the loading of the ear register 322 . each of the registers 322 , 346 and 347 is 32 bits . register 307 is 5 bits , however , in one preferred embodiment only three bits are active since address accesses at any one time are limited to eight bytes . each of the registers 322 , 346 , 347 and 307 has provision for a complement ( c ) output . for a logical 1 in any register bit position , the c output of that bit is a logical 0 . the inversion is employed since the adders in a preferred embodiment require an inversion . to operate on a quantity + a , the adders require an input of - a . registers 322 , 346 , 347 and 307 are indicated as storing information at clock time ( ck1 ). in actuality , in the system of fig4 some of those registers actually receive their information prior to ck1 time . for simplicity , however , they are shown to be latched at ck1 time since , for the present invention , this is the time by which the data must be latched . the output from the registers are input to the four condition circuits 1035 , 1036 , 1037 and 1038 . these condition circuits are identical in number and function to the ones previously described in conjunction with fig2 . in fig4 the w condition circuit 1035 includes four eight - bit adders . the four adders include two adders 94 - 1 and 94 - 2 which employ negative - true logic and two adders 95 - 1 and 95 - 2 which employ positive - true logic . each of the adders has an 8 - bit a input port on the left - hand side and a 8 - bit b input port on the right - hand side . for example , the adder 94 - 1 receives at its a port the eight negative inputs - a0 , - a1 , ..., - a7 which are designated as - a ( 0 - 7 ). similarly , the adder 94 - 1 receives , at its b port , eight inputs - b ( 0 - 7 ). the adder 94 - 1 has a carryout which propagates the signal - co . similarly , the adder 94 - 1 has a carryin which receives the signal + ci . the adder is 94 - 1 receives a positive carryin , + ci , and operates to provide a negative carryout , - co . the meaning of positive and negative as used in connection with the carryin and carryout signals is as follows . a logical true condition ( t ) is represented by a high - signal level ( 1 ) for a positive carryin , + ci , and is represented by a low - signal level ( 0 ) for a negative carryin . the same rules apply for a positive carryout , + co , where a high signal is a logical true and a low signal is a logical false and apply for a negative carryout , - co , where a high signal is a logical false and a low signal is a logical true . the adders 94 - 1 and 94 - 2 , which employ negative - true logic , receive positive carryins , + ci , and provide negative carryouts , - co . the adders 95 - 1 and 95 - 2 , which employ positive - true logic , receive negative carryins , - ci , and produce positive carryouts , + co . the + co carryout from the stage 95 - 2 is , of course , the + ci carryin to the stage 94 - 2 . similarly , the - co carryout from stage 94 - 2 is the - ci carryin to the stage 95 - 1 and the + co carryout from the stage 95 - 1 is the + ci carryin to the stage 94 - 1 . the - co carryout from the stage 94 - 1 serves as the input to the latch circuit 191 . the - co carryout from stage 94 - 1 is inverted on the input to latch 191 and therefore , the w condition stored by latch 191 on its q output is in positive - true form . latch 191 is any well - known latch having , for example , a q output which is employed and a complemented output q * which is not employed in the present instance . latch 191 is latched at clock time ck2 established by the clock distribution circuit 1053 . the a inputs to the adders in the condition circuit 1035 are derived from the cr - 10 register 346 which stores the lower limit address dtcl of the per range . the output is derived from the complement ( c ) output . the complement is employed since the adders , such as adder 94 - 1 , of the condition circuit 1035 require negative inputs (- a ) in order to perform positive logic since those adders have an inherent inversion . the high - order eight bits from register 346 are input to adder 94 - 1 as bits - a ( 0 - 7 ). the next eight bits from high - order to low - order are input to the stage 95 - 1 as bits - a ( 8 - 15 ). the next eight bits in order from register 346 are input to stage 94 - 2 as bits - a ( 16 - 23 ). finally , the low - order eight bits are input to the stage 95 - 2 as bits - a ( 24 - 31 ). in this manner , the 32 - bits representing the quantity + a which is the address dtcl are input in the form of - a to the a ports of the adders in the condition circuit of 1035 . ignoring the inversions inherent in the adders 94 and 95 , the value + a of dtcl in register 346 operated upon in the condition circuit 1035 is the true value and the inversions necessary for the actual implementation can be ignored . the inputs to the b ports of the adders in the condition circuit 1035 is the complemented value - b derived from the + b value of the upper address dtcu stored in register 347 . again the inversion is necessary because of the adder operation . the operation of the byte adders , for example adder 94 - 1 , in the condition circuit 1035 is to form the sum a - b using the inputs - a ( 0 - 7 ) plus - b ( 0 - 7 ). a true carryout condition , that is - co = 0 , is provided if a is greater than b and the carryin is false , that is , + ci = 0 . if the carryin is false and if a is not greater than b , then the carryout is false . if the carryin is true , then the adders of the condition circuit 1035 provide a true carryout if a is greater than or equal to b and provide a false carryout if b is greater than a . the operation of each byte adder is summarized in the following chart i : chart i______________________________________ci a - b co______________________________________false a & gt ; b truefalse a ≦ b falsetrue a ≧ b truetrue a & lt ; b false______________________________________ while each of the adders 94 - 1 , 95 - 1 , 94 - 2 and 95 - 2 operates in the manner indicated in chart i on 8 - bit bytes , the four adders together , with carryouts connected to carryins as indicated , operate on 32 - bits . the carryin of the lowest - order stage 95 - 2 is chosen to be false ( f ) so that the four adders together perform the function of detecting whether a is greater than b . as previously indicated , the value of a is dctl and the value of b is dtcu and they are latched in registers 346 and 347 , respectively , at least by ck1 time . at ck2 time , latch 191 has its q output set to 1 if dctl is greater than dtcu or set to 0 if dctl is not greater than dtcu . the x condition circuitry 1036 includes the byte adders 94 - 1 , 95 - 1 , 94 - 2 and 95 - 2 which are identical to the adders in condition circuitry 1035 . the a ports receive the value of e from the effective address register 322 . the b ports receive the value of dtcu from the register 347 . since the carryin to stage 95 - 2 is always false ( f ), the carryout from stage 94 - 1 is true if e is greater than dtcu and is false if e is less than or equal to dtcu . the carryout from stage 94 - 1 is inverted and stored in the latch 192 . the x condition , however , is taken as the complement q * output of latch 192 . accordingly , x and the q * output is a 1 if e is less than or equal to dtcu and is a 0 if e is greater than dtcu . the y condition circuit 1037 is again identical to the circuits 1035 and 1036 for the w and x conditions . additionally , the y condition circuit 1037 includes length logic 195 in addition to the latch 193 and the byte adders 94 - 1 , 95 - 1 , 94 - 2 and 95 - 2 . in circuit 1037 , the byte adders receive the effective address e from register 322 and receive on the b ports the value of dctl from register 346 . the adder 95 - 2 in the y condition circuit 1037 receives as its carryin a true ( t ) input . therefore , in accordance with the rules in the above - identified chart i , the carryout from the byte adder 94 - 1 is true if e is greater than or equal to dctl and is false if e is less than dctl . that carryout from stage 94 - 1 is input to the length logic 195 . the length logic 195 in fig4 also includes the propagate input - p ( 0 - 7 ) from adder 94 - 1 , the propagate inputs - p ( 8 - 12 ) and - p ( 13 - 15 ) from adder 95 - 1 , the inputs - p ( 16 - 23 ) from adder 94 - 2 , and the input - p ( 24 - 28 ) from adder 95 - 2 . additionally , adder 95 - 2 provides five additional propagate and generate signals on bus 1040 . length circuit 195 also receives the length l &# 39 ; from the register 307 on bus 1044 . the length logic 195 provides an output through an inverting input to latch 193 . the q * output from latch 193 is the y condition . the function of the length logic 195 is to determine if any address between e and e + l is greater than or equal to the lower per address dtcl . the details of the logic 195 are shown in fig7 . the z condition circuit 1038 includes one byte adder 95 - 2 which is like the same - numbered byte adders in the w , x and y condition circuits . in circuit 1038 , the adder 95 - 2 receives , on its a port , the complement of the five low - order bits ( 27 - 31 ) of the effective address e in register 322 and , on its b port , the true value of the five bits of l through logic 1076 . logic 1076 functions in a conventional manner to receive the complement of l &# 39 ; from register 307 , invert it to the true value of l &# 39 ;, and subtract + 1 to form the true value of l . since the adder 95 - 2 receives the low - order 5 - bit complement of e and the true value of l it performs the addition e + l for those five bits . the other 27 high - order address bits of e are input to a 27 - way nand gate 197 . gate 197 performs the function of determining when all high - order twenty - seven bits of e are 1 &# 39 ; s . when that condition is met , and gate 196 is enabled . gate 196 has its other input derived from the carryout of adder 95 - 2 . since the carryin to adder 95 - 2 is false ( f ), adder 95 - 2 functions to provide a true carryout if the five low - order bits of e summed with the five bits of l are greater than 2 5 - 1 and to provide a false carryout if the low - order bits of e summed with l are less than or equal to 2 5 - 1 . this use of the adder 95 - 2 in combination with the other circuits determines e + l & gt ; 2 n - 1 which is the same as determining e & gt ; e + l when the 27 high - order bits of e are true . under the conditions of a true output from adder 95 - 2 , gate 196 becomes satisfied , when enabled by gate 197 ( as occurs when the 27 high - order bits of e are true ), and stores its value in latch 194 . the z condition appears as the q output from latch 194 . each of the latches 191 through 194 is set by the clock distribution circuit 1053 at ck2 time . at ck2 time , the w , x , y and z conditions are input to the per logic 1039 . the per logic 1039 includes an or gate 1046 for ok &# 39 ; ing the z and w conditions , an or gate 1047 for or &# 39 ; ing the x and y conditions , an and gate 1048 for and &# 39 ; ing the x and y conditions , and an and gate 1049 for and &# 39 ; ing the w and z conditions . the outputs from gates 1046 and 1047 are further combined in the and gate 1052 to provide an input to or gate 1051 . similarly , the outputs from gates 1048 and 1049 are combined in or gate 1050 which in turn provides the second input to or gate 1051 . the output from gate 1051 is in turn input to the latch 198 where it is stored as the per condition . the per condition appears on the q output of latch 198 . latch 198 is latched at ck3 time . the logical function performed by the per logic is given by the following equation : the positive - true byte adder of fig5 is typical of the byte adders 95 - 1 in fig4 . also , the adder of fig5 is typical of the adders 95 - 2 in fig4 if the quantity 16 is added to all the propagate , generate and bit numbers in fig5 . for example , the input bits - a8 through - a15 for the adders 95 - 1 become the bits - a24 through - a31 after an addition of 16 . the function of the adder of fig5 is to generate a true carryout , + co equal to 1 , whenever the quantity + a is greater than + b . in making that determination , however , the adder of fig5 receives - a and - b inputs as indicated . the operations performed on bit 15 are typical . for bit 15 - a15 and - b15 are input to the phase - splitting gates 1060 and 1061 , respectively . the dot - or of the non - inverting output from gate 1060 and the inverting output of gate 1061 provide the negative 1 &# 39 ; s generate term - g ( 15 ). the inverting output of gate 1060 and the non - inverting output of gate 1061 are combined in the gate 1062 to provide on its inverting output the negative 1 &# 39 ; s propagate term - p ( 15 ). in a similar manner , each of the other bits 8 through 14 have negative propagate and generate terms formed . the propagate and generate lines - p ( 15 ), - g ( 15 ), - p ( 14 ), - g ( 14 ) and - p ( 13 ) form the 5 - bit bus 1040 &# 39 ;. the bus 1040 &# 39 ; is not explicitly used . however , by adding a quantity 16 to each of those terms for a corresponding circuit 95 - 2 , the terms - p ( 31 ), - g ( 31 ), - p ( 30 ), - g ( 30 ) and - p ( 29 ) are formed and constitute the bus 1040 output from the adder 95 - 2 in the y condition circuit 1037 of fig4 . in fig5 certain of the negative propagate terms are or &# 39 ; ed . specifically , or gate 1063 receives as inputs the terms - p ( 13 ), - p ( 14 ), and - p ( 15 ) and or &# 39 ; s those terms to form the term - p ( 13 - 15 ) which is equal to [- p ( 13 )] v [- p ( 14 )] v [- p ( 15 )]. the symbol &# 34 ; v &# 34 ; is the logical or symbol . the or gate 1064 also receives five input propagate terms for bits 8 through 12 and forms the output - p ( 8 - 12 ). the propagate and generate terms thus produced are then collected in nine nor gates 1065 which function to invert the negative generate and propagate terms to positive generate and propagate terms . the outputs from the nine nor gates 1065 are or &# 39 ; ed to form the + co term . each of the nine gates 1065 essentially is one of nine ways in which a positive carryout can be generated . it should be noted that the negative carryin , - ci , only passes through one logic gate in influencing the carryout term . the carryout term , + co , is given by the following equation : in the above equation , the nine terms correspond to nine outputs from the gates 1065 . the dot &# 34 ;.&# 34 ; symbol is the logical and symbol . the symbol + p ( 8 , 10 ) is equal to [+ p ( 8 )]. sup .. [+ p ( 9 )]. sup .. [+ p ( 10 )]. the positive propagate , + p ( i ), and the positive generate + g ( i ), are 1 &# 39 ; s propagate and generate terms . for any two typical bits + a ( i ) and + b ( i ) in forming the sum [+ a ( i )] - [+ b ( i )], a logical 1 is produced as the 1 &# 39 ; s propagate , + p ( i ), if + a ( i ) is 1 or + b ( i ) is 0 . a 1 is produced for the 1 &# 39 ; s generate , + g ( i ), if + a ( i ) is 1 and + b ( i ) is 0 . in fig6 the byte adder shown is typical of the byte adders 94 - 1 in fig4 . further , by addition of the quantity 16 to any of the bit , propagate and generate terms in fig6 the fig6 adder becomes typical of the adders 94 - 2 in fig4 . the adder of fig6 operates on 0 &# 39 ; s as contrasted with the adder of fig5 which operates on 1 &# 39 ; s . specifically , for two typical bits + a ( i ) and + b ( i ) in forming [+ a ( i )] - [+ b ( i )], the zero propagate term , p ( i ) and the zero generate term , g ( i ), obey the following rules . the positive zero propagate term , + p ( i ), is 1 if + a ( i ) is 0 or + b ( i ) is 1 . the positive zero generate term , + g ( i ), is 1 if + a ( i ) is 0 and + b ( i ) is 1 . in forming the positive zero propagate and generate terms , the adder of fig6 initially employs the negative bit inputs , - a ( i ) and - b ( i ), because of the inversion in the fig6 adder . bit 7 ( i = 7 ) in fig6 is discussed as typical . the inputs - a7 and - b7 are input to the phasesplitting gates 1060 and 1061 , respectively . the non - inverting output from gate 1061 is dot - or &# 39 ; ed with the inverting output of gate 1060 to form the negative zero propagate term - g ( 7 ). the non - inverting output of gate 1060 and the inverting output of gate 1061 are combined in the nor gate 1066 to provide the negative zero propagate term - p ( 7 ). gate 1067 is also provided for forming - b ( 7 ) and - g ( 7 ) from the - g ( 7 ) output from gates 1060 and 1061 . the terms - p ( 0 ) through - p ( 7 ) are or &# 39 ; ed in gate 1069 to provide the or &# 39 ; ed output - p ( 0 - 7 ) which denotes a &# 34 ; 1 &# 39 ; s propagate &# 34 ; output . a gate 1068 is provided for collecting the negative zero propagate terms - p ( 0 ) through - p ( 4 ) to provide the or &# 39 ; ed output - p ( 0 - 4 ). the zero propagate and generate terms are collected in nine nor gates 1070 . the outputs from the gates 1070 are or &# 39 ; ed to provide the negative carryout - co . the negative carryout , - co , is defined by the following equation : in the above equation for - co , each of the nine terms correspond to the output from the nine gates 1070 . the symbol &# 34 ; v &# 34 ; represents the logical or and the symbol &# 34 ;.&# 34 ; represents the logical and . the term &# 34 ;[+ p ( 0 , 2 )]&# 34 ; represents [+ p ( 0 )]. sup .. [+ p ( 1 )]. sup .. [+ p ( 2 )]. the meaning of the - co term is that there are nine conditions by which a 0 will be propagated . prapagating a 0 has the same meaning as not propagating a 1 . in fig7 further details of the length logic 195 of fig4 are shown . gate 1071 receives the or &# 39 ; ed propagate signals from the byte adders within the y condition circuitry 1037 and forms the output - p ( 0 , 28 ) which signifies when all of the high - order bits 0 through 28 of e and dtcl are identical provided no carryout has occurred . the identity exists since , in the absence of a carryout and + p ( 0 , 28 ) is true , no generates can exist and therefore the propagate must derive from identity . that signal - p ( 0 , 28 ) is input to enable the seven nor gates 1073 . byte inhibit logic 1042 also provides an input to each of the gates 1073 . inhibit logic 1042 is a tree decoder which decodes the input length l &# 39 ; on line 1044 from register 307 . if the length l &# 39 ; indicates one byte ( which means only address e is of concern , the input to gate 1073 - 1 is enabled . if the length is two bytes ( e + 1 ) the input to gate 1073 - 2 is enabled as well as the input to gate 1073 - 1 . if the length is three bytes ( e + 2 ) then the inputs to gates 1073 - 3 , 1073 - 2 and 1073 - 1 are enabled . the progression continues in the same measure until for l &# 39 ; equal to 7 ( e + 6 ) all of the gates 1073 - 7 through 1073 - 1 are enabled . each of the gates 1073 receives a third input from the byte circuits 1072 . the byte circuits 1072 detect whenever the length l when added to the address e will cause the address e + l to exceed dtcl . the carryout input on line 1041 through the inverter to the or gate 1043 serves to detect whether e by itself is greater than dtcl . if the address e by itself does not cause an output from gate 1043 , then the byte circuits 1032 for signals - byte 2 through - byte 7 determine whether the length l when added to e will cause an output from the gate 1043 . in the particular system of fig1 the length l &# 39 ; is limited to eight bytes , but only seven bytes are actually used and hence only - byte 1 , . . . , - byte 7 signals are generated . the - byte 1 signal for the y condition is redundant and makes the same determination as the signal on line 1041 . the details of the circuit 1072 for generating the - byte 1 signal are shown to include a gate for forming the and function -[+ p ( 29 )]. sup .. [+ p ( 30 )]. sup .. [+ p ( 31 )]. the meaning of the - byte 1 signal in combination with the signal from gate 1071 is that all propagate terms from + p ( 0 ) to + p ( 31 ) are present . this condition signifies that e is identical to dtcl if no carryout is indicated on line 1041 . if l &# 39 ; is 1 , then circuit 1042 enables gate 1073 - 1 and provides an output through or gate 1043 on line 1045 . the details of each of the other circuits are shown schematically in logical notation in fig7 . each of those other circuits logically test whether the addition of a particular value of l &# 39 ; to the three low - order bits 29 , 30 and 31 of e will cause e + l to equal or exceed dtcl . the operation of the program event recorder of fig2 in connection with storage alteration by the system of fig1 is explained with reference to a specific examples . for purposes of explanation , the lower per range address dtcl is chosen to be 001ffc30 ( addresses in hexadecimal format ). the upper per range address dtcu is chosen to be 001ffc34 . with this per range , for a storage alteration per determination the operation of the fig2 circuit for an effective address of 001ffc36 and an e + l address of 001ffc39 is summarized in the following chart ii : chart ii______________________________________ck1 dtcl = 001ffc30 dtcu = 001ffc34 e = 001ffc36 l &# 39 ;= 4______________________________________ck2 w = false ( 0 ) x = false ( 0 ) y = true ( 1 ) z = false ( 0 ) ______________________________________ck3 per = false ( 0 ) ______________________________________ in the above chart ii , the indicated values of dtcl , dtcu , and e are stored in the registers 346 , 347 and 322 . the value of l &# 39 ; equal to is similarly stored in the register 307 so that the value of e + l is equal to 001ffc39 . with a value of l &# 39 ; equal to 4 , the system of fig1 operates to access four bytes starting with the byte specified by the effective address e . at ck1 time , the values in chart ii are latched in the indicated registers and are input to the respective w , x , y and z condition circuits which operate to make determinations in the manner previously described . at ck2 time , the latches 191 through 194 in fig4 are latched with the determined conditions . with the input address information of chart ii , the w condition is false , 191q equal to 0 , since dtcl is not greater than dtcu . the x condition is false , 192q * equal to 0 , since e is greater than dtcu . the y condition is true , 193q * equal to 1 since e + l is greater than dtcl . the z condition is false , 194q * equal to o , since e is not greater than e + l . at ck2 time , the indicated values of w , x , y and z are input to the per logic 1039 where the logic determines that per is false ( 0 ). in fig4 that false determination is latched into latch 198 at ck3 time rendering 198q equal to 0 . in a second example , the lower per range address is 001ffc35 and the upper per range address dtcu is 001ffc38 . the effective address e is 001ffc33 and the address e + l is 001ffc36 indicating that l &# 39 ; is 4 . the operation of the circuit of fig2 with the indicated input conditions is summarized in the following chart iii : chart iii______________________________________ck1 dtcl = 001ffc35 dtcu = 001ffc38 e = 001ffc33 l &# 39 ;= 4______________________________________ck2 w = false ( 0 ) x = true ( 1 ) y = true ( 1 ) z = false ( 0 ) ______________________________________ck3 per = true ( 1 ) ______________________________________ in the above chart iii , the per test is true since two bytes in the address range from e to e + l fall within the per range between dtcl and dtcu . specifically , those bytes are the two bytes 001ffc35 and 001ffc36 . if the example of chart ii were modified so that l &# 39 ; were equal to 2 and all other values were the same , the per determination would be false since no addresses would fall within the per range . in the example of chart iii the fig7 circuitry operates in the following manner . all high - order binary bits 0 through 28 of dtcl and e are identical and , therefore , an enabling output will be generated by gate 1071 . because l &# 39 ; is equal to 4 , all of the gates 1073 - 1 through 1073 - 4 are enabled by logic 1042 . the last four bits , bits 28 , 29 , 30 and 31 , of e are 0011 ( equal to hex 3 ) and of dtcl are 0101 ( equal to hex 5 ). the term + p ( 28 ) equals 1 as is required by gate 1071 . additionally , + p ( 29 ) is 0 , + p ( 30 ) is 1 , + p ( 31 ) is 1 , + g ( 30 ) is 1 , and + g ( 31 ) is 0 . the negative value of those terms appear as an input on bus 1040 in fig7 . with the indicated inputs , the - byte 1 signal from gate 1072 is not energized since the + p ( 29 ) term is 0 , that is , the - p ( 29 ) term is 1 . similarly , there is no output from the - byte 2 circuit since + p ( 29 ) and + g ( 31 ) are both 0 &# 39 ; s . there is an output from the - byte 3 circuit 1072 in fig7 however , since + g ( 30 ) is 1 and + p ( 31 ) is 1 . the output from the - byte 3 circuit is input to the gate 1073 - 3 . gate 1073 - 3 is also enabled by the other two inputs from circuit 1071 and 1042 as described . accordingly , gate 1073 - 3 provides an output to the or gate 1043 indicating that the address 001ffc35 is within the per range . the circuitry of fig2 was described in connection with program event records which involved accesses to storage . an indication of whether any address over the range e to e + l fell within the per range was made . additionally , it is of interest in the fig1 system to determine explicitly whether the present instruction or a prefetched future instruction falls within the per range . the present instruction has the address e , the next possible prefetched instruction has the address e + 2 , the next possible prefetched instruction has the address e + 4 , and the next possible prefetched instruction has the address e + 6 . in the data processing system of fig1 which has the capability of fetching 8 bytes of an instruction stream on a single memory access , good system performance requires the detection of a per event for instructions at addresses e , e + 2 , e + 4 , and e + 6 . the reason for interest in e , e + 2 , e + 4 , and e + 6 is that , for the fig1 system , an instruction may begin on any halfwood boundary . since at the time of the instruction fetch it is not known which of the halfword boundaries is actually the start of a new instruction , the detection of whether each halfword boundary is a per event is desirable . thereafter , when it is finally determined which halfword boundaries actually begin new instructions , the proper per event determination for that instruction can be reported to the system . to make the determination explicitly for the addresses e , e + 2 , e + 4 , and e + 6 , the circuitry of fig7 is modified and duplicated and used both in the x condition circuitry 1036 and the y condition circuitry 1037 . the circuitry of fig7 is modified by both x and y tests by eliminating the byte inhibit logic 1042 and the gates 1073 . for test y , a determination that e itself is within the per range is then determined by the signal of opposite polarity of the carryout signal - co on line 1041 . for test y , a determination of whether e + 2 is within the range is obtained by the or of the opposite polarities ( e . g . + byte 1 ) of the signals - byte 2 , - byte 1 and - co . for test y , a determination of whether the address e + 4 is within the range is determined by the or of the opposite polarities of the signals - byte 4 , - byte 3 , - byte 2 , - byte 1 , and - co . for test y , a determination of whether the instruction address e + 6 is within the range is determined by the or of the opposite polarities of the signals - byte 6 , - byte 5 , ..., - byte 1 , and - co . these determinations are made in parallel by conventional inverters and or gates ( not shown ) and stored in latch circuits ( not shown ) clocked at ck2 time . for test x , a determination of whether e is less than or equal to dtcu , is made by the signal of opposite polarity of the carryout signal - co on line 1041 . for test x , a determination of whether e + 2 ; e + 4 ; and e + 6 are each less than or equal to dtcu , the opposite polarity of the signals - byte 2 , - byte 1 , and - co ; of the signals - byte 5 , - byte 4 , ..., - byte 1 and - co ; and of the signals - byte 7 , - byte 6 , ..., - byte 1 and - co , respectively , are or &# 39 ; ed . these determinations are made by conventional inverters and or gates ( not shown ) and the results are latched in latch circuits ( not shown ) at time ck2 . the latched results of the x and y tests for the four separate address values e , e + 2 , e + 4 and e + 6 are then each input to the per logic 1039 at different times to make four separate per determinations , one for each separate address value . while the embodiment of fig2 was described in connection with memories having contiguous addresses accross the memory boundary from the highest address , 2 n - 1 , to the lowest address , zero , the invention can be used for addresses which do not have the capability of crossing the memory boundary . if addresses never cross the memory boundary , then the w condition and the z condition are not required . the per logic 1039 is simplified by simply allowing the w and z terms to be 0 . for systems where it is only desired to know whether the address e is in the per range , then the length logic 195 in fig4 can be eliminated and the - co signal from adder 94 - 1 is directly input to the latch 193 . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention .	6
sets forth below are definitions of terms that are used in describing implementations of the present invention . these definitions are provided to facilitate understanding and illustration of implementations of the present invention and should in no way be construed as limiting the scope of the invention to a particular example , class , or category . an output device profile ( or object ) includes software and data entity , which encapsulates within itself both data and attributes describing an output device and instructions for operating that data and attributes . an output device profile may reside in different hardware environments or platforms or applications , and may be transported in the form of a file , a message , a software object or component among other forms and techniques . for simplicity of discussion , a profile or object may also include , for example , the concept of software components that may have varying granularity and can consist of one class , a composite of classes , or an entire application . the term profile or object used herein is not limited to software or data as its media . any entity containing information , descriptions , attributes , data , instructions etc . in any computer - readable form or medium such as hardware , software , files based on or including voice , text , graphics , image , or video information , etc ., are all valid forms of profile and object definition . a profile or object may also contain in one of its fields or attributes a reference or pointer to another profile or object , or a reference or pointer to data and or content . a reference to a profile or object may include one or more , or a combination of pointers , identifiers , names , paths , addresses or any descriptions relating to a location where an object , profile , data , or content can be found . an output device profile may contain one or more attributes that may identify and describe , for example , the capabilities and functionalities of a particular output device such as a printer . an output device profile may be stored in the memory component of an output device , an information apparatus or in a network node . a network node includes any device , server or storage location that is connected to the network . as described below in greater detail , an information apparatus requesting output service may communicate with an output device . during such local service negotiation , at least a partial output device profile may be uploaded to the information apparatus from the output device . by obtaining the output device profile ( or printer profile in the case of a printer ), the information apparatus may learn about the capability , compatibility , identification , and service provided by the output device . as an example , an output device profile may contain one or more of the following fields and or attribute descriptions . each of following fields may be optional , and furthermore , each of the following fields or attributes may or may not exist in a particular implementation ( e . g ., may be empty or null ): identification of an output device ( e . g ., brand , model , registration , ip address etc .) services and feature sets provided by an output device ( e . g ., color or grayscale output , laser or inkjet , duplex , output quality , price per page , quality of service , etc .) type of input languages , formats , output data and / or input requirements ( e . g ., postscript , pcl , xml , rtl , etc .) supported by an output device . device specific or dependent parameters and information ( e . g ., communication protocols , color space , color management methods and rendering intents , resolution , halftoning methods , dpi ( dots - per - inch ), bit depth , page size , printing speed , number of independent colors channels or ink etc .) data and tables needed for image processing such as color table , halftone table , scale factor , encoding / decoding parameters and methods , compression and decompression parameters and method etc . another profile which contain parameters and information about the output device and its service ( e . g . color profiles , halftoning profiles , communication profiles , rasterization profiles , quality of service etc .). payment information on a plurality of services provided by an output device . information or security requirements and type of authentication an output device supports . date and version of the output device profile , history of its modification and updates . software components containing algorithms or instructions or data , which may be uploaded to run in an information apparatus . for example , a graphical user interface ( gui ) software component may be uploaded to an information apparatus . the software component may be incorporated into or launched in the information apparatus by a client application of present invention to capture a user &# 39 ; s preferences ( e . g ., print quality , page layout , number of copies , number of cards per page , etc .). in another example , software components may include methods , instructions or executables for compression / decompression , encoding / decoding , color matching or correction , segmentation , scaling , halftoning , encryption / decryption among others . pointer or reference to one or more output device parameters , including one or more of the above described output device profile or object fields and or attribute descriptions . for example , a more up - to - date or original version of output device parameters may sometimes be stored in a network node ( any device , server or storage location that is connected to the network ), or within the information apparatus where it can be obtained by the client application . an output device profile may include pointer or pointers to these output device parameters . content ( or data content , digital content , output content ) is the data intended for output , which may include texts , graphics , images , forms , videos , audio among other content types . content may include the data itself or a reference to that data . content may be in any format , language , encoding or combination , and it can be in a format , language or encoding that is partially or totally proprietary . a digital document is an example of content that may include attributes and fields that describe the digital document itself and or reference or references to the digital document or documents . examples of a digital document may be any one or combination of file types : html , vhtml , postscript , pcl , xml , pdf , ms word , powerpoint , jpeg , mpeg , gif , png , wml , vwml , chtml , hdml , ascii , 2 - byte international coded characters , etc . content may be used interchangeably with the term data content , output content or digital content in the descriptions of present invention . output data ( or print data in case of a printer ) is the electronic data sent from an information apparatus to an output device . output data is related to the content intended for output and may be encoded in a variety of formats and languages ( e . g . postscript , pcl , xml ), which may include compressed or encrypted data . some output device manufacturers may also include in the output data ( or print data ) a combination of proprietary or non - proprietary languages , formats , encoding , compression , encryption etc . intermediate output data is the output data of the present invention , and it includes the broader definition of an output file or data generated by an information apparatus , or a client application or device driver included in the information apparatus . an intermediate output data may contain text , vector graphics , images , video , audio , symbols , forms or combination and can be encoded with one or more of a page description language , a markup language , a graphics format , an imaging format , a metafile among others . an intermediate output data may also contain instructions ( e . g . output preferences ) and descriptions ( e . g . data layout ) among others . part or all of an intermediate output data may be compressed , encrypted or tagged . in a preferred embodiment of this invention , intermediate output data contains rasterized image data . for example , vector graphics and text information or objects that are not in image form included in content can be rasterized or conformed into image data in an information apparatus and included in an intermediate output data . device dependent image processing operations of a rip such as digital halftoning and color space conversions can be implemented at an output device or an output system . the intermediate output data can be device dependent or device independent . in one implementation , the rasterized output image is device dependent if the rasterization parameters used , such as resolution , scale factor , bit depth , output size and or color space are device dependent . in another implementation of this invention , the rasterized image may be device independent if the rasterization parameters used are device independent . rasterization parameter can become device independent when those parameters include a set of predetermined or predefined rasterization parameters based on a standard or a specification . with predefined or device independent rasterization parameters , a client application of present invention can rasterize at least a portion of the content and generate a device independent image or images included in the intermediate output data . by doing so , the intermediate output data may become device independent and therefore , become universally acceptable with output devices that have been pre - configured to accept the intermediate output data . one advantage of rasterizing or converting text and graphics information into image data at the information apparatus is that the output device or printer controller no longer needs to perform complex rasterization operation nor do they need to include multiple fonts . therefore , employing the intermediate output data and the data output method described herein could potentially reduce the cost and complexity of an output controller , printer controller and or output device . one form of image data encoding is known as mixed raster content , or mrc . typically , an image stored in mrc includes more than one image or bitmap layers . in mrc , an image can be segmented in different layers based on segmentation criteria such as background and foreground , luminance and chrominance among others . for example , an mrc may include three layers with a background layer , a foreground layer and a toggle or selector layer . the three layers are coextensive and may include different resolution , encoding and compression . the foreground and background layers may each contain additional layers , depending on the manner in which the respective part of the image is segmented based on the segmentation criteria , component or channels of a color model , image encoding representation ( hls , rgb , cmyk , ycc , lab etc ) among others . the toggle layer may designate , for each point , whether the foreground or background layer is effective . each layer in a mrc can have different bit depths , resolution , color space , which allow , for example , the foreground layer to be compressed differently from the background layer . the mrc form of image data has previously been used to minimize storage requirements . further , an mrc format has been proposed for use in color image fax transmission . in one embodiment of present invention , the intermediate output data includes one or more rasterized output images that employ mrc format , encoding and or related compression method . in this implementation , different layers in the output image can have different resolutions and may include different compression techniques . different information such as chrominance and luminance and or foreground and background information in the original content ( e . g . digital document ) can be segmented and compressed with different compression or encoding techniques . segmented elements or object information in the original content can also be stored in different image layers and with different resolution . therefore , with mrc , there is opportunity to reduce output data file size , retain greater image information , increase compression ratio , and improve image quality when compared to other conventional image encoding and compression techniques . implementations of rasterization , raster image processing and intermediate output data that include mrc encoding in the present invention are described in more detail below . rasterization is an operation by which graphics and text in a digital document are converted to image data . for image data included in the digital document , rasterization may include scaling and interpolation . the rasterization operation is characterized by rasterization parameters including , among others bit depth and resolution . a given rasterization operation may be characterized by several more rasterization parameters , including output size , color space , color channels etc . values of one or more of the rasterization parameters employed in a rasterization operation may be specified by default ; values of one or more of the rasterization parameters may be supplied to the information apparatus as components of a rasterization vector . in a given application , the rasterization vector may specify a value of only one rasterization parameter , default values being employed for other rasterization parameters used in the rasterization operation . in another application the rasterization vector may specify values of more than one , but less than all , rasterization parameters , default values being employed for at least one other rasterization parameter used in the rasterization operation . and in yet another application the rasterization vector may specify values of all the rasterization parameters used in the rasterization operation . fig2 a and 2b are block diagrams illustrating components of an operating environment that can implement the process and apparatus of present invention . fig2 a shows an electronic system which includes an information apparatus 200 and an output device 220 . the output device 220 includes an output controller 230 . fig2 b illustrates a second implementation of an electronic system that includes an information apparatus 200 and an output system 250 . the output system 250 includes an output device 220 and an output controller 230 which may be externally connected to , or otherwise associated with , the output device 220 in the output system 250 . information apparatus 200 is a computing device with processing capability . in one embodiment , information apparatus 200 may be a mobile computing device such as palmtop computer , handheld device , laptop computer , personal digital assistant ( pda ), smart phone , screen phone , e - book , internet pad , communication pad , internet appliance , pager , digital camera , etc . it is possible that information apparatus 200 may also include a static computing device such as a desktop computer , workstation , server , etc . fig3 a and 3b are block diagrams illustrating examples of hardware / software components included in an information apparatus 200 of present invention . information apparatus 200 may contain components such as a processing unit 380 , a memory unit 370 , an optional storage unit 360 and an input / output control unit ( e . g . communication manager 330 ). information apparatus 200 may include an interface ( not shown ) for interaction with users . the interface may be implemented with software or hardware or a combination . examples of such interfaces include , without limitation , one or more of a mouse , a keyboard , a touch - sensitive or non - touch - sensitive screen , push buttons , soft keys , a stylus , a speaker , a microphone , etc . information apparatus 200 typically contains one or more network communication unit 350 that interfaces with other electronic devices such as network node ( not shown ), output device 220 , and output system 230 . the network communication unit may be implemented with hardware ( e . g ., silicon chipsets , antenna ), software ( e . g ., protocol stacks , applications ) or a combination . in one embodiment of the present invention , communication interface 240 between information apparatus 200 and output device 220 or output system 250 is a wireless communication interface such as a short - range radio interface including those implemented according to the bluetooth or ieee 802 . 11 standard . the communication interface may also be realized by other standards and / or means of wireless communication that may include radio , infrared , cellular , ultrasonic , hydrophonic among others for accessing one or more network node and / or devices . wired line connections such as serial or parallel interface , usb interface and fire wire ( ieee 1394 ) interface , among others , may also be included . connection to a local network such as an ethernet or a token ring network , among others , may also be implemented in the present invention for local communication between information apparatus 200 and output device 220 . examples of hardware / software components of communication units 350 that may be used to implement wireless interface between the information apparatus 200 and the output device 220 are described in more detail with reference to fig8 a and 8b below . for simplicity , fig3 illustrates one implementation where an information apparatus 200 includes one communication unit 350 . however , it should be noted that an information apparatus 200 may contain more than one communication unit 350 in order to support different interfaces , protocols , and / or communication standards with different devices and / or network nodes . for example , information apparatus 200 may communicate with one output device 220 through a bluetooth standard interface or through an ieee 802 . 11 standard interface while communicating with another output device 220 through a parallel cable interface . the information apparatus 200 may also be coupled to a wired or wireless network ( e . g . the internet or corporate network ) to send , receive and / or download information . information apparatus 200 may be a dedicated device ( e . g ., email terminal , web terminal , digital camera , e - book , web pads , internet appliances etc .) with functionalities that are pre - configured by manufacturers . alternatively , information apparatus 200 may allow users to install additional hardware components and or application software 205 to expand its functionality . information apparatus 200 may contain a plurality of applications 205 to implement its feature sets and functionalities . as an example , a document browsing or editing application may be implemented to help user view and perhaps edit , partially or entirely , digital documents written in certain format or language ( e . g ., page description language , markup language , etc .). digital documents may be stored locally in the information apparatus 200 or in a network node ( e . g ., in content server ). an example of a document browsing application is an internet browser such as internet explorer , netscape navigator , or a wap browser . such browsers may retrieve and display content ( e . g . digital content ) written in mark - up languages such as html , wml , xml , chtml , hdml , among others . other examples of software applications in the information apparatus 200 may include a document editing software such as microsoft word ™ which also allows users to view and or edit digital documents that have various file extensions ( e . g ., doc , rtf , html , xml etc .) whether stored locally in the information apparatus 200 or in a network node . still , other example of software applications 205 may include image acquisition and editing software . as illustrated previously with reference to fig1 , there are many difficulties in providing output capability to an information apparatus 200 that has limited memory and processing capability . to address theses difficulties , information apparatus 200 includes a client application 210 that helps provide the universal data output capability of the present invention . client application 210 may include software and data that can be executed by the processing unit 380 of information apparatus 200 . client application 210 may be implemented as a stand - alone software application or as a part of or feature of another software application , or in the form of a device driver , which may be invoked , shared and used by other application software 205 in the information apparatus 200 . client application 210 may also include components to invoke other applications 205 ( e . g ., a document browsing application , editing application , data and / or image acquisition application , a communication manager , a output manager etc .) to provide certain feature sets , as described below . fig3 illustrates a configuration where the client application 210 is a separate application from the other application 205 such as the case when the client application is a device driver ; however , it should be noted that the client application 210 can be combined or being part of the other application not shown in fig3 . client application 210 may be variously implemented in an information apparatus 200 and may run on different operating systems or platforms . the client application 210 may also run in an environment with no operating system . for example , fig3 a illustrates an implementation where the information apparatus 200 a includes an operating system 340 a ; while fig3 b illustrates an implementation where the information apparatus 200 b does not include an operating system . client application 210 includes a rasterization component 310 to conform content into one or more raster output images according to one or more rasterization parameters ; an intermediate output data generator component 320 that generates and / or encodes intermediate output data that includes the one or more output images ; and a communications manager 330 that manages the communication and interaction with an output device 220 or system 250 or output controller 230 . communications manager can be implemented as part of the client application 210 ( shown in fig3 ) or as a separate application ( not shown ). components in a client application can be implemented in software , hardware or combination . as an example , client application 210 may include or utilize one or more of the following : components or operations to obtain content ( e . g . digital document ) for output . the client application 210 may obtain a digital document from other applications 205 ( e . g . document browsing application , content creation and editing application , etc . ), or the client application 210 may provide its own capability for user to browse , edit and or select a digital document . components or operations to rasterize content that includes text , graphics and images among others objects or elements into one or more raster images according to a set of rasterization parameters such as scale factor , output size , bit depth , color space and resolution . the rasterization parameters may be obtained in various ways , for example , from an output device profile uploaded from an output device 220 , or stored locally in information apparatus 200 , or manually inputted by a user . alternatively , rasterization parameters may be based on a predefined standard or specification stored in the information apparatus 200 as a set of defaults , or hard - coded in the client application 210 , or calculated by the client application 210 after communicating with an output device 220 , output controller 230 , and / or a user . components or operations to generate intermediate output data that includes at least one rasterized output image corresponding to the content ( e . g . digital document ). this process may further include one or combination of compression , encoding , encryption and color correction among others . the intermediate output data may include , for example , images , instructions , documents and or format descriptions , color profiles among others . components or operations to transmit the intermediate output data to an output device 220 or system 250 through wired or wireless communication link 240 . the client application 210 may also optionally include or utilize one or more of the following components or operations : components or operations to communicate with one or more output devices 220 to upload an output device profile . components or operations to communicate directly or indirectly ( such as through an operating system or component or object model , messages , file transfer etc .) with other applications 205 residing in the same information apparatus 200 to obtain objects , data , and or content needed , or related to the pervasive output process of present invention ( e . g . obtain a digital document for printing ). components or operations to manage and utilize directly or indirectly functionalities provided by hardware components ( e . g . communication unit 350 ) residing in its host information apparatus 200 . components or operations to provide a graphical user interface ( gui ) in host information apparatus to interact with user . components or operations to obtain user preferences . for example , a user may directly input his or her preferences through a gui . a set of default values may also be employed . default values may be pre - set or may be obtained by information apparatus 200 as result of communicating and negotiating with an output device 220 or output controller 230 . the above functionalities and process of client application 210 of present invention are described in further detail in the client application process with reference to fig1 . output device 220 is an electronic system capable of outputting digital content regardless of whether the output medium is substrate ( e . g ., paper ), display , projection , or sound . a typical example of output device 220 is a printer , which outputs digital documents containing text , graphics , image or any combination onto a substrate . output device 220 may also be a display device capable of displaying still images or video , such as , without limitation , televisions , monitors , and projectors . output device 220 can also be a device capable of outputting sound . any device capable of playing or reading digital content in audio ( e . g ., music ) or data ( e . g ., text or document ) formats is also a possible output device 220 . a printer is frequently referred to herein as an example of an output device to simplify discussion or as the primary output device 220 in a particular implementation . however , it should be recognized that present invention applies also to other output devices 220 such as fax machines , digital copiers , display screens , monitors , televisions , projectors , voice output devices , among others . rendering content with an output device 220 refers to outputting the content on a specific output medium ( e . g ., papers , display screens etc ). for example , rendering content with a printer generates an image on a substrate ; rendering content with a display device generates an image on a screen ; and rendering content with an audio output device generates sound . a conventional printing system in general includes a raster image processor and a printer engine . a printer engine includes memory buffer , marking engine among other components . the raster image processor converts content into an image form suitable for printing ; the memory buffer holds the rasterized image ready for printing ; and the marking engine transfers colorant to substrate ( e . g ., paper ). the raster image processor may be located within an output device ( e . g . included in a printer controller 410 ) or externally implemented ( in an information apparatus 200 , external controller , servers etc ). raster image processor can be implemented as hardware , software , or a combination ( not shown ). as an example , raster image processor may be implemented in a software application or device driver in the information apparatus 200 . examples of raster image processing operations include image and graphics interpretation , rasterization , scaling , segmentation , color space transformation , image enhancement , color correction , halftoning , compression etc . fig4 a illustrates a block diagram of one conventional printing system or printer 400 a that includes a printer controller 410 and a printer engine 420 a . the printer controller 410 includes an interpreter 402 and a raster image processor 406 , and the printer engine 420 includes memory buffer 424 a and a marking engine 426 a . marking engine may use any of a variety of different technologies to transfer a rasterized image to paper or other media or , in other words , to transfer colorant to a substrate . the different marking or printing technologies that may be used include both impact and non - impact printing . examples of impact printing may include dot matrix , teletype , daisywheel , etc . non - impact printing technologies may include inkjet , laser , electrostatic , thermal , dye sublimation , etc . the marking engine 426 and memory buffer 424 of a printer form its printer engine 420 , which may also include additional circuitry and components , such as firmware , software or chips or chipsets for decoding and signal conversion , etc . input to a printer engine 420 is usually a final rasterized printer - engine print data generated by a raster image processor 406 . such input is usually device dependent and printer or printer engine specific . the printer engine 420 may take this device dependent input and generate or render output pages ( e . g . with ink on a substrate ). when a raster image processor is located inside an output device 220 , it is usually included in a printer controller 410 ( as shown in fig4 a ). a printer controller 410 may interpret , rasterize , and convert input print data in the form of a page description language ( e . g ., postscript , pcl ), markup language ( e . g ., xml , html ) or other special document format or language ( e . g . pdf , emf ) into printer - engine print data which is a final format , language or instruction that printer engine 420 a can understand . print data sent to a printer with printer controller 410 is usually in a form ( e . g . postscript ) that requires further interpretation , processing or conversion . a printer controller 410 receives the print data , interprets , process , and converts the print data into a form that can be understood by the printer engine 420 a . regardless of the type of print data , conventionally , a user may need a device - specific driver in his or her information apparatus 200 in order to output the proper language , format , or file that can be accepted by a specific printer or output device 220 . fig4 b illustrates another conventional output device 400 b . output device 400 b may be a printing device , a display device , a projection device , or a sound device . in the case that the output device is a printing device or a printer , the printer with reference to fig4 b does not include a printer controller 410 . as an example , printer 400 b may be a low - cost printer such as a desktop inkjet printer . rip operations in this example may be implemented in a software application or in a device driver included in an information apparatus 200 . the information apparatus 200 generates device dependent output data ( or print data in case of a printer ) by rasterizing and converting a digital document into output data ( e . g . into a compressed cmky data with one or more bits per pixel ) that can be understood by an output engine ( or printer engine in case of a printer ) 420 b . regardless of type or sophistication level , different output device 220 conventionally needs different printer drivers or output management applications in an information apparatus 200 to provide output capability . some mobile devices with limited memory and processing power may have difficulty storing multiple device drivers or perform computational intensive rip operations . it may also be infeasible to install a new device dependent or specific printer driver each time there is a need to print to a new printer . to overcome these difficulties , present invention provides several improvements to output device 220 or output system 250 as described in detail next . in present invention , output device 220 may include an output controller 230 to help managing communication and negotiation processes with an information apparatus 200 and to process output data . output controller 230 may include dedicated hardware or software or combination of both for at least one output device 220 . output controller 230 may be internally installed , or externally connected to one or more output devices 220 . the output controller 230 is sometimes referred to as a print server or output server . fig5 a and 5b illustrate two exemplary internal implementations of the output controller 230 of present invention . fig5 a illustrates the implementation of an output controller 230 inside a conventional printer with reference to fig4 a , which includes a conventional printer controller 410 ( 5 a ). the output controller 230 ( 5 a ) includes an interpreter 510 a component for decoding the intermediate output data of present invention ; and a converter component 530 a for converting one or more decoded output images into a printer - controller print data that is suitable for input to the printer controller 410 ( 5 a ). an optional image processing component 520 a may be included in the output controller 230 ( 5 a ). fig5 b illustrates the implementation of an output controller 230 included internally in a conventional output device 220 with reference to fig4 b , which does not include a printer controller . the output controller 230 ( 5 b ) includes an interpreter 510 b component for decoding the intermediate output data of present invention ; an image processor 520 b component for performing one or more image processing operations such as color space conversion , color matching and digital halftoning ; and an optional encoder 530 b component to conform the processed output images into an output - engine output data that is suitable for input to the output engine 420 b if the result of the image processing is not already in required form suitable for the output engine 420 b . in one implementation , output device 220 may include a communication unit 550 or adapter to interface with information apparatus 200 . output device 220 may sometimes include more than one communication unit 550 in order to support different interfaces , protocols , or communication standards with different devices . for example , output device 220 may communicate with a first information apparatus 200 through a bluetooth interface while communicating with a second information apparatus 200 through a parallel interface . examples of hardware components of a wireless communication unit are described in greater detail below with reference to fig8 a and 8b . in one embodiment , output controller 230 does not include a communication unit , but rather utilizes or manages a communication unit residing in the associated output device 220 such as the illustration in fig5 . in another embodiment , output controller 230 may include or provide a communication unit to output device 220 as shown in fig6 . for example , an output controller 230 with a wireless communication unit may be installed internally or connected externally to a legacy printer to provide it with wireless communication capability that was previously lacking . fig6 includes three functional block diagrams illustrating the hardware / software components of output controller 230 in three different implementations . each components of an output controller 230 may include software , hardware , or combination . for example , an output controller 230 may include components using one or more or combinations of an application - specific integrated circuit ( asic ), a digital signal processor ( dsp ), a field programmable gate array ( fpga ), firmware , system on a chip , and various communication chip sets . output controller 230 may also contain embedded processors 670 a with software components or embedded application software to implement its feature sets and functionalities . output controller 230 may contain an embedded operating system 680 . with an operating system , some or all functionalities and feature sets of the output controller 230 may be provided by application software managed by the operating system . additional application software may be installed or upgraded to newer versions in order to , for example , provide additional functionalities or bug fixes . fig6 a and fig6 c illustrates examples of implementation with an operating system 680 while fig6 b illustrates an example without the operating system 680 or the optional embedded processor 670 . output controller 230 typically includes a memory unit 640 , or may share a memory unit with , for example , printer controller 410 . the memory unit and storage unit , such as rom , ram , flash memory and disk drive among others , may provide persistent or volatile storage . the memory unit or storage unit may store output device profiles , objects , codes , instructions or data ( collectively referred to as software components ) that implement the functionalities of the output controller 230 . part of the software components ( e . g ., output device profile ) may be uploaded to information apparatus 200 during or before a data output operation . an output controller 230 may include a processor component 670 a and 670 c , a memory component 650 , an optional storage component 640 , and an optional operating system component 680 . fig6 shows one architecture or implementation where the memory 650 , storage 640 , processor 670 , and operating system 680 components , if exist , can be share or accessed by other operational components in the output controller 230 such as the interpreter 610 and image processor 650 . fig6 shows two communication units 660 a and 660 b included in the output controller 230 ; however , the output controller 230 of present invention may include any number of communication units 660 . it is also possible that the output controller does not contain any communication unit but rather utilizes the communication unit of an output device . the output controller 230 may be connected externally to an output device 220 or integrated internally into the output device 220 . fig5 a and 5b illustrate implementations of output controller 230 inside an output device 220 . the output controller 230 , however , may also be implemented as an external box or station that is wired or wirelessly connected to an output device 220 . an output controller 230 implemented as an external box or station to an output device 220 may contain its own user interface . one example of such an implementation is a print server connected to an output device 220 in an output system 250 . another configuration and implementation is to integrate or combine the functionalities of an output controller 230 with an existing printer controller 410 ( referred to as “ combined controller ”) if the output device 220 is a printer as shown with reference to fig7 c or 7f . a combined controller can also be internally integrated or externally connected to output device 220 , and include functionalities of both printer controller 410 ( e . g ., input interpretation and or raster image processing ) and output controller 230 of present invention . one advantage of this configuration is that the functionalities or components of output controller 230 and printer controller 410 may share the same resources , such as processing unit , memory unit , etc . fig6 c illustrates an example of a combined controller implementation or output controller 230 where the printer controller 410 c , interpreter 610 c and converter 630 c shares the use of the processor 670 c , memory 650 c and storage 640 c , managed by an operating system 680 c . various exemplary implementations and configurations of an output controller 230 with respect to an output device 220 or output system 250 are illustrated in further detail with reference to fig7 . other possible implementations of output controller 230 may include , for example , a conventional personal computer ( pc ), a workstation , and an output server or print server . in these cases , the functionalities of output controller 230 may be implemented using application software installed in a computer ( e . g ., pc , server , or workstation ), with the computer connected with a wired or wireless connection to an output device 220 . using a pc , server , workstation , or other computer to implement the feature sets of output controller 230 with application software is just another possible embodiment of the output controller 230 and in no way departs from the spirit , scope and process of the present invention . the difference between output controller 230 and printer controller 410 should be noted . printer controller 410 and output controller 230 are both controllers and are both dedicated hardware and or software for at least one output device 220 . output controller 230 refers to a controller with feature sets , capabilities , and functionalities of the present invention . a printer controller 410 may contain functions such as interpreting an input page description language , raster image processing , and queuing , among others . an output controller 230 may include part or all of the features of a printer controller 410 in addition to the feature sets , functionalities , capabilities , and processes of present invention . functionalities and components of output controller 230 for the purpose of providing universal data output may include or utilize : components and operations to receive output data from a plurality of information apparatus 200 ; the output data may include an intermediate output data containing at least one rasterized image related to the data content intended for output . components and operations to interpret and / or decode the intermediate output data . components and operations to process the intermediate output data . such components and operations may include image processing functions such as scaling , segmentation , color correction , color management , gcr , image enhancement , decompression , decryption , and or halftoning among others . components and operations to generate an output - engine output data , the output - engine output data being in an output data format acceptable for input to an output engine . components and operations to send the output - engine output data to the output engine . when associated with an output device 220 that includes a printer controller 410 , the output controller of present invention may further include or utilize : components and operations to convert the intermediate output data into a printer - controller print data ( e . g . a pdl such as postscript and pcl ), the printer - controller print data being in a format acceptable to a printer controller . components and operations to send printer - controller print data to one or more printer controllers . in addition to the above components and functionalities , output controller 230 may further include one or more of the following : components and operations to communicate with one or more information apparatus 200 through a wired or wireless interface . components and operations to communicate and or manage a communication unit included in the output controller 230 or output device 220 . components and operations to store at least part of an output device profile ( a printer profile in case of a printer ) in a memory component . components and operations to respond to service request from an information apparatus 200 by transmitting at least part of an output device profile to the information apparatus requesting service . the output controller 230 may transmit the output device profiles or object in one or multiple sessions . components and operations to broadcast or advertise the services provided by a host output device 220 to one or more information apparatus 200 that may request such services . components and operations to implement payment processing and management functions by , for example , calculating and processing payments according to the services requested or rendered to a client ( information apparatus 200 ). components and operations to provide a user interface such as display screen , touch button , soft key , etc . components and operations to implement job management functions such as queuing and spooling among others . components and operations to implement security or authentication procedures . for example , the output controller 230 may store in its memory component ( or shared memory component ) an access control list , which specifies what device or user may obtain service from its host ( or connected ) output device 220 . therefore , an authorized information apparatus 200 may gain access after confirming with the control list . when output controller 230 is implemented as firmware , or an embedded application , the configuration and management of the functionalities of output controller 230 may be optionally accomplished by , for example , using controller management software in a host computer . a host computer may be a desktop personal computer ( pc ), workstation , or server . the host computer may be connected locally or through a network to the output device 220 or the controller 230 . communication between the host computer and the output controller 230 can be accomplished through wired or wireless communication . the management application software in the host computer can manage the settings , configurations , and feature sets of the output controller 230 . furthermore , host computer &# 39 ; s configuration application may download and or install application software , software components and or data to the output controller 230 for the purpose of upgrading , updating , and or modifying the features and capabilities of the output controller 230 . output device 220 in one implementation includes or is connected to output controller 230 described above . therefore , functionalities and feature sets provided by output controller 230 are automatically included in the functionalities of output device 220 . the output device 220 may , however , implement or include other controllers and / or applications that provide at least partially the features and functionalities of the output controller 230 . therefore , the output device 220 may include some or all of the following functionalities : components and operations to receive multiple service requests or queries ( e . g ., a service request , a data query , an object or component query etc .) from a plurality of information apparatus 200 and properly respond to them by returning components , which may contain data , software , instructions and / or objects . components and operations to receive output data from a plurality of information apparatus 200 ; the output data may include an intermediate output data containing one or more rasterized image related to the content intended for output . components and operations to interpret and / or decoding the intermediate output data . components and operations to process and / or convert the intermediate output data into a form ( e . g . output - engine print data ) suitable for rendering at an output engine associated with the output device . components and operations to render a representation or an image related to the content onto an output medium ( e . g . substrate or a display screen ). an output device 220 may further comprise optionally one or more of the following functionalities : components and operations for establishing and managing a communication link with an information apparatus 200 requesting service ; the communication link may include wired or wireless communication . components and operations for storing at least part of an output device profile ( e . g . printer profile ) in a memory component . components and operations to provide at least part of an output device profile ( e . g ., printer profile in case of a printer ) to one or more information apparatus 200 requesting service . the output device 220 may transmit the output device profile in one or multiple sessions . components and operations to advertise or broadcast services provided or available to one or more information apparatus 200 . components and operations to implement payment processing and management functions by , for example , calculating and processing payments according to the services requested by or rendered to a client ( information apparatus 200 ). components and operations to implement job management functionalities such as queuing and spooling among others . components and operations to provide a user interface such as display screen touch button , soft key , power switch , etc . components and operations to implement security or authentication procedures . for example , the output device 220 may store in its memory component ( or a shared memory component ) an access control list , which specifies what device or user may obtain service from it . therefore , an authorized information apparatus 200 may gain access after confirming with the control list . fig7 a - 7f illustrate various alternative configurations and implementations of output controller 230 with respect to an output device 230 . printer is sometimes used as an exemplary output device 230 to demonstrate the various configurations . it should be understood , however , the output device 230 of present invention is not limited to printers . as described with reference to fig4 ., a printer may or may not contain a printer controller 410 . printer 400 a that includes a printer controller 410 typically has higher speed and is more expensive than printer 400 b which does not include a printer controller 410 . fig7 a shows that output controller 230 may be cascaded externally to one or more printers ( only one shown ). information apparatus 200 communicates with output controller 230 a , which then communicates with output device 220 such as a printer 220 a . the communication link between the output controller 230 a and the printer 220 a may be a wired link or a wireless link , as described above . fig6 a and 6b illustrates two examples of functional component design of the output controller that can implement the configuration illustrated in fig7 a . the image processor 620 in this implementation is optional . fig7 b shows another implementation in which output controller 230 b is installed as one or more circuit boards or cards internally inside printer 220 b . the output controller 230 b may co - exist with printer controller 410 and other components of the printer 220 b . one example of this implementation is to connect output controller 230 b sequentially with the printer controller 310 . fig5 a shows as an example of an implementation . fig7 c shows another implementation in which the functionalities of output controller 230 and printer controller 410 are combined into a single controller ( referred to as “ combined controller ”) 230 c . in this implementation , it is possible to reduce the cost of material when compared to implementing two separate controllers as shown in fig7 b . as an example , the combined controller 230 c may share the same processors , memories , and storages to run the applications and functionalities of the two types of controllers and therefore , may have lower component costs when compared to providing two separate controllers . fig6 c illustrates an example of a combined controller functional component implementation . some printers do not include a raster image processor or printer controller 410 , as illustrated in fig4 b . an example of this type of printer is a lower cost desktop inkjet printer . input to an inkjet printer may consist of a compressed cmyk data ( proprietary or published ) with one or more bits per pixel input . to output to a printer that does not include a printer controller , a device specific software application or a printer driver is typically required in an information apparatus 200 to perform raster image processing operations . accordingly , output controller 230 can be implemented into a variety of output devices 220 and / or output systems 250 including printers that do not have printer controllers for performing raster image processing operations . fig7 d and fig7 e illustrate two implementations of output controller 230 in an output device 220 or system 250 . the output device 230 or system 250 may include a display device , a projection device , an audio output device or a printing device . in the case when the output device 220 d or 220 e is a printer , it does not include a printer controller . fig7 d illustrates an implementation of an output controller 230 d installed as an external component or “ box ” to output device 220 d . for example , the output controller 230 may be implemented as an application in a print server or as a standalone box or station . in this configuration , some or all of raster image processing operations may be implemented in the output controller 230 d . output controller 230 d receives intermediate output data from an information apparatus 200 and generates output - engine output data that is acceptable to the output engine included in the output device 220 d . the output controller 230 d may send the output data to the output device 220 d through a wired or wireless communication link or connection . fig6 a and 6b illustrates two example of functional component design of the output controller that can implement the configurations for both fig7 d and 7e . fig7 e shows a fifth implementation of output controller 230 e in which the output controller 230 e is incorporated within output device 220 e as one or more circuit boards or cards and may contain software and applications running on an embedded processor . as with output device 220 d ( fig7 d ), output device 220 e does not include a printer controller 410 . accordingly , the output controller 230 e implements the functionalities and capabilities of present invention that may include part of or complete raster imaging processing operation . fig7 f shows a sixth implementation , an external combined controller 230 f that integrates the functionalities of a printer controller 310 and an output controller into a single external combined controller component or “ box ” 230 f . the two controller functions may share a common processor as well as a common memory space to run applications of the two types of controllers . under this configuration , either information apparatus 200 or the combined controller 230 f could perform or share at least part of raster image processing functionality . fig6 c shows an example of functional components of a combined controller 230 f . another implementation of the combined controller 230 f shown in fig7 f is to use an external computing device ( pc , workstation , or server ) running one or more applications that include the functionality of output controller 230 and printer controller 410 . the above are examples of different implementations and configurations of output controller 230 . other implementations are also possible . for example , partial functionalities of output controller 230 may be implemented in an external box or station while the remaining functionalities may reside inside an output device 220 as a separate board or integrated with a printer controller 410 . as another example , the functionalities of output controller 230 may be implemented into a plurality of external boxes or stations connected to the same output device 220 . as a further example , the same output controller 230 may be connected to service a plurality of output devices 220 fig8 a and 8b are block diagrams illustrating two possible configurations of hardware / software components of wireless communication units . these wireless communication units can be implemented and included in information apparatus 200 , in output controller 230 and in output device 220 . referring to fig8 a , a radio adapter 800 may be implemented to enable data / voice transmission among devices ( e . g ., information apparatus 200 and output device 220 ) through radio links . an rf transceiver 814 coupled with antenna 816 is used to receive and transmit radio frequency signals . the rf transceiver 814 also converts radio signals into and from electronic signals . the rf transceiver 814 is connected to an rf link controller 810 by an interface 812 . the interface 812 may perform functions such as analog - to - digital conversion , digital - to - analog conversion , modulation , demodulation , compression , decompression , encoding , decoding , and other data or format conversion functions . rf link controller 810 implements real - time lower layer ( e . g ., physical layer ) protocol processing that enables the hosts ( e . g ., information apparatus 200 , output controller 230 , output device 220 , etc .) to communicate over a radio link . functions performed by the link controller 810 may include , without limitation , error detection / correction , power control , data packet processing , data encryption / decryption and other data processing functions . a variety of radio links may be utilized . a group of competing technologies operating in the 2 . 4 ghz unlicensed frequency band is of particular interest . this group currently includes bluetooth , home radio frequency ( home rf ) and implementations based on ieee 802 . 11 standard . each of these technologies has a different set of protocols and they all provide solutions for wireless local area networks ( lans ). interference among these technologies could limit deployment of these protocols simultaneously . it is anticipated that new local area wireless technologies may emerge or that the existing ones may converge . nevertheless , all these existing and future wireless technologies may be implemented in the present invention without limitation , and therefore , in no way depart from the scope of present invention . among the currently available wireless technologies , bluetooth may be advantageous because it requires relatively lower power consumption and bluetooth - enabled devices operate in piconets , in which several devices are connected in a point - to - multipoint system . referring to fig8 b , one or more infrared ( ir ) adapters 820 may be implemented to enable data transmission among devices through infrared transmission . the ir adapters 820 may be conveniently implemented in accordance with the infrared data association ( irda ) standards and specifications . in general , the irda standard is used to provide wireless connectivity technologies for devices that would normally use cables for connection . the irda standard is a point - to - point ( vs . point - to - multipoint as in bluetooth ), narrow angle , ad - hoc data transmission standard . configuration of infrared adapters 820 may vary depending on the intended rate of data transfer . fig8 b illustrates one embodiment of infrared adapter 820 . transceiver 826 receives / emits ir signals and converts ir signals to / from electrical signals . a uart ( universal asynchronous receiver / transmitter ) 822 performs the function of serialization / deserialization , converting serial data stream to / from data bytes . the uart 822 is connected to the ir transceiver 826 by encoder / decoder ( endec ) 824 . this configuration is generally suitable for transferring data at relatively low rate . other components ( e . g ., packet framer , phase - locked loop ) may be needed for higher data transfer rates . fig8 a and 8b illustrate exemplary hardware configurations of wireless communication units . such hardware components may be included in devices ( e . g ., information apparatus 200 , output controller 230 , output device 220 , etc .) to support various wireless communications standards . wired links , however , such as parallel interface , usb , firewire interface , ethernet and token ring networks may also be implemented in the present invention by using appropriate adapters and configurations . fig9 is a logic flow diagram of an exemplary raster imaging process ( rip ) 902 that can implement the universal output method of present invention . content ( e . g . digital document ) 900 may be obtained and / or generated by an application running in an information apparatus 200 . for example , a document browsing application may allow a user to download and or open digital document 900 stored locally or in a network node . as another example , a document creating or editing application may allow a user to create or edit digital documents in his / her information apparatus 200 . a client application 210 in the information apparatus may be in the form of a device driver , invoked by other applications residing in the information apparatus 200 to provide output service . alternatively , the client application 210 of present invention may be an application that includes data output and management component , in addition of other functionalities such as content acquisitions , viewing , browsing , and or editing etc . for example , a client application 210 in an information apparatus 200 may itself include components and functions for a user to download , view and or edit digital document 900 in addition of the output management function described herein . raster image process method 902 allows an information apparatus 200 such as a mobile device to pervasively and conveniently output content ( e . g . a digital document ) to an output device 220 or system 250 that includes an output controller 230 . a client application 210 in an information apparatus 200 may perform part of raster image processing operations ( e . g . rasterization operation ). other operations of raster image processing such as halftoning can be completed by the output device 220 or by the output controller 230 . in conventional data output methods , raster image processing is either implemented entirely in an information apparatus ( e . g . a printer that does not include a printer controller with reference to fig1 a ) or in an output device ( e . g . a printer that includes a printer controller with reference to fig1 b ). present invention provides a more balanced approach where raster image process operations are shared between an information apparatus 200 and an output device 220 or system 250 . for example , content 600 may be processed ( e . g . raster image processed ) by different components or parts of an overall output system from a client application 210 to an output controller 230 before being sent to an output engine or a printer engine for final output in step 960 . because the raster image processing operations are not completely implemented in the information apparatus 200 , there is less processing demand on the information apparatus 200 . therefore , present rip process may enable additional mobile devices with less memory and processing capability to have data output capability . in step 910 , rasterization operation , a content ( e . g . digital document ), which may include text , graphics , and image objects , is conformed or rasterized to image form according to one or more rasterization parameters such as output size , bit depth , color space , resolution , number of color channels etc . during the rasterization operation , text and vector graphics information in the content are rasterized or converted into image or bitmap information according to a given set of rasterization parameters . image information in the content or digital document may be scaled and or interpolated to fit a particular output size , resolution and bit depth etc . the rasterization parameters are in general device dependent , and therefore may vary according to different requirements and attributes of an output device 220 and its output engine . there are many ways to obtain device dependent rasterization parameters , as described in more detail below with reference to fig1 a . device dependent rasterization parameters , in one example , may be obtained from an output device profile stored in an information apparatus 200 , an output device 220 or an output controller 230 . in an alternative implementation , rasterization parameters may be predetermined by a standard or specification . in this implementation , in step 910 the content 900 is rasterized to fit or match this predefined or standard rasterization parameters . therefore , the rasterized output image becomes device independent . one advantage of being device independent is that the rasterized output image is acceptable with controllers , devices and / or output devices implemented or created with the knowledge of such standard or specification . a rasterized image with predefined or standardized attributes is usually more portable . for example , both the client application 210 and output device 220 or its output controller 230 may be preprogrammed to receive , interpret , and or output raster images based on a predefined standard and / or specification . occasionally , a predefined standard or specification for rasterization parameters may require change or update . one possible implementation for providing an easy update or upgrade is to store information and related rasterization parameters in a file or a profile instead of hard coding these parameters into programs , components or applications . client application 210 , output controller 230 , and / or the output device 220 can read a file or a profile to obtain information related to rasterization parameters . to upgrade or update the standard specification or defaults requires only replacing or editing the file or the profile instead of replacing a software application or component such as the client application 210 . in step 920 the rasterized content in image form is encoded into an intermediate output data . the intermediate output data , which describes the output content , may include image information , instructions , descriptions , and data ( e . g . color profile ). the rasterized output image may require further processing including one or more of compression , encoding , encryption , smoothing , image enhancement , segmentation , color correction among others before being stored into the intermediate output data . the output image in the intermediate output data may be encoded in any image format and with any compression technique such as jpeg , bmp , tiff , jbig etc . in one preferred embodiment , a mixed raster content ( mrc ) format and its related encoding and / or compression methods are used to generate the output image . the advantages of using mrc over other image formats and techniques may include , for example , better compression ratio , better data information retention , smaller file size , and or relatively better image quality among others . in step 930 , the intermediate output data is transmitted to the output device 220 or output system 250 for further processing and final output . the transmission of the intermediate output data may be accomplished through wireless or wired communication links between the information apparatus 200 and the output device 220 and can be accomplished through one or multiple sessions . in step 940 , the output device 220 or output system 250 receives the transmitted intermediate output data . the output device 220 or output system 250 may include an output controller 230 to assist communicating with the information apparatus 200 and / or processing the intermediate output data . output controller 230 may have a variety of configurations and implementations with respect to output device 220 as shown in fig7 a - 7f . interpretation process 940 may include one or more of parsing , decoding , decompression , decryption , image space conversion among other operations if the received intermediate output data requires such processing . an output image is decoded or retrieved from the intermediate output data and may be temporarily stored in a buffer or memory included in the output device / output system ( 220 / 250 ) or output controller 230 for further processing . if the intermediate output data includes components with mrc format or encoding techniques , it may contain additional segmented information ( e . g . foreground and background ), which can be used to enhance image quality . for example , different techniques or algorithms in scaling , color correction , color matching , image enhancement , anti - aliasing and or digital halftoning among others may be applied to different segments or layers of the image information to improve output quality or maximize retention or recovery of image information . multiple layers may later be combined or mapped into a single layer . these image processing and conversion components and / or operations can be included in the output controller 230 of present invention . in step 950 , the decoded or retrieved output image from the intermediate output data may require further processing or conversion . this may include one or more of scaling , segmentation , interpolation , color correction , gcr , black generation , color matching , color space transformation , anti - aliasing , image enhancement , image smoothing and or digital halftoning operations among others . in an embodiment where the output device 220 does not include a printer controller , an output controller 230 or an output device 220 that includes output controller , after performing the remaining portion of rip operations ( e . g . color space conversion and halftoning ) on the output image , may further convert the output data in step 950 into a form that is acceptable for input to a printer engine for rendering . in an alternative embodiment where the output device 220 or the output system 250 includes a conventional printer controller , the output controller may simply decodes and or converts the intermediate output data ( print data in this example ) into format or language acceptable to the printer controller . for example , a printer controller may require as input a page description language ( e . g . postscript , pcl , pdf , etc . ), a markup language ( html , xml etc ) or other graphics or document format . in these cases , the output controller 230 may interpret , decompress and convert the intermediate print data into an output image that has optimal output resolution , bit depth , color space , and output size related to the printer controller input requirements . the output image is then encoded or embedded into a printer - controller print data ( e . g . a page description language ) and sent to the printer controller . a printer - controller print data is a print data that is acceptable or compatible for input to the printer controller . after the printer controller receives the printer - controller print data , the printer controller may further perform operations such as parsing , rasterization , scaling , color correction , image enhancement , halftoning etc on the output image and generate an appropriate printer - engine print data suitable for input to the printer engine . in step 960 , the output - engine output data or printer - engine print data generated by the output controller 230 or the printer controller in step 950 is sent to the output engine or printer engine of the output device for final output . fig1 illustrates a flow diagram of a universal data output process of the present invention that includes the raster image processing illustrated with reference to fig9 . a universal data output process allows an information apparatus 200 to pervasively output content or digital document to an output device . the data output process may include or utilize : a user interface component and operation where a user initiates an output process and provides an indication of the selected output content ( e . g . digital document ) for output . a client application component or operation that processes the content indicated for output , and generates an intermediate output data . the intermediate output data may include at least partly a raster output image description related to the content . an information apparatus component or operation that transmits the intermediate output data to one or more selected output device 220 . an output device component ( e . g . output controller ) or operation that interprets the intermediate output data and may further process or convert the output data into a form more acceptable to an output engine for rendering of the content . with reference to fig1 , a user in step 1000 may initiate the universal output method or process 1002 . typically , a user initiates the output process by invoking a client application 210 in his / her information apparatus 200 . the client application 210 may be launched as an independent application or it may be launched from other applications 205 ( such as from a document browsing , creating or editing application ) or as part of or component of or a feature of another application 205 residing in the same information apparatus 200 . when launched from another application 205 , such as the case when the client application is a device driver or helper application , the client application 210 may obtain information , such as the content ( e . g . digital document ) from that other application 205 . this can be accomplished , for example , by one or combinations of messages or facilitated through an operating system or a particular object or component model etc . during output process 1002 , a user may need to select one or more output devices 220 for output service . an optional discovery process step 1020 may be implemented to help the user select an output device 220 . during the discovery process step 1020 , a user &# 39 ; s information apparatus 200 may ( 1 ) search for available output devices 220 ; ( 2 ) provide the user with a list of available output devices 220 ; and ( 3 ) provide means for the user to choose one or more output devices 220 to take the output job . an example of a discovery process 1020 is described below in greater detail with reference to fig . the optional discovery process 1020 may sometimes be unnecessary . for example , a user may skip the discovery process 1020 if he or she already knows the output device ( e . g ., printer ) 220 to which the output is to be directed . in this case , the user may simply connect the information apparatus 200 to that output device 220 by wired connections or directly point to that output device 220 in a close proximity such as in the case of infrared connectivity . as another example , a user may pre - select or set the output device or devices 220 that are used frequently as preferred defaults . as a result , the discovery process 1020 may be partially or completely skipped if the default output device 220 or printer is found to be available . in stage 1030 , the client application may interact with output device 220 , the user , and / or other applications 205 residing in the same information apparatus 200 to ( 1 ) obtain necessary output device profile and / or user preferences , ( 2 ) perform functions or part of raster image processing operations such as rasterization , scaling and color correction , and / or ( 3 ) convert or encode at least partially the rasterized content ( e . g . digital document ) into an intermediate output data . the processing and generation of the intermediate output data may reflect in part a relationship to an output device profile and / or user preferences obtained , if any . the intermediate output data generated by the client application 210 is then transmitted through wired or wireless local communication link ( s ) 240 to the output controller 230 included or associated with the selected output device 220 or output system 250 . an exemplary client application process is described in greater detail with reference to fig1 . in step 1040 , the output controller 230 of present invention receives the intermediate output data . in the case where the selected output device 230 does not include a printer controller , the output controller 230 of present invention may further perform processing functions such as parsing , interpreting , decompressing , decoding , color correction , image enhancement , gcr , black generation and halftoning among others . in addition , the output controller 230 may further convert or conform the intermediate output data into a form or format suitable for the output engine ( e . g . printer engine in the case of a printer ). the generated output - engine output data from the output controller is therefore , in general , device dependent and acceptable for final output with the output engine ( or the printer engine in case of a printer ) included in the selected output device 220 or output system 250 . in the case where the selected output device 220 is a printer , and when the printer includes or is connected to a printer controller , the output controller 230 may generate the proper language or input format required to interface with the printer controller ( referred to as printer - controller print data ). the printer controller may for example require a specific input such as a page description language ( pdl ), markup language , or a special image or graphics format . in these cases , the output controller 230 in step 1040 may interpret and decode the intermediate output data , and then convert the intermediate output data into the required printer - controller print data ( e . g . pdl such as postscript or pcl ). the printer - controller print data generated by the output controller is then sent to the printer controller for further processing . the printer controller may perform interpretation and raster image processing operations among other operations . after processing , the printer controller generates a printer - engine print data suitable for rendering at the printer engine . in either case , the output controller 230 or printer controller generates an output - engine output data that is suitable for sending to or interfacing with the output engine or the printer engine included in the output device for rendering . the output data may be temporarily buffered in components of the output device 220 . an implementation of the output device process 1040 is described in greater detail with reference to fig1 . the steps included in the universal pervasive output process 1002 may proceed automatically when a user requests output service . alternatively , a user may be provided with options to proceed , cancel , or input information at each and every step . for example , a user may cancel the output service at any time by , for example , indicating a cancellation signal or command or by terminating the client application 210 or by shutting down the information apparatus 200 etc fig1 is a flow diagram of an example of a discovery process 720 , which may be an optional step to help a user locate one or more output devices 220 for an output job . the discovery process 1020 may , however , be skipped partially or entirely . implementation of discovery process 1020 may require compatible hardware and software components residing in both the information apparatus 200 and the output device 220 . the information apparatus 200 may utilize the client application 210 or other application 205 in this process . the discovery process 1020 may include : an information apparatus 200 communicating with available output devices 220 to obtain information and attributes relating to the output device 220 and or its services such as output device capability , feature sets , service availability , quality of service , condition . an information apparatus 200 provides the user information on each available and or compatible output devices 220 . a user selects or the client application 210 ( automatically or not ) selects one or more output devices 220 for the output service from the available or compatible output devices 220 . various protocols and or standards may be used during discovery process 1020 . wireless communication protocols are preferred . wired communication , on the other hand , may also be implemented . examples of applicable protocols or standards may include , without limitation , bluetooth , havi , jini , salutation , service location protocol , and universal plug - and - play among others . both standard and proprietary protocols or combination may be implemented in the discovery process 1020 . however , these different protocols , standards , or combination shall not depart from the spirit and scope of present invention . in one implementation an application ( referred here for simplicity of discussion as a “ communication manager ,” not shown ) residing in the information apparatus 200 helps communicate with output device 220 and manages service requests and the discovery process 1020 . the communication manager may be a part of or a feature of the client application 210 . alternatively or in combination , the communication manager may also be a separate application . when the communication manager is a separate application , the client application 210 may have the ability to communicate , manage or access functionalities of the communication manager . the discovery process 1020 may be initiated manually by a user or automatically by a communication manager when the user requests an output service with information apparatus 200 . in the optional step 1100 , a user may specify searching or matching criteria . for example , a user may indicate to search for color printers and or printers that provide free service . the user may manually specify such criteria each time for the discovery process 1020 . alternatively or in combination , a user may set default preferences that can be applied to a plurality of discovery processes 1020 . sometimes , however , no searching criteria are required : the information apparatus 200 may simply search for all available output devices 220 that can provide output service . in step 1101 , information apparatus 200 searches for available output devices 220 . the searching process may be implemented by , for example , an information apparatus 200 ( e . g . with the assistance of a communication manager ) multi - casting or broadcasting or advertising its service requests and waiting for available output devices 220 to respond . alternatively or in combination , an information apparatus 200 may “ listen to ” service broadcasts from one or more output devices 220 and then identify the one or more output devices 220 that are needed or acceptable . it is also possible that multiple output devices 220 of the same network ( e . g ., lan ) register their services with a control point ( not shown ). a control point is a computing system ( e . g ., a server ) that maintains records on all service devices within the same network . an information apparatus 200 may contact the control point and search or query for the needed service in step 1102 , if no available output device 220 is found , the communication manager or the client application 210 may provide the user with alternatives 1104 . such alternatives may include , for example , aborting the discovery process 1020 , trying discovery process 1020 again , temporarily halting the discovery process 1020 , or being notified when an available output device 220 is found . as an example , the discovery process 1020 may not detect any available output device 220 in the current wired / wireless network . the specified searching criteria ( if any ) are then saved or registered in the communication manager . when the user enters a new network having available output devices 220 , or when new compatible output devices 220 are added to the current network , or when an output device 220 becomes available for any reason , the communication manager may notify the user of such availability . in step 1106 , if available output devices 220 are discovered , the communication manager may obtain some basic information , or part of or the entire output device profile , from each discovered output device 220 . examples of such information may include , but not limited to , device identity , service charge , subscription , service feature , device capability , operating instructions , etc . such information is preferably provided to the user through the user interface ( e . g ., display screen , speaker , etc .) of information apparatus 200 . in step 1108 , the user may select one or more output devices 220 based on information provided , if any , to take the output job . if the user is not satisfied with any of the available output device 220 , the user may decline the service . in this case , the user may be provided with alternatives such as to try again in step 1110 with some changes made to the searching criteria . the user may choose to terminate the service request at any time . in step 1112 , with one or more output devices 220 selected or determined , the communication link between information apparatus 200 and the selected output device or devices 220 may be “ locked ”. other output devices 220 that are not selected may be dropped . the output process 1020 may then proceed to the client application process of step 1030 of fig1 . fig1 a is a flow diagram of an exemplary client application process with reference to step 1030 of fig1 . a client application process 1202 for universal output may include or utilize : a client application 210 that obtains content ( e . g . digital document ) intended for output . a client application 210 that obtains output device parameters ( e . g . rasterization parameters , output job parameters ). one example of implementation is to obtain the output device parameters from an output device profile ( e . g . printer profile ), which includes device dependent parameters . such profile may be stored in an output controller 230 , output device 220 or information apparatus 200 . a client application 210 that may optionally obtain user preferences through ( 1 ) user &# 39 ; s input ( automatic or manual ) or selections or ( 2 ) based on preset preference or pre - defined defaults or ( 3 ) combination of the above . a client application 210 that rasterizes at least part of the content intended for output ( e . g . a digital document ) according to one or more rasterization parameters obtained from previous steps such as through output device profile , user selection , predefined user preferences , predefined default or standard etc . a client application 210 that generates an intermediate output data containing at least part of the rasterized image related at least partly to the content intended for output . a client application that transmits the intermediate output data to an output device 220 or output controller 230 for further processing and or final output . a client application 210 may obtain content ( e . g . digital document ) 900 or a pointer or reference to the content in many ways . in a preferred embodiment , the client application 210 is in the form of a device driver or an independent application , and the content or its reference can be obtained by the client application 210 from other applications 205 in the same information apparatus 200 . to illustrate an example , a user may first view or download or create a digital document by using a document browsing , viewing and or editing application 205 in his / her information apparatus 200 , and then request output service by launching the client application 210 as a device driver or helper application . the client application 210 communicates with the document browsing or editing application to obtain the digital document or reference to the digital document . as another example , the client application 210 is an independent application and it launches another application to help locate and obtain the digital document for output . in this case , a user may first launch the client application 210 , and then invoke another application 205 ( e . g . document editing and or browsing application ) residing in the same information apparatus 200 to view or download a digital document . the client application 210 then communicates with the document browsing or editing application to obtain the digital document for output . in another embodiment , the client application 210 itself provides multiple functionalities or feature sets including the ability for a user to select the content ( e . g . digital document ) for output . for example , the client application 210 of present invention may provide a gui where a user can directly input or select the reference or path of a digital document that the user wants to output . in order to perform rasterization operation on content ( e . g . digital document ) 900 , the client application 210 in step 1210 needs to obtain device dependent parameters of an output device 220 such as the rasterization parameters . device dependent parameters may be included in an output device profile . a client application 210 may obtain an output device profile or rasterization parameters in various ways . as an example , an output device profile or rasterization parameters can be obtained with one or combination of the following : the client application communicates with an output device 220 to upload output device profile or information related to one or more rasterization parameters . the client application 210 obtains the output device profile from a network node ( e . g . server ). a user selects an output device profile stored in the user &# 39 ; s information apparatus 200 . the client application 210 automatically retrieves or uses a default profile , predefined standard values or default values among others . the client application 210 obtains output device parameters by calculating , which may include approximation , based at least partly on the information it has obtained from one or combination of an output device 220 , a user , default values , and a network node . it is important to note that step 1210 is an optional step . in some instance , part of or the entire output device profile or related device dependent information may have been already obtained by the client application 210 during the prior optional discovery process ( step 1020 in fig1 ). in this case , step 1210 may be partially or entirely skipped . in one implementation , the client application 210 communicates with one or more output devices 220 to upload output device profiles stored in the memory or storage components of those one or more output devices 220 or their associated one or more output controllers 230 . in some instance , the uploaded output device profile may contain partially or entirely references or pointers to device parameters instead of the device parameters themselves . the actual output device parameters may be stored in a network node or in the information apparatus 200 , where they can be retrieved by the client application 210 or by other applications 205 using the references or pointers . it should be noted that a plurality of information apparatuses 200 may request to obtain output device profile or profiles from the same output device 220 at the same time or at least during overlapping periods . the output device 220 or its associated output controller 230 may have components or systems to manage multiple communication links and provide the output device profile or profiles concurrently or in an alternating manner to multiple information apparatuses 200 . alternatively , an output device 220 may provide components or systems to queue the requests from different information apparatuses 200 and serve them in a sequential fashion according to a scheme such as first come first served , quality of service , etc . multi - user communication and service management capability with or without queuing or spooling functions may be implemented by , for example , the output controller 230 as optional feature sets . in another implementation , one or more output device profiles may be stored locally in the information apparatus 200 . the client application 210 may provide a gui where a user can select a profile from a list of pre - stored profiles . as an example , the gui may provide the user with a list of output device names ( e . g . makes and models ), each corresponding to an output device profile stored locally . when the user selects an output device 220 , the client application 210 can then retrieve the output device profile corresponding to the name selected by the user . in certain cases , during a discovery or communication process described earlier , the client application 210 may have already obtained the output device id , name , or reference or other information in a variety of ways described previously . in this case , the client application 210 may automatically activate or retrieve an output device profile stored in the information apparatus 200 based on the output device id , name , or reference obtained without user intervention . in yet another implementation , the client application 210 may use a set of pre - defined default values stored locally in a user &# 39 ; s information apparatus 200 . such defaults can be stored in one or more files or tables . the client application 210 may access a file or table to obtain these default values . the client application 210 may also create or calculate certain default values based on the information it has obtained during previous steps ( e . g . in optional discovery process , based on partial or incomplete printer profile information obtained , etc ). a user may or may not have an opportunity to change or overwrite some or all defaults . finally , if , for any reason , no device dependent information is available , the client application 210 may use standard output and rasterization parameters or pre - defined default parameters . the above illustrates many examples and variations of implementation , these and other possible variations in implementation do not depart from the scope of the present invention . in step 1220 , the client application 210 may optionally obtain user preferences . in one exemplary implementation , the client application 210 may obtain user preferences with a gui ( graphical user interface ). for simplicity , a standard gui form can be presented to the user independent of the make and model of the output device 220 involved in the output process . through such an interface , the user may specify some device independent output parameters such as page range , number of cards per page , number of copies , etc . alternatively or in combination , the client application 210 may also incorporate output device - dependent features and preferences into the gui presented to the user . the device - dependent portion of the gui may be supported partly or entirely by information contained in the output device profile obtained through components and processes described in previous steps . to illustrate , device dependent features and capabilities may include print quality , color or grayscale , duplex or single sided , output page size among others . it is preferred that some or all components , attributes or fields of user preferences have default values . part or all default values may be hard - coded in software program in client application 210 or in hardware components . alternatively , the client application 210 may also access a file to obtain default values , or it may calculate certain default values based on the information it has obtained during previous steps or components ( e . g . from an output device profile ). a user may or may not have the ability to pre - configure , or change or overwrite some or all defaults . the client application 210 may obtain and use some or all defaults with or without user intervention or knowledge . in step 1230 , the client application 210 of present invention performs rasterization operation to conform a content ( e . g . a digital document ), which may includes objects and information in vector graphics , text , and images , into one or more output images in accordance with the rasterization parameters obtained in previous steps . during rasterization process , text and vector graphics object or information in the content is rasterized or converted into image or bitmap form according to the given set of rasterization parameters . image information in the content may require scaling and interpolation operations to conform the rasterization parameters . rasterization process may further include operations such as scaling , interpolation , segmentation , image transformation , image encoding , color space transformation etc . to fit or conform the one or more output images to the given set of rasterization parameters such as target output size , resolution , bit depth , color space and image format etc . in step 1240 , the client application 210 generates an intermediate output data that includes the rasterized one or more output images . the intermediate output data of the present invention may contain image information , instructions , descriptions , and data such as color profile among others . creating and generating intermediate output data may further include operations such as compression , encoding , encryption , smoothing , segmentation , scaling and or color correction , among others . the image or images contained in an intermediate output data may be variously encoded and / or implemented with different image formats and / or compression methods ( e . g . jpeg , bmp , tiff , jbig etc or combination ). one preferred implementation is to generate or encode the output image in the intermediate output data with mixed raster content ( mrc ) description . the use of mrc in the data output process of present invention provides opportunities to improve the compression ratio by applying different compression techniques to segmented elements in the content . in addition , mrc provides opportunities to maintain more original content information during the encoding process of the output image and , therefore , potentially improve output quality . in step 1250 , the client application 210 transmits intermediate output data to an output device 220 through local communication link 240 . the communication link may be implemented with wired or wireless technologies and the transmission may include one or multiple sessions . it should be recognized that fig1 a illustrates one example of a client application process 1030 in the data output method 1002 of present invention . other implementations with more or less steps are possible , and several additional optional processes not shown in fig1 may also be included in the client application process 1030 . use of these different variations , however , does not result in a departure from the scope of the present invention . as an example , an optional authentication step may be included when the selected output device 220 provides service to a restricted group of users . various authentication procedures may be added in step 1210 when client application 210 obtains output device profile by communicating with an output device or an output controller . as another example , authentication procedures may also be implemented in step 1250 when the client application transmits intermediate output data to one or more output devices 220 or output controllers 230 . a simple authentication may be implemented by , for example , comparing the identity of an information apparatus 200 with an approved control list of identities stored in the output device 220 or output controller 230 . other more complex authentication and encryption schemes may also be used . information such as user name , password , id number , signatures , security keys ( physical or digital ), biometrics , fingerprints , voice among others , may be used separately or in combination as authentication means . such identification and or authentication information may be manually provided by user or automatically detected by the selected output device or devices 220 or output controller 230 . with successful authentication , a user may gain access to all or part of the services provided by the output device 220 . the output device profile that the client application 210 obtains may vary according to the type or quality of service requested or determined . if authentication fails , it is possible that a user may be denied partially or completely access to the service . in this case , the user may be provided with alternatives such as selecting another output device 220 or alternative services . another optional process is that a user may be asked to provide payment or deposit or escrow before , during or after output service such as step 1210 or 1250 with reference to fig1 . examples of payment or deposit may include cash , credit card , bankcard , charge card , smart card , electronic cash , among others . the output controller 220 may provide payment calculation or transaction processing as optional feature sets of present invention . fig1 b illustrates another exemplary client application output process 1030 with which an information apparatus 200 can pervasively and universally output content to one or more output devices 220 associated with or equipped with an output controller 230 of present invention . the process illustrated in fig1 b is similar to the process described in fig1 a except that step 1210 , obtaining output device profile , is skipped . in this embodiment , the client application 210 utilizes a set of hard - coded , standard or predefined output device parameters including rasterization parameters with which the client application 210 can perform rasterization operation and other required image processing functions . users may be provided with the option of changing these parameters or inputting alternative parameters . rasterization parameters include output size , output resolution , bit depth , color space , color channels , scale factors etc . these pre - defined parameters typically comply with a specification or a standard . the same specification and standard may also defined or describe at least partly the intermediate output data . predefined standard parameters can be stored in a file or profile in an information apparatus 200 , an output controller 230 , and / or in an output device 220 for easy update or upgrade . in client output process 1204 , since the rasterization parameters are predefined , the client application 210 may not need to upload printer profiles from the selected output device 230 . consequently , no two - way communication between the information apparatus 200 and the output device or devices 220 is necessary in this process 1204 when compared with process 1202 illustrated in fig1 a . the client application 210 performs rasterization operation 1225 based on standard and / or predefined parameters and generates a rasterized output image with predefined or standard properties of those rasterization parameters . the resulting intermediate output data , which includes at least one rasterized output image , is transmitted from the information apparatus 200 to an output device 220 in step 1250 or to its associated output controller 230 for rendering or output . the intermediate output data generated in process 1202 in general is less device dependent compared to the intermediate output data generated in the process 1202 shown in fig1 a . the output controller 230 included or associated with the output device 220 may be preprogrammed to interpret the raster output image , which includes properties or attributes that correspond to those standard or predefined parameters . the standard or predefined rasterization parameters may be hard coded or programmed into the client application 210 and / or the output controller 230 . however , instead of hard coding those parameters , one technique to facilitate updates or changes is to store those standard parameters in a default file or profile . the standard or predefined parameters contained in the file or profile can be retrieved and utilized by applications in an information apparatus 200 ( e . g . client application 210 ) and / or by applications or components in an output device 220 or the output controller 230 . in this way , any necessary updates , upgrades or required changes to those predefined or standard parameters can be easily accomplished by replacing or modifying the file or profile instead of modifying or updating the program , application or components in the information apparatus 200 , output device 220 and / or output controller 230 . a client application process 1204 providing universal output capability to information apparatus 200 may include or utilize : a client application 210 that obtains content ( e . g . digital document ) intended for output . a client application 210 that optionally obtains user preferences ( in step 1220 ) through ( 1 ) user &# 39 ; s input ( automatic or manual ) or selections or ( 2 ) based on preset preference or predefined defaults or ( 3 ) combination of the above . a client application 210 that rasterizes content ( in step 1230 or 1225 ) according to pre - defined or standard rasterization parameters . a client application 210 that generates intermediate output data ( in step 1240 ) for rendering or output at an output device 220 ; the intermediate output data containing at least partially a rasterized image related to the content intended for output . a client application 210 that transmits the intermediate output data to an output device 220 ( in step 1250 ) for further processing and final output . one advantage of the client output process 1204 of fig1 b compared to the process 1202 illustrated in fig1 a is that the generated intermediate output data is in general less device dependent . the device independent attribute allows the intermediate output data to be more portable and acceptable to more output devices equipped or associated with output controllers . both data output processes ( 1202 and 1204 ) enable universal output ; allowing a user to install a single client application 210 or components in an information apparatus 200 to provide output capability to more than one output device 220 . fig1 a illustrates one example of an output device process 1302 and its associated raster imaging method of present invention . in this output device process 1302 , an output device 220 is capable of receiving an intermediate output data from an information apparatus 200 . the output device process 1302 and its operations may include or utilize : an output device / system or output controller that receives intermediate output data ( in step 1300 ). the intermediate output data includes at least partially a raster output image describing at least part of the content for rendering at the output device 220 or system 250 . an output device / system or output controller that interprets ( in step 1310 ) the intermediate output data ; in one preferred embodiment , the intermediate output data includes an output image utilizing one or more mrc formats or components . an output device / system or output controller that performs image processing operation ( in step 1320 ) on the raster image . the image processing operation may include but not limited to image decompression , scaling , halftoning , color matching , among others . an output device / system or output controller that converts and or generates ( in step 1330 ) output - engine output data that is in a format or description suitable for input to an output engine ( e . g . printer engine in case of a printer ) included in an output device 220 . an output engine in an output device 220 that renders or generates a final output ( e . g . the output - engine output data ) in step 1370 . the output device 220 or output system 250 may include an output controller 230 internally or externally to assist the management and operation of the output process 1302 . as shown in fig7 , there are many possible configurations and implementations of an output controller 230 associated to an output device 220 herein and after , output controller 230 is regarded as an integral part of the output device to which it is attached . hence , the following described output device operations may be partially or completely performed by the output controller associated with it . in step 1300 , output device process 1302 is initiated by client application 210 transmitting an intermediate output data to output device 220 or output system 250 . in step 1310 , the output device 220 reads and interprets the intermediate output data , containing at least one raster output image relating to the content intended for output . during the reading and interpretation process 1310 , the output device 220 may include components that parse the intermediate output data and perform operations such as decompression , decoding , and decryption among others . the output image may be variously encoded and may include one or more compression methods . in the event that the method of image encoding includes mrc format , then , in one example implementation , during decoding and mapping of the output image in step 1310 , the lower resolution layer and information in an image that includes mrc may be mapped , scaled or interpolated to a higher - resolution output image to produce a better image quality . therefore , step 1310 , in the event that the intermediate output data includes mrc component , each layer in an mrc image can be decompressed , processed , mapped and combined into a single combined output image layer . step 1310 may also include scaling , color space transformation , and / or interpolation among others . in addition to the possibility of mapping methods using different scaling and interpolation ratio with different layers , another advantage of using mrc is that segmentation information contained in mrc can be utilized to apply different image processing and enhancement techniques to data in different layers of an mrc image in step 1320 . in step 1320 , the output device 220 may further perform image processing operations on the decoded output image . these image processing operations may include , for example , color correction , color matching , image segmentation , image enhancement , anti - aliasing , image smoothing , digital watermarking , scaling , interpolation , and halftoning among others . the image processing operations 1320 may be combined or operated concurrently with step 1310 . for example , while each row , pixel , or portion of the image is being decoded and or decompressed , image processing operations 1320 is applied . in another implementation , the image processing 1320 may occur after the entire output image or a large portion of the image has been decoded or decompressed . if the intermediate output data includes mrc component , then in step 1320 , there are additional opportunities to improve image quality . an image encoded in mrc contains segmented information that a traditional single layer image format does not usually have . as an example , foreground can be in one layer , and background in another . as another example , chrominance information may be in one layer and luminance may be in another . this segmented information in mrc may be used to apply different or selective image processing methods and algorithms to different layers or segments to enhance image quality or retain or recover image information . different image processing techniques or algorithms may include color matching , color correction , black generation , halftoning , scaling , interpolation , anti - aliasing , smoothing , digital watermarking etc . for example , one can apply calorimetric color matching to foreground information and perceptual color matching to background information or vice versa . as another example , error diffusion halftoning can be applied to foreground and stochastic halftoning can be applied to background or vice versa . as yet another example , bi - cubic interpolation can be applied to a layer and bi - linear or minimum distance interpolation can be applied to a different layer . in step 1330 , the output device 220 or the output controller 230 may convert the processed image ( e . g . halftoned ) into a form acceptable to the output engine of output device 220 . this conversion step is optional , depending on the type , format and input requirement of a particular output device engine ( e . g . printer engine in case of a printer ). different output engines may have different input raster image input requirements . as an example different output engines may require different input image formats , number of bits or bytes per pixel , compression or uncompressed form , or different color spaces ( e . g . such as rgb , cmy , cmyk , or any combination of hi - fi color such as green , orange , purple , red etc ). incoming raster image data can be encoded in a row , in a column , in multiple rows , in multiple columns , in a chunk , in a segment , or a combination at a time for sending the raster data to the output engine . in some cases , step 1330 may be skipped if the result of step 1320 is already in a form acceptable to the output device engine . in other cases , however , further conversion and or processing may be required to satisfy the specific input requirement of a particular output device engine . it is important to note that the above described processing from step 1310 to step 1330 may require one or more memory buffers to temporarily store processed results . the memory buffer can store or hold a row , a column , a portion , or a chunk , of the output image in any of the steps described above . storing and retrieving information into and from the memory buffer may be done sequentially , in an alternating fashion , or in an interlaced or interleaved fashion among other possible combinations . step 1310 to step 1330 operations can be partially or completely implemented with the output controller 230 . in step 1370 , the output device engine included in the output device 220 or output system 250 receives the output - engine output data generated in step 1330 or step 1320 . the output - engine output data is in a form that satisfies the input requirements and attributes of the output engine , such as color space , color channel , bit depth , output size , resolution , etc . the output engine then takes this output - engine output data and outputs or renders the data content through its marking engine or display engine . one advantage of data output method 1002 that includes output device process 1302 is that it has less processing requirements on an information apparatus 200 compared to conventional process with reference to fig1 a , and therefore , enables more information apparatus 200 with relatively lower processing power and memory space to have output capability . for example , some image processing functions , such as halftoning ( e . g . error diffusion ) may require substantial processing and computing power . in data output process 1002 that includes output device process 1302 , halftoning is performed in step 1320 by an output device component ( e . g . the output controller 230 ) included in the output device 220 or the output system 250 , not in the information apparatus 200 ; therefore reducing the computational requirements for the information apparatus 200 . another advantage of data output 1302 is that the intermediate output data is less device dependent than the output data generated by conventional output method 102 with reference to fig1 a . the device independence provides opportunity to allow a single driver or application in an information apparatus 200 to output intermediate output data to a plurality of output devices 220 that include output controllers 230 . some output devices 220 may contain a printer controller 410 . an example of this type of output device or printer is a postscript printer or pcl printer among others . fig1 b illustrates an example of an output device process 1304 with a printer that includes a printer controller 410 . as discussed in fig1 , a printer with a printer controller requires input such as page description language ( e . g . postscript , pcl etc . ), markup language ( html , xml etc ), special image format , special graphics format , or a combination , depending on the type of the printer controller . there are many printing system configurations for providing the data output capability and process to a printer or a printing system that includes a printer controller . in one example , the existing printer controller in the output device 220 may incorporate the feature sets provided by the output controller to form a “ combined controller ” as described previously with reference to fig7 c and 7f . in another example , the output controller 230 of present invention may be connected sequentially or cascaded to an existing printer controller ; the output controller 230 can be internally installed ( with reference to fig7 b ) or externally connected ( with reference to fig7 a ) to the output device 220 . for output device 220 that includes a printer controller , the output controller 230 may simply decode the intermediate output data in step 1310 and then convert it into a form acceptable for input to the printer controller in step 1350 . an output device process 1304 and operations for an output device 220 or system 250 that includes a printer controller 410 may include or utilize : an output controller 230 or components in an output device 220 or system 250 that receives an intermediate print data or output data ( with reference to step 1300 ), the intermediate print data includes at least a raster image related at least in part to the content for rendering at the output device 220 . an output controller 230 or components in an output device 220 or system 250 that interprets the intermediate output data ( with reference to step 1310 ); in one preferred embodiment , the intermediate output data includes an output image utilizing one or more mrc format or components . an output controller 230 or components in an output device 220 or system 250 that converts the intermediate output data into a printer - controller print data ( with reference to step 1350 ); the printer - controller print data includes a format or language ( e . g . pdl , pdf , html , xml etc .) that is acceptable or compatible to the input requirement of a printer controller . a printer controller or components in an output device 220 or system 250 that receives a printer controller print data ; the printer controller may parse , interpret and further process ( e . g . rasterization , scaling , image enhancement , color correction , color matching , halftoning etc .) and convert the printer - controller print data into a printer - engine print data ( with reference to step 1360 ); the printer - engine print data comprising of a format or description acceptable for input to a printer engine in the output device 220 or the output system 250 . a printer engine or components in an output device 220 or system 250 that renders or generates a final output ( with reference to step 1370 ) with the input printer engine print data . in output device process 1304 , step 1300 ( receiving intermediate output data ) and step 1310 ( interpret intermediate output data ) are identical to step 1300 and step 1310 in output device process 1302 , which have been described in previous sections with reference to fig1 a . in step 1350 , the output controller 230 converts the intermediate print data into a printer - controller print data that is in a form compatible or acceptable for input to a printer controller . for example , a printer controller may require as input a specific page description language ( pdl ) such as postscript . the output controller 230 then creates a postscript file and embeds the output image generated or retrieved in step 1310 into the postscript file . the output controller 230 can also create and embed the output image from step 1310 into other printer controller print data formats , instructions or languages . in step 1360 , the printer controller receives printer - controller print data generated in step 1350 that includes an acceptable input language or format to the printer controller . the printer controller may parse , interpret , and decode the input printer - controller print data . the printer controller may further perform raster image processing operations such as rasterization , color correction , black generation , gcr , anti - aliasing , scaling , image enhancement , and halftoning among others on the output image . the printer controller may then generate a printer - engine print data that is suitable for input to the printer engine . the type and or format of printer - engine print data may vary according to the requirement of a particular printer engine . it is important to note that the above described process from step 1310 to step 1360 may require one or more memory buffer to temporarily store processed results . the memory buffer can store or hold a row , a column , a portion , or a chunk , of the output image in any of the steps described above . storing and retrieving information into and from the memory buffer may be done sequentially , alternated , or in an interlaced or interleaved fashion among other possible combinations . process and operations of step 1310 to step 1360 can be implemented with output controller 230 . in step 1370 , the printer engine included in the output device 220 or output system 250 generates or renders the final output based on the printer - engine print data generated in step 1360 . for example , the printer - engine print data may be in cmy , cmyk , and rgb etc , and this may be in one or more bits per pixel format , satisfying the size and resolution requirement of the printer engine . the printer engine included the output device 220 may take this print data and generate or render an output page through its marking engine . having described and illustrated the principles of our invention with reference to an illustrated embodiment , it will be recognized that the illustrated embodiment can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles . in view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of our invention may be applied , it should be recognized that the detailed embodiments are illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope of our invention . rather , i claim as my invention all such embodiments as may come within the scope of the following claims and equivalents thereto . unless the context indicates otherwise , a reference in a claim to the number of instances of an element , be it a reference to one instance or more than one instance , requires at least the stated number of instances of the element but is not intended to exclude from the scope of the claim a structure or method having more instances of that element than stated . specifically , but without limitation , a reference in a claim to an or one output device or system , to an or one image , or to a or one rasterization parameter is not intended to exclude from the scope of the claim a structure or method having , including , employing or supplying two or more output devices or system , images or rasterization parameters .	8
[ 0026 ] fig3 is a schematic diagram of a 2 × 2 array 100 of 2 - bit non - volatile memory ( nvm ) transistors 101 - 104 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . while a 2 × 2 array is shown , it is understood that arrays having other sizes can be implemented , and are considered to fall within the scope of the invention . array 100 also includes row decoder 111 , column decoder 112 , word lines 121 - 122 and bit lines 131 - 133 . word line 121 is coupled to the control gates of nvm transistors 101 - 102 , and word line 122 is coupled to the control gates of nvm transistors 103 - 104 . as described in more detail below , word lines 121 - 122 are polycide or salicide in the described embodiment . word lines 121 - 122 are also coupled to row decoder 111 . bit lines 131 - 133 are coupled to the source / drain regions of nvm transistors 101 - 104 , as illustrated . as described in more detail below , bit lines 131 - 133 are formed by doped diffusion regions in a semiconductor substrate . these doped diffusion regions can be coupled to other doped diffusion regions by metal strap lines . bit lines 131 - 133 are also coupled to column decoder 112 . fig4 - 12 are cross sectional views that illustrate the fabrication of nvm transistors 101 and 102 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . nvm transistors 103 and 104 ( not shown in fig4 - 12 ) are fabricated at the same time as nvm transistors 101 and 102 . as illustrated in fig4 array 100 is fabricated in a semiconductor region 401 . in the described embodiment , semiconductor region 401 is a p - type well formed in a monocrystalline silicon substrate . semiconductor region 401 has a dopant concentration of about 5e16 - 2e17 atoms / cm . in other embodiments , semiconductor region 401 can be a p - type silicon substrate . field oxide 402 is thermally grown at the upper surface of substrate 401 using a conventional local oxidation of silicon ( locos ) process . in the described embodiment , field oxide 402 is grown to a thickness in the range of about 4000 to 8000 å . in the described embodiment , the field oxide is grown to a thickness of about 6000 å . in an alternate embodiment , field oxide 402 can be replaced with a shallow trench isolation ( sti ) structure . after field oxide 402 has been grown , a sacrificial oxide layer ( not shown ) is grown and then removed ( etched ) with a diluted hydrofluoric acid ( hf ). in one embodiment , a blanket threshold voltage implant is performed through the sacrificial oxide . however , in the described embodiment , no threshold voltage implant is performed through the sacrificial oxide . rather , the required threshold voltage implant is performed as described in more detail below . field oxide 402 defines the perimeter of the area where the nvm transistors 101 - 104 of array 100 are fabricated . however , field oxide 402 is not used to provide isolation between nvm transistors 101 - 104 . for this reason , the resulting configuration of nvm transistors is referred to as a fieldless array of nvm transistors . gate dielectric layer 403 is then thermally grown or deposited on the upper surface of semiconductor region 401 . in the described embodiment , gate dielectric layer 403 is silicon oxide , which is thermally grown to a thickness in the range of about 50 to 150 å over the upper surface of semiconductor region 401 . in a particular embodiment , gate dielectric layer 403 has a thickness of about 70 å . polysilicon layer 404 is then deposited over field oxide 402 and gate oxide layer 403 . as described in more detail below , polysilicon layer 404 is used to create the charge storage regions of nvm transistors 101 - 104 . in the described embodiment , polysilicon layer 404 is undoped polysilicon deposited to a thickness in the range of 1000 to 3000 å . in a particular embodiment , polysilicon layer 404 has a thickness of about 2000 å . in an alternate embodiment , polysilicon layer 404 can be doped . a photoresist mask 405 , having openings 406 , is formed over polysilicon layer 404 . as will become apparent in view of the following disclosure , openings 406 define certain edges of the floating gate electrodes of the nvm transistors . each of openings 406 has a width that corresponds with the minimum line width of the process used to fabricate the array . in the described embodiment , the process has a minimum line width of 0 . 18 microns , such that each of openings 406 has a width of 0 . 18 microns . as illustrated in fig5 polysilicon layer 404 is etched through openings 406 , thereby creating polysilicon regions 404 1 , 404 2 and 404 3 . this etch is controlled to leave underlying gate oxide layer 403 substantially intact . as illustrated in fig6 photoresist layer 405 is stripped , and a thin dielectric layer 407 is deposited over the resulting structure . in the described embodiment , dielectric layer 407 includes a silicon oxide layer and a silicon nitride layer , which is deposited over the silicon oxide layer . in one embodiment , the silicon oxide layer has a thickness in the range of about 50 to 200 å , and the silicon nitride layer has a thickness in the range of about 50 to 200 å . in a particular embodiment , both the silicon oxide layer and the silicon nitride layer have a thickness of about 70 å , such that dielectric layer 407 has a thickness of about 140 å . in an alternate embodiment , the silicon nitride layer can be replaced with a silicon oxynitride ( sion ) layer . in the described embodiment , the upper surface of dielectric layer 407 cannot be silicon oxide , for reasons that will become apparent in view of the following disclosure . as illustrated in fig7 a photoresist mask 408 , having openings 409 - 411 , is formed over dielectric layer 407 . as will become apparent in view of the following disclosure , openings 409 - 411 define certain edges of the floating gates of the nvm transistors . each of openings 409 - 411 has a width that corresponds with the minimum line width of the process being used to fabricate the array . in the described embodiment , each of openings 409 - 411 has a width of 0 . 18 microns . openings 409 - 411 are offset with respect to openings 406 ( fig4 - 5 ). in the described embodiment , openings 409 - 411 are offset by 0 . 18 microns with respect to openings 406 . as illustrated in fig8 a first etch is performed through openings 409 - 411 , thereby removing the exposed portions of dielectric layer 407 . a second etch is then performed through openings 409 - 411 , thereby removing the exposed portions of polysilicon regions 4041 - 4043 . this second etch is controlled to leave the underlying portions of gate dielectric layer 403 substantially intact . the remaining portions of polysilicon regions 404 1 - 404 3 are labeled as polysilicon regions 404 11 , 404 21 , 404 21 , 404 22 , 404 31 , and 404 32 . as described in more detail below , polysilicon regions 404 11 and 404 21 form the floating gate electrodes of nvm transistor 101 , and polysilicon regions 404 22 and 404 32 form the floating gate electrodes of nvm transistor 102 . openings 409 - 411 also define the diffusion bit lines of array 100 . more specifically , openings 409 , 410 and 411 define the locations of diffusion bit lines 131 , 132 and 133 , respectively . after the above - described etching steps are completed , high angle implants are performed through openings 409 - 411 . more specifically , a p - type impurity , such as boron , is implanted through openings 409 - 411 411 at high angles with respect to the upper surface of semiconductor substrate 401 , such that the dopant extends under the edges of photoresist mask 408 . in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , the high angle implants are performed by implanting p - type impurities with a dopant density in the range of 1e13 to 5e13 ions / cm 2 , and an implantation energy in the range of 40 to 100 kev . in a particular embodiment , the high angle implants are performed with a dopant density of about 2 . 2e13 ions / cm 2 and an implantation energy of about 25 kev . in one embodiment , the high angle implants are performed at angles in the range of 15 to 45 degrees from the vertical axis of fig8 which extends perpendicular to the upper surface of substrate 401 . in the described embodiment , the high angle implants are performed at angles approximately 25 degrees from the vertical axis of fig8 . the implanted boron serves to adjust the threshold voltages of nvm transistors 101 - 104 . the implanted p - type impurities are illustrated as regions 412 - 414 in fig8 . in an alternate embodiment , the p - type impurities can be implanted along the vertical axis of fig8 . note that in the described example , the pocket implant ( and other process features ) are less critical than in the nvm transistor 10 of fig1 and 2 , because a simpler process technology is being used in the present invention . in an alternative embodiment , an additional counter - doping implant can be implemented . the counter doping implant is performed by implanting an n - type impurity , such as phosphor , using parameters similar to the parameters of the above - described high angle implants . the n - type impurity provides improved junction edge optimization . in yet another embodiment , counter - doping is achieved by performing a blanket low energy implant of an n - type impurity over the entire array , after the formation of field oxide 402 . after performing the high angle implants , an n - type impurity , such as arsenic , is implanted through openings 409 - 411 of photoresist mask 408 . in one embodiment , arsenic is implanted with a dopant density in the range of 1e15 to 1e16 ions / cm 2 and an implantation energy in the range of 30 to 100 kev . in a particular embodiment , arsenic is implanted with a dopant density of about 3e15 ions / cm 2 and an implantation energy of about 60 kev . the implanted n - type impurities are illustrated as regions 422 - 424 in fig9 . photoresist mask 408 is then stripped , and a thermal oxidation step is performed , thereby creating bit line oxide regions 442 - 444 and sidewall oxide regions 442 a - 444 a , as illustrated in fig1 . this thermal oxidation step also results in the formation of a thin silicon oxide layer over the exposed silicon nitride of dielectric layer 407 . the growth of bit line oxide regions 442 - 444 causes the portions of polysilicon regions 404 11 - 404 11 , 404 21 - 404 22 and 404 31 - 404 32 , which are adjacent to bit line oxide regions 442 - 444 to bend upward . in one embodiment , the bit line oxide is thermally grown using a wet oxidation process at a temperature in the range of 800 to 1000 ° c . to a thickness in the range of 100 to 500 å . in a particular embodiment , the bit line oxide is thermally grown using a wet oxidation process at a temperature of about 900 ° c . to a thickness of about 200 å . this oxidation step also activates and diffuses the implanted impurities 412 - 414 and 422 - 424 , thereby forming diffusion bit lines 432 - 434 . note that diffusion bit lines 432 - 434 diffuse under polysilicon regions 404 11 - 404 11 , 404 21 - 404 22 and 404 31 - 404 32 , as illustrated . ( subsequent high temperature processing steps complete the activation of the implanted impurities in regions 412 - 414 and 422 - 424 ). normally , the relatively low temperature of 700 ° c . would result in very slow oxidation of silicon . however , the heavy doping of diffusion bit lines 432 - 434 increases the rate of silicon oxidation by approximately a factor of four . consequently , low temperature oxidation at 700 ° c ., which provides better control , can be used . as illustrated in fig1 , a blanket layer of polysilicon 451 is then deposited over the upper surface of the resulting structure . in some embodiments , phosphorus oxychloride ( pocl 3 ) is used to dope polysilicon layer 451 to increase the conductivity of polysilicon layer 451 . other embodiments may implant impurities such as phosphorus ions to increase the conductivity of polysilicon layer 451 . a layer of metal silicide , such as tungsten silicide , is deposited directly on polysilicon layer 451 to form metal silicide layer 452 . in an alternate embodiment , a blanket layer of a refractory metal , such as tungsten , titanium , or cobalt , is sputtered over the upper surface of polysilicon layer 451 , and subsequently reacted to form a metal silicide . a photoresist mask ( not shown ) is then formed over the resulting structure . this photoresist mask is patterned to define the control gates and word lines of the nvm transistors 101 - 104 . an etch is then performed to remove the portions of metal silicide layer 452 and polysilicon layer 451 that are exposed by the photoresist mask . in one embodiment , this polycide etch is a dry etch . tungsten silicide layer 452 is etched with a gas mixture of hbr , sf 6 and he . polysilicon layer 451 is etched with a gas mixture of hbr and cl 2 . after the polycide etch is completed , the photoresist mask is stripped and a tungsten silicide anneal is then performed at 900 ° c . with low oxygen flow . ( this anneal adheres the tungsten silicide to the underlying polysilicon and is part of the activation of the impurities in the buried diffusion bit lines 432 - 434 ). a boron implant is then performed to prevent current leakage between diffusion bit lines at the locations between adjacent gates electrodes in the fieldless array . this boron implant is a blanket implant , with no mask protection provided on the wafer . in one embodiment , boron is implanted at a dopant density in the range of 1e12 to 6e12 ions / cm 2 and an energy in the range of 20 to 60 kev . in a particular embodiment , boron is implanted at a dopant density of about 3e12 ions / cm 2 and an energy of about 30 kev . [ 0045 ] fig1 is a top view of nvm transistors 101 - 104 . nvm transistors 101 - 102 are labeled with the reference numbers described above in fig4 - 11 . each of nvm transistors 101 - 104 has a horizontal dimension of 0 . 72 microns ( between the centers of the adjacent diffusion bit lines ), and a vertical dimension of 0 . 5 microns . these dimensions are shown on nvm transistor 104 in fig1 . the area of each nvm transistor is therefore 0 . 36 u 2 , with a per bit area of 0 . 18 u 2 . the operation of nvm transistors 101 - 104 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention will now be described . [ 0047 ] fig1 is a circuit diagram illustrating an erase operation of array 100 . in the described embodiment , array 100 is operated as a flash memory , such that all of the nvm transistors 101 - 104 in the array are erased as a block . to accomplish this , column decoder 112 is controlled to apply an erase voltage of 4 to 6 volts to bit lines 131 - 133 , and row decoder 111 is controlled to apply an erase voltage of − 3 to − 6 volts to word lines 121 - 122 . under these conditions , electrons are drawn out of the floating gate electrodes ( e . g ., floating gate electrodes 404 11 , 404 21 , 404 22 and 404 32 ) of nvm transistors 101 - 104 , thereby leaving these floating gate electrodes substantially uncharged . note it is not possible to over - erase nvm transistors 101 - 104 because of the portion of the channel region located between the floating gates of each transistor . for example , even if floating gates 404 11 , and 404 21 are over - erased ( and thereby exhibit a positive charge ), the portion of the channel region located between these floating gates will not be significantly affected by the positive charge on these floating gates . thus , nvm transistor 101 will turn on in response to the over - erased floating gates 404 11 , and 404 21 . although fig1 illustrates all of the nvm transistors 101 - 104 being erased at the same time , in other embodiments , these nvm transistors can be erased in sections . [ 0048 ] fig1 a and 14b illustrate read operations of floating gates 404 11 and 404 21 , respectively , of nvm transistor 101 . as illustrated in 14 a , floating gate 404 11 is read as follows . row decoder 111 is controlled to apply a voltage of about 3 - 4 volts to the control gate of nvm transistor 101 via word line 121 . column decoder 112 is controlled to apply a voltage of 0 volts to bit line 131 and a voltage of about 1 . 5 to 2 volts to bit line 132 . under these conditions , relatively large read current will flow through nvm transistor 101 if floating gate 40411 is not programmed . conversely , a relatively small current will flow through nvm transistor 101 if floating gate 404 11 is programmed . column decoder 112 further couples a sense amplifier ( not shown ) to bit lines 131 - 132 in order to sense the read current . in response , the sense amplifier provides an amplified signal representative of the current flow through nvm transistor 101 . as will become apparent in view of the following described programming operations , floating gate 404 11 is read using a reverse read operation . as illustrated in 14 b , the state of floating gate 404 21 is read as follows . row decoder 111 is again controlled to apply a voltage of about 3 - 4 volts to the control gate of nvm transistor 101 via word line 121 . column decoder 112 is controlled to apply a voltage of 0 volts to bit line 132 and a voltage of about 1 . 5 to 2 volts to bit line 131 . under these conditions , a relatively large read current will flow through nvm transistor 101 if floating gate 404 21 is not programmed . conversely , a relatively small read current will flow through nvm transistor 101 if floating gate 404 21 is programmed . column decoder 112 further couples a sense amplifier ( not shown ) to bit lines 131 - 132 in order to sense the read current . in response , the sense amplifier provides an amplified signal representative of the current flow through nvm transistor 101 . as will become apparent in view of the following described programming operations , floating gate 404 21 is read using a reverse read operation . table 1 below summarizes the read currents for the possible read operations of nvm transistor 101 . [ 0051 ] fig1 a and 15b illustrate programming operations of floating gates 404 11 and 404 21 , respectively , of nvm transistor 101 . in general , each programming operation is preceded by a read operation , such that the appropriate programming voltages can be determined . thus , to program floating gate 404 11 , a read operation is first performed on floating gate 404 21 , in the manner illustrated in fig1 b . the read state of floating gate 404 21 is used to determine the appropriate programming voltages required to program floating gate 404 11 . if the read operation determines that floating gate 404 21 is in an erased state , then the subsequent programming of floating gate 404 11 can be performed as follows . row decoder 111 is controlled to apply a voltage of about 1 - 2 volts to the control gate of nvm transistor 101 via word line 121 . column decoder 112 is controlled to apply a voltage of 0 volts to bit line 132 and a voltage of about 5 to 8 volts to bit line 131 . under these conditions , electrons are transferred into floating gate 404 11 by hot electron injection . however , if the read operation of floating gate 404 21 determines that floating gate 404 21 is in a programmed state , then the subsequent programming of floating gate 404 11 is performed as follows . row decoder 111 is controlled to apply a voltage of about 3 - 4 volts to the control gate of nvm transistor 101 via word line 121 . note that the voltage applied to the control gate of nvm transistor 101 must be higher if floating gate 404 21 is programmed . column decoder 112 is controlled to apply a voltage of 0 volts to bit line 132 and a voltage of about 5 to 8 volts to bit line 131 . under these conditions , electrons are transferred into floating gate 404 11 by hot electron injection . advantageously , the read operation and the following program operation require similar voltages . thus , reading floating gate 404 21 and programming floating gate 404 11 both require : 0 volts on bit line 132 , a positive voltage on bit line 131 , and a positive voltage on word line 121 . as a result , the transition between the read operation and the subsequent program operation does not require large signal swings on word line 121 or bit lines 131 - 132 . note that row decoder 111 allows word line 122 to float , such that nvm transistors 103 and 104 are not programmed . also note that column decoder 112 allows bit line 133 to float , such that nvm transistor 102 is not programmed . in addition , over - programming is suppressed in nvm transistor 101 because as the floating gate potential increases , the hot electron channeling is suppressed . [ 0056 ] fig1 b illustrates the programming of floating gate 404 21 , which is programmed using the same read - then - program method described above in connection with fig1 a . other advantages of the 2 - bit nvm transistor of the present invention are listed below . because floating gates 404 21 and 404 11 are electrically isolated from each other , the programmed / erased charges are easily maintained in the desired locations . that is , charge migration is not possible . because there is no charge migration over time , there is no degradation in cycling / endurance . moreover , because there is no over - erase or over - programming , the program / erase algorithm may be made relatively simple compared to conventional 2 - bit non - volatile memory transistors . that is , a wider program / erase window is allowed because there is no over - program and no over - erase . furthermore , the split - gate structure of nvm transistors 101 - 104 allows the required word line voltages and the required programming current to be relatively low . as a result , these nvm transistors can be scaled relatively easily . in addition , the polysilicon construction of the floating gates in the present invention enables the nvm transistors to be erased by exposure to ultraviolet light . thus , after manufacturing , it is possible to use an ultraviolet light to initially reduce the threshold voltages of nvm transistors 101 - 104 . this option is not available in the conventional 2 - bit nvm transistor 10 of fig1 and 2 . although the invention has been described in connection with several embodiments , it is understood that this invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed , but is capable of various modifications , which would be apparent to a person skilled in the art . for example , although the invention has been described in connection an n - channel nvm transistor , it is understood that the described conductivity types can be reversed to provide a p - channel nvm transistor . thus , the invention is limited only by the following claims .	7
in one embodiment , the process comprises the spot welding of a perforated metal sheet to a piece of metal wall to be insulated . a layer of fiber mat is placed adjacent to the perforated metal sheet and a layer of multiple porous ceramic fiber bricks is located adjacent to the fiber mat . at approximately uniform intervals , spiral springs are screwed through the porous ceramic fiber brick , for example , by means of a drill provided for the purpose , until the ends of the spiral springs have passed through the porous ceramic fiber brick through the fiber mat , and are engaged in the perforated metal sheet . the perforated metal sheet has openings , and can comprise , for example , a rib mesh , a perforated plate , a wire mesh or a wire grid . the hardness of the porous ceramic fiber bricks and the spiral spring material is selected so that when the springs are screwed into the brick , a small spiral - shaped hole is formed . the space located inside the spring remains filled up by brick and is not disturbed during the insertion process . the strength with which the insulation is held to the wall is thereby significantly increased . this process is suitable both for flat walls , such as roofs and doors , and for external or internal insulation of metal tubes . the spiral springs absorb the thermally - induced stresses . gaps which could occur if there were a fixed connection between the metal surface and the insulation are eliminated . as a result , long service lives can be achieved by this invention . in one preferred embodiment , there are recesses in the porous ceramic fiber bricks ( on the side of the brick opposite the metal surface ) into which the spiral springs are introduced . after the spiral springs are screwed in , the recesses can be plugged up with filler material . abbreviated spiral springs can be used such that the ends of the spiral springs disappear into the recesses of the brick . the recesses can then be plugged with a refractory filler material , for example , fiber wool or mortar . plugs can be used , either with or without additional refractory material , to provide a flush surface with the fiber bricks . another embodiment , which also uses recesses in the fiber bricks , utilizes stopper plugs , equipped with a head , which are inserted in the recesses . the stopper plugs can have a cylindrical head which projects from the porous ceramic and a bolt portion which fits into the recess in the fiber bricks . the bolt portion can be provided with a thread having pitch and size dimensions such that the bolt portion can be screwed into the spiral grooves left by the springs in the recess walls , or the plug bolts can be threaded and sized to mate with the interior of the spiral springs . the dimensions are preferably such that the bolt portions screw into the interior thread of the springs as this assures an additional attachment between the insulation and the metal surface . the force with which the insulation is pressed against the metal wall can be adjusted by varying how far the stopper plugs are screwed in . in addition , the heads of at least some of the stopper plugs can exhibit grooves or graduations . the spiral springs with the stopper plugs can be approximately arranged to provide mountings on the wall insulation . the heads of the stopper plugs can be designed , for example , with a milled groove or a graduation , such that heating coils can be fastened to them . on curved metal surfaces , such as tubes , interior covering assemblies can be placed to insulate the interior of a tube . such assemblies can be constructed of fiber brick with a flexible perforated metal sheet wrapped around the porous fiber brick ( preferably with at least one intermediate fiber mat ) and with the assembly joined by screwing the spiral springs through the perforated metal sheet , through any fiber mats , and into the fiber bricks . the interior coverings for the tube can be assembled around fiber bricks which are in a cylindrical ( tubular ) shape and with a perforated metal sheet on the outside . the perforated metal sheet can be equipped with hinges such that the assembly can be held together by a locking rod ( pushed through the hinges ). the spiral springs are screwed through the perforated metal sheet into the fiber bricks , and the spiral springs can be fastened , for example , by welding , to the perforated metal sheet . after the assembly is inserted into the tube , the locking rod can be removed . the interior covering assembly preferably comprises several layers with the inside layer being fiber bricks assembled in a tubular manner , and around which at least one layer of fiber mat is laid . the fiber may can be soaked in water to provide a better fit . a perforated metal sheet , provided with hinges , for example , located on metal brackets on two opposite edges of the perforated metal sheet , is laid around the fiber mat . a locking rod is pushed into the hinges . spiral springs are screwed in radially through the openings in the perforated metal sheet toward the middle of the fiber bricks at approximately equal intervals . the ends of the spiral springs can be cut off and , for example , welded to the perforated metal sheet . this prefabicated covering assembly is introduced into the tube to be insulated . additional prefabricated covering assemblies can be introduced in a similar manner , with assemblies being located axially adjacent to one another ( end to end ) to insulate longer lengths of pipe . preferably , a cap - shaped flow lock equipped with a hole is used between the prefabricated covering assemblies to prevent back flows of the medium flowing through the tube . the flow locks can be fabricated from , for example , graphite or aluminum . the process offers advantages in that the metal surfaces are insulated so that the stresses which can cause cracks between the ceramic insulation layer and the metal wall , such as those that are caused , for example , by temperature changes , are absorbed or eliminated . in addition , the present process offers a simple and time - saving method of applying the insulation layer to a metal surface . fig1 shows a side view of a flat wall insulation . the wall is constructed of a metal surface 3 spot welded to a perforated metal sheet 5 ( which exhibits openings into which spiral springs 2 can be screwed ). attached to the metal surface 3 is a ceramic layer 1 comprising a fiber mat 7 and fiber bricks 8 . the spiral springs 2 are screwed through the fiber bricks 8 . the fiber bricks 8 have a porosity of 80 to 90 %, and thus are soft enough to allow the spiral springs 2 to be screwed through them . the ends 4 of the spiral spring 2 facing the perforated metal sheet 5 are engaged in the perforated metal sheet 5 and hold the ceramic layer 1 in position . the opposite ends 23 ( ends away from the metal wall ) of the spiral springs 2 can be cut off and protected in various ways , as illustrated in fig2 . in the upper portion of fig2 there are surface recesses 9 into which abbreviated springs 2 are admitted . the recesses 9 are then plugged up with filler material 10 , which can comprise fiber wool or mortar , and sealed with a stopper plug 25 . in the lower portion of fig2 the recesses 9 for the spiral springs 2 are closed by means of a stopper plug 11 , comprising a head 12 and a bolt 24 . the bolts 24 of the stopper plugs 11 have the same thread pitch as the spiral springs 2 , so that the spring force of the spiral springs 2 , with which the ceramic 1 is to be pressed against the metal surface 3 , can be adjusted . in fig3 and 4 , the heads 12 of the stopper plugs 11 are designed so that a heating coil 13 can be fastened to them . the stopper plug heads 12 shown in fig3 have a groove 19 , and those shown in fig4 have a graduation 6 to hold the heating coil 13 . fig5 shows an overhead view of an insulation wall with a heating coil 13 ( shown incompletely ), which is laid around the stopper plugs 11 , which are designed as a heating coil mounting device . fig6 shows the construction of an interior covering 15 for the insulation of a tube ( see 14 in fig7 ). first , a tubular layer is assembled from fiber bricks 16 . the fiber bricks 16 are surrounded with a fiber mat 17 , which can be soaked with a fluid , for example , water . around this fiber mat 17 , a perforated metal sheet 18 , provided with hinges , is laid and held in place by means of a locking rod 21 . as shown in fig7 and 8 , the spiral springs 2 are screwed through the openings in the perforated metal sheet 18 in a radial direction to approximately the center of the fiber bricks 16 . the ends of the spiral springs 2 can be cut off and welded to the perforated metal sheet 18 . these prefabricated covering assemblies 15 are combined with one another in a tube 14 to be insulated ( as shown in fig7 ). the direction of the flow is shown by an arrow . once the covering assembly 15 is inside the tube 14 , the locking rod 21 can be removed . to prevent back flows , cup - shaped flow locks 22 can be used between the coverings . these flow locks 22 are illustrated in fig6 , and 9 . the invention as described hereinabove in the context of the preferred embodiments is not to be taken as limited to all of the provided details thereof , since modifications and variations thereof may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .	5
for purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention , reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings , and specific language will be used to describe the same . it will nonetheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is intended by the illustration and description of certain embodiments of the invention . in addition , any alterations and / or modifications of the illustrated and / or described embodiment ( s ) are contemplated as being within the scope of the present invention . further , any other applications of the principles of the invention , as illustrated and / or described herein , as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains , are contemplated as being within the scope of the present invention . referring now to the figures , and in particular , fig1 , a schematic of a fuel cell system 10 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is depicted . fuel cell system 10 includes one or more of a fuel cell 12 , and includes a reducing gas generator 14 . fuel cell system 10 is configured to provide power to an electrical load 16 , e . g ., via electrical power lines 18 . in the present embodiment , fuel cell 12 is a solid oxide fuel cell ( sofc ), although it will be understood that the present invention is equally applicable to other types of fuel cells , such as alkali fuel cells , molten - carbonate fuel cells ( mcfc ), phosphoric acid fuel cells ( pafc ), and proton exchange membrane ( pem ) fuel cells . in the present embodiment , fuel cell system 10 is suitable , but not limited to , use in a fuel cell turbine hybrid system where high - pressure feed streams are employed . reducing gas generator 14 of the present embodiment is configured to generate a reducing gas having a combustibles content ( which is primarily hydrogen — h 2 and carbon monoxide — co ) that may be varied within a compositional range of approximately 3 % combustibles content to approximately 45 % combustibles content . in other embodiments , different compositional ranges may be employed , for example , a range of approximately 2 % combustibles content to approximately 50 % combustibles content in some embodiments , and approximately 1 % combustibles content to approximately 60 % combustibles content in other embodiments . as set forth below , reducing gas generator 14 of the present embodiment is tailored to yield a start gas in the form of a reducing gas having a primary function of protecting the anode of fuel cell 12 from oxidation during startup of fuel cell 12 , e . g ., during system heat - up prior to power generation . as power generation is started , the reducing gas is transitioned off . in the embodiment of fig1 , various features , components and interrelationships therebetween of aspects of an embodiment of the present invention are depicted . however , the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiment of fig1 and the components , features and interrelationships therebetween as are illustrated in fig1 and described herein . for example , other embodiments encompassed by the present invention , the present invention being manifested by the principles explicitly and implicitly described herein via the present figures and detailed description and set forth in the claims , may include a greater or lesser number of components , features and / or interrelationships therebetween , and / or may employ different components and / or features having the same and / or different nature and / or interrelationships therebetween , which may be employed for performing similar and / or different functions relative to those illustrated in fig1 and described herein . referring now fig2 , fuel cell 12 and reducing gas generator 14 are described in greater detail . fuel cell 12 includes at least one each of an anode 20 , an electrolyte 22 , a cathode 24 , and a reformer 26 . anode 20 , electrolyte 22 and cathode 24 are considered part of fuel cell 12 . reformer 26 is an internal steam reformer that receives steam as a constituent of a recycled fuel cell product gas stream , and heat for operation from fuel cell 12 electro chemical reactions . reducing gas generator 14 is not a part of fuel cell 12 , but rather , is configured for generating gases for use in starting up and shutting down fuel cell 12 . anode 20 is electrically coupled to electrical load 16 via electrical power line 18 , and cathode 24 is also electrically coupled to electrical load 16 via the other electrical power line 18 . electrolyte 22 is disposed between anode 20 and cathode 24 . anode 20 and cathode 24 are electrically conductive , and are permeable to oxygen , e . g ., oxygen ions . electrolyte 22 is configured to pass oxygen ions , and has little or no electrical conductivity , e . g ., so as to prevent the passage of free electrons from cathode 24 to anode 20 . reformer 26 is coupled to anode 20 , and is configured to receive a fuel and an oxidant and to reform the fuel / oxidant mixture into a synthesis gas ( syngas ) consisting primarily of hydrogen ( h 2 ), carbon monoxide ( co ), as well as other reformer by - products , such as water vapor in the form of steam , and other gases , e . g ., nitrogen and carbon - dioxide ( co 2 ), methane slip ( ch 4 ), as well as trace amounts of hydrocarbon slip . in the present embodiment , the oxidant employed by fuel cell 12 during normal operations , i . e ., in power production mode to supply electrical power to electrical load 16 , is air , and the fuel is natural gas , although it will be understood that other oxidants and / or fuels may be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention . the synthesis gas is oxidized in an electro - chemical reaction in anode 20 with oxygen ions received from cathode 24 via migration through electrolyte 22 . the electro - chemical reaction creates water vapor and electricity in a form of free electrons on the anode that are used to power electrical load 16 . the oxygen ions are created via a reduction of the cathode oxidant using the electrons returning from electrical load 16 into cathode 24 . once fuel cell 12 is started , internal processes maintain the required temperature for normal power generating operations . however , in order to start the fuel cell , the primary fuel cell system components must be heated , including anode 20 , electrolyte 22 , cathode 24 and reformer 26 . in addition , some fuel cell 12 components may be protected from damage during the start - up , e . g ., due to oxidation . for example , anode 20 may be subjected to oxidative damage in the presence of oxygen at temperatures above ambient but below the normal operating temperature of fuel cell 12 in the absence of the synthesis gas . also , reformer 26 may need a specific chemistry , e . g . h 2 o in the form of steam in addition to the heat provided during start - up of fuel cell 12 , in order to start the catalytic reactions that generate the synthesis gas . further , it is desirable that fuel cell 12 be started in a safe manner , e . g ., so as to prevent a combustible mixture from forming during the starting process . thus , it may be desirable to purge anode 20 with a nonflammable reducing gas during the initial startup as the temperature of anode 20 increased . in one aspect , a characteristic of reducing gas generator 14 is that the reducing gas may be made sufficiently dilute in combustibles to prevent the potential formation of a flammable ( i . e ., potentially explosive ) mixture upon mixing with air . this may be desirable during the low temperature portion of heat - up of fuel cell 12 where any combustibles mixing with air are below auto - ignition temperature , and therefore , can potentially build up to form dangerous quantities of potentially pressurized flammable gases within the vessel that contains fuel cell 12 . the reducing gas strength for protecting anode 20 of fuel cell 12 from oxygen migration can be quite high , e . g ., up to 45 % combustibles content in the present embodiment , up to 50 % in other embodiments , and up to 60 % combustibles content in still other embodiments . mechanisms that cause the migration of oxygen through electrolyte 22 to the anode 20 side of the fuel cell 12 are often temperature dependent and include oxygen permeation through electrolyte 22 or oxygen transfer induced by short circuit currents . also , physical leakage mechanisms may become worse with temperature as materials differentially expand . thus , the ability of reducing gas generator 14 to increase combustibles content at high fuel cell 12 temperatures during startup may be particularly useful in protecting anode 20 from oxidation damage . from a safety perspective , it may be possible to step to a greater reducing strength at higher temperatures during fuel cell 12 startup , since the possibility of mixing the reducing gas with a pressurized volume of air to form an combustible mixture in or near fuel cell 12 is reduced if the reducing gas is above auto - ignition temperature , because the reducing gas would tend to immediately burn upon mixing with air . in addition , this may prevent build - up of a flammable mixture that can potentially deflagrate if the mixture were to suddenly come in contact with an ignition source , since any such mixture would tend to burn immediately when above the auto - ignition temperature , rather than build up a large quantity of the mixture . thus , in some embodiments , it may be desirable to operate reducing gas generator 14 in a manner by which the reducing gas is initially weakly reducing and well below the flammability limit , e . g ., 3 % combustibles content in the present embodiment , although other values may be employed , for example , 2 % combustibles content in some embodiments and 1 % combustibles content or less in other embodiments . in still other embodiments , the combustibles content may be greater than 3 %. the combustibles content may subsequently be changed to a strongly reducing ( i . e ., higher combustibles ) condition ( higher reducing strength ) when temperature conditions in fuel cell 12 , e . g ., anode 20 , are high enough to ensure that the reducing gas is far above its lower flammability limit . for example , the strongly reducing condition may be up to 45 % combustibles content in the present embodiment , up to 50 % combustibles content in other embodiments , and up to 60 % combustibles content or greater in yet other embodiments , depending upon the conditions in fuel cell 12 . the increased energy input to the system with a stronger reducing gas may be offset by decreasing fuel flow to the fuel cell power plant &# 39 ; s off - gas burner for such plants so equipped . accordingly , embodiments of the present invention may employ reducing gas generator 14 to generate a purging gas to purge fuel cell 12 of oxidants , in particular , cathode 24 , as well as to generate a safe gas , i . e ., a weak reducing gas having a relatively low level of combustibles . in addition , embodiments of the present invention may also employ reducing gas generator 14 to produce a variable - reducing - strength reducing gas . the reducing gas composition provided by reducing gas generator 14 may also be configured to contain adequate steam to initiate the operation of the internal reformer 26 as the normal fuel cell 12 fuel stream flow , e . g ., natural gas , is started . accordingly , the reducing gas supplied to fuel cell 12 from reducing gas generator 14 may be considered a transition gas as power production by fuel cell 12 is ramped up . additionally , reducing gas generator 14 of the present embodiment may be capable of rapid start - up , e . g ., for protecting anode 20 in the event of emergency fuel cell 12 shutdown events , for example , by maintaining certain elements of reducing gas generator 14 at elevated temperatures in order to speed up initiation of the catalytic reactions that yield the reducing gas . in the present embodiment , as illustrated in fig2 , reducing gas generator 14 includes a fuel system 28 , an oxidant system 30 , a merging chamber 32 , and a catalytic reactor 34 having a catalyst 36 . in the present embodiment , the outputs of fuel system 28 and oxidant system 30 are combined in merging chamber 32 and directed to fuel cell 12 via catalytic reactor 34 to selectively provide purging gas , safe gas , and variable strength reducing gas to anode 20 and reformer 26 . in the embodiment depicted in fig2 , various features , components and interrelationships therebetween of aspects of an embodiment of the present invention are depicted . however , the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiment of fig2 and the components , features and interrelationships therebetween as are illustrated in fig2 and described herein . for example , other embodiments encompassed by the present invention , the present invention being manifested by the principles explicitly and implicitly described herein via the present figures and detailed description and set forth in the claims , may include a greater or lesser number of components , features and / or interrelationships therebetween , and / or may employ different components and / or features having the same and / or different nature and / or interrelationships therebetween , which may be employed for performing similar and / or different functions relative to those illustrated in fig2 and described herein . in any event , in the embodiment of fig2 , fuel system 28 includes a fuel input 38 , a pressure regulator 40 , a sulfur capture sorbent 42 , a fuel flow controller 44 , and a variable position / output fuel control valve 46 . fuel input 38 is configured to receive a hydrocarbon fuel , e . g ., natural gas , and serves as a source of the hydrocarbon fuel used by reducing gas generator 14 . pressure regulator 40 is fluidly coupled to fuel inlet 38 , and regulates the pressure of the hydrocarbon fuel . sulfur capture sorbent 42 is fluidly coupled to pressure regulator 40 , and is configured to capture sulfur from the fuel stream received from pressure regulator 40 . fuel flow controller 44 and fuel control valve 46 are coupled to the output of sulfur capture sorbent 42 , and are configured to control the amount of fuel delivered to merging chamber 32 . oxidant system 30 functions as an oxidant source for reducing gas generator 14 , and includes an air intake 48 , an air compressor 50 as a pressurized air source , a pressure regulator 52 , a nitrogen generator 54 having a nitrogen separation membrane 56 , a variable position / output air control valve 58 , an air flow controller 60 , a variable position / output oxidant control valve 62 , an oxidant flow controller 64 and an oxygen sensor 66 . air intake 48 may be any structure or opening capable of providing air , and is fluidly coupled to air compressor 50 , which compresses ambient air received from the atmosphere . pressure regulator 52 is fluidly coupled to air compressor 50 , and regulates the air pressure delivered to reducing gas generator 14 . air control valve 58 is part of an air charging system structured to variably add air to the nitrogen - rich gas received from nitrogen generator 54 to yield an oxidant having a variable o 2 content . the o 2 content may be sensed by oxygen sensor 66 , which may be used by the control system of reducing gas generator 14 to vary the o 2 content of the oxidant supplied to merging chamber 32 . for example , under normal operating conditions , the o 2 content is controlled based on a control temperature , e . g ., the temperature of catalyst 36 in the present embodiment , although other temperatures may be used in other embodiments , e . g ., the temperature of the reducing gas output by reducing gas generator 14 . however , during startup of reducing gas generator 14 , oxygen sensor 66 may be used to provide feedback until the temperature is available as a feedback . the amount or flow of the oxidant having the variable o 2 content is controlled by oxidant control valve 62 and oxidant flow controller 64 . nitrogen generator 54 is configured to generate a nitrogen - rich stream , which may be used as a purging gas , and which may also be combined with air to form a low oxygen ( o 2 ) content oxidant stream , e . g ., a nitrogen - diluted air stream , used by reducing gas generator 14 to form a reducing gas . the purity of the nitrogen - rich stream may vary with the needs of the particular application , for example , and may consist essentially of nitrogen . alternatively , it is considered that in other embodiments , other gases may be employed in place of or in addition to nitrogen , such as argon or helium , for use as a purging gas and / or as a constituent of a low o 2 content oxidant stream , e . g ., as a dilutant ( diluent ) of air . as used herein , “ low o 2 content oxidant ” means that the oxygen content of the oxidant stream is less than that of atmospheric air under the same pressure and temperature conditions . nitrogen generator 54 and air control valve 58 are fluidly coupled in parallel to pressure regulator 52 , and receive pressurized air from air compressor 50 for use in reducing gas generator 14 operations . nitrogen generator 54 has an output 54 a , e . g ., an opening or passage structured to discharge the products of nitrogen generator 54 . nitrogen generator 54 is structured to receive air from air intake 48 , extract oxygen ( o 2 ) from the air , and to discharge the balance in the form of a nitrogen - rich gas from the outlet . the extracted o 2 is discharged from nitrogen generator 54 to the atmosphere in the present embodiment , although it will be understood that in other embodiments , the extracted o 2 may be employed for other purposes related to fuel cell 12 and / or reducing gas generator 14 , e . g ., as part of an oxidant stream . nitrogen separation membrane 56 of nitrogen generator 54 is configured to separate oxygen out of the air received from air intake 48 , and provides the nitrogen - rich stream , which is then combined with the air supplied by air control valve 58 to yield the low o 2 content oxidant , which is delivered to oxidant control valve 62 . oxidant control valve 62 is fluidly coupled to the outputs of both nitrogen generator 54 and air control valve 58 . oxygen sensor 66 , which may be in the form of an o 2 analyzer , is fluidly coupled downstream to oxidant control valve 62 , and provides a control signal via control line 68 that communicatively couples oxygen sensor 66 with air flow controller 60 . air flow controller 60 provides control signals to air control valve 58 to control the amount of air added to the nitrogen - rich stream based on the control input from oxygen sensor 66 . merging chamber 32 is in fluid communication with the output of nitrogen generator 54 and fuel input 38 , and is structured to receive and combine the hydrocarbon fuel and nitrogen - rich gas and discharge a feed mixture containing both the fuel and the oxidant including the nitrogen - rich gas to catalytic reactor 34 . catalytic reactor 34 is structured to receive the feed mixture and to catalytically convert the feed mixture into a reducing gas . the form of merging chamber 32 is a simple plumbing connection joining the oxidant stream with the fuel stream in the present embodiment , although any arrangement that is structured to combine an oxidant stream with a fuel stream may be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention . for example , a dedicated mixing chamber having swirler vanes to mix the streams may be employed . reducing gas generator 14 includes a start control valve 69 having a valve element 70 and a valve element 72 ; and a feed mixture heater 74 , which may be used to start the process of generating reducing gas . in one form , valve elements 70 and 72 are part of a combined valving element . the inlets of valve elements 70 and 72 are fluidly coupled to merging chamber 32 downstream thereof . the outlet of valve element 70 is fluidly coupled to catalytic reactor 34 for providing the feed mixture to catalyst 36 of catalytic reactor 34 . the outlet of valve element 72 is fluidly coupled to the inlet of feed mixture heater 74 . in one form , start control valve 69 is a three - way valve that operates valve elements 70 and 72 to direct flow entering valve 69 into catalytic reactor 34 directly or via feed mixture heater 74 . it is alternatively considered that other valve arrangements may be employed , such as a pair of individual start control valves in place of start control valve 69 with valve elements 70 and 72 . feed mixture heater 74 includes a heating body 76 and a flow coil 78 disposed adjacent to heating body 76 . the outlet of feed mixture heater 74 is fluidly coupled to catalytic reactor 34 for providing heated feed mixture to catalyst 36 of catalytic reactor 34 . in the normal operating mode , valve elements 70 and 72 direct all of the feed mixture directly to the catalytic reactor 34 . in the startup mode , the feed mixture is directed through feed mixture heater 74 . in one form , all of the feed mixture is directed through feed mixture heater 74 , although in other embodiments , lesser amounts may be heated . feed mixture heater 74 is configured to “ light ” the catalyst 36 of catalytic reactor 34 ( initiate the catalytic reaction of fuel and oxidant ) by heating the feed mixture , which is then supplied to catalytic reactor 34 . in one form , the feed mixture is heated by feed mixture heater 74 to a preheat temperature above the catalyst light - off temperature of the feed mixture ( the catalyst light - off temperature is the temperature at which reactions are initiated over the catalyst , e . g ., catalyst 36 ). once catalyst 36 is lit , the exothermic reactions taking place at catalyst 36 maintain the temperature of catalytic reactor 34 at a controlled level , as set forth below . also , once catalyst 36 is lit it may no longer be necessary to heat the feed mixture , in which case valve elements 70 and 72 are positioned to direct all of the feed mixture directly to the catalytic reactor 34 , bypassing feed mixture heater 74 . in order to provide for a quick supply of reducing gas in the event of a sudden shutdown of fuel cell 12 , heating body 76 is configured to continuously maintain a temperature sufficient to light catalyst 36 during normal power production operations of fuel cell 12 . that is , while fuel cell 12 is operating in power production mode to supply power to electrical load 16 , which is the normal operating mode for fuel cell 12 , heating body 76 maintains a preheat temperature sufficient to heat the feed mixture in order to be able to rapidly light the catalyst for startup of reducing gas generator 14 so that reducing gas may be supplied to fuel cell 12 during shutdown . in addition , one or more catalyst heaters 80 are disposed adjacent to catalytic reactor 34 , and are configured to heat catalyst 36 and maintain catalyst 36 at a preheat temperature that is at or above the catalyst light - off temperature for the feed mixture supplied to catalytic reactor 34 . this preheat temperature is maintained during normal operations of fuel cell 12 in power production mode in the event of a sudden need for reducing gas , e . g ., in the event of the need for a shutdown of fuel cell 12 . in other embodiments , it is alternatively considered that another heater 82 may be used in place of or in addition to heaters 74 and 80 , e . g ., a heater 82 positioned adjacent to catalytic reactor 34 on the upstream side . such an arrangement may be employed to supply heat more directly to catalyst 36 in order to initiate catalytic reaction of the feed mixture in an upstream portion of catalytic reactor 34 . in the present embodiment , heaters 74 , 80 and 82 are electrical heaters , although it is alternatively considered that in other embodiments , indirect combustion heaters may be employed in addition to or in place of electrical heaters . also , although the present embodiment employs both feed mixture heater 74 and heaters 80 to rapidly light the feed mixture on the catalyst , it is alternatively considered that in other embodiments , only one such heater may be employed , or a greater number of heaters may be employed , without departing from the scope of the present invention . a control temperature sensor 84 is positioned adjacent catalyst 36 of catalytic reactor 34 , and is structured to measure the temperature of catalyst 36 . in one form , control temperature sensor 84 is structured to provide a signal indicating the temperature of a portion of catalyst 36 via a sense line 92 that communicatively couples air flow controller 60 with control temperature sensor 84 . the control temperature is a temperature employed by control system 96 in regulating the output of reducing gas generator 14 . air flow controller 60 is configured to direct the operations of air control valve 58 based on the signal received from control temperature sensor 84 in conjunction with the signal received from oxygen sensor 66 . in another form , other temperatures may be sensed for purposes of controlling reducing gas generator 14 . for example , in one such embodiment , the temperature of the reducing gas produced by reducing gas generator 14 , e . g ., as output by catalytic reactor 34 , may be measured and used as a control temperature feedback to direct the operations of air control valve 58 . a reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 , which in the present embodiment is in the form of a hydrogen ( h 2 ) sensor or h 2 analyzer , is configured to determine the quantity of one or more combustibles , e . g ., percent mole , present in the reducing gas output by catalytic reactor 34 . in other embodiments , reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 may be in the form of a carbon monoxide ( co ) sensor or analyzer in addition to or in place of the h 2 sensor / analyzer . in any case , a control line 94 communicatively couples fuel flow controller 44 and reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 . reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 is configured to supply a signal reflecting the combustibles content of the reducing gas to fuel flow controller 44 . fuel flow controller 44 is configured to control the amount of fuel delivered to merging chamber 32 . the reducing gas output by catalytic reactor 34 is cooled using a heat exchanger 88 . in one form , heat exchanger 88 is an indirect heat exchanger . in other embodiments , other types of heat exchangers may be employed . in one form , reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 is positioned downstream of heat exchanger 88 . in other forms , reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 may positioned in other locations , for example , upstream of heat exchanger 88 or inside of or mounted on heat exchanger 88 . the pressure output of catalytic reactor 34 is maintained by a backpressure regulator 90 downstream of heat exchanger 88 . heat exchanger 88 maintains the temperature of the reducing gas downstream of catalytic reactor 34 at a suitable level to prevent damage to backpressure regulator 90 . in one form , the reducing gas is cooled to between 100 ° c . and 150 ° c . using cooling air . in other embodiments , other suitable fluids may be used as the heat sink , and other temperatures may be used . in one form , a control loop ( not shown ) may be used to control the temperature of the reducing gas exiting heat exchanger 88 by varying the flow of cooling air or other cooling fluid . the output of reducing gas generator 14 is fluidly coupled to catalytic reactor 34 , and is in fluid communication with anode 20 , e . g ., either directly or via reformer 26 . the output of backpressure regulator 90 serves as a reducing gas output in the present embodiment , and is operative to direct the reducing gas to anode 20 and reformer 26 . the “ reducing gas output ” is the output of reducing gas generator 14 that discharges the product of reducing gas generator 14 into fuel cell 12 , and may be one or more of any opening or passage structured to discharge the products of reducing gas generator 14 . fuel flow controller 44 , air flow controller 60 and oxidant flow controller 64 form a control system 96 that is structured to control the temperature and chemical makeup of the product mixture supplied from catalytic reactor 34 based on the signals output by oxygen sensor 66 ( during startup in the present embodiment ), control temperature sensor 84 and reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 . in particular , air control valve 58 is controlled by air flow controller 60 to regulate the o 2 content of the oxidant stream supplied to merging chamber 32 , e . g ., the amount of o 2 expressed as a mole percentage of the o 2 in the oxidant stream . oxidant control valve 62 is controlled by oxidant flow controller 64 to regulate flow of the oxidant stream formed of nitrogen - rich gas and air supplied to merging chamber 32 . fuel control valve 46 is controlled by fuel flow controller 44 to regulate the amount of hydrocarbon fuel supplied to merging chamber 32 . thus , in the present embodiment , control system 96 is configured to control the oxygen ( o 2 ) content of the oxidant stream , and to also control the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture , which is defined by a ratio of the amount of the oxidant in the feed mixture to the amount of hydrocarbon fuel in the feed mixture , e . g ., the mass flow rate of the oxidant stream relative to the mass flow rate of the hydrocarbon fuel stream . in particular , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream supplied to merging chamber 32 is controlled by air control valve 58 via the output of air flow controller 60 based on the signal received from oxygen sensor 66 . in addition , the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture supplied to catalytic reactor 34 is controlled by fuel control valve 46 and oxidant control valve 62 under the direction of fuel flow controller 44 and oxidant flow controller 64 , respectively . in one form , the flow of reducing gas output by reducing gas generator 14 is controlled by oxidant control valve 62 , e . g ., including an offset or other compensation to account for the amount of fuel in the feed mixture , whereas the oxidant / fuel ratio is then controlled using fuel control valve 46 . in other embodiments , other control schemes may be employed . in the present embodiment , each of fuel flow controller 44 , air flow controller 60 and oxidant flow controller 64 are microprocessor - based , and execute program instructions in the form of software in order to perform the acts described herein . however , it is alternatively contemplated that each such controller and the corresponding program instructions may be in the form of any combination of software , firmware and hardware , and may reflect the output of discreet devices and / or integrated circuits , which may be co - located at a particular location or distributed across more than one location , including any digital and / or analog devices configured to achieve the same or similar results as a processor - based controller executing software or firmware based instructions , without departing from the scope of the present invention . further , it will be understood that each of fuel flow controller 44 , air flow controller 60 and oxidant flow controller 64 may be part of a single integrated control system , e . g ., a microcomputer , without departing from the scope of the present invention . in any event , control system 96 is configured to execute program instructions to both vary the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and vary the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture while maintaining a selected temperature of the reducing gas in order to achieve a selected combustibles content at desired flow rate . the flow rate may be varied , e . g ., depending upon the particular application or operational phase . control system 96 varies the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture based on the output of control temperature sensor 84 , oxygen sensor 66 and reducing gas combustibles detection sensor 86 . reducing gas generator 14 may be employed during startup and shutdown of fuel cell 12 , e . g ., to provide reducing gas of various reducing strengths , including reducing gas in the form of a safe ( non - flammable ) gas , and in some embodiments , to provide a purging gas with no combustibles . the reducing gas is generated by combining the nitrogen - rich stream with air supplied via air control valve 58 to form the oxidant stream , which is regulated by oxidant control valve 62 and combined with the hydrocarbon fuel supplied via fuel control valve 46 to form the feed mixture that is catalytically converted in catalytic reactor 34 into the reducing gas . as set forth herein , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and the oxidant fuel ratio of the feed mixture are varied by control system 96 in order to both regulate the control temperature , e . g ., at catalytic reactor 34 , while also controlling the reducing strength of the reducing gas to achieve the selected combustibles content at the desired flow rate . the combustibles content may be selected in order to provide the appropriate reducing gas chemical configuration during various phases in the fuel cell 12 startup and shut down processes . in the present embodiment , control system 96 is structured to maintain the control temperature , e . g ., the catalyst 36 temperature , while varying the combustibles content . for example , the reducing strength may be varied from weakly reducing , i . e ., a low reducing strength , for purposes of forming a safe gas , to a high reducing strength having greater combustibles content . the combustibles content is primarily in the form of hydrogen ( h 2 ) and carbon monoxide ( co ). the safe gas may be supplied to fuel cell 12 during ramp up to fuel cell 12 operating temperature . in one form , the reducing gas may be supplied to fuel cell 12 in the form of a safe gas to transition reformer 26 into service . in another form , as the operating temperature of fuel cell 12 increases , e . g ., the temperature of anode 20 and reformer 26 , the strength of the reducing gas may be increased by increasing the combustibles content of the reducing gas , which may thus protect anode 20 at the higher temperatures at which a significant amount of oxidation damage may otherwise occur , e . g ., due to oxygen migration through electrolyte 22 or other leakages . in addition , as anode 20 ( and / or reformer 26 , in some embodiments ) approaches normal operating temperatures , the combustibles content of the reducing gas may be further increased to achieve combustibles content levels similar to that of the synthesis gas that is produced by reformer 26 during normal power generation operations of fuel cell 12 , which may help initiate the normal electrical power - producing reactions of anode 20 . in embodiments where supplied to reformer 26 , this may help initiate the normal operating catalytic reactions of reformer 26 . regarding the purging gas , in some embodiments , a noncombustible purging gas may be generated by nitrogen generator 54 in the form of a nitrogen - rich stream , e . g ., consisting primarily of nitrogen , which may supplied to fuel cell 12 via back pressure regulator 90 , although other plumbing schemes to direct the output of nitrogen generator 54 to fuel cell 12 may alternatively be employed . in one form , the purging gas may be supplied to fuel cell 12 , e . g ., to purge one or more of cathode 24 and / or other fuel cell 12 components , e . g ., when a cold start of fuel cell 12 is desired . in another form , the purging gas may be supplied to fuel cell 12 to purge fuel cell 12 before maintenance . in yet another form , nitrogen generator 54 and / or a second nitrogen generator may be employed to create a purge gas . for example , in the event of a loss of the power plant &# 39 ; s main air supply during an emergency shut - down , a nitrogen rich cathode purge may be supplied to cathode 24 with , e . g ., using nitrogen generator 54 and / or a second nitrogen generator , while nitrogen generator 54 is used to generate the reducing gas supplied to the anode 20 loop . such embodiments may be used to ensure that “ safe ” non - flammable mixtures reside in the fuel cell 12 vessel . having thus described exemplary means for varying the combustibles content of the reducing gas output by catalytic reactor 34 while maintaining a constant reducing gas output temperature from catalytic reactor 34 , including means for varying the o 2 content in oxidant supplied to merging chamber 32 and means for varying the oxidant / fuel ratio of feed mixture exiting merging chamber 32 , an exemplary embodiment of a method for generating a purging gas and a reducing gas for startup and shutdown of a fuel cell is described as follows . the exemplary embodiment is described with respect to fig3 a - 3d , which form a flowchart having control blocks b 100 - b 146 depicting a method for starting up and shutting down a fuel cell . although a particular sequence of events is illustrated and described herein , it will be understood that the present invention is not so limited , and that other sequences having the same or different acts in lesser or greater numbers and in the same or different order may be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention . referring now to fig3 a , at block b 100 , a command to start fuel cell 12 is received by control system 96 , e . g ., via an operator of fuel cell 12 . at block b 102 , a bypass system 98 is engaged . bypass system 98 opens a vent line to vent the output of reducing gas generator 14 , and closes the flowpath to fuel cell 12 . the output of reducing gas generator is vented until the control loop , e . g ., control system 96 , holds process parameters within their prescribed bounds , at which point bypass system 98 closes the vent line and opens the flowpath to fuel cell 12 . at block b 104 , air is supplied to reducing gas generator 14 , e . g ., via air intake 48 , by initiating operation of air compressor 50 . at block b 106 , air compressor 50 compresses the air received from air intake 48 . in one form , the air is compressed to a pressure in a range from 5 bar absolute to 14 bar absolute . in other embodiments , the pressure of the compressed air may fall within a different range , for example , in a range from 2 bar absolute to 25 bar absolute in some embodiments , and in other embodiments , 1 bar absolute to 30 bar absolute . the pressure supplied by air compressor 50 may vary , for example , depending upon the characteristics of nitrogen separation membrane 56 and nitrogen generator 54 . at block b 108 , the nitrogen - rich gas stream is generated in nitrogen generator 54 of reducing gas generator 14 by supplying the compressed air to nitrogen separation membrane 56 . the o 2 removed from the air by nitrogen separation membrane 56 as a byproduct of the nitrogen generation process is directed offboard , e . g ., for use elsewhere , or simply vented , whereas the resulting nitrogen - rich stream is directed toward oxidant control valve 62 . in the present embodiment , the nitrogen - rich stream contains oxygen , albeit at levels lower than that of ambient air . in other embodiments , the nitrogen stream may consist essentially of nitrogen ( e . g ., & lt ; 1 % o 2 ). at block b 110 , compressed air is added to the nitrogen - rich stream in a controlled manner by air control valve 58 under the direction of air flow controller 60 to form a low oxygen ( o 2 ) content oxidant stream , i . e ., an oxidant stream having less o 2 than ambient atmospheric air . at block b 112 , a flow of hydrocarbon fuel to reducing gas generator 14 is initiated by fuel control valve 46 under the direction of fuel flow controller 44 . fuel flow may be initially set to a default value anticipated to achieve the desired combustibles content of the reducing gas and the control temperature , and may be subsequently adjusted . at block b 114 , the oxidant stream is combined with the hydrocarbon fuel stream in merging chamber 32 to form the feed mixture having an oxidant / fuel ratio , e . g ., defined by a ratio of the mass flow rate of the oxidant stream in the feed mixture to the mass flow rate of the hydrocarbon fuel stream in the feed mixture . referring now to fig3 b , at block b 116 , heating devices are operated at a temperature at or above the catalyst light - off temperature of the feed mixture , and the heat output by the heating devices is supplied to the feed mixture . in one form , the heating devices are turned on immediately after receiving the command to start the fuel cell 12 , e . g ., immediately after block b 100 . in other embodiments , the heating devices may be turned on at other times suitable to the application , e . g ., depending upon how much time it takes the heaters to reach the desired temperature . in the present embodiment , the heating devices are feed mixture heater 74 and heater 80 , although in other embodiments , only one heater may be employed or a plurality of heaters may be employed in place of or in addition to one or both of feed mixture heater 74 and heater 80 . the types or forms of heaters used in other embodiments may vary with the needs of the application . heating body 76 and flow coil 78 are maintained at or above the catalyst light - off temperature of the feed mixture . the heat from heating body 76 and flow coil 78 is supplied to the feed mixture by diverting feed mixture through feed mixture heater 74 , in particular , flow coil 78 . in one form , all of the feed mixture is diverted through feed mixture heater 74 . in another form , a portion of the feed mixture is diverted through feed mixture heater 74 . the feed mixture is diverted to flow coil 78 by controlling the output of start control valve 69 to operate valve elements 70 and 72 . the resulting heated feed mixture is directed to catalyst 36 of catalytic reactor 34 to help initiate the catalytic reactions that yield reducing gas . once the catalytic reactions in catalytic reactor 34 have been started , three - way start control valve 69 is re - oriented to direct all of the feed mixture directly to catalytic reactor 34 , bypassing feed mixture heater 74 . while the present application is described using a feed mixture heater 74 with heating body 76 and flow coil 78 , it will be understood that other types of heaters may be employed in embodiments that utilize a flow mixture heater . heater 80 of the present embodiment is in the form an electric band heater , and maintains catalyst 36 at or above the catalyst light - off temperature of the feed mixture , thereby promoting rapid lighting ( hence , re - lighting ) of catalyst 36 . it will be understood that other types of heaters may be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention . in other embodiments , heater 82 may be employed to heat catalyst 36 at or near the location where the feed mixture is supplied to catalyst 36 in order to initiate the catalytic reactions . in various other embodiments , one or more heaters 82 may be used in place of or in addition to heaters 74 and 80 . at block b 118 , the heated feed mixture is directed to catalyst 36 , where catalytic reactions are initiated . in one form , the catalytic reactions are initiated based on the heat received from feed mixture heater 74 . in various other forms , the reactions may be initiated based on heat received from feed mixture heater 74 and / or heater 80 and / or heater 82 ). at block b 120 , the feed mixture is catalytically converted to reducing gas in catalytic reactor 34 of reducing gas generator 14 . at block b 122 , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture are each controlled by control system 96 to maintain the selected control temperature of the reducing gas and to yield the reducing gas in the form of a safe gas . in one form , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream is controlled by air flow controller 60 directing the operations of air control valve 58 , although in other embodiments , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream may be controlled differently . in one form , the oxidant / fuel ratio is controlled by fuel flow controller 44 directing the operations of respective fuel control valve 46 , although in other embodiments , the oxidant / fuel ratio may be controlled differently . prior to reaching the control temperature , control of the o 2 content may be based on the output of oxygen sensor 66 . once a temperature indicating catalytic combustion is achieved , the control algorithm switches to feedback based on control temperature sensor 84 . the control temperature in some embodiments may be , for example , a function of reducing gas flow rate ( catalyst load ), time at service , or some other operating parameter . in other embodiments , the output of either or both of oxygen sensor 66 and control temperature sensor 84 may be employed during system startup and / or normal operation . the flow rate of the feed mixture is controlled primarily by oxidant flow controller 64 directing the operations of oxidant control valve 62 . in the form of a safe gas , i . e ., a weakly reducing gas mixture , the reducing gas may have a combustibles content ( e . g ., predominantly co + h 2 ) of approximately 4 . 5 %. other reducing gases having greater or lesser percentages of combustibles content may be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention . because the mass flow of the feed mixture is based predominantly on the flow rate of the oxidant flow stream , the total flow of the feed mixture , and hence the reducing gas output by reducing gas generator 14 , is based primarily on the flow rate of the oxidant control flow stream as governed by oxidant flow controller 64 . the selected control temperature in the present embodiment is 800 ° c ., which is measured at one of the hottest points in catalyst 36 , and which in the present embodiment yields a bulk average temperature of 770 ° c . the selected temperature in the present embodiment is a predetermined temperature value selected based on life considerations for components of reducing gas generator 14 and fuel cell 12 , as well as catalytic conversion efficiency . other temperature values and measurement locations may be employed in other embodiments . at block b 124 , bypass system 98 is disengaged from the bypass mode , and the reducing gas in the form of a safe gas is thus directed from reducing gas generator 14 to anode 20 of fuel cell 12 . in other embodiments , the safe gas may be directed to reformer 26 . referring now to fig3 c , a block b 126 is illustrated . in one form , block b 126 is bypassed , and process flow proceeds directly to block b 128 . in another form , at block b 126 the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture are controlled to selectively vary the reducing strength of the reducing gas by selectively varying the combustibles content of the reducing gas while maintaining the selected temperature of the reducing gas of block b 122 . as set forth above with respect to block b 122 , in one form , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream is controlled by air flow controller 60 directing the operations of air control valve 58 . in other forms , the o 2 content of the oxidant stream may be controlled differently . in one form , the oxidant / fuel ratio is primarily controlled by fuel flow controller 44 , and the reducing gas flow is primarily controlled by oxidant flow controller 64 directing the operations of oxidant control valve 62 . in other forms , the oxidant / fuel ratio and reducing gas flow rate may be controlled differently . control of the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and of the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture to selectively vary the reducing strength of the reducing gas while maintaining the selected temperature and flow rate of the reducing gas output by catalytic reactor 34 in the present embodiment is now described . reducing gas generator 14 catalytically converts the low o 2 content oxidant and hydrocarbon fuel to form the reducing gas with sufficient combustibles content to protect fuel cell anode 20 of fuel cell 12 during start - up and shutdown of the fuel cell system 10 power plant . by adjusting the o 2 content of the oxidant gas in combination with changing the oxidant / fuel ratio , the reducing gas strength may be changed while the catalyst operating temperature is held constant , e . g ., at an ideal conversion temperature . this temperature is sensed by control temperature sensor 84 and used as input to control system 96 for use in maintaining the output temperature of catalytic reactor 34 at the selected temperature . referring now to fig4 , an example of catalytic reactor 34 parameters is depicted . the illustrated parameters include oxidant stream mass flow rate 100 ; hydrocarbon fuel stream mass flow rate 102 ; percent (%) stoichiometric air 104 , which represents the percentage amount of air in the oxidant stream relative to the amount of air required for complete combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel stream ; and the oxygen / carbon ratio ( o 2 / c ) 106 . in the plot of fig4 , the abscissa is h 2 content of the reducing gas , the left - hand ordinate is in units of percent and also grams per second ( g / s ), against which % stoichiometric air 104 and oxidant stream mass flow rate 100 are plotted . the right - hand ordinate is in units of both molar fraction and g / s , against which o 2 / c ratio 106 and hydrocarbon fuel stream mass flow rate 102 are plotted . fig4 illustrates catalytic reactor 34 operating parameters over a reducing gas compositional range of 2 % to 20 % h 2 and 1 % to 10 % co ( 3 % to 30 % co + h2 ). to produce higher combustibles content ( co + h 2 ), the o 2 content in the oxidant is raised . at a constant oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture , e . g ., air to fuel ratio , raising the o 2 content in the oxidant stream reduces combustibles and raises operating temperature . however , in the present embodiment , as the o 2 content in the oxidant stream is increased , the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture is simultaneously decreased , i . e ., made more fuel rich , in order to achieve higher combustibles content at the same operating temperature . by varying both the o 2 content in the oxidant stream and the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture , a broad range of reducing gas strengths may be achieved at a selected catalyst operating temperature , e . g ., 770 ° c . in the present embodiment . for example , in one form , the range may extend from a reducing gas strength that represents normal operating conditions for reformer 26 (˜ 45 % co + h 2 ) to weakly reducing conditions (˜ 3 % co + h 2 ). in other forms , different ranges may be employed , e . g ., as set forth herein . as 20 % h 2 content in the reducing gas is approached , conditions in catalytic reactor 34 may approach that normally occurring in reformer 26 in power production mode as the oxidant approaches air with respect to % o 2 content and the o 2 to c molar ratio reaches 0 . 65 . as the reducing gas becomes richer in combustibles , the fuel flow may increase by a factor of about 4 at 20 % h 2 relative to weakly reducing conditions . the percentage of the fuel burned may decrease significantly as conditions approach those in the reformer 26 . the temperature may be sustained because the lower percentage of combustion oxygen is offset by the combination of the elevated fuel flow rate and the decreased heat dissipation through less n 2 dilution in the oxidant . thus , even though the o 2 concentration in the oxidant increases for increased reducing strength , as a percentage of oxygen required to completely consume the fuel , the oxygen level decreases . in the present embodiment , percent co content is about ½ of the percent of h 2 content at the desired operating temperature , and hence the combustibles content of the reducing gas is approximately 1 . 5 times the percent of h 2 content in the reducing gas . while described in the present application with respect to a fuel cell system , it will be understood that reducing gas generator 14 is equally applicable to other systems , such as systems for generating reducing gas for other purposes . referring again to fig3 c , at block b 128 , the reducing gas is supplied to reformer 26 , and to anode 20 , e . g ., via reformer 26 . at block b 130 , a transition of fuel cell 12 into power production mode is initiated , which includes supplying to fuel cell 12 flows of the primary fuel and the primary oxidant that are normally provided to fuel cell 12 for operation in power production mode , in contrast to the oxidant and hydrocarbon fuel provided to reducing gas generator 14 to generate reducing gas for use during startup or shutdown of fuel cell 12 . the transition into power production mode also includes heating portions of fuel cell 12 , including anode 20 and reformer 26 , to normal operating temperature in a controlled fashion so as to reduce mechanical stresses that might result from thermal gradients within and between such components . the heating of fuel cell 12 may be performed prior to , during and after the provision of reducing gas to fuel cell 12 , and may be performed until satisfactory operating temperatures in such portions , e . g ., anode 20 and reformer 26 , are achieved . during the transition into power production mode , bypass system 98 may be transitioned into bypass mode . at block b 132 , fuel cell 12 is operated in power production mode , i . e ., normal operating mode , to supply power to electrical load 16 . at block b 134 , the airflow and fuel flow supplied to reducing gas generator 14 are terminated , ending the production of reducing gas by reducing gas generator 14 . referring now to fig3 d , at block b 136 , the temperature of the heating device is maintained at or above the temperature required to initiate catalytic reaction of the feed mixture at catalyst 36 . this temperature is maintained during operation of the fuel cell in the power production mode , e . g ., in order to provide for rapid restart of reducing gas generator 14 , including rapid restart of catalyst 36 , in the event of a need to shut down fuel cell 12 . at block b 138 , a command to shut down fuel cell 12 from the power production mode is received by control system 96 , e . g ., via a human input or an automated process . it will be noted that in some embodiments , block b 136 may be performed subsequent to receiving the command to shut down fuel cell 12 . for example , in some embodiments , the heating device may be not be heated to a temperature at or above the catalytic light - off temperature until the command to shutdown fuel cell 12 is received . at block b 140 , reducing gas generator 14 generates reducing gas in response to the command , e . g ., by performing some or all of the actions indicated above with respect to blocks b 102 to b 128 , including controlling the o 2 content of the oxidant stream and the oxidant / fuel ratio of the feed mixture to selectively vary the reducing strength of the reducing gas by selectively varying the combustibles content of the reducing gas to a desired level while maintaining a selected temperature , e . g ., the selected temperature of block b 122 , above . at block b 142 , the reducing gas generated by reducing gas generator 14 is supplied to anode 20 of fuel cell 12 by disengaging bypass system 98 from the bypass mode . this may help to prevent oxidation damage to anode 20 during shutdown of fuel cell 12 . initially , the reducing gas may have a high reducing strength , which may be decreased as the temperature of fuel cell 12 decreases . at block b 144 , a transition of fuel cell 12 out of the power production mode is initiated , including gradually reducing the flow to anode 20 of the primary fuel that is normally provided during operation in power production mode . at block b 146 , the airflow and fuel flow supplied to reducing gas generator 14 are terminated , ending the production of reducing gas by reducing gas generator 14 . block b 146 may be executed after anode 20 is sufficiently cooled to a temperature at which oxidative damage is not a concern , which may vary with the materials used to manufacture anode 20 . a reducing gas generator in accordance with some embodiments of the present application may include a compressed air supply that feeds a polymer nitrogen - separation membrane , which uses the high pressure to segregate oxygen from nitrogen across a polymer fiber . such embodiments may preclude the need for bottled nitrogen . in other embodiments , other nitrogen sources may be employed . the product gas is a nitrogen - rich stream that is depleted in oxygen . a variable - position bypass valve may divert a relatively small stream of the feed air around the nitrogen generator for blending with the nitrogen - rich stream . in some embodiments , the bypass airflow is directly proportional to the final oxygen content of the blended streams . the blended stream of nitrogen - rich product gas and bypass air may be referred to as an oxidant stream , which passes through a flow control device that sets the flow of oxidant to the process . the bypass valve controls the proportions of bypass air and nitrogen - rich gas to achieve the desired oxygen content of the oxidant stream . a relatively small quantity of hydrocarbon fuel may be metered into the oxidant stream through a flow control device . in a steady state flow mode , the premixed oxidant and fuel blend is fed directly into a catalytic reactor that converts the feed mixture into the reducing gas . compared with ordinary combustion in air , the reduced oxygen content oxidant stream may translate to less fuel per unit combustibles yield in the reducing gas . thus , the required chemical energy input ( i . e ., the thermal load due to the input of fuel ) per unit production of combustibles ( e . g ., h 2 and co ) may also be decreased , and therefore , less heat may need to be extracted from the process gas to cool the product stream to a required temperature . the nitrogen dilution of the oxidant stream may also decrease the reaction temperature into the range that may be preferable for the catalyst , and may not exceed the material limits in the downstream heat exchanger . in contrast to embodiments of the present invention , a reactor designed for combustion with normal air ( in contrast to the nitrogen - rich oxidant employed in embodiments of the present invention ) at the required scale might be complex , and might require cooling jackets that would likely require a liquid coolant , or otherwise a very high volumetric flow of coolant gas , and therefore , would have a relatively large heat duty in order to protect reactor materials from excessive temperature . in contrast , the catalytic reactor of some embodiments of the present invention may be designed to operate at a lower temperature without the need for external cooling . fuel oxidation with an oxygen - depleted oxidant may yield a given range of combustibles concentration ( or molar flow ) over a much wider range of air to fuel ratio relative to ordinary combustion with air , which makes control of the combustibles content easier to achieve . thermocouple ( s ) may monitor the exit temperature at the catalyst exit . the thermocouple may act as the control input for the air bypass valve . if the exit temperature were to fall too far below the set point , a control signal would open the bypass by some amount since an oxidant stream having a higher proportion of o 2 elevates the exit temperature ( by oxidizing more fuel ) and vice versa . the set point temperature is set high enough to achieve complete conversion of the flammable feed mixture to the equilibrated gas composition , but not too high as to approach the operational material limit temperatures for either the catalyst or the downstream heat exchanger . an oxygen sensor 66 may measure the oxygen content on a volume basis of the oxidant stream downstream of the mix point for the bypass air and the nitrogen - rich stream exiting the nitrogen generator . an alternative embodiment may employ the measured oxygen concentration rather than the exit temperature to position air bypass control valve so that the exit temperature is maintained to a set point value . this may be preferable at start - up before a representative steady state reactor exit temperature is available to set the bypass valve position . the oxygen sensor may be a small zirconia sensor maintained at a high temperature , e . g ., around 600 ° c . for some embodiments , which develops a nernst potential when exposed to oxygen , which is related to the oxygen content of the gas . the sensor can be located in - situ . however , the sensor may alternatively be submerged in a controlled small slip stream that is blown down off the main process line through a critical flow orifice . the control software may dictate the relationship between the deviation of the measured oxygen content from the targeted value , and the incremental amount the bypass valve is opened as a result . the sensor may have a rapid response to changes in the oxygen content of the process gas , and therefore , the optimized tuning parameters on the air bypass valve control loop may provide more reliable control over a broader range of conditions . the downstream heat exchanger cools the reducing gas to a temperature that is required for introduction of the reducing gas into the downstream process . a temperature control loop may vary a flow of cooling air or other cooling medium to the heat exchanger based on the deviation of the catalyst exit temperature from the temperature set point of the outlet gas . the heat exchanger may be a compact alloy steel or ceramic design to withstand the temperature of the gas exiting the catalyst . a hydrogen or combustibles sensor may extract a slipstream of the process gas downstream of the heat exchanger to measure the percent by volume hydrogen or combustibles as a constituent of the reducing gas . the control software may compare the measured % h 2 to a set point value , and based on the difference sends a control signal to fuel control valve . if the measured % h 2 deviates too far below the set point , the fuel feed would be increased , and vice versa . the control software may dictate the relationship between the deviation of the measured % h 2 with the targeted % h 2 , and the incremental amount the fuel valve is opened or closed . one approach for continuously measuring hydrogen uses a thermal conductivity hydrogen sensor calibrated over the permissible range of hydrogen content for the reducing gas . similar to the oxygen sensor , a critical flow orifice may be used as a relatively inexpensive and simple way to meter a very small slipstream of the reducing gas at the correct sample gas flow to the sensor . a method for rapid restart of the catalyst from a standby condition to bring the reducing gas generator back on - line as quickly as possible for unforeseen events within the fuel cell system that will require an immediate supply of safe reducing gas may also be provided by embodiments of the present invention . a rapid restart capability may avoid the need for a bottled storage of reducing - gas necessary to bridge the gap between the time that the gas is demanded and the time required to bring the reducing gas generator on - line . a rapid restart method may employ a heater with a high thermal mass located just upstream of the catalyst reactor and , e . g ., a pair of valves or a three - way valve for diverting feed mixture flow through the heater . during normal operation the valve directs the mixture directly into the catalytic reactor , bypassing the heater . at start - up , flow may be diverted through the heater . in the absence of flow , e . g ., under idle conditions of the reducing gas generator , the heater is continuously supplied sufficient power to sustain the metal at the desired preheat temperature while balancing a relatively small heat loss , and thus , this power demand may be small . within the heater , a flow coil may be engulfed with a metallic body . the heater may contain sufficient thermal mass so that when flow is initiated upon a re - start attempt , the process stream immediately acquires the targeted ignition temperature . such a design may be relatively safe because it may achieve good electrical isolation between the flammable mixture and the power supply that acts on the metallic body . prior to a re - start sequence , the heater regulates power to the internal metal to the required temperature prior to the introduction of flow , and must only maintain power to offset heat loss through the surrounding insulation at this condition . on a start - up attempt , power may be immediately ramped up to sustain or elevate the set - point preheat temperature until reaction of the catalyst feed mixture is achieved . once this is achieved , e . g ., as indicated by a sufficient rise in temperature at the catalyst exit , the flow may be diverted around the ignition heater directly into the catalyst ( normal operating flow mode ) to prevent overheating of the catalyst . to further promote rapid re - start , band heaters may provide an additional heat source . the band heaters may surround the catalyst reactor to hold the catalyst at or above the catalyst light - off temperature before flow is initiated at start - up . prior to start - up , the band heaters would preferably provide the energy to offset heat loss through the insulation surrounding the band heaters . once the catalyst is lit , the band heaters may turn off as the skin temperature rises above the set point temperature of the heaters . power to the heater may be either turned off or turned down to sustain the heater &# 39 ; s thermal mass at the temperature set point for the next restart . other alternative embodiments would simplify the heat - up scheme by employing a closely coupled heater at the catalyst inlet . this approach may use a low thermal mass heater that would locally initiate reaction near the front side of the catalyst by close thermal coupling , which in such embodiments may potentially reduce the reducing gas generator &# 39 ; s part count and cost . in an additional embodiment , the reducing gas generator may replace the internal reformer for the fuel cell system for those embodiments where the reducing gas generator is structured to produce a reducing gas that is suitable for power production in the fuel cell system . in some such embodiments , the reduced gas generator may be used for producing a reducing gas of one composition for startup and shutdown of the fuel cell system , and for producing a reducing gas of an alternate composition for the normal operation of the fuel cell system . referring to fig5 a and 5b , some aspects of non - limiting examples of a reducing gas generator 214 in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are schematically depicted . in the embodiments depicted in fig5 a and 5b , various features , components and interrelationships therebetween of aspects of embodiments of the present invention are depicted . however , the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments of fig5 a and 5b and the components , features and interrelationships therebetween as are illustrated in fig5 a and 5b and described herein . for example , other embodiments encompassed by the present invention , the present invention being manifested by the principles explicitly and implicitly described herein via the present figures and detailed description and set forth in the claims , may include a greater or lesser number of components , features and / or interrelationships therebetween , and / or may employ different components and / or features having the same and / or different nature and / or interrelationships therebetween , which may be employed for performing similar and / or different functions relative to those illustrated in fig5 a and 5b and described herein . in some reducing gas generator embodiments , it is desirable to increase the flammables content ( concentration ) of the reducing gas , which may also be referred to as a reformed fuel , than that afforded by some previously described embodiments . the flammables ( also referred to as combustibles ) content in the reformed gas varies with the oxygen ( o 2 ) content ( concentration ) present in the oxidant supplied with the hydrocarbon fuel to the reformer . for example , some previously described embodiments employed air control valve 58 to variably add air to the nitrogen - rich gas received from nitrogen generator 54 to yield an oxidant having a variable oxygen content ranging from , for example and without limitation , 5 % to approximately 21 % by volume . in such embodiments , the flammables content of the reformed gas discharged by catalytic reactor 34 , which is a reducing gas , varies with the amount of oxygen provided in the oxidant . the inventor has determined that an oxygen - enriched oxidant having a greater oxygen content than air may be employed to yield a higher flammability content in the reformed gas exiting catalytic reactor 34 than that achieved by using air or nitrogen - enriched air having a lower oxygen content than air as the oxidant . accordingly , in some embodiments , 214 reducing gas generator includes an oxidant system 230 configured to provide an oxidant with an oxygen content greater than that of ambient atmospheric air . in one form , oxidant system is configured to provide the oxidant without the use of stored oxygen , e . g ., bottled oxygen or other forms of compressed or liquefied oxygen . reducing gas generator 214 is configured to provide or discharge a reducing gas 215 having an expanded range of flammables content relative to the reducing gas provided by reducing gas generator 14 , based on using the oxidant discharged by oxidant system 230 . reducing gas 215 may be supplied , in various embodiments , to other systems , such as piston engines , gas turbine engines , fuel cell systems and / or other systems that employ reducing gas . in some embodiments , oxidant system 230 is configured to provide an oxidant with the oxygen content at a selected value in a range having a maximum value that exceeds the oxygen content of air , e . g ., in the range of approximately 21 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 21 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in some embodiments , oxidant system 230 is configured to provide a variable oxygen content in the oxidant in a range having a maximum value that exceeds the oxygen content of air , e . g ., in the range of approximately 21 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 21 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in some embodiments , oxidant system 230 is configured to vary the oxygen content in a range extending from below the oxygen content of ambient atmospheric air to an oxygen content above that of ambient atmospheric air e . g ., in the range of approximately 5 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 5 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments or lesser in still other embodiments . in some embodiments , oxidant system 230 is used in place of oxidant system 30 in reducing gas generator 14 to yield a reducing gas generator 214 configured to discharge a reducing gas having a higher flammables content than reducing gas generator 14 . oxidant system 230 has many of the same components described above with respect to oxidant system 30 , which perform the same or similar functions as those described above with respect to oxidant system 30 and reducing gas generator 14 . in one form , reducing gas generator 214 employs the same components to perform the same or a similar function as that described above with respect to reducing gas generator 14 , most of which are not illustrated in fig5 for purposes of clarity , except that oxidant system 30 is replaced with an oxidant system 230 . in other embodiments , reducing gas generator 214 may include only one or more of the components described above with respect to reducing gas generator 14 and / or may include components not described above with respect to reducing gas generator 14 . in some embodiments , any of the same components as described above with respect to gas generator 14 may provide the same and / or a different function in reducing gas generator 214 . although the component identified with element number 34 has been referred to as a “ catalytic reactor ,” it will be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art that catalytic reactor 34 is one form of a reformer . hence , catalytic reactor 34 may also be referred to as “ reformer 34 .” it will also be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art that one or more other reformer types may be employed in addition to or in place of a catalytic reactor in some embodiments of the present invention . in one form , oxidant system 230 includes an air intake 48 ( which in various may or may not be pressurized , e . g ., may or may not be provided with pressurized air ); a compressor 50 ; a valve 52 , e . g ., a pressure regulator ; a nitrogen generator or separator 54 having a nitrogen separation membrane 56 , a valve 58 , for example and without limitation , a gas flow control valve ; a merge chamber 232 ; a controller 60 , for example and without limitation , a gas flow controller ; a valve 62 , for example and without limitation , an oxidant flow control valve ; a controller 64 , for example and without limitation , an oxidant flow controller ; and an oxygen sensor 66 . the output of oxidant system 230 is discharged to merge chamber 32 . in one form , each of merge chamber 32 , air intake 48 , compressor 50 , valve 52 , nitrogen generator or separator 54 with nitrogen separation membrane 56 , controller 60 , valve 62 , controller 64 and oxygen sensor 66 are each same or similar and configured to perform the same or similar function as set forth above with respect to oxidant system 30 and reducing gas generator 14 , and hence are described using the same reference characters ( element numbers ). in other embodiments , oxidant system 230 may include only one or more of the components described above with respect to oxidant system 30 and / or one or more of such components may perform a different function ; and / or oxidant system 230 may include components not described above with respect to oxidant system 30 . for example , in some embodiments , valves 52 and 62 , and controller 64 may be replaced by a flow sensor that controls the speed of compressor 50 . it will be understood that in some embodiments , other types of nitrogen extraction systems may be employed in addition to or in place of nitrogen separation membrane 56 . oxidant system 230 also includes a valve 234 , for example and without limitation , a back - pressure regulating valve , although other valve types may be employed in other embodiments of the present invention . compressor 50 is in fluid communication with air intake 48 . valve 52 is in fluid communication with compressor 50 and nitrogen separator 54 on the high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separation membrane 56 ( as in reducing gas generator 14 ), and is configured to control the air flow delivered to nitrogen separator 54 . nitrogen separation membrane 56 configured to extract nitrogen from the air supplied thereto , and to discharge the balance of the air supplied as an oxygen - rich gas having a greater oxygen content than ambient atmospheric air , wherein the oxygen - rich gas forms at least a part of the oxidant discharged by oxidant system 230 . hence , nitrogen generator 54 is also configured extract oxygen from air in the form of an oxygen - rich gas , and to discharge an oxygen - rich gas with the extracted oxygen to form at least a part of the oxidant . nitrogen generator 54 is also configured to discharge a nitrogen - rich gas , the nitrogen - rich gas having a nitrogen content greater than that of ambient atmospheric air , e . g ., in terms of percentage by volume . valve 58 is coupled to a merge chamber 232 , which has structural attributes similar to those described above with respect to merge chamber 32 . merging chamber 232 is also in fluid communication with nitrogen separator 54 on the low pressure side 238 of nitrogen separation membrane 56 , which provides an oxygen - rich gas , e . g ., oxygen - enriched air . merging chamber 32 is configured to receive the hydrocarbon fuel and the oxidant discharged from oxidant system 230 , and to discharge a feed stream containing both the hydrocarbon fuel and the oxidant . controller 60 is operably coupled to valve 58 and configured to operate valve 58 . valve 62 is in fluid communication with merge chamber 32 and configured to discharge an oxidant ( stream ) to merge chamber 32 . controller 64 is operably coupled to valve 62 and configured to operate valve 62 . oxygen sensor 66 is configured to sense the oxygen content of the oxidant discharged from valve 62 . valve 234 is in fluid communication with nitrogen separator 54 on the high pressure side 236 , and with valve 58 . excess nitrogen - rich gas is vented , e . g ., to atmosphere or a component or system requiring nitrogen rich gas . valve 234 is determines much excess nitrogen - rich gas is vented from oxidant system 230 . in one form , valve 234 regulates back pressure against the high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 , and against valve 58 . in one form , the amount of excess nitrogen - rich gas that is vented increases with increasing oxygen content in the oxidant discharged by oxidant system 230 . the back - pressure maintained by valve 234 determines , at least in part , how much oxygen - rich gas is discharged by low pressure side 238 of nitrogen separator 54 . valve 58 is configured to control the amount of nitrogen - rich gas from nitrogen separator 54 that is supplied to merge chamber 232 . in one form , the output of low pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 is supplied directly to merging chamber 232 for combining the oxygen - rich gas from low pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 with the nitrogen - rich gas supplied by high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 to yield an oxidant ( stream ). valve 62 and controller 64 are configured to control how much oxidant is supplied to merge chamber 32 for combining with a gaseous hydrocarbon fuel , such as natural gas or compressed natural gas ( cng ), for use in reformer 34 . reformer 34 is in fluid communication with merging chamber 32 , and is configured to receive the feed stream from merging chamber 32 , to reform the feed mixture into a reducing gas , and to discharge the reducing gas . low pressure side 238 of nitrogen separator 54 is configured to discharge the oxygen - rich gas with an oxygen content greater than ambient atmospheric , for example and without limitation , up to 40 % oxygen content by volume in some embodiments , and up to 50 % or more oxygen content by volume in other embodiments . by mixing the oxygen - rich gas with nitrogen rich gas , the resultant oxygen content of the oxidant discharged by oxidant system 230 may be reduced , e . g ., from a maximum value . hence , the oxidant discharged by oxidant system 230 of oxidant system may have a maximum value for oxygen content greater than that of air , up to 40 % oxygen content by volume in some embodiments , and up to 50 % or more oxygen content by volume in other embodiments . in some embodiments , a lower oxygen content may also be obtained , e . g ., down to 5 % or less oxygen by volume . referring to fig5 b , in some embodiments , as set forth above , oxidant system 230 may be configured to provide an oxidant having an oxygen content less than that of ambient atmospheric air , e . g ., to 5 % or less , for example , by including some additional aspects of oxidant system 30 . for example , in some embodiments , oxidant system 230 may also include a second instance of valve 58 and controller 60 , referred to herein as valve 258 and controller 260 , in fluid communication between the discharge of valve 52 and merging chamber 232 . controller 260 is coupled to oxygen sensor 66 , and is configured to operate valve 260 to control a flow of pressurized air from compressor 50 and valve 52 to merging chamber 232 . in addition , such embodiments of oxidant system 230 may include a valve 201 , for example and without limitation , a shutoff valve ; a valve 203 , for example and without limitation , a bypass valve ; and a valve 205 , for example and without limitation , a three - way valve . in order to output an oxidant having an oxygen content approximately 21 % or less by volume , valve 201 is closed to prevent the venting of nitrogen - rich gas from high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 . in addition , valve 203 is opened , and valve 58 is closed , thereby shunting the output of high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 ( nitrogen - rich gas ) directly to merging chamber 232 . also , valve 205 is switched vent the output of low pressure side 238 of nitrogen separator 54 , e . g ., to atmosphere or an application that employs an oxygen - rich gas . in order to output an oxidant having an oxygen content approximately 21 % or greater by volume , valve 201 is opened to allow the venting of nitrogen - rich gas from high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 via a valve 234 . in addition , valve 203 is closed , and valve 58 is opened , thereby directing the output of high pressure side 236 of nitrogen separator 54 ( other than that which is vented ) through valve 58 to merging chamber 232 . also , valve 205 is switched supply the output of low pressure side 238 of nitrogen separator 54 to merging chamber 232 . in some embodiments , one or more of compressor 50 , and valves 52 , 234 , 58 and 62 may be adjusted or controlled , manually or automatically , to provide an oxidant having an oxygen content selectable from , for example and without limitation , the range of approximately 21 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 21 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in some embodiments , one or more of compressor 50 , and valves 52 , 234 , 58 and 62 , as well as valves , 201 , 203 , 205 , 258 and 260 may be adjusted or controlled , manually or automatically , to provide an oxidant having an oxygen content selectable from the range of , for example and without limitation , the range of approximately 5 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 5 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in other embodiments , one or more of compressor 50 , and valves 52 , 234 , 58 and 62 , and in some embodiments , one or more of valves , 201 , 203 , 205 , 258 and 260 as well , may be adjusted or controlled , manually or automatically to provide a variable oxygen content in the oxidant supplied by oxidant system 230 , i . e ., that varies within a range , “ on the fly ,” e . g ., to meet some demand , such as a desired flammables content of the reducing gas discharged by reducing gas generator 214 . in various embodiments , the range may be , for example and without limitation , approximately 21 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 21 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments , or may be from approximately 5 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 5 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in other embodiments , other suitable ranges may be selected . the reducing gas exiting reformer 34 includes flammables , including primarily hydrogen ( h 2 ) and carbon monoxide ( co ), and some methane slip , e . g ., on the order of approximately 1 %, and trace amounts of higher hydrocarbon slip , such as ethane . the reducing gas also includes also contains other gases , e . g ., including nitrogen , carbon dioxide ( co 2 ) and water vapor ( steam ). referring to fig6 , a non - limiting example of a plot 106 of percent flammables output by a reformer , such as reformer 34 , vs . percent oxygen in the oxidant supplied to the reformer , at constant methane conversion , i . e ., at a constant percentage of methane in the reducing gas discharged by reformer 34 , is depicted . the plot of fig6 is based on thermodynamic equilibrium process simulation calculations . from the plot of fig6 , it is seen that the flammables content ( percent flammables ) of the reducing gas increases with increasing oxygen in the oxidant supplied to as part of the feed stream provided to reformer 34 . the oxygen / carbon ratio in the plot of fig6 is varies between approximately 0 . 6 ( e . g ., at 50 % oxygen by volume ) to 0 . 7 ( e . g ., at 21 % oxygen by volume ). the flammables content of fig6 varies from approximately 45 % by volume at approximately 21 % oxygen content by volume in the oxidant to approximately 80 % by volume at 50 % oxygen content by volume in the oxidant . by providing an oxidant having a greater oxygen content than that of ambient atmospheric air , the amount of flammables in the reducing gas discharged by reformer 34 may be greater than that capable of being generated using an oxygen content equivalent to that of air . in addition , by varying the oxygen content , e . g ., in one or more of the ranges set forth above , the flammables content of the reducing gas 215 discharged by reducing gas generator may be varied over a substantial range . for example and without limitation , in some embodiments , approximately 45 % to 70 % flammables content by volume , in other embodiments , approximately 45 % to 80 % flammables content by volume ; in yet other embodiments , approximately near 0 % to 70 % flammables content by volume ; and in still other embodiments , in yet other embodiments , approximately near 0 % to 80 % flammables content by volume . in some embodiments , the reducing gas is generated by generating an oxidant with oxidant system 230 having an oxygen content greater than that of ambient atmospheric air , forming a feed stream with the oxidant and a hydrocarbon fuel ; and reforming the feed stream , e . g ., in reformer 34 , e . g ., by directing the feed stream to catalyst 36 ; and catalytically converting the feed stream into a reducing gas . in some embodiments , the oxygen content of the oxidant may be varied or selected within a range , e . g ., as set forth above . in one form , the generating of the oxidant includes supplying pressurized air to nitrogen separation membrane 56 ; extracting an oxygen - rich gas using nitrogen separation membrane 56 ; and forming the oxidant at least in part using the oxygen - rich gas . in some embodiments , the oxidant may be provided having a selectable oxygen content in the range of approximately 21 % to 40 % 21 % to 40 % oxygen by volume , and approximately 21 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in some embodiments , the oxidant may be provided having a selectable oxygen content in the range of approximately 5 % to 40 % oxygen by volume in some embodiments , and approximately 5 % to 50 % oxygen by volume or greater in other embodiments . in some embodiments , the reducing gas may be generated by using oxidant system 230 to generate an oxidant having a selectable oxygen content , wherein a maximum oxygen content of the oxidant exceeds that of ambient atmospheric air ; using reformer 34 to reform a hydrocarbon fuel with the oxidant to produce reducing gas 215 ; and discharging reducing gas 215 from reformer 34 . in some embodiments , the oxidant may also be generated to have an oxygen content less than that of ambient atmospheric air . embodiments of the present invention include a reducing gas generator , comprising : an oxidant system configured to generate from air an oxidant having a variable oxygen content , and configured to provide an oxygen content of the oxidant at a selected value in a range from the oxygen content of ambient atmospheric air to greater than that of ambient atmospheric air ; a merging chamber in fluid communication with the oxidant system and a source of a hydrocarbon fuel , wherein the merging chamber is configured to receive the hydrocarbon fuel and the oxidant and to discharge a feed stream containing both the hydrocarbon fuel and the oxidant ; and a reformer in fluid communication with the merging chamber , wherein the reformer is configured to receive the feed stream from the merging chamber , to reform the feed stream into a reducing gas , and to discharge the reducing gas . in a refinement , the oxidant system includes a nitrogen separator having a nitrogen separation membrane configured to extract nitrogen from air supplied thereto , and to discharge the balance of the air supplied as an oxygen - rich gas , wherein the oxygen - rich gas forms at least a part of the oxidant . in another refinement , the oxygen - rich gas has a higher oxygen content than ambient atmospheric air . in yet another refinement , the oxygen - rich gas has an oxygen content in the range of approximately 21 % to 50 % by volume . in still another refinement , the nitrogen separator is also configured to discharge a nitrogen - rich gas , the nitrogen - rich gas having a nitrogen content greater than that of ambient atmospheric air . in yet still another refinement , the reducing gas generator further comprises at least one valve configured to combine the nitrogen - rich gas with the oxygen - rich gas to form the oxidant . in a further refinement , the reducing gas generator is configured to generate a reducing gas having a flammables content in the range of approximately 0 % to 80 % by volume . in a still further refinement , the reducing gas generator is configured to generate a reducing gas having a flammables content in the range of approximately 0 % to 80 % by volume . embodiments of the present invention include a reducing gas generator , comprising : an oxidant system configured to provide an oxidant , and configured to provide an oxygen content of the oxidant having a value that exceeds the oxygen content of ambient atmospheric air , wherein the oxidant system is configured to provide the oxidant without the use of stored oxygen ; and a reformer configured to receive the oxidant from the oxidant source , to receive a hydrocarbon fuel , to reform the oxidant and fuel into a reducing gas , and to discharge the reducing gas . in a refinement , the oxidant system is configured generate the oxidant from ambient atmospheric air . in another refinement , the oxidant system is configured to provide a variable oxygen content in the oxidant in a range having a maximum value that exceeds the oxygen content of air . in yet another refinement , the oxidant system is configured to provide a selectable oxygen content of the oxidant in a range of approximately 21 % to 50 % by volume . in still another refinement , the oxidant system is configured to provide a selectable oxygen content in the oxidant in a range of approximately 5 % to 50 % by volume . in yet still another refinement , the oxidant system includes a nitrogen generator having a nitrogen separation membrane operable to extract nitrogen from air , and wherein the nitrogen generator is configured to discharge the balance of the air supplied thereto as an oxygen - rich gas , wherein the oxygen - rich gas forms at least a part of the oxidant . in a further refinement , the nitrogen generator is also configured to discharge a nitrogen - rich gas , the nitrogen - rich gas having a nitrogen content greater than that of ambient atmospheric air . in a yet further refinement , the reducing gas generator further comprises at least one valve configured to mix the nitrogen - rich gas with the oxygen - rich gas to form the oxidant . embodiments of the present invention include a method of generating a reducing gas , comprising : generating an oxidant having an oxygen content greater than that of ambient atmospheric air without the use of stored oxygen ; forming a feed stream with the oxidant and a hydrocarbon fuel ; and reforming the feed stream . in a refinement , the method further comprises varying the oxygen content of the oxidant . in another refinement , the reforming of the feed stream includes directing the feed stream to a catalyst ; and catalytically converting the feed stream into a reducing gas . in yet another refinement , the generating of the oxidant includes supplying pressurized air to a nitrogen separation membrane ; extracting an oxygen - rich gas using the nitrogen separation membrane ; and forming the oxidant at least in part of the oxygen - rich gas . in still another refinement , the generating of the oxidant includes providing a selectable oxygen content of the oxidant in a range of approximately 21 % to 50 % oxygen by volume . in yet still another refinement , the generating of the oxidant includes generating the oxidant with the oxygen content of the oxidant being in a range of approximately 5 % to 50 % oxygen by volume . embodiments of the present invention include a method of generating a reducing gas , comprising : generating an oxidant having a selectable oxygen content , wherein a maximum oxygen content of the oxidant exceeds that of ambient atmospheric air , wherein the generating is performed without the use of stored oxygen ; reforming a hydrocarbon fuel with the oxidant to produce a reducing gas ; and discharging the reducing gas from a reformer . in a refinement , the generating of the oxidant includes generating the oxidant with an oxygen content being less than that of ambient atmospheric air . while the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment , it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment ( s ), but on the contrary , is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims , which scope is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures as permitted under the law . furthermore it should be understood that while the use of the word preferable , preferably , or preferred in the description above indicates that feature so described may be more desirable , it nonetheless may not be necessary and any embodiment lacking the same may be contemplated as within the scope of the invention , that scope being defined by the claims that follow . in reading the claims it is intended that when words such as “ a ,” “ an ,” “ at least one ” and “ at least a portion ” are used , there is no intention to limit the claim to only one item unless specifically stated to the contrary in the claim . further , when the language “ at least a portion ” and / or “ a portion ” is used the item may include a portion and / or the entire item unless specifically stated to the contrary .	8
many of the terms used throughout this application have recently been redefined by the american national standard institute in their new packaging material standards for esd sensitive items ela - 541 , published in june of 1988 . in these new standards , packaging materials are defined as being in the &# 34 ; conductive &# 34 ; range if they have a measurable surface resistivity of less than 10 4 ohms per square . until the standards were changed in june , 1988 , &# 34 ; conductive materials &# 34 ; were defined as those having measurable surface resistivity of less than 10 5 ohms per square . similarly , the new standard , ansi / eia - 541 - 1988 , defines &# 34 ; static - dissipative materials &# 34 ; ( formerly known as static - dissipative or anti - static materials ) as those having a surface resistivity greater than 10 5 ohms / square , but less than 10 12 ohms / square . and , these same standards now define &# 34 ; insulative materials &# 34 ; as those having surface resistivity equal to or greater than 10 12 ohms / square . &# 34 ; anti - static materials &# 34 ; are now defined by these new standards as those materials which minimize electrostatic charge when rubbed against or separated from themselves or other similar materials . for purposes of this application , and when used in this application , the terms &# 34 ; anti - static ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; static - dissipative ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; conductive &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; insulative &# 34 ; shall be used as defined in the new definitions contained in ansi / eia - 514 - 1988 . with reference first to fig1 there is illustrated a container 10 embodying the invention of this application . this container 10 is fitted therein with transverse dividers or partitions 12 and longitudinal dividers or partitions 13 which define the side walls of a plurality of cells 14 . each cell 14 is designed to hold an article 15 to be shipped . both the transverse dividers 12 and the longitudinal dividers 13 have some excess portion 16 which extends beyond an adjacent cell 14 and into contact with side panels 17 of the container 10 , thereby defining a plurality of voids 18 or empty spaces which remain unused . as known in the container industry , the transverse dividers 12 have vertically , downwardly extending slits , and the longitudinal dividers 13 have corresponding vertically , upwardly extending slits , to enable interfitting of the dividers within the container 10 to partially define the cells 14 . alternately , the vertical slits in the transverse divider 12 may be upwardly extending and the vertical slits in the longitudinal dividers 13 may extend downwardly . as shown in fig2 a lower pad 23 resides beneath the dividers , and an upper pad 22 overlays the dividers to completely enclose the cells 14 . according to the invention , the transverse dividers 12 , the longitudinal dividers 13 , and the top 22 and bottom 23 pads are comprised of a multiple - ply anti - static paperboard 25 , which is shown in fig3 . the multiple - ply anti - static paperboard 25 comprises a layer of insulative paperboard or fiberboard 26 which is preferably sandwiched between two layers of low - density , anti - static polyethylene 27 , as shown in fig3 . the interior paperboard ply 26 is electrically insulative , having a surface resistivity equal to or greater than 10 12 ohms per square . the preferred insulative inner layer 26 is a relatively rigid ply of paperboard formed by a conventional paper making slurry process to create a fiberboard or paperboard sheet having a surface resistivity equal to or greater than 10 12 ohms per square . the insulative property of the paperboard is not critical to the practice of this invention . it is only critical that the inner layer 26 be relatively rigid such that it may be self - standing and provide physical protection to articles contained in the cells of the container . a preferred embodiment of the multiple - ply anti - static paperboard 25 is illustrated in fig3 . in this embodiment , precast , permanently anti - static / static - dissipative plastic layers 27 are laminated onto the opposite sides of the conductive paperboard 26 . the preferred precast , permanently anti - static / static - dissipative plastic layers 27 are layers of low - density , polyethylene film which have been coated and subjected to high - energy , electron - beam radiation so as to render the film permanently anti - static and permanently static dissipative . a complete description of the process for manufacturing such a polyethylene film may be found in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 623 , 594 . this polyethylene film is characterized by a surface resistivity of more than 10 5 but less than 10 12 ohms per square . one preferred precast , polyethylene film having this permanent anti - static / static - dissipative surface resistivity is manufactured by mpi metallized products , inc . of winchester , massachusetts and is identified by that company as its &# 34 ; staticure &# 34 ; product . this &# 34 ; staticure + product is particularly advantageous for use in this application because it is a permanently anti - static and static dissipative , i . e ., it does not lose its anti - static and static - dissipative qualities or change its surface resistivity over prolonged periods of time . with reference to fig4 there is illustrated schematically the manner in which the paperboard product 25 of fig3 is manufactured . as there illustrated , a roll 30 of paperboard 26 is unwound at a first level 31 . the paperboard 26 may be electrically conductive , high - carbon content paperboard or it may alternatively be nonconductive or insulative paperboard . at a first extruding station 32 , a thin film 33 of low - density , molten , polyethylene is extruded onto the top side of the paperboard 26 . before the polyethylene film solidifies , a first ply of the precast permanently anti - static / static - dissipative plastic film 27 is unwound from a roll 34 and applied over the top surface of the molten polyethylene film 33 . rollers 34 then direct the paperboard 26 , having one ply of precast anti - static plastic film 27 applied thereto , to a second level 35 . as the paperboard 26 moves along the second level 35 , the paperboard 26 passes beneath a second extruding station 56 at which a second thin film 33 of molten , low - density polyethylene is applied to the now top surface ( formerly the undersurface ) of the paperboard 26 . while this second film 33 of molten polyethylene is still in the molten state , a second ply 27 of precast permanently anti - static / static - dissipative plastic film is unrolled from a roll 37 onto the top surface of the molten polyethylene film 33 . when the polyethylene films 33 are solidified , they permanently secure the top and bottom plies or laminates 27 to the paperboard 26 which is now sandwiched therebetween . the multiple - ply , anti - static paperboard 25 is now ready to be cut for use . thus , according to one preferred embodiment of the invention , a layer of paperboard 26 or other relatively rigid ply of material is sandwiched by layers of permanently anti - static / static - dissipative material . the anti - static layer adjacent the article prevents sloughing or abrading of the paperboard material onto articles packaged in the material , which could cause circuit damage . it also prevents generation of static electricity resulting from relative movement of the protected articles and the packaging paperboard . the multiple - ply anti - static / static - dissipative paperboard also provides sufficient rigidity to physically protect packaged articles . this physical protection is achieved with a savings in material and labor , as compared to packaging requiring a bag . the multiple - ply anti - static / static - dissipative paperboard of this invention has the advantage of being permanently anti - static and of permanently maintaining its static - dissipative quality . otherwise expressed , the invention of this application , because of this permanence , has no shelf life . heretofore , all anti - static and / or static - dissipative coatings or materials have been produced by doping polypropylene or other plastic materials with an amine so as to impart the anti - static property to the polypropylene plastic . that amine , though , was solely dissipated or gassified from the polypropylene plastic over a period of time with the result that the polypropylene plastic lost its anti - static property over a period of time . consequently , such material had a limited shelf life . because the multiple - ply anti - static / static - dissipative paperboard of this invention is amine free , the material does not cause amine corrosion of metal packaged within such amine - free material . additionally , many printed electrical circuits are imprinted on polycarbonate plastic , which plastic is subject to stress cracking when subjected or exposed to amines . the invention of this application , because it contains no amines , does not have this adverse effect upon polycarbonate boards . anti - static plastics which contain amines are also humidity sensitive , i . e ., they are only operative and only maintain their anti - static properties so long as there is some minimal humidity level maintained in the atmosphere . the amine - containing anti - static plastics therefore are not operative in very dry atmospheres to which such anti - static materials are often exposed . the invention of this application is not humidity dependent . the multiple - ply anti - static paperboard of this invention may be made to provide chemical protection for packaged articles . for example , a corrosion inhibitor commonly referred to as cobra tech , manufactured by pmc specialty and formerly made by sherwin williams , may be mixed into the outer layers 27 prior to application of these outer layers to the interior layer 26 in order to protect copper or copper alloyed articles . this substance dissipates off the outer layer to attach itself to the copper or copper alloy , thereby shielding the article from sulfuric compounds in the paper . similarly , other corrosion inhibitors could be used with other types of articles , depending upon the metal that is required to be protected . because the low - density anti - static / static - dissipative polyethylene layers of the preferred embodiment are chemically inert , they will physically shield the packaged article from chemical corrosion . thus , the addition of a corrosion inhibitor for this embodiment would not be necessary , but would provide added protection against chemical corrosion . while i have heretofore described one preferred embodiment of the multiple - ply anti - static / static - dissipative material of this invention as embodying a single ply of paperboard or other relatively rigid material sandwiched between two plies of anti - static / static - dissipative material , the invention of this application contemplates that such multiple - ply material may comprise only a single ply or coating 27 on one side of the base material 26 as illustrated in fig5 . such a multiple - ply product is particularly useful in many packaging applications wherein only a single side of the material may be exposed to electrical components or static - sensitive articles . one such application for single - side coated , multiple - ply anti - static / static - dissipative material is in the production of corrugated paperboard material used in the manufacture of boxes or containers within which static - sensitive electrical components or articles may be packaged . when used to produce permanently anti - static / static - dissipative corrugated paperboard , the base ply of paperboard is first laminated or coated with a single ply of anti - static / static - dissipative material , and then that coated or laminated material is subjected to a corrugating process in which it is converted into corrugated paperboard . as yet another alternative to the practice of this invention , the base ply of material 26 , rather than being electrically insulative paperboard , may be a relatively rigid sheet of extruded plastic material to which the coating or ply of anti - static / static - dissipative material may be applied . in the description of this invention , the preferred practice of this invention has been described as having the exterior ply of anti - static / static - dissipative material laminated to the base ply of paperboard or other material . it is contemplated , though , that exterior ply may be applied to the base ply 26 by extrusion of the permanently anti - static / static - dissipative material onto the base ply . the preferred embodiment of the invention described hereinabove employs &# 34 ; staticure ,&# 34 ; a polyethylene material which has been chemically coated and subjected to high energy electron beam radiation as the anti - static / static - dissipative material in the multiple - ply product . the process by which such &# 34 ; staticure &# 34 ; material is created is completely described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 623 , 594 issued nov . 18 , 1986 to mpi metallized products , inc . this material has been found to be very satisfactory in the practice of this invention . it is contemplated , though , that such polyethylene material prior to being treated so as to render it anti - static / static - dissipative may have compounded therein conventional materials to render the polyethylene material biodegradable either by chemical breakdown of the material or by ultraviolet light breakdown . it is also contemplated , and within the scope of this invention , that in lieu of polyethylene film material being utilized in the practice of this invention as the permanently anti - static / static - dissipative material , polyethylene foam may be treated and used as the permanently anti - static / static - dissipative ply of material . the polyethylene foam would otherwise be treated the same as the film in order to impart to the foam the permanent anti - static / static - dissipative quality . after formation of the foam and anti - static agent and treatment by exposure to electron beam radiation to render the foam permanently anti - static / static - dissipative , the foam would be adhered to the paperboard or other relatively rigid substrate in exactly the same manner that the polyethylene film is described hereinabove as being laminated to the paperboard or other substrate . the advantage of the foam - coated product is , of course , that it provides additional physical protection of any products packaged with the multiple - ply foam - coated product . while i have described only a limited number of embodiments of the multiple - ply anti - static paperboard of this invention , it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited solely to these embodiments . various other alternative embodiments will be readily apparent to persons skilled in this art . accordingly , it is to be understood that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as particularly set forth and described .	1
as is shown in fig1 the present invention provides a mechanically expandable pad 10 residing substantially in the x - y plane having multiple layers and a center . further , the mechanically expandable pad 10 comprises a first layer 15 having a pair of opposed end edges 16 and a pair of opposed longitudinal edges 17 to make up a periphery 14 . a second layer 18 ( not shown ) is attached to the first layer 15 . the mechanically expandable pad &# 39 ; s 10 opposed end edges 16 and pair of opposed longitudinal edges 17 making up the periphery 14 of the mechanically expandable pad 10 are shared by both the first layer 15 and the second layer 18 . the mechanically expandable pad 10 further comprises an expandable member 35 having a first end 36 and a second end 38 positioned between the first layer 15 and the second layer 18 . also , the expandable member 35 comprises a pair of longitudinal edges . preferably , the expandable member 35 will comprise at least two layers , as is shown in fig2 , and 4 . more specifically , the pad 10 will preferably comprise an expandable member 35 having a top layer 45 and a bottom layer 47 . ( fig2 - 4 ). in use , the end edges 36 and the longitudinal edges 38 of a multi - layered expandable member 35 line up with one another for attachment of layers along their aligned edges . suitable materials for use for the top layer 45 or bottom layer 47 are nonwovens , sponge material , polyethylene , polypropylene , suede , vinyl , leather , any of several known polymeric materials in the art and combinations thereof . the expandable member 35 may be fringed along its longitudinal edges . fig9 shows a top plan view of the top layer 47 of the expandable member 35 . as seen , fringes 60 line - up in a perpendicular orientation to the confining channel 20 . the purpose of the fringes 60 is to provide greater surface area and bulkiness to the member 35 . the fringes 60 shown in the top layer 47 correspond exactly to the fringes 60 ( not shown ) in the bottom layer 47 which is not shown . the fringes 60 most preferably consist of slits or cuts in the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 . such cutting can be done mechanically by a knife . additionally , the pad 10 will comprise cinch members attached thereto ; e . g ., first cinch member 22 and second cinch member 24 . first cinch member 22 is attached to the bottom layer 47 at the connection point 23 which is along the second end edge 38 of the expandable member 35 . in like fashion , second cinch member 24 is attached to the top layer 45 at the connection point 25 which is along the first end 36 of the expandable member 35 . this orientation is formed such that the cinch members 22 and 24 may be pulled into the direction opposite to the side of the expandable member 35 on which they are attached . it is further noted herein that the first cinch member 22 is preferably positioned adjacent to the top surface of the bottom layer 47 of the member 35 . also preferably , the second cinch member 24 is positioned adjacent to the bottom surface of the top layer 45 of the member 35 . the cinch members 22 and 24 are preferably attached at the connection points 23 and 25 by adhesive . however , the cinch members 22 and 24 may also be attached to the member 35 at the points 23 and 25 by mechanical means ( such as crimping , embossing , etc . ), ultrasonic bonding , thermal bonding , or any other suitable means known in the art . in practice each cinch member ( 22 and 24 ) will be pulled in opposite directions through the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 of the expandable member 35 . more specifically , the first cinch member 22 is positioned above the bottom layer 47 and the second cinch member is positioned below the top layer 45 . in this configuration , each cinch member is pulled through openings 40 and 41 . the openings 40 and 41 are formed by free spaces between the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 that are not attached to one - another . it should be noted herein that fig2 - 4 show exploded views of the expandable member 35 . in practice , the top layer 45 and bottom layer 47 are attached to one - another about their periphery , which includes their end edges 16 and their longitudinal edges 17 . such attachment may be provided by adhesive , thermal bonds , ultrasonic bonds , crimping , embossing , and other mechanical means . the expandable member 35 also comprises a confining channel 20 and connection lines 30 . as shown in fig1 the confining channel 20 extends in the direction of the x - axis from one longitudinal edge 17 to the other longitudinal edge 17 . the confining channel 20 is a channel formed by creating a secure attachment along the connection lines 30 shown . the attachment is between the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 . between the connection lines 30 are portions of unattachment between the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 which make up the openings 40 and 41 of the expandable member 35 . as is also shown , preferably , the connection lines 30 will extend along the first end 36 of the expandable member 35 and also along the second end 38 of the expandable member 35 to provide attachment along the ends 36 and 38 everywhere but at the openings 40 and 41 . again , the longitudinal edges 42 and 44 of the expandable member 35 are attached to one - another along their ends such that the expandable member 35 is jointly fitted and attached together everywhere except at the openings 40 and 41 . the attachments formed between the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 , the confining channel 20 and the connection lines are formed from suitable adhesives known in the art for use with absorbent articles . for example , the known adhesives in the art for securing a topsheet to a backsheet in a diaper , sanitary napkin or like article are highly desirable for the attachments listed above . adhesives which have been found to be satisfactory are manufactured by h . b . fuller . company of st . paul , minn . under the designation hl - 1258 or h - 2031 . other suitable bonding processes known in the art may also be used ; e . g ., ultrasonic bonding , thermal bonding , and others . when the cinch members 22 and 24 are pulled through their respective openings 40 and 41 , the ends 36 and 38 of the expandable member 35 are pulled closer together , thereby causing the mechanically expandable pad 10 to elevate out of the x - y plane and into the z - plane . such pulling of the cinch members 22 and 24 across the expandable member 35 forms a raised and puffed mechanically expandable pad center 70 which substantially breaks the x - y plane of the mechanically expandable pad orientation . ( see fig5 and 6 ). the hump 70 may be liquid transportive , liquid absorbent or have substantial qualities of both . where the hump 70 is primarily liquid transportive , it will therefore operate as a liquid distribution mechanism . specifically , the hump 70 will substantially not absorb liquids but will readily collect and distribute them to other liquid absorbing portions of the pad 10 ; e . g ., where an absorbent element exists within the pad 10 . such liquid distribution is performed by components in the expandable member 35 specifically designed for such liquid distribution . such components include the use of inherently hydrophobic fibers , polyethylene fibers , polypropylene fibers , capillary channel fibers , and cellulosic fibers treated with a hydrophobic agent thereon ; this list is not meant to be exhaustive . in fact , any fibers which are hydrophobic or made to be hydrophobic and are known in the art to be suitable for the use in an absorbent article are envisioned for the expandable member 35 . in addition , the expandable member 35 may be liquid absorbent . specifically , the member 35 may comprise absorbent elements which allow it readily receive and absorb liquids . these elements may be taken from the group consisting of cellulose fibers , functional absorbent materials ( i . e ., foam ), spongy materials , fibers treated to become hydrophilic and any other type of absorbent material known in the art an suitable for the pad 10 herein . in one embodiment of an absorbent pad 10 , absorbent gelling material may be used within the expandable member 35 to lock - in liquids at contact thereof . as mentioned above , the pad 10 may comprise substantial elements of both liquid distribution and absorbency . that is , the pad 10 may one part distributive and comprise the above - mentioned elements therefor and also another part absorbent and therefore also comprising the necessary elements of absorbency mentioned above . fig3 and 4 show alternative embodiments of the embodiment shown in fig2 . fig3 additionally comprises crease lines 37 which are additional lines of attachment between the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 of the expandable member 35 . the use of the crease lines 37 creates cinch profiles 50 ( fig5 and 6 ) whereby the expandable member 35 will cinch or hump in a prescribed fashion corresponding to the settings of the crease lines . for example , fig5 shows a cinch profile made up of a crease line 37 pattern which causes the resultant cinch profile 50 of the expandable member 35 . furthermore , in a multi - layered member 35 , this cinch profile 50 also indicates that the top layer 45 of the member 35 is more rigid than the bottom layer 47 . when the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 comprise materials having differing rigidities , whichever layer is most flexible will be the layer that partially , nearly or substantially conforms to the more rigid layer . at this conformity , especially where it is the pronounced sort shown in fig5 one layer of the expandable member 35 will be substantially elevated in the z - plane while the other layer either conforms substantially to the elevated layer or remains substantially planar ; i . e ., the less rigid layer either remains substantially planar or elevates to conform with the humps or creases of the more rigid layer . the crease lines 37 may be formed by adhesive such as that used to attach the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 of the expandable member 35 . additionally , the crease lines 37 may be formed from any suitable bonding process which will bind , i . e ., attach , those portions of the top layer 45 and the bottom layer 47 shown in fig3 - 5 . such bonding techniques include thermal bonding , ultrasonic bonding , crimping , embossing and any other suitable mechanical bonding technique known in the art . furthermore , any known bonding technique in the art suitable for attaching top layer 45 and bottom layer 47 is hereby proscribed herein . obviously , such one - sided conformity is important where it is desired to create a pad 10 that &# 34 ; puffs &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; humps &# 34 ; substantially in one direction . by the terms &# 34 ; puffs &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; humps &# 34 ; it is meant herein that the expandable member 35 will move out of the x and y planes and into the z - plane . however , fig6 shows an embodiment wherein both sides of the member 35 expand out of the x and y planes and into the z - plane . generally , this occurs when the multiple layers of the expandable member 35 are at least of approximately equal rigidity . this is also an important feature because for certain functions it may be desired to have a pad 10 which comprises a two - sided hump 70 . in an alternative embodiment herein , the exapandable member 35 may not form a hump 70 but rather a densification zone 70 . specifically , the densification zone 70 is a zone formed from the contracted member 35 that does not substantially form a hump ; i . e ., does not substantially protrude into the z - plane . at such contraction of the member 35 , a densified portion 70 is formed which substantially does not break into the z - plane . therefore , the expandable member 35 , when contracted , will develop into one of two forms : 1 ) a densified zone 70 that does not substantially elevate into the z - plane or 2 ) a hump 70 which does substantially elevate into the z - plane . the importance of a densification zone 70 , of which there may be many such zones 70 , is to provide densified zones of liquid collection , distribution and / or absorption . the zones 70 may , upon collection of liquids distribute the liquid to other portions of the pad 10 . otherwise or additionally , a densification zone may provide absorption of the aforesaid liquids , for example , right at the point of liquid impact . in an alternative embodiment of the invention as shown in fig7 the mechanically expandable pad 10 may further comprise a breakable package 75 that is attached to the expandable member 35 . note that alternatively , the breakable package 75 may also or separately be attached to one or both of the cinches 22 and / or 24 . when the ends 36 and 38 of the expandable member 35 are pulled toward one - another , the attached package 75 breaks and releases at least one type of substance within the interior of the mechanically expandable pad 10 . also alternatively , the mechanically expandable pad 10 may be so constructed as to allow the released substance ( s ) to disperse to and saturate through the first layer 15 and / or the second layer 18 of the mechanically expandable pad 10 . the breakable package 75 may comprise at least one material from the group consisting of perfume , oils , lotions , emollients , cyclodextrins , deodorizers , surfactants , bleaches , acids , alcohols and mixtures thereof . it is conceivable herein to provide a mechanically expandable pad for washing , cleaning or scrubbing in which all of the necessary substances to perform a task are located within the mechanically expandable pad 10 and released upon expansion of the mechanically expandable pad into the z - direction . it is also conceived herein that a mechanically expandable pad 10 having cinch members 22 and 24 may be employed that does not expand into the z - plane but rather , when such cinch members are activated , a breakable package attached thereto is broken and its substance dispersed into and throughout the mechanically expandable pad to perform a pre - determined function . as is shown in fig8 the breakable package 75 may be multi - compartmental in one preferred embodiment . further , each compartment 76 of the multi - compartmental package may comprise differing substances . the substances in each compartment may be chosen from the group consisting of perfumes , oils , lotions , emollients , cyclodextrins , deodorizers , surfactants , bleaches , bleach activators , chelants , builders , polymers , disinfectnats , acids , bases , alcohols and mixtures thereof . the breakable package 75 may be formed from polyethylene , polypropylene , nonwovens , or paper . the first layer 15 of the mechanically expandable pad 10 may be either fluid permeable or impermeable and formed from material thereof . likewise , the second layer may be fluid permeable or impermeable . in one embodiment , the first layer 15 of the mechanically expandable pad 10 may be used for cleaning ; the second layer 18 of the mechanically expandable pad 10 may be used for polishing or buffing , and vice versa . also , the mechanically expandable pad 10 may form one or more shapes from the group consisting of circles , squares , stars , triangles , multi - sided shapes and combinations thereof . suitable materials for use for the first layer 15 or second layer 18 are nonwovens , sponge material , polyethylene , polypropylene , suede , vinyl , leather , any of several known polymeric materials in the art and combinations thereof . it is also important to note that where the pad 10 comprises a bleach , acid or other toxic substance therein that the material used in the pad be fully resistant to molecular breakdown and decomposure . where either the first layer 15 and / or the second layer 18 is liquid permeable , the layers may be compliant , soft feeling , and non - irritating to the user &# 39 ; s skin . further , a liquid permeable layer permits liquids to readily penetrate through its thickness . a suitable liquid permeable layer may be manufactured from a wide range of materials , such as porous foams ; reticulated foams ; apertured plastic films ; or woven or nonwoven webs of natural fibers ( e . g ., wood or cotton fibers ), synthetic fibers ( e . g ., polyester or polypropylene fibers ), or a combination of natural and synthetic fibers . if the liquid permeable layer is made of a hydrophobic material , at least the upper surface thereof is treated to be hydrophilic so that liquids will transfer through the liquid permeable layer more rapidly . the liquid permeable layer can be rendered hydrophilic by treating it with a surfactant . suitable methods for treating the liquid permeable layer with a surfactant include spraying the material with the surfactant and immersing the material in the surfactant . a more detailed discussion of such a treatment and hydrophilicity is contained in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 988 , 344 entitled &# 34 ; absorbent articles with multiple layer absorbent layers &# 34 ; issued to reising , et al . of jan . 29 , 1991 . there are a number of manufacturing techniques which may be used to manufacture the liquid permeable layer . for example , the liquid permeable layer may be a nonwoven web of fibers . when the liquid permeable layer comprises a nonwoven web , the web may be spunbonded , carded , wet - laid , meltblown , hydroentangled , combinations of the above , or the like . a preferred liquid permeable layer is carded and thermally bonded by means well known to those skilled in the fabrics art . a preferred liquid permeable layer comprises staple length polypropylene fibers having a denier of about 2 . 2 . as used herein , the term &# 34 ; staple length fibers &# 34 ; refers to those fibers having a length of at least about 15 . 9 mm ( 0 . 625 inches ). preferably , the liquid permeable layer has a basis weight from about 18 to about 25 grams per square meter . a suitable liquid permeable layer is manufactured by veratec , inc ., a division of international paper company , of walpole , mass . under the designation p - 8 . either the first layer 15 and / or the second layer 18 may be liquid impervious to liquids . such a liquid impervious layer is preferably manufactured from a thin plastic film , although other flexible liquid impervious materials may also be used . as used herein , the term &# 34 ; flexible &# 34 ; refers to materials which are compliant and will readily conform to the general shape and contours of the human body . the liquid impervious layer may thus comprise a woven or nonwoven material , polymeric films such as thermoplastic films of polyethylene or polypropylene , or composite materials such as a film - coated nonwoven material . preferably , the liquid impervious layer is a thermoplastic film having a thickness of from about 0 . 012 mm ( 0 . 5 mil ) to about 0 . 051 mm ( 2 . 0 mils ). the liquid impervious layer preferably comprises a polyethylene blend film of about 0 . 025 mm ( 1 . 0 mil ) as is manufactured by tredegar corporation of terre haute , ind . and marketed as p8863 . preferably , once the cinch members 22 and 24 are pulled or extended through openings 40 and 41 , the cinch members will remain stationary such that the expanded structure of the expandable member 35 will remain in its expanded configuration . to these ends , one embodiment herein contemplates providing the cinch members with tape tabs and / or hooks and loops ( i . e ., fastening systems ) so that when the cinch members 22 and 24 are pulled , they may either be brought around to either the first layer 15 or second layer 18 of the mechanically expandable pad 10 and be secured thereto or secured to one - another . if , for example , the second layer 18 comprises a nonwoven layer , the ends of the cinch members 22 and 24 may have attached thereon a tab comprising hooks which can engage the nonwoven second layer 18 and remain fixed thereto . alternatively , if the second layer comprises polymer material , the ends of the cinch members 22 and 24 may likewise comprise tape tabs that readily adhere to the polymer layer . preferably , such tape tabs would also be readily releasable from the polymer layer . these cinch member attachments devices notwithstanding , preferably the cinch members 22 and 24 are constructed such that when they are pulled , the expandable member 35 remains in a cinched position by virtue of the rigidity of one or more of the layers ( top 45 or bottom 47 ) that make - up the expandable member 35 . exemplary fastening systems are disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 846 , 815 entitled &# 34 ; disposable diaper having an improved fastening device &# 34 ; issued to scripps on jul . 11 , 1989 ; u . s . pat . no . 4 , 894 , 060 entitled &# 34 ; disposable diaper with improved hook fastener portion &# 34 ; issued to nestegard on jan . 16 , 1990 ; u . s . pat . no . 4 , 946 , 527 entitled &# 34 ; pressure - sensitive adhesive fastener and method of making same &# 34 ; issued to battrell on aug . 7 , 1990 ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 848 , 594 entitled &# 34 ; tape fastening system for disposable diaper &# 34 ; issued to buell on nov . 19 , 1974 ; u . s . pat . no . 4 , 662 , 875 entitled &# 34 ; absorbent article &# 34 ; issued to hirotsu et al . on may 5 , 1987 ; and the herein before referenced u . s . pat . application ser . no . 07 / 715 , 152 ; each of which is incorporated herein by reference . exemplary fastening systems comprising mechanical fastening components ( i . e ., hooks and loops ) are described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 058 , 247 entitled &# 34 ; mechanical fastening prong &# 34 ; issued to thomas oct . 22 , 1991 ; u . s . pat . no . 4 , 869 , 724 entitled &# 34 ; mechanical fastening systems with adhesive tape disposal means for disposal of absorbent articles &# 34 ; issued to scripps on sep . 26 , 1989 ; and u . s . pat . no . 4 , 846 , 815 entitled &# 34 ; disposable diaper having an improved fastening device &# 34 ; issued to scripps on jul . 11 , 1989 . an example of a fastening system having combination mechanical / adhesive fasteners is described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 946 , 527 entitled &# 34 ; pressure - sensitive adhesive fastener and method of making same &# 34 ; issued to battrell on aug . 7 , 1990 . each of these patents are incorporated herein by reference . while particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described , it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various other changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . it is therefore intended to cover in the appended claims all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of this invention .	8
referring to fig5 and 6 , an input protection transistor 180 according to the present invention comprises : a p well 202 formed on a p type substrate 200 ; a field oxide film 204 for electrically isolating a field region 203 from another field region ; n + source / drain regions 206a and 206b formed in the field region 203 apart from each other ; an oxide film 210 formed on a region in a major surface of the substrate , between the n + source / drain regions 206a and 206b ; a first gate 212 formed on the oxide film 210 ; an oxide film 214 formed on the first gate 212 ; a second gate 216 formed on the oxide film 214 ; an interlayer insulation film 218 formed on the semiconductor substrate 200 so as to cover the first and second gates ; and an aluminum interconnection 222 electrically connected to the n + source / drain regions 206a and 206b through a contact hole 220 made in the interlayer insulation film 218 . as shown in fig5 the second gate 216 is electrically connected to an aluminum interconnection 219 through a contact hole 217 . fig7 a and 7b show the input protection transistor and its peripheral circuit shown in fig5 and 6 . referring to fig7 a , an electrode pad 12 is connected through an interconnection 14 to an inverter 160 as one example of an internal logic circuit . the above described input protection circuit 180 is connected to the interconnection 14 so as not to apply an overvoltage to the inverter 160 . in the input protection transistor 180 , one n + source / drain region 206a is connected to the interconnection 14 , while the other n + source / drain region 206b , the second gate 216 as a gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate 200 are all grounded . when a surge voltage is applied to the electrode pad 12 , a charge flows into the semiconductor substrate 200 through the interconnection 14 and through the n + source / drain region 206a , but is prevented from flowing into a gate electrode of the inverter 160 . a drain of the input protection transistor 180 is formed only of a high concentration impurity region without the low concentration impurity region as shown in fig2 c , so that the gradient of intensity of an electric field in the drain is comparatively large , resulting in no destruction of the input protection transistor . modifications of the input protection transistor are shown in fig8 a , 8b , 8c , 8d , 8e , 8f and 8g . in an input protection transistor shown in fig8 a and 8b , not second gate 216 but the first gate 212 is grounded . the first gate 212 is grounded for the purpose that a charge is made possible to be stored between the first gate 212 and the semiconductor substrate 200 so as to increase a capacitance of the input protection transistor and thus make an extra charge provided to the electrode pad 12 easily escape into the semiconductor substrate 200 . fig8 c and 8d show such a case that both the first and second gates 212 and 216 are grounded . fig8 e and 8f show a case where the first gate 212 is grounded , while the second gate 216 is connected to the electrode pad 12 . when the connection is carried out as shown in the fig8 e and 8f , it gives a structure that a drain - gate overlap capacitance c 1 , a capacitance across a floating gate and a control gate ( an interlayer capacitance ) c 2 , and a drain - substrate junction capacitance c 3 are connected in parallel , as shown in fig8 g , so that charge absorbing capabilities by these capacitances are increased and thus a surge breakdown voltage is increased . description will now be given of a process for manufacturing the semiconductor device according to one embodiment of the present invention , with reference to fig9 a - 9k . since processing steps to be carried out before the step of fig9 a are identical to those shown in fig3 a - 3f , a description thereof will not be repeated . the processing steps shown in fig9 a - 9k are in correspondence with those shown in fig3 g - 3q . referring to fig9 a , a polysilicon film 212 having a thickness of approximately 3000 å is formed on the overall surface of a p type silicon substrate 200 , and is then doped with phosphorus to be made of n type . a resist film 234 is then formed on the polysilicon film in an eprom region 32 and in an input protection transistor region 36 by employing photolithography . next , with the resist film 234 used as a mask , the polysilicon film 212 is etched , so that the polysilicon film 212 is left at the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 . the resist film 234 is then removed . in order to regulate a threshold voltage of an mos transistor , repetition of applying the resist and implanting ions carries out channel doping for each transistor , and further , the oxide film 66 other than beneath the polysilicon film 212 is removed . referring to fig9 b , a gate oxide film 236 having a thickness of approximately 250 å is formed in the cmos region 34 by oxidation . at this time , an oxide film 214 is formed on the side surface and the upper surface of the polysilicon film 212 . a polysilicon film 216a having a thickness of approximately 2800 å is formed on the overall surface of the silicon substrate 200 and is then doped with phosphorus . thereafter , a molybdenum silicide film 216b having a thickness of approximately 2300 å is formed on the polysilicon film 216a . as shown in fig9 c , a resist film 238 is formed on the overall surface of the cmos region 34 and in gate forming regions of the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 . etching is then carried out , with the resist film 238 used as a mask , so as to remove the molybdenum silicide film 216b , the polysilicon film 216a , the oxide film 214 , the polysilicon film 212 and gate oxide film 66 . in regions in the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 other than their gate forming regions . the polysilicon film 212 left in the eprom region 32 constitutes a floating gate , and the polysilicon film 216a and molybdenum silicide film 216b constitute a control gate . the polysilicon film 212 left in the input protection transistor region 36 constitutes the first gate shown in fig6 while the polysilicon film 216a and molybdenum silicide film 216b in the region 36 constitute the second gate 216 . a gate length of the gate in the eprom region 32 is approximately 1 . 2 μm , while that of the gate in the input protection transistor region 36 is approximately 3 . 0 μm . the resist film 238 is then removed . referring to fig9 d , arsenic is ion - implanted into the overall surface of the semiconductor substrate 200 , with the molybdenum silicide film 216b used as a mask thereby forming an n + source / drain region 206 in a surface region of each of the eprom region 32 and the input protection transistor region 36 . with reference to fig9 e , a resist film 240 is formed on a gate forming region of the cmos region 34 and on the overall surface of the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 . with the resist film 240 used as a mask , etching is then carried out so as to remove the molybdenum silicide film 216b and polysilicon film 216a formed in regions in the cmos region 34 other than its gate forming region . therefore , gate electrodes 242 and 244 are formed in the cmos region 34 . a gate length lc of the gate electrode 242 is approximately 1 . 5 μm , while that of the gate electrode 244 is approximately 1 . 3 μm . the resist film 240 is then removed . referring to fig9 f , a resist film 246 is formed on the overall surfaces of the eprom region 32 , a p channel transistor region 33 which is a portion of the cmos region 34 , and the input protection transistor region 36 . phosphorus is then ion - implanted with the resist film 246 and the gate electrode 244 used as masks , thereby forming an n - source / drain region 248 in an n channel transistor region 35 . the resist film 246 is then removed . referring to fig9 g , an oxide film is formed by a cvd ( chemical vapor deposition ) method on the overall surface of the silicon substrate 200 having gate electrodes on its surface , and is then subjected to anisotropical etching by an rie ( reactive ion etching ) method . accordingly , sidewalls 250 are formed at peripheries of the gates 212 and 216 in the cmos region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 , and at peripheries of the respective gate electrodes 242 and 244 in the p channel transistor region 33 and n channel transistor region 35 . a resist film 252 is formed on the overall surface of the p channel transistor region 33 . next , arsenic is ion - implanted , employing the resist film 252 , the gates 212 , 216 and 244 in the cmos region 32 , n channel transistor region 35 and input protection transistor region 36 , and the sidewalls 250 at their peripheries as masks . thus , an n + source / drain region 254 is formed in the n channel transistor region 35 , resulting in a so - called ldd structure . at this time , since n + ions are further implanted into the n + source / drain region 206 in the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 , impurity concentration of regions other than beneath the sidewalls 250 is further increased . implantation of arsenic into molybdenum silicide films 216 and 244 in the eprom region 32 , n channel transistor region 35 and input protection transistor region 36 is useful for planarization of a film to be formed on the films 216 and 244 , as will be described later . the resist film 252 is then removed . with reference to fig9 h , a resist film 256 is formed on the overall surfaces of the eprom region 32 , n channel transistor region 35 and input protection transistor region 36 . boron is then ion - implanted with the resist film 256 , the gate 242 and the sidewalls 250 at their peripheries used as masks . thus , a p + source / drain region 258 is formed in the p channel transistor region 33 . the resist film 256 is then removed . for activation , a heat treatment is then carried out , for example , in nitrogen atmosphere . referring to fig9 i , a bpsg film 260 having a thickness of approximately 1000 å is formed on the whole surface of the silicon substrate 200 by the cvd method . a resist film 262 is formed thereafter on a predetermined region of the bpsg film 260 . etching is then carried out with the resist film 262 used as a mask so as to form contact holes 264 . the resist film 262 is then removed . referring to fig9 j , an al - si film 266 is formed by sputtering on the bpsg film 260 so as to fill the contact holes 264 . a resist film 268 is then formed on a predetermined region on the al - si film 266 , and thereafter etching is carried out with the resist film 268 used as a mask . accordingly , an al - si interconnection layer is formed . the resist film 268 is then removed . with reference to fig9 k , a protection film 270 made of a silicon nitride or a silicon oxide is formed on the whole surface of the silicon substrate 200 . through the foregoing steps , such a semiconductor device is manufactured as to have a double - gate structure in the eprom region 32 and in the input protection transistor region 36 and have an ldd structure in the n - channel transistor region other than the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 . this manufacturing method makes it possible to simultaneously form the input protection transistor and the memory transistor , through a smaller number of the processing steps than those required for forming the input protection transistor as a single - layered gate separately from the memory transistor , thereby facilitating the manufacture . when source / drain regions are formed in the eprom region 32 and input protection transistor region 36 in the process shown in fig9 g described above , arsenic is also ion - implanted into a molybdenum silicide film 216b of the gate 216 . accordingly , there is an advantage that a flat film can be formed on the molybdenum silicide film 216b as will be describe later . fig1 a - 10e show the changing process , according to the process after fig9 d , of the gate electrode and its peripheries in cross section in case where arsenic is not ion - implanted into the molybdenum silicide film . fig1 a - 11c show the process in cross - section in case where arsenic is ion - implanted into the molybdenum silicide film . the above described advantage will now be described with reference to fig1 a - 10e and 11a - 11c . referring to fig1 a , the gate 216 is exposed . this state of the gate 216 exposed corresponds to the state shown in fig9 d . arsenic is ion - implanted into regions to be source / drain so that ions are not implanted into the gate 216 . then , a heat treatment is carried out for oxidation and activation . accordingly , a silicon oxide film 217 is formed on the surface of the gate 216 , and thus molybdenum silicide of the film 216b is polycrystallized , as shown in fig1 b . next , in order to form sidewalls , a silicon oxide film 219 is formed on the overall surface of the substrate and is then etched by the rie method . this causes sidewalls 250 to be formed at peripheries of the gates 216 and 212 , with the surface of the molybdenum silicide film 216b being exposed , as shown in fig1 c . this state corresponds to the state shown in fig9 g . next , in the step of forming p + source / drain in the p - channel transistor region 33 , when a heat treatment is carried out for oxidation and activation after ion implantation , molybdenum silicide is sublimated as moo 2 , moo 3 , as shown in fig1 d , so that the film 216b becomes thinner , whereby a porous thick silicon oxide film 21 is formed on the molybdenum silicide film 216b with its peripheries built up higher than its central portion . this produces a steep step or a steep configuration at gate portion . when the bpsg film 260 is formed covering the gate portion , as shown in fig1 e , the bpsg film 260 has a steep step portion 260a . therefore , if an al interconnection layer is formed after the formation of bpsg film 260 , an undesired residue al remains at the step portion 260a . referring to fig1 a , as shown in the embodiment of the present invention , if arsenic is ion - implanted into the molybdenum silicide film 216b upon the formation of source / drain regions , molybdenum silicide of a portion 216c of the film 216b is made amorphous . thus , a silicon oxide film 217 is formed uniformly on the molybdenum silicide film 216b as shown in fig1 b . accordingly , as shown in fig1 c , the bpsg film 260 no longer has such a steep step portion as shown in fig1 e , but is well planarized , which thus becomes advantageous for forming a multilayer interconnection . while the semiconductor device having the eprom has been described in the above embodiment , the present invention is not limitative to the eprom but also applicable to any semiconductor devices having the double - layered gate structure . for example , the invention is applicable to an eeprom ( electrically erasable programmable read only memory ). while the p type substrate is employed as the substrate in the above embodiment , an n type substrate may be employed , offering the same effect . although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail , it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation , the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims .	7
in the following description , the details of an attachment characterizing the invention as applied to an electric typewriter are described first , and then the operations will be generalized to the invention as applied to a whole class of keyboards . the typewriter on which the invention is to be attached is supposed to be secured onto a horizontal surface as if it were to be secured for use by a typist in a usual manner . it will be obvious , at the end of the description , that once the invention is attached onto said typewriter , the combination of said attachment and typewriter can work properly in any orientation imaginable , in the operations to be described , provided that said typewriter can tolerate such an orientation . referring to the drawing of fig1 the attachment characterizing this invention as applied to a typewriter keyboard comprises a plate 10 of adequate thickness , and of low - friction , low - wear material , having a plurality of cylindrical apertures 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 to be positioned directly above the keys of the keyboard of the typewriter to which the attachment is to be put on . there are as many of these apertures as the number of keys of the keyboard to be manipulated , said apertures accommodate slidably in a free manner a corresponding number of preferably cylindrical rods 21 , 22 , 23 , and 24 , defined as push - rods . it is to be noticed that 11 , 12 , 13 , and 14 are to be repeated from ten to twelve times in an attachment to a normal typewriter , on four lines which are essentially rectilinear and parallel to the lines of characters appearing on the paper attached to the carriage of the typewriter in a normal typing session . for the intelligence of the description , these parallel lines of apertures and their corresponding lines of push - rods are referred to from now on as rows of apertures 11 , 12 , 13 , and 14 , and rows of push - rods 21 , 22 , 23 , and 24 . owing to the standards generally adopted in typewriter manufacturing at the present time , the distances between the apertures and between push - rods in a row are essentially the same for each typewriter , and vary slightly around 3 / 4 of an inch . in one embodiment of this invention , the apertures 11 , 12 , 13 , and 14 have the same diameter , which is slightly larger than the diameter adopted for all the push - rods 21 , 22 , 23 , and 24 which have a nominal diameter of 3 / 16 &# 34 ;. the length of the push - rods , however , is only the same for the same row , and varies from one row to another for the purpose of accommodating the staircase arrangement of the rows of keys of said keyboard , in a manner such that , while each rod bears directly on its lower tip on each key of the typewriter , its upper tip is essentially at the same horizontal level as all the upper tips of the other push - rods . this horizontal level is at a suitable distance above the upper surface of plate 10 , said distance being preferably 1 / 4 &# 34 ; for an attachment to an electric typewriter . slidably moving back and forth in a direction orthogonal to rows of apertures 11 , 12 , 13 , and 14 , and parallel to plate 10 and positioned about 5 / 8 &# 34 ; above plate 10 is a plurality of flat , rectangular stips 40 of about 1 / 16 &# 34 ; of thickness , made of firm , low - friction , low - wear material , each having essentially circular apertures 41 , 42 , 43 , and 44 . these strips will be referred to as selecting elements . under the influence of pull solenoid 45 , spring 46 , and guide 82 , apertures 41 , 42 , 43 , and 44 of each selecting element 40 can be made to move back and forth in a rectilinear translation in a direction orthogonal to the rows 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 of apertures of plate 10 . the pattern of locations of apertures 41 , 42 , 43 , and 44 on each selecting element 40 can be seen in fig2 . fig5 shows twelve of these selecting elements 40 , with their apertures 41 , 42 , 43 , and 44 positioned above their corresponding push - rods and keys of the keyboard of a typewriter of the american electric standard type . it can be seen in this fig5 that one of these selecting elements 40 has only one of its apertures , aperture 41 , correspond to one of the keys of the keyboard , and another selecting element next to said first one has three of its apertures , apertures 41 , 42 , and 43 , correspond to three keys of the keyboard ; while all the remaining selecting elements have each its four apertures correspond to four keys of the keyboard . the pattern of locations of apertures of all selecting elements follows that which would correspond to the keys of said keyboard that would occupy the positions of the keys intended for the printing of characters &# 34 ; 6 ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; t ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; g ,&# 34 ; and &# 34 ; v &# 34 ; on said typewriter keyboard . as can be seen in fig1 the amplitude of the linear translational movement of selecting elements 40 is limited by means for limiting stops 48 and 49 . washers 49 secured on the plunger of each solenoid 45 , limit said movement of the selecting elements to the left ; while l - shape channel 48 limits said movement to the right . always referring to fig1 the left limiting position of the selecting elements will be referred to as the operative position , and the right limiting position of said selecting elements will be referred to as the inoperative position of said selecting elements . in the rest of this specification , the description of the operation of the invention is done as if each selecting element had all of its four apertures 41 , 42 , 43 , and 44 correspond to four keys of the keyboard . it will be obvious that such description would cover all other selecting elements with lesser number of apertures involved in the operation . slidable in reciprocal movements through apertures 41 , 42 , 43 , and 44 of selecting elements 40 are sticks 51 , 52 , 53 , and 54 , referred to as push - sticks . each push - stick , preferably , is formed with steel wire of about 16 gauge into a loop of inside diameter about 130 mils at one end , and into a straight line at the rest of the stick . details of such an embodiment of push - sticks can be seen in fig4 a . in the attachment for said electric typewriter , twelve push - sticks 51 are linked through their loops to the elongated , rectilinear part of about 1 / 8 &# 34 ; in diameter , of a bar 61 , which is also referred to as push - bar 61 , constructed as depicted in fig3 . spacers 66 , mounted between loops of said push - sticks , serve as means for maintaining the points of rotatable linkage between push - sticks and push - bars well located and stabilized on each push - bar . thus , referring to fig1 and repeating push - sticks 51 twelve times on push - bar 61 , it can be seen that all the loops of push - sticks 51 rotate on the same axis , are essentially parallel to themselves , and are orthogonal to that part of push - bar 61 going through them . similarly , eleven push - sticks 52 are rotatably linked to push - bar 62 ; eleven push - sticks 53 are rotatably linked to push - bar 63 ; and ten push - sticks 54 are rotatably linked to push - bar 64 . to be understood is that each push - rod in rows 21 , 22 , 23 , and 24 has one corresponding push - stick positioned above it as seen in fig1 . push - bar 61 is designed and mounted to be moved on command with proper strength and duration by an electrical pulse via solenoid 65 of a pull type , in a manner as to drive the axis of all the loops of push - sticks 51 rotating around it through an arc which is of small circular angle ; said arc being assimilable practically with a rectilinear excursion of about 1 / 4 &# 34 ;, in a direction vertical and going through the axes of all the push - rods 21 . in the preferred embodiment , this latter direction can be seen as orthogonal to the direction of movement of the selecting elements and to the direction of the elongated , rectilinear part of push - bar 61 . one way of implementing means for moving push - bar 61 in the described manner is to use a solenoid 65 of the pull type , a spring , and simple linkages well known in the art , as shown in fig3 . means for limiting the movement of the plunger of the solenoid 65 , and consequently the movement of the push - bar 61 , between two extreme positions , can be arranged as for the solenoids 45 and selecting elements 40 . these two positions for push - bar 61 , referring to fig1 are : the highest , referred to also as the inoperative position , and the lowest , referred to also as the operative position of push - bar 61 . when push - bar 61 is moved from inoperative position to operative position , one of two situations would happen : either the lower tip of one of the push - sticks 51 would go down vertically and bear on the circular area of the upper tip of one of the push - rods 21 corresponding to that push - stick and push that push - rod down a distance of about 3 / 16 &# 34 ;, or else , would go through a zone beyond the area of the upper tip of said particular push - rod 21 , and thus would have no effect on said push - rod 21 . one of these situations , made mutually exclusive , would happen depending whether the particular selecting element 40 through aperture 41 thereof slides push - stick 51 was moved to operative position or not at that particular moment . if said particular selecting element was moved to operative position , it would be pulled to the left in fig1 and the translational action of aperture 41 would cause the straight stick of push - stick 51 to be in a direction practically vertical that would go through the center of the upper tip surface of said push - rod 21 , and action on said push - rod would take place , and the corresponding key of said push - rod would be caused to move down about 3 / 16 &# 34 ; and held at that position long enough to cause the character corresponding to said key to be printed on the paper attached to the carriage of said typewriter . in the contrary , if said particular selecting element 40 was in the inoperative position at that particular moment , there would be no action on push - rod 21 . similar situations apply to push - rods 22 , 23 , and 24 , corresponding push - sticks 52 , 53 , and 54 , corresponding apertures 42 , 43 , and 44 of selecting elements , corresponding keys of the keyboard and push - bars 62 , 63 and 64 . in the operation of the invention , each time a character is to be printed , a code , e . g . one of the 128 possible 7 - bit codes of ascii , corresponding to that character is sent to the electronics of the attachment . this electronics decodes and translates this code uniquely into one electrical pulse of proper strength and duration for one and only one of the twelve solenoids 45 , and another electrical pulse of proper strength , duration and delay with respect to the first pulse , for one and only one of the four solenoids 65 . it can be seen then , one and only one character coresponding to the combined effects of one particular selecting element 40 and of one particular push - bar 61 , 62 , 63 or 64 , would be printed . the electronics of the attachment also issues an electrical pulse of proper strength , duration and a proper time ahead of the aforementioned pulses to cause the typewriter to shift up , shift down , stay up or stay down , by means of proper solenoids and linkages , in order to take care of the dual - character keys of the keyboard . as an extra part of this invention is the actuation of the class of keys characterized by &# 34 ; shift ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; space ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; tab ,&# 34 ; &# 34 ; carriage return ,&# 34 ; and &# 34 ; back space ,&# 34 ; which can be done more efficiently with solenoids dedicated to these functions , along with simple levers , linkages , and push - rods positioned correspondingly on the keys related to those functions . in this invention , as applied to a standard electric typewriter , eighty - eight characters can be manipulated remotely with only eighteen relatively small solenoids and their driving circuits . ( two solenoids are used in tandem for the shift - up and shift - down function to simplify the driving circuits ). this amount of hardware is relatively small compared to that required by the brute - force , one - solenoid - per - key , approach that would utilized forty - six solenoids of the same size as in this invention , with their forty - six driving circuits . this economy in hardware , and in cost , is realized whenever the invention is applicable to a keyboard of great number of keys . the greater the number of keys , the greater the economy realized , compared to said brute - force approach . the electronics can be made as sophisticated as necessary for parallel or serial communications with a remote station sending the codes , and can be implemented with state - of - the - art electronic components . each aperture of the selecting elements is such that it is large enough as to allow a large push - stick to slide in and out thereof but small enough as to ensure the suitable rigidity and durability of each selecting element and at the same time such that the movement of each selecting element between inoperative and operative positions does not create by friction the same movement in any of the other selecting elements . concavity which will enhance the reliability of the operation of the invention , and convexity for low - marring effect on keys of the keyboard can be machined into the upper and lower tips of the push - rods as shown in sectional view of fig1 . fig4 ( a ), 4 ( b ), and 4 ( c ) show three slightly varied forms of implementing means for rotatably linking the push - sticks to the push - bars . in all these forms , said elongated part of a push - bar is cylindrical and about 1 / 8 &# 34 ; in diameter . in fig4 ( a ), a push - stick is formed with steel wire of about 1 / 16 &# 34 ; in diameter into a loop of about 130 mils of inside diameter at one end , and into a straight stick at the rest of the push - stick . in fig4 ( b ), a push - stick is composed of a piece of low - friction , low - wear material having an aperture of inside diameter of about 130 mils and having attached thereto a straight stick of steel of about 1 / 16 &# 34 ; of diameter . in fig4 ( c ), a push - stick is formed in one piece , with a loop of inside diameter of about 130 mils at one end and a straight stick at the remainder . such a push - stick can be made of low - friction , low - wear materials by many processes well known in the art . in all three said forms of implementing means for rotatably linking the push - sticks to the push - bars , spacing means , similar to spacers 66 in fig3 is to be used to maintain the points of rotatable linkage between push - sticks and push - bars well located and stabilized on each push - bar . fig4 ( e ) and 4 ( g ) show another form of implementing said rotatable linkage . in this form , the elongated part of each push - bar is made of a straight strip of firm material such as steel of proper thickness . secured parallely to this strip by any means is another strip of similar material and similar dimensions having such apertures and such forming as to constitute with the first strip properly located , elongated rotatable bearings for push - sticks depicted in fig4 ( f ); said push - sticks being made as l - shaped sticks of firm material , preferably steel , of circular section of about 1 / 16 &# 34 ;. it is seen readily that spacing between push - sticks on the same push - bar is inherently built in here . the four forms of rotatable linkage just described are equally good in situations where the invention is applied to a keyboard in which the keys are readily groupable in rows and columns , one of said rows crossing one of said columns at an angle of ninety degrees . these four forms of rotatable linkage , however , will cause difficulties in the operation of the invention if said angle deviates appreciably from ninety degrees . in the most general cases , this angle not only would deviate appreciably from ninety degrees , it could vary from one crossing to another . the form of rotatable linkage depicted in fig4 ( d ) would make the operation of the invention possible in these most general cases . in this form , the elongated part of a push - bar is made similarly to the linkage depicted in fig4 ( e ) and 4 ( g ), in a manner as to form rotatable ball - and - socket joints with the globules at one end of the push - sticks ; each globule being of a diameter suitably greater than that of the rest of the push - stick , preferably made with a straight piece of steel wire of about 16 gauge . this last ball - and - socket form of rotatable linkage not only allows each push - stick in this case to rotate freely through a suitable angle in a plane as a push - stick in one of the aforementioned forms of linkage , it allows readily each push - stick to rotate freely through a suitable solid angle in space around the point of linkage . it can be seen also that spacing between push - sticks on the same push - bar is built in here , too . it can be thus appreciated that this last form of rotatable linkage allows the invention to be applicable to all the practical keyboards having a great number of keys arranged in any reasonably coordinated manner . when applied specifically to the keyboard of a typewriter , the operation of the invention can be improved with some extra parts that contribute to the strengthening of the attachment which characterizes the invention , and that allow the attachment to be quickly and easily put on , or removed from said typewriter . such parts can be seen in fig1 as a base 70 on which said typewriter is positioned and secured with fastening means that does not allow the removal of said typewriter therefrom unintentionally ; two side walls 80 secured to plate 10 and supporting it a suitable distance from base 70 , when said side walls are put to rest on said base in their operational position ; a square - section channel 84 secured at each of its ends to one of said side walls ; and finally limiters 83 secured on plate 10 along the rows of push - rods and protrusion 21a , as seen in fig6 formed in the upper tips of all the push - rods , serving the purpose of limiting the movement of the push - rods between an upper position , also referred to as inoperative position , and a lower position , also referred to as operative position of the push - rods . limiters 83 ensure the reliable operation of the invention when the combination attachment and typewriter is in such position as to orient the push - rods on a non upright and vertical direction , by preventing the push - rods from going in the direction from plate 10 to selecting elements 40 so far as to render the operation of the push - sticks difficult or impossible . protrusion 21a on the upper tips of the push - rods prevents the push - rods from falling out of plate 10 when the attachment is removed from the typewriter . the attachment can further have a cover for protection from dust and for decoration purpose , and can be managed to have room for the necessary electronics and power supplies . the whole attachment for a typewriter which is secured on a base in the manner described , can be put into the operational position on said typewriter by proper means for repeatably positioning the undersides of said side walls on the upper surface of said base , and fastening them thereto , in such a manner as to align the lower tips of all the push - rods on top of the correspondent keys of the keyboard . as the tops of said keys move along with the lower tips of the corresponding push - rods between two positions , the upper and lower positions of the keys are also referred to as the inoperative and operative positions of the keys , respectively , in the general assumption that , on the keyboard of a standard typewriter , said lower position of the keys is the one that actuates the functions intended for said keys . the invention having been described , it is to be understood that the different dimensions and forms of implementation set forth in this specification are for better visualization of the disclosure , are capable of further modification and variations , and should not be construed as to limit the scope of the invention , which is limited only by the appended claims .	1
embodiments of the inventive concept will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings . the inventive concept , however , may be embodied in various different forms , and should not be construed as being limited only to the illustrated embodiments . rather , these embodiments are provided as examples so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete , and will fully convey the inventive concept to those skilled in the art . throughout the attached drawings , like reference numerals denote like elements . hereinafter , an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings . as shown in fig1 , a computer system according to an embodiment of the inventive concept includes a storage device 1000 , a host device 2000 , and a connector 3000 . in detail , the storage device 1000 includes a processor 110 , a rom 120 , a ram 130 , a storage medium interface ( storage medium i / f ) 140 , a storage medium 150 , a host interface ( host i / f ) 160 , a nonvolatile memory device 170 , a power supply device 180 , and a bus 190 . the host device 2000 performs a process of issuing a command for operating the storage device 1000 , transmitting the issued command to the storage device 1000 connected via the connector 3000 , and transmitting or receiving data to or from the storage device 1000 according to the issued command . the connector 3000 is a means for electrically connecting an interface port of the host device 2000 and an interface port of the storage device 1000 , and includes a data connector and a power connector . for example , when a serial advanced technology attachment ( sata ) i / f is used , the connector 3000 may include a 7 - pin sata data connector and a 15 - pin sata power connector . first of all , the components of the storage device 1000 will be described . the power supply device 180 is a device for supplying a power source voltage required for the storage device 1000 , and serves to supply reserved power to the storage device 1000 when power is abnormally cut off . in fig1 , a power line is indicated by the dotted line . the operation of the power supply device 180 will be described with reference to fig1 . as shown in fig1 , the power supply device 180 includes a power supply unit 310 , a reserved power charging unit 320 , and a power distribution unit 330 . the power supply unit 310 is a means for supplying power required for the storage device 1000 in a normal power on state . the reserved power charging unit 320 is a means for supplying reserved power required for performing an operation of storing address map change information required for recovering address map information in the nonvolatile memory device 170 in the storage device 1000 when power supplied from the power supply unit 310 is abnormally turned off . a detailed operation of the reserved power charging unit 320 will be described in detail with reference to fig1 and 13 . the power distribution unit 330 serves to select power generated from the power supply unit 310 or the reserved power charging unit 320 and distribute the selected power to a required circuit in the storage device 1000 under the control of the processor 110 . in particular , in case of abnormal power off , the power distribution unit 330 supplies power charged in the reserved power charging unit 320 to the storage device 1000 according to a second control signal ctl 2 applied from the processor 110 . for reference , when the storage device 1000 is initialized , the processor 110 generates a first control signal ctl 1 having a logical value for connecting a first input terminal in 1 and an output terminal out of the power distribution unit 330 . and , while power is being normally supplied , the processor 110 generates the first control signal ctl 1 having a logical value for connecting a first input terminal in 1 and an output terminal out of the power distribution unit 330 . when power supply is abnormally turned off , the processor 110 generates a first control signal ctl 1 having a logical value for connecting a second input terminal in 2 and the output terminal out of the power distribution unit 330 . when a voltage of power applied to the storage device is dropped to below a threshold voltage in a state in which a power off control signal is not generated , the processor 110 determines that abnormal power off has occurred . namely , when the voltage of power output from the power supply device 180 is dropped to below the threshold voltage in a power on mode , the processor 110 determines that abnormal power off has occurred . in this manner , while power is normally supplied according to the first control signal ctl 1 generated by the processor 110 , power generated from the power supply unit 310 is supplied to the storage device 1000 , and when power supply is abnormally turned off , power generated by the reserved power charging unit 320 is supplied to the storage device 1000 . first , an operation of a reserved power charging unit 320 ′ according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig1 . as illustrated in fig1 , the reserved power charging unit 320 ′ according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first switching unit sw 1 and a capacitor c 1 . a power source voltage vd generated by the power supply unit 310 is applied to a first terminal t 1 of the first switching unit sw 1 , a first terminal of the capacitor c 1 is connected to a second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 , and a second terminal of the capacitor c 1 is connected to a ground . a second control signal ctl 2 for controlling the switching operation of the first switching unit sw 1 is applied to a control terminal t 3 of the first switching unit sw 1 . the second control signal ctl 2 is generated by the processor 110 as follows . the processor 110 generates the second control signal ctl 2 having a logical value for connecting the first terminal t 1 and the second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 in a power on state . when abnormal power off occurs , the processor 110 generates a second control signal ctl 2 having a logical value for cutting off the first terminal t 1 and the second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 . in this manner , according to the generated second control signal ctl 2 , in a power on state , the power source voltage vd is charged to the capacitor c 1 , and in a state in which supplied power is abnormally cut off , the voltage charged in the capacitor c 1 is applied to the second input terminal in 2 of the power distribution unit 330 . namely , when the supplied power is abnormally cut off , the voltage charged in the capacitor c 1 is supplied as reserved power to the storage device . with reference back to fig1 , the processor 110 interprets commands and controls the components of the data storage device according to the interpretation results . the processor generates various control signals required for controlling the power supply device 180 . also , the processor 110 may include a code object management unit , and may load a code object stored in the storage medium 150 to the ram 130 by using the code object management unit . the processor 110 loads code objects to the ram 130 for executing the method for managing address map information and the access method in a disk drive according to the flow charts of fig1 to 24 , and the method for managing address map information through a network according to the flow chart of fig4 . then , the processor 110 may execute tasks with respect to the method for managing address map information and the access method in a disk drive according to the flow charts of fig1 to 24 , and the method for managing address map information through a network according to the flow chart of fig4 by using the code objects loaded to the ram 130 . the method for managing address map information , the access method in a disk drive , and the method for managing address map information through a network executed by the processor 110 will be handled in detail in a description of fig1 to 24 and fig4 . the rom 120 stores program codes and data required for operating the data storage device . the program codes and data stored in the rom 120 or the storage medium 150 are loaded to the ram 130 under the control of the processor 110 . in an embodiment of the present invention , when the storage device is initialized , the processor 110 loads address mp information stored in the storage medium 150 to the ram 130 . if it is designed to store address map information in the nonvolatile memory device 170 , when the storage device is initialized , the processor 110 loads the address map information stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 to the ram 130 . address map change information generated whenever data is written is stored in the ram 130 . the address map change information may include information regarding a position of data written without being reflected in address map information stored in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 . the address map change information may include a logical band number , a virtual band number , and a finally accessed virtual address . the address map change information may include a logical band number with respect to data written without being reflected in address map information stored in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 , a virtual band number allocated to the logical band , and a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band allocated to the logical band . the ram , as a volatile memory device , may be implemented as a dram or an sram . also , the ram 130 may be designed to be driven according to an sdr ( single data rate ) method or a ddr ( double data rate ) method . the storage medium 150 is a main storage medium of the storage device , and may include a disk or a non - volatile semiconductor memory device . for example , the storage device may include a disk drive and a detailed configuration of a head disk assembly 100 , including a disk and a head in the disk drive , is shown in fig3 . referring to fig3 , the head disk assembly 100 includes at least one disk 12 rotated by a spindle motor 14 . the disk drive may also include a head 16 positioned adjacent to a surface of the disk 12 . the head 16 senses and magnetizes a magnetic field of each disk 12 , thereby reading information from or writing information to the rotating disk 12 . typically , the head 16 is coupled to a surface of each disk 12 . although a single head 16 is illustrated , the head 16 needs to be regarded as including a write head for magnetizing the disk 12 and a separate read head for sensing the magnetic field of the disk 12 . the read head may include a magneto - resistive ( mr ) element . the head 16 may be referred to as a magnetic head or a head . the head 16 may be incorporated into a slider 20 . the slider 20 is configured to generate an air bearing between the head 16 and the surface of the disk 12 . the slider 20 is coupled to a head gimbal assembly 22 that is attached to an actuator arm 24 having a voice coil 26 . the voice coil 26 is positioned adjacent to a magnetic assembly 28 so as to define a voice coil motor ( vcm ) 30 . a current provided to the voice coil 26 generates a torque which rotates the actuator arm 24 with respect to a bearing assembly 32 . the rotation of the actuator arm 24 moves the head 16 across the surface of the disk 12 . information is usually stored in ring - shaped tracks 34 of the disk 12 . each track 34 generally includes multiple sectors . a sector structure of a track is illustrated in fig5 . as shown in fig5 , one servo sector t includes a servo information field s and a data field . the data field may include a plurality of data sectors d . of course , one servo sector may include a single data sector d . the data sector is also called a sector . the data sector d may include an area for storing data and a spare area . in an embodiment of the present invention , a logical block address ( lba ) corresponding to data written to the data sector d is written in the spare area of the corresponding data sector d . also , signals as illustrated in fig6 are recorded to the servo information field s . as shown in fig6 , a preamble 601 , a servo synchronization indication signal 602 , a gray code 603 , and a burst signal 604 are written to the servo information field s . the preamble 601 provides clock synchronization when reading servo information , and provides a predetermined timing margin by setting a gap before the servo sector . also , the preamble 601 is used to determine a gain ( not shown ) of an automatic gain control ( agc ) circuit . the servo synchronization indication signal 602 consists of a servo address mark ( sam ) and a servo index mark ( sim ). the servo address mark is a signal that indicates a start of a sector , and the servo index mark is a signal that indicates a start of a first servo sector in a track . the gray code 603 provides track information , and the burst signal 604 is used to control the head 16 to follow the center of the track 34 . for example , the burst signal may include four patterns a , b , c , and d , and four burst patterns are combined to generate a position error signal used to control track following . the disk 12 is divided into a maintenance cylinder area , which is inaccessible to a user , and a user data area , which is accessible to the user . the maintenance cylinder area may be referred to as a system area . various information required to control the disk drive is stored in the maintenance cylinder area , as well as information required to perform the storage medium access method , data writing method , and storage device parameter adjustment method according to the present invention . particularly , the maintenance cylinder area stores a mapping table for converting a logical block address lba into a virtual address va based on a virtual zone or virtual band . here , the address map information may include information for converting a logical block address received from the host device into a physical address of the storage medium based on a virtual band corresponding to the physical area of the storage medium including a disk . in detail , the address map information may include mapping information between a logical band classified as an aggregate of logical block addresses and a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the storage medium and mapping information between a logical block address in a virtual band allocated to a logical band and a virtual address . also , the address map information may include mapping table information indicating a correspondence relationship of a physical address of the storage medium to a logical block address . also , the address map information may include mapping table information indicating an allocation relationship between the logical band classified as an aggregate of logical block addresses and a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the storage medium and an allocation relationship between the logical block address in the logical band and the virtual address . the head 16 moves across the surfaces of the disk 12 in order to read or write information in different tracks . a plurality of code objects used to realize various functions of the disk drive may be stored in the disk 12 . for example , a code object for executing an mp3 player function , a code object for executing a navigation function , a code object for executing various video games , and the like , may be stored in the disk 12 . referring again to fig1 , the storage medium interface 140 is an element that enables the processor 110 to access the storage medium 150 in order to write and read information . in detail , the storage medium interface 140 in the storage device that is implemented as a disk drive includes a servo circuit controlling the head disk assembly 100 and a read / write channel circuit performing signal processing for data reading / writing . the host interface 160 performs data transmission / reception to / from the host device 2000 such as a personal computer , a mobile device , etc ., and may be an interface having various sizes , such as a serial advanced technology attachment ( sata ) interface , a parallel advanced technology attachment ( pata ) interface , or a universal serial bus ( usb ) interface . the nonvolatile memory device 170 may be implemented as a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device . for example , the nonvolatile memory device 170 may be implemented as a flash memory , a pram ( phase change ram ), an fram ( ferroelectric ram ), a mram ( magnetic ram ), or the like . address map change information is stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 . in detail , when supplied power is abnormally cut off , the address map change information stored in the ram 130 is read and stored to the nonvolatile memory device 170 under the control of the processor 110 . the bus 170 transfers information between the elements of the storage device . next , a software operation system of a hard disk drive , which is an example of the storage device , will be described with reference to fig2 . as shown in fig2 , a plurality of code objects 1 through n are stored in a disk 150 a , which is a storage medium of the hard disk drive ( hdd ). the rom 120 stores a boot image and a packed real time operating system ( rtos ) image . the plurality of code objects 1 through n are stored in the disk 150 a . the code objects stored in the disk may include not only code objects required for operating the disk drive but also code objects related to various functions that may be extended to the disk drive . in particular , code objects for executing the method for managing address map information and the access method in a disk drive according to the flow charts of fig1 to 24 , and the method for managing address map information through a network according to the flow chart of fig4 are stored in the disk 150 a . obviously , the code objects for executing the methods according to the flowcharts of fig1 to 24 and fig4 may also be stored in the rom 120 instead of the disk 150 a . also , code objects performing various functions such as a mp3 player function , a navigation function , a video game function , or the like may also be stored in the disk 150 a . the ram 130 reads the boot image from the rom 120 while booting the disk drive , and an unpacked rtos image is loaded to the ram 130 . also , code objects required to operate a host interface stored in the disk 150 a are loaded to the ram 130 . in particular , the address map information is loaded to the ram 130 . also , the address map change information generated whenever a data write operation is performed is stored in the ram 130 . circuits that are required to perform signal processing for data reading / writing are included in a channel circuit 200 , and circuits required for controlling the head disk assembly 100 for performing data reading / writing operations are included in a servo circuit 210 . an rtos 110 a is a real time operating system program and is a multi - program operating system using a disk . in the rtos 110 a , real time multi - processing is performed as a foreground process having high priority , and batch processing is performed as a background process having low priority according to a task . also , the rtos 110 a loads code objects from the disk and unloads code objects onto the disk . the rtos 110 a manages a code object management unit ( comu ) 110 - 1 , a code object loader ( col ) 110 - 2 , a memory handler ( mh ) 110 - 3 , a channel control module ( ccm ) 110 - 4 , and a servo control module ( scm ) 110 - 5 to perform tasks according to requested commands . the rtos 110 a also manages application programs 220 . in detail , the rtos 110 a loads code objects required for controlling the disk drive to the ram 130 when booting the disk drive . accordingly , after the booting is executed , the disk drive may be operated by using code objects loaded to the ram 130 . the comu 110 - 1 stores location information regarding locations to which code objects are written , and arbitrates a bus . also , the comu 110 - 1 stores information regarding priorities of performed tasks . in addition , the comu 110 - 1 manages task control block ( tcb ) information required to execute tasks for code objects , and stack information . the col 110 - 2 loads the code objects stored in the disk 150 a to the ram 130 using the comu 110 - 1 and unloads the code objects stored in the ram 130 to the disk 150 a . accordingly , the col 110 - 2 may load the code objects stored in the disk 150 a used to execute the methods according to the flowcharts of fig1 to 24 and fig4 to the ram 130 . the rtos 110 a may execute the methods according to the flowcharts of fig1 to 24 and fig4 , which will be described below , by using the code objects loaded to the ram 130 . the mh 110 - 3 performs writing or reading data to / from the rom 120 and the ram 130 . the ccm 110 - 4 performs channel controlling required for performing signal processing for data reading / writing , and the scm 110 - 5 performs servo controlling including the head disk assembly for performing data reading / writing . next , an electrical circuit configuration of the disk drive 1000 as an example of a storage device according to an embodiment of a technical concept of the present invention illustrated in fig1 is illustrated in fig4 . as shown in fig4 , the disk drive 1000 according to an embodiment of a technical concept of the present invention includes a pre - amplifier 410 , a read / write ( r / w ) channel 420 , a processor 430 , a voice coil motor ( vcm ) driver 440 , a spindle motor ( spm ) driver 450 , an rom 460 , a ram 470 , a host interface 480 , a nonvolatile memory device 490 , and a power supply device 500 . the processor 430 may be a digital signal processor ( dsp ), a microprocessor , a microcontroller , or the like . the processor 430 controls the r / w channel 420 to read information from the disk 12 or write information to the disk 12 according to a command received from the host device 2000 through the host interface 480 . the processor 430 is coupled to the vcm driver 440 which provides a driving current for driving the vcm 30 . the processor 430 provides a control signal to the vcm driver 440 to control motion of the head 16 . the processor 430 is coupled to the spm driver 450 , which provides a driving current for driving a spindle motor ( spm ) 14 . the processor 430 , upon being supplied with power , provides a control signal to the spm driver 450 to rotate the spm 14 at a target speed . the processor 430 is coupled to the power supply device 500 and generates control signals for controlling the power supply device 500 . the processor 430 is also coupled to the rom 460 and the ram 470 . the rom 460 stores firmware and control data for controlling the disk drive . the rom 460 also stores program codes and information for executing the methods according to the flowcharts of fig1 to 24 and fig4 . obviously , the program codes and information for executing the methods according to the flowcharts of fig1 to 24 and fig4 may be stored in the maintenance cylinder area of the disk 12 , instead of the rom 460 . the ram 470 loads the program codes stored in the rom 460 or the disk 12 in an initialization mode under the control of the processor 430 , and temporarily stores data received through the host interface 480 or data read from the disk 12 . in particular , address map information is loaded to the ram 470 in an initialization mode . namely , address map information is stored in the ram 470 in an initialization mode . also , address map change information generated whenever a data write operation is executed is stored in the ram 470 . the ram 470 may be implemented by a dynamic random access memory ( dram ) or a synchronous random access memory ( sram ). the ram 570 may be designed to operate in a single data rate ( sdr ) or double data rate ( ddr ) scheme . the processor 430 may control the disk drive so as to execute the methods according to the flowcharts of fig1 to 24 and fig4 using program codes and information stored in the rom 460 or the maintenance cylinder area of the disk 12 . the ram 490 may be implemented as a flash memory , a pram ( phase change ram ), an fram ( ferroelectric ram ), a mram ( magnetic ram ), or the like . address map change information is stored in the nonvolatile memory device 490 . in detail , when supplied power is abnormally cut off , the address map change information stored in the ram 470 is read and stored to the nonvolatile memory device 490 under the control of the processor 430 . the power supply device 500 is a device for supplying a power source voltage required for the disk drive , and when power is abnormally cut off , the power supply device 500 supplies reserved power to the disk drive . in fig4 , a power source line is indicated by the dotted line . a detailed configuration example of the power supply device 500 is illustrated in fig1 . fig1 has been already described above , so repetitive descriptions will be omitted . the reserved power charging unit 320 illustrated in fig1 may be designed as shown in fig1 or may also be designed as shown in fig1 . a detailed configuration of the reserved power charging unit illustrated in fig1 has been already described above , so repetitive descriptions thereof will be omitted . another embodiment of the reserved power charging unit illustrated in fig1 will be described . as shown in fig1 , a reserved power charging unit 320 ″ according to another embodiment of the present invention includes a first switching unit sw 1 , a second switching unit sw 2 , and a capacitor c 1 . a power source voltage vd generated by the power supply unit 310 is applied to a first terminal t 1 of the first switching unit sw 1 , a first terminal of the capacitor c 1 is connected to a second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 , and a second terminal of the capacitor c 1 is connected to a ground . a second control signal ctl 2 for controlling the switching operation of the first switching unit sw 1 is applied to a control terminal t 3 of the first switching unit sw 1 . a terminal of a spindle motor spm generating counter electromotive force is connected to a first terminal t 4 of the second switching unit sw 2 , a first terminal of the capacitor c 1 is connected to a second terminal t 5 of the second switching unit sw 2 , and a third control signal ctl 3 for controlling a switching operation of the second switching unit sw 2 is applied to a control terminal t 6 of the second switching unit sw 2 . the second control signal ctl 2 and the third control signal ctl 3 are generated by the processor 430 as follows . the processor 430 generates the second control signal ctl 2 having a logical value for connecting the first terminal t 1 and the second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 in a power on state . in a state in which supplied power is abnormally cut off , the processor 430 generates a second control signal ctl 2 having a logical value for cutting off the first terminal t 1 and the second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 . in this manner , according to the generated second control signal ctl 2 , in a power on state , the power source voltage vd is charged to the capacitor c 1 , and in a state in which supplied power is abnormally cut off , the voltage charged in the capacitor c 1 is applied to the second input terminal in 2 of the power distribution unit 330 . namely , when the supplied power is abnormally cut off , the voltage charged in the capacitor c 1 is supplied as reserved power to the storage device . in the state in which supplied power is abnormally cut off , the processor 430 generates a third control signal ctl 3 having a logical value for connecting the first terminal t 4 and the second terminal t 5 of the second switching unit sw 2 , and applies the generated third control signal ctl 3 to the control terminal t 6 of the second switching unit sw 2 . accordingly , the capacitor c 1 is charged by counter electromotive force ( bemf ) generated from the spindle motor 14 rotated by inertia after supplied power is cut off . with reference to fig4 , a data read operation and a data write operation executed after a physical address of a disk corresponding to a logical block address designated by a read command or a write command will be described . in a data read mode , the disk drive amplifies an electrical signal sensed by the head 16 from the disk 12 in a pre - amplifier 410 . and then , a signal output from the pre - amplifier 410 by an automatic gain control circuit ( not shown ) which automatically varies a gain according to the amplitude of a signal in the read / write channel 420 , converted into a digital signal , and then , decoded to detect data . for example , the detected data is subjected to error correction processing using a reed - solomon code as an error correction code , converted into stream data , and then , transmitted to the host device 2000 through the host interface 480 . in a data write mode , the disk drive receives data and lbas from the host device through the host interface 480 , adds an error correction symbol by the reed - solomon code to the data by the processor 430 , encoded to fit a record channel by the read / write channel 420 , and then , recorded in the disk 12 through the head 16 by a record current amplified by the pre - amplifier 410 . in an embodiment of the present invention , corresponding lbas are written to data stored in a sector of a spare area allocated to each sector in a data write mode . an operation for executing the method according to the flow chart of fig1 to 24 and fig4 by the processor 430 by using the program codes and information loaded to the ram 470 will be described . first , a shingled write method , a novel write method proposed to enhance a record density in a disk drive as one of storage devices according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described . the shingle write method is a writing method in which data is written only in one direction as tracks on a disk are overwritten as if shingles are stacked . that is , as shown in fig7 , in the shingle write method , assuming that data is written only in the arrow direction , an ( n − 1 ) th track is partially overwritten when an nth track adjacent to the ( n − 1 ) th track is written , and the nth track is partially overwritten when the ( n + 1 ) th track adjacent to the nth track is written , thereby increasing the tpi ( track per inch ) characteristic , which is the radial recording density of a storage medium . the shingle write method has to satisfy the restriction that the ( n − 1 ) th track cannot be written after writing the nth track because a flux is always generated only in one direction . as shown in fig8 , if the ( n − 1 ) th track in the direction opposite to the shingle write direction is written after writing the nth track , the nth track is erased due to an adjacent track interference ( ati ) effect . accordingly , to solve this problem , there is a need for a technique of dynamically allocating a new disk address for a logical block address ( lba ) provided from a host so as to always perform writing only in either one of the inner and outer circumferential directions of the disk . the present invention provides a disk accessing method , which uses an existing lbas as it is by using a virtual address in the process of converting the existing lbas into a cylinder head sector ( chs ), i . e ., a physical address of a disk drive , and satisfies the condition that the shingle write direction in the disk drive is limited to only one direction . referring to fig9 , the configurations of a zone and virtual bands for realizing the accessing method suggested in the present invention will be described . a storage area of the disk 12 is divided into a plurality of physical zones . the tpi ( tracks per inch ), i . e ., recording density , and bpi ( bits per inch ) for each physical zone may be differently set . each physical zone includes a plurality of virtual bands , and each virtual band is defined as a set of consecutive m tracks to be overwritten . also , a guard track is arranged between the virtual bands to avoid overwriting between the virtual bands . referring to fig9 , ( k + 1 ) number of virtual bands vb_ 0 to vb_k are arranged in physical zone 1 . that is , a virtual band is defined as a segment of a unit size of a physical storage space of a storage medium . in the track included in the virtual bands , address map information is generated such that data is sequentially written in any one of an inner circumferential direction or outer circumferential direction of the disk . next , the structure of allocating logical bands and virtual bands for each zone will be described with reference to fig1 . fig1 is a view schematically showing the structure of allocating virtual bands vb to logical bands lb for each physical zone of a storage medium according to an embodiment of the inventive concept . as shown in fig1 , virtual bands are allocated to logical bands in order to perform an actual writing operation in a physical zone of a storage medium . physical zone 1 of the storage medium may consist of ( k + 1 ) number of logical bands . a logical band is defined as a set of consecutive logical block addresses in units of a first size . that is , a logical band refers to a set of consecutive writable logical block addresses . for example , assuming that the range of logical block addresses of physical zone 1 consists of 10 , 000 lbas of 0 through 999 , and each of the logical bands belonging to physical zone 1 is defined as a set of 1 , 000 lbas , the number of logical bands included in physical zone 1 is 10 . the number of virtual bands is set to q ( q & gt ; k ), which is more than the number of logical bands . the virtual bands are defined as the segments of the physical storage device of the storage in units of a second size . that is , if the storage medium is a disk , a virtual band is defined as a set of m tracks to be overwritten . virtual bands not allocated to logical bands may be referred to as reserved virtual bands . in other words , storage areas corresponding to the virtual bands not allocated to the logical bands may be referred to as reserved areas . reserved virtual band information is stored in a free queue to be explained in fig1 below . an operation of managing address map information in a storage device including a storage device for accessing by using a virtual band will be described . fig1 is a view showing a detailed configuration of the processor 110 and the ram 130 of the storage device illustrated in fig1 and the processor 430 and the ram 470 of the disk drive illustrated in fig4 according to an embodiment of the present invention . for the sake of explanation ; fig1 will be described with reference to the disk drive of fig4 . as shown in fig1 , the processor 430 includes a power control processor 430 - 1 , an address map information management processor 430 - 2 , and an address conversion processor 430 - 3 . address map information 470 - 1 is loaded to the ram 470 under the control of an address map information management processor 430 - 2 . here , the address map information may include information for converting a logical block address into a physical address of a storage medium by using a virtual address . the address map information may be , for example , mapping table information showing an allocation relationship between a logical band and a virtual band , and an allocation relationship between a logical block address and a virtual address in a virtual band allocated to a logical band . also , the address map information may be included in meta information . the address map information 470 - 1 may be read from the nonvolatile memory device 490 or the disk 12 and stored to the ram 470 . the address map information 470 - 1 may be configured to search for a virtual address based on lba . the virtual address may be defined based on a physical address in a storage medium . when the storage medium is a disk , the virtual address may be defined based on a physical address of a sector . also , the virtual address of the disk may be defined based on chs ( cylinder header sector ). besides , the virtual address of the disk may be defined based on a physical zone , a virtual band , a track , and a sector . the address map information 470 - 1 may be generated such that data is sequentially written in any one of an inner circumferential direction and an outer circumferential direction in a track of the disk included in a virtual band according to the shingled write method . the address map information 470 - 1 may include information representing an allocation structure of logical bands and virtual bands for each physical zone . that is , the address map information 470 - 1 may include information representing the mapping structure of virtual bands allocated to logical bands for each physical zone as shown in fig1 . address map information showing an allocation state of the virtual bands allocated to the logical bands illustrated in fig1 may be generated as shown in fig2 . as shown in fig2 , the address map information may include a logical band number lba no , a virtual band number vb no , and a finally accessed virtual address number la va in a virtual band . with reference to fig2 , it can be seen that virtual band numbers 2 and 0 are allocated to a logical band number 0 , a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number 2 is 199 , and a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number 0 is a . for example , when the size of virtual bands is allocated into 200 sectors , and virtual addresses 0 to 199 are set for each virtual band , the final virtual address 199 is allocated to the virtual band number 2 , so there is no virtual address which can be newly allocated . in case in which ‘ a ’ has a value smaller than 199 , when a write command with respect to lbas included in a logical band 0 is received , the address map information is updated such that a virtual address ( a + 1 ) of the virtual band number 0 is mapped to lbas designated by the write command . in fig2 , a , b , c , and d are virtual addresses having an integer value between 1 and 199 . an example of a mapping structure of virtual addresses ( va ) with respect to lbas in the virtual band 0 ( vb_ 0 ) allocated to the logical band number 0 is illustrated in fig2 . with reference to fig2 , the virtual band 0 ( vb_ 0 ) includes virtual addresses 0 to 199 , and the virtual addresses are allocated by sector . thus , according to fig2 , 200 sectors are included in a unit virtual band . thus , in fig2 , 200 sectors are included in a unit virtual band . horizontal lines show sectors included in a single track . as shown in fig2 , one track includes 20 sectors . 20 sectors included in a track 1 are designated as virtual addresses 0 to 19 , respectively . the 20 sectors included in a track 10 are designated as vas 180 to 199 in the same manner . as shown in fig2 , lbas 0 to 9 are allocated to vas 0 to 9 , lba 20 and 21 are allocated to vas 15 and 16 , lbas 50 to 59 are allocated to vas 38 to 47 , and lbas 10 to 18 are allocated to vas 86 to 94 . vas 10 to 14 , 17 to 37 , and 48 to 85 represent invalidated virtual addresses , and vas 95 to 199 represent non - allocated valid virtual addresses . the invalidated virtual addresses refer to previous virtual addresses corresponding to updated lbas . address map information with respect to virtual band 0 ( vb_ 0 ) illustrated in fig2 may be generated as shown in fig2 a , for example . fig2 a is a view showing a mapping table simply showing mapping relationships of vas corresponding to individual lbas allocated in vb_ 0 . the mapping table having the structure as shown in fig2 a has a structure in which vas corresponding to respective lbas are simply arranged , so the amount of data is disadvantageously large . thus , in order to complement the shortcomings , a method of generating address map information by grouping a group in which lbas and vas are sequentially increased together is proposed . namely , in the newly proposed address map information , a group in which lbas and vas are sequentially increased together is represented by a start lba , a start va , and a number ( scn ) of sequentially increased sector . with reference to fig2 , in vas 0 to 9 , lbas 0 to 9 are sequentially increased , in vas 15 to 16 , lba 20 to 21 are sequentially increased , in vas 38 to 47 , lba 50 to 59 are sequentially increased , and in vas 86 to 94 , lbas 10 to 18 are sequentially increased . the mapping information regarding the four groups in which lbas and vas are sequentially increased together as described above may be shown in fig2 b . with respect to a group in which lbas 0 to 9 are sequentially increased in vas 0 to 9 , a start lba 0 , a start va 0 , and the number of sequentially increased sectors is 10 , so ( lba , scn , va ) may be represented as ( 0 , 10 , 0 ). in the same manner , with respect to a group in which lbas 20 to 21 are sequentially increased in vas 15 to 16 , since the start lba 20 , the start va 15 , and the number of sequentially increased sectors is 2 , ( lba , scn , va ) may be represented by ( 20 , 2 , 15 ). also , in a group in which lbas 50 to 59 are sequentially increased in vas 38 to 47 may be represented by ( 50 , 10 , 38 ), and in a group in which lbas 10 to 18 in va 86 - 94 , ( lba , scn , va ) may be represented by ( 10 , 9 , 86 ). to sum up , the address map information of fig2 a may be generated as shown in fig2 b . it can be seen that the address map information is simple and the amount of data is reduced in comparison to the address map information illustrated in fig2 a . with respect to virtual bands allocated to logical bands , address map information for each virtual band may be generated in such a manner as shown in fig2 b . thus , the allocation relationship of the logical bands and the virtual bands as shown in fig2 , the mapping information representing a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band , and mapping information representing vas corresponding to lbas in the virtual band allocated to the logical band as shown in fig2 a or 27 b may be loaded to the ram 470 by zone . with reference to fig1 , the power control processor 430 - 1 generates control signals required for controlling the power supply device in fig1 to 13 . the power control processor 430 - 1 generates a first control signal ctl 1 having a logical value connecting a first input terminal in 1 and an output terminal out of the power distribution unit 330 . the power control processor 430 - 1 generates a first control signal ctl 1 having a logical value for connecting the first input terminal in 1 and the output terminal out . when supplied power is abnormally cut off , the power control processor 430 - 1 generates the first control signal ctl 1 having a logical value for connecting the second input terminal in 2 and the output terminal out . when a power voltage applied to the storage device is dropped to below a threshold value in a state in which power off control signal is not generated , the power control processor 430 - 1 determines that supplied power is abnormally cut off . namely , when a voltage of power output in the power supply device 500 is dropped to below a threshold voltage , the power control processor 430 - 1 determines that abnormal power off has occurred . while supplied power is being normally supplied according to the first control signal ctl 1 generated in the power control processor 430 - 1 power generated by the power supply unit 310 is supplied to the circuits constituting the disk drive , and when abnormal power off occurs , power generated by the reserved power charging unit 320 is supplied to the circuits constituting the disk drive . the power control processor 430 - 1 generates a second control signal ctl 2 having a logical value for connecting a first terminal t 1 and a second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 illustrated in fig1 in a power on state . in a state in which abnormal power off occurs , the power control processor 430 - 1 generates the second control signal ctl 2 having a logical value for disconnecting the first terminal t 1 and the second terminal t 2 of the first switching unit sw 1 . according to the second control signal ctl 2 , in the power on state , the power voltage vd is charged to the capacitor c 1 , and in a power off state in which power supply is abnormal , the voltage charged in the capacitor c 1 is applied to the second input terminal in 2 of the power distribution unit 330 . namely , when abnormal power off occurs , the voltage charged in the capacitor c 1 is supplied as reserved power to the circuits constituting the disk drive . also , in a state in which abnormal power off occurs , the power control processor 430 - 1 generates a third control signal ctl 3 having a logical value for connecting the first terminal t 4 and the second terminal t 5 of the second switching unit sw 2 and applies it to the control terminal t 6 of the second switching unit sw 2 . accordingly , the capacitor c 1 is charged by counter electromotive force ( bemf ) generated from the spindle motor 14 rotating by inertia . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 performs a process of managing address map information . in detail , when power is supplied to the disk drive , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 loads address map information stored in the nonvolatile storage device 490 to the ram 470 . namely , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 reads the address map information from the disk 12 or the nonvolatile storage device 490 and stores it to the ram 470 . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 changes the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 based on a write command . namely , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 adds virtual band newly allocated to a logical band or virtual address information added according to lbas in an allocated virtual band to the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 . accordingly , the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 is updated whenever a write command is executed . whenever a write command is executed , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 generates the address map change information 470 - 2 and stores it to the ram 470 . the address map change information 470 - 2 is information related to a position of data written in the disk 12 without being reflected on address map information stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . the address map change information 470 - 2 may be configured to include a logical band number , a virtual band number , and information regarding a finally accessed virtual address . namely , the address map change information 470 - 2 may be configured by a logical band number lb no with respect to data written to the disk 12 without being reflected on the address map information stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory 490 , a virtual band number vb no allocated to a corresponding logical band , and a virtual address la va finally accessed in a virtual band allocated to the corresponding logical band . in an embodiment of the present invention , whenever the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 is updated according to a write command , the updated address map information 470 - 1 is not stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . the reason is because , if the process of storing the updated address map information in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 is performed whenever the address map information 470 - 1 is updated , while the address map information is being stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 , a write / read process cannot be performed , degrading the performance of the disk drive . thus , in an embodiment of the present invention , for example , the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 is stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 under the following conditions . when a system termination command is received , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 stores the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . and , when the address map change information 470 - 2 stored in the ram 470 is stored in a full state on an initially set address map change information list , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 stores the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 to the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . here , the full state refers to a state in which address map change information cannot be added to the address map change information list any further . the size of the address map change information list may be determined to be a size for storing the address map change information in the nonvolatile storage device 490 by reserved power when power is abnormally cut off . after storing the address map information 470 - 1 , stored in the ram 470 , to the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 deletes the address map change information 470 - 2 stored in the ram 470 . namely , after storing the address map information 470 - 1 , stored in the ram 470 , to the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 performs a process of deleting the address map change information 470 - 2 . when abnormal power off occurs , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 stores the address map change information 470 - 2 stored in the ram 470 to the nonvolatile memory device 490 by using reserved power . for reference , when voltage of power applied to the storage device is dropped to below a threshold voltage in a state in which power off control signal is not generated , the power control processor 430 - 1 determines that abnormal power off has occurred . accordingly , when the power control processor 430 - 1 determines that abnormal power off has occurred , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 stores the address map change information 470 - 2 stored in the ram 470 to the nonvolatile memory device 490 . for example , it is assumed that after the address map information having an allocation state of virtual bands with respect to the logical bands as shown in fig2 a is stored from the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 to the ram 470 , the address map information stored in the ram 470 is changed to the address map information having the allocation state of the virtual bands with respect to the logical bands as shown in fig2 b according to performing of a write command . also , it is assumed that power is abnormally cut off before the address map information configured by the logical bands and the virtual bands as shown in fig2 b stored in the ram 470 is stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . the address map information regarding the logical bands and the virtual bands as shown in fig2 a is as shown in fig2 . with reference to fig2 , a virtual band number 0 is allocated to a logical band number 0 , and the finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number 0 is 199 . virtual band numbers 1 and 3 are allocated to the logical band number 3 , a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number 3 is 101 . virtual band numbers 2 and 4 are allocated to a logical band number k , a finally accessed virtual address in a virtual band number 2 is 199 , and a finally accessed virtual address in a virtual band number 3 is 145 . in the above description , a unit virtual band includes virtual addresses 0 to 199 . namely , the unit virtual band includes 200 sectors . thus , the virtual bands in which the finally accessed virtual address is 199 are virtual bands in which a valid virtual address that may be allocated to the lbas does not exist . when the disk drive is initialized , the address map information as shown in fig2 stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory 490 is loaded to the ram 470 . also , when the disk drive is initialized , address map information indicating a mapping relationship of vas corresponding to lbas in each virtual band allocated to the logical bands stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 is also loaded to the ram 470 . for example , when an allocation structure of vas with respect to the lbas of the virtual band number 3 allocated to the logical band number 3 is as shown in fig3 , address map information indicating a mapping relationship of the vas corresponding to the lbas with respect to the virtual band number 3 may be expressed as shown in fig3 . accordingly , the address map information as shown in fig3 representing the mapping relationship of vas corresponding to lbas in the virtual band number 3 is loaded to the ram 470 . in this manner , the address map information indicating the mapping relationship of the vas corresponding to the lbas in the other remaining virtual bands allocated to the logical bands is located to the ram 470 . next , when the address map information stored in the ram 470 is changed to the address map information including the logical bands and the virtual bands as shown in fig2 b according to performing of a write command , address map change information as shown in fig3 is generated . with reference to fig2 b , since updating occurs in virtual band numbers 5 , 6 , and 3 , corresponding address map change information is generated . when a finally accessed virtual address number in a virtual band number 5 allocated to the logical band number 0 is 13 , address map change information ( 0 , 5 , 13 ) represented by ( lb no , vb no , la va ) is generated . when a finally accessed virtual address number in a virtual band number 6 allocated to the logical band number 2 is 8 , address map change information ( 2 , 6 , 8 ) represented by ( lb no , vb no , la va ) is generated . when a finally accessed virtual address number in a virtual band number 3 allocated to the logical band number 3 is 106 , address map change information ( 3 , 3 , 106 ) represented by ( lb no , vb no , la va ) is generated . thus , the address map change information 470 - 2 as shown in fig3 is generated , and the thusly generated address map change information 470 - 2 is stored in the ram 470 . in a state in which the address map change information 470 - 2 is stored in the ram 470 , when abnormal power off occurs , as mentioned above , the address map change information 470 - 2 stored in the ram 470 is stored in the nonvolatile memory 490 . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 checks whether or not the address map change information has been stored in the nonvolatile memory device 490 when power is supplied to the disk drive . when the address map change information has been stored in the nonvolatile memory device 490 , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 reads the address map change information 470 - 2 stored in the nonvolatile memory device 490 and stores it to the ram 470 . when power is supplied to the disk drive , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 also reads the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 and stores it to the ram 470 . accordingly , the address map information representing the mapping relationship of the virtual bands corresponding to the logical bands and the address map information representing the mapping relationship of the vas corresponding to the lbas for each virtual band allocated to the logical bands as shown in fig2 are stored in the ram 470 . also , the address map change information as shown in fig3 is stored in the ram 470 . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 newly allocates a virtual band number not present in the address map information among the virtual band numbers included in the address map change information to the address map information . namely , among the virtual band numbers 5 , 6 , 3 included in the address map change information illustrated in fig3 , the virtual band number 3 exists in the address map information illustrated in fig2 , but the virtual band numbers 5 and 6 do not exist . thus , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 newly allocates the virtual band numbers 5 and 6 . as shown in fig3 , it can be seen that the virtual band number 5 in the address map change information corresponds to the logical band number 0 , and the virtual band number 6 corresponds to the logical band number 2 . thus , as shown in fig3 , the virtual band number 5 is newly allocated to the logical band number 0 , and the virtual band number 6 is newly allocated to the logical band number 2 . in this manner , after reconfiguring the virtual bands , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 calculates an area of the disk 12 as a storage medium corresponding to a difference between a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual bands included in the address map change information and a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual bands included in the corresponding address map information . in detail , regarding a virtual band of the virtual band number newly allocated to the address map information among the virtual band numbers included in the address map change information , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 calculates an area of the disk corresponding to a section starting from a virtual start address with respect to the corresponding virtual band to a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number included in the address map change information . with reference to fig2 and 30 , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 calculates an area of virtual addresses 0 to 13 in the virtual band number 5 to which a virtual band is newly allocated , and calculates an area of virtual addresses 0 to 8 in the virtual band number 6 according to the address map change information . with respect to a virtual band included in the address map change information in which a virtual band number is not newly allocated to the address map information , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 calculates a disk area corresponding a section from an immediately next virtual address of a finally accessed virtual address read from the address map information to a finally accessed virtual address read from the address map change information . with reference to fig2 and 30 , in a virtual band 3 to which a virtual band is not newly allocated , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 calculates an area corresponding to a section starting from a next virtual address 102 of a finally accessed virtual address 101 of the virtual band number 3 read from the virtual map information to a finally accessed virtual address 106 with respect to the virtual band 3 read from the address map change information . namely , a disk area corresponding to virtual addresses 102 to 106 of the virtual band address number 3 . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 controls the disk drive to read the lbas written in the disk areas calculated as described above . in detail , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 converts the virtual addresses with respect to the virtual bands calculated as described above into physical addresses of the disk , and controls the disk drive to access the disk according to the converted physical addresses . namely , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 converts the virtual addresses into chs ( cylinder head sector ) information indicating a physical position of the disk and generates a voice coil motor driving control signal for accessing the disk based on the converted chs ( cylinder head sector ). with reference to fig4 , when the generated voice coil motor driving control signal is applied to the vcm driving unit 440 , the vcm driving unit 440 generates a voice coil motor driving current corresponding to the voice coil motor driving control signal and supplies the generated current to the voice coil motor 30 . accordingly , the magnetic head 16 is moved to a track position of the disk desired to be accessed . and then , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 generates a control signal for reading logical block addresses from an area of the disk written without being reflected on the address map information . namely , under the control of the address map information management processor 430 - 2 , lbas may be read from the sector positions of the disk corresponding to the virtual addresses 0 to 13 of the virtual band number 5 , the virtual addresses 0 to 8 of the virtual band number 6 , and the virtual addresses 102 to 106 of the virtual band number 3 . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 adds the virtual address mapping information corresponding to the read logical block addresses to the address map information stored in the ram 470 . for example , when the lbas as shown in fig3 is read from the sectors of the disk corresponding to the virtual addresses 0 to 13 of the virtual band number 5 , va mapping information corresponding to the lbas as shown in fig3 is generated and added to the address map information regarding the virtual band number 5 stored in the ram 470 . with reference to fig3 , lbas 75 to 86 are mapped to 12 continuous sectors including va 0 and lbas 101 and 102 are mapped to two continuous sectors including va 12 . and , when the lbas as shown in fig3 are read from the sectors of the disk corresponding to the virtual addresses 0 to 6 of the virtual band number 6 , the va mapping information corresponding to the lbas as shown in fig3 are generated and added to address map information regarding the virtual band number 6 stored in the ram 470 . with reference to fig3 , lbas 3050 to 3058 are mapped to nine continuous sectors including va 0 . and then , when address map information as mapping information of the vas corresponding to lbas with respect to the virtual band number 3 loaded to the ram 470 is as shown in fig3 , an allocation relationship of the lbas to the vas in the virtual band number 3 may be represented as shown in fig3 . when lbas read from sectors corresponding to virtual addresses 102 to 106 of the virtual band number 3 illustrated in fig3 according to address map change information are 3511 to 3515 , ( 3511 , 5 , 102 ) is added to the address map information including ( lba , scn , va ) with respect to the virtual band number 3 . accordingly , the address map information as shown in fig3 with respect to the virtual band number 3 loaded to the ram 470 is updated to the address map information as shown in fig3 . the address map information management processor 430 - 2 stores the updated address map information stored in the ram 470 to the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . and then , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 executes process of deleting the address map change information stored in the ram 470 and the nonvolatile memory device 490 . in this manner , even when power is abnormally cut off , the address map information management processor 430 - 2 may restore the address map information by using the address map change information . with reference back to fig1 , the address conversion processor 430 - 3 performs a process of converting an lba designated by a received command into physical location information of the storage medium by using a virtual band and a virtual address . a detailed configuration of the address conversion processor 430 - 3 is illustrated in fig1 . as shown in fig1 , the address conversion processor 430 - 3 may include a first processor 430 - 3 a , a second processor 430 - 3 b , and a third processor 430 - 3 c . the second processor 430 - 3 b and the third processor 430 - 3 c may be designed to be integrated into a single processor 430 - 3 b ′. obviously , though not shown in the drawings , the first processor 430 - 3 a and the second processor 430 - 3 b also may be designed to be integrated into a single processor . the first processor 430 - 3 a performs the operation of extracting an lba designated by a received command . the second processor 430 - 3 b performs the operation of converting the lba extracted by the first processor 430 - 3 a into a virtual address . that is , the second processor 430 - 3 b performs the operation of searching the mapping table 470 - 1 and converting the lba into a virtual address . the second processor 430 - 3 b finds out virtual bands and virtual addresses corresponding to the lba designated by a read command by using address map information stored in the ram 470 . the second processor 430 - 3 b allocates the virtual bands and the virtual addresses corresponding to the lba designated by the write command as follows . as shown in fig1 , the second processor 430 - 33 may include a free queue 131 , an allocation queue 132 , and a garbage queue 133 . the second processor 430 - 3 b converts an lba designated by a command into a virtual address by using the free queue 131 , the allocation queue 132 , and the garbage queue 133 . the second processor 430 - 3 b stores information about the virtual bands not assigned to a logical band in the free queue 131 in an order complying with a prescribed rule . the free queue 131 is a means that stores information about virtual bands that can be allocated to a logical band in response to a command and is on standby for selection . the free queue 131 may store classified information about virtual bands that can be allocated to a logical band for each virtual zone or each physical zone . the second processor 430 - 3 b stores information about virtual bands allocated to a logical band in the allocation queue 132 . specifically , if the virtual bands allocated to a logical band including an lba designated by a command do not exist in the mapping table 470 - 1 or all virtual addresses are already allocated and consumed for the virtual bands allocated to the logical band including the lba designated by the command , the second processor 430 - 3 b selects a virtual band on standby in the free queue 131 , and allocates the virtual band to the logical band including the lba designated by the command and moves it to the allocation queue 132 . next , the second processor 430 - 3 b allocates a virtual address corresponding to the lba designated by the command based on the virtual band allocated to the logical band stored in the allocation queue 132 . concretely , if a new virtual address is allocated to the logical band including the lba designated by the command and stored in the allocation queue 132 , the second processor 430 - 3 b allocates the newly allocated virtual address corresponding to the first sector of the logical band to the lba designated by the command . if a virtual band already allocated to the logical band including the lba designated by the command exits in the allocation queue 132 , the second processor 430 - 3 b allocates a virtual address not allocated for the virtual band to the lba designated by the command . for example , a virtual address of the sector right next to the last accessed sector in the virtual band can be allocated to the lba designated by the command . the second processor 430 - 3 b selects a virtual band , whose number of virtual addresses invalidated because of data update exceeds a threshold value , from among the virtual bands allocated to the logical band , and moves it to the garbage queue 133 ( p 2 ). for example , if the number of virtual bands stored in the free queue 131 is less than the initially set minimum value , the second processor 430 - 3 b performs a garbage collection process . that is , the second processor 430 - 3 b reads data stored in the sectors of valid virtual addresses from the virtual bands stored in the garbage queue 133 , and executes rewriting to a newly allocated virtual address designated by a virtual band . the second processor 430 - 3 b moves information about the virtual band that has executed rewriting , among the virtual bands stored in the garbage queue 133 , to the free queue 131 ( p 3 ). next , the third processor 430 - 3 c controls the storage device to convert the virtual address converted in the second processor 430 - 3 b into a physical address of the disk and access the storage medium in accordance with the converted physical address . that is , the third processor 430 - 3 c generates a voice coil motor driving control signal for converting the virtual address into cylinder head sector ( chs ) information representing the physical location of the disk and accessing the disk based on the converted chs information . referring to fig4 , when the voice coil motor driving control signal generated by the third processor 430 - 3 c is applied to the vcm driver 440 , the vcm driver 440 generates a voice coil motor driving current corresponding to the voice coil motor driving control signal and supplies it to the voice coil motor 30 . therefore , the magnetic head 16 is moved to a track position of the disk desired to be accessed , and performs a data write or read operation corresponding to a command . next , a storage medium accessing method according to an embodiment of the inventive concept executed under the control of the processor 110 shown in fig1 or the processor 430 shown in fig4 will be described with reference to the flow chart of fig1 . the processor 110 determines whether or not abnormal power off occurs in the storage device ( s 101 ). for example , when a power voltage is dropped to below a threshold value in a state in which a power off control signal is not generated , the processor 110 may determine that abnormal power off has occurred . a specific embodiment of determining abnormal power off is illustrated in fig1 . a process of determining whether or not abnormal power off occurs will be described with reference to fig1 . the processor 110 determines whether or not the storage device is in a power on mode ( s 201 ). the power on mode is a mode in which power is supplied to the storage device , and when once the storage device is changed to the power on mode , the power on mode is continuously maintained unless a command such as system termination , or the like , is generated . in the power on mode , a power off control signal is not generated unless a command such as system termination , or the like , is not generated . the processor 110 monitors the voltage vd of the power while the storage device is maintained in the power on mode ( s 202 ). the processor 110 compares the voltage vd of the monitored supply power and a threshold voltage vth ( s 203 ). here , the threshold voltage vth may be set as a value obtained by adding a marginal voltage to a minimum voltage with which the processor 110 is normally operated . obviously , the threshold voltage vth is set to be lower than a normal power voltage . when the monitored power voltage vd is lower than the threshold voltage vth , the processor 110 determines an abnormal power off state ( s 204 ). in this manner , a state in which power is abnormally turned off can be determined . with reference back to fig1 , when abnormal power off occurs according to the determination results in step s 101 , the processor 110 stores the address map change information generated in the storage device in the nonvolatile storage device 170 by using reserved power ( s 102 ). here , the address map change information is generated whenever a write command is executed and stored in the ram 130 as a volatile storage device . the address map change information is information related to a position of data written in the storage medium 150 without being reflected in the address map information stored in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 . the address map change information 470 - 2 may be configured to include a logical band number , a virtual band number , and information regarding a finally accessed virtual address . namely , the address map change information may be configured by a logical band number with respect to data written to the storage medium 150 without being reflected on the address map information stored in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 , a virtual band number vb no allocated to a corresponding logical band , and a virtual address la va finally accessed in a virtual band allocated to the corresponding logical band . for example , the address map change information may be generated in the manner as described above with reference to fig2 a , 29 b , and 31 . next , when power is supplied to the storage device again , the processor 110 performs of processing to update address map information stored in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 ( s 103 ). a process of reconfiguring the va mapping information corresponding to the lbas in the address map information will be described in detail with reference to fig2 . it is determined whether or not the storage device is in a power on mode in which power is supplied ( s 301 ). namely , the processor 110 determines whether or not the storage device transitions to a power on state from a power off state . when the storage device transitions to a power on state according to the determination results in step s 301 , the processor 110 reads address map information from the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 and stores it in the ram 130 ( s 302 ). next , the processor 110 determines whether or not the address map change information has been stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 ( s 303 ). when the storage device is abnormally turned off before transitioning to the power on state , the address map change information may be stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 . if the storage device is normally turned off according to a power off control signal without experiencing an abnormal power off occurrence before transitioning to the power on state , the address map change information is not stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 . when the address map change information is stored in the nonvolatile memory device 170 according to the determination results in step s 303 , the processor 110 reads the address map change information and the address map information ( s 304 ). namely , the processor 110 reads the address map change information from the nonvolatile memory device 170 and stores it in the ram 130 . next , the processor 110 performs a process of reconfiguring the address map information ( s 305 ). namely , the processor 110 performs a process of adding mapping information regarding a position of data written on the storage medium 150 without being reflected on the address map information stored in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 to the address map information based on the address map change information . the process of reconfiguring the address map information in step s 305 will be described in detail with reference to fig2 . first , the processor 110 performs a process of reconfiguring a virtual band mapped to a logical band in the address map information based on the address map change information ( s 401 ). in detail , the processor 110 newly allocates a virtual band number not present in the address map information among virtual band numbers included in the address map change information to the address map information . for example , it is assumed that address map information indicating an allocation relationship between the logical bands and the virtual bands is as shown in fig2 and the address map change information is as shown in fig3 . then , among the virtual band numbers 5 , 6 , 3 included in the address map change information illustrated in fig3 , the virtual band number 3 exists in the address map information illustrated in fig2 but the virtual band numbers 5 and 6 do not exist . thus , the processor 110 newly allocates the virtual band numbers 5 and 6 . next , the processor 110 performs a process of reconfiguring va mapping information corresponding to the lbas in the address map information based on the address map change information ( s 402 ). namely , the processor 110 performs a process of adding the mapping information of the vas and lbas corresponding to the written sectors in the storage medium 150 without being reflected on the address map information to the address map information . a process of reconfiguring the va mapping information corresponding to the lbas in the address map information will be described in detail . the processor 110 calculates a storage area of data written in the storage medium 150 without being reflected on the address map information ( s 501 ). namely , the processor 110 calculates an area of the storage medium corresponding to a difference between a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band included in the address map change information and a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band included in the corresponding address map information . in detail , regarding a virtual band of the virtual band number newly allocated to the address map information among the virtual band numbers included in the address map change information , the processor 110 calculates an area of the disk corresponding to a section starting from a virtual start address with respect to the corresponding virtual band to a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number included in the address map change information . with respect to a virtual band included in the address map change information in which a virtual band number is not newly allocated to the address map information , the processor 110 calculates a disk area corresponding a section from an immediately next virtual address of a finally accessed virtual address read from the address map information to a finally accessed virtual address read from the address map change information . next , the processor 110 reads lbas from the data storage area calculated in step s 501 ( s 502 ). namely , the processor 110 reads lbas from the sectors of the area of the storage medium 150 written without being reflected on the address map information . as described above , data and corresponding lbas are written in each sector of the storage medium 150 when a write operation is performed . next , the va mapping information corresponding to the lbas read in step s 502 is added to the address map information ( s 503 ). for example , for example , when the lbas as shown in fig3 is read from the sectors of the storage medium 150 corresponding to the virtual addresses 0 to 13 of the virtual band number 5 in step s 502 , the processor 110 generates va mapping information corresponding to the lbas as shown in fig3 and adds it to the address map information regarding the virtual band number 5 stored in the ram 130 . with reference to fig3 , lbas 75 to 86 are mapped to 12 continuous sectors including va 0 and lbas 101 and 102 are mapped to two continuous sectors including va 12 . through the operation according to the flow charts of fig2 and 21 as described above , the step s 305 of reconfiguring the address map information illustrated in fig1 may be performed . with reference back to fig1 , after reconfiguring the address map information in step s 305 , the processor 110 stores the reconfigured address map information in the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 ( s 306 ). and then , the processor 110 deletes the address map change information stored in the ram 130 and the nonvolatile memory device 170 ( s 307 ). namely , the processor 110 performs an operation of deleting the address map change information stored in the ram 130 and the nonvolatile memory device 170 . through such an operation , the address map information can be updated based on the address map change information . next , an access method in a disk drive according to an embodiment of the present invention executed under the control of the processor 430 will be descried with reference to fig2 . the processor 430 controls the disk drive to write data and lbas on the disk 12 based on a write command received through the host interface 480 ( s 601 ). namely , the processor 430 converts the lbas designated by the write command into physical addresses of the disk 12 by using the address map information stored in the ram 470 and write the data and the lbas in sectors corresponding to the converted physical addresses . an operation of performing a write process will be described in detail with reference to the flow chart illustrated in fig2 . the processor 430 determines a logical band ( lb ) corresponding to lbas designated by a received write command ( s 701 ). in detail , the processor 430 determines a logical band corresponding to the lbas designated by the write command received as logical band numbers including lbas designated by the received write command . for example , when a logical band number 0 is allocated to lbas 0 to 999 and lbas designated by a write command is 75 , a logical band corresponding to the lbas designated by the write command is determined to be a logical band number 0 . the processor 430 determines whether or not a virtual band allocated to the logical band determined in step s 701 exists ( s 702 ). in detail , the processor 430 searches the address map information 470 - 1 stored in the ram 470 and determines whether or not a virtual band allocated to the determined logical bands already exists in step s 701 . when there is a virtual band allocated to the logical band determined in step s 701 according to the determination results in step s 702 , the processor 430 determines whether or not allocation - available virtual addresses vas exist in the allocated virtual band ( s 703 ). namely , the processor 430 determines whether or not virtual addresses that can be allocated in the allocated virtual band have been all used up . when a finally accessed virtual address in the allocated virtual band is a virtual address corresponding to a final sector included in the virtual band , the processor 430 determines that all the virtual addresses have been used up . for example , in a state in which the size of the virtual band is set to have 200 sectors and start virtual addresses are set to be 0 to 199 , when a finally accessed virtual address is 199 , the processor 430 may determine that the virtual addresses in the corresponding virtual band have been all used up . when there is no virtual band allocated to the logical band determined in step s 701 according to the determination results in step s 702 or when there is no virtual address which can be allocated to the allocated virtual band , the processor 430 allocates a new virtual band to the logical band determined in step s 701 based on a physical zone ( s 704 ). namely , among virtual bands included in a physical zone corresponding to the logical zone including the lbas designated by the command , the processor 430 may allocate a virtual band not allocated to a different logical band to the logical band including the lbas designated by the command . next , the processor 430 allocates virtual addresses vas corresponding to the lbas designated by the command based on the allocated virtual band ( s 705 ). in detail , when a new virtual address is allocated in step s 705 , the processor 430 may allocate a start virtual address indicating a first virtual sector which has been newly allocated to the lba designated by the command . when there are virtual addresses that can be allocated to the lbas in the virtual band already allocated to the logical band , the processor 430 may allocate a next virtual address subsequent to the finally accessed virtual address to the lba designated by the command . next , the processor 430 converts the virtual addresses allocated in step s 705 into chs ( cylinder head sector ) information corresponding to physical access position information of the disk 12 ( s 706 ). next , the processor 430 executes a seek operation based on the chs information corresponding to the physical access position information converted in step s 706 ( s 707 ). in detail , the processor 430 generates a voice coil motor driving control signal for moving the magnetic head 16 to a target track position of the disk 12 according to the converted chs information . with reference to fig4 , when the generated voice coil motor driving control signal is applied to the vcm driving unit 440 , the vcm driving unit 440 generates a voice coil motor driving current corresponding to the voice coil motor driving control signal and supplies the same to the voice coil motor 30 . accordingly , the magnetic head 16 is moved to the track and sector position of the disk desired to be accessed . after finishing the seek operation in step s 707 , the processor 430 performs an operation of writing data and lbas in the sector position corresponding to the vas of the disk ( s 708 ). as described above , the processor 430 controls the disk drive to write data in the data storage region of the sector and write lbas in a spare area of the sector . according to this operation , the write process is performed in the disk drive . with reference back to fig2 , after the write process is performed in step s 601 , the processor 430 generates address map change information ( s 602 ). the address map change information is information related to a position of data written in the disk 12 without being reflected on the address map information stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . the address map change information may be configured to include information regarding a logical band number , a virtual band number , and a finally accessed virtual address . namely , the address map change information may be configured to include a logical band number lb no , a virtual band number vb no allocated to the corresponding logical band , and a finally accessed virtual address la va in the virtual band allocated to the corresponding logical band , which are written in the disk 12 without being reflected on the address map information stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 . for example , after the address map information including the logical bands and the virtual bands as illustrated in fig2 a are stored to the ram 470 from the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 , when it is changed to the address map information including the logical bands and virtual bands as shown in fig2 b according to performing of a write command , the address map change information may be generated in the form as shown in fig3 . the processor 430 stores the address map change information generated in step s 602 in the ram 470 ( s 603 ). after performing the step s 603 , the processor 430 determines whether or not abnormal power off occurs in the disk drive while waiting for receiving a next command ( s 604 ). when the voltage of power applied to the disk drive is dropped to below a threshold voltage in a state in which a power off control signal is not generated , the processor 430 determines that abnormal power off has occurred . namely , when the voltage of power output from the power supply device 500 is dropped to below the threshold voltage in a power on mode , the processor 430 determines that abnormal power off has occurred . when abnormal power off has occurred in the disk drive according to the determination results in step s 604 , the processor 430 reads the address map change information stored in the ram 470 and stores it in the nonvolatile memory device 490 by using reserved power ( s 605 ). after the abnormal power off occurs in the disk drive , when power is normally supplied to the disk drive again , the processor 430 updates the address map information stored in the disk 12 or the nonvolatile memory device 490 of the disk drive based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device 490 ( s 606 ). the method of updating address map information based on the address map change information has been described in detail with reference to fig2 and 21 , so a repetitive description thereof will be omitted . next , a method for managing address map information according to another embodiment of the technical concept of the present invention executed under the control of the processor 110 illustrated in fig1 or the processor 430 illustrated in fig4 will be described with reference to the flow chart of fig2 . the processor 110 determines whether or not the address map change information is stored in a full state in an address map change information list allocated to the ram 130 ( s 801 ). here , the full state refers to a state in which address map change information cannot be added to the address map change information list any further . for reference , three address map change information items including ( lbno , vb no , and la va ) are proposed in fig3 . in case in which the size of the address map change information list is designed to store ten address map change information items , when ten address map change information items are stored in the address map change information list , it becomes a full state . the size of the address map change information may be determined within a size in which the address map change information can be stored in the nonvolatile storage device 170 by reserved power when power is abnormally cut off . when the address map change information stored in the ram 130 reaches a full state according to the determination results in step s 801 , the processor 110 stores the address map information stored in the ram 130 to the storage medium 150 or the nonvolatile memory device 170 ( s 802 ). when the storage device is a disk drive , the storage medium 150 may be a disk . after performing step s 802 , the processor 430 deletes the address map change information stored in the ram 130 ( s 803 ). a method of managing address map information through a network according to an embodiment of the technical concept of the present invention will be described . first , a network system performing a method for managing address map information regarding a storage device through a network will be described with reference to fig4 . as shown in fig4 , the network system according to an embodiment of the technical concept of the present invention includes a program providing terminal 510 , a network 520 , a host pc 530 , and a storage device 540 . the network 520 may be implemented as a communication network such as the internet . obviously , the network 520 may be implemented as a wireless communication network as well as as a wire communication network . the program providing terminal 510 stores a program for managing address map information according to the technical concept of the present invention illustrated in fig1 to 24 . the program providing terminal 510 performs a process of transmitting a program for managing address map information according to a program transmission request from the host pc 530 connected through the network 520 . the host pc 530 includes hardware and software for performing accessing the program providing terminal 510 through the network 520 , requesting a transmission of a program for managing address map information , and downloading the requested program for managing address map information from the program providing terminal 510 . the host pc 530 may execute the method for managing address map information according to the technical concept of the present invention in the storage device 540 based on the flow charts illustrated in fig1 to 24 according to the program for managing address map information downloaded from the program providing terminal 510 . a method for managing address map information through a network according to an embodiment of the technical concept of the present invention will be described with reference to the flow chart of fig4 . first , the host pc 530 using the storage device 540 such as a disk drive , or the like , accesses the program providing terminal 510 through the network 520 ( s 901 ). after accessing the program providing terminal 510 , the host pc 530 transmits information requesting a transmission of the program for managing an address map information to the program providing terminal 510 ( s 902 ). then , the program providing terminal 510 transmits the requested program for managing address map information to the host pc 530 , so that the host pc 530 can download the program for managing address map information ( s 903 ). and then , the host pc 530 processes to execute the downloaded program for managing address map information in the storage device ( s 904 ). by executing the program for managing address map information in the storage device , when abnormal power off occurs in the storage device , the address map change information is stored in the nonvolatile memory device by using reserved power and address map information regarding the storage device may be updated by using the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device . one embodiment may be a method for managing address map information , the method comprising : when abnormal power off occurs in a storage device , storing address map change information generated in the storage device in a nonvolatile memory device ; and when power is applied to the storage device , updating address map information with respect to the storage device based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address received from a host device into a physical address of a storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address received from a host device into a physical address of a storage medium by using a virtual address . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address received from a host device into a physical address of a storage medium such that it is sequentially written in one direction in a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes mapping information between a logical band classified as an aggregate of logical block addresses and a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of a storage medium and mapping information between a logical block address in a virtual band allocated to a logical band and a virtual address . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes information regarding a position of data written without being reflected in the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes a logical band number , a virtual band number , and a finally accessed virtual address . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes a logical band number with respect to data written without being reflected in the address map information , a virtual band number allocated to the logical band , and a virtual address finally accessed in the virtual band allocated to the logical band . an embodiment may also include wherein when a power source voltage is dropped to below a threshold voltage in a state in which power off control signal is not generated in the storage device , it is determined that abnormal power off has occurred . an embodiment may also include wherein the nonvolatile memory device includes a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device . the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device can include a nand flash memory device or a nor flash memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information generated in the storage device is stored in a volatile memory device while power is being normally supplied . an embodiment may also include wherein , in the updating of the address map information , the address map information is reconfigured based on a logical block address read from an area in which data and a corresponding logical block address are written without being reflected in the address map information by using the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the updating of the address map information comprises : reading the address map information and the address map change information when power is applied to the storage device ; reconfiguring the address map information based on the address map change information ; and storing the reconfigured address map information in the storage device . the address map information may be read from the nonvolatile memory device or the storage medium constituting the storage device , and the address map change information may be read from the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the reconfiguring of the address map information comprises : newly allocating a virtual band number not present in the address map information among virtual band numbers included in the address map change information to the address map information ; reading a logical block address from an area of the storage medium corresponding to a difference between a virtual address finally accessed in the virtual band included in the address map change information and a virtual address finally accessed in a virtual band included in the address map information corresponding thereto ; and adding mapping information of the virtual address corresponding to the read logical block address to the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein , in the reading of the logical block address , the logical block address is read from an area of the storage medium corresponding to a section starting from a start virtual address with respect to the virtual band of the newly allocated virtual band number to a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number included in the address map change information . an embodiment may also include wherein , in the reading of the logical block address , regarding a virtual band included in the address map change information to which the virtual band number is not newly allocated , the logical block address is read from an area of the storage medium corresponding to a section starting from an immediately next virtual address of the finally accessed virtual address read from the address map information to the finally accessed virtual address read from the address map change information . an embodiment may also include wherein the logical block address is read from a logical block address storage area allocated to the storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the logical block address storage area is allocated in units of areas designated by a physical address . an embodiment may also include wherein the physical address is allocated in units of sectors . an embodiment may also include wherein a logical block address corresponding to data written in a sector area while a write operation is being performed is written in the logical block address storage area . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information is stored in the nonvolatile memory device or the storage medium of the storage device . an embodiment may also include wherein the storage device includes a disk drive , and the address map information is stored in a disk of the disk drive . an embodiment may also include deleting the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device after the address map information is updated . an embodiment may also include wherein when abnormal power off occurs in the storage device , the address map change information stored in the volatile memory device is read by using reserved power and stored in the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the reserved power includes power supplied by a voltage charged by a charging element . an embodiment may also include further comprising : when the address map change information is stored in a full state in an initially set address map change information list , reading the address map information stored in the volatile memory device and storing the read address map information in the nonvolatile memory device of the storage medium of the storage device ; and deleting the address map change information stored in the volatile memory device after the address map information is stored in the nonvolatile memory device of the storage medium of the storage device , wherein the address map information regarding the storage device is stored in the volatile memory device when the storage device is initialized , and the address map information stored in the volatile memory device is updated whenever the address map change information is generated . another embodiment may be an access method in a disk drive , the method comprising : converting a logical block address designated in a command into a physical address of a disk based on address map information ; accessing the converted physical address position of the disk and executing a data write operation ; generating address map change information based on the data write operation ; and when abnormal power off occurs in a disk drive , storing the generated address map change information in a nonvolatile memory device , wherein when power is applied to the disk drive , a process of updating the address map information is executed based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein when the disk drive is initialized , the address map information is read from the disk and stored in a volatile memory device , and the logical block address designated in the command is converted into a physical address of the disk based on the address map information stored in the volatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information is stored in the disk or the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address received from a host device into a physical address of the disk by using a virtual address . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address received from the host device into a physical address of the disk such that it is sequentially written in any one direction of an inner circumferential direction and an outer circumferential direction in a track included in a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the disk . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes mapping information between a logical band classified as an aggregate of logical block addresses and a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the disk and mapping information between a logical block address in a virtual band allocated to a logical band and a virtual address corresponding to a sector . an embodiment may also include wherein data and a logical block address corresponding thereto are written to the disk when the data write operation is executed . an embodiment may also include wherein the logical block address is written by data sector of the disk . an embodiment may also include wherein when a voltage of a power source applied from the disk drive is dropped to below a threshold voltage in a state in which power off control signal is not generated in the disk drive , it is determined that abnormal power off has occurred . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes information regarding a position of data written in the disk without being reflected in the address map information stored in the disk or the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes a logical band number , a virtual band number , and a finally accessed virtual address . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes a logical band number with respect to data written in the disk without being reflected in the address map information stored in the disk or the nonvolatile memory device , a virtual band number allocated to the logical band , and a virtual address finally accessed in the virtual band allocated to the logical band . an embodiment may also include wherein a process of updating the address map information comprises : reading the address map information and the address map change information when power is applied to the disk drive ; reconfiguring the address map information based on the address map change information ; and storing the reconfigured address map information in the disk drive . an embodiment may also include wherein , in the reconfiguring of the address map information , a virtual band number not present in the address map information among virtual band numbers included in the address map change information is newly allocated to the address map information based on the address map change information . an embodiment may also include wherein the updating of the address map information comprises : moving a magnetic head to a first area of the disk in which data and a logical block address corresponding thereto are written without being reflected in the address map information by using the address map change information ; reading the logical block address from the first area ; and adding virtual address mapping information corresponding to the logical block address read from the first area to the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein the first area of the disk is determined based on a difference between a finally access virtual address in a virtual band included in the address map change information and a finally accessed virtual address in a virtual band included in the address map information corresponding thereto . an embodiment may also include wherein the first area includes an area of the disk corresponding to a section starting from a start virtual address with respect to the virtual band of the newly allocated virtual band number based on the address map change information to a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number included in the address map change information . an embodiment may also include wherein , regarding a virtual band included in the address map change information to which the virtual band number is not newly allocated , the first area includes an area of the disk corresponding to a section starting from an immediately next virtual address of the finally accessed virtual address read from the address map information to the finally accessed virtual address read from the address map change information . an embodiment may also include wherein the process of updating the address map information further comprises : deleting the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device after the step of executing the reconfigured address map information in the disk drive is executed . another embodiment may be a storage device comprising : a storage medium ; a storage media interface accessing the storage medium to write data or read data , a volatile memory device ; a nonvolatile memory device ; and a processor controlling the storage medium interface to write data to the storage medium or read data from the storage medium , wherein the processor stores address map change information generated based on a data writing operation in the volatile memory device , reads the address map change information from the volatile memory device and stores the read address map change information in the nonvolatile memory device by using reserved power in case in which abnormal power off occurs , and performs an operation of updating address map information based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein when a voltage of a power source applied to the storage device is dropped to below a threshold voltage in a state in which power off control signal is not generated , the processor determines that abnormal power off has occurred . an embodiment may also include further comprising : a power supply device supplying reserved power to the storage device when abnormal power off occurs . an embodiment may also include wherein the power supply device comprises : a reserved power charging unit charging supplied power to a charging element ; and a power distribution unit supplying power charged in the reserved power charging unit to the storage device when abnormal power off occurs . an embodiment may also include wherein when abnormal power off occurs , the power distribution unit supplies power charged in the reserved power charging unit to the processor , the volatile memory device , and the nonvolatile memory device constituting the storage device . an embodiment may also include wherein the reserved power charging unit further comprises : a circuit for charging a counter electromotive force generated from a motor rotating by inertia in a state in which abnormal power off occurs to the charging element . an embodiment may also include wherein when the storage device is initialized , the processor stores address map information stored in the storage medium to the volatile memory device , and update the address map information stored in the volatile memory device based on a write operation . an embodiment may also include wherein when the address map change information is stored in a full state in an initially set address map change information list , the processor reads the address map information stored in the volatile memory device and writes the read address map information to the storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information is written to the storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor reads the address map information stored in the volatile memory device , writes the read address map information to the storage medium , and then , deletes the address map change information stored in the volatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address into a physical address of the storage medium by using a virtual address . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes information for converting a logical block address designated by a command into a physical address of the storage medium such that it is sequentially written in any one of an inner circumferential direction and an outer circumferential direction in a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map information includes mapping information between a logical band classified as an aggregate of logical block addresses and a virtual band corresponding to a physical area of the storage medium and mapping information between a logical block address in a virtual band allocated to a logical band and a virtual address corresponding to a sector . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor controls the storage medium interface to write data and a logical block address corresponding thereto to the storage medium when the data write operation is executed . an embodiment may also include wherein a data storage area and a logical block address storage area are allocated in units of sectors to the storage medium . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes information regarding a position of data written in the storage medium without being reflected in the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes a logical band number with respect to data written in the storage medium without being reflected in the address map information , a virtual band number allocated to the logical band , and a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band allocated to the logical band . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor performs an address map information updating process of accessing a first area of the storage medium written without being reflected in the address map information by using the address map change information read from the nonvolatile memory device when power is applied to the storage device , and adding virtual address mapping information corresponding to a logical block address read from the first area to the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor determines the first area based on a difference between a finally accessed virtual address in a virtual band included in the address map change information and a finally accessed virtual address in a virtual band included in the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor includes an area of the storage medium corresponding to a section starting from a start virtual address with respect to a virtual band of a newly allocated virtual band number based on the address map change information to a finally accessed virtual address in the virtual band number included in the address map change information , in the first area . an embodiment may also include wherein , regarding a virtual band included in the address map change information to which the virtual band number is not newly allocated , the processor includes an area of the storage medium corresponding to a section starting from an immediately next virtual address of the finally accessed virtual address read from the address map information to the finally accessed virtual address read from the address map change information , in the first area . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor executes an address map information updating process of newly allocating a virtual band number not present in the address map information among virtual band numbers included in the address map change information to the address map information based on the address map change information . an embodiment may also include wherein the processor performs processing of deleting the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory after performing the operation of updating the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein the storage device includes a disk drive . an embodiment may also be a computer system comprising : a host device issuing a command for operating a connected storage device ; and a storage device for writing data transmitted from the host device in a storage medium or reading data from the storage medium and transmitting the data to the host device based on the command issued from the host device , wherein when supplied power is abnormally cut off , the storage device stores generated address map change information based on a data write operation in a nonvolatile memory device by using reserved power , and updates address map information with respect to the storage device based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device . an embodiment may also include wherein the storage device writes data and a logical block address corresponding thereto in a storage medium when a data write operation is executed . an embodiment may also include wherein the address map change information includes information regarding a position of data written in a storage medium of the storage device without being reflected on the address map information . an embodiment may also include wherein , when power is applied , the storage device executes an address map information updating process of accessing a first area of the storage medium written without being reflected on the address map information by using the address map change information read from the nonvolatile memory device and adding virtual address mapping information corresponding to a logical block address read from the first area to the address map information . another embodiment may be a method for managing address map information through a network , the method comprising : downloading a program for managing address map information with respect to a storage device from a terminal connected to the network ; and executing the downloaded program for managing address map information with respect to the storage device , wherein the program for managing address map information with respect to the storage device includes a program code for performing a process of storing address map change information generated in the storage device to a nonvolatile memory device when power is abnormally cut off , and a process of updating address map information with respect to the storage device based on the address map change information stored in the nonvolatile memory device when power is applied to the storage device . another embodiment may be a computer - readable storage medium storing a program code for executing a method described herein in a computer . the present invention can be applicable to storage devices using various write methods as well as to a disk drive using the shingled write method . the present invention can be realized as a method , an apparatus , a system and so on . when the present invention is realized as software , the members of the present invention are code segments which execute necessary operations . programs or code segments may be stored in a processor readable medium . the processor readable medium may be any medium which can store or transmit information , such as an electronic circuit , a semiconductor memory device , a rom , a flash memory , an erom ( erasable rom ), a floppy disc , an optical disc , a hard disc , or the like . although the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments , it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that modifications to the described embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , it is obvious that the present invention is not restricted to the specific structures or arrangements shown or described in this specification . s 102 : store address map change information in nonvolatile memory device s 103 : update address map information based on address map change information stored in nonvolatile memory device s 303 : address map change information is stored in nonvolatile memory device ? s 306 : store reconfigured address map information in storage medium or nonvolatile memory device s 401 : reconfigure virtual band ( vb ) mapped to logical band ( lv ) s 501 : calculate data storage area written without being reflected on address map information s 503 : add va mapping information corresponding to read lba to address map information s 601 : write data and lba in storage medium based on write command s 605 : store address map change information in nonvolatile memory device s 606 : update address map information based on address map change information stored in nonvolatile memory device s 701 : determine lb corresponding to lba designated by write command	6
fig1 is a block diagram of online game system . as shown in fig1 , the online game system 1 includes game server 10 , wing 12 , 3g wireless network 2 and mobile users ( ue ) 30 . the 3g wireless network 2 includes core packet network 20 and radio access network 22 . the wing 12 is connected to pstn / isdn / cspdn 14 and 3g wireless network 2 . ue 30 is connected to 3g wireless network 2 . while network gaming has long been projected to be an application of massive economic growth , as seen in the recent explosive development on the wired internet in south korea and japan , deployment of similar network games on 3g wireless networks 2 continues to be slow and difficult . one reason is that unlike their wired counterparts , wireless links are notoriously prone to errors due to channel fading , shadowing and inter - symbol interference . while 3g wireless networks 2 , such as high speed downlink packet access ( hsdpa ) of 3rd generation partnership project ( 3gpp ) release 5 ( r5 ) [ 1 ] and cdma 1x evdo of 3gpp2 [ 5 ], combat wireless link failures at the mac and physical layer with an elaborate system of channel coding , retransmission , modulation and spreading , with resulting packet loss rate being reduced to negligible 1 to 2 %, the detrimental side - effect to network gaming is the large and often unpredictable transmission delay mean and variance [ 15 ]. such large and variable delays greatly reduce the necessary interactivity of network game players and deteriorate the overall gaming experience . in a separate development , a new 3 g network element called ip multimedia subsystem ( ims ) [ 3 ] has been introduced in 3gpp specifications r5 and later , as shown in fig1 . the session initiation protocol ( sip )- based ims provides a multitude of multimedia services : from establishing connections from the legacy telephone networks to the new ip core network using voice over ip ( voip ), to delivering streaming services such as video as a value - added service to mobile users ( ue 30 ). strategically located as a pseudo - gateway to the private and heavily provisioned 3g networks , it is foreseeable that ims will continue to enlarge and enrich its set of multimedia services in future wireless networks . in this specification , we propose a performance enhancing proxy ( pep ) called ( w ) ireless ( i ) nteractive ( n ) etwork ( g ) aming proxy ( wing ) 12 to improve the timely delivery of network game data in 3g wireless networks 2 . wing 12 is located inside ims as an application service on top of the myriad of services that ims already provides . in a nutshell , wing 12 improves the delivery of game data from the game server 10 to 3 g wireless game players ( while peer - to - peer model for interactive network games is also possible , we assume the more common server - client model where the game server 10 maintains and disseminates all game states in this specification ) using the following three techniques . first , by virtue of locating at the intersection of the private wireless network and the open internet , connection from the game server 10 to the wireless game player can be strategically split ; for the server - wing 12 connection , only the statistically stable and fast round - trip time ( rtt ) and low wired - network - only packet loss rate ( plr ) are used for congestion control , resulting in a steady yet tcp - friendly server - wing 12 connection . second , by configuring parameters in the radio link layer ( rlc ) specifically for gaming during session setup , excessive rlc retransmissions are avoided , and timeliness of game data is improved at the controlled expense of increased packet losses . finally , by constructing small but error - resilient packets that contain location data , packets can be transmitted in fewer mac - layer protocol data units ( pdu ) and hence further reduces delay . the specification is organized as follows . related work is presented in section 2 . we overview the 3g wireless system in focus , hsdpa of 3gpp r5 , in section 3 . note that because similar link and mac layer transport optimizations that chiefly affect delay mean and variance are also employed in other 3g networks , our proposed wing 12 can conceivably be applied to other wireless networks such as cdma 1x evdo of 3gpp2 . we discuss the design of wing 12 in details in section 4 . finally , experimental results and conclusion are provided in section 5 and 6 , respectively . we divide the discussion on the large volume of related work into two section . section 2 . 1 discusses related research on wireless transport optimization . section 2 . 2 discusses related research in transport of network game data . we note that proxy - based transport optimization for last - hop wireless networks has a long history , with the majority of the research [ 4 , 15 ] focusing on optimization of tcp over last - hop wireless networks . in particular , [ 15 ] showed that while 3g network packet losses can indeed be successfully overcome by using ample link layer retransmissions , the resulting large rtt mean and variance may severely affect the performance of a tcp - like congestion avoidance rate control that is based on end - to - end observable statistics of rtt and plr . the limiting rate constraint and undesirable fluctuations can be alleviated using a proxy with split - connection — a theme we develop in section 4 . 2 . recently , efforts on proxy design have shifted to delay - sensitive multimedia transport [ 18 , 13 , 8 , 9 ], though all of them focused exclusively on streaming media , while we focus on network gaming . note that due to cited complexity reason , a competing end - to - end approach for rate control that does not rely on an intermediate proxy is popular as well [ 17 , 6 ]. however , we chose the proxy - based approach and will juxtapose its advantages in section 4 . 2 . in [ 3 ], a general gaming platform for ims that provides network services needed for network gaming such as session setup and registration is proposed to ease deployment over 3g networks . our work is orthogonal to [ 3 ] since we focus only on the efficient transport of game data . an early work on gaming protocol is [ 10 ], which defined a game transport protocol ( gtp ) for massive multi - player on - line games ( mmpogs ) over the internet . our proposed gaming proxy wing 12 differs in the following respects : i ) we design wing 12 specifically for lossy , bandwidth - limited networks , hence focusing on design of network - optimized differential coding to produce small but loss - resilient packets ; and , ii ) we tailor wing 12 for hsdpa of 3g wireless networks 2 , optimizing performance by intelligently configuring parameters of the rlc layer . the most similar related work is [ 12 ], which proposed an end - to - end adaptive fec and dynamic packetization algorithm to combat packet losses due to wireless link failures and reduce packet sizes . unlike [ 12 ], our approach is proxy - based , and we tailor our gaming optimization exclusively for 3g networks . hsdpa of umts release 5 , also known as 3 . 5g , improves upon release 4 with numerous lower - layer optimizations . first , a shared channel is periodically scheduled to users in the cell with good observable network conditions to take advantage of user diversity during fading without sacrificing fairness . second , an elaborate mac - layer scheme chooses an appropriate combination of fec , hybrid arq , modulation and spreading based on client observable network state . in this section , we instead focus on the rlc layer , where the user has limited control over channel behavior using configuration of parameters during session setup . the radio link control ( rlc ) layer [ 1 ] buffers upper layer service data units ( sdu ) on a per - session basis — ip packets in this case , and segments each sdu into smaller protocol data units ( pdu ) of size s pdu and await transmission at lower layers . there are three transmission modes : transparent mode ( tm ), unacknowledged mode ( um ) and acknowledged mode ( am ). only am performs link - layer retransmissions if transmission in the lower layer fails . for error resiliency , we focus only on am . in particular , we look at how sdus are discarded in the rlc layer : using a method of retransmission - based discard ( rbd ), an sdu can be discarded before successful transmission . in a nutshell , an sdu is discarded if a predefined maximum number of retransmissions b has been reached before successful transmission of a pdu belonging to the sdu . we will investigate how the value b can be selected to trade off error resiliency with delay in section 4 . 3 . before we discuss the three optimizations of our proposed gaming proxy wing 12 in details in section 4 . 2 , 4 . 3 and 4 . 4 , we first define a new type of transport data called “ variable deadline data ” in section 4 . 1 — a consequence of a prediction procedure used at a network game client to predict locations of other game players in the virtual game world . unlike media streaming applications where a data unit containing media data is fully consumed if it is correctly delivered by a playback deadline and useless otherwise [ 9 ], the usefulness ( utility ) of a game datum is inversely proportional to the time it requires to deliver it . this relationship between utility and transmission delay is the behavioral result of a commonly used game view reconstruction procedure at a game client called “ dead - reckoning ” [ 2 ]. it works as follows . to maintain time - synchronized virtual world views among game players at time t 0 , a player p a predicts the location ξ t 0 of another player p b and draws it in p a virtual world at time t 0 , extrapolating from previously received location updates of p b in the past , ξ τ , τ & lt ; t 0 . when location update ξ t0 arrives at p a from p b at a later time t 1 , p a updates its record of p b &# 39 ; s locations with ( t 0 , ξ t0 ), in order to make an accurate prediction of for display in p a &# 39 ; s virtual world at time t 1 . regardless of what prediction method is used at the client , it is clear that a smaller transmission delay will in general induce a smaller prediction error , or distortion . we term this type of data with inversely proportional relationship between quantifiable utility and delay “ variable deadline data ”. we next show examples of how such utility - delay curve u ( d ) can be derived in practice given a player movement model and a prediction method . we first consider two simple movement models that model a game player in two - dimensional space ( x , y ). the first is “ random walk ”, where for each time increment t , probability mass function ( pmf ) of random variable of x - coordinate x t , p ( x t ), is defined as follows : random variable of y - coordinate y t is calculated similarly and is independent of x t . the second movement model is “ weighted random walk ”, whose pmf is defined as follows : in words , the player continues the same movement as done in the previous instant with probability ⅔ , and changes to one of two other movements each with probability ⅙ . random variable y - coordinate y t is calculated similarly . we defined a simple prediction method called “ 0th - order prediction ” as follows : each unknown x t is simply set to the most recently updated x τ . using each of the two movement models in combination with the prediction method , we constructed distortion - delay curves experimentally as shown in fig2 a . as seen , 0th - order prediction is a better match to random walk than weighted random walk , inducing a smaller distortion for all delay values . utility u ( d )— shown in fig2 b — is simply the reciprocal of distortion . having derived u ( d ) gives us a quantifiable metric on which we can objectively evaluate game data transport systems . we argue that by locating wing 12 ( fig1 ) between the open wired internet ( ip network ) and the provisioned wireless networks ( 3 g wireless network 2 ) to conduct split - connection data transfer , stable tcp - friendly congestion control can be maintained on top of udp in the wired server - wing 12 connection . traditional congestion control algorithms like tcp - friendly rate control ( tfrc ) [ 11 ] space outgoing packets with interval t cc as a function of estimated packet loss rate ( plr ) ε cc , rtt mean m cc and rtt variance σ cc 2 due to wired network congestion : past end - to - end efforts [ 17 , 6 ] have focused on methodologies to distinguish wired network congestion losses from wireless link losses , in order to avoid unnecessary rate reduction due to erroneous perception of wireless losses as network congestion . split connection offers the same effect regarding plr by completely shielding sender from packet losses due to wireless link failures . moreover , by performing tfrc ( 3 ) in the server - wing 12 connection using only stable wired network statistics , split connection shields the server - wing 12 connection from large rate fluctuations due to large rtt variance in the last - hop 3 g link as shown in [ 15 ]. for this reason , [ 15 ] showed experimentally that indeed proxy - based split - connection congestion control performs better than end - to - end counterparts , even in negligible wireless loss environments . lastly , we note that split connection can benefit from a “ rate - mismatch ” environment [ 8 , 9 ], where the available bandwidth r 1 in the server - wing 12 connection is larger than the available bandwidth r 2 in the wing 12 - client connection . in such case , the surplus bandwidth r 1 - r 2 can be used for redundancy packets like forward - error correction ( fec ) or retransmission to lower plr in the server - wing 12 connection . we refer interested readers to [ 8 , 9 ] for further details . prior to the start of the game session , our proposed game proxy will appropriately set the maximum number of retransmissions at the radio link control ( rlc ) layer . an appropriately selected number of retransmissions , resulting in an associated queuing and transmission delay , optimizes the expected utility of delivered game data . the optimization of rlc configuration is performed between the radio access network 22 in the 3g wireless network 2 and the ue 30 ( fig1 ) by setting parameters for it . given utility - delay function u ( d ) in section 4 . 1 , we optimize configuration of rlc to maximize utility . more precisely , we pick the value of maximum retransmission limit b — inducing expected sdu loss rate l * and delay d , so that the expected utility ( 1 − l ) u ( d ) is maximized . we assume a known average sdu size ssdu , pdu loss rate fpdu , and probability density function ( pdf ) of pdu transmission delay φ ( φ ) with mean m φ and variance σ φ 2 . first , the expected number of pdus fragmented from an sdu is for a given b , the expected sdu loss rate l sdu can be written simply : where p pdu is the probability that a pdu is successfully delivered given b . the delay d sdu experienced by a successfully delivered sdu is the sum of queuing delay d q sdu and transmission delay d t sdu . queuing delay d q sdu is the delay experienced by an sdu while waiting for head - of - queue sdus to clear due to early termination or delivery success . d t sdu is the expected wireless medium transmission delay given the sdu is successfully delivered . d t sdu is easier and can be calculated as : where x pdu is the expected number of pdu ( re ) transmissions given pdu delivery success . to calculate d q sdu we assume a m / g / l queue ( our system is actually more similar to a d / g / l queue , since the arrivals of game data are more likely to be deterministic than markovian . instead , we use m / g / l queue as a first - order approximation .) with arrival rate λ q , mean service time m q , and variance of service time σ q 2 . using pollaczek - khinchin mean value formula [ 14 ], d q sdu can be written as : in our application , λ q is the rate at which game data arrive at wing 12 from the server , which we assume to be known . m q is the mean service rate for both cases of sdu delivery success and failure and can be derived as follows : where y sdu is the expected total number of pdu ( re ) transmissions in an sdu given sdu delivery failure . similar analysis will show that the variance of service rate σ q 2 for our application is : we can now evaluate expected queuing delay d q sdu from which we evaluate expected delay d sdu . optimal b is one that maximizes left ( 1 − l * sdu ) u ( d * sdu ). the proxy performs the repacketization of game data using loss - optimized differential coding . this is done to achieve two objectives simultaneously : i ) to reduce the transmission time by reducing the size of the data packet and hence the number of lower layer packet fragmentation ; and , ii ) to avoid error propagation due to dependency introduced by traditional differential coding . the wing 12 ( fig1 ) performs the loss - optimized differential coding by re - packetizing the data from the game server 10 to the ue 30 . the wing 12 sets mode indication bits in data packets to notify the ue 30 of the mode of loss - optimized differential coding ( refer to table 1 below ). the ue 30 decodes the received packets based on the mode indication bits . if the location data — player position updates sent to improve dead - reckoning discussed in section 4 . 1 — are in absolute values , then the size of the packet containing the data can be large , resulting in large delay due to many pdu fragmentation and spreading . the alternative is to describe the location in relative terms — the difference in the location from a previous time slot . differential values are smaller , resulting in fewer encoded bits and smaller packets , and hence smaller transmission delay . this “ differential coding ” of location data is used today in networked games . the obvious disadvantage of differential coding is that the created dependency chain is vulnerable to network loss ; a single loss can result in error propagation until the next absolute location data ( refresh ). to lessen the error propagation effect while maintaining the coding benefit of differential coding , one can reference a position in an earlier time slot . an example is shown in fig3 , where we see position 3 ( ξ 3 ) references ξ 1 instead of ξ 2 . this way , loss of packet containing ξ 2 will not affect ξ 3 , which depends only on ξ 1 . the problem is then : for a new position ξ t , how to select reference position ξ t - r for differential coding such that the right tradeoff of error resilience and packet size can be selected ? this selection must be done in an on - line manner as new position becomes available from the application to avoid additional delay . to implement loss - optimized differential coding , we first define a coding specification that dictates how the receiver should decode location packets . for simplicity , we propose only four coding modes , where each mode is specified by a designated bit sequence ( mode marker ) in the packet . assuming the original absolute position ξ is specified by two 32 - bit fixed point numbers , mode 0 encodes the unaltered absolute position in x - y order , resulting in data payload size of 2 + 64n bits for n game entities . mode 1 uses the previous position as reference for differential encoding with 16 bits per coordinate , resulting in 2 + 32n bits for n entities . mode 2 uses the first 2 bits to specify r in reference position t - r for differential encoding . each coordinate takes 8 bits , resulting in 4 + 16n total bits for n entities . mode 3 is similar to mode 2 with the exception that each of the reference marker and the two coordinate takes only 4 bits to encode , resulting in 6 + 8n bits for n entities . for given position ξ t =( x t , y t ) and reference ξ t - r =( x t - r , y t - r ), some modes may be infeasible due to the fixed coding bit budgets for reference and coordinate sizes . so limited to the set of feasible modes , we seek a reference position / mode pair that maximizes an objective function . for an ip packet of size s t containing position ξ t that is sent at time t , we first define the probability that it is correctly “ delivered ” by time τ as α t ( τ ). α t ( τ ) depends on expected plr l ( s t ) and delay d ( s t ), resulting from retransmission limit b chosen in section 4 . 3 : where n ( s t ) is the number of pdus fragmented from an sdu of size s t . l ( s t ) is plr in ( 5 ) generalized to sdu size s t . d ( s t ) is the expected queuing delay in ( 8 ) plus the transmission delay in ( 7 ) generalized to sdu size s t . we can now approximate α t ( τ ) as : where l ( x )= 1 if x ≧ 0 , and = 0 otherwise . if no acknowledgment packets ( ack ) are sent from client to wing 12 , then α t ( τ ) is simply the second case in ( 15 ). we next define the probability that position ξ t is correctly “ decoded ” by time τ as p t ( τ ). due to dependencies resulting from differential coding , p t ( τ ) is written as follows : where j t \| is the set of positions j &# 39 ; s that precedes t in the dependency graph due to differential coding . given utility function u ( d ) in section 4 . 1 and decode probability ( 16 ), the optimal reference position / mode pair is one that maximizes the following objective function : max p t ( t + d ( s t )) u ( d ( s t )) ( 17 ) it should be noted that the coding modes have different packet sizes as can be seen from the rightmost column of table 1 , “ total ” column , and so change in the reference position / mode will change not only p t ( t + d ( s t )) but also u ( d ( s t )) in formula ( 17 ). we first present network statistics for hsdpa and discuss the implications . we collected network statistics of 10 , 000 ping packets , of packet size 50 , 100 and 200 bytes , spaced 200 ms apart , between hosts in tokyo and singapore inside hp intranet . the results are shown in table 2 . we then conducted the same experiment over a network emulator called wine2 [ 16 ] emulating the hsdpa link with 10 competing ftp users each with mobility model pedestrian a . we make two observations in table 2 . one , though results from both experiments had similar rtt means , hsdpa &# 39 ; s rtt variances were very large , substantiating our assertion that using split - connection to shield the server - wing 12 connection from hsdpa &# 39 ; s rtt variance would drastically improve tfrc bandwidth ( 3 ) of server - wing 12 connection . two , larger packets entailed larger rtt means for hsdpa . this means that the differential coding discussed in section 4 . 4 indeed has substantial performance improvement potential . we next used an internally developed network simulator called ( mu ) lti - path ( n ) etwork ( s ) imulator muns that was used in other simulations [ 7 ] to test rlc configurations and differential coding . for pdu transmission delay φ ( φ ), we used a shifted gamma distribution : where γ ( α ) is the gamma function [ 14 ]. the parameters used are shown in table 3 . fig4 shows the expected delay and utility as a function of retransmission limit b for different pdu loss rates . as expected , when b increases , the expected delay increases . the expected utility , on the other hand , reaches a peak and decreases . for given pdu loss rate , we simply select b with the largest expected utility . next , we compare the results of our loss - optimized differential coding optimization opt in section 4 . 4 with two schemes : abs , which always encodes in absolute values ; and , rel , which uses only previous frame for differential coding and refreshes with absolute values every 10 updates . abs represents the most error resilient coding method in differential coding , while rel represents a reasonably coding - efficient method with periodical resynchronization . note , however , that neither abs nor rel adapts differential coding in real time using client feedbacks . abs and rel were each tested twice . in the first trial , limit b was set to 1 , and in the second , b was set to the optimal configured value as discussed in section 4 . 3 . 20000 data points were generated and averaged for each distortion value in table 4 . as we see in table 4 for various pdu loss rate ε pdu , the resulting distortions for opt were always lower than abs &# 39 ; s and rel &# 39 ; s , particularly for high pdu loss rates . opt performed better than rel because of opt &# 39 ; s error resiliency of loss - optimized differential coding , while opt performed better than abs because opt &# 39 ; s smaller packets induced a smaller queuing delay and a smaller transmission delay due to smaller number of rlc fragmentations . this demonstrates that it is important not only to find an optimal rlc configuration , but a suitable differential coding scheme to match the resulting loss rate and delay of the configuration . we propose a performance enhancing proxy called wing 12 to improve the delivery of game data from a game server 10 to 3g game players using three techniques : i ) split - connection tcp - friendly congestion control , ii ) network game optimized rlc configuration , and , iii ) packet compression using differential coding . for future , we will investigate how similar techniques can be applied for the 3g uplink from game player to game server 10 . universal mobile telecommunications system ( umts ); radio link control ( rlc ) protocol specification ( 3gpp ts . 25 . 322 version 5 . 12 . 0 release 5 ). http :// www . 3gpp . org / ftp / specs / archive / 25 \ _series / 25 . 322 / 25322 - 5c0 . zip , september 2005 . s . aggarwal , h . banavar , and a . khandelwal ,. “ accuracy in dead - reckoning based distributed multi - player games ,”. in acm sigcomm netgames , portland , oreg ., august 2004 . a . akkawi , s . schaller , o . welinitz , and l . wolf ,. “ a mobile gaming platform for the ims ,”. in acm sigcomm netgames , portland , oreg ., august 2004 . h . balakrishnan , v . padmanabhan , s . seshan , and r . katz ,. “ a comparison of mechanisms for improving tcp performance over wireless links ,”. in ieee / acm trans . networking , volume 5 , no . 6 , december 1997 . q . bi and s . vitebsky ,. “ performance analysis of 3g - 1x evdo high data rate system ,”. in ieee wireless communications and networking conference , orlando , fla ., march 2002 . m . chen and a . zakhor ,. “ aio - trfc : a light - weight rate control scheme for streaming over wireless ,”. in ieee wirelesscom , maui , hi ., june 2005 . g . cheung , p . sharma , and s . j . lee ,. “ striping delay - sensitive packets over multiple bursty wireless channels ,”. in ieee international conference on multimedia and expo , amsterdam , the netherlands , july 2005 . g . cheung and w . t . tan ,. “ streaming agent for wired network / wireless link rate - mismatch environment ,”. in international workshop on multimedia signal processing , st . thomas , virgin islands , december 2002 . g . cheung , w . t . tan , and t . yoshimura , “ double feedback streaming agent for real - time delivery of media over 3g wireless networks ,”. in ieee transactions on multimedia , volume 6 , no . 2 , pages 304 - 314 , april 2004 . s . p . et al ., “ game transport protocol : a reliable lightweight transport protocol for massively multiplayer on - line games ( mmpogs ),”. in spie - itcom , boston , mass ., july 2002 . s . floyd , m . handley , j . padhye , and j . widmer ,. “ equation - based congestion control for unicast applications ,” in acm sigcomm , stockholm , sweden , august 2000 . p . ghosh , k . basu , and s . das , “ a cross - layer design to improve quality of service in online multiplayer wireless gaming networks ,” in ieee broadnets , boston , mass ., october 2005 . l . huang , u . horn , f . hartung , and m . kampmann , “ proxy - based tcp - friendly streaming over mobile networks ,”. in ieee international symposium on a world of wireless , mobile and multimedia networks , atlanta , ga ., september 2002 . a . leon - garcia ,. probability and random processes for electrical engineering . addison wesley , 1994 . m . meyer , j . sachs , and m . holzke ,. “ performance evaluation of a tcp proxy in wcdma networks ,”. in ieee wireless communications , october 2003 . f . yang , q . zhang , w . zhu , and y .- q . zhang ,. “ bit allocation for scalable video streaming over mobile wireless internet ,”. in ieee infocom , hong kong , march 2004 . t . yoshimura , t . ohya , t . kawahara , and m . etoh ,. “ rate and robustness control with rtp monitoring agent for mobile multimedia streaming ,”. in ieee international conference on communication , new york , n . y ., april 2002 .	0
fig1 shows a high - level flowchart for converting a circuit description from a low - level description ( e . g ., hdl , rtl ) to a higher level of abstraction , such as a transaction level model ( tlm ). the low - level description generally includes details at the signal level , while the tlm uses high level functions and equations to calculate output transactions based on inputs and is not concerned with the device - level implementation of the circuit . esl is an emerging electronic design methodology , which focuses on the higher abstraction level . electronic system level is now an established approach at most of the world &# 39 ; s leading system - on - a - chip ( soc ) design companies , and is being used increasingly in system design . from its genesis as an algorithm modeling methodology with ‘ no links to implementation ’, esl is evolving into a set of complementary methodologies that enable embedded system design , verification , and debugging through to the hardware and software implementation of custom soc , system - on - fpga , system - on - board , and entire multi - board systems . esl can be accomplished through the use of systemc as an abstract modeling language . at process box 10 , simulation is performed on the low - level circuit description . at process box 12 , transactions are extracted from the simulation data . the simulation and transaction extraction process are described more fully in relation to fig2 - 8 , but basically the system maps signal patterns into messages using pre - defined protocols ( e . g ., amba , pci , etc .). then the messages are converted to transactions . at process box 14 , model extraction is performed . the model extraction is described more fully in relation to fig9 - 18 , but generally the system looks to repetitive correlation ( i . e ., deterministic behavior ) between input sequences and output messages . neural network functions are used to calculate the output message generation and extrapolate statistical behavior of a component . additionally , data dependencies can be extracted . finally , in process box 16 , the model is output at the higher level of abstraction . the model , in a sense , is like a black box where input transactions / messages are analyzed to generate output transactions / messages , without a focus on signal levels and values , but more a focus on timing and relationships between messages . the resulting abstract model can be simulated as - is to run pure performance analysis of a system , or can be plugged into tlm functional models and used to provide timing and functional behavior during fully functional simulation fig2 shows a flowchart of a method for converting simulation data of a circuit description to a transaction - based description , which is at a higher layer of abstraction . in process box 20 , simulation data of a circuit description is received . the circuit description may be in hdl or any other software language and it may be compiled and simulated as part of a system design flow or it may be separately compiled and simulated . thus , the simulation can be run in combination with the conversion process to a transaction - based description , or it can be run on a separate machine at a separate time . any desired simulator may be used , such as modelsim ®, available from mentor graphics corporation , or vcd ( value change dump ) files generated by any other simulator . in process box 24 , the simulated circuit is converted into a series of transactions associated with a predetermined protocol . the protocol used is typically provided as input into the system by the user . in process box 26 , the simulation data is output in the foam of the transactions , which is a higher level of abstraction than the received simulated circuit design . for example , fig4 shows a simulated circuit description , which is at a signal level including a plurality of signals on various hardware lines . fig8 illustrates the converted circuit description at a transaction level . the output may be achieved by a variety of techniques , such as displayed to the user on a display ( not shown ), output to a file , etc . fig3 shows a hardware diagram of a system 38 for converting a circuit description into a circuit description at the transaction level . a storage device 40 of any desired type has stored thereon the circuit design in hdl or any other desired language that may be used to describe circuits . a compiler 42 compiles the design and a protocol library 44 . the compiler 42 may be any desired compiler and is usually included as part of a simulator package . the protocol library 44 includes messages and transactions associated with a protocol used by the circuit . messages include part of a transaction , such as a request and an acknowledge of the bus , whereas a transaction is a complete operation , such as any of a variety of types of read or write transactions or control or setup transactions . a simulation kernel 46 simulates the compiled design in a well - known manner , as already described . the simulation kernel 46 outputs the simulation data 48 in any desired format . box 48 can also represent a pre - simulated design data ( vcd format ). a message recognition module 50 reads the simulation data 48 and analyzes the data to convert it to messages of the protocol stored in the protocol library 44 . fig4 - 6 describe this conversion more thoroughly , but generally switching signals of the simulation are compared ( during various time slices ) to messages within the protocol library 44 to determine what message is being processed during a particular time slice . the messages associated with the switching signals during each time slice are then stored to convert the switching signals into messages . a transaction recognition module 52 reads the messages determined by the message recognition module 50 and converts the messages into transactions using a comparison of a series of messages to predetermined messages within the protocol library 44 . if a match is found , then the transaction recognition module stores the series of messages as a transaction . the result is that the messages are converted into a series of transactions . a transaction sequence recognition module 54 converts multiple transactions into a single super - transaction sequence . for example , several writes can be converted into a single control operation . this conversion from multiple transactions to a super - transaction sequence is described further below in relation to fig7 . if desired , the transaction sequence recognition module 54 may be bypassed or omitted , so that the transactions are output directly . results 56 of the conversion are output onto a storage medium or a display . in any event , the simulated circuit description is taken to a higher level of abstraction , as the simulation data is converted first to messages , then to transactions , and finally , if desired , to transaction sequences . the compiler 42 , simulator kernel 46 , and modules 50 , 52 , 54 , may all be run on the same computer . alternatively , the circuit description may be compiled and simulated in a different location so that the resultant simulation data 48 is merely on a storage medium to be input into the message recognition module 50 . in such a case , as shown at 58 , it is desirable that the some of the protocol data from the protocol library 44 is incorporated into the simulation data in a pre - processing step . fig4 shows a detailed example of part of the simulated signal data 48 . various signal data 70 on hardware lines are shown including a clock line 72 , a read / write line 74 , a bus request line 76 , a ready line 78 , address lines 80 , and data lines 82 . simulation is also carried out on many more hardware lines , which are not shown for convenience . the signals being simulated follow a predetermined protocol 84 . a protocol is a set of rules or standards designed to enable circuit elements to communicate together and exchange information with as little error as possible . the protocol 84 is made up of a plurality of transactions 85 , such as shown at 86 ( i . e ., transaction a ) and at 88 ( i . e ., transaction b ). a transaction is a discrete activity , such as a read or write operation that moves data from one place to another in the system . the transactions 86 , 88 are in turn made up of a series of messages 90 . for example , transaction 86 is shown as including three messages , 92 , 94 , and 96 . a message is a smaller unit of information electronically transmitted from one circuit element to another to facilitate the transaction . example messages include “ request for bus ”, “ acknowledge ”, “ ready ”, etc . those skilled in the art will readily recognize that these are only examples of transactions and messages and others may be used . each message is associated with a time - slice 98 , such as those shown at 100 , 102 , and 104 . normally , the time - slices are based on the clock signal 72 . during each time - slice , the hardware lines 70 are analyzed to determine the message being sent in correspondence with the transactions of the protocol , as further described below . transaction 88 is similar to transaction 86 and need not be further described . fig5 shows an example part of a state machine 120 stored within the protocol library 44 . different states 122 are shown as numbered circles . messages , such as those at 90 , are shown in boxes , and cause the state machine to move from one state to another . transactions may be defined by a path through the state machine 120 that starts at an idle state 124 ( state 0 ) and that ends at the same idle state , although those skilled in the art will recognize that the state machine 120 may be constructed in a variety of different formats . for example , a read transaction 126 is made up of numbered states 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 . the read transaction 126 is completed upon return to the idle state from state 5 to state 0 , as shown by arrow 128 . a write transaction 130 is made up of numbered states 0 , 1 , 2 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , and 10 . the write transaction 130 is completed upon return to the idle state from state 7 to state 0 , as shown by arrow 132 . fig6 shows a flowchart of a method preformed by the message recognition module 50 and the transaction recognition module 52 in order to convert the simulation data into a transaction - based description . at process box 150 , the simulated input data ( see box 48 in fig3 ) is received so that it may be used by the message recognition module 50 . such simulation data is normally within a database . in process box 152 , the analysis starts by monitoring the signal data 70 on the various hardware lines upon which messages are received . additionally , in process box 152 , the protocol library 44 is read to access a state machine , such as state machine 120 , associated with the protocol . in process box 154 , in order to analyze a transaction , an assumption is made that the transaction starts from the idle state 124 . in process box 156 , a time - slice of data is read corresponding to the clock signal on hardware line 72 . for example , in fig4 , the data may be read starting with a time - slice 100 . thus , the switching signals on the various hardware lines are read in order to be analyzed . in process box 158 , the data read is analyzed by comparing the switching signals to known patterns of messages stored in the protocol library 44 . returning briefly to fig5 , from the idle state 124 , a bus request message changes the state of the state machine to state 1 . a bus request message has a particular pattern of signal data on the hardware lines , which is compared to a known pattern in the protocol library 44 . thus , once a match is found between the known pattern of messages and the message analyzed during the currently analyzed time - slice , the message has been determined and is stored in process box 160 . in process box 162 , the current state of the state machine is updated to reflect the change of state . continuing with the example , the new state is state 1 after a bus request message is received . in decision box 164 , a determination is made whether the state machine has returned to the idle state . if yes , this indicates that a transaction is complete and the transaction is determined in process box 166 by comparing a sequence of the stored messages to a sequence of known messages in the protocol library 44 . the sequence of stored messages are those received from the start of the idle state until the state machine returned to the idle state . once a match is found between the sequence of stored messages and those in the protocol library , the transaction associated with those messages is easily obtained from the protocol library 44 . the determined transaction is then stored as indicated in process box 166 . in decision box 168 , a check is made whether all of the input simulated signal data has been analyzed by reading whether the database including the signal data is at the end . if yes , the method ends as shown at 170 . otherwise , the method continues at process box 156 and the next time - slice is read ( e . g ., time - slice 102 ). once the method ends , the database of signal data is converted into a series of transactions associated with the protocol found in the protocol database 44 . fig7 shows a method implemented by the transaction sequence recognition module 54 ( see fig3 ). it may be desirable to group transactions together in order to display to a user the circuit at an even higher level of abstraction . for example , several write / read transactions can be shown as a single control transaction as opposed to individual transactions . in process box 200 , a group of transactions is selected . for example , if there are many of the same type of transactions in sequence ( e . g ., reads ), such a sequence may be condensed . in process box 202 , the selected group is compared to predetermined groups . in decision box 204 , a determination is made whether there is a match between the selected group and the predetermined groups . if there is a match , then in process box 206 , the sequence of transactions is stored as a single transaction in order to convert the circuit description to an even higher level of abstraction . in decision box 208 , a check is made whether all of the transactions have been read . if yes , then the method ends at 210 . if not , then a new group of transactions is chosen at 212 , and the process starts over at process box 202 . fig8 shows an example of a display showing the simulation data of fig3 at a higher level of abstraction . particularly , instead of signals , the simulation data is shown as a series of transactions . write transactions , such as at 240 , are shown as dotted lines and read transactions , such as shown at 242 , are shown as solid lines . throughput is shown along the y - axis and time is indicated along the x - axis . thicker lines generally mean there is a grouping of many transactions so close in time that at the current zoom level they cannot be distinguished . of course , a zoom option may be used to focus on particular transactions . as can readily be seen , the view of fig8 is much easier to read than that of fig4 and allows the designer to obtain a better overall system view of the flow of data . fig9 shows a flowchart of a method for implementing model extraction 14 ( fig1 ). in process box 300 , input files are received related to protocol information , model description , and simulation data for the circuit . the protocol information is provided by the user and is stored in the protocol library 44 . the model description is also provided by the user and includes an interface of the circuit model describing the input / output ports and the lasting state description of the circuit model that describes the internal states elements thereof . the simulation data may be simulation data 48 ( see fig3 ) or simulation data at the transaction level 56 ( fig3 ). in process box 302 , using the input files , an abstract model is generated that approximates the circuit behavior . although particular values may be associated with the approximated circuit behavior , in general the timing aspects are the focal point . for example , a particular address and read data are of less importance than when the address arrives and when the data is output . such parameters can be added manually as they are easier to model ( functionality is in many cases more simple than timing behavior ). in process box 304 , the abstract behavioral model is output . fig1 is a flowchart of showing further details of process box 302 . in process box 320 , a set of tables is created that is associated with the input files . as explained further below , these tables are used to combine all of the input information into a desirable format for the causality analysis and the learning phase . in process box 322 , causality analysis is performed on the tables . the causality analysis is described further in fig1 , but generally it is an analysis on the inputs in the table and the outputs in order to find a repetitive correlation there between . when there is a high degree of repetitive correlation of particular ‘ events ’, such events are given higher importance . on the other hand , signals that are seen only once may be disregarded in order to lessen the analysis of the learning phase . in process box 324 , learning is performed . the learning is described further in fig1 , but generally “ learning ” is a standard term used in the industry , especially relating to neural networks . for example , an article entitled “ conditional distribution learning with neural networks ”, ieee signal processing 1997 , written by tulay hadah , xiao liu , and kemal sonmer describes some aspects of “ learning ” using neural networks . in process box 326 model checking is performed in order to compare the generated model to the desired results . fig1 shows a part of the system for performing the model extraction . some aspects in fig1 have been already discussed . for example , the simulation data 56 and the protocol library 44 were discussed in relation to fig3 . although the simulation data 56 is shown at the transaction level , it may be simulation data 48 , if desired . however , simulation data at the transaction level allows much less data to be fed into the analysis , significantly speeding the process . a protocol source file 350 is passed through a compiler 352 and the result is stored in the protocol library 44 . lasting state information source file 354 contains information regarding the inner states of the circuit being analyzed ( e . g ., describes registers in the circuit ) and is also compiled in compiler 356 and stored in a file called model data 358 . an interface source file 360 contains information regarding the input and output ports of the circuit being analyzed . file 360 is passed through compiler 362 and combined with the compiled lasting state file 354 within the model data file 358 . the above - described compiled files are passed together with the simulation data 56 to a table generator 370 . the table generator uses all of the input files to generate multiple tables , including fork tables 372 , latency tables 374 , and data tables 376 . the fork table 372 includes information regarding which path was taken during simulation when a branch was encountered in the protocol . fig1 provides an example fork table and is described further below . the latency tables 374 include information regarding the delay from a change of input until the corresponding output is changed . the data tables 376 include values associated with the output . in general , data values are not needed because timing is more interesting for the overall analysis . however , some data values may be tracked depending on options set by the user . the table generator 370 outputs the resulting tables to the causality analysis engine 380 and to a neural network 302 . as described further below , the causality analysis engine performs time - based causality analysis by applying a number of algorithms to each output message to compute the most likely causality basis . the results are also statistically analyzed and reduced so that only the most pertinent information is fed to the neural network 382 . the neural network 382 generates equations that approximate the circuit behavior . those skilled in the art will recognize that the neural network can be replaced by any other machine learning or statistical algorithm . the model checker 384 performs a check by comparing the inputs and outputs using the generated equations to the simulated data . fig1 shows an example fork table 400 generated by the table generator 370 . the fork table includes multiple rows 402 representing events and multiple columns 404 , most of which represent lasting state parameters . column 406 includes a fork field . the fork field may include numbers ( not shown ) indicating which direction a fork was taken in association with an event and the associated lasting state parameters . fig1 shows an example of a latency table 410 . the latency table also includes rows 412 representing events . many columns 414 represent lasting state parameters . the last three columns 416 , 418 , and 420 represent the event name , the time , and the latency , respectively . some simple examples showing possible values are shown . as is well known , the format and fields within a table is design specific and a wide variety of different formats and fields may be used . fig1 is a flowchart of a method showing the operation of the causality engine 380 . in process box 440 , a set of causality characters is defined . basically , when a repetitive correlation between inputs and outputs is found , a character is assigned to such a situation . for each output message in the latency table , causality characters are defined with each character represented as a pair having the form ( event , time delta ). thus , the causality character describes a situation in which the specified event causes the output message after a given period of time . in process box 442 , the number of causality characters is statistically reduced . reduction of information ultimately provided to the learning process increases the speed of the system . elimination of some characters can be accomplished using a hypothesis algorithm that provides a probability for a character to be part of the actual causality model . thus , characters with limited appearances are generally eliminated . in process box 444 , the causality characters are further reduced using a genetic optimization algorithm that creates a model for the least amount of causality characters possible and still allowing to choose a cause for each output message instance . in process box 446 , tables are created including will and time tables . the will table relates to something that caused an output change , such as an input in combination with a lasting state . the time table relates contains the remaining character lines ( after the reductions ) with the latency time value . fig1 is a flowchart of a method for performing “ learning ” 324 ( fig1 ). in process box 460 , the tables generated in process box 446 ( fig1 ) are used as well as tables generated from the table generator 370 ( fig1 ) in order to create a system of weighted equations that represent the behavior of the circuit . thus , for example , the inputs and outputs are analyzed in conjunction with state information to generate the equations . such a generation of equations is well known in the art using standard techniques of neural networks . in process box 462 , input patterns are applied to the generated system of equations to generate actual values produced by the equations . in process box 464 , an error is calculated by using a difference between the actual values ( process box 462 ) to the desired values ( determined during simulation ). in process box 466 , based on this difference , the weightings in the system of equations are modified in order to more closely match the desired values . in decision box 468 , a check is made whether the actual values generated by the system of equations are within an acceptable limit . if so , the flowchart is exited at 470 . in not , the flow returns to process box 462 in order to re - analyze the equations . fig1 shows that portions of the system may be applied to a distributed network , such as the internet . of course , the system also may be implemented without a network ( e . g ., a single computer ). a server computer 480 may have an associated database 482 ( internal or external to the server computer ). the server computer is coupled to a network shown generally at 484 . one or more client computers , such as those shown at 488 and 490 , are coupled to the network to interface with the server computer using a network protocol . fig1 shows a flow diagram using the network of fig1 . in process box 500 , the circuit description to be transformed is sent from a client computer , such as 488 , to the server computer 480 . in process box 502 , the abstract model of the circuit description is generated that approximates or imitates the circuit behavior , as previously described . in process box 504 , the generated abstract model is checked against simulation results . in process box 506 , the results are sent though the network to the client computer 488 . finally , in process box 508 , the results are displayed to the user . it should be recognized that one or more of the process boxes may be performed on the client side rather than the server side , and vice versa . having illustrated and described the principles of the illustrated embodiments , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles . in view of the many possible embodiments , it will be recognized that the illustrated embodiments include only examples of the invention and should not be taken as a limitation on the scope of the invention . rather , the invention is defined by the following claims . we therefore claim as the invention all such embodiments that come within the scope of these claims .	6
the present invention relates to an adhesive composition particularly suitable for use in adhesive tapes . in more detail the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , fillers , and / or a component selected from the group consisting of antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals . in another embodiment a tape comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention is provided . in more detail the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , fillers , and a component selected from the group consisting of antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals . in another embodiment a tape comprising at least one backing having deposited thereon a layer comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention is provided . in more detail the at least one backing may be any backing suitable for providing a tape . the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , fillers , and a component selected from the group consisting of antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals . in a preferred embodiment a tape is described comprising at least one backing ; a first layer comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention , having a reinforcement dispersed therein , deposited on the at least one backing ; and a second layer comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention deposited on said first layer . in more detail the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , fillers , and a component selected from the group consisting of antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals . the backing may be any backing suitable for providing a tape . the backing may further comprise a metal containing layer deposited on a surface of said backing on which no adhesive composition has been deposited . in another embodiment a composition particularly suitable for use as an antioxidant in an adhesive composition is disclosed . the composition comprises at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the antioxidant composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator . in more detail the adhesive composition of the present invention comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . any natural or synthetic elastomer may be used . in general , the at least one natural or synthetic elastomer is any macromolecular material that can be stretched under low stress at room temperature . exemplary natural elastomers include , but are not limited to , natural rubbers and polyisoprenes . exemplary synthetic elastomers include , but are not limited to , synthetic polyisoprene and its halogenated counterparts , for example polychloroprene rubber , butyl rubber and its halogenated counterparts , for example halobutyl rubber , polybutadiene , polyethylene - co - propylene - co - diene , poly ( butadiene - co - styrene ), poly ( butadiene - co - acrylonitrile ), poly ( isobutylene - co - isoprene ), polystyrene block copolymers with polyisoprene , polyethylene - butadiene and polybutadiene midblocks , poly ( ethylene - co - propylene - co - diene ), polydimethylsiloxane , polyalkylenesulfide , polyester or polyether urethanes . mixtures of natural elastomers may be used . mixtures of synthetic elastomers may be used . mixtures of natural and synthetic elastomers may be used . preferably , the at least one natural or synthetic elastomer is a mixture of natural rubber , butyl rubber , and styrene isoprene block copolymer . the at least one natural or synthetic elastomer in the adhesive composition is present in the adhesive composition in any suitable amount . preferably , the elastomer is present in the adhesive composition in amounts ranging from about 10 weight percent to about 75 weight percent , more preferably from about 15 weight percent to about 50 weight percent , most preferably from about 28 weight percent to about 32 weight percent . any styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer may be used . for example , the at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer may be any polymer comprising styrene units and ethylene - butylene units such as a block copolymer having terminal styrene blocks and one or more ethylene - butylene mid - blocks separating the terminal styrene blocks . the styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymers may also be modified as desired , for example to have one or more functionalities . preferably , the styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymers comprise a styrene content of about 28 weight percent , an ethylene - butylene content of about 70 weight percent and a functionality of about 2 weight percent . more preferably , the functionality is 2 weight percent maleic anhydride . exemplary styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymers are kraton fg1901 , kraton fg1921 , and kraton fg1924 , commercially available from kraton polymers , inc . ( houston , tex .). mixtures of styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymers and functionalized counterparts may be used . the styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer may be present in the adhesive composition in any suitable amount . preferably , the styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer is present in the adhesive composition in amounts ranging from about 0 . 5 weight percent to about 5 weight percent , more preferably from about 1 weight percent to about 4 . 5 weight percent , most preferably from about 2 . 5 weight percent to about 4 weight percent . the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group crosslinks unsaturated sites in elastomers . as used herein the heat reactive alkyl phenolic resins may comprise any alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl group as a reactive group . a heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl group as a reactive group requires an additional source of labile halogen to initiate reactivity . exemplary heat reactive alkyl phenolic resins with a hydroxymethyl reactive group are sp1044 and sp1045 resins , commercially available from schenectady international ( schenectady , n . y .). the heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin may further have both hydroxymethyl and halomethyl reactive groups . preferably , the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin is a heat reactive brominated octylphenol resin . exemplary heat reactive alkyl phenolic resins having both hydroxymethyl and halomethyl reactive groups suitable for use in the adhesive compositions of this invention are sp1055 and sp1056 resins , commercially available from schenectady international ( schenectady , n . y .). the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group is present in the adhesive composition in any suitable amount . preferably , the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group is present in amounts ranging from about 0 . 05 to about 2 . 50 weight percent , preferably ranging from about 0 . 25 to about 2 . 0 percent , more preferably from about 0 . 3 weight percent to about 1 . 0 weight percent . the at least one phenolic antioxidant is any phenolic antioxidant that inhibits elastomer degradation by reaction with chain propagating radicals . exemplary phenolic antioxidants are irganox 1010 , irganox 565 , irganox 1076 , and irganox 1520d , all of which are commercially available from ciba specialty chemicals , ardsley , n . y . preferably , the at least one phenolic antioxidant is comprised of pentaerythrityl tetrakis [ 3 -( 3 , 5 - di - tert - butyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl ) propionate ]. mixtures of phenolic antioxidants may be utilized . the at least one phenolic antioxidant is present in the adhesive composition in any suitable amount . preferably , the at least one phenolic antioxidant is present in the adhesive composition in an amount ranging from 0 . 1 - 2 . 5 weight percent , preferably from 0 . 5 - 2 . 0 weight percent , more preferably from 0 . 75 - 1 . 25 weight percent . most preferably , the adhesive composition comprises about 1 . 0 weight percent phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator . the at least one accelerator activator may comprise any metal oxide that functions as an accelerator activator in increasing the elastomer vulcanization rate . exemplary metal oxides suitable for use in the adhesive compositions of the present invention are zinc oxide , magnesium oxide , and lead oxide . preferably , the metal oxide is zinc oxide . the adhesive composition may further comprise a tackifier to improve the tack of the adhesive composition . the tackifier may comprise any suitable material , preferably a hydrocarbon resin material or mixtures thereof . exemplary tackifiers are escorez 1102 , escorez 1304 , and escorez 1315 , available from exxonmobil chemical ( houston , tex . ); wingtak resins available from goodyear chemicals ( akron , ohio ); piccotac 1100 and polypale 100 available from eastman chemicals ( kingsport , tenn .). preferably , the tackifier comprises a mixture of escorez 1102 and escorez 1304 tackifiers . the adhesive composition may further comprise a component selected from the group consisting of antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals . antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals reduce and / or eliminate elastomer degradation initiated by microbes , bacteria or fungus . an example of a suitable antimicrobial , antibacterial , and antifungal component particularly suited for use in the adhesive composition of the present invention is microchek p commercially available from ferro corporation . in another embodiment of the present invention there is described a tape comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention . in more detail the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , fillers , and a component selected from the group consisting of antimicrobials , antibacterials , and antifungals . in another embodiment of the present invention a tape comprising at least one backing having deposited thereon a layer comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention is provided . in more detail the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , antimicrobials , antibacterials , antifungals , or other conventional additives and fillers . any suitable backing may be used in forming the tape . for example , the at least one backing may be comprised of any film , foil , fabric , woven or nonwoven , or combinations thereof . the at least one backing may comprise multiple adjacent layers , for example multiple laminated layers . the at least one backing may be of any thickness and is preferably at least about 0 . 5 mils , more preferably at least about 1 mil , most preferably at least about 1 . 5 mils . preferably , the at least one backing is a single layer having a thickness of 2 mils . the backing material may be comprised of any material suitable for supporting an adhesive composition . the at least one backing may be comprised of any natural polymer , synthetic polymer , or mixtures thereof . materials particularly suitable for use as the backing include polyolefins . exemplary polyolefins are polypropylene and polyethylene . exemplary polyethylenes are low density polyethylene , linear low density polyethylene , medium density polyethylene , and high density polyethylene . preferably , the backing comprises a single layer of low density polyethylene . tapes comprising a backing and an adhesive composition deposited on the backing may be produced utilizing any conventional techniques well - known in the art . exemplary processes are coating , laminating , and calendering . in a preferred embodiment of the present invention a tape comprising at least one backing ; a first layer comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention , having a reinforcement dispersed therein , deposited on a surface of the backing ; and a second layer comprising the adhesive composition of the present invention deposited on said first layer is provided . in more detail the adhesive composition comprises at least one natural or synthetic elastomer , at least one styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer , at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group , and at least one phenolic antioxidant . the adhesive composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator , tackifiers , antimicrobials , antibacterials , antifungals , or other conventional additives and fillers . any suitable backing may be used in forming the tape . for example , the at least one backing may be comprised of any film , foil , fabric , woven or nonwoven , or combinations thereof . the at least one backing may comprise multiple adjacent layers , for example multiple laminated layers . the at least one backing may be of any thickness and is preferably at least about 0 . 5 mils , more preferably at least about 1 mil , most preferably at least about 1 . 5 mils . preferably , the at least one backing is a single layer having a thickness of 2 mils . the backing material may be comprised of any material suitable for supporting an adhesive composition . the at least one backing may be comprised of any natural polymer , synthetic polymer , or mixtures thereof materials particularly suitable for use as the backing include polyolefins . exemplary polyolefins are polypropylene and polyethylene . exemplary polyethylenes are low density polyethylene , linear low density polyethylene , medium density polyethylene , and high density polyethylene . preferably , the backing comprises a single layer of low density polyethylene . the at least one backing may further comprise a metal containing layer deposited on a surface of said backing on which no adhesive has been deposited . the metal containing layer may be continuous or discontinuous . backings with metal containing layers thereon may be produced utilizing any conventional techniques well - known in the art . preferably , a continuous layer of metal is vacuum deposited on the surface of the backing . a reinforcement may be dispersed within the adhesive composition . the reinforcement may be in any suitable form such as films , foils , or woven or non - woven scrims or fabrics . exemplary materials suitable for use as the reinforcement are polyesters , polycottons , polyester / polycotton blends , rayons , nylons , glass fibers , metals , metal flakes , and paper . preferably , the reinforcement comprises a woven fabric scrim comprised of a polycotton , polyester , or a blend thereof . tapes comprising at least one backing , a first layer of the adhesive composition of the present invention having a reinforcement dispersed therein , and a second layer of the adhesive composition of the present invention , may be produced utilizing any conventional technique well - known in the art . exemplary processes are coating , laminating , and calendering . in another embodiment a composition suitable for use as an antioxidant in an adhesive composition comprising at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group and at least one phenolic antioxidant is provided . the composition may further comprise at least one accelerator activator . the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group crosslinks unsaturated sites in elastomers . as used herein the heat reactive alkyl phenolic resins may comprise any alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl group as a reactive group . a heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl group as a reactive group requires an additional source of labile halogen to initiate reactivity . exemplary heat reactive alkyl phenolic resins with a hydroxymethyl reactive group are sp1044 and sp1045 resins , commercially available from schenectady international ( schenectady , n . y .). the heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin may further have both hydroxymethyl and halomethyl reactive groups . preferably , the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin is a heat reactive brominated octylphenol resin . exemplary heat reactive alkyl phenolic resins suitable for use in the adhesive compositions of this invention are sp1055 and sp1056 resins , commercially available from schenectady international ( schenectady , n . y .). the at least one phenolic antioxidant may be any phenolic antioxidant that inhibits elastomer degradation by reaction with chain propagating radicals . exemplary phenolic antioxidants are irganox 1010 , irganox 565 , irganox 1076 , and irganox 1520d , all of which are commercially available from ciba specialty chemicals , ardsley , n . y . preferably , the at least one phenolic antioxidant is comprised of pentaerythrityl tetrakis [ 3 -( 3 , 5 - di - tert - butyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl ) propionate ]. mixtures of phenolic antioxidants may be utilized . the at least one accelerator activator may comprise any metal oxide that functions as an accelerator activator in increasing the elastomer vulcanization rate . exemplary metal oxides suitable for use in the composition of the present invention are zinc oxide , magnesium oxide , and lead oxide . preferably , the metal oxide is zinc oxide . the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group and the at least one phenolic antioxidant are present in the composition in any suitable amount . preferably , the at least one heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group is present in the composition in amounts ranging from 10 - 80 weight percent . the at least one phenolic antioxidant is present in the composition in amounts ranging from 20 - 90 weight percent . preferably , the composition comprises 40 weight percent heat reactive alkyl phenolic resin having a hydroxymethyl reactive group and 60 weight percent phenolic antioxidant . the following example illustrates the use of the adhesive composition of the present invention in a tape . it should be clearly understood that the form of the present invention herein described is illustrative only and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention . an adhesive composition was prepared by mixing 19 . 2 weight percent smoke sheet natural rubber from goodyear tire and rubber co . ; 3 . 2 weight percent maleic anhydride modified styrene ethylene - butylene styrene block copolymer commercially sold as kraton fg 1901 from kraton polymers ; 9 . 8 weight percent styrene isoprene styrene block copolymer commercially sold as vector 4111 available from dexco polymers ; 0 . 1 weight percent reclaimed butyl rubber , 0 . 8 weight percent butyl 268 , butyl rubber commercially available from exxonmobil chemical ; 1 . 0 weight percent irganox 1010 commercially available from ciba specialty chemicals ; 0 . 7 weight percent heat reactive brominated octylphenol resin commercially available from schenectady international ; 1 . 6 weight percent titanium dioxide ; 0 . 8 weight percent antimicrobial commercially sold as microchek p from ferro corporation ; 31 . 1 weight percent calcium carbonate ; 1 . 7 weight percent zinc oxide ; 0 . 02 weight percent odor mask ; 17 . 1 weight percent hydrocarbon tackifying resin commercially sold as escorez 1102 from exxonmobil chemical ; 13 . 5 weight percent hydrocarbon tackifying resin commercially sold as escorez 1304 from exxonmobil chemical . a first layer of the adhesive composition was deposited , by coating , on to the surface of a metal coating roll . a reinforcement comprising a 44 × 20 thread count polycotton fabric was then dispersed within the first layer of the adhesive composition on the metal coating roll . a second layer of the adhesive composition was then deposited , by coating , on to the first layer of the adhesive composition containing the reinforcement dispersed therein . the adhesive and reinforcement containing adhesive layers were then stripped from the surface of the metal coating roll and deposited on a backing of low density polyethylene film to which a continuous layer of aluminum had been deposited . the metallized low density polyethylene film is commercially available from dunmore corporation . the adhesive and reinforcement containing adhesive layers are deposited on to the non - metallized surface of the film such that the first layer of adhesive is in contact with the non - metallized surface of the film backing . an unwind adhesion test is used to determine the performance characteristics of the finished tape . the unwind adhesion test measures the adhesive strength of tapes when unwound from their own backings and from the surface of a galvanized sheet metal circular duct after accelerated heat aging . the unwind adhesion test uses a constant — rate - of - extension machine identified as instron model 4464 commercially available from instron , canton , mass . a recording device , for example a strip - chart recorder or computer , is used for measuring the sample peel adhesion properties of the tapes disclosed herein . the constant - rate - of - extension machine is equipped with a mandrel with bearings which roll freely and suitable grips capable of clamping a specimen firmly . a galvanized sheet metal circular duct having a diameter of approximately 4 inches and a length of about 6 inches was used for testing the tapes disclosed herein . test specimens are cut 14 inches in length and 1 inch in width . the tape is then wrapped circumferentially around the circular duct with hand tension . light hand pressure is used on all surfaces of the tape to remove any visible signs of air pockets . prior to aging , the specimens are stored at 23 +/− 2 ° c . and 50 +/− 5 % relative humidity for about 16 - 24 hours . the samples are then placed in a circulating hot air oven at 110 ° c . samples are removed and tested at 7 day intervals . prior to performing the testing the samples are removed from the circulating hot air oven and allowed to equilibrate to standard test conditions of approximately 23 ° c . and 50 % humidity . a tabbed end of the tape is peeled from the duct about two inches from the test side . the duct is then mounted in the testing machine and the free end fastened into the other grip . a separation rate of 12 inches / minute is applied . the adhesion force necessary to remove the tape from its own backing or from the metal surface is recorded using the recording device . the average value between the 1 inch and 3 inch readings is recorded . the testing is performed on three samples and the values averaged . table i shows the results of the testing of the tape of this invention using the unwind adhesion test disclosed herein . as can be seen above in table i the peel force after 60 days aging at 110 ° c . is substantially the same as the peel force at 0 days aging . for applications requiring tapes that are capable of withstanding harsh environmental conditions for extended periods of time the performance exhibited by the adhesive compositions and tapes of this invention is desirable . in light of the foregoing disclosure of the invention and description of the preferred embodiments , those skilled in this area of technology will readily understand that various modifications and adaptations can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention . all such modifications and adaptations are intended to be covered by the following claims .	2
in fig1 a cell layer a is a wcdma based radio system operating on a first carrier frequency f 1 . the cell layer a comprises a plurality of cells of which only three , 1 - 3 , are shown . each cell has a base station site comprising a housing for transmitters , receivers , power supply units and a nearby tower or pole on which antennas are mounted . sector antennas or antenna arrays providing directivity are often used . for clarity reasons only cell 2 is shown with a base station , symbolically shown at 4 . a mobile station 5 moving within cell 2 has a radio connection with the base station 4 over a radio path 6 . the network operator of the cell layer a has co - located a base station 7 at the base station site of base station 4 . the antennas of the base station 7 are sitting at the same tower as the antennas of the base station 4 . the co - located base station is operating on a second carrier frequency f 2 . base station 7 is part of another wcdma cell layer b as shown schematically in fig1 . the mobile 5 is supposed to have the capabilities required to receive service from the base station 7 . suppose the mobile 5 should make a handover from base station 4 to the base station 7 . cell 4 is thus the serving cell and its base station is transmitting on the serving carrier f 1 . cell 7 is the target cell and its base station 7 is transmitting on the target carrier f 2 . also suppose the mobile is in its idle state in the serving cell and wants to set up a session . it therefore sends a call request to the base station 4 . a call request contains , according to the 3g standards , many different kinds of information , among these information indicative of the fact that the mobile is able to execute a new service or is able to realise a new service . the base station forwards the call request to a radio network control ( rnc ) node controlling the cells of cell layer a . when the rnc node receives the call request the network will know about the mobile with the new capabilities . the rnc node can now also verify that the mobile is on frequency f 1 , which is the wrong frequency if it should receive the service of base station 7 . a problem now arises , since the rnc cannot be sure the mobile will receive service from the target base station 7 if handover is done right away without any restrictions . a seamless handover is desired , but since cell areas and carrier power change dynamically and the mobile has one and the same given geographical position in relation to the serving and target base stations 7 the rnc cannot guarantee seamless handover if the situation for example is the one shown in fig1 , where the mobile is within cell 2 near its outer border but outside the coverage area of the target cell 8 , this coverage area being the area of circle 9 . in the situation shown in fig1 there are no neighbouring cells in cell layer b that cover the geographical position of mobile 5 . on the contrary , there are “ dead ” areas between the cells of cell layer b as illustrated . it would be an easy matter for the mobile 5 to measure the quality of target carrier , but as indicated above this is a costly operation . in accordance with the invention the quality of the target carrier is instead estimated using the following scheme in accordance with the invention : as a first , optional , step the broadcast signal from base stations in cell layer a is complemented with information that tell all mobiles to register their presence in the base stations of cell layer a . the broadcast signal from base station 4 tells the mobiles the identity of cell 2 and a threshold value a mobile &# 39 ; s signal must exceed in order for it to select cell 2 as serving cell . further , the broadcast signal from base station 4 tells the mobiles of the existence of neighbouring cells , in this case cells 1 and 3 and their respective threshold values . in this manner it will be possible to control mobiles like a pack ( of animals for example ) and tell the pack where to go , in this case cell layer a because all mobiles are supposed to support the services of this cell layer , but all mobile do not support services of cell layer b . as a first mandatory step in accordance with the invention the rnc , upon reception of a call request signal , checks if there is a cover relation at the base station from which the call request signal was received . as noted above information relating to cover relation is configured into the network . if there is a cover relation the second mandatory step in accordance with the invention is taken . if there is no cover relation , then no further steps in accordance with the invention are taken and no handover in accordance with the invention is made . as a second mandatory step in accordance with the invention a quantity that reflects the load of the base station of the serving cell and the load of the base station of the target cell is monitored in real - time . an example of one such quantity is the total output power p s of the serving carrier and the total output power p t of the target carrier . other examples of a load dependent quantity are described below . the rnc knows about the serving cell &# 39 ; s total output power . it receives this information over the interface from base stations it serves . an rnc in cell layer b will also receive the output power currently used at each of the base station it serves . in particular the rnc signals the output power of the target cell to the rnc in cell layer a over a signalling link between cell layers a and b . the total output power of base station is a load measure . a high output power is a typical indication of a high load ( in terms of number of users ) of a cell . if a cell , for example cell 2 in fig1 , has a high load this is caused by the transmissions form neighbouring cells , for example cells 1 and 3 , which are transmitting with a high power on the same frequency thus causing interference in the down link to the mobile in the 2 . cell 2 tries to compensate the interference by increasing its transmission power in the down link correspondingly . from this discussion it appears that it is not sufficient to use the output power of the target cell as a single basis for a hand over ( ho ) decision , because if the load is high , there is a risk the mobile jumps into a dead zone (= the non - coverage case discussed above ). further , the mobile takes no measurements on the target cell . as a third mandatory step in accordance with the invention a quantity which is load and coverage dependent is measured on the serving carrier . this measurement is taken by the mobile and gives as result a quality related coverage of the serving cell . an example is to measure the sir of the pilot tone from the serving cell . the sir of a pilot tone is measured as cpich e c / i o in accordance with the 3g standard . cpich is an acronym for common pilot channel , e c reflects useful rf energy from the base station and is measured at the mobile . the i o term reflects the sum of the interferences from surrounding base stations as measured in the mobile . such cpich e c / i o measurements are taken by the mobile and are reported to the rnc in the connection request message which is transmitted over the interface . the pilot tone from a cell is transmitted with constant output power and is independent of the varying total output power . if the load on the cell increases interference will increase and the sir value of pilot tone will decrease , indicating a decreasing quality . we want to get rid of the load dependence of the sir value as measured from the base station of the serving cell since it does not tell us anything of the situation prevailing at the target cell . later on we want to introduce the load dependence of the sir value at the target cell and thereby achieve an estimated quantity that reflects the load and the coverage at the base station of target cell . to begin with we eliminate the load dependence of the ( sir ) s quotient ( e c / i o ) s by multiplying it with ( i o ) s : which gives us the useful rf power , a quantity that is generally dependent of the mobile &# 39 ; s location within the serving cell , that is a quantity that reflects the path attenuation . index s relates to serving cell . however , we cannot measure i o as such . but we know there exists a relation between the useful rf power p s and ( sir ) s . this relation may not necessarily be proportional , but we assume it is so and therefore we obtain the relation where α is a proportionality factor , index s relates to serving cell and index t relates to target cell . as a fourth mandatory step in accordance with the invention the quality related coverage as measured by the mobile in the third mandatory step is compensated by the relative load on the target carrier and the serving carrier and the result is an estimated quality related coverage of the target cell . we now want to re - introduce the load dependant part of the sir , this time in the sir of the target cell . we will then have to divide e c in eq . 1 by ( i o ) t . since we do not know ( i o ) t as such we use a similar relation between ( i o ) t and total transmission power p t at the target cell ( i o ) t ≈ α ′ p t in order to obtain assuming that α and α ′ are about equal one can then write taking the logarithm of both sides and expressing the result in db gives : ( sir ) t =( sir ) s + p s − p t eq . 4 mathematically the estimated signal quality from the target cell may be written ( sir ) t = g 2 ( g 1 (( sir ) s , p s ), p t ) eq . 5 wherein ( sir ) s is the signal - to - interference ratio of a pilot tone transmitted from the base station ( 4 ) of the serving cell , g 1 is a function that aims at eliminating the load dependence on ( sir ) s from p s , g 2 is a function that aims at adding the load dependence on ( sir ) s from p t , p t is the total transmitted power from the target cell , and p s is the total transmitted power from the serving cell . the result is used as basis for taking a ho decision from the serving carrier to the target carrier . the fourth step executes in cell layer a , preferably in a rnc node . the inventive method uses the fact that the antennas of the service and target cells are located at the same site , which means that the attenuation in radio path 6 between the antenna in the serving cell and the mobile is the same as the attenuation in the radio path 10 between the target cell and the same mobile is the same provided the load of the two cells and therefore also the sirs on the cells are the same . typically the loads on the cells differ . the load difference between the target and serving cells would therefore equal the sir difference between target and serving cells . if the mobile measures the sir ( e c / i o of the pilot tone ) on the serving cell it is possible to estimate the sir of the target cell by compensating the measured sir of the serving cell with the load difference between the target and serving cells . as mentioned above the coverage varies with the load ( the transmission power in the downlink ) and therefore a difference in the load will also be a measure of the difference in coverage . note that mobiles far away from a serving cell will be closer to cells that interfere with the serving cell . loss of coverage may therefore take place for two reasons : ( a ) increased path attenuation to the mobile . the signal strength from the mobile will thus decrease . ( b ) increased interference at the mobile because the mobile is close to interfering cells . the interference power at the mobile will thus increase . reasons ( a ) and ( b ) taken together will result in a decreased sir at the mobile . ( e c / i o ) t + p t =( e c / i o ) s + p s eq . 6 which says that if the sum of the load and interference at the serving cell equals the sum of the load and interference at the target cell , then a mobile that has a certain quality of service qos in the serving cell is likely to have the same qos in the target cell 8 . as a fifth mandatory step in accordance with the invention handover is made if any of the two following conditions are fulfilled : if the estimated sir in the target cell has at least a minimum predefined sir for the service in question , that is ( cpich e c / i o ) t ≧( cpich e c / i o ) minimum . different services may have different minimum sir values . if the estimated sir in the target cell is better then the sir in the serving cell . for example the estimated sir shall be at least 3 db better than the actual sir in the serving cell 2 . for ho to take place it is of course required the mobile is of a type that has the capabilities required to be served by the target cell . the mobile sends information on its capabilities to the rnc in the call request message . fig2 illustrates the steps discussed under the headings above in a flow diagram . in the diagram rbs is an abbreviation for radio base station . instead of using the total output transmission powers from the target and serving base stations as parameters in the estimation of the signal quality from the base station other quantities that relate to the load of a base station may be used , for example code tree utilisation at the serving and target carriers . some wireless systems are based on orthogonal variable spreading factor ( ovsf ) codes . the codes are mutually orthogonal , and the codes are constructed like a binary tree , where each node has two branches . the top node is divided into two branches each one connected to a respective node . these are the spreading factor 2 codes . one step further down , there are four codes with spreading factor 4 , then eight codes with spreading factor 8 , etc . far further down , there are 128 codes with spreading factor 128 , which is the spreading factor of speech in wcdma . when allocating one code to a connection , all nodes below the allocated node become occupied . the code tree utilization can be expressed as the sum over the inverse of the spreading factor ( sf ) of all allocated codes . for example , the code tree utilization of seven services with sf 128 , one with sf 32 and two with sf 8 , equals still another load dependent quantity is the ase at serving and target carriers . ase is an abbreviation for approximate speech equivalent and is an estimation of the costs of a service normalized on the speech cost expressed in terms of radio resources . instead of p t and p s in the equations above , except in eq . 4 , the corresponding parameter should be used . in an alternative embodiment of the invention cell layer b may operate at the same frequency as cell layer a . for example cell layer a provide micro cells , while cell layer b provide macro cells . in still another embodiment of the invention cell layer a and b operate on the same frequency and ho to cell layer b is made in order to share load between base stations 4 and 7 . in still another embodiment , which may be combined with preferred embodiment and / or any of the two first mentioned alternative embodiments there is a non - shown third cell layer c with base stations and the inventive method is applied on target base stations in cell layers b and c , giving two estimated quality values . handover is made to the target base station with the best estimated quality value . other nodes than rnc nodes can calculate the estimated signals quality value at the target base station . in fig2 the order in which the steps of “ retrieving the total transmission powers in serving rbs and target rbs ” and “ have mobile measure sir of pilot tone of serving rbs ” are executed may be reversed . it should be noted that the order in which the second and third mandatory steps are performed may be reversed . from the above it is clear the invention is resource configuration based since it requires that there is a configured cover relation between the serving and target cells . at cells lacking a cover relation the invention is of no use . the invention is also service based since it applies only to a certain service . it does not apply to all services provided by a base station . finally it is load based since the load of the target cell and the load of the serving cells are used in the handover decision .	7
the device incorporates essentially a group of four lengths of structural tubing . in the preferred embodiment steel tubing is utilized , but any structural tubing of appropriate strength , such as aluminum or plastic , may be sufficient . generally four sections of tubing are utilized in the preferred embodiment . these include , in the preferred embodiment , generally lateral members and longitudinal members . the lateral members , or cross - tubes , are formed through bending into a generally downward section , and thence bent again into a longitudinal section at either end . it should be noted that the orientation of the tubes and the use of longitudinal tubes is in the customary embodiment , but variations are generally not limited . an important element is the fact that the cross - tubes are manufactured in pairs , one with its longitudinally projecting elements swaged to a reduced diameter slightly less than the inside diameter of the tubing . the other paired cross - tube has its longitudinally projecting ends of a constant diameter . this provides for alternative direct engagement of the two cross - tubes at the user &# 39 ; s option . there are certain advantages to this alternative embodiment . the device has great flexibility in its orientation on the vehicle . rotation through 90 degrees in a horizontal plane , or rotation through 180 degrees in a vertical plane may be desirable for certain loads . re - location or addition of supplemental support sleeves and hold down straps readily aids this reorientation . in the preferred embodiment a second pair of tubes is utilized . the longitudinal tubes incorporate one end swaged to a reduced diameter slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the tubing , while the other is of constant diameter . in this way it is provided so that the four tubes may be engaged to form an essentially continuous length of tubing . prior to this engagement , in the initial assembly of the device , the supporing elastomeric sleeves are affixed to the longitudinally extending sections of the first pair of tubes . in addition , the looped ends of the longitudinal tensioning straps are also engaged . during the course of assembly the looped ends of the transverse straps are engaged and dispersed approximately equidistant from each other on the longitudinally projecting portions of the cross - tubes and on the longitudinal tubes . the number of transverse straps varies according to the length of the finished cargo carrier , which is itself dependent upon the length of the longitudinal tubing members . in addition , prior to the engagement of the tubing , the looped ends of the fastener ends for the longitudinal straps are engaged with the opposing one of the lateral tubes . finally , the loop ends of the fastener straps may also be engaged as desired , depending upon the number and location . as previously noted , where the device is to be disposed upon the rear deck of a vehicle , it is relatively simple to dispose supplementary forwardly located fastening means for engagement with the forward edge of a body panel . similarly , depending upon the vehicle , there may well be a location for placement of the hooks utilized for engagement with body panels at a suitable location to prevent or minimize forward or rearward displacement of the load . the invention is not limited to any particular location of the engagement hook units , but instead contemplates a great flexibility dependent upon the particular application . upon placement of all desired loops for fastening of the necessary straps , the tubing structure may be assembled . as the structural integrity of the assembly is maintained by the straps , it is unnecessary for any adhesives or fasteners to be used to maintain the tubes in position relative to one another at their respective junctions . assembly is a simple matter of engagement of the reduced diameter ends of the tubes with the standard diameter ends to which they mate . as noted , in various embodiments the size of the resultant load carrying device is essentially contingent upon the length of the longitudinal tubes . for applications in which limited area on the vehicle is available , such as on the rear deck lid of a compact or sports car , the lateral members may be engaged directly to one another at their longitudinally extending portions . on the other hand , where placement of the device is contemplated on a location such as the roof of a station wagon or a van , relatively long longitudinal straps , additional transverse straps , and any necessary engagement hook units are added . in this way an entire system utilizing many common components may be utilized by an owner who , perhaps owns two vehicles , thereby enabling the user to vary the cargo carrying unit to particular applications with minimum substitution of components . once engagement of the tubing members has been accomplished , the longitudinal straps are routed beneath each of the transverse straps and tension applied . one critical element in the invention is the use of tension straps of a flexible , yet inelastic composition . in the preferred embodiment polypropylene webbing is utilized . any alternative equivalent strapping could be utilized , however , with the degree of load carrying strength contingent upon the inelasticity of the strapping . the feature of flexibility provides for the conformance of the straps to the load , and for the ready assembly and tensioning of the straps . the degree of inelasticity contributes to a relatively fixed , rigid structure , and support members resistant to a lessening of tension . through the use of friction fasteners , or buckles , tension can be maintained for long periods . the system of tensional support straps contributes to a structure which is substantially stronger than would be expected through the inherent structural strength of the individual components . in certain applications it may be desirable to alternate the crossing of the straps , add additional straps , or both . in distinction to the transverse rail type of cargo carriers , the transverse raised tubing members in the instant structure are under a relatively constant stress , and the use of inelastic strapping more readily distributes stress no tonly throughout both the lengths of the members themselves , but also to a substantial degree to other parts of the structure . in the event the load is borne by the webbing system itself , a similar structural benefit is provided . as opposed to the prior art utilizing what is , in effect , a basket or shelf , the instant structure utilizes the straps under tension to distribute a load evenly between all of the structural elements , straps and tubing alike . in addition to the substantial addition to the strength and dispersal of unusual localized stresses , the strapping system provides the advantage of maintaining the engaged tubing members in a constant position relative to one another . in this respect the compressive forces of the straps retain the tubing in position , as opposed to other alternative fastening means , such as used of screws or bolts , which merely resist a separating motion . screws and bolts not only require the placement of engagement holes , which have numerous other structural disadvantages , but localized stresses develop in the event of forces tending to expand the structure . the use of straps further tends to transfer the weight of loads borne by the straps , or borne directly by the lateral tubing members into compressive forces tending to increasethe rigidity of the structure at the engagement points of the tubing . upon release of the tension on the lateral strapping members , disassembly is readily accomplished . as previously mentioned , the disassembly is of advantage both because of the ready substitutability and change in configuration , as well as ease of reassembly , storage , or for replacement of components in the event they fail or require substitution for other reasons . alternative substitute components include polymeric sleeves for the carriage of long , relatively flat items such as skis . these sleeves incorporate internal cylindrical openings for engagement with the tubes , while on their exterior are substantially flat along one side . incorporated in this flat side are embedded straps , or alternatively , the placement of slots for the placement of straps which may be used as hold downs for the items carried . these straps may be of varied construction , using either elasticity or tensioning fasteners to hold the items carried . the invention contemplates the use of elastic load retention straps which may be engaged with the flat - sided sleeves , or directly with the load carrying device . these straps incorporate primarily three elements . the elements are the elastic strap , the fastener , and fastener engagement openings . the preferred embodiment of these load retainer straps utilizes the elastic properties of the strap to hold the load in close relation to the load carrying device , to absorb vibration , and to provide ease of attachment , maintenance of the attached position , and ease of removal . these last features are accomplished through the special relation between the configuration of the opening and the elastic properties of the strap . the openings comprise two circular apertures interconnected by a slot . upon the application of linear tension alongthe strap the elastic properties result in the elongation of the apertures and the lateral distension of the walls of the slot , thereby permitting ease of engagement of the projecting fastener with the near aperture , sliding through the slit to the far aperture . upon release of the tension the walls of the slit close to immediately proximate placement relative to each other , thereby preventing inadvertent release . the elastic properties further permit ready release . these flat sided mounting sleeves may also be used to supplement or substitute for the generally cylindrical support sleeves . the placement of the flat sided sleeves on the lower tubular members and rotation so the flat surface provides a greater surface area , maximizing the coefficient of friction and distributing the load over a larger surface area . one further notable feature developed in the reduction to practice of the invention is the design of a particular engagement hook . in the preferred embodiment , the hook used for engagement with vehicle body panels is constructed of an essentially stamped metal sheet configuration . this includes both an opening for engagement with the strap , and a flat hook portion providing for uniform distribution of the forces along as wide a dimension as possible on the body panel edge , or other engagement portion on the vehicle . an alternative feature particularly useful as an accessory or a supplemental portion of the invention , is the construction of panel engagement hooks from formed rod . the formed rod is constructed in such a way as to have an engagement loop for engagement in the strap with a flat portion , and opposite the flat portion forwardly extending projections thence extended downward into forming a hook . the pair of forwardly extending projections , since they are formed from a rod , necessarily have a space between them which may be formed of a sufficient dimension to permit the addition or removal of this hook from a permanently sewn loop in the strap . this permits a multiple use from permanently sewn straps in that , given the alternative , they may be engaged directly on the tubing members without the permanent placement of a hook thereon . if , in an alternative embodiment an additional strap is necessary , for example to prevent load shifting forwardly or rearwardly , the strap may be utilized for a second purpose by the mere placement of the alternative embodiment &# 39 ; s engagement hook thereon . fig1 constitutes a perspective view of the invention , installed on a vehicle . fig2 constitutes a perspective view of another alternative embodiment of the invention . fig3 constitutes a plan view of the vertically displaced cross - tube embodiment . fig4 constitutes a plan view of two alternative embodiments in place upon a vehicle . fig5 constitutes one embodiment of a framework within the system . fig6 is an exploded cut - away view showing the junction end . fig7 is a perspective view of the vertically displaced cross - tube embodiment . fig9 constitutes a perspective view of one of the formed rod engagement hooks used in one embodiment . fig1 constitutes a perspective view of the invention , installed on a vehicle . apparent in fig1 is the narrowed engagement section cross - tube , 10 , the straight diameter cross - tube , 11 , and the longitudinal tubes , 12 . a larger scale cut - away view of the intersection of the tubes is indicated and displayed in fig6 below . various other elements of the preferred embodiment are apparent in fig1 . the longitudinal straps , 20 , which are in this view fastened to the looped ends of the fastener straps , 21 , at the fasteners , 22 . the longitudinal straps pass underneath the transverse straps , 23 . in this embodiment hold down straps , 24 , also incorporating fasteners , 22 , are run through hooks , 25 , for engagement with automobile body panels . further apparent are the elastomeric sleeves , 30 , in this embodiment placed on the longitudinal projecting legs of the cross - tubes . an alternative configuration is shown in fig1 in dashed lines utilizing alternative placement of elastomeric sleeves particularly adapted for carrying skis , or other substantially flat items or materials , said sleeves , 31 . a further optional accessory is a vertically displaced narrowed engagement section cross - tube , 17 , which provides for the raising of one end of a long load so as to provide clearance , for example , over the roof line of a vehicle , when the device is placed upon the rear deck of the vehicle . fig2 constitutes a perspective view of another alternative embodiment utilizing the system for the direct engagement of the cross - tubes , 10 and 11 , at the engagement point , 35 , thus resulting in a much narrower overall structure . in this embodiment the hold down strap , 24 , is necessarily placed on the longitudinal sections of the cross tubes . fig3 constitutes a plan view of the vertically displaced cross - tube embodiment . the cross - tube section is shown at 17 . in place on this cross - tube are flat - surfaced elastomeric sleeves , 31 , designed for the support of skis , or the like . said sleeves are provided with engagement slots for hold - down straps , 32 . fig4 constitutes a plan view of two alternative embodiments in place upon a vehicle . the preferred embodiment is shown mounted to the roof of an automobile . the alternative embodiment incorporating the bicycle carrier fixture is shown mounted on the rear deck of the automobile . this latter embodiment is more fully displayed in fig1 . fig5 constitutes one embodiment of a framework within the system . in this embodiment short longitudinal sections , 12 , are mounted between the cross - tubes , 10 and 11 . in this view the straps have been eliminated , thus providing clarity and making the transverse sections of the crossbars , 13 , downwardly extending sections , 14 , and longitudinally extending sections , 15 , more readily apparent . one end of each of the longitudinal tubes 12 , and both ends of the narrow - ended cross - tube , 10 , are narrowed at the junction , 16 , so as to intersect with the straight engaged longitudinal sections of the longitudinal tubes , 12 , and cross - tube , 11 , at 35 . fig6 is an exploded cut - away view showing the junction end , 16 , of the longitudinal tube , 12 , and its engagement in the straight gauge end of the cross - tube , 35 . fig7 is a perspective view of the vertically displaced cross - tube embodiment . apparent in this view are the cross - tube section , 17 , the flat - sided elastomeric collars , 31 , and load retention straps , 32 . further shown in this view is the load securing rod , 45 , with its tube engagement section , 46 and its securing mechanism engagement section , 47 . a padlock is shown as a securing mechanism , 50 . fig8 constitutes a perspective view of the flat - sided sleeve , 31 , of one of the alternative embodiments in which an elastic load retention strap , 32 , has been engaged . said elastic load retention strap , 32 , in which the apertures , 41 , and the slit , 42 , are apparent , as is the fastener , 43 , being generally cylindrical , with two enlarged heads . fig9 constitutes a perspective view of one of the formed rod engagement hooks used in one embodiment . fig1 a further accessory is a unit comprising rearwardly extending arms , 36 , and downwardly extending legs , 37 , merging into a horizontal crossbar , 38 , which may be placed in engagement with the rearwardmost cross - tube , 11 , the horizontal member of which intersects the rear of the vehicle , thus supporting the arms and permitting carriage of bicycles thereon .	1
referring to the drawings in detail , and in particular to fig1 an improved force feeder chain assembly of this invention , indicated generally at 12 , is illustrated as mounted on a combine harvester apparatus 14 utilized to harvest by a grain stripper method whereupon only the grain heads are harvested . the combine harvester apparatus 14 is provided with a header assembly 16 operable through special harvester combs or fingers to remove only the grain heads which are fed into an auger assembly 18 which , in turn , moves the grain heads upwardly into the improved force feeder chain assembly 12 which operates to convey same upwardly into a threshing cylinder 24 . the header assembly 16 is provided with a plurality of rotor members 22 being revolved to utilize the combs or fingers to move the harvested grain heads into the auger assembly 18 . the improved force feeder chain assembly 12 operates to contact the grain heads and move the same upwardly while supported on a feeder housing bottom wall 23 . the improved force feeder chain assembly 12 includes a pair of spaced force drive chain assemblies 26 having mounted therebetween a force feed slat assembly 28 being the improvement over the applicant &# 39 ; s prior art u . s . pat . no . 3 , 967 , 719 entitled &# 34 ; combine conveyor means &# 34 ;. the force drive chain assembly 26 is known in the prior art and is includes a drive sprocket assembly 30 interconnected by a drive chain assembly 32 . the drive sprocket assembly 30 includes a drive sprocket member 34 and spaced driven sprocket members 36 , 38 . the sprocket members 34 , 36 , 38 are repeated on an opposite side of the force feed slat assembly 28 for identical driving and support as will become obvious . the drive sprocket member 34 is provided with 1 ) tooth drive sections 40 ; 2 ) a central drive support shaft 42 ; and 3 ) bearing members ( not shown ) to rotatably support the drive support shaft 42 . each driven sprocket member 36 , 38 is provided with the tooth drive sections 40 and drive support shaft 42 with the support shafts being supported on the bearing members as described for the drive sprocket member 34 . operation and rotation of the force drive chain assembly 26 is well known and detailed description thereof is not deemed necessary . the drive chain assembly 32 includes a chain member 46 mounted about respective sets of the sprocket members 34 , 36 for movement as noted by an arrow 122 in fig1 and 2 . as best shown in fig2 the force feed slat assembly 28 includes an elongated slat member 48 having a stripper insert member 50 releasably connected thereto by a link and slat support assembly 52 . a plurality of the force feed slat assemblies 28 are placed in spaced , parallel relationship on the force drive chain assembly 26 to provide continuous movement of severed grain heads to move the same into the threshing cylinder 24 of the combine harvester apparatus 14 . as shown in fig3 each elongated slat member 48 is provided with a main body section 54 of u - shape in transverse cross integral with a trailing flap section 56 . the main body section 54 is provided with a lead portion 58 integral with a bottom support portion 60 which , in turn , is integral with a trailing support portion 63 . the portions 58 , 60 , 63 cooperate to form the generally u - shape in transverse cross section operable to receive and releasably support a respective stripper insert member 50 therein as will be noted . the bottom support portion 60 on each outer end of the slat member 48 is provided with a pair of spaced bolt holes 59 and , centrally therebetween , is a sprocket receiving or clearance hole 61 . the trailing flap section 56 is provided with an outer end thrust portion 62 which is operable to thrust the grain heads being conveyed upwardly into the threshing cylinder 24 as noted in dotted lines in fig2 . this action of propelling the grain heads into the threshing cylinder 24 in a material receiving housing 20 is fully described in the applicant &# 39 ; s u . s . pat . no . 3 , 967 , 719 . each stripper insert member 50 is constructed of a self - lubricating plastic material , such as whmw homopolymer polypropylene such as manufactured by poly - 41 of fort wayne , indiana under their registered trademark &# 34 ; tivar &# 34 ;. this &# 34 ; tivar &# 34 ; plastic material won &# 39 ; t break in cold weather ; won &# 39 ; t rust or corrode ; is lightweight and non - stick ; is highly abrasion resistant ; and being self - lubricating . this self - lubricating feature is important as , with a grain stripper combine harvester apparatus , this prevents excessive wear on the elongated slat members 48 and the feeder housing bottom wall 23 of the combine harvester apparatus 14 . each stripper insert member 50 , preferably of square or rectangular shape in transverse cross section , includes a main body section 64 integral with respective outer end connector sections 66 . the main body section 64 is provided with spaced parallel side wall portions 68 integral with an inner wall portion 70 and an outer contact wall portion 72 . as noted in fig2 the outer contact wall portion 72 is extended outwardly of the outer surfaces of the lead portion 58 and the trailing flap section 56 . each outer end connector section 66 is provided with a stepped anchor section 74 , a sprocket receiving or clearance hole 77 , and a slat anchor hole 79 as noted in fig4 . the stepped anchor section 74 is provided with a first hole portion 76 integral with a larger second hole portion 78 for receiving portions of the link and slat support assembly 62 therein . as noted in fig3 the link and slat support assembly 52 includes a link connector housing 80 and a slat and insert connector assembly 86 for connection to the respective stripper insert members 50 and elongated slat members 48 . each lead connector housing 80 includes first and second support members 82 , 84 which are identical in appearance and utilized in pairs thereof . each first and second support member 82 , 84 include a side wall section 88 integral with a anchor flange section 90 which is to be interconnected by anchor members 92 . each side wall section 88 is provided with spaced connector holes 94 to receive the anchor members 92 therethrough . each anchor flange section 90 is provided with an anchor hole 96 to receive a portion of the slat and insert connector assembly 86 therethrough as will be noted . the anchor members 92 comprise a bolt or pin member 98 having a hole in one end to receive a connector clip 102 therethrough in the assembled condition . the slat and insert connector assembly 86 includes an insert connector assembly 104 and a slat connector assembly 106 . each insert connector assembly 104 comprises a bolt member 108 , a sleeve member 110 , a washer member 112 , and a nut member 114 to be assembled as noted in fig4 . the slat connector assembly 106 includes a slat bolt member 116 and a nut member 114 being in the assembled condition as noted in fig4 . the insert connector assemblies 104 operate to interconnect the elongated slat member 48 and the stripper insert member 50 to the inner first support members 82 . the slat connector assemblies 106 operate to interconnect the outer or second support members 84 to the elongated slat member 48 . this means of connection is important as it makes the respective stripper insert members 50 , through disassembly of the insert connector assembly 104 , easily removable when it is desired to return to conventional harvesting operations ( row crops such as corn , sunflowers , and milo with stalk and straw attached ) with the combine apparatus 14 . in the use and operation of the the improved force feeder chain assembly 12 , the use of the force drive chain assembly 26 having elongated slat members 48 mounted thereon in spaced , parallel relationship be rotated as noted by the arrow 122 in fig1 and 2 is well known in the prior art . during conventional operation of the combine harvester apparatus 14 without the use of the stripper insert members 50 , it is obvious that the same is utilized for harvesting with a conventional sickle assembly whereupon you have the crop with the head , stalk , and straw , such as with wheat , between the elongated slat members 48 and the feeder housing bottom wall 23 during the normal crop harvesting operation . the grain and straw are good lubricants and will not cause excessive wear on the feeder housing bottom wall 23 . on harvesting various crops with modern techniques , using a grain stripper combine harvester having a plurality of grain stripper headers , this operates to strip the grain heads only and leave the straw or other similar residue standing in the fields being harvested . in this case , the harvester operator would then change the force feed slat assembly 28 by adding the stripper insert member 50 into respective ones of the elongated slat members 48 as noted in fig2 . the respective elongated slat members 48 have been previously anchored to outer ones of the second support members 84 through use of the slat connector assembly 106 . this is a permanent connection and would normally not be removed . the stripper insert member 50 is then connected to the respective elongated slat members 48 through use of the insert connector assembly 104 . more particularly , it is noted that the bolt member 108 is inserted through the bolt holes 59 in the respective elongated slat member 48 and the stripper insert member 50 is mounted thereon . the sleeve member 110 is then inserted within the first hole portion 76 and the washer member 112 is mounted thereon . the respective nut member 114 is then threaded on the bolt member 108 to achieve the assembled condition in fig4 . an insert connector assembly 104 is mounted on each opposite end of the outer connector end sections 66 of the stripper insert member 50 . as noted in fig2 the outer contact wall portion 72 of the stripper insert member 50 is extended outwardly of an outer surface of the lead portion 58 and the trailing flap section 56 . the stripper insert member 50 , being of a self - lubricating material , thereupon takes the pressure of the grain heads being conveyed to the threshing cylinder 24 of the combine harvester apparatus 14 instead of causing contact and excessive wear of the slat members 48 against feeder housing bottom wall 23 . the self - lubrication of the stripper insert member 50 further prevents crushing , splitting , and cracking of the grain heads which increases the income received therefrom . it is noted that the sprocket receiving hole 61 in the elongated slat members 48 and the sprocket receiving hole 77 in the outer end connector sections 66 of the stripper insert member 50 are operable to receive and permit movement of the tooth drive section 40 of respective ones of the drive sprocket member 34 and driven sprocket members 36 , 38 to be moved therein without interference on rotation of the chain member 46 . without subject sprocket receiving holes 61 , 67 there would tend to be a build - up of grain heads therein to hinder proper rotational operation of the entire improved force feeder chain assembly 12 . it is noted that the improved force feeder chain assembly 12 of this invention is readily mountable in the combine harvester apparatus 14 for normal use during a harvesting operation for prior art harvesting methods . the self - lubricating stripper insert members 50 can be readily connected to the respective elongated slat members 48 to provide a self - lubricating stripper insert member 50 for use in a new grain stripper method of harvesting utilizing a grain stripper combine harvester apparatus which harvests the grain heads only for use in harvesting barley , rice , wheat , grasses , peas , beans , and similar edible crops . the improved force feeder chain assembly of this invention provides an easy means for assembly and disassembly of the stripper insert members on respective elongated slat members which is economical to manufacture ; requiring little labor and skill involved in assembly and disassembly of the stripper insert member ; and substantially maintenance free . while the invention has been described in conjunction with preferred specific embodiments thereof , it will be understood that this description is intended to illustrate and not to limit the scope of the invention , which is defined by the following claims :	0
according to the invention , among the anhydrous forms of 4 - acetoxy - 2α - benzoyloxy - 5β , 20 - epoxy - 1 - hydroxy - 7β , 10β - dimethoxy - 9 - oxotax - 11 - en - 13α - yl ( 2r , 3s )- 3 - tert - butoxycarbonylamino - 2 - hydroxy - 3 - phenylpropionate , five different forms have been identified , among the ethanolic solvates or heterosolvates of 4 - acetoxy - 2α - benzoyloxy - 5β , 20 - epoxy - 1 - hydroxy - 7β , 10β - dimethoxy - 9 - oxotax - 11 - en - 13α - yl ( 2r , 3s )- 3 - tert - butoxycarbonylamino - 2 - hydroxy - 3 - phenylpropionate , four different forms have been identified and among the hydrates of 4 - acetoxy - 2α - benzoyloxy - 5β , 20 - epoxy - 1 - hydroxy - 7β , 10β - dimethoxy - 9 - oxotax - 11 - en - 13α - yl ( 2r , 3s )- 3 - tert - butoxycarbonylamino - 2 - hydroxy - 3 - phenylpropionate , two different forms have been identified . the five anhydrous forms identified were obtained according to the following methods : the anhydrous form b by a method which consists in heating the acetone form or form a obtained according to the patent mentioned above , between 100 and 110 ° c . under vacuum or nitrogen sweeping . this treatment is preferably carried out for at least 9 hours before a return to ambient temperature without inducing chemical decomposition . its melting point by dsc is approximately 150 ° c . the pxrd diagram of the anhydrous form b exhibits characteristic lines located at 7 . 3 , 8 . 1 , 9 . 8 , 10 . 4 , 11 . 1 , 12 . 7 , 13 . 1 , 14 . 3 , 15 . 4 and 15 . 9 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the anhydrous form c is obtained by maturation of the acetone solvate form a , or of the anhydrous form b , in water followed by drying at up to 50 ° c . and maintaining between 0 and 5 % rh at ambient temperature . its melting point by dsc is approximately 146 ° c . the pxrd diagram of the anhydrous form c exhibits characteristic lines located at 4 . 3 , 6 . 8 , 7 . 4 , 8 . 7 , 10 . 1 , 11 . 1 , 11 . 9 , 12 . 3 , 12 . 6 and 13 . 1 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . it is , among the various anhydrous forms , the least stable of all the forms described in the present invention . in the presence of a relative humidity of greater than 5 %, it changes to a hydrated form . the anhydrous form d is obtained according to a first method by crystallization of the form a in an oil ( especially miglyol ), following by rinsing with an alkane , for example heptane ; the second preparation method consists in leaving a solution of 4 - acetoxy - 2α - benzoyloxy - 5β , 20 - epoxy - 1 - hydroxy - 7β , 10β - dimethoxy - 9 - oxotax - 11 - en - 13α - yl ( 2r , 3s )- 3 - tert - butoxycarbonylamino - 2 - hydroxy - 3 - phenylpropionate in a mixture of polysorbate 80 , ph 3 . 5 , ethanol and water ( preferably a 25 / 25 / 50 mixture ) to crystallize for approximately 48 hours . its boiling point by dsc is approximately 175 ° c . ( cf . fig1 ) and is found to be the highest of all the anhydrous forms isolated . the pxrd diagram of the anhydrous form d ( cf . fig2 ) exhibits characteristic lines located at 3 . 9 , 7 . 7 , 7 . 8 , 7 . 9 , 8 . 6 , 9 . 7 , 10 . 6 , 10 . 8 , 11 . 1 and 12 . 3 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the ftir spectrum of the anhydrous form d exhibits characteristic bands located at 979 , 1072 , 1096 , 1249 , 1488 , 1716 , 1747 , 3436 ± 1 cm − 1 ( cf . fig3 ). among all the forms described in the present invention , it is the most stable anhydrous form . the anhydrous form e is obtained at ambient temperature by maturation of the acetone form or form a in ethanol so as to intermediately form an ethanolic form which is subsequently desolvated under nitrogen sweeping or by heating at approximately 100 ° c . for 2 hours . its melting point by dsc is approximately 157 ° c . the pxrd diagram of the anhydrous form e exhibits characteristic lines located at 7 . 1 , 8 . 1 , 8 . 9 , 10 . 2 , 10 . 8 , 12 . 5 , 12 . 7 , 13 . 2 , 13 . 4 and 13 . 9 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the anhydrous form f is obtained by desolvating the ethanol / water heterosolvate at 120 ° c . under a nitrogen atmosphere for 24 hours and then maintaining in a dry environment at 0 % rh at ambient temperature . its melting point by dsc is approximately 148 ° c . the pxrd diagram of the anhydrous form f exhibits characteristic lines located at 4 . 4 , 7 . 2 , 8 . 2 , 8 . 8 , 9 . 6 , 10 . 2 , 10 . 9 , 11 . 2 , 12 . 1 and 12 . 3 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . there are four crystalline forms identified in ethanolic solvate or heterosolvate form : the ethanolate form b is obtained at ambient temperature by maintaining the anhydrous form b in an ethanol - vapour - saturated environment . the pxrd diagram of the ethanolate form b exhibits characteristic lines located at 7 . 3 , 7 . 8 , 8 . 8 , 10 . 2 , 12 . 6 , 12 . 9 , 13 . 4 , 14 . 2 , 14 . 7 and 15 . 1 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the ethanolate form d is obtained at ambient temperature by maintaining the anhydrous form d in an ethanol - vapour - saturated environment . the pxrd diagram of the ethanolate form d ( cf . fig4 ) exhibits characteristic lines located at 3 . 8 , 7 . 5 , 7 . 7 , 8 . 4 , 9 . 4 , 10 . 3 , 10 . 5 , 11 . 1 , 11 . 5 and 11 . 9 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the ethanolate form e is obtained at ambient temperature by maturation of the acetonate form a in ethanol . the pxrd diagram of the ethanolate form e ( cf . fig5 ) exhibits characteristic lines located at 7 . 1 , 8 . 1 , 8 . 8 , 10 . 2 , 10 . 7 , 12 . 5 , 13 . 2 , 13 . 4 , 13 . 9 and 14 . 2 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the ethanol / water heterosolvate form f is obtained by maintaining the form b in a minimum amount of ethanol at reflux , slow cooling and isolation at ambient temperature and ambient relative humidity . the pxrd diagram of the ethanol / water heterosolvate form f exhibits characteristic lines located at 4 . 4 , 7 . 2 , 8 . 2 , 8 . 3 , 8 . 8 , 9 . 6 , 10 . 3 , 10 . 9 , 11 . 2 and 12 . 2 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the monohydrated forms c are obtained at ambient temperature by maintaining the anhydrous form c in an atmosphere containing at least 10 % relative humidity . the pxrd diagram of the monohydrate form c exhibits characteristic lines located at 4 . 3 , 6 . 8 , 7 . 4 , 8 . 6 , 10 . 1 , 11 . 1 , 11 . 9 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 6 and 13 . 3 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . the dihydrate form c is obtained at ambient temperature by maintaining the anhydrous form c in an atmosphere containing at least 60 % relative humidity . the pxrd diagram of the dihydrate form c exhibits characteristic lines located at 4 . 2 , 6 . 9 , 7 . 5 , 8 . 4 , 9 . 9 , 10 . 9 , 11 . 7 , 12 . 3 , 12 . 6 and 13 . 2 ± 0 . 2 degrees 2 - theta . other , nonethanolic , solvates of the form b were prepared , such as in particular those obtained with the following solvents : dichloromethane , diisopropyl ether , n - propanol , isopropanol , toluene , methyl isobutyl ketone , tetrahydrofuran , dimethylformamide , ethyl acetate , etc . the present invention will be described more fully by means of the following examples which should not be considered to limit the invention . the measurements were carried out on a t . a . instruments dsc2010 thermal analyser . the sample is subjected to temperature programming from 25 ° c . to 225 ° c . with a heating rate of 5 ° c / min . the product is placed in a crimped aluminium capsule and the amount of product analysed is between 2 and 5 mg . constant nitrogen sweeping at 55 ml / min is used in the oven chamber . the analyses were carried out on a panalytical x &# 39 ; pert pro diffractometer with a reflection - mode bragg - brentano focusing geometry ( θ - 2θ ) assembly . the product analysed is deposited as a thin layer on a silicon single crystal . a copper anticathode tube ( 45 kv / 40 ma ) supplies an incident radiation cu kα 1 ( λ = 1 . 5406 å ). the beam is collimated using sollers slits which improve the parallelism and variable slits which limit scattering . an x &# 39 ; celerator detector completes the device . the diagram recording characteristics are the following : sweeping from 2 to 30 degrees 2θ , counting time from 100 to 500 seconds per step with a step of 0 . 017 °. the solid samples were analysed using a nicolet nexus spectrometer . the analysis is carried out by attenuated total reflectance ( atr ) using a smart orbit accessory from the company thermo ( single reflection diamond crystal atr accessory ). the spectral range swept is between 4000 and 400 cm − 1 with a resolution of 2 cm − 1 and an accumulated scan number of 20 . two tests of dissolution of approximately 550 mg of 4 - acetoxy - 2α - benzoyloxy - 5β , 20 - epoxy - 1 - hydroxy - 7β , 10β - dimethoxy - 9 - oxotax - 11 - en - 13α - yl ( 2r , 3s )- 3 - tert - butoxycarbonylamino - 2 - hydroxy - 3 - phenylpropionate in 14 g of miglyol 812 neutral oil , sasol are carried out . magnetic stirring is carried out at 500 rpm for 24 hours at ambient temperature . after one week , the samples are vacuum - filtered and rinsed with heptane . each sample is analysed by pxrd for confirmation of the form obtained . after filtration , between 300 and 350 mg of anhydrous form d are obtained . approximately 3 g of 4 - acetoxy - 2α - benzoyloxy - 5β , 20 - epoxy - 1 - hydroxy - 7β , 10β - dimethoxy - 9 - oxotax - 11 - en - 13α - yl ( 2r , 3s )- 3 - tert - butoxycarbonylamino - 2 - hydroxy - 3 - phenyl - propionate are dissolved in a mixture of 50 ml ethanol + 50 ml polysorbate 80 , ph 3 . 5 . 100 ml of water are added to the previous mixture and the whole is homogenized . after storage for 48 hours at ambient temperature , crystals of anhydrous form d appeared . the amount of crystallized product recovered by filtration is approximately 2 . 45 g . a comparative stability study was carried out between the acetone solvate form a and the anhydrous form d . the comparison of the pxrd analyses carried out on the a and d forms immediately after production and after having maintained said forms at 40 ° c . for one month gives the following results : form a : partial desolvation resulting in a mixture of the acetone solvate form a and of the anhydrous form b being obtained . form d : no change detected after maintaining at 40 ° c . for one month .	2
fig1 is a perspective partial cut away view of a steam turbine 10 including a rotor 12 that includes a shaft 14 and a low - pressure ( lp ) turbine 16 . lp turbine 16 includes a plurality of axially spaced rotor wheels 18 . a plurality of buckets 20 are mechanically coupled to each rotor wheel 18 . more specifically , buckets 20 are arranged in rows that extend circumferentially around each rotor wheel 18 . a plurality of stationary nozzles 22 extend circumferentially around shaft 14 and are axially positioned between adjacent rows of buckets 20 . nozzles 22 cooperate with buckets 20 to form a turbine stage and to define a portion of a steam flow path through turbine 10 . in operation , steam 24 enters an inlet 26 of turbine 10 and is channeled through nozzles 22 . nozzles 22 direct steam 24 downstream against buckets 20 . steam 24 passes through the remaining stages imparting a force on buckets 20 causing rotor 12 to rotate . at least one end of turbine 10 may extend axially away from rotor 12 and may be attached to a load or machinery ( not shown ), such as , but not limited to , a generator , and / or another turbine . accordingly , a large steam turbine unit may actually include several turbines that are all co - axially coupled to the same shaft 14 . such a unit may , for example , include a high - pressure turbine coupled to an intermediate - pressure turbine , which is coupled to a low - pressure turbine . in one embodiment , steam turbine 10 is commercially available from general electric power systems , schenectady , n . y . fig2 is a partial cross - sectional view of a rotor assembly 100 that may be used with steam turbine 10 . rotor assembly 100 includes a plurality of buckets 102 . each bucket 102 includes a dovetail 104 attached to a complementary shaped extension of a shaft 106 , a blade 108 extending radially outwardly from its respective dovetail 104 , and a cover 110 formed on a radial extrema , or tip of each blade 108 . in the exemplary embodiment , covers 110 are formed integrally with blades 108 . blades 108 are configured for cooperating with a motive or working fluid , such as steam . in the exemplary embodiment illustrated in fig2 , rotor assembly 100 is a section of steam turbine 10 , with blades 108 configured for suitably extracting energy from the motive fluid steam in succeeding stages . outer surfaces or shoulders 112 of dovetails 104 define a radially inner flowpath surface of the turbine section as steam is directed from stage to stage . blades 108 rotate about the axial centerline axis up to a specific maximum design rotational speed , and generate centrifugal loads in rotating components . centrifugal forces generated by rotating blades 108 are carried by dovetails 104 and portions of shaft 106 directly below each blade 108 . rotation of rotor assembly 100 and blades 108 from steam passing past blades 108 removes energy from the steam . blades 108 each include a leading edge 114 , a trailing edge 116 , and an airfoil 118 extending therebetween . fig3 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of rotor assembly 100 including a plurality of adjacent buckets 102 . airfoil 118 includes a high - pressure side 120 and a circumferentially opposite low - pressure side 122 . high - pressure side 120 and low - pressure side 122 , respectively , extend between axially spaced apart leading and trailing edges 124 and 126 , respectively and extend in radial span between a rotor blade tip 128 and a rotor blade root 130 . a blade chord 132 is measured between airfoil 118 leading and trailing edges 124 and 126 , respectively . cover 110 includes a leading edge side 134 in a direction 136 of rotation , and a trailing edge side 138 in direction 136 of rotation . cover 110 also includes an inlet edge side 140 and an outlet edge side 142 wherein inlet and outlet are referenced to a direction 144 of steam flow past airfoil 118 . leading edge side 134 is parallel with trailing edge side 138 , and inlet edge side 140 and outlet edge side 142 are parallel . leading edge side includes an extension 146 that extends circumferentially from leading edge side 134 toward trailing edge side 138 of adjacent cover 110 . trailing edge side 138 of cover 110 each includes a groove 148 that extends inwardly from trailing edge side 138 into cover 110 . groove 148 is sized and positioned to receive extension 146 in a sliding engagement . fig4 is an enlarged elevation view of cover 110 that may be used with buckets 102 shown in fig3 . leading edge side 134 and trailing edge side 138 of adjacent covers 110 meet to form a joint 149 when rotor assembly 100 is assembled . leading edge side 134 includes extension 146 , a inner radial portion 150 and an outer radial portion 152 . inner radial portion 150 extends radially inwardly from a first extent 154 of extension 146 to an undersurface 156 of cover 110 . outer radial portion 152 extends radially outwardly from a second extent 158 of extension 146 to an outersurface 160 of cover 110 . trailing edge side 138 includes groove 148 , a inner radial portion 162 and an outer radial portion 164 . inner radial portion 162 extends radially inwardly from a first extent 166 of groove 148 to undersurface 156 of cover 110 . outer radial portion 164 extends radially outwardly from a second extent 168 of groove 148 to an outersurface 160 of cover 110 . in the exemplary embodiment , joint 149 includes metal - to - metal contact between corresponding surfaces of adjacent covers 110 . specifically , inner radial portion 150 of leading edge side 134 and inner radial portion 162 of trailing edge side 138 are butted together such that no intended gap exists between their respective surfaces . likewise , outer radial portions 152 and 164 are similarly butted together such that substantially no gap exists between their respective mated surfaces . additionally , extension 146 is received in groove 148 such that no intended gap exists between their respective surfaces . further , leading edge side 134 and trailing edge side 138 are able to slide approximately axially , with respect to each other . leading edge side 134 and trailing edge side 138 are restrained from sliding radially with respect to each other due to the engagement in the radial direction of extension 146 in groove 148 . in operation , during a startup of turbine 10 , steam 24 is admitted into inlet 26 . steam 24 is directed past airfoil 118 between shoulder 112 and covers 110 . initially , steam 24 is hotter than airfoil 118 , shoulder 112 , and covers 110 , and transfers heat to airfoil 118 , shoulder 112 , and covers 110 . the heat causes expansion of airfoil 118 , shoulder 112 , and covers 110 which may be uneven and may tend to cause warpage of airfoil 118 , shoulder 112 , and covers 110 . additionally , steam 24 may tend to leak past joint 149 due to a pressure gradient that may exist across covers 110 . to relieve compressive forces which may build up in airfoil 118 due to a thermal expansion of airfoil 118 , covers 110 of adjacent buckets 102 may slide axially , allowing the compressive forces to dissipate . because of the metal - to - metal engagement of sides 134 and 138 including extension 146 and groove 148 , respectively , steam 24 is facilitated being blocked during expansion of the components within turbine 10 . fig5 is a plan view of an exemplary embodiment of cover 110 that may be used with bucket 102 as shown in fig3 . each cover 110 includes leading edge side 134 that is parallel with trailing edge side 138 , and inlet edge side 140 that is parallel with outlet edge side 142 . an angle 170 is formed between sides 138 and 142 . in the exemplary embodiment , angle 170 is an acute angle . angle 170 being an acute angle facilitates sealing joint 149 during all operational modes of turbine 10 . sides 134 and 142 form an angle 172 . in the exemplary embodiment , angle 172 is an obtuse angle . because angles 170 and 172 are not right angles , sides 134 and 138 have a skew with reference to the longitudinal axis of rotor assembly 100 . the skew in sides 134 and 138 facilitates maintaining a seal along joint 149 . additionally , in the exemplary embodiment , sides 134 and 138 are straight from side 140 to side 142 . some known bucket covers are s - shaped or z - shaped when observed from a plan perspective . an s or z shape to cover 110 would cause adjacent covers 100 to bind as they expanded due to thermal growth if they tried to slide in a first direction , or would cause a gap in joint 149 if they slid in the opposite direction . the above - described rotor assembly is cost - effective and highly reliable . the rotor assembly includes an integral cover for each bucket that interlocks with each adjacent bucket to facilitate sealing radial leakage of working fluid . more specifically , seals include an extension and a groove formed in the cover that cooperate during various operational modes to maintain contact between the covers of adjacent covers . the covers are skewed with respect to a longitudinal axis and are slidably engaged to facilitate maintaining a seal between adjacent covers while facilitating stress relief between adjacent covers . during operation , the differential expansion of turbine bucket airfoils and covers may tend to open the cover seals . additionally , a force generated by the differential expansion turbine bucket airfoils and covers may induce compressive stress in the turbine bucket airfoils and covers . the groove and extension seal , and skewed cover facilitate relieving the stress while maintaining the seal between adjacent covers . as a result , the bucket covers facilitate sealing a radial leakage area in the rotor assembly . exemplary embodiments of rotor assembly components are described above in detail . the components are not limited to the specific embodiments described herein , but rather , components of each assembly may be utilized independently and separately from other components described herein . each rotor assembly component can also be used in combination with other rotor assembly components . while the invention has been described in terms of various specific embodiments , those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims .	8
an assembly according to a first embodiment of the invention is shown in fig1 to 7 . the assembly comprises an opaque emblem 10 , which shows , for example , a logo 12 of an automobile manufacturer . the assembly further comprises an opaque plastic support 14 , a photoconductor 16 , a printed circuit board 18 with electronic components and a base 20 . the emblem 10 is a three - dimensional , relief - like solid emblem and , just as in the majority of the following embodiments of the invention , it is substantially identical in structure to emblems as have been used hitherto in non - illuminated manner . the photoconductor 16 shown individually in fig2 is a component matched to the shape of the emblem 10 with specially arranged deflection surfaces 22 having a reflecting polish ( see also detail view of fig7 b ). the photoconductor 16 may basically also be formed from a different material and may possibly have a reflecting coating . the plastic support 14 , shown individually in fig3 , for the emblem 10 is produced by injection - molding around the photoconductor 16 , preferably by a two - component injection molding process , if the photoconductor 16 is a plastic part , too . smd components ( surface mounted devices ) are arranged on the printed circuit board 18 ( see fig4 ), particularly a light - emitting diode ( led ) 24 as a light source . a recess 26 is provided for the wiring of the printed circuit board 18 in the base 20 which holds and protects the printed circuit board 18 ( see fig5 and 6 ). the assembly is shown in the assembled state in fig7 . the printed circuit board 18 is arranged so that the led 24 lies centrally under the emblem 10 and the photoconductor 16 . the uniform coupling of the light emitted from the led 24 into the photoconductor 16 is assisted by a cone 26 of the photoconductor 16 acting as a diffusor , which is arranged directly over the led 24 . as can be seen from fig7 and the detail views of fig7 a and 7 b , the photoconductor 16 is constructed so that the coupled - in light is directed to the rear side of the emblem 10 . this is made possible by the deflection surfaces 22 on which the coupled - in light is reflected . the photoconductor 16 has light outlet areas 28 which lie opposite the rear edge regions of the emblem 10 but do not project over them laterally ( see fig7 c ). as the edge regions of the emblem 10 do not lie directly on the photoconductor 16 , the emblem 10 is therefore illuminated indirectly on the rear side . a lighting effect is produced here which is comparable with a corona . like the emblem which was hitherto not illuminated , the assembly is fastened on the airbag cover of the steering wheel by means of the pins of the emblem 10 . to do this , after insertion into corresponding openings of the airbag cover , the pins are welded on the rear side of the cover , e . g . by ultrasonic welding . an assembly according to a second embodiment of the invention is illustrated in fig8 to 11 . the assembly comprises a three - dimensional , relief - like solid emblem 10 , an electroluminescence foil 24 ′ as the light source and a transparent plastic support 14 . the use of electroluminescence foils for illuminating emblems per se is known ( see , for example , de - u - 298 20 304 ), for which reason the layer structure and the electrical stimulation of the foil 24 ′ is not entered into in further detail . the foil 24 ′ and the support 14 are coordinated with the emblem 10 as regards shape , fastening bores etc . the surface of the support 14 facing the emblem 10 is coated with an enamel 30 which is opaque per se . however , the enamel layer has gaps 32 so that light can pass through the support 14 at these places . the gaps 32 can be produced by means of a laser after the support 14 is coated . basically any desired structures are able to be produced , e . g . fine honeycomb structures for a uniform illumination , or larger gaps 32 for a systematic illumination of a particular zone . a third embodiment of the invention is illustrated in fig1 to 16 . the assembly shown in an exploded view in fig1 and in the assembled state in fig1 and 14 comprises an opaque printed circuit board 18 equipped , inter alia , with leds 24 , an opaque support 14 , an opaque emblem 10 and a transparent plastic injection - molded member 34 over the emblem 10 . this assembly is distinguished in that the light of the leds 24 is coupled in through suitably arranged deflection surfaces 22 laterally past the support 14 and the emblem 10 into the transparent injection - molded member 34 , as shown in fig1 and 15 . in the injection - molded member 34 , a deflection takes place at its bevels 36 ( see fig1 ). the light which is ( at least partially ) reflected on the inner surface of the injection - molded member then illuminates the emblem 10 . in the case of an emblem 10 which is not contiguous ( i . e . if it has gaps ), the light can ( additionally ) be coupled in between the emblem structures into the transparent injection - molded member 34 . in this case , corresponding gaps are provided in the support 14 . a further illumination design is shown in fig1 . here , the assembly comprises a transparent support 14 which is illuminated from one side by one or more leds 24 . the other side of the support 14 is structured in accordance with the overlying opaque emblem 10 . the light can therefore only emerge through the elevated structures 38 of the support surface . ( it is not absolutely necessary for the structures 38 to be elevated though .) as indicated in the left half of fig1 , the light can also be coupled in from the side into the transparent support 14 . the surface of the support 14 which is not visible can be coated with a reflection foil 40 or a reflecting enamel . the elevated structures 38 of the visible surface can be printed in order to achieve a particular illumination effect . the illumination design illustrated in fig1 is similar to the one previously described . here , the support and emblem are exchanged , i . e . the support 14 is arranged on the side facing the observer and the emblem 10 has elevated structures 38 . accordingly , the emblem 10 is transparent here and the support 14 is opaque . the elevated structures 38 of the emblem 10 are pvd - coated in the manner of a venetian mirror ( one - way mirror ). the light of the leds 24 enters into the emblem 10 from the side facing away from the observer and can emerge through the elevated structures 18 . conversely , however , the observer can not see through the pvd coating . a final illumination design is shown in fig1 . a transparent support 14 has elevated structures which correspond to the positive or negative logo 12 which is to be displayed illuminated . the support 14 is injection - molded around with a transparent plastic 34 , so that the logo structure is protected . the light of one or more leds 24 is coupled in from the other side into the support 14 . the support 14 is printed black on the side facing the observer , with the exception of the elevated structures 38 , so that no light can emerge there . the elevated structures 38 , on the other hand , are printed in color and are transparent , so that the logo 12 appears to be illuminated in color . the embodiments which are described by way of example show a range of measures for the illuminated display of a logo 12 , which are also able to be combined with each other .	1
the present invention provides increased flexibility through digital watermarking technology . the following section describes a computing device capable of supporting watermarking software and / or functionality . ( it should be appreciated that the illustrated device is only one possible computing platform . there are many others capable of supporting watermark embedding and decoding . it is also anticipated that there will be advances in the handheld computing field , and such advances may be suitably interchangeably incorporated with aspects of the present invention .). a typical handheld device ( also call a personal digital assistant or pda ) can function as a cellular phone , fax sender , and personal organizer . some pdas are hand - held pc with tiny keyboards . another device uses a touch - screen and stylus for data entry . a handheld computing device 10 is now described with reference to fig1 . the device 10 preferably includes a processor 12 or other processing circuitry . one common processor is the 206 mhz intel strongarm , a 32 - bit risc processor . of course , many other processors , like those made by motorola , can alternatively be used . indeed , as with other components discussed herein , it is anticipated that improvements will be made with respect to handheld processors . for example , the computation power and processing speed of handheld processors will surely continue to increase . such improved components may be suitably interchanged with the present invention . memory 14 is preferably provided in the device . memory 14 can include ram ( e . g ., sdram ), rom , flash memory , optical , and / or magnetic memory . device 10 can also communicate with external or expansion memory . device 10 also preferably includes sufficient bus structure ( not shown ) to facilitate communication between the various device components discussed herein . in one embodiment , device 10 includes an expansion slot 13 , which is a compartment or communication port to plug expansion cards or devices such as a video card , wireless or satellite modem , additional memory , gps receiver , sound card , etc ., and connect them to the system bus structure . ( of course , gps refers to a global positioning system , which is satellite - based radio positioning system that provides three - dimensional position , velocity and time information to a gps receiver , anywhere on or near the surface of the earth .). device 10 can include a plurality of output devices . for example , device 10 can include a display area 16 ( e . g ., a lcd screen , thin film lcd , etc . ), communication port 18 , speaker 20 , wireless transceiver 22 , and printer 24 . ( of course , not all of these components are necessary , and may be included as optional features or plug - in devices .). the communication port 18 may include a single or a plurality of ports , for example , an infrared port , serial port ( e . g ., rs 232 serial port ), parallel port , synchronization port , universal serial bus ( usb ), etc . communication port 18 may be used to communicate with peripherals ( e . g ., web cameras , digital camera , cell phones , modems , a computer network , a stand alone computer , scanner , gps receiver , etc .) or with a host computer . in one embodiment , communication port 18 includes an audio / video output jack or port . wireless transceiver 22 may support a variety of communication platforms , and may even include cell phone or satellite transmission capabilities . ( alternatively , a cell or satellite phone communicates with device 10 via communication port 18 or expansion slot 13 ). in one embodiment , wireless transceiver 22 communicates with a computer network , using a communication protocol such as bluetooth . as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , bluetooth is a wireless communication technology that allows mobile phones , personal digital assistants ( pdas ), pcs and other electronic devices to talk to each other . bluetooth is a specification for small form factor , low - cost , short - range radio links between a variety of portable and mobile computing devices . for more information , see the bluetooth special interest group web site at www . bluetooth . com . of course , device 10 may support other communication standards , besides bluetooth . in one embodiment , wireless transceiver 22 communicates with a host computer 40 to establish an internet or other network connection ( fig2 a ). in another embodiment , handheld device 10 communicates directly with a dial - up or internet service provider , via a mobile phone , modem or wireless connection . in some embodiments , a peripheral device ( e . g ., a camera , web cam , scanner , gps , transceiver , optical sensor , imaging sensor , mouse , keyboard , etc .) communicates with a host computer 40 , which then relays the peripheral signal to handheld device 10 ( fig2 b ). in still another embodiment , a peripheral device 42 communicates directly with the handheld device ( fig2 c ). printer 24 is an optional component , which may be integral to device 10 , or may be in communication with device 10 . printer 24 may include a print head or thermal printing element . alternatively , printer 24 may include an ink - jet or laser - jet based printing system . device 10 preferably includes input devices , buttons or ports as well . for example , device 10 may optionally include a pen - touch interface to receive handwritten characters . device 10 may also optionally include a microphone 26 , through which device 10 responds to voice activated commands or to capture audio for recording . ( of course , voice recognition software may be running to help with the voice - activation .). a fold up ( or on a display screen ) keyboard can also be used for data entry . ( of course , communication port 18 is another source for data entry .). in another embodiment , device 10 includes or communicates with input devices such as a scanner , mouse , keyboard , modems , wireless transceivers , etc ., etc .). in another embodiment , device 10 includes a touch screen . ( device 10 may optionally include various launch buttons , which when selected , launch a particular program or software routine .). device 10 may optionally include , or communicate with , a digital camera , video capture device , web cam , optical sensor , digital eye module ( such as those provided by lightsurf , inc ., etc . ), etc . such digital eye modules typically include features such as a complete camera on a chip , cmos imaging sensor , and / or miniaturized lens and imaging software . other imaging devices include a ccd image sensor . power can be provided to device 10 in many ways . in one embodiment , device 10 includes a battery 28 , e . g ., such as a lithium - polymer battery , etc . in another embodiment , device 10 includes an energy cell , which is rechargeable . ( device 10 may also include an interface or port to receive power . usb or cradle recharging is even possible .). an on / off switch can also be provided for device 10 . ( in one embodiment , software automatically shuts down the device 10 after a predetermined period of inactivity . power is conserved as a result .). various software applications can be stored and run on device 10 . microsoft corp . even has a pocket pc windows operating system . palm and handspring have their own operating systems . many other software modules and applications are supported on handheld devices , such as word processing , device drivers , internet surfing or exploring , database management , communications , personal organization software , and many , many others . as will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art , suitable software programming instructions executing via processor 12 can be used to affect various types of watermark embedding and detection . to increase performance , software - programming instructions can be optionally written as fixed - point based code , instead of floating - point based code . in another embodiment , only watermark embedding or detecting software - programming instructions are stored on device 10 , and executed when needed . there are many other handheld devices offered by a gaggle of manufactures , which may suitably support watermarking software or watermarking functionality a few such manufacturer and products are : hp ( e . g ., the jornada 520 / 540 series ), compaq ( e . g ., the ipac pocket pc ), handspring , inc ., and palm , inc . some of these handheld devices combine computing , telephone / fax and networking features . of course , it is expected that these devices , and others , will continue to improve . such improvement may be readily incorporated with the present invention . the following sections disclose various inventive methods and systems , in which device 10 executing watermarking software ( decoding and / or embedding ) is employed . in some cases , a networked computer , instead of a handheld device is used . ( although some of the following applications are described with reference to a handheld computing device , it will be understood that a compliant desktop or laptop computer could alternatively be employed . the term “ compliant ” in this disclosure implies that the device is able to embed and / or decode digital watermarks .). a compliant handheld device 10 is ideal for helping to track and manage inventory . consider a warehouse or store with inventory ( e . g ., 100 widgets and 50 wobits .). the handheld device 10 , via printer 24 , prints a watermark onto each of the inventory items ( see fig3 , step s 1 ). preferably , the watermark is directly printed or impressed onto an inventory item . alternatively , a watermark is printed on a sticker or adhesive tag that is applied to the inventory item . an inventory watermark preferably includes a unique identifier , which identifies the type of inventory item ( e . g ., a widget or wobit ), and optionally , an item number identifier ( e . g ., widget number 26 ). in another identifying scheme , each inventory item is uniquely identified . unique identifiers , representing inventory items , can be maintained in an inventory list ( step s 2 ). of course , database management software can be used to help manage and update the inventory list . the printing of the watermark can encompass artwork or printing on the inventory item or tag , the printed background , numbering , lines on the item or tag , a laminate layer applied to the item or tag , surface texture , etc . if a photograph , line design , or drawing is present , it too can be encoded . a variety of watermark encoding techniques are detailed in the patent documents discussed herein ; artisans in the field know many more . device 10 can maintain an inventory listing for each printed tag . of course , device 10 can maintain a subset of inventory information as well . alternatively , device 10 can communicate with a central computer 40 , which maintains the inventory listing . checkout stations , roving cashiers , and inventory controllers can carry or be equipped with compliant computing devices . these devices track inventory ( e . g ., by reading the embedded watermark , extracting the identifier ( s ), and recording or communicating activity ) as it is shelved , shipped , returned and / or sold ( step s 3 ). for example , a cashier with a compliant device reads a watermark as an inventory item is purchased . the unique identifier and , optionally , a unit number , is extracted from the watermark . the inventory listing can be updated accordingly to reflect the purchase ( or shipment , or shelving ). in one embodiment , a plurality of handheld devices is in communication with a host computer . changes in inventory can be updated in real - time . in another embodiment , compliant devices periodically communicate with the central computer . in still another embodiment , a handheld computing device maintains the central database . inventory can be tracked efficiently as such . another method and system that is particularly well suited for practice with a compliant handheld device involves watermarking monetary objects ( e . g ., currency , bills , coins , treasury bonds , cashier &# 39 ; s checks , traveler &# 39 ; s checks , notes , food stamps , etc .). monetary objects are watermarked to indicate denomination , such as the amount of the object . in one embodiment , a watermark payload indicates that a five - dollar bill , is in fact , a five - dollar bill . alternatively , in another embodiment , the watermark itself identifies the respective type of monetary object . optionally , a monetary object is digitally watermarked to include the source of the object , e . g ., u . s ., euro , france , mexico , etc . a monetary object is present to a compliant reading device , such as a handheld device 10 ( see fig4 , step s 10 ). the compliant device reads a digitally watermarked monetary object , and extracts the denomination information ( step s 11 ). the denomination information is handled by the compliant reading device ( or a device in communication with the compliant device ), which provides feedback to a user ( step s 12 ). in one embodiment , the compliant reading device includes audio or voice synthesis , which announces the monetary denomination ( e . g ., announces “ ten dollars ,” when a ten dollar bill is decoded ). in another embodiment , the compliant reading device communicates with a braille output device , which signals the monetary object &# 39 ; s size . ( other textile - based feedback can alternatively be provided .). a seeing impaired individual is no longer dependent upon a potentially unscrupulous cashier when making payments or receiving change . instead , the individual digitally reads the embedded watermark to determine currency size and / or type and receives an audible ( or other ) indication of bill or currency size . to implement such , watermark payload bits are set to identify corresponding currency . when decoded by a compliant device , the payload bits are used by a device to index a predetermined wave ( or audio ) file . the file can be rendered or played to announce the corresponding bill ( or other monetary object ) size . the payload bits can be feed directly to an audio - synthesis chip . the audio - synthesis chip can be alternatively preprogrammed to respond to various payloads . for example , the payload bits of a five dollar bill trigger an audio synthesis of “ five ” or “ five dollars ,” etc . alternatively , the payload bits can be handled by software , which activates a feedback device to provide predetermined feedback based on the payload bits . the feedback can be changed from time to time , but is still triggered based on the payload . in another embodiment , the type of watermark , and not the payload , triggers like functionality . ( although this embodiment is particularly well suited for handheld devices , the present invention is not so limited . indeed , a cashier station or checkout stand could be equipped with a compliant reading device , which is available to seeing impaired individuals . the compliant device can be periodically inspected to ensure that it is providing accurate results . the complaint device could decode the watermark and respond accordingly , e . g ., announce bill size based on the type of watermark , or on a watermark &# 39 ; s payload . a compliant device could also be internet - based , for example , using digimarc mediabridge technology . the monetary object identifier is decoded and provided to a digimarc server ( e . g ., an online server ). the watermark identifier is associated with a url or other information . the url or other information includes the corresponding correct feedback to be provided to the user . in this case , an audio signal or file can be provided to announce the denomination . in still another embodiment , a signal from the corresponding url server activates a braille or other output device .). street signs , restaurant menus , grocery store isles ( and goods ) can be watermarked to provide similar feedback . in this case , a sign , menu or item can be embedded with a unique identifier . a compliant device can extract an identifier , which it relays ( e . g ., via a wireless or other communications channel ) to a central database . the central database retrieves related information ( audio files , braille enabling commands , etc .) and communicates such to the querying device . in one embodiment , the database is accessed via the internet . in another embodiment , a handheld device includes a library or database of identifies and related information . in this case , the handheld device need not query an online database , but may look to its stored database . digital watermarks may also be used to help manage documents and provide quality assurance . as will be appreciated , there are several document - management and quality assurance standards in place . iso 9000 is one example . there are many others . some such standards mandate that only the most recent version of a printed document be retained , a document history be maintained , and / or security be implemented . consider the following embodiment . each time a document is printed , an identifier is steganographically embedded therein in the form of a digital watermark . the identifier identifies document data , e . g ., such as a document file name , document version number , creation and / or print time , author , edited by , printer location , etc . ( once obtained , this document data can either be contained in the embedded watermark itself , or contained in a database to which the watermark represents a pointer , or both .). a database can be used to track documents and revisions to such , based on unique identifiers assigned per print , or edit , or session , or etc . a printed , watermarked document then becomes a portal to related information , or a gatekeeper to help track document history . consider a typically office situation , in which documents are printed and then edited / updated , and where several people have access to an electronic copy of the document . a user presents a printed document to a compliant device . an image of the document is captured by an input device , e . g ., via digital camera , optical sensor , laser scanner , web cam , digital eye , ccd or cmos imaging sensor , or scanner . the embedded watermark is decoded from the captured image . related information can then be determined from the database . for example , the extracted watermark information uniquely identifies the document , e . g ., via the document data . if the document is in an electronic form , it to can be digitally watermarked . the watermark can be used to track and identify the document . in one embodiment , the document data is compared with the database information to determine whether the printed copy is the most recent copy . additional information can be determined as well . for example , the author of the latest revisions can be identified , upcoming deadlines , or sensitive conditions ( e . g ., contract terms or confidentiality agreements ) can be presented to the user . ( preferably the compliant computing device includes a user interface , through which such information is relayed . in another embodiment , such information is communicated to a user &# 39 ; s designated handheld device .). now consider an embodiment implemented in a business or home - office environment . say a business team is meeting in conference room b , on the first floor of a building . in the meeting , it becomes apparent that not everyone in the group has the same documentation . luckily , the needed documents are watermarked with document identifiers . the watermarked documents are presented to a compliant device , which extracts and decodes the respective document identifier ( see fig5 , step s 20 ). a user interface allows the meeting participants to select a printing option and printing location . ( in the case of a handheld device , the device communicates , perhaps wirelessly , with a network communication port . the user interface may reside on the handheld device itself .). the identifiers are associated in a network - accessible database according to corresponding electronic documents . an extracted , watermark identifier is used to interrogate the database to find an associated , or corresponding , electronic document ( e . g ., a word file , excel spreadsheet , pdf file , etc .). network routing software determines a printer nearest ( or convenient ) to the compliant device and renders the electronic document to the printer for printing . optionally , a message is communicated to the compliant device , indicating the printing location . so - called fragile watermarks can be embedded within a document . a fragile watermark can be designed to be lost , or to degrade predictably , when the data set into which it is embedded is processed in some manner . thus , for example , a fragile watermark may be designed so that if an image is jpeg compressed and then decompressed , the watermark is lost . or if the image is printed , and subsequently scanned back into digital form , the watermark is corrupted in a foreseeable way . ( fragile watermark technology is disclosed , e . g ., in commonly assigned applications ser . nos . 09 / 234 , 780 , 09 / 433 , 104 ( now u . s . pat . no . 6 , 636 , 615 ), ser . no . 09 / 498 , 223 ( now u . s . pat . no . 6 , 574 , 350 ), 60 / 198 , 138 , ser . nos . 09 / 562 , 516 , 09 / 567 , 405 , 09 / 625 , 577 ( now u . s . pat . no . 6 , 788 , 800 ), ser . no . 09 / 645 , 779 ( now u . s . pat . no . 6 , 714 , 683 ), and 60 / 232 , 163 .). by such arrangements it is possible to infer how a data set has been processed by the attributes of a fragile watermark embedded in the original data set . in one embodiment , a second watermark is embedded along with a fragile watermark in a document . the second watermark can include information pertaining author , printer , document version , user , etc . in this embodiment , when a compliant device decodes a document , and the fragile watermark is not detected , the document is determined to be a copy or duplicate . information from the second watermark can be used to identify the source of the document . ( the printer or user can be identified to determine a potential security breach .). movie and other event tickets may be purchased on - line from various sources . a ticket may comprise many forms , including an authorization code , digital image , audio signal , text file , and digital signal . the ticket preferably includes a unique identifier or purchase code embedded therein . in one embodiment , the ticket is transferred to a purchaser &# 39 ; s handheld device . alternatively , the online movie ticket retailer transmits a ticket in the form of a payload , authentication code , or digital file to the user &# 39 ; s computer . a plug - in on the user &# 39 ; s computer is launched , which incorporates the ticket information when creating a watermarked image . ( a handheld device can directly communicate with an online website , as shown in fig6 a , to retrieve a ticket . or the handheld device can communicate with the website via a host computer , as shown in fig2 a .). as noted in assignee &# 39 ; s u . s . patent application ser . no . 60 / 257 , 822 , filed dec . 21 , 2000 , a watermarked image can be presented on the lcd display , and captured by a web cam for various purposes . accordingly , in a preferred embodiment , a watermarked ticket image is displayed on a handheld device . at the movie theater , the ticket purchaser presents the handheld device , showing the watermarked image on the display screen , to a compliant watermark decoder 50 , as shown in fig6 b . the decoder verifies authentic tickets by opening a gate or enabling a visual confirmation , e . g ., a green light , or via a graphical user interface and / or with human intervention . the movie theater decoder can download a list of authentic payloads or identifiers prior to each movie showing or session , may query an online database to verify each ticket . the extracted identifier can be compared to the authentic identifiers to confirm a valid ticket . when the ticket identifier matches one of the authorized identifiers , the ticket is verified , and entry is permitted . ( fragile watermarks are alternatively embedded in the electronic ticket to help avoid counterfeiting .) credit at a concession stand ( or coupons for such ) can be obtained by techniques like those above . in still another embodiment , a movie or event poster ( or flyer , advertisement , etc .) is digitally watermarked to include related event information , or a pointer to such information . a compliant handheld device extracts the embedded watermark information . in a first embodiment , an extracted watermark pointer ( or index ) is used to interrogate a database point to a web address ( e . g ., via a url ). the database ( or web site ) may include data records , including related event information . for example , for a movie poster , the related information may include ticket purchase information , trailers or clips , movie reviews , behind the scenes information , and much , much more . the database can be accessed via the internet , or via a network system . alternatively , a database can be downloaded onto the handheld device . a handheld device can be configured to have a unique device identifier , presented via its display . typically , a handheld device display comprises a plurality of pixels . in one embodiment , a microlens is added for each pixel , or a subset of the plurality of pixels . ( some so - called “ camera - on - a - chip ” devices are currently equipped with microlenses . these camera - on - a - chip devices use an all - cmos process to build both a sensor array and additional on - chip signal - processing logic . in one example , the sensor array is organized as a 1 , 280 × 1 , 024 array , which corresponds to the higher resolution sxga standard . a microlens for each pixel is added to enhance sensitivity , and provided for special color filter arrays .). for handheld devices , the microlenses can be used to vary luminance of pixel elements . indeed , the microlens can polarize light , e . g ., in a horizontal and / or vertical direction . microlenses can be arranged to create a pattern of horizontal and / or vertical polarizations . a unique device identifier can be determined from the pattern . ( in a first embodiment , a pattern can be constructed to steganographically hide data , e . g ., a device identifier . in another embodiment , the pattern mathematically corresponds with a device identifier . in still another embodiment , the pattern reveals a series of binary signals , which are used to determine the device identifier . in yet another embodiment , a fourier analysis of the pattern reveals information used to determine the identifier . artisans in the field know other ways to correlate a pattern with an identifier . such may be suitably employed with the present invention .). to an unfiltered eye ( or camera ), the polarized display appears normal . the various horizontal and / or vertical polarizations are typically undetected . adding a polarized filter , however , reveals the polarized luminance pattern . in this embodiment , an input device , e . g ., a camera , web cam , optical sensor , imaging sensor , etc ., includes a filter ( e . g ., a polarized filter , a luminance filter , etc . ), which exposes the polarized pattern . an input device captures an image of the handheld device display ( e . g ., as shown in fig6 b ). the captured image includes a polarized pattern , which includes ( or hides ) a unique device identifier . in the preferred embodiment , software is used to analyze a pattern and discern the corresponding device identifier . in another embodiment , the device identifier is dynamic , in that it can change . to accomplish such , a set of microlens includes a bus structure ( or energy receptacles ) to receive electricity or energy ( hereafter both referred to as “ energy ”). energy is applied to the set of microlens to change their respective polarizations . the polarization pattern is thereby changed . accordingly , the unique identifier can be changed . software , running on the handheld device can be used to provide an interface to help change the unique identifier . there are many applications involving such a device identifier . for example , referring to the “ event tickets ” section above , a user could present her handheld device when purchasing tickets . a filtered image of the handheld device display is captured to determine the unique device identifier . the watermarked ticket image ( or authorization code ) includes the corresponding device identifier . at the event location ( e . g ., movie theater ), the watermarked ticket image is displayed via the polarized display . an image of the display is captured . the captured image ( e . g ., of the watermarked ticket image ) is decoded to extract both the ticket authorization identifier and the polarized device identifier . an image of the display can be captured via a polarized - filter input device , which can be used to determine the unique device identifier . ( of course , one input device can also be used with different filters or a filter that allows both polarization filtering and typical image capture .). the decoded device identifier is compared with the captured device identifier . if they match , then entry is allowed ( assuming the authorization matches .). in one embodiment , the embedded ticket authorization is the corresponding device identifier . as a copy control , multi - media content can be bound to a particular handheld device via the device &# 39 ; s display identifier . a device identifier can be used in a security system or network access . for example , verifying the device display identifier is one step in a security system . ( such a system may also include entry of a pin or password , etc .). of course there are many other applications with respect to uniquely identifying a handheld device via a polarized display . a handheld device equipped with , or in communication with , a digital camera or web camera , can be used as an image scanner . a digital or web camera captures image patches or swatches . assuming a watermarked document is imaged , the captured pieces can be stitched back together to form the original image . the watermark is embedded to include using an orientation or grid signal . the grid signal is redundantly embedded within a document . the grid signal can be key on , and used as a template when stitching pieces together . specifically , image pieces or swatches can be oriented according to the grid signal , and then matched with adjacent pieces . accordingly , a handheld device ( and an input device , e . g ., a web cam ) becomes a scanner . the foregoing are just exemplary implementations using digital watermarking technology . it will be recognized that there are a great number of variations on these basic themes . the foregoing illustrates but a few applications of the detailed technology . there are many others . while this application discusses a handheld computing device , the present invention is not so limited . of course , a compliant device may include a desktop or laptop computer , or even a compliant kiosk . to provide a comprehensive disclosure without unduly lengthening this specification , the above - mentioned patents and patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference . the particular combinations of elements and features in the above - detailed embodiments are exemplary only ; the interchanging and substitution of these teachings with other teachings in this application and the incorporated - by - reference patents / applications are also contemplated . the above - described methods and functionality can be facilitated with computer executable software stored on computer readable mediums , such as electronic memory circuits , ram , rom , magnetic media , optical media , removable media , etc . such software may be stored on a handheld reading device . instead of software , the watermarking functionality may be hardwired . the section headings in this application ( e . g ., “ handheld computing device ”) are provided merely for the reader &# 39 ; s convenience , and provide no substantive limitations . of course , the disclosure under one section heading may be readily combined with the disclosure under another heading . in view of the wide variety of embodiments to which the principles and features discussed above can be applied , it should be apparent that the detailed embodiments are illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention . rather , we claim as our invention all such modifications as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereof .	6
with reference now to the drawings and first to fig1 a rotary cutter type drill bit shown generally at 10 in quarter section which is also typically referred to in the industry as a &# 34 ; rock bit &# 34 ;. the rotary bit structure 10 generally comprises a body structure 12 having a threaded upper extremity 14 for attachment of the drill bit to the lower section of a string of drill pipe , not shown . the body structure 12 also includes a plurality of depending cutter support legs 16 each supporting a rotary cutting element such as shown at 18 and 20 each having a plurality of teeth 22 formed thereon to provide for optimum engagement between the teeth of each of the cutter elements and the formation being drilled . each of the cutter elements of the bit structure will be of slightly different configuration , whereby the teeth of each cutter will cooperate with the teeth of the other cutters to provide for efficient cutter engagement with the formation as the rock bit is rotated relative thereto . referring now to fig2 the rotary cutter 20 and its support structure is illustrated in greater detail . the depending leg 16 of the drill bit body structure may be formed to define a generally planar bearing face 24 against which the cutter element 20 bears as it rotates relative to the body structure of the bit . an annular groove 26 may also be defined in the bearing face portion of each depending leg 16 and a suitable sealing element , such as an o - ring 28 , for example , may be located within the annular groove 26 to prevent ingress of drilling mud into the support bearing of the cutter and cutter support assembly . the depending leg structure 16 may also be formed to define a bore 30 having its axis oriented in such manner as to intersect the center - line axis of the drill bit . if the drill bit incorporates rotary cutter elements for example , the center - line axis of each of the bores 30 will be oriented to intersect the vertical center line of the drill body at a point , unless it is desirable to orient the rotary axis of each of the rotary cutters in some other desirable manner . a cutter support spindle 32 may be provided which includes a reduced diameter portion 34 adapted to be received within the bore 30 . the reduced diameter portion 34 of the spindle may be inserted into the bore 30 to such extent that an annular shoulder 36 of the spindle engages the bearing face surface 24 , thus controlling the position of the spindle relative to the depending leg structure 16 of the drill body . the spindle may also be formed to define an inclined end surface 38 that may be oriented in surface alignment with the outer surface 40 of the depending leg 16 . connection between the spindle and the depending leg 16 may be positively established by welding as shown at 42 . prior to assembly of the spindle structure 32 to the depending legs 16 of the body structure of the bit , it will be desirable to form an assembly between the rotary cutter elements 20 and the respective bearings and spindles thereof . this may be conviently accomplished in the manner identified particularly in conjunction with fig2 and 3 . to establish a rotatable relationship between the rotary cutter element 20 and the spindle 32 , the spindle may be formed to define a cylindrical bearing surface 44 about which may be received a bearing element 46 . the bearing surface 44 may be such as to provide for efficient smooth rotation of the bearing 46 relative to the spindle . for example , the bearing surface 44 may be chrome plated if desired and may be ground to an extremely smooth finish . if the metal from which the spindle 32 is formed is of extremely good bearing quality , the bearing surface 44 may simply be surface ground to an efficient finish for good bearing capability . the spindle structure may also be formed to define an enlarged head portion 48 defining an annular shoulder 50 that cooperates with the bearing 46 to retain the bearing in proper operative position relative to the bearing surface 44 . it is desirable that each of the rotary cutter elements of the drill bit have a positively retained and nonrotatable relationship with the exterior surface of the bearing element 46 . this feature may be conveniently accomplished in the manner illustrated in the exploded view of fig3 . as shown at the lower portion of fig3 the bearing element 46 is shown to be provided with a generally cylindrical internal bearing surface 52 that is positioned in intimate bearing engagement with cylindrical surface 44 of spindle 32 upon assembly . the bearing 46 is also formed to define an external cutter engaging surface 54 that is tapered as shown at 55 with respect to the cylindrical surface 52 such that the bearing structure 46 is provided with a large extremity directed toward the cutter element and a small extremity directed toward the planar surface 24 of depending leg 16 . the taper of surface 54 may , for example , be in the order of 0 . 002 inches throughout the length of the bearing element 46 , which may be in the order of 2 inches . conversely , the cutter element 20 may be formed to define an internal cavity 56 which is of a configuration to receive the head portion 48 of the spindle and the bearing 46 in close relationship therein . the cavity 56 may be defined in part by a tapered surface 58 that is of larger dimension at the inner extremity thereof than at the outer extremity as shown at 59 . throughout the extremity of the tapered surface 58 the degree of taper may be in the order of 0 . 002 inches for example . the internal dimension of the cavity 56 defined particularly by tapered surface 58 may be correlated with the dimension of the external surface 54 of the bearing such that an extremely tight fit will be developed between surfaces 54 and 58 when the cutter and bearing are in assembly . moreover , the enlarged inner extremity of the bearing 46 and the cavity 56 will allow the cutter element to be firmly mechanically interlocked with the bearing element 46 , thereby preventing not only rotation between the cutter and the bearing but also preventing separation of the cutter from the bearing . to accomplish assembly of the cutter elements to the respective bearing and spindle assemblies , the cutter elements may be heated for the purpose of increasing the internal dimension established by the tapered surface 58 , while at the same time the bearing and spindle assembly may be cooled for the purpose of reducing the external dimension of the bearing . for example , a rotary cutter element having a cavity dimension of 1 . 504 inches at a normal temperature of 25 ° c . ( 72 ° f .) when heated to a temperature of 225 ° c . was determined to have increased in internal dimension to 1 . 5076 inches . at the same time , reducing the temperature of the bearing and spindle assembly from a normal temperature of 25 ° c . ( 72 ° f .) to - 75 ° c . (- 100 ° f .) resulted in a dimensional decrease of the external surface of the bearing from 1 . 503 inches to 1 . 5022 inches . with the drill cutter thus heated and the bearing and spindle assembly cooled , it is possible to readily force the bearing into properly seated relationship within the cavity 56 of the cutter . it should be borne in mind that the heated , cooled and normal temperature relationships set forth hereinabove , together with the particular dimensions identified at these temperatures , is not intended to be in any way limiting as far as this invention is concerned . it is considered obvious that other temperature ranges and dimensions may be utilized for the various parts , depending upon the particular coefficient of expansion of the materials involved , without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention . in the event the drill bit might be subjected to extremely heavy loads or excessive vibration , it may be desirable to provide means other than the mechanical expansion and contraction of parts to retain the cutters in assembly with the bearing structures . if this is desired , the cutters may be formed to define an internal groove 60 that may be positioned in registry with an annular groove 62 formed in the outer periphery of the bearing 46 when the bearing is properly positioned within the cavity 56 . in this case , a retainer ring 64 shown in fig2 may be located within the groove 62 of the bearing prior to assembly of the bearing and cutter . the retainer ring 64 may be a split ring capable of bearing substantially fully received within the annular groove 62 of the bearing , thereby enabling the retainer ring to be forced into the cavity 56 of the cutter along with the bearing during assembly . as the annular groove 62 of the bearing moves into registry with the groove 60 of the cutter , the retainer ring , which may be formed of spring material , will expand so as to become partially received within both of the grooves 60 and 62 . after the retainer ring has become so positioned , the cutter element will separate from the bearing 46 only upon the development of forces that are sufficiently great to shear the retainer ring 64 . it may also be desirable to provide the drill cutter assembly with means for providing periodic lubrication of the cutter bearing . this may be conveniently accomplished by forming the spindle structure 32 shown in fig2 with a lubricant passage 66 , the outer extremity of which may be internally threaded as shown at 68 . at externally threaded lubricant fitting such as a conventional zerk fitting 70 may be extended through a recess 72 and may be received within the internally threaded portion 68 of the lubricant passage . the recess 72 allows the fitting 70 to be recessed sufficiently to prevent the fitting from being damaged or worn as drilling operations are conducted . the space between the spindle and bearing assembly and the internal wall surfaces of the cavity 56 effectively define a reservoir 74 that receives a quantity of lubricant . as drilling operations occur , lubricant will be transferred to the bearing surfaces 44 and 52 . fig4 and 5 are representative of a further embodiment of the present invention , whereby the depending leg structure of the drill body may take similar form as illustrated in fig1 and 2 , with the exception that an annular seal groove 76 may be provided for containing a sealing element 78 such as an o - ring . the annular groove 76 will be of larger dimension as compared to the annular groove 26 in fig2 . a spindle element 80 may be provided that is retained in connection with the depending leg structure 16 in the same manner as discussed above in connection with fig2 . the spindle 80 may be formed to define a bearing surface 82 of cylindrical configuration , which bearing surface may be located between an enlarged head portion 84 and an intermediate flange portion 86 . in this case , a bearing structure may be provided in the form of a pair of semi - cylindrical bearing segments 88 each having an exterior locking groove 90 formed therein . the cutter element 20 will be of substantially identical configuration as compared to the cutter shown in fig2 with an annular internal groove 60 formed therein for registry with the grooves 90 of the bearings segments 88 . as shown in section in fig5 the cutter element 20 will be formed to define a tangential retainer insertion passage 92 that is oriented in substantially tangential relationship with the registry grooves 60 and 90 . an elongated retainer element 94 may be inserted through the passage 92 into the annular retainer chamber defined cooperatively by grooves 60 and 90 . the retainer element 94 is flexible and capable of following the annular retainer chamber as it is forced through the passage 92 . the retainer element 94 may be composed of a flexible metal material or , in the alternative , it may be formed of any other suitable metallic or non - metallic material without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . after insertion of the retainer element the passage 92 may be closed , such as by hardenable plastic material . as a further alternative , bearing segments may be employed such as shown at 88 in fig5 and a retainer ring element such as the retainer ring shown at 64 in fig2 may be placed in assembly within the annular groove portion 90 . after this has been done , the cooled bearing and spindle assembly may then be further assembled to a heated cutter element in the manner discussed above in connection with fig2 and 3 . it is also considered desirable to provide a drill body structure that is of low cost nature without any sacrifice from the standpoint of strength and durability . this feature may be conveniently accomplished in the manner illustrated in fig6 through 8 which show a plurality of body segments that may be connected in assembly by welding to form the body structure of a rotary cutter type drill bit . fig6 - 8 each show drill segments 96 , 98 and 100 that are of substantially identical configuration . in fact , each of the drill body segments shown in fig6 and 8 may be identical and may be formed by casting or forging as desired . since the casting or forging design of each of the body segments is of simple configuration , the casting or forging costs will be quite low and yet the body structure that is developed will be of substantial strength and durability when the body sections are assembled . as further shown in fig6 - 8 , each of the body sections may be provided with cutter elements 102 , 104 , and 106 that are of cooperating configuration , allowing the development of a rock bit structure having optimum boring capability upon welded assembly of the body segments 96 , 98 and 100 . the cutter elements may be rotatably connected to the body structure or to the body segments as the case may be in the same manner discussed above in connection with fig2 - 5 . further , if desired , the cutter elements may be assembled to the body segment structures prior to welded connection of the body segments , thus simplifying the assembly procedure of the cutter elements and further enhancing the low cost nature of the drill bit structure . the upper threaded extremity of the drill bit body may be formed by machining after the body segments have been joined . as shown in fig6 - 9 , each of the body segments may be provided with internal passage surfaces 108 , 110 and 112 respectively that cooperate to define a flow passage 114 when the segments are welded in assembly . each of these body segments may further be formed to define segment abutment surfaces that are oriented at an angular relationship of 120 °. when the body segments are assembled , the abutment surfaces will be in engagement , thus orienting the rotary cutter elements in proper relationship for optimum cutting capability . each of the body segments may also be formed to cooperatively define weld grooves such as shown at 116 , 118 and 120 so that simple linear welds 122 , 124 and 126 may be formed to retain the body segments in assembly to define an integral drill body . referring now to fig1 there is shown an alternative embodiment of this invention wherein segmented bearings are employed . each of the legs 130 of the body of the bit will be constructed essentially as shown in fig4 and 6 - 9 with a bore 132 being formed to receive the connecting portion 134 of the spindle 136 . the spindle will be formed to define an enlarged diameter bearing engaging surface 138 and a head portion 140 that defines an annular stop shoulder 142 . the seal groove 144 in this case will be of slightly larger diameter as compared to seal groove 76 of fig4 and the sealing element 146 will be of correspondingly larger dimension . the cutter element 148 will be formed internally in such manner as to receive the spindle with circular bearing surface 150 engaging the planar end surface 152 of the spindle . the cutter element is also formed internally to receive bearing segments 154 that may be of semi - circular configuration or , in the alternative , may be of other partially circular configuration . the cutter element also defines an internal cavity 156 that is formed to allow insertion of the bearing segments after the spindle and cutter have been brought into assembly . this feature allows the cutter , bearing segments and spindle to be secured in interlocked assembly without requiring a retainer ring such as shown at 90 in fig4 . to assemble the cutter element to the spindle , the spindle and cutter will be placed in angulated relation with the spindle within the cutter and with one bearing segment positioned within the bearing insertion chamber of the cutter . another of the bearing segments will then be inserted into its proper position relative to the cutter . upon movement of the cutter element and spindle to the coaxial relationship thereof the bearing segment retained within the bearing insertion chamber will be shifted to its proper bearing relationship with the spindle . the bearing segments will then be encapsulated and the cutter element will be rotatably secured to the spindle . in view of the foregoing it is clearly apparent that the present invention provides a rotary drill bit construction having a body structure of exceptional strength and durability and yet being of low cost . the drill body segments , being low cost forged or cast metal structures , may be connected in assembly by simple and efficient low cost welding procedures to define an integral body structure of exceptional strength and durability . the invention also provides for optimum utilization of materials for the various components of the drill bit construction to insure optimum drilling capability and exceptional service life . lost cost , high strength materials may be utilized for the spindle and bearing structures and the cutter elements may be formed of optimum materials for insuring extended service life . further , the spindle may be secured by simple welding procedures to the drill body legs or segments thereby further simplifying the construction of the drill bit . also , the rotary cutter devices may be assembled to body segments prior to formation of the integral body to further simplify the assembly procedure and pipe threads may be machined after the body structure has been assembled . the present invention also promotes utilization of lubrication systems that allow the drill bit structure to be periodically lubricated to further enhance the service life of the bit structure . it is apparent therefore , that the present invention is one well adapted to attain all of the objects and features hereinabove set forth , together with other advantages which will become obvious and inherent from the description of the apparatus itself . it will be understood that certain combinations and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations . as many possible embodiments may be made of this invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof , it is to be understood that all matters herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .	8
various embodiments of an on - vehicle power supply system according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . referring to fig1 - 7 , a first embodiment of the on - vehicle power supply system will now be described . this on - vehicle power supply system is configured based on how to calculate battery - state quantities according to the present invention . as shown in fig1 , a vehicle ve is equipped with an on - vehicle power supply system according to the present embodiment . this system functionally realizes both control and calculation apparatuses according the present invention . the on - vehicle power supply system is provided with a battery 1 , a bi - directional current controller 2 , a battery controller 3 , and an on - vehicle ecu ( electronic control unit ) 4 . the battery 1 is electrically connected with a power - supplying line 5 via the bidirectional current controller 2 and also electrically connected with on - vehicle electric loads l and an on - vehicle generator 7 via the power - supplying line 5 . the present on - vehicle power supply system is also provided with a current sensor 6 to detect charge current and discharge current to and from the battery 1 . the charge and discharge currents i are fed to the current controller 3 via a path 6 a . the voltage v of the battery 1 is also fed to the current controller 3 via the path 6 a . the power voltage vl , which is the voltage on the power - supplying line 5 , is also supplied to the current controller 3 . the current controller 3 is configured to accept , from the on - vehicle ecu 4 , a target value va ( also called “ control voltage ” at which the power voltage vl should be controlled ) for the power voltage vl . that is , the signals of the voltage v and current i ( voltage / current ) of the battery 1 , the power voltage vl , and the target value va , which are input parameters , are used in the current controller 3 with a microcomputer incorporated . thus , the current controller 3 uses the target value va to control of the charge and discharge currents to and from the battery 1 via the bi - directional current controller 2 . this control allows the power voltage vl to converge to the target value va , resulting in that the power voltage vl is controlled on the stabilized basis ( i . e ., the power - voltage stabilizing control ). the bidirectional current controller 2 is formed into a circuit provided with switching elements , which are controlled in a switching controlled manner so as to control the charge and discharge currents to and from the battery 1 to the control current is . in the following description , since the charge and discharge currents to and from the battery 1 are controlled under the operations of the bi - directional current controller 2 , those charge and discharge currents are also called “ control current is ( i . e ., target value for the current to and from the battery ),” which is paired with the “ control voltage va ( i . e ., target value for the power voltage )” in terms of their terms . referring to fig2 , the operations for realizing the power - voltage stabilizing control will now be described , which is carried out by the battery controller 3 . first of all , the battery controller 3 reads in the signals of voltage v and current i ( sampled voltage / current pair data ) of the battery 1 , control voltage va , and actual power voltage vl which is voltage on the power - supplying line 5 ( step s 1 ). then the battery controller 3 applies the value of the control voltage va to a relationship between the voltage and current of the battery 1 and calculate the control current is corresponding to the control voltage va ( step s 2 ). the relationship is memorized in the controller 3 beforehand or produced in the current processing . the battery controller 3 the provides the calculated control current is to the bidirectional current controller 2 ( step s 3 ). responsively , the bidirectional current controller 2 performs switching control on the control current is such that the charge and discharge currents to and from the battery 1 is controlled to the control current is . then the battery controller 3 determines whether or not the vehicle has ended its running operation ( step s 4 ). if the determination is yes , i . e ., the running of the vehicle has stopped , the processing is ended , while if the determination is no , the vehicle is still in running operation , the processing in the battery controller 3 is returned to step s 1 . by the way , for obtaining a function for calculating the foregoing control current is , the battery controller 3 is given an interrupt routine to be carried out at intervals or in predetermined battery state . such intervals are exemplified in fig3 as calculation timing , in which a pattern a ( fig3 ( a ) and a pattern b ( fig3 ( b ) ) exemplify , together with the calculation timing ( i . e ., timing for carrying out the interrupt routine shown in fig2 ), intervals of sampling ( i . e ., acquiring ) data pairs of voltage and current . the timing schemes for the data acquisition and the calculation , which are shown as the patterns a and b in fig3 , are simply examples , so that the timing scheme may be developed into other various ways . the interrupt routine shown in fig2 is designed so that the routine uses input information to select a function for calculating the control current is , the function being set to have less calculation error . thus , to be specific , the processing at step s 2 is reading of the value of the control current is selected by the interrupt routine . referring to fig4 , how to calculate the control current is , which is carried out at step s 2 , will now be described . this processing is also carried out repeatedly at intervals . this calculation is made by using a regression line defined by a plurality of calculating functions ( i . e ., a formula for calculating the control current is ), that is , regression formulae . a preferred one among the calculating functions is selected depending on conditions and the selected one is subjected to the calculation of the control current is . in addition , calculation of a new calculating function includes correction of the past calculating functions depending on battery states , other than addition of the current values of the sampled voltage / current pairs . as shown in fig4 , in a regular interrupt manner , the calculation routine is initiated in response to the startup of a starter for the engine . when the starter is started to be driven , the current flowing from and in the battery 1 fluctuates largely during a very short interval of time , during which time a large number of pairs of sampled voltage / current data are measured ( step s 101 ). these paired data , which have been measured during the engine startup interval , are used to calculate an internal resistance r of the battery 1 for their storage ( step s 102 ). the calculation of the internal resistance r at step s 102 will now be detailed more with reference to fig5 . this calculation is also executed by the battery controller 3 . the large number of pairs of sampled voltage / current data is first subjected to their average , so that noise components caused and involved in the data are removed or lessened ( step s 201 ). then pairs of sampled voltage / current data are prepared for calculating the internal resistance r of the battery 1 ( step s 202 ). specifically , pairs of sampled voltage / current data to be assigned to the calculation are selected from the sampled voltage / current pair data measured ( measured ) when inrush current first flows into the starter . those pairs of sampled voltage / current data to be assigned to the calculation are defined as being data collected in a voltage recovery state coming after a voltage lowest limit caused after the inrush current state . the reason why such selection is made is that the data measurement and acquisition operation is stable and a difference between an estimated voltage ( the voltage drops at the startup of the starter , i . e ., the engine ) and an actually measured voltage becomes a minimum so that there is provided current and voltage ranges for the calculation of the internal resistance . then the selected pairs of voltage / current data undergo a known calculation technique to produce a first regression line ( a regression line during the startup ) ( step s 203 ), and the slope angle of the first regression line is calculated as an internal resistance of the battery 1 for memorization ( step s 204 ). after this preparation , responsively to start of the running of the vehicle , the battery controller 3 also starts to sample pairs of voltage / current data ( fig4 , step s 103 ). the battery controller 3 then examines whether or not a flag f for selecting how to calculate the control current is is 0 ( step s 104 ). in the following , this calculation technique will now be referred to as a first calculation technique which allows the control current is to be calculated based on the internal resistance r . the value “ 0 ” of this flag f means that the control current is is calculated based on the first calculation technique , of which procedures are shown in steps s 105 to s 107 later described . meanwhile , the value “ 1 ” of the flag f means that the control current is is calculated based on a second calculation technique , of which is procedures are shown in steps s 111 to s 113 later described . this second calculation technique allows the control current is to be calculated based on the regression line . the flag f is reset to 0 by an initialization process being executed immediately after the routine processing starts , that is , immediately after the running start . thus , immediately after the running start , the processing proceeds to step s 105 from step s 104 . at step s 105 , the sampled voltage / current pair data measured during a selected part of the running interval are also subjected to production of a regression line ( i . e ., a regression line during the running ) in the same manner as that at step s 102 , this regression line is used to calculate its slope as an internal resistance r , and the data of the internal resistance r is memorized . by the way , the regression line during the startup may be used as this regression line during the running , if it has been unable to measure sampled voltage / current pair data whose dispersion is sufficient for accurately estimating a regression line . for example , this is true of a case where there is less changes in current and voltage of the battery 1 during the running . then the battery controller 3 reads in , from the on - vehicle ecu 4 , the control voltage va which is a target value for the power voltage vl of the power - supplying line 5 ( step s 106 ). the read control voltage va and the internal resistance r calculated at step s 105 both are subjected to calculation of a control current is , that is , a target value for the charge / discharged current of the battery 1 ( step s 107 ). the resultant control current is is sent to the bidirectional current controller 2 by way of a command expressing the control current is , with the result that the charge / discharge current of the battery 1 is controlled at the calculated control is ( target value ). this control current is is calculated on the following formula . where v is a battery voltage measured immediately before the calculation of the control current is . incidentally , in the formula , the internal resistance of the bidirectional current controller 2 is ignored as being relatively smaller than that of the battery 1 . this comes from the fact that the bidirectional current controller 2 is equipped with a switching regulator which is made open / close selectively depending on a specified duty every predetermined interval . hence the resistance loss during the close operation ( current flows ) is small enough to be ignored . then the battery controller 3 measures sampled voltage / current data in pairs again and calculates a voltage error α between the measured voltage v and the control voltage va ( step s 108 ). the battery controller 3 determines whether or not this voltage error α is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold ( step s 109 ). this threshold is for determining an allowable voltage range . when this determination is yes , that is , the voltage error α ≦ predetermined threshold , it is recognized that the currently employed calculation technique for the control current is is proper because the error is smaller and that this calculation technique should be kept . hence the battery controller 3 continuously gives 0 to the flag f in odder to continuously employ the second calculation technique that uses the regression line during the running , as shown in steps s 103 to s 107 ( step s 110 ). after this flag processing , it is determined whether or not the running has ended ( step s 117 ). when the running has ended , the routine is returned to a not - shown main processing , while when the running is kept continuously , the processing is returned to step s 103 in the routine . in contrast , at step s 109 , if the determination is no , that is , it is found that the voltage error & gt ; the predetermined threshold , the processing proceeds to steps s 111 to s 115 . of these steps , steps s 111 to s 113 are assigned to the second calculation technique for the control current is based on a second regression line . specifically , at step s 110 a , it is determined whether or not a flag f 1 is 0 . this flag f 1 is used to decide that the next step s 111 should be skipped or not . hence , only when it is determined that the flag f 1 is 0 ( yes at step s 110 a ), the processing at step s 111 is conducted . at step s 111 , pairs of sampled voltage / current data which are different from those selected at step s 105 are also selected from the pairs of the sampled voltage / current data measured at step s 103 , and then the selected voltage / current pair data are used to calculate a second regression line . the voltage / current pair data used for such a second regression line may be composed of various pair data , such as i ) a group of only voltage / current data pairs sampled immediately before the calculation , ii ) all data of sampled voltage / current pairs measured , or iii ) data of sampled voltage / current pairs already measured in a drive mode of the battery 1 which is similar or identical to the present drive mode of the battery 1 . such a similar or identical drive mode may be decided depending on states of the charge / discharge currents or residual capacities . for instance , the states of the charge / discharge currents are divided into four states consisting of a state in which the charge current is on the increase , a state in which the charge current is on the decrease , a state in which the discharge current is on increase , and the discharge current is on the decrease . and the comparison is made state by state to employ data of sampled voltage / current pairs belonging to a state similar or identical to the current charge / discharge current state . alternatively , data of sampled voltage / current pairs may be employed from previously memorized data when residual capacities to be calculated are similar or identical to those obtained in the past . the battery controller 3 further reads in data of a control voltage va from the on - vehicle ecu 4 ( step s 112 ). as stated , the control voltage va is a target value for the power voltage vl on the power - supplying line 5 . the read - in control voltage va is applied to the second regression line obtained at step s 111 in such a manner that a control current is , i . e ., a charge / discharge current of the battery 1 , is calculated ( step s 113 ). this control current is is given to the bidirectional current controller 2 in the form of a command signal , with the result that the battery 1 is controlled to have the charge / discharge current adjusted to the control current is . then , in the same way as the above , the battery controller 3 measures sampled voltage / current data in pairs again and calculates a voltage error α between the measured voltage v and the control voltage va ( step s 114 ). the battery controller 3 determines whether or not this voltage error α is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold ( step s 115 ). when this determination is yes , that is , the voltage error α ≦ predetermined threshold , it is recognized that the currently employed calculation technique for the control current is is proper because the error is smaller and that this calculation technique should be kept . hence the battery controller 3 continuously gives 1 to the flag f in odder to continuously employ the second calculation technique that uses the regression line during the running , as shown in steps s 103 , s 111 to s 113 ( step s 116 ). after this flag processing , it is determined whether or not the running has ended ( step s 117 ). when the running has ended , the routine is returned to the not - shown main processing , while when the running is kept continuously , the processing is returned to step s 103 in the routine . by the way , at the foregoing step s 104 , if the determination is made such that the flag f currently shows 1 , the processing also proceeds to steps s 111 to s 115 . hence , in this case , the processing is performed in the same manner as the above on the basis of the flag f = 1 showing the second calculation technique for the control current is based on a second regression line . meanwhile the determination of no at step s 115 causes the processing to proceed to step s 118 shown in fig6 . that is , when the voltage error α is over the predetermined threshold , it is recognized by the battery controller 3 that the second regression line requires to be corrected further . at step s 118 in fig6 , for correcting the regression line , the second regression line calculated at step s 111 is shifted in parallel with a line passing a coordinate ( vx , ix ) which is a pair of voltage / current sampled immediately before the calculation . the shifted line is defined as a third regression line ( simply , a shifted regression line or a third regression line ). that is , the shifted regression line is obtained with a minimum shift distance , compared to the way of shifting the line in parallel with either the voltage or current axis . then a control voltage va is read in ( step s 119 ), and this read - in control voltage va is applied to the shifted regression line to calculate a corrected control current ia ( step s 120 ). this calculation is conducted on the following formula ; where r is a slope of the second regression line , which is an internal resistance r . then , in the same way as the above , the battery controller 3 measures sampled voltage / current data in pairs again and calculates a voltage error α between the measured voltages v and the control voltage va ( step s 121 ). the battery controller 3 determines whether or not this voltage error α is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold ( step s 122 ). when this determination is yes , that is , the voltage error α ≦ predetermined threshold , it is recognized that the currently employed calculation technique for the control current is is proper because the error is smaller and that this calculation technique should be kept . hence the flag f 1 = 0 is kept ( step s 122 a ). then the battery controller 3 shifts its processing to step s 116 . in contrast , the determination at step s 122 is no , that is , the voltage error α & gt ; predetermined threshold , the processing at step s 123 is executed . at step s 123 , the battery controller 3 corrects the slope of the third regression line by a little , but predetermined angle in such a manner that the slope angle , i . e ., the internal resistance r , is amended to make the voltage error α smaller by a little , but predetermined value . this amendment will now be illustrated in fig7 . incidentally , after the processing at step s 123 , the flag f 1 is set to f = 1 to shown the skip of the processing at step s 111 ( step s 123 a ). in fig7 , the second regression line is shifted in parallel to a third regression line passing the coordinate ( vx , ix ) of a voltage / current pair sampled at the latest timing . a control voltage va is applied to the third regression line to gain a control current is . this control current is is used to control ( adjust ) the actual current of the battery 1 , so that an actual voltage vn is measured after the control . when the actually measured voltage vn is equal to or smaller than the control voltage va which is a target value , as shown in fig7 , the slope angle of the third regression line is amended so that the control current is increases . more specifically , the slope angle of the original third regression line “ m ” is decreased to have a new slope angle , which is assigned to a new third regression line “ m + 1 .” thanks to the flag processing using the fag f 1 , this new third regression line whose slope angle is amended by a predetermined value is utilized by the processing at step s 112 , instead of the second regression line produced at step s 111 . by contrast , when the actually measured voltage vn is higher than the control voltage va , the slope angle of the third regression line is amended so that the control current is decreases , that is , the slope angle of the original third regression line “ m ” is increased to have a new third regression line “ m + 1 .” in this way , the new third regression line “ m + 1 ” whose slope angle is adjusted is produced and data indicative of the new one is stored for the control to be carried out thereafter . as a modification , it is advantageous to stop , at intervals , the correction of the second regression line , which is shown in fig6 . every time the correction is stopped , new voltage / current pairs which have been sampled since the last production of the second regression line at step s 112 are used to update the second regression line , which is new and timely so that the present running conditions are reflected in a new updated second regression line . in the on - vehicle power supply system according to the present embodiment , the power voltage vl on the power - supplying line 5 , which fluctuates largely in reply to running conditions of the vehicle , is controlled by controlling the charge / discharge current of the battery 1 at a time - dependently adjusted target value . this makes it possible for the power voltage to be finely and timely adjusted in consideration of the internal charge state of the battery 1 . accordingly , control can be done with higher precision thanks to control based on a timely manner as well as consideration of the internal conditions of the battery 1 which changes time to time during the running state of the vehicle . further , compared to the conventional feedback control that controls a generated power amount depending on a difference between an actual power voltage and a target voltage , the control is quicker in response and more effective . the reason is that the power voltage is adjusted in consideration of changes in the internal state of the battery that changes on the control . especially in the present embodiment , in cases where the voltage error is still larger ( refer to step s 115 ), the regression line showing a relationship between the voltages and currents is shifted from the second one to a third one passing a coordinate of a voltage / current pair sampled at the latest timing ( refer to step s 118 ). correcting or shifting the regression line in this way reduces an error in calculating the control current is which is a target value . that is , the latest internal state of the battery can well be reflected into the shifted regression line , thus the battery state being calculated at a high precision with the calculation error reduced largely . further , the regression line can be updated . when a calculation error is larger than the threshold , that is , an allowable range , another regression line is calculated on voltage / current pair data sampled differently from those used for calculation of the currently used regression line or another regression line is calculated using a technique different from that for the currently used regression line . accordingly , an error of the calculation of the control current can be reduced , leading to fine control of the power voltage . it is also possible that when a calculation error is larger than the threshold , the regression line is corrected for the next calculation . that is , the slope angle ( internal resistance ) of the regression line is corrected to make the calculation error smaller . hence , the calculation error is reduced in the next control , so that the control is timely corrected to have the error converged within an allowable range . that is , the regression line can be switched to another one in a simple manner . although the regression line depends on voltage / current data pairs acquired in the past , it is not always true that the regression line accurately reflects the present internal state of the battery 1 , because such data pairs are sampled at different time instants in different internal states of the battery 1 . in the present embodiment , however , the next regression line is selected to be the next one when the calculation error α exceeds a predetermined threshold , which leads to a simple switchover among the regression lines , which further leads to a simple correction of the present regression line . the configuration of the on - vehicle power supply system according to the present embodiment may still be modified into further various forms . the circuitry shown in fig1 may be modified into other forms , one of which is illustrated in fig8 . as shown in fig8 , an on - vehicle power supply system according the present modification relates to omission of the foregoing bidirectional current controller 2 . in this circuitry , the control of the charge and discharge currents of the battery 1 is shifted to a generator system 7 in which there are provided a generator 7 a itself and a regulator 7 b , so that the bidirectional current controller 2 can be omitted from the circuitry . a current sensor 8 senses a generator current ig and supply it to the battery controller 3 . in contrast , in the case of fig1 , it is required to have the bidirectional current controller 2 which is responsible for such control . in the circuitry shown in fig8 , the power - voltage stabilizing control will be carried out as follows . the current controller 3 reads in signals of not only the voltage v (= power voltage vl ) and current i of the battery 1 but also an output current ( corresponding to a current to be generated ) ig from the generator 7 a via the current sensor 8 . then the battery controller 3 applies the value of the control voltage va to a relationship between the voltage and current of the battery 1 and calculate the control current is corresponding to the control voltage va . then the battery controller 3 uses the control current is , the output current ig , an actually measured current i of the battery 1 to calculate the value of a current igs to be generated ( outputted ) next from the generator 7 a on the following expression : in this expression , the term “ ig - i ” means the sum of consumed currents by the on - vehicle electric loads . thus , on this expression , a command for the current igs to be generated is given to the regulator 7 b so that the current ig to be generated next is made to equal the sum of the current total “ ig - i ” and present control current “ is ”. the regulator 7 b receives the command for the current igs to be generated , calculates the value of a field current corresponding to the commanded current igs , and supplies field current on the calculated field current value to a field coil of the generator 7 a . accordingly , in the similar way to that shown in fig1 , the on - vehicle power voltage is controlled in consideration of the characteristics ( i . e ., states ) inherent to each battery 1 . though the foregoing embodiment has been explained about a case in which the formula for calculating the control current is employs the regression line , but is not a decisive one . another example is that a number of voltage / current pairs are plotted to produce a regression curve of a predetermined curvature in the two dimensional plane and this regression curve is used to calculate the control current is by substituting a target voltage into the regression curve . still another example is to use the foregoing regression curve such that a current value expressed by a coordinate at which a tangential line at an actually - measured - point coordinate intersects a line showing a target voltage is set as the control current is . in addition , the foregoing embodiment adopts a linear regression line , but this is not a definitive list . non - linear regression curves can be adopted as well . further , for shifting the regression curve to a coordinate sampled at the latest timing , it is preferred that the regression curve is shifted twice , i . e ., one along the voltage axis and the other along the current axis , so that the shifted distances become a minimum in the two - dimensional coordinate system . according to the foregoing embodiment and modifications , there are other additional advantages . the value of the control current is changed using the regression line to be updated at predetermined timing , so that the power voltage is able to converge to a target voltage in an accurate manner . preferably , the update timing is set to be in a period of time during the current changes largely at a rapid rate . when the current does not change for a long period of time , the regression line may be updated using a large number of paired data of voltage and current acquired in the past . when the regression line is linear , shifting the regression lines can be done by drawing a liner line passing a coordinate defined by the latest - acquired data pair at a slope angle of the latest one . the second regression line is shifted to the third one so as to keep a shifted distance at a minimum amount . hence , an amount of the shift can be made smaller , further reducing the calculation error . the charge / discharge current of the battery 1 is calculated at a coordinate at which the shifted regression line intersects with a liner line showing the target voltage of the battery 1 . thus the value of an updated charge / discharge current of the battery 1 , which is necessary for the target voltage , can be estimated reliably , leading to accurate controlling of vehicle power voltage . in contrast , the voltage of the battery 1 is calculated at a coordinate at which the shifted regression line intersects with a liner line showing the current of the battery 1 , so that a battery voltage corresponding to a predetermined charge / discharge current can be detected with precision . when setting the predetermined charge / discharge current to zero , the open - circuit voltage of the battery 1 can be estimated accurately . referring to fig9 - 12 , a second embodiment of the on - vehicle power supply system according to the present invention will now be described . in the present embodiment , for the sake of a simplified and redundancy - avoided explanation , the similar or identical components to those in the first embodiment will be given the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment . the second embodiment is characteristic of deciding a regression line on the basis of various drive modes of the battery 1 . in the present embodiment , for deciding a particular regression line , there are provided in advance four regression lines , which are composed of i ) a discharge - current increasing regression line , ii ) a discharge - current decreasing regression line , iii ) a charge - current increasing regression line , and iv ) a charge - current decreasing regression line . of these , the discharge - current increasing regression line is used when the battery 1 is in discharge and the discharge current is on the increase . the discharge - current decreasing regression line is used when the battery 1 is in discharge and the discharge current is on the decrease . the charge - current increasing regression line is used when the battery 1 is in charge and the charge current is on the increase . and the charge - current decreasing regression line is used when the battery 1 is in charge and the charge current is on the decrease . further , it is examined in which drive mode the battery 1 works at present . a particular regression line is chosen among the previously prepared four lines in accordance with the present drive mode of the battery 1 , with the chosen regression line used for the control . referring to fig9 , the processing carried out by the battery controller 3 will now be outlined . this processing is also carried out repeatedly at intervals based on for example the patterns a or b shown in fig3 . first of all , data of sampled voltage / current pairs are measured ( i . e ., detected or acquired ) during the latest interval of time ( step s 300 ). using the plurality of pairs of voltage / current data measured during the latest interval of time , the present drive mode of the battery 1 is examined ( step s 301 ). in the present embodiment , the drive mode is composed of four modes consisting of a discharge - current increasing mode , discharge - current decreasing mode , charge - current increasing mode , and charge - current decreasing mode . then , a signal regression line which accords with the drive mode examined at step s 301 is selected from the four regression lines previously memorized , mode by mode ( step s 303 ). these four regression lines are discharge - current increasing , discharge - current decreasing , charge - current increasing , and charge - current decreasing regression lines . using a known technique , the regression line selected this time is shifted to a line passing a coordinate indicative of a voltage / current pair data measured at the latest sampling timing ( step s 303 ). to be specific , a line passing a coordinate of a voltage / current pair data measured the latest sampling timing and also having a slope angle of the selected regression line is drawn in the two - dimensional plane defined by two axes representing the voltage and current . a current value at a specified coordinate existing along the drawn regression line is decided as a control current is and outputted in the form of a control command , the specified coordinate corresponding to a target voltage ( step s 304 ). secondary , referring to fig1 , how to produce the four regression lines will now be explained . this processing is also carried out repeatedly as an interrupt routine activated at intervals . at first , using a plurality of pairs of voltage / current data measured during the latest predetermined interval of time are used to examine a present drive mode of the battery 1 ( step s 400 ). then , a regression line whose mode agrees with the examined drive mode is selected from the already memorized information about the four regression lines , i . e ., the discharge - current increasing regression line rg 1 as illustrated in fig1 ( a ) , the discharge - current decreasing regression line rg 2 as illustrated in fig1 ( b ) , the charge - current increasing regression line rg 3 as illustrated in fig1 ( a ) , and the charge - current decreasing regression line rg 4 as illustrated in fig1 ( b ) ( step s 401 ). the gradient angles of the respective regression lines rg 1 to rg 4 are the same or different from each other . and the regression line which has been used so far is update to the new one selected this time ( step s 402 ). the update of the regression line will now be explained more with taking as an example the discharge - current increasing regression line . the pairs of sampled voltage / current data measured in the past are grouped into the four drive modes . a plurality of pairs of voltage / current data sampled during the latest predetermined interval are mixed with the voltage / current paired data grouped so far in the same drive mode ( in this example , the discharge - current increasing drive mode ) to update the regression line to have a new characteristic curve , i . e ., a new line , in this drive mode . hence the regression lines for the four modes are updated constantly and memorized for the control . of course , the other regression lines for the other modes can be updated in the same manner . incidentally , for mixing the new data with the old ones , it is possible to exclude the voltage / current pair data sampled in the oldest interval from the existing data . this exclusion of the old data always keeps the data fresh , so that the regression line can be estimated with precision . in addition , there is another way of calculating the regression lines , in which one regression line which has been used so far is combined with voltage / current paired data to be added this time so that a regression line is figured out by computation . in this way , it is possible to largely improve an error in calculating the control current is , because the regression line entitled to be used for calculating the control current is is produced in the same drive as that of battery 1 . in particular , it is possible to distinctively use the different types of regression lines in accordance with different battery - current states which exhibit different voltage / current characteristics of the battery 1 . such sates are due to influence of the polarization caused within in the battery 1 , for example . however , the different types of regression lines are distinctively used , reducing an error in the calculation of the control current . the present invention may be embodied in several other forms without departing from the spirit thereof . the embodiments and modifications described so far are therefore intended to be only illustrative and not restrictive , since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description preceding them . all changes that fall within the metes and bounds of the claims , or equivalents of such metes and bounds , are therefore intended to be embraced by the claims .	7
although the present invention is herein described in terms of a basic embodiment , it will be readily apparent to those skilled in this art that various modifications , rearrangements , and substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention . the scope of the present invention is thus only limited by the claims appended hereto . referring now to fig1 set forth is a first embodiment of the detergent container 10 , which consists of a single housing defined by a front wall 12 , back wall 14 , top wall 16 , and a bottom wall 18 . the back wall 14 is positionable against the inner side surface 200 of a dishwasher . as illustrated , the container has a width w sized to avoid interference with the operation of items placed within the dishwasher . an elongated length l may be varied to allow placement between the storage racks of a conventional two rack dishwasher . the top surface 16 of the container includes an engagement tab 22 , which is operatively associated with holder bracket 24 . engagement tab 22 is slidable along the length of the bracket 24 which is formed into a curvature 26 along the length of the bracket 24 . similarly , a bottom bracket 28 is operatively associated with an insertion tab 30 projecting from the bottom wall 18 to juxtaposition surface 14 along inner surface 200 of the dishwasher . edge 32 of the dispenser includes a transparent window 34 to allow visual depiction of the amount of detergent alongside level indicia 36 markings . a vent 38 can be membrane for puncturing or have a removable adhesive cover placed thereover to allow free flow through the container once properly installed . the leading wall 40 includes a soft membrane 42 positioned along the lower edge to accept insertion of piercing line 44 during installation . in this manner , container 12 is slid between holders 24 and 28 along the side wall 200 wherein the membrane 42 is automatically pierced by the sharpened edge of transfer tube 44 during the installation step . the transfer tube is hollow and provides a transfer of detergent between the container and the dispensing chamber . now referring to fig2 and 2 ( a ), set forth is a second embodiment of the detergent container depicted by numeral 50 . in this embodiment the detergent container is mounted in a vertical orientation while the transparent window 52 with indicia 54 remains along the side of the container to provide visual indication of the detergent level . in this embodiment the lower surface 56 includes an engagement tab 58 which is insertable into a u - shaped channel 60 positionable along the side wall 210 of the dishwasher . a latching mechanism 62 is located along the upper portion 64 of the container 50 . in operation , the container 50 is secured to the side wall 210 by placement of the insertion tab 58 into channel 60 wherein membrane 68 is pierced by rigid fluid pipe 70 . the container is then pivoted upwardly against the side wall and is maintained against the side wall by use of latching mechanism 62 . the latch is a simple rotatable lever having handle 76 which is rotatable and positionable along the frontal surface of the container 50 . similar to the first embodiment , a vent 78 is provided to allow ease of flow of liquid detergent from the container into and through the fluid coupling pipe 70 . now referring to fig3 and 3 ( a ), set forth is a third embodiment of the instant invention . the detergent container 80 includes a rigid outer casing 82 having hinges 84 secured to the side wall 210 of a dishwasher . a latching mechanism 86 allows rigid cover 82 to pivot along hinges 84 upon rotation of the latch 86 to allow access to an interior chamber 88 . the interior chamber 88 is sized to accommodate a flexible and disposable detergent bag 90 that is held in position by the use of hangar 92 insertable through hand hold 94 . the hangar 92 maintains the bag in an upright position allowing for the flow of detergent through coupling pipe 96 . the bottom of the flexible bag 90 includes a membrane 98 which is punctured by the sharpened end 100 of coupling pipe 96 . as with the first embodiments , a side wall of the housing 82 includes a transparent window portion 102 for use in viewing the amount of detergent that remains within the container . now referring to fig4 illustrated is a detergent dispenser that is coupled to the detergent container . the detergent dispenser consists of a base frame 112 which is securable to the side wall of the dishwasher with an opening for insertion of the fluid coupling pipe 114 which allows for the fluid detergent transfer from the detergent container to a measuring bowl 116 . the measuring bowl allows for a predetermined amount of detergent to be placed therein through gravity transfer and a gravity disbursement of the detergent placed within the cavity 118 past seal mechanism 120 . the sealing mechanism may consist of a deformable end piece 122 or soft seal which is coupled to a shaft 124 and movable along pinon 126 . the pinon is mounted to the upper surface 128 of the structure with a spring 130 biased against the shaft 124 and against the bottom of the receptacle 110 along opening 132 . the upper portion 134 of the shaft includes a piece of metal wherein operation causes a solenoid 136 to energize creating a magnetic field so as to draw the upper portion 134 upward providing a space between sealing end 122 and opening 132 . the detergent placed within the receptacle 118 may then flow through the opening and into the dishwasher . the receptacle 116 may be threaded along an upper edge 136 and operatively associated with threads 138 formed integral with the housing 112 . seal 140 prevents a loss of detergent as well as inhibit detergent solidifying within the threaded portion . referring now to fig5 set forth is a second embodiment of the detergent dispenser 150 which is securable to the side wall 220 of a dishwasher . the dispenser includes a dispensing shell 152 having a cavity 154 for receipt of detergent therein through flow coupling tube 156 . upon filling of the cavity with detergent , when the dishwasher requires detergent during a wash cycle , solenoid 158 is energized so as to cause metal including surface 160 to draw against the formed magnet thereby opening seal 162 allowing detergent to flow through opening 164 . the actuating lever 160 and opening seal 162 rotate at pivot point 166 and is spring biased 168 to maintain seal 162 tightly against opening 164 , thereby preventing premature detergent discharge or washout due to a backflow of water during the rinsing cycle . it is to be understood that while a certain form of the invention is illustrated , it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement of parts herein described and shown . it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention is not to be considered limited to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification .	0
this disclosure relates to controlling communication between a carrier and at least one node positioned at an inaccessible location , such as a subsurface location . as used herein , the term “ subsurface ” refers to below the surface of land and / or a body of water , e . g ., underwater or subterranean locations . in the discussion below , reference is made to hydrocarbon producing wells . it should be understood that the teachings of the present disclosure may be applied to numerous situations outside of the oil and gas industry . for example , the teachings of the present disclosure may be applied to devices or subsurface structures associated with geothermal wells , water producing wells , pipelines , tunnels , mineral mining bores , etc . referring initially to fig1 , a wellbore or borehole 20 is shown a production well using devices or nodes 60 in communication with a communication line 42 in a carrier 26 . the carrier 26 may communicate data and / or power within the borehole 20 . the carrier 26 may be rigid or non - rigid . for example , the carrier may be non - rigid carrier such as a tubing encapsulated cable . the carrier may also be a rigid carrier such a “ wired ” drill pipe . the carrier 26 may be configured to convey signals between the surface and the nodes 60 positioned downhole ( e . g . a tubing encapsulated cable ). herein , signals may include , but are not limited , to signals for conveying information and / or energy . illustrative , but not exhaustive , signals include electromagnetic signals , acoustical signals , pressure pulses , optical signals , etc . herein , information may include raw data and processed data . the borehole 20 may include multiple production zones 24 a - d . packers 52 , which may be retrievable packers , may be used to provide zonal isolation for each of the production zones 24 a - d . each zone 24 a - d may include one or more nodes 60 . herein , a node may be any device that transmits signals to and / or receives signals from the carrier 26 . the nodes 60 may include , but are not limited to , one or more of : intelligent well completion equipment , environmental sensors ( e . g ., pressure , temperature , flow rates , etc . ), injectors , flow control devices such as valves , chokes , seals , etc . that are configured to adjust , vary and control flow from the formation into the tubing , electrical / hydraulic actuators , communication devices ( e . g ., transmitters , receivers , pulsers , etc . ), and downhole power generators . thus , a node may transmit generated information , receive information ( e . g ., instructions ), receive energy , and / or transmit generated energy via the carrier 26 . the node 60 may be configured to be positioned at an inaccessible location . an inaccessible location may be a location where intervention to repair or restore communication is not possible or cost prohibitive . a location may be inaccessible due to remoteness , hazardous conditions , dimensional restrictions , etc . inaccessible locations may include subsurface locations ( subsea , subterranean , etc .). while fig1 shows the nodes 60 as well completion equipment , the present disclosure is not limited to equipment used in a completion process . in some embodiments , one or more of the nodes 60 may include a node terminator 64 configured to terminate at least one aspect of the signal communication between the node 60 and the carrier 26 . for example , the uni - directional or bidirectional transmission of signals between a node 60 and the carrier 26 may be terminated by activating a node terminator 64 , which may be part of the node 60 . herein , the term “ terminate ” is used to describe impairing or obstructing the flow of signals to a degree that signals flowing along the carrier 26 do not influence operation of the node 60 and / or the operation or functional status of the node 60 does not influence the flow of signals along the carrier 26 . thus , in embodiments where the carrier 26 , the nodes 60 , and other devices constitute a system , the activation of node terminator 64 may operationally isolate one or more nodes 60 from the rest of the system . in some embodiments , a node terminator 64 may be configured to terminate or trigger termination of communication for more than one node 60 . after the node terminator 64 is activated , the node 60 may be isolated from some or all signals from the carrier 26 . in embodiments , a controlled signal may be used to activate the node terminator 64 . herein , a controlled signal is a signal initiated by surface and / or downhole intelligence ( e . g ., a suitably programmed microprocessor or human operator ). thus , the controlled signal is a deliberately transmitted signal , as opposed to an errant signal , that is intended to cause a specific response from the node 60 . the controlled signal may be generated at the surface , subsurface , in the borehole , or at the node itself . the controlled signal may be produced by a controller ( not shown ) that may be located at one of : ( i ) a surface location , ( ii ) a subsurface location , and ( iii ) the node 60 . the node terminator 64 may render the node 60 operationally non - responsive to signals conveyed along the carrier 26 after communication has been terminated such that communication may not be restored by sending a second controlled signal . moreover , the termination may be such that the node 60 may only reacquire signal transmission capability by in situ repair or by retrieval from the inaccessible location for repair . fig2 shows an offshore embodiment according to the present disclosure . a drill rig 210 may be supported by a platform 220 . a riser 230 may include a carrier 26 , which may extend below the sea bed 240 into a borehole 20 in the earth formation 250 . nodes 60 may be positioned along the riser 230 and / or within the borehole 20 . as discussed above , the nodes 60 may be in signal communication with the carrier 26 , at least in part , through a node terminator 64 . aspects of the node terminator 64 are illustrated in fig3 , which shows a circuit diagram of one embodiment of a node terminator 64 that terminates signal flow with the carrier 26 upon receiving a controlled signal . the node terminator 64 may include a communication linkage 310 that either directly or indirectly enables signal communication between the node 60 and the carrier 26 . the communication linkage 310 may be installed in line with the communication line 320 between the carrier 26 and the node 60 . the communication line 320 may be configured to carry signals , e . g ., electrical , hydraulic , etc . the node 60 may include a control member 330 configured to initiate an energy flow to the communication linkage 310 . the control member 330 may positioned between the communication line 320 and a ground 350 , such as cable or carrier armor . herein , “ control member ” is used to generically describe a switching device used to control energy from either an energy source or the carrier . the control member 330 may be configured to have at least two states , which may include an open circuit and a closed circuit between the communication line 320 and ground 350 . the control member 330 may also be configured to change states in response to a controlled signal on signal line 340 . in some embodiments , the control member 330 may be configured to change state permanently ( such as a latching relay ) regardless of power supplied to the control member in response to the controlled signal . in other embodiments , the control member 330 may require an energy source to maintain its state . suitable control members may include latching relays , field effect transistors , and other switchable devices known to those of skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure . in some embodiments , the node terminator 64 terminates signal communication between the node 60 and the carrier 26 by destroying the communication linkage 310 . herein , “ destroyed ” means that some aspect of the communication linkage 310 , e . g ., a conductive material , is converted or transformed into a state that prevents the communication linkage 310 from enabling signal communication , at least to the same effectiveness as prior to being converted / transformed . that is , for example , the communication linkage 310 may be converted / transformed from a signal conveying state to a non - signal conveying state . for example , the material making up a portion of the communication linkage 310 may be disintegrated such that the material no longer conveys electrical signals . one non - limiting suitable element is a “ consumable ” element . herein , an element that is “ consumed ” generally means an element that undergoes a non - reversible , one - time conversion or transformation from one state to another ( e . g ., substantially conductive to substantially non - conductive ). consumable elements suitable for the communication linkage 310 may include , at least in part , fuses , fusable links , rupture disks , and other elements that are transformed to a desired state by application of mechanical energy ( e . g ., pressure ), electrical energy , thermal energy , etc . communication linkages that do not have a consumable component include devices that are returned to a functional position ( e . g ., signal conveying condition ) by an external operation ( e . g ., a latching relay or a latching valve ). illustrative external operations include retrieval from the subsurface location or a well intervention using tools conveyed into the well for in situ operations . in operation , signals may flow across communication linkage 310 until a controlled signal is received by control member 330 on line 340 . upon receipt of the controlled signal , the control member 330 may close , resulting in a short circuit between the communication line 320 and ground 350 . in some embodiments , the control member 330 may be supplied with energy through part or all of the disconnection operation . when the short circuit is formed , sufficient energy from the communication line 320 will flow to communication linkage 310 resulting in the consumption of at least part of communication linkage 310 and terminating communication . the consumption of at least part of communication linkage 310 may directly or indirectly terminate the flow of signals between the node 64 and the carrier 26 . it should be appreciated that the power parameters ( e . g ., voltage or pressure ) associated with the communication line 320 did not have to be adjusted or set in order to isolate the node 60 from the carrier 26 . that is , the termination of communication does not necessarily depend on a voltage or pressure change or value of communication line 320 . thus , the node 60 may be isolated in an operation that is independent of the operation of the carrier 26 . fig4 shows a circuit diagram of another embodiment of node terminator 64 that uses an energy source 420 and dual control members 330 , 430 . in this embodiment , the control member 330 indirectly initiates an energy flow to destroy at least part of the communication linkage 310 by using the control member 430 . here , control member 330 receives a controlled signal on signal line 340 and is in electrical communication with the second control member 430 and an energy source 420 . second control member 430 may be positioned between communication line 320 and ground 350 . the second control member 430 may be configured to have at least two states , which may include an open circuit and a closed circuit between the communication line 320 and ground 350 . in some embodiments , a resistor 410 may be coupled between control member 330 and second control member 430 to dissipate energy from energy source 420 to ground 350 . energy source 420 may be a stored energy source that does not receive energy from communication line 320 . energy source 420 may be any energy storage device , including , but not limited to , one of : ( i ) a battery , ( ii ) a reservoir , ( iii ) a capacitor , and ( iv ) an inductor . in operation , signals may flow across communication linkage 310 until the node 60 receives a controlled signal . the controlled signal may be received by control member 330 on signal line 340 . upon receipt of the controlled signal , the control member 330 may close , resulting in a short circuit between the energy source 420 and the second control member 430 . the energy from energy source 420 may then activate second control member 430 causing a short circuit between communication line 320 and ground 350 . in some embodiments , the control members 330 , 430 may be supplied with energy through part or all of the disconnection operation . when the short circuit is formed , sufficient energy from the communication line 320 will flow to communication linkage 310 resulting in the consumption of at least part of communication linkage 310 and terminating communication . the consumption of at least part of communication linkage 310 may be a direct or an indirect cause of the termination of communication . fig5 shows a circuit diagram of another embodiment of node terminator 64 according to the present disclosure using a second consumable element . the control member 330 may be in electrical communication with an element 510 and an energy source 520 . element 510 may include , at least in part , a consumable element in element 510 of the same type or different from the consumable element in communication linkage 310 . energy source 520 may be configured to store and release sufficient energy to consume at least part of element 510 . the element 510 may be in electrical communication with control member 330 and ground 350 . second control member 430 in electrical communication with communication line 320 and ground 350 . the second control member 430 may be configured to have at least two states , which may include an open circuit and a closed circuit between the communication line 320 and ground 350 . in some embodiments , second control member 430 may be powered by energy source 520 . in some embodiments , a one way flow element 530 ( e . g . diode , check valve ) and a resistive element 540 may be coupled and positioned between the communication line 320 and element 510 . in operation , signals may flow across communication linkage 310 until a controlled signal is received by control member 330 on signal line 340 . upon receipt of the controlled signal , the control member 330 may close , resulting in a short circuit between the energy source 520 and the second control member 430 and between the energy source 520 and the element 510 . sufficient energy from energy source 520 may then flow to the element 510 resulting in the consumption of at least part of element 510 and forming an open circuit . with an open circuit formed , second control member 430 may no longer be held to ground 350 through element 510 and may be energized by energy source 520 and / or by the communication line 320 . second control element 430 may activate and cause a short circuit between communication line 320 and ground 350 . the short circuit may result in sufficient energy to flow from communication line 320 to communication linkage 310 to consume at least part of communication linkage 310 . the consumption of at least part of communication linkage 310 may be a direct or an indirect cause of the termination of communication . in some embodiments , the control members 330 , 430 may be supplied with energy through part or all of the disconnection operation . while the foregoing disclosure is directed to the one mode embodiments of the disclosure , various modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art . it is intended that all variations be embraced by the foregoing disclosure .	4
portions of the present invention and corresponding detailed description are presented in terms of software , or algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory . these descriptions and representations are the ones by which those of ordinary skill in the art effectively convey the substance of their work to others of ordinary skill in the art . an algorithm , as the term is used here , and as it is used generally , is conceived to be a self - consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result . the steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities . usually , though not necessarily , these quantities take the form of optical , electrical , or magnetic signals capable of being stored , transferred , combined , compared , and otherwise manipulated . it has proven convenient at times , principally for reasons of common usage , to refer to these signals as bits , values , elements , symbols , characters , terms , numbers , or the like . it should be kept in mind , however , that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities . unless specifically stated otherwise , or as is apparent from the discussion , terms such as “ processing ” or “ computing ” or “ calculating ” or “ determining ” or “ displaying ” or the like , refer to the action and processes of a computer system , or similar electronic computing device , that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical , electronic quantities within the computer system &# 39 ; s registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage , transmission or display devices . note also that the software implemented aspects of the invention are typically encoded on some form of program storage medium or implemented over some type of transmission medium . the program storage medium may be magnetic ( e . g ., a floppy disk or a hard drive ) or optical ( e . g ., a compact disk read only memory , or “ cd rom ”), and may be read only or random access . similarly , the transmission medium may be twisted wire pairs , coaxial cable , optical fiber , or some other suitable transmission medium known to the art . the invention is not limited by these aspects of any given implementation . referring now to the drawings wherein the showings are for purposes of illustrating the exemplary embodiments only and not for purposes of limiting the claimed subject matter , fig1 provides a view of a wireless device 10 into which the presently described embodiments may be incorporated . the wireless device 10 is shown as a mobile phone in fig1 ; however , it may also be a wireless pda , a computerized vehicle navigation system , a wireless device with high - speed data transfer capabilities , such as those compliant with “ 3 - g ” or “ 4 - g ” standards , a “ wifi ”- equipped computer terminal , or the like . the wireless device 10 is generally in communication with a wireless network 12 . the wireless network 12 comprises any wireless network for providing voice and / or data communications , such as a cellular network , a pcs network , etc . the wireless network 12 includes a base station 14 , which is configured to provide wireless service to any number of wireless devices . the base station 14 may communicate with wireless devices using code division multiple access ( cdma ), time division multiple access ( tdma ), global system for mobile communication ( gsm ), universal mobile telecommunications system ( umts ), 802 . 11 wifi , bluetooth ( registered ), satellite , packet radio , or another protocol . the wireless network 12 may include many other base stations ( not shown ) to provide service to many mobile subscribers ( not shown ). it is to be understood that the wireless network 12 may include other devices , systems , or components not shown in fig1 , such as additional base stations , additional mscs , a home location register ( hlr ), etc . further , the wireless network 12 may have interconnections not shown in fig1 . as shown generally , the wireless device 10 includes a gps module 16 and a phone module 18 . the gps module 16 generally includes a built - in gps receiver 20 by which the wireless device 10 can obtain and store geographic position location information in automated fashion without user action . the phone module 18 generally includes a power control signaling function 22 , a power amplifier 24 , and a transceiver 26 . the mobile transceiver 26 generally includes a transmitter and a receiver for communicating with the corresponding base station receiver or transmitter via one or more links . a link typically may comprise a plurality of communication channels such as signaling channels and traffic channels , for example . traffic channels are communication channels through which users convey ( i . e ., transmit and / or receive ) user information . signaling channels may be used by the system equipment to convey signaling information used to manage , operate and otherwise control the system . the system equipment , which may be typically owned , maintained and operated by a service provider , may include various known radio and processing equipment used in communication systems . the system equipment along with user equipment , for example , mobile phones , generates and receives the signaling information . in a cdma system , for example , the cells may be operated on the same frequency band ( i . e ., with a frequency reuse of one , or k = 1 ) to achieve better utilization of the available system resources . in that case , the transmission from each transmitting entity ( e . g ., the wireless device 10 ) may act as interference to the transmissions from other transmitting entities . to minimize interference and increase system capacity on the reverse link , the transmit power of each transmitting access terminal may be controlled such that a desired level of performance is achieved while minimizing the amount of interference to other transmitting access terminals . this transmit power adjustment is achieved by a power control loop maintained for each transmitting wireless device . typical power control commands direct a mobile phone or other wireless device to raise or lower its transmit power . in general , the power control algorithm may be performed at the base station . in looking at a signal received from a mobile phone , if the signal looks weak ( e . g ., based on detected frame error rate ( fer ), for example ), the base station may send a command to either increase or decrease mobile station transmit power . for example , a comfortable level of quality in a voice system may be possible with a fer of approximately 1 %. if fer is much less than 1 %, the mobile station may be wasting power , so the power control algorithm implemented at the base station may send commands to the mobile requesting the mobile to reduce the transmit power . for fer much greater than 1 %, the level of quality may be degraded , so the base station may send a command to the mobile to bring the mobile transmit power up in order to restore quality . with this invention , the interference from the mobile transmitter 14 to its own gps receiver 20 is reduced by lowering or gating the mobile transmit power . however , it is to be understood that e911 is just one example . the interference may occur with any other service , such as voice and all kinds of data communication , as long as these services use the public safety band . fig2 illustrates an exemplary gps data acquisition operation 100 for the wireless device 10 . as indicated in fig2 , the mobile transmitter is at normal operation ( 102 ). when gps data is requested ( 104 ), the built - in gps receiver 20 will try to acquire a gps signal ( 106 ) and then decode the gps data ( 108 ). the gps receiver 20 will then determine whether the gps data is valid or not ( 110 ). if the gps data is valid , then the gps data is reported to the mobile station phone module 18 ( 112 ), and the mobile transmitter is set to normal operation ( 114 ). however , if the gps data is not valid , then the mobile transmit power is checked ( 116 ). if the mobile transmit power is not zero ( normally that is the case ), then the mobile transmit power will be mandatorily reduced by one step , say one db ( 118 ). by reducing the mobile transmit power , the interference from the wireless device 10 to its own gps receiver 20 is reduced . then , the gps receiver 20 will try to acquire ( 106 ) and decode ( 108 ) the gps data again . if the gps data is still not valid , then the transmit power will be reduced again . this process will go on until either the gps receiver 20 receives good gps data or the transmit power has been reduced to zero . if the transmit power has been reduced to zero but the gps data is still not good , which means that the gps signal is not good in that location , then the operation has failed . on the other hand , if the mobile transmit power is zero then the gps receiver 20 will report that there is no gps signal ( 120 ), and the mobile transmitter will be set to normal operation ( 114 ). once the successful measurement of the gps signal has been completed , it is necessary for the wireless device 10 to retransmit at the power level that will result in successful reception of its transmission at the base station 14 . to ensure this , the wireless device 10 tracks and aggregates the power control commands during the interval that it lowered its transmit power for gps measurement purposes . this information can be stored as one parameter . for example , let us say that the wireless device 10 lowered its power by x db ( x is positive ) for successful gps measurement , and during that interval it received y db of mobile transmit power adjustment commands ( y is the sum of the increment and decrement commands over the gps measurement interval ). upon completion of the gps measurement , the wireless device 10 adjusts its transmit power upwards by x − y db to reach the level of transmit expected by the base station 14 to enable successful reception of the other device &# 39 ; s transmission . it should be noted that the mobile station power decrementing rule described above never results in the wireless device 10 transmitting at a higher power that the base station 14 expects it to . so , for example , if the base station directed power control step is 1 db per power control group ( one or more contiguous slots , that is , an interval for which the power control commands are valid ) the wireless device 10 decrements its power for gps measurement purposes by at least 1 db over that group . another approach is for the wireless device 10 to gate its transmissions during gps measurement , concurrently notifying the base station that it is doing so . the above description merely provides a disclosure of particular embodiments of the invention and is not intended for the purposes of limiting the same thereto . as such , the invention is not limited to only the above - described embodiments . rather , it is recognized that one skilled in the art could conceive alternative embodiments that fall within the scope of the invention .	6
the embodiment will be presented in the order of the figures . the figures show the relational database schema for the part definition , location definition and unit definition respectively . the figures also show the process for operation of a user interface to the database tables . the description of the process will show how the features of the table schema are used to achieve the intended purpose . the process will not be described in terms of any specific implementation of a user interface since such a user interface will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art . the primary output report of the embodiment will be described . data lookup table tlkpparttype 100 is used to categorize parts and provide control flags that determine which features of the database may or may not apply to each part category . table i defines the fields of tlkpparttype . * a counter field type is one where an index number is increased by one count for each new record . data lookup table tlkppartslist 102 is used to contain the complete list of available parts or subassemblies to be later constructed into assemblies or systems called units . a typical part has a part number and description . parts are categorized by part type . of special interest is the size field . situations may occur requiring population of multiple parts into a single location or a single part into multiple locations . a size of one or more will indicate the part takes one or more consecutive locations . a size of zero indicates a part can be added to populated location without requiring additional space . for example , a mezzanine module on a circuit card assembly or a software component added to a mass storage device . this table also uses the os_supported field to identify a compatibility matrix for operating systems with each part . this is used in the unit definition to assign parts to processor groups when multiple processors with varying operating systems are used within the system . a set of fields are also provided for configuration management control of part definitions . when a part is “ released ”, its definition is protected from further modification . when the part is not “ released ”, its definition is modifiable , but a record of the explanation for the change is maintained . table ii defines the fields of tlkppartslist 102 . data lookup table tlkpkitdef 104 is used to group parts into kits . a kits of parts is useful for more quickly assembling a parts list when multiple parts are always used together . table iii defines the fields of tlkpkitdef 104 . data lookup table tlkpif_def 106 is used in conjunction with tlkpif_family 108 and tlkptagdef to define the interfaces of a part . a part has one set of defined interfaces that are used to connect to other parts . to simplify the process of interconnecting parts , interfaces are grouped into interface families . an interface family is a collection of interfaces that are functionally and mechanically compatible with each other . interface families are grouped into the part types to help organize them because there may be very many different interface families . an interface includes gender plugs or jacks . two interfaces are compatible when they share the same interface family and opposite gender . additionally , each interface of a cable may have a tag associated with it . the cable tag is added to the cable interface end and is marked with the name of the interface , the cable reference designator , and the reference designator and interface name of the destination or mate of the cable end . this type of marking insures proper assembly and operation of the system . table iv defines the fields of tlkpif_def . table v defines the fields of tlkpif_family . table vi defines the field of tlkptagdef . data lookup table tlkpparamdef 118 is used in conjunction with tlkpparamdesc 116 to define multiple sets of general purpose configuration parameters for a part . multiple sets of configuration parameters are defined for parts that have more than one pre - definable configuration . the configuration parameter list for a part pre - defines the information deemed important about a part . in some cases the default value of a parameter may be defined . in other cases , only the parameter is defined and the value is left blank for assignment of a value during construction of a unit . in some cases , an illustration of the part is used to simplify the configuration of part in by showing the location and settings of variable switches , and the like . the data lookup tables tlkpparamlist 112 and tlkpparamgrp 114 provide a list of pre - defined and reusable parameters . reusable parameters are necessary to support clarity of the collected data and to support searching and sorting of the data . parameters are categorized into parameter groups to help organize the parameters and facilitate grouping when printing reports . typical groups of parameters may include revision identification information such as serial numbers , weight , power requirements , switch settings , firmware settings , networking information , etc . table vii defines the fields of tlkpparamlist 112 . table viii defines the fields of tlkpparamgrp 114 . table ix defines the fields of tlkpparamdesc 116 . table x defines the fields of tlkpparamdef 118 . data lookup table tlkpequiptype 200 combined with tlkplocdesc 202 and tlkplocdef 204 defines a type of equipment and the locations within the equipment that fixed subassemblies ( not cables ) may be placed . multiple sets of location definitions are supported for an equipment when necessary . an illustration may be associated with a location definition to illustrate the location definition in printed reports . this illustration should have callouts identifying the reference designated locations for subassemblies . a set of fields are also provided for configuration management control of location definitions . when a location definition is “ released ”, its definition is protected from further modification . when the location definition is not “ released ”, its definition is modifiable , but a record of the explanation for the change is maintained . in order to sort alpha - numeric reference designators properly , they must be represented with fixed length numeric strings ( e . g ., a 001 , a 002 , a 010 vs . a 1 , a 10 , a 2 .) part families are used to control the assignment of subassemblies to locations in which subassemblies are compatible . in order to sort alpha - numeric reference designators properly , they must be represented with fixed length numeric strings ( e . g . a 001 , a 002 , a 010 vs . a 1 , a 10 , a 2 ). data lookup tables tlkppartfamilydef 208 and tlkppartfamdesc 206 define the list of parts that make up a part family . a part family is then assigned to a location in tlkplocdef 204 . table xi defines the fields of tlkpequiptype 200 . table xii defines the fields of tlkplocdesc 202 . table xiii defines the fields of tlkplocdef table xiv defines the fields of tlkppartfamdesc 206 . table xv defines the fields of tlkppartfamilydef 208 . data lookup tables tblcm_memo 212 and tblcm_status 210 are used to record an explanation of changes that occur to definitions of parts , locations , or assembled units . a unique master key is assigned to each part , location definition , or unit definition defining the group of records related to it . the current key identifies the most recent comment record . a new record is added when the status changes to “ released ” and no records currently exist in the tables . after this initial record is created , a new record is created each time the status changes from “ released ”. the time , date and identity of the user are also recorded . table xvi defines the fields for tblcm_memo 212 . table xvii defines the fields for tblcm_status 210 . unit definition data table tblunitequip 300 defines a unique system or assembly . a unit is identified by the combination of fields idequiptype , serialnumber and instance . the idequiptype field identifies the type of equipment to be assembled . the serialnumber field identifies a unique piece of equipment . the instance field further identifies a different version of a serialnumber equipment if so desired . the equipcfgno field is selected from the corresponding field in data lookup table tlkplocdesc 202 to select a specific location definition for the selected equipment type . an illustration may be associated with a unit definition which can provide a functional block diagram of the system in printed reports . the functional block diagram enhances the understanding of the tabular data provided by the database without being too detailed or costly to produce . a set of fields are also provided for configuration management control of the unit definition . when a unit definition is “ released ”, its definition is protected from further modification . when the unit definition is not “ released ”, its definition is modifiable , but a record of the explanation for the change is maintained . table xviii defines the fields for tblunitequip 300 . unit definition data table tblunitpartslist 302 contains a list of parts selected from tlkppartslist 102 . parts may be added to the list in groups by selecting kits from data lookup table tlkpkitdef 104 . each part is added to the parts list of the unit assuming quantity one for each . this is necessary for each part to be uniquely configured and connected to other parts in the assembly . only the idpart field of a part from tlkppartslist is added to the parts list table since the definition of the part is always available from the part definition lookup tables . when a part is added to the parts list , it is assigned the next sequential item number in the item : number field to uniquely identity the part . when a kit is added to the parts list , each part in the kit is assigned the next sequential kit item number in field kitnumber . the kitnumber field maintains a grouping of all parts added from each kit . the kitpartnumber field preserves a link to the part number of the kit for reference . the pn_cfgno field is selected from the corresponding field in data lookup table tlkpparamdesc 116 to select a specific set of configuration parameters for a part and it is also used as a link to get to the lru_dwgpath field . the refdes field is selected from the data lookup table tlkplocdef 204 . the processorgrp field is used to combine parts that all need to be grouped under a single computer operating system . this is useful for multiprocessor systems . the processorgrp field is selected from unit definition data table tblunitprocgrp 308 . the spare field is used to designate a part that is not configured within the unit , such as a spare shipped separately . table xix defines the fields of tblunitpartslist 302 . unit definition data table tblunitparam 304 defines the list of parameters associated with a part in tblunitpartslist . when a particular configuration of a part is selected from tlkpparamdesc 116 associated with field pn_cfgno , the corresponding records from tlkpparamdef 118 are copied into tblunitparam 304 . this copy is performed to allow changing any of the parameter values unique to a part without affecting the default values intlkpparamdef 118 . table xx defines the fields of tblunitparam 304 . unit definition table tblunitconnect 306 defines all connections between interfaces within the unit . all unconnected ( no connect ) interfaces are also recorded . when all interfaces are accounted for within tblunitconnect , the connection process is verifiably completed . each connection has a unique fieldidunitconnect which is necessary for deleting connections from the table . the use of field idunitequip also allows enhanced performance by grouping records associated with the unit under construction . connections are established by identifying the idunipartslist from tblunitpartslist 302 value of a part and an interface , id_if from tlkpif_def 106 associated with the part . a mate is selected based upon the following criteria . the interface must be in the same unit , not previously assigned , not on a spare part , in the same interface family ( field id_if_family in tlkpif_def 106 ), and of opposite gender . if a mate is not selected , then the field flagnoconnect may be set with the interface . it does not matter whether an interface is assigned to the _a fields or the _b fields . table xxi defines the fields of tblunitconnect 306 . unit definition table tblunitprogrp 308 is used in conjunction with tlkpos 310 to define a processor group and assign the processor group to an operating system . the processor group is then used to select the processor group for parts in tblunitpartslist 302 . a processor group is a collection of parts that operate under a single operating system . this would include parts such as processors , mass storage devices , hmi devices and software . this grouping is helpful in systems with multiple processors and operating systems to insure operating system compatibility of parts . data lookup table tlkpos 310 contains an index which is a sequential number and a description corresponding to an operating system . the index is used as a character array index into field os_supported of tlkppartslist 102 . the treatment of field os_supported as an array allows for a varying number of operating systems without affecting the design of the database . if the character at the indexed position of field os_supported is a “ y ”, then the operating system is supported , otherwise it is not . when a part in tblunitpartslist is assigned a processor group , the os_supported field of the part is verified to support the operating system assigned to the processor group . additional parameters are provided in tblunitprocgrp 308 to further define the configuration of the processor group . table xxii defines the fields of tblunitprocgrp 308 . table xxiii defines the fields of tlkpos 310 . the process for manipulating data in the relational database tables will be described assuming a hierarchical set of actions which is typical of an event driven graphical user interface . the following tables have a column identifying the level of hierarchy for an action using an outline numbering scheme , a brief description of the action and additional explanation about the action if necessary to fully describe the action . table xxiv defines the top level process . major steps in the process will be decomposed in subsequent tables . the part definition process involves the creation of database records to define the configuration information for parts . the definition process begins with the creation of the part , and continues with the addition of parameter definitions and interface definitions . parts defined as kits will not have parameter definitions or interface definitions . to edit field os_supported in tlkppartslist 102 , use tlkpos to index into the os_supported array and toggle the character for each operating system between “ y ” and “ n ”. for certain parts that add on to other parts without taking extra space , set the size field in tlkppartslist 102 to zero . the field defaultrefdes in tlkppartslist 102 is only used for cables with a fixed reference designator assignment . when the part is initially created , the status field is set as in - process . when the part definition process for a part is completed , the status is set to released . further modifications of the part definition will require changing the status back to in - process and recording an explanation for the change . table xxv defines the part definition process . the parameter definition subprocess within the part definition process allows for the creation of multiple sets , or configurations , of parameters for a part . the parameter definition lookup table structure is a general purpose method to define arbitrary information about a part . parameters are created to be reusable on all parts so that queries may be written to extract desirable information . parameters are also created as members of parameter groups to help organize the parameters . the values assigned at this point are default values since parameters and values are copied from the selected configuration when configuring a unit . the field flagcopy in tlkpparamlist indicates that a parameter value , such as a subassembly serial number , must be cleared when one unit is copied to another . to save space within the database , the name of an illustration file or set of files ( using wildcards ) may be used in field lru_dwgpath in tlkpparamdesc 116 . the file or files can be temporarily brought into the database during printing operations . the helpnotes field of tlkpparamlist 112 provides direction to the user on the meaning of the parameter and its possible values . parameters may include information such as weight and power consumption which can be calculated with additional queries . table xxvi defines the parameter definition subprocess of the part definition process . the interface definition subprocess of the part definition process allows for the creation of a list of interfaces for connection of the corresponding part to others parts . in a large system , the number of types of interfaces is large so the interfaces need to be organized . interface families are used to categorize interfaces into functionally and mechanically compatible groups . additionally , the number of interface families may be large so the interface families are also grouped into categories of part types . as a general rule , the part type of an interface family should be based on the more fixed type of connector ( not cable interfaces ). an interface is assigned to an interface family and given a gender . the gender , plug or jack , is used to allow interfaces within the same interface family to mate when constructing a unit . as a general rule , the more fixed type of connector is defined as a jack and more flexible connectors are defined as plugs ( cable interfaces ). if a cable interface may be connected to a variety of mates , a cable tag may be assigned to the interface which can be marked with information defining the connection ( source and destination ). for example , if cable w 100 interface p 1 connects to subassembly a 1 a 2 j 2 , the marker is “ w 100 p 1 ( a 1 a 2 j 2 )”. the parentheses indicate the destination of the cable interface . table xxvii defines the interface definition subprocess of the part definition process . the location definition process is used to create a type of equipment or system and assign location definitions to it . multiple sets of location definitions may be required for some types of equipment or systems . a location definition is a list of reference designated locations corresponding to places within the equipment or system for fixed subassemblies . this does not include cables used to connect the subassemblies . in some cases , the location definition may be augmented with an illustration implemented as a file or set of files identified by the field equipdwgpath of tlkplocdesc 202 . part families are used to insure that only parts compatible with a location are later assigned to that location during the unit construction process . a part family is a list of parts compatible with location . since parts are categorized into part types , so are part families . when the equipment is initially created , the status field is set as in - process . when the location definition process for an equipment is completed , the status is set to released . further modifications of the location definition will require changing the status back to in - process and recording an explanation for the change . table xxviii defines the location definition process . the unit definition process results in a description of the construction of a unit assembly or system . a unit is made of parts selected from the parts definition tables . the parts are assigned to locations according to the part family definitions of the location definition of the selected equipment type . processor groups may be defined and parts assigned to them . the parts are then interconnected based upon the interface definitions and interface families in the part definition . finally , the parts are assigned configuration parameters based on the configuration parameter definitions in the part definition . the completed unit definition may be printed on reports to be described later . the unit definition is linked to the part definition and location definition for efficiency and coherency . when the unit is initially created , the status field is set as in - process . when the unit definition process for an equipment is completed , the status is set to released . further modifications of the unit definition will require changing the status back to in - process and recording an explanation for the change . table xxix defines the unit definition process . the unit interconnection process is used to interconnect the parts in the unit that have interfaces defined . mating interfaces are selected from the parts within the unit that have interfaces in the same interface family and opposite gender and are unconnected . to know when the interconnection subprocess is completed , all unconnected interfaces are defined explicitly as “ no connects ” thus accounting for all interfaces within a unit . the field idunitconnect of tblunitconnect 306 is necessary to delete records from the table . the field idunitequip of tblunitconnect accelerates queries for connections within a unit . table xxx defines the unit interconnection subprocess of the unit definition process . the unit parameter definition process is used to assign a specific set of configuration parameters to each part within a unit . the parameters from the selected configuration are copied to tblunitparam 304 so that parameter values may be modified independent of the part definition . a link to the original parameters in maintained with field pn_cfgno in tblunitpartslist so that the description and illustration fields in tlkpparamdesc 116 may be used . parts that have only one configuration may be automatically assigned . table xxxi defines the unit parameter definition subprocess of the unit definition process . the maintenance of supporting tables requires basic record operations . the supporting tables are not modified as part of normal activities and are considered more of an administration activity . table xxxii defines the maintenance process . the configuration management tables tblcm_status 210 and tblcm_memo 212 are used by the part definition process , the location definition process and the unit definition process to record explanations for changes in status . the status is used to secure records when the data is considered complete . when the first change in status occurs , no records will exist in the tables so an initial record is created . the initial record defines a new master key in field cm_mstrkey which assigns all records under this key the associated part , equipment or unit . the new master key is the next sequential value from the largest master key . a new current key is established in field cm_curkey which identifies each separate explanation in field comment . a new record is added and a new current key is established each time the status is change from released to in - process . each time the status changes , a new record is added to tblcm_status recording the date and time , the user and the status . the primary printed reports that may be generated define the construction of a selected unit . this report could be called a configuration identification index ( cii ). other reports may be generated to create a hard copy of part definitions or location definitions . the cii requires several chapters of reports for each topic to be printed . this document could also include title page and tables of contents . table xxxiii defines a basic set of chapters for a cii . an example use of the present invention is the documentation of the construction of a computer assembly . the part types of a computer may include , power system ( power supplies , fans , etc . ), human machine interface ( keyboards , monitors , etc . ), circuit cards ( processors , i / o , etc . ), storage devices ( hard disk , tape , cd rom etc . ), enclosures ( cabinets , panels , etc . ), networking ( routers , switches , transceivers , etc .) and cables . software can come in two categories , installed and uninstalled . installed software , such as operating systems can be put in the same category as storage devices and given size zero . then the software can be located on the storage device during the location assignment process . uninstalled software would be treated as spare parts since it is separate from the assembly . a variable computer using circuit card slots and a backplane may support multiple processors and operating systems . processor groups would be used to separate storage devices , circuit cards and hmi devices into their respective groups . circuit cards that are mezzanines on other cards and do not require additional slots cm be assigned size zero and added to locations along with the primary circuit card in the location . all of the types of illustrations ; part , equipment and functional block diagram , could be used to complement the tabular data . a genealogy of reference designators would be used with each location assigned a unique reference designator and each cable assigned a unique reference designator . the equipment illustration would show the reference designators for locations . the basic process for configuring a computer is to define the parts and their associated operating system compatibility matrix parameters and interfaces 401 . the next step is to define the locations in the enclosure for the subassemblies and create part families for the locations 402 . the last step is to construct the computer by creating the unit with selected a location definition , build the parts list , assign the parts to locations , define the processor groups ; assign the parts to processor groups , define the interconnections , select configuration parameters and assign values to the parameters . the unit may then be assembled and tested 404 according to the configuration defined in the database and the cii report may be generated . the data may be used to support the product 405 after delivery . the present invention is equally capable of documenting the construction of a system of many computers connected by a network instead of reference designators for locations within a enclosure , the locations may be defined by a grid within a building . each computer in the building would be assigned a location . other parts such as software ( size = 0 ) could be added to each computer . the configuration parameters for the computer could identify specific configuration information about the computer such as hardware features . other parts such as networking hubs and switches would also be included . the interconnect definition would completely define the network topology . parameters such as cable lengths could be recorded as well as installation dates , cable routing information , and maintenance records . the process for configuring a computer system is identical to the process for configuring a computer assembly , although more dynamic since a typical installation is constantly changing . although the embodiment preferred by the inventor is electronic units , the invention is applicable to virtually any type of manufactured goods , particularly where the good is produced with a number of configurations or versions , such as automobiles , computers , airplanes and many other products .	8
fig . # _ 5 illustrates a memory circuit # _ 500 according to one embodiment of the invention . the circuit # _ 500 includes a controller # _ 510 and loads # _ 520 . a load # _ 520 can be a single dram device , a buffered module comprising many drams or a similar load . the controller # _ 510 and the loads # _ 520 are communicatively coupled by means of a command link # _ 530 . the unidirectional command link # _ 530 sends command , address and control information to the loads # _ 520 . the controller # _ 510 and the loads # _ 520 are also communicatively coupled by means of a data link # _ 5 a 0 . the bidirectional data link # _ 5 a 0 conveys read and write data between the controller # _ 510 and the loads # _ 520 . the data link # _ 5 a 0 includes a data bus # _ 5 a 1 , a first data clock ( and its logical inverse ) # _ 5 a 2 a , as well as a second data clock ( and its logical inverse ) # _ 5 a 2 b . a data clock is single - ended or , as described here , differential . a differential clock # _ 5 a 2 accompanies read and write data packets . ( in one embodiment , such clocked packets have a minimum burst length of 4 clock phases (“ 4n ”)). the two sets of dclks # _ 5 a 2 allow one circuit component # _ 510 , # _ 520 to pass control of the data link # _ 5 a 0 to another component # _ 510 , # _ 520 with minimum gap . when the circuit # _ 500 passes control of the data link # _ 5 a 0 from one device # _ 510 , # _ 520 to another , the data link # _ 5 a 0 remains at a midpoint voltage level for nominally 2n . indeterminate logic levels and multiple transitions may appear at the input buffers in the components # _ 510 , # _ 520 . this is acceptable for the data lines dq # _ 5 a 1 themselves but not for the data clocks # _ 5 a 2 used to strobe data . to address this problem , each data clock # _ 5 a 2 has a 00010 preamble before the clock transition associated with the first bit of the corresponding data . the device # _ 510 , # _ 520 receiving the data enables its dclk input buffer anytime during the first 000 period . the dummy 10 transition in the preamble removes pulse width - dependent skew from the dclk signal # _ 5 a 2 . the receiving device # _ 510 , # _ 520 ignores the first rising and falling edges of the dclk # _ 5 a 2 and begins clocking data on the second rising edge . providing two data clocks accommodates gapless 4n write bursts to different drams and 4n read bursts from different drams . the controller # _ 510 indicates in each command packet which dclk # _ 5 a 2 is to be used . the controller # _ 510 transmits cclk edges coincident with edges of ca and flag data . dclk edges originating from the controller # _ 510 coincide with dq data . the drams # _ 520 add fractional delay to incoming cclk and dclks # _ 5 a 2 to sample commands and write data at the optimum time . the controller # _ 510 programs the drams # _ 520 to add fractional delay to the dclks # _ 5 a 2 , allowing the controller read data input registers to directly strobe in read data using the received dclk # _ 5 a 2 without the need for any internal delay adjustments . fig . # _ 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a series of page - read and page - write commands issued by the memory controller # _ 510 to the drams # _ 520 . ( for purposes of illustration , all burst lengths are 4n , although the controller # _ 510 can dynamically mix 4n and 8n bursts .) the read access time to an open bank , the page - read latency , is shown here as 12n . the first two commands read a # _ 450 and # _ 460 are page reads to different banks in the dram # _ 520 a . the read data read a # _ 470 appears on the data bus # _ 5 a 1 along with dclko # _ 5 a 2 a . the data clock dclko # _ 5 a 2 a provides the memory controller # _ 510 the necessary edges to strobe in the read data . since the first two page - read commands # _ 450 , # _ 460 are for the same dram # _ 520 a , no gap is necessary between the two 4n data bursts # _ 470 , # _ 480 . the dram # _ 520 a itself continuously drives dclko # _ 5 a 2 a without any glitch . however , a 2n gap precedes the data burst # _ 490 for the following page read # _ 4 a 0 to dram # _ 520 b to allow for settling of the data link # _ 5 a 0 and for timing uncertainty between the drams # _ 520 a and # _ 520 b . the circuit # _ 500 inserts a 2n gap any time control of the data link # _ 5 a 0 passes from one device # _ 510 , # _ 520 to another , as in reads to different drams # _ 520 or read - to - write and write - to - read transitions between the drams # _ 520 and the memory controller # _ 510 . the controller # _ 510 creates the 2n gap between data by inserting a 2n gap between commands . the dclk 1 clock # _ 5 a 2 b accompanies data for the read b command # _ 4 a 0 , allowing the dram # _ 520 b to begin driving the dclk lines # _ 5 a 2 b well in advance of the actual data burst # _ 490 . the next command is a write command # _ 4 b 0 using dclko # _ 5 a 2 a to strobe write data # _ 4 c 0 into the dram # _ 520 c . the page - write latency of the dram is programmed to equal the page - read latency less 2n . to create a 2n gap between the read b data # _ 490 and write c data # _ 4 c 0 on the data link # _ 5 a 0 , the controller # _ 510 delays the write c command # _ 4 b 0 4n after the read b command # _ 4 a 0 . programming write latency in this manner creates an open 4n command slot on the command link # _ 530 , which slot may be used for non - data commands such as row open or close , register write or refresh . these non - data commands do not affect the utilization of the data link # _ 5 a 0 . the following read command # _ 4 d 0 to dram # _ 520 d does not use delay to achieve the 2n gap on the data link # _ 5 a 0 . the final burst of three consecutive write commands # _ 4 e 0 , # _ 4 f 0 , # _ 4 g 0 shows that a 2n gap between data bursts is not required when writing to different dram devices # _ 520 . different dclks # _ 5 a 2 are used so that each dram # _ 520 can identify the start of its write data burst . since all write data originates from the memory controller # _ 510 , no glitches on the dclks # _ 5 a 2 occur . such embodiments as are described herein are by way of example and not limitation . modifications to the invention as described will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art . for example , the number of data clocks can be more than two ( and , correspondingly , the flag signal more than one bit .) indeed , the invention described herein is not limited to drams or even to memories . this invention applies to any shared synchronous bus in which a clock accompanies data , as in source synchronous clocking . accordingly , the scope of the invention is to be determined by the metes and bounds of the claims which immediately follow :	6
referring now to fig1 there is provided a conventional high flush waste removal system . the removal system , generally designated 10 , includes a confinement structure or barn 112 , having waste slurry pits 114 . fresh water is piped in through fresh water inlet 116 , mixes with recycled lagoon water , discussed below , and washes through the slurry pits 114 . the result is a waste slurry , typically having 0 . 5 % total solids . the waste slurry is then directed through piping 118 into a lagoon 120 , where the waste slurry is diluted to approximately 0 . 5 % total waste solids . a typical 8000 head grow / finish farm requires a 2 - 5 acre lagoon dependent on regional climate , use or disposal of treated waste , seasonal storage requirements , and demands of regulatory permits . water is then removed from lagoon 120 by pump 126 to be recycled by piping 128 , 134 back to the barn 112 through inlet 136 for further waste removal . additionally , the diluted slurry may be diverted through piping 130 for land application 132 . referring now to fig2 there is provided a preferred embodiment of a waste management system of the present invention . the waste management system , also known as an internal recirculation system , is described in connection with an 8000 head hog animal confinement facility for illustration purposes only , as the system can be utilized with any size facility and for any livestock producing waste . while a preferred system is shown retrofit onto an existing high flush waste management system , it can be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the system can be utilized in new construction . the hog waste management system 110 of fig2 is illustrated in conjunction with an animal confinement housing 112 such as a barn , having a waste removal system utilizing waste slurry pits 114 . the flow of fresh water 116 , preferably at a rate of approximately 15 gallons per minute ( gpm ), is provided to water , clean and cool the livestock . a mixture of the fresh water 116 , and recycled waste slurry , which enters the system at 166 , as discussed below , is combined to wash the animal waste products from the slurry pits 114 , preferably at a rate of approximately 200 - 400 gpm . the resulting effluent is herein designated the waste slurry . the waste slurry is directed through piping 118 and received into a wet well or surge tank 120 through surge tank inlet 122 . the surge tank 120 acts to stabilize the system flow . a minimum 12 - hour capacity , as calculated from the fresh water input is preferred . the waste slurry is then pumped from the surge tank 120 by pump 126 through surge pump outlet valve 124 into piping 128 at a rate substantially equal to the rate of flushing . in the presently preferred embodiment pump 126 is a chopper pump , thereby reducing the binding effect upon the system of the fibrous materials contained within the waste slurry . the waste slurry is then processed through a mechanical screen 130 to remove the coarse solids contained therein , thereby preventing clogging of system 110 . in a preferred embodiment , screen 130 is a circular screen separator having an 80 - mesh size , which results in approximately 10 - 30 % of the suspended solid waste being removed from the waste slurry by screen 130 . it can be appreciated , however , that other methods of separation , including but not limited to alternative mechanical screen devices , hydrocyclones , thickeners , and settling cones may be effectively utilized . the waste slurry then advances to a gravity sedimentation tank 134 , which preferably holds 3 , 000 gallons of waste slurry . the tank 134 is used to split the waste slurry passed therethrough into two components . the first component consists of a slurry of the finer solids , which were not removed by screen 130 . this portion of the slurry settles toward the bottom of sedimentation tank 134 . therefore , the waste slurry near the bottom of tank 134 is more concentrated as to total solids than the waste slurry near the top of tank 134 . the design of tank 134 minimizes accumulation of solids . sedimentation tank 134 preferably includes a level control 138 . when the level of the waste slurry in tank 134 reaches a preset level as determined by level control 138 , sedimentation tank outlet valve or pump 140 allows the concentrated waste slurry to flow through piping 142 into a slurry tank 132 at a rate roughly equivalent to the volume of fresh water input to the animal confinement housing 112 , in this case 15 gpms . with such a configuration , the hydraulic equilibrium of system 110 is maintained . if desired , coarse waste removed by screen 130 may also be directed to slurry tank 132 to be mixed with the waste slurry contained therein , thereby resulting in a waste slurry of approximately 4 - 8 % total solids . in systems where water conservation equipment is used , for example swinging waterers to reduce animal spillage , the total solids concentration can reach 11 % with animals nearing market weight . in cases where the screened solids are mixed into the slurry tank 132 , sufficient agitation of slurry tank 132 to prevent a buildup of solids must be provided . otherwise , coarse solids can be handled separately . the determination as to whether or not to reintroduce the coarse solids is typically made based on the ultimate use of the waste slurry , as the coarse and fine solids have different nutrient levels . the resulting concentrated waste slurry in tank 132 , typically 3 - 8 % total solids , may be advanced through piping 146 by pump 144 to one or more advanced treatment facilities 147 which includes chemical , biological , and thermal process technologies to produce methane , fertilizers , animal feeds , liquid fuels , waste incineration , inorganic products and additional organic products . the second component of the waste slurry advanced to gravity sedimentation tank 134 ( i . e ., the less concentrated slurry near the upper portion of the tank 134 ) comprises the primary flow from tank 134 . the waste slurry is advanced through sedimentation tank outlet valve 152 through piping 150 , to an inlet 156 of a conditioning tank 154 . any aeration , ph regulation , or other necessary processes are carried out in conditioning tank 154 . the degree of waste slurry conditioning required is determined in part by air quality considerations within the animal confinement housing 112 . partial aeration of the waste slurry is used to prevent the formation of hydrogen sulfide . under normal circumstances , the formation of hydrogen sulfide should not be a problem , as the fluid should be no more than a few hours old at any one time , and since the open tank discharges of the recycling system inherently provides partial aeration of the waste slurry . this results in an air quality in the animal confinement area which is at least as good as conventional flush systems , and is a significant improvement over other conventional methods . in a preferred embodiment , conditioning tank 154 is approximately the same size as sedimentation tank 134 ( i . e ., 3 , 000 gallons ). in an alternative embodiment , a one tank design may be implemented , wherein the slurry is conditioned in the sedimentation tank . the ph of the recycle waste slurry must be maintained below a ph of approximately 8 . 0 , but preferably in the range of ph 7 . 5 - 8 . 0 to avoid the emission of excess ammonia . the ph is regulated by the addition of acid to the waste slurry in conditioning tank 154 . while sulfuric acid is presently preferred because of its low cost and the lack of formation of secondary products , any industrial acid can be used . further processing of the waste slurry in tank 154 , including but not limited to equalization , coagulation and or flocculation may be accomplished at this time as desired . the conditioning tank 154 also preferably includes a level indicator 158 to protect the pumping system without constant human monitoring the level indicator 158 is configured so that in the event that the slurry level in tank 154 drops to a level at which any pump could be damaged by inadequate flow , the pumping system is automatically shut down . the conditioned slurry is advanced through conditioning tank outlet valve 160 through piping 164 connected between tank 154 and barn 112 by pump 162 to barn 112 at a rate which when combined with fresh water 116 , provides the necessary flow required by system 110 . in this case , the 200 - 400 gpm required by system 110 is met by the 15 gpm of fresh water 116 and 385 gpm of recycled conditioned waste slurry from the conditioning tank 154 . from the foregoing description those skilled in the art will appreciated that all of the objects of the present invention are realized . the waste management system of the present invention provides an end product waste slurry which is consistent , easy to pump and of the concentration required for the slurry to be processed by advanced waste treatment technologies . the total volume of water and size of containment vessels needed to operate the flush system are at the same time significantly reduced . further , the waste system of the present invention can be easily and economically retrofit a conventional existing high volume flush or pull plug system . under optimum conditions , the system can decrease effluent volume by up to 30 fold . in addition , problems due to salt accumulation are virtually eliminated . when used as a stand alone system , the present invention requires reduced capital and operating costs . the invention provides the livestock industry access to advanced waste treatment technologies previously unavailable due to the high volumes of dilute waste produced by existing practices . also , the waste slurry can be treated during recycling to control any potential degradation of air quality in the animal confinement barns . finally , the system inherently requires little human oversight , due to the constant flow system and level indicator pump protection within the tanks . while a specific embodiment has been shown and described , many variations are possible . while the waste removal system has been described in connection with hog farming , the system would be applicable to waste removal from other types of animal or livestock facilities , including but not limited to poultry , cattle and sheep , with few if any modifications . also , while the system of the present invention has been illustrated for use with high flush systems , the present invention could also be retrofit onto other conventional waste removal systems , including pull plug systems . finally , although direct coupling of the recycling system of the present invention to advanced processing facilities obviates the need for a lagoon , the present system can be coupled to an ambient temperature anaerobic lagoon if desired . if such a configuration is used , the screened coarse product could be composted or used directly as manure fertilizer . farm odors would be reduced by decreasing lagoon loadings , reduced odors from the confinement housing and decreased land application of liquid waste . having described the invention in detail , those skilled in the art will appreciate that modifications may be made of the invention without departing from its spirit . therefore , it is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specific embodiments described . rather , it is intended that the scope of the invention be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents .	0
the manufacture of semiconductor devices , leds , lcds and solar / photovoltaic cells requires the delivery of vapor phase , low vapor pressure gases to a point - of - use . these fluids must meet customer purity and flow requirements . the present invention provides an enhanced energy delivery mechanism for a bulk specialty gas supply system , employed in the transportation of a compressed gas for delivery to a semiconductor or led manufacturer . the compressed gas is delivered as a low vapor pressure vapor stream which is lean in low volatility contaminants to the point - of - use , typically at the manufacture site . as utilized herein , the term “ lean ” shall mean a vapor stream having a lower level of low volatility contaminants therein than the liquid or two - phase fluid provided by the gas manufacturer . the system provides the requisite purity on a consistent basis . further , the transport / storage vessel ( referred below , as the transport vessel ), which is part of the bulk specialty gas supply system , is preferably designed to carry more than about 500 lbs . and preferably between 20 , 000 and 50 , 000 lbs . of low vapor pressure fluid . additionally , it is preferable that the vessel be capable of being shipped , and is compliant with international standards organization ( iso ) requirements ( e . g ., iso container standards ). such transport vessel , will be understood by those skilled in the art , to include a cylinder , a drum , or a ton container or an iso container . typically , low vapor pressure non - air fluids are stored in a transport vessel under their own vapor pressure . while the fluid contained in the transport vessel delivered to the point - of - use is process dependent , for ease of reference ammonia is utilized as the fluid of choice , but it will be understood that any number of low vapor pressure non - air fluids may be utilized . the transport vessel can be constructed from a material such as carbon steel , type 304 and 316 stainless steel , hastelloy , nickel or a coated metal ( e . g ., a zirconium - coated carbon ) which is strictly non - reactive with the fluids utilized and can withstand both a vacuum and high pressures . the transport vessel , such as an iso container , is installed “ on - site ,” that is in close proximity to the manufacturing facility and may be installed outdoor , where the temperature can be as low as − 30 ° c ., or indoor . the manufacturing facility is preferably equipped with automatic gas sensors and an emergency abatement system in case of an accidental leakage or other malfunctions of the system . the transport vessel can be insulated , partially insulated or not insulated at all . as a result , the temperature of the transport vessel contents during transport and storage at the facility can be similar to ambient temperature . for example , at a temperature of 50 ° f ., the pressure in the transport vessel is approximately 89 . 2 psia . one of the issues associated with conventional systems is that away from the contact points between the heating element / pad ( referred below , as the heating element ) and the transport vessel , energy will not transfer efficiently from the heating elements to the vessel surface , resulting in increased heat losses and excessive power consumption . further , the heating elements are susceptible to overheating and burn out at those locations for which contact between the heating element and the transport vessel is poor . one of the most important parameters in the delivery of vapor phase gas from the transport vessel to the point - of - use is the flow rate . this operating parameter depends on the heat transfer to the liquefied gas in the transport vessel . as discussed above , the energy provided to the transport vessel in the form of heat requires to be carefully controlled to achieve a liquid boiling which is preferably of convective boiling regime . in this manner , the liquid droplets entrained in the vapor phase are minimized , and in turn the particulate impurities are substantially reduced . the present invention provides an energy delivery mechanism including a heating device which allows for optimal heat transfer to the transport vessel , and leads to improved gas delivery flow rates . with reference to fig1 , a schematic diagram of a transport vessel 220 with an external energy delivery device 210 is provided . specifically , the thermal interface material 510 is employed as a filler material between heating element 210 and the transport vessel wall 220 . the thermal interface material eliminates air gaps between the heater element 210 and the vessel wall 220 . moreover , the interface material fills the surface irregularities on the transport vessel wall 220 as well as the unmatched curvatures of the heating transport vessel wall 220 and the heating element 210 . a non - adhesive material 520 can be employed between the transport vessel wall 220 and the thermal interface material to facilitate easy removal of the heater element upon change - out . the non - adhesive material 520 should be able to also conform to any surface irregularities on the transport vessel wall 220 upon pressure applied by the weight of the tank or alternatively by the mechanism which secures the heater element to the vessel wall . in addition , the non - adhesive material 520 should have good thermal conductivity so that its addition does not substantially increase the resistance to the heat transfer between the heater element 210 and the vessel wall 220 . typically , the cylindrically configured transport vessel ( s ) are placed in a horizontal position at the manufacturer &# 39 ; s site . the source of energy / heat is one or more energy delivery devices disposed on the lower portion of the transport vessel . the heating elements / pads are typically electrical resistance type heating means / elements typically selected from blanket heaters , heating bars , cables and coils , band heaters , heater tape and heating wires . in the exemplified embodiment of fig2 ( a ), two layers of malleable or conformable materials ( together 410 ) are placed between the heating element 210 which can be in solid phase and the vessel wall 220 . the layer of thermal interface material 510 can have a high thermal conductivity and high surface tack in solid phase . as a result , this layer can fill air gaps between the surface of transport vessel 220 and the heating element 210 caused by surface irregularities and / or unmatching surface curvatures shown in fig2 ( b ). minimizing the air gaps , layer 410 enhances the overall heat conduction to the transport vessel wall 220 . the high surface tack enables layer 410 to be firmly attached to the heating elements without using any glue , which eliminates air gaps between this layer and the heating elements . moreover , the thermal interface material does not undergo phase transition under the operating temperature and pressure of the bulk supply gas system ( bsgs ). a second , thin and non - adhesive layer 520 ( shown in fig1 ) of the same or other material is placed on the container surface in solid phase . this non - adhesive layer will prevent the undesired adhesion of the thermal interface material 510 to the surface of the vessel , thereby allowing the change out of the heating element 210 , or otherwise facilitates taking the transport vessel off line . although the material contemplated is aluminum , foils of other material with same or larger thermal conductivity . the thickness of this layer can be in a range from 1 to 5 mils , preferably 2 to 3 mils , so long as the layer conforms to the irregularities and contour of the vessel wall . as the deformation of a thin shell / plate such as the non - adhesive layer 520 depends on the material thickness , an excessive thickness may lead to undesirable air gaps between the layer 520 and the vessel wall . the above mentioned range of thickness is appropriate for ton containers , which typically weigh a few hundred pounds . for a heavier vessel such as a drum or an iso container , the thickness of the layer 520 can be increased accordingly . in another exemplary embodiment , and with reference to co - pending u . s . patent application publication no 2008 / 0000239a1 , which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety , the transport vessel is placed in a crescent - shaped substantially rigid cradle . the crescent - shaped cradle employs rigid steel heating pads . there can be one or more separate heating pads placed in each of the various zones on the lower part of the transport vessel . the heating pads are generally , cover a portion of the vessel surface , and the size is simply dictated by the type of transport vessel utilized and the number of heating pads used . the zones are independently controlled and provide energy to liquefied ammonia therein . pieces of silicon rubber thermal interface material with thermal conductive fillings are placed and centered onto the stainless steel heating pads . the silicon rubber material preferably has high surface tack so that it can stick non - permanently to the heating pads upon application of pressure , but without utilizing an adhesive such as glue . the material also has a hardness of 5 to 70 , preferably 5 - 10 in shore a scale so that it can conform to the curvature and irregularities of the heating pads and the container surfaces . the thickness of this silicon rubber material can be within the range of 15 to 1000 mils , the operating temperature can range from − 54 to 200 ° c ., and the thermal conductivity is in excess of 0 . 024 w / mk , preferably 1 . 6 w / mk or higher . the hardness range ensures that the material can conform to surface irregularities and curvatures at the pressure applied by the transport vessel . the thickness range and the thermal conductivity ensures that the overall heat resistance of the material is less than that of the air gaps prior to the application of this material . the operating temperature range ensures that the material does not undergo drastic physical or chemical changes under the operating temperature of the heating element . upon the application of the silicon rubber material to the heating pads , a thin layer of aluminum foil , or an equivalent thereof , can be applied to the top of the silicon rubber material . due to the high surface tack of the silicon rubber material , the aluminum foil facilitates the easy removal of the heating element . various modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments set forth above . for example , the heating element can be constructed on conformable material , such as silicon rubber , that has a higher hardness value than the thermal interface material . additionally , the heating element can be constructed from a combination of one or more layers of rigid material such as stainless steel or ceramic , and one or more layers of conformable material such as silicon rubber . in certain configurations , the heating element can have a hardness value higher than that of the thermal interface material . in another exemplary embodiment , the thermal interface material can be permanently attached to the heating element . likewise , thermal interface material can be non - adhesive on either side , yet the side facing the heater element can be attached to this element with thermal conductive glue . naturally , the operating temperature range of the glue should at least include the actual operating range of the heating element . optionally , the hardness of the thermal interface material can range from 5 to 70 shore a . it is recognized that the non - adhesive layer may not be necessary if the surface adhesion of the chosen thermal interface material is desirable or the thermal interface material is itself non - adhesive . it shall also be recognized that the energy delivery devices , even without the engagement of the thermal interface material or the non - adhesive layer , can be made removable and can be readily removed or replaced in the event of failure or degradation . the energy delivery mechanism of the present invention will be further described in detail with reference to the following examples , which are , however to be construed as limiting the invention . the energy / heat transfer efficiency of the present invention was tested on ton - container - based bulk specialty gas supply systems to determine the vapor gas delivery flow rate . in the example , a ton container filled with a mixture of liquid and vapor ammonia was placed horizontally on a crescent - shaped substantially rigid cradle , which employed rigid steel heating pads . the current invention was implemented as described in the detailed description of the invention above . the heat output from the heating pads was controlled and the temperatures and pressures were monitored at multiple locations of the system . during the experiment , the liquid ammonia was vaporized and the flow rate of the nh 3 vapor was measured . implementing the current invention allowed the heat output from the heating pads to be increased to provide a higher vapor nh 3 flow rate , yet without raising the surface temperature of the container and the heating pads . as demonstrated by experimental results , the supply gas delivery flow rate in the present invention increased by a factor of two or more . as shown in fig3 , the sustainable gas delivery flow rate , which is the flow rate at which the gas is delivered independent of the liquefied gas level ( i . e ., “ heel ” level ), increased from 200 slpm to over 460 slpm . while the invention has been described in detail with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof , it will become apparent to one skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made , and equivalents employed , without departing from the scope of the appended claims .	5
a telephoto zoom lens system according to the present invention comprises , in order from an object , a variable - power lens system composed of a first lens group having a positive focal length for focusing , a second lens group having a negative focal length and serving as a variator for primarily effecting power variation , and a third lens group having a positive focal length and serving as a compensator for keeping a constant image surface , and a relay lens system composed of a fourth lens group following the variable - power lens system , the first lens group comprising a positive lens , a negative - meniscus lens having a convex surface facing the object , and a positive lens , the second lens group comprising a negative lens and a compound lens composed of a double - concave negative lens and a positive lens , the third lens group comprising a double - convex positive lens and a negative - meniscus lens or a negative - meniscus lens and a double - convex positive lens and including adjacent surfaces ( cemented surfaces in the compound lens ) having a large curvature , the fourth lens group comprising a lens ( a ) composed of a single positive lens having a convex surface facing the object and a lens group ( b ) spaced from the lens ( a ) and composed of a positive lens and a negative - meniscus lens having a concave surface facing the object , the telephoto zoom lens system meeting the following conditions : f max : the focal length of the entire lens system on a long - focal - length setting ; r iiim : the average of radii of curvature of adjacent surfaces of positive and negative lenses of the third lens group ( or cemented surfaces of the compound lens ); n iiip : the refractive index at d - line of the positive lens in the third lens group ; n iii η : the refractive index at d - line of the negative - meniscus lens in the third lens group ; ν iiip : the abbe number of the positive lens in the third lens group ; ν iii η : the abbe number of the negative - meniscus lens in the third lens group ; f iva : the focal length of the lens ( a ) ( single lens ) in the fourth lens group ; f ival : the radius of curvature of the surface facing the object of the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group ; and ν iva : the abbe number of the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group . the conditions ( 1 ), ( 2 ) and ( 3 ) are concerned with the third lens group . since the lens ( a ) closer to the object of the fourth lens group is composed of a single positive lens , as described above , the lens ( a ) facing the object has a large curvature and a large positive refractive power . no achromatic correction can be performed in the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group . for achromatic correction , it is necessary to increase the negative refractive power of the third lens group , and hence the curvature of adjacent surfaces of the positive and negative lenses of the third lens group ( cemented surface of the compound lens ) has to be increased . if the upper limit of the condition ( 1 ) were exceeded , the negative refractive power of the third lens group would be reduced so that spherical aberration caused by the object - facing surface of the lens ( a ) of the fourth lens group could not be corrected . therefore , the lens ( a ) of the fourth lens group could not be composed of a single lens , thus failing to achieve the object of the present invention . if the lower limit of the condition ( 1 ) were exceeded , the negative refractive power of the third lens group would become too strong , resulting in a greater tendency to produce higher - order aberrations and poor balance between aberrations such as spherical aberration and chromatic aberration . if the lower limit of the condition ( 2 ) were exceeded , the negative refractive power of the third lens group would be increased and the lower limit of the condition ( 1 ) would tend to be easily exceeded , so that higher - order aberrations and the balance between aberrations could not be corrected well . the condition ( 3 ) is required to correct chromatic aberration within the ranges of the conditions ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) regardless of the fact that the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group comprises a single positive lens . the conditions ( 4 ), ( 5 ) and ( 6 ) are directed to the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group . heretofore , the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group has been composed of two lenses or more , and the power of the positive lens group closer to the object has been so great that the upper limit of the condition ( 4 ) has been exceeded . with the present invention , the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group comprises a single positive lens , and if such a single lens were composed of a lens having a large power exceeding the upper limit of the condition ( 4 ), it would be difficult to correct aberrations such as spherical aberration . if the lower limit of the condition ( 4 ) were exceeded , it would become easier to correct aberrations , but the lens system could not be rendered compact in size . the condition ( 5 ) serves to provide good balance with the condition ( 1 ). the positive refractive power would be small and no desired balance could be achieved with a large radius of curvature exceeding the upper limit of the condition ( 4 ) within the range of the condition ( 4 ). if the lower limit of the condition ( 5 ) were exceeded , the positive refractive power would excessively be large , tending to exceed the lower limit of the condition ( 1 ), with resulting problems of higher - order aberrations and poor balance between aberrations . if the lower limit of the condition ( 6 ) were exceeded , chromatic aberration would become difficult to correct since the lens ( a ) in the fourth lens group comprises a single lens . examples 1 through 4 of the present invention will be given hereinbelow . designated in examples 1 through 4 at f is a focal length , f b a back focus , ω a half angle of view , r a radius of curvature of each lens surface , d a lens thickness or a distance between lens surfaces , n a refractive index at d - line of each lens , and ν an abbe number of each lens . ______________________________________ [ example 1 ] 1 : 4 . 6 . sup . f = 82 . 3 - 195f . sub . b = 57 . 4 ω = 15 . 2 - 6 . 2surface no . r d n ν______________________________________1 72 . 950 5 . 79 1 . 51633 64 . 12 355 . 189 0 . 103 80 . 578 2 . 30 1 . 80518 25 . 44 49 . 700 1 . 355 53 . 000 7 . 19 1 . 51633 64 . 16 1942 . 416 4 . 61 - 39 . 07 - 101 . 200 1 . 70 1 . 60311 60 . 78 44 . 700 3 . 589 - 75 . 438 1 . 50 1 . 60311 60 . 710 34 . 820 3 . 80 1 . 80518 25 . 411 140 . 793 30 . 90 - 1 . 5912 81 . 685 6 . 71 1 . 48749 70 . 113 - 28 . 980 1 . 60 1 . 80518 25 . 414 - 46 . 500 12 . 77 - 7 . 715 32 . 725 5 . 64 1 . 48749 70 . 116 65 . 243 29 . 4117 88 . 200 3 . 19 1 . 52310 50 . 818 727 . 416 9 . 2419 - 23 . 500 1 . 90 1 . 54072 47 . 220 - 38 . 823______________________________________ ______________________________________ [ example 2 ] 1 : 4 . 5 . sup . f = 82 . 3 - 195f . sub . b = 55 . 3 ω = 15 . 2 - 6 . 2surface no . r d n ν______________________________________1 60 . 478 5 . 65 1 . 51633 64 . 12 127 . 701 0 . 103 70 . 609 2 . 30 1 . 80518 25 . 44 46 . 178 1 . 795 52 . 891 7 . 67 1 . 51633 64 . 16 - 726 . 894 4 . 61 - 38 . 497 - 91 . 330 1 . 70 1 . 60311 60 . 78 50 . 301 3 . 149 - 96 . 401 1 . 50 1 . 60311 60 . 710 31 . 589 3 . 80 1 . 80518 25 . 411 89 . 234 30 . 90 - 1 . 6112 47 . 716 1 . 60 1 . 80518 25 . 413 29 . 142 0 . 8514 30 . 020 6 . 00 1 . 48749 70 . 115 - 69 . 620 12 . 77 - 8 . 1716 32 . 644 4 . 13 1 . 48749 70 . 117 66 . 865 26 . 1918 166 . 025 2 . 80 1 . 52310 50 . 819 3473 . 425 14 . 6520 - 21 . 112 1 . 90 1 . 54072 47 . 221 - 29 . 070______________________________________ ______________________________________ [ example 3 ] 1 : 4 . 0 . sup . f = 71 . 4 - 204 . 7f . sub . b = 55 . 2 ω = 17 . 5 - 5 . 9surface no . r d n ν______________________________________1 85 . 928 5 . 87 1 . 51633 64 . 12 3163 . 754 0 . 153 74 . 621 2 . 70 1 . 80518 25 . 44 46 . 745 9 . 50 1 . 51633 64 . 15 270 . 121 2 . 61 - 43 . 796 - 478 . 136 1 . 20 1 . 60311 60 . 77 36 . 785 4 . 768 - 44 . 609 1 . 50 1 . 69680 55 . 59 41 . 313 4 . 50 1 . 80518 25 . 410 - 751 . 821 33 . 03 - 0 . 7011 92 . 526 6 . 47 1 . 48749 70 . 112 - 29 . 544 1 . 70 1 . 80518 25 . 413 - 48 . 631 16 . 24 - 7 . 614 31 . 661 4 . 85 1 . 48749 70 . 115 90 . 635 33 . 5916 76 . 086 3 . 88 1 . 52310 50 . 817 - 150 . 885 3 . 1018 - 25 . 971 1 . 90 1 . 54072 47 . 219 - 93 . 715______________________________________ ______________________________________ [ example 4 ] 1 : 4 . 1 . sup . f = 72 . 3 - 204f . sub . b = 54 . 5 ω = 17 . 3 - 5 . 9surface no . r d n ν______________________________________1 78 . 354 6 . 27 1 . 51633 64 . 12 347 . 828 0 . 153 75 . 240 2 . 50 1 . 80518 25 . 44 46 . 483 1 . 405 47 . 917 9 . 37 1 . 51633 64 . 16 4268 . 277 1 . 75 - 41 . 857 - 176 . 749 1 . 50 1 . 69680 55 . 58 40 . 860 3 . 709 - 50 . 569 1 . 70 1 . 69680 55 . 510 35 . 677 4 . 30 1 . 80518 25 . 411 - 1674 . 221 29 . 76 - 0 . 9612 92 . 621 6 . 90 1 . 51633 64 . 113 - 28 . 076 1 . 70 1 . 80518 25 . 414 - 48 . 655 18 . 27 - 6 . 7915 32 . 522 4 . 00 1 . 48749 70 . 116 100 . 000 35 . 4417 59 . 821 3 . 60 1 . 51112 60 . 518 - 185 . 591 3 . 7919 - 27 . 856 1 . 70 1 . 65844 50 . 920 - 101 . 645______________________________________ although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described , it should be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the appended claims .	6
embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings . fig5 shows the overall arrangement of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention . this embodiment exemplifies the magneto - optical recording / reproducing apparatus for magneto - optically recording / reproducing information . referring to fig5 a laser beam emitted from a semiconductor laser 41 as a light source is collimated by a collimator lens 42 . the laser beam is then transmitted through a polarization beam splitter 43 to be incident on an objective lens 44 . the laser beam is focused by the objective lens 44 to form a small beam spot on a magneto - optical recording medium 45 . in recording information on the magneto - optical recording medium 45 , a laser beam having a recording power is irradiated from the semiconductor laser 41 onto the magneto - optical recording medium 45 . as a result , a portion of the magneto - optical recording medium 45 irradiated with a beam spot is locally heated . meanwhile , a magnetic field modulated in accordance with an information signal to be recorded on the magneto - optical recording medium 45 is applied , so that magnetization of the heated portion of the magneto - optical recording medium 45 is oriented in the direction of the applied magnetic field . in this manner , an array of information pits ( domains ), each having magnetization oriented upward or downward depending on the information signal , are recorded on the magneto - optical recording medium 45 , thereby recording a series of information on the magneto - optical recording medium 45 . in reproducing recorded information , a laser beam having a reproduction power at which information cannot be recorded is emitted from the semiconductor laser 41 , and the beam spot of this reproduction power is scanned along information tracks of the magneto - optical recording medium 45 . in this case , a light beam reflected by the magneto - optical recording medium 45 passes through the objective lens 44 again , is split from the incident light by the polarization beam splitter 43 , and is guided to a beam splitter 47 . the plane of polarization of the light beam reflected by the magneto - optical recording medium 45 is rotated by the kerr effect in accordance with recorded information . part of the incident light is guided to a servo sensor 48 by the beam splitter 47 , and the remaining light is guided to the polarization beam splitter 49 . in addition , the polarization beam splitter 49 splits the light reflected by the magneto - optical recording medium 45 in accordance with the polarizing direction of the reflected light . the light beams split by the polarization beam splitter 49 are respectively received by rf sensors 50 and 51 , and the respective light - receiving signals are amplified by preamplifiers 52 and 53 . the amplified signals are differentially detected by a differential preamplifier 54 . as a result , the recorded information is reproduced as a magneto - optical signal . fig6 shows the frequency characteristics of an output from the differential preamplifier 54 . as shown in fig6 since a high - frequency component does not extend , a reproduction signal is waveform - equalized by a waveform equalization circuit . the obtained reproduction signal is sent to a reproducing circuit 55 , and reproduction data is generated from the reproduction signal , as will be described in detail later . note that a light - receiving signal received by the servo sensor 48 is supplied to a servo circuit ( not shown ). the servo circuit then performs tracking control to prevent a beam spot from deviating from an information track of the magneto - optical recording medium 45 in a recording / reproducing operation . in addition , focus control is performed to focus a light beam on a recording layer . fig7 is a block diagram showing the first embodiment of the present invention . note that in this embodiment , the present invention is applied to an apparatus of a normal information reproduction scheme ( which does not use the partial response scheme ). assume that the circuit shown in fig7 is arranged as the reproducing circuit 55 in the magneto - optical recording / reproducing apparatus shown in fig5 . referring to fig7 a differential preamplifier 1 is identical to the differential preamplifier 54 shown in fig5 . when information recorded on the magneto - optical recording medium 45 in fig5 is to be reproduced , a reproduction signal obtained by the differential preamplifier 1 is input to an equalizer 3 for pll control to optimize waveform equalization for pll control . fig8 shows a signal waveform after waveform equalization performed by the equalizer 3 . referring to fig8 the abscissa axis is normalized with a clock period t b . in the equalizer 3 , as shown in fig8 waveform equalization is performed such that the edge of a signal waveform after equalization coincides with a clock point ( 0 , 0 ). for this reason , as is apparent , the signal amplitude of a short - period waveform is considerably reduced . the output signal from the equalizer 3 is output to a binarizing circuit 5 to be compared with the slice level shown in fig8 . as a result , the signal is converted into a binary digital signal . a pll circuit 7 compares the phase of a digital signal with that of a clock from an oscillator ( not shown ). by adjusting the clock frequency of the oscillator in accordance with the phase difference , a reproduction clock is generated . as described above , since waveform equalization is performed by the equalizer 3 such that the edge of a signal waveform coincides with a clock point , dispersion ( jitter ) of edge positions is reduced . as a result , good pll characteristics can be obtained , and a stable reproduction clock can be obtained . in addition , a reproduction signal from the differential preamplifier 1 is subjected to waveform equalization optimal for data detection in an equalizer 2 for data detection . fig9 shows a signal waveform after waveform equalization performed by the equalizer 2 . referring to fig9 the abscissa axis is normalized with the clock period t b , as in fig8 . in the equalizer 2 , as shown in fig9 waveform equalization is performed such that a signal waveform after equalization becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point . for this reason , as is apparent , the position of the edge of a signal is shifted depending on reproduction patterns . the output signal from the equalizer 2 is output to a binarizing circuit 4 to be compared with the slice level shown in fig9 . as a result , the signal is converted into a binary digital signal . a data separator 6 performs detection at a data distinguishing point by using a reproduction clock from the pll circuit 7 so as to generate reproduction data . as described above , since waveform equalization is performed by the equalizer 2 such that a signal waveform becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point , a reproduction signal has a sufficient amplitude difference . therefore , in data detection , resistance to level variations is high , and the error rate can be sufficiently reduced . fig1 is a block diagram showing the second embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , the present invention is applied to an apparatus using partial response equalization . assume that the reproducing circuit in fig1 is arranged as the reproducing circuit 55 in the magneto - optical recording / reproducing apparatus shown in fig5 . referring to fig1 , a differential preamplifier 11 is identical to the differential preamplifier 54 in fig5 . a reproduction signal obtained by the differential preamplifier 11 is input to an equalizer 13 for pll control to perform optimal waveform equalization for pll control . note that partial response equalization pr ( 1 , 2 , 1 ) characteristics are employed for waveform equalization . fig1 shows a signal waveform after waveform equalization performed by the equalizer 13 . fig1 shows the frequency characteristics of an output signal from the equalizer 13 . referring to fig1 , the abscissa axis is normalized with a clock period t b . the equalizer 13 performs waveform equalization such that the edge of a reproduction signal , which crosses two slice levels , coincides with a clock point ( 0 , 0 ), as shown in fig1 . as is apparent from fig1 , the frequency characteristics of an output signal from the equalizer 13 have a lower intensity of a high - frequency component than that of the nyquist waveform shown in fig4 . therefore , the s / n ratio can be increased . the output signal from the equalizer 13 is input to a binarizing circuit 15 , in which the signal is compared with the two slice levels shown in fig1 to be converted into a digital signal . a pll circuit 17 compares the phase of the digital signal with that of a clock from an oscillator ( not shown ), and adjusts the clock frequency in accordance with the phase difference , thereby generating a reproduction clock . as described above , since waveform equalization is performed by the equalizer 13 such that the edge of a signal waveform coincides with a clock point , dispersion of edge positions is reduced , as in the first embodiment . as a result , good pll characteristics can be obtained , and a stable reproduction clock can be obtained . a reproduction signal from the differential preamplifier 11 is input to an equalizer 12 for data detection and undergoes optimal waveform equalization for data detection . assume that partial response equalization pr ( 1 , 1 ) characteristics are employed for waveform equalization . fig1 shows a signal waveform after waveform equalization performed by the equalizer 12 . fig1 shows the frequency characteristics of an output signal from the equalizer 12 . the equalizer 12 performs waveform equalization such that a signal waveform after waveform equalization becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; 0 . 5 &# 34 ;, or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point , i . e ., a ternary value of &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, or &# 34 ; 2 &# 34 ;, as shown in fig1 . for this reason , as is apparent , the positions of edges of signals are shifted depending on reproduction patterns . the output signal from the equalizer 12 is output to a binarizing circuit 14 , in which the signal is compared with the two slice levels shown in fig1 to be converted into a ternary digital signal . the obtained digital signal is output to a data separator 16 . the data separator 16 performs detection at a data distinguishing point by using a reproduction clock so as to generate reproduction data . as described above , in this embodiment as well , a signal waveform becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, or &# 34 ; 2 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point in the equalizer 12 , and the signal has a sufficient amplitude difference . therefore , in data detection , resistance to level variations is high , and the error rate can be sufficiently reduced . fig1 is a block diagram showing the third embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , the present invention is applied to an apparatus designed to perform pll control separately at the leading and trailing edges of a reproduction signal in an apparatus of a general information reproduction scheme ( a scheme using no partial response equalization ). assume that the circuit shown in fig1 is arranged as a reproducing circuit 55 in the magneto - optical recording / reproducing apparatus shown in fig5 . referring to fig1 , a differential preamplifier 21 is identical to the differential preamplifier 54 in fig5 . a reproduction signal obtained by the differential preamplifier 21 is output to an equalizer 23 for leading edge pll control and an equalizer 24 for trailing edge pll control so as to be subjected to optimal waveform equalization for the respective pll control operations . in this case , since a reproduction signal exhibits asymmetry at its leading and trailing edges , pll control is separately performed at the leading and trailing edges . more specifically , the equalizer 23 performs waveform equalization such that the leading edge of a signal waveform after waveform equalization coincides with a clock point . a binarizing circuit 26 compares this signal with a slice level to convert the signal into a binary digital signal . in addition , the equalizer 24 performs waveform equalization such that the trailing edge of the signal waveform after waveform equalization coincides with a clock point . a binarizing circuit 27 compares this signal with the slice level to convert the signal into a binary digital signal . the digital signals indicating the leading and trailing edges , which are respectively obtained by the binarizing circuits 26 and 27 , are output to a pll circuit 28 . the pll circuit 28 compares the phase of each input digital signal with that of a clock from an oscillator ( not shown ), and adjusts the clock frequency of the oscillator in accordance with the phase difference , thereby generating a reproduction clock . in this embodiment , since the leading edge of a signal waveform from the equalizer 23 and the trailing edge of a signal waveform from the equalizer 24 coincide with a clock point , dispersion of edge positions is reduced . therefore , good pll characteristics can be obtained , and a stable reproduction clock can be obtained . a reproduction signal from the differential preamplifier 21 is output to an equalizer 22 to be subjected to optimal waveform equalization for data detection . that is , the equalizer 22 performs waveform equalization such that a signal waveform after waveform equalization becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point . the equalizer 23 compares this signal after waveform equalization with a slice level to convert the signal into a binary digital signal . the obtained digital signal is output to a data separator 29 , in which detection is performed at a data distinguishing point by using a reproduction clock from the pll circuit 28 , thereby generating reproduction data . in this embodiment as well , a signal waveform obtained by the equalizer 22 becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; or &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point , and hence the signal has a sufficient amplitude difference . therefore , in data detection , resistance to level variations is high , and the error rate can be sufficiently reduced . fig1 is a block diagram showing the fourth embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , the present invention is applied to an apparatus using partial response equalization , which is designed to reproduce information by digital signal processing . assume that the reproducing circuit in fig1 is arranged as the reproducing circuit 55 in the magneto - optical recording / reproducing apparatus in fig5 . referring to fig1 , a differential preamplifier 31 is identical to the differential preamplifier 54 in fig5 . a reproduction signal obtained by the differential preamplifier 31 is output to an equalizer 33 for pll control to be subjected to optimal waveform equalization for pll control . in this case , similar to the embodiment shown in fig1 , partial response equalization pr ( 1 , 2 , 1 ) characteristics are employed for waveform equalization . the equalizer 33 performs waveform equalization in the same manner as the equalizer 13 in fig1 . the output signal from the equalizer 33 is compared with a slice level by a binarizing circuit 35 to be converted into a digital signal . a pll circuit 37 then compares the phase of this signal with that of a clock , and adjusts the clock frequency in accordance with the phase difference , thereby generating a reproduction clock . a reproduction signal from the differential preamplifier 31 is output to an equalizer 32 for data detection to be subjected to optimal waveform equalization for data detection . in this case , as in the equalizer 12 in fig1 , partial response equalization ( 1 , 1 ) characteristics are employed for waveform equalization . similar to the equalizer 12 in fig1 , the equalizer 32 performs waveform equalization such that a signal waveform after waveform equalization becomes &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, or &# 34 ; 2 &# 34 ; at a data distinguishing point . the output signal from the equalizer 32 is output to an a / d converter 34 to be converted into n - bit digital data . the n - bit digital data is then output to a viterbi decoder 36 . in the viterbi decoder 36 , detection is performed at a data distinguishing point by using a reproduction clock from the pll circuit 37 to generate reproduction data . as described above , even in the case wherein information is reproduced by digital signal processing , in data detection , resistance to level variations is high , and the error rate can be sufficiently reduced . as has been described above , the present invention includes both an equalizer for pll control , which performs waveform equalization of a reproduction signal , which is suitable for pll control , and an equalizer for data detection , which performs waveform equalization of a reproduction signal , which is suitable for data detection . these equalizers separately perform waveform equalization depending on purposes . with this operation , in performing high - density recording of information , stable pll control can be realized , and a satisfactory self - clock scheme can be performed , thereby sufficiently reducing the error rate .	6
in fig1 through 9 , reference character a designates an outer cylinder , character b designates an elevator cylinder , character c designates an inner cylinder , character c &# 39 ; designates an inner cylinder plate section , character d designates upper segment expanding / contracting cylinders , character e designates bead push - in cylinders , character f designates lower segment expanding / contracting cylinders , character g designates guides , character h designates metal mold bead rings , character i designates a bead height regulating bolt , character j designates bead push - in segments , character k designate bead expanding segments , character l designates push - in plates , character m designates segment expanding / contracting plates , character n designates a fixed plate , character o designates slide plates , character p designates a lower plate , character q designates threads , character r designates nuts , character s designates segment adjusting bolts , character t designates hexagonal rods , charactors u and v respectively designate sprockets , character w designates a chain , character x designates links , reference numeral 1 designates a bolster plate , numeral 2 designates a head insulator plate , numeral 3 designates an upper heater plate , numeral 4 designates an upper metal mold , numeral 5 designates a lower metal mold , numeral 6 designates an outer grip loader , numeral 7 designates a green tire , numeral 7a designates bead portions of a green tire , and numeral 10 designates a chuck mechanism . a plurality of guides g respectively slidably holding a plurality of slide plates o which have bead expanding segments k fixedly secured to their outer ends , are disposed radially , and thus form a segment assembly . fig5 ( a ) shows an expanded condition of the segment assembly in which the slide plates o have moved in the radial direction of a green tire , and fig5 ( b ) shows a contracted condition of the segment assembly . such a segment assembly is disposed at each of upper and lower positions in correspondence to the upper and lower bead positions of a green tire . more particularly , the guides g of the upper segment assembly are mounted on the lower surface of the inner cylinder plate c &# 39 ;, and the guides g of the lower segment assembly are mounted on the upper surface of the lower plate p . the lower ends of the piston rods of the elevator cylinder b provided at the top of the outer cylinder a are fixedly secured to the inner cylinder c , and hence the inner cylinder c is raised and lowered by actuation of these elevator cylinders b . on the outer side of the bead expansion segment k is held the bead push - in segment j in a vertically slidable manner , and links are mounted to the slide plate o and the bead push - in segment j as will be described later . the bead expansion segments k , the bead push - in segments j , the bead push - in plate l , the segment expanding / contracting plate m , the segment expanding / contracting cylinders d and f , the bead push - in cylinders e and the links for connecting these members , jointly form the chuck means . fig1 shows the condition where the segment assembly has been pulled up by the elevator cylinders b and the chuck means has been accommodated within the outer cylinder a . it is to be noted that the cylinders d are fixedly secured to the inner cylinder c , and the lower ends of their piston rods are fixedly secured to the plate m . the cylinders f are fixedly secured to the fixed plate n , and the lower ends of their piston rods are fixedly secured to the plate m . the cylinders e are fixedly secured to the bead push - in plate 1 , and the tip ends of their piston rods are fixedly secured to the plate m . though the upper and lower chuck means are similar mechanisms , the upper cylinders for use in the expanding / contracting operations of the upper and lower segments k is the cylinders d , while the lower cylinders for the same use are the cylinders f , and since the mounting positions of the cylinders are different between these cylinders d and f , projection and retraction of these cylinders result in inverse operations to each other . with respect to the other points , the upper chuck means and the lower chuck means are identical to each other . the operations will be described later with reference to fig9 to 11 . fig2 shows the condition where the inner cylinder c holding the chuck means has been lowered from the inside of the outer cylinder a by the elevator cylinder b . fig3 shows the condition where the upper and lower segments k have been expanded by the upper segment expanding / contracting cylinder d and the lower segment expanding / contracting cylinder f . fig4 shows the condition where in both the upper and lower chuck means , the bead push - in segments j have slid along the outer surfaces of the bead expansion segments k and have pushed the bead portions of a green tire into the metal mold bead rings h as a result of actuation of the bead push - in cylinders and the associated links . fig6 shows the means for use in bead height adjustment and bead diameter adjustment . the bead height regulating means operates in such manner that by turning the bead height regulating bolt i , the lower plate p is raised or lowered via the threads q and thereby the position of the lower plate p is determined . in this way , the distance between the upper segments and the lower segments is varied , and the bead height can be regulated . the bead diameter regulating means consists of the nuts r mounted to the inner cylinder plate section c &# 39 ; and the lower plate p , the upper and lower segment adjusting bolts s threadedly engaged with the nuts r ( the upper and lower bolts s are threaded in the opposite directions to each other ), and the hexagonal rods t penetrating through the segment adjusting bolts s . since the positions of the inner cylinder plate section c &# 39 ; and the lower plate p are fixed by the elevator cylinder b and the bead height regulating bolt i , by turning the hexagonal rods t the segment adjusting bolts s are rotated and they are raised or lowered . two hexagonal rods t are provided , and they are synchronously rotated by means of the sprockets u and v and the chain w . in this way the four segment adjusting bolts are adjusted at predetermined positions , so that the extent of expansion of the segments k are determined by the segment expanding / contracting plate m butting against the segment adjusting bolts s . fig7 and 8 show the mechanism of the segments and the bead push - in portion , in which the bead push - in segment j is guided by the bead expansion segment k and is made to slide along the outer side surface of the segment k by the links x to perform ascending and descending operations . the operation of the chuck means will be described in connection to the lower chuck means illustrated in fig9 to 11 . fig9 ( a ) shows the condition where the segments k are contracted by the segment expanding / contracting cylinders f . fig1 ( a ) shows the condition where the bead push - in segments j are raised by the bead push - in cylinders e . fig1 ( a ) shows the segment adjusting bolt s set at a predetermined height . fig9 ( b ) shows the condition where the segments k are expanded by the segment expanding / contracting cylinders f . fig1 ( b ) shows the condition of the bead push - in cylinders e and the bead push - in segments j when the segments k are expanded . fig1 ( b ) shows the condition where the segment expanding / contracting plate m butts against the segment adjusting bolts s and thereby an expanding limit of the bead expansion segments is defined . fig9 ( c ), 10 ( c ) and 11 ( c ) all show the condition where the bead push - in segments j are lowered . now the overall operation will be explained with reference to fig1 . fig1 ( a ) shows the condition where the chuck mechanism 10 is accommodated at the center of the bolster plate 1 , the heat insulator plate 2 , the upper heater plate 3 and the upper metal mold 4 by the elevator cylinders b , and the green tire 7 has been brought in between the lower metal mold 5 and the upper metal mold 4 by means of the outer grip loader 6 . fig1 ( b ) shows the condition where the chuck mechanism 10 has been lowered by the elevator cylinders b , the bead expansion segments k have been expanded and the green tire 7 has been gripped thereby . thereafter , the outer grip loader 6 retreats outwardly from the space between the lower metal mold 5 and the upper metal mold 4 . fig1 ( c ) shows the condition where the upper metal mold 4 has been lowered , the lower bead portion of the green tire 7 has come to the position of the bead ring h of the lower metal mold 5 and the upper bead portion of the green tire 7 has come to the position of the bead ring h of the upper metal mold . the bead push - in segments j have pushed the bead portions of the green tire 7 into the bead rings of the upper and lower bead rings 4 and 5 . fig1 ( d ) shows the condition where , after the bead portions of the green tire were pushed into the bead rings of the metal molds , the bead expansion segments k have been all contracted , and then the chuck mechanism 10 has been raised by the elevator cylinders b and accommodated within the outer cylinder a . as will be obvious from the detailed description above , the present invention can provide the following advantages : ( 1 ) owing to the fact that there are provided bead expanding segments which can expand and contract in the radial direction and bead push - in segments which can move vertically along the aforementioned bead expanding segments , and that the upper and lower bead portions of the green tire are mechanically pushed into the bead rings of the upper and lower metal molds , centering between the metal molds and the green tire can be achieved surely , and quality of vulcanized tires can be improved . in addition , since the bead portions are sealed , it becomes possible to carry out bladderless vulcanization . ( 2 ) owing to the provision of bead diameter regulating means and bead height regulating means , various sizes of green tires can be inserted into a tire vulcanizing machine by adjusting the height and diameter of the chuck - means . while a principle of the present invention has been described above in connection to one preferred embodiment of the invention , it is a matter of course that many apparently widely different embodiments of the present invention could be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention .	1
an embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings . fig1 is a cross - sectional view showing a pixel of an organic el display device of the embodiment of the invention . in an actual organic el display device , a plurality of the pixels is arranged in a matrix . an insulating film 2 made of sio 2 as a substrate is formed on a glass substrate 1 . an r color filter layer 3 , a g color filter layer 4 , and a b color filter layer 5 are formed adjacent each other on the insulating film 2 . each of these color filter layers transmits light having a predetermined wavelength corresponding to each of r , g , and b colors , which is irradiated from a white organic el layer 10 . although not shown , an organic el element driving tft and a pixel selecting tft are formed under these color filter layers . the r color filter layer 3 , the g color filter layer 4 , and the b color filter layer 5 also serve as a first planarization insulating film , such as the one 202 in fig5 . end portions of the color filter layers are overlapped for planarization . the end portions of the color filter layers are formed in a tapered shape so as to reduce a step height h 2 at an overlapping portion . for example , the both end portions of the r color filter layer 3 are formed in a tapered shape , and one of the end portions of the g color filter layer 4 is formed to cover one of the end portions of the r color filter layer 3 . furthermore , the both end portions of the b color filter layer 5 are formed to respectively cover the end portion of the r color filer layer 3 and the end portion of the g color filter layer 4 . a conventional planarization insulating film is not formed on these color filter layers , but anode layers 6 , 7 , and 8 are formed directly on the r color filter layer 3 , the g color filter layer 4 , and the b color filter layer 5 , respectively . furthermore , a second planarization insulating film 9 is formed to cover end portions of the anode layers 6 , 7 , and 8 , and a white organic el layer 10 and a cathode layer 11 are laminated thereon in this order . a glass substrate 30 covers the cathode layer 11 , and the glass substrate 30 and the glass substrate 1 are attached at their edges to enclose the white organic el layer 10 therein . the reason to provide the second planarization insulating film 9 is the same as the conventional art , that is , the distance between the anode layers 6 , 7 , and 8 and the cathode layer 11 becomes small without the second planarization insulating film 9 so that a short circuit can occur between the anode layers 6 , 7 , and 8 and the cathode layer 11 . openings are formed in the second planarization insulating film 9 except above the end portions of the anode layers 6 , 7 , and 8 . the white organic el layer 10 is formed on the anode layers 6 , 7 , and 8 exposed in the openings , being in contact therewith . a forming method of the color filter layers will be described with reference to fig2 a , 2 b , 2 c , and 2 d . here , a forming method of the r color filter layer 3 and the g color filter layer 4 will be described . as shown in fig2 a , the r color filter material layer 3 a made of a negative photoresist containing a predetermined pigment is coated on the whole surface of the insulating film 2 serving as a substrate formed on the glass substrate 1 . then , the r color filter material layer 3 a is exposed to light through predetermined masks 12 . when the r color filter material layer 3 a undergoes next development treatment , as shown in fig2 b , a portion of the r color filter material layer 3 a which is exposed to light remains to form the r color filter layer 3 . the r color filter layer 3 is formed by this exposure and development process , having tapered portions at its ends . this is because that the r color filter material layer 3 a receives light beyond the area corresponding to the opening of the mask 12 with an intensity that is smaller than that of the central portion of the mask and is gradually decreasing . next , as shown in fig2 c , a g color filter material layer 4 a made of a negative photoresist containing a predetermined pigment is coated on the whole surface . the g color filter material layer 4 a is exposed to light through predetermined masks 13 . when the g color filter material layer 4 a undergoes next development treatment , as shown in fig2 d , a portion of the g color filter material layer 4 a which is exposed to light remains to form the g color filter layer 4 . by positioning the masks 13 as shown in fig2 d , the end portion of the g color filter layer 4 overlaps the end portion of the r color filter layer 3 . the end portion of the r color filter layer 3 is formed in a tapered shape . the end portion of the g color filter layer 4 has a tapered shape and becomes gradually thinner toward its end . therefore , a step height h 2 of an overlapping portion of the g color filter layer 4 and the r color filter layer 3 is reduced . the forming method of the b color filter layer 5 is the same as this . here , the less the step height h 2 of the overlapping portion of the r , g , and b color filter layers is , the better the display performs . however , for preventing a cut in the white organic el layer 9 formed above the r , g , and b color filter layers , which can be caused by the step height h 2 , when a film thickness of the white organic el layer 9 is h 1 , it is preferable that h 1 is larger than h 2 . in this embodiment , both end portions of the b color filter layer 5 are formed to cover the end portions of the adjacent r color filter layer 3 and g color filter layer 4 , respectively . for minimizing the step height h 2 of the overlapping portion of the color filter layers , the color filter layers are preferably formed in a decreasing order of thickness . for example , when the thicknesses of the r color filter layer 3 , the g color filter layer 4 , and the b color filter layer 5 are t 1 , t 2 , and t 3 , respectively , it is preferable that t 1 is lager than t 2 and t 2 is larger than t 3 . in this case , the r color filter layer 3 , the g color filter layer 4 , and the b color filter layer 5 are formed in this order . accordingly , in this embodiment , the r color filter layer 3 , the g color filter layer 4 , and the b color filter layer 5 serve as the first planarization insulating film . however , as shown in fig3 the first planarization insulating film 20 can be further formed on these color filter layers . this first planarization insulating film 20 can be formed thinner than the conventional art since the planarization is already realized to some extent by the r color filter layer 3 , the g color filter layer 4 , and the b color filter layer 5 . a preferable film thickness is between 200 nm and 300 nm . furthermore , since the first planarization insulating film 20 is thin , the first planarization insulating film 20 can be formed of an inorganic insulating film having low absorbency by a pcvd ( plasma - activated chemical vapor deposition ) method . it is preferable to employ a silicon oxide film , a teos film , or a silicon nitride film as the inorganic insulating film . next , an equivalent circuit of the described organic el display device and its operation will be described . fig4 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the organic el display device , showing a pixel formed in a periphery of a gate signal line 50 at an n - th row and a drain signal line 60 at an m - th column . the gate signal line 50 for supplying a gate signal gn and the drain signal line 60 for supplying a drain signal , that is , a video signal dm cross each other . an organic el element 120 , a tft 100 for driving the organic el element 120 , and a tft 110 for selecting a pixel are formed in a periphery of an intersection of the both signal lines 50 and 60 . a drive source 105 is connected with a drain 100 d of the organic el element driving tft 100 , and supplies a positive drive voltage pvdd . a source 100 s is connected with an anode 121 of the organic el element 120 . a gate 110 g of the selecting tft 110 for selecting a pixel is connected with the gate signal line 50 and supplied with a gate signal gn . a drain 110 d is connected with the drain signal line 60 and supplied with the video signal dm . the source 110 s of the selecting tft 110 is connected with the gate 100 g of the driving tft 100 . here , the gate signal gn is outputted from a gate driver circuit ( not shown ). the video signal dm is outputted from a drain driver circuit ( not shown ). the organic el element is made of the anode 121 , a cathode 122 , and an emissive layer 123 formed between the anode 121 and the cathode 122 . the cathode 122 is connected with a common source 140 for supplying a negative common voltage cv . furthermore , the gate 100 g of the driving tft 100 is connected with a storage capacitor 130 . that is , one electrode of the storage capacitor 130 is connected with the gate 100 g , and another electrode thereof is connected with the storage capacitor electrode 131 . the storage capacitor 130 is provided for storing the video signal of the pixel for one field period by storing electric charge corresponding to the video signal dm . an operation of the el display device having the described structure will be described as follows . when the gate signal gn becomes high level for one horizontal period , the selecting tft 110 turns on . then , the video signal dm is applied from the drain signal line 60 to the gate 100 g of the driving tft 100 through the selecting tft 110 . in response to the video signal dm supplied to the gate 100 g , conductance of the driving tft 100 changes . the drive electric current corresponding to the conductance is supplied from the drive source 105 to the organic el element 120 through the driving tft 100 . accordingly , luminance of the organic el element 120 is controlled . although colors of the color pixels and the color filter layers are r ( red ), g ( green ), and b ( blue ) in this embodiment , the colors may be yellow or magenta . furthermore , the “ white el ” is mainly white , but may be reddish or bluish .	7
with reference to fig1 , the input peripheral 1 of the invention comprises a base 2 having a leg 3 with its end engaged in a soleplate 4 that is resting on a bearing plane p defined in this example by a table top 5 . the input peripheral 1 comprises a shell 6 of ergonomic domed shape suitable for being held easily in the hand . the shell 6 is connected to the base 2 by means of a linkage made up as follows : a first connection element 7 having a plane bottom end 8 that extends against a plane surface 9 of the base 2 parallel to the bearing plane p , and a spherical top end 10 . the first connection element 7 is thus free to slide on the plane surface 9 ; and a second connection element 11 having a bottom end 12 in the form of a spherical cavity complementary to the spherical top end 10 of the first connection element 7 and fitted thereon so as to form a ball - and - socket connection between these two elements , and having a circularly cylindrical top end 13 that rotatably receives a complementary circularly cylindrical cavity 14 of the shell 6 so as to form between the second connection element 11 and the shell 6 a pivot connection about a pivot axis referenced 7 that passes through the center of the spherical end 10 . the second connection element 11 is prevented from turning about the pivot axis z by stop means described in greater detail below with reference to fig2 . the shell 6 can tilt angularly relative to the base 2 under the effect of a torque imposed by the hand of an operator on the shell 6 about axes that are contained in an equatorial plane of the spherical end 10 and parallel to the bearing plane p ; the shell 6 can turn relative to the base 2 about the pivot axis z ; and the shell 6 can move in translation relative to the base 2 under the effect of a force developed in the base plane by the hand of the operator , during which the plane bottom end 6 of the first connection element 7 slides on the plane surface 9 of the base 2 . the tilting and the turning give the shell 6 three degrees of freedom in rotation , whereas the movement in translation gives the shell 6 two degrees of freedom in translation . it should be observed that a force exerted by the hand of the operator on the shell 6 in a transverse direction perpendicular to the plane surface 9 is transmitted directly to the base 2 via the connection elements 7 and 11 , and gives rise to no movement of the shell 6 . the operator can thus rest the hand on the shell 6 , thereby relieving the arm and avoiding any carpal stress . the five degrees of freedom of the shell 6 made possible by the linkage between the shell 6 and the base 2 are advantageously used to represent the five corresponding degrees of freedom of a virtual or real object being manipulated with the help of the input peripheral of the invention . the sixth degree of freedom , i . e . the degree that corresponds to moving in translation in the transverse direction that is prevented by the linkage , is controlled in this example by means of a scroll wheel 100 carried by the shell 6 . as can be seen in fig2 , the input peripheral 1 is fitted with auxiliary parts , namely a first slider 20 and a second slider 30 . the first slider 20 is mounted on the base 2 to slide in a direction 21 that extends in the above - mentioned equatorial plane . for this purpose , and as can be seen in fig1 , the first slider 20 has side walls with slots formed therein that receive tenons 23 carried by uprights 24 secured to the base 2 and facing each other on opposite sides of the plane surface 9 . the second slider 30 is mounted in the first slider 20 to slide in a direction 31 that extends in the above - mentioned equatorial plane , perpendicularly to the direction 21 . for this purpose , the second slider has tenons 32 that are received in grooves 22 in the first slider 20 . it should be observed that the first slider 20 and the second slider 30 are never subjected directly to the force delivered by the hand of the operator . in particular , they are never subjected to any transverse force transmitted directly from the shell 6 to the base 2 via the connection elements 7 and 11 . the sliders 20 and 30 are subjected solely to driving forces in a plane that is parallel to the plane surface 9 . they are therefore subjected to very little stress . the sliders 20 and 30 do not contribute to defining the linkage between the shell 6 and the base 2 except insofar as they prevent the second connection element 11 from turning about the pivot axis z . for this purpose , the first connection element 7 and the second slider 30 are connected together by studs 33 that extend in radial directions contained in the above - mentioned equatorial plane . in practice , the first connection element 7 and the second slider 30 are molded as a single piece . as a result , the second slider 30 is permanently centered on the spherical end 10 of the first connection element 7 and tracks the movements thereof . to enable the shell 6 to tilt angularly in spite of the presence of the studs 33 , the spherical cavity 12 in the second connection element 11 includes grooves 15 ( one of which is visible in fig1 ) allowing the studs 33 to pass through the wall of the spherical cavity 12 , and enabling the second connection element 11 to tilt angularly about an axis contained in the above - mentioned equatorial plane , while preventing the second connection element 11 from turning about the pivot axis z . thus , during a movement of the shell 6 , the second slider 30 moves by an amount equal to the component of the movement of the shell 6 in said direction 31 , and it entrains the first slider 20 , causing it to move by an amount equal to the component of the movement of the shell 6 in the direction 21 . during turning of the shell 6 , the shell 6 turns relative to the second connection element 11 by an amount that is equal to the component of the turning about the pivot axis z of the shell 6 relative to the second connection element 11 . these arrangements make it easy to put sensors into place for sensing the various movements of the shell 6 . in this respect , and as can be seen in fig1 , the shell 6 carries a two - axis inclinometer 40 suitable for measuring tilting movements of the shell 6 in rotation about axes contained in the equatorial plane . in addition , the input peripheral of the invention includes a potentiometer 41 disposed between the second connection element 11 and the shell 6 to measure turning about the pivot axis z . the potentiometer 41 comprises an inner portion and an outer portion that are free to turn relative to each other about the pivot axis z . the inner portion is engaged on a peg 42 of the second connection element 11 that presents a flat ( visible in fig3 ) for preventing the inner portion from turning . the outer portion is prevented from turning relative to the shell 6 by means of a snug 43 co - operating with the flanks of an opening 16 in the circularly cylindrical cavity 14 of the shell 6 . these two sensors serve to measure all movements in rotation of the shell about the center of the spherical end 10 of the first connection element 7 . furthermore , and as can be seen in fig3 , the input peripheral of the invention has a first rectilinear movement sensor 44 comprising an optical reader 45 secured to the base 2 and an optical ruler 46 secured to the first slider 20 , and a second rectilinear movement sensor 47 comprising an optical reader 48 secured to the first slider 20 and an optical ruler 49 secured to the second slider 30 . these two rectilinear movement sensors enable the rectilinear movements of the shell 6 along the directions 21 and 31 to be measured . finally , for the sixth degree of freedom controlled by the scroll wheel 100 , a rotation sensor 101 ( represented by dashed lines since it is hidden by the wheel 100 ) is placed on the axis of the wheel 100 to measure movement in rotation thereof . according to a particular aspects of the invention , the input peripheral includes means for reinitializing the sensors , which means are visible in fig1 . the reinitialization means comprise firstly a first ball 50 placed in a housing hollowed out in the first connection element 7 and opening out to the plane bottom end 8 thereof , the ball being urged against the plane surface 9 of the base 2 by a spring 51 . in the position shown in fig1 , the first ball 50 is engaged in a hollow formed on the plane surface 9 of the base 2 in the center of said surface , thereby enabling the shell 6 to be indexed relative to the base 2 . for example , by placing a switch in the bottom of the hollow so as to be driven by the first ball 50 , it is possible to obtain an electrical signal that can be used to reinitialize the electrical signal coming from the rectilinear movement sensors 44 and 47 when the shell 6 is thus indexed relative to the base 2 . the reinitialization means also comprise a second ball 52 received in a housing hollowed out in the first connection element 7 so as to open out into the top of the top spherical end 10 thereof , and urged against the spherical cavity 12 of the second connection element 11 by a spring 53 . in the position shown in fig1 , the second ball 52 is engaged in a hollow made in the spherical cavity 12 in line with the pivot axis z , thereby enabling the second connection element 11 to be indexed relative to the first connection element 7 , and on the same principle as described above , enabling the electrical signals coming from the inclinometer 40 to be reinitialized . in the invention , the input peripheral also includes a hull 60 that can be seen more particularly in fig4 , which hull comprises a bottom 61 with an orifice 62 , and a side wall 63 that bulges outwards a little . as can be seen in fig1 , the hull 60 is placed under the shell 6 so that the bottom 61 of the hull 60 bears against the soleplate 4 , while the side wall 63 co - operates externally with a complementary side wall 64 of the shell 6 . the orifice 62 allows the leg 3 of the base 2 to pass through the bottom 61 . the orifice is large enough to enable the shell 6 to move , while being small enough to ensure that the bottom 61 always remains captive in the space 67 that extends between the soleplate 4 and the base 2 . the hull 60 is thus constrained to move parallel to the soleplate 4 , and thus to the bearing plane p . the co - operation between the side walls of the hull 60 and the shell 6 constrains the hull 60 to follow the linear movements of the shell 6 and to follow its movements in rotation about an axis parallel to the transverse direction , with the shape of the walls 63 and 64 nevertheless allowing the shell 6 to tilt angularly relative to the hull 60 . the hull 60 prevents any objects or pollution from penetrating under the shell 6 . furthermore , it prevents a clumsy operator getting fingers pinched between the shell 6 and the soleplate 4 . in practice , the side walls of the hull 60 and of the shell 6 face each other with a small amount of clearance . skids 65 integrally molded on the inside face of the side wall 64 of the shell 6 provide contact over a small area with the side wall 63 of the hull 60 so as to reduce friction between these two elements . the input peripheral of the invention is particularly suitable for being used together with computer - assisted design ( cad ) software , or with software for viewing virtual objects . as can be seen in fig5 , a wire 66 conveying the electrical signals from the various sensors leaves the hull 60 to be connected to a computer 70 , where the software is installed . the input peripheral can be used in several ways . firstly , each position of the shell 6 and of the scroll wheel 100 as measured by the sensors can be associated with a position in the virtual space in which the virtual object being manipulated is to be found . it is also possible to associate each position of the shell 6 and of the scroll wheel 100 with a travel speed in the virtual space in which the virtual object being manipulated is to be found . in a particular aspect , both types of association can be combined , using the following method . in fig6 , there can be seen a diagram representing the five degrees of freedom of the shell 6 . the rectangle 80 defines the set of positions that can be occupied in the above - mentioned equatorial plane by the center of the spherical end 10 of the first connection element 7 . an inner rectangle 81 within the rectangle 80 defines a central zone 82 and a peripheral zone 83 . the following associations are then selected : each position of the shell 6 in the central zone 82 is associated with a position of the virtual object in the virtual space ; and each position of the shell 6 in the peripheral zone 83 is associated with a travel speed of the virtual object in the virtual space . similarly , the cone 85 defines the angular tilting possible for the pivot axis z about said center . an inner cone 86 within the outer cone 85 defines a central zone 87 and a peripheral zone 88 . the following associations are then selected : each position of the pivot axis z in the central zone 86 is associated with an angular position of the virtual object in the virtual space ; and each position of the shell 6 in the peripheral zone 88 is associated with a speed of rotation of the virtual object in the virtual space . finally , the angular sector 90 defines possible turning of the shell 6 about the pivot axis z . an inner angular sector 91 within the angular sector 90 defines a central zone 92 and a peripheral zone 93 . the following associations are then selected : each angular position of the shell 6 in the central zone 92 is associated with an angular position of the virtual object in the virtual space ; and each angular position of the shell 6 in the peripheral zone 93 is associated with a speed of rotation of the virtual object in the virtual space . the same principles are applied to the scroll wheel 100 . in order to show up these various zones , the input peripheral of the invention is fitted with means for controlling the movement of the shell 6 . as can be seen in fig7 , the control means comprise foam pads 110 placed on supports 111 and extending between the ends of the uprights 24 of the base 2 so as to form resilient abutments against which the first slider 20 comes into abutment at the ends of its stroke . the portion of the movement of the first slider 20 in which the first slider 20 does not come into contact with either of the foam pads 110 corresponds to the central zone 82 . in this portion , the shell 6 is not subjected to any opposing force ( except for low levels of friction ). the portion of the movement of the first slider 20 in which the first slider 20 is in contact with one or the other of the foam pads 110 corresponds to the peripheral zone 83 . in this portion , the shell 6 is subjected to a return force because of the first slider bearing against one or the other of the foam pads 110 . the presence of a return force enables the operator to distinguish between the central zone and the peripheral zone . by way of example , there follows a description of a rectilinear movement of the shell 6 in the direction 21 , i . e . the direction in which the first slider 20 moves . this movement is represented in fig6 by dashed line 95 . this line includes a central range 96 that is said to be “ isotonic ”, that extends in the central zone 62 and that corresponds to free movement of the shell 6 . the line 95 has two end ranges 97 that are said to be “ elastic ”, each of which extends in the peripheral zone 83 and corresponds to movement of the shell 6 that is subjected to a return force towards the central range . in similar manner , the control means include foam pads 112 disposed on the first slider 20 so as to form resilient abutments against which the second slider 30 comes into abutment at the ends of its stroke . the foam pads 112 mark the boundary between the central zone 82 and the peripheral zone 84 for rectilinear movements along the direction 31 . the control means also comprise foam pads 113 ( visible in fig4 ) disposed on the hull 60 to form resilient abutments against which the shell 6 comes into abutment at the ends of its angular tilting stroke about axes contained in the equatorial plane . the foam pads 113 mark the boundary between the central zone 87 and the peripheral zone 88 for angular tilting of the shell 6 about axes contained in the equatorial plane . finally , the control means include foam pads 114 ( visible in fig3 and in fig1 ) disposed on either side of a partition 115 of the second connection element 11 so as to form resilient abutments against which the flanks of the opening 16 in the circularly cylindrical cavity 14 of the shell 6 come into abutment at the ends of its stroke . the foam pads 114 mark the boundary between the central zone 92 and the peripheral zone 93 for the shell 6 turning about the pivot axis z . it is thus possible for all of the degrees of freedom of the shell 6 to define a central range in which the movement of the shell is free , and end ranges in which the shell is subjected to a return force towards the central range . similarly , the scroll wheel 100 carries foam pads 115 ( visible in fig1 ) that perform the same function . thus , so long as the shell is in the central zones , the software makes the position of the shell correspond to the position of the virtual object in the virtual space . the operator then has the impression of moving the virtual object displayed on the screen directly when moving the shell 6 , in a manner that is very instinctive . if the operator pushes the shell 6 so that it enters into one of the peripheral zones , then the software associates the position of the shell 6 with movement at a given speed , e . g . in order to go quickly to some other portion of the virtual object in order to view said other portion . the invention is not limited to the description above , but on the contrary covers any variant coming within the ambit defined by the claims . in particular , although a particular linkage is shown that enables the shell to move in any manner relative to the base with the exception of moving in a transverse direction that is perpendicular to the bearing plane , the invention covers any other linkage providing this type of connection , such as for example a single connection element having a plane bottom end that slides on a plane surface of the baser and a spherical top end that is received in a complementary spherical cavity of the shell . although the hull is shown as having a side wall that extends inside the side wall of the shell , the side wall of the hull could extend over the outside of the side wall of the shell . although it is stated that speeds or positions are associated with the position of the shell and the position of the scroll wheel , it is possible to associate other parameters for manipulating the object therewith , such as zooms , or indeed color changes . although it is stated that each degree of freedom has an isotonic central range and elastic end ranges , it is possible to provide for each degree of freedom any possible configuration going from a degree of freedom that is completely isotonic , to a degree of freedom that is completely elastic . although in the example shown , the positions of the shell and of the scroll wheel in the central ranges are associated with positions of the virtual object , and the positions of the shell and of the scroll wheel in the end ranges are associated with travel speeds of the virtual object , other associations could be provided , such as a slow speed in the central range and a fast speed in the end ranges . furthermore , although the movement control means of the shell are constituted by foam pads that co - operate with moving portions of the peripheral , other control means could be used , such as servo - controlled motors leaving movement free in a central range while opposing a return force on such movements in end ranges . alternatively , the peripheral need have no control means , or could have control means that act on only some of the degrees of freedom of the shell . it should be observed that the central and peripheral ranges managed by the software associated with the peripheral need not coincide with the central and peripheral ranges marked by the control means . although the shell is shown as including a member in the form of a scroll wheel for controlling an additional degree of freedom , the peripheral could include other types of control member , such as a pointer placed on the shell or some other location of the peripheral . in addition , the peripheral may include other types of member , such as selection buttons 102 ( visible in fig5 ) placed on the shell , similar to those that are to be found on a mouse . finally , although the input peripheral is described herein in association with computer design and display software , the input peripheral could be used as a member for manipulating a real object , for example via a manipulator arm .	6
a compressor according to the present invention will be described by using the drawings . fig1 is a flow sheet showing one embodiment of a plunger type small capacity high - pressure compressor system 100 including a gas filter which removes oil from a working gas , in a flow sheet . for a compressor body 50 , two plunger type compressors are used for simplifying the explanation . a supply gas 1 which is supplied from gas supply equipment not shown flows into a first stage inlet line 2 of the compressor body 50 . in the compressor body 50 , an output shaft 12 a of a motor 12 is connected to a crankshaft 52 housed in a crankcase 51 . one end side of the crank shaft 52 is rotatably mounted to a main shaft 53 in the crankcase 51 . the main shaft 53 is capable of reciprocally moving in a horizontal direction . a plunger 13 constituting a first stage compressor 3 is mounted to one end of the main shaft 53 , and a plunger 14 constituting a second stage compressor 4 is mounted to the other end of the main shaft 53 . the plunger 13 of the first stage compressor 3 forms a compression chamber defined between the plunger 13 itself and a casing 13 a , and switches valves 13 b and 13 c provided near an inlet port and a discharge port to let a working gas flow into the compression chamber or discharge the working gas from the compression chamber . similarly , the plunger 14 of the second stage compressor 4 has a compression chamber defined between the plunger 14 itself and a casing 14 a , and switches valves 14 b and 14 c to let the working gas flow into the compression chamber or discharge the working gas from the compression chamber . the working gas which is compressed in the first stage compressor 3 flows into an inter cooler 6 from a first discharge line 5 . the working gas which is cooled by liquid or air in the inter cooler 6 flows into the second stage compressor 4 via a second stage inlet line 7 . the working gas which is further increased in pressure in the second stage compressor 4 flows into an after - cooler 9 via a second stage discharge line 8 , and is cooled by liquid or air . in this case , the inter cooler 6 and the after - cooler 9 are integrated . the working gas cooled in the after - cooler 9 is fed to a filter equipment 10 , and has impurities removed from it . thereafter , the working gas is fed to a consumer side through a delivery line 11 to a plant . in the compressor body 50 of the compressor system 100 constructed as above , the plunger 13 of the first compressor 3 is sealed against gas leakage to an atmosphere side by a rod packing 15 . likewise , the plunger 14 of the second stage compressor 4 is sealed against gas leakage to the atmosphere side by a rod packing 16 . further , a very small amount of seal oil is poured to the rod packings 15 and 16 of the first stage compressor 3 and the second stage compressor 4 through lubrication holes 17 and 18 formed in the casings 13 a and 14 a . part of the poured seal oil enters the working gas . thus , the filter equipment 10 is provided at an outlet port side of the compressor body 50 so that the oil mixing amount is at an allowable value or less . the detail of the filter equipment 10 will be described by using fig2 and 3 . the filter equipment 10 has a first filter 10 a and a second filter 10 b , and fig2 shows one example of the second filter . fig3 is an enlarged view of a filter element part of the second filter 10 b shown in fig2 . the second filter 10 b has a filter case 20 housing the filter element . the filter case 20 has a bottle case 21 and a flange lid 22 . the bottle case 21 is a cylindrical container extending downward with a flange 21 a formed at an upper portion . the flange lid 22 has a projection 22 a that is fitted to the flange 21 a of the bottle case 21 . the bottle case 21 and the flange lid 22 are fastened with a plurality of bolts 32 provided at an outer peripheral portion with a space left from one another in a circumferential direction . with this , an o - ring 22 b housed in a groove formed in the projection 22 a prevents the working gas from leaking outside the second filter 10 b from a space 21 b in the bottle case 21 . in the flange lid 22 positioned at upper portion of the filter case 20 , an inlet passage 23 a for a gas , which extends in the horizontal direction to a substantially central portion , is formed and a discharge passage 24 a , which is a through - hole extending vertically , is formed at a position out of the central portion . the inlet passage 23 a has an opening 23 in a side surface of the flange lid 22 , and a thread is formed in the opening 23 to be capable of connecting a pipe . likewise , the outlet passage 24 a has an opening 24 in a top surface of the flange lid 22 , and a thread is formed in the opening 24 to be capable of connecting a pipe . a second inlet passage 23 b that is a blind hole which is opened to the bottom surface side is connected to an end portion of the inlet passage 23 a at a side of the central portion of the flange lid 22 . a threaded hole 23 d is formed in the second inlet passage 23 b , at the side of the connecting portion to the inlet passage 23 a , and one end portion of a stepped fixing bolt 31 is screwed into the threaded hole 23 d . the open side of the second inlet passage 23 b is formed to be stepped , and a partition tube 30 is fitted to the stepped part . the partition tube 30 prevents a discharge gas of the compressor body 50 which flows into the filter element part from the opening 23 , and a normal gas filtered in the filter element part from mixing . a groove is formed in the flange lid 22 , and an o - ring 23 c which seals a space between the flange lid 22 and the partition tube 30 is fitted into the groove . the filter element part has two kinds of elements 25 and 26 . two kinds of cylindrical elements 25 and 26 are disposed upper and below , and a partition plate 27 partitions them . the element 26 disposed at the upper side ( downstream side ) is a functional activated carbon element , and constitutes second filter means . the element 25 disposed at the lower side ( upstream side ) is a micro glass fiber element and constitutes first filter means . in order to hold the upper element 26 with the partition plate 27 , an upper receiving seat 29 is caused to abut on an undersurface of the projection portion 22 a of the flange lid 22 . a cylindrical space 29 c is formed between the upper receiving seat 29 and the flange lid 22 , and the discharge passage 24 a communicates with the space 29 c . an edge portion 29 b projected downward is formed at an outer peripheral portion of the upper receiving seat 29 , and a through - hole in which the fixing bolt 31 and the partition tube 30 are inserted is formed in a central portion of the upper receiving seat 29 . further , a connecting hole 29 a which continues to the through - hole to guide the working gas to the space 29 c is formed in the upper receiving seat 29 . an upper end portion of the upper element 26 is held with the edge portion 29 b as a guide . a cylindrical space 26 a is formed between the upper element 26 and the partition tube 30 to form a discharge passage of the working gas filtered by the upper filter 26 . a stepped hole is formed in a central portion of the partition plate 27 , and a lower end of the partition tube 30 is fitted to a stepped portion of the stepped hole . an edge portion 27 a projected upward is formed at an outer peripheral portion of the top surface of the partition plate 27 . the upper element 26 has its lower end portion guided and held by the edge portion 27 a . a step 27 b is formed at the undersurface side of the partition plate 27 and at the position of the smaller diameter than the diameter of the edge portion 27 a . the lower element 25 is constructed by inner and outer double cylinders , that is to say , an inner element 25 a and an outer element 25 b . an upper end portion of the outer element 25 b is held by the step 27 b portion . a gap is formed between the inner element 25 a and the outer element 25 b . in order to hold a lower end portion of the lower element 25 , a lower receiving seat 28 is fitted to the stepped portion of the fixing bolt . projection portions 28 c and 28 d are formed on both upper and lower surfaces of a central portion of the lower receiving seat . the upper projection portion 28 c is used as a guide when a lower end portion of the inner element 25 a is held at an inner peripheral side thereof . likewise , the lower projection portion 28 d is used as a guide for holding a coil spring 28 a . after the coil spring 28 a is disposed on the lower projection portion 28 d as a guide , a lower end portion of the coil spring 28 a is pressed with a spring seat 28 b , and a nut 31 a is screwed into a threaded portion formed at a lower end portion of the fixing bolt 31 . a space between the lower receiving plate 28 and the fixing bolt 31 are sealed with an o - ring 31 c . after the respective elements 25 and 26 are mounted by using the step portion and the projection portion as the guides , the nut 31 a is fastened . thereby , tension acts on the fixing bolt 31 , so that the lower element 25 is held by being sandwiched by the lower receiving seat 28 and the partition plate 27 , and the upper element 26 is held by being sandwiched by the partition plate 27 and the upper receiving seat 29 . in the second filter 10 b constructed as above , the working gas , which is discharged from the compressor body 50 and cooled in the after - cooler 9 , flows as the arrows shown in fig2 . namely , the working gas which flows into the inlet flow passage 23 a flows downward along an outer peripheral surface of the fixing bolt 31 inside the second inlet passage 23 b . then , the working gas flows further downward in the gap between the partition tube 30 and the fixing bolt 31 and reaches an inner peripheral portion of the micro glass fiber element 25 that is the first filter means . the working gas which flows into the inner peripheral side of the inner micro glass fiber element 25 a changes the flow direction from the axial direction to the radial direction , and passes from the inside to the outside of the lower element 25 , in the sequence of the inner element 25 a , a cylindrical space 25 c and the outer element 25 b . on that occasion , oil is removed , and stored in the bottom portion of the bottle case 21 . namely , the micro glass fiber element 25 does not accumulate oil inside , and therefore , oil in a molecular or mist form is liquefied , and drops to the bottom portion of the bottle case 21 from the outer peripheral surface of the lower element 25 . by making the lower element 25 have double layers , the following advantages are obtained as compared with the case of a single layer . the oil which is captured by the inner element 25 a gathers at a lower side along the outer peripheral surface of the inner element 25 a . as a result , the working gas having decreased oil flows into the outer element 25 b . since the cylindrical space 25 c is formed between the two elements 25 a and 25 b , the flow rate of a gas flowing into the outer element 25 b is made uniform in this space 25 c . oil removing performance is enhanced more than use of single thick element . the working gas which passes through the lower element 25 changes the flow direction in the bottle case 21 , temporarily rises to be an inward flow in the radial direction , and thereafter flows inside from the outer periphery of the functional activated carbon element 26 that is the second filter means . oil is further removed when the working gas passes through the upper element 26 . the cylindrical space 26 a is formed between the inner periphery of the element 26 and the outer periphery of the partition tube 30 , and the space 26 a communicates with the upper cylindrical space 29 c via the communication hole 29 a . therefore , the working gas is guided to the outlet hole 24 from the discharge passage 24 a formed in the flange lid 22 and flows outside . the details are omitted in this embodiment , but in the first filter 10 a , the same element as the micro glass fiber element 25 shown in fig2 is incorporated . the element in the first filter 10 a and the micro glass fiber element 25 in the second filter 10 b perform oil removing action as the primary and secondary filters , and the activated carbon element 26 acts as the tertiary filter . accordingly , before the working gas flows into the tertiary filter , oil is already removed from the working gas with the primary and the secondary micro glass fiber elements , and therefore , the oil in the working gas can be minimized . an activated carbon captures oil inside its cells , and therefore , has a limited life . however , since in this embodiment , the primary and the secondary micro glass fiber filters are provided as the previous stage of the activated carbon filter 26 , and oil is minimized in advance , the life of the activated carbon filter before replacement can be made long . alternatively , if the filter is produced on the basis of the required removal oil amount , the required activated carbon capacity can be made small , and the filter can be made compact . since the micro glass fiber elements of the primary and secondary filters do not accumulate oil , elements do not require replacement and are semipermanently usable . as a result , the life of the filter 10 is extended and its reliability is enhanced . this embodiment requires only two filter cases which are the high - pressure containers , and therefore , manufacturing cost of the compressor equipment can be reduced , which is economical . the first filter case can be used both as a snubber at the final stage of the compressor . in this case , the number of high - pressure containers can be further reduced , which is economical . the micro glass fiber used as the primary and the secondary filters in the above described embodiment is a coalescing element made of micro glass fiber bound with a fluorocarbon resin . this filter element and the functional activated carbon element as the tertiary element are used , and the secondary filter element and the tertiary filter element are housed in the same case . therefore , oil mixing into the working gas can be removed to the minimum amount allowable in the process , for example , 1 ppm or less . as described above , according to this embodiment , in the hydrogen compressor which has the discharge pressure at a high pressure of 40 mpa or more and hates oil , even if a very small amount of seal oil is poured and used to secure the sealing property of the rod packing portion , the filter reliably removes oil from the working gas with long service life , and therefore , reliability of the plunger type or piston type compressor and quality of the generated gas can be enhanced . in addition , the manufacturing cost of the compressor can be reduced . it should be further understood by those skilled in the art that although the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of the invention , the invention is not limited thereto and various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims .	5
although exemplary performances which are produced according to methods of the present invention may include actual sexually explicit conduct , such that production of visual images of the performance may be subject to statutory regulations as discussed above , the present invention is by no means limited to the production of such performances or to the generation of records pertaining to such performances . as used herein , the term “ custodian ” denotes any person who is in possession of at least one record of a performance that is subject to a record - keeping regulation . such a person can be , for example , a producer as defined in 28 c . f . r . part 75 , or an individual employed by an organization that is itself a producer . fig1 illustrates a method according to the present invention in a general aspect . information pertaining to a performance is first provided , more specifically in accordance with a record - keeping requirement such as the requirements established at 18 u . s . c . § 2257 and 28 c . f . r . part 75 . the information can be provided , in certain embodiments , by one or more performers of a performance which is subject to the record - keeping requirement , and very specifically by every performer who engages in regulated conduct , such as actual sexually explicit conduct , at any time during the course of the performance . in other particular embodiments , the information can be provided by a producer or other individual in possession of the required information . the performance for which the information is provided can be a live performance or a pre - recorded performance ( the recording being a book , magazine or other periodical , film , videotape , etc .). in specific embodiments , the information is provided prior to a request by a viewer over a network for a transmission of the performance to the viewer over the network . for example , in certain particular embodiments , a performer accesses a site on a network over which a live performance is to be transmitted to a viewer , and then provides the required information . in other specific embodiments , the information is provided subsequent to , e . g ., in response to , a request by the viewer for a transmission of the performance . the information can be provided , in particular embodiments , as direct input by the performer by means of a scanner or other electronic device . in other particular embodiments , the performer logs onto a site and then provides a code , an id number , a credit card account number or the like to the site . entry of the code enables the performer to access a database including a file that contains the required information pertaining to the performer , for example by activating a hyperlink to such a database . the information pertaining to the performance can include an identification of a performer , for example a picture identification card ; a maiden name , alias , nickname , stage name or professional name used by the performer ; other information pertaining to a performer , such as an address , social security number , telephone number , etc . ; an identification of the performance , such as a title or identification number ; a date of the performance , e . g ., the date on which the performance is transmitted over a network or the date on which the performance was first recorded ; etc . additional information can be provided in more specific embodiments , depending on the record - keeping requirements that pertain to the performance . thus , for example , if a performer has previously appeared in one or more other performances in which visual depictions of actual sexually explicit conduct were produced , such additional information might include the titles or identification numbers of such performances , the dates of the performances , and the legal and other names used by the performer at the times the performances were produced . provision of an accurate identification of the performer is of particular importance . thus , in more specific embodiments , the performer initially submits an identification , such a scanned picture identification card or other documentation . next , the identification so submitted is verified , for example by submitting or redirecting the identification to a verification site such as a database of verified identification documents . once the performer &# 39 ; s identification is verified , the performer provides additional information as described herein . in other more specific embodiments , the performer provides a verified identification , for example , a code associated with a file in a database of scanned images of verified picture identification cards . the information is provided , in particular embodiments , to a central site such as a database , or to a site maintained by a producer of the performance . once the information has been provided to the database or other site , the information is associated with the performance . thus , for example , the legal name and picture identification of a performer , together with other information such as the performer &# 39 ; s aliases or other names other than the performer &# 39 ; s legal name , are associated with the title or identification number , and the date , of the performance , for example by storage together in a file in a database . once the information has been associated with the performance , the associated information is then provided to a custodian . this can be accomplished , for example , by forwarding the associated information to the custodian via e - mail ; by providing the custodian with a hyperlink to a site at which the information can be accessed ; by providing the custodian with a hard copy of the information , including a print - out of the performer &# 39 ; s personal information and a copy of the performer &# 39 ; s scanned picture identification card ; or by other means . after the associated information is provided to the custodian , transmission of the performance to the viewer is enabled . transmission can commence promptly upon provision of the information to the custodian . in alternative embodiments , the viewer is provided with a statement prior to the transmission of the performance , for example by providing the viewer with a screen including a button which can be activated to access the statement ( see fig3 b ), the button can activate a link to a site maintained by the custodian in specific embodiments , or to a database maintained by another site . the contents of the statement can vary according to the record - keeping requirements to which the performance is subject . for example , the statement can include some or all of the associated information , such as the performer &# 39 ; s name ( s ) and the title and date of the performance , together with a location ( e . g ., a business street address ) of the custodian . once the viewer accesses the statement , transmission of the performance is authorized and commences . in still other embodiments , the statement is automatically provided to the viewer prior to transmission of the performance to the viewer . it may be desirable in certain communities to limit access to performances provided according to the present application . accordingly , in particular embodiments , the physical location of the user is ascertained , for example by gps means , and access to the performance via the network is controlled on the basis of the user &# 39 ; s location . such access control can be accomplished , for example , according to the methods disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 154 , 172 , to piccionelli et al ., the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . in other particular embodiments , the viewer verifies that viewing the performance in the viewer &# 39 ; s physical location is legally permissible , for example by means of a button provided on a screen that provides a statement to this effect to a site controlling transmission of the performance over the network to the viewer . revenue - generating specific embodiments of the inventive method include the additional step of providing a viewer &# 39 ; s credit card account number to a site that controls transmission of the performance . in such embodiments , the viewer is charged a premium in order to view the performance , for example prior to transmission of the performance . fig2 illustrates a more specific method according to the invention . as described herein , the method is implemented by a performer of a live or previously recorded performance ; however , the method can also be implemented by other parties , such as producers , or by the performer together with one or more other persons . a performer initially provides an identification , such as a scan of a picture identification card , to a central site controlling transmission of a live performance over a network . the identification can be verified by the central site or by another site , or can be a pre - verified identification . next , the performer provides all names other than the performer &# 39 ; s legal name , if the performer has used such additional names . the performer also provides an identification of the performance , such as a title or identification number , and also a date of the performance , for example , the date on which the performance is to take place ( which can be the date of submission of the information , in particular embodiments ). the performer &# 39 ; s identification and name ( s ) are then associated with the identification and date of the performance , for example by storage together in a file in a database . the associated information is next provided to a custodian , for example by transmission via a network or by other means as previously mentioned . once the associated information has been provided to the custodian , the performance is then transmitted over a network to a viewer . in specific embodiments of the method illustrated in fig2 , the viewer is provided with a statement including the identification and date of the performance and the location of the custodian . according to very specific embodiments , the viewer is further enabled to download a copy of the performance . in such embodiments , the statement described above is incorporated in the download of the performance . a system useful in implementing methods according to the invention is illustrated in fig3 a - b . in fig3 a , a computer 10 is in communication with a video camera 12 and a scanner 14 . a performer employs scanner 14 to provide a scanned copy of a picture identification card to a central site 16 , and provides additional information such as the performer &# 39 ; s legal name , other names such as aliases , stage names , etc ., previously used by the performer , a title of a performance in which the performer is to appear , the date of the performance ( e . g ., the present date ), and , in particular embodiments , the titles and dates of other performances in which the performer has appeared together with a listing of aliases , stage names , etc ., used by the performer at the time of the prior performances . all of the foregoing information is provided to central site 16 , where it is associated , for example by storage in a file . the associated information is then provided to a site 18 maintained by a custodian . once the information is provided to the custodian , the performer commences the performance , which is transmitted over a network by means of camera 12 to a viewer . fig3 b illustrates an exemplary screen 20 including a box 22 presenting a disclaimer such as that described above , together with a button 24 which can be activated by a viewer in order to access a statement as described above . window 26 allows the viewer to view a performance as discussed above .	6
a laser guided parking assistance device and method of operation is disclosed . an example laser guided parking assistance device deploys an eye safe laser for assisting vehicle operators to park a vehicle at the desired position . in art example , the laser guided parking assistance device can be installed at a more accessible place than a ceiling of the garage ( e . g ., on the garage door itself ), making installation and maintenance or removal easy and convenient . for example , the laser guided parking assistance device can be mounted by an attachment ( e . g ., screws ) to attach the laser guided parking assistance device to a strut on a top panel of the garage door . in an example , the attachment can be implemented without needing tools ( e . g ., as a clamp or double - sided tape ). an example laser guided parking assistance device reduces electrical power consumption when the device is not in use , even down to zero power consumption . the lower power consumption also enables operation by battery power . in an example , the laser guided parking assistance device includes a tilt switch , a battery , and an electronic circuit . when the garage door is closed , the laser guided parking assistance device is in a vertical position . when the garage door is open , the laser guided parking assistance device is in a horizontal position near the garage ceiling . the tilt switch inside the device is arranged in the way that when the garage door is in the vertical position the tilt switch is opened and when the garage door is in the horizontal position the tilt switch is closed . when the tilt switch is open , the switch cuts off battery power to all of the electronics of the laser guided parking assistance device so that the device does not consumes electrical power . when the tilt switch is closed , the switch connects electrical power to the electronics of the device which turns on the laser for guiding vehicle parking . the tilt switch also enables a sensing function that is free of environmental and external interference , thereby increasing reliability of the laser guided parking assistance device . in addition , the laser is not activated by movement of pets or people , improving safety . when the laser is tuned on by the garage door having reached the horizontal position near the garage ceiling , the laser shines a light beam down to the garage floor . as a vehicle moves into the garage , the laser beam shines onto the hood of the vehicle and casts a laser light dot onto the hood . as the vehicle continues to travel into the garage , the laser beam shines onto the windshield of the vehicle . in an example , the laser guided parking assistance device is mounted at a position on the garage door such that the laser beam is shining onto the windshield slightly at an angle behind the windshield when the vehicle is reaching the desired position . this configuration causes the laser beam to be split into two laser beams by the glass of the windshield . one laser beam shines through the windshield and casts a laser light dot onto the dashboard of the vehicle . the other laser beam is deflected off of the windshield glass and casts a laser light dot onto a wall in front of the vehicle . when the vehicle is traveling to different positions , both laser light dots move to different locations . the driver can monitor either or both of the laser light dots as position references to park the vehicle at a desired position . in an example , the laser can also be turned off by a time delay circuit when the garage door is kept in an open position . the quiescent electronic current in this state is the leaking current of the electronic components in the circuit , which is typically no more than a few micro amps for most commercial electronic components . normal household batteries can hold power at this low level leaking current for years . the time delay circuit is reset when the garage door is closed . before continuing , it is noted that as used herein , the terms “ includes ” and “ including ” mean , but is not limited to , “ includes ” or “ including ” and “ includes at least ” or “ including at least .” the term “ based on ” means “ based on ” and “ based at least in part on .” fig1 illustrates a garage 1 with a closed garage door 2 ( in a vertical position ) with an example laser guided parking assistance device 10 mounted at the top of the garage door 2 . the garage door 2 can move along the tracks 3 and 4 . in an example , the laser guided parking assistance device 10 includes an orientation switch , such as a tilt switch . the tilt switch may be gravity actuated . that is , the tilt switch operates based on its orientation as determined by gravitational pull . the tilt switch may be arranged such that it is open ( no electrical current flow ) when the garage door 2 is in a vertical position , and the tilt switch is closed ( electrical current flow ) when the garage door 2 is in a horizontal position . in fig1 , the garage door 2 is shown closed and as such the tilt switch is in the vertical position and the tilt switch is open . power is turned off , and as such the laser is turned off . fig2 illustrates the garage 1 with an open garage door 2 ( in a horizontal position near the garage ceiling ) with the example laser guided parking assistance device 10 mounted on or near the top of the garage door . with the garage door 2 in the horizontal position , the tilt switch is closed and the electronic circuit of the laser guided parking assistance device 10 is powered on . in an example , the laser guided parking assistance device 10 is powered by a battery . the battery is sized sufficient to actuate a laser diode which generates a laser beam 20 . the laser beam 20 emits downward in the direction of the garage floor 5 . in an example , the laser guided parking assistance device 10 is mounted in a position on the garage door 2 such that the laser beam 20 is emitted at an angle selected to be a behind the windshield 6 of the vehicle 7 when the vehicle 7 is moving close to the desired parking position , it is understood that this angle can be adjusted for a generic vehicle and / or determined based on the specific configuration of the vehicle being operated ( e . g ., including vehicle height and angle of the windshield ). when the laser beam 20 hits the windshield 6 of the vehicle 7 , the laser beam 20 is split by the glass of the windshield 6 , and forms two beams 21 a and 22 a . light beam 21 a transmits through the windshield 6 and casts a laser light dot 21 b onto the dashboard 8 of the vehicle 7 . the laser beam 22 a is deflected off of the windshield 6 and casts a laser light dot 22 b onto the wall 9 in front of the vehicle 7 . accordingly , the driver ( or passenger ) can visually observe the position of the vehicle 7 relative to a desired parking area within the garage 1 . fig3 illustrates the vehicle 7 moving through different positions in the garage 1 and reflecting a laser light dot from the example laser guided parking assistance device 10 onto the all 9 in front of the vehicle 7 . in the example shown in fig3 , the vehicle 7 is shown moving from a position 30 to a position 31 . for the position 30 of the vehicle 7 , the deflected laser beam is illustrated by line 22 a and the laser light dot is shown at 22 b . for the position 31 of the vehicle 7 , the deflected laser beam is illustrated by line 22 c and the laser light dot is shown at 22 d . at the same time that the user sees dots moving on the wall from 22 b to 22 d , the laser light dot 21 b on the dashboard 8 of the vehicle also moves ( not shown ) to a new position on the dashboard 8 . in an example , marking can be provided by the manufacturer of the laser guided parking assistance device 10 to affix to the wall 9 and / or the dashboard 8 of the vehicle 7 . in another example , the driver may provide his or her own markings and / or simply remember the relative position of the dots with respect to the desired parking alignment . before continuing , it should be noted that the examples described above are provided for purposes of illustration , and are not intended to be limiting . other devices and / or device configurations may be utilized to carry out the operations described herein . by way of non - limiting example , the orientation of the switch may be reversed and the circuit wired accordingly . in another example , multiple lights may be provided and / or the position of the lights may vary . likewise , the light source is not limited to a laser and can be any suitable light source ( e . g ., led lighting ). these and other variations will be readily understood by those having ordinary skill in the art after becoming familiar with the teachings herein . fig4 is a diagram of an example circuit 100 to implement the laser guided parking assistance device . in an example , the circuit has only four components , simplifying the circuit , minimizing cost , and improving reliability . however , the circuit is not limited to any particular number of components . in an example , the circuit 100 includes a battery 110 to provide electrical power . the circuit 100 also includes a tilt switch 120 to turn power on and off in the circuit the tilt switch 110 may be opened or closed based on orientation of the switch . the circuit 100 also includes a laser diode 130 to generate and emit a laser beam . the circuit may also include a resistor 140 to set the electrical current flowing through the laser diode 130 and determines the output or brightness of the laser beam . fig6 is a diagram of another example circuit 200 to implement the laser guided parking assistance device , in an example , the circuit 200 includes a battery 210 to provide electrical power . the circuit 200 also includes a tilt switch 220 to turn power on and off in the circuit . the tilt switch 220 may be opened or closed based on orientation of the switch . the circuit 200 also includes a laser diode 230 to generate and emit a laser beam . the circuit may also include a resistor 240 to set the electrical current flowing through the laser diode 230 and determines the output or brightness of the laser beam . in addition , the example circuit 200 shown in fig5 implements a voltage regulator 250 to provide a regulated voltage to drive the laser diode 230 . as such , the brightness of the laser light is not affected by the battery voltage change over the time due to discharge , as long as the battery is still capable of providing an operating power for the laser diode 230 . in addition , the example circuit 200 shown in fig5 includes a time delay circuit to turn off the laser if the garage door is left in an open position . the time delay circuit may be implemented as an r - c time delay circuit including resistor 260 and capacitor 270 . if the garage door is left open , the capacitor 270 is charged through resistor 260 . when the voltage on capacitor 270 reaches a predetermined level , it turns off the mosfet switch 280 and therefore turns off the laser diode 230 . when the mosfet switch 280 is turned off , the quiescent current of the circuit is the leaking currents of the mosfet switch 280 and the capacitor 270 . these are typically only a few micro amps for most available commercial products . discharging at this rate , a standard aa battery can last for years . in addition , the example circuit 200 shown in fig5 may include a second tilt switch 290 . tilt switch 290 provides a quick discharge path for capacitor 270 when the garage door is closed . as such , the circuit 200 is ready to turn on the laser diode 230 again without delay after the garage door has been closed . in an example , the second tilt switch 290 is physically arranged in a perpendicular orientation relative to the tilt switch 220 . as such , the tilt switch 220 is closed when the garage door is closed , and the tilt switch 220 is open when the garage door is open . it is noted that the physical orientation of the switches 220 and 290 is not illustrated by the circuit diagram . fig6 is a diagram of another example circuit 300 to implement the laser guided parking assistance device . in an example , the circuit 300 includes a battery 310 to provide electrical power . the circuit 300 also includes a tilt switch 320 to turn power on and off in the circuit . the tilt switch 310 may be opened or closed based on orientation of the switch . the circuit 300 also includes a laser diode 330 to generate and emit a laser beam . the circuit may also include a resistor 340 to set the electrical current flowing through the laser diode 330 and determines the output or brightness of the laser beam . in addition , the example circuit 300 shown in fig6 implements a voltage regulator 350 to provide a regulated voltage to drive the laser diode 330 . as such , the brightness of the laser light is not affected by the battery voltage change over the time due to discharge , as long as the battery is still capable of providing an operating power for the laser diode 330 . in addition , the example circuit 300 shown in fig6 includes a time delay circuit to turn off the laser if the garage door is left in an open position . the time delay circuit may be implemented as an r - c time delay circuit including resistor 360 and capacitor 370 . if the garage door is left open , the capacitor 370 is charged through resistor 360 . when the voltage on capacitor 370 reaches a predetermined level , it turns off the mosfet switch 380 and therefore turns off the laser diode 330 . when the mosfet switch 380 is turned off , the quiescent current of the circuit is the leaking currents of the mosfet switch 380 and the capacitor 370 . these are typically only a few micro amps for most available commercial products . discharging at this rate , a standard aa battery can last for years . in addition , the example circuit 300 shown in fig6 may include a second tilt switch 390 . tilt switch 390 provides a quick discharge path for capacitor 370 when the garage door is closed as such , the circuit 300 is ready to turn on the laser diode 330 again without delay after the garage door has been closed . in an example , the second tilt switch 390 is physically arranged in a perpendicular orientation relative to the tilt switch 320 . as such , the tilt switch 390 is dosed when the garage door is dosed , and the tilt switch 390 is open when the garage door is open . it is noted that the physical orientation of the switches 320 and 390 is not illustrated by the circuit diagram . in fig6 , the circuit 300 is also shown including a solar battery 390 to provide electrical power . in an example , the solar battery 390 can be mounted on the window of the garage door , or the solar battery can be mounted on the outer side of the garage door . for example , if the garage door does not have glass windows , the solar battery can be installed on the outer side of the garage door . the solar battery 390 can be implemented in parallel with a standard battery 310 , or by itself . when implemented as shown in the circuit diagram of fig6 , diodes 391 and 392 may also be provided . the example circuits 100 , 200 , and 300 shown and described herein are provided only for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting . other circuits ( simple or more sophisticated ) may be implemented , as will be readily understood by those having ordinary skill in the art after becoming familiar with the teaching herein . it is noted that the examples shown and described are provided for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting . still other examples are also contemplated .	1
referring to the simplified diagram shown in fig1 which shows the main components forming a locating system according to the invention , the light - radiating object 1 is assumed to be situated in the reception field and to be radiating light waves in this field either directly or by reflection . these waves , or that fraction of the waves which is received by the optical receiver , form the useful radiation to be detected . the optical receiver consists of an optical focussing device represented by the objective 2 . the detecting device 3 is positioned parallel and close to the corresponding focal plane so that the image of the object is formed on it as a spot of predetermined diameter . in accordance with the invention , the detector 3 consists of a single photosensitive element . this element is connected to pre - amplifier and amplifier circuits indicated at 4 . the expected useful radiation , or at least the wave band in which it lies , is generally known . consequently , a selection operation is performed on the received radiation so as to eliminate ambient interference radiation , or at least the major proportion thereof ; this selection operation usually being performed by optical filtering using a filter device 5 inserted in the optical path . the detector 3 is preceded by a mask device 6 controlled by an arrangement 7 . the combination of 6 and 7 is so calculated as to cause sequentially at the detector 3 , a law of discontinuous illumination determined from the four measurement quadrants . the receiver circuits downstream of the amplifier 4 being arranged accordingly , the principle of operation of elements 3 and 6 will first be explained . fig2 shows the image of the object in the detection plane at c , the photosensitive area of the detector 3 defining the image of the observed field . this area may be circular as shown or may be of some other shape , such as rectangular for example . point o represents the location of the optical axis z of the system and ox and oy represent the reference axes for measurement . the co - ordinates es and eg of the centre of the spot c represent the amounts of aiming error in elevation and bearing respectively . the mask 6 is designed to produce one of the configurations 6a , 6b and 6c shown in fig3 and 5 . to simplify the explanation , it will be assumed that the configuration 6a of fig3 is produced which has a transparent zone corresponding to one measurement quadrant and an opaque zone corresponding to the three remaining quadrants . mask 6a is operated sequentially by the control circuit 7 so as to assume four successive operating states which are distinguished from one another by a rotation of π / 2 around the optical axis . these states are shown in fig6 at the successive times to , to + t , to + 2t , to + 3t , the initial state being repeated at time to + 4t and so on . if the corresponding amounts of detected light energy are called e1 , e2 , e3 , e4 respectively , the divergences es and eg are given by : es = ( e1 + e4 ) - ( e2 + e3 ), and eg = ( e1 + e2 ) - ( e3 + e4 ), assuming that the useful radiation received does not vary , i . e . the sum et = e1 + e2 + e3 + e4 remains substantially constant . consequently , the receiver circuits are arranged to produce four reception channels and to allow the aforementioned measurements es and eg to be made . they include a switching device 8 which is supplied with the detected signal after it has been amplified in circuit 4 , and which has four outputs . the switch 8 is operated by the control circuit 7 in synchronisation with the mask 6 so as to switch the detected signals s1 , s2 , s3 and s4 , corresponding to the above values e1 , e2 , e3 and e4 onto successive ones of the four output channels . these signals are applied , via high - speed memory circuits 9 to 12 which may consist of circuits of the sample - and - hold kind controlled by the circuit 7 , to a circuit 13 termed a divergence measuring circuit to measure the divergences , which circuit produces signals representing the aiming error in elevation es and in bearing eg . block 14 represents the ancillary user unit which may consist of a display device or of tracking means to slave the sighting axis z to the direction in which the object lies . also shown are an automatic gain control circuit at 15 to control a variable gain amplifier at 4 from signals representing the total amount of detected energy et , and a remotely situated emitter at 16 which illuminates the object 1 when the latter does not have a source to emit useful radiation to be detected . it will readily be appreciated that the configurations 6b ( fig4 ) and 6c ( fig5 ) allow divergence measurements es and eg to be made in the same way . in comparison with configuration 6a , twice as much energy is received in the case of 6b and three times as much as in the case of 6c in the course of a given sequence 4t . configuration 6c is thus the most advantageous of the three . it will be clear from what has just been said and from the sequential mode of operation of the mask 6 that when , in addition , the useful radiation is emitted in a pulsed fashion with a period of t , the system is particularly beneficial if reception is synchronised with the incident light pulses . the mask 6 is produced in the form of a static device produced by means of ceramics which exhibit transparent or birefringent properties when subjected to an electrical field . such ceramics cause the plane of polarization of incident light to be rotated by an angle which is a function of the locally established electrical field . the electrical fields are obtained by applying predetermined voltages to a circuit deposited on the surface of the ceramic . ceramics known by the abbreviation plzt have these properties . if a ceramic 20 of this nature , in the form of a plzt strip for example , is assumed to be arranged between two polarizers 21 and 22 which intersect at π / 2 , the resulting operation is that briefly described below with reference to fig7 and 8 . in the case of fig7 there is no applied electrical field and the incoherent incident light 23 is polarized by element 21 , the resulting polarized light 24 is not affected by the plzt strip and is stopped by polarizer 22 . by applying an electrical field e of predetermined magnitude as in fig8 the plane of polarization of the light 24 is rotated by π / 2 and the light then passes through the second polarizer 22 . such an arrangement is described inter alia in the journal &# 34 ; applied optics &# 34 ; volume 14 , no . 18 of august 1975 , on pages 1866 to 1873 on which appears an article &# 34 ; plzt electro - optic shutters application &# 34 ; by j . thomas cutchin , james o . harris and george r . laguna . to enable the four measurement quadrants to be selected in space , the circuit deposited on the plzt strip may be produced in the form shown in fig9 by means of electrodes forming interlocking arrays . the electrical field in the quadrant or quadrants concerned is produced by a dc source 30 and a combination of gate circuits 31 to 34 controlled by a circuit 35 . the connections shown correspond to operation with the configuration shown in fig3 . a simple permutation of the inputs to gates 31 to 34 would produce the preferred mask configuration of fig5 . the four states shown in fig6 are produced by operating the gate circuits 31 to 34 in succession by means of circuit 35 at times to , to + t , etc . the combination 30 to 35 corresponds to the control circuit 7 in fig1 . the switching circuit 8 may be produced in a similar fashion by means of four gate circuits 41 to 44 which are operated in succession by circuit 35 . the control outputs are shown separately from those intended for gate circuits 31 to 34 to indicate that there are delays due to the upstream circuits 6 , 3 and 4 . the gate circuits may for example be produced from field effect transistors . an embodiment of the control circuit 35 is shown in fig1 and fig1 relates to the operating waveforms . emission is assumed to be of the pulsed type . synchronization between the actuation of the mask 6 and the reception of the useful signal at emission period t is achieved by applying the detected signal s5 , after suitable amplification , to the control circuit 7 ( the connection shown as a broken line in fig1 ). in circuit 35 , the signal s5 ( fig1 a ) is compared with a predetermined positive threshold vs1 in particular to allow for the noise level . the comparison takes place in a comparator 45 of the logic - output kind which emits a signal s6 ( fig1 b ). in addition , the signal s5 is applied to a differentiating circuit 46 whose output signal s7 ( fig1 c ) is compared with a negative threshold - vs2 in a second logic - output comparator 47 . the comparison outputs s6 and s8 ( fig1 d ) are applied to an and circuit 48 whose output signal s9 ( fig1 c ) is applied to a first delay circuit 49 . the latter is calculated to produce a delay t1 equal to the emission period t less the response lag t2 resulting from the combination of the immobile mask 6 , the detector 3 and the amplifier 4 , the lag t2 being mainly due to the mask device 6 . the value of t2 is also adjusted in such a way that the resultant signal s10 ( fig1 f ) is approximately central to the useful signal s5 subsequently obtained . a matching circuit , such as a monostable device , may be provided to adjust the length of this signal to that ti of the emitted pulse . the signal s10 is applied to a logic circuit 50 which counts up to four , followed by a four - output decoding circuit 51 to identify the four successive values of count . the outputs of the decoder 51 control respective ones of the gate circuits 31 to 34 ( fig9 ). the signal s10 is also applied to a second delay circuit 52 where it is subjected to a delay equal to the aforementioned lag t2 . the resulting signal s15 ( fig1 g ) is processed in the same way by means of a count - up - to - four circuit 53 followed by a decoding circuit 54 to produce the outputs for controlling the gate circuits 41 to 44 ( fig9 ) and the sample - and - hold circuits 9 to 12 ( fig1 ). in fact , additional delay circuits which are not shown may be inserted in the control connections to circuits 9 to 12 to allow for the delay due to gate circuits 41 to 44 and to ensure that the sample - and - hold circuits select the peak value of the useful signal s5 . the form taken by the circuits 9 to 12 of fig1 depends upon whether the mode of emission is continuous or discontinuous . the function of these circuits is to store the value of the detected signal until the next operating sequence , each sequence lasting for a period of 4t during which the mask assumes its four successive operating states . fig1 is a diagram of an embodiment of the measuring circuit 13 of fig1 which , from the signals s11 to s14 representing the respective detected levels in the four operating states , produces signals representing the co - ordinates for the bearing divergence eg and elevation divergence es of the object 1 . these signals are produced by calculating the ratios : ## equ1 ## when the optical configuration of the mask is that shown either in fig3 or fig5 . these ratios are calculated by means of elements which , as shown , consist of differential amplifying circuits 70 , 71 and 72 , adding circuits 73 and 74 , and dividing circuits 75 and 76 . elements 70 to 76 may easily be formed by means of integrated circuits . in fact the values of the aforementioned ratios when obtained , have been multiplied by a coefficient which corresponds to the gain of the systems represented by 70 , 71 , 73 and 75 in the case of bearing . when the configuration of the mask is that of fig4 the divergence signals are given by simpler formulae , the numerators becoming s11 - s13 for the bearing divergence and s14 - s12 for the elevation divergence , and circuit 13 is simplified to the extent that elements 72 and 73 are not needed under these circumstances . the signal s16 which is intended for the agc circuit 15 ( fig1 ) to allow the receiver gain to be controlled may be formed by the sum output . the agc circuit is produced by known techniques and operates by threshold comparison for example to produce a signal for controlling the gain of amplifier 4 . the outputs es and eg may be applied to slaving circuits 77 , 78 to produce a desired technical effect , for example automatic tracking by adjusting the line of sight z in directions x and y . in the application to a homing head which is envisaged , the slaving circuits 77 , 78 control members such as ailerons 79 , 80 to control the direction of the missile . this control will be exercised in particular as determined by the type of operation selected , such as proportional navigation or tracking navigation . the static mask arrangement has further advantages . the range of control provided by the applied voltages allows one or more quadrants to be rendered opaque or transparent ; all the quadrants may thus be rendered opaque or transparent . this property is useful in the case where the application is to a homing head since the whole of the mask device may thus be made transparent to produce an initial locking - on or acquisition phase . by way of example , fig1 shows an embodiment of a locking - on arrangement . a sample - and - hold circuit 60 receives the detected and amplified signal s5 and is controlled by the output s6 of the previously mentioned comparator 45 . the output signal s20 from the sample - and - hold circuit is compared with a positive threshold vs3 in a logic - output comparator circuit 61 . threshold vs3 is made lower than the threshold vs1 for comparator 45 . comparator 61 is followed by an inverter circuit 62 whose output is applied simultaneously to first inputs of four or circuits 63 to 66 . these or circuits have second inputs which are supplied by respective outputs of decoder circuit 51 ( fig2 ). operation is as follows : if signal s5 is lower than the detection threshold vs1 , sample - and - hold circuit 60 is not actuated . if it is assumed that the signal s5 also fails to reach the threshold vs3 , the or circuits then receive a &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; signal at their first inputs . the result is that gates 31 to 34 are all actuated simultaneously and terminals 26 and 29 of the mask ( fig9 ) all receive a supply , the mask being made completely transparent . as soon as the level of s5 exceeds vs1 , circuit 60 is actuated and the or circuits are then operated in succession by the corresponding &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; outputs from the decoder to cause the mask to operate normally . in the event of the lock - on being lost , that is to say when the useful signal drops below vs1 for a number of cycles t , circuit 60 is no longer actuated and signal s20 gradually declines in a discharge process . as soon as the level of s20 becomes lower than vs3 , all the gate circuits 31 to 34 are again operated by the outputs of or circuits 63 to 66 . this general actuation ceases when lock - on again takes place . the arrangement is made such that a loss of lock - on is recognized after a delay of at least four periods t . it may in fact be that , in the case of a mask as shown in fig3 the image spot forms in only one quadrant and there is no useful signal during three successive periods . the locking - on arrangement is prevented from operating at the wrong time by fixing the following parameters : the emission period t , the threshold vs3 and the selection of the sample and hold circuit 60 . for applications to automatic target tracking , the emitter may be mechanically attached to the receiver and may move conjointly therewith . another possibility is a separate emitter which is trained on the target independently by suitable means . likewise , applications may be envisaged in which the emitter is on board the target and emits in a virtually omnidirectional or low - directivity pattern . in other applications , the emitter may be positioned in isolation from the receiver near to or remotely therefrom , the receiver being on board a moving vehicle which is to be steered toward a predetermined target . in conclusion , the respective positions of the emitter section and the receiver section depend mainly on the application envisaged and may take various forms among which are those described and those mentioned above . in certain of these embodiments , the system may possibly include means for generating a range - finding window so that the target is only detected within a restricted range band as far as the receiver is concerned . the term light - radiating object should not be considered as a restriction to the visible spectrum and it also covers , in particular , the infra - red range . the choice ceramic material for use in producing the static mask depends in particular on the spectral waveband intended for operation . the plzt ceramics which were taken as an example allow operation in the visible and near infra - red spectrum up to 2 to 3 microns . it is also understood that the embodiment described is not to be considered as exhaustive and that it is capable of modifications conforming to the features of the invention and which also form part of the invention .	6
an apparatus and a system according to the present invention are suitable as a display using an flcd ( ferroelectric liquid crystal ) imparted with a memory function and can allow use of both a partial writing method of realizing moving display such as a mouse or a cursor and a total - refresh scanning driving method . a partial writing method used in the present invention is basically performed as follows . 1 when a drawing request requires partial writing , total refresh is interrupted , and a partial write area on a screen is scanned in a non - interlace manner . an actual operation is not so simple as described above but requires the following recognitions : this recognition will be described below by taking fig2 as an example . fig2 illustrates four events , i . e ., three independent windows and a moving mouse font . a window 1 displays a clock , a window 2 displays a rotationally moving line , and a window 3 displays vertical scrolling of characters . the respective windows have different display speeds and display asynchronous with each other ( independent events ). since a one - line access time of an flcd remains unchanged , provided that a temperature is constant , a time ( scanning time ) required to perform each window display by partial writing is proportional to the size of a partial write area . if partial writing is generated in one window while partial writing is executed in another , one of the windows partial writing of which is executed prior to the other must be determined . for this reason , a priority order for partial writing operations must be predetermined when an event occurs so that the priority order is recognized to perform processing by predetermined procedures each time partial write request is generated . for example , the priority order is determined such that partial writing during scroll display is interrupted , clock display partial writing is performed , and then the interrupted partial writing is restarted , and procedures between the respective partial writing operations are determined accordingly . the concept of priority order is unsatisfactory in a multitask system such as a unix / x - window . in such a system , several requests simultaneously access partial writing and are stored in host queues ( fig1 ). thereafter , these requests are transferred from the respective host queues to a queue buffer of a server either via a network or internally . in this case , however , the requests are set in the buffer of the server while their drawing order to a vram is held . therefore , the priority order does not work well because the requests are processed in accordance with the drawing order . for example , although &# 34 ; mouse &# 34 ; has the highest priority , if a large number of image drawing requests to the vram are present before the mouse request , the mouse request is not executed until the foregoing requests are finished . that is , the mouse request cannot have the highest priority order in this multitask system ( fig2 ). to solve the above problem , a graphic scheduler is introduced . this scheduler functions to give a proper priority order for partial writing to a request from a queue of a host ( fig2 ). the basic concepts of the flcd h / w interface of the present invention are as follows . 1 the start , the end , and the number of a group of continuous lines accessed to a vram are calculated , and the data is stored in a &# 34 ; stack &# 34 ;. 2 several groups are simultaneously detected for each period ( different from the s / w case ). 3 in the &# 34 ; stack &# 34 ;, a margin for a certain time can include the above several groups . fig1 is a block diagram showing an apparatus of the present invention , in which a register for catching access information to a vram is illustrated . this information is transferred to an external circuit to count the number of partial writing operations or is transferred to another memory . fig2 shows a multistack for obtaining a priority order in the present invention . a stack 1 stores a partial write area for every t ( interval of time ) which is measured from a monitoring starting time n . on the other hand , a stack 2 basically stores a partial write area for every 2δt in order to obtain a priority order . as indicated in fig7 for example , letters a , b , c , d , e , and f correspond to scanning lines . further , &# 34 ; clock 1 &# 34 ; in fig2 corresponds to &# 34 ; stack 1 &# 34 ;, with the vertical lines indicating time signals n , n + δt , etc . at which address data is stored into stack 1 , as shown . similarly , &# 34 ; clock 2 &# 34 ; corresponds to &# 34 ; stack 2 &# 34 ; and address data is stored into stack 2 in sync with the vertical lines of clock 2 . in this case , the depth level of each stack is not determined . fig3 shows switching timings between partial writing and refresh in the present invention . a value b represents the number of switching times at which a screen must be refreshed . if a , which corresponds to a cumulative number of accessed lines , exceeds b , all of partial writing operations must be interrupted to maintain a screen image by refresh . in a current flcd , however , it is difficult to set a fixed b . fig4 shows two signals par and ref for performing switching between partial writing and refresh in the present invention . referring to fig3 a new gsp is controlling switching between partial writing and refresh . in a gsp ( tradename : available from texas instruments ), the value &# 34 ; b &# 34 ; for an flcd cannot be recognized , and the end of refresh in continuous partial write requests cannot be determined . therefore , this partial write h / w supplies the signal par to a new flcd controller , and the flcd controller supplies the signal ref to the h / w to perform refresh , independently of each other . fig5 a schematic diagram for the purpose of conceptual explanation , shows several pieces of hardware of the present invention . double buffers are preferably used in a sampling register and a memory register . each register is constituted by a large number of f . f . s ( flip - flops ) or a static memory . when f . f . s are used , a read register is serially reset ( fig5 ). when a static memory is used ( fig6 ), however , another hardware must be used to serially read data , and data &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; must be overwritten at all addresses by still another hardware upon resetting . fig6 shows a static memory used in the present invention . an accessed line address is assigned to an address of the static memory . data &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is set at a memory address assigned to an accessed line address . when a gate is turned off , control is performed such that an address is automatically assigned to an auto - address generator . upon resetting , an auto - data generator overwrites data &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; at all addresses of the memory while assigning addresses . a case 1 shown in fig7 shows a practical multi - register arrangement . in this case , only one request is generated , and processing is performed at the highest speed . a case 2 shown in fig8 shows another arrangement at a middle speed . a case 3 shown in fig9 shows an arrangement at high and middle speeds . a case 4 shown in fig1 shows an arrangement at a plurality of speeds . this arrangement has two windows which scroll at different speeds . this condition is strict for partial writing . a case 5 shown in fig1 is similar to the case 4 except that the sizes and positions of two windows on a screen are different from each other . this condition is also strict for partial writing . a case 6 shown in fig1 is similar to the case 3 except that the scroll speed of the case 6 is different from that in the case 3 . this condition is also strict for partial writing . a case 7 shown in fig1 is still another arrangement of the case 3 , in which an improved method of obtaining a priority order is used . a case 8 shown in fig1 is still another arrangement of the case 4 . this arrangement has two windows which scroll at different speeds . also in this case , an improved method of obtaining a priority order for partial writing is used . a case 9 shown in fig1 shows another arrangement of the case 5 , in which an improved method of obtaining a priority order is used . this case is no longer hard as compared with the foregoing partial writings . a case 10 shown in fig1 shows another arrangement of the case 6 , in which partial writing is no longer hard as compared with the foregoing cases . also in this case , a timing chart shown in fig1 is used . fig1 shows a sequence and switching of actual partial writing and refresh in the present invention according to the arrangement shown in fig1 . sampling timings and request timings with respect to stacks will be described below . referring to fig1 , actual sampling timings of stacks 1 and 2 are shifted from each other . access requests such as a - b , c - d , e - f , and g - h accompanying movement of a circle are detected in the sampling time of the stack 1 , and scroll requests are detected in the sampling time of the stack 2 . since long partial writing has a priority to short one , the final result as partial write information is obtained as shown in fig1 . 2 partial writing is executed for moving circles a - b and c - d . 3 since the end timing of the a - b and c - d partial writing is before an examination timing of the next partial writing , the stack 1 is in a data indefinite state , and the stack 2 is sampling . therefore , refresh is executed . 4 when partial write data are determined , the respective stack data are compared with each other , and partial writing of sampling data of the stack 2 , a - h , and a scroll request is executed . fig1 shows a practical example for explaining an actual sampling h / w in an flcd interface according to the timing chart shown fig1 . referring to fig1 , a scrolling image and a moving circle are present on a screen . a vram is constituted by 1 m × 8 bits . the size of the circle is 100 × 100 bits , and the scroll size is 1 k × 1 k bits . therefore , times required for the moving circle and the scrolling window are 0 . 125 msec . and 12 . 5 msec ., respectively . the circle moves every 25 msec ., and scrolling is performed every 100 msec . types of access to the vram are actually read access and write access . strictly speaking , the write access is actually required in terms of partial write control . fig2 shows an example of copying one window to the other . in this case , a copy source window is accessed to the vram in a read cycle , and a copy destination window is accessed in a write cycle . actually , partial writing is started at only the copy destination and need not be performed at the copy source . partial writing is always performed after the access to the vram in the write cycle and need not be performed in the read cycle . if both the read and write cycles are used to detect access to the vram , time consumption for partial writing is doubled . as described above , the flcd requires a scheduler under the multitask . in a hardware interface , long partial writing has a priority , or partial write data latched at the start timing of partial writing has a priority . in addition , until one partial writing cycle is finished , another partial writing cycle is not accepted . therefore , an order of actually generated partial write requests is uniformed during the sampling period , and partial writing operations are simultaneously executed thereafter . for this reason , a priority order of each event is determined based on a size relationship between physical partial write areas by the hardware of item 1 ! above , and simultaneous partial writing operations are superposed within a certain period . therefore , scheduling of the partial write request order at this timing is assumed to be completed . as described above , the flcd partial writing mainly requires two items , and these two items must have the same function in the hardware interface . the item 1 ! is related to a priority order , and the item 2 ! is related to a scheduler . ( the scheduler of item 2 ! above has no clear arrangement but is included in the hardware of item 1 ! and has a function different therefrom .) as shown in fig1 , 3 , and 5 and the basic concept , allocation of priority orders can be obtained by an h / w using the following procedures . 2 with respect to the scan direction , y line accessed to the vram is detected by the registers during the respective sampling periods ( by using the double buffer technique as shown in fig5 ). the sampling period is , e . g ., a maximum of 25 msec . 3 obtained data are serially transferred to an external circuit . a transfer clock is , e . g ., 10 mhz ( fig2 ). 4 the external circuit checks whether the accessed y lines are only one line or a block having start and end addresses , and calculates the number of accessed lines / blocks or the total number of accessed lines . that is , the serial data is converted into parallel data , and the accessed continuous block in the registers is obtained in an external memory called stacks . 5 these detected data for partial writing are stored in the respective stacks at different sampling periods , e . g ., 25 msec . and 50 msec . a stack having two or more sampling periods can be made ( fig3 and 4 ). 6 if an image is to be held on a screen while partial writing is continued for a long time period or permanently , the total number of accessed lines must be monitored . however , it is difficult to set b fixed through hardware for the following two reasons . b is a limiting value with respect to the total number of accessed lines to be monitored . b is probably smaller than the total number of scan lines because if b exceeds the total number , an access time for this partial writing exceeds a frame period . in other words , non - interlace is caused by partial writing over the frame period . for this reason , flicker is easily caused . in addition , since the frame period changes due to a temperature dependency of the flcd , b changes in accordance with temperatures . therefore , no fixed value b can be set . the other reason , which is important , is that a refresh stop timing must be known during partial writing . this stop timing is also variable due to the temperature dependency of the flcd . to solve these problems , two control signals par and ref are used in the flcd h / w interface . there are two ideas of allocating priority orders . the cases 1 to 6 show several examples using an invention that the fastest partial writing has the first priority order . in this description , assume that the pixel size of the flcd is 1 , 024 ( vertical )× 1 , 280 ( horizontal ) and the frame frequency ( refresh rate ) at an ordinary use temperature is 20 hz . the plurality of registers described above are designed to distinguish priority orders . however , a care must be paid to the cases 3 to 6 for allocating priority orders well . the cases 3 to 6 suggest that very strict limitations are necessary . a register 1 detects the fastest movement of , e . g ., every 25 msec . (= 40 hz ). a register 2 detects the second fastest movement of , e . g ., every 50 msec . (= 20 hz ). a register 3 , if present , detects the third fastest movement of , e . g ., every 100 msec . (= 10 hz ). although it is assumed that a register 4 detects a movement of every 200 msec . or more , the register 4 is meaningless because refresh of the flcd is performed at 20 hz or less ( 50 msec . or more ). the register 3 is unnecessary for the same reason . thereafter , the data move to the respective stacks as shown in fig2 . in the cases 1 and 2 , the respective movements are detected and displayed well because there is only one movement in each case . however , care must be exercised when different movements are simultaneously present as in each of the cases 3 to 6 . if the fastest register for partial writing has the highest priority order as described in each drawing operation , it is understood that a very strict limitation is present to complete a plurality of partial writing operations . that is , the frame frequency of the flcd must be higher than the highest sampling frequency , i . e ., 25 msec . (= 40 hz ), and this is impossible in this flcd . an opposite assumption with respect to priority order allocation must be made ( cases 7 to 10 ). that is : the priority order is &# 34 ; stack 2 & gt ; stack 1 &# 34 ;. in other words , until the longest partial writing with respect to an flcd panel is finished , the stack 1 does not affect the partial writing . this will be described in more detail below . ( the cases 1 and 2 are not affected by this new assumption because only one request is present in each case ). in the case 7 , on the basis of the new partial writing priority order allocation assumption , the fastest moving object is not continuously displayed but sometimes displayed or skipped and displayed . in the case 8 , the movement of the stack 1 is skipped as in the case 7 . in the case 9 , the same result as in the case 8 is obtained . in the case 10 , the same result as in the case 7 is obtained . the operation is performed well in all cases ( cases 7 to 10 ) regardless of the speed of the flcd because until the longest partial writing is finished , another partial writing is interlaced . therefore , the conventional problem cannot arise . the last invention about priority order allocation is an actual execution manner . in the above description , it is assumed that partial write data is instantaneously detected by the register and stored during the sampling period . in actual processing , however , a certain period must be consumed in sampling . in addition , the flcd must have a scheduler for requests simultaneously generated especially under the multitask . therefore , the h / w flcd interface operates , for example , as shown in fig1 . referring to fig1 , an actual sampling time of the stack 1 is 12 . 5 msec ., and that of the stack 2 is 25 msec ., i . e ., twice that of the stack 1 . during these periods , it is assumed that the gates to the detectors ( registers ) are &# 34 ; on &# 34 ;. each register detects and stores an accessed line address . the sampling interval of the stack 1 is 25 msec ., and that of the stack 2 is 50 msec . as parameters in fig1 , fig1 and the case 10 described above are used . two images are present on a screen : one is an image of a circle moving at a high speed ; and the other , a scrolling window . the circle moves every 25 msec . (= 40 hz ), and the scroll speed is every 100 msec . (= 10 hz ). the access time of a vram per bit is 100 nsec / bit ( this speed is considerably higher than other speeds ). in this case , eight bits can be simultaneously accessed . therefore , one - screen access of the window can be completely detected within the sampling time of 25 msec . of the stack 2 . in addition , since the scroll speed is 100 msec . while the sampling interval is 50 msec ., partial writing of one scroll screen can be started after the detection . on the other hand , since two accesses of delete and write are performed as a unit for the circle to display one movement thereof : ## equ1 ## therefore , one moving display access cycle can be completely detected within the sampling time of 12 . 5 msec . of the stack 1 . in addition , since the sampling interval is 25 msec ., at least one moving display partial writing cycle can be started for a circle having a moving speed of 25 msec . a case in which scrolling and a circle are simultaneously present will be described below . this case corresponds to the case 10 . in the description of fig1 , when partial writing of the stack 2 for larger partial writing is to be started , a scrolling window includes image information of a circle present on the screen . partial writing of the circle moving during scrolling is displayed in accordance with information from the stack 1 . if the end of partial writing comes before comparison between the stacks and both the stacks have indefinite sampling data or are executing sampling , refresh is performed until the next comparison time (= 3 ). when the next partial write time comes , partial writing is started by interrupting the refresh . if no partial write data is present , the refresh is , of course , continued until the next partial writing is detected . according to the present invention , compatibility with respect to a crt display system is improved by simultaneously displaying partial scrolling and a mouse movement .	6
while this invention may be embodied in many different forms , there are described in detail herein a specific preferred embodiment of the invention . this description is an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the particular embodiment illustrated fig1 shows a first profile element 10 that possesses a flat basic section 12 as well as two laterally angled side sections 14 . at the transition between the basic section 12 and side section 14 , there are provided two bars 16 which extend continuously in the longitudinal direction of the profile element . the free end of the side area 14 is approximately at the height of the free end of the bar 16 so that the outer edge of the side area and free end of the bars lie in a plane . the luminous layer 18 is poured into the seat of the first profile element 10 formed by the basic section 12 and bars 16 . the luminous layer 18 is continuously poured into the profile element in a liquid state and cures therein . with the curing of the luminous layer in the profile element , the materials form a connection that holds the luminous layer in the profile element with a connecting force . this connecting force is derived from an integral bond . by surface treating the recess , the silicone material cross - links with the material of the profiled strip when it cures . preferably , only one layer of the silicone material is introduced into the profiled strip . it is not necessary to use several layers of silicone material since the pigments can be prevented from disadvantageously settling on the bottom of the luminous layer by adjusting , according to the invention , the viscosity and particle size of pigments ; instead , they are distributed substantially evenly in the silicone in advantageous manner . the profiled strip is preferably made of a polycarbonate ( pc ) material . the first profile element 10 with the cured luminous layer 18 is connected to the second profile element 20 . the second profile element 20 has a recess 22 that is delimited by side sections 24 . the line of the contour of the side sections 24 corresponds in its shape to the curved side sections 14 so that the surface of the first profile element 10 lies against the second profile elements 20 . the second profile element 20 has a smooth bottom side and can be additionally equipped with means for connecting to the base . a pc plastic can also be provided as the material for the second profile element 20 . in contrast to the first profile element 10 , it is unnecessary for the second profile element 20 to be designed transparent or translucent . the recess 22 in the second profile element 20 is dimensioned such that a frictional connection arises between the bars 16 and the insides of the side sections 24 . in addition to the frictional connection , the side sections 16 can be integrally connected , i . e ., adhered or welded , to the side sections 24 of the other profile element . in fig2 , the side section 14 is additionally provided with a bar 26 . the side section 24 of the second profile element 20 also has a recess 28 in which the bar 26 is arranged . as is the case with the connection described with reference to fig1 , additional bars and 16 can be seated clamped in the recess 28 . these can also be adhered . fig3 shows an embodiment in which a first profile element 30 is fastened to the second profile element 36 by means of a snap connection . as is the case with the versions shown in fig1 and fig2 , the first profile element 30 is equipped with a recess delimited by bars 16 that is filled with a luminous layer 18 . the side area of the first profile element 30 has a projection 32 that grips behind a catch 34 of the second profile element 36 . fig4 shows another embodiment in which a first profile element 38 has bars 40 that delimit the side of the recess for accommodating the luminous layer 42 . on their side facing the side sections 43 , the bars 40 possess a beveled sidewall 44 . the second profile element 46 possesses a second recess in which the bars 40 with the luminous layer 42 are inserted . the second recess is delimited on the side by a side section 48 that has a beveled sidewall 50 . between the sidewalls 44 and 50 there is an air gap 52 that also extends below the free end of the bar 40 . the air gap allows the bar elements 38 and 46 to be connected with a sufficient production tolerance . in addition , the air gap 52 gives the bar element 38 sufficient play when it is loaded from above . between the luminous layer 42 and the second profile element 46 is a reflective layer 54 that for example is designed with a white color , and reflects the light from the luminous layer back into it . such a reflective layer can also be seen in the embodiments in fig1 to 3 . the side sections 48 and 43 are integrally connected by adhesion and / or welding to each other . a double - sided adhesive tape , for example , can also be provided for adhesion . the production procedure in fig5 will be further explained below . the first profile element 60 is shown on the left side in fig5 , and it is continuously unwound off a drum 62 . the first profile element 60 that is designed as an upper shell can be processed as a continuous profile element in the production procedure shown in fig5 . in a following step 64 , the profile element 60 is irradiated with laser light . a labeling laser with a relatively low output can be used to do this which serves to apply a part number or another identification . in a following step 66 , the seat for the silicone material provided for the first profile element is exposed to flame . the flame prepares the first profile element for subsequently accommodating the silicone mixture . in a procedural steps 68 , the silicone mixture is introduced into the first profile element 60 . the silicone mixture is introduced in a substantially liquid form , and the pigments are kept from falling or settling too much by adjusting the viscosity of the silicone mixture . in a subsequent step 70 , the silicone mixture introduced into the first profile element undergoes infrared irradiation . this achieves a good preliminary cross - linking of the silicone material in the first profile element 60 , whereby the dimensional stability of the luminous layer increases . as in fig5 , the silicone mixture can be subjected directly to infrared radiation . alternately or in addition , it is also possible to expose the silicone mixture introduced in step 68 to infrared radiation through the transparent first profile element . in a following procedural step , the second profile element 72 is wound off of a drum 74 . the second profile element 72 is applied on the first profile element 60 and seals it . if an additional reflector layer is to be introduced between the luminous strip and seconds profile element , this additional reflector layer can be introduced between steps 70 and 72 . in a subsequent step 76 , the two profile elements 60 and 72 are welded . a stationary laser can be used for the welding 76 of the profile elements that continuously welds the profile elements to each other along their edge . in a subsequent procedural step 78 , a continuous adhesive strip 80 is applied to the top side of the second profile element 72 . the adhesive strip 80 can for example be designed in the form of a double - sided adhesive strip by means of which , after a protective film is removed from the adhesive surface , the finished escape route marking can be adhered to the base . an automatic quality check occurs in a subsequent step 82 . the automatic quality check 82 is continuous and ongoing during production . the quality check 82 can for example optically inspect the weld seams between the first and second profile element , the thickness of the introduced silicone material , or the arrangement of the adhesive strip 80 . in a following procedural step 84 , the continuously produced escape path markings can be cut into a predetermined length so that they can then be transported by a cart 86 . the above - described procedure in which the profile elements are joined by a static laser past which the workpiece continuously moves allows continuous , endless production of an escape route marking . the resulting advantage is that the escape route markings can be created in different lengths during production to thereby provide the desired length of escape route marking for later installation . this completes the description of the preferred and alternate embodiments of the invention . those skilled in the art may recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiment described herein which equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the claims attached hereto .	8
compositions suited for practicing this invention are the 3 - nitrobenzotrifluorides and 4 - halo - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluorides . with respect to the halobenzotrifluorides , the halo groups can be any of the halogen atoms but preferably chlorine is the preferred halogen atom for herbicidal synthesis . it has been found that both the 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride and 4 - halo - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride composition and particularly 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride is stable to hydrolysis under nitration conditions when the sulfuric acid is present in a concentration below about 65 mole percent . when the concentration of sulfuric acid exceeds about 65 mole percent , the rate of hydrolysis of the nitrobenzotrifluoride increases rapidly . in other words , the rate of nitration is much faster than the rate of hydrolysis at nitration conditions when the sulfuric acid is present in less than 65 mole percent . thus if the concentration of sulfuric acid exceeds about 65 mole percent in the nitration reaction , e . g ., 70 percent , the rate of the competing hydrolysis reaction increases substantially and thereby reduces the amount of product . on the other hand , if the nitration is carried out with mixture containing less than 65 mole percent and preferably from 50 to 60 mole percent sulfuric acid , the rate of hydrolysis of the nitrobenzotrifluoride is negligible compared to the rate of dinitration . the dinitration reaction should be carried out at a temperature of from about 40 ° to 150 ° c . preferably the temperature for dinitration is from 90 ° to 110 ° c . as the 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride and 4 - halo - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride compositions are quite stable to hydrolysis at this temperature . for example , the half life of 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride at 100 ° c . in a mixture containing 60 mole percent sulfuric acid is about 5 hours . the corresponding dinitrochlorobenzotrifluoride has a half life greater than 24 hours . thus , at these temperatures it is possible to achieve a rate of nitration sufficient for generating the more stable dinitrobenzotrifluoride and dinitrohalobenzotrifluoride in good yield . nitration of the 3 - nitro - 4 - benzotrifluoride and 4 - halo - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluorides is carried out by contacting the nitrobenzotrifluorides with a material capable of generating nitronium ions . generally , most nitration reations are carried out by employing nitric acid as the nitrating agent . however , it is known that nitric acid can be generated in situ to minimize the amount of water present in a nitration medium by employing an alkali - metal nitrate and converting this nitrate to nitric acid by contacting it with an acid e . g ., sulfuric . the following examples are provided to illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and are not intended to restrict the scope thereof . the preparation of 4 - chloro - 3 , 5 - dinitrobenzotrifluoride is effected by first forming a mixture containing 3 . 04 moles nitric acid , 6 . 55 moles sulfuric acid and 1 . 18 moles water . the mixture is prepared by mixing white fuming nitric acid ( approximately 90 percent nitric acid ) with 100 percent sulfuric acid . this mixture is charged to a 1 liter morton flask containing 1 . 01 moles of 3 - nitro - 4 - chlorobenzotrifluoride . the reaction is carried out by agitating with a turbine type stirrer rotated at 1 , 000 rpm and at a temperature of about 110 ° c . for 14 hours . at the end of a 14 hour period , the reaction medium is cooled to about 60 ° and the acid and organic phases separated . the organic phase is washed with water to remove any water soluble salts and acids therein . a small amount of 4 - chloro - 3 , 5 - dinitrobenzotrifluoride is recovered from the spent acid by extracting with chloroform . thin layer chromotography shows that about 3 to 4 percent of 4 - chloro - 3 , 5 - dinitrobenzoic acid is present in the product . these results show that very little hydrolysis of the product occurrs during the nitration reaction thus showing the stability of the nitrobenzotrifluoride in a nitrating mixture containing approximately 60 hole percent sulfuric acid . the yield of the desired dinitrobenzenetrifluoride product is about 88 percent of the theoretical based on the 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride charged . a 4 - chloro - 3 , 5 - dinitrobenzotrifluoride product is prepared by adding 1 mole of 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride to a nitrating mixture containing 3 . 04 moles nitric acid , 10 . 13 moles sulfuric acid , ( 59 . 9 mole percent sulfuric acid ) and 3 . 72 moles water based on the mixture formed by mixing 94 percent ( by weight ) sulfuric acid in water obtained from a reconcentration process for sulfuric acid with 98 percent ( by weight ) nitric acid . the nitration reaction is carried out at about 110 ° c . with vigorous agitation . the 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride is added to the mixture over a period of about 2 hours and the reaction is permitted to continue for 12 hours with additional heating . at the end of a 12 hour period , the mixture is cooled and the organic layer containing the desired 4 - chloro - 3 , 5 - dinitrobenzotrifluoride is separated and washed with water . the yield of product , based on the organic material charged is good and there is very little dinitrobenzoic acid present in the mixture showing that hydrolysis is kept to a very low level . the nitration of 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride is carried out by first forming a mixture containing 1 . 01 moles 4 - chloro - 3 - nitrobenzotrifluoride , 6 . 55 moles sulfuric acid , and 1 . 96 moles water . the sulfuric acid present in this mixture is about 77 mole percent . the mixture is heated , and at a temperature of about 100 ° c . rapid evolution of gas is noticed . during this period the organic layer completely dissolves in the acid layer and gas evolution continues for about 11 / 2 hours at which time effervescence subsides . nitric acid is added to the mixture in an amount sufficient to bring the sulfuric acid content to about 60 mole percent and the mixture is heated for an additional hour . on cooling 4 - chloro - 3 , 5 - dinitrobenzoic acid is obtained . this example shows that substantial hydrolysis of the mononitrobenzotrifluoride composition occurs with the sulfuric acid concentration is about 77 mole percent . on the other hand , the previous example shows that excellent yields in terms of dinitrated product can be obtained , with minimum hydrolysis when the sulfuric acid concentration does not exceed about 65 percent .	2
an embodiment of this invention will be described below based on the drawings . unless otherwise stated , the same reference numerals refer to the same subjects throughout the drawings . it should be understood that , since illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described below , there is no intention to limit the invention to content described through these embodiments . referring to fig1 , there is shown a block diagram of computer hardware used for realizing a system configuration and processing according to the one embodiment of the present invention . in fig1 , a cpu 104 , a main memory ( ram ) 106 , a hard disk drive ( hdd ) 108 , a keyboard 110 , a mouse 112 and a display 114 are connected to a system path 102 . the cpu 104 is preferably based on a 32 - bit or 64 - bit architecture , and any one of pentium ™ 4 , core ™ 2 duo ™ and xeon ™ of intel corporation ™, athlon ™ of amd ™, and the like may be used as the cpu 104 . the main memory 106 preferably has a capacity of at least 2 gigabytes . it is desirable that the hard disk drive 108 has a capacity of , for example , at least 320 gigabytes so as to store therein a large amount of graph data . although not individually illustrated , an operating system is previously stored on the hard disk drive 108 . the operating system may be any one , such as linux ™, windows xp ™ or windows ™ 2000 of microsoft corporation ™, or mac os ™ of apple inc .™, that is compatible with the cpu 104 . moreover , the hard disk drive 108 also stores therein a programming language processor for c , c ++, c #, java ™ or the like . this programming language processor is used for generating and retaining later - described modules or tools used for graph data processing . the hard disk drive 108 may further include : a text editor for writing source code to be compiled by the programming language processor ; and a development environment such as eclipse ™. the keyboard 110 and the mouse 112 are used for initiating the operating system or a program ( not shown ) that is loaded into the main memory 106 from the hard disk drive 108 and then displayed on the display 114 for typing characters . the display 114 is preferably a liquid crystal display , and , for example , one having an arbitrary resolution , such as xga ( 1024 - by - 768 resolution ) or uxga ( 1600 - by - 1200 resolution ). although not illustrated , the display 114 is used for displaying graph data that should be processed and a degree of similarity between graphs . fig2 is a functional block diagram of processing modules according to the present invention . these modules are written in any one of existing programming languages such as c , c ++, c # and java ™ and then stored in the hard disk drive 108 in an executable binary form . then , in response to an operation of the keyboard 110 or the mouse 112 , the operating system ( not shown ) causes these modules to be invoked in the main memory 106 and then executed . a graph data producing module 202 converts a given graph into a computer - readable data structure . in the conversion , for example , the following data structures are used for a graph g with the number of nodes and the average number of adjacent nodes being denoted as n and d , respectively . g . nodelist : a list denoting a list of the nodes and having a length of n , g . labellist : a list denoting a list of node labels and having a length of n , g . labellistx : a list having the same data structure as g . labellist , being used as a buffer into which labels are written , and having a length of n , and g . adjacencymatrix : an adjacent matrix of the graph , the adjacent matrix having an element ( i , j ) thereof set to 1 if there is a link between nodes i and j , and set to 0 otherwise , and having a size of n × n although the size can be reduced to n × d by use of a data structure named a sparse array in which elements being 0 are omitted . here , with the number of different kinds of labels of nodes being denoted as p , each of the labels is set to m - bit data by selecting m satisfying a condition such as p & lt ;& lt ; 2 m . the reason for taking 2 m , which is sufficiently larger than p , is that a possibility of hash collision among the labels should be reduced . with the above premises , a prime number p1 satisfying , for example , 2 m - 1 & lt ; p1 & lt ; 2 m , and a prime number p2 sufficiently larger than p1 are prepared , and the i - th label value is denoted as lh i . then , to the respective labels l i ( i = 1 , . . . , p ), different label values each having a size of m bits can be given by the following expression : for ( i = 1 ; i & lt ;= p ; i ++){ lhi =( p 2 * i )% p 1 ;}, where % denotes an operator used for calculating a reminder of division . otherwise , another arbitrary routine for random number generation may be used . the graph data producing module 202 forms graph data while giving the determined label values lh i to the respective nodes of the graph in accordance with the respective values l i . that is , with respect to graphs shown in fig4 a , the graph data producing module 202 traces each of the graphs , for example , in depth - first order , g . nodelist is sequentially produced , and at the same time , while recording label values lh i in g . nodelist , records adjacency relations in g . adjacencymatrix . as a result , as shown in fig4 b , bit strings are given as the label values to the respective labels . in the example in of fig4 b , a =# 1000 , b =# 0101 and c =# 1100 . it goes without saying that the label values given to the labels are common between the two graphs . here , an expression such as # 0101 represents a binary number . each of the label values is preferably configured as a fixed - length number of bits . although being described later in detail , the reason for the use of the above configuration is the convenience in calculations such as bit rotation , xor and radix sort . the formed graph data is loaded onto the main memory 106 , or stored in the hard disk drive 108 . otherwise , when the graph data is very large , the graph data may be firstly placed on the hard disk drive 108 and then a part of the graph data may be loaded onto the main memory 106 , the part being needed for the calculation . a graph searching module 206 performs a graph search sequentially and visits all of the nodes of one graph . the graph searching module 206 then refers to nodes adjacent to each node to , while invoking a hash calculation module 208 in relation to the adjacent nodes , perform processing of updating a label value of each node . fig3 is a flowchart showing processing performed by the graph searching module 206 . in fig3 , in step 302 , the graph searching module 206 determines whether or not it has finished visiting all of the nodes of the graph . this judgment is made based on whether or not the graph searching module 206 has reached the end of g . nodelist . if it is determined in step 302 that the graph searching module 206 has not yet finished visiting all of the nodes of the graph , the graph searching module 206 visits a subsequent node in accordance with g . nodelist in step 304 . in the first stage of the graph search , the graph searching module 206 comes to visit a beginning node . in step 306 , the graph searching module 206 calculates a label value through a hash calculation by using information on nodes adjacent to a relevant node currently visited thereby , the information being obtained by invoking the module 208 . here , the adjacent nodes are nodes directly connected to the relevant node through edges . such adjacency relations can be checked with reference to values recorded in g . adjacencymatrix . for this calculation , a label value of the relevant node and label values of the adjacent nodes are used . these label values are acquired by referring to g . labellist . the calculation of a label value will be described later in more detail with reference to flowcharts in fig5 , 6 and 7 . in step 308 , the graph searching module 206 updates the label value of the relevant node to the calculated label value . here , although g . labellist may be directly overwritten , it is more preferable that an updated label be written not into g . labellist but into g . labellistx . this is because , if g . labellist is directly overwritten , different results are obtained in cases where different sequences are taken in the same node search . subsequently , the processing returns to a judgment in step 302 , and steps 304 , 306 and 308 are executed until the graph searching module 206 finishes visiting all of the nodes . when the graph searching module 206 finishes visiting all of the nodes , g . labellistx finishes being rewritten for all of the nodes . then , g . labellist is replaced by g . labellistx . such rewrite of label values by visiting a graph is performed for each of the two graphs to be compared to each other . a manner of the conversion is schematically shown in fig4 ( c ). processing of such rewrite of label values by visiting a graph is preferably performed plural times as shown in fig4 ( d ) and the like . generally , this increases a degree of accuracy of the graph comparison . however , an increase in the number of times the processing is performed does not always lead to an increase in the accuracy , and there naturally exists the optimal number of the times . returning to fig2 , a graph similarity calculation module 210 calculates a degree of similarity between the two graphs on the basis of the rewritten label values . the simplest calculation method for the degree of similarity is to calculate an agreement rate of the rewritten values between the two graphs . later , a slightly more complicated calculation will be also described . fig5 is a rough flowchart that illustrates , in more detail , processing of the hash calculation module 208 in relation to adjacent nodes . assuming that the currently visited node in the flowchart in fig3 is referred to as a relevant node , a label 502 of the relevant node is a label value corresponding to the currently visited node , and is acquired from g . labellist . the label 502 will be expressed as thisnodelabel for the sake of convenience . on the other hand , a set 504 of labels of nodes adjacent to the currently visited node is acquired from g . labellist by referring to values recorded in g . adjacencymatrix . the labels can exist in plurality in general , and therefore will be expressed as neighboringnodelabels [ ]. additionally , if a hush function and a new label 508 are denoted as hash ( ) and newlabel , respectively , a calculation is made by : g . labellistx is overwritten by setting a thus calculated value of newlabel as the label value of the currently visited node . fig6 is a diagram showing one example of the processing of fig5 . specifically , in processing of fig6 , in order to produce a new label 608 from a label 605 of the relevant node and a set 604 of labels of the adjacent nodes , a hashing block 606 includes : a block 610 that rotates the label 602 of the relevant node by 1 bit ; a block 612 that xors the label set 604 of the adjacent nodes ; and a block 614 that xors an output from the block 610 and an output from the block 612 to obtain the new label 608 . fig8 shows a specific calculation example of the processing of fig6 . in fig8 , suppose a label of the relevant node is # 1000 , labels of the adjacent nodes are # 1110 and # 1100 , respectively . then , while an output from the block 612 becomes # 0010 through xor of # 1110 and # 1100 , an output from the block 610 becomes # 0001 through 1 - bit rotation of # 1000 . then , an output from the block 614 that xors those outputs becomes # 0011 , which turns out to be the new label of the relevant node . fig7 is a diagram showing another example of the processing of fig5 . specifically , in processing of fig7 , in order to produce a new label 708 from a label 702 of the relevant node and a set 704 of labels of the adjacent nodes , a hashing block 706 includes : a block 710 that rotates the label 702 of the relevant node by 1 bit ; a block 712 that sorts the label set 704 of the adjacent nodes ; a block 714 that counts duplications among the sorted outputs ; a block 716 that adds the counted values ; a block 718 performs bit - rotation by the numbers of bits corresponding to the counted values ; a block 720 that xors outputs obtained by the bit - rotation ; and a block 722 that xors an output from the block 710 and an output from the block 720 to obtain the new label 708 . note that , since labels are bit strings of a fixed length in the preferable examples , it is convenient that radix sort be used in the sorting performed by the block 712 . fig9 shows a specific calculation example of the processing of fig7 . in fig9 , suppose a label of the relevant node is # 1000 , labels of the adjacent nodes are # 0101 , # 1100 and # 0101 , respectively . then , the sorted output from the block 712 becomes # 0101 , # 0101 and # 1100 . then , the counted outputs from the block 714 become 2 for # 0101 and 1 for # 1100 since # 0101 consecutively appears twice . next , the block 716 adds the counted outputs to original values of the labels . while # 0101 becomes # 0111 with 2 being added thereto , # 1100 becomes # 1101 with 1 being added thereto . next , the block 718 performs bit - rotation thereon by the numbers of bits corresponding to the counted outputs . while # 0111 becomes # 1101 with 2 - bit rotation performed thereon , # 1101 becomes # 1011 with 1 - bit rotation performed thereon . next , the block 720 xors # 1101 and # 1011 , which are values obtained through the bit rotation , and then outputs # 0110 . on the other hand , the block 710 outputs # 0001 obtained by rotating # 1000 , which is the label of the relevant node , by 1 bit . then , the block 722 xors # 0110 outputted from the block 710 and # 0001 outputted from the block 720 , and # 0111 obtained as a result thereof becomes the new label of the relevant node . note that an algorithm used for calculating a label value of a relevant node by hashing is not limited to the algorithm shown in fig6 or 7 , and any hashing algorithm requiring a reasonable calculation amount and unlikely to cause hash collision can be used . that is , if a set of labels of nodes adjacent to a relevant node and a label of the relevant node are denoted as neighboringnodelabels [ ] and thisnodelabel , respectively , such a hashing algorithm is a function that takes arguments as follows : consequently , a method can be employed in which : elements of neighboringnodelabels [ ] are sorted and then lined up ; a result thereof is taken as one number ; and a remainder of division of this number by an appropriate prime number p1 is taken as newlabel . in the case of the example in fig9 , neighboringnodelabels [ ] consists of # 0101 , # 1100 and # 0101 , and # 010101011100 is obtained by having these elements sorted and lined up . therefore , a calculation is performed as : next , with reference to flowcharts in fig1 and 11 , processing of simultaneously comparing degrees of similarity between two or more plural graphs will be described . modules used for executing this processing are included in the graph similarity calculation module 210 . in fig1 , in step 1002 , h graphs of γ ={ g 1 0 , . . . , g h 0 } to be compared to each other in similarity are prepared , and data for these graphs are stored in the main memory 106 or the hard disk drive 108 . at this point , binary label values of a predetermined number of bits are previously provided to nodes of the graphs by the already - described method . h =\| γ \|, that is , h denotes the number of graphs . r max is the number of times that the hash calculation is repeated . although it depends on the case , some number from 3 to 5 is selected as r max . in step 1004 , r is set as r = 1 , and a loop in terms of r until r max is reached is started . in step 1006 , whether or not r & lt ;= r max is determined , and , if r & lt ;= r max , k r is set as k r = i in step 1008 , where i is an h - by - h unit matrix . in step 1010 , i is set as i = 1 , and a loop in terms of i is started from this point . in step 1012 , whether or not i & lt ;= h is determined , and , if i & lt ;= h , the following equation is executed in step 1014 : where g i r does not denote g i to the power of r but denotes a graph having label values obtained as the r - th result of the hush calculation . additionally , nh ( ) denotes a function or a subroutine that executes the processing of the flowchart in fig3 . an algorithm used for the hash calculation in relation to adjacent nodes in this case is assumed to be , for example , the one shown in fig7 , although it is not limited to that algorithm . in next step 1016 , v i r is a node list of g i r . in step 1016 , components of v i r are stored in v i sort while being lined up in a sequence obtained by radix - sorting the components on the basis of the label values . in step 1018 , i is incremented only by 1 , and the processing returns to step 1012 . that is , until i reaches h , steps 1014 , 1016 and 1018 are repeated . if it is determined in step 1012 that i exceeds h , the processing goes to step 1020 , where g r - 1 is removed . here , g r - 1 is a code that collectively denotes g 1 r - 1 , . . . , g h r - 1 , and , in short , processing of releasing a region in the main memory is executed , the region having g 1 r - 1 , . . . , g h r - 1 retained therein . subsequently , in step 1022 , i is set to 1 , which implies that a loop in terms of i starts . in step 1024 , whether or not i & lt ;= h is determined , and , if i & lt ;= h , j is set to 1 in step 1026 , which implies that a loop in terms of j starts . in step 1028 , whether or not j & lt ;= h is determined . if j & lt ;= h , whether or not j & lt ; i is determined in step 1030 . because step 1032 is symmetric with respect to i and j , this judgment is performed so that duplicative processing may be avoided . if it is determined in step 1030 that j & lt ; i , the processing goes to step 1032 , where a calculation expressed as k ij r = k ji r = compare_labels ( g i r , g j r ) is performed . compare_labels ( ) is a function that compares labels of two graphs specified by arguments thereof , and then returns a result of the comparison in the form of a real number . detailed processing contents of the function will be described later with reference to a flowchart in fig1 . additionally , v i sort and v j sort calculated in step 1016 are used in specific calculations . in step 1034 , j is incremented only by 1 , and the processing returns to step 1028 , that is , steps 1030 , 1032 and 1034 are repeated until j reaches h . thus , if it is determined in step 1028 that j exceeds h , i is incremented only by 1 in step in 1036 , and then the processing goes to step 1024 . if it is determined in step 1024 that i exceeds h , r is incremented only by 1 in step 1038 , and the processing returns to step 1006 . if it is determined in step 1006 that r exceeds r max , a similarity matrix k is calculated with the following equation , and then the processing ends . an ij component of the similarity matrix k represents a degree of similarity between the graphs g i 0 and g j 0 . next , with reference to the flowchart in fig1 , processing contents of the function , compare_labels ( ) used in step 1032 will be described . in step 1102 , v a sort and v b sort are set as sorted node lists of two graphs , and the orders of v a sort and v b sort are set as n a and n b , respectively . in step 1104 , variables c , i and j used in the following steps are set as c = 1 , i = 1 and j = 1 . in step 1106 , whether or not i & lt ;= n a at the same time as j & lt ;= n b is determined , and , if i & lt ;= n a at the same time as j & lt ;= n b , v i and v j are set as v i = v a sort [ i ] and v j = v a sort [ j ], respectively , in step 1108 . in step 1110 , whether or not l a ( v i )= l b ( v j ) is determined , where l a ( v i ) denotes , for example , a label value of a node that is the i - th component of vi a sort . if it is determined that l a ( v i )= l b ( v j ), c , i and j are incremented so as to be c + 1 , i + 1 and j + 1 , respectively , and the processing returns to step 1106 . if it is determined that l a ( v i )≠ l b ( v j ), the processing goes to step 1114 , where whether or not l a ( v i )& lt ; l b ( v j ) is determined . if l a ( v i )& lt ; l b ( v j ), i is incremented only by 1 in step 1116 . otherwise , j is incremented only by 1 in step 1118 . in any case , the processing then returns to step 1106 . if it is determined in step 1106 that i & gt ; n a or that j & gt ; n b , the processing goes to step 1120 , where a degree k of similarity is calculated by use of the following equation : in step 1122 , a value of k thus calculated is returned . in practice , this value is used in step 1032 which is a part that invokes compare_labels ( ). while the present invention has been described by means of illustrative embodiments , various changes or modifications can be added to the abovementioned embodiments , and it will be apparent to those who skilled in the art that embodiments to which such changes or modifications are added can also be included in the technical scope of the present invention . for example , while the specific processing shown in any one of fig6 and 7 has been presented as the hash calculation of a label value that is shown in fig5 , these are nothing more than examples , and any hash function requiring a reasonable calculation amount can be used . additionally , the processing shown in fig1 as an algorithm used for a similarity calculation is also simply one example , and those who skilled in the art should be able to conceive various modification examples on the basis of the number of matching label values of two graphs . in addition , a degree of similarity between two nodes can be calculated by the present invention in the following manner . that is , suppose subject nodes are denoted as a and b . by extracting two partial graphs including the respective nodes and applying the present invention to the partial graphs , an agreement rate between an updated label of a and an updated label of b can be found and set as the degree of similarity between a and b . 202 . . . graph data producing module , 204 . . . graph data , 206 graph searching module , 208 . . . hash calculation module in relation to adjacent nodes	6
according to preferred embodiments of the present invention , devices and methods are provided for operating internal circuits of drams while entering , exiting and during a power save operation mode . according to aspects of the invention , leakage current during power save mode is reduced or eliminated , the amount of current surge during circuit turn on when exiting power save mode is reduced , and false triggering of internal circuits is eliminated . preferred embodiments of the present invention act to reduce the current surge when the input buffers and internal power voltage generators are turned on when the semiconductor device enters or exits dpd mode . according to preferred methods of the present invention , a current surge is reduced by , for example , varying the setup times of the turn on of the internal power voltage generators , varying the drive capabilities of the different internal power voltage generators or buffers , delaying the turn on of the different voltage generators or buffers , or varying the slew rate of the voltage generators and input buffers . although the present invention is described with the deep power down ( dpd ) entry and exit modes and the memory device described is a dram , it is to be appreciated that the present invention is applicable to any type of semiconductor memory devices operating in any of standby or power save modes . [ 0038 ] fig2 is a block diagram of a device for controlling a dram in deep power down mode according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention . input buffers 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 and 55 receive external input signals such as / cs , / ras , / cas , / we , etc . and output them to dpd detect and controller 150 . a plurality of internal power voltage generators 210 , 220 , 230 and 240 provide various bias and reference voltages such as plate voltage , internal array power voltage , substrate bias voltage , internal peripheral voltage ( vintp ), and boost voltage , etc . to internal circuit 400 of the memory device . vintp has characteristics which are common to other internal power voltages of the dram . for purposes of illustration of the operations of the embodiments of the present invention , it is understood that when vintp is used in an explanation , such explanation is applicable to other internal power voltages of the dram . briefly , when dpd detect and controller 150 detects a pre - assigned combination of signals from input buffers 51 to 55 that signals a dpd entry mode and exit mode ( see for example , fig1 b and 1c ), a dpd command signal ( pdpde ) is generated to turn off the various input buffers 51 to 55 and internal power voltage generators 210 to 240 . according to the present embodiment , the outputs of internal power voltage generators 210 to 240 are pulled to vss or ground . this feature is further described below . with the input buffers and voltage generators turned off , a very small amount of current flow and power is conserved . auxiliary input buffer 50 separately receives an external power down command signal such as cke for signaling dpd entry and exit . according to a preferred embodiment of the invention , cke will transition from low to high to signal dpd exit and high to low for dpd entry . upon sensing the power down exit command , dpd detect and controller 150 signals a transition at pdpde , for example , from high to low , and turns on the input buffers 51 to 55 and internal power voltage generators 210 to 240 , providing passage of external data through the input buffers and application of bias and reference voltages to internal circuit 400 . with the internal power voltage generators 210 to 240 turned off during dpd mode , the circuits of internal circuit 400 are unbiased and many nodes of the circuits may float at some unspecified voltage level . when these circuits are turned on , the unspecified voltage levels may falsely trigger latches or other voltage level sensitive devices . if a voltage pulse is applied to the floating nodes prior to turn on , false triggering is eliminated . an auto pulse generator 300 detects the dpd exit command from auxiliary input buffer 50 and generates a pulse ap . the ap pulse is sent to internal circuit 400 to initialize the turning on of internal circuits . the auto pulse ap is applied to nodes of latch circuits within internal circuit 400 of the memory device . fig3 shows an exemplary auto pulse generator . as shown in fig3 the cke signal buffered by auxiliary buffer 50 ( ckeb ) is applied directly to one of a two - input nor gate 310 . the same ckeb signal is passed through a series of inverters 320 , 325 , and 330 to invert and delay the ckeb signal to generate pulse ap at the output of nor gate 310 . this auto pulse generator generates a positive going pulse having a pulse width equal to the delay of inverters 320 , 325 , and 330 . it can be appreciated by one skilled in the art that a low - going pulse can be generated by a circuit having an equivalent configuration as shown in fig3 and a nand gate is used . the ap plus can also be generated from the dpd command signal pdpde in lieu of the ckeb signal . [ 0041 ] fig4 shows a block diagram of a device for controlling internal voltage generators and buffers of a dram during entering or exiting power down mode according to another embodiment of the present invention . this embodiment employs circuitry to prevent false entry or exit to or from dpd by ‘ locking - out ’ the external power down signal cke if internal power voltage generators 210 , 220 , 230 or 240 are detected to be at an unspecified voltage level . according to the present embodiment , an internal power voltage detector 200 and an interlock circuit 100 are used to detect the voltage outputs of internal power voltage generators 210 to 240 and prevent the turn on of the voltage generators from a floating or unspecified voltage level when a dpd exit command is received . an embodiment of the internal power voltage detector 200 is shown in fig5 and an embodiment of interlock circuit 100 is shown in fig6 . referring to fig4 , and 6 , the dpd detect and controller 150 outputs control signal pdpde , which is connected to input buffers 51 and 55 and internal voltage generators 210 to 240 , to transition during entry and exit to and from dpd mode , e . g ., with a low to high transition of pdpde signaling for dpd entry mode and high to low transition of pdpde for signaling a dpd exit mode . the pdpde signal is connected to transistors mp 2 , mp 3 and mn 2 of the circuit in fig5 to turn on the internal power voltage detector when the circuit has entered dpd mode ( pdpde transitioned from low to high ). with pdpde at high , transistors mp 2 and mn 2 are turned on , providing bias voltage through the transistor 85 to transistor 84 and through transistor mn 2 to vss . transistor mp 3 remains in an off state with pdpde at high , thus floating node 1 at the output of transistor 84 . the output of a representative internal power voltage generator , e . g ., 210 , at vintp is connected to the input of transistor 84 , which turn on when vintp goes low . in such configuration , when the output of internal power voltage generator at vintp is low and the pdpde is at high during dpd mode , node 1 is pulled down to vss or ground , and the output of internal power voltage detector 200 at pdpdhb is low . when vintp is high and pdpde is high , the voltage level at node 1 , the output of transistor 84 is unspecified depending upon the state of transistor 84 , which in turn depends on the voltage level of vintp . if the circuit has exited dpd mode , the pdpde signal is low , transistor mp 2 and mn 2 are turned off and transistor 84 is not biased . transistor mp 3 is turned on to pull node 1 to high , the voltage of the external bias voltage vcc . thus , when the circuit is in active mode , the internal voltage detector 200 is disabled and pdpdhb is high . referring to fig6 an interlock circuit is used to prevent a false dpd exit condition . the output of the internal power voltage detector 200 at pdpdhb is applied to nand gate 72 , which is cross - coupled to nand gate 71 , which in turn receives at its input ckeb , the signal output from auxiliary buffer 50 ( fig4 ), which is a buffered signal of cke used to signal dpd entry or exit . the ckeb signal is at a low level during dpd mode . the output of gate 71 at node 2 is forced to high , and the cross - coupled output of gate 72 is high , enabling gate 72 . with pdpdhb at high , both inputs of gate 72 are high , node 3 is low , which is applied to input of nand gate 71 , and disabling nand gate 71 , with its output node 2 at high regardless of the level of ckeb . thus , blocking an inadvertent ckeb signal from triggering a dpd exit . the ckeb signal is passed through when pdpdhb goes low . in other words , after the pdpdhb signal goes low , the ckeb signal at either low or high level , can be transferred to node 2 . low ckeb signal is from dpd exit command . the output of the interlock circuit 100 at pdpd_exit is connected to dpd detect and controller 150 to disable the generation of the pdpde signal until the ckeb signal is passed through by interlock circuit 100 . when a circuit exits from dpd mode , the internal buffers and voltage generators turn on to apply bias and reference voltages to the internal circuit of the dram . in some instances , unintended dc paths may exist when the bias and reference voltages are applied and excessive current may flow . for example , referring to the prior art circuit of fig1 a , when power down command pbpub goes from low to high , transistor mp 0 is turning off while transistor mn 0 is turning on . for a brief moment , both transistors mp 0 and mn 0 are conducting . if mp 1 is on during this time , a current path exists from vcc through mp 0 , mp 1 and mn 0 to ground . excess current can flow until mp 0 is completely turned off . likewise , when entering power down mode , pbpub goes from high to low and transistor mp 0 may turn on before transistor mn 0 is completely off , and current may flow from vcc to vss through mp 1 . [ 0045 ] fig7 shows circuitry applicable to internal power voltage generators for turning on and off the voltage generators when entering and exiting dpd modes without excessive current flow or false triggering . [ 0046 ] fig8 shows circuitry for splitting the dpd command signal pdpde into signals pdpde 0 and pdpde 1 for applying to the circuit of fig7 . the operation of fig7 and 8 ensures that transistors mp 4 and mn 4 do not turn on at the same time . fig9 shows a timing diagram of the generation of pdpde 0 and pdpde 1 signals from pdpde by the circuit of fig8 . referring to fig8 and 9 , the pdpde command signal is applied to a two input nor gate 103 and a two input nand gate 104 through delays 101 and 102 , respectively . upon occurrence of a low to high pulse of pdpde , the output of nor gate 103 immediately goes from high to low and a low to high pulse of pdpde 0 through inverter 105 will be generated . since both inputs of nand gate 104 must be high for its output to be low , the low to high transition of pdpde 1 ( through inverter 106 ) does not occur until the low to high transition arrives at the second input of nand gate 104 through delay 102 . thus , the transition of pdpde 1 from low to high occurs later than pdpde 0 , at least by the amount of time of delay 102 . conversely , when pdpde goes from high to low , the output of nand gate 104 goes from low to high and pdpde 1 goes from high to low through inverter 106 . pdpde 0 goes from high to low only when both inputs of nor gate 103 are low . the high to low transition of pdpde 0 occurs later than pdpde 1 , at least by an amount of time of delay 101 . referring now to fig7 with pdpde 0 applied to transistor mp 4 and pdpde 1 applied to transistor mn 4 , during the deep power down enter mode ( pdpde goes from low to high level ), the internal power voltage generator is turned off through pmos transistor mp 4 to turn off the internal power voltage generator and with pdpde 1 going high after the pdpde 0 going high , nmos transistor mn 4 will be turned on only after mp 4 is turned off , cutting off vcc . the internal power voltage will be pulled down to vss and no current can flow through mp 4 to vss through mn 4 . during the deep power down exit mode , pdpde goes from high to low and pdpde 1 goes low before pdpde 0 goes low ( see fig9 ). transistor mn 4 is thus turned off by pdpde 1 before transistor mp 4 is turned on to provide bias voltage to the circuit and allowing internal power voltage mode to operate normally . it can be seen that the circuits of fig7 and 8 prevent any transient dc path and thus current flow between vcc and vss in the circuit of fig7 during both dpd entry and exit operations . another consideration of a circuit operating to enter and exit deep power down mode is current surge . when a circuit is powered down or in dpd mode , input buffers and internal power voltage generators are turned off , a minimal amount of current flows through the circuit . when a circuit exits from the dpd mode , the input buffers and internal power voltage generators that were kept off during dpd mode are now turned on at substantially the same time , causing a large current surge , which severely strains the battery and may render inoperative the internal circuits of a semiconductor memory device . preferred embodiments of the present invention act to reduce the current surge when the input buffers and internal power voltage generators are turned on when the semiconductor device enters or exits dpd mode . according to preferred methods of the present invention , a current surge is reduced by , for example , varying the setup times of the turn on of the internal power voltage generators , varying the drive capabilities of the different internal power voltage generators or buffers , delaying the turn on of the different voltage generators or buffers , or varying the slew rate of the voltage generators and input buffers . [ 0049 ] fig1 depicts one embodiment for varying the drive set up of the internal power voltage generators . referring to fig1 , when the device is in dpd mode , dpd command signal pdpde is high and its derivative signals pdpde 0 and pdpde 1 are also high . transistor 115 is turned on to pull down the internal power voltage vintp to vss . transistor 117 is turned on to pull vcc to the gates of transistors 113 and 114 to keep them off . when a dpd exit command is detected , ( pdpde 0 and pdpde 1 goes from high to low ), transistor 117 is turned off and transistor 115 is turned off . the internal reference power voltages from the internal power voltage generators are provided to turn on transistors tx 10 , tx 11 and tx 12 to pull node n 10 toward vss . transistor 114 ( driver 1 ) begins to turn on to drive the internal power voltage vintp towards vcc . transistor 112 receives as gate input a delayed version of pdpde 0 for turning on transistor 112 after the turn on of the transistor 114 . upon turn on of transistor 112 , transistor 113 is biased to turn on for providing further driving capability at vintp . it can be seen that the turn on rate of internal power voltage vintp provided to internal circuit 400 of the semiconductor device can be varied by varying the size of transistor 114 and by adding transistor 113 . thus , if different size drivers ( e . g ., transistor 114 ) are in different internal power voltage generators , the internal power voltages provided to different portions of internal circuit 400 of the semiconductor device can be turned on at different rates . advantageously , the different rates of biasing the internal circuit 400 according to the illustrative embodiment of the present invention act to reduce current surge when dpd exits . another method for varying the turn on of internal power voltages is by varying the turn on of the internal power voltage generators . according to an embodiment of the present invention , the dpd command signal pdpde is delayed so that the command arrives at the different internal power voltage generators at different times , thereby causing turn on of the internal power voltage generators at different times . fig1 and 12 show illustrative embodiments for varying the time of arrival of dpd command signal pdpde . referring to fig1 , the dpd command signal pdpde is sent to the internal power voltage generators 210 , 220 , 230 and 240 through inverters / amplifiers such as 121 . the speed of the signals applied to the internal voltage generators ( s 1 , s 2 . . . sn ) can be individually adjusted by varying the size of resistors r 1 , r 2 , . . . rn and capacitors c 1 , c 2 , . . . cn . the different rc time constants applied to inverters / amplifiers will vary the time of arrival of pdpde at s 1 , s 2 . . . sn , thus turning on / off the internal power voltage generators at different times . referring to fig1 , the dpd command signal pdpde is fed through a series of buffers 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , each of the buffers 126 to 129 having an intrinsic delay . the s 1 , s 2 , s 3 . . . sn signals apply to respective power voltage generators 210 , 220 . . . 240 . by selecting different outputs of buffers 126 , 127 . . . 129 to apply to the internal power voltage generators , the internal power voltage generators are caused to turn on at different times . according to still another aspect of the present invention , when a semiconductor device such as a dram is put in a deep power down mode , the voltages output from internal power voltage generators applied to internal circuit 400 of the semiconductor device are generally pulled down to ground or vss so that only minimal current flows through internal circuit 400 . in certain instances , it may be advantageous to maintain certain portions of internal circuit 400 at a predetermined voltage level other than vss even during dpd mode . for example , it may be advantageous to maintain a predetermined voltage level to peripheral or boost circuits at all times , even during power down mode , so that the affected circuits need not be turned on from ground or can turn on at a much quicker rate . fig1 and 14 show embodiments of the present invention for providing voltages to internal circuit 400 at vintp . referring to fig1 , a circuit for maintaining predetermined voltage level at vintp according to an embodiment of the present invention , dpd command signal pdpde is applied through inverter 131 to transistor 132 . the inverter 131 and transistor 132 are biased by an external power voltage vcc . during power down mode , pdpde is high , transistor 132 is turned on , pulling vcc to the gate of transistor 134 , turning it on . the voltage at internal power voltage vintp is pulled up towards vcc at the predetermined level . such level is maintained during dpd mode . the predetermined voltage level at vintp is the voltage level of vcc minus the threshold voltage drop of transistor 134 operating as a diode and the voltage drop across transistor 132 when it is turned on . transistor 133 is connected to provide a further voltage drop in the amount equivalent to the threshold voltage of a diode . when needed , the fuse connected across the transistor 133 is cut . metal line connections can be selectively used in place of the fuses to vary the voltage level at vintp . when the device exits from dpd mode , dpd command signal pdpde goes from high to low , turning off transistor 132 and transistor 134 . internal power voltage at vintp is then floated and a voltage applied from an internal power voltage generator from any of 210 , 220 , . . . 240 is applied to vintp to operate at normal operating level . referring to fig1 , a circuit for providing a predetermined boost voltage during dpd mode according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is provided . similar to the circuit of fig1 , when pdpde is high during dpd mode , transistor 136 is turned on . the internal boost voltage vpp applied to a boost circuit within internal circuit 400 is pulled toward external power voltage vcc through transistor 138 , which is connected in a configuration of a diode . transistor 138 is preferably an nmos transistor . transistor 137 provides a further voltage adjustment to the level of boost voltage vpp . if needed , the fuse connected across transistor 137 is cut to provide another voltage drop equivalent to the threshold voltage of transistor 137 . again , it is apparent to one skilled in the art that metal lines can be optionally used in place of the fuses . when the semiconductor device exits from dpd mode , pdpde goes low , transistors 136 and 138 turn off and boost voltage vpp is floated and driven by the voltage generated by one of the internal power voltage generators to provide vpp at a normal operating level . thus , the internal power voltage generators can be selectively made to maintain at predetermined levels while other internal power voltage generators are turned off and voltages are pulled down to vss during power down mode . in the drawings and specification , there have been disclosed illustrative preferred embodiments of the invention and , although specific terms and types of devices are employed , they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation . for example , although specific logic circuit gates or electronic components described to implement preferred functions of the invention , one skilled in the art can implement the functions with equivalent logic or electronic components . thus , numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings . it is therefore to be understood that , within the scope of the appended claims , the present invention can be practiced in a manner other than as specifically described herein .	6
before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings . the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways . also , it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting . disclosed is a static bilge pump for watercraft requiring no moving parts . the static bilge pump may be attached to the hull over the drain hole commonly found at the back of the boat adjacent to the lowest point of the bilge . the static bilge pump may remove water from the bilge of a boat . when the boat is not submerged , the boat &# 39 ; s original drain may still be utilized . in the following description , the term “ distal ” generally refers to a direction away from a boat to which the static bilge pump is attached , and the term “ proximal ” generally refers to a direction toward the boat . thus , “ distal ” could optionally be considered “ back ” or “ rear ” and “ proximal ” could optionally be considered “ forward ” or “ front .” referring to fig1 - 6 , the static bilge pump 10 may include an inlet tube 12 , a body 14 and one or more eductors 17 . the inlet tube 12 may house a drainage conduit 40 and a pump conduit 34 , as shown in fig3 , that are not in fluid communication with each other . the drainage conduit 40 may extend from the drain aperture 26 to the drainage outlet 28 . drainage outlet 28 may be located on the distal end of the body 14 as shown in fig1 , or may optionally be located on the side of the body 14 . drainage outlet 28 may be sealed by inserting a drain plug 18 . fluid communication between the drain aperture 26 and the drainage outlet 28 may allow a boat to be drained while out of the water , in the same manner used in the absence of an attached static bilge pump . when a boat is in the water , it may be preferable to have the drain plug inserted into the drainage outlet . an attachment mechanism may be used to affix the static bilge pump 10 to a boat &# 39 ; s hull . in the embodiment shown in fig1 - 6 , the attachment mechanism comprises a bolt 20 and bolt holes 32 . other attachment mechanisms suitable for attaching devices to the exterior of a boat hull may be used . for example , the inlet tube 12 may include an annular sleeve that may be inserted about the portion of the inlet tube that extends into the interior of the boat hull . in this embodiment , the body 14 includes an interior frame 22 to provide strength and rigidity to the body 14 . the body 14 may optionally be formed as a solid block . the body 14 may house an internal conduit 38 in fluid communication with the pump conduit 34 and the eductor inlets 46 . in this embodiment , a conduit plug 24 may provide access to the internal conduit 38 which may be desirable for inspection , repair and / or manufacturing . other plugs , for example inlet plugs 26 may also provide access to the internal conduit 38 and facilitate inspection , repair , cleaning and / or manufacturing . in fig2 conduit 38 , bolt holes 32 , suction duct 34 and nozzle access ports 36 may be seen . drain aperture 26 may be located within a recess 27 on the side of the inlet tube 12 . the opening to suction duct 34 may be located on the proximal end of inlet tube 12 and may be designed to accommodate removable fluid connection with a hose , pipe , tube or other device for moving fluids . fig3 shows a lateral cross - section of the inlet tube 12 of the static bilge pump 10 . within inlet tube 12 , a drainage conduit 40 extends from the drainage aperture 26 to the drain 28 , which may be sealed using drain plug 18 . suction conduit 34 extends the length of inlet tube 12 from the proximal end 36 to the internal conduit 38 . thus , pump conduit 34 provides fluid communication from the proximal end 36 of the inlet tube 12 to the internal conduit 38 . the pump conduit 34 and the drainage conduit 40 may not be in fluid communication with each other . however , in some alternative embodiments , it may be desirable to optionally provide fluid communication between these or other conduits or valves for adjusting fluid communication between the various conduits . fig4 shows a transverse cross - section of the body 14 of the static bilge pump 10 . the body 14 includes the internal conduit 38 housed inside the body . the conduit plug 24 seals the end of the internal conduit 38 and also allows access to the conduit 38 from the exterior of the body 14 . bolt holes 32 may extend through body 14 . as shown in fig3 , conduit 38 is in fluid communication with the suction duct 34 . conduit 38 is also in fluid communication with eductor inlets 46 . referring now to fig5 , a lateral cross - section of the static bilge pump 10 shows the interior of an eductor 17 and the body 14 . internal conduit 38 is in fluid communication with the eductor inlet 46 . plug 28 may be removed from the body 14 to access the interior of eductor inlet 46 . the eductor 17 may include several components . in this embodiment , the eductors include a cylindrical body housing the components of the eductor 17 . the eductor inlet 46 may be in fluid communication with an annular vacuum chamber 58 by means of eduction port 55 . eduction inlet 46 may be integral to buttress 50 . buttress 50 extends from the body 14 to provide additional rigidity and support to the static bilge pump 10 and may be optional . the annular vacuum chamber 58 may surround a cylindrical motive nozzle 56 , which may in fluid communication with intake aperture 30 . when a boat is in motion , water may enter intake aperture 30 and enter eduction chamber 54 through intake nozzle 56 . water introduced into eduction chamber 54 through nozzle 56 creates a vacuum , courtesy of bernoulli &# 39 ; s principle , within annular vacuum chamber 58 . this creates suction at induction port 55 . the suction , or negative pressure , applied to induction port 55 provides suction through eductor inlet 46 , conduit 38 and pump conduit 34 . water and other items in eduction chamber 54 exit through exhaust port 56 . fig6 shows the static bilge pump 10 with a siphon tube 60 . the static bilge pump 10 may be placed on the exterior of a boat such that inlet tube 12 extends through a boats drain hole . alternatively , a separate hole may be made in the hull of a boat through which the inlet tube may be extended . body 14 may then be affixed to the exterior of the hull such that the front apertures of the eductors 16 are exposed to oncoming water when the boat is in motion . the inlet to 12 may then be attached to siphon 60 . when in use , when a boat is traveling , the eductors 16 create vacuum suction which travels through the eductor inlets , the conduits and the inlet duct through siphon 60 . the end 62 of siphon to 60 may be placed at or near the bottom of the bilge . alternatively , siphon 60 may be flexible such that the end 62 of siphon 60 may be used as a vacuum hose such that a person in the boat may move the end 62 about to suck up and remove bilge water wherever it is located . the arched , “ upside - down u ” characteristic shape of the siphon 60 may prevent water from entering a bilge while the boat is at rest or in reverse . fig7 shows a perspective view of the static bilge pump 10 . the static bilge pump 10 may be attached to the stern of a boat but may also be attached to other objects . for example , a static bilge pump in accordance with the principles of the invention may include fins or other devices to facilitate proper orientation when dragged through water . such an embodiment may be attached to the end of a hose and dragged by a boat . the motion through the water will generate suction and may provide an emergency back up alternative bilge pump for boats . the exhaust ports 56 of the eductors 17 may be swept back or swept together for hydrodynamic and / or aesthetic purposes . fig8 shows a static bilge pump attached to the stern of a boat . in this figure , the static pump is retrofit to a boat through its drain hole . the pump may have a very low profile , not significantly increasing drag . static bilge pump 10 may include two eductors 17 housed in cylindrical eductor bodies 16 . it may be desirable to optionally utilize one eductor or 3 or more eductors , each having its own housing , which may be cylindrical or optionally parallelepiped or other shape . as shown in the figures , the forward end of the inductors 17 are angled . this swept back design may minimize drag created by the eductor &# 39 ; s and may also minimize the possibility of flotsam and jetsam lodging in and obstructing the apertures 30 . the eductor &# 39 ; s 17 may be made larger or smaller and may have a front end that is not swept back . it may also be desirable to provide simpler eductors having a smaller body or having no housing at all . optionally , the inlet apertures of the eductors may include a grate or screen to prevent debris from entering the eductor housings . buttresses 50 extending between the body and the eductor housings 16 may provide additional stability to the static bilge pump 10 . they also may house the induction inlets . it may be desirable to include additional buttresses or to use none at all . the inlet tube 12 of the invention incorporates both atypical drain as well as and inlet duct for the static bilge pump 10 . it may be desirable to not include the simple drain aspects of the inlet tube 12 . fig9 and 10 show components of an alternative embodiment of the invention . fig9 shows an eductor assembly 80 in accordance with the principles of the invention . an eductor inlet 86 may be in fluid communication with annular vacuum chamber 88 by means of eduction port 85 . as with the embodiment of the invention shown in fig1 - 9 , the eductor inlet 86 may be integral to a buttress 90 . an annular vacuum chamber 58 may surround a cylindrical motive nozzle 92 , which may be in fluid communication with aperture 94 . when a boat is in motion , water may enter aperture 94 and may be ejected out of nozzle 92 and into eduction chamber 84 . the movement of water through nozzle 92 and into eduction chamber 84 creates a vacuum within annular vacuum chamber 88 . this in turn results in suction applied to eduction port 55 and through eductor inlet 86 . water and any other items in eduction chamber 84 may exit through exhaust port 98 . eductor assembly includes an integration block 100 . integration block 100 may include a conduit 102 . a bolt hole 99 may be located just above integration block 110 . in fig1 is shows an alternative embodiment of a body 110 in accordance with the principles of the invention . body 110 includes an integration socket 112 . integration block 100 is sized to fit snugly with in integration socket well . body 10 also includes bolt holes 114 for attaching the body 110 to a boat hull . in this embodiment , body 110 also includes bolt holes 116 . bolt holes 116 may correspond to bolt holes 99 of the eductor assembly 80 . because bolt holes 116 may be located both above and below socket 112 , and because the integration block 100 and socket 112 are bilaterally symmetric , and eductor assembly 80 may be integrated with a body 110 . so that may be positioned either to the left or to the right of a boat hull &# 39 ; s drain plug . it is not uncommon for various devices , such as trim tabs , sonar devices or other objects , to be installed close to a drain plug . if one or more devices are located adjacent to and left of a drain plug of a hole , it may not be possible to attach an eductor as shown in fig1 - 8 to the hull . the embodiment shown in fig9 and 10 allow for reversing and creating a mirror of the device as shown in fig9 . making an eductor of the present invention ambidextrous , or capable of being flipped over to either side of a drain plug , facilitates an easier integration of the device into a boat hull . fig1 shows a graph of the amount of suction produced by the static bilge pump as a function of the speed of the boat to which it is attached . as may be seen , the static bilge pump , requiring no external power and having no moving parts , is capable of pumping 15 gallons per minute when a boat is traveling at only 20 miles per hour . whereas , the present invention has been described in relation to the drawings attached hereto , it should be understood that other and further modifications , apart from those shown or suggested herein , may be made within the spirit and scope of this invention . descriptions of the embodiments shown in the drawings should not be construed as limiting or defining the ordinary and plain meanings of the terms of the claims unless such is explicitly indicated . as such , those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception , upon which this disclosure is based , may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures , methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention . it is important , therefore , that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention .	5
a first embodiment of the invention will be described in terms of a printed instant ticket with a scratch - off material covering play indicia . fig1 is a simplified representation of a conventional instant lottery ticket 10 that includes a printed identification 12 of the ticket 10 , a printed instruction 14 on how to play the ticket and a scratch - off material 16 covering a set of play indicia 18 . also , printed on the lottery ticket 10 is a set of validation data 20 that can be in alphanumeric or bar code form or both . the validation data 20 can be printed on the back of the lottery ticket 10 as well . in the representation of fig1 , the lottery ticket 10 is shown with most of the scratch - off material 16 removed which , in this case , reveals the play indicia 18 that indicates to the player that the prize value of the lottery ticket 10 is $ 100 , 000 . 00 . in conventional instant lottery games , the tickets 10 are all printed with play indicia 18 that indicate the prize value of the lottery ticket 10 . fig2 is a simplified representation of an instant lottery ticket 22 according to one aspect of the invention . the principal difference between the lottery ticket 22 and the conventional lottery ticket 10 is that a set of play indicia 24 printed beneath the scratch - off material 16 on the lottery ticket 22 represents a variable prize value as indicated on the lottery ticket 22 by a coined term such as “ mystery prize ” as shown in fig2 or “ bonus prize ”. here , the play indicia 24 also includes a message to the effect that the player should read instructions ( not shown ) on the back of the lottery ticket 22 that will provide guidance on how to redeem a prize for the lottery ticket 22 . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , most of the lottery tickets in the game will be printed with play indicia representing the actual value of prize as shown at 18 on the ticket 10 in fig1 . additionally , and evenly dispersed throughout the game , will be a set of the lottery tickets 22 having the printed play indicia 24 indicating a variable prize value . these tickets 22 will be dispersed evenly throughout the game and , preferably , in such volume to greatly increase the likelihood that at least one of the “ mystery ” prize winning tickets 22 remains in the game at all times . in this embodiment of the invention , it is desirable that the odds are extremely high that at least one of the “ mystery ” prize ticket 22 remain in the game after the last static top prize is sold . if the last static top prize as shown at 18 on the ticket 10 is redeemed for cashing before all tickets in the game have been redeemed , at least one of the remaining ‘ mystery ’ prize tickets 22 would be eligible to be ‘ promoted ’ to the top prize . this “ mystery ” top prize would be distributed during the end of game draw procedure . in this manner , it would always be possible to win one of the top prizes as advertised by the lottery administration in its general promotional literature , and thus render moot any complaint that the top prize no longer remains in the game . it is common practice that drawings of this type are conducted by a manual process whereby players mail in to the lottery a stub or some portion of the ticket . in the preferred embodiment , this manual system is replaced by an electronic system reducing the workload on the lottery and reducing the chance for fraud or error . with reference to fig3 , operation of the preferred embodiment of the instant lottery game will be described . to illustrate a representative environment for the invention , fig3 provides a block diagram of the basic hardware structure of a typical state administered lottery system 26 for selling and redeeming instant lottery tickets such as lottery tickets 10 and 22 . included in the system 10 is a lottery ticket redemption mechanism which in this embodiment can include a number of validation or agent terminals 28 a – c that are connected , as represented by a set of lines 30 a – c , to a lottery host computer 32 . the agent terminals 28 a – c usually include bar code readers , keyboards , displays and printers that a lottery agent can use for selling , validating and redeeming instant lottery tickets . the connections 30 a – c to the host computer 32 can be dedicated or dial - up telephone lines or other methods of communication such as satellite communications systems . included in the host computer 32 is a validation file 34 that contains validation information for lottery tickets usually stored in the form of records each having a ticket identification and a prize code as represented generally at 35 as shown in fig4 . the prize code can be a code or the actual prize or redemption value of the lottery ticket 10 or 22 . usually there is one record 35 for winning lottery tickets that requires validation through the host computer 32 . however in some cases , the validation file 34 contains records 35 for only the winning lottery tickets in a game or contains records 35 for all of the tickets in the game . connected to the host computer 32 is a lottery administration terminal 36 that usually contains or is connected to a data input device 38 such as a compact disk ( cd ) reader along with a printer 40 for printing out reports to the lottery administration . also in some state lotteries , the lottery administration provides information to the public via an access system regarding the status of a game by , for example , a toll free telephone number as represented by a block 42 and , or in some cases , by internet access represented by a block 44 it is typical practice in the united states lottery industry for a ticket vendor to provide a state lottery administration with one or more sets of tickets where each set is defined as a game . each game will normally have a prize structure with a predetermined number of winning tickets and a predetermined number of losing tickets . very often the winning tickets are divided between high tier winners , which have a high winning prize value and low tier winners that have relatively low winning values . it is also industry practice for the vendor to supply the validation file 34 for each game , which is generally structured to contain one record 35 having the prize code for each winning ticket in the game . in conventional game structures , the prize value represented by the prize code in each record 35 provided by the vendor is fixed or static . for some games , the validation file 34 will contain a record 35 for each winning ticket or in some cases , the validation file 34 will contain a record 35 for each lottery ticket in the game . this vendor supplied validation file is then loaded into the host computer validation file 18 using the data input device 38 . in many state lotteries the practice is to require that high tier lottery tickets that are presented by a player to a lottery agent for redemption be validated by having the lottery agent transmit ticket identification information or the validation data 20 from the agent terminal 28 a to the host computer 32 . this information is then used to access the record 35 in the validation file 34 that contains the prize code or redemption value for the lottery ticket 10 and this value is then transmitted back to the agent terminal 28 a . the usual practice is to have the lottery agent compare this value from the host computer 32 with the winning value 18 printed on the lottery ticket 10 and if they are the same , the agent will pay the player this amount or provide the player with a form that he can use to redeem the ticket from the lottery administration . referring to fig4 , in one embodiment of the invention , an instant lottery game structure is provided where a subset of the lottery tickets , such as the lottery ticket 22 , is printed with the play indicia 24 which indicates to a player that the prize can have a variable value . the rest of the lottery tickets in the game , such as lottery ticket 10 , are printed with play indicia 18 that have a static prize value and for a large number of the lottery tickets 10 the play indica 18 will indicate that the lottery ticket 22 has no redemption value . in the validation file 34 , the first set of records 35 corresponds to the lottery tickets 10 that have static prize values and a second set or a sub file of records 45 corresponds to the lottery tickets 22 that have variable prize values . other methods that identify the variable prizes within the ticket population in a game can be used as well , such as a special prize code unique to variable prize tickets . in the preferred embodiment , the initial prize values represented by the prize codes in each of the records 45 in the sub file will have the same relatively low value , for example $ 50 . 00 , at the beginning of the game . for other embodiments , each initial prize code can have a different value or even a null value . here , the $ 50 . 00 value represents the prize value that the lottery tickets 22 in the sub file 45 can be redeemed for , at least at one point , during the time period that the game is being marketed to the public . in addition , the host computer 32 can automatically at periodic intervals change the prize values in the records 45 in the validation sub file . these changes can be random within a certain predetermined range or alternatively , the changes in the prize values can be made by the host computer 32 in response to inputs from the lottery administration via the terminal 36 . for example , the lottery administration can , by using this system , alter the redemption value of the variable tickets 22 to increase ticket sales or as a part of its marketing plan as it relates to a specific dynamic prize structure for the game . the host computer 32 will mark as paid the records 45 in the sub file that represent lottery tickets 22 that are redeemed during the game period . then , preferably at a publicly announced date after the termination of the game period , the host computer 32 would perform an electronic draw based on all or a subset of the records 45 in the sub file to determine the winner of the final top prize in the game . alternatively , the system could be used to distribute all remaining , unredeemed prizes in the game among those players who hold a ‘ mystery ’ prize winning ticket 22 . if , for example , there were one thousand records 45 in the mystery prize sub file and the lottery administration wished to distribute one hundred high tier prizes that remained in the game , the electronic draw program in the host computer 32 would randomly distribute those remaining prizes into the one thousand records 45 in the sub file . normally , the lottery administration would establish the total prize payout before the beginning of a game . one of the primary advantages of the system described above is that , the lottery administration will know what the total payout for a game is while at the same time because a portion of the prizes are dynamic , it will have the ability to control the amount and timing of certain of the redemption values for the lottery tickets 22 . because security is an important factor in lotteries , it is desirable that the systems such as 26 shown in fig3 , and the file structures such as the validation files 36 and the sub file 45 shown in fig4 along with administrative procedures utilize the latest security technology . preferably , only authorized lottery administrative personnel should be able to dynamically modify the value of the lottery tickets 22 . one approach is to use the audit techniques described in u . s . patent application ser . no . 10 / 317 , 577 , assigned to the assignee of this application and which is hereby incorporated by reference . for example , the approach described in this patent application of using a read only memory to check the total prize value of a game can be used to test the integrity of the records 45 in the sub file . the following is an example of how the game structure described above might operate . after purchasing the lottery ticket 22 , the player scratches off the scratch - off material 16 . if the play indicia 24 indicates that the lottery ticket 22 has a variable redemption value , e . g ., the “ mystery prize ”, the player , depending on the rules of the particular game , will have the option to : ( 1 ) redeem the lottery ticket 22 for its current value and / or ( 2 ) be included in the end of the game prize drawing . in one embodiment of the invention , these two options are mutually exclusive ; in another embodiment , the mystery prize winner is automatically entered in the end of game draw , regardless of whether he has redeemed his ticket . the redemption value of the prize during the game period can be , for example , $ 50 during week 1 of the game , $ 100 during week 2 , back to $ 50 during week 3 etc . . . . as described above . in this example , the players can learn the redemption value of the lottery tickets 22 during the game by utilizing the internet 44 or the 1 – 800 number 42 . the players who opt to remain in the final draw held at the end of the game can likewise learn the value of their lottery tickets 22 via the public access system such as the internet 44 or the 1 - 800 number 42 . at any time until the game is closed , a player can redeem his mystery ticket for the current posted value . in one embodiment , if he chooses to remain ‘ in the draw ’, his mystery prize ticket 22 is guaranteed to be of some minimal value . if he opts for the draw , he might win the top prize or some other high - valued prizes such as a car or a trip . alternatively , the player might win some sort of relatively low value promotional item such as a t - shirt promoting the lottery . in another embodiment , the player can both redeem his mystery prize for its current value and expect to be included in the end of game draw . yet another embodiment of the invention will be described in terms of an electronic ticket with a simulated scratch - off material covering play indicia . in particular , a set of dashed lines 46 in fig1 and 2 represent a display of a video lottery terminal or a personal computer that can be connected to the host computer 32 to play an electronic version of an instant lottery game . here , the lottery tickets 10 and 22 are electronic visual simulations of instant lottery tickets where the scratch - off coatings 16 can be removed by the player by operation of a mouse or some other control device connected to the terminal . again , fig3 depicts in block diagram form the basic hardware structure of the typical state administered lottery system 26 that can be used for selling and redeeming electronic lottery tickets such as lottery tickets 10 and 22 . included in the system 10 are a number of video lottery terminals 48 a – c that can be for example video terminals in a gaming establishment or player owned personal computers . the video lottery terminals 48 a – c can be connected , as represented by a set of lines 50 a – c , to the lottery host compute 32 by a variety of mechanisms such as the internet or a lottery site controller 52 which in turn is connected to the host computer 32 . the video lottery terminals 48 a – c , as represented by the terminal 45 a in fig3 , can include the graphical capabilities such as the display 46 for a lottery player to the play the electronic tickets 10 and 22 and a reader 52 for receiving credit cards or coupons to permit the player to play the game . also , a printer 54 can be included or connected to the terminals 48 a – c for printing out a payment voucher such as an eticket 56 having for example a bar code 58 that can be used by a player to redeem a winning ticket at one of the agent terminals 28 a – c . it should be noted that a variety of redemption mechanisms can be used including various internet secure payment systems . to enable a player to remove the simulated scratch - off coating 16 , a control device 59 such as a keyboard or a mouse can be used with the video lottery terminals 48 a – c . this system permits a player to pay for and play electronic tickets as well as ‘ cash out ’ when finished . the connections 50 a – c to the host computer 32 can be dedicated lines , dial - up telephone lines or other methods of communication such as satellite or internet - based communications systems such as shown at 44 . as with the printed instant lottery games discussed above , it is typical practice in the united states lottery industry for a ticket vendor to provide a state lottery administration with one or more sets of “ electronic ” tickets such as lottery tickets 10 and 22 where each set is defined as a game . each game will normally have a structure with a predetermined number of winning tickets and a predetermined number of losing tickets . very often the winning tickets are divided between high tier winners which have a high winning prize value and low tier winners which have relatively low winning values . it is also industry practice for the vendor to supply the validation file 34 for each game , which is generally structured to contain one record having the redemption or prize value for each high tier winning ticket . in conventional game structures , the prize value in each record provided by the vendor is fixed or static . for some games , the validation file 34 will contain a record for each winning ticket or in some cases ; the validation file 34 will contain a record for each lottery ticket in the game . this vendor supplied validation file is then loaded into the host computer validation file 18 using the data input device 38 . in many state lotteries the practice is to require that the high tier lottery electronic ticket vouchers that are presented by a player to a lottery agent or a lottery validation system for redemption be validated by having the lottery agent or system transmit ticket identification information or the validation data 20 from the agent terminal 28 a to the host computer 32 . this information is then used to access a record in the validation file 34 which contains the redemption value for the lottery ticket 10 and this value is then transmitted back to the agent or validation terminal 28 a . referring again to fig4 , in one embodiment of the invention , an instant lottery game structure is provided where an electronic lottery tickets , such as the lottery ticket 22 , is displayed on the display 46 with the play indicia 24 which indicates to a player that the prize can have a variable value . the system 26 then functions essentially the same way the printed instant lottery system functions as described above . the following is an example of how the electronic instant lottery game structure described above might operate in one embodiment of the invention . after selecting and purchasing the electronic lottery ticket 22 at the video lottery terminal 48 a , the player receives a graphical representation of his selected ‘ pull ’ or ticket 10 or 22 . if the play indicia 24 indicates that the lottery ticket 22 has a variable redemption value , e . g ., the “ mystery prize ”, the player will have the option to : ( 1 ) redeem the lottery ticket 22 for its current value or ( 2 ) opt to be included in the end of the game prize drawing . the redemption value of the prize during the game period can be , for example , $ 50 during week 1 of the game , $ 100 during week 2 , back to $ 50 during week 3 , etc . . . . as described above . in this example , the players can learn the redemption value or any other value or non - value of the lottery administration &# 39 ; s choosing of the lottery tickets 22 during the game by utilizing an information access system such as the internet 44 , the 1 - 800 number 42 or , in this case , the video lottery terminals 48 a – c . the players who opt to remain in the final draw held at the end of the game can also learn the value of their lottery tickets 22 via the internet 44 , the 1 - 800 number 42 or the video lottery terminals 48 a – c . at any time until the game is closed , a player can redeem his mystery ticket for the current posted value . if he chooses to remain ‘ in the draw ’, his mystery prize ticket 22 is guaranteed to be of some minimal value . if he opts for the draw , he might win the top prize or some other high - valued prizes such as a car or a trip . alternatively , the player might win some sort of relatively low value promotional item such as a t - shirt promoting the lottery or nothing . in another embodiment of the invention , the player can both redeem his electronic mystery prize for its current value and expect to be included in the end of game draw . the existence of mystery prizes tickets 22 within an instant ( or an electronic game ) and the mystery prize validation sub file 45 delivered to the lottery administration can form the basis for the electronic end of game ( or end of sales ) draw . the validation numbers 20 of the mystery prize winning tickets 22 are separately stored in the validation sub file 45 ( or in another embodiment , a special prize code identifies the mystery prize winners in the traditional validation file 34 .) in either case , the electronic draw is based on these validation numbers 20 which uniquely identify the population of all mystery prize winning tickets within the game . valid or redeemed mystery prize winners within a game can be further identified by a voucher that is produced at the agent terminal 28 a upon redemption of the mystery prize winning ticket 22 . at this point , player information can be recorded in a database . alternatively , the internet 44 or a 1 - 800 number 42 can be used to identify validated mystery prize winners . there can be other methods of identifying those lottery players who have indeed won a mystery prize . the result of the identification is to populate or mark the validation sub file 45 with valid mystery prize winners who are eligible for the electronic drawing . by the methods described above , once the lottery has satisfactorily populated the validation sub file 45 with valid mystery prize winners , the lottery can choose one of the records 45 from this file . typically , this would occur at some predetermined point in the lifecycle of the game , for example the end of retail sales for the game . the selection of this single record 45 can be accomplished using several common methods , but the most common is the use a specialized random number generator by the host computer 32 . this random number generator would identify one of the mystery prize winners as the grand prize winner — and thus distribute the remaining top prize in the game to this individual mystery prize winner . since mystery prize tickets 22 are available throughout the sales of the game , all lottery players will have the opportunity to play for the top prize until the game sales have been halted by the lottery administration . it will be understood that the dynamic game structure concepts described above can also be applied to non - gambling games . as an example , this type of structure can be used with supermarket type sweepstakes where sweepstake coupons are not sold .	0
the embodiments has been developed to solve the above - mentioned problems , and aims at providing a system controller and a cache control method capable of a large information processing device configured by a multiprocessor enhancing the accessibility to a cache device of a related cache device by reducing the number of state modify requests to a data block of a cache device of another system . the embodiments are described below with reference to the attached drawings . fig1 is an explanatory view of the outline of a multiprocessor system . in fig1 , a multiprocessor system 1 includes a plurality of system boards 2 - 1 and 2 - 2 . each of the system boards 2 - 1 and 2 - 2 includes a system controller 13 - 1 or 13 - 2 , a plurality of processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n , a plurality of i / o devices 11 - 1 , . . . , 11 - n , and a plurality of memory units ( mem ) 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - n . the system boards 2 - 1 and 2 - 2 are connected to be able to communicate with each other , and control a read and a write to and from the memory units 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - n at an instruction from the processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n or the i / o devices 11 - 1 , . . . , 11 - n . fig2 is an explanatory view of the outline of a large multiprocessor system . in fig2 , a multiprocessor systems 3 is larger than the multiprocessor system 1 shown in fig1 , and is provided with more system boards 2 - 1 , 2 - 2 , 2 - 3 , 2 - 4 , 2 - 5 , 2 - 6 , 2 - 7 , and 2 - 8 , and the system boards 2 - 1 , . . . , 2 - 8 are interconnected to one another through a cross bar switch 4 . as with the system board 2 - 1 of the multiprocessor system 1 shown in fig1 , these system boards 2 - 1 , . . . , 2 - 8 include one system controllers 13 - 1 , . . . , 13 - 5 , . . . , a plurality of processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n , a plurality of i / o devices 11 - 1 , . . . , 11 - n , and a plurality of memory units ( mem ) 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - n . the embodiments can be applied to the multiprocessor system as shown in fig1 and 2 . fig3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the hardware of a multiprocessor system . in fig3 , the multiprocessor system 1 is provided with a plurality of processor modules 10 - 1 , 10 - 2 , . . . , 10 - n . each of the processor modules 10 - 1 to 10 - n is provided with cpus ( processors ) 12 - 1 to 12 - n and cache devices 14 - 1 to 14 - n . each of the processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n is interconnected to each other by connecting the cache devices 14 - 1 to 14 - n to a system bus 15 . for example , a snoop bus can be the system bus 15 for connecting the cache devices 14 - 1 to 14 - n . a snoop bus refers to a bus capable of immediately acquiring the state of the data block held in a cache line corresponding to the process requests when any of the cache devices 14 - 1 to 14 - n issues a request to fetch or store data from the cpus 12 - 1 to 12 - n according to the state signal of the snoop control line . fig4 is a block diagram showing the function of a cache device . in fig4 , the cache device 14 - 1 is provided with a cache controller 18 and cache memory 20 . the cache memory 20 holds data for each of a plurality of cache line 22 , and each cache line 22 includes a tag 24 and a data block 30 . the tag 24 is provided with a state tag 26 and an address tag 28 . the state tag 26 of the cache memory 20 has the state of a data block by six representations , that is , the invalid state i , the shared state s , the exclusive state e , the modified state m , the shared modified state o , and the writable modified state w , thereby managing the cache memory 20 . the cache controller 18 is provided with a cache control management unit 32 , a state management unit 34 , a processor interface ( if ) 36 , and a bus interface ( if ) 38 . the state management unit 34 is provided with a fetch protocol process unit 40 and a store protocol process unit 42 . upon receipt of a fetch request from the cpu 12 - 1 , the cache control management unit 32 refers to the tag 24 of the cache memory 20 , and retrieves the cache line 22 having the address tag 28 matching the address value of the requested address . if there is no cache line 22 matching in address , a cache mishit occurs , the cache control management unit 32 acquires a data block from the main storage or any other cache devices 14 - 2 to 14 - n , and provides it for the cpu 12 - 1 . when there is the cache line 22 having an address matching the requested address , the cache control management unit 32 performs a process depending on any of the invalid state i , the shared state s , the exclusive state e , the modified state m , the shared modified state o , and the writable modified state w by the state tag 26 of the corresponding cache line 22 on the cache memory 20 . in response to the store request from the cpu 12 - 1 , the cache control management unit 32 performs a storing process of updating a data block of the corresponding cache line 22 on the cache memory 20 if a cache hit occurs , and reserves a new cache line 22 on the cache memory 20 and performs a storing process by writing data if a mishit occurs . if there is a data block corresponding to any of other cache devices 14 - 2 to 14 - n , the latest data block is acquired from any of the cache devices 14 - 2 to 14 - n , and a storing process is performed by writing data . in response to the process request from the cpu 12 - 1 and any of other cache devices 14 - 2 to 14 - n through the system bus 15 by the cache control management unit 32 , the state management unit 34 controls the state transition of the state tag 26 on the corresponding cache line 22 after the execution of the process request . as the state transition control for cache coherence by the state management unit 34 , the cache protocol of the six states of the invalid state i , the shared state s , the exclusive state e , the modified state m , the shared modified state o , and the writable modified state w is applied . other cache devices 14 - 2 to 14 - n have functions similar to those of the cache device 14 - 1 . fig5 is a block diagram showing the function of the system controller . in fig5 , each of the system controllers 13 - 1 and 13 - 2 is provided with a memory access request reception unit 51 , a broadcast transmission / reception unit 52 , a snoop control unit 53 , an ms access issue unit 54 , and a cpu request issue unit 55 . the memory access request reception unit 51 receives an access request to the memory units 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - 2 from the processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n or the i / o devices 11 - 1 , . . . , 11 - n . the broadcast transmission / reception unit 52 transmits and receives an access request to and from the broadcast transmission / reception unit 52 in another system controller 13 - 1 or 13 - 2 when the access request received by the memory access request reception unit 51 of the system controller 13 - 1 or 13 - 2 is an access request to the memory units 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - 2 of the other system controller 13 - 1 or 13 - 2 . the snoop control unit 53 performs a snooping process for detecting the contents stored in the memory units 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - 2 based on the access request from the processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n of the i / o devices 11 - 1 , . . . , 11 - n through the broadcast transmission / reception unit 52 . the snoop control unit 53 sets locking for the address of an object data block from the point when the snooping process is completed to the point when a reply to data transfer is received according to the information stored in a lock register 531 . the ms access issue unit 54 issues an access instruction to the memory units 16 - 1 , . . . , 16 - 2 based on an instruction from the snoop control unit 53 , and the cpu request issue unit 55 issues an access instruction to the processor modules 10 - 1 , . . . , 10 - n based on an instruction from the snoop control unit 53 . described next is the cache control process performed in the multiprocessor system with the above - mentioned configuration . fig6 shows address locking in updating a tag2 . fig7 through 9 show state transitions . fig7 shows the state transition of a hit case in the exclusive state e . fig8 shows the state transition of a hit case in the writable modified state w . fig9 shows the state transition of a hit case in the modified state m . in the embodiments , when the next state of an object data block is not determined at the completion of the snooping process , a cache protocol is configured to report the next state of the related device in the six states , that is , the invalid state i , the shared state s , the exclusive state e , the modified state m , the shared modified state o , and the writable modified state w , from the hit cache device that transmits a data block as a new state on the cache device to which data is transferred . when a tag2 is updated on the system controller , the address lock control is performed on an object data block after receiving a data transfer reply at the completion of the snooping process until the next state is determined , and the lock control is performed to inhibit access to the same subsequent data block . that is , relating to the above - mentioned cache protocol , when data is to be transferred by a fetch request between cache devices , a hit cache device ( source of data transfer ) notifies a system controller of a new state together with a data transfer reply depending on the entry state of an object data block . the cpu as a fetch requester makes a new entry in the cache device in the “ requester ” state of the information in a reply packet of the data transfer . the cpu of the data transfer source changes the entry state of the object data block into the “ transfer source ” state when the data is transferred . relating to the lock control relating to the update of the tag2 , when the fetch request makes a hit in the exclusive state e , the modified state m , or the writable modified state w in the cache device of another cpu ( the state is all exclusive state e for the tag2 of the system controller ), a data transfer is requested to the hit cache device , and from the point when the snoop is completed to the point when the data transfer reply is received , a lock is set for the address of the object data block . then , until the update of the tag2 of the system controller is completed by the data transfer , another access to the same data block cannot be performed . thus , the control of the 6 - state cache protocol to enhance the accessibility to a cache device by reducing the number of state modify requests to a data block on another cache device can be requested address in the conventional snooping system . the embodiments are described above with reference to the attached drawings , but the above - mentioned embodiments can be realized by hardware as a function of a system controller , firmware by a dsp board and a cpu board , or software . it is obvious that the system controller according to the embodiments is not limited to the above - mentioned embodiments so far as the function can be realized , that is , it can be a single device , a system or an integrated device including a plurality of devices , or a system for performing a process over a network such as a lan , a wan , etc . it also can be realized by a system configured by a cpu , memory such as rom and ram , an input device , an output device , an external storage device , a medium drive device , and a network connection device interconnected via a bus . that is , the memory such as rom and ram , the external storage device , and the portable recording medium recording a program code of the software for realizing the system according to the embodiments described above can be supplied to a system controller , and the computer of the system controller can read the program code , thereby realizing the embodiments . in this case , the program code itself read from the portable recording medium etc . realizes the new function of the embodiments , and the portable recording medium etc . recording the program code configures the embodiments . the portable recording medium for supplying the program code can be , for example , a flexible disk , a hard disk , an optical disk , a magneto optical disk , cd - rom , cd - r , dvd - rom , dvd - ram , a magnetic tape , a non - volatile memory card , a rom card , various recording media recording data through a network connection device ( that is , a communication line ) for e - mail , a personal computer communication , etc . by the computer ( information processing device ) executing the program code read to the memory , the functions of the above - mentioned embodiments are realized , and the os etc . operating on a computer performs all or a part of the actual process according to an instruction of the program code , thereby realizing the function of the above - mentioned embodiments . the functions of the above - mentioned embodiments can also be realized by performing the process of writing a program code read from a portable recording medium and a program ( data ) provided by a program ( data ) provider to memory of a feature expansion board inserted into the computer or a feature expansion unit connected to the computer , and then performing all or a part of the actual process by the cpu of the feature expansion board or the feature expansion unit based on the instruction of the program code . that is , the embodiments is not limited to the above - mentioned embodiments , but can be of various configurations or shapes within the scope of the gist of the embodiments .	6
with reference to fig1 , 1 is a urine test sheet according to the present disclosure . in the present embodiment , the shape of the urine test sheet 1 is that , on one end side in a longitudinal direction of a support , that is , a rectangular support sheet 11 , four detection members , that is , detection pads 12 are arranged in series , but the embodiment shall not be restricted to the form . in order to test a plurality of subjects to be tested through the use of the single urine test sheet 1 , the detection pad 12 is arranged in a plural number , but , in order to measure a single subject to be tested , only one detection pad 12 may be provided . examples of the above - mentioned subjects to be tested include urobilinogen , occult blood , bilirubin , ketone body , glucose , protein , ph , specific gravity , nitrite , white blood cell , ascorbic acid etc . a urine test is performed , usually , by causing a subject to collect an appropriate amount of urine through the use of a paper cup or the like , and immersing the part of the detection pad 12 of the urine test sheet 1 in the urine specimen in the paper cup and then taking out the same . accordingly , it becomes necessary to align the detection pad 12 in a range of being immersed in the collected urine , and the above - mentioned form is commonly used . the urine test sheet 1 according to the present embodiment is also , in appearance , basically made to have approximately the same form as the form of conventional urine test sheet . the material of the support sheet 11 is , although not restricted to a specific one , generally , made of plastic or water - resistant paper . after the urine test sheet being immersed in a urine specimen and then taken out promptly , the detection pad 12 shows , after a prescribed period of time , specific color corresponding to a material or a component amount contained in the urine specimen . this is because a prescribed reaction reagent is contained in the detection pad 12 . the principle of the urine test sheet is that , while utilizing the nature of the reaction reagent , the above - mentioned prescribed period of time is set as a required time for the determination in urine tests . the component of the reaction reagent differs according to each of subjects to be tested , and there is performed each of the specifications such as 4 - methoxybenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate for detecting urobilinogen , and tetrabromophenol blue ( tbpb ) for detecting protein . in the present disclosure , in addition to the above - mentioned reaction reagent , a reaction - terminating agent for terminating the reaction of these reaction reagents is contained in the detection pad 12 . it is configured such that the reaction - terminating agent is covered with a water - soluble material so that the reaction - terminating agent does not act prior to a urine test , and such that , by the immersion of the urine test sheet into a urine specimen , the water - soluble material begins to dissolve by moisture in the urine to cause the reaction - terminating agent to act . the reaction - terminating agent differs corresponding to every reaction reagent , and , for example , may be magnesium chloride , sodium hydroxide , sodium nitrite , phosphate or the like . the amount of the above - mentioned water - soluble material may be set so as to cause the reaction - terminating agent to act after a prescribed period of time specified for each of subjects to be tested and to terminate the reaction of the reaction reagent . the setting can be performed , for example , according to the fick &# 39 ; s law . that is , from the nature that a diffusion flux ( flux ) of the above - mentioned water - soluble material per unit area and per unit time is proportional to the concentration gradient , the amount of the water - soluble material can be calculated using the period of time until the lapse of the prescribed period of time . meanwhile , since the concentration distribution of the water - soluble material is considered to vary with the period of time , specifically , the amount of the water - soluble material may be calculated using the fick &# 39 ; s second law . incidentally , the prescribed period of time differs depending on each of subjects to be tested . even in the case of the identical subject to be tested , the prescribed period of time differs depending on the kind , amount or the like of the reaction reagent , and , for example , the period of time differs for every subject to be tested such that around 30 seconds for urobilinogen , around 30 seconds to 60 seconds for occult blood , around 120 seconds for white blood cell , and around 10 seconds for ascorbic acid . the difference in the prescribed periods of time is , as described above , generally a difference in unit of second . therefore , in the case where a large amount of urine specimens are treated , for example , in group examinations , the above - mentioned prescribed period of time is to be measured for urine test sheets brought in one after another for every subject to be tested , which is a very troublesome work . in addition , when detection pads corresponding to different subjects to be tested ( that is , different prescribed periods of time ) are formed on a single urine test sheet , furthermore , the measurement of the period of time is extremely difficult , resulting in a state where a precise determination is practically impossible . in the present disclosure , even when a precise prescribed period of time is not measured for an individual detection pad , the progress of the reaction can be blocked by the above - mentioned reaction - terminating agent after the prescribed period of time . accordingly , for example , it is sufficient to perform sequentially the determination for one for which the longest period of time ( in the case of the above - mentioned example , 120 seconds ) among the above - mentioned prescribed periods of time has elapsed . alternatively , in order to determine whether the reaction is terminated or not , it may also be possible to use a known color tone table to be compared with the detection pad 12 and to perform sequentially the determination from one that shows the same coloring as the color tone table . meanwhile , the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure can be used by subjects by themselves at home . conventionally , when a subject uses a test sheet by oneself at home or the like , the subject has to measure on the spot the prescribed period of time specified according to the subject to be tested . in the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure , however , since the reaction terminates after the prescribed period of time , the measurement of the prescribed period of time becomes unnecessary . accordingly , the subject can carry the urine test sheet 1 after measurement in health check or send it previously by mail to entrust the determination to an expert , and in addition , a necessary period of time for health check may be shortened . further , in order to obtain an accurate determination result , subjects has to be in a state of being appropriate to the determination ( for example , in a fasting state ), but , when the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure is used , since restriction on eating in accordance with the time of a group examination is unnecessary and the sheet may be used in home at an arbitrary time before eating , a load on subjects can be reduced . meanwhile , in the present disclosure , subjects include animals , in addition to mankind . fig2 is a side cross - sectional view showing the enlarged configuration of the detection pad 12 in a first embodiment of the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure . the detection pad 12 is formed of a reaction reagent 121 and a reaction - terminating agent 122 covered with a water - soluble material 123 , which is interposed between the reaction reagent 121 and the support sheet 11 . that is , the reaction reagent 121 and the reaction - terminating agent 122 covered with the water - soluble material 123 are arranged in a layered form on the support sheet 11 . fig3 ( a ) is a side cross - sectional view showing the enlarged configuration of the detection pad 12 in a second embodiment of the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure . as shown in fig3 ( b ), a reaction - terminating agent 125 a is formed in the shape of an approximate spherical body and the whole outer surface thereof is covered with a water - soluble material 125 b to form a granular body 125 . the detection pad 12 in the present embodiment is formed by containing the granular body 125 on the reaction reagent 124 in a scattered state . fig4 is a side cross - sectional view showing the enlarged configuration of the detection pad 12 in a third embodiment of the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure . when detection pads 12 different in the prescribed periods of time are arranged in a plural number in series on the support sheet 11 , if a reaction - terminating agent contained in an adjacent detection pad 12 oozes and acts , there may be generated an disadvantage that the amount of the reaction - terminating agent is substantially increased to accelerate the action of terminating the reaction . therefore , in the present embodiment , in order to block the ooze of the reaction - terminating agent contained in the adjacent detection pad 12 , an encircling part 126 is provided around each of the detection pads 12 . meanwhile , in order to block more reliably the ooze of the reaction - terminating agent , a material that neutralizes the reaction of the reaction - terminating agent may be contained in the outer surface of the encircling part 126 ( not shown ). meanwhile , in fig4 , the detection pad 12 is shown by one containing the granular body 125 described in the second embodiment , but the detection pad to be provided with the encircling part 126 shall not be limited to this , and one obtained by encircling the detection pads 12 described in the first embodiment is also acceptable . fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ) show a urine test sheet which shows the reaction result by a mark for a prescribed subject to be tested . in order to perform the determination from the change in the coloring of the detection pad 12 caused by the reaction of the reaction reagent , in a stepwise manner indices are required depending on the degree of shading of the coloring . so far , there has been present a color tone table that shows determination indices of substantially about 3 to 9 depending on the degree of shading of the coloring for each of subjects to be tested . as in the case of group examinations , however , to determine enormous numbers of urine test sheets while comparing them with the color tone table is a troublesome work and the period of time necessary for the determination per one sheet becomes longer . even if liberation from the complication of measurement at the prescribed period of time is achieved , when a long period of time is required for the determination treatment , the throughput of the whole test is not enhanced and the temporal load on those performing the test is not dissolved . accordingly , the change in the above - mentioned coloring is set in a stepwise manner by the shading , and detection pads 127 a to 127 d corresponding to the set number of steps are formed on the support sheet 11 . in fig5 ( a ), one with 4 steps of from 127 a to 127 d is shown , but as described above , the number of steps is to be determined in accordance with the subject to be tested . on the support sheet 11 , so as to be readable from on each of detection pads 127 a to 127 d before the reaction , marks 13 a to 13 d that show each of steps are indicated . in the present embodiment , 4 steps of −, +, ++ and +++ are indicated , but the indication shall not be limited to this if it shows the step . for example , an indication only by numerals such as 1 to 4 , an indication showing the number of “+” by a numeral such as + 1 , + 2 , etc . are also usable . each of the marks is colored by the same color as the coloring in each of steps . that is , along with the movement from − to +++, each of the marks is colored so that the density of coloring of the mark also becomes higher . fig5 ( b ) shows a state where the urine test sheet 1 was immersed in a urine specimen and then taken out , and after that , the prescribed period of time has elapsed . the detection pads 127 a to 127 d uniformly show a prescribed coloring , in which , as the result of change into this coloring , marks colored in the same color as the coloring and marks colored paler than the coloring are unreadable due to the coloring of the detection pad 12 . that is , in fig5 ( b ), marks of 13 a (−) and 13 b (+) can not be read from on the detection pads 127 a and 127 b . among unreadable marks , the step shown by the most deeply colored mark gives the determination result . that is , in fig5 ( b ), such determination result as 13 b (+) is drawn . as described above , in the present disclosure , for the urine test sheet 1 for which the above - mentioned prescribed period of time has elapsed , the determination result can be grasped intuitively , and thus work load on those performing the test can be reduced remarkably . in particular , in the case where a large amount of urine specimens are treated as in the case of group examinations , this effect exerts an extremely large effect . fig6 ( a ) is a drawing showing a mask 14 for observation use only and the urine test sheet 1 according to the present disclosure . for detection pads 131 a , 131 b , 131 c and 131 d coated on the support sheet 11 , no mark showing the step is indicated in particular , in the same way as those shown in examples 1 to 4 , unlike from example 4 and examples 6 and 7 to be described later . in the mask 14 , window portions 14 a , 14 b , 14 c and 14 d are opened so that the detection pads 131 a , 131 b , 131 c and 131 d are observable , and to each of windows , while the change in the coloring of the detection pads 131 a , 131 b , 131 c and 131 d is set in a stepwise manner by shading , films having the same color as the steps are stuck , respectively . in the vicinity on the lower side of the window portions 14 a , 14 b , 14 c and 14 d , marks 141 a , 141 b , 141 c and 141 d corresponding to each of the steps are indicated . in the present example , (−) for 141 a , (+) for 141 b , (++) for 141 c , and (+++) for 141 d are indicated . fig6 ( b ) is a drawing showing a state where the mask 14 is overlapped upon the urine test sheet 1 . at this time , the urine test sheet 1 is in a state where the sheet was immersed in a urine specimen and then taken out , and after that , the prescribed period of time has been elapsed . the detection pads 131 a to 131 d uniformly show prescribed coloring , and as the result of the change into this coloring , from a window portion to which a film of color paler than the coloring among the window portions 14 a , 14 b , 14 c and 14 d of the mask 14 , observation is performed as color that is the same as the coloring . in the present example , since colors shown by each of the detection pads show the coloring that is the same as the color of the film stuck to the window portion 14 b , in the window portion 14 a , the observation is performed as the color that is the same as that in the window portion 14 b . accordingly , a mark 141 b (+) indicated on the lower side of the window portion 14 b is the determination result . fig7 ( a ) and 7 ( b ) show a urine test sheet in which the reaction result is shown by a mark for a prescribed subject to be tested , as is the case for the embodiment shown in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ). also in fig7 ( a ) and 7 ( b ), as in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ), the change in the above - mentioned coloring is set in a stepwise manner by shading , and detection pads 127 e to 127 h corresponding to the set number of steps are formed on the support sheet 11 . the embodiment in fig7 ( a ) is , however , different from that in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ) in that the mark is formed by the reaction reagent on the detection pads 127 e to 127 h . that is , marks 13 e (−), 13 f (+), 13 g (++) and 13 h (+++) themselves are indicated by a reaction reagent that changes coloring by a urine specimen . in the present embodiment , in order to read marks 13 e to 13 h in which the coloring has changed , a mask 14 for exclusive use is employed . in the mask 14 , so that each of the marks 13 e , 13 f , 13 g and 13 h are readable , window portions 14 a , 14 b , 14 c and 14 d are opened , and for each of the window portions , films colored in the same color as the coloring in each of steps are provided , respectively . that is , the reading of each of the marks 13 e , 13 f , 13 g and 13 h is performed via films on each of window portions 14 a to 14 d of the mask 14 after overlapping the mask 14 upon the urine test sheet 1 . fig7 ( b ) shows a state where the urine test sheet 1 was immersed in a urine specimen and then taken out , and after that , the prescribed period of time has been elapsed . the marks 13 e to 13 h on the detection pads 127 e to 127 h uniformly show a prescribed coloring , and as the result of the change into this coloring , it is configured such that reading of the mark is impossible through films colored in the same color as or deeper than the coloring . that is , in fig7 ( b ), the marks 13 g (+) and 13 h (+++) can not be read via films on the window portion 14 d of the mask 14 . in this case , the step shown by the palest mark among unreadable marks is the determination result for the subject to be tested . that is , in fig5 ( b ), such determination result as 13 g (++) is drawn . fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ) are modified examples of the urine test sheet 1 shown in fig7 ( a ) and 7 ( b ). in the present embodiment , in place of the window portions 14 a to 14 d of the mask 14 described in fig7 ( a ) and 7 ( b ), a window portion 15 is provided directly on the support sheet 11 . that is , as shown in fig8 ( a ), in the face of the support sheet 11 on which the detection pad 12 is formed , in the same way as in fig7 ( a ) and 7 ( b ), marks 13 e to 13 h are formed by the reaction reagent on each of detection pads 127 i to 127 l . each of marks are formed , however , in the same thickness as that of the detection pad 12 ( not shown ) so that marks can be observed also from the backside of each of the detection pads 127 i to 127 l . fig8 ( b ) shows a state of observing the urine test sheet 1 through the window portion 15 , the urine test sheet 1 being in a state where it was immersed in a urine specimen and then taken out , and after that , a prescribed period of time has elapsed . after the immersion in a urine specimen and then the elapse of a prescribed period of time , the marks 13 e to 13 h formed of the reaction reagent show the change in coloring . at this time , the urine specimen permeates into the reaction reagent and the change in the above - mentioned coloring can be observed also from the backside . consequently , it is sufficient to open window portions 15 a to 15 d in positions where the marks 13 e to 13 h are observable from the face opposite to the face of the support sheet 11 on which the detection pad 12 is formed , and to provide films colored in the same color as the coloring of each of steps for each of the window portions 15 a to 15 d , respectively . in the present embodiment , as is the case for the fifth embodiment , such a determination result as the mark 13 g (++) shown in the position corresponding to the window portion through which the mark is unreadable , that is , the window portion 15 c is obtained . fig9 shows one in which information relating to the urine test sheet 1 is shown on the support sheet 11 by an optically readable code . in urine tests , a work for transcribing determination results to a diagnosis table or the like is generated , and there may be such a risk that , in the case where a large amount of tests are treated in a certain period of time as is the case for group examinations , in addition to the existence of a plurality of determination steps as described above , a transcription error is generated . consequently , in order to generate no transcription error , a code is indicated so that results can be read with an optical reader . by the indication of the code , for example , it is sufficient that , in the above - mentioned transcription work , each of information is read with a known optical reader and the read information is transferred to an apparatus or the like in which check tables of respective subjects are stored and is transcribed automatically . as to relevant information , at least information for identify a subject , information for specifying a subject to be tested ( hereinafter , collectively referred to as “ id information ”), and information for showing each of marks shown in the above - mentioned fourth to sixth embodiments may be included . id information 16 a may be indicated on a holding part of the support sheet 11 by which the sheet is held with a hand upon being taken in and out of a paper cup containing a urine specimen , that is , on the end part opposite to the end part in which the detection pad is formed in the longitudinal direction of the support sheet . information 16 b to 16 e showing each of marks are shown , in the present embodiment , on the backside of the support sheet 11 in the sixth embodiment , that is , on the lower side of the window portions 15 a to 15 d while corresponding to each other , and for example , in the fourth and fifth embodiments , the information 16 b to 16 e may be indicated on the surface of the support sheet 11 ( not shown ). that is , the information 16 b to 16 e may be indicated in positions corresponding to the marks after the reaction . in the embodiment , the cord is exemplified by a bar code , but it shall not be restricted to a bar code and , for example , a matrix type two dimensional code etc . are also usable . in the fourth embodiment to eighth embodiment , for a single subject to be tested , the detection pads 12 for showing a plurality of steps ( 4 steps in the present embodiment ) are arranged in series . when a plurality of subjects to be tested are to be measured in one test , it is necessary to arrange one , in which the detection pads 12 are arranged in series in number corresponding to the number of steps , in a plurality of rows . in this case , a plurality of urine test sheets 1 may be immersed in a paper cup for collecting a urine specimen , but each becomes individual and , in the case where a large amount of specimens are treated as is the case for group examinations , a sheet may coexist with a sheet of another specimen or may become dispersed and lost . consequently , as shown in fig1 , in order to make measurement possible in a collection amount of a urine specimen that is required for a single subject to be tested , and to make collective measurement possible for every subject , each of the detection pads 12 for every plural and different subject to be tested is arranged in parallel on the support 11 . in the present embodiment , the urine test sheet 1 is formed in a hollow polygonal column of an approximately regular hexagon , and , as to the state before measurement , each of the detection pads 12 is arranged in parallel on a flat sheet and , when it is inserted into a paper cup containing a collected urine specimen , so as to make the insertion easy , while setting a support sheet part , in which the detection pad 12 for a single subject to be tested is arranged , to be a fold line , it may be formed into the polygonal column shape . meanwhile , in the present embodiment , one provided with the window portion on the backside as is described in fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ) are arranged in parallel , but the embodiment shall not be restricted to this , and the one described in fig5 ( a ), 5 ( b ), 6 ( a ), 6 ( b ), 7 ( a ), 7 ( b ) or 9 is may also be arranged .	6
the present invention contemplates the provision of a novel apparatus for cleaning and sanitizing brushes , particularly hair brushes 10 and , in general , includes a carrier 11 which releasably supports a brush to be cleaned and presents the bristles 12 of the brush in a unique and effective manner to one or more cleaning devices . more specifically , the carrier moves along a predetermined path through a plurality of stations each having a cleaning device . a cam 13 extends along the path and co - acts with a follower 14 ( fig7 ) on the carrier to turn the latter arcuately about the line of travel and the cam is shaped to present the bristles of the brush 10 to the cleaning device at each of the stations . in addition , the cam also arcuately oscillates the carrier and hence the brush at least at one of the stations , and preferably at all of the stations , to effectively clean all the bristles of the brush . in the form shown in the drawings , the carrier 11 and the cleaning devices are disposed within an elongated rectangular sheet metal box 15 which includes opposed front and rear end walls 16 and 17 and which is horizontally mounted in an upright cabinet 18 with the front and rear walls of the box being generally flush respectively with the front and rear walls 19 and 20 of the cabinet . the path of the carrier 11 is straight and extends from a position adjacent the front wall 16 to a position near the rear wall 17 and back . the cleaning devices include at least one nozzle which sprays a liquid on the bristles 12 of the brush 10 , at least one power - rotated member with generally radially projecting fingers which engage the bristles , and another nozzle which subsequently sprays the bristles again . herein , there are six aligned stations 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 and 26 ( fig4 and 5 ) with nozzles 27 and 28 located at the first two stations 21 and 22 , rotating members 29 and 30 at the next two stations 23 and 24 and nozzles 31 and 32 at the last two stations 25 and 26 . drive mechanism is provided to move the carrier 11 back and forth between the front and rear end walls 16 and 17 of the box 15 . herein , this mechanism includes a horizontal screw 33 extending between the end walls and a nut 34 which is threaded on the screw and which is part of the carrier . as will be explained more in detail , the cam 13 and the follower 14 generally hold the nut from turning and , accordingly , the nut travels along the screw as the latter is rotated . the screw is formed with a forward thread 35 which drives the nut from the front end wall 16 to the rear end wall 17 and a return thread 36 which drives the nut in the reverse direction . as shown in fig8 the screw 33 and the nut 34 are a conventional ball screw and nut assembly with balls 37 ( fig8 ) which are captured within the nut and roll along either the thread 35 or the thread 36 which are in the form of grooves . the screw is fast on a shaft 38 with the forward end portion 39 of the shaft reduced and journaled in a bearing 40 . the latter is mounted in a cylindrical plug 41 which is fastened to the front end wall 16 by the screws 42 . at its rear end , the shaft 38 is reduced in cross section as indicated at 44 and is journaled in another bearing 43 mounted in a second cylindrical plug 45 which is fastened to the rear end wall 17 by screws 46 . the end portion 44 projects through holes 47 and 48 in the plug 45 and the rear end wall where the shaft is driven by a motor 49 ( fig4 ) through a drive train 50 . to complete the carrier 11 , a stub shaft 51 ( fig7 and 8 ) received in a radial bore 52 in the periphery of the nut 34 projects radially outwardly from the nut and is pinned to the latter as indicated at 53 . an end portion 54 of an elongated spring finger 55 abuts the underside of the stub shaft with the finger projecting horizontally toward the front end wall 16 of the box 15 . a washer 56 abuts the underside of the finger end portion 54 and the end portion of a flat bar 57 is received in a recess 58 in the washing with the bar being disposed beneath and generally paralleling the spring finger . this assembly is held together by a screw 59 which projects through the bar , the washer and the spring end portion 54 and is threaded into the end of the stub shaft 51 . in accordance with the invention , each brush includes means which permit easy cooperating engagement between the brush and carrier so as to permit the brush to be reliably supported and transported by the carrier through the operating stations of the cleaning apparatus . to this end , a block 60 is rigidly provided on the back 61 on the brush . the block 60 may either be integrally formed on the back , as shown in fig2 or may be a separate part secured to the back by an adhesive 62 , as illustrated in fig3 . the block 60 , as clearly depicted in fig2 and 3 , has a length substantially less than the length of the back and is formed with a longitudinal aperture 63 which is of a size and shape generally complemental to the cross section of the bar 57 so that the block may be received on the bar which thereby supports the brush on the nut 34 . as the block is slid onto the bar , the upper side of the block engages a downwardly projecting hook 64 on the free end of the spring finger 55 and resiliently cams the finger upwardly . when the down behind the block as shown in fig8 to releasably hold the brush on the carrier . to permit the brush to be placed on and removed from the carrier when the latter is adjacent the front end wall 16 , this wall is formed with a rectangular opening 65 ( fig1 and 5 ) through which the brush may be moved into and out of the box 15 . flexible strips 66 may be attached to the wall 16 to hand down over the opening and prevent liquid from the cleaning nozzles from spraying out of the box while permitting the brush to pass through the opening , the box also having a removable cover 92 . in the present instance , the cam 13 is a slot formed longitudinally in a sleeve 67 which encircles the screw 33 and the nut 34 . the sleeve spans the end walls 16 and 17 of the box 15 and its ends are telescoped over the plugs 41 and 45 which support the sleeve . screws 68 project through the end portions of the sleeve and are threaded into the plugs 41 , 45 to prevent the sleeve from turning . as shown in fig7 and 8 , the stub shaft 51 projects through the cam slot 13 and the cam follower 14 is a plastic sleeve which encircles the stub shaft and engages the sides of the slot . thus , except for the limited turning of the nut 34 as permitted by the shape of the cam slot , the follower and the slot hold the nut against turning so that the nut travels along the screw 33 as the latter is rotated . in the form of the invention illustrated in the drawings , the brush 10 initially is supported on the carrier 11 with the bristles 12 pointed down . the nozzles 27 , 28 , 31 and 32 and the cleaning members 29 and 30 , however , are aligned horizontally along one side of the screw 33 . accordingly , the initial portion 69 of the cam slot is stright and opens downwardly . at the point where the brush approaches the first station 21 , the follower 14 engages a ramp 70 ( fig6 ) in the cam slot and this turns the carrier . because of the non - circular cross sections of the bar 57 and the hole 63 , the brush turns through approximately 90 degrees so that the bristles face sidewise toward the nozzles and the cleaning members . thereafter , the cam slot is formed with zigzag portions 71 which extend above and below the centerline of the screw 33 so that the carrier and the brush are oscillated up and down between an upper position as shown in solid lines in fig9 and a lower position as illustrated in broken lines . these portions 71 of the slot are arranged so that there is at least one complete oscillation of the brush as it passes through each cleaning station . thus , all of the bristles are presented to each nozzle and to each cleaning member even though the bristles may be supported by an arcuate underside 72 of the brush . as shown in fig4 and 5 , the rotating cleaning members 29 and 30 include hubs 73 and 74 respectively which are keyed to a horizontal shaft 75 . this shaft parallels the screw 33 in the same general horizontal plane as the screw and is journaled in the box 15 by means of a bearing 76 in the rear end wall 17 and a bracket 77 secured to a side wall 78 of the box . the shaft 75 projects through the rear end wall so that it , like the screw , may be driven by the motor 49 through the drive train 50 . thus , the drive includes a gear belt 79 trained about a toothed pulley 80 on the motor shaft 81 and a second toothed pully 82 fast on the outer end of the shaft 75 so that the motor drives the shaft through the pulleys and the belt . the shaft 75 and the screw 33 are driven in synchronization but with the screw turning at a slower speed by an endless chain 83 which extends around a sprocket 84 on the shaft 75 and a larger sprocket 85 on the screw shaft 38 . the fingers of the rotary cleaning member 29 herein are comparatively stiff wire bristles 86 projecting radially from the hub 73 and arranged in six groups equally spaced around the hub . as illustrated in fig9 the bristles 86 are sufficiently long to project through the entire length of the bristles 12 of the brush 10 and to flex against the brush bottom 72 . thus , the wire bristles remove hair entrained in the brush bristles or at least bring the hair to the outer ends of the brush bristles . in order that the matting of the hair as it is removed does not impede the effectiveness of the wire bristles , the cleaning member 29 also includes a plurality of knife blades 87 which are mounted on the hub 73 and cut the matted hair . herein , there are three such blades equally spaced around the hub and anchored in the latter with the blades projecting radially from the hub and extending longitudinally of the shaft 75 . in the present instance , the fingers of the second rotary cleaning member 30 are intended primarily to remove hair left on the ends of the bristles 12 of the brush 10 by the cleaning member 29 and , to this end , the fingers on the member 30 are flat strips 88 of a flexible material such as rubber or the like . the strips are arranged in three groups equally spaced angularly around the hub 74 of the member 30 with the inner ends of the strips anchored in the hub . the strips are long enough that their free end portions flap against the ends of the brush bristles 12 to remove lossened hair therefrom . if desired , the member 30 may include knife blades 89 similar to the blades 87 to cut up matted hair being removed by the strips . the four nozzles 27 , 28 , 31 and 32 are mounted on and communicate with the interior of a horizontal manifold pipe 90 ( fig4 and 5 ) which is disposed behind and slightly above the shaft 75 and parallels the latter . an inlet pipe 91 projecting through and mounted on the side wall 78 of the box 15 is connected by a t - joint 93 to the manifold pipe to support the latter and to supply liquid to the nozzles through the manifold pipe . hot water is drawn from a suitable source ( not shown ) through a pipe 94 by a pump 95 , which is driven by the motor 49 , and the water is delivered to the inlet pipe 91 from the pump through a pipe 96 which is controlled by a solenoid - operated valve 97 , the temperature of the water being visually shown by an indicator 98 which communicates with the pipe 96 and is mounted on the front wall 19 of the cabinet 18 ( see fig1 ). in order to sanitize the brushes , the temperature of the water should be at least 180 ° fahrenheit , and preferrably suitable controls are provided to prevent cycling of the machine when the water temperature is below such temperature . liquid soap from a suitable source ( not shown ) also is delivered to the inlet pipe 91 and hence to the nozzles through a pipe 99 which is connected to the inlet pipe and is controlled by a second solenoid - operated valve 100 . in the present instance , the soap is concentrated and includes a disinfectant and the soap is mixed with water from the pipe 96 with the water drawing the soap into the pipe 91 by a jet pumping action , the ratio of water to soap concentrate being on the order of twenty to one . in other words , water is delivered to the nozzles when the valve 97 is open and the valve 100 is closed and soap is delivered to the nozzles when both valves are open . thus , by selectively controlling the valves 97 and 100 , soap or hot rinse water may be sprayed through the nozzles . as shown in fig4 and 5 , the nozzles 27 and 32 are shaped to spray liquid in a generally horizontal plane and the nozzles 28 and 31 are shaped to spray in a generally vertical plane so that a brush 10 being cleaned is sprayed vertically and horizontally both before and after it is engaged by the rotary cleaning members 29 and 30 . after being sprayed on the brush , the liquid from the nozzles , together with hair removed from the brush 10 , drains through a hole 101 in the bottom wall 102 ( fig5 ) of the box 15 and a rigid tube 103 secured to the bottom wall . a flexible tube 104 ( fig1 ) is attached to the tube 103 and leads to the filter bag 105 removably supported in a drum 106 so that the hair is collected in the bag while the liquid filters through the bag to the bottom of the drum , the drum being mounted in the cabinet 18 beneath the box 15 . a pump 107 mounted in the bottom of the cabinet and driven by a motor 108 draws the filtered liquid out of the drum through a hose 109 and delivers the liquid to a drain through a hole 110 . the drive motor 49 and the solenoids of the valves 97 and 100 are operated by means of any suitable control circuit through a cycle in which the brush 10 moves from the position adjacent the front end wall 16 of the box 15 as shown in fig5 to the rear end wall 17 and back to the starting position , each cycle being initiated by manually pressing a button 111 ( fig1 ) or the front wall 19 of the cabinet . in a typical cycle , the brush 10 is turned through 90 degrees during the beginning of its forward travel and then is sprayed with a solution of liquid soap and water at a temperature of 180 ° f . by the nozzles 27 and 28 , the valves 97 and 100 being open . next , the bristles 12 of the brush are engaged successively by the bristles 86 of the rotary member 29 and by the strips 88 of the rotary member 30 and then the brush bristles are sprayed again with soap solution by the nozzles 31 and 32 . it will be appreciated that any long or matter hair which is removed from a passing brush by the bristles 86 and strips 88 and which tends to wrap around the rotating members upon which the bristles and blades are mounted will be severed by the respective blades 87 and 89 . as the brush begins its return travel , the valve 100 is closed and the valve 97 remains open so that the nozzles 31 and 32 rinse the bristles 12 with hot water . the brush bristles next are engaged again by the rotary members 29 and 30 and then are given a final rinse of hot water by the nozzles 27 and 28 . in the final portion of the return travel of the brush 10 , the latter is oscillated rather vigorously to shake excess water from the bristles 12 and , preferably , this is done with the bristles facing downwardly . the cam slot 13 and follower 14 are used to effect this action and , for this purpose , the portion of the slot between the initial straight portion 69 and the ramp 70 has one side 112 straight ( fig6 , 11 and 12 ) and the other side is formed with a plurality of notches 113 , herein two in number . means is provided to hold the follower against the straight side 112 on the forward travel of the brush and to cause the follower to enter the notches 113 on the return travel whereby the notches produce the shaking action . herein , this means comprises a torsion spring 114 which is mounted on the sleeve 67 and engages the projecting end portion 115 &# 39 ; of a screw 115 ( fig7 and 14 ) threaded into the nut 34 diametrically opposite the stub shaft 51 . more specifically , the torsion spring 114 is wound around a pin 116 ( fig8 ) which parallels the screw 33 and is clamped by a nut 117 to an ear 118 struck up from the upper side of the cam sleeve 67 , the pin projecting from the ear in the direction of the forward movement of the nut 34 . one end 119 of the spring is anchored in the ear and the other or free end portion 120 of the spring extends down through an opening 121 in the sleeve and projects along the screw toward the rear end wall 17 of the box 15 . during the forward travel of the nut , the free end portion 120 of the spring is in its relaxed position as shown in full lines in fig1 and the screw 115 passes to the right of this end portion as viewed in fig7 as the follower 14 passes the notches 113 so that the spring resiliently prevents the nut from turning in a direction which would cause the follower to enter the notches . once the follower has passed the notches , the screw 115 engages the curved end 122 of the spring and moves the spring to one side as shown in broken lines in fig1 so that the pin passes the spring end portion 120 with the nut 34 travelling in a straight line . as soon as the screw 115 passes the curved spring end 122 , the free end portion 120 of the spring 114 returns to its relaxed position . as a result , on the return travel of the nut 34 the screw 115 engages the curved end and causes the spring to flex so that the screw passes along the other or left side of the end portion 120 as viewed in fig1 ( see also fig1 ). this urges the nut to turn in the direction in which the follower 14 bears against the notched edge of the cam slot 13 . as a result , the follower is successively moved into each of the notches 113 and , as the follower enters and leaves each notch , the brush 10 is swung to the side as shown by full lines in fig1 ( see also fig1 ) and then returned to its downwardly facing position illustrated in broken lines . the entering edge 123 of each notch is generally circumferential of the sleeve 67 with the result that the follower enters each notch abruptly resulting in a vigorous shaking of the brush . to avoid the possibility of jamming , the leading edges 124 of the notches are inclined so that the follower is gradually cammed out of each notch . the cabinet 18 includes a chamber 124 ( fig1 ) above the box 15 for drying cleaned brushes 10 and access to this chamber is obtained by opening a door 126 on the front of the cabinet , the door being horizintally hinged along its lower edge to the cabinet as indicated at 127 and being provided with a suitable handle 128 . a plurality of horizontal rods 129 project forwardly from the rear of the cabinet and receive the holes 63 in the blocks 60 on the backs of the brushes to support the latter . an ultraviolet lamp 130 for further sanitizing the brushes extends across the top of the chamber and the air within the chamber is heated by electric heating elements 131 in the back of the chamber and circulated by an electric fan 132 , the lamp , the heating elements and the fan being controlled through a suitable circuit ( not shown ) by a push button 133 on the front of the cabinet . the cabinet also provided with a storage chamber 134 below the box 15 and access to this chamber is achieved by opening a second door 135 which is supported on the cabinet along one side edge by a vertical hinge 136 and is provided with a handle 137 . the brushes 10 are supported on racks 138 in the chamber 134 with the bristles 12 facing up and the bristles are subjected to the rays of a second sanitizing ultraviolet lamp 139 extending across the top of this chamber , this lamp being turned on and off by a switch button 140 on the front of the cabinet . the brushes stored in such compartment are maintained in a sanitized condition until reuse . with the apparatus described above , a brush 10 is inserted through the opening 65 and slipped onto the rod 64 of the carrier 11 where it is held by the spring finger 55 . a cleaning cycle is initiated by pressing the button 111 which energizes the various components of the apparatus . this turns the screw 33 to cause the nut 34 and hence the brush 10 to travel toward the rear end wall 17 of the box 15 and back to the starting position . at the same time , the shaft 75 is driven to turn the rotary cleaning member 29 and 30 and the valves 97 and 100 are sequentially oiperated to selectively spray either a soap and hot water solution or hot water through the nozzles 27 , 28 , 31 and 32 . as the brush approaches the nozzle 27 , the cam 13 turns the carrier so that the bristles 12 of the brush face the nozzles and the cleaning members and , thereafter , the cam oscillates the brush as it passes the nozzles and the cleaning members on both the forward and return travel of the carrier so that the brush bristler are thoroughly cleaned of loose hair and other foreign matter . near the final portion of the return travel of the nut 34 , the follower 14 enters the notches 113 in the cam slot 13 to vigorously oscillate the brush and shake excess water from the bristles . the cycle is complete when the carrier comes to rest at its original position at which time the cleaned brush is removed from the box 15 through the opening 65 . it has been found that an effective cleaning cycle requires less than 15 seconds and , obviously , very little time is used in loading and unloading the brushes . cleaned and sanitized brushes are hung on the rods 129 in the chamber 125 to dry and , thereafter , they are removed from the chamber 125 and stored on the racks 138 in the chamber 134 .	0
the invention relates to anamorphic objective lenses , and in particular to a range of different focal length anamorphic objective lenses covering at least a focal length range from 25 mm to 135 mm and providing low residual chromatic aberration , a traditional oval bokeh shape and different depths of field in the vertical and horizontal azimuth directions of the field . the term “ lens group ” as used in connection with the anamorphic objective lens disclosed herein means one or more individual lens elements . also , the terms “ optical stop ” and “ stop ” are equivalent terms that can be used interchangeably . a “ field stop ” as the term is used herein is a stop where the chief rays do not go through the center of the stop at the optical axis and the general purpose of a field stop is to vignette the edges of the radiation beams . in the example provided herein , the front lens group is negatively powered and the rear lens group is positively powered and they have been paired with an anamorphic lens group to work in unison and match the preferred optical interface characteristics of sensors , where near telecentric radiation beams approach the sensor . the example embodiment discussed below is a medium fast full aperture moderately wide angle field of view anamorphic objective lens of the fixed focal length ( prime ) type . in the example embodiment , all of the lens elements are made from glasses . the lens element optical surface shapes in the spherical first lens group and the spherical third lens groups are all rotationally symmetrical about the optical axis such as spherical and in the anamorphic second lens group at least one lens element surface shape is non - rotationally symmetrical about the optical axis such as cylindrical . the aforementioned optical example , although providing these kinds of features and others like low breathing and telecentric radiation output at the sensor , are capable of achieving suitable levels of various performance including image quality resolution and contrast , high relative illumination for low shading and efficient optical throughput at the sensor via near telecentric radiation output at the sensor , which telecentric radiation output is less than about 10 degrees . the novel configuration of having a negatively powered spherical first lens group , an anamorphic second lens group followed by a positively powered spherical third lens group containing an optical stop may produce some residual distortion , astigmatism and field curvature aberrations but those aberrations to a tolerable extent contribute to the anamorphic look as desired by many cinematographers . in addition , a balanced blend of the afore - described lens characteristics may aid in cost reduction of manufacture . with the advent and adoption of digital cameras employing electronic sensors a large back focal length which was once required for film cameras having a reflex mirror may be less necessary but is still provided for in the novel anamorphic objective lens . the example embodiment disclosed operates at an aperture of f / 2 . 4 and over a waveband of 455 - 656 nm and this waveband is what was used in the transverse ray aberration ( tra ) figures ( see bottom right of tra figures ) and in the mtf figures ( see top right of mtf figures ). a faster or slower aperture may be required and an extended waveband may be required . the aperture may be increased or reduced and the waveband expanded and the optical designs re - optimized to maximize image quality over such apertures and wavebands without departing from the invention . also , during such re - optimization alternate glass types may be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure . furthermore , more complex optical surface shapes such as aspherical and free - form surfaces may be introduced for expanded performance but at the likely effect of increased manufacturing cost . fig1 - 16 relate to an example embodiment in which the focal length in the y and x directions are 42 . 47 mm and 21 . 47 mm , the overall length is 245 mm from the first refractive surface vertex of the lens to the image vertex , the front diameter clear aperture is 89 . 61 mm , the back focal length from the rear refractive surface vertex to the image vertex is 36 . 07 mm and the close focus distance from the object to the image is 985 . 00 mm . the focal lengths of the spherical first lens group , anamorphic second lens group and spherical third lens group are 130 . 62 mm , − 132 . 23 mm and 133 . 86 mm for the far , intermediate and close focus distances , 1032 . 81 mm in the y direction and − 140 . 60 mm in the x direction and 66 . 75 mm . the focal lengths of the five lens elements of the anamorphic second lens group containing at least one cylindrical surface are in order from an object space to an image space − 81 . 27 mm ( in x direction ), − 64 . 50 mm ( in x direction ), 1379 . 50 mm ( in y direction ), 90 . 87 mm ( in x direction ) and 6151 . 28 mm ( in y direction . it is to be understood that the focal lengths of the five lens elements of the anamorphic second lens group in the other x and y directions are substantially large and hence have little optical power . the nominal image size is 8 . 91 mm vertical half height and 10 . 65 mm horizontal half width . the lens system comprises a total of fourteen lens elements with twelve singlets and one doublet . the spherical first group contains two lens elements with one element axially movable for focusing at different distances , the anamorphic second lens group contains five cylindrically surfaced lens elements with four y cylinders , three x cylinders and 3 plano surface shapes and the spherical third lens group contains seven lens elements . the optical stop lies within the spherical third lens group . in this example embodiment the telecentric radiation output is about 7 . 8 degrees at all three focus positions . optical prescription table 1 is set forth below in the appendix and describes a select example of the embodiment of the anamorphic objective lens disclosed herein . table 2 contains focal length , anamorphic squeeze and illumination data . in table 2 it is shown that the relative illumination is above 40 %, which is sufficiently high for low shading across the field of view when an anamorphic objective lens is used in combination with an electronic sensor at the image plane , such as when the anamorphic objective lens constitutes part of a digital camera . in fig4 - 9 , the transverse ray aberration performance for the example embodiment is shown with minimized residual astigmatic and longitudinal and lateral chromatic aberrations on curved image surfaces to approximately emulate curved object surfaces . fig4 and 5 show transverse ray aberration plots at a far focus distance , 6 and 7 show transverse ray aberration plots at an intermediate focus distance and fig8 and 9 show transverse ray aberration plots at a close focus distance . in fig1 - 15 , the polychromatic mtf performance at a spatial frequency of 20 cycles / mm is shown for the example embodiment to be greater than 70 % at all field positions at the far and close focus distances and greater than 75 % for all axial field positions at an intermediate focus distance . fig1 and 11 show mtf at a far focus distance , fig1 and 13 show mtf at an intermediate focus distance and fig1 and 15 show mtf at a close focus distance . in fig1 , the periphery of the field of view at far , intermediate and close focus distances is shown on a plane in object space located at substantially 3 . 66 m from the image surface . the variation in the field of view size is mainly dependent on variations through focus in the anamorphic squeeze ratio , distortion in x and y directions and focus breathing caused by change in the x and y focal lengths . field stops may be employed in additional locations to those given in table 1 for the example embodiment . they may be located anywhere within the lens system . their purpose is to vignette the radiation and may be circular or rectangular or even rectangular with radius corners . the five lens elements in the anamorphic second lens group with the cylindrical surfaces of the example embodiment additionally may each have two refractive surfaces which may be formed by x and y cylindrical surfaces or y and x cylindrical surfaces with the x and y surfaces substantially perpendicular to one another . this arrangement may improve the imaging characteristics but likely at the effect of additional manufacturing cost . although the present invention has been fully described in connection with an embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings and data listing , it is to be noted that various changes and modifications including smaller and larger focal lengths , smaller and larger anamorphic squeeze ratios , smaller and larger full aperture f / numbers , smaller and larger image sizes , smaller and larger wavebands , etc . ( e . g ., 435 nm to 656 nm ) may be made as will be apparent to those skilled in the art . such changes and modifications are to be understood as being included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims .	6
applicants have discovered that using an anion electrode that is thicker than a cation electrode , but substantially similar in effective capacitance ( such that the effective capacitance of neither electrode is more than two times the capacitance of the other ), provides a cdi cell with greater performance characteristics . surprisingly , and contrary to conventional wisdom as expressed in the &# 39 ; 639 patent mentioned above , the phenomenon is not observed in reverse ; that is , if the anion electrode is much thicker than the cation electrode . this concept is illustrated with reference to the attached figures . an exploded view of the inside of a cdi cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is illustrated schematically in fig1 . the cell consists of a stack of discs , consisting in order , of an anion electrode , 12 , an anion selective membrane , 13 , a woven spacer , 14 , that serves as a fluid flow path , a cation selective membrane , 15 , and a cation electrode , 16 . the stack of materials is compressed between two conductive graphite carbon blocks ( poco graphite , inc . ), 11 and 17 , which serve as electrical contacts to the electrodes . during the charging , or purification cycle , the anion electrode contacting graphite carbon block , 11 , is electrically connected to the positive terminal of the power supply . the cation electrode contacting graphite carbon block , 17 is connected to the negative terminal of the power supply . a plurality of such cells may be used , in series or in parallel , in alternative embodiments of the invention . the anion and cation electrodes , ( 12 ) and ( 16 ) are cut from sheets , composed of activated carbon , conductive carbon black and a ptfe binder . electrodes of this type are widely used in electric double layer capacitors . in these tests , electrodes of varying thickness were obtained from japan gore - tex , inc ., okayama , japan . the dimensions of the electrodes in the cell of this embodiment are 3 ″ in diameter , and have a 0 . 5 ″ diameter hole ( 18 ) in the center to allow the treated water to pass out of the cell . the anion membrane ( 13 ) is cut from sheets of neosepta am1 ( amerida / astom ). the dimensions are 3 ″ od with a 0 . 5 ″ id . the cation membrane ( 15 ) is cut from sheets of neosepta cm1 ( amerida / astom ). the spacer , 14 , is a 3 . 25 ″ od × 0 . 5 ″ id disc cut from a 0 . 004 ″ woven polyester screen . the flow of water into the cell is radial , with water entering the cell from the outside edge of the spacer , ( 14 ), and flowing out the center exit tube , ( 30 ). holes ( 31 ) are positioned in the center exit tube to enable water to flow from the spacer into the tube . a cross section of exemplary cell components as assembled in an exemplary cylindrical cell housing , ( 39 ), are shown in fig2 a . the housing consists of a top half ( 40 ) and a bottom half ( 41 ), joined by means of 4 bolts ( 46 ). the cation contacting graphite carbon block , ( 17 ) is mounted to a pneumatically actuated air cylinder ( 47 ). the cell components , 12 - 16 are stacked on top of the carbon block ( 17 ), and around the exit tube ( 30 ). the anion contacting carbon block ( 11 ), is rigidly mounted to the top half to the housing ( 40 ). electrical leads 44 and 45 connect the anion contacting carbon block ( 11 ) and the cation contacting carbon block ( 17 ) to the power supply . water is brought into the cell through the water inlet ( 43 ) and fills the circular cavity ( 51 ) surrounding the cell components ( 12 - 16 ). the water flows radially through the spacer ( 14 ) and exits the cell via holes ( 31 ) in the exit tube ( 30 ) and the cell water outlet ( 42 ). the pneumatic cylinder is mounted to a base ( 49 ), which is attached to the bottom half of the housing ( 41 ) by means of bolts ( 50 ). the air cylinder piston ( 48 ) is mounted to the cation contacting carbon block 17 . when the air cylinder is activated the air cylinder piston is extended from the air cylinder , raising ( 17 ) and compressing the cell assembly as shown in fig2 b . in operation of this exemplary embodiment , as shown in fig3 , water is pumped from a reservoir , ( 61 ), via a peristaltic pump ( 62 ) into the cell ( 39 ). treated water is analyzed with a conductivity probe ( 63 ). the output of the conductivity probe is converted to total dissolved solids ( tds ), based on a nacl calibration . power is applied to the cell by means of an programmable battery cycle tester ( 64 ) ( arbin bt2000 ). potential , current and conductivity are recorded as a function of time on a computer ( 65 ). the inlet pressure to the cell is monitored by an inlet pressure transducer ( 66 ), whose output can optionally be included in the arbin ( 64 ). the cell tds can be utilized as a set point by the battery cycle tester in the controlling charge and discharge cycles . inlet water tds is nominally 480 ppm . at the beginning of the charge cycle , the tds rapidly declines to some minimum value ( see fig4 ). after reaching the minimum value , tds increases slowly . typically charge cycles are conducted until the product tds reaches 320 ppm , at which point the polarity of the potential is reversed , causing the cell to discharge . there is a rapid increase in current and tds on discharge . after reaching a peak , the tds decreases and the discharge is typically allowed to proceed until the product tds falls to 580 ppm . in some experiments it was considered useful to employ a ag / agcl reference electrode ( see fig5 ) ( 70 ) to determine how the potential split between the two electrodes . the position of the reference electrode is shown in fig5 . positioned in the circular cavity ( 51 ) surrounding the cell components , the solution potential should be constant . the chloride activity of the test water was estimated to be 0 . 00356 m using debye - huckle approximations for the activity coefficient . from this activity , the potential of the reference electrode was determined to be 0 . 367v vs . the standard hydrogen electrode . protocols could be programmed that enabled a short open circuit condition , or a so called current interrupt . this protocol enabled in - situ determination of the potential of each electrode , free of cell ir . activated carbon electrodes in thicknesses of 250 micron , 600 micron , 800 micron and 1000 micron , were obtained from japan gore - tex . these electrodes are marketed commercially for electrolytic double layer capacitor , and particularly for coin cell applications . cation membrane was either neosepta cm1 , obtained from astom or gore select ( gs018950 - 44us ) produced by w . l . gore & amp ; associates , inc . anion membrane was either neosepta am1 , also obtained from astom or fumasep fab 30 um non - brominated ( lot mi0507 - 140 ), obtained from fumatech gmbh . the spacer was a woven polyester screen , 0 . 004 ″ thick , 180 threads per inch , petenyl , obtained from tenyl tecidos técnicos ltda , brazil . a test water made to simulate a “ hard ” tap water was formulated using the following recipe . calcium chloride dehydrate 293 . 6 mg / l ( cacl2 • 2h2o ) sodium bicarbonate ( nahco3 ) 310 . 7 mg / l magnesium sulfate heptahydrate 246 . 5 mg / l ( mgso4 • 7h2o ) the resulting water had a total hardness of 300 mg caco3 / l , calcium hardness of 200 mg / l , alkalinity 185 mg caco3 / l and a ph of approximately 8 . 0 . 1 . electrodes and membranes are cut to 3 ″ od by 0 . 5 ″ id . spacer is cut slightly oversized 3 . 25 ″ od by 0 . 5 ″ id . 2 . all materials are soaked in a solution of 1000 ppm naci for a minimum of 1 hour . 3 . the materials are assembled in the cell as shown in fig1 - 2 . 4 . the cell is closed and the materials compressed by means of the pneumatic cylinder . 5 . a flow of 7 ml / min of test water is initiated by means of a peristaltic pump . 6 . potential was applied by an arbin battery cycler . the test protocol consisted of the application of 1 . 3 v across the cell ( also called charging or purify ). tds was recorded as a function of time as illustrated in fig4 . 7 . upon applying a potential , ions are removed and tds drops . this continues until the cell becomes saturated . at this point the tds exiting the cell begins to increase . 8 . when the tds level reaches 320 ppm , the polarity of the voltage is reversed (− 1 . 3 volts ) to fully discharge the cell ( also called discharge or waste ). this discharge step is continued until the outlet tds reaches a value of 580 ppm . at that point the cycle is repeated . 9 . average tds is calculated by averaging the tds measurements over the course of an entire charge ( purify ) cycle . a test is stopped when the average tds reaches 60 % of the incoming tds or an average tds of approximately 290 ppm . 10 . one can also define a cell capacity as the integrated tds over the duration of a charge cycle as illustrated in fig7 . the difference between tds in and tds out is measured at each point , multiplied by the flow rate and the time interval . this is integrated over all the peaks , to produce an integrated ion capacity . in the example and comparative examples , the cation membrane was gore select and the anion membrane was fumatech fab . current interrupt experiments were conducted to determine the in - situ capacitance of the electrodes in operation . it is well known that double layer capacitance is a function of both voltage and concentration , so measurement of the actual capacitance during operation must be determined by current interrupt techniques . the experiment is conducted much like described above , except the cell is configured with a ag / agcl reference electrode , as shown in fig5 , above . at periodic intervals an open circuit condition is created , which generates an interruption in current . the cell potential observed immediately after current interrupt is defined as the ir free potential of the cell . total cell potential and the potential of the anion electrode ( relative to the reference electrode ) are obtained experimentally . the potential of the cation electrode is taken by difference . the battery cycler also records the integrated charge over the course of each cycle . capacitance , dq / dv , can then be calculated as shown in fig8 . since three potential differences are available , total potential , anion potential and cation potential , three capacitances can also be obtained : ccell , canion and ccation . some of the experiments from the table 1 were repeated using the current interrupt protocol . in these experiments , neosepta membranes were utilized . in most cases only a few cycles were conducted and capacitance was averaged over the last few cycles after capacitance had stabilized . although nominally identical electrodes , the current interrupt data suggests that there is a very large difference in capacitance between the cation and anion electrodes . the anion electrode has approximately 1 / 10 the capacitance of the cation electrode . see table 2 once again , nominally identical electrodes had quite different capacitance when measured by means of current interrupt protocols . the average capacitance of the anion electrode was once again 1 / 10 of the cation electrode . total cell capacitance increased due to the extra capacity available from the thicker electrode . ( see table 2 ) by utilizing a 250 micron cation electrode in conjunction with a 800 micron anode electrode , the capacitance was balance so the difference in in - situ capacitance of the cation and anion electrodes was only about a factor of ½ . as shown in table 1 , above , achieving this balance unexpectedly resulted in a significant improvement in cell durability . in this experiment , an 800 micron cation and a 250 micron anion electrode were employed . in this case capacitance could not be calculated because the potential of the cation electrode became more positive , rather than more negative , over the course of a charging cycle . this indicates that some process other than electrostatic charging is taking place . it is interesting that this behavior coincides with the worst overall performance observed in table 1 . while particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described herein , the present invention should not be limited to such illustrations and descriptions . it should be apparent that changes and modifications may be incorporated and embodied as part of the present invention within the scope of the following claims .	2
an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to fig3 to 6 . fig3 shows a block diagram of a video camera to which an embodiment of the exposure control circuit of a solid state imager according to this invention is applied . in fig3 reference numeral 1 designates a solid state imager ( hereinafter simply referred to as a ccd ) whose electric charge storage time can be controlled . this ccd 1 stores an image light incident thereon through an imager lens ( not shown ) in the form of electric charge at every pixel and outputs the stored electric charge as an electrical imager signal . the electric charge storage time is controlled by a reset pulse sub which will be described later . the imager signal from the ccd 1 is amplified by an amplifying circuit 2 and then controlled to be a predetermined level by an automatic gain control circuit ( agc circuit ) 3 . then , the imager signal from the agc circuit 3 is supplied to a video signal processing circuit 4 and is converted by this video signal processing circuit 4 into a video signal of a predetermined format such as an ntsc system or the like . the video signal thus converted is supplied to a variety of video appliances such as a monitor receiver , a video tape recorder ( vtr ) or the like through an output terminal 5 . in this embodiment , the imager signal from the amplifying circuit 2 is supplied to a detecting circuit 11 and the image signal is peak - detected ( or detected in a mean value ) by this detecting circuit 11 . the detected output from the detecting circuit 11 is supplied to a comparator 12 . then , the detected output is compared with an output potential of a reference voltage generating circuit 13 by this comparing circuit 12 , and a difference therebetween is supplied to an analog - to - digital ( a / d ) converter 14 . the difference signal from the comparator 12 will hereinafter be referred to as a shutter control voltage . the shutter control voltage thus converted to digital data by the a / d converter 14 is supplied to a central processing unit ( cpu ) 15 which is formed of a microcomputer . this cpu 15 is connected with a mode switch 16 and corrects the shutter control voltage data by an exposure control mode instructed by the mode switch 16 and the shutter control voltage data thus corrected is supplied to a digital - to - analog ( d / a ) converter 17 in the form of a pulse - width - modulated wave ( pwm wave ), in which it is converted into an analog voltage signal . in that case , the pwm wave output from the cpu 15 is generated so as to have a nonlinear characteristic relative to the input shutter control voltage data . assuming that d p represents a value indicated by the pwm wave , then the maximum changed amount δd p of the pwm value d p per unit time is set by the following equation : where k is the constant . by setting the changing amount of the pwm value d p on the basis of the equation ( 1 ), the maximum changing amount δd p can be increased if the pwm value d p is a value of relatively low level and the maximum changing amount δd p can be suppressed if it is a value of relatively high level . then , a voltage signal , which results from converting the pwm wave , that is , the shutter control voltage data in the form of analog data , is supplied to a shutter speed control circuit 20 through a terminal 21 . the shutter speed control circuit 20 is constructed as shown in fig4 which is supplied with a image read - out pulse sg from a terminal 6 , a reset pulse rp from a terminal 7 and a vertical blanking signal vblk from a terminal 8 . the shutter speed control circuit 20 includes a saw tooth wave generating circuit 30 , and in this saw tooth wave generating circuit 30 , an output of a constant current source 31 is supplied to an inverting input terminal of an operational amplifier 32 and a noninverting input terminal of the operational amplifier 32 is grounded via a resistor r 1 . in this case , the output current value of the constant current source 31 is controlled by a current control circuit 24 which will be described later . the inverting input terminal of this operational amplifier 32 is connected to an output terminal of the operational amplifier 32 via a capacitor c 1 and a connection switch 33 is connected to the capacitor c 1 in parallel . this connection switch 33 is controlled by a connection control circuit 23 . this connection control circuit 23 is supplied with the image read - out pulse sg from the terminal 6 and generates a connection control signal which connects the connection switch 33 thereto in response to the image read - out pulse sg from the terminal 6 . in this case , the image read - out pulse sg is a pulse supplied to the connection control circuit 23 at every field of the video signal and supplied at the beginning of each field with the result that the connection switch 33 is temporarily placed in the connected state at the beginning of each field . the vertical blanking signal vblk supplied from the terminal 8 is supplied to the current control circuit 24 and the constant current source 31 is controlled by the current control circuit 24 in such a manner that the output current value is increased by a predetermined value only during the vertical blanking period . the saw tooth wave generating circuit 30 is constructed as described above so that it can derive a saw tooth wave in which an output potential is increased each time the connection switch 33 is placed in the connected state ( i . e ., at every field ) and instantly returned to the original potential after having reached to the predetermined potential . in this case , since the output current value of the constant current source 31 by the vertical blanking period vblk is increased as compared with that during other period according to this embodiment , as shown in fig5 d , the increasing ratio of this potential is increased ( i . e ., an inclination in which the potential is changed becomes steep ) when the output potential is increased more than a predetermined value during the vertical blanking period . the resultant saw tooth wave is supplied to the inverting input terminal of a comparator 25 and also fed to a detecting circuit 40 . the detecting circuit 40 is adapted to detect a peak value wherein the output of the saw tooth wave generating circuit 30 is supplied to the anode of a diode d 1 and the cathode of the diode d 1 is connected to a noninverting input terminal of an operational amplifier 41 . the cathode of the diode d 1 is grounded via a capacitor c 2 , and an output terminal of the operational amplifier 41 is connected to the inverting input terminal thereof . further , the shutter control voltage developed at the terminal 21 is supplied through a resistor r 2 to the anode of the diode d 2 , and the output terminal of the operational amplifier 41 is connected to the cathode of the diode d 2 . the anode of the diode d 2 is connected to the noninverting input terminal of the comparator 25 . since the shutter speed control circuit of this embodiment is constructed as described above , the peak level of the saw tooth wave from the saw tooth wave generating circuit 30 is detected by the detecting circuit 40 and the shutter control voltage is converged to the peak - detected level in a nonlinear fashion . that is , due to the nonlinear characteristic of the diode d 2 connected between the input side of the shutter control voltage and the detecting circuit 40 , as shown in fig6 if the input voltage ( shutter control voltage ) v s at the terminal 21 is low in level , the anode potential v d of the diode d 2 is changed in accordance with the change of the input voltage v s . whereas , if the input voltage v s approaches the peak v p of the saw tooth wave , then the potential v d is changed with a delay time due to the nonlinear characteristic of the diode d 2 . the comparator 25 compares the shutter control voltage developed at the anode of the diode d 2 and the saw tooth wave to produce a detecting signal which changes when the shutter control voltage exceeds the level of the saw tooth wave . this detecting signal is supplied to one input terminals of and gates 27 and 28 as a gate pulse , whereby a logical product of this gate pulse and the reset pulse rp supplied to the other input terminal of the and gate 27 from the terminal 7 and a logical product of negative logical value of the vertical blanking signal vblk supplied to the other input terminal of the and gate 28 from the terminal 8 an the gate pulse are respectively obtained at the and gates 27 and 28 . then , the logical product outputs of the two and gates 27 and 28 are supplied to one and the other input terminals of an or gate 29 to thereby obtain a logical sum output . this logical sum output is fed to the output terminal 22 as the reset pulse sub . this reset pulse sub developed at the terminal 22 is supplied through a driving circuit 18 to the ccd 1 ( see fig3 ) and electric charges stored in the ccd 1 are discharged in response to the reset pulse sub . operation of the video camera according to this embodiment will be described below , highlighting the control of the shutter speed with reference to fig5 a to 5h . if a picture of an object is taken in synchronism with the vertical synchronizing signal vd shown in fig5 a , then the vertical blanking signal vblk ( see fig5 b ) and the image read - out pulse sg ( see fig5 c ) are generated on the basis of the vertical synchronizing signal vd and electric charges stored in the ccd 1 are read out at every vertical period in synchronism with the image read - out pulse sg . then , as shown in fig5 d , the saw tooth wave generated from the saw tooth wave generating circuit 30 within the shutter speed control circuit 20 is synchronized with the image read - out pulse sg and the vertical blanking signal vblk goes to low level signal &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; with the result that the increasing ratio of the potential is increased during the vertical blanking period . when the potential of the saw tooth wave is lower than the shutter control voltage , then the output of the comparator 25 goes to high level signal &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. accordingly , the pulse duration of the high level signal &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; output from the comparator 25 is successively ( in an analog fashion ) controlled by the shutter control voltage so that , if the object becomes bright and the shutter control voltage is increased , then the pulse duration of the high level signal &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is increased . as shown in fig5 f or 5h , the reset pulse rp supplied through the terminal 7 is a signal synchronized with the horizontal synchronizing signal and which goes to high level signal during the horizontal blanking period so as not to affect the imager signal now being read - out . then , the and gate 27 opens to pass therethrough the reset pulse rp when the output of the comparator 25 is at high level . while , the and gate 28 is opened to pass therethrough the negative logic value of the vertical blanking period vblk supplied thereto through the terminal 8 and which is illustrated in fig5 b when the output of the comparator 25 is high in level . accordingly , the or gate 29 outputs the reset pulse rp as the reset pulse sub during the period in which the object , for example , is dark , the shutter control voltage is low and the high level period of the output from the comparator 25 is shorter than the high level period of the vertical blanking period vblk , that is , so - called video period ( hereinafter referred to as a low speed shutter region ). more specifically , in the low speed shutter region , the or gate 29 outputs the reset pulse sub which is controlled in the unit of 1h ( i . e ., one horizontal period ). for example , when the comparator 25 generates the compared output ( see fig5 e ) which is changed to low level during the video period in the comparison of the shutter control voltage va ( see fig5 d ) and the saw tooth wave , then the output of the reset pulse rp is stopped from a timing point at which the compared output is changed to the low level as shown in fig5 f , and electric charges are stored during a period ta from the stop of the reset pulse rp to a timing point at which the image read - out pulse sg rises next . this storage period ta becomes a time period corresponding to the shutter speed . when on the other hand the shutter control voltage is high and the high level period of the output from the comparator 25 is longer than the video period ( hereinafter referred to as a high speed shutter region ), the reset pulse rp is output during the video period and the reset pulse sub of high level is output during the period in which the output of the comparator 25 is high in level in the vertical blanking period . that is , in the high speed shutter region , the or gate 29 outputs the reset pulse sub which is controlled successively . for example , when the comparator 25 generates a compared output ( see fig5 g ) which is changed to the low level during the vertical blanking period in the comparison of the shutter control voltage vb ( see fig5 d ) and the saw tooth wave , as shown in fig5 h , the pulse is output as the reset pulse rp during the vertical blanking period and the duration of this pulse is changed in response to the compared output . then , electric charges are stored during the period tb in which the next image read - out pulse sg rises after the pulse was changed to the low level . this storage time tb becomes a time period corresponding to the shutter speed . as set out above , the shutter speed control circuit 20 supplies the substrate of the ccd 1 through the driving circuit 18 with the reset pulse sub controlled in the unit of 1h during the video period in the low speed shutter region in which the object is dark and the output level of the ccd 1 is detected to be low by the detecting circuit 11 and controls in the unit of 1h the electric charge storage time in which the next image read - out pulse is supplied after the final reset pulse sub was supplied . on the other hand , in the high speed shutter region in which the object is bright and the output level of the ccd 1 is detected to be high by the detecting circuit 11 , the reset pulse sub successively controlled on the basis of the output level of the ccd 1 is supplied through the driving circuit 18 to the substrate of the ccd 1 during the vertical blanking period in which the read - out operation of the imager signal is not affected at all , to thereby successively control the electric charge storage time in which the next image pulse sg is supplied after the final reset pulse sub was supplied . then , the imager signal from the ccd 1 whose electric charge storage time is controlled , that is , the imager signal whose exposure is automatically controlled in response to the brightness of the object is converted into the video signal based on the ntsc system or the like and this video signal is fed to the terminal 5 . according to this embodiment , since the saw tooth wave compared with the shutter control voltage in the high speed shutter region ( i . e .,, during the vertical blanking period ) is arranged to have a large inclination in which the increasing ratio of the potential is large as compared with the saw tooth wave compared in the low speed shutter region , the high speed shutter region has a higher resolution as compared with the low speed shutter region . accordingly , in the high speed shutter region , the brightness of the object can be detected at high resolution and the shutter speed can be controlled at high accuracy . further , the peak level of the saw tooth wave is detected and the shutter control voltage is converged to the value thus peak - detected in the nonlinear fashion as described above so that , when the shutter control voltage lies near the peak value of the saw tooth wave , the rapid fluctuation can be suppressed . therefore , the shutter speed can be prevented from being fluctuated rapidly when the shutter speed is very high so that the exposure can be controlled at high accuracy in the very high shutter speed . furthermore , when the shutter control voltage data is pwm - detected by the cpu 15 , the shutter control voltage data is converted in the nonlinear characteristic so that the exposure can be controlled at high accuracy in the considerably high shutter speed from this viewpoint . according to the present invention , even when the object is very bright and the shutter speed is very high , the exposure can be controlled smoothly and properly , thereby making it possible to enlarge a range of the quantity of an incident light which can be applied to the so - called electronic shutter utilizing the ccd . therefore , the cameraman can take a picture satisfactorily by using a video camera which utilizes an imager lens of so - called manual iris in which the iris is fixed . having described the preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to that precise embodiment and that various changes and modifications thereof could be effected by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the novel concepts of the invention as defined in the appended claims .	7
while the following description illustrates a configuration of the system of the present invention which is particularly suitable for removing used oil from and dispensing the fresh oil to the internal combustion engine of a vehicle , it is to be understood that the present system is suitable for changing any type of fluid in a fluid receptacle having a drain plug opening . further , although the present system is described as having the capacity to dispense several different grades of oil , the system may be configured to dispense either one type of fluid or more than one type of fluid . the present system also may be used to remove and dispense any type of fluid . in a preferred embodiment , substantially all of the principal components of the automated fluid changing system are enclosed in a cabinet formed from sheet metal or other suitable material . referring now to the drawings , there is shown in fig1 the automated fluid changing system of the present invention , generally designated as 1 . the system 1 is removably connected to oil pan 7 in engine 2 by a quick connect nipple 4 , which is mounted in the drain plug opening 3 of oil pan 7 , and a quick connect coupling 5 which is affixed to a valve 60 . the valve 60 directs the flow of fluids to and from the oil pan 7 . as shown in fig2 valve 60 includes a valve housing 6 which may be formed from any material which is suitable to withstand the temperatures , fluids , and pressures required for changing a particular fluid . in a preferred embodiment , valve housing 6 is made from aluminum . valve 60 is provided at one end with a connector port 62 . quick connect coupling 5 is disposed within connector port 62 and attaches to nipple 4 to connect system 1 to the drain plug opening 3 . preferably , quick connect nipple 4 is permanently mounted within drain plug opening 3 and quick connect coupling 5 is permanently mounted within connector port 62 . while the use of quick connect couplers 4 and 5 provides the most convenient and efficient means to connect the system 1 to the drain plug opening 3 , any suitable connecting means may be employed for attaching system 1 to a fluid receptacle . the connector port 62 serves as a passageway for fluids to enter and exit a valve chamber 79 disposed within the housing 6 of valve 60 . valve chamber 79 is provided with an outlet port 77 through which the used oil 22 flows , and an inlet port 78 through which the fresh oil flows . outlet port 77 opens into one end of a suction cavity 61 which is also disposed within the body 6 of valve 60 . the opposite end of suction cavity 61 is provided with a suction port 63 for receiving a suction conduit 14 . inlet port 78 opens into one end of a check valve chamber 58 within valve 60 . the opposite end of check valve chamber 58 is provided with a dispenser port 64 . the fresh fluid flows through dispenser port 64 , through check valve chamber 79 , through inlet port 78 , and into valve chamber 79 . in a preferred embodiment , the valve 60 is actuated by air pressure which flows through air line 20 , through air flow port 67 into a diaphragm cavity 66 . the air pressure displaces a diaphragm 68 , which is horizontally disposed within cavity 66 of valve 60 . the diaphragm 68 is connected to one end of a valve shaft 69 . valve shaft 69 is positioned perpendicular to diaphragm 68 and is maintained in a vertical alignment within a valve shaft channel 59 by seals 70 and 71 . valve shaft channel 59 is disposed between diaphragm cavity 66 and valve chamber 79 . the seals 70 and 71 also prevent used and fresh fluid from flowing through the valve shaft channel 59 into the diaphragm cavity 66 . the end of shaft 69 opposite diaphragm 68 is provided with valve seal 72 . a retaining spring 73 is disposed between valve seal 72 and shaft seal 70 . when valve 60 is in a closed position , the force of retaining spring 73 retains valve seal 72 against outlet port 77 to prevent the suction force from being exerted on valve cavity 79 . a ball check valve 75 is seated against the orifice of dispenser conduit 49 which is connected to dispenser port 64 . ball check valve 75 is retained against the open end of dispensing conduit 49 by ball check valve spring 76 . ball check valve spring 76 rests against stop pins 74 , which protrude into check valve chamber 58 at inlet port 78 . in a particularly preferred embodiment , valve 60 is connected to a coaxial hose 23 , which includes an outer suction conduit 14 and an inner dispenser conduit 49 . one end of the outer suction conduit 14 is connected to suction port 63 of valve 60 . the suction conduit 14 may be sealed and joined to suction port 63 by threads ( not shown ) or any other suitable sealing or connecting means . one end of the inner dispenser conduit 49 is connected to dispenser port 64 of valve 60 and may be sealed to dispenser port 64 by o - rings ( not shown ) or any other suitable sealing or connecting means . the ends of both suction conduit 14 and dispenser conduit 49 which are opposite valve 60 are connected to a splitter 13 . splitter 13 directs dispenser conduit 49 to communicate with dispenser pipe 48 and directs suction conduit 14 to communicate with suction hose 12 . suction hose 12 is provided with a suction pump 11 . suction pump 11 applies a suction force to suction hose 12 and suction conduit 14 for withdrawing used oil 22 from oil pan 7 . a vacuum switch 24 is disposed within suction hose 12 between splitter 13 and suction pump 11 . vacuum switch 24 evaluates the pressure within suction hose 12 to determine when all of the used oil 22 has been evacuated from oil pan 7 . optionally , a sampler 26 may be provided in waste oil hose 27 for removing a sample of the used oil to submit for evaluation . in one embodiment , sampler 26 may be air actuated by means of a control operator 30 . control operator 30 is actuated by air flowing through air line 29 from an external air source 16 . bottle 31 , which receives the sample of used oil , is removably connected to sampler 26 . air pressure is supplied to system 1 from the external source 16 through air line 17 . air line 17 is connected to a regulator 18 . regulator 18 controls the pressure of the air which flows through air lines 20 , 29 and 51 . air line 20 is connected on one end to air flow port 67 in the diaphragm cavity 66 of valve 60 . the opposite end of air line 20 is connected to regulator 18 . air valve 15 is disposed within air line 20 for controlling the air flow to the valve operator 21 on valve 60 . air valve 15 may be a 3 - way valve or any suitable means for controlling the air flow . air line 51 is connected on one end to dispenser pipe 48 . the opposite end of air line 51 is connected to regulator 18 . air valve 50 is disposed within air line 51 to control the flow of air into dispenser pipe 48 . air pressure from external source 16 is used to actuate valve 50 , allowing the air to pass through to flush any remaining fresh fluid out of dispenser pipe 48 . air line 29 is connected on one end to sampler 26 and on the other end to regulator 18 . air valve 21 is disposed within air line 29 to control the flow of air to sampler 26 . optionally , the regulator 18 may be provided with an air filter 19 . dispenser pipe 48 is connected to a meter 47 which is provided with a meter inlet 46 . the meter inlet 46 receives the fresh fluid lines 39 , 40 , and 41 for transporting fresh fluids from fluid storage tanks 33 , 34 , and 35 . the fresh fluid storage tanks 33 , 34 and 35 are provided with pumps 36 , 37 and 38 which withdraw the fresh fluid and dispense the fluid through lines 39 , 40 and 41 under pressure . fresh fluid lines 39 , 40 , and 41 may be provided with regulator valves 42 , 43 , and 44 , respectively , for controlling the flow rate and pressure of the fresh fluid . fluid level indicators 53 , 54 and 55 may be provided on fresh fluid tanks 33 , 34 , and 35 for monitoring the amount of fresh fluid stored in the tanks . a computer controller 8 communicates with system 1 of the present invention to automatically initiate the evacuation phase and the dispensing phase of the fluid changing process of the present invention . computer controller 8 may include a screen 9 for displaying menus to prompt an operator of the system 1 . numeric keypad 10 may be used by an operator to enter the commands required to activate the system 1 . computer controller 8 may be provided with a printer 52 for recording data pertaining to the fluid change . computer controller 8 also may be provided with a magnetic strip card reader 57 or any other suitable means for receiving information pertaining to the fluid change , such as the vehicle identification number or the number of quarts of fluid required . to change the oil 22 in the oil pan 7 of an internal combustion engine 2 using the fluid changing system 1 of the present invention , a quick connect nipple 4 is mounted in the drain plug opening 3 of oil pan 7 . typically , quick connect nipple 4 remains permanently in drain plug opening 3 so that the vehicle is permanently configured for the automated oil change process of the present invention . the system 1 is then connected to the quick connect nipple 4 by the quick connect coupling 5 which is affixed to the connector port 62 in valve 60 . the fluid change system 1 is activated by operator interface with the computer controller 8 . the lcd screen 9 prompts the operator to use numeric keypad 10 to enter the commands required to activate system 1 . when the oil change process has been initiated by an operator , the suction pump 11 is energized to begin the evacuation of used oil 22 . as the suction pump 11 operates , a suction force is applied to suction hose 12 . the splitter 13 directs the flow of the suction force to the suction conduit 14 within coaxial hose 23 . as suction pump 11 is activated , air valve 15 opens to allow air to flow from the external source 16 through air line 17 . the air travels through regulator 18 and filter 19 , through the now open air valve 15 , and into air line 20 . as shown in fig3 air from air line 20 enters diaphragm cavity 66 through air flow port 67 to force diaphragm 68 in a downward direction . as diaphragm 68 moves downward , the diaphragm shaft 69 pulls valve seal 72 away from outlet port 77 , allowing the suction force to flow from suction cavity 61 through outlet port 77 and into valve chamber 79 . the suction force draws the used oil 22 through the quick connect nipple 4 in drain plug opening 3 , through the quick connect coupling 5 , and into valve cavity 79 within valve 60 . the used oil 22 exits valve cavity 79 through outlet port 77 . the used oil 22 flows through suction cavity 61 and exits valve 60 through suction port 63 . the used oil 22 is then drawn through suction conduit 14 in coaxial hose 23 , through the splitter 13 and to the suction hose 12 . the used oil 22 is transported through suction hose 12 , past vacuum switch 24 , through the suction pump 11 and into waste oil hose 27 . waste oil hose 27 directs the used oil 22 through sampler 26 . used oil 22 exits sampler 26 through the opposite end of waste oil hose 27 and is deposited in waste oil reservoir 28 . if the operator elected to remove a sample of the used oil for evaluation , air valve 21 will open as used oil 22 passes through sampler 26 to allow air to flow through air line 29 to activate operator 30 on sampler 26 . the air pressure flowing through air line 29 opens a valve ( not shown ) in sampler 26 to deposit a sample of the used oil 22 into bottle 31 . when the oil change process is complete , bottle 31 can be removed and sent to an oil analysis lab for evaluation . as the used oil 22 is evacuated from oil pan 7 , the vacuum switch 24 evaluates the vacuum within suction hose 12 . when the vacuum within suction hose 12 has shifted to near ambient pressure , a signal is sent to the computer controller 8 to disengage the suction pump 11 . simultaneously , the computer controller 8 signals air valve 15 to close , allowing the air in diaphragm cavity 66 to reverse the direction of flow and exit cavity 66 through air flow port 67 . as the pressure in diaphragm cavity 66 is returned to ambient , retaining spring 73 forces valve seal 72 against outlet port 77 to close valve chamber 79 . as the suction pump 11 is disengaged and valve 60 returns to a closed position , the computer controller 8 opens one of the valves 42 , 43 , or 44 corresponding to the selected grade of oil to be dispensed into the oil pan 7 . referring to fig1 for example , if 20w / 50 weight oil is selected initially , valve 43 opens to allow fresh 20w / 50 weight oil to flow from tank 34 through pump 37 . pump 37 forces the fresh 20w / 50 oil under pressure through pipe 40 , through open valve 43 , into meter inlet 46 and through meter 47 , which measures the volume of oil being dispensed . the fresh oil then continues through dispenser pipe 48 to splitter 13 , which directs the fresh oil to flow into dispenser conduit 49 within coaxial hose 23 . the fresh oil passes from dispenser conduit 49 through dispenser port 64 in valve 60 . as shown in fig4 pressure from the fresh oil forces ball check valve 75 against the opposing ball check valve spring 76 . this allows the fresh oil to pass through check valve chamber 58 via inlet port 78 into valve chamber 79 . the fresh oil exits valve chamber 79 through connector port 62 via quick connect couplers 4 and 5 to enter the oil pan 7 through the drain plug opening 3 . valve 60 controls the flow direction of both the used and the fresh oil to prevent the fresh oil from entering suction conduit 14 or returning to dispenser conduit 49 in coaxial hose 23 . as the fresh fluid dispensing phase is completed , air valve 50 opens to allow air to flow from air line 51 , through open air valve 50 , and into dispenser pipe 48 . the air flows from dispenser pipe 48 into dispenser conduit 49 to force any remaining fresh oil out of pipe 48 , conduit 49 , and valve 60 , and into oil pan 7 . ball check valve 75 prevents any fresh oil from traveling back into dispenser conduit 49 so that there is no substantial mixing of the fresh oil with a different grade of oil which may be subsequently dispensed through system 1 of the present invention . at any time during the process of changing the oil using the system 1 , an operator may remove oil filter 32 and replace it with a new filter . when the oil change process has been completed , data pertaining to the oil change may be stored into the computer controller 8 . optionally , data may be printed on printer 52 . an interface menu suitable for use with the software in computer controller 8 is illustrated in fig5 . the software is written and programmed into the computer controller 8 and is specific in nature to the operation of the automated fluid changing system 1 . as the operator initiates an oil change process , the computer interface screen 9 displays menus which drive the controller 8 to automatically activate the appropriate components in the fluid changing system 1 of the present invention . a typical interface menu is described with reference to fig5 . the computer interface screen 9 begins with the statement &# 34 ; welcome , press yes to proceed &# 34 ; displayed in screen 80 . if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 81 displays the statement &# 34 ; is your engine off ? press yes or no .&# 34 ; if no is entered , then the computer controller screen 81 returns to the statement displayed on screen 80 . if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 82 displays the statement &# 34 ; select grade of new oil required .&# 34 ; after a specific grade of fresh oil is selected , the computer controller screen 83 displays the statement &# 34 ; take a sample ? press yes or no .&# 34 ; if yes in entered , the computer controller screen 84 displays the statement &# 34 ; bottle in place ? press yes or no .&# 34 ; if no is entered , the computer controller 8 will not allow the operator to continue and screen 83 will be displayed again . if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 85 displays the statement &# 34 ; enter new oil quarts to fill , use keypad .&# 34 ; at this time , the operator enters the desired number of quarts of fresh oil using the keypad 10 . the computer controller screen 86 displays the statement &# 34 ; 00 . 0 qts to fill , press yes when set .&# 34 ; the &# 34 ; 00 . 0 &# 34 ; numbers will change as the operator enters the desired number of quarts . for example , if the operator enters the number 44 . 0 indicating that 44 quarts are needed , then the &# 34 ; 00 . 0 &# 34 ; numbers on the screen will read &# 34 ; 44 . 0 .&# 34 ; after the quantity is entered and yes is entered , the computer controller screen 87 displays the statement &# 34 ; make connections , press yes to start .&# 34 ; if no is entered , then the computer controller screen 87 continues to display the same statement . if yes is entered , then the computer controller screen 88 displays the statement &# 34 ; oil being removed , change filters now .&# 34 ; the computer controller screen 88 continues to display this statement for a predetermined period of time . then , computer controller screen 89 may optionally display the statement &# 34 ; filters changed ? press yes when ready .&# 34 ; if the optional statement is not included in the system &# 39 ; s program , then computer controller 8 will automatically begin refilling oil pan 7 and screen 90 will be displayed . if no is entered , the computer controller screen 89 continues to display the same statement . if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 90 displays the statement &# 34 ; adding new oil , please wait . . . 00 . 0 .&# 34 ; the numeric display &# 34 ; 00 . 0 &# 34 ; indicates the number of quarts being dispensed to oil pan 7 and counts down or up ( optional ) until the total number of quarts desired have been dispensed to oil pan 7 . upon completion of the dispensing phase , the computer controller screen 91 displays the statement &# 34 ; new oil installed , check oil level now .&# 34 ; at this time , the operator should check the oil level in the engine of the vehicle being serviced . after a predetermined period of time , the computer controller screen 92 displays the statement &# 34 ; is oil level correct ?, press yes or no .&# 34 ; if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 98 will be displayed . if no is pressed , the computer controller screen 93 displays the statement &# 34 ; to add oil press yes , remove oil press no .&# 34 ; if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 94 displays the statement &# 34 ; enter qts to add , press yes when set 0 . 0 .&# 34 ; as the operator uses the numeric keypad 10 to enter the number of quarts to be added , the numeric display on screen 94 changes from &# 34 ; 0 . 0 &# 34 ; to the number of quarts entered . for example , if the operator desires to add 2 and 1 / 2 quarts of oil , the numeric value of 2 . 5 should be entered . this value will be displayed on the computer controller screen 94 in place of the numeric value 0 . 0 . if no is entered , the computer controller screen 95 displays the statement &# 34 ; enter qts to remove , press yes when set 0 . 0 .&# 34 ; as the operator uses the numeric keypad 10 to enter the number of quarts to be removed , the numeric display on screen 95 changes from &# 34 ; 0 . 0 &# 34 ; to the number of quarts entered . for example , if the operator desires to remove 1 and 1 / 2 quarts of oil , the numeric value of 1 . 5 is entered . this value is displayed on the computer controller screen 95 in place of the numeric value of 0 . 0 . after the desired amount of oil has been added or removed , and yes is entered to indicate that the amount to be added or removed has been set , the computer controller screen 96 displays either the statement &# 34 ; adding oil , please wait . . . 0 . 0 &# 34 ; for the adding oil procedure or the statement &# 34 ; removing oil , please wait . . . 0 . 0 &# 34 ; for the removal of oil procedure . in either case , the numeric value on the computer controller screen 96 will scroll to zero value as the procedure is being executed . upon completion of the procedure , the computer controller screen 97 displays the statement &# 34 ; is oil level correct , press yes or no .&# 34 ; if no is entered , the computer controller screen 93 will be displayed and the sequence of steps for adding or removing oil will be repeated . if yes is entered , the computer controller screen 98 displays the statement &# 34 ; remove connections , press yes when done .&# 34 ; when yes is entered , the computer controller screen 99 displays the statement &# 34 ; print data ? press yes or no .&# 34 ; if no is entered , the computer controller screen 100 displays the final statement &# 34 ; process complete , thank you .&# 34 ; if yes is entered , the computer controller 8 will print the designated data on either an internal printer 52 or on a remote printer connected to the computer controller 8 . the computer controller screen 100 then displays the final statement &# 34 ; process complete , thank you .&# 34 ; after a predetermined period of time , the computer controller screen automatically resets to display the statement in screen 80 . although the invention is described with respect to a preferred embodiment , modifications thereto will be apparent to those skilled in the art . therefore , the scope of the invention is to be determined by reference to the claims which follow .	5
crystalline nitrilotriacetonitrile produced from a nitrilotriacetonitrile - water mixture at a temperature in excess of 95 ° c . that is rapidly cooled in one step to 25 ° c . to 35 ° c . tends to produce very fine crystals that are difficult to separate from the nitrilotriacetonitrile mother liquor , and are difficult to wash . this results in a product that is more contaminated with the components of the mother liquor . additionally , a dispersion containing a large amount of fine crystals is difficult to handle , is difficult to pump , and has a tendency to plug lines . it has been found that larger and more uniform crystals are produced if the high temperature nitrilotriacetonitrile - water mixture is cooled in two stages to form the crystalline nitrilotriacetonitrile . temperature of the first stage must be about 70 ° c . to about 90 ° c ., preferably about 80 ° c . to about 90 ° c ., and more preferably about 85 ° c . at temperatures in excess of about 90 ° c ., insufficient crystal formation occurs in the first stage , leaving a large proportion of nitrilotriacetonitrile in solution going into the second stage . when this more concentrated solution is cooled in the second stage , an unacceptable percentage of fine crystals is formed . at temperatures below about 70 ° c ., excess nucleation occurs in the first stage , also resulting in formation of an excess number of fine crystals . the sojourn time in the first stage must be at least about 5 minutes , preferably at least about 10 minutes , and most preferably at least about 15 minutes . the sojourn time is defined in continuous crystallization equipment as the volume of the first stage reactor divided by the feed rate , and in batch crystallization processes as the time period beginning with the commencement of cooling to the first stage temperature and ending with the commencement of cooling to the second stage temperature . sojourn time less than about 5 minutes provides an insufficient amount of time for crystal formation in the first stage , resulting in formation of an unacceptable number of fine crystals in the second stage . longer sojourn times reduce the capacity of the crystallization equipment . sojourn time in excess of about 30 minutes is generally not necessary . in the first stage , the cooling should be as rapid as possible . a preferred method is direct cooling by recycling the cooled slurry from the second stage into the first stage in the proper proportion to produce the desired temperature . this recycled slurry also seeds the solution , resulting in larger , more uniform crystals . an acceptable , but less preferred method is use of cooling coils or cooling jackets . this method is less preferred due to riming that can occur on the cold surfaces . vacuum cooling is another acceptable method , but is less preferred due to difficulty of condensing the vapors produced and due to foaming that can occur . the nitrilotriacetonitrile - water mixture should be agitated for uniformity of temperature . however , high agitation and recirculation can result in foaming , crystal breakage , and increased nucleation . crystal breakage and excessive nucleation can result in formation of an undesirable number of fine crystals . agitation and recirculation should be controlled to minimize these effects . it is preferred that at least about 50 % of the total nitrilotriacetonitrile be present as crystals at the completion of the first stage . it is also preferred that the high temperature nitrilotriacetonitrile solution be fed to the first stage over a period of time , during the first stage cooling . cooling in the second stage can also be rapid . however , cooling methods in this stage are more flexible . a preferred method is vacuum cooling . this method is preferred because , in addition to being an efficient cooling method , it also serves to improve the yield during the crystallization step by concentrating the solution , and removes any gaseous hydrogen cyanide that might present a later safety problem . other suitable methods of cooling include cooling jackets and coils , and recycling of cooled mother liquor resulting from separation of the crystalline nitrilotriacetonitrile back into the second stage . the temperature should be below 35 ° c ., preferably below 30 ° c ., and particularly below about 25 ° c . this temperature range is sufficient for a good yield of crystals . some riming can occur in the second stage , but this can be minimized by coating the cool surfaces in the crystallizer with a nonstick coating , such as a fluorocarbon polymer . the sojourn time in stage two is less critical than in stage one . however , the mixture must remain in stage two for a sufficient time to complete formation of crystals . stage two should also be agitated to keep crystals in suspension . this process is preferably carried on as a continuous process using two continuous crystallization tanks , one for stage one and one for stage two . additionally , multiple tanks could be used for either stage one , stage two or both . this process can also be adapted for use in single tank batch crystallization provided that the tank is adapted for feeding of the nitrilotriacetonitrile solution during first stage cooling to the desired temperature with the desired sojourn time , and is also adapted to further cooling for stage two . the following examples serve to illustrate the process of this invention . they are intended as illustrative only and are not intended in any way to limit the scope of this invention . all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified . nitrilotriacetonitrile was produced from hexamethylenetetramine , formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide , at a temperature of 115 ° c . in the first run , the reaction solution was collected in a receiver cooled in a bucket of ice and water . in run two , the reaction product was collected at 90 ° c . and was thereafter cooled to ambient temperatures by vacuum cooling . the crystal size distribution for each of the runs was determined by measuring the weight percent of the crystals that was retained on each of a series of progressively finer standard screens . these results , and a comparison with run 3 , in which nitrilotriacetonitrile is produced at 80 ° c . and cooled in one step to 25 ° c .- 30 ° c ., are shown in table i . table i______________________________________crystal size distribution (%) uss mesh run 1 run 2 run 3______________________________________ + 20 0 12 1 - 20 + 50 0 31 71 - 50 + 100 3 . 5 51 14 - 100 + 120 3 . 5 4 1 - 120 93 2 13______________________________________ a 33 % solution of nitrilotriacetonitrile and water was prepared and heated to approximately 100 ° c . this solution was fed into a first stage crystallizer at a controlled rate . the first stage crystallizer was a small tank equipped with an agitator and with a overflow pipe through which the nitrilotriacetonitrile - water mixture flowed into a second stage crystallizer . the second stage crystallizer was a water jacketed tank equipped with an agitator . a recirculation pump drew the nitrilotriacetonitrile - water mixture from the second stage crystallizer and circulated part of this mixture to a product collector , part to the first stage crystallizer to provide cooling , and part to the second stage crystallizer . samples of the product were subject to accumulative screen analysis , and the mean crystal size of each run was determined from these results . the temperature of the first stage crystallizer , the sojourn time in the first stage crystallizer and the resulting mean crystal size in millimeters are shown in table ii . this compares to nitrilotriacetonitrile that is crystallized in one step from an 80 ° c . reaction mixture to 25 ° c .- 30 ° c ., which has a mean crystal size of 0 . 134 millimeters . table ii______________________________________average crystal size with respect tofirst stage temperature and sojourn time sojourn mean temp ° c . time - mins . crystalrun no . first stage first stage size mm______________________________________1 80 17 0 . 112 80 13 . 3 0 . 103 85 13 . 3 0 . 1144 85 17 0 . 1325 85 17 0 . 1436 85 20 0 . 1467 90 20 0 . 120______________________________________ about 255 ml of a 33 % solution of nitrilotriacetonitrile was prepared and heated to approximately 100 ° c . this solution was fed into a first stage crystallizer at about 15 ml / min . the first stage crystallizer was a 400 ml stainless steel beaker with good agitation . the first stage crystallizer initially contained about 35 ml of 33 % nitrilotriacetonitrile slurry at the desired temperature . the temperature of the first stage crystallizer was maintained at the desired temperature by a water bath . when feeding of the nitrilotriacetonitrile was completed , the beaker and its contents were cooled to about 25 ° c . in an ice - water bath . additionally , one run was done in which the 100 ° c . solution was cooled to 25 ° c . in one stage . mean crystal sizes for each of the runs was determined in example 2 . the results are shown in table iii . table iii______________________________________mean crystal size with respect tofirst stage temperature temp . ° c . mean crystalrun no . first stage size mm______________________________________ 8 80 . 115 9 70 . 11210 65 . 08711 60 . 08012 25 . 074______________________________________ a comparison of runs 1 , 2 and 8 shows that the results of examples 2 and 3 are quite comparable even though example 2 uses a continuous process , and example 3 uses essentially a batch process , and even though there are other differences in procedure and apparatus . in order to filter the crystalline nitrilotriacetonitrile , the crystals should have a mean crystal size in excess of about 0 . 11 mm , preferably in excess of about 0 . 12 mm , and more preferably in excess of about 13 mm . from the results of examples 2 and 3 , the first stage crystallization must occur in a temperature range above about 70 ° c . to produce a mean crystal in excess of about 0 . 11 mm . to produce a mean crystal in excess of about 0 . 12 mm , the first stage crystallization must occur at about 80 ° c . to about 90 ° c . and , to produce a mean crystal size in excess of about 0 . 13 mm , the first stage crystallization must occur at about 85 ° c .	2
fig1 - 7b illustrate a first embodiment of the invention . in fig1 the ground clamp 10 comprises a first jaw 12 coupled to a second jaw 14 by a hinge 16 and a hinge pin 18 . the first jaw 12 has a first distal end 20 having an elongated hole 22 therein . the second jaw 14 has a second distal end forming a curve having a slot 26 formed therein forming a curved fork 24 . a cylindrical nut 26 has a diameter substantially matching the curve or radius of the curved fork 24 formed on to the second distal end of the second jaw 14 . the cylindrical nut 28 is held on the threaded portion or end 33 of bolt 30 having a head 31 . the head 31 of the bolt 30 retains the bolt 30 within the elongated hole 22 . the conduit 32 , which may be electrical metallic tubing or emt or a rigid conduit , is held between the first and second jaws 12 and 14 . the first jaw 12 has a first inside angled jaw surface 34 and a first outside angled jaw surface 36 separated by a first intermediate surface 35 . the second jaw 14 has a second inside angled jaw surface 38 and a second outside angled jaw surface 40 separated by a second intermediate surface 39 . attached to the first jaw 12 are a stem 42 and a lip 44 forming an opening in which to drop in a ground conductor or wire 50 . the stem 42 has a threaded hole 46 for receiving screw 48 . the grounding clamp 10 of the invention is made of a conductive material , preferable a metal . the grounding clamp 10 may be made of extruded aluminum , die cast zinc , cast bronze , cast brass , or zinc plated steel . fig2 more clearly illustrates the cylindrical nut 28 having a diameter and the mating with the curve or radius of the curved fork 24 on the distal end of the second jaw 14 . additionally , the slot 26 forming the curved fork 24 is more clearly illustrated . the slot 26 has a width for receiving the threaded portion of the bolt 30 . also , the elongated hole on the first distal end 20 of the first jaw 12 is better illustrated . fig3 and 4 illustrate the ability of the ground clamp 10 of the invention to accommodate a wide variety or range of sizes of electrical conduits . a larger conduit 32 is illustrated in fig1 and 2 , and a smaller conduit 32 ′ is illustrated in fig3 and 4 . fig3 and 4 illustrate the ground clamp 10 adjusted to hold a smaller diameter electrical conduit 32 ′. the different angled jaw surfaces 34 , 36 , 38 , and 40 in combination with the intermediate surfaces 35 and 39 securely hold different size electrical conduits 32 , illustrated in fig1 and 2 , or 32 ′ illustrated in fig3 and 4 . fig5 is a plan view more clearly illustrating the electrical conduit 32 held within the first jaw 12 of the ground clamp 10 . the ground conduit or wire 50 is also more clearly illustrated being held by stem 42 and screw 48 . fig6 is an exploded view of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig1 - 5 . fig6 more clearly illustrates the parts and assembly of the invention . the hinge 16 and the hinge pin hole 52 as well as the hinge pin 18 are more clearly illustrated . additionally the cylindrical nut hole 54 that receives the threaded portion or end 33 of the bolt 30 is more clearly illustrated . fig7 a more clearly illustrates the angled jaw surfaces of the first jaw 12 . the first inside angled jaw surface 34 is positioned in a plane that is substantially 45 ° from a horizontal reference line 56 . the first outside angled jaw surface 36 is positioned in a plane that is substantially 60 ° from a horizontal reference line 56 . the first intermediate surface 35 between the first inside angled jaw surface 34 and the first outside angled jaw surface 36 is in a plane substantially perpendicular to the horizontal reference line 56 . the angle between the first inside angled jaw surface 34 and the first outside angled jaw surface 36 is therefore preferably substantially 105 °. additionally , the angle between the first inside angled jaw surface 34 and the first intermediate surface 35 is preferably substantially 135 ° and the angle between the first outside angled jaw surface 36 and the first intermediate surface 35 is preferably substantially 150 °. fig7 b schematically illustrates the angular relationship of the second inside angled jaw surface 38 and second outside angled jaw surface 40 of the second jaw 14 . the second inside angled jaw surface 38 is positioned in a plane that is preferably substantially 45 ° from a horizontal reference line 56 . the second outside angled jaw surface 40 is positioned in a plane that is preferably substantially 60 ° from a horizontal reference line 56 . the second intermediate surface 39 between the second inside angled jaw surface 38 and the second outside angled jaw surface 40 is in a plane preferably substantially perpendicular to the horizontal reference line 56 . the angle between the second inside angled jaw surface 38 and the second outside angled jaw surface 40 is therefore preferably substantially 105 °. additionally , the angle between the second inside angled jaw surface 38 and the second intermediate surface 39 is preferably substantially 135 ° and the angle between the second outside angled jaw surface 40 and the second intermediate surface 35 is preferably substantially 150 °. accordingly , in both the first and second jaws 12 and 14 the first and second inside angled jaw surfaces 34 and 38 are positioned at a different angle relative to a horizontal reference line 56 than the first and second outside angled jaw surfaces 36 and 40 . these different relative angles permit the first and the second jaws 12 and 14 to securely grip a wide range of different size or diameter electrical conduits . these angular relationships of the jaw surfaces 34 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 , and 40 of the first and second jaws 12 and 14 allows the ground clamp to be attached to different electrical conduit having a range of sizes . in a preferred embodiment the difference in angles accommodates different electrical conduit ranging from approximately 0 . 700 to 1 . 32 inches or 1 . 78 to 3 . 35 cm in diameter . therefore the ground clamp can securely hold a standard electrical metallic tube from one - half to one inch and a standard rigid conduit from one - half to one inch . however , it should be appreciated that the ground clamp of the invention may be rescaled to securely hold different sized conduits within a broad range . fig8 is an exploded view of another embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment , a different means for attaching a ground conductor is illustrated . the ground clamp 110 has a lug or mound 142 having a ground conductor through hole 144 . placed within the lug or mound 142 is a threaded hole 146 for receiving the screw 48 . a ground conductor or a wire , not shown , placed within the ground conductor or wire through hole 144 is securely held in place by tightening screw 48 down thereon . fig9 is an exploded view of another embodiment of the invention . the ground clamp 210 in this embodiment has a pad 242 having a threaded hole 246 therein . the screw 48 threads within the threaded hole 246 . therefore , a ground conductor or wire , not shown , wrapped around or placed under screw 48 may be securely held by tightening screw 48 within the threaded hole 246 and securing the ground conductor or wire adjacent the pad 242 . as illustrated in the figures and in particular in fig1 to 4 , the ground clamp 10 can easily be adjusted to accommodate electrical conduits 32 and 32 ′ of substantially different diameters . additionally , the ground clamp 10 can easily be adjusted without disassembling or separating any parts of the ground clamp which may be lost or dropped during attachment to an electrical conduit . the combination of the cylindrical nut 28 and the slot 26 in the curved fork 24 permits the second jaw 14 to pivot downward , providing a substantial and large space between the first and second jaws 12 and 14 . after insertion of the electrical conduit 32 or 32 ′ head 31 may be turned causing the cylindrical nut 28 placed adjacent the curved fork 24 to draw the first and second jaws together so that the angled jaw surfaces 34 , 36 , 38 and 40 securely hold the electrical conduit 32 or 32 ′. the elongated hole 22 formed in the first distal end of the first jaw 12 permits some movement of the bold 30 maintaining alignment when different size electrical conduits are held . the cylindrical nut 28 and curved fork 24 permits the bolt 30 to pivot so as to accommodate and securely hold a wide range of different sized electrical conduits . the present invention , by providing a unique combination of angled jaw surfaces 34 , 36 , 38 and 40 in combination with the bolt 30 having a cylindrical nut 28 and curved fork 24 provides an improved electric ground clamp that can securely hold different sized or diameters of electrical conduits and that can be assembled quickly and easily without disassembly of any portion of the ground clamp . the electric ground clamp can easily be placed in hard to reach locations without difficult manipulation . fig1 - 13 illustrate another embodiment of the invention . in this embodiment a terminal block 358 is formed on the first jaw 12 of the ground clamp 310 . in this embodiment the terminal block 358 permits multiple electrical devices to be grounded on a single ground clamp 310 . the ground clamp 310 comprises a first jaw 12 and a second jaw 14 connected by a hinge 16 and hinge pin 18 . the first jaw 12 has a first distal end 320 with an elongated hole 322 therein and a flat portion 321 . the first jaw 12 has a first inside angled jaw surface 34 , first intermediate surface 35 , and first outside angled surface 36 . the second jaw 14 has second distal end with a curved fork 24 , a second inside angled jaw surface 38 , second intermediate surface 39 , and second outside angled surface 40 . the first and second jaws 12 and 14 are drawn together by bolt 330 having head 331 and cylindrical nut 28 . the first jaw 12 has an opening formed by lip 344 and stem 342 . screw 348 is used to hold ground conductor or wire 50 securely therein . when closed the first and second jaws 12 and 14 securely hold pipe or rigid conduit 32 therein . the ground clamp 310 has terminal block 358 formed thereon . the terminal block 358 has a plurality of holes 360 therein . the holes 360 are adapted to receive conductors 362 from ground wires 364 . the ground wires 364 are coupled to other electrical devices that may need to be grounded , such as phone , data , or cable tv . screws 366 are placed within threaded holes 368 , illustrated in fig1 , to securely hold the conductors 362 . therefore , a plurality of electrical devices , not illustrated , may be grounded with a single ground clamp 310 . while four holes 360 for receiving conductors 362 have been illustrated any number of holes 360 may be used . fig1 illustrates another embodiment of a ground clamp . this embodiment is similar to the embodiment illustrated in fig1 - 13 , however in this embodiment a different means for attaching ground conductor 50 is illustrated . the ground clamp 410 has a mound 442 formed within the first jaw 12 and terminal block 458 . a hole 444 is placed in the mound 442 for receiving the ground conductor 50 . screw 348 is threaded into a threaded hole intersecting with the hole 444 so as to contact the ground conductor 50 placed therein and securely hold it in position . fig1 illustrates yet another embodiment of a ground clamp . this embodiment is similar to the embodiment illustrated in fig1 - 13 , however in this embodiment another different means for attaching a ground conductor is illustrated . the ground clamp 510 in this embodiment has a pad 542 having a threaded hole with screw 548 threaded therein . therefore , a ground conductor or wire , not shown , wrapped around or placed under screw head 549 may be securely held by tightening screw 548 within the threaded hole and securing the ground conductor or wire adjacent the pad 542 . as illustrated in fig1 - 15 , the ground clamps illustrated therein provide the additional advantage of having a terminal block formed thereon for attaching or retaining a ground conductor for a multiple number or plurality of electrical devices . the plurality of retainers permits additional electrical devices to be grounded without disrupting or removing the ground clamp . this saves considerable time when connecting additional electrical devices and provides a more reliable ground connection . while the present invention has been described with respect to several different embodiments , it will be obvious that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention .	7
embodiments of the presently disclosed multi - lumen access port will now be described in detail with reference to the drawing figures wherein like reference numerals identify similar or identical elements . in the drawings and in the description which follows , the term “ proximal ”, as is traditional , will refer to the end of the multi - lumen access port which is closest to the operator while the term “ distal ” will refer to the end of the device which is farthest from the operator . referring initially to fig1 , the presently disclosed multi - lumen access port is shown generally as access port 100 . access port 100 includes a plurality of access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . one or more of the access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 may contain a fluid - tight seal . each access tube 10 , 20 , 30 has an open proximal end 14 , 24 , 34 and an open distal end 16 , 26 , 36 . a passageway 12 , 22 , 32 is defined between open proximal ends 14 , 24 , 34 and open distal ends 16 , 26 , 36 . each access tube 10 , 20 , 30 is generally an elongate tubular structure that is adapted for receiving at least a portion of an endoscopic surgical instrument ( not shown ) therethrough . in one embodiment , the configuration of at least one passageway 12 , 22 , 33 allows passage of a surgical instrument having an outside diameter ranging between about 5 mm and about 12 mm through access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 may be configured , however , to receive surgical instruments having other suitable sizes . the present disclosure envisions access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 having a variety of sizes and shapes . access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 may have circular cross - sections , oval cross - sections , or any other suitable shape so long as they are capable of receiving a surgical instrument . in addition to their ability to receive a surgical instrument , access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 are able to move axially with respect to one another . access port 100 includes a mechanism 56 adapted to facilitate relative movement of access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . mechanism 56 operably connects access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 at a pivot point p . consequently , a portion of each access tube 10 , 20 , 30 overlaps at pivot point p . the location of pivot pin p allows users to employ mechanism 56 to pivot access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 with respect to one another . in the depicted embodiment , mechanism 56 includes a pivot pin 58 or any other suitable fastening member adapted to interconnect access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . pivot pin 58 facilitates pivotal movement of access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 about an axis . alternatively , pivot pin 58 operably couples only two access tubes 10 , 20 . in any case , the location of pivot pin 58 coincides with the location of pivot point p . accordingly , access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 rotate about pivot point p upon manipulation by a user during operation . fig2 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the present disclosure . this embodiment is generally designated as access port 200 . access port 200 is substantially similar to access port 100 . the presently disclosed access port 200 includes a plurality of access tubes 210 , 220 , 230 . at least one access tube 210 , 220 , 230 may include a fluid - tight seal . each access tube 210 , 220 , 230 has an open proximal ends 214 , 224 , 234 and an open distal end 216 , 226 , 236 . open proximal ends 214 , 224 , 234 and open distal ends 216 , 226 , 236 each defines a passageway 212 , 222 , 232 therebetween . each passageway 212 , 222 , 232 has a cross - section adapted to receive an endoscopic surgical instrument . in one embodiment , the cross - section of at least one passageway 212 , 222 , 232 is capable of receiving therethrough a surgical instrument having an outside diameter ranging between about 5 mm and about 12 mm . during use , a surgeon may introduce a surgical instrument through open proximal end 214 , 224 , 234 until it reaches a location beyond open distal ends 216 , 226 , 236 . the open distal ends 216 , 226 , 236 of access port 200 form a juncture 256 , as illustrated in fig2 . juncture 256 operatively connects open distal ends 216 , 226 , 236 with one another . during operation , juncture 256 facilitates relative movement of access tubes 210 , 220 , 230 upon manipulation by a user . therefore , juncture 264 is sufficiently strong to maintain open distal ends 216 , 226 , 236 joined , but sufficiently flexible to allow relative movement of access tubes 210 , 220 , 230 . as seen in fig1 and 2 , the embodiments of the present disclosure include a support body 50 . support body 50 supports access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . in use , support access 50 serves as a standalone component for providing access to a working space in the patient &# 39 ; s body . alternatively , a user may use support body 50 in conjunction with other access devices ( i . e . access ports ). in any case , support body 50 has a flexible outer wall 54 . the resiliency of flexible outer wall 54 permits temporarily deformation of support body 50 during its installation . after installation , support body 50 along with its flexible outer wall 54 reverts to its original configuration and provides a fluid - tight seal in conjunction with the patient &# 39 ; s skin ( i . e . standalone mode ) or the access device . in either mode , support body 50 conforms to the skin at an opening in the patient &# 39 ; s body or the interior wall of the access device , thereby providing a fluid - tight seal for inhibiting leakage of insufflation fluids from the working space or the introduction of external contaminants into the working space . the structural relationships between support body 50 and access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 is substantially similar to the structural relationship between support body 50 and access tubes 210 , 220 , 230 . therefore , the mechanical cooperation and operation of support body 50 and access tubes 210 , 220 , 230 will not be described herein in detail . referring to fig3 and 4 , an embodiment of support body 50 has a circular cross - section . the present disclosure nevertheless envisions support bodies with other configurations . in the depicted embodiment , support body 50 includes a plurality of bores 52 . bores 52 are laterally and longitudinally spaced apart from one another . each bore 52 is adapted to receive an access tube 10 , 20 , 30 and extends through support body 50 . the cross - section of each bore 55 is larger than the cross - section of access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 , as seen in fig3 and 4 . this configuration provides access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 certain freedom of movement within bores 52 . in an alternative embodiment , support body 50 includes at least one slit 60 extending along at least a portion of the length of support body 50 , as illustrated in fig5 . slit 60 enhances the flexibility of support body 50 . the presence of slit 60 allows user to move access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 beyond the boundaries of bores 52 . in use , a surgeon may employ access port 100 or 200 to create and maintain access into a working space inside a patient &# 39 ; s body during a surgical procedure . in particular , physicians may employ either access port 100 , 200 during a laparoscopy or a hals procedure . initially , the surgeon may first incise a body wall with scalpel or any other suitable instrument . alternatively , the surgeon may penetrate the body wall with a sharp tip . once the body wall has an opening , the surgeon may place support body 50 in the desired site . the physician may employ support body 50 by itself or in conjunction with other access device . before placing access port 100 inside a patient &# 39 ; s body , the surgeon may deform support body 50 . thereafter , the surgeon places access port 100 inside the patient &# 39 ; s body . immediately after its installation , support body 50 reverts to its original configuration and creates a fluid - tight seal in conjunction with the patient &# 39 ; s skin ( in the standalone mode ) or an access device . after the establishing the fluid - tight seal , the surgeon inserts one or more surgical instruments through access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . in particular , the surgeon may initially insert an insufflation device through any access tube 10 , 20 , 30 . before activating the insufflation device , the user may move access tubes 10 , 20 , 20 to direct the delivery of insufflation gas . once in position , the insufflation device delivers gas to a body cavity upon activation by the surgeon . this gas expands the body cavity and prepares the surgical site . subsequently , the physician may insert a laparoscope or any other suitable viewing apparatus through another access tube 10 , 20 , 30 . the laparoscope facilitates visual observation of the surgical site . again , the operator may move access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 to observe several areas of the body cavity . after visually inspection the body cavity , the physician may insert a surgical instrument through any of the open proximal ends 14 , 24 , 34 . the surgeon should advance the surgical instrument through the corresponding passageway 12 , 22 , 32 until it reaches a location beyond corresponding open distal end 16 , 26 , 36 . the surgeon may then move access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 to reach the desired surgical site . access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 may move upon manual manipulation by the operator . the operator , however , may use any suitable means to move access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 . during operation , access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 of access port 100 move relative to one another about pivot point “ p .” the boundaries of bores 52 may slightly restrict the movement of access tubes 10 , 20 , 30 , as shown in fig4 . nonetheless , access tubes disposed in a support body 50 having a slit 60 may easily move beyond the boundaries of bores 52 . the method of using access port 100 is substantially similar to the method of using access port 200 . during the operation of access port 200 , however , a surgeon may move access tubes 210 , 220 , 230 with respect to one another , but their distal open ends 216 , 226 , 236 are fixed in relation to each other . it will be understood that various modifications may be made to the embodiments of the presently disclosed surgical stapling instruments . therefore , the above description should not be construed as limiting , but merely as exemplifications of embodiments . those skilled in the art will envision other modifications within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure .	0
in this embodiment , first , the structure and the operation of a presence server and a network for realizing service using the presence server will be described . afterward , the structure and the operation of an sip server to which an sip message routing method according to the invention is applied will be described . fig1 a schematic functional block diagram showing the presence server equivalent to this embodiment . in fig1 , logical functional configuration realized by software is shown , however , each functional block may be also configured by hardware . fig2 shows how the functional blocks shown in fig1 are realized by hardware . the operation of various functional blocks shown in fig1 is stored in a processing module group 26 in a memory 22 shown in fig2 , cpu 23 reads and executes its operational procedure in operation . terminal type information required when an individual processing module is operated is stored in a terminal type information management table 30 in a database 24 and presence information is stored in a presence information management table 31 in the database 24 . these information items are timely stored in a various information temporary table 25 in the memory 22 via an interface 33 when the presence server 1 is utilized and processing is executed in cpu 23 . the result is written to the database 24 via the interface 33 . fig2 is a flowchart showing the processing of the functional block groups shown in fig1 . each functional block is operated according to the flowchart shown in fig2 when a message is input / output . fig3 shows a network in an example of service using terminal type information and fig4 shows its sequence . in this example , a user b denoted by 43 in fig3 logs in the sip server 41 and the presence server 1 on terminals 45 , 46 owned by the user b . a user a denoted by 42 and a user c denoted by 47 also log in them and subscribe to the terminals 45 , 46 of the user b denoted by 43 . afterward , the user a communicates with the user b by an ip phone . the whole operation from extracting terminal type information to notifying another user of presence which is provided with terminal information will be described referring to these drawings below . in this example of service , a presence system is operated using sip for a protocol , however , sip is not essential to configure the presence system and another protocol can be also utilized . in case another protocol is utilized , the concrete contents of a message and a detailed sequence are different , however , a basic concept is unchanged . further , in fig3 , the terminals 45 , 46 owned by the user b denoted by 43 are shown as different hardware , however , there is also a case in which the terminals are dealt as different applications 45 , 46 on the same hardware 49 as shown in fig2 . first , in a step 51 shown in fig4 , the user b logs in the sip server 41 and the presence server 1 on the tv phone terminal 45 . fig5 shows the contents of an sip message in login . in sip , in login , a message using register method is transmitted . next , the presence server 1 registers a contact address 71 described in a contact header in a login message shown in fig5 as a terminal address . in a step 52 , the presence server recognizes terminal type information . referring to fig2 a , the contents of concrete processing in the step 52 will be described below . when the presence server 1 receives a message via an interface 13 - 1 to 13 - n shown in fig1 in a step 1291 , it starts terminal type extracting processing in a step 1292 . first , the presence server transfers to a login information transmission / reception module 12 and extracts login information in a step 1293 , that is , extracts the contact address 71 . in a step 1294 , a terminal type information extraction / transfer module 10 extracts a user - agent header value 72 of the login information and transfers the information to a terminal type information management module 7 . in this embodiment , the presence server judges a terminal type based upon a user - agent header , the presence server may also judge a terminal type in another method . for example , a method of adding a parameter assigned to the contact header for extending the original header on its own terms is conceivable . for an example in case a parameter is assigned to the contact header , description “ contact :& lt ; sip : usera @ abc . com & gt ;; agent = tvphone ” is conceivable . in case a method of judging a terminal type is changed , the processing of the terminal type information extraction / transfer module 10 is changed . next , the presence server 1 estimates a terminal type based upon the terminal type information extracted in the step 1294 and stores it together with login information . its concrete processing will be described below . the terminal information transferred from the terminal type information extraction / transfer module 10 is received by the terminal type information management module 7 . the terminal type information management module 7 manages a table 101 shown in fig8 a in a table for input 37 in a terminal type information management table 30 of the database 24 shown in fig2 . a terminal type judgment process in a step 1295 is executed utilizing this table 101 . a table 106 shown in fig8 b managed in a table for output 36 shown in fig2 is a table for outputting presence information , however , the tables 101 and 106 can be also managed in the same table in view of utilization in the database . in this embodiment , the tv phone terminal 45 which is a log - in terminal and which is owned by the user b adds terminal type information “ tvphone / 1 . 0 ( xxcorp tv phone )” to login information . in rfc 3261 of ietf in which a standard of sip is described , it is described that a description format of a user - agent header value is similar to that in rfc 2616 . as a description format of a user - agent header value is defined as [ terminal name ]/[ version number ] ([ comment ]) in rfc 2616 , the terminal type information of the log - in terminal is judged “ tvphone ” which is a value acquired by subtracting a version number and a comment from the user - agent header value 72 in the step 1295 . in the method of dealing with the user - agent header value , logic except that described in this embodiment may be also utilized . in this embodiment , only “ terminal name ” is utilized for terminal type information , however , a pattern in which “ version number ” and “ comment ” are utilized for terminal type information is also conceivable . in the above - mentioned process , the terminal type information of the log - in terminal is judged “ tvphone ”. next , in the step 1295 , the table for input 101 of the terminal type management table is retrieved to judge an actual terminal type based upon terminal type information . it is login information ( the user - agent header ) 102 that is retrieved and a retrieval key is terminal type information “ tvphone ”. the result of retrieval “ tvphone ” can be judged a tv phone based upon a terminal type for internal management 103 . when the terminal type information management module 7 judges a terminal type , it transmits the data to a terminal information input module 4 . a terminal information output module 5 registers the information in a log - in terminal type management table 34 of the database 24 via the interface 33 in a step 1296 . the log - in terminal type management table 34 is configured by a table according to a format shown in 91 in fig7 and a data record having a terminal type 93 and log - in terminal id 92 in pairs is added to the table . the presence server 1 describes the information of the log - in terminal in the presence information management table 31 of the database 24 which is a table for managing the log - in state of the terminal and presence information in a step 1297 at the same time as the proper processing . the presence information management table 31 is configured by a table according to a format shown in 81 in fig6 and adds a data record having a terminal address 82 which is id of the log - in terminal and an owner 83 of the terminal in pairs . presence information such as the other session status 84 and the current status 85 is separately registered in a method different from a login process . in this embodiment , presence information and login information are dealt as separate sequences , however , they may be also dealt as one sequence utilizing the same message . next , the user b denoted by 43 instructs the ip phone terminal 46 to log in in steps 53 , 54 , however , a procedure of the presence server 1 at this time is similar to that in the steps 51 , 52 . however , a user - agent header value of a log - in message transmitted to the sip server 41 and the presence server 1 by the ip phone terminal 46 is different from the value shown in 72 in fig5 . this reason is that the tv phone terminal 45 and the ip phone terminal 46 are different in a terminal type . as a result , the presence server 1 recognizes the ip phone terminal 46 as a terminal type different from that of the tv phone terminal 45 . this is also similar in case no user - agent header is used for terminal type information , different terminal type information is necessarily added to a different terminal and login is made . afterward , the user a denoted by 42 instructs the ip phone terminal 44 to log in , however , the procedure of the presence server 1 at this time is also similar in that in the steps 51 , 52 . suppose that the types of the ip phone terminals 44 and 46 are the same , however , as to the terminal 44 , “ ipphone ” is described as a user - agent header value and as to the terminal 46 , “ iptelephone ” is described . that is , the case is a case in which different user - agent header values are described though they are the same type . for example , possibility that the user - agent header values of the same ip phone terminals are different depending upon vendors that develop them is conceivable . the presence server 1 maps such terminals in which different user - agent header values are described though the terminal types of them are the same as the same terminal type . this reason is that management is made as in two records 1101 , 1102 described in the table 101 shown in fig8 a and even different user - agent headers 102 are mapped in the same terminal type for internal management 103 and in the same output mode ( for simple ) 104 . terminals designed by multiple vendors can be classified depending upon a function and service by preparing a table which functions as a dictionary for translating terminal type information of which each terminal notifies to terminal type information for internal management when the terminal type information is managed as described above . further , some vendors may not append such id of a terminal type in login . for such a terminal , a method of uniformly mapping in a terminal type which is default as in a record 1103 is conceivable . a method of judging a terminal type using a different method is also conceivable . next , the user a denoted by 42 transmits an information acquisition request to the presence server 1 in a step 36 to check the current presence information of the user b denoted by 43 and reserve notification when presence information hereafter changes . in case sip / simple is utilized for an interface , a message utilizing subscribe method as described in the non - patent document 3 is transmitted . the presence server 1 that receives the message executes processing for notifying the presence information of the user b to the user a in a step 57 shown in fig4 . referring to fig2 b , the concrete contents of the processing will be described below . when a request for the notification of presence information is made inside the presence server 1 in a step 1301 , processing for notification is started in a step 1302 . first , in a step 1303 , it is checked whether the user b permits the user a the publication of his / her presence information or not . concretely , permission information described in a permission information management table 35 in the database 24 shown in fig2 is retrieved . fig1 shows the concrete configuration of the table . the table 35 includes an access user 302 that requests to read presence information , an access target user 303 who is a user publishing presence information and permission information 304 in which the presence publication policy of the access target user is described . in the permission information , each presence information and permission information every terminal , that is , the setting of whether presence information is to be published or not are described . in this embodiment , as the user b reads the presence information of the user a , retrieval is made in a state in which a retrieval key is located in user b in a column 302 and is located in user a in a column 303 . the retrieved permission information is temporarily stored in the various information temporary table 25 shown in fig2 to utilize when presence information is configured later . the presence server 1 acquires all the presence information of the user b from the presence information management table 31 of the database 24 shown in fig2 via the interface 33 using the terminal information output module 5 in a step 1304 after presence information publication permission is verified . the presence information of the user b means the presence information of both the tv phone terminal 45 and the ip phone terminal 46 respectively owned by the user b . presence information acquired from the database 24 is held in the various information temporary table 25 in the memory 22 shown in fig2 to configure the subsequent presence information . next , the presence server 1 selects presence information in which notification to the user a is permitted based upon the user b &# 39 ; s presence information held in the various information temporary table 25 in a notified information selection module 14 shown in fig1 in a step 1305 . this processing is executed using the permission information retrieved formerly and temporarily held in the various information temporary table 25 of the user b for the user a . presence information the publication of which is not permitted is filtered in this step . the filtered presence information of the user b is transferred to a presence information formation module 9 . next , in a step 1306 , the terminal type information management module 7 is inquired , and the terminal type information of each terminal and additional information when presence information is configured are acquired . a method of notifying presence information is different every protocol . therefore , a method of adding terminal type information is also different every protocol . in the terminal type information management table denoted by 106 in fig8 b , an output mode in each protocol is described . the output mode is changed every protocol and presence information is notified . in this embodiment , an output mode for http is described in 105 except sip / simple . next , in a step 1307 , the contents of notice are configured in a format when the presence information formation module 9 notifies the user a . in this embodiment , presence information is notified the user a using a format called presence information data format ( pidf ) defined in the non - patent document 4 . the name space function of exchange markup language ( xml ) which is the original format of pidf is utilized for the addition of terminal type information . fig9 shows an example of configured presence information . in 111 , 112 in fig9 , name space for an ip phone and a tv phone described in fig8 is defined . the definition of xml is required to be described first to utilize name space . the user b denoted by 43 in fig3 owns two terminals of the tv phone terminal 45 and the ip phone terminal 46 and as both presence information is notified the user a , two name space is defined to identify the terminal types of the two terminals . default when the name space is represented is declared in the defined part and afterward , in case name space is added to an xml sentence , a character string of the default has only to be described as a prefix . in this embodiment , a prefix of name space for a tv phone terminal is defined as “ tvphone ” and a prefix of name space for an ip phone is defined as “ phone ”. for presence information afterward described , an xml prefix representing a terminal type is added to a front part of a name of presence information . as in 113 , 114 shown in fig9 , the current status ( the availability ) of an ip phone and a session status are written , a prefix is “ phone ”. as in 115 , 116 , the current status of a tv phone and session status are written , a prefix is “ tvphone ”. in this embodiment , terminal information is given utilizing xml name space , however , a terminal type is considered one presence information and a method of describing in parallel with other presence information is also conceivable . the presence information generated in the above - mentioned process is transferred to a presence information transmission / reception module 11 shown in fig1 in a step 1308 and is transmitted to the user a in a step 58 shown in fig4 in an sip message using notify method defined in the non - patent document 3 . suppose that afterward , the user c denoted by 47 in fig3 logs in on an ip phone terminal 48 which he / she owns . a procedure from the step 59 to the step 63 shown in fig4 is similar to that in case the user a logs in and the user c reads the user b &# 39 ; s presence information . next , suppose that the user a denoted by 43 in fig3 tries to call the user b utilizing the ip phone terminal 44 owned by him / her . the user a can grasp which of the terminals owned by the user b is the ip phone terminal based upon the user b &# 39 ; s presence information received in the step 58 . concretely , a terminal address is verified based upon terminal id ( an sip address ) described in 117 , 118 and the type of each terminal is verified based upon the xml name space . therefore , the user a can directly ring the ip phone terminal 46 owned by the user b denoted by 43 in fig3 and never calls the tv phone terminal 45 by mistake . in a step 64 shown in fig4 , the user a calls the user b and starts conversation . at that time , the ip phone terminal 46 owned by the user b notifies the presence server 1 that the ip phone terminal is in session status in a step 65 . the presence server 1 notifies the user a and the user c who reserve notification that presence information is updated in steps 66 and 67 because the presence of the user b changes . when the user a and the user b communicate in a step 68 , “ session status ” which is one of the presence information of the ip phone terminal owned by the user b is turned “ closed ”. as the ip phone terminal of the user b is in session status , that is , the user c knows that the user b is on the phone even if the user c would like to communicate with the user b , the user c can grasp that the user b does not answer the phone even if the user c calls until the user b hangs up . if the user b owns a terminal for character chat and the “ session status ” of the terminal for character chat is “ closed ”, the user c knows that the terminal for character chat of the user b is in session status , that is , the user b is in chat session . at this time , as his / her ears and mouth are available though the user b utilizes his / her hands to input a character of chat , the user c can judge that he / she can communicate with the user b in emergency . though the user a also directly communicates with the user b , the user a can grasp that the “ session status ” of the ip phone terminal of the user b is “ closed ” like the user c . afterward , when conversation between the user a and the user b is finished in a step 69 , the ip phone terminal 46 of the user b notifies the presence server 1 of the termination of a session in a step 70 and as a result , the presence server 1 notifies the user a and the user c that the “ session status ” of the ip phone of the user b is idle in steps 1070 , 1071 . terminal information is added to presence information notified the user a and the user b at this time in a form shown in fig9 . when session status is displayed on gui of the terminals of the user a and the user c , it can be displayed by utilizing this information on what application session is established based upon a terminal type . a balloon 228 shown in fig1 shows what display is actually made on gui of the user a . a reference number 1221 shown in fig1 shows an image of a table held inside the terminals of the user a and the user c and it is described how each terminal determines a display format of session status . for example , as a value in session status 1224 of a terminal a owned by the user b is “ closed ” and its terminal type 1225 is an ip phone , its display format 1226 is estimated to be “ telephone session ”. this estimate depends upon a terminal and may be different every terminal . as the terminal of the user a is estimated in “ telephone session ”, display that the terminal a of the user b is in “ telephone session ” is made in 228 shown in fig1 . fig1 shows a case that a sequence in a part shown by 1072 in fig4 is realized in another method . a sequence except the part shown by 1072 in fig1 is similar to that in fig4 . in the sequence shown in fig4 , when the session of each terminal is established and when session is finished , the presence server 1 is notified of it as presence information in steps 65 and 70 . in fig1 , this method is different from fig4 . in fig1 , each terminal does not notify the presence server 1 of the establishment / the termination of session but the sip server 41 notifies in steps 1111 , 1112 . the sip server 41 is a server for managing the session status of each terminal and also grasps the status of the establishment / the termination of the session of the user a &# 39 ; s terminal 44 and the user b &# 39 ; s terminal 2 denoted by 46 . therefore , the information of the establishment / the termination of session can notify the presence server 1 in place of each terminal . as the sip server registers the session status in the presence server 1 by deputy by using this method when the session of the existing ip phone not provided with a function for notifying session status is established / finished , another user can grasp the session status of the terminal . fig1 shows a network in case an sip server 321 specifies a route in which the type of each terminal is grasped . fig1 shows its sequence . fig1 is a functional block diagram showing the sip server for routing according to this method and fig2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the sip server . fig2 shows a sequence in case routing in which a terminal type is grasped is realized in a different method from the method shown in fig1 , fig2 is a functional block diagram showing an sip server function at that time , and fig2 and 24 are flowcharts showing a process executed by an sip server at that time . fig2 is a hardware block diagram showing the sip server adopting this method . the operation of various functional blocks shown in fig1 and 22 is stored in a processing module group 1279 in a memory 1272 as in fig1 and 2 , in operation , cpu 1273 reads an operational procedure and executes the operation . information required when an individual processing module is operated is stored in a location table 1278 and a terminal type table 1280 in the memory 1272 . the functional block diagrams shown in fig1 and 22 show logical functional configuration realized by software , however , each functional block may be also configured by hardware . first , difference between fig1 , 21 and fig4 will be described . in the sequence shown in fig4 , the terminal ( the ip phone ) denoted by 44 and owned by the user a acquires the type of a terminal which a partner user instructs to log in from presence information and judges that the ip phone terminal denoted by 46 out of the terminals which the user b instructs to log in should be called using the information . however , in case the ip phone terminal denoted by 44 and owned by the user a does not have a presence acquiring function with which a terminal 324 shown in fig1 is provided , it cannot specify the type of a partner terminal . therefore , this method cannot be utilized as it is . in the method shown in the sequence shown in fig1 , 21 , it is not the ip phone terminal denoted by 324 of a user a but the sip server 321 which is a deputy that checks the type of a terminal which a user b instructs to log in . as a result , even if the ip phone terminal denoted by 324 and owned by the user a does not a presence information acquiring function , a call conscious of a terminal type is enabled . referring to the sequence shown in fig1 , 21 , the method will be described below . terminals 325 , 326 owned by a user b denoted by 323 shown in fig1 are described as separate hardware , however , as in fig3 , they may be also like the terminal 49 shown in fig1 and the applications 45 , 46 . as shown in fig1 , first , in a step 1121 , the ip phone terminal denoted by 325 of the user b logs in the sip server 321 and a presence server 1 . at this time , in a step 1122 , the presence server 1 extracts the type information of the terminal 325 , however , a method is similar to the above - mentioned method . the sip server 321 stores the information of the log - in terminal in a location table 1278 shown in fig2 by a terminal location management module 1206 after the sip server receives a login message by a login information transmission / reception module 1204 shown in fig1 in terminal login . afterward , in a step 1123 , the terminal 2 denoted by 326 of the user b logs in and in a step 1125 , the ip phone terminal denoted by 324 of the user a logs in , however , a procedure at that time is similar to that in the steps 1121 , 1122 . next , the ip phone terminal denoted by 324 of the user a calls the user b . at this time , as the terminal 324 does not grasp the presence of the user b , it calls by specifying not his / her terminal address but the user b &# 39 ; s address . the sip server 321 that receives the call inquires the presence server 1 of the type of the terminal 324 of the calling user a and the type of a terminal currently instructed to log in by the called user b in a step 1128 . the presence server 1 that receives the inquiry returns the result in a step 1123 . concretely , when an sip message for calling the user b from the ip terminal 324 of the user a is received in a step 1127 , the sip server 321 receives the sip message in a step 1211 shown in fig2 and starts processing for transferring the message in a step 1212 . first , the sip server 321 discriminates the type of the message in a message routing module 1203 shown in fig1 in a step 1213 . when the type of the message is discriminated , it is determined whether the type of the message requires routing conscious of a terminal type or not in a step 1214 . at this time , when it is judged that the type of the message is not required to be conscious of the terminal type , control is shifted to a step 1220 , normal sip message routing is performed , the message is transferred in a step 1221 , and the process is finished in a step 1224 . in case the terminal type is required to be conscious , control is shifted to a step 1215 . in the step 1215 , the presence server 1 is inquired of the type of the ip terminal 324 of the user a who is an originator and the type of a terminal which the user b currently instructs to log in utilizing the terminal information inquiring module 1205 shown in fig1 . for a method of inquiring , an sip message may be also utilized and another method may be also used . afterward , when terminal type information is received from the presence server 1 in a step 1129 shown in fig1 , the type of the ip terminal 324 of the user a which is the originator is verified in a step 1216 shown in fig2 and next in a step 1217 , the log - in terminal and its type of the user b which is a destination of transmission are verified . in this embodiment , as the user b instructs the tv phone terminal 325 and the ip phone terminal 326 to log in , it is verified . next , in a step 1218 , the message routing module 1203 checks whether the user b instructs a terminal of the same type as the ip phone terminal 324 of the user a which is the originator to log in or not . in case the user b who is the destination of the transmission does not instruct a terminal of the same type as the originator to log in , no session comes into effect even if the message is transferred to any terminal instructed to log in by the user b . therefore , the sip server 321 transfers no message , generates a response message 403 showing that the user a who is the originator cannot communicate in a step 1222 , returns the response message to the user a in a step 1223 , and terminates the process in a step 1224 . in this embodiment , as the user b instructs the ip phone terminal 326 to log in , the terminal of the same type exists at the destination of transmission . therefore , the process proceeds to a step 1219 , an address of a transfer destination of a calling message is set in the ip phone terminal 326 of the user b , and in a step 1221 , the message is transmitted . in a step 1224 , the process is finished . as a result , the message for calling the user b from the user a is transferred from the sip server 321 to the ip phone terminal 326 of the user b in a step 1130 shown in fig1 and conversation is started in a step 1131 . afterward , in a step 1132 , the conversation is finished . fig2 shows a sequence in case the sip server 321 realizes message routing conscious of a terminal type without using the method shown in fig1 . a part different from fig1 is a method when the sip server 321 checks the type of each terminal . in fig1 , it is realized by inquiring the presence server 1 , however , in fig2 , the sip server 321 is provided with the similar terminal type extracting function to the presence server 1 and the sip server grasps the terminal type when login information is received . the details of fig2 will be described below . in fig2 , as in fig1 , first , in a step 1141 , the tv phone terminal 325 of the user b logs in the sip server 321 and the presence server 1 . next , the sip server 321 extracts the type of a log - in terminal in a step 1142 before the sip server transfers a log - in message to the presence server 1 . concretely , after a log - in message is received in a step 1231 shown in fig2 , processing for grasping a terminal type is executed in a step 1232 . when the processing is started , a terminal type information extraction module 1207 shown in fig2 extracts terminal type information from the log - in message in a step 1233 . the contents of the processing are completely similar to processing when the presence server 1 grasps the terminal type and material for determining the terminal type is extracted from a header , a parameter and others of register message which is the log - in message . next , in a step 1234 , the terminal type is determined , however , this process is also similar to a case of the presence server 1 . determined terminal information is registered in the terminal type table 1280 in the memory 1272 shown in fig2 in the step 1225 . besides , login information is registered in a location table 1278 in the memory 1272 shown in fig2 in a step 1236 and the process is finished in a step 1237 . afterward , the sip server 321 transfers the login information to the presence server 1 in the step 1143 shown in fig2 . the processing of the presence server 1 in the afterward step 1143 is similar to the above - mentioned processing . afterward , the ip phone terminal 326 of the user b and the ip phone terminal 324 of the user a log in in steps 1145 , 1149 , however , the procedures of the sip server 321 and the presence server 1 at that time are similar to the case of the step 1141 . afterward , in a step 1153 , the ip phone 324 of the user a calls the user b . the sip server 321 judges which of terminals which the user b instructs to log in should be called in a step 1154 , however , a sequence procedure is different from that shown in fig1 , the sip server 321 does not inquire the presence server 1 of terminal type information but retrieves terminal type information in the terminal type table 1280 in the memory 1272 shown in fig2 . concretely , processing is executed according to a flowchart shown in fig2 . the flowchart shown in fig2 is similar to that shown in fig1 except a step 1255 . in the step 1255 , the terminal type information management module 1208 shown in fig2 is inquired of the types of the terminal 324 of the user a , the terminal 1 denoted by 325 of the user b and the terminal 2 denoted by 326 . afterward , as a result of selecting a transmission destination terminal inside the sip server 321 in the step 1154 , the sip server 321 transfers a message for calling the user b from the user a to the terminal 2 denoted by 326 of the user b , that is , the ip phone terminal in a step 1155 . as a result , in a step 1156 , conversation is started and afterward , in a step 1157 , the conversation is finished .	7
a description of the forces imparted upon an arrow by a bow and the archer shall first be described with reference to fig7 , and 9 . a bow generally indicated at 3 indicates a handle provided with a vertical support member 7 and a lateral support member 9 . a bowstring 4 is depicted in fig7 and fig8 at its full draw position with an arrow 2 nocked thereon . it is indicated in fig7 that arrow 2 is nocked on bowstring 4 at a traditional distance above the center line of force f . line f is in relation to bow 3 and is always vertically and laterally stable relative to bowstring 4 with arrow 2 nocked thereon . the point end of arrow 2 is maintained stable relative to line f by support members 7 and 9 . with reference to the conditions set up in fig7 the primary force serving to propel arrow 2 from bow 3 is that force imparted by the pull or draw weight of the bow limbs ( not shown ) and transmitted to arrow 2 through bowstring 4 . this primary force is directed along the center line of force indicated by f . because of the high length - to - diameter ratio of arrow 2 when the nock end of arrow 2 is displaced away from line f as depicted by angle 5 in fig7 the primary force imposed thereon at the moment of release causes arrow 2 to bend downwardly , therefore directing the point thereof to assume a path inclined in the vertical direction . having nocked arrow 2 above the center line of force f as indicated in fig7 a vertical displacement force was generated at the moment of release to influence arrow 2 to bend downwardly . in the absence of this force , arrow 2 would bend in an unpredictable and erratic manner . fig8 is a view of bow handle 3 taken on the line 8 -- 8 of fig9 . as indicated , bowstring 4 with arrow 2 nocked thereon has been displaced laterally away from force line f , indicated by angle 6 . this lateral displacement of bowstring 4 will initiate lateral displacement force upon impact of release to influence arrow 2 to bend toward force line f or inwardly toward bow 3 , causing the point end of arrow 2 to assume a path inclined laterally away from bow 3 . when the fingers of an archer are utilized for drawing and releasing bowstring 4 , there inevitably exists a lateral shifting of bowstring 4 with arrow 2 nocked thereon , due to the rolling of bowstring 4 off the fingers of the archer . this shifting is in either the left or right direction , depending upon whether a left - handed or right - handed bow is used . assuming that a right - handed bow is being utilized as depicted in fig7 , and 9 , this lateral displacement force is indicated by arrow l in fig9 and is opposed by lateral arrow support member 9 . vertical displacement force is indicated by arrow v in fig9 and is opposed by vertical support member 7 . the vertical displacement angle 5 of fig7 and the lateral displacement angle 6 of fig8 will initiate displacement forces upon impact of release of a value relative to the degree of displacement . if the vertical and lateral displacement forces are equal , then the resultant effects will provide a theoretical net force in the direction indicated by arrow n in fig9 . depending upon the degree of difference between the values of the lateral and vertical displacement , net force n may be oriented anywhere within the 90 degree quandrant represented by arrows l and v . as depicted in fig7 and 8 , the moment that bowstring 4 is released from full draw , equal vertical and lateral displacement forces imposed by bow 3 immediately cause arrow 2 to bend in a curve directed in a path downwardly at an angle inclined toward the side of bow 3 and along net force line n of fig9 . the resiliency inherent in arrow 2 will cause an immediate tendency to recover from this initial bend , and arrow 2 will over - compensate , rebounding away from support members 7 and 9 to bend into a curved path directed outwardly at an angle inclined away from bow 3 along force line n to form a bending pattern traditionally called the s curve . the second bend of the s curve is both the result and the inverse of the first bend . the embodiment of the improved arrow support device shown in this disclosure holds that lateral and vertical displacement forces can be adjusted so they are equal , giving a net displacement force which bisects the 90 degree quandrant formed by arrows v and l in fig9 . in making this adjustment , the archer traditionally sets the nocking point above the center line of force by an amount equal to the combined lateral displacement of his shooting style and any built - in torque in the bow . this is the accepted way that a bow is tuned , whether or not the archer is aware of what he is actually doing . the present invention does not alter this tuning procedure , but simply operates along the resultant net line of force , making the above tuning procedure extremely simple . a preferred embodiment of the present invention shall now be described with reference to fig1 - 6 . the arrow support device includes a pair of elongated , generally non - resilient arrow support members 35 and 38 , adapted with mounting flanges 35a and 38a having apertures 40a and 40b , disposed therein as depicted in fig4 for the purpose of mounting to yoke 23 . the mounting is accomplished by suitable means , such as screws 36 and 39 and threaded apertures 37 and 41 , shown in fig1 and 4 . arrow support members 35 and 38 and yoke 23 are intended to be as non - yielding as materials , space limitations , and weight considerations will allow , providing in combination an arrow support - yoke assembly , which moves as a unit as depicted in fig1 and 2 . elongated aperture 40a disposed in the mounting flange 38b of arrow support member 38 shown in fig4 provides lateral adjustment of arrow support member 38 to accomodate various sizes of arrow shafts . the outer tips of arrow support members 35 and 38 can be provided with a cushion material to minimize noise for hunting purposes . pivot bearings 24 and 30 are pressed into pivot - bearing sockets 25 and 31 of yoke 23 as depicted in fig6 . yoke 23 , with arrow support members 35 and 38 attached thereto , is secured in pivot frame 14 by mating conical pivot members 26a and 26b with said pressed - in pivot bearings 24 and 30 . yoke 23 can be centered in pivot frame member 14 by adjusting the position of conical pivot members 26a and 26b in apertures 29 and 34 . when the yoke is satisfactorily centered , conical pivot members 26a and 26b are then clamped in place by screws 27 and 32 , disposed in threaded apertures 28 and 33 . partial cutaway details of the pivot clamping system is shown by fig5 . conical pivot members 26a and 26b can be in the form of threaded set screws , in which case apertures 29 and 34 would be threaded to provide screwdriver - type adjustment for centering yoke 23 . as depicted in fig2 and 6 , pivot frame 14 is secured to bow 3 by satisfactory means such as mounting member 10 using suitable , laterally - adjustable means such as captive studs 15 and 16 , shim plate 18 , lock washers 21 and 22 , thumb nuts 19 and 20 , and shim - pack 17 . shim pack 17 is disposed on one or both sides of mounting member 10 to provide a means of lateral adjustment of pivot frame 14 without requiring a change in the length of captive studes 15 and 16 . mounting member 10 is secured to bow 3 by suitable means , such as screw 11 as depicted in fig1 and 3 . pivot frame member 14 and mounting member 10 can be adapted to use any of various securable telescoping spindle - or spline - type devices to provide lateral movement of pivot frame member 14 relative to the axis of intended arrow flight . the said spindle or spline can be a lead screw driven by satisfactory means , such as a captive indexing drum secured to mounting member 10 . spring holder hook 43 is provided with a lateral portion 43a for insertion into stop block 42 through aperture 44b extending into aperture 44a and secured by suitable means , such as deforming the terminal and of 43a by punching through aperture 44a as shown in fig2 and 4 . stop block 42 with spring holder hook 43 attached thereto is secured to yoke 23 by suitable means , such as screw 45 and threaded aperture 46 shown in fig2 and 4 . optional cushion pad 47 can be used to silence any clicking sound made when stop block 42 strikes pivot frame member 14 during the discharge of a shot . a spring tension adjustment assembly comprising screw 54 , spring - holder hook alignment plate 50 having aperture 52 disposed in guide flange 51 to accomodate shank portion 49a of spring holder hook 49 , and washer 53 is assembled as shown in fig3 and 4 . the spring tension adjustment assembly is securable anywhere along slot 55 disposed in flange 58 of mounting means 10 . guide flange 51 extends into slot 55 to act in combination with screw 54 to maintain satisfactory alignment of the spring tension adjustment assembly . one end of spring 48 is attached to yoke 23 by spring holder hook 43 carried by stop block 42 ; the other end of spring 43 is attached to mounting means 10 by adjustable spring holder hook 49 . flange 58 provides protection from physical damage for relatively fragile spring 48 . the outer ends of spring holder hooks 43 and 49 protrude slightly beyond the edge of flange 58 to facilitate changing spring 48 without requiring the use of tools , as shown in fig3 . wire - type spring holder hooks are used in this invention rather than traditional screws or studs in order to minimize the lateral torque that would be imposed on spring 48 by such screws or studs , thereby minimizing spring oscillation fatigue and objectionable noise generated by such oscillation . the otherwise detrimental effect of slight changes in bearing friction is minimized by the design of the present invention by providing space within the framework of the device to allow for attachment of extensive - type spring 48 to yoke 23 about one inch away from pivot axis p . the leverage thus achieved permits the use of a relatively light spring tension to operate the yoke assembly , providing an added degree of forgiveness claimed for the device of this disclosure . satisfactory spring loading of yoke 23 can be achieved by any type of spring system commonly used in rotatable devices which can be adapted to urge yoke 23 against a stop means . the extention - type spring system illustrated herein is used to provide generally constant spring tension during the alternating movement of yoke 23 . an adjustable leaf , torque or compression spring system can be used to provide increasing tension as yoke 23 is moving away from the first stop means and decreasing tension as yoke 23 moves toward the first stop means . the spring system can be attached to or embodied in yoke 23 , extending to pivot frame 14 or bow 3 ; or attached to , or embodied in , pivot frame 14 extending to yoke 23 . a satisfactory counterweight system secured to yoke 23 can be used to supply decreasing resistance to movement as yoke 23 moves away from the first stop means upon impact of release , providing peak resistance when peak lateral displacement forces are imposed on the arrow - support means . bow 3 has a threaded aperture to receive screw 11 shown in fig1 and 3 , provided in the manufacture of most modern bows and disposed at a point generally where the axis of intended arrow flight , indicated by line a of fig3 and the axis of the torque center of the box handle cross , as depicted by lines a and t of fig3 . the outer end 35b of arrow support member 35 is disposed near the center of this aperture as shown by fig1 . the forward extending longitudinal axes of this invention are intended to be generally along lines parallel to the axis of intended arrow flight facilitating longitudinal alignment of the device in that the uppermost edge of mounting member 10 , pivoting about screw 11 , can be made parallel with the axis of an in - place arrow . proper adjustment of arrow support member 38b is accomplished when the horizontal plane of the axis of an in - place arrow is aligned with the center of outer end 35b of arrow support member 35 , shown in fig2 . the embodiment of the invention illustrated herein uses a relatively large number of individual parts that in practice combine as a single functional part , such as the spring - holder hook adjustment assembly and the pivot frame - mounting means assembly . referring now to fig7 and 8 , when arrow 2 absorbs the initial impact of the primary propelling force upon release of bowstring 4 , the vertical displacement angle 5 and lateral displacement angle 6 will cause arrow 2 to start bending downwardly along net force line n of fig9 . referring now to fig1 , and 3 , the present invention is used in place of supports 7 and 9 of fig7 , and 9 . when the point end of arrow 2a exerts downwardly - directed force on the outer tips of arrow suport members 35 and 38 , yoke 23 will rotate about pivot axis line p of fig2 causing apex portion 23a of yoke 23 to move outwardly as indicated by 23b of fig3 carrying stop block 42 ( with spring member 48 attached thereto ) away from pivot frame 14 and against the tension of spring 48 , allowing arrow 2a to move downwardly along line n and across pivot axis p to a position 2b as indicated by phantom lines in fig1 and 2 , conteracting most of the tendency of arrow 2a to bend . as arrow 2a proceeds out of bow 3 , it will recover from the effects of the vertical and lateral forces imposed on it by the impact of release . the tendency to bend downward will subside and the tension of spring 48 will return accelerating arrow 2a upwardly along net force line n until stop block 42 rests against pivot frame 14 . arrow 2a will proceed out of bow 3 to complete the discharge of the shot . referring now to fig2 it is important to notice that the pivot axis , indicated by line p , passes through the horizontal plane of the longitudinal axis of arrow 2a , which is disposed along the axis of intended arrow flight , indicated by line a of fig3 . when arrow 2a is discharged from bow 3 , downwardly - directed lateral forces cause the arrow shaft to exert a net downwardly - directed lateral force on the forward - protruding outer tips of the arrow support members , causing the arrow support - yoke assembly to pivot about the pivot axis line p between two stop means provided by stop block 42 and the bottoming - out of arrow support member 35 . the mechanical strength of the present invention is great enough to require that portion of accelerating arrow 2a riding in the arrow - supporting portion of the yoke assembly to be disposed along line n . if arrow 2a moves to the position indicated by phantom arrow 2b , part of the circular cross - section of the arrow shaft can cross the pivot axis indicated by line p . lateral interaction between the arrow - contacting portions of the arrow - supporting yoke assembly is minimized by the non - resilient nature of the device . recess 23a , indicated in fig4 provides means to allow arrow 2a to pass near or across the pivot axis line p to provide a relationship between arrow support members 35 and 38 and pivot axis p selected to minimize radial shifting of the arrow - supporting portions of the arrow support members 35 and 38 about the surface of accelerating arrow 2a during discharge of the shot . if under some shooting conditions interaction of the arrow support members is not considered objectionable , two or more resilient arrow support members can be used , provided that the combination is less resilient than spring 48 . when the tendency of accelerating arrow 2a to bend downwardly has subsided , the tension of spring 48 will return the arrow - supporting yoke assembly to the at - rest stop position , carrying accelerating arrow 2a back to the axis of intended arrow flight . this lifting of accelerating arrow 2a back to the axis of intended arrow flight occurs when the arrow shaft is straight and because there is no interaction between the arrow - supporting members , no additional lateral force is transmitted by the arrow support members to arrow 2a when stop block 42 comes to rest against pivot frame 14 , minimizing overcompensation common with presently - used devices . this would be considered an ideal shot with the present invention having counteracted most of the first tendency of the arrow shaft to bend , allowing the arrow to proceed out of the bow with little or no s curve . if on the next shot the archer produces an inconsistent release , causing more lateral displacement than vertical displacement and a net force which is different from the first shot , the present invention will react exactly as described previously , pivoting an axis line p and thereby applying counteractive force to the accelerating arrow to follow line n . this counteractive force is opposed to the different net line of force and is derived from the non - variable plane of line n and is added to the different net line of force , resulting in a net line of force closer to line n . when the arrow has lost its tendency to bend along the different net force line , the energy stored in spring 48 will return the arrow shaft upwardly along line n until stop block 42 again rests against pivot frame 14 , effectively counteracting a change in lateral displacement force . the yoke will react in the same way to a change in vertical displacement force . when using the yoke arrow support , the bending of the arrow generally does not transmit appreciable lateral energy to the bowhandle , the tension of spring 48 being the maximum pressure the arrow can transfer back to the bow . under these conditions , during the time the energy stored in the bow limbs is being transmitted to the arrow through the bow string , the bow - arrow unit displays a gyro - effect as long as the arrow is accelerating . this gyro - effect maintains the bow vertically stable as long as the arrow is absorbing energy from the bow . if the archer has heeled his bow , the effect of this heeling -- which kicks the lower limb forward , effectively lowering the nocking point -- will generally not occur until near the end of the power stroke of the bow , when the gyro - effect subsides . at this time , the arrow will be affected as though the nocking point were suddenly lowered , causing the arrow support to pivot downwardly along line n , counteracting to a large degree the effects of severe heeling of the bow . it is the combination of mechanical parts capable of providing this action for which i seek letters patent as set forth in the following claims .	5
referring now to the several drawing figures in which identical elements have been numbered identically throughout , a description of the preferred embodiment of the invention will now be provided . fig1 shows a prior art fiber optic module which is discussed more thoroughly in that section of this application entitled &# 34 ; description of the prior art .&# 34 ; with reference directed to fig2 - 3 , a connector module 100 is shown having a sheet metal housing 102 which includes a front wall 104 and a rear wall 106 . the front wall carries a first receive fiber optic connector 108 , a first transmit fiber optic connector 110 , a receive monitor connector 112 and a transmit monitor connector 114 . the rear wall 106 carries a second receive fiber optic connector 116 and a second transmit fiber optic connector 118 . it will be appreciated that fiber optic connectors such as connectors 108 , 110 , 112 , 114 , 116 and 118 are well known in the art and form no part of this invention per se . connectors 108 , 110 , 112 and 114 are secured with their axes at an angle relative to the face 104 . for reasons that will become apparent , connectors 112 , 114 are preferably so called angled connectors to prevent back reflection . namely , the terminal face of the connector is non - orthogonal to the axis of the fiber contained within the connector ferrule 124 . by reason of this angle , light transmitted through the fiber does not reflect back into the fiber when a second cable is not connected to the connector . the preferential use of an angled connector for connectors 112 , 114 is attributable to the fact that in normal operation , it is anticipated that fibers will not be connected to the free ends of connectors 112 , 114 . in anticipated operation , external cables will be connected to connectors 108 , 110 , 116 and 118 . accordingly , these connectors need not be angled connectors . each of connectors 108 , 110 , 112 , 114 , 116 and 118 have free ends 108a , 110a , 112a , 114a , 116a and 118a exposed external to an interior 103 of housing 102 to permit connection to external cables ( not shown ). a receive fiber optic cable 130 is provided contained within interior 103 and optically coupled to first receive connector 108 . the receive cable 130 is also connected to second receive connector 116 . a transmit fiber optic cable 132 is optically connected to the first transmit fiber optic connector 110 . cable 132 is also connected to the second transmit fiber optic connector 118 . a transmit monitor fiber optic cable 134 is optically connected to the transmit monitor connector 114 . similarly , a receive monitor fiber optic cable 136 is optically connected to the receive monitor fiber optic connector 112 . a first beam splitter 140 is provided on cable 130 to split a receive signal beam from receive connector 108 into first and second receive distribution beams . the first receive distribution beam is transmitted along cable 130 to connector 116 . the second receive distribution beam is transmitted along cable 136 to connector 112 . for reasons that will be described , first beam splitter 140 preferably splits the receive signal with ninety percent of the signal transmitted to connector 116 and the remaining ten percent of the signal transmitted to connector 112 . similarly , a second beam splitter 142 is provided on cable 132 . the splitter 142 is selected to send 90 percent of the signal from connector 118 through cable 132 to connector 110 . the remaining 10 percent of the signal is distributed through cable 134 to connector 114 . a variable attenuator 144 is provided on cable 130 . the variable attenuator is selectively actuated by an operator by means of rotation of a handle or knob 146 extending beyond face 104 . the knob 146 is connected via a shaft 148 to the attenuator 144 . upon turning of the knob 146 attenuation of a signal along cable 130 may be varied . it will be appreciated that beam splitters and variable attenuators such as those schematically shown in fig2 are commercially available and well known . with the structure thus described , a signal is received into module 100 through connector 108 . the signal is attenuated through variable attenuator 144 and passed to first splitter 140 . ninety percent of the signal is emitted from module 100 through connector 116 . ten percent of the signal is directed to monitor connector 112 . similarly , a signal is inputted at connector 118 and passed through splitter 142 with 90 percent of the signal sent to connector 110 and the remaining 10 percent directed to connector 114 . in intended use , connectors 110 , 108 , 116 and 118 are connected to fiber optic cables connecting various pieces of fiber optic equipment . at an operator &# 39 ; s election , fiber optic cables may be connected to either of connectors 112 , 114 to monitor the signal passing through lines 130 , 132 , respectively . in intended operation , connector 116 is connected via a fiber optic cable ( not shown ) to a piece of fiber optic equipment . such equipment typically has a limited dynamic range for receiving signals . for example , such a dynamic range may be - 25 db 5 dbm . by monitoring through connector 112 , an operator can determine if the signal beam discharged through connector 116 is within the prescribed dynamic range . for example , due to the 90 / 10 split of first splitter 140 , if the dynamic measurement at connector 112 is measured at - 35 dbm then an operator knows that the output of connector 116 is - 25 dbm . if the measured power at connector 112 is other than - 35 dbm , the operator can manually engage knob 146 and vary the attenuation of attenuator 144 until the measured dynamic output of connector 112 attains the desired - 35 dbm . the use of a 90 / 10 splitter 140 is desirable as compared to other types of splitters ( for example , 80 / 20 splitters ) since an operator can readily determine the amount of attenuation necessary . specifically , a ninety percent splitter results in a 10 db loss . a fifty percent splitter results in a 3 db loss . using a 90 / 10 splitter , an operator readily knows that the db output of connector 116 is + 10 at measured at connector 112 . from the foregoing detailed description of the present invention , it has been shown how the objects of the invention have been attained in a preferred manner . however , modifications and equivalence of the disclosed concepts such as those which readily occur to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention .	6
referring to the drawings , there is shown a gaming system having a game controller arranged to implement a game where a player is allocated a number of game rounds to achieve a target outcome . during the game rounds contributions towards the outcome are accumulated and the player receives an award if the target outcome is achieved . in an embodiment , the player selects the target outcome from target outcomes having different levels of difficulty with greater awards associated with higher difficulty , thus introducing a tension between the player &# 39 ; s selection and the prospects of success . the gaming system can take a number of different forms . in a first form , a stand alone gaming machine is provided wherein all or most components required for implementing the game are present in a player operable gaming machine . in a second form , a distributed architecture is provided wherein some of the components required for implementing the game are present in a player operable gaming machine and some of the components required for implementing the game are located remotely relative to the gaming machine . for example , a “ thick client ” architecture may be used wherein part of the game is executed on a player operable gaming machine and part of the game is executed remotely , such as by a gaming server ; or a “ thin client ” architecture may be used wherein most of the game is executed remotely such as by a gaming server and a player operable gaming machine is used only to display audible and / or visible gaming information to the player and receive gaming inputs from the player . however , it will be understood that other arrangements are envisaged . for example , an architecture may be provided wherein a gaming machine is networked to a gaming server and the respective functions of the gaming machine and the gaming server are selectively modifiable . for example , the gaming system may operate in stand alone gaming machine mode , “ thick client ” mode or “ thin client ” mode depending on the game being played , operating conditions , and so on . other variations will be apparent to persons skilled in the art . irrespective of the form , the gaming system comprises several core components . at the broadest level , the core components are a player interface 50 and a game controller 60 as illustrated in fig1 . the player interface is arranged to enable manual interaction between a player and the gaming system and for this purpose includes the input / output components required for the player to enter instructions and play the game . components of the player interface may vary from embodiment to embodiment but will typically include a credit mechanism 52 to enable a player to input credits and receive payouts , one or more displays 54 , a game play mechanism 56 comprising one or more input devices that enable a player to input game play instructions ( e . g . to place bets ), and one or more speakers 58 . the game controller 60 is in data communication with the player interface and typically includes a processor 62 that processes the game play instructions in accordance with game play rules and outputs game play outcomes to the display . typically , the game play instructions are stored as program code in a memory 64 but can also be hardwired . herein the term “ processor ” is used to refer generically to any device that can process game play instructions in accordance with game play rules and may include : a microprocessor , microcontroller , programmable logic device or other computational device , a general purpose computer ( e . g . a pc ) or a server . a gaming system in the form of a stand alone gaming machine 10 is illustrated in fig2 . the gaming machine 10 includes a console 12 having a display 14 on which are displayed representations of a game 16 that can be played by a player . a mid - trim 20 of the gaming machine 10 houses a bank of buttons 22 for enabling a player to interact with the gaming machine , in particular during game play . the mid - trim 20 also houses a credit input mechanism 24 which in this example includes a coin input chute 24 a and a bill collector 24 b . other credit input mechanisms may also be employed , for example , a card reader for reading a smart card , debit card or credit card . a player marketing module ( not shown ) having a reading device may also be provided for the purpose of reading a player tracking device , for example as part of a loyalty program . the player tracking device may be in the form of a card , flash drive or any other portable storage medium capable of being read by the reading device . a top box 26 may carry artwork 28 , including for example pay tables and details of bonus awards and other information or images relating to the game . further artwork and / or information may be provided on a front panel 29 of the console 12 . a coin tray 30 is mounted beneath the front panel 29 for dispensing cash payouts from the gaming machine 10 . the display 14 shown in fig2 is in the form of a video display unit , particularly a cathode ray tube screen device . alternatively , the display 14 may be a liquid crystal display , plasma screen , any other suitable video display unit , or the visible portion of an electromechanical device . the top box 26 may also include a display , for example a video display unit , which may be of the same type as the display 14 , or of a different type . fig3 shows a block diagram of operative components of a typical gaming machine which may be the same as or different to the gaming machine of fig2 . the gaming machine 100 includes a game controller 101 having a processor 102 . instructions and data to control operation of the processor 102 are stored in a memory 103 , which is in data communication with the processor 102 . typically , the gaming machine 100 will include both volatile and non - volatile memory and more than one of each type of memory , with such memories being collectively represented by the memory 103 . the gaming machine has hardware meters 104 for purposes including ensuring regulatory compliance and monitoring player credit , an input / output ( i / o ) interface 105 for communicating with peripheral devices of the gaming machine 100 . the input / output interface 105 and / or the peripheral devices may be intelligent devices with their own memory for storing associated instructions and data for use with the input / output interface or the peripheral devices . a random number generator module 113 generates random numbers for use by the processor 102 . persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the reference to random numbers includes pseudo - random numbers . in the example shown in fig3 , a player interface 120 includes peripheral devices that communicate with the game controller 101 and comprise one or more displays 106 , a touch screen and / or buttons 107 , a card and / or ticket reader 108 , a printer 109 , a bill acceptor and / or coin input mechanism 110 and a coin output mechanism 111 . additional hardware may be included as part of the gaming machine 100 , or hardware may be omitted as required for the specific implementation . for example , while buttons or touch screens are typically used in gaming machines to allow a player to place a wager and initiate a play of a game any input device that enables the player to input game play instructions may be used . in addition , the gaming machine 100 may include a communications interface , for example a network card 112 . the network card may , for example , send status information , accounting information or other information to a central controller , server or database and receive data or commands from the central controller , server or database . fig4 shows a block diagram of the main components of an exemplary memory 103 . the memory 103 includes ram 103 a , eprom 103 b and a mass storage device 103 c . the ram 103 a typically temporarily holds program files for execution by the processor 102 and related data . the eprom 103 b may be a boot rom device and / or may contain some system or game related code . the mass storage device 103 c is typically used to store game programs , the integrity of which may be verified and / or authenticated by the processor 102 using protected code from the eprom 103 b or elsewhere . it is also possible for the operative components of the gaming machine 100 to be distributed , for example input / output devices 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 to be provided remotely from the game controller 101 . fig5 shows a gaming system 200 in accordance with an alternative embodiment . the gaming system 200 includes a network 201 , which for example may be an ethernet network . gaming machines 202 , shown arranged in three banks 203 of two gaming machines 202 in fig5 , are connected to the network 201 . the gaming machines 202 provide a player operable interface and may be the same as the gaming machines 10 , 100 shown in fig2 and 3 , or may have simplified functionality depending on the requirements for implementing game play . while banks 203 of two gaming machines are illustrated in fig5 , banks of one , three or more gaming machines are also envisaged . one or more displays 204 may also be connected to the network 201 . for example , the displays 204 may be associated with one or more banks 203 of gaming machines . the displays 204 may be used to display representations associated with game play on the gaming machines 202 , and / or used to display other representations , for example promotional or informational material . in a thick client embodiment , game server 205 implements part of the game played by a player using a gaming machine 202 and the gaming machine 202 implements part of the game . with this embodiment , as both the game server and the gaming device implement part of the game , they collectively provide a game controller . a database management server 206 may manage storage of game programs and associated data for downloading or access by the gaming devices 202 in a database 206 a . typically , if the gaming system enables players to participate in a jackpot game , a jackpot server 207 will be provided to perform accounting functions for the jackpot game . a loyalty program server 212 may also be provided . in a thin client embodiment , game server 205 implements most or all of the game played by a player using a gaming machine 202 and the gaming machine 202 essentially provides only the player interface . with this embodiment , the game server 205 provides the game controller . the gaming machine will receive player instructions , pass these to the game server which will process them and return game play outcomes to the gaming machine for display . in a thin client embodiment , the gaming machines could be computer terminals , e . g . pcs running software that provides a player interface operable using standard computer input and output components . servers are also typically provided to assist in the administration of the gaming network 200 , including for example a gaming floor management server 208 , and a licensing server 209 to monitor the use of licenses relating to particular games . an administrator terminal 210 is provided to allow an administrator to run the network 201 and the devices connected to the network . the gaming system 200 may communicate with other gaming systems , other local networks , for example a corporate network , and / or a wide area network such as the internet , for example through a firewall 211 . persons skilled in the art will appreciate that in accordance with known techniques , functionality at the server side of the network may be distributed over a plurality of different computers . for example , elements may be run as a single “ engine ” on one server or a separate server may be provided . for example , the game server 205 could run a random number generator engine . alternatively , a separate random number generator server could be provided . further , persons skilled in the art will appreciate that a plurality of game servers could be provided to run different games or a single game server may run a plurality of different games as required by the terminals . in the embodiment , the game is triggered by trigger monitor 626 a as a feature game from a base game conducted by base game controller 626 and displayed in a first display area 54 a . in the embodiment , the feature is conducted as a second screen feature and is displayed in a second display area 54 b which may be on a separate display to the first display area 54 a . the feature can be triggered in accordance with any of the know eligibility criteria including based on turnover , by being purchased in the base game , by a system event or by a symbol combination in the base game . the selection processor 623 is arranged to offer via display 54 a plurality of different selectable target outcomes specified by target outcome data 642 . in the embodiment , the player operates game play mechanism 56 to select one of the target outcomes . in an alternative embodiment , the player may be allowed to construct the target outcome from a plurality of components specified by target outcome data 642 . for example , the player may be offered a plurality of different start components to the target outcome and , depending on the selected start , a plurality of different end components . in such embodiments , an award may be made for achieving a component of the target outcome . in some embodiments , the selection processor may make a default selection based on game rules if a time out condition is met . the game round controller 622 a of outcome generator 622 then conducts a series of game rounds for achieving the target outcome ; the initial number of game rounds being related to the selected target outcome . each game round involves a symbol selector 622 b selecting symbols specified by symbol data 641 . the selected symbols are advised to the display controller 625 which causes them to be displayed on display 54 at a set of display positions . one example of selecting symbols is for the symbol selector 622 b to access the random number generator 621 to select symbols using the game rules 644 for display as a plurality of spinning reels . the symbol sets 641 can specify a sequence of symbols for each reel such that the symbol selector 622 b can select a symbol by selecting a stopping position in the sequence . the selected symbols are then evaluated by symbol evaluator 622 c to determine whether they include any contributions towards the target outcome , for example , a specific symbol combination that contributes toward the target outcome . accumulator 622 d accumulates any contribution and progress towards the target outcome is displayed on display 54 b by display controller 625 . in some embodiments , players may be entitled to purchase additional contributions . the game round controller 622 a continues to conduct game rounds until all the game rounds have been exhausted . the number of available game rounds 644 is specified by the game rule data 644 and the number of game rounds may be used as one factor to control the difficulty of achieving the target outcome . in some embodiments , particular outcomes of symbol selection may cause the number of game rounds to be varied , for example by adding to or subtracting from the current number of game rounds . the remaining number of game rounds is stored as the game round data 643 . the player may also be able to place an additional bet to buy more game rounds . accordingly , it will be appreciated that the game round controller 622 a is arranged to continue to conduct rounds until either the accumulator 622 d accumulates sufficient contributions to achieve the target outcome or the game rounds are exhausted . if sufficient contributions are made , the award determiner 624 is advised and the award determiner 624 determines the prize 645 corresponding to the target outcome 642 , updates the credit meter 646 and controls the display by means of display controller 625 to show the awarding of the prize . it will be appreciated that contributions towards the outcome can be achieved in a number of ways , for example , they can relate to a specific symbol combination created by selecting a set of symbols for display , they can be created by specific symbol being in the set of symbols , etc . a person skilled in the art will appreciate that other techniques could be used to select symbols including drawing a card from a set of cards , rolling a dice , etc . by way of example , the contributions can be in the form of a movement towards an outcome in the form of a destination or by removing an obstacle to reaching a destination . in such embodiments , the relative difficulty of achieving an outcome can be controlled in a number of ways , including the amount of movement needed to reach an destination associated with the target outcome ( which may be an origin ), the number of obstacles , or the number of game rounds . accordingly , as the difficulty of achieving an outcome can be controlled , there is a tension between a player &# 39 ; s selection of a target outcome and the player &# 39 ; s prospects of achieving the outcome . persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the target outcome may be chosen in some other manner than by a player . for example , the target outcome be defined based on a player &# 39 ; s previous expenditure in the game , the number times they have entered the feature game or the manner in which they enter the feature game , for example a particular combination achieved when entering the feature game . the method is summarised in fig7 which shows a feature being triggered 705 , a player selection of a target outcome being made 710 , and a set of bonus games started 715 . in each bonus game round , symbols are selected 720 and it is determined 725 whether this results in a contribution to the outcome . if it does , the contribution is accumulated 730 and is determined 735 whether the outcome has been achieved . if the outcome has been achieved , an award is made 740 . if not , the number of allocated game rounds is decremented 745 and is determined whether the allocation of game rounds has been exhausted 750 in which case the game ends 755 . if the allocation has not been exhausted , the method proceeds by selecting the symbols for a further game round 720 . fig8 shows an exemplary display 800 of an example where a player is given a limited number of total feature spins and the player can select three levels of difficulty and hence select from three outcomes . the higher the number of obstacles , the greater the reward at the end , as denoted by the increasing sizes of the treasure chests 850 , 840 , 830 . in this example , the theme is of salvaging treasure from a wreck 823 and accordingly a salvage ship 822 is displayed and a diver 821 indicates the player &# 39 ; s current progress towards the target outcome . the target outcomes are each of the three treasure chests 830 , 840 and 850 . there are obstacles 831 , 832 , 841 , 842 and 851 between the player position 821 and the target outcomes 830 , 840 and 850 . the player has a trade off for the higher prize of less chance to actually getting the prize . the obstacles are chosen to fit with the theme and are displayed as blocked doors , rubble , barrels , hanging nets , etc . reels are displayed in areas 811 , 812 and 813 , where the player has a chance to spin up items that help clear the obstacles . for example , the player may spin up a key to open a lock door . once the player reaches a treasure chest 830 , 840 or 850 the remaining spins are used to drag the treasure chest back to the salvage ship . thus , the higher level of obstacles and the more positions the player is required to traverse to get the obstacle back to the ship 822 depict the level of difficulty . it will be appreciated that the individual reel spins of each game outcome displayed in the reels 811 to 813 contribute to towards the players progress to achieving the target outcome and that this accumulation of contributions is represented by the diver &# 39 ; s current position and status ( e . g . the direction the diver is shown travelling in , whether or nor they are carrying the treasure , etc ). a person skilled in the art will appreciate that there can be a number of variations to this example , for example , it may be possible for obstacles to be put back after they have been removed or for additional obstacles added in response to a particular outcome of the reels 811 or 813 or for game rounds ( i . e . spins ) to be added or subtracted . in the above example , the target outcome combines the player &# 39 ; s trip from an origin to a destination and back to the origin . in other embodiments the player may journey solely to the destination . obstacle replacement could be dependent on the outcome of reels , duration of time or the amount of funds bet . in one embodiment , the player could purchase the removal of an obstacle . persons skilled in the art will also appreciate that the method of the embodiment could be embodied in program code . the program code could be supplied in a number of ways , for example on a computer readable medium , such as a disc or a memory ( for example , that could replace part of memory 103 ) or as a data signal ( for example , by transmitting it from a server ). it will be understood to persons skilled in the art of the invention that many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . it is to be understood that , if any prior art publication is referred to herein , such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art , in australia or any other country . in the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention , except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication , the word “ comprise ” or variations such as “ comprises ” or “ comprising ” is used in an inclusive sense , i . e . to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention	6
reference is made to fig1 a , 1b , 1c and 1d , which are simplified isometric illustrations , taken from four different viewpoints , of an assembled sprinkler constructed and operative in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , and to fig2 a and 2b , which are simplified exploded view illustrations , taken from two different viewpoints , of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 1d . as seen in fig1 a - 2b , the sprinkler comprises a sprinkler body 102 including a riser portion 104 , a forward nozzle mounting portion 106 , a rearward nozzle mounting portion 108 and a bridge portion 110 . riser portion 104 preferably includes a generally hollow cylindrical portion 112 , a top flange portion 114 and a bottom threaded portion 116 . forward nozzle mounting portion 106 preferably includes a radially extending and upwardly extending generally hollow cylindrical portion 122 , which communicates with the interior of generally hollow cylindrical portion 112 , and a pair of nozzle mounting protrusions 124 on an upwardly and radially outward edge of cylindrical portion 122 . rearward nozzle mounting portion 108 preferably includes a radially extending and upwardly extending generally hollow cylindrical portion 132 , which communicates with the interior of generally hollow cylindrical portion 112 , and a pair of nozzle mounting protrusions 134 on an upwardly and radially outward edge of cylindrical portion 132 . bridge portion 110 preferably includes a pair of upwardly extending arms 142 and 144 , which support a joining portion 146 defining a flange 148 having a central aperture 150 which is spaced from a corresponding recess 152 along a vertical axis 154 . underlying flange 148 there are provided a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 156 . as seen most clearly in fig2 a & amp ; 2b , mounted on riser portion 104 are multiple elements , which are here described in physical descending order from the element which lies below and against top flange portion 114 . a sand protection sleeve 162 encloses a compressed thrust spring 164 . a thrust spring seat 166 underlies spring 164 and overlies and partially surrounds a top flange 168 of a threaded connector base 170 . connector base 170 is formed with an outer threaded bottom portion 172 , which serves for mounting of the entire sprinkler . a plurality of washers , typically including a two rubber washers 174 and 176 and an intermediate low friction washer 178 , are retained about riser cylindrical portion 112 by an apertured retaining cap 180 , which is threaded onto bottom threaded portion 116 of riser 104 . a selectable size forward nozzle 190 is replaceably mounted onto forward nozzle mounting portion 106 and retained thereon by engagement with nozzle mounting protrusions 124 . a selectable size rearward nozzle 192 is replaceably mounted onto rearward nozzle mounting portion 108 and is retained thereon by engagement with nozzle mounting protrusions 134 . alternatively a plug ( not shown ) may replace the selectable rearward nozzle 192 . a vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 is preferably mounted along vertical axis 154 and extends through aperture 150 and is seated in recess 152 . disposed about shaft 196 is a hammer sand protection sleeve 198 and a drive spring 200 , which is mounted at one end thereon onto four spring mounting protrusions 156 . a hammer 210 is rotatably mounted onto shaft 196 . various embodiments of hammers are described hereinbelow in detail . a spray diffuser 212 may optionally be mounted on hammer 210 . reference is now made to fig3 a and 3b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 300 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig3 a & amp ; 3b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig3 c and 3d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig3 a and 3b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig3 e , 3f and 3g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig3 a , and to fig3 h , 3i , 3j and 3k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig3 a . as seen in fig3 a - 3k , hammer 300 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 302 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 304 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 302 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 306 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 302 is a deflector mounting arm 308 from which extends a deflector 310 . deflector mounting arm 308 also preferably includes an attachment recess 312 and aperture 314 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 302 is a balancing arm 316 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 310 and to fig3 e - 3k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 310 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 324 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 324 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 330 , having parallel mutually facing surfaces and non parallel opposite surfaces , which divide surface 320 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 332 , 334 and 336 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 332 , 334 and 336 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 332 , 334 and 336 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 330 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 330 have a generally truncated triangular cross section and have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 340 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 to a stream exiting edge 342 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 320 . preferably vanes 330 each have a tapered stream facing edge 344 . first water stream engagement surface 320 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 340 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 320 and 322 are defined by side walls 350 and 352 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 320 and 322 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 360 which divide surface 322 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 362 , 364 and 366 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 362 , 364 and 366 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 362 , 364 and 366 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 360 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 360 have a generally uniform thickness from a stream incoming edge 370 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 to a stream exiting edge 372 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 322 . preferably vanes 360 each have a tapered stream facing edge 374 . second water stream engagement surface 322 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 320 and includes a generally flat portion 376 adjacent incoming edge 370 , which extends into a generally curved portion 378 , adjacent stream exiting edge 372 . it is an additional particular feature of the present invention that preferably water engagement sub - surfaces 362 and 366 , on opposite sides of water engagement sub - surface 364 , are formed with apertures extending nearly all along generally curved portion 378 and preferably along a downstream part of flat portion 376 . reference is now made to fig4 a and 4b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 400 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig4 a & amp ; 4b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig4 c and 4d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig4 a and 4b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig4 e , 4f and 4g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig4 a , and to fig4 h , 4i , 4j and 4k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig4 a . as seen in fig4 a - 4k , hammer 400 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 402 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 404 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 402 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 406 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 402 is a deflector mounting arm 408 from which extends a deflector 410 . deflector mounting arm 408 also preferably includes an attachment recess 412 and aperture 414 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 402 is a balancing arm 416 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 410 and to fig4 e - 4k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 410 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 422 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream 420 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 422 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 422 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 422 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 424 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 424 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 430 , having parallel mutually facing surfaces and non parallel opposite surfaces , which divide surface 420 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 432 , 434 and 436 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 432 , 434 and 436 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 432 , 434 and 436 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 430 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 430 have a generally truncated triangular cross section and have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 440 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 to a stream exiting edge 442 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 420 . preferably vanes 430 each have a tapered stream facing edge 444 . first water stream engagement surface 420 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 440 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 420 and 422 are defined by side walls 450 and 452 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 420 and 422 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 422 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 460 which divide surface 422 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 462 , 464 and 466 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 462 , 464 and 466 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 462 , 464 and 466 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 460 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 460 have a generally uniform thickness therealong from a stream incoming edge 470 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 422 . preferably vanes 460 each have a tapered stream facing edge 471 . second water stream engagement surface 422 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 420 and includes a generally flat portion 472 adjacent incoming edge 470 . only water engagement sub - surface 464 extends into a generally curved portion 474 . thus it is appreciated that , as distinct from the embodiment described hereinabove with reference to fig3 a - 3k , in the embodiment of fig4 a - 4k , the water engagement sub - surfaces 462 and 466 have respective stream exiting edges 476 and 478 , which are relatively close to and downstream of stream incoming edge 470 and water engagement sub - surface 464 has a stream exiting edge 480 which is much further downstream thereof . reference is now made to fig5 a and 5b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 500 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig5 a & amp ; 5b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig5 c and 5d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig5 a and 5b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig5 e , 5f and 5g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig5 a , and to fig5 h , 5i , 5j and 5k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig5 a . as seen in fig5 a - 5k , hammer 500 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 502 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 504 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 502 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 506 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 502 is a deflector mounting arm 508 from which extends a deflector 510 . deflector mounting arm 508 also preferably includes an attachment recess 512 and aperture 514 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 502 is a balancing arm 516 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 510 and to fig5 e - 5k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 510 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 524 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 524 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 530 , having parallel mutually facing surfaces and non parallel opposite surfaces , which divide surface 520 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 532 , 534 and 536 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 532 , 534 and 536 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 532 , 534 and 536 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 530 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 530 have a generally triangular cross section and have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 540 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 to a stream exiting edge 542 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 520 . preferably vanes 530 each have a tapered stream facing edge 544 . first water stream engagement surface 520 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 540 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 520 and 522 are defined by side walls 550 and 552 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 520 and 522 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 560 which divide surface 522 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 562 , 564 and 566 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 562 , 564 and 566 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 562 , 564 and 566 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 560 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 560 have a generally uniform thickness from a stream incoming edge 570 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 to a stream exiting edge 572 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 522 . preferably vanes 560 each have a tapered stream facing edge 574 . second water stream engagement surface 522 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 520 and includes a generally flat portion 576 adjacent incoming edge 570 , which extends into a generally curved portion 578 , adjacent stream exiting edge 572 . it is an additional particular feature of the present invention that preferably water engagement sub - surfaces 562 and 566 , on opposite sides of water engagement sub - surface 564 , are formed with apertures extending nearly all along generally curved portion 578 and preferably along a downstream part of flat portion 576 . reference is now made to fig6 a and 6b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 600 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig6 a & amp ; 6b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig6 c and 6d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig6 a and 6b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig6 e , 6f and 6g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig6 a , and to fig6 h , 6i , 6j and 6k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig6 a . as seen in fig6 a - 6k , hammer 600 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 602 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 604 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 602 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 606 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 602 is a deflector mounting arm 608 from which extends a deflector 610 . deflector mounting arm 608 also preferably includes an attachment recess 612 and aperture 614 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 602 is a balancing arm 616 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 610 and to fig6 e - 6k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 610 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 624 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 624 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 630 , having parallel mutually facing surfaces and non parallel opposite surfaces , which divide surface 620 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 632 , 634 and 636 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 632 , 634 and 636 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 632 , 634 and 636 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 630 provided may be more or less than two . in this embodiment , vanes 630 are joined by an integrally formed top plate 638 , thereby defining a water flow channel 639 between vanes 630 and top plate 638 . preferably vanes 630 have a generally truncated triangular cross section and have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 640 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 to a stream exiting edge 642 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 620 . preferably vanes 630 each have a tapered stream facing edge 644 . first water stream engagement surface 620 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 640 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 620 and 622 are defined by side walls 650 and 652 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 620 and 622 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 660 which divide surface 622 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 662 , 664 and 666 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 662 , 664 and 666 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 662 , 664 and 666 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 660 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 660 have a generally uniform thickness from a stream incoming edge 670 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 to a stream exiting edge 672 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 622 . preferably vanes 660 each have a tapered stream facing edge 674 . second water stream engagement surface 622 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 620 and includes a generally flat portion 676 adjacent incoming edge 670 , which extend into a generally curved portion 678 , adjacent stream exiting edge 672 . it is an additional particular feature of the present invention that preferably water engagement sub - surfaces 662 and 666 , on opposite sides of water engagement sub - surface 664 , are formed with apertures extending nearly all along generally curved portion 678 and preferably along a downstream part of flat portion 676 . reference is now made to fig7 a and 7b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 700 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig7 a & amp ; 7b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig7 c and 7d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig7 a and 7b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig7 e , 7f and 7g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig7 a , and to fig7 h , 7i , 7j and 7k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig7 a . as seen in fig7 a - 7k , hammer 700 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 702 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 704 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 702 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 706 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 702 is a deflector mounting arm 708 from which extends a deflector 710 . deflector mounting arm 708 also preferably includes an attachment recess 712 and aperture 714 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 702 is a balancing arm 716 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 710 and to fig7 e - 7k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 710 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 724 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 724 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 is preferably formed with a central , generally arched water flow channel 726 defined by an elongate arch 728 joining two , mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 730 , which divide surface 720 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 732 , 734 and 736 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 732 , 734 and 736 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 732 , 734 and 736 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 730 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 730 have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 740 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 to a stream exiting edge 742 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 720 . preferably vanes 730 each have a tapered stream facing edge 744 . first water stream engagement surface 720 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 740 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 720 and 722 are defined by side walls 750 and 752 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 720 and 722 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 760 which divide surface 722 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 762 , 764 and 766 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 762 , 764 and 766 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 762 , 764 and 766 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 760 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 760 have a generally uniform thickness from a stream incoming edge 770 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 to a stream exiting edge 772 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 722 . preferably vanes 760 each have a tapered stream facing edge 774 . second water stream engagement surface 722 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 720 and includes a generally flat portion 776 adjacent incoming edge 770 , which extends into a generally curved portion 778 , adjacent stream exiting edge 772 . it is an additional particular feature of the present invention that preferably water engagement sub - surfaces 762 and 766 , on opposite sides of water engagement sub - surface 764 , are formed with apertures extending nearly all along generally curved portion 778 and preferably along a downstream part of flat portion 776 . reference is now made to fig8 a and 8b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 800 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig8 a & amp ; 8b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig8 c and 8d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig8 a and 8b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig8 e , 8f and 8g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig8 a , and to fig8 h , 8i , 8j and 8k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig8 a . as seen in fig8 a - 8k , hammer 800 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 802 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 804 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 802 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 806 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 802 is a deflector mounting arm 808 from which extends a deflector 810 . deflector mounting arm 808 also preferably includes an attachment recess 812 and aperture 814 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 802 is a balancing arm 816 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 810 and to fig8 e - 8k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 810 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 824 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 824 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 is preferably formed with a central water flow channel 826 of generally triangular cross section defined by two mutually inclined generally parallel - extending upstanding vanes 830 , which divide surface 820 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 832 , 834 and 836 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 832 , 834 and 836 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 832 , 834 and 836 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 830 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 830 have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 840 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 to a stream exiting edge 842 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 820 . preferably vanes 830 each have a tapered stream facing edge 844 . first water stream engagement surface 820 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 840 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 820 and 822 are defined by side walls 850 and 852 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 820 and 822 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 860 which divide surface 822 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 862 , 864 and 866 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 862 , 864 and 866 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 862 , 864 and 866 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 860 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 860 have a generally uniform thickness from a stream incoming edge 870 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 to a stream exiting edge 872 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 822 . preferably vanes 860 each have a tapered stream facing edge 874 . second water stream engagement surface 822 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 820 and includes a generally flat portion 876 adjacent incoming edge 870 , which extend into a generally curved portion 878 , adjacent stream exiting edge 872 . it is an additional particular feature of the present invention that preferably water engagement sub - surfaces 862 and 866 , on opposite sides of water engagement sub - surface 864 , are formed with apertures extending nearly all along generally curved portion 878 and preferably along a downstream part of flat portion 876 . reference is now made to fig9 a and 9b , which are simplified side view illustrations of a hammer element 900 forming part of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 2b , fig9 a & amp ; 9b being mutually rotated by 180 degrees , and to fig9 c and 9d , which are simplified isometric illustrations of the hammer element of fig9 a and 9b , taken from two different viewpoints . reference is also made to fig9 e , 9f and 9g , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines e - e , f - f and g - g in fig9 a , and to fig9 h , 9i , 9j and 9k , which are simplified sectional illustrations taken along respective section lines h - h , i - i , j - j and k - k in fig9 a . as seen in fig9 a - 9k , hammer 900 preferably includes a generally central hub portion 902 that defines a cylindrical sleeve portion 904 which is preferably sized to rotatably accommodate vertical hammer mounting shaft 196 . hub portion 902 also preferably defines a plurality of , typically four , spring mounting protrusions 906 . extending generally forwardly from hub portion 902 is a deflector mounting arm 908 from which extends a deflector 910 . deflector mounting arm 908 also preferably includes an attachment recess 912 and aperture 914 for optional mounting thereon of spray diffuser 212 . extending generally rearwardly from hub portion 902 is a balancing arm 916 . reference is now particularly made to deflector 910 and to fig9 e - 9k . it is a particular feature of the present invention that deflector 910 includes a first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 , which receives a water stream from the forward nozzle 190 , and a second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 , downstream of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 , wherein the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 has a pressurized water stream channeling configuration arranged : to direct a first portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 , which does not exceed a predetermined water stream quantity , onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 , and to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 , which second portion exceeds the predetermined water stream quantity , not onto the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 . preferably , the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 has at least one , and typically two , water stream bypass apertures 924 formed therein and the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 is arranged to direct at least a second portion of the pressurized water stream impinging on the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 through the water stream bypass aperture or apertures 924 . it is also a particular feature of the present invention that the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 is preferably formed with two , mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 930 , having parallel mutually facing surfaces and non parallel opposite surfaces , which divide surface 920 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 932 , 934 and 936 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 932 , 934 and 936 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 932 , 934 and 936 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 930 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 930 have a generally truncated triangular cross section and have increased thickness from a stream incoming edge 940 of first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 to a stream exiting edge 942 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 . preferably vanes 930 each have a tapered stream facing edge 944 . first water stream engagement surface 920 is preferably generally flat except for a short tapered portion adjacent incoming edge 940 . both the first and second water stream engagement surfaces 920 and 922 are defined by side walls 950 and 952 , which join first and second water stream engagement surfaces 920 and 922 and define an open space therebetween . it is a further particular feature of the present invention that the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 is preferably formed with two mutually spaced generally parallel upstanding vanes 960 which divide surface 922 into preferably three water engagement sub - surfaces 962 , 964 and 966 . it is a particular feature of the embodiment of fig9 a - 9k , that vanes 960 are formed as continuations of vanes 930 , such that vanes 930 of the first pressurized water stream engagement surface 920 , vanes 960 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 and intermediate vanes 968 , each joining a vane 930 with a vane 960 , together define continuous vanes 969 , spanning both first and second pressurized water stream engagement surfaces 920 and 922 . in the illustrated embodiment , the width of each of water engagement sub - surfaces 962 , 964 and 966 is generally identical , however , alternatively , the individual sub - surfaces 962 , 964 and 966 may have different widths . alternatively , the number of vanes 960 provided may be more or less than two . preferably vanes 960 have a generally uniform thickness from a stream incoming edge 970 of second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 to a stream exiting edge 972 of the second pressurized water stream engagement surface 922 . second water stream engagement surface 922 is preferably generally curved , faces generally oppositely to first water stream engagement surface 920 and includes a generally flat portion 976 adjacent incoming edge 970 , which extend into a generally curved portion 978 , adjacent stream exiting edge 972 . it is an additional particular feature of the present invention that preferably water engagement sub - surfaces 962 and 966 , on opposite sides of water engagement sub - surface 964 , are formed with apertures extending nearly all along generally curved portion 978 and preferably along a downstream part of flat portion 976 . reference is now made to fig1 a , 10b & amp ; 10c , which are respective simplified front view , top view and back view illustrations of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 3d , showing water flows therethrough when a relatively small nozzle is employed , and to fig1 d , which is a simplified sectional illustration taken along lines d - d in fig1 a . as seen in fig1 a - 10d , in the illustrated embodiment , when a relatively small forward nozzle is employed , such as a nozzle 190 having an internal diameter of 2 mm , nearly all of the water stream emanating from nozzle 190 , here designated by reference numeral 1000 , is confined between vanes 330 of first water stream engagement surface 320 in engagement with first water engagement sub - surface 334 , as designated by reference numeral 1002 . nearly all of the water stream then impinges on second water engagement sub - surface 364 , and is confined between vanes 360 of the second water stream engagement surface 322 , as designated by reference numeral 1004 . nearly all of the water stream as designated by reference numeral 1006 exits in a direction indicated by an arrow 1008 . accordingly , nearly all of the water stream applies a rotational force , indicated by an arrow 1010 , to hammer 300 , causing it to rotate about vertical axis 154 . reference is now made to fig1 a , 11b & amp ; 11c , which are respective simplified front view , top view and back view illustrations of the sprinkler of fig1 a - 3d , showing water flows therethrough when a relatively large nozzle is employed , to fig1 d , which is a simplified sectional illustration taken along lines d - d in fig1 a , and to fig1 e , which is a simplified sectional illustration taken along lines e - e in fig1 a . as seen in fig1 a - 11e , in the illustrated embodiment , when a relatively large forward nozzle is employed , such as a nozzle 190 having an internal diameter of 5 mm , a water stream 1100 emanates from nozzle 190 . in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , only part of water stream 1100 , here designated by reference numeral 1102 , is confined between vanes 330 of first water stream engagement surface 320 in engagement with first water engagement sub - surface 334 . two side water streams , respectively designated by reference numerals 1104 and 1106 , flow outside vanes 330 in engagement with respective first water engagement sub - surfaces 332 and 336 . nearly all of the water stream 1102 impinges on second water engagement sub - surface 364 , and is confined between vanes 360 of the second water stream engagement surface 322 , as designated by reference numeral 1110 . nearly all of the water stream 1110 exits , as designated by reference numeral 1112 , in a direction indicated by an arrow 1114 . accordingly , nearly all of the water stream 1112 applies a rotational force , indicated by an arrow 1116 , to hammer 300 , causing it to rotate about vertical axis 154 . the two side water streams 1104 and 1106 generally do not impinge on the second water engagement surface 364 but rather exit , as respectively designated by reference numerals 1124 and 1126 , through apertures 324 in directions respectively indicated by arrows 1134 and 1136 . the side water streams generally do not apply a rotational force to hammer 300 . it is a particular feature of an embodiment of the present invention that , as appreciated from a comparison of fig1 a - 10d with fig1 a - 11e , it is seen that the proportion of the water stream output from the forward nozzle , which applies a rotational force to hammer 300 varies as a function of the size of the forward nozzle and thus of the discharge volume of the nozzle . it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described hereinabove . rather the scope of the invention includes both combinations and subcombinations of the various features described hereinabove as well as modifications and variations thereof which would occur to persons skilled in the art upon reading the foregoing description and which are not in the prior art .	1
the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below by referring to the attached drawings . in fig1 an sbms is software relating to a software battery management system , and a site access tool sat charges a battery from a host machine hm in cooperation with the system on a user machine pc storing the software . the sat is a site access tool , and provides a user with the information about the host machine hm to be connected to using , for example , a portable storage medium cd ( compact disk ), an md ( minidisk ), a fdd ( floppy disk ), or semiconductor memory , etc . otherwise , when software is provided from the site in the communications , the information about the host machine hm can be received together with application software through a communications medium , or only the software can be received . a battery supply module bsm is incorporated into a host machine hm to provide a user - selected battery at a predetermined position by the amount specified by the user . the predetermined position is set in the user machine pc , or in the memory of the server . the host machine hm and the user machine pc are connected to network or a internet net . [ 0031 ] fig1 is a block diagram of the present invention . in fig1 a reference characters pc denote a computer of the user machine , and comprises : a processing unit cpu for performing a process procedure ( performed by the software of a site access tool and a software battery management system ) described later and shown in fig3 ; an input unit in for inputting information ; an output unit out for outputting information ; a storage unit mem 1 for storing the software of the site access tool executed by the processing unit cpu ; a storage unit mem 2 for storing the software of a software battery management system executed by the processing unit cpu ; a battery bu of storage means ( for example , a floppy , semiconductor memory , a hard disk , etc .) for storing data ( an application id , a battery id , and a predetermined value for operation of application software ) for control of the operation of the application software ; a storage unit mem 3 for storing application software ; a drive unit pdu for reading data from and writing data to a removable storage unit ; and a communications line unit com 1 for connection to a network or internet net . then , a removable storage medium cd is installed , and the data is loaded from the storage medium cd to the computer pc . at least a setup application software and the operation software for control of the valid period of the application software are stored on the storage medium cd and installed to the computer pc . the operation software stored on the storage medium cd comprises a site access tool and a battery data structure list . when the operation software is setup in the user machine from the storage medium cd , the battery data structure list contains a predetermined value ( a value corresponding to , for example , several hours , relating to the predetermined application software as a trial process ) as an initial value , and the value of the above mentioned battery data structure list is decreased each time the application software to be managed by the operation software is used in the user machine . when the value decreases , a predetermined value of data transmitted from a communications line or an external storage medium is rewritten to the battery data structure list , thereby allowing the application software to be reused . the operation software contains the software management system and the site access tool . the reference characters hm denote a host machine . the host machine comprises : a processing unit cpu 2 for performing the process procedure ( process procedure by a program of the battery supply module bsm ) shown in fig4 ; a storage unit bmem for storing the software of the battery supply module executed by the processing unit cpu 2 ; a storage unit almem for storing the application list ; a storage unit blmem for storing a battery list ; a storage unit llmem for storing a log report ; and a communications line unit com 2 for connection to a network and internet . when the valid period of the application software is extended on the computer pc , the computer pc communicates with the host machine hm to extend the valid period by rewriting the above mentioned value . the application software list al , the battery list bl , and the battery supply history list bh are shown in fig2 . using the lists , the application software can be matched , and the battery unit price , etc . can be set for each piece of application software . ( 1 ) the step is performed by the site access tool sat of the user machine according to the address information about the information host machine hm . in the case of internet , it corresponds to an ip address and a url . the user machine pc is connected to the host machine hm through a network using the site access tool sat . ( 2 ) in the step performed by the battery supply module bsm of the host machine hm , listing information about available batteries is provided . the information is displayed as a list on the screen of the display device of the user machine . the user searches for a battery for a target application from the displayed list , and selects the corresponding portion on the list by clicking the mouse button , etc . ( 3 ) in addition , by operating the site access tool sat which receives the battery listing information , an inquiry is issued to the software battery management system sbms about whether or not each battery has already been managed , and batteries are displayed on the screen of the user machine pc with managed batteries distinguished from non - managed batteries . ( 4 ) according to the information obtained from the application list al and the battery list bl transmitted from the host machine hm , the user selects a desired battery and its amount from the displayed list by moving the cursor to select a target battery . the user also can input a value using an input device without using the cursor . ( 5 ) by operating the site access tool sat , the user - selected battery and its amount are transmitted to the battery supply module bsm . ( 6 ) based on the received battery and the amount , battery addition information is generated in the battery bu by the battery supply module bsm , and is transmitted to the site access tool sat . the generated information is stored as a log . ( 7 ) the battery addition information is received by the site access tool sat , and the site access tool sat passes the information to the software battery management system sbms . then , the information ( the value for control of the application operating time ) is written to the battery bu , and it is confirmed that the battery bu has been charged . ( 8 ) the confirmation information is transmitted by the site access tool sat to the battery supply module bsm . ( 9 ) the confirmation information is recorded in addition to the above mentioned log by the battery supply module bsm . ( 10 ) when a series of communications terminate , the site access tool sat terminates the communications with the host machine hm . it is obvious that , after a battery has been supplied , the value decreases each time an application is performed in the user machine pc , the operation management data of the battery bu has finally been exhausted , and the application software cannot be used . the above mentioned processes are described below furthermore in detail by referring to the sequence flow of the host machine hm shown in fig4 performed by each piece of software of the site access tool sat , the software battery management system , and the battery supply module bsm , and the control flow of the computer pc shown in fig3 . in step s 3001 , the process unit cpu 1 is connected to the host machine hm according to the ip address or the url . if it has been connected , then the processing unit cpu 1 receives a battery list bl and a key 1 list of the storage unit blmem from the host machine hm in s 3002 . then , in s 3003 , the processing unit cpu 1 inquires the existence of the value of the battery bu and the remainder of the software battery management system sbms , and recomposes the battery list bl . then , in s 3004 , the battery list bl recomposed by the processing unit cpu 1 is displayed on the display screen of the computer pc . then , in s 3005 , the processing unit cpu 1 operates the mouse and moves the cursor to select the battery bu and its amount from the battery list bl displayed on the display screen . then , in s 3006 , the processing unit cpu 1 determines whether or not cancellation is selected . if the process is continued , the processing unit cpu 1 transmits a battery issue request and a key to the host machine hm in s 3007 . in the next step s 2008 , the processing unit cpu 1 receives the battery addition information from the host machine hm . in step s 3009 , the processing unit cpu 1 transmits the battery addition information to the software battery management system , and charges the battery . in s 3010 , the processing unit cpu 1 receives charging confirmation information from the software battery management system sbms . in step s 3011 , the processing unit cpu 1 transmits the charging confirmation information together with the key 1 to the host machine hm . in step s 3012 , the processing unit cpu 1 receives a key 8 from the host machine hm . in step s 3013 , the processing unit cpu 1 combines the charging confirmation information with the keys 1 and 3 to display the result for confirmation of a user . in step s 3014 , the processing unit cpu 1 terminates the connection with the host machine hm . then , the function of the battery supply module bsm is described below by referring to the sequence shown in fig5 and based on fig4 . in step s 4001 , the processing unit cpu 2 waits for the connection from the user machine pc . in step s 4002 , the processing unit cpu 2 generates a key as a session number , and transmits the battery list and the key 1 to the user machine pc . in step s 4003 , the processing unit cpu 2 receives the amount of the battery , and the keys 1 and 2 from the user machine pc . in s 4004 , the processing unit cpu 2 makes a time - out check . if a time - out has not occurred , the processing unit cpu 2 determined in step s 4005 whether or not the correspondence between the keys 1 and 2 is correct . if yes , then the processing unit cpu 2 generates the battery addition information in step s 4006 , transmits it to the user machine pc , and stores it in the log ll of the storage unit llmem . in step s 4007 , the processing unit cpu 2 receives the charging confirmation information and the key 1 from the user machine pc . in step s 4008 , the processing unit cpu 2 determines whether or not a time - out has occurred . if not , it generates the key 3 according to the charging confirmation information in step s 4009 , and adds it to the log . in step s 4010 , the processing unit cpu 2 transmits the key 3 to the user machine pc . then , in step s 4011 , the processing unit cpu terminates the connection to the user machine pc . by the above mentioned connection , the battery is charged , and the application is performed . by performing the application , the charging process is performed again in the above mentioned process , thereby performing the application again . in the above mentioned example , the host corresponds one to one to the user machine . however , there can be a plurality of hosts . in this case , it is obvious that a host is to be specified according to the information in the site access tool . otherwise , the site information is downloaded and specified through internet . in the above mentioned example , application software is stored in a terminal unit , and the operation of the application software is managed by a battery . however , the effect can also be obtained by setting application software and a battery in a server of a network , and by using them at a terminal unit . that is , application software is used through a network , the use of the application software is controlled by a battery , and the value of the battery is supplemented when the value of the battery decreases . the information for use in charging a battery is not transmitted as a file , but communications are established through a program , thereby avoiding making copies in a simple operation by , for example , copying a file , supplied batteries can be distinguished between those already used by the user and those not used by the user , thereby not confusing the user during the operation , and since the confirmation information about the battery charge is recorded in the log , means for guaranteeing the charge of a user machine can be provided .	6
seasoned snack food products are produced with a tumbling bed device in accordance with the invention are coated with seasoning . in practice , snack food products , such as potato chips , corn chips , tortilla chips , puffed - extruded cornmeal , or the like , are seasoned prior to being packaged for sale to consumers . with the tumbling bed device made and used in accordance with the invention , seasoning applied to snack food products with a seasoning dispenser are tumbled on the tumbling bed device that can be modified depending on the snack products &# 39 ; parameters . [ 0021 ] fig2 shows a preferred embodiment of the invention of variable geometry seasoning tumbler 100 . a support base 110 has ascending support arm 120 for upper support roll 140 and ascending support arm 130 for lower support roll 142 . the support rolls 140 and 142 can comprise drum rollers or large diameter sprockets . these rolls 140 , 142 maybe retained by shafts ( not shown ) that are held cantilevered as shown by support arm 120 , 130 . alternatively , rolls 140 , 142 may be supported at the end , which is shown unattached in fig2 by another set of support arms ( not shown ). these rolls 140 , 142 support and retain belt 150 such that belt 150 has a catenary portion 152 and a taut portion 154 . the catenary portion 152 is slack to allow snack food product to be tumbled within this region . on belt 150 , flights 160 are provided along the surface in a transverse pattern for picking up snack food product being tumbled by tumbler 100 . while belt 150 is shown with flights 160 , alternative protrusions such as cleats may be used to aid in tumbling the snack food product . positioned beneath a portion of belt 150 is conveyor belt 170 for receiving tumbled snack food product from belt 150 . the variable geometry seasoning tumbler 100 can be made from conventional materials such as metal , plastic , and other materials . particularly , rolls 140 , 142 are generally comprised a durable material that can withstand the rotation and contact with belt 150 . likewise , belt 150 is generally comprised of a durable material capable of withstanding rotation and contact by rolls 140 , 142 and contact with snack food product that can have an elevated temperature above ambient . belt 150 is rotated by rolls 140 , 142 and is rotated in the direction towards upper roll 140 . rotation is provided through the rotation of lower roll 142 to create the slack portion of catenary portion 152 . lower roll 142 can be rotated by a drive mechanism supplied through ascending support arm 130 . by adjusting the speed of rolls 140 , 142 , the tumbling action , product residence time in the product tumbling bed ( region of tumbling ) of belt 150 , and the product tumbling bed depth . the effect of this rotation of belt 150 is shown in fig3 and 4 . tumbling of snack food product 190 occurs generally in the catenary portion 152 . seasoning 182 is supplied from a seasoning applicator 180 that is positioned above belt 150 so that seasoning 182 will fall onto snack food product 190 as it tumbles in catenary portion 152 . with tortilla chip seasoning , oil is applied to the surface of the chips to promote seasoning adhesion to the surface of the chips . therefore , oil application equipment ( not shown ) is generally located toward the entrance of seasoning tumblers . with the instant invention , the oil application equipment would be located about where tortilla chips would be introduced onto belt 150 . seasoning 182 is applied a shortly thereafter at a location further down belt 150 . this minimizes contamination of the seasoning application equipment with oil . the length of belt 150 wherein snack food product 190 is tumbled is optimally minimized to a length that includes the zones of application of oil , if utilized , and seasoning , and the space between the zones . in instances where no oil is applied , then the length would be minimized to optimally be no longer than about the zone of application for seasoning . minimizing the time that snack food product 190 is tumbled generally reduces the amount of snack food product breakage . the tumbling motion is exemplified in fig3 wherein snack food product 190 is tumbled in a product bed 162 with an elliptical path . this is similar to tumbling path that would occur in a conventional tumbling drum . snack food product 190 is supplied from snack food product supply 200 onto belt 150 . depending on the amount of tumbling time desired , the depositing position of snack food product onto belt 150 can be altered by adjusting the position of supply 200 . the depositing position is shown with arrow 202 and arrow 204 ( shown in phantom to show an alternative position on belt 150 ). in addition to the depositing position , tumbling time can be varied by adjusting the rotational speed of belt 150 , changing the inclination of the belt 150 , or by some combination thereof . in a preferred embodiment however , having the ability to introduce the product to the tumbling area of belt 150 farther along its length is desirable to adjust tumbling time independent of other factors to affect seasoning coverage . once deposited onto belt 150 at product entrance 156 , snack food products 190 are captured by flights 160 that protrude upward from belt 150 . the snack food product then travels upward towards roll 140 until snack food product 190 falls free from flights 160 due to the increasing slope of belt 150 as it travels upward toward roll 140 . snack food product 190 will then fall back down toward roll 142 and will be picked up again by more flights 160 rotating further down on belt 150 towards the product exit 158 on belt 150 . this process repeats until snack food product 190 reaches the exit on belt 150 . the result of this process is that the bed of tumbling snack food product is cradled and tumbled in the catenary portion 152 . after exiting belt 150 , seasoned snack food product 190 is then deposited onto belt 170 for transport to product packaging or additional processing . [ 0027 ] fig5 and 6 show different positions of rolls 140 , 142 to control the radius of curvature of the belt catenary and lateral inclination of the tumbling surface of belt 150 . the radius of the tumbling surface is increased from r 1 to r 2 as shown in fig5 by moving roll 140 backward away from roll 142 . this results in moving belt 150 from position p 1 to position p 2 ( shown in phantom ). the tumbling region in catenary portion 152 can be adjusted to allow for narrow , deep product bed 162 with close roll spacing between rolls 140 and 142 or to allow for wide , shallow product bed 162 with wide roll spacing between rolls 140 and 142 . with fig6 by moving the roll 140 forward and upward relative to roll 142 will increase the inclination of the tumbling bed 162 . this results in moving belt 150 from position p 1 to position p 2 with snack food product being tumbled more rapidly . selection of the positioning of rolls 140 , 142 is dependent on the product being seasoned and the desired seasoning effect . by altering the horizontal and vertical separation between rolls 140 , 142 , the tumbling action and product bed depth can be controlled . to change the inclination of the entire belt 150 , both rolls 140 , 142 can be adjusted as shown in fig7 . when both rolls 140 , 142 are moved downward to increase the slope of tumbling bed 162 , assembly 100 moves from position p 1 to position p 4 . as the slope is increased , the rate of travel of snack food products 190 across belt 150 is increased . this is an additional parameter to control product seasoning . with the above described invention , seasoning can be applied to snack food product with uniform seasoning coverage with minimum product breakage . the seasoning assembly achieves this with its flexible surface of variable curvature that is easily changeable to desirable parameters depending upon the product being tumbled . another advantage is that the tumbling device of the seasoning assembly is used to tumble product in an open environment as opposed to an internal surface of conventional tumbling drum . this facilitates sanitation of the device and enables use of powder dispensers or coating applicators that are generally too large to fit into the inside of a conventional tumbling drum . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .	0
briefly reviewing the operating principles of a multi - tone photonic oscillator , random electrical noise generated in the feedback loop modulates the laser light , which then propagates through the optical delay path and is photodetected to then be regeneratively fed back to the transceiver ( or modulator ). this constitutes a positive feedback if the open loop gain of the oscillator is greater than one . the amplification of the noise signal as a result of positive feedback occurs at frequency intervals ( δf ) equal to an integer multiple of the inverse of the loop delay time ( τ ), i . e . δf = k ÷ τ , where k is an integer . this gives rise to potential multi - tone oscillations at the above frequency intervals . the delay loop also acts as a storage medium to increase the quality factor ( q ) of the oscillator , which is proportional to the square of the loop &# 39 ; s delay time ( q = 2πfτ 2 / δ ), where f is the oscillation frequency and δ is the noise - to - signal ratio of the input to the oscillator . thus , the oscillator phase noise s ( f ′), which is inversely proportional to the quality factor s ( f ′)= δ /[( 2π ) 2 ( τf ′) 2 ], where f ′ is the offset frequency , decreases quadratically as the optical delay in the loop is increased . referring to fig2 , a new implementation of a photonic oscillator 20 using an electroabsorption device serving a dual function as modulator and detector in accordance with the embodiments disclosed herein includes a laser source 100 emitting a continuous wave ( cw ) laser beam to be detected by an electroabsorption transceiver 210 . the laser beam emitted by the laser source 100 is passed through an optical isolator 220 that prevents the propagation of circulating oscillation tones back into the optical branch containing the laser beam . a terminating electrical bandpass filter at the electrical port of the electroabsorption transceiver 210 provides an electric load z l 235 selected to band limit the rf oscillation tones modulating the rf lightwave in the electroabsorption transceiver . the modulated rf lightwave is passed through a delay loop 240 and then through an optical amplifier 250 before being split in an optical splitter 260 to generate the oscillating rf lightwave carrier signal as well as an oscillating rf lightwave feedback signal that is combined with the laser beam generated by the laser source 100 by an optical combiner 270 prior to being detected by the electroabsorption transceiver . as well known to those skilled in the art , the delay loop may incorporate one or more delay paths having different parameters . as known in the art , the random noise generated in the delay loop 240 of the oscillator 20 is the starting mechanism of subsequent oscillations as a result of positive loop feedback . the steady - state value of the electric field component of this random noise in the optical domain after repeated feedback circulation , amplification , and saturation , is denoted by ( p ss ) 1 / 2 exp ( jω λ t + jω m t ), where p ss is the optical power of the steady - state oscillating tone , and ω λ and ω m are the optical frequency of the laser and electrical frequency of the rf multi - tones modulating the lightwave signal , respectively . the total optical power obtained by the combination of the power of the oscillating tone ( p ss ) and the cw power of the laser beam generated by the laser source 100 ( p 0 ) are then partially absorbed in the electroabsorption transceiver 210 . the resulting photocurrent flowing through the modulator termination ( i . e . load ) consequently results in a voltage drop across the transceiver given by : v mod = 1 2 ⁢ ( p 0 + p ss ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ω m ⁢ t ) ⁢ α ⁢ ⁢ ρ ⁢ ⁢ z l ( 1 ) where α is the fractional absorption of the electroabsorption device , ρ is its photocurrent conversion efficiency ( a / w ), and z l is the device resistive termination . this induced electroabsorption modulator voltage in turn modulates the intensity of its transmitted rf lightwave signal . equation ( 1 ) may be further refined by analyzing an equivalent ac electrical circuit of the electroabsorption transceiver 210 , as shown in fig3 . the circuit 30 in fig3 was originally published in the publication “ rf - small - signal equivalent circuit of mqw ingaas / inalas electroabsorption modulator ,” electronics letters , vol . 33 , pp 1822 - 1823 , 1997 , the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto . the desired ac load termination z l 235 of the electroabsorption transceiver 210 is applied to the ac circuit 30 , which includes a current source i p 300 for modeling the photocurrent generated in the electroabsorption transceiver as a result of its detecting function , a reverse - biased junction capacitance c j 310 of the electroabsorption transceiver , and the transceiver series resistance r s 320 . a series r a l a branch 330 is connected in parallel with the junction capacitance c j 310 , wherein r a is related to the optical responsivity of the transceiver and l a = τr a where τ is the carrier escape time from the quantum wells of the transceiver . modeling this equivalent circuit 30 , the total steady - state optical power received p opt by the transceiver is p opt = p 0 + p ss sin ω t ( 1a ) the total absorbed transceiver photocurrent i p is a sum of the dc absorbed photocurrent i p0 and the ac absorbed photocurrent i p1 : i p = i p0 + i p1 sin ω t ( 1b ) the photocurrent conversion efficiency ρ of the transceiver is typically also comprised of a dc component ρ 0 and an ac component ρ 1 : the ac component ρ 1 of the photocurrent conversion efficiency may be expressed as : ρ 1 = v m1 r a ⁢ p 0 ( 1 ⁢ d ) where v ml is the ac component of the transceiver induced modulation voltage . the generated photocurrents thus become : using the relationships defined above by equations 1a - 1f and a generalized ac load termination z l , an analysis of the circuit 30 can provide a more accurate expression for the induced modulation voltage v mod = v m0 + v m1 sin ωt . as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , the rf band pass filtering function of the oscillator 20 can be adjusted via appropriate selection of the ac load termination z l in conjunction with the other ac equivalent circuit parameters discussed above . with continued reference to fig2 , the voltage dependent transmission characteristics of an electroabsorption modulator is , generally : t ⁡ ( v ) = t 0 ⁢ exp ⁡ ( - v v 0 ) ″ ( 2 ) where t 0 is the zero - bias transmission of the modulator , or its insertion loss , and v 0 and n are empirical parameters related to the shape of the transmission vs . voltage characteristics of the modulator . substituting the induced modulator voltage from equation ( 1 ) into the transmission - voltage characteristics in equation ( 2 ) results in : t ⁡ ( v mod ) = t 0 ⁢ exp ⁡ [ - ( v b + v ss ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ω m ⁢ t ) v 0 ] ″ ( 3 ) where v b = 0 . 5p 0 αρr l and v ss = 0 . 5p ss αρr l and are the induced bias and small - signal rf modulator voltages , respectively . assuming n = 1 for ease of calculation , and using a taylor series expansion of ( 3 ) with the first few terms , the following relationship for the modulator optical transmission as a function of the self - induced modulator voltage parameters described above is obtained : the output optical power of the modulator as a function of the input optical power and the modulator transmission characteristics described in ( 4 ) above is given by : p out = 1 2 ⁢ β ⁡ ( p 0 + p ss ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ω m ⁢ t ) ⁢ t ⁡ ( v mod ) ( 5 ) where β is the modulator insertion loss . combining equations ( 4 ) and ( 5 ), expanding the terms above , and using known trigonometric identities , the modulated output optical power of the modulator as a result of the induced voltage may be expressed as : equation ( 6 ) may be simplified by dropping the second and higher powers of small signal rf voltage v ss , and substituting v ss for p ss , to obtain the following relationship between the modulated power levels at the output of the optical amplifier 250 and the input of the optical combiner 270 : g ol = p out p ss = 1 2 ⁢ β ⁢ ⁢ exp ⁡ ( - v b v 0 ) ⁡ [ p 0 ⁢ α ⁢ ⁢ ρ ⁢ ⁢ r l 2 ⁢ v 0 + 1 ] ⁢ g oa ( 7 ) where g ol and g oa are the open loop gain and the optical amplifier power gains , respectively . equation 7 thus defines the small - signal open loop gain of the photonic oscillator 20 . rf oscillations modulating the lightwave at frequency intervals equal to the inverse of the loop delay time will occur only if the above open loop gain ( g ol ) is above unity . substituting exp (− v b / v 0 )/ v 0 = π / v π , where v π is the equivalent “ half - voltage ” of the electroabsorption modulator , results in the following relationship for the oscillator open loop gain : the first term in the bracket in equation 8 is similar to the rf gain obtained in an optical link consisting of an electroabsorption modulator with an insertion loss β , a fractional absorption of α , and an equivalent “ half - voltage ” v π , and a photodetector with a detectivity ρ and a load resistance z l fed by a laser with cw power p 0 . the second term is an artifact of this implementation of a photonic oscillator 20 as disclosed herein . thus , one of the consequences of this oscillator configuration is that it reduces the gain required by the optical amplifier to achieve an open loop gain above unity . for purposes of illustrating the significant benefits conferred by the novel photonic oscillator disclosed herein , we may assume p 0 = 20 mw , α = 0 . 5 , ρ = 0 . 5 a / w , β =− 5 db , v π = 1 v and z l = 50ω to obtain for the contribution of the first term in equation 8 to the open loop gain a value of 0 . 125 . the self - induced bias voltage of the modulator given by v b = 0 . 5p 0 αρz l is 0 . 125 v . from the definition of the electroabsorption modulator equivalent “ half - voltage ”, exp (− v b / v 0 )/ v 0 = π / v π , v 0 = 0 . 1 v can be deduced when v π = 1 v . thus the second term in equation 8 , exp (− v b / v 0 ), is equal to 0 . 28 and therefore without the novel use of the electroabsorption device as a simultaneous modulator and detector , an optical amplifier gain of about 17 db would be required to obtain an open loop gain of more than unity in a photonic oscillator with a feedback loop consisting of an optical link with the same modulator and a separate photodetector with equivalent detectivity . for a photonic oscillator with the novel implementation of the electroabsorption device as dual modulator / detector , the gain required from the optical amplifier to have an oscillator open loop gain above unity would only be about 12 db using the same parameter values given above . this reduction in the minimum value of the optical amplifier gain is a result of the addition of the second term in the photonic oscillator open loop relationship in equation 8 , which is a direct consequence of the novel dual usage of the electroabsorption device as an optical modulator and detector . this lower requirement for the optical amplifier minimum gain translated into a lower amplifier noise , and hence , a lower photonic oscillator phase noise . as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , a significant advantage of a photonic oscillator as disclosed herein is the reduction in complexity , and hence fabrication cost . furthermore , avoiding use of fet - based electrical amplifiers may improve the flicker noise contribution to the device phase noise . also , as explained above , the novel photonic oscillator disclosed herein reduces the gain requirement of an optical amplifier required in an equivalent oscillator with a feedback loop consisting of an optical link with an electroabsorption modulator , an optical amplifier , and a photodetector . the use of the electroabsorption device as a photodetector further allows the addition of electrical bandpass filters to the photonic oscillator that would not otherwise be possible in an all - optical oscillator configuration . the electrical bandpass filter has the advantage of obtaining pre - selected rf bands at the output of the photonic oscillator . although the preceding discussion has been predicated upon the use of an electroabsorption optical transceiver , it must be understood that the novel concepts presented and claimed herein are not limited solely to use with this type of optical modulator , and any type of optical modulator offering the requisite dual functionality of modulator and detector may be employed in accordance with the principles disclosed herein . having now described the invention in accordance with the requirements of the patent statutes , those skilled in this art will understand how to make changes and modifications to the present invention to meet their specific requirements or conditions . such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed herein .	6
fig1 and 2 illustrate a portion of a wheel hub 10 having a vehicle drive axle 12 and a clutch mechanism received therein . the hub 10 has internal splines 14 formed on its interior that extend axially along a portion of its length . splines 16 are provided on the periphery of the end of the axle 12 in a known manner and are of sufficient length to receive the inner gear 18 . the inner gear 18 , as best seen in fig3 and 5 is a cylindrical member having internal axial splines 20 and external axial splines 22 , 24 and 26 . splines 22 are provided on one end of the gear 18 and splines 26 are provided on the opposite end . splines 24 are positioned near the center of the gear 18 with a space 28 being provided between splines 22 and 24 and a space 30 being provided between splines 24 and 26 . splines 22 , 24 and 26 are axially aligned . the inner gear 18 is mounted on the end of the axle 12 with the inner splines 20 of the gear 18 mating with the splines 16 of the axle 12 . the inner gear 18 mounted on the axle 12 in effect becomes part of the axle and the assembly of the inner gear 18 on the axle 12 may be referred to as an axle . a clutch ring 40 ( best seen in fig3 and 5 ) is a cylindrical member having external axially extended splines 42 and having internal splines 44 and 46 aligned one with the other . splines 44 are provided at one end and splines 46 are provided at the other end of the clutch ring 40 with a space 48 being provided between splines 44 and 46 . referring once again to fig1 and 2 , the clutch ring 40 is received in the hub 10 with the external splines 42 of the clutch ring 40 mating with the internal splines 14 of the hub 10 . the clutch ring 40 circumscribes the inner gear 18 . the hub 10 , the clutch ring 40 , the inner gear 18 and the axle 12 are thus concentrically mounted and have a common axis of rotation 11 . the clutch ring 40 is slidably movable along axis 11 , the splines 42 of the clutch ring 40 being in continuous engagement with the splines 14 of the hub 10 . movement of the clutch ring 40 in one axial direction couples or locks the hub 10 to the axle 12 to provide unity of rotation , and movement in the opposite direction uncouples the hub 10 from the axle 12 . shift mechanism , indicated generally as 60 , is provided to move the clutch ring 40 axially . shift mechanisms are known for affecting movement of the clutch ring 40 and may be of the manual type , the semi - automatic type or the automatic type . the manual shift mechanism generally has a hub mounted dial that is rotated in one direction to move the clutch ring 40 in one axial direction and rotated in an opposite direction to move the clutch ring 40 in the opposite axial direction . semi - automatic shifting mechanism is operably remote from the hub , e . g ., in the cab adjacent the driving controls , and may include for example controlling devices to supply or withdraw fluid such as air to affect movement . automatic shifting devices generally operate upon relative rotation as between the hub and the drive axle . when the axle is driven , the clutch ring is moved in one direction into engagement and when the drive axle is idle and the hub is rotated the clutch ring is moved in the opposite direction . fig1 illustrates the condition where the hub 10 is free to rotate independent of the axle 12 . that is , the clutch ring 40 is engaged only with the hub 10 , the splines 42 of the clutch ring 40 being in engagement with the splines 14 of the hub 10 . the internal splines 44 , 46 of the clutch ring 40 are received in the spaces 28 , 30 of the inner gear 18 and the splines 24 of the gear 18 are received in space 48 of the clutch ring 40 . the hub 10 and the clutch ring 40 thus may rotate independent of the inner gear 18 and the axle 12 . fig2 illustrates the condition where the clutch ring 40 has been moved axially by the shifting mechanism 60 to a position of engagement with both the hub 10 and the inner gear 18 . as previously stated , the splines 42 of the clutch ring 40 are in continuous engagement with the splines 14 of the hub 10 . the clutch ring 40 has been moved axially to a position where the splines 44 of the clutch ring engage the splines 22 of the inner gear and splines 46 of the clutch ring 40 engage the splines 24 of the inner gear 18 . there is a tandem engagement between the splines of the inner gear and the splines of the clutch ring . this is particularly important when the engagement results in a limited overlap of the engaging splines . the tandem arrangement doubles the contact area as between the engaging splines for the same degree of overlap as opposed to previous arrangements wherein there was a singular engagement of one spline with another . fig4 illustrates an alternate arrangement of the hub , clutch ring and inner gear . the inner gear 18 &# 39 ; has splines 20 provided on its interior in the same manner as on gear 18 , and has splines 21 formed on its exterior that are axially aligned and extend substantially along its length . the gear 18 &# 39 ; is mounted on the end of the axle 12 in the same manner as gear 18 . the clutch ring 40 &# 39 ; has internal splines 41 mateable with the splines 21 of the gear 18 &# 39 ;. splines 43 , 45 are provided on the exterior of the clutch ring 40 &# 39 ;, splines 43 being provided at one end and splines 45 at the opposite end . the splines 43 , 45 are axially aligned and are in a spaced apart relation , there being a space 47 between them . hub 10 &# 39 ; has internal splines 15 , 17 that are aligned axially and one with the other . the splines 15 , 17 are in a spaced relation , the splines 15 , 17 being separated by a space 19 . the clutch ring 40 &# 39 ; is axially movable in the same manner as clutch ring 40 of fig2 and 3 clutch ring 40 &# 39 ; however is in permanent engagement with the inner gear 18 &# 39 ; and is moved axially to either be in engagement with the hub 10 &# 39 ; or out of engagement with hub 10 &# 39 ;. a shift mechanism is provided to move the clutch ring 40 &# 39 ; axially . the clutch ring 40 &# 39 ; and hub 10 &# 39 ; have tandem rows of splines that become engaged to lock the rotation of the hub 10 &# 39 ; to the axle 12 . the tandem arrangement of engaging splines is particularly suited to automatic hub locks that rely on rotation of the drive axle to affect movement of the clutch ring . fig5 illustrates in exploded view an automatic hub lock employing a fixed cam , a moving cam and a cam follower to affect movement of the clutch ring . the automatic locking clutch is shown assembled in fig6 and 7 . the operative function of the cam arrangement is as disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 327 , 821 telford issued may 4 , 1982 . the automatic hub clutch as will now be described is an improved version of &# 39 ; 821 patent . basically a fixed cam 70 is secured to the vehicle in a non rotative manner with respect to the drive axle or wheel hub . a moving cam 80 surrounds the fixed cam 70 and is rotatively coupled to a cylindrical friction shoe 90 . the moving cam 80 and friction shoe 90 are rotatably mounted on a wheel bearing retainer 98 . a cam follower 100 engages the fixed cam 70 and is in splined engagement with the inner gear 18 , the follower 100 having internal splines 102 mateable with the splines 26 of the gear 18 . the cam follower 100 is axially moveable on the inner gear 18 . the cam follower is in abutment with a cage 110 that encloses a biasing spring 118 and the clutch ring 40 . the clutch ring 40 is in splined engagement with the splines 14 of the hub 10 . rails 112 of the cage 110 are in splined engagement with the splines 42 of the clutch ring 40 , thus the cage rotates with the clutch ring 40 . an end 114 of the cage 110 is in abutment with one end of a return spring 120 with the opposite end of the return spring in contact with an interior end of the hub 10 . the inner gear 18 is mounted on an axle 12 in splined engagement as previously described and the inner gear 18 is received in the clutch ring 40 . rotation of the axle 12 forces rotation of the cam follower 100 , causing the cam follower to ramp up the lobes of the fixed cam 70 which causes the cam follower to move axially away from the fixed cam thus forcing the cage 110 to move axially . movement of the cage 110 axially will urge the clutch ring 40 to move axially via the spring 118 . ( as the cage 110 moves axially , end 114 of the cage will compress the return spring 120 to remove its resistive force .) the clutch ring 40 will thus be urged into splined engagement with the inner gear 18 as shown in fig7 . as the cam follower 100 continues to rotate , extending posts 104 on the cam follower will engage the ramps 82 of the moveable cam 80 thus urging further axial displacement of the cam follower 100 which will separate the cam follower from the fixed cam 70 . the extending posts 104 on the cam follower 100 will engage cam stops 84 on the moveable cam thus urging the moving cam to rotate with the cam follower . in order to function properly , the movable cam 80 must be rotatable but it must have a resistance to rotate . the resistance to rotate must be sufficient to force the cam follower 100 to ramp up the ramping surfaces 82 on the moving cam 80 until the cam stops 84 are engaged . an improved friction shoe 90 , as illustrated fig8 is provided to provide the necessary braking or rotative resistance . the shoe 90 is a formed cylindrical member sized to fit closely on the cylindrical surface 99 ( see fig5 ) of the wheel bearing retainer 98 . a slot 92 is provided in the shoe 90 to permit reducing the diameter of the shoe 90 by closing the width of the slot . radial grooves 94 are provided in the shoe 90 to receive protruding spring retainers 86 of the movable cam 80 . tabs 95 and bosses 96 extending radially outward around the periphery of the shoe 90 cooperatively form a channel 97 around the circumference of the shoe 90 for receiving an endless coil spring 79 . the moving cam 80 is mounted to the friction shoe 90 with the spring retainers 86 being received in the radial grooves 94 . the coil spring 79 is fitted in the channel 97 , the spring 79 engaging the spring retainers 86 to secure the moving cam 80 and the shoe 90 together . the retainers 86 of the movable cam 80 engaging the grooves 94 will cause the cam 80 and the shoe 90 to rotate in unison . the assembly of the shoe 90 and the movable cam 80 are mounted on the bearing retainer nut 98 . the spring 79 urges the shoe to reduce in diameter , in effect clamping the shoe 90 to the nut 98 to provide the required resistance to rotation . a braking device is thus provided that is of one piece construction and easily produced . relative rotation between the cam follower 100 and the cage 110 occurs as the hub 10 rotates relative to the axle 12 . an applied torque is thus applied as between the cam follower 100 and the cage 110 . there is little rotational torque applied when the cam follower is seated in the fixed cam and the clutch ring is not engaged with the inner gear . the cage is urged axially toward the cam follower by the return spring 120 , however , a retaining ring 130 ( see fig5 and 7 ) fitted within the hub 10 limits the axial movement of the cage . the largest rotational torque applied as between the cage and the follower occurs as the cam follower 100 and the cage 110 are moving axially , that is during engagement of the clutch ring and during disengagement . during engagement , the axle is rotating relative to the hub and therefore the follower is rotating relative to the cage . the follower as it moves axially to affect engagement must apply a sufficient force on the cage to compress the return spring 120 and spring 118 . the applied force results in a rotational torque since the cam follower is rotating relative to the cage . this rotational torque is applied to the end ( base ) 116 of the cage 110 and particularly at the connections between the end 116 and rails 112 . the cage 110 ( see fig5 ) has the end 116 formed integral with the rails 112 to provide a structure that will sustain the rotational torque applied . end 114 is removably mounted on the ends of the rails 112 . tabs 113 formed on the end of the rails 112 fit in formed latches 115 on the end 114 . extending posts 117 on the end 114 are arranged to receive the end of the spring 120 . an alternate arrangement of the cage is illustrated in fig9 . a cage 110 &# 39 ; has an end 116 &# 39 ; integrally formed with the rails 112 &# 39 ;. the rails 112 &# 39 ; extend from the end 116 &# 39 ; and have a spring receiving formation 111 formed on the extended ends . an end of the return spring 120 is received in the formations 111 . those skilled in the art will recognize that modifications and variations may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention . the invention is therefore not to be limited to the embodiments set forth in the drawings and specification but is to be determined from the appended claims .	5
[ 0020 ] fig1 is a side elevational view of a mug 10 , having a liner 12 . the liner 12 depicted in fig2 is formed in a first injection mold and removed therefrom . the liner 12 is then placed in a second injection mold wherein the rest of the mug 10 is molded around the liner 12 to provide the mug exterior 14 , a base 22 and a handle 16 all of which are integral to form the mug 10 . [ 0021 ] fig2 is a side elevational view of the liner 12 having an exterior 17 , a bottom 15 and a rim 13 . in addition , the liner 12 has a tab or jut out 18 at the top of the liner 12 on one side of the liner 12 . the tab 18 allows the location of the liner 12 to be properly oriented when the liner 12 is placed in the second injection mold . this allows accurate registration of any indicia or imprint 26 on the exterior of the liner 12 which appears through the translucent or transparent exterior 14 of the mug 10 . however , orientation is not required for a tumbler . [ 0022 ] fig3 is a top plan view of the liner 12 clearly depicting the tab 18 with respect to placement on the exterior 17 of the liner 12 . [ 0023 ] fig4 is a side elevational view of a vertical section taken through the mid - point of the handle and embodiment of fig1 . this section view of the mug 10 allows a further understanding of the relationship of the liner 12 with its tab 18 with respect to registration of the imprint 26 in relation to the handle 16 as desired by the manufacturer . the tab 18 interlocks with corresponding locations ( not shown here ) in the second injection mold . this accurate placement of the liner 12 in the second injection mold allows formation of the handle 16 consistently with relation to the imprint 26 and the rest of the mug 10 . the imprint 26 may extend all around the mug 10 or may be located on both sides of the mug 10 or just one side of the mug 10 as illustrated here . the rim 24 of the mug 10 extends over the rim 13 of the liner 12 . thus the exterior 14 of the mug 10 formed in the second injection mold , covers and is fused to the liner exterior 17 , the liner bottom exterior 15 , the tab 18 and the liner rim 13 to form the integral mug 10 . [ 0024 ] fig5 is a side elevational view of a mug 50 , having a liner 52 . the liner 52 depicted in fig6 is formed in a first injection mold and removed therefrom . the liner 52 is then placed in a second injection mold wherein the rest of the mug 50 is molded around the liner 52 to provide the mug exterior 54 , a base 62 and a handle 56 all of which are integral to form the mug 50 . [ 0025 ] fig6 is a side elevational view of the liner 52 having an exterior 57 , a bottom 55 and a rim 53 . in addition , the interior 59 of the liner 52 has a vertical small flat edge 60 . the vertical small flat edge 60 allows the location of the liner 52 to be properly oriented when the liner 52 is placed in the second injection mold . this allows accurate registration of any indicia or imprint 66 on the exterior of the liner 52 which appears through the translucent or transparent exterior 54 of the mug 50 . [ 0026 ] fig7 is a top plan view of the liner 52 clearly depicting the vertical small flat edge 60 with respect to placement on the interior 59 of the liner 52 . the vertical small flat edge 60 need not extend the entire height of the interior of the liner 52 , however , aesthetically , the extension of the vertical small flat edge 60 for most of the height of the liner 52 is desirable . [ 0027 ] fig8 is a side elevational view of a vertical section taken through the mid - point of the handle and embodiment of fig5 . this section view of the mug 50 allows a further understanding of the relationship of the liner 52 with the vertical small flat edge 60 with respect to registration of the imprint 66 in relation to the handle 56 as desired by the manufacturer . the vertical small flat edge 60 interfaces with a corresponding flat edge ( not shown here ) in the second injection mold . this accurate placement of the liner 52 in the second injection mold allows formation of the handle 56 consistently with relation to the imprint 66 and the rest of the mug 50 . the imprint 66 may extend all around the mug 50 or may be located on both sides of the mug 50 or just one side of the mug 50 as illustrated here . the rim 64 of the mug 50 extends over the rim 53 of the liner 52 . thus the exterior 54 of the mug 50 formed in the second injection mold , covers and is fused to the liner exterior 57 , the liner bottom exterior 55 , and the liner rim 53 to form the integral mug 50 . styrene acrylonitrile in the form of a commercial product identified as san is prepared by known procedures for a first injection mold . the styrene acrylonitrile material may contain color dye or other suitable materials to make the liner 12 opaque , solid in appearance , translucent or transparent . the san is injected into the first mold at a predetermined temperature suitable for injection molding of the styrene acrylonitrile polymer . the injection molding step generally ranges from about one to about three minutes depending on the desired thickness of the product liner 12 . the liner 12 is then removed from the mold . the liner 12 contains tab 18 as described heretofore . any desired imprint or indicia is placed on the exterior 17 of the liner by suitable means . for example , the imprint may be effected in ink , e . g ., nasdar screen ink , or pad print accomplished by screen printing or in the form of a printed paper , decal or the like . the imprint indicia is secured , if necessary , to the outside 17 of the liner 12 . the liner 12 is placed in a second injection mold , or alternatively in a second compartment of the first mold , with the tab 18 properly aligned with the corresponding negative registries , i . e ., a notch for the tab 18 of the liner 12 . a suitable styrene acrylonitrile material or an acrylic material , containing the desired dyes for color is loaded to be dispensed through the second injection mold at the predetermined temperatures and times outlined above . the plastic material injected into the second mold covers the liner exterior 17 , liner bottom exterior 15 , and the liner rim 13 . in addition , the second mold contains die space for the mug base 22 and handle 16 to form a completed mug . the finished mug 10 is then removed from the mold , cooled , and is ready for shipment or sale . the exterior of the second mold may be highly polished to provide excellent clarity of the mug exterior 14 thus making any indicia or imprint 26 on the liner 12 highly visible . if desired , an additional imprint may be added to the outside of the mug over the internal imprint to provide a 3 - d effect , however , such an imprint is not protected from external wearing , scratching and other destruction without further treatment . by merely changing the die of the mold , other drinking vessels may be produced by the process of the present invention . for instance , a more conventional cup design may be formed . the same process steps may be employed and if desired , the same type of registration tabs may be used . the registration tab may be placed at any appropriate location on the liner so long as the mug exterior 14 covers the tab 18 to provide a smooth exterior 14 of the mug 10 . in addition , a tumbler is easily formed and does not require the tab for registration of a handle . a tumbler does not have a handle and because it exhibits complete symmetry , the indicia does not ordinarily require registration , however , if there are multi color portions of the indicia , some form of registration may be necessary . acrylic in the form of a commercial product is prepared by known procedures for a first injection mold . the acrylic material may contain color dye or other suitable materials to make the liner 52 opaque , solid in appearance , translucent or transparent . the acrylic material is injected into the first mold at a predetermined temperature suitable for injection molding of the acrylic polymer . the injection molding step generally ranges from about one to about three minutes depending on the desired thickness of the product liner 52 . the liner 52 is then removed from the mold . the liner 52 contains the vertical small flat edge 60 as described heretofore . any desired imprint or indicia is placed on the exterior 57 of the liner by suitable means . the imprint indicia is secured , if necessary , to the outside 57 of the liner 52 . the liner 52 is placed in a second injection mold , or alternatively in a second compartment of the first mold , with the vertical small flat edge 60 properly aligned with the corresponding flat edge registry in the mold . a suitable acrylic material , containing the desired dyes for color is loaded to be dispensed through the second injection mold at the predetermined temperatures and times outlined above . the plastic material injected into the second mold covers the liner exterior 57 , liner bottom exterior 55 , and the liner rim 53 . in addition , the second mold contains die space for the mug base 62 and handle 56 to form a completed mug . the finished mug 50 is then removed from the mold , cooled , and is ready for shipment or sale . by merely changing the die of the mold , other articles having the protected advertising surface , may be produced by the process of the present invention . for instance , a taller vessel simulating a tumbler , but with a handle may be formed . the same process steps may be employed and the same type of vertical small flat edge may be used for registry of any indicia . the vertical small flat edge may be placed at any appropriate location on the interior of the liner so long as the second mold has a corresponding vertical flat edge . although either the tab or the vertical small flat edge may be used to satisfactorily register the second mold with the liner , other registration forms would be suitable and are included herein . other products upon which protected advertising surfaces are desirable , are containers which include change dishes , lids and / or coasters for drinking vessels , candy dishes or dishes of any type , or the like . the protected “ advertising ” surface may also be simply a design and therefore is not used exclusively for advertising . although the invention has been described in considerable detail in the foregoing , it is to be understood that such detail is solely for the purpose of illustration and that variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .	6
referring now to the drawings , and initially to fig1 a freezer is generally indicated at 10 . the freezer 10 includes a tunnel enclosure 12 , and a conveyor belt 14 which moves product through the freezer from an inlet end 16 to an outlet end 18 ( see fig2 ). also included is a cryogen control cabinet 20 and an electrical control cabinet 22 . the cryogen control cabinet directs cryogen coolant to gas release means or nozzles 24 . in the preferred embodiment , the freezer 10 comprises an in - line tunnel freezer commercially available from the assignee of the present invention as model no . je - u4 . preferably , the cryogen employed is co 2 , although other cryogen coolants such as liquid nitrogen can also be used . as can be seen in fig1 and 2 , the freezer 10 includes a pair of overhead fans 30 , 32 driven by electric motors 34 , 36 located outside of enclosure 12 , atop the enclosure roof . blowers 40 , 42 driven by electric motors 44 , 46 are located between the upper and lower runs of conveyor belt 14 . the blowers 40 , 42 are oriented in a generally horizontal direction , being tilted at a slight downward angle . fig3 and 4 show the blowers 40 , 42 from a vantage point looking generally toward exit end 18 of the freezer , from a point at the left hand end of fig2 . as can be seen in fig3 and 4 , the blowers 40 , 42 are laterally offset from one another so as to avoid interference with the circulation within enclosure 12 . referring again to fig1 and 2 , the motors 44 , 46 receive electrical power from control cabinet 22 through electrical conductors 50 enclosed within a first conduit run 52 , a junction box 54 , a rigid conduit 56 and flexible conduit lines 60 , 62 . cryogen coolant enters the system through a line 66 from a supply tank ( not shown ). the cryogen coolant is split up at junction 68 into two flow paths . the first flow path passes through line 70 to the nozzles 24 . the cryogen coolant also travels along a second path through a valve 74 and regulator 76 , passing along line 78 to junction box 54 . preferably , cryogen coolant traveling through line 78 is in a gaseous form , although it could also be in a liquid or mixed phase form , if desired . a pressure block or seal is provided at the junction of conduit 52 and junction box 54 to prevent cryogen coolant from entering the electrical control cabinet 22 . the cryogen coolant is , however , allowed to pass through junction box 54 to pressurize conduits 56 and flexible lines 60 , 62 , entering into motors 44 , 46 . the cryogen coolant system upstream of junction box 54 is shown outside of cryogen control cabinet 20 for clarity of illustration , although most of this equipment is located within the cryogen control cabinet . preferably , the conduit 56 is located at a back wall of freezer 10 ( located in the background of fig1 and 2 ). conduit 56 includes a horizontal run portion 58 visible in fig3 and 4 , which travels in a direction generally perpendicular to the direction of travel of conveyor belt 14 . referring briefly to fig1 the upper run of conveyor belt 14 is borne by below by support members 90 . as seen in fig3 and 4 , the conveyor run 58 is supported from support members 90 and provides a convenient mounting for blowers 40 , 42 . preferably , the conduit 58 is relatively rigid compared to the flexible lines 60 , 62 . the junction box 54 , conduit lines 56 , 58 and flexible lines 60 , 62 are preferably of pressure - tight construction so as to contain the pressure of cryogen coolant controlled by regulator 76 and so as to sustain a controlled flow of cryogen coolant through the motors 44 , 46 . referring to fig5 blower 40 and motor 44 ( which drives the fan blades of the blower ) is shown on an enlarged scale . preferably , motor 44 is an electric motor of the closed frame or sealed type . in the preferred embodiment , electric motor 44 is commercially available from baldor electric company as a special horizontal motor of type tenv , model 33m - nema 42z . ring type seals are provided on the motor shaft , and neoprene gaskets are used in the construction of the motor frame to prevent moisture intrusion into the motor interior . fig5 also shows electrical conductors 50 located in flexible line 60 . the flexible line 60 is mounted to a back wall 100 of motor 44 by a coupling 102 . as shown in fig4 flexible line 60 is connected through a junction 104 . in the preferred embodiment , the motor 44 has a generally cylindrical frame with a front wall 106 located opposite the aforementioned back wall 100 . in the preferred embodiment , back and front walls 100 , 106 preferably comprise end bells typical of conventional electrical motor constructions . as mentioned above , cryogen coolant pressurizes conduit line 58 and flexible line 60 . the cryogen coolant is allowed to pressurize the interior of motor 44 , and this alone may be sufficient in some installations to adequately protect the electric motor . as indicated in fig7 by arrows 112 , cryogen coolant flows through motor 44 , between the internal components of the motor ( both electrical components such as field windings and mechanical components such as bearings ) so as to exit through plug 110 . by way of experimentation using the above - mentioned commercial freezer model je - u4 , the plugs 110 were sealed and , after two weeks of regular operation , substantial condensation was found in the motor interiors , even though co 2 vapor pressure had been maintained continuously during the test period . it was found necessary to maintain a minimum flow of cryogen coolant through the electric motors in order to prevent moisture accumulation through the motor interior . accordingly , a plug 110 having a controlled orifice size is installed in front wall 100 . in the preferred embodiment , plugs 110 are those commercially available from the motor manufacturer as t - drain plug part no . sp - 5435 . initial tests performed on the model je - u4 freezer indicate that a flow rate of approximately 10 standard cubic feet per hour for each blower is adequate to prevent moisture - related premature failure of the blower motors . as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , the freezer shown in fig2 is of a modular construction type , and if longer residence time is needed to refrigerate products of a particular type , additional freezer enclosures may be added back - to - back , in a serial array to form a continuous freezer production line . tests were conducted with the number of blowers ranging between 2 and 8 and the required increase in flow rate from regulator 76 was found to be linear , with 80 standard cubic feet per hour being required to supply purge flow for 8 blowers . the blowers tested were of the fractional horsepower size , and were operated at 240 volts a . c . the required cryogen flow rate through the motor may differ for other installations . in the test , the regulator 76 was employed to limit the vapor line pressure in conduit 78 from between 3 and 6 psi . a co 2 vapor flow meter was inserted downstream of the regulator 76 to measure flow to the blower motors . fig8 - 12 show various alternative freezer configurations to which the cryogen purge flow system may be adapted to protect electric motors located within refrigerated environments . in fig8 a tunnel freezer 116 is shown . the freezer is described in u . s . patent application ser . no . 08 / 245 , 531 , filed may 13 , 1994 , and assigned to the assignee of the present invention . the disclosure of this patent application is incorporated as if set forth fully herein . the freezer 116 in fig8 includes a tunnel enclosure 118 and a conveyor belt 120 formed in an endless loop , for transporting products through the freezer interior . overhead fans 122 circulate co 2 cryogen coolant , preferably in the form of finely divided particles or &# 34 ; snow &# 34 ; form exiting injectors 124 . injectors 124 are fed by cryogen supply lines 126 which also extend to the rear walls of electric motors 128 disposed below the upper run of conveyor belt 120 . motors 128 drive fan blades with a generally downwardly directed discharge , circulating the co 2 snow and freezer atmosphere across deflection plates 130 located in the floor of the freezer . the motors 128 are preferably provided with an exit orifice adjacent the front wall of the motors to allow cryogen coolant flow through the motor interior in the manner described above . fig9 - 11 show cabinet freezers of the type described in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 4 , 344 , 291 , the disclosure of which is incorporated as if fully set forth herein . the freezer 210 shown in fig9 is provided with both cryogen and mechanical types of refrigeration equipment . the mechanical refrigeration equipment 211 is mounted atop the roof of cabinet enclosure 212 . cryogen refrigeration equipment is located behind sidewall 213 of the cabinet enclosure . blowers 226 , driven by electric motors , are also located in sidewall 213 and are coupled to the cryogen supply lines in the manner described above so as to set up a flow of cryogen coolant through the electric motor housing to prevent moisture accumulation within the motors . if desired , the mechanical refrigeration 211 could be relied upon the cool the interior of cabinet 212 , with the cryogen coolant being supplied solely to the electric motors , if desired . however , it is generally desired that the mechanical refrigeration equipment 211 be supplemented by cryogen cooling of the cabinet enclosure . fig1 shows an arrangement similar to fig9 except for the presence of three blowers 226 and the omission of mechanical refrigeration equipment 211 . fig1 is a cross - sectional view of a freezer having a spiral conveyor belt generally shown and described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 356 , 707 , assigned to the assignee of the present invention . u . s . pat . no . 4 , 356 , 707 is incorporated as if fully set forth herein . the freezer generally indicated at 240 in fig1 has a helical or so - called &# 34 ; spiral &# 34 ; conveyor belt having an inlet end 242 and an exit end 244 . as shown in fig1 , the conveyor belt is of endless form , and returns from the top of freezer 240 over a series of tension - controlling rollers to the inlet end 242 . the conveyor belt then travels to the left in fig1 upwardly along the spiral path shown . co 2 cryogen injection units 250 receive cryogen flow from line 254 . the cryogen flow is split at junction box 256 so as to flow through lines 258 which are terminated at blower motors 260 . a cryogen flow is maintained through the electric motors 260 in the manner described above , so as to prevent moisture intrusion within the motors . referring now to fig9 - 11 , a cryogenic cabinet freezer is generally indicated at 210 . the freezer 210 includes an insulated cabinet 212 having a door 214 allowing access to the cabinet interior . typically , carts loaded with food products to be refrigerated are wheeled over ramp 216 , through the opening formed by open door 214 . referring to fig1 , injection nozzle 220 and inducer 222 inject cryogen coolant into the interior of cabinet 212 . blowers 226 circulate freezer atmosphere within cabinet 212 . the blowers 226 are driven by electric motors ( not shown ) which are disposed within the cryogenic environment . as indicated by the arrows in fig1 and 11 , circulation patterns are set up within cabinet 212 , which bring moisture from products being cooled into contact with the blowers , and the electric motors associated therewith . preferably , the cryogen media employed is liquid co 2 which exits the inducers 222 in the form of finely divided snow particles . the cryogen is supplied through piping 30 ( see fig1 ) to the inducers 222 . the drawings and the foregoing descriptions are not intended to represent the only forms of the invention in regard to the details of its construction and manner of operation . changes in form and in the proportion of parts , as well as the substitution of equivalents , are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient ; and although specific terms have been employed , they are intended in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for the purposes of limitation , the scope of the invention being delineated by the following claims .	5
an exemplary indium bump transfer process is outlined in fig1 . an exemplary template wafer as fabricated is shown in fig1 a . details of this process are discussed below . such an exemplary template wafer is comprised of a conductive core layer 101 and nonconductive layers 102 , 103 deposited and defined upon both sides of it . the top nonconductive layer 102 is based on polytetrafluoroethylene ( ptfe ) as indium does not stick well to it . the dimensions of this wafer can be at least as large as the dimensions of the area to be bumped on the microchip . after the fabrication step , the template wafer is placed in an electroplating setup fig1 b . the electroplating setup includes a power supply 103 that has the capability to run in a constant current mode . one such power supply is the agilent 3616a . the positive terminal of the power supply 104 is electrically connected to one terminal of an ammeter 106 to monitor current being provided by the power supply . one may use the fluke 8845a digital multimeter operating in ammeter mode . the other terminal of the ammeter is electrically connected to the anode 107 . in an exemplary embodiment , the anode is composed of high - purity indium with a purity of 99 . 99 % or better . one face of the anode has a surface area that is equal to or greater than that of the template wafer . the negative terminal of the power supply 105 is electrically connected to the template wafer 108 . the template wafer is thus the cathode of the electroplating setup . both the anode and cathode are placed in an acryllic tank 109 . the two electrodes are placed parallel to one another , separated by 5 centimeters . the tank is filled with an indium electroplating solution 110 so that the electrodes can be fully immersed . one can use the indium sulfamate electroplating solution provided by indium corporation of america . a sparging tube 111 is also placed in the electroplating bath to improve mass transport by piping an inert gas , such as ar or n 2 . once the electroplating setup is connected , the power supply is turned on and current is raised to initiate indium plating . initiation of plating 112 is shown in fig1 c , occurring only in regions where the conductive layer is exposed . the current is roughly in direct proportion to deposition rate , though current density should be kept between 108 and 216 a / m 2 , where the area is the surface area of indium plating regions . fig1 d shows completion of plating when the indium overgrows the nonconductive layer 113 . this overgrowth 114 should be on the order of 1 to 2 microns . the plated template wafer , shown in fig1 d is now ready for removal of exposed indium oxide and transfer of indium to a microchip . fig1 e shows the beginning of this process . the plated template wafer 115 is placed on the vacuum chuck 116 of a hybrid bump - bonder capable of micron resolution alignment . one such piece of equipment is the suss microtec fc - 150 . the microchip 117 after removal of oxide from the metallization pads is placed on the other vacuum chuck 118 . the two wafers are aligned by the system so the indium 119 lines up with the metallization pads 120 of the microchip . once aligned , the hybrid bump bonder presses the two , with or without heat , resulting in a bond between the indium and metallization pads . upon releasing the two , the indium sticks to the metallization pads and releases from the template wafer , as shown in fig1 f . the release is possible due to the small surface area of indium at the conductive layer interface of the template wafer 121 compared to that of the metallization pad interface of the microchip 122 . this is also possible due to the low adhesion of indium to ptfe that allows it to easily transfer . the result is a set of indium bumps 123 on the microchip 124 . fig1 g shows the bumped microchip 125 held on the vacuum chuck of a hybrid bump bonder 126 after oxide removal from a remaining exposed indium , as in the above paragraph . another microchip 127 which has the oxide likewise removed from its metallization pads is placed on the other vacuum chuck 128 . the two wafers are aligned by the system so the indium 199 lines up with the metallization pads 130 of the second microchip . once aligned , the hybrid bump bonder presses the two , with or without heat , resulting in a bond between the indium and metallization pads . fig1 h shows the hybridized microchips after the release of vacuum from the hybrid bump bonder . the initial layers of an exemplary fabrication of the template wafer are shown in fig2 a . in such an exemplary embodiment , a si wafer 201 is the core of the template wafer . the si wafer can be degreased by dipping in , e . g ., acetone , methanol , isopropyl alcohol , and deionized water for two minutes . the oxide surface of the si wafer can then be removed by dipping in a 2 % hf in deionized water solution for 1 minute . a 1 micron ni layer 202 is deposited on the front side of this wafer . one can perform deposition by a variety of techniques including ( electron beam or heated ) evaporation or ( ac or dc ) sputtering . this ni layer will serve as the plating base where indium growth is initiated during the electroplating process described above . a 200 nanometer al layer 203 is then deposited on the ni layer by similar deposition techniques . al is chosen because it sticks well to ptfe and will act as an adhesion layer . after deposition of these layers , a 1 micron ni 204 layer followed by a 200 nanometer al layer 205 are deposited on the backside of the si wafer by the same deposition techniques . the purpose of these layers is to balance stress on the si wafer to keep it as flat as possible . the sum of these layers 201 - 205 comprises the conductive layer of the transfer wafer 206 . in an exemplary embodiment , the top side nonconductive layer 209 is based on ptfe ( polytetrafluoroethylene ) teflon ™ af 1601s with 18 % solids provided by dupont de nemours & amp ; co . this layer is spun onto the conductive layer at spin speeds in the 3000 - 5000 rpm range . by diluting the teflon ™ 1691s in fluorinert ™ fc - 770 provided by 3m , the thickness of the nonconductive layer can be spun - on as thick as 20 microns . the thickness of this layer is chosen to be roughly 1 to 2 microns less than the desired final height of the indium bumps . after spin - on of the nonconductive layer , a baking procedure is necessary to drive out solvents and allow for smoothing out of the surface . this procedure is as follows . the wafer is placed on a hotplate held at 112 ° c . for 15 minutes . the temperature is then ramped to 165 ° c . for 15 minutes . at this point , all of the solvents are driven out of the nonconductive layer . finally , the wafer is held for 30 minutes at 335 ° c . on the hotplate to smoothen out the layer . afterwards , the wafer is allowed to cool . a backside nonconductive layer 208 is spun onto the backside of the wafer by the same procedure as for the top side layer . the baking process is also the same , except the 335 ° c . step is omitted as surface morphology of the backside is not critical . the purpose of this layer is to stop any deposition of indium onto the backside of the wafer during electroplating . fig2 b shows the deposition , patterning and etching of an al etch mask necessary to define the top side nonconductive layer 209 . this process begins with the deposition of 200 nanometers of al 210 . this layer can be deposited by a variety of standard techniques including ( electron beam or heated ) evaporation or ( ac or dc ) sputtering . the al layer acts as the etch mask for the nonconductive layer because teflon ™ af 1601s has a high etch selectivity over it during plasma etching . al is also chosen because it adheres well to teflon ™ af 1601s . after the al deposition , a standard photolithography step is performed to define features in the photoresist layer 211 . these features will eventually be defined down to the conductive layer by etching , so their dimensions are those upon which indium plating will initiate to form indium bumps during the electroplating step . to produce , e . g ., 10 micron pitch bumps , these features can have a 10 micron pitch and their individual size can be on the order of 2 - 4 microns . this photolithography step can be the limiting factor of the minimum bump size and pitch attainable for such an exemplary template fabrication procedure . therefore , higher resolution photolithography techniques should allow for bump sizes under 1 micron and pitches on the order of a couple of microns . the al layer is then etched , where exposed regions are etched , exposing the nonconductive layer underneath . the etching can be performed either by chemical etching or plasma etching . one chemical etch that can be used is the pan etch . this etch is comprised of phosphoric acid , acetic acid , nitric acid , and de - ionized water in a 16 : 1 : 1 : 2 ratio held at 40 ° c . fig2 c shows the template wafer after etching of the al etch mask layer and removal of the photoresist by acetone bath of photoresist stripper . after definition of the etch mask , the nonconductive layer 212 is defined by a plasma etching step . etching of ptfe , including teflon ™ af 1601s is achieved by a reactive ion etching process using a mixture of ar and o 2 gases at several hundred ev . obtaining proper sidewall angle is critical for good transfer of indium from the template wafer to the microchip , as already discussed . the gas mixture should thus be tuned to obtain sidewall angles of roughly 70 degrees with respect to interface of the layers of the wafer . fabrication of the template wafer is completed by etching away the exposed al under layer 213 by a chemical etch or plasma etch . once again , the pan etch described above could be used to for this purpose . fig2 e shows the finished template wafer , where exposed ni 214 will serve as the plating base upon which indium growth will begin during electroplating . another exemplary embodiment follows fig2 a - e . the following steps occur in the same manner as the initial exemplary embodiment : degreasing and oxide etching dip of the si wafer , about 500 nanometer to 1 micron topside ni deposition and 200 nanometer al deposition , and backside about 500 nanometer to 1 micron ni deposition and 200 nanometer al deposition . this exemplary embodiment uses a different set of techniques to deposit the topside nonconductive layer 207 and backside nonconductive layer 208 of fig2 b . instead of using spin - on teflon ™ af 1601 - s to deposit these layers , ptfe can be deposited in a vacuum chamber onto the conductive layer of the transfer wafer 206 shown in fig2 a . one can use either rf sputtering deposition or atomic layer deposition ( ald ) to perform deposition of ptfe . the thickness of the deposition of the topside nonconductive layer can be chosen to be roughly 1 to 2 microns less than the desired final height of the indium bumps . the thickness of the deposition of the backside nonconductive layer can be chosen to be about 1 micron . this thickness is not critical and only serves to cover the backside of the wafer to stop any deposition of indium onto the backside of the wafer during electroplating . no baking steps are required after deposition . after deposition of the ptfe nonconductive layers , fabrication proceeds as in the initial exemplary embodiment . this includes : deposition , patterning and etching of the 200 nanometer thick al etch mask , plasma etching of the topside nonconductive layer , removal of the 200 nanometer thick al etch mask , and etching of the exposed 200 nanometer thick al under layer . yet another exemplary embodiment follows fig2 a . the following steps occur in the same manner as the initial exemplary embodiment : degreasing and oxide etching dip of the si wafer , about 500 nanometer to 1 micron topside ni deposition and 200 nanometer al deposition , backside about 500 nanometer to 1 micron ni deposition and 200 nanometer al deposition , deposition of the topside nonconductive layer by either of the techniques described in the previous exemplary embodiments , and deposition of the backside nonconductive layer by either of the techniques described in the previous exemplary embodiments . fig3 a shows how fabrication proceeds for this exemplary embodiment . just as in the initial exemplary embodiment , a 200 nanometer al etch mask 303 is deposited on the nonconductive layer 301 by the same techniques . after the al deposition , a standard photolithography step is performed to define features in the photoresist layer 304 . these features , unlike the previous exemplary embodiments , will not be used to etch down to the nonconductive layer 302 . instead , these features will be used to define features that are etched partially down the nonconductive layer , which will be referred to as isolation notches . the purpose of these features is to delay touching of indium of adjacent plating regions of the template wafer . as previously set forth , indium overgrowth above the nonconductive layer facilitates the indium transfer process . as overgrowth occurs , lateral growth of indium occurs as well . these isolation notches will essentially isolate adjacent growth areas from one another by providing a longer path for lateral growth before touching occurs . the dimension of these features will depend on the pitch and size of bumps required . for 10 micron pitch bumps with an individual size of 3 microns , e . g ., 2 micron notches can be used . as discussed in the initial exemplary embodiment , the size of these features is limited by the photolithography process involved . the al layer is then etched , where exposed regions are etched , exposing the nonconductive layer underneath . the etching can be performed either by chemical etching or plasma etching as discussed in the initial exemplary embodiment . fig3 b shows the template wafer after etching of the al etch mask layer and removal of the photoresist with acetone or photoresist stripper . after definition of the etch mask , the nonconductive layer 305 is defined by a plasma etching step using the same techniques as the described in the initial exemplary embodiment . the etching proceeds until roughly half of the thickness of the exposed nonconductive layer is exposed to form the isolation notches . fig3 c shows the template wafer after the nonconductive layer etching process to define isolation notches 306 and removal of the al layer by a chemical etch previously described . fig3 d shows the deposition , patterning and etching of an al etch mask necessary to define the top side nonconductive layer 307 . this process follows the procedure of the initial exemplary embodiment , where a 200 nanometer al layer 308 is deposited , followed by definition of features in a photoresist layer 309 by a standard photolithography process and etching away of the exposed al layer . fig3 e shows the template wafer after etching of the al etch mask layer and removal of the photoresist with acetone or photoresist stripper . after etching of the al etch mask , fabrication proceeds as in the initial embodiment . this includes : plasma etching of the topside nonconductive layer 310 , removal of the 200 nanometer thick al etch mask 311 , and etching of the exposed 200 nanometer thick al under layer 312 . the completed template wafer is shown in fig3 f . yet , another exemplary embodiment follows fig2 a . the following steps occur in the same manner as the initial embodiment : degreasing and oxide etching dip of the si wafer , about 500 nanometer to 1 micron topside ni deposition and 200 nanometer al deposition , backside about 500 nanometer to 1 micron ni deposition and 200 nanometer al deposition , deposition of the topside nonconductive layer by either of the techniques described in the previous embodiments , and deposition of the backside nonconductive layer by either of the techniques described in the previous embodiments . this exemplary embodiment differs from previous ones in the way that the features on the topside nonconductive layer are defined . rather than using an etch mask followed by etching , this exemplary embodiment involves imprinting the topside nonconductive layer with features defined on another wafer , to be called the imprinting wafer . the result is that the features on the nonconductive layer will be a negative of the features defined on the imprinting wafer . the procedure for this process is described below . as shown in fig4 a , fabrication of such an exemplary imprinting wafer begins with a si wafer 401 of the same dimensions as the si wafer used as the core of the template wafer . a standard photolithography step is performed to define features in the photoresist layer 402 . in the end , these features 403 will be used to etch into the silicon wafer and then imprinted into the nonconductive layer to form the mesas 215 shown in fig2 e . the dimension of these features will depend on the pitch and size of bumps required . if a 10 micron bump pitch is desired with 3 micron bumps , these features will be roughly 7 microns because these features are the negative of the features imprinted in the nonconductive layer . fig4 b shows such an exemplary patterned imprinting wafer after etching trenches 404 in it . these trenches can be formed by placing the wafer in a plasma etching system , such as a reactive ion etching ( rie ) system or inductively coupled plasma ( icp ) etching system where a mixture of o 2 and sf 6 etch away the exposed si . sidewall angle is controlled by the ratio of the two gasses and is controlled to etch sidewalls roughly 70 degrees with respect to the surface of the imprinting wafer . etching proceeds until the etch depth is equal to the thickness of the nonconductive layer . after etching , the photoresist layer is removed with acetone or photoresist stripper . after completing the fabrication of the imprinting wafer , the imprinting step follows , shown in fig4 c . the incomplete template wafer 405 , consisting of a conductive layer 406 , an undefined topside nonconductive layer 407 and a nonconductive backside layer 408 , is placed on the vacuum chuck 409 of a hybrid bump - bonder capable of micron resolution alignment . one such piece of equipment is the suss microtec fc - 150 . the imprinting wafer 410 is placed on the other vacuum chuck 411 . the two wafers are roughly aligned and heated past the glass transition temperature of the nonconductive layer . if this layer was formed using the first embodiment using teflon af 1601s , this temperature is 160 ° c . if this layer was formed using the second embodiment , this temperature will depend on the specific ptfe used . after heating , the two wafers are pressed together , held for several minutes , allowed to cool back to room temperature , and finally separated from one another . the result is an exemplary completed template wafer , shown in fig4 d . using this process , it is possible to form the isolation notches fabricated in the third embodiment . this requires an extra photolithography and etching step in the imprinting wafer to form negatives of the notches . the invention has been described in an illustrative manner . it is to be understood that the terminology which has been used is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than limitation . many modifications and variations of the invention are possible in light of the above teachings . therefore , within the scope of the appended claims , the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described .	7
as used herein , “ margarines ” include an aqueous phase and at least 80 wt % of a fat phase . although spreads are often used to mean similar products which contain less than 80 % fat phase , for convenience in the present application the word “ spreads ” is used also to include margarines unless otherwise stated explicitly or clearly required by context . the product of the invention can be either a margarine having 80 wt % fat or higher , or a spread having less than 80 wt % fat . preferably the margarine or spread has a continuous fat phase and a dispersed aqueous phase , i . e ., it is a water - in - oil emulsion . however , other arrangements can be used including but not limited to a continuous aqueous phase and dispersed fat phase ( oil - in - water emulsion ), or water - in - oil in water emulsion and oil - in - water - in oil emulsions . consistent with the desired indulgent taste , the margarine or spread of the invention preferably includes at least 70 wt % fat phase , especially at least 75 wt % fat phase up to 85 wt % fat phase or so . the fat phase will typically predominantly comprise edible triglcyerides , e . g . 95 - 99 wt % of the fat phase will be edible triglyceride . since saturated fatty acids are ideally minimized , the fat of the spreads preferably include from 0 to less than 18 wt % saturated fatty acids , preferably from 1 to 17 wt % saturated fatty acids most preferably from 5 to 15 wt % saturated fatty acids . likewise trans fatty acids are preferably minimized or eliminated . if present , they are preferably present at no more than 1 . 5 wt % of the fat , especially less than 1 wt % of the fat , more preferably between 0 . 001 wt % and 0 . 5 wt % of the fat . in accordance with the invention , the fat includes at least 30 wt % monounsaturated fatty acids and at least 30 wt % polyunsaturated fatty acids . more preferably , the fat includes at least 35 wt % monounsaturated fatty acids and at least 35 wt % polyunsaturated fatty acids . the spreads of the invention preferably include similar levels of monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids to attempt to ensure that consumers receive full benefits of both . for example , the monounsaturated fatty acids are preferably between 125 % and 75 % of the level of polyunsaturated fatty acids , especially between 125 % and 80 %, especially between 125 % and 90 % ( calculated by dividing the monounsaturated fatty acids weight percent in the fat phase by the fat phase polyunsaturated fatty acids weight percentage ). soybean oil is preferably included at from 340 wt % of the total fat . as indicated above , the fat phase is formed by combining one or more liquid ( at 72 ° f .) oils with a hard fat , which is substantially solid at 72 ° f ., and which imparts structure to the spread . typically the fat includes 5 - 15 wt % hard fat and 85 - 95 wt % liquid oil . the liquid oils preferably are one or more of soybean , canola ( low erucic acid rapeseed oil ), corn , sunflower , rapeseed , safflower , cottonseed , peanut and olive oils . especially preferred is a combination of soybean , canola and sunflower oils . although less preferred , other digestible fat sources which may be used for the liquid oil are fish oil , milk fat , skim milk fat , and butterfat . omega 6 fats , such as linoleic acid , are known for their ability to lower serum ldl cholesterol levels in humans . accordingly , it is preferred that at least 80 wt % of the polyunsaturated fats used in the invention , more preferably at least 90 wt % of the polyunsaturated fat used in the invention are omega 6 fats , more preferably they are linoleic acid . if desired , a limited amount of omega 3 fats such as docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapantaenoic acid can be included within the fat of the invention . in view of the desire to minimize or eliminate trans fats , the fats and oils used in the spread or margarine of the invention preferably are not subjected to chemical hydrogenation , that is hydrogenation other than occurs in nature . hard fats are solid at 72 ° f . and preferably comprise interesterified fractions of palm and palm kernel oils . fats / oils useful in hard fats include soybean , canola , corn , sunflower , palm , palm kernel , rapeseed , coconut , safflower , cottonseed , peanut and olive oils , fish oil , milk fat , skim milk fat , butterfat , lard and tallow and fractions or fractions thereof or interesterifications of the oils or their fractions . examples of suitable hard fats , and procedures for their preparation , are described in huizing a et al . u . s . pat . no . 6 , 156 , 370 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein . non - digestible fats may also be used as the fat source . among the non - digestible fats are included polyol polyesters of c 8 to c 22 fatty acids such as sucrose polyester , sucrose polyethers , silicone oils / siloxanes , polycarboxylic acid esters , branched chain fatty acid triglycerides , neopentyl alcohol esters , dicarboxylic acid esters , jojoba oil and triglycerol ethers . non - digestible fats may be used as from 0 to 100 % of the fat , especially from 10 to 90 %, and most especially from 25 to 75 %. non - lipid fat replacers may also be used , to provide body to the product . these include protein - based fat replacers such as those described in singer et al ., u . s . pat . no . 4 , 961 , 953 and cellulosic bulking agents such as microcrystalline cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose . optional ingredients in the fat phase include emulsifiers , salt ( particularly sodium chloride or potassium chloride ), preservatives , flavors , protein , vitamins , especially fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin . a , antioxidants , antimicrobials , and preservatives including citric and other acids . the emulsifiers can include mono - and diglycerides , polyglycerol esters , lecithin and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monoesters such as tween 60 and tween 80 . emulsifiers may be included at from 0 . 05 to 2 % by weight , typically not more than 1 % by weight . coloring agents , such as beta carotene , paprika , turmeric , annatto and yellow # 5 and 6 and combinations thereof may be employed . the yellow color may desirably be used in combination with an opacifier like tio 2 . preservatives , such as benzoic acid , sorbic acid , phosphoric acid , lactic acid , acetic acid , hydrochloric acid and the soluble salts thereof may be used . antioxidants may include propyl gallate , the tocopherols , including vitamin e , butylated hydroxyanisole ( bha ), butylated hydroxytoluene ( bht ), nordihydrorguaiaretic acid ( ndga ), tertiary - butylhydroquinon ( tbqh ) and citric acid . metal chelators or sequestrants such as sodium calcium salts of ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid ( edta ) may also be used . the aqueous phase comprises water and , optionally , other ingredients . a preferred ingredient is one or more gelling agents such as gelatin . it may be advantageous for the aqueous composition to be pre - gelled , i . e ., gelled prior to combining the aqueous composition with the fat - continuous emulsion . other suitable gelling agents include waxy maize starch such as ultra - tex 2 , available from the national starch and chemical co ., bridgewater , n . j . or a rice starch such as remyrise ac . a particularly effective combination of gelling agents has proven to be gelatin and waxy maize or rice starch . other gelling agents include carrageenan , and a gelling hydrolyzed starch derivative such as gelling maltodextrin , for example , paselli maltodextrin sa2 ®. the amount of gelling agent may lie between 0 and 15 %, mostly between 0 . 1 and 25 % based on the weight of the aqueous phase of the spread . if hydrolyzed starches are present , their level may be from 2 - 20 %; other gelling agents may be used at levels of up to 10 %, mostly 1 - 7 %, most preferred 2 - 5 %, all of these percentages being based on the weight of the aqueous phase . hydrocolloids which are thickening rather than gelling agents may also be used . hydrocolloids are described in zeitschrift fur lebenmittletechnologie and verfahrenstechnk 32 ( 1981 ) 6 , pp . 253 - 256 . hydrocolloids in addition to those mentioned above include polysaccharides such as native and modified starches , cellulose derivatives , pectins , galleon , xanthan gum , agar , danish agar , furcellaran , gum arabic , guar gum , locust bean gum , algin , and alginates . hydrocolloids will generally be used at levels of from 0 . 2 to 6 %, based on total product . it will be appreciated that the gelling and thickening agents may be used in various combinations . additional ingredients which may be present in the aqueous phase include salt ( particularly sodium chloride ), preservatives , such as potassium sorbate , lactic and other acid , proteins , coloring agents , flavors , antimicrobials , antioxidants and vitamins , particularly water - soluble vitamins such as the b vitamins . proteins , water - soluble coloring agents , flavors , preservatives and antimicrobials and antioxidants useful in the aqueous composition are the same as those discussed above in connection with the fat phase , it being appreciated that generally the more hydrophilic additives are best placed in the aqueous phase . an optional ingredient which may be included in the fat or the aqueous phase is the sterol or sterol ester . sterols are known among other things , as cholesterol lowering agents . in this application where reference is made to sterols or sterol esters , this also includes their saturated derivatives , the stanol or stanol esters , and combinations of sterol - and stanols and / or their esters . sterols or phytosterols , also known as plant sterols or vegetable sterols can be classified in three groups , 4 - desmethylsterols , 4 - monomethylsterols and 4 , 4 ′- dimethylsterols . in oils they mainly exist as free sterols and sterol esters of fatty acids although sterol glucosides and acylated sterol glucosides are also present . there are three major phytosterols namely beta - sitosterol , stigmasterol and campesterol . schematic drawings of the components meant are as given in “ influence of processing on sterols of edible vegetable oils ” s . p . kochhar ; prog . lipid res . 22 : pp . 161 - 188 . the respective 5 alpha - saturated derivatives such as sitostanol , campestanol and ergostanol and their derivatives are in this specification referred to as stanols . preferably the ( optionally esterified ) sterol or stanol is selected from the group comprising fatty acid ester of 3 - sitosterol , 3 - sitostanol , campesterol , campestanol , stigmasterol , brassicasterol , brassicastanol or a mixture thereof . the sterols or stanols are optionally at least partly esterified with a fatty acid . preferably the sterols or stanols are esterified with one or more c 2 - 22 fatty acids . for the purpose of the invention the term c 2 - 22 fatty acid refers to any molecule comprising a c 2 - 22 main chain and at least one acid group . although not preferred within the present context the c 2 - 22 main chain may be partially substituted or side chains may be present . preferably , however the c 2 - 22 fatty acids are linear molecules comprising one or two acid group ( s ) as end group ( s ). most preferred are linear c 8 - 22 fat acids as these occur in natural oils . suitable examples of any such fatty acids are acetic acid , propionic acid , butyric acid , caproic acid , caprylic acid , capric acid . other suitable acids are for example citric acid , lactic acid , oxalic acid and maleic acid . most preferred are myristic acid , lauric acid , palmitic acid , stearic acid , arachidic add , behenic acid , oleic add , cetoleic acid , erucic acid , elaidic acid , linoleic acid and linolenic acid . when desired a mixture of fatty acids may be used for esterification of the sterols or stanols . for example , it is possible to use a naturally occurring fat or oil as a source of the fatty acid and to carry out the esterification via an interesterification reaction . the amount of sterol in the spread , if used , is preferably from 0 to 15 % on total weight of the spread , preferably from 0 . 5 to 10 wt %. the amount of crystallized fat is determined by nmr at the indicated temperature , as described in “ fette , seifen , anstrichmittel ” 80 ( 1978 ), 180 - 186 ( n - value , expressed in weight percent ). for example , n10 would indicate the amount of crystallized fat at 10 ° c . the d3 . 3 value indicates the average particle size calculated with weighing factors according to volume . see m alderliesten , part , part . syst . caract . 7 ( 1990 ), 233 . d3 . 3 values herein are for the dispersed aqueous phase droplets . unless otherwise indicated or required by context , d3 . 3 is given in microns . e - sigma is the droplet size distribution when plotted as a function of the logarithm of the diameter . sigma . ( e - sigma ). e - sigma is a measure for the width of the droplet - size distribution . the “ stevens ” hardness ( st ) is expressed in grams . the product is stored at 5 [ deg .] c . and thereafter equilibrated for 24 hours at a temperature of 5 [ deg .] c . or 20 [ deg .] c . as indicated . the stevens value is measured using a 6 . 4 mm 0 cylindrical penetration probe and a stevens - lfra texture analyzer ( ex stevens advanced weighing . systems , dunmore , u . k .) or sms texture analyzer xt2 ( ex stable microsystems , surrey uk ). the load range is 1000 g for lfra and 25000 g for sms ta - tx2 equipment . the stevens lfra texture analyzer is operated in the “ normal ” mode and set at 10 mm penetration depth and 2 mm / s penetration rate . the balance of the spread is largely water , which may be incorporated at levels of up to 30 % by weight , more generally from 10 to 25 wt %, preferably from 20 to 25 % by weight . unless stated otherwise or required by context , the terms “ fat ” and “ oil ” are used interchangeably herein . unless otherwise stated or required by context , percentages are by weight . sterols and their esters shall not be counted when considering of components of the fat or aqueous phases or in the total fat of the product . as indicated above , unless otherwise indicated or clearly required by context , percentages of fatty acids in this application are given in terms of the total amount of fatty acids , i . e ., the calculation excludes the glycerol component of the triglyceride . it will be appreciated in preparation of the spreads normally more hydrophobic additives will be added to the fat phase whereas more hydrophilic additives will normally be added to the aqueous phase . liquid soybean oil ( held at ambient temperatures ), liquid canola oil ( held at ambient temperatures ), liquid sunflower oil ( held at ambient temperatures ), melted hard fat ( melted and held at 140 f , above melting point ), emulsifier / saturated monoglyceride ( melted ), emulsifier / lecithin ( melted ) are blended together and held at 130 ° f . water , buttermilk powder ( bagged ), salt ( bagged ), citric acid , calcium disodium edta , and potassium sorbate are mixed together , and then heat treated for 15 minutes at 165 ° f . the oil phase is brought to a batch tank and held at 130 f . agitation is turned on and the aqueous phase is added . then colors and flavors are added . the batch is then transferred to a run tank . the emulsion is sent through several cooling steps in scraped surface heat exchangers , and a working step in a crystallization unit to provide structure and growth of the fat crystals . the product is then filled into containers . so the margarine process is : emulsion in run tank — scraped surface heat exchanger to cool to 80 ° f .— scraped surface heat exchanger to cool to 70 ° f .— crystallization unit — scraped surface heat exchanger to cool to 40 ° f .— fill into tubs . the spread of the example has an indulgent taste and approximately 39 wt % on fat monounsaturated fatty adds , almost 40 wt % on fat polyunsaturated fatty acids and only approximately 15 wt % on fat saturated fatty acids . it should be understood of course that the specific forms of the invention herein illustrated and described are intended to be representative only , as certain changes may be made therein without departing from the clear teaching of the disclosure . accordingly , reference should be made to the appended claims in determining the full scope .	0
the present invention provides a complex circuit board and a fabrication method thereof by using mechanical - combining technique to effectively increase the pull strength of the complex circuit board and strengthen the connection of a printed circuit board assembly and a flexible printed circuit . furthermore , the elimination of the conventional step of attaching attachment units simplifies the assembly procedure and reduces the cost of attachment units . the complex circuit board of the present invention and a fabrication method thereof can achieve the advantages of improving the strength of the complex circuit board and reducing the product cost . as shown in fig3 a , the complex circuit board includes a printed circuit board assembly 300 and a flexible printed circuit 400 . the printed circuit board assembly 300 has a supporting section 310 and a connecting section 320 . the supporting section 310 supports several light sources 212 . specifically , the supporting section 310 has a supporting surface 312 and the light sources 212 are disposed on the supporting surface 312 . the light sources 212 are preferably light emitting diodes ( leds ) for supplying illumination . the connecting section 320 extends from one end of the supporting section 310 and is provided for fixing and electrically connecting with the flexible printed circuit 400 . the flexible printed circuit 400 is preferably formed by cutting from a flexible circuit board and has a contacting section 420 . the contacting section 420 of the flexible printed circuit 400 is disposed corresponding to the connecting section 320 of the printed circuit board assembly and electrically connected thereto to transmit control signals of the light sources 212 . fig3 b is a partially enlarged view of the complex circuit board . the connecting section 320 of the printed circuit board assembly 300 extends form the end of supporting section 310 . the connecting section 320 has a first surface 322 extending from the supporting surface 312 and a first side surface 324 adjacent to the first surface 322 . a first fixing portion 325 is disposed on the first side surface 324 . in the present embodiment , the first fixing portion 325 is a protrusion on the first side surface 324 . the connecting section 320 further includes a second surface 328 corresponding or opposite to the first surface 322 , preferably parallel to the first surface 322 . the first side surface 324 is situated between the first surface 322 and the second surface 328 and approximately perpendicular to the first surface 322 and the second surface 328 . a first connecting unit 327 is disposed on the connecting section 320 and correspondingly adjacent to the first fixing portion 325 . in the present embodiment , the first connecting unit 327 is disposed on the second surface 328 and can be , for example , electrical conductive patterns or contact pads to transmit control signals of the light sources 212 . the material of the first connecting unit 327 is preferably copper , aluminum or alloys thereof . the contacting section 420 of the flexible printed circuit 400 has a second connecting unit 427 . the contacting section 420 has a third surface 422 and a fourth surface 424 opposite to the third surface 422 , wherein the second connecting unit 427 can be disposed on the third surface 422 or the fourth surface 424 . in the present embodiment , the second connecting unit 427 is disposed on the third surface 422 . the second connecting unit 427 can be electrical conductive patterns or contact pads and the material can be copper , aluminum or alloys thereof . when the third surface 422 of the contacting section 420 and the second surface 328 of the connecting section 320 are correspondingly disposed , the second connecting unit 427 is electrically connected to the first connecting unit 327 of the printed circuit board assembly 300 . for example , the second connecting unit 427 can be soldered to the first connecting unit 327 using a hot bar process or electrically connected to the first connecting unit 327 by a thermal press process . a first fixing hole 425 is located between the second connecting unit 427 and the end of flexible printed circuit 400 . the first fixing portion 325 is inserted into the first fixing hole 425 to couple the printed circuit board assembly 300 and the flexible printed circuit 400 . after the printed circuit board assembly 300 and the flexible printed circuit 400 are combined , the extending directions of the circuit boards 300 , 400 are approximately perpendicular to each other . referring to fig3 c , the first fixing portion 325 is inserted into the first fixing hole 425 to assemble the printed circuit board assembly 300 with the flexible printed circuit 400 and electrically connect the first connecting unit 327 and the second connecting unit 427 . as shown in the fig3 b and fig3 c , the flexible printed circuit 400 is bent to form a first bend portion 410 and a second bend portion 430 . the extending direction of the flexible printed circuit 400 is changed via the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 from the contacting section 420 . the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 respectively have a bending angle . for example , the bending angle is 90 degrees or other specific degrees modulated according to the product design . in other words , the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 are located on two opposite sides of the contacting section 420 . furthermore , as shown in fig3 b and fig3 c , a first indentation 326 is preferably formed on the connecting section 320 and disposed on at least one side of the first fixing portion 325 . in the present embodiment , the first indentations 326 are disposed on two opposite sides of the first fixing portion 325 . the first indentation 326 at least partially accommodates the first bend portion 410 of the flexible printed circuit 400 . when combining the complex circuit board , the strength of the combining section 330 is improved and the smoothness of the complex circuit board is promoted . similarly , another indentation can be disposed on the other side surface opposite to the first fixing portion 325 to at least partially accommodate the second bend portion 430 of the flexible printed circuit 400 . by means of the above structural design , the pull strength of the complex circuit board is structurally enhanced without using extra attachment units on the combining portion 330 and the assembly of the complex circuit board is easily accomplished . as shown in fig4 a to fig4 c , the present invention provides another embodiment , wherein the elements with same reference numbers are the same as those disclosed in the previous embodiment . as shown in fig4 a , the complex circuit board includes a printed circuit board assembly 300 and a flexible printed circuit 400 . the printed circuit board assembly 300 has a supporting section 310 and a connecting section 320 . the supporting section 310 supports several light sources 212 . specifically , the supporting section 310 has a supporting surface 312 and the light sources 212 are disposed on the supporting surface 312 . the light sources 212 preferably include light emitting diodes ( leds ) for supplying illumination . the connecting section 320 extends from one end of the supporting section 310 and is provided for fixing and electrically connecting with the flexible printed circuit 400 . the flexible printed circuit 400 is preferably formed by cutting from a flexible circuit board and has a contacting section 420 . the contacting section 420 of the flexible printed circuit 400 is disposed correspondingly to and electrically connected with the connecting section 320 of the printed circuit board assembly 300 to transmit control signals of the light sources 212 . fig4 b is a partially enlarged view of the complex circuit board . the connecting section 320 of the printed circuit board assembly 300 extends form the end of the supporting section 310 . the connecting section 320 has a first surface 322 extending from the supporting surface 312 and a first side surface 324 adjacent to the first surface 322 . a first fixing portion 325 is disposed on the first side surface 324 . in the present embodiment , the first fixing portion 325 is a protrusion on the first side surface 324 . a first connecting unit 327 is disposed on the first surface 322 of the connecting section 320 and adjacent to the first fixing portion 325 . in the present embodiment , the second side surface 329 is parallel to the first side surface 324 . a second fixing portion 321 is disposed on the second side surface 329 and is preferably a protrusion on the second side surface 329 . in the present embodiment , the protrusions of first fixing portion 325 and second fixing portion 321 are symmetrically located on two opposite sides of the first connecting unit 327 . the protrusion of first fixing portion 325 or second fixing portion 321 can be aligned to the first connecting unit 327 , but not limited thereto . that is , the protrusion of first fixing portion 325 or second fixing portion 321 can be not aligned to the first connecting unit 327 . the first connecting unit 327 is electrical conductive patterns or contact pads for transmitting control signals of the light sources 212 . the most common material of the first connecting unit 327 is copper , aluminum or alloys thereof . the contacting section 420 of the flexible printed circuit 400 has a second connecting unit 427 . the second connecting unit 427 is disposed on the fourth surface 424 . the second connecting unit 427 can be electrical conductive patterns or contact pads and the material is copper , aluminum or alloys thereof . when the fourth surface 424 of the contacting section 420 and the first surface 322 of the connecting section 320 are correspondingly disposed , the second connecting unit 427 is electrically connected to the first connecting unit 327 of the printed circuit board assembly 300 . for example , the second connecting unit 427 can be soldered to the first connecting unit 327 using a hot bar process or electrically connected to the first connecting unit 327 by a thermal press process . the contacting section 420 of the flexible printed circuit 400 further includes a first hook 401 and a second hook 402 . a first fixing hole 425 and a second fixing hole 421 are disposed on the first hook 401 and the second hook 402 , respectively . the first hook 401 and the second hook 402 are bent to form a first bend portion 410 and a second bend portion 430 . the first fixing portion 325 is inserted into the first fixing hole 425 and the second fixing portion 321 is inserted into the second fixing hole 421 to couple and fix the printed circuit board assembly 300 and the flexible printed circuit 400 . after the printed circuit board assembly 300 and the flexible printed circuit 400 are combined , the extending directions ( 300 a , 400 a , see fig4 b ) of the circuit boards 300 , 400 are approximately parallel . finally , the flexible printed circuit 400 is bent to form a third bend portion 440 . the extending direction of the flexible printed circuit 400 is changed via the third bend portion 440 . the third bend portion 440 has a bending angle . the bending angle can be a specific degree modulated according to the product design . in the present embodiment , the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 of the contacting section 420 are symmetrically disposed on two opposite sides of the second connecting unit 427 . the first hook 401 or the second hook 402 can be aligned or not aligned with the second connecting unit 427 . a first indentation 326 and a second indentation 323 are disposed on one side of the first fixing portion 325 and the second fixing portion 321 , respectively . the first indentation 326 is disposed between the first fixing portion 325 and the supporting section 310 . the second indentation 323 is disposed between the second fixing portion 321 and the supporting section 310 . the first indentation 326 and the second indentation 323 at least partially accommodate the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 of the flexible printed circuit 400 , respectively . therefore , the strength of the complex circuit board is improved due to the structural design . moreover , as shown in fig5 a to fig5 c , to enhance the strength of the combining section 330 , the first fixing portion 325 and the second fixing portion 321 can be rectangle , wedge , or arc shaped protrusions , so that the flexible printed circuit 400 and the printed circuit board assembly 300 are prevented from being detached from each other . the present invention also provides a fabrication method of the complex circuit board . as shown in fig6 , the step s 10 is forming a first fixing portion 325 on a connecting section 320 of a printed circuit board assembly 300 . in another embodiment , a second fixing portion 321 is further formed on the printed circuit board assembly 300 . the step s 10 further includes forming a first indentation 326 and a second indentation 323 on one side of the first fixing portion 325 and the second fixing portion 321 , respectively . the step s 20 includes forming a first fixing hole 425 on a contacting section 420 of the flexible printed circuit 400 . the first fixing hole 425 corresponds to the first fixing portion 325 . in another embodiment , a second fixing hole 421 is formed on the flexible printed circuit 400 and the second fixing hole 421 is disposed corresponding to the second fixing portion 321 . the step s 30 includes inserting the first fixing portion 325 into the first fixing hole 425 and inserting the second fixing portion 321 into the second fixing hole 421 to combine the flexible printed circuit 400 and the printed circuit board assembly 300 . the step s 40 includes bending the flexible printed circuit 400 at the first fixing hole 425 to form the first bend portion 410 . in another embodiment , the first hook 401 with the first fixing hole 425 and the second hook 402 with the second fixing hole 421 are bent to form the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 of the flexible printed circuit 400 . the first bend portion 410 is parallel to the second bend portion 430 . the first indentation 326 and the second indentation 323 at least partially accommodate the first bend portion 410 and the second bend portion 430 of the flexible printed circuit 400 , respectively . the step s 50 includes bending the flexible printed circuit 400 from another side of the contacting section 420 to form a third bend portion 440 . in another words , before the third bend portion 440 is formed , the bending directions of the first hook 401 and the second hook 402 are respectively perpendicular to the extending direction of the flexible printed circuit 400 . the step s 60 includes electrically connecting the flexible printed circuit 400 and the printed circuit board assembly 300 . the circuit boards 300 , 400 are soldered using the hot bar process . the flexible printed circuit 400 and the printed circuit board assembly 300 are combined and electrically connected via the first connecting unit 427 and the second connecting unit 327 . although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described herein , the above description is merely illustrative . further modification of the invention herein disclosed will occur to those skilled in the respective arts and all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims .	8
reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail . referring to fig1 - 3 , a connector assembly 100 in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention comprises an insulative housing 2 , a plurality of conductive contacts 3 assembled to the housing 2 , a circuit board 4 assembled to the housing 2 , a plurality of conductive elements 8 respectively electrically connecting with the contacts 3 and the circuit board 4 , a strain relief member 5 assembled to and electrically connecting with the circuit board 4 , a cable ( not shown ) electrically connecting with the strain relief member 5 and the circuit board 4 to achieve the electrical connection with the conductive contacts 3 , front and rear covers 1 , 7 respectively assembled to the housing 2 and together enclosing the elements mentioned above therebetween . now turning to fig1 - 2 , the housing 2 is made from insulative material . the housing 2 defines two pairs of large - size first receiving passages 23 and a center small - size second receiving passage 24 respectively recessed from a front face thereof to a rear face thereof . particularly , the right side surface is curved for forming a whole toothbrush design of the connector assembly 100 . now referring to fig1 - 2 , the conductive contacts 3 consist of a pair of ground contacts 32 , a pair of power contacts 31 located between the pair of ground contacts 32 and a center detect contact 33 located between the pair of power contacts 31 . each contact 3 is of a pogo pin type ( spring - type pin pressure pin ), that is to say , there is a spring ( not shown ) inside the contact 3 , thus , when mating , front contacting portion 37 of the contact 3 can be pressed to rearward move along the mating direction . each ground contact 32 comprises the column - shape contacting portion 37 with a relatively small diameter and capable of being compressed , a column - shape media portion 35 with a relatively large diameter , and an end portion 36 formed at rear end of the media portion 35 with a column - shape and larger diameter . the power contact 31 has the same structure as that of the ground contact 32 except the contacting portion 37 thereof has a length shorter than that of the ground contact 32 . thus , the ground contacts 32 will firstly mate with a complementary connector and lastly disengage from the complementary connector for assuring safe power and signal transmission . the detect contact 33 has the same structure as that of the power contact 31 except each portion thereof has a smaller diameter than that of the power contact 31 . referring to fig1 - 2 and 4 , the conductive elements 8 , or the solder tails , consist of five pieces and each is z - shape . each conductive element 8 comprises a first connecting section 81 , a second connecting section 82 parallel to the first connecting section 81 , and a horizontal media section 83 interconnecting the first and second connecting sections 81 , 82 . referring to fig1 - 2 , the circuit board 4 is mainly located in a vertical plane and has a certain thickness along a front - to - back direction , that is , the mating direction . the circuit board 4 comprises a substrate 40 having a front surface and an opposite rear surface , also having a left end and a right end . a plurality of passageways 41 penetrating from the front surface to the rear surface of the substrate 40 with diameters corresponding the those of the media portions 35 of the contacts 3 . the passageways 41 are arranged in one line along transverse direction perpendicular to the mating direction . a plurality of through holes 42 are defined in the substrate 40 and around the right end of the substrate 40 . each through hole 42 is plated with conductive material for electrically soldering with conductors of the cable ( not shown ). a pair of leds ( light emitting diode ) is formed on the front surface and the rear surface and located adjacent to the left end of the substrate 40 . the circuit board 4 may be equipped with an ic 44 for driving the leds 43 to emit light . the strain relief member 5 is stamped from metal material or other conductive material . the strain relief member 5 comprises a strain relief section 52 for grasping with metal braiding layer of the cable ( not shown ) and a pair of arms 51 extending horizontally from upper and lower locations of the strain relief section 52 and parallel to each other . each arm 51 located in the horizontal plane and comprises an inclined section 511 connecting with the strain relief section 52 , a flat section 512 , and a tail section 510 formed at free end of the flat section 512 . the tail section 510 is of u - shape and comprises a pair of side sections bending from the flat section to form the u - shape for electrically connecting with the circuit board 4 . the cable comprises a plurality of wires each comprising an inner conductor , a metal braiding layer surrounding the inner conductor , and an outer jacket enclosing the metal braiding layer . a front portion of the outer jacket is stripped to expose part of the inner conductor and the metal braiding layer . the front and rear covers 1 , 7 are respectively assembled to the housing 2 . the front cover 1 is made from conductive material and capable of being attracted by the complementary connector . the front cover 1 comprises a body portion 12 and a front rectangular flange 10 with certain thickness and formed with front edge of the body portion 12 . the flange 10 defines an elliptical - shape front receiving cavity 101 recessed rearwardly from a front surface thereof for receiving complementary connector . the body portion 12 defines a rectangular rear receiving passage 120 recessed forwardly from a rear surface thereof to communicate with the front receiving cavity 101 for receiving the housing 2 . the receiving passage 120 has a large size along a lateral direction of the front cover 1 than that of the receiving cavity 101 , thus , forming a step surface 16 . the rear cover 7 is made from resin material and of toothbrush shape . the rear cover 7 comprises a substantially rectangular main body 70 and a pipe - shape existing portion 72 extending vertically from the main body 70 . the main body 70 defines a receiving space 700 recessed rearwardly from front surface thereof , while , the existing portion 72 defines a circular existing channel 720 communicating with the receiving space 700 for existing the cable therefrom . particularly , the rear cover 7 defines a window area 73 with irregular shape . a light pipe 71 is firstly molded and shaped corresponding to the configuration of the left end of the circuit board 4 and the pair of leds 43 , then the rear cover 7 is molded over the light pipe 71 to expose the light pipe 71 in the window area 73 . thus , the rear cover 7 and the light pipe 71 are formed as a unitary one . the light emitted from the pair of leds 43 spreads from the inner mold 6 to the light pipe 71 , and finally can be seen from outside . the inner mold 6 is made from transparent or semitransparent material and the light emitted from the leds 43 is capable of being spread out through the inner mold 6 to outside . referring to fig3 - 8 in conjunction with fig1 - 2 , in assembly , the conductive contacts 3 firstly pass through the passageways 41 of the circuit board 4 from rear - to - front direction until the end portions 36 abutting against the rear surface of the circuit board 4 . each z - shape solder tail 8 is respectively soldered with corresponding contact 3 and trace formed on the rear surface of the circuit board 4 . the first and second connecting sections 81 , 82 are respectively soldered to the end portion 36 and the trace of the circuit board 4 , while , the media section 83 attaches to side surface of the end portion 36 . the contacts 3 then are assembled to the insulative housing 2 with the media portions 35 interferentially received in the first and second receiving passages 23 , 24 of the housing 2 , while , the contacting portions 37 exposed beyond the front surface of the insulative housing 2 . the housing 2 with the contacts 3 and the circuit board 4 is assembled to the front cover 1 with the housing 2 received in the receiving passage 120 of the body portion 12 and the contacting portions 37 of the contacts 3 are exposed in the receiving cavity 101 . then the inner mold 6 is molded to the connection area between the contacts 3 and the circuit board 4 , the solder tails 8 , and rear portion of the insulative housing 2 . since the material of the inner mold 6 is transparent or semitransparent , the light emitted from the leds 43 of the circuit board 4 can be spread out from the left corner of the inner mold 6 . the conductors of the cable ( not shown ) are soldered to the through holes 42 of the circuit board 4 to form electrical connection with the circuit board 4 , further with the contacts 3 . the strain relief member 5 is assembled to the circuit board 4 and the cable . the pair of u - shape tail sections 510 are respectively soldered to traces arranged on front and rear surface of the circuit board 4 adjacent to the through holes 42 of the circuit board 4 . the front end of the cable is sandwiched between the pair of arms 51 and compressed by the inclined sections 511 and grasped by the strain relief section 52 . particularly , the front end of the cable is partially stripped to expose the inner metal braiding layer which is grasped by the strain relief section 52 of the strain relief member 5 to form electrical connection with the circuit board 4 . finally , the rear cover 7 and the light pipe 71 are assembled to the assembly achieved above to enclose the all elements except for the flange 10 of the front cover 1 . thus , the toothbrush configuration of the connector assembly 100 is achieved . after the assembly , the front portion of the cable is received in the pipe - shape existing portion 72 of the rear cover 7 and other portion exists from the rear end of the existing portion 72 . now referring to fig9 , a second embodiment of the solder tails 8 ′ is shown . the solder tail 8 ′ is of ω - shape and comprises a pair of second connecting sections 82 ′ soldered with the traces of the circuit board 4 , the first connecting section 81 ′ soldered with the end portions 36 of the contacts 3 , and a pair of media sections 83 ′ respectively connecting the opposite ends of the second connecting section 82 ′ with the pair of first connecting sections 81 ′. it is to be understood , however , that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description , together with details of the structure and function of the invention , the disclosure is illustrative only , and changes may be made in detail , especially in matters of shape , size , and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed .	7
the present disclosure will be further explained in conjunction with specific examples , which are not to limit the scope of the present disclosure . the α - alumina carrier of the present disclosure is modified by the elements of lanthanum and silicon . the carrier can be used for producing ethylene oxide by oxidation of ethylene . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 0 . 1 : 1 to 20 : 1 . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 0 . 5 : 1 to 2 . 5 : 1 . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 3 . 0 : 1 to 4 . 5 : 1 . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 5 . 0 : 1 to 7 . 5 : 1 . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 8 . 0 : 1 to 12 . 0 : 1 . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 2 . 0 : 1 to 10 . 0 : 1 . in some embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 2 . 0 : 1 to 9 . 0 : 1 . in some other embodiments , the mass ratio of the element of lanthanum to the element of silicon in the carrier is in the range from 2 . 0 : 1 to 8 . 0 : 1 . the initial activity and selectivity of the silver catalysts involved in the present disclosure were measured by a laboratory microreactor ( hereinafter “ microreactor ”) evaluation device , which is a stainless steel tube with an inner diameter of 4 mm and is arranged in a heating jacket . the loading volume of the catalyst is 1 ml filled with an inert filler at a lower portion thereof , so that the catalyst bed is located in a constant temperature zone of the heating jacket . the activity and selectivity measurement conditions employed in the present disclosure were as follows . when the above reaction conditions were stably obtained , the composition of the gasses at the inlet and outlet of the reactor were constantly measured . the measurement results after applying volume shrinkage correction were used for calculation of the selectivity ( s ) by the following formula : in the above formula , δeo represents the differential concentration of ethylene oxide in the inlet gas and the outlet gas , and δco 2 represents the differential concentration of carbon dioxide in the inlet gas and the outlet gas . the average of 10 groups of test data was taken as the test result of the day . a mixture of 372 g of trihydrate alumina having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 500 meshes , 112 g of pseudo bohemite having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 400 meshes , 3 g of mgf 2 , and 0 . 5 g of ba ( no 3 ) 2 were added into a mixer and homogeneously blended , and then transferred to a kneader , followed by addition of 90 ml of dilute nitric acid solution ( the weight ratio of nitric acid to water being 1 : 3 ) into the kneader . the resulting mixture was kneaded into an extrudable and moldable paste , and extrusion molded into five - hole cylinder bodies , of which the outer diameter , length , and inner diameter were 8 . 0 mm , 6 . 0 mm , and 1 . 0 mm , respectively . the cylinder bodies were dried for 10 h at a temperature in the range from 80 ° c . to 120 ° c . to reduce the free water content thereof to be lower than 10 wt %, so as to prepare the green bodies of molded α - alumina carriers . the green bodies were then put into an electric furnace , which was heated from room temperature to 1 , 400 ° c . within 30 h and kept constant at this temperature for 2 h to obtain the white α - alumina carriers named z - 1 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 1 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . a mixture of 372 g of trihydrate alumina having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 500 meshes , 112 g of pseudo bohemite having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 400 meshes , 3 g of mgf 2 , 0 . 5 g of ba ( no 3 ) 2 , and 0 . 51 g of sio 2 were added into a mixer and homogeneously blended , and then transferred to a kneader , followed by addition of 90 ml of dilute nitric acid solution ( the weight ratio of nitric acid to water being 1 : 3 ) into the kneader . the resulting mixture was kneaded into an extrudable and moldable paste , and extrusion molded into five - hole cylinder bodies , of which the outer diameter , length , and inner diameter were 8 . 0 mm , 6 . 0 mm , and 1 . 0 mm , respectively . the cylinder bodies were dried for 10 h at a temperature in the range from 80 ° c . to 120 ° c . to reduce the free water content thereof to be lower than 10 wt %, so as to prepare the green bodies of molded α - alumina carriers . the green bodies were then put into an electric furnace , which was heated from room temperature to 1 , 400 ° c . within 30 h and kept constant at this temperature for 2 h to obtain the white α - alumina carriers named z - 2 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 2 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . a mixture of 372 g of trihydrate alumina having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 500 meshes , 112 g of pseudo bohemite having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 400 meshes , 3 g of mgf 2 , 0 . 5 g of ba ( no 3 ) 2 , and 0 . 58 g of la 2 o 3 were added into a mixer and homogeneously blended , and then transferred to a kneader , followed by addition of 90 ml of dilute nitric acid solution ( the weight ratio of nitric acid to water being 1 : 3 ) into the kneader . the resulting mixture was kneaded into an extrudable and moldable paste , and extrusion molded into five - hole cylinder bodies , of which the outer diameter , length , and inner diameter were 8 . 0 mm , 6 . 0 mm , and 1 . 0 mm , respectively . the cylinder bodies were dried for 10 h at a temperature in the range from 80 ° c . to 120 ° c . to reduce the free water content thereof to be lower than 10 wt %, so as to prepare the green bodies of molded α - alumina carriers . the green bodies were then put into an electric furnace , which was heated from room temperature to 1 , 400 ° c . within 30 h and kept constant at this temperature for 2 h to obtain the white α - alumina carriers named z - 3 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 3 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . a mixture of 372 g of trihydrate alumina having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 500 meshes , 112 g of pseudo bohemite having a particle size in the range from 200 meshes to 400 meshes , 3 g of mgf 2 , 0 . 5 g of ba ( no 3 ) 2 , 0 . 58 g of la 2 o 3 , and 0 . 51 g of sio 2 were added into a mixer and homogeneously blended , and then transferred to a kneader , followed by addition of 90 ml of dilute nitric acid solution ( the weight ratio of nitric acid to water being 1 : 3 ) into the kneader . the resulting mixture was kneaded into an extrudable and moldable paste , and extrusion molded into five - hole cylinder bodies , of which the outer diameter , length , and inner diameter were 8 . 0 mm , 6 . 0 mm , and 1 . 0 mm , respectively . the cylinder bodies were dried for 10 h at a temperature in the range from 80 ° c . to 120 ° c . to reduce the free water content thereof to be lower than 10 wt %, so as to prepare the green bodies of molded α - alumina carriers . the green bodies were then put into an electric furnace , which was heated from room temperature to 1 , 400 ° c . within 30 h and kept constant at this temperature for 2 h to obtain the white α - alumina carriers named z - 4 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 4 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . the steps were the same as those in example 4 except that the mixture contained 1 . 14 g of la 2 o 3 , and the white α - al 2 o 3 carrier obtained was named z - 5 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 5 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . the steps were the same as those in example 4 except that the mixture contained 1 . 71 g of la 2 o 3 , and the white α - al 2 o 3 carrier obtained was named z - 6 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 6 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . the steps were the same as those in example 4 except that the mixture contained 2 . 28 g of la 2 o 3 , and the white α - al 2 o 3 carrier obtained was named z - 7 . the side crushing strength , water adsorption , and specific surface area of z - 7 were measured and the results thereof are shown in table 1 . table 1 indicates that the alumina carrier of the present disclosure has significantly improved side crushing strength and reduced water adsorption , which is beneficial for used of the carrier . the alumina carrier of the present disclosure has a significantly improved specific surface area which can facilitate dispersion of silver . 700 g of silver nitrate was taken and dissolved in 750 ml of deionized water to obtain a solution . 325 g of ammonium oxalate was taken and dissolved into 250 ml of deionized water at 50 ° c . to obtain a solution . the above two solutions were mixed under violent stirring to generate a white precipitate of silver oxalate . after 1 h of aging treatment , filtration was performed and the filter cake obtained was washed with deionized water until there was no nitrate ion in the filtrate . a filter cake of a silver oxalate paste , which contained 60 wt % of the metal silver and 15 wt % of water , was thus obtained . 300 g of ethylenediamine , 110 g of ethanol amine , and 375 g of deionized water were added into a glass flask having a stirrer to obtain a mixed solution . the silver oxalate paste prepared above was slowly added into the mixed solution under stirring at a temperature kept in the range from − 5 ° c . to 10 ° c ., so as to enable complete dissolution of the silver oxalate . subsequently , 2 . 2 g of cesium sulfate and 1 . 4 g of strontium acetate were added , which preceded addition of deionized water so that the total mass of the solution reached 2 , 000 g . thus , impregnation liquid m , which contained 22 wt % of silver , was prepared for use . 100 g of the sample of z - 1 prepared in example 1 was taken and put into a container that could be vacuum pumped . the absolute pressure in the container was pumped to be lower than 10 mmhg and impregnation liquid m prepared above was added to impregnate the carrier for a period of 30 min . next , redundant solution was removed through leaching . the carrier after being impregnated was heated for 5 min in an air flow at 350 ° c ., and then cooled down to obtain a silver catalyst named cz - 1 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except that 100 g of carrier z - 1 was replaced by 100 g of carrier z - 2 , and the silver catalyst obtained was named cz - 2 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except that 100 g of carrier z - 1 was replaced by 100 g of carrier z - 3 , and the silver catalyst obtained was named cz - 3 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except that 100 g of carrier z - 1 was replaced by 100 g of carrier z - 4 , and the silver catalyst obtained was named cz - 4 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except that 100 g of carrier z - 1 was replaced by 100 g of carrier z - 5 , and the silver catalyst obtained was named cz - 5 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except that 100 g of carrier z - 1 was replaced by 100 g of carrier z - 6 , and the silver catalyst obtained was named cz - 6 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except that 100 g of carrier z - 1 was replaced by 100 g of carrier z - 7 , and the silver catalyst obtained was named cz - 7 . the steps were the same as those in example 8 except the following points . 2 . 41 g of na 2 sio 3 · 9h 2 o and 3 . 15 g of lacl 3 · 7h 2 o were added into impregnation liquid m to obtain an impregnation liquid containing the elements of silicon and lanthanum . 100 g of the carrier sample z - 1 prepared in example 1 was taken and added into a container that could be vacuum pumped . the absolute pressure in the container was pumped to be lower than 10 mmhg , followed by addition of the impregnation liquid prepared above containing the elements of silicon and lanthanum to impregnate the carrier for 30 min . the redundant solution was then removed by leaching . the carrier after being impregnated was heated for 5 min in an air flow at 350 ° c ., and then cooled down to obtain a silver catalyst named cz - 8 . the catalysts cz - 1 , cz - 2 , cz - 3 , cz - 4 , cz - 5 , cz - 6 , cz - 7 , and cz - 8 prepared in examples 8 to 14 were each analyzed for contents of silver and additives based on the metals , respectively . the results thereof show that the contents of silver and additives ( caesium and strontium ) among the catalysts were more or less the same with one another , respectively , wherein the contents of silver , caesium , and strontium were about 16 . 1 wt %, 360 ppm , and 280 ppm , respectively . in addition , the activity and selectivity of each of the catalysts were measured by the microcreator evaluation device under the process conditions as described above under “ measurement of catalytic performance ”. the data above temperature and selectivity on the 7th day of the reaction were listed in table 2 . table 2 indicates that , compared to an existing catalyst having a carrier which contains no silicon or lanthanum , the catalyst containing the carrier of the present disclosure has a lower reaction temperature , i . e ., a significantly improved reaction activity , while keeping a high selectivity of the silver catalyst . compared to a catalyst prepared by a carrier containing only silicon , the catalyst of the present disclosure possesses significantly improved selectivity while ensuring a low reaction temperature ( i . e ., a high reaction activity ). compared to a catalyst prepared by a carrier containing only lanthanum , the catalyst of the present disclosure possesses improved selectivity while ensuring a low reaction temperature ( i . e ., a high reaction activity ). and compared to a catalyst impregnated with the elements of silicon and lanthanum on the surface thereof ( cz - 8 ), the catalyst of the present disclosure has improved reaction activity and selectivity . table 2 shows that compared to a catalyst containing only the element of silicon or lanthanum ( cz - 2 or cz - 3 ), the catalyst of the present disclosure ( cz - 4 to cz - 7 ) which contains the elements of silicon and lanthanum presents a synergistic effect , and can further improve selectivity while keeping a low reaction temperature ( i . e ., a high reaction activity ). it should be noted that the above examples are only used to explain , rather than to limit the present disclosure in any manner . although the present disclosure has been discussed with reference to preferable examples , it should be understood that the terms and expressions adopted are for describing and explaining instead of limiting the present disclosure . the present disclosure can be modified within the scope of the claims , and can be amended without departing from the scope or spirits of the present disclosure . although the present disclosure is described with specific methods , materials , and examples , the scope of the present disclosure herein disclosed should not be limited by the particularly disclosed examples as described above , but can be extended to other methods and uses having the same functions .	1
next , with reference to the accompanying drawings , an embodiment of the present invention will be described . fig1 shows the structure of the system according to the embodiment of the present invention . a host system 40 and a memory apparatus 1 are connected through communication paths 31 and 41 . the memory apparatus 1 is a card shaped device that is removable from the host system 40 . the memory apparatus 1 has a communicating portion 30 that communicates with the host system 40 . the memory apparatus 1 has a data processing portion 20 and a memory portion 50 . the memory portion 50 is an irreversibly write memory that is called otp and of which data can be written one time . the memory apparatus 1 is also a non - volatile semiconductor memory . in other words , data that has been written to the memory portion 50 cannot be erased . after the power of the memory apparatus 1 is turned off , the stored data is retained . in the memory portion 50 , data is read and written in a predetermined data unit . the memory portion 50 has a boot area from which data is initially read by the host system when the memory is attached thereto . a variety of types of information such as attribute information are pre - recorded in the boot area . the data processing portion 20 and the communicating portion 30 are connected through internal buses 21 and 32 . likewise , the data processing portion 20 and the memory portion 50 are connected through internal buses 22 and 51 . the data processing portion 20 can access memory management information 10 through internal buses 13 , 23 , and 14 . the memory management information 10 contains an unusable block correlation table 11 and mapping reference information 12 . a memory apparatus 1 ′ shown in fig2 has a memory portion 56 . the memory portion 56 has a plurality of memory cells each of which is an irreversibly write memory . internal data buses 22 and 51 are disposed between a memory portion 56 and a data processing portion 20 . in this example , memory management information 10 is stored in a non - volatile memory . in this case , the memory management information 10 may be stored in a memory integrated with a memory portion 50 . alternatively , the memory management information 10 may be stored in the memory portion 50 , 56 . the host system 40 can write data to the memory portion 50 , 56 of the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′ and read data therefrom . an example of the host system 40 is a personal computer . another example of the host system 40 is a digital electronic camera . a photographed picture is written to the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′. in addition , a picture is read from the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′. another example of the host system 40 is an audio recording / reproducing apparatus . in this case , compressed audio data is written to the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′. in addition , compressed audio data is read from the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′. fig3 shows an example of the unusable block correlation table 11 of the memory apparatus 1 that has one memory portion 50 . the table 11 has an unusable block number portion 60 and a substitute block number portion 61 . the unusable block number portion 60 contains k unusable block numbers in succession . the substitute block number portion 61 contains substitute block numbers corresponding to unusable block numbers . fig4 shows an unusable block correlation table 11 of the memory apparatus 1 ′ shown in fig2 . the unusable block correlation table 11 of the memory apparatus 1 ′ has an unusable block portion 62 and a substitute block number portion 63 . the unusable block portion 62 contains unusable block numbers in succession . the substitute block number portion 63 contains substitute block numbers in succession . in addition , each of the unusable block portion 62 and the substitute block number portion 63 contain cell numbers that distinguish a plurality of memory cells . the unusable block correlation table 11 is created by the data processing portion 20 . in the memory apparatus 1 shown in fig1 , when the data processing portion 20 recognizes any unusable physical block in the memory portion 50 , the data processing portion 20 sets the block number thereof to the unusable block number portion 60 through the internal bus 13 , designates a substitute usable block number , and sets the designated block number to the substitute block number portion 61 . in the memory apparatus 1 ′ shown in fig2 , when the data processing portion 20 recognizes any unusable physical block in the memory portion 56 , the data processing portion 20 sets the block number and the cell number thereof to the unusable block number portion 62 , designates a substitute usable block number and a cell number , and sets the designated block number and cell number to the substitute block number portion 63 . in the memory apparatus 1 ′ shown in fig2 , each cell may has an unusable block correlation table . in this case , the table is structured as shown in fig3 . next , with reference to fig5 , a method for referencing the unusable block correlation table created in the forgoing manner will be described . at step s 1 , the physical block number to be processed is designated as n phy . at step s 2 , i is initialized . at step s 3 , it is determined whether or not the i - th unusable block matches the physical block number n phy . when they do not match , the flow advances to step s 4 . at step s 4 , i is incremented . at step s 5 , it is determined whether or not i is equal to or larger than ( k − 1 ) at steps s 3 , s 4 , and s 5 , it is determined whether or not the physical block number n phy is an unusable block number . when the determined result at step s 3 represents that the physical block number n phy matches the i - th unusable block , the flow advances to step s 6 . at step s 6 , an i - th substitute block is used instead of the physical block number n phy . thereafter , the process is completed . in contrast , when the determined result at step s 5 represents that i is equal to or larger than ( k − 1 ), the flow advances to step s 7 . at step s 7 , the physical block number n phy is not an unusable block , but a usable block . thereafter , the process is completed . when physical block numbers or logical information of the unusable block correlation table are sorted in the ascending order or descending order , the process that references the unusable block correlation table can be performed at high speed . fig6 is a flow chart showing a high speed referencing process accomplished by sorting physical block numbers in the ascending order . at step s 11 , a physical block number n phy is designated as an object to be processed . at step s 12 , i is initialized . at step s 13 , it is determined whether or not an i - th unusable block matches the physical block number n phy . when they do not match , the flow advances to step s 14 . at step s 14 , it is determined whether or not the physical block number n phy is equal to or smaller than the i - th unusable block . when the determined result at step s 14 represents that the physical block number n phy is neither equal to nor smaller than the i - th unusable block , the flow advances to step s 15 . at step s 15 , i is incremented . at step s 16 , it is determined whether or not i is equal to or larger than ( k − 1 ). at steps s 13 , s 14 , s 15 , and s 16 , it is determined whether or not the physical block number n phy is an unusable block number . when the determined result at step s 13 represents that the physical block number n phy matches the i - th unusable block , the flow advances to step s 17 . at step s 17 , an i - th substitute block is used instead of the physical block number n phy . thereafter , the process is completed . when the determined result at step s 14 represents that the physical block number n phy is equal to or smaller than the i - th unusable block , the flow advances to step s 18 . at step s 18 , the physical block number n phy is not an unusable block , but a usable block . thereafter , the process is completed . when the determined result at step s 16 represents that i is equal to or larger than ( k − 1 ), the flow advances to step s 18 . at step s 18 , the physical block number n phy can be used . thereafter , the process is completed . in the process shown in fig6 , at step s 14 , it is determined whether or not the physical block number n phy is equal to or smaller than an i - th unusable block . since unusable blocks have been sorted in the ascending order , if the relation is satisfied , it can be determined that the physical block number n phy can be used without need to check the rest of the table . thus , the process can be performed at high speed . next , the mapping reference information 12 of the memory apparatus 1 and 1 ′ will be described . the mapping reference information 12 contains information necessary for converting logical information into physical information . fig7 shows the mapping reference information 12 of the memory apparatus 1 . the mapping reference information 12 is composed of a logical — physical conversion criterion 15 and a logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 . the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 is in reality 0 , + 2 , or the like . the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 is in reality 4 , ½ , or the like . fig8 shows the mapping reference information 12 of the memory apparatus 1 ′. as with the mapping reference information 12 of the memory apparatus 1 , the mapping reference information 12 of the memory apparatus 1 ′ has a logical — physical conversion criterion 15 and a logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 . in addition , the mapping reference information 12 of the memory apparatus 1 ′ has a physical block number 17 corresponding to the number of cells of the memory portion . the physical block number 17 is in reality 512 , 1024 , or the like . the content of the mapping reference information 12 is set when the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′ is structured . when the logical information unit is the same as the physical information unit and logical address 0 matches physical block number 0 in the memory apparatus 1 , the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 and the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 of the mapping reference information 12 are set to “ 0 ” and “ 1 ”, respectively . when the logical information unit is twice as large as the physical information unit and logical address 0 corresponds to physical block numbers 4 and 5 in the memory apparatus 1 , the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 and the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 of the mapping reference information 12 are set to “ 4 ” and “ 2 ”, respectively . when the logical information unit is ¼ times as small as the physical information unit and logical addresses 0 , 1 , 2 , and 3 correspond to physical block number 3 in the memory apparatus 1 , the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 and the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 of the mapping reference information 12 are set to “ 3 ” and “ ¼ ”, respectively . when the logical information unit is the same as the physical information unit thereof , the number of physical blocks per cell of the memory portion is 1024 , and logical address 0 corresponds to physical block number 2 in the memory apparatus 1 ′, the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 , the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 , and the physical block number 17 per cell of the mapping reference information 12 are set to “ 2 ”, “ 1 ”, and “ 1024 ”, respectively . with the forgoing mapping reference information 12 , a converting process from logical information into physical information is performed . in the system that uses the memory apparatus 1 shown in fig1 , an equation that calculates the physical block number n phy with the logical address n log is expressed as follows . where n base is a designated value of the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 and n mul is a designated value of the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 . in the system that uses the memory apparatus 1 ′ shown in fig2 , an equation that calculates the physical block number n phy and the memory cell number n cell with the logical address n log can be expressed as follows . n phy =( n log × n mul + n base )% n blknum n cell =( n log × n mul + n base )÷ n blknum where n base is a designated value of the logical — physical conversion criterion 15 , n mul is a designated value of the logical — physical conversion multiplier 16 , and n blknum is a designated value per cell . the forgoing converting process from logical information into physical information is performed by the data processing portion 20 . alternatively , the converting process may be performed by the host system 40 . in this case , as an initializing process , the host system 40 should read and retain the content of the memory management information 10 from the memory apparatus 1 , 1 ′. fig9 is a flow chart showing the data reading process with the logical information n log in the case that the process that converts logical information into physical information is performed by the data processing portion 20 of the system shown in fig1 . at step s 21 , a data read request for the logical address n log is supplied from the host system 40 to the memory apparatus 1 . the data processing portion 20 receives the read request through the communicating portion 30 ( at step s 22 ). at step s 23 , the data processing portion 20 calculates the physical block number n phy corresponding to the logical address n log and the designated values n base and n mul of the mapping reference information 12 . at step s 24 , the data processing portion 20 determines that the physical block number n phy is not an unusable block with reference to the unusable block correlation table 11 . this process corresponds to the process shown in fig5 or fig6 . at step s 25 , it is determined whether or not the physical block number n phy is an unusable block . when the physical block number n phy is an unusable block , the flow advances to step s 26 . at step s 26 , a substitute block number is used instead of the physical block number n phy . at step s 27 , the physical block number n phy is read from the memory portion 50 . the read data is denoted by data ( n phy ). data ( n phy ) is supplied to the data processing portion 20 ( at step s 28 ). data ( n phy ) is supplied from the data processing portion 20 to the communicating portion 30 ( at step s 29 ). the communicating portion 30 supplies the read data data ( n phy ) to the host system 40 ( at step s 30 ) fig1 is a flow chart showing the data read process with the logical information n log in the case that the process that converts logical information into physical information is performed by the data processing portion 20 of the system shown in fig2 . steps s 21 , s 22 , and s 23 shown in fig9 correspond to steps s 31 , s 32 , and s 33 shown in fig1 , respectively . at step s 33 , the data processing portion 20 calculates the physical block number n phy and the cell number n cell corresponding to the logical address n log and the designated values n base , n mul , and n blknum of the mapping reference information 12 . steps s 24 , s 25 , s 26 , s 27 , s 28 , s 29 , and s 30 shown in fig9 correspond to steps s 34 , s 35 , s 36 , s 37 , s 38 , s 39 , and s 40 shown in fig1 , respectively . in fig1 , since the memory portion 56 is composed of a plurality of memory cells , the cell number n cell that designates a cell is used in addition to the physical block number n phy . fig1 is a flow chart showing the data reading process with the logical information n log in the case that the process that converts logical information into physical information is performed by the host system 40 in the system shown in fig1 . as an initializing process , the host system 40 supplies a read request for the mapping reference information 12 to the memory apparatus 1 . the memory apparatus 1 supplies the mapping reference information 12 to the host system 40 . the host system 40 converts a logical address into the physical block number n phy corresponding to the mapping reference information 12 . thus , at step s 41 , the host system 40 supplies a data read request for the physical block number n phy to the memory apparatus 1 . the data processing portion 20 receives the read request through the communicating portion 30 ( at step s 42 ). at step s 43 , the data processing portion 20 determines that the physical block number n phy is not an unusable block with reference to the unusable block correlation table 11 . at step s 44 , it is determined whether or not the physical block number n phy is an unusable block . when the physical block number n phy is an unusable block , the flow advances to step s 45 . at step s 45 , a substitute block number is used instead of the physical block number n phy . at step s 46 , the physical block number n phy is read from the memory portion 50 . the read data is denoted by data ( n phy ). data ( n phy ) is supplied to the data processing portion 20 ( at step s 47 ). the data processing portion 20 supplies data ( n phy ) to the communicating portion 30 ( at step s 48 ). the communicating portion 30 supplies the read data data ( n phy ) to the host system 40 ( at step s 49 ). fig1 is a flow chart showing the data reading process with the logical information n log in the case that the process that converts logical information into physical information is performed by the host system 40 in the system shown in fig1 . in the process shown in fig1 , the host system 40 converts a logical address into the physical block number n phy . in addition , the host system 40 performs a referencing process for the unusable block correlation table obtained from the memory apparatus 1 . thus , the referencing process for the unusable block correlation table shown in fig1 ( at steps s 43 , s 44 , and s 45 ) is not required in fig1 . except for this point , the process shown in fig1 is the same as the process shown in fig1 . for simplicity , in fig1 , similar steps to those in fig1 are denoted by similar reference numerals and their description will be omitted . fig1 is a flow chart showing a data reading process with physical information n globalphy supplied from the host system 40 in the system shown in fig2 . n globalphy is a value of which the physical information n phy and n cell are added as a numeric value . at step s 51 , the host system 40 supplies a data read request for physical information n globalphy to the memory apparatus 1 . the data processing portion 20 receives the read request through the communicating portion 30 ( at step s 52 ). at step s 53 , the data processing portion 20 calculates physical information n phy and n cell corresponding to n globalphy and designated values n base , n mul , and n blknum of the mapping reference information 12 . at step s 54 , the data processing portion 20 determines that the physical information n phy , n cell is not an unusable block with reference to the unusable block correlation table 11 . at step s 55 , it is determined whether or not n phy , n cell is an unusable block . when n phy , n cell is an unusable block , the flow advances to step s 56 . at step s 56 , a substitute block number is used instead of n phy , n cell . at step s 57 , physical information n phy , n cell is read from the memory portion 56 . the read data is denoted by data ( n cell , n phy ) data ( n cell , n phy ) is supplied to the data processing portion 20 ( at step s 58 ). the data processing portion 20 supplies data ( n cell , n phy ) to the communicating portion 30 ( at step s 59 ). the communicating portion 30 supplies the read data data ( n cell , n phy ) to the host system 40 ( at step s 60 ). fig1 is a flow chart showing a data reading process with physical information n globalphy supplied from the host system 40 in the system shown in fig2 . in the process shown in fig1 , the host system 40 performs a referencing process for the unusable block correlation table . thus , in the process shown in fig1 , the referencing process for the unusable block correlation table ( at steps s 54 , s 55 , and s 56 ) shown in fig1 is not required . except for this point , the process shown in fig1 is the same as the process shown in fig1 . for simplicity , in fig1 , similar steps to those in fig1 are denoted by similar reference numerals and their description will be omitted . fig1 is a flow chart showing a data reading process with physical information n cell , n phy supplied from the host system 40 in the system shown in fig2 . at step s 61 , the host system 40 supplies a data read request for physical information n cell n phy to the memory apparatus 1 . in the process shown in fig1 , physical information n globalphy is used . in contrast , in the process shown in fig1 , the host system 40 calculates physical information n cell , n phy that represents a cell number and a block number . this physical information is supplied to the memory apparatus 1 . thus , step s 53 at which n cell , n phy are calculated shown in fig1 is not required . except for this point , the process shown in fig1 is the same as the process shown in fig1 . for simplicity , in fig1 , similar steps to those in fig1 are denoted by similar reference numerals and their description will be omitted . fig1 is a flow chart showing a data reading process with physical information n cell , n phy supplied from the host system 40 in the system shown in fig2 . in the process shown in fig1 , the host system 40 performs a referencing process for the unusable block correlation table . thus , in the process shown in fig1 , the referencing process for the unusable block correlation table shown in fig1 ( at steps s 54 , s 55 , and s 56 ) is not required . except for this point , the process shown in fig1 is the same as the process shown in fig1 . for simplicity , in fig1 , similar steps to those in fig1 are denoted by similar reference numerals and their description will be omitted . fig1 is a flow chart for explaining a function that performs a verifying process that verifies whether or not a writing process requested by the host system 40 has been correctly completed . at step s 71 , the data processing portion 20 performs a writing process for the physical block number n phy to the memory portion 50 . the writing process is performed in the same manner as the forgoing reading process . at step s 72 , the writing process starts . at step s 73 , the data processing portion 20 waits until the writing process is completed . immediately after the writing process is completed , the reading process is performed with the physical block number n phy ( at step s 74 ). the read data is denoted by data r ( n phy ). at step s 75 , data r ( n phy ) is compared with data w ( n phy ) ( write data ). when they match , assuming that the writing process has been normally completed , the process is completed ( at step s 76 ). when the determined result at step s 75 represents that the read data matches the write data , it is determined that the writing process has not been normally performed . at step s 77 , the physical block number n phy is added to the unusable block correlation table . at step s 78 , the data processing portion 20 decides a substitute block corresponding to the physical block number n phy . at step s 79 , the substitute block is designated as a content of the unusable block correlation table . at step s 80 , the physical block number n phy is substituted with the designated substituted block number . thereafter , the flow returns to step s 71 . it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the forgoing embodiment . in other words , without departing from the spirit of the present invention , various modifications and applications of the forgoing embodiment are available . for example , when the contents of the unusable block correlation table have been sorted in the ascending order , it is determined whether or not a physical block number of a block to be processed is larger ( smaller ) than ½ of the maximum physical block number . corresponding to the determined result , the determination order of whether or not an objective block is an unusable block may be selected . in other words , the ascending order or descending order is selected . according to the present invention , since the correlation table does not contain logical information and physical information for all blocks , the storage capacity of the irreversibly write memory open to the user can be increased . in addition , according to the present invention , since a conversion between logical information and physical information can be performed by a calculation , even if mapping information is lost , data can be accessed to some extent .	6
the invention disclosed below relates most generally soi semiconductor transistors , which can be used in a variety of integrated circuits , including memory devices such as dram , sram , flash , pcram etc . ( see , e . g ., fig9 ), or peripheral circuitry , logic circuitry , and a number of other circuits . in the following detailed description , reference is made to various specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced . these embodiments are described with sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention , and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be employed , and that structural and electrical changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention . now referring to the figures , where like reference numbers designate like elements , fig1 shows a preliminary stage of fabrication of a buried transistor in accordance with the invention . throughout the following description the fabrication of a single transistor is shown for simplicity sake ; however , a plurality of like transistors are typically fabricated simultaneously in the same substrate , adjacent to one another or not , as is known in the art . as shown , in fig1 , a trench 12 is formed in a semiconductor substrate 10 by etching as is known in the art . preferably , the substrate 10 is a silicon substrate ; however , the invention also has applicability to other semiconductor - on - insulator structures , in which the core substrate 10 may be formed of other semiconductor materials . etching can be performed , for example , by photolithographic masking of the substrate followed by wet etching or dry etching through openings in the masking material . the sides of the trench are preferably substantially vertical relative to the trench &# 39 ; s depth , such that anisotropic etching is preferred . the width 11 of the trench will , in part , dictate the size of the resulting transistor . after trench 12 is formed , doping is performed as shown in fig2 . an ion implant 14 is performed to form a doped layer at the bottom of the trench 12 . as an alternative to implantation , ion diffusion can be used . this doped layer will form a lightly doped drain ( ldd ) region 16 of the ultimate transistor . the implant 14 for the ldd region 16 can be relatively shallow so as not to dope too much of the substrate 10 . at this stage in processing , it is also possible to use an angled implant 14 , as shown in fig2 a , if a halo - type implantation of dopant is desired . a halo implant may be desirable if , for example , enhancement of isolation between devices by reducing the depletion region is a goal , or if grading of junctions in order to control hot - carrier effects is needed . the trench 12 itself can act to shadow the implant if a halo implant is desired . if a halo implantation is used , the ldd region 16 will be graded with increased concentration of dopant toward the sides of the trench . fig3 shows the next stage in processing where sidewall spacers 18 are formed on the interior of the trench 12 . the spacers 18 are sidewall insulators for the transistor gate to be formed later . if the spacers 18 are nitride , a nitride layer is formed within the trench 12 and over substrate 10 and etched to remove the nitride layer from the bottom of the trench and upper surface of substrate 10 to create the spacers 18 . the etching of the nitride layer can be controlled such that the space between the spacers 18 exposing the bottom of the trench 12 can be made to be a specific and desired length 20 . this length 20 will ultimately be the gate length 20 of the resulting transistor . controlling gate length 20 is highly desirable in any semiconductor transistor because changing the gate length 20 effects the transistor threshold voltage ( v t ) needed to activate the transistor . different transistors across the wafer can be formed with different gate lengths to set various v t across the wafer . also , drive current is related to gate length 20 as well , wherein essentially “ faster ” logic devices can be fabricated by making certain transistor gates shorter . following the spacer 18 formation of fig3 , a further doping occurs to set v t , as illustrated in fig4 . a v t implant 22 is performed to form a dopant region 24 in the substrate 10 between the nitride spacers 18 . the spacers 18 shield the substrate 10 directly beneath so that what will become the transistor ldd regions 16 remain . as an alternative to ion implantation , ion diffusion can be used to form dopant region 24 . as a general rule , for short channel devices , as the gate length 20 is reduced the v t is reduced as well . if it is desired that the v t be increased , for instance , to keep the same v t with a shorter gate length 20 , the wafer &# 39 ; s bulk doping can be increased , the gate oxide thickness can be increased , source / drain junction depth can be decreased , back - bias voltage can be increased , or the drain voltage can be decreased . more easily , however , the v t implant 22 can be adjusted in this stage of processing to control v t . next , as shown in fig5 , the transistor gate structure is fabricated . after a preferred cleaning step , a gate oxide 26 can be grown over the substrate 10 along the bottom of the trench 12 between the spacers 16 . silicon oxide is a standard gate oxide 26 material , but others can be used as is known in the art . next , a doped polysilicon layer 28 is formed over the gate oxide 26 and between the spacers 16 . this layer 28 may be deposited by cvd , sputtering , or other techniques known in the art . a metal layer may be next deposited over the polysilicon layer 28 and heat annealed to form a silicide layer 30 . titanium and tantalum are commonly used for this purpose . a nitride cap 31 is then formed over the silicide layer , if desired ; though this protective cap can be excluded if other insulating materials are later provided over the transistor structure . the above - described layers 26 , 28 , 30 , 31 make up the gate stack 32 of the transistor . any excess materials of these layer 26 , 28 , 30 , 31 over the wafer ( i . e ., not in the trench 12 ) can be removed after deposition by a polishing or etching step . the wafer is polished ( by , e . g ., cmp ) or etched to expose a surface of the substrate 10 below the surface of the dopant implants 14 and 22 on either side of the gate stack 32 . fig6 illustrates the next step in the process . a source / drain implant 34 is performed in substrate 10 to form source / drain regions 36 on either side of the gate stack 32 and spacers 18 . the implant 34 can be accomplished using a mask as needed . the implant 34 should be of such a power and concentration so as to penetrate the substrate 10 to a level “ below ” the gate stack 32 so that a channel region 38 is formed “ below ” the level of the gate stack 32 . an annealing step can be included to activate the implanted dopant forming the source / drain 36 , if needed . after implanting ( and activating ) the source / drain regions 36 , the transistor 90 is substantially complete . next , an insulating layer 40 ( which will become a buried insulator ) can be formed over the transistor and substrate . this insulating layer 40 can be formed of silicon oxide or other insulating materials . in an alternative embodiment shown in fig6 a , the silicon of the substrate 10 adjacent to the gate stack 32 can be patterned using , e . g ., a photomask 35 , and etched prior to the implant 34 to be recessed below the nitride cap 31 towards the level of the gate oxide 26 , if desired . the etch mask 35 would be subsequently removed after the etch and implant 34 . in such an embodiment a self - aligned implant with no critical mask is necessary . then , the substrate 10 material ( e . g ., silicon ) can be regrown , by e . g ., epitaxy , back up to be level with the “ top ” of the gate stack 32 as is shown in fig6 b , or the gate stack 32 can be left exposed for further processing as desired . after such regrowth , the processing continues as described above and hereafter . once a substantially complete transistor 90 and the insulating layer 40 are formed , additional processing can be performed as shown in fig7 . the wafer can be flipped over and a second substrate 42 , preferably comprising a semiconductor material and , particularly silicon when substrate 10 is also silicon , can be bonded to the insulating layer 40 , making it a buried insulating layer 40 . if the insulating layer 40 is an oxide layer , the bonding of two thermally matched substrates can be accomplished by silicon oxide bonding techniques , wherein a chemical reaction occurs between the oxidized surfaces of each substrate 10 and 42 . an annealing step can facilitate the silicon - oxide bond . in this way , the buried oxide insulating layer 40 truly becomes buried , as does the transistor 90 . the new “ top ” surface of the substrate 10 can be etched or polished to a desired thickness , wherein the source / drain regions 36 can be exposed for subsequent processing . subsequent processing of the wafer can include the deposition of dielectric layers and formation of other semiconductor devices in contact with the buried transistor 90 . as is known in the art , capacitors can be formed in contact with the source / drain regions 26 , or with plugs thereto , as can bit lines or other interconnects , if for instance , a dram device is to be formed . a circuit diagram for a dram memory cell incorporating the transistor 90 is shown in fig9 , where the transistor 90 acts as an access transistor between a bit line and a capacitor that provides charge coupling therebetween . also , interconnects can be formed to the source / drain regions 26 electrically linking the transistor to , e . g ., logic circuitry , or sensing devices ( e . g ., sense amplifiers ) if the transistor is to be located in periphery circuitry . there is no limit to the uses of the buried transistor 90 in an integrated circuit and , as discussed above , the functioning of the transistor 90 can be tuned during processing so that it has a gate length 20 , channel length 38 , or v t as desired or necessary . fig8 illustrates an exemplary processor system 900 , which can utilize the transistor device 90 of the present invention , as incorporated into a cpu 901 or memory devices 100 . the processor system 900 can include one or more processors 901 coupled to a local bus 904 , the processor containing transistors 90 fabricated as described above . a memory controller 902 and a primary bus bridge 903 can also be coupled the local bus 904 . the processor system 900 can include multiple memory controllers 902 and / or multiple primary bus bridges 903 . the memory controller 902 and the primary bus bridge 903 may be integrated as a single device 906 . the memory controller 902 can also be coupled to one or more memory buses 907 . each memory bus accepts memory components 908 , which include at least one memory device 100 containing present invention . the memory components 908 may be a memory card or a memory module . some examples of memory modules include single inline memory modules ( simms ) and dual inline memory modules ( dimms ). the memory components 908 may include one or more additional devices 909 . for example , in a simm or dimm , the additional device 909 might be a configuration memory , such as a serial presence detect ( spd ) memory . the memory controller 902 may also be coupled to a cache memory 905 . the cache memory 905 may be the only cache memory in the processing system . alternatively , other devices , for example , processors 901 may also include cache memories , which may form a cache hierarchy with cache memory 905 . if the processing system 900 include peripherals or controllers which are bus masters or which support direct memory access ( dma ), the memory controller 902 may implement a cache coherency protocol . if the memory controller 902 is coupled to a plurality of memory buses 907 , each memory bus 907 may be operated in parallel , or different address ranges may be mapped to different memory buses 907 . the primary bus bridge 903 can be coupled to at least one peripheral bus 910 . various devices , such as peripherals or additional bus bridges may be coupled to the peripheral bus 910 . these devices may include a storage controller 911 , a miscellaneous i / o device 914 , a secondary bus bridge 915 , a multimedia processor 918 , and a legacy device interface 920 . the primary bus bridge 903 may also coupled to one or more special purpose high speed ports 922 . in a personal computer , for example , the special purpose port might be the accelerated graphics port ( agp ), used to couple a high performance video card to the processing system 900 . the storage controller 911 can couple one or more storage devices 913 , via a storage bus 912 , to the peripheral bus 910 . for example , the storage controller 911 may be a scsi controller and storage devices 913 may be scsi discs . the i / o device 914 may be any sort of peripheral . for example , the i / o device 914 may be a local area network interface , such as an ethernet card . the secondary bus bridge may be used to interface additional devices via another bus to the processing system . for example , the secondary bus bridge may be an universal serial port ( usb ) controller used to couple usb devices 917 via to the processing system 900 . the multimedia processor 918 may be a sound card , a video capture card , or any other type of media interface , which may also be coupled to one additional devices such as speakers 919 . the legacy device interface 920 can be used to couple legacy devices ; for example , older styled keyboards and mice , to the processing system 900 . the processing system 900 illustrated in fig8 is only an exemplary processing system with which the invention may be used . while fig8 illustrates a processing architecture especially suitable for a general purpose computer , such as a personal computer or a workstation , it should be recognized that well known modifications can be made to configure the processing system 900 to become more suitable for use in a variety of applications . for example , many electronic devices , which require processing may be implemented using a simpler architecture , which relies on a cpu 901 , coupled to memory components 908 and / or memory devices 100 . these electronic devices may include , but are not limited to audio / video processors and recorders , gaming consoles , digital television sets , wired or wireless telephones , navigation devices ( including system based on the global positioning system ( gps ) and / or inertial navigation ), and digital cameras and / or recorders . the modifications may include , for example , elimination of unnecessary components , addition of specialized devices or circuits , and / or integration of a plurality of devices . the above description and accompanying drawings are only illustrative of exemplary embodiments , which can achieve the features and advantages of the present invention . it is not intended that the invention be limited to the embodiments shown and described in detail herein . the invention can be modified to incorporate any number of variations , alterations , substitutions or equivalent arrangements not heretofore described , but which are commensurate with the spirit and scope of the invention . the invention is only limited by the scope of the following claims .	7
a schematic diagram of a conventional cmos active pixel 100 and associated column readout circuit 101 is shown in fig1 . incident photons on the pixel 101 generate electrons that are collected in the floating diffusion area 102 . the charge is buffered by an in - pixel source follover 105 . a number of pixels are typically arranged horizontally to form a row of pixels and also vertically to define a column of pixels . row selection transistor 103 is enabled to allow charge from a given row of pixels to be selectable for readout . a more detailed discussion of the general principles of pixel readout is provided in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 841 , 126 . while the illustrative implementation shows a photodiode pixel , it should be understood that a photogate , phototransistor or the like could be used instead . during imaging , the photodiode floating diffusion area 102 is first reset . this is achieved by pulsing a gate of reset transistor 104 to a high voltage , for example vdd . after a period of time , the voltage of the floating diffusion area 102 drops to reflect the number of electrons accumulated in the floating diffusion area 102 . the voltage v s of the floating diffusion area is then read out from the pixel 100 into the column readout circuit 101 using source follower 105 within pixel 100 . voltage v s is then sampled onto storage capacitor c s 106 by enabling the sample - hold signal ( shs ) transistor 107 . after the signal charge v s is read out , the pixel 100 is then reset and the gate of reset transistor 104 is again pulsed to a high voltage . the resultant voltage v r of floating diffusion area 102 is then read out to the column readout circuit 101 as before . this time the voltage v r is sampled onto storage capacitor c r 108 by enabling the sample - hold reset ( shr ) transistor 109 . fig2 shows the timing for the above photodiode operation . the voltage difference between the voltages stored in the two capacitors , c s 106 and c r 108 is indicative of the charge collected in the floating diffusion area 102 . typically , all the pixels 100 in a same row are processed simultaneously . the signals are sampled onto capacitors c s and c r in their respective column readout circuits collectively arranged beneath the row ( or multiple rows : array 10 ) of pixels . after a row sampling process is complete , voltage signal vout_s , vout_r in each column is read out successively by successively enabling the associated n - channel column selection transistors 110 , 111 . a high level block diagram of an array of pixels 10 and associated linear array 10 ′ of corresponding column readout circuits 101 , arranged in parallel fashion , is shown in fig3 . the outputs of vout_r and vout_s of column readout circuits 101 each share a common readout line . fig4 is a simplified partial schematic diagram of the respective output stages of the column readout circuits 101 in a linear array of pixels 10 ′. each column output stage contributes a parasitic capacitance resulting in an effective load capacitance of cp , represented by capacitor 401 . assuming ci to be the parasitic capacitance contributed by each column circuitry , total parasitic capacitance and total rc time constant ( charge and discharge ) turn - on / off settling time , may then be represented as follows : where r is the built - in resistance associated with each of column select transistors 110 , 111 in the on state , and m is the total number of column readout circuits 101 in a column - addressable row . as explained above , column readout circuit 101 output signals ( vout_s and vout_r ) are each connected to a pair of corresponding shared column readout lines . an image sensor with a horizontal resolution of 1000 pixels could theoretically result in the column output stage of a selected column readout circuit 101 having to drive the load capacitance associated with the other 999 columns . the parasitic capacitance in such a case could effectively be in the tens or even hundreds of picofarads . a larger capacitance requires longer time to charge the capacitance to a desired voltage value , and results in a greater rc time constant which translates into greater settling time . to increase pixel readout rate at a predetermined maximum frame rate necessarily involves minimizing the effective load capacitance seen by a selected column output buffer ( transistor 110 , 111 ). settling time may be improved by increasing the biasing current on the column output buffer . the time to charge up a capacitance to a certain voltage is well known and may be represented by the following equation : increasing the current would mean more power dissipation since p diss = v * i . for portable video systems , power dissipation is a key issue because higher power dissipation would reduce the lifetime of the battery . the present inventor has determined this not a desirable or optimum solution . settling time may also be reduced by reducing the effective load capacitance on the column output buffer . a technique for reducing effective load capacitance for faster readout is called tree - style column decoding . an example of a ram tree - style column decoder and multiplexer is shown in fig5 . data bit lines are coupled to a pool of switches ( transistors 401 ) which are selectively enabled to drive only a desired data bit through to a shared bit line 402 . in the configuration shown , a selected bit line receives a parasitic capacitance contribution from at least four transistors . with such a scheme , however , the overall effective capacitance seen on the shared bit line 402 can be reduced by as much as half that which might be imparted were all eight bit lines to be directly coupled to shared bit line 402 by only a single parallel bank of eight transistors . tree - style column decoding reduces the effective capacitance seen by each bit output line . the present inventor has discovered that by splitting the column circuitry into different blocks , as will be explained in greater detail below , the readout bus capacitance seen by a currently selected column output stage could be significantly reduced beyond that possible by known techniques . in accordance with a preferred embodiment , the load capacitance is mathematically modeled . the effective rc constant seen by any column output stage at a particular time is determined . by using a differentiated derived equation , a desirable optimum number of connections per block as well as a desired number of blocks for a given size of column readout circuits can be easily determined from this equation . an improved configuration for coupling the column output stages resulting in reduced parasitic capacitance effects is illustrated in fig6 . fig6 shows the column readout circuits 101 . only one portion of the respective column out put stage is shown . these are logically divided up into blocks 200 , each comprised of k contiguous column readout circuits . a set of block switches ( n channel transistors ) 601 are used to select among the blocks 200 . each switch 601 functions as a block select switch allowing the column readout circuits 101 in a given block to become actively coupled to the shared column readout line 500 . block switches 601 are used to select among the blocks 200 every time an associated column readout circuit 101 is to be turned on . once a column readout circuit 101 is selected for readout , its corresponding block switch 601 is also selected , but none of the other block switches are selected . those blocks 200 which are not selected prevent or block associated column readout circuits from imparting a parasitic capacitance on the shared readout line 500 , and / or on the column output stage of the currently active column readout circuit . block switches 601 also collectively impart a proportionate parasitic capacitance on the currently active column readout circuit , regardless of whether or not they are connected . thus , in an arrangement of 64 - wide block column readout circuits servicing a 1024 - pixel wide row , there would be a total 1024 / 64 = 8 blocks . each of the eight block switch transistors 601 would impart a parasitic capacitance of its own . this capacitance of eight transistors , however , is much less than the collective capacitance of 1024 non - blocked column select transistors . in this regard , it might be said that block select switches 601 function as parasitic capacitance blockers . the present inventor has determined that the optimum number of column readout circuits 101 per block 200 ( i . e ., the optimum value of k ) for a given size pixel configuration may be calculated from the following mathematical quadratic relation , c p2 =( k + 2 + m / k ) c i , eq . ( 3 ) for k ( n - channel ) column select transistors ( 110 or 111 ) and m / k groups , where m is the total number of column readout circuits 101 . the numeral 2 constant is derived from the parasitic capacitance of the group selection ( nmos ) transistor of the particular block being selected . this is based on a previous assumption that ci is the parasitic capacitance of the source / drain diffusion of the nmos selection transistor . minimizing c p2 in eq . ( 3 ) by differentiating c p2 with respect to k and equating it to zero , we get : then substituting the value of k back into eq . ( 3 ), we get : now , since each block switch transistor 601 is in series with a selected column output buffer ( transistors 110 or 111 ), the result is a doubling in the effective resistance r imparted on each associated vout_s , vout_r column readout line 500 . the doubled resistance impacts doubly on the rc time constant settling time . this doubled resistance may be mathematically represented in terms of a relevant time constant from equations ( 2 ) and ( 3 ) as : from the above , a parasitic capacitance improvement ( or reduction ) between c p1 ( without block switching ) and c p2 ( with block switching ) may be expressed as a ratio c p1 : c p2 as for large m , 2m 1 / 2 + 2 , approximates to 2m 1 / 2 , substituting back in eq . ( 7 ), we get a ratio of m : 2m 1 / 2 , which equates to a ratio of m 1 / 2 : 2 . thus , for large m ( e . g , 512 , 1024 , or greater ), parasitic capacitance is effectively reduced by a factor of about m 1 / 2 / 2 . in a 1024 - row architecture having block switching and an optimum block size of 32 ( k = m 1 / 2 ), a parasitic capacitance reduction of 16 (= m 1 / 2 / 2 = 32 / 2 ) may be realized over the case where no block switching is utilized . a similar analysis may be used to determine rc time constant improvement ( or reduction ) in the cases where there is no block switching ( rc 1 ) versus the case where block switching ( rc 2 ) is provided . representing the two cases by rc p1 : rc p2 , from equations ( 6 ) and ( 7 ), we get substituting back in eq . ( 8 ), the ratio can be expressed as thus it is shown that block switching can reduce the effective rc constant by a factor of about m 1 / 2 / 4 . accordingly , for a pixel array of 1024 × 1024 , the parasitic capacitance may be reduced by a factor of 8 × 2 (= 10241 / 2 / 4 × 2 ), while the rc time constant is reduced by a factor of 8 , by utilizing block switching . in a 32 ( 1024 1 / 2 ) block orientation , each column output stage is imparted an effective loading equivalent to having 1024 / 16 = 64 columns connected together . fig7 shows the timing for effecting column selection in block group fashion in accordance with a preferred implementation in which it is contemplated that the column read out circuits 101 in a given block will be readout first . after all the columns in the block have been read out , the associated block switch is disabled , and the block switch associated with the next column readout circuit to be read out is enabled ( turned on ). the present implementation has been described having only one level of block switches . another embodiment uses multiple levels of cascaded stages of block switching to further reduce the effective parasitic capacitance seen by a selected column output stage . in summary , the present solution provides a way for reducing the effective load capacitance thereby allowing for an increase in pixel readout rate without any increase in power dissipation . it is contemplated however that the present solution also allows for a way to improve ( reduce ) power dissipation in applications where a low pixel readout is desirable . as should be readily apparent from the above discussion of the preferred embodiments , block switching provides additional advantages beyond those in conventional tree - style decoding . a typical tree - style single stage implementation decoding method reduces the effective load capacitance by a factor of 2 . for n cascaded stages , the load capacitance is reduced by a factor of 2 n at the expense of very high circuit complexity . the non - cascaded system of fig6 with a large image array with a horizontal resolution of 1024 could have its effective capacitance reduced by a factor of 16 . this system can also increase the pixel readout rate ( due to faster settling time ) without any increase in the biasing current of the column output stages , and without introducing substantial circuit complexity to the overall active pixel sensor column readout architecture . although only a few embodiments have been described in detail , those having ordinary skill in the art would certainly understand that many modifications are possible in the preferred embodiment without departing from the teachings thereof . for example , although the block switching is described in terms of “ rows ”, the blocks could be columns or any other shape of blocks . all such modifications are intended to be encompassed by the following claims .	7
fig1 illustrates a down light fixture 10 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . the down light fixture 10 includes a cylindrical body 12 defining a hollow interior that encloses electrical components , a tapered shroud 14 slip fit and secured by a set screw 15 into a lower end of the cylindrical body 12 that directs and confines the emitted light , and a pivotable mounting device in the form of a knuckle joint assembly 16 attached to an upper end of the cylindrical body 12 . the foregoing components are preferably machined from cast aluminum alloy parts for durability . an anodized coating is preferably applied to the exterior of the machined aluminum alloy parts to prevent oxidation and to provide an aesthetically appealing finish . these components can also me made of other suitable metals such as brass alloy , aluminum , copper , etc . some or all of them can be molded out of suitable plastic , however , a material with high thermal conductivity is preferred for the cylindrical body 12 so that this component can facilitate the dissipation of heat generated by the source of illumination contained therein . an upper segment of the exterior of the cylindrical body 12 is provided with an integral heat sink in the form of a plurality of spaced - apart radially and circumferentially extending ribs 12 a . referring to fig2 , a disc - shaped led luminary printed circuit board ( pcb ) 18 is mounted inside the cylindrical body 12 . the luminary pcb 18 supports a high intensity led 20 ( fig3 ) and provides a conductive path to the electrical power . the luminary pcb 18 is readily replaceable in the event of a failure of the led 20 . the down light fixture 10 may have a single led and a pcb formed with electrically conductive paths for power connection and without other electronic components . alternatively , the down light 10 may be of the intelligent led type disclosed in u . s . patent application ser . no . 12 / 564 , 840 filed sep . 22 , 2009 by peter j . woytowitz entitled “ low voltage outdoor lighting power source and control system ” and published apr . 8 , 2010 under publication no . us - 2010 - 0084985 - a1 , or u . s . patent application ser . no . 13 / 244 , 869 filed sep . 26 , 2011 by peter j . woytowitz entitled “ systems and methods for providing power and data to lighting devices ,” now u . s . pat . no . 8 , 278 , 845 ; the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference . said applications are assigned to hunter industries , inc ., the assignee of the subject application . the down light fixture 10 can have red , green and blue leds and can be connected to the aforementioned power source and control system in order to generate different lighting effects such as variable color and intensity in a reliable and energy efficient manner . u . s . publication &# 39 ; 985 provides examples of a power source and control system that rectify line voltage ac into a low voltage to be provided to a light fixture . for example , according to some embodiments , line voltage ac is rectified into a first high dc voltage . this first dc voltage is switched by a first switching circuit to create a high frequency ac voltage . the high frequency ac voltage is coupled through a transformer for isolation and step - down purposes . because the frequency is high , the transformer is small and light compared to a 50 / 60 hz transformer . the output of the transformer is rectified and filtered to produce a low voltage ( 12v ) dc signal . the 12vdc signal is fed into a second switching circuit in the form of an h - bridge circuit that generates a low frequency ac signal with data periodically encoded at a high frequency . the low frequency ac signal is transmitted to the lighting fixtures via the buried power conductors . as discussed in u . s . patent &# 39 ; 845 , a low voltage power signal between approximately 11vac and 14vac , or of approximately 12vac , or of approximately 24vac , may be used to power the down light fixture 10 . referring still to fig3 , a parabolic reflector 22 surrounds the led 20 so that the led 20 is located at the approximate focus of the reflector 22 which gathers and forwardly directs the light emitted by the led 20 in a predetermined desired pattern to the target area . the inner end of the reflector 22 is secured to the cylindrical body 12 with a pair of machine screws 23 a and 23 b ( fig2 ). the luminary pcb 18 is securely sandwiched between the reflector 22 and the cylindrical body 12 referring to fig2 and 3 , a disc - shaped color filter 24 and a disc - shaped diffuser 26 are mounted over the led 20 and reflector 22 . the diffuser 26 softens the intensity of the light emitted by the led 20 as perceived by an observer &# 39 ; s naked eye . an upper cylindrical segment 14 a ( fig3 ) of the shroud 14 removably slips into the lower segment 12 b of the cylindrical body 12 . the female - to - male overlap of the lower body segment 12 b with the upper cylindrical segment 14 a of the shroud helps prevent entry of water into the cylindrical body 12 . additionally , entry of water into the cylindrical body 12 is further impeded by a pair of o - rings 28 and 30 made of a suitable elastomeric material that are seated in annular grooves formed in the exterior of the upper cylindrical segment 14 a of the shroud 14 and are squeezed between the cylindrical body 12 and the shroud 14 . the set screw 15 is threaded into a threaded hole 12 c ( fig4 ) that is formed in the lower body segment 12 b and is tightened against an annular groove 14 e formed on the outer surface of upper cylindrical segment 14 a to hold the shroud 14 securely in position both axially and radially . a disc - shaped protective transparent cover 32 extends across the diffuser 26 and provides an optical path for light to leave the down light fixture 10 . by way of example , the transparent cover 32 can be made of glass , high temperature resistant plastic , or scratch resistant sapphire . on one side of the transparent cover 32 a periphery of the transparent cover 32 engages the interior of a circular flange 14 b that projects radially inwardly from the upper cylindrical segment 14 a of the shroud 14 . a circular frame 36 supports the color filter 24 . the circular frame 36 carries the circular frame 34 and the diffuser 26 . the circular frame 36 and the color filter 24 are in turn supported by the reflector 22 . when the shroud 14 is screwed into the cylindrical body 12 , the shroud 14 , o - rings 28 and 30 , and the transparent cover 32 seal off a lower portion of the hollow interior of the cylindrical body 12 and protect the luminary pcb 18 and the led 20 . the knuckle joint assembly 16 ( fig1 ) includes a base knuckle 16 a and a top knuckle 16 b that are pivotally connected by a machine bolt 34 ( fig2 ). the male threaded distal end of the machine bolt 34 is screwed into a transversely extending female threaded sleeve 37 ( fig3 ) formed in the top knuckle 16 b to pivotally connect the base knuckle 16 a and the top knuckle 16 b . the top knuckle 16 b is secured to the upper end of the cylindrical base 12 with a pair of machine bolts 38 and 40 ( fig2 ) that pass through a pair of side - by - side bores 42 formed in the top knuckle 16 b . the male threaded distal ends of the bolts 38 and 40 are screwed into axially extending female threaded sleeves 44 and 46 ( fig4 ) formed in the top of the cylindrical body 12 . the upper end of the cylindrical body 12 is formed with a circular mounting flange 12 d ( fig4 ) which mates with a shoulder ( not visible ) of the top knuckle 16 b as best seen in fig3 . a pair of diametrically opposed slots 47 a and 47 b formed in the mounting flange 12 d receive corresponding projections ( not illustrated ) on the top knuckle 16 b to rotationally align the top knuckle 16 b and the cylindrical body 12 during assembly . an o - ring 48 ( fig2 ) made of a suitable elastomeric material is seated in a pair of opposing circular grooves formed in the base knuckle 16 a and the top knuckle 16 b . the o - ring 48 helps to seal the knuckle joint assembly 16 against the unwanted intrusion of water . a plurality of radially extending teeth 16 c formed in the circular face surface of the top knuckle 16 b mate with and fit between a plurality of radially extending teeth 16 d ( fig3 ) formed on the mating circular face of the base knuckle 16 a to prevent unwanted slippage then the machine screw 34 is tightened . this arrangement permits the angle of the top knuckle 16 b to be adjusted relative to the base knuckle 16 a when the machine screw 34 has been loosened enough to allow the teeth 16 c and 16 d to pass by each other . the base knuckle 16 a and the top knuckle 16 b are formed with recesses or grooves ( not illustrated ) that create a passageway . this passageway provides a conduit that allows a twin conductor insulated wire 49 ( fig2 ) to pass through a hollow male threaded shank 50 of the base knuckle 16 a and through the top knuckle 16 b . the wire 49 then passes through an axially extending cylindrical hollow potting cup 52 ( fig4 ) formed in the cylindrical base 12 . the potting cup 52 is located inside the hollow interior of the cylindrical base 12 and provides a tubular conduit that extends between the knuckle joint assembly 16 and the luminary pcb 18 . the passageway that extends through the base knuckle 16 a and the top knuckle 16 b is dimensioned and configured to allow the wire 49 to traverse the interior of the knuckle joint assembly 16 without binding or chafing while still allowing the knuckle joint assembly 16 to be pivotally adjusted to change the angle of illumination provided by the down light fixture 10 . the proximal end of the wire 49 ( not illustrated ) extends a sufficient distance from the down light fixture 10 to facilitate operative connection of the conductors in the wires 49 to the terminals of the power source and control system . additionally , the knuckle assembly 16 may be of the type found in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 902 , 200 granted jun . 7 , 2005 to joshua beadle and entitled “ contaminant - resistant pivot joint for outdoor lighting fixture ”, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference . the aforementioned patent is also assigned to hunter industries , inc . the male threaded shank 50 ( fig2 ) of the knuckle joint assembly 16 can be screwed into a bracket ( not illustrated ) that can in turn be secured with wood screws or bolts to a beam or overhang of a building or to a structure such as a trellis or gazebo located in a lawn or garden . typically the bracket would be secured to an overhead member so that the central longitudinal axes of the cylindrical base 12 and the shroud 14 are pointed in a downward direction . the down light fixture 10 can thus illuminate the target area below the down light fixture . the beveled lower portion 14 c ( fig1 ) of the shroud 14 is preferably oriented so that a peripheral oval - shaped lip 14 d thereof faces downwardly . in the preferred orientation , a plane that passes through the peripheral lip 14 d is substantially perpendicular to a plane normal to the axis of rotation of the knuckle joint assembly 16 defined by the bolt 34 ( fig2 ). the set screw 15 ( fig3 ) fixes the rotational position of the shroud 14 relative to the cylindrical body 12 when it is tightened . the luminary pcb 18 ( fig2 and 3 ) has two conductive male pins made of metal that mate with corresponding metal contacts of a female electrical socket 56 ( fig2 ) operatively connected to the distal end of the wire 49 . during assembly of the down light fixture 10 the wire 49 is potted inside the bore of the potting cup 52 with a predetermined quantity 57 of a suitable potting compound such as part no . 041108 - fc - 4 from ellsworth adhesives . when the quantity of potting compound 57 cures , the potting compound 57 inside the potting cup 52 provides a substantially water tight seal between the wire 49 and an interior wall of the potting cup 52 . the wire 49 is permanently potted and sealed in an effort to prevent water intrusion from the upper end of the cylindrical body 12 into the lower portion of the interior of the cylindrical body 12 where it might reach the luminary pcb 18 , causing a short or damage to the led 20 . the upper portion of the hollow interior of the cylindrical body 12 includes a reservoir or cavity 58 ( fig3 ) through which the potting cup 52 extends . the cavity 58 is separated from the lower portion of the hollow interior of the cylindrical body 12 that contains the luminary pcb 18 by a transverse wall 60 . the lower end of the potting cup 52 is integrally formed with the transverse wall 60 and the bore that extends through the potting cup 52 communicates with a hole formed in the transverse wall 60 . this arrangement allows the electrical socket 56 to be pushed over the pair of metal pins that extend from the luminary pcb 18 . due to the normal inclined orientation of the down light 10 at a typical angle as illustrated in fig3 , a small quantity of water 62 can accumulate in the cavity 58 . a slot 64 ( fig4 ) formed in the circular mounting flange 12 d of the cylindrical body 12 provides a drain port . this drain port is rotationally oriented so that it is on the low side of the down light fixture 10 . the upper end of the potting cup 52 is higher in reference to the longitudinal axis of the down light fixture 10 than the drain port . the size of the drain port is sufficient so that the water 62 will always drain out of the cylindrical body 12 via the drain port before it reaches the upper end of the quantity of potting compound 57 . this prevents the water from standing on top of the potting compound 57 and seeping down through the potting cup 52 to the luminary pcb 18 . this is true even if the down light fixture 10 is mounted with its longitudinal axis completely vertical . while an embodiment of a down light fixture has been described in detail , it will be understood by those skilled in the art , based on the description herein , that the present invention can be modified in both arrangement and detail . for example , the source of illumination could be an incandescent bulb instead of an led . see u . s . pat . no . 6 , 784 , 905 granted apr . 5 , 2005 to joshua z . beadle or u . s . pat . no . 7 , 387 , 409 granted jun . 17 , 2008 to joshua z . beadle , the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference . said patents are also assigned to hunter industries , inc . the down light fixture 10 could be designed to work with the lighting controller disclosed in pending u . s . patent application ser . no . 13 / 189 , 718 filed on jul . 25 , 2011 by peter j . woytowitz entitled “ programmable landscape lighting controller with self - diagnostic capabilities and fail safe features ”, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference . said application is also assigned to hunter industries , inc . therefore , the protection afforded the present invention should only be limited in accordance with the scope of the following claims .	5
shown in fig1 ( a ) is a cross - sectional view of a semiconductor structure having a polysilicon substrate 10 of n - conductivity . a p - conductivity well region 11 is formed in substrate 10 , and an n - conductivity well region 12 is formed in substrate 10 . it should be readily understood that well regions 11 and 12 are electrically isolated from each other , and are illustrated adjacent one another solely for the purposes of illustration . a gate oxide layer 14 is uniformly deposited over p - well region 11 and n - well region 12 . above the layer of gate oxide 14 is deposited a layer of undoped polysilicon 15 . in the illustrated form , the layers of gate oxide 14 and undoped polysilicon 15 are planar . although the thickness of the layer of undoped polysilicon 15 may vary , an exemplary thickness of undoped polysilicon 15 is five hundred angstroms . shown in fig1 ( b ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure after a second layer of polysilicon is deposited , patterned and selectively etched . it should be well understood that the present invention may be implemented in other forms including the deposition of a single layer of polysilicon having first and second thicknesses with first and second doping concentrations , respectively , performed in - situ . the relative thicknesses of the layers having differing doping concentrations may be reversed from that shown in fig1 . also , a single deposition of insitudoped polysilicon rather than two distinct layered depositions may be made wherein the doping concentrations of the polysilicon are varied during the single deposition . gate electrodes 17 and 18 comprised of n + doped polysilicon are formed . the patterning of the doped layer of polysilicon is accomplished by depositing a layer of conventional photoresist material , such as photoresist layers 20 and 21 , over the doped polysilicon where gate electrodes 18 and 17 are respectively desired to be formed . the doping sensitive endpoint etch of the doped layer of polysilicon forms gate electrodes 17 and 18 but leaves the layer of undoped polysilicon over the remaining top surface of the semiconductor structure . therefore , the present invention provides an effective method for etching the doped polysilicon layer which is used to form gate electrodes 17 and 18 without also etching away the layer of undoped polysilicon 15 . as will be shown below , it is very important to the present invention that undoped polysilicon 15 not be removed at this time . the selective etching of the doped polysilicon layer to form gate electrodes 17 and 18 is accomplished by an etching process which uses a doping sensitive endpoint . the semiconductor structure is placed in a conventional etching system such as a parallel plate etcher . an etchant gas is used to perform a selective etch where photoresist is not placed from which gate electrodes 17 and 18 are formed . the etch is substantially anisotropic . during the etch , two basic reactions occur . the primary etchant is a fluorine containing species , such as sf6 , which reacts with polysilicon to form volatile fluorides of silicon as follows : where &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; is an integer between one and six inclusive , and &# 34 ; n &# 34 ; is an integer between one and four inclusive . the optical emissions from the plasma is filtered so that only the wavelengths associated with the sif n species reaches a photodetector . because the undoped polysilicon is less conductive than the doped polysilicon , the sf 6 plasma reacts more slowly when it reaches the undoped polysilicon layer 15 . as the reaction slows down , the sif n emissions decrease . in order to amplify the early endpoint signal , a second etchant gas can be added to the etch plasma . this gas is preferably a chlorinated freon compound , such as cfcl 3 . in the plasma , this gas can be added to the etch plasma . this gas is preferably a chlorinated freon compound , such as cfcl 3 . in the plasma , this gas dissociates into subfluorides and subchlorides of carbon , which react with the polysilicon to form volatile subfluorides and subchlorides of silicon as follows : where w , x , y and z are integers between one and four , inclusive . the optical emissions from the plasma is sent through a second filter so that only the wavelengths associated with the cclx species reaches a second photodetector . as previously described , the reaction stated by equation two will also slow down when the etch plasma reaches the undoped polysilicon layer 15 . in this case , however , the emission from the reactant cclx increases and reaches a maximum at the approximate midpoint of layer 15 . by ratioing these two divergent emission signals , v sifn / v cclx , the amplitude of the early endpoint signal can be significantly amplified . therefore , the ratio of fluorine to chlorine emissions is magnified when etching between doped and undoped polysilicon layers and specific etch points between differing doped layers can be easily and accurately detected . this doping sensitive technique can also apply to a technique which is a chlorine based etch chemistry . in the illustrated form , by having the undoped polysilicon layer 15 remain on the top surface of the gate oxide 14 , the etching process used to form gate electrodes 17 and 18 does not penetrate or degrade the layer of gate oxide 14 . gate oxide 14 is also protected from potential rupturing associated with electrical charge build - up on the top surface of the oxide during source / drain implantation . it should be understood that the doping sensitive endpoint etching of the gate electrode material may be implemented by using more than two regions or distinct layers of doping concentrations . for example , the gate electrode material may be formed from three regions of differing doping concentrations so that a transition into and out of a middle region may be detected . further , the doping impurities are not limited to group iii or group iv elements . other doping impurities such as oxygen , nitrogen or carbon may be utilized . shown in fig1 ( c ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure after photoresist layers 20 and 21 are removed and sidewall spacers are formed at the sides of gate electrodes 17 and 18 . sidewall spacers 26 and 27 are formed adjacent gate electrode 17 , and sidewall spacers 28 and 29 are formed adjacent gate region 18 . in one form , sidewall spacers 26 - 29 are formed of a low temperature oxide ( lto ) which is uniformly deposited over polysilicon layer 15 and gate electrodes 17 and 18 . it should be well understood that many types of materials may be utilized as sidewall spacers including any type of low temperature oxide , a photographically enhanced oxide , a refractory metal or a nitride . any type of material which can be etched selectively over polysilicon may be utilized . a reactive ion etch may be performed to remove the lto above the undoped polysilicon layer 15 . at the interface of the lto and doped polysilicon gate electrodes 17 and 18 , the reactive ion etch is sufficiently slow as compared to the remaining top surface of undoped polysilicon layer 15 to form the sidewall spacers 26 - 29 . although the lto may have any predetermined thickness in a wide range of values , a typical thickness for the lto is in the range of one thousand to four thousand angstroms . shown in fig1 ( d ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure after a photoresist mask 32 has been placed over the semiconductor structure substantially above the n conductivity well region 12 . the semiconductor structure is then subjected to an n + ion implant which forms diffusions 38 and 39 of n + conductivity . diffusions 38 and 39 are respectively aligned to the edges of sidewall spacers 26 and 27 . shown in fig1 ( e ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure after sidewalk spacers 26 and 27 are removed from gate region 17 . sidewall spacers 26 and 27 may e washed off from gate region 17 and undoped polysilicon layer 15 by a solution of hydrogen fluoride , hf . by using a wet etch of the sidewall spacers 26 and 27 , there is no inadvertent etching of gate regions 17 and 18 as is common when a reactive ion etch is required . also , a wet etch of sidewall spacers provides reliable , efficient manufacturability . the semiconductor structure is then subjected to a selective n - ion implant whereby diffusions 41 and 42 of n - conductivity are formed . diffusions 41 and 42 are each aligned to the one of the two sides of gate electrode 17 . photoresist mask 32 remains in place substantially above the n conductivity well region 12 during the formation of the ldd transistor in the p well region 11 . the semiconductor wafer is thus not subjected to a radiation environment during the selective implants . shown in fig1 ( f ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure wherein photoresist mask 32 has been removed and a photoresist mask 44 is placed over well region 11 . the semiconductor structure is then subjected to a p + ion implant which forms diffusions 46 and 48 of p + conductivity . diffusions 46 and 48 are respectively aligned to the sides of sidewall spacers 28 and 29 . shown in fig1 ( g ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure after sidewall spacers 28 and 29 are removed from gate region 18 . sidewall spacers 28 and 29 are also readily removable from the sides of gate region 18 by using the solution of hydrogen fluoride , hf . photoresist mask 44 remains in place over well region 11 . the semiconductor structure is then subjected to a p - ion implant which form diffusions 50 and 51 of p - conductivity . diffusions 50 and 51 are each aligned to one of the two sides of gate region 18 . shown in fig1 ( h ) is a cross - sectional view of the semiconductor structure after photoresist mask 48 is removed . during the previous process steps , the undoped layer of polysilicon 15 has been in place over the gate oxide layer 14 to protect the gate oxide during the diffusions described above . as a result , gate oxide layer 14 is structurally intact after the formation of an ldd transistor in both well region 11 and well region 12 . a further advantage of having the layer of undoped polysilicon 15 in place above gate oxide layer 14 relates to protection from electric charge buildup . the ion implant steps described above may be done using a commercially available implanter . clamps of the implanter which function to position and hold the semiconductor device must be fastened to edges of the semiconductor wafer on which the semiconductor is being fabricated . in the present invention , the clamps of the implanter make contact with the undoped polysilicon layer 15 rather than the gate oxide layer 14 . the undoped polysilicon layer 15 creates a ground plane for directing charge created from the source / drain implants away from the gate oxide layer 14 . therefore , charge associated with the ion implanted diffusions does not have an opportunity to collect on the gate oxide layer 14 and rupture layer 14 . in fig1 ( h ), the undoped polysilicon has been conventionally etched . although the etch removes a small quantity of polysilicon from the top surface of gate electrodes 17 and 18 , the gate electrodes 17 and 18 are left substantially intact . at this point , gate oxide layer 14 is now exposed and is the top layer of the semiconductor structure . however , the processing of the ldd transistors , an n - channel transistor in well region 11 and a p - channel transistor in well region 12 , is virtually complete . shown in fig1 ( i ) is a cross - sectional view of the completed semiconductor structure in the fabrication of an ldd n - channel transistor and an ldd p - channel transistor . the structure is reoxidized with an oxide layer 55 to insure the integrity of the oxide surrounding the corners of gate electrodes 17 and 18 . the structure is then annealed wherein the n + polysilicon of gate electrodes 17 and 18 diffuses with the undoped polysilicon layer 15 to form n + gate electrodes 17 &# 39 ; and 18 &# 39 ;, respectively . in the illustrated form , the above described process provides the inherent advantages associated with removable gate sidewall spacers which can be washed off in an hf solution . the gate oxide layer 14 is protected during the gate sidewall spacer formation and removal and also during all the ion implant steps . the protective undoped polysilicon layer 14 provides a ground plane during the ion implant which prevents electric charge rupture of gate oxide layer 14 . by using the doping sensitive endpoint etching described above , a thin , planar layer of undoped polysilicon can always be assured to remain above the gate oxide until the final reoxidation and anneal step . although various thicknesses of the undoped polysilicon layer can be accurate chosen , a thickness of approximately five hundred angstroms will adequately protect the gate oxide in most applications . it should be appreciated that although a cmos ldd process is illustrated , the present invention may be utilized to provide only n - channel lld transistors if desired and conventional p - channel transistors used otherwise . shown in fig2 are cross - sectional views of another transistor structure commonly referred to as an inverse - t gate structure lld transistor ( itldd ) which uses an undoped polysilicon layer provided by using the doping sensitive endpoint described above . in fig2 ( a ) is a cross - sectional view of the initial formation of the itldd structure . an n conductivity substrate 60 is provided wherein a p conductivity well region 61 and an n conductivity well region 62 is formed . a gate oxide layer 63 is grown on a top surface of the well regions 61 and 62 . above the gate oxide layer 63 is grown a relatively shallow layer 65 of undoped polysilicon . in one form , a layer of approximately five hundred angstroms is grown . shown in fig2 ( b ) is a cross - sectional view of the itldd structure after n + doped polysilicon gate electrodes 70 and 72 have been formed . gate electrodes 70 and 72 are formed by depositing a blanket planar layer of n + polysilicon and using photoresist 74 and 75 to respectively mask off gate electrodes 70 and 72 during an etch of the layer of n + polysilicon . the etch of the n + polysilicon layer is done by using the doping sensitive endpoint process described above in connection with fig1 . as soon as n + polysilicon layer is etched where photoresist 74 and 75 is not placed , the undoped polysilicon layer 65 is reached and the chemical reaction described above provides an easily detectable indicator of the transition between layers . shown in fig2 ( c ) is a cross - sectional view of the itldd structure after a photoresist mask 76 is placed over n well region 62 . the remainder of the semiconductor structure is subjected to a selective n - implant to respectively form source / drain diffusions 78 and 79 of n - conductivity . the source / drain diffusions are aligned to the side edges of gate electrode 70 . shown in fig2 ( d ) is a cross - sectional view of the itldd structure after photoresist mask 76 is removed and a photoresist mask 80 is placed over well region 61 . the remainder of the semiconductor structure is subjected to a selective p - implant to respectively form source / drain diffusions 81 and 82 of p - conductivity . the source / drain diffusions are aligned to the side edges of gate electrode 72 . shown in fig2 ( e ) is a cross - sectional view of the itldd structure after photoresist mask 80 is removed and sidewall spacers 84 and 85 are formed on the sides of the n + polysilicon of gate electrode 70 . sidewall spacers 86 and 87 are also formed on the sides of gate electrode 72 . in one form , the sidewall spacers are comprised of low temperature oxide ( lto ) and are deposited above the undoped polysilicon 65 . as previously mentioned , other materials may be used to implement the sidewall spacers . shown in fig2 ( f ) is a cross - sectional view of the itldd structure after photoresist mask 88 is placed over the n well region 62 . the remainder of the semiconductor structure is subjected to an n + ion implant to form n + diffusions 90 and 91 in p well region 61 . due to the masking action of sidewall spacers 84 and 85 and the gate electrode 70 , the diffusions 90 and 91 respectively align with the outside edges of sidewall spacers 84 and 85 . shown in fig2 ( g ) is a cross - sectional view of the itldd structure after photoresist mask 88 is removed and a photoresist mask 93 is placed over the p well region 61 . the remainder of the semiconductor structure is subjected to a p + ion implant to form p + diffusion 94 and 95 in n well region 82 . due to the masking action of sidewall spacers 86 and 87 and gate electrode 72 , the diffusions 94 and 95 respectively align with the outside edges of sidewall spacers 86 and 87 . shown in fig2 ( h ) is a cross - sectional view of the completed itldd structure wherein photoresist mask 93 is removed . the undoped polysilicon layer 65 is etched where exposed at the top surface of the structure so that gate oxide 63 is exposed at the top surface adjacent both sidewall spacers 84 and 85 and adjacent sidewall spacers 86 and 87 . a cmos itldd structure is thus provided . the inverse - t gate structure ldd transistor allows a lower n - implant level which results in a transistor with a higher breakdown voltage and better hot carrier injection performance . the inverse - t gate structure ldd described herein uses self - aligning ldd implants and is easily manufacturable and reliable . by selectively etching the doped and undoped polysilicon layers using a doping sensitive endpoint , the initially unetched polysilicon layer protects the gate oxide during device fabrication so that gate oxide layer 63 has improved integrity and does not get overly etched . shown in fig3 are cross - sectional views of another embodiment of the present invention for providing an ldd transistor structure . the ldd transistor structure of fig3 may be implemented with two masks and only two implant stpes . in fig3 ( a ) is a cross - sectional view of the initial formation of the ldd structure . an n conductivity substrate 100 is provided wherein a p conductivity well region 101 and an n conductivity well region 102 is formed . a gate layer 104 is grown on a top surface of the well regions 101 and 102 . above the gate oxide layer 104 is formed a relatively shallow layer 106 of undoped polysilicon . in one form , a layer of approximately five hundred angstroms is grown . shown in fig3 ( b ) is a cross - sectional view of the ldd transistor structure after n + doped polysilicon gate electrodes 108 and 110 have been formed . gate electrodes 108 and 110 are formed by depositing a blanket layer of n + polysilicon and using photoresist 11 , and 112 to respectively mask off gate electrodes 108 and 110 during an etch of the layer of n + polysilicon . the etch of the n + polysilicon layer is done by using the doping sensitive endpoint process described above . as soon as the n + polysilicon layer is etched where photoresist 111 and 112 is not placed , the undoped polysilicon 106 is reached and the chemical reaction described above provides an easily detectable indicator of the transition between layers so that polysilicon 106 can be left a protection layer for gate oxide 104 . shown in fig3 ( c ) is a cross - sectional view of the ldd transistor structure after silicon nitride sidewalls spacers 116 and 117 are formed around the sides of the gate electrode 108 and sidewall spacers 120 and 121 are formed around the sides of gate electrode 110 . although sidewall spacers of other material may be used , a sidewall spacer which may be subsequently removed without reacting with gate oxide is desired . silicon nitride is one possible material which meets this criteria . shown in fig3 ( d ) is a cross - sectional view of the ldd transistor structure after the undoped polysilicon 106 is etched to expose gate oxide 104 . the portions of undoped polysilicon 106 which are under gate electrodes 108 and 110 and sidewall spacers 116 , 117 , 120 and 121 are not etched . shown in fig3 ( e ) is a cross - sectional view of the ldd transistor structure after the sidewall spacers 116 , 117 , 120 and 121 are removed . since sidewall spacers 116 , 117 , 120 and 121 are comprised of a material which can be etched without damaging the integrity of the gate oxide layer 104 . the removal of the sidewall spacers without etching gate oxide layer 104 is very important . shown in fig3 ( f ) is a cross - sectional view of the ldd transistor structure after a photoresist mask 130 is placed over the n - well region 102 . the remainder of the semiconductor structure is subjected to an n + ion implant to form both n + source / drain diffusions 132 and 134 and n - source / drain diffusions 136 and 138 . the n + diffusions 132 and 134 respectively align substantially with the sides of the undoped polysilicon 106 below gate electrode 108 . adjacent the n + diffusions 132 and 134 are n - diffusions 136 and 138 which respectively align substantially with the sides of gate electrode 108 . the n - diffusions 136 and 138 are formed concurrently with n + diffusions 132 and 134 in p - well region 101 as a result of less penetration of the n + doping thru the undoped polysilicon 106 which is adjacent the sides of gate electrode 108 and thru gate oxide layer 104 into p - well region 101 . therefore , an ldd n - channel transistor is formed around gate electrode 108 in a single ion implant step . shown in fig3 ( g ) is a cross - sectional view of the ldd transistor structure after photoresist mask 130 is removed and a photoresist mask 140 is placed over the p - well region 140 . the remainder of the semiconductor structure is subjected to a p + ion implant to form both p + source / drain diffusions 144 and 146 and p - source / drain diffusions 147 and 148 . the p + diffusions 144 and 146 respectively align substantially with the sides of the undoped polysilicon 106 below gate electrode 110 . adjacent the p + diffusions 144 and 146 are diffusions 147 and 148 which respectively align substantially with the sides of gate electrode 110 . the p - diffusions 147 and 148 are formed concurrently with p + diffusions 144 and 146 in n - well region 102 as a result of less penetration of the p + doping through the undoped polysilicon 106 which is adjacent the sides of gate electrode 110 nd thru gate oxide layer 104 in n - well region 102 . therefore , an ldd p - channel transistor is formed around gate electrode 110 in a single ion implant step . in the illustrated form , a cmos inverse - t gate ldd transistor process requiring two photoresist masks and only two ion implant steps is provided . mask count is thereby minimized and the gate oxide and gate electrode material is not damaged during the etch steps of the process . in another form of the fig3 embodiment of the present invention , undoped polysilicon 106 can be etched adjacent the sides of gate electrodes 108 and 110 and above the layer of gate oxide 104 . such an etch would modify the ldd transistors from an inverse - t gate structure to a conventional ldd structure . a benefit of the additional etch step would be to reduce source - to - gate and drain - to - gate overlap capacitance . the desirability of the additional etch step would depend upon the application . also , the source / drain to gate overlap capacitance will vary as a function of the size of the n - diffusions 136 and 138 . therefore , the desirability of reducing the overlap capacitance must be compared with benefits otherwise provided by the inverse - t gate structure . by now it should be apparent that a process involving the initially incomplete etch of gate electrode material for use in fabricating an ldd transistor has been provided . the process described herein provides protection to a gate oxide layer during implant and sidewall formation steps . by using an etching technique which has a doping sensitive endpoint , the gate oxide layer may be protected by a thin undoped polysilicon layer during the majority of the fabrication steps of the device . at the completion of the device , a reliable gate oxide layer exists . while the invention has been described in the context of a preferred embodiment , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be modified in numerous ways and may assume many embodiments other than that specifically set out and described above . accordingly , it is intended by the appended claims to cover all modifications of the invention which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention .	7
the present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings , in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown . this invention may , however , be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein . rather , these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete , and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art . fig1 shows an exemplary cdma system configuration for the purpose of illustrating embodiments of the invention configured to perform soft - weighted subtractive cancellation . in the present example , a k th user terminal 100 receives communications from sources ( e . g ., base stations ) 101 and 102 via signal paths 111 and 112 , respectively . in an alternative embodiment not shown , the sources 101 and 102 may correspond to two propagation paths from one base station . the sources 101 and 102 employ orthogonalizing ( e . g ., walsh ) codes w j with pn / scrambling code covers p j where j = 1 or 2 . the orthogonalizing codes spread the symbol transmission by a factor of n . a data symbol for a k th user of a j th base - station may be represented by a jk . a received signal r [ n ] at the k th user terminal 100 for an n th chip and a symbol duration that spans n chips is expressed by where w jk [ n ] denotes the n th chip of the k th user from the j th source , and u [ n ] is additive white gaussian noise of variance σ 2 . although this exemplary embodiment excludes pulseshape filtering effects , alternative embodiments that consider pulse shaping may be provided . the variables k 1 and k 2 denote the number of user channels multiplexed by the 1 st and 2 nd transmit sources , respectively . if both sources correspond to the same base station , then k 1 = k 2 . the values c j are complex channel gains corresponding to the signal from the j th base station to the receiver . although a single path per base station is described , embodiments of the invention may be configured to account for multiple paths from each base station . if the first base station 101 transmits a signal of interest , then transmissions from the second base station 102 may comprise interference . interference cancellation , such as subtractive and / or projective cancellation may be employed . according to one aspect of the present invention , a receiver may synthesize interference from a combination of soft - weighted and hard - coded pre - processed symbol estimates . a synthesized interference signal s 2 [ n ] corresponding to the second base station 102 may be expressed by where ã 2k [ l ] is a pre - processed soft estimate of a k th user &# 39 ; s symbol on symbol period l , and λ 2k ( a 2k [ l ]) is a companding function acting on the estimated symbol ã 2k [ l ]. although the expression for the synthesized interference s 2 [ n ] may assume perfect channel estimates c 2 , uncertainty in the channel estimates may be factored into the functions λ 2k ( ã 2k [ l ]). the receiver may subtract the synthesized interference s 2 [ n ] from the received signal r [ n ]. an interference - cancelled version of the first path 111 , { circumflex over ( r )} 1 , is given by each chip of a corresponding pn - stripped output x 1 [ n ] is given by where * denotes a complex conjugate and the identity p 1 *[ n ] p 1 [ n ]= 1 is enforced . this step is followed by matching to an m th code for a user of interest . the result of this operation , â 1m , is has been enforced , and ρ mk is the correlation between the m th code of the first base station 101 and the k th code of the second base station 102 that includes the effects of the pn covers : symbol estimates ã 1m [ l ] for the m th user signal from the first base station 101 are is modeled as a complex random variable with zero mean and variance a w 2 , and e 1m is the expected value of \| a 1m \| 2 . the post - processed sinr is maximized by minimizing the expectation terms per subchannel ( e . g . walsh channel ). this is accomplished by decomposing the function λ 2k ( ã 2k ) into its real and imaginary components and differentiating with respect to each component . the minimizing function is the real scalar weighting λ 2k ã 2k . the symbol estimates ã 2k may be assumed to be uncorrelated symbol estimates , which have mean ã 2k and variance σ 2k 2 . the post - processed sinr m for a particular subchannel m may be maximized by selecting weights for the other subchannels as where e 2k = e \| a 2k \| 2 is the average energy of subchannel k for source 2 , e \| ã 2k \| 2 = e 2k + σ 2k 2 , and is the pre - processed sinr . if e 2k is known , the soft weight λ 2k may be estimated as where avg (.) denotes an average of the variable (.) over a sequence of symbol transmissions . this average may be quite general , and it may be based on prior knowledge or probability models for e 2k and / or α 2k k . if e 2k is unknown and σ 2k 2 is known , then λ 2k may be estimated as if { circumflex over ( λ )} 2k is quantized to zero or one , such as for selecting active subchannels , then { circumflex over ( λ )} 2k is where z is a predetermined threshold value . in one embodiment of the invention , the threshold value z = 2 may be used . if neither e 2k nor σ 2k 2 is known , then σ 2k 2 may be estimated from another subchannel having a common value σ 2m 2 = σ 2k 2 known e 2m , and known symbols . then λ 2k may be estimated as or with a corresponding quantized version . in some cases , avg ( σ 2k 2 ) can be obtained from avg ({ tilde over ( σ )} 2k k ) as an estimate of σ 2m 2 = e \| ã 2m −√{ square root over ( e 2m )} a 2m \| 2 , where a 2m is a known symbol on a pilot channel . similarly , other channels having known values of a 2m and √{ square root over ( e 2m )} may be used . if there is prior information about the distribution of e 2k , then λ 2k may be estimated as the posterior mean , given a sequence of symbol estimates { a 2k [ l ], l = 1 , 2 , . . . , l }: { circumflex over ( λ )} 2k = e [ λ 2k ∥ ã 2k \| 2 [ l ], l = 1 , 2 , . . . , l ] the expectation is over the posterior distribution of e 2k , given the sequence { a 2k [ l ]}. when the posterior mean is intractable to compute , it may be numerically approximated to produce estimates of λ 2k = e \| ã 2k \| 2 /( e \| ã 2k \| 2 + σ 2k 2 ) that are companded versions of \| ã 2k \| 2 /(\| ã 2k \| 2 + σ 2k 2 ) or companded versions of (\| ã 2k \| 2 \|− σ 2k 2 )/\| ã 2k \| 2 . in some embodiments , hard decisions may be made for the pre - processed symbol estimates when λ 2k exceeds a predetermined threshold . the derivation for the sinr in such embodiments is described in the co - pending application , entitled “ soft - weighted subtractive interference cancellation systems ,” which is hereby incorporated by reference . some embodiments may employ weighted soft decisions on some subchannels and hard decisions on others . in one such embodiment , all subchannels having a preprocessed sinr ( 1 ) between two predetermined thresholds employ soft weighted ( e . g ., companded ) estimates for interference synthesis . subchannels having values of sinr ( 1 ) below the lower threshold may be zeroed . subchannels having values of sinr ( 1 ) above the upper threshold may be hard - coded to a nearest constellation point ( i . e ., hard decisions are used ). a cdma2000 system in which symbols are drawn from a single qpsk constellation may use a combination of soft and hard decisions based on predetermined thresholds . however , in a system where w - cdma and hsdpa coexist , constellations for various users may differ . thus , the constellations of interfering users are typically unknown at the receiver , making hard decisions impractical , unless constellation classification is performed per user . however , the estimation of e 2k + σ 2k 2 remains unchanged . other embodiments may quantize the weighting of soft estimates . fig2 a is a block diagram that shows a receiver embodiment of the invention that may be employed in a cdma system . the receiver includes a baseband receiver 201 coupled to an sinr - estimation module 202 and a companding module 204 . a thresholding module 203 is coupled between the sinr - estimation module 202 and the companding module 204 . the companding module 204 is coupled to an interference synthesizer 205 , followed by a channel emulator 206 , and a canceller 207 . the baseband receiver 201 provides pre - processed symbol estimates for subchannels of a received baseband signal . for example , a rake receiver may be employed for producing pre - processed estimates for all of the received cdma subchannels . in another embodiment , symbol estimates may be chosen per rake finger . in some embodiments , the baseband receiver 201 may comprise an equalizer receiver . the pre - processed estimates are coupled into the sinr - estimation module 202 , which estimates a pre - processed sinr ( 1 ) for each subchannel . sinr estimates may be extracted from evms . alternatively , the noise - plus - interference variance may be measured on a representative subchannel ( e . g ., a pilot channel ) and used for all subchannels . the value avg ( ã 2k 2 ) may be used to estimate e 2k + σ 2k 2 directly without resolving onto a constellation . the thresholding module 203 compares estimated sinr to a predetermined threshold for determining whether soft or hard decisions are to be used for generating interference - symbol estimates for each subchannel . the companding module 204 generates the hard decisions and / or weighted soft decisions for each pre - processed symbol estimate . the companding module 204 may employ filtering for each subchannel to estimate user amplitudes , and amplitude scaling may be employed prior to hard decisions . the estimated sinr may be used to generate weights used to soft weight symbol estimates for each subchannel . the interference synthesizer 205 performs source - specific operations on the symbol estimates ( which may be soft and / or hard symbol estimates ) to produce a synthesized interference signal . for example the interference synthesizer 205 may perform an inverse fast walsh transform ( ifwt ) to respread user symbol estimates , followed by a pn covering that provides for pn / scrambling cover codes . a transmitter pulse - shaping filter may be used to shape the scrambled , code - multiplexed signal . the channel emulator 206 , which may optionally be part of the interference synthesizer 205 , adds channel distortions to the synthesized interference signal . in one embodiment , a path of interest is selected from a multipath signal . for example , the first signal path 111 from base station 101 corresponding to a first finger of a rake receiver may be denoted as the path of interest . in this case , the channel emulator 206 may convolve the synthesized interference with a channel profile that excludes the channel effects corresponding to the first finger ( i . e ., the first signal path 111 ). this enables a canceller ( e . g ., canceller 207 ) to remove effects of other multipath components from the path of interest ( i . e ., signal path 111 ). receiver embodiments of the invention may be configured to remove any number of multipath components from a path of interest . furthermore , when multiple transmit sources are present , signals from sources other than the source corresponding to the path of interest may be removed . the canceller 207 may include a subtractive canceller or a projective canceller configured to remove interference from the received baseband signal , which may be obtained from a receiver pulse - shaping filter ( not shown ). thus , the interference synthesizer 205 or the channel emulator 206 may optionally emulate the effects of receiver pulse - shaping for the synthesized interference . in some embodiments of the invention , the canceller 207 may provide for a scale factor α to adjust the amount of interference that is removed . in some cases , the received signal and the synthesized interference are not to scale . for example , walsh codes and pn codes typically are not normalized . walsh stripping and walsh insertion together introduce a scale equal to the code length n , and pn code stripping and insertion together introduce an additional factor of 2 . furthermore , mrc combining for m paths results in a scaling factor given by where b i is a weighting factor employed for an i th finger . for example , \| b i \| 2 =\| c i \| 2 or \| b i \| 2 =\| c i \| 2 / σ 2 . the normalizing factor in this case is the term α may also represent a projective cancellation factor that accounts for path correlations . an example of α for such a case is given by where p s is a projection operator p s = ss h / s h s . interference - cancelled signals output by the canceller 207 may be coupled to one or more rake fingers . in an exemplary rake receiver configured to process four multipath components , interference - cancelled signals in which the effects of a third and a fourth path are removed may be coupled to fingers configured for processing first and second multipath components . a comparator ( not shown ) may optionally be employed for selecting one of the interference - cancelled signal and the uncancelled signal for processing by a rake receiver , embodiments of the invention may be configured for receivers having more than one receive antenna . for example , in fig2 b , each of a plurality n of rake receivers 201 . 1 - 201 . n corresponding to a different receive antenna ( not shown ) may include an interference canceller 207 . 1 - 207 . n , respectively . a generalized combiner may be used to combine paths that are common to two or more receive antennas . a combiner 211 may perform maximal ratio combining across the rake 201 . 1 - 201 . n fingers . alternative types of combining may be performed . pre - processed soft estimates are output by the combiner 211 and used to produce synthesized interference , such as described previously . the synthesized interference is coupled to a plurality of channel emulators 206 . 1 - 206 . n , wherein each channel emulator 206 . 1 - 206 . n has an associated rake receiver 201 . 1 - 201 . n . in an exemplary two - antenna system configured for receiving two multipath components from a single transmit source , a first channel emulator produces two interference signals corresponding to the two paths received by the first antenna . similarly , a second channel emulator produces two interference signals corresponding to the two paths received by the second antenna . in this case , the receiver may include four rake fingers , each matched to one of the four paths . the first finger may be assigned to the signal received by the first antenna , wherein interference due to the second path is removed via subtractive or projective cancellation . the second finger may be assigned to the signal received by the first antenna wherein the interference due to the first path is removed . similarly , the third and fourth fingers may be matched to the multipath components received by the second receive antenna . in “ data optimized ” cdma , such as high - speed downlink packet access ( hsdpa ), multiple subchannels transmitting high data rates have the same frequency - selective fade and each of these coded subchannels has the same transmission amplitude . these subchannels coexist with voice channels , which have a lower data rate . unlike the high - rate subchannels , these low - rate channels may have different amplitudes . in such systems , only one weight may be calculated for each of the k subchannels carrying high data rates . signal amplitudes may be averaged over time and / or across subchannels , and the noise power may also be averaged over subchannels to obtain a single sinr estimate . in one embodiment of the invention , an sinr estimate may be compared to a predetermined threshold for determining whether to perform hard decisions , weighted soft decisions , or zeroing for all of the high data rate subchannels . fig3 is a flow chart that illustrates a cancellation method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention . rake synthesis 301 . 1 processes a received baseband signal to produce soft symbol estimates for data symbols modulated on subchannels by a first source ( e . g ., a first base station ). similarly , rake synthesis 301 . n produces soft symbol estimates for data symbols modulated on subchannels by an n th source . the rake synthesis steps 301 . 1 - 301 . n may optionally be cross - coupled if source diversity is present for at least some of the subchannels , such as may typically occur during a soft hand over . for each source , an sinr estimate or a vector magnitude is made from the soft symbol estimates 302 . 1 - 302 . n . these measurements are used to determine the reliability of the soft symbol estimates . based on this reliability determination , either a hard decision or a weighted soft - decision is produced for each soft symbol estimate 303 . 1 - 303 . n . this companding process 303 . 1 - 303 . n may implement subchannel selection , such as by discarding subchannels that have a signal energy that falls below a predetermined threshold . interference synthesis ( such as providing for pn covering , walsh covering , pulse shaping , and channel emulation ) 304 . 1 - 304 . n is performed to synthesize interference received from each source ( i . e . each base station and / or multipath ). interference for a particular rake finger is synthesized 305 using synthesized multipath signals from each of the first source to the n th source . scaling 306 may optionally be used to scale interference received from the different sources . some form of interference cancellation 307 ( such as subtractive cancellation , weighted subtractive cancellation , projective cancellation , or weighted projective cancellation ) is provided for cancelling interference from a predetermined path of interest . rake finger input selection 308 is performed to select between an interference - cancelled signal and the original received baseband signal ( depending on which signal has the highest value of estimated sinr or an alternative figure of merit ) prior to coupling the resulting selected signal into a rake finger . rake synthesis 309 produces soft estimates for each subchannel . signal and noise powers are measured 310 , followed by another selection process 311 configured to select either soft estimates produced by some combination of rake synthesis 301 . 1 to 301 . n or soft estimates produced by rake synthesis 309 , the selected signals may be output for further processing . those skilled in the art should recognize that method and apparatus embodiments described herein may be implemented in a variety of ways , including implementations in hardware , software , firmware , or various combinations thereof . examples of such hardware may include application specific integrated circuits ( asics ), field programmable gate arrays ( fpgas ), general - purpose processors , digital signal processors ( dsps ), and / or other circuitry . software and / or firmware implementations of the invention may be implemented via any combination of programming languages , including java , c , c ++, matlab ™, verilog , vhdl , and / or processor specific machine and assembly languages . computer programs ( i . e ., software and / or firmware ) implementing the method of this invention may be distributed to users on a distribution medium such as a sim card , a usb memory interface , or other computer - readable memory adapted for interfacing with a consumer wireless terminal . similarly , computer programs may be distributed to users via wired or wireless network interfaces . from there , they will often be copied to a hard disk or a similar intermediate storage medium . when the programs are to be run , they may be loaded either from their distribution medium or their intermediate storage medium into the execution memory of a wireless terminal , configuring an onboard digital computer system ( e . g . a microprocessor ) to act in accordance with the method of this invention . all these operations are well known to those skilled in the art of computer systems . fig4 a illustrates a method for estimating subchannel symbols as part of an interference - cancellation technique . for a given pre - processed sinr , hard decisions are employed if the sinr is higher than a first predetermined threshold 401 . weighted soft decisions may be employed for an intermediate range of sinrs defined by an upper bound ( e . g ., the first predetermined threshold ) and a lower bound 402 ( e . g ., a second predetermined threshold ). subchannel symbol values may be discarded ( e . g ., set to zero ) if the pre - processed sinr falls below the second predetermined threshold 403 . in a related embodiment , an interference cancellation circuit may be turned off if the measured sinr falls below a predetermined threshold , since , in some embodiments of the invention , it is known that interference cancellation may not be as useful as power conservation at lower pre - processed sinrs . fig4 b illustrates a method for estimating subchannel symbols for a given system that employs different signal constellations corresponding to different data rates . a system identification 400 is performed for each subchannel . for example , system identification 400 may distinguish between hsdpa subchannels and non - hsdpa subchannels , which have a lower data rate . for subchannels ( e . g ., hsdpa subchannels ) having a higher data rate , some predetermined strategy may be used to estimate subchannel symbols based on whether the symbol constellation for those subchannels is known or unknown . weighted soft estimates may be employed or cancellation may be bypassed for hsdpa subchannels in which the constellation is unknown . if the constellation is known , hard decisions 411 , weighted soft decisions 412 , and / or no cancellation 413 may be performed . for non - hsdpa ( e . g ., wcdma ) subchannels , it is assumed that the constellation is known . thus , hard decisions 421 , weighted soft decisions 422 , and / or no cancellation 423 may be performed . the functions of the various elements shown in the drawings , including functional blocks labeled as “ modules ” may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware , as well as hardware capable of executing software in association with appropriate software . when provided by a processor , the functions may be performed by a single dedicated processor , by a shared processor , or by a plurality of individual processors , some of which may be shared . moreover , explicit use of the term “ processor ” or “ module ” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software , and may implicitly include , without limitation , digital signal processor dsp hardware , read - only memory ( rom ) for storing software , random access memory ( ram ), and non - volatile storage . other hardware , conventional and / or custom , may also be included . similarly , the function of any component or device described herein may be carried out through the operation of program logic , through dedicated logic , through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic , or even manually , the particular technique being selectable by the implementer as more specifically understood from the context . the method and system embodiments described herein merely illustrate particular embodiments of the invention . it should be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements , which , although not explicitly described or shown herein , embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope . furthermore , all examples and conditional language recited herein are intended to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention . this disclosure and its associated references are to be construed as applying without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions . moreover , all statements herein reciting principles , aspects , and embodiments of the invention , as well as specific examples thereof , are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof . additionally , it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future , i . e ., any elements developed that perform the same function , regardless of structure .	7
the term “ mammalian dna - r ” as used herein refers to proteins consisting essentially of , and having substantially the same biological activity as , the protein encoded by the amino acid depicted in fig1 ( seq id no . : 2 ). this definition is intended to encompass natural allelic variations in the disclosed dna - r . cloned nucleic acid provided by the present invention may encode dna - r protein of any species of origin , including , for example , mouse , rat , rabbit , cat , and human , but preferably the nucleic acid provided by the invention encodes dna - rs of mammalian , most preferably human , origin . the nucleic acids provided by the invention comprise dna or rna having a nucleotide sequence encoding a mammalian dna - r . specific embodiments of said nucleic acids are depicted in fig1 ( seq id no . : 1 ), and include any nucleotide sequence encoding a mammalian dna - r having an amino acid sequence as depicted in fig1 ( seq id no . : 2 ). nucleic hybridization probes as provided by the invention comprise any portion of a nucleic acid of the invention effective in nucleic acid hybridization under stringency conditions sufficient for specific hybridization . mixtures of such nucleic acid hybridization probes are also within the scope of this embodiment of the invention . nucleic acid probes as provided herein are useful for isolating mammalian species analogues of the specific embodiments of the nucleic acids provided by the invention . nucleic acid probes as provided herein are also useful for detecting mammalian dna - r gene expression in cells and tissues using techniques well - known in the art , including but not limited to northern blot hybridization , in situ hybridization and southern hybridization to reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction product dnas . the probes provided by the present invention , including oligonucleotides probes derived therefrom , are also useful for southern hybridization of mammalian , preferably human , genomic dna for screening for restriction fragment length polymorphism ( rflp ) associated with certain genetic disorders . the production of proteins such as mammalian dna - r from cloned genes by genetic engineering means is well known in this art . the discussion which follows is accordingly intended as an overview of this field , and is not intended to reflect the fall state of the art . nucleic acid encoding a dna - r may be obtained , in view of the instant disclosure , by chemical synthesis , by screening reverse transcripts of mrna from appropriate cells or cell line cultures , by screening genomic libraries from appropriate cells , or by combinations of these procedures , in accordance with known procedures as illustrated below . screening of mrna or genomic dna may be carried out with oligonucleotide probes generated from the nucleic acid sequence information from mammalian dna - r nucleic acid as disclosed herein . probes may be labeled with a detectable group such as a fluorescent group , a radioactive atom or a chemiluminescent group in accordance with know procedures and used in conventional hybridization assays , as described in greater detail in the examples below . in the alternative , mammalian dna - r nucleic acid sequences may be obtained by use of the polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ) procedure , using pcr oligonucleotide primers corresponding to nucleic acid sequence information derived from a dna - r as provided herein . see u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 683 , 195 to mullis et al . and 4 , 683 , 202 to mullis . mammalian dna - r protein may be synthesized in host cells transformed with a recombinant expression construct comprising a nucleic acid encoding the dna - r nucleic acid , comprising genomic dna or cdna . such recombinant expression constructs can also be comprised of a vector that is a replicable dna construct . vectors are used herein either to amplify dna encoding a dna - r and / or to express dna encoding a dna - r gene . for the purposes of this invention , a recombinant expression construct is a replicable dna construct in which a nucleic acid encoding a dna - r is operably linked to suitable control sequences capable of effecting the expression of the dna - r in a suitable host . the need for such control sequences will vary depending upon the host selected and the transformation method chosen . generally , control sequences include a transcriptional promoter , an optional operator or enhancer sequence to control transcription , a sequence encoding suitable mrna ribosomal binding sites , and sequences which control the termination of transcription and translation . amplification vectors do not require expression control domains . all that is needed is the ability to replicate in a host , usually conferred by an origin of replication , and a selection gene to facilitate recognition of transformants . see , sambrook et al ., 2001 , molecular cloning : a laboratory manual ( cold spring harbor press : new york ). vectors useful for practicing the present invention include plasmids , viruses ( including phage and mammalian dna and rna viruses ), retroviruses , and integratable dna fragments ( i . e ., fragments integratable into the host genome by homologous recombination ). the vector can replicate the gene of interest and function independently of the host genome , or can , in some instances , integrate into the genome itself . suitable vectors will contain replicon and control sequences which are derived from species compatible with the intended expression host . transformed host cells are cells which have been transformed or transfected with recombinant expression constructs made using recombinant dna techniques and comprising nucleic acid encoding a dna - r protein . preferred host cells are hek293 cells , cos - 7 cells ( gluzman , 1981 , cell 23 : 175 - 182 ) and ltk − cells . transformed host cells may express the dna - r protein , but host cells transformed for purposes of cloning or amplifying nucleic acid hybridization probe dna need not express the receptor . when expressed , the dna - r of the invention will typically be located in the host cell membrane . accordingly , the invention provides preparations of said cell membranes comprising the dna - r protein of the invention , as well as purified , homogeneous preparations of the receptor protein itself . see , sambrook et al ., ibid . cultures of cells derived from multicellular organisms are a desirable host for recombinant dna - r protein synthesis . in principal , any higher eukaryotic cell culture is useful , whether from vertebrate or invertebrate culture . however , mammalian cells are preferred , as illustrated in the examples . propagation of such cells in cell culture has become a routine procedure . see tissue culture , academic press , kruse & amp ; patterson , editors ( 1973 ). examples of useful host cell lines are human embryonic kidney ( hek ) 293 cells , vero and hela cells , chinese hamster ovary ( cho ) cell lines , mouse ltk − cell lines and wi138 , bhk , cos - 7 , cv , and mdck cell lines . hek293 cell , cos - 7 cells and ltk − cells are preferred . the invention provides homogeneous compositions of mammalian dna - r protein produced by transformed eukaryotic cells as provided herein . each such homogeneous composition is intended to be comprised of a dna - r protein that comprises at least 75 %, more preferably at least 80 %, and most preferably at least 90 % of the protein in such a homogenous composition ; in said homogeneous preparations , individual contaminating protein species are expected to comprise less than 5 %, more preferably less than 2 % and most preferably less than 1 % of the preparation . the invention also provides membrane preparations from cells expressing mammalian dna - r protein as the result of transformation with a recombinant expression construct , as described herein . also specifically provided by the invention are fragments of the dna - r of the invention , most preferably dna binding fragments thereof . in preferred embodiments , said fragments include soluble forms of the receptor lacking the transmembrane domain and an amino - terminal fragment ( most preferably amino acids 1 - 575 ) comprising zinc finger and ring sequence motifs known in the art to be related to dna - protein binding . mammalian dna - r proteins made from cloned genes in accordance with the present invention may be used for screening compounds that effect dna binding to cells in vivo and in vitro , as more fully described herein , and that affect dna uptake and expression of genes encoded thereby . for example , host cells may be transformed with a recombinant expression construct of the present invention , a mammalian dna - r expressed in those host cells , and the cells or membranes thereof used to screen compounds for their effect on dna binding . by selection of host cells that do not ordinarily express a dna - r , pure preparations of membranes containing the receptor can be obtained . the recombinant expression constructs of the present invention are useful in molecular biology to transform cells which do not ordinarily express a dna - r to thereafter express this receptor . such cells are useful as intermediates for making cell membrane preparations useful for receptor binding activity assays , which are in turn useful for drug screening . the recombinant expression constructs of the present invention thus provide a method for screening potentially useful drugs at advantageously lower cost than conventional animal screening protocols . while not completely eliminating the need for ultimate in vivo activity and toxicology assays , the constructs and cultures of the invention provide an important first screening step for the vast number of potentially useful drugs synthesized , discovered or extracted from natural sources each year . this utility thereby enables rational drug design of novel therapeutically - active drugs using currently - available techniques ( see walters , “ computer - assisted modeling of drugs ”, in klegerman & amp ; groves , eds ., 1993 , pharmaceutical biotechnology , interpharm press : buffalo grove , ill ., pp . 165 - 174 ). the recombinant expression constructs of the present invention may also be useful in gene therapy . cloned genes of the present invention , or fragments thereof , may also be used in gene therapy carried out homologous recombination or site - directed mutagenesis . see generally thomas & amp ; capecchi , 1987 , cell 51 : 503 - 512 ; bertling , 1987 , bioscience reports 7 : 107 - 112 ; smithies et al ., 1985 , nature 317 : 230 - 234 . nucleic acid and oligonucleotide probes as provided by the present invention are useful as diagnostic tools for probing dna - r gene expression in tissues of humans and other animals . for example , tissues are probed in situ with oligonucleotide probes carrying detectable groups by conventional autoradiographic or other detection techniques , to investigate native expression of this receptor or pathological conditions relating thereto . further , chromosomes can be probed to investigate the presence or absence of the corresponding dna - r gene , and potential pathological conditions related thereto . oligonucleotides , particularly antisense oligonucleotides , are also useful for decreasing expression of the dna - r in cells that overexpress the receptor or whose expression is disadvantageous in a host organism , either generally or in specific tissues . an example of the latter instance is in airway epithelial cells and macrophages in lung tissues in cystic fibrosis patients , as set forth more fully herein . the invention also provides antibodies that are immunologically reactive to the dna - r protein or epitopes thereof provided by the invention . the antibodies provided by the invention may be raised , using methods well known in the art , in animals by inoculation with cells that express a dna - r or epitopes thereof , cell membranes from such cells , whether crude membrane preparations or membranes purified using methods well known in the art , or purified preparations of proteins , including protein fragments and fusion proteins , particularly fusion proteins comprising epitopes of the dna - r protein of the invention fused to heterologous proteins and expressed using genetic engineering means in bacterial , yeast or eukaryotic cells , said proteins being isolated from such cells to varying degrees of homogeneity using conventional biochemical methods . synthetic peptides made using established synthetic methods in vitro and optionally conjugated with heterologous sequences of amino acids , are also encompassed in these methods to produce the antibodies of the invention . animals that are useful for such inoculations include individuals from species comprising cows , sheep , pigs , mice , rats , rabbits , hamsters , goats and primates . preferred animals for inoculation are rodents ( including mice , rats , hamsters ) and rabbits . the most preferred animal is the mouse . cells that can be used for such inoculations , or for any of the other means used in the invention , include any cell line which naturally expresses the dna - r provided by the invention , or more preferably any cell or cell line that expresses the dna - r of the invention , or any epitope thereof , as a result of molecular or genetic engineering , or that has been treated to increase the expression of an endogenous or heterologous dna - r protein by physical , biochemical or genetic means . preferred cells are mammalian cells , most preferably cells syngeneic with a rodent , most preferably a mouse host , that have been transformed with a recombinant expression construct of the invention encoding a dna - r protein , and that express the receptor therefrom . the present invention also provides monoclonal antibodies that are immunologically reactive with an epitope derived from a dna - r of the invention , or fragment thereof , present on the surface of such cells or in membrane preparations thereof or used after varying degrees of biochemical purification . particularly useful are soluble fragments of the dna - r of the invention , including for example species of the receptor genetically engineered to remove the transmembrane domain , and amino - terminal fragments , most preferably dna binding fragments of the receptor . such antibodies are made using methods and techniques well known to those of skill in the art . monoclonal antibodies provided by the present invention are produced by hybridoma cell lines , which are also provided by the invention and are made by methods well known in the art . hybridoma cell lines are made by fusing individual cells of a myeloma cell line with spleen cells derived from animals immunized with cells expressing a dna - r of the invention , as described above . the myeloma cell lines used in the invention include lines derived from myelomas of mice , rats , hamsters , primates and humans . preferred myeloma cell lines are from mouse , and the most preferred mouse myeloma cell line is p3x63 - ag8 . 653 . the animals from whom spleens are obtained after immunization are rats , mice and hamsters , preferably mice , most preferably balb / c mice . spleen cells and myeloma cells are fused using a number of methods well known in the art , including but not limited to incubation with inactivated sendai virus and incubation in the presence of polyethylene glycol ( peg ). the most preferred method for cell fusion is incubation in the presence of a solution of 45 % ( w / v ) peg - 1450 . monoclonal antibodies produced by hybridoma cell lines can be harvested from cell culture supernatant fluids from in vitro cell growth ; alternatively , hybridoma cells can be injected subcutaneously and / or into the peritoneal cavity of an animal , most preferably a mouse , and the monoclonal antibodies obtained from blood and / or ascites fluid . monoclonal antibodies provided by the present invention are also produced by recombinant genetic methods well known to those of skill in the art , and the present invention encompasses antibodies made by such methods that are immunologically reactive with an epitope of an amino acid receptor of the invention . the present invention also encompasses antigen - binding fragments , including but not limited to f v , f ( ab ) and f ( ab )′ 2 fragments , of such antibodies . fragments are produced by any number of methods , including but not limited to proteolytic or chemical cleavage , chemical synthesis or preparation of such fragments by means of genetic engineering technology . the present invention also encompasses single - chain antibodies that are immunologically reactive with an epitope of a dna - r , made by methods known to those of skill in the art . the present invention also encompasses an epitope of a dna - r of the invention , comprised of sequences and / or a conformation of sequences present in the receptor molecule . this epitope may be naturally occurring , or may be the result of chemical or proteolytic cleavage of a receptor molecule and isolation of an epitope - containing peptide or may be obtained by chemical or in vitro synthesis of an epitope - containing peptide using methods well known to those skilled in the art . the present invention also encompasses epitope peptides produced as a result of genetic engineering technology and synthesized by genetically engineered prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells . the invention also includes chimeric antibodies , comprised of light chain and heavy chain peptides immunologically reactive to a dna - r - derived epitope . the chimeric antibodies embodied in the present invention include those that are derived from naturally occurring antibodies as well as chimeric antibodies made by means of genetic engineering technology well known to those of skill in the art . nucleic acids encoding the receptor , the dna - r and dna - binding fragments thereof , are advantageously used to modulate expression or activity of the receptor in cells in vivo and in vitro . as provided herein , the dna - r of the invention , particularly soluble embodiments thereof , can competitively bind dna to reduce said binding to cells expressing the dna - r . dna binding to the dna - r in certain cells , such as airway epithelial cells and macrophages in lung , is associated with the activation of inflammatory processes that cause a significant proportion of the morbidity and mortality associated with cystic fibrosis , chronic bronchitis and other chronic lung diseases . thus , the invention provides a variety of methods for reducing said morbidity and mortality by interfering with dna binding to cells in the lung . in one embodiment , soluble dna - r species can be administered , most preferably by aerosol administration using formulations , excipients and vehicles well known in the art , directly to lung tissue , and competitive dna binding achieved thereby . in alternative embodiments , antisense oligonucleotides can be delivered to lung tissue , most preferably by aerosol administration , and expression of the dna - r in target cells of the lung repressed thereby . in further alternatives , antibodies , most preferably monoclonal antibodies , that specifically inhibit dna binding to the dna - r of the invention can be used to inhibit dna binding to said lung cells . the dna - r of the invention , particularly soluble embodiments and dna - binding fragments thereof , are also useful in treating other inflammation - associated diseases and conditions , including otitis media , septic arthritis and any bacterial or viral infection that causes inflammation by interaction with the dna - r additionally , the dna - r of the invention can be used to screen compounds that modulate dna binding , uptake and expression . introduction of dna , particularly dna encoding a desired gene , is a methodology well known in the art . however , dna introduction methods have been developed empirically and without any understanding of the molecular bases of dna uptake . specifically , heretofore specific dna binding to a dna - r as disclosed herein and uptake thereby by endocytosis was unappreciated in the art . identification of the dna - r of the invention thus provides a novel target for developing compounds and methods for increasing efficiency of dna uptake and expression of genes encoded thereby . another advantageous method provided by this invention is the use of dna - r expressed in tumor cells to facilitate delivery of dna - binding anticancer drugs to tumor cells . drugs such as adriamycin ( doxorubicin ) are in clinical use for the treatment of cancer patients . enhanced extracellular dna uptake in tumor cells expression the dna - r of the invention would facilitate uptake of such dna - binding anticancer drugs by using extracellular dna as a carrier of the drug into the cell . the association of the drug with the extracellular dna might enable the drug to avoid active efflux produced in tumor cells , inter alia , by drug resistance mediators such as p - glycoprotein . employing the same rationale as with gene transfer , the selective augmentation of dna binding receptors on tumor cells would enhance uptake of dna - binding drugs and result in an increased therapeutic effect . in alternative embodiments , other diseases , such as malaria , can be treated in a similar fashion , based on the development of cell - surface dna binding in red blood cells parasitized with the malarial parasite plasmodium falciparum . the examples which follow are illustrative of specific embodiments of the invention , and various uses thereof . they set forth for explanatory purposes only , and are not to be taken as limiting the invention . as described in the specification above , dna binding to cells had been observed in the art , and the behavior of said binding suggested the existence of a dna binding protein expressed at the cell surface . in order to isolate a novel dna - binding protein from human cells , serum from a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus ( sle ), treated to deplete the sera of anti - dna antibodies by multiple ( 6 ×) passages over a dna sepharose column , was used to screen a λgt11 cdna expression library made from liposaccharide stimulated human monocytes . this serum has been shown to have anti - dna receptor activities ( defined by the blocking of dna binding to cells ; bennet et al ., 1992 . j . clin . invest . 76 : 2182 - 2190 ). from approximately one million plaques screened with this sera , ten positive phage clones were identified and isolated according to the technique of young and davis ( 1983 , proc . natl . acad . sci . usa 80 : 1194 - 1198 ). the clones were grouped into two classes , based on southern blot and western blot analyses using eluted antibodies . sequence analysis of the 1 . 4 kilobase ( kb ) insert of one clone ( clone 88 ), which was highly reactive on western blots with sle serum , revealed an open reading frame that was open at the 5 ′ end of the clone and contained a translation stop codon at the 3 ′ end . this open reading frame coded for a 46 . 7 kilodalton ( kda ) protein fragment . the full length cdna for the putative dna - r was obtained in segments from peripheral blood mononuclear cells , human burkitt lymphoma cells ( raji ; accession no . ccl 86 , american type culture collection , manassas , va . ), human cervical carcinoma cells ( hela ; atcc accession no . ccl 2 ), and human lymphoblastic leukemia cells ( molt - 4 ; atcc accession no . crl 1582 ). a 731 base pair ( bp ) dna probe from clone 88 was used to screen a λgt11 phage library from a raji cell line ( the library was obtained from clonetech labs , palo alto , calif .). a 2409 bp clone which contained an additional 462 bp of 5 ′ open reading frame ( orf ) sequence was obtained from this screening . additional sequence from the 5 ′ extent of the cdna was isolated using two variations of the 5 ′ race ( rapid amplification of cdna ends ) method . in the first 5 ′ race method , single stranded dna ( ssdna ) was synthesized from hela cell mrna using polyt primers and reverse transcriptase . a polya tail was added to the 5 ′ end of the ssdna by terminal transferase . the single stranded cdna was amplified using a gene specific primer and a polyt primer . this clone contained 753 bp of additional sequence 5 ′ of the previously obtained sequence . the remainder of the 5 ′ sequence of the cdna was obtained from molt - 4 cdna by marathon race cdna amplification ( clonetech labs , palo alto , calif .) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . this procedure produced an additional 1290 bp clone consisting of 340 bp of orf and a 950 bp 5 ′ untranslated region . combining the results from these screening and amplification experiments produced the predicted full length cdna encoding the dna - r of the invention . a complete , full - length cdna for the putative dna receptor was cloned as a single rt - pcr product from molt - 4 mrna using oligonucleotide primers having the following sequence : primer 5 ′: acccgagcatggatccgccaccatggctgtgcaggcagc ( seq id no : 5 ) and primer 3 ′: ggtatctagatccatggtgtggtcac ( seq id no : 6 ) the complete sequence was 4351 nucleotides ( seq id no : 1 ) in length with a defined open reading frame of 3576 nucleotides encoding a protein of 1192 amino acids ( seq id no : 2 ). the isolation protocol is schematically illustrated in fig1 . tissue - specific and cell line - specific expression patterns of its corresponding mrna in various human tissues was analyzed by northern blot analysis on rna isolated from various tissues and cancer cell lines . the results of these experiments are shown in fig2 . a panel of tissue samples was examined by northern hybridization analysis performed under low stringency conditions , defined as hybridization at 42 ° c . in 5 × sspe ( 0 . 75m nacl , 0 . 05m nah 2 po 4 , 5 mm edta ), 10 × denhardt &# 39 ; s solution ( 0 . 2 % ficoll , 0 . 2 % polyvinylpyrrolidone , 0 . 2 % bovine serum albumen ), 100 μg / ml salmon sperm dna , 2 % sds and 50 % deionized formamide and 1 - 2 × 10 6 cpm random - primed , 32 p labeled probe , followed by washing in 0 . 1 × ssc ( 15 mm nacl , 1 . 5 mm trisodium citrate , 0 . 1 % sds ). the blots were hybridized with a probe consisting of442 bp of sequence from the 3 ′ end of the coding sequence from the dna - r gene to determine the distribution of receptor mrna . this analysis revealed two major transcripts of 9 . 5 and 6 . 8 kb in all human tissues and cancer cell lines examined . transcript expression was relatively abundant in spleen , testis , ovary , and small intestine . several smaller transcript sizes were also observed in some of the tissues and cell lines examined ( fig2 ). a homology search against human genomic sequence placed the dna receptor on chromosome 9q34 ( genbank accession number ac007066 , marker him9 . 89 on contig chr9 . sl27 ). the genomic sequence , which covered 85 % of the cdna starting from the 5 ′ end , revealed the location of 16 complete exons and the beginning of a 17 th exon . a blast search of the expressed tag sequence ( est ) database indicated wide expression of this gene in normal human tissue ( liver / spleen , prostate epithelial , germinal b cell , white adipose , pregnant uterus , fetal heart / liver and spleen ) and in tumor and transformed human cells ( jurkat , hl60 , 293 , g361 , b - cell lymphocytic leukemia , colon tumor , melanoma , and parathyroid tumor ). [ 0091 ] fig3 provides a schematic diagram of the structure of the dna - r protein encoded by seq id no . 1 . hydropathy analysis identified a 38 amino acid hydrophobic region near the carboxy terminus of the protein ( amino acids 1133 - 1171 ) which is a potential transmembrane domain . expression of a soluble species of this receptor by deleting these amino acids supported identification of this region as a transmembrane domain . in addition , seven consensus sites for - linked glycolsylation have been identified ( amino acid positions 122 , 394 , 430 , 451 , 466 , 468 , and 1150 ) and there is a proline rich ( 20 % of the residues are proline ) region spanning amino acids 549 - 809 ( fig3 ). the calculated isoelectric point of the dna receptor protein is 6 . 4 . the blast search also identified two art - recognized amino acid sequence motifs in the dna - r sequence : a c3hc3d ring finger subtype located near the amino terminus ( amino acids 14 - 50 ) and a c3h zinc finger located near the center of the protein sequence ( amino acids 416 - 435 ). an alignment of several ring finger motifs is shown in fig4 a ; dna - r differs from the originally identified c3hc4 ring finger motif by the replacement of the last cysteine with an aspartic acid . the alignment of the conserved cysteines and histidines of the c3h zinc finger motif is shown in fig4 b . the dna - r of the invention was produced recombinantly as follows . a bamhi - hpai cdna fragment containing the coding sequence for amino acids 1 - 1190 ( i . e ., missing the two most carboxylterminal amino acids ) of the dna - r of the invention was cloned into ptriplflu ( obtained from j . epstein , university of pennsylvania , philadelphia , pa .). this vector contains a sequence encoding an epitope tag from the influenza hemagglutinin gene in triplicate inserted immediately 3 ′ of the multiple cloning site of the parent vector , pcdna3 , and which are in - frame with the inserted dna - r cdna sequence . this vector was introduced into human 293 cells by transfection using lipofectamine ( life technologies , gaithersburg , md .) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . transfected cells ( 293 - dna - r / flu ) were selected by culturing in growth media ( dmem supplemented with 10 % fetal calf serum , 2 mm l - glutamine , 100 u / ml penicillin and 100 μg / ml streptomycin ) supplemented with 500 μg / ml g418 . in order to characterize dna - r protein expression in mamnmalian cells , immunoprecipitation and western blotting experiments were performed with protein extracts isolated from several cell lines using polyclonal antisera raised against an amino - terminal fragment of the dna - r of the invention , comprising amino acid residues 1 - 575 . polyclonal antibodies were produced to a purified fragment of the dna - r ( comprising amino acids 1 - 575 ) using conventional techniques . three female new zealand white rabbits ( western oregon rabbit company ), weighing 2 . 3 - 3 . 0 kg , were injected subcutaneously with 50 μg of the dna - r peptide that was produced in bacteria as a gst fusion protein ( described in example 4 ) and purified from its fusion partner . the antigen was emulsified with titre - max ( cytrx corp ., norcross , ga .) in a final volume of 0 . 5 ml . the rabbits were boosted 4 weeks later with 15 μg of antigen / titre - max mixture , again 2 weeks later , and were maintained on a once - a - month booster schedule thereafter . the rabbits were bled 7 - 10 days after each boost with antigen and the sera analyzed for reactivity to the immunizing antigen . the polyclonal antisera obtained from the inoculated rabbits was used in western blot analyses . a protein of mr ˜ 1 . 5 × 10 5 was identified by the anti - dna - r antibody in most cells tested ( including 293 , cos7 , g361 , hela , hre605 , molt - 4 , raji , a549 , b16 ). a protein with a similar mobility was detected in lysates of genetically - engineered human 293 cells ( 293 - dna - r / flu ) that were stably transfected with an expression vector for a carboxy - terminal ha - tagged dna - r ( pdna - r / flu ). as shown in fig5 this protein was detected by immunoprecipitation and / or western blot analysis with either the rabbit polyclonal anti - dna - r ( 1 - 575 ) antisera described above or with a mouse monoclonal antibody ( anti - ha ) specific for the carboxyl - terminal ha tag in the recombinantly - produced protein . in order to determine cellular localization of the dna - r protein , crude membrane fractions from recombinant 293 - dna - r / flu cells were examined by western blot analysis with either anti - dna - r or anti - ha antibodies . the results shown in fig6 indicated that essentially all the dna - r protein in those cells was associated with the membrane fraction . indirect immunofluorescence on fixed , permeabilized cells showed anti - dna - r staining was predominantly localized to the perinuclear region of the cell , although no nuclear staining was observed ( fig7 ). double staining with anti - dna - r and anti - transferrin receptor antibodies showed partial colocalization of the dna - r and transferrin receptor , however the dna - r did not colocalize with the transferrin receptor in peripheral endosomes ( fig7 ). these results indicate that extracellular dna is taken up by cells expressing the dna - r of the invention by endocytosis , and suggest that compounds that influence intracellular trafficking of molecules taken by endocytosis are useful for modulating the intracellular fate ( such as degradation in lysosomes or transport to the cell nucleus ) of extracellular dna . to determine if dna - r is located on the cell surface , cells were incubated with anti - dna - r ( 1 - 575 ) immune rabbit serum . antibody binding was detected by flow cytometry with fitc labeled secondary antibodies to rabbit igg . at all serum dilutions the fluorescence intensity of the cells incubated with immune serum was significantly higher than that of cells incubated with preimmune serum ( p & lt ; 0 . 003 ) suggesting that dna - r is expressed on the cell surface ( fig8 ). these results demonstrated that the dna - r protein , either natively expressed or expressed from the cloned cdna of the invention , or genetically - engineered embodiments thereof , localized to cell membranes as predicted by the hydropathy plot of the carboxyl terminus . the capacity of the dna - r of the invention to bind dna , and particularly the capacity of a soluble form of the dna - r protein to bind dna ( which would be useful for the development of a therapeutic agent as described more particularly below ) was determined . for these experiments , a fusion protein between the amino terminal portion of the dna receptor ( amino acids 1 - 575 ), lacking the transmembrane region but containing both the ring and zinc finger domains , was produced using the pgex vector system ( pharmacia , kalamazoo , mich .) for expression of glutathione - s - transferase ( gst )- fusion proteins in e . coli and named gst / dna - r ( 1 - 575 ). a schematic diagram of the production of this protein fragment and its structure relative to the full - length dna - r of the invention is shown in fig9 a . polyacrylamide gel analysis of the production , proteolysis , and purification of the recombinant dna - r peptide is shown in fig9 b . the calculated molecular weights of the gst / dna - r fusion protein and the dna - r peptide are 90 kda and 63 kda respectively . the purified gst / dna - r fusion protein was then examined for its ability to bind plasmid dna . three independent in vitro assays were used to assess dna binding by the fusion protein . first , the ability of gst / dna - r , bound to glutathione sepharose beads , to bind yoyo - labeled plasmid dna was determined by incubation with 0 . 9 μg yoyo / dna in 0 . 5 ml of medium . ( yoyo - 1 is an intercalating fluorochrome that is flourescent only when bound to dna , obtained from molecular probes , eugene , oreg .) beads ( 3 . 5 × 10 5 ) and yoyo / dna were incubated for 30 minutes at 4 ° c ., washed once and then fluorescence intensity analyzed by facs . as seen in fig1 , the gst / dna - r fusion protein was extremely efficient in binding dna whereas purified gst protein alone and two additional , unrelated gst - fusion proteins ( gst - cbd and gst - hst . 1 , gifts from dr . roland kwok , vollum institute , portland oreg .) failed to show any dna binding capability . following facs analysis an aliquot of glutathione sepharose - bound protein from each sample used in the dna binding assay was analyzed by sds - page followed by coomassie blue staining . an approximately equivalent amount of each gst - fusion protein was shown to be present in each sample . to further assess whether the gst / dna - r fusion protein was a dna - binding molecule , a southwestern blot was performed . the purified gst / dna - r fusion protein and gst protein alone were electrophoresed on a polyacrylamide gel , electrophoretically transferred to nitrocellulose and then probed with biotinylated dna . dna binding was visualized by addition of steptavidin conjugated with horse radish peroxidase ( hrp ) using conventional methods . as seen in fig1 , purified gst / dna - r fusion protein ( fig1 b , lane 1 ), but not gst protein alone ( fig1 b , lane 2 ) bound biotinylated plasmid dna . other peptides seen to react with biotinylated dna / streptavidin - hrp in the gst / dna - r samples ( fig1 b , lanes 1 ) probably represent partially degraded gst / dna - r peptides and / or traces of contaminating bacterial proteins . lanes in fig1 a represent no added dna . third , as a final assessment of the dna binding ability of the purified dna receptor fragment ( amino acids 1 - 575 ) the ability of the purified peptide to bind to elisa plates coated with plasmid dna ( varelisa dsdna kit , pharmacia ) was determined . binding of the dna receptor peptide was detected using the rabbit anti - dna - r polyclonal antisera described example 3 . as shown in fig1 , purified dna - r peptide bound to dna coated plates when tested at both 1 μg / ml and 10 μg / ml . negative controls not including the dna - r fragment showed no reactivity . these results demonstrate that the dna receptor gene of the invention encodes a protein that specifically binds dna , and that the dna binding portion of the molecule resided in the protein fragment having amino acid sequence 1 - 575 of the native protein . having demonstrated that the protein encoded by the cloned cdna of the invention bound dna , the affinity of soluble gst - dna - r for dna was estimated using a nitrocellulose filter - binding assay . the assay was performed using cold dna competition where known amounts of gst / dna - r ( 2 nm ) and labeled dna ( 200 pm ) were titrated with increasing amounts of unlabeled calf thymus dna . these results demonstrated that dna binding to the dna - r of the invention was saturable , consistent with its identification as a specific receptor . a scatchard transformation of the data yield a k d ˜ 4 nm ( fig1 ). to demonstrate that the binding of dna by the soluble form of the dna - r ( amino acids 5 1 - 575 ) was not due to monospecific charge - related interactions , the role in dna binding of the zinc finger domain at amino acids 416 - 435 was examined . using site - directed mutagenesis , the codon for the conserved zinc finger cysteines at either amino acids 416 or 431 were altered to a codon for either alanine or serine . the mutagenized gst / dna - r fusion proteins were expressed in e . coli and affinity purified on glutathione sepharose , then tested for their ability to bind to immobilized dna by elisa , all substantially as described above . purified gst / dna - r ( 1 - 575 ) fusion protein bound to elisa plates coated with calf thymus dna ( magiwel , united biotech , mountain view , calif . ), as shown in fig1 . mutagenesis of either cysteine 416 or 431 reduced dna binding to approximately 50 % of the level observed for wild - type gst / dna - r fusion protein , strongly suggesting that this zinc finger domain is involved in specific dna binding fig1 . these results demonstrated that dna binding by the soluble dna - r fragment is not simply a nonspecific charge related interaction , but rather is mediated by specific a dna - binding motifs in the protein , including at least the zinc finger motif . soluble dna - r protein inhibits dna - induced cytokine secretion and blocks binding of dna to cells the presence of extracellular dna in lung tissue of several chronic lung diseases , including cystic fibrosis , chronic bronchitis and bronchiectasis , causes or contributes to chronic inflammation of lung tissues with long - term pathological consequences . extracellular dna is known in the art to cause lung macrophages and other cells to release cytokines that mediate inflammation as part of the chronic symptomology of cystic fibrosis patients . as described in example 2 , the dna - r protein of the invention is expressed in lung tissues , specifically in epithelial cells of the lung . this suggests that the dna - r receptor protein of the invention is involved in inflammation by triggering the release of inflammation - causing cytokines . thus , the ability of a soluble form of the dna - r to bind dna suggested that this protein fragment could compete for binding extracellular dna in cystic fibrosis patients and would be useful thereby as a therapeutic agent . to determine if the soluble dna - r fragment of the invention inhibits dna - induced cytokine secretion , soluble dna - r protein was examined for inhibition of cf - dna - induced il - 6 release from j774 murine monocyte / macrophage cells in culture . in the absence of stimulating dna , dna - r did not induce il - 6 secretion ( shown in table i ). dna isolated and purified from a patient with cystic fibrosis ( cf dna ) induced 611 pg / ml of il - 6 from j774 cells . when cf dna was incubated first with dna - r protein ( 10 ng / ml ) and then added to j774 cells , the amount of il - 6 was reduced by 36 % in the presence of the soluble dna - r protein ( 10 ng / ml ). as a negative control , calf thymus dna failed to induce detectable il - 6 . to eliminate the possibility that cytokine release was caused by the presence of contaminating endotoxin , a limulus amoebacyte assay was performed , and the cf dna had & lt ; 0 . 25 ng / ml of contaminating endotoxin . in control experiments , this amount of lps induced only 4 pg / ml of il - 6 . in the second experiment ( also shown in table 1 ), contaminating endotoxin was removed from the soluble dna - r , permitting the use of increased dna - r concentrations . soluble dna - r protein ( used in the range 10 ng / ml - 50 ng / ml ) was incubated with j774 cells and 50 μg / ml of e . coli dna . cell - free supernatants were collected and il - 6 quantified by elisa . in the absence of bacterial dna soluble dna - r did not induce il - 6 secretion . when bacterial dna was added to the system , however , soluble dna receptor protein inhibited il - 6 secretion in a dose - dependent manner ( table i ). table i stimulus treatment il - 6 ( pg / ml ) % inhibition — medium 0 — — dna - r ( 10 ng / ml ) 0 — cf dna ( 10 μg / ml ) medium 611 — cf dna ( 10 μg / ml ) dna - r ( 10 ng / ml ) 438 22 e . coli ( 10 μg / ml ) medium 1467 — e . coli ( 10 μg / ml ) dna - r ( 10 ng / ml ) 945 36 e . coli ( 50 μg / ml ) medium 2390 ± 344 — e . coli ( 50 μg / ml ) dna - r ( 10 ng / ml ) 1193 ± 128 50 . 1 e . coli ( 50 μg / ml ) dna - r ( 20 ng / ml ) 983 ± 212 58 . 9 e . coli ( 50 μg / ml ) dna - r ( 50 ng / ml ) 652 ± 76 72 . 7 ct dna 1 medium 0 — lps 2 medium 4 — to determine whether soluble dna - r protein fragment was capable of preventing dna binding to cells , j774 cells ( 5 × 10 5 cells ) and yoyo labeled pgem - dna were incubated with either the soluble dna - r protein fragment or control gst protein . cells were incubated for 30 minutes at 4 ° c ., centrifuged and washed twice with assay media , resuspended and incubated with 7 - amino actinomycin d ( 7aad ) on ice for 20 minutes in order to assess viability . the samples were assessed for dna binding by facscan ( becton - dickinson , franklin lanes , n . j .). results showed a dose - dependent inhibition of dna binding to j774 cells ( fig1 ). similar results were observed using human 293 cells . additionally , the soluble dna - r protein / dna complex does not bind to the cell surface . the soluble dna - r protein bound to dna and is effective at preventing the association of dna with the cell surface . these results indicate that the soluble dna - r fragment provided by this invention is useful for inhibiting cytokine release , and inflammation consequent thereto , by competitively binding either bacterial or mammalian extracellular dna and reducing the amount of such dna bound by cytokine - producing cells expressing the dna - r of the invention . the experimental results disclosed above established that the soluble dna - r fragment comprising amino acids 1 - 575 of the dna - r of the invention was capable of binding dna . further experiments were performed to characterize dna binding to the receptor , particularly whether the native receptor protein was capable of binding extracellular dna at the cell surface , and whether binding is consistent with a receptor - mediated process . in these experiments , a549 human lung carcinoma cells were harvested from log - phase cultures and treated with dnase and rnase to remove exogenous cell - surface bound nucleic acids . after treatment , the cells were washed with 10 mm edta and phosphate buffered saline ( pbs ) to stop the action of dnase and rnase . the cells were then plated in v - bottom 96 - well plates at 10 6 cells / well in pbs containing 1 % fetal calf serum ( fcs ) and 1 mm ca ++ mg ++ . yoyo - labeled pgem4z plasmid dna was added at concentrations from 0 - 25 μg / ml in 0 . 2 ml media containing 1 % fcs and 1 mm ca ++ mg ++ . the cells plus labeled plasmid were incubated for 30 minutes at 4 ° c ., to minimize internalization of plasmid dna . upon completion of the 30 minute incubation , the cells were washed with 2 × in pbs containing 1 % fcs and 1 mm ca ++ mg ++ and resuspended in 0 . 3 ml of pbs . cells were then fixed in 1 % formaldehyde and cell - surface binding of plasmid dna quantified by facs . the results of these experiments are shown in fig1 . this representative facs histogram demonstrates the a549 cell profiles seen when comparing cells incubated with either medium ( fig1 , curve on the left ) or cells incubated with 5 μg / ml of yoyo / pgem4z plasmid ( fig1 , curve shifted to the right ). the geometric mean of the intensity is used to describe the cell populations . in this example , the geometric mean of the a549 cell population , treated with medium only , was 13 and increased to 34 when incubated with yoyo - labeled plasmid dna . a binding curve for a549 cells was then generated using a range of plasmid dna from 0 - 25 μg / ml ( fig1 a and 17b ). the y - axis of the graph in fig1 a represents the geometric mean of the fluorescence intensity of the cell populations in the graph . cell surface binding of plasmid dna to a549 cells began to show saturation at approximately 10 μg / ml of dna . treatment of cells with a 25 - 100 fold excess of unlabeled dna significantly blocked the binding of yoyo / dna to the cell surface ( fig1 a ). the specific cell - surface binding to a549 cells , represented as the difference between total binding seen with excess unlabeled dna , shows a binding curve with a characteristic saturation profile ( fig1 b ). also examined were the cell - surface plasmid dna binding profiles for a variety of tumor cell lines , including b16 murine melanoma cells , molt - 4 human lymphoblastic leukemia cells , and the human raji burkitt lymphoma cells . in all cells examined , cell - surface dna saturable binding profiles were obtained , consistent with a receptor - mediated mechanism of binding . under optimal dna binding conditions the percent of cells in the population capable of binding dna above the background level as detected by facs , ranged from greater than 70 % ( s49 , dhl - 6 , molt - 4 ) to less than 10 % ( d10 . s , hut - 78 , k562 and g361 ). table ii cell type % cells binding dna lineage s49 98 murine t - cell lymphoma molt - 4 79 human lymphoblastic leukemia dhl - 6 70 human b - cell a549 55 human lung carcinoma dami 44 human leukemia b16 32 murine leukemia b9 21 murine plasmacytoma cos - 7 20 african green monkey kidney cell hbe014 20 human bronchial epithelial cell mo - 7 16 human leukemia nor - 10 16 murine muscle j558 15 murine plasmacytoma raji 15 human burkitt lymphoma hela 12 human cervical cancer sw480 12 human colon adenocarcinoma hut - 78 7 human cutaneous t - cell lymphoma k562 5 human myelogenous leukemia d10 . s 3 murine t cell g361 3 human malignant melanoma spleen 80 normal mouse spleen cells to determine if dna binding is mediated by a cell - surface protein , the experiments were performed substantially as described after cells were treated with trypsin . cell - surface dna - binding of plasmid dna on a549 cells was significantly inhibited by treatment of cells with trypsin after binding with yoyo - labeled dna at 4 ° c . ( fig1 ). finally , the effect of divalent cations on cell surface dna binding was examined , using b16 melanoma cells . these studies demonstrated a four - fold increase in fluorescence intensity when ca ++ is added to the binding media ( fig1 ). these results indicate that the dna - r protein of the invention mediates cell surface binding of extracellular dna in mammalian cells . the experiments described in example 6 established that extracellular dna was specifically bound to the dna - r of the invention . internalization of dna into cells by the receptor was characterized using the following assay . yoyo - labeled plasmid dna was used to examine the kinetics of plasmid dna internalization . the plasmid used in these assays was pegfp - n1 , encoding green fluorescent protein ( clontech , palo alto , calif .). the assay required that cell surface binding of labeled dna be distinguished from internalized plasmid dna . this was accomplished by treatment of cells with trypsin to remove cell - surface proteins after incubation with plasmid dna . this procedure permitted cell surface - bound plasmid dna to be distinguished from internalized plasmid dna , since trypsin treatment abolished cell surface bound dna but not internalized plasmid dna . in this assay , cells were plated in 24 well plates and incubated in culture media for 24 h . media was then removed and various concentrations ( 0 - 25 μg / ml ) of yoyo - labeled pegfp - n1 plasmid dna were added . the cells plus plasmid dna were incubated for various times ( 0 . 5 to 5 hours ) at 37 ° c . thereafter , the media was removed , cells were treated with trypsin , washed , and then fixed with 1 % formaldehyde . facs analysis was used to quantify fluorescence intensity . b16 murine melanoma cells were examined for internalization of yoyo / dna using the above protocol after incubation for 1 , 3 , and 5 hours ( fig2 ). internalization of pegfp - n1 were found to be both dose - and time - dependent . an increasing amount of internalized plasmid dna was seen with increasing dose of dna and increasing time of incubation . internalization of plasmid dna by a549 cells was evaluated both with and without pre - treatment with unlabeled dna . this assay was repeated with a549 cells , and similar results were obtained ( fig2 ). moreover , pre - treatment of the a549 cells with a25 - 100 - fold excess of unlabeled calf thymus dna significantly inhibited subsequent internalization of plasmid dna ( fig2 ). similar inhibition of internalization by pre - treatment of cells with excess unlabeled dna was observed using a number of other cell lines ( including b16 , raji , and molt - 4 ). this demonstration of saturable dna binding and internalization indicates that the cell - surface dna receptor of the invention mediates internalization of extracellular plasmid dna . internalization of plasmid dna was also observed to be a temperature - dependent process . treatment of b16 cells at 4 ° c . significantly inhibited the amount of plasmid dna that was internalized as compared to cells maintained at 37 ° c . ( fig2 ). in order to ascertain whether the amount of dna - r expressed on the cell surface influences the extent of extracellular dna binding or dna internalization , binding and internalization of plasmid dna was compared in two cell lines : human melanoma g361 and the 293 human cell line . the g361 cells bound relatively low amounts of dna , while 293 cells bound larger amounts of plasmid dna as assessed by the cell - surface dna binding assay ( fig2 ). consistent with the binding results were the results obtained in these cells for dna internalization , which showed that g361 cells internalized less plasmid dna then 293 cells ( fig2 ). these data are consistent with identification of the dna - r of the invention as a cell surface dna receptor protein . conditions for transgene expression using dna internalized by the dna - r of the invention were developed . the experiments described above established plasmid dna concentrations that saturated cell - surface binding . used the pegfp - n1 plasmid coding for green fluorescent protein ( gfp ), which was used because gfp remains exclusively intracellular . facs analysis was used to quantify gfp expression . in this assay , cells ( 1 . 25 × 10 5 / well ) were plated in 24 - well plates and incubated overnight under mammalian cell culture conditions . on the next day , media was removed and the cells incubated for 3 hours at 37 ° c . in 5 % co 2 with plasmid dna in 0 . 3 ml of growth medium . dna was then removed and fresh medium added to the cells . in some cases 0 . 3 ml of growth medium was added to cells without removing the dna . after 24 - 72 hours further incubation media was removed and cells washed once and then fixed with formaldehyde . fluorescence intensity in the fixed cells was determined by facs . however , no gfp expression was detected , even when using several different concentrations of pegfp - n1 plasmid and incubation times . this result was consistently obtained , using a variety of cell lines ( a549 , b16 , raji ), incubation times ( 24 - 72 hours ), and ranges of plasmid dna concentrations ( 0 . 1 to 100 μg / ml ). this result was obtained using cell lines that bind relatively higher levels of dna on their cell - surface and those that bind lower levels of dna . in positive controls , pegfp - n1 plasmid was delivered by liposomes ( lipofectamine , gibco - brl , gaithersburg , md .) and resulted in significant gfp fluorescence within 24 hours . representative data using the b16 cell line incubated with either pegfp - n1 alone or pegfp - n1 delivered by liposomes shows the difference in gfp expression between these two techniques ( fig2 ). in view of these results , the experiments were repeated with a549 cells in the presence of nocodazol , a microtubule inhibitor . use of this inhibitor was indicated because one possible explanation of the unsuccessful experiments is that the dna internalized by the dna - r of the invention had been degraded , and nocodazol treatment was expected to reduce the extent of such degradation . treatment of a549 cells with nocodazol prior to incubation with pegfp - n1 resulted in a significant increase in expression of gfp as compared to cells that were not treated with nocodazol and incubated with pegfp - n1 ( fig2 ). cells which were not treated with nocodazol failed to demonstrate detectable expression of gfp ( fig2 ). these results indicated that uptake of extracellular dna mediated by the dna - r of the invention required additional treatment to result in expression of genes encoded therein , and the above assay provides a prototype of assays for identifying such compounds . in these assays , an amount of gfp - encoding plasmid dna known to reliably produce detectable gfp expression is contacted with a mammalian cell expression the dna - r of the invention at levels known to mediate efficient uptake of extracellular dna . gfp gene expression is then assayed in the presence and absence of a test compound to detect increased gene expression in the presence of the compound . it should be understood that the foregoing disclosure emphasizes certain specific embodiments of the invention and that all modifications or alternatives equivalent thereto are within the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims . a atg cct gtg cag gca gct caa tgg aca gaa ttt ctg tcc tgt cca atc 649 met pro val gln ala ala gln trp thr glu phe leu ser cys pro ile tgc tat aat gaa ttt gat gag aat gtg cac aaa ccc atc agt tta ggt 697 cys tyr asn glu phe asp glu asn val his lys pro ile ser leu gly tgt tca cac act gtt tgc aag acc tgc ttg aat aaa ctt cat cga aaa 745 gct tgt cct ttt gac cag act gcc atc aac aca gat att gat gta ctt 793 ala cys pro phe asp gln thr ala ile asn thr asp ile asp val leu cct gtc aac ttc gca ctt ctc cag tta gtt gga gcc cag gta cca gat 841 cat cag tca att aag tta agt aat cta ggt gag aat aaa cac tat gag 889 gtt gca aag aaa tgc gtt gag gat ttg gca ctc tac tta aaa cca cta 937 agt gga ggt aaa ggt gta gct agc ttg aac cag agt gca ctg agc cgt 985 cca atg caa agg aaa ctg gtg aca ctt gta aac tgt caa ctg gtg gag 1033 pro met gln arg lys leu val thr leu val asn cys gln leu val glu gaa gaa ggt cgt gta aga gcc atg cga gca gct cgt tcc ctt gga gaa 1081 aga act gta aca gaa ctg ata tta cag cac cag aac cct cag cag ttg 1129 tct gcc aat cta tgg gcc gct gtc agg gct cga gga tgc cag ttt tta 1177 ser ala asn leu trp ala ala val arg ala arg gly cys gln phe leu ggg cca gct atg caa gaa gag gcc ttg aag ctg gtg tta ctg gca tta 1225 gaa gat ggt tct gcc ctc tca agg aaa gtt ctg gta ctt ttt gtt gtg 1273 cag aga cta gaa cca aga ttt cct cag gca tca aaa aca agt att ggt 1321 gln arg leu glu pro arg phe pro gln ala ser lys thr ser ile gly cat gtt gtg caa cta ctg tat cga gct tct tgt ttt aag gtt acc aaa 1369 his val val gln leu leu tyr arg ala ser cys phe lys val thr lys aga gat gaa gac tct tcc cta atg cag ctg aag gag gaa ttt cgg agt 1417 tat gaa gca tta cgc aga gaa cat gat gcc caa att gtt cat att gcc 1465 atg gaa gca gga ctc cgt att tca cct gaa cag tgg tcc tct ctt ttg 1513 met glu ala gly leu arg ile ser pro glu gln trp ser ser leu leu tat ggt gat ttg gct cat aaa tca cac atg cag tct atc att gat aag 1561 tyr gly asp leu ala his lys ser his met gln ser ile ile asp lys cta cag tct cca gag tca ttt gca aag agt gtc cag gaa ttg aca att 1609 leu gln ser pro glu ser phe ala lys ser val gln glu leu thr ile gtt ttg caa cga aca ggt gac cca gct aac tta aat aga ctg agg cct 1657 cat tta gag ctt ctt gca aac ata gac cct aat cca gac gct gtt tca 1705 cca act tgg gag cag ctg gaa aat gca atg gta gct gtt aaa aca gta 1753 pro thr trp glu gln leu glu asn ala met val ala val lys thr val gtt cat ggc ctt gtg gac ttc ata caa aat tat agt aga aaa ggc cat 1801 val his gly leu val asp phe ile gln asn tyr ser arg lys gly his gag acc cct cag cct cag cca aac agc aaa tac aag act agc atg tgc 1849 cga gat ttg cga cag cag ggg ggt tgt cca cga gga aca aat tgt aca 1897 ttt gcc cat tct cag gaa gag ctt gaa aag tat cga tta agg aac aaa 1945 phe ala his ser gln glu glu leu glu lys tyr arg leu arg asn lys aag atc aat gcc act gta aga acg ttt cct ctt cta aat aaa gtt ggt 1993 lys ile asn ala thr val arg thr phe pro leu leu asn lys val gly gta aac aac act gtc aca acc aca gcc gga aat gtc att tct gtc ata 2041 gga agt act gaa aca aca ggg aaa att gtt cca agt aca aac gga att 2089 tca aat gca gaa aac agt gtt tcc cag cta atc tca cgt agt act gac 2137 ser asn ala glu asn ser val ser gln leu ile ser arg ser thr asp agt acc tta aga gct ctg gag acc gtg aag aaa gtg gga aag gtt ggc 2185 gct aat ggt cag aat gct gct ggg ccc tct gca gat tct gta act gaa 2233 aat aaa att ggt tct cca ccc aag act cct gta agt aat gta gca gct 2281 acc tca gct ggg ccc tct aat gtt gga aca gag ctg aat tct gtg cct 2329 caa aaa tcc agc cca ttt cta act aga gta cca gta tat cct ccg cat 2377 gln lys ser ser pro phe leu thr arg val pro val tyr pro pro his tct gaa aac att cag tat ttt caa gat cca agg act cag ata ccc ttt 2425 ser glu asn ile gln tyr phe gln asp pro arg thr gln ile pro phe gaa gtc cca cag tac cca cag aca gga tac tat cca cca cct cca acg 2473 gta cca gct ggt gtg gct ccc tgt gtt cct cgc ttt gtg agg tcc aat 2521 aac gtt cca gag tcc tcc ctc cca cct gct tcc atg cca tat gcc gat 2569 cat tac agt aca ttt tcc cct cga gat cga atg aat tct tct cct tac 2617 cag cct cct cct ccg cag ccg tat gga cca gtt cct cca gta cct tct 2665 gga atg tat gct cct gtg tac gac agc agg cgc atc tgg cgc cca cct 2713 gly met tyr ala pro val tyr asp ser arg arg ile trp arg pro pro atg tac caa cga gat gac att att aga agc aat tct tta cct cca atg 2761 gat gtg atg cac tca tct gtc tat cag aca tct ttg cgg gaa aga tat 2809 asp val met his ser ser val tyr gln thr ser leu arg glu arg tyr aac tca tta gat gga tat tat tcg gtg gct tgt cag cca cca agt gag 2857 asn ser leu asp gly tyr tyr ser val ala cys gln pro pro ser glu cca agg aca act gtg cct tta cca agg gaa cct tgt ggt cat ttg aag 2905 acc agt tgc gag gag cag ata aga aga aag cca gat cag tgg gca cag 2953 thr ser cys glu glu gln ile arg arg lys pro asp gln trp ala gln tac cac act cag aaa gca cct ctt gtc tct tca act ctt cct gtg gca 3001 aca cag tca cca aca cca cct tct cct ctg ttc agt gta gac ttt cgt 3049 gcg gat ttc tca gag agt gtg agt ggt aca aaa ttt gaa gaa gat cat 3097 ctt tcc cat tat tct ccc tgg tct tgt ggc acc ata ggc tcc tgt ata 3145 aat gcc att gat tca gag ccc aaa gat gtc att gct aat tca aat gct 3193 gtg tta atg gac ctg gac agt ggt gat gtt aag aga aga gta cat tta 3241 ttt gaa acc cag aga agg aca aaa gaa gaa gat cca ata att ccc ttt 3289 agt gat gga ccc atc atc tca aaa tgg ggt gcg att tcc aga tct tcc 3337 cgt aca ggt tac cat acc aca gat cct gtc cag gcc act gct tcc caa 3385 arg thr gly tyr his thr thr asp pro val gln ala thr ala ser gln gga agt gcg act aag ccc atc agt gta tca gat tat gtc cct tat gtc 3433 aat gct gtt gat tca agg tgg agt tca tat ggc aac gag gcc aca tca 3481 asn ala val asp ser arg trp ser ser tyr gly asn glu ala thr ser tca gca cac tat gtt gaa agg gac aga ttc att gtt act gat tta tct 3529 ser ala his tyr val glu arg asp arg phe ile val thr asp leu ser ggt cat aga aag cat tcc agt act ggg gac ctt ttg agc ctt gaa ctt 3577 cag cag gcc aag agc aac tca tta ctt ctt cag aga gag gcc aat gct 3625 ttg gcc atg caa cag aag tgg aat tcc ctg gat gaa ggc cgt cac 3670 leu ala met gln gln lys trp asn ser leu asp glu gly arg his ctt acc tta aac ctt tta agc aag gaa att gaa cta aga aat gga 3715 gag tta cag agt gat tat aca gaa gat gca aca gat act aaa cct 3760 glu leu gln ser asp tyr thr glu asp ala thr asp thr lys pro gat agg gat atc gag tta gag ctt tca gca ctt gat act gat gaa 3805 cct gat gga caa agt gaa cca att gaa gag atc ttg gac ata cag 3850 ctt ggt atc agt tct caa aat gat cag ttg cta aat gga atg gca 3895 gtg gaa aat ggg cat cca gta cag cag cac caa aag gag cca cca 3940 aag cag aag aaa cag agt tta ggt gaa gac cat gtg att ctg gag 3985 lys gln lys lys gln ser leu gly glu asp his val ile leu glu gag caa aaa aca att ctg ccg gta act tct tgc ttt agc cag cca 4030 glu gln lys thr ile leu pro val thr ser cys phe ser gln pro ctc cca gtg tct att agc aat gca agt tgc ctc ccc atc acc aca 4075 tct gtc agt gct ggc aac ctc att ctg aaa act cat gtt atg tct 4120 ser val ser ala gly asn leu ile leu lys thr his val met ser gaa gat aaa aac gac ttt tta aaa cct gtt gca aat ggg aag atg 4165 glu asp lys asn asp phe leu lys pro val ala asn gly lys met met pro val gln ala ala gln trp thr glu phe leu ser cys pro ile cys tyr asn glu phe asp glu asn val his lys pro ile ser leu gly ala cys pro phe asp gln thr ala ile asn thr asp ile asp val leu pro met gln arg lys leu val thr leu val asn cys gln leu val glu ser ala asn leu trp ala ala val arg ala arg gly cys gln phe leu gln arg leu glu pro arg phe pro gln ala ser lys thr ser ile gly his val val gln leu leu tyr arg ala ser cys phe lys val thr lys met glu ala gly leu arg ile ser pro glu gln trp ser ser leu leu tyr gly asp leu ala his lys ser his met gln ser ile ile asp lys leu gln ser pro glu ser phe ala lys ser val gln glu leu thr ile pro thr trp glu gln leu glu asn ala met val ala val lys thr val val his gly leu val asp phe ile gln asn tyr ser arg lys gly his phe ala his ser gln glu glu leu glu lys tyr arg leu arg asn lys lys ile asn ala thr val arg thr phe pro leu leu asn lys val gly ser asn ala glu asn ser val ser gln leu ile ser arg ser thr asp gln lys ser ser pro phe leu thr arg val pro val tyr pro pro his ser glu asn ile gln tyr phe gln asp pro arg thr gln ile pro phe gly met tyr ala pro val tyr asp ser arg arg ile trp arg pro pro asp val met his ser ser val tyr gln thr ser leu arg glu arg tyr asn ser leu asp gly tyr tyr ser val ala cys gln pro pro ser glu thr ser cys glu glu gln ile arg arg lys pro asp gln trp ala gln arg thr gly tyr his thr thr asp pro val gln ala thr ala ser gln asn ala val asp ser arg trp ser ser tyr gly asn glu ala thr ser ser ala his tyr val glu arg asp arg phe ile val thr asp leu ser leu ala met gln gln lys trp asn ser leu asp glu gly arg his glu leu gln ser asp tyr thr glu asp ala thr asp thr lys pro lys gln lys lys gln ser leu gly glu asp his val ile leu glu glu gln lys thr ile leu pro val thr ser cys phe ser gln pro ser val ser ala gly asn leu ile leu lys thr his val met ser glu asp lys asn asp phe leu lys pro val ala asn gly lys met a atg gct gtg cag gca gct caa tgg aca gaa ttt ctg tcc tgt cca atc 649 met ala val gln ala ala gln trp thr glu phe leu ser cys pro ile tgc tat aat gaa ttt gat gag aat gtg cac aaa ccc atc agt tta ggt 697 cys tyr asn glu phe asp glu asn val his lys pro ile ser leu gly tgt tca cac act gtt tgc aag acc tgc ttg aat aaa ctt cat cga aaa 745 gct tgt cct ttt gac cag act gcc atc aac aca gat att gat gta ctt 793 ala cys pro phe asp gln thr ala ile asn thr asp ile asp val leu cct gtc aac ttc gca ctt ctc cag tta gtt gga gcc cag gta cca gat 841 cat cag tca att aag tta agt aat cta ggt gag aat aaa cac tat gag 889 gtt gca aag aaa tgc gtt gag gat ttg gca ctc tac tta aaa cca cta 937 agt gga ggt aaa ggt gta gct agc ttg aac cag agt gca ctg agc cgt 985 cca atg caa agg aaa ctg gtg aca ctt gta aac tgt caa ctg gtg gag 1033 pro met gln arg lys leu val thr leu val asn cys gln leu val glu gaa gaa ggt cgt gta aga gcc atg cga gca gct cgt tcc ctt gga gaa 1081 aga act gta aca gaa ctg ata tta cag cac cag aac cct cag cag ttg 1129 tct gcc aat cta tgg gcc gct gtc agg gct cga gga tgc cag ttt tta 1177 ser ala asn leu trp ala ala val arg ala arg gly cys gln phe leu ggg cca gct atg caa gaa gag gcc ttg aag ctg gtg tta ctg gca tta 1225 gaa gat ggt tct gcc ctc tca agg aaa gtt ctg gta ctt ttt gtt gtg 1273 cag aga cta gaa cca aga ttt cct cag gca tca aaa aca agt att ggt 1321 gln arg leu glu pro arg phe pro gln ala ser lys thr ser ile gly cat gtt gtg caa cta ctg tat cga gct tct tgt ttt aag gtt acc aaa 1369 his val val gln leu leu tyr arg ala ser cys phe lys val thr lys aga gat gaa gac tct tcc cta atg cag ctg aag gag gaa ttt cgg agt 1417 tat gaa gca tta cgc aga gaa cat gat gcc caa att gtt cat att gcc 1465 atg gaa gca gga ctc cgt att tca cct gaa cag tgg tcc tct ctt ttg 1513 met glu ala gly leu arg ile ser pro glu gln trp ser ser leu leu tat ggt gat ttg gct cat aaa tca cac atg cag tct atc att gat aag 1561 tyr gly asp leu ala his lys ser his met gln ser ile ile asp lys cta cag tct cca gag tca ttt gca aag agt gtc cag gaa ttg aca att 1609 leu gln ser pro glu ser phe ala lys ser val gln glu leu thr ile gtt ttg caa cga aca ggt gac cca gct aac tta aat aga ctg agg cct 1657 cat tta gag ctt ctt gca aac ata gac cct aat cca gac gct gtt tca 1705 cca act tgg gag cag ctg gaa aat gca atg gta gct gtt aaa aca gta 1753 pro thr trp glu gln leu glu asn ala met val ala val lys thr val gtt cat ggc ctt gtg gac ttc ata caa aat tat agt aga aaa ggc cat 1801 val his gly leu val asp phe ile gln asn tyr ser arg lys gly his gag acc cct cag cct cag cca aac agc aaa tac aag act agc atg tgc 1849 cga gat ttg cga cag cag ggg ggt tgt cca cga gga aca aat tgt aca 1897 ttt gcc cat tct cag gaa gag ctt gaa aag tat cga tta agg aac aaa 1945 phe ala his ser gln glu glu leu glu lys tyr arg leu arg asn lys aag atc aat gcc act gta aga acg ttt cct ctt cta aat aaa gtt ggt 1993 lys ile asn ala thr val arg thr phe pro leu leu asn lys val gly gta aac aac act gtc aca acc aca gcc gga aat gtc att tct gtc ata 2041 gga agt act gaa aca aca ggg aaa att gtt cca agt aca aac gga att 2089 tca aat gca gaa aac agt gtt tcc cag cta atc tca cgt agt act gac 2137 ser asn ala glu asn ser val ser gln leu ile ser arg ser thr asp agt acc tta aga gct ctg gag acc gtg aag aaa gtg gga aag gtt ggc 2185 gct aat ggt cag aat gct gct ggg ccc tct gca gat tct gta act gaa 2233 aat aaa att ggt tct cca ccc aag act cct gta agt aat gta gca gct 2281 acc tca gct ggg ccc tct aat gtt gga aca gag ctg aat tct gtg cct 2329 caa aaa tcc agc cca ttt cta act aga gta cca gta tat cct ccg cat 2377 gln lys ser ser pro phe leu thr arg val pro val tyr pro pro his tct gaa aac att cag tat ttt caa gat cca agg act cag ata ccc ttt 2425 ser glu asn ile gln tyr phe gln asp pro arg thr gln ile pro phe gaa gtc cca cag tac cca cag aca gga tac tat cca cca cct cca acg 2473 gta cca gct ggt gtg gct ccc tgt gtt cct cgc ttt gtg agg tcc aat 2521 aac gtt cca gag tcc tcc ctc cca cct gct tcc atg cca tat gcc gat 2569 cat tac agt aca ttt tcc cct cga gat cga atg aat tct tct cct tac 2617 cag cct cct cct ccg cag ccg tat gga cca gtt cct cca gta cct tct 2665 gga atg tat gct cct gtg tac gac agc agg cgc atc tgg cgc cca cct 2713 gly met tyr ala pro val tyr asp ser arg arg ile trp arg pro pro atg tac caa cga gat gac att att aga agc aat tct tta cct cca atg 2761 gat gtg atg cac tca tct gtc tat cag aca tct ttg cgg gaa aga tat 2809 asp val met his ser ser val tyr gln thr ser leu arg glu arg tyr aac tca tta gat gga tat tat tcg gtg gct tgt cag cca cca agt gag 2857 asn ser leu asp gly tyr tyr ser val ala cys gln pro pro ser glu cca agg aca act gtg cct tta cca agg gaa cct tgt ggt cat ttg aag 2905 acc agt tgc gag gag cag ata aga aga aag cca gat cag tgg gca cag 2953 thr ser cys glu glu gln ile arg arg lys pro asp gln trp ala gln tac cac act cag aaa gca cct ctt gtc tct tca act ctt cct gtg gca 3001 aca cag tca cca aca cca cct tct cct ctg ttc agt gta gac ttt cgt 3049 gcg gat ttc tca gag agt gtg agt ggt aca aaa ttt gaa gaa gat cat 3097 ctt tcc cat tat tct ccc tgg tct tgt ggc acc ata ggc tcc tgt ata 3145 aat gcc att gat tca gag ccc aaa gat gtc att gct aat tca aat gct 3193 gtg tta atg gac ctg gac agt ggt gat gtt aag aga aga gta cat tta 3241 ttt gaa acc cag aga agg aca aaa gaa gaa gat cca ata att ccc ttt 3289 agt gat gga ccc atc atc tca aaa tgg ggt gcg att tcc aga tct tcc 3337 cgt aca ggt tac cat acc aca gat cct gtc cag gcc act gct tcc caa 3385 arg thr gly tyr his thr thr asp pro val gln ala thr ala ser gln gga agt gcg act aag ccc atc agt gta tca gat tat gtc cct tat gtc 3433 aat gct gtt gat tca agg tgg agt tca tat ggc aac gag gcc aca tca 3481 asn ala val asp ser arg trp ser ser tyr gly asn glu ala thr ser tca gca cac tat gtt gaa agg gac aga ttc att gtt act gat tta tct 3529 ser ala his tyr val glu arg asp arg phe ile val thr asp leu ser ggt cat aga aag cat tcc agt act ggg gac ctt ttg agc ctt gaa ctt 3577 cag cag gcc aag agc aac tca tta ctt ctt cag aga gag gcc aat gct 3625 ttg gcc atg caa cag aag tgg aat tcc ctg gat gaa ggc cgt cac 3670 leu ala met gln gln lys trp asn ser leu asp glu gly arg his ctt acc tta aac ctt tta agc aag gaa att gaa cta aga aat gga 3715 gag tta cag agt gat tat aca gaa gat gca aca gat act aaa cct 3760 glu leu gln ser asp tyr thr glu asp ala thr asp thr lys pro gat agg gat atc gag tta gag ctt tca gca ctt gat act gat gaa 3805 cct gat gga caa agt gaa cca att gaa gag atc ttg gac ata cag 3850 ctt ggt atc agt tct caa aat gat cag ttg cta aat gga atg gca 3895 gtg gaa aat ggg cat cca gta cag cag cac caa aag gag cca cca 3940 aag cag aag aaa cag agt tta ggt gaa gac cat gtg att ctg gag 3985 lys gln lys lys gln ser leu gly glu asp his val ile leu glu gag caa aaa aca att ctg ccg gta act tct tgc ttt agc cag cca 4030 glu gln lys thr ile leu pro val thr ser cys phe ser gln pro ctc cca gtg tct att agc aat gca agt tgc ctc ccc atc acc aca 4075 tct gtc agt gct ggc aac ctc att ctg aaa act cat gtt atg tct 4120 ser val ser ala gly asn leu ile leu lys thr his val met ser gaa gat aaa aac gac ttt tta aaa cct gtt gca aat ggg aag atg 4165 glu asp lys asn asp phe leu lys pro val ala asn gly lys met met ala val gln ala ala gln trp thr glu phe leu ser cys pro ile cys tyr asn glu phe asp glu asn val his lys pro ile ser leu gly ala cys pro phe asp gln thr ala ile asn thr asp ile asp val leu pro met gln arg lys leu val thr leu val asn cys gln leu val glu ser ala asn leu trp ala ala val arg ala arg gly cys gln phe leu gln arg leu glu pro arg phe pro gln ala ser lys thr ser ile gly his val val gln leu leu tyr arg ala ser cys phe lys val thr lys met glu ala gly leu arg ile ser pro glu gln trp ser ser leu leu tyr gly asp leu ala his lys ser his met gln ser ile ile asp lys leu gln ser pro glu ser phe ala lys ser val gln glu leu thr ile pro thr trp glu gln leu glu asn ala met val ala val lys thr val val his gly leu val asp phe ile gln asn tyr ser arg lys gly his phe ala his ser gln glu glu leu glu lys tyr arg leu arg asn lys lys ile asn ala thr val arg thr phe pro leu leu asn lys val gly ser asn ala glu asn ser val ser gln leu ile ser arg ser thr asp gln lys ser ser pro phe leu thr arg val pro val tyr pro pro his ser glu asn ile gln tyr phe gln asp pro arg thr gln ile pro phe gly met tyr ala pro val tyr asp ser arg arg ile trp arg pro pro asp val met his ser ser val tyr gln thr ser leu arg glu arg tyr asn ser leu asp gly tyr tyr ser val ala cys gln pro pro ser glu thr ser cys glu glu gln ile arg arg lys pro asp gln trp ala gln arg thr gly tyr his thr thr asp pro val gln ala thr ala ser gln asn ala val asp ser arg trp ser ser tyr gly asn glu ala thr ser ser ala his tyr val glu arg asp arg phe ile val thr asp leu ser leu ala met gln gln lys trp asn ser leu asp glu gly arg his glu leu gln ser asp tyr thr glu asp ala thr asp thr lys pro lys gln lys lys gln ser leu gly glu asp his val ile leu glu glu gln lys thr ile leu pro val thr ser cys phe ser gln pro ser val ser ala gly asn leu ile leu lys thr his val met ser glu asp lys asn asp phe leu lys pro val ala asn gly lys met	2
[ 0076 ] fig1 represents an example of a pyrolysis device according to the invention . this device here feeds a low temperature pem fuel cell 1 . in its most simple form , this device comprises a single cylindrical reactor r heated by a cylindrical burner b incorporated at the centre so as to provide excellent heat transfer . the reactor - burner unit is placed in a cylindrical heat insulated sheath 2 intended to limit the heat losses of the system . reactor r is defined by the cylindrical wall of the burner and by an outer cylindrical wall coaxial to the burner . it is enclosed by a spherical cup - shaped bottom fd and by a ring - shaped top da located around the top of the burner . in this configuration , the pyrolysis reactor functions cyclically . it is in turn the seat of pyrolysis reactions that produce a hydrogen - rich gas and carbon oxidation reactions that regenerate the reactor . to supply a pem fuel cell , it is necessary to avoid introducing co in the hydrogen - rich gas . as a result , for this application , the pyrolysis of an oxygenised fuel ( alcohol , etb , mtb , . . . ) will be avoided in favour of a hydrocarbon such as methane or propane . concerning the pyrolysis phase , reactor r is heated by means of a burner b at a temperature enabling cracking reactions of the hydrocarbon used . this temperature is in the neighbourhood of 550 - 650 ° c . for propane and 700 - 800 ° c . for methane . the fuel , after eventual desulfonation , is introduced in reactor r through duct 3 located at the top of reactor r . the cracking by pyrolysis creates a hydrogen - rich gas and solid pulverulent carbon that is deposited in reactor r . filter 4 made of aluminium wool , located at the back of reactor r , retains the carbon particles in the reactor and eliminates them from the hydrogen - rich gas extracted by duct 5 located on the other side of filter 4 . before introduction in the anode compartment of fuel cell 1 , the hydrogen - rich gas is cooled by means of heat exchanger 6 , at a temperature compatible with this type of cell , or about 50 ° c . at the anode compartment outlet , the mixture of gas residues , mainly unburned hydrogen and methane , is recycled towards burner b by means of duct 7 . burner b is a combustion chamber fed at the top in fuel by duct 7 and in air by duct 8 . an additional supply of fuel may be planned to ensure auxiliary heat . the combustion , when the system is cold , is triggered by means of a plasma produced , for example , by an electrical discharge between the electrodes of a combustion engine spark plug 9 located at the top of burner b . when the temperature of burner b becomes high enough , the self - ignition of the combustion occurs and the plasma is no longer necessary . in order to increase the efficacy of the heat transfer between the hot gases circulating in burner b and the hydrocarbon to crack in pyrolysis chamber r , metal structures 10 , for example of the wing , honeycomb or metal foam type are placed from one end to the other of the burner wall . the hot gases resulting from the combustion in the burner escape through duct 11 located at the back of burner b . the useful heat contained in the exhaust gas is recovered in a heat exchanger 12 . the duration of the pyrolysis sequence is limited by the accumulation of pulverulent carbon in reactor r . this duration varies according to the parameters in the system . it may typically range from 15 to 30 minutes . when reactor r is full of carbon , it is necessary to pass to the regeneration phase . concerning the regeneration phase , a simple way to eliminate the carbon accumulated in reactor r consists of oxidising it to form a mixture of co and co 2 . an appropriate and heated flow of air is introduced through heat exchanger 6 at the top of reactor r by means of duct 13 . duct 3 is then closed . the reactions of the carbon with the oxygen in the air are : the co + co 2 mixture thereby formed is evacuated by duct 5 and led to the burner by duct 7 . during this regeneration phase , pem fuel cell 1 should not receive co . for this purpose , it is isolated by means of electrovalves 14 . it should be noted that electrovalves ev placed on the ducts , controlled by an electric control circuit control the different supplies of gas . the conversion of co into co 2 is achieved by the combustion of the gases in the burner . the heat given off is recovered in heat exchanger 6 before admission in burner b and then the excess heat not transmitted through the walls of the burner is recovered by heat exchanger 12 via the exhaust gases . if we consider the pyrolysis of methane or propane with the device represented in fig1 the ideal reactions are : the pyrolysis thereby allows for the extraction of a maximum of 2 moles of hydrogen per mole of methane and 4 moles of hydrogen per mole of propane . as indicated in fig1 the method in the invention , allows for the co - production of heat and electricity from hydrocarbons such as natural gas or propane . the heat is recovered by the two exchangers 6 and 12 . electricity is here produced by a pem fuel cell 1 that is supplied by the hydrogen derived from pyrolysis . if the yield of the pem fuel cell is 50 %, this device produces a maximum of 241 kj of electricity per mole of methane , that is 30 % of the ncv of methane . the thermal energy that can be recovered on the exchangers is then 247 kj . in co - generation , the maximum value of the global ncv yield of the heat + electricity production is therefore 61 %. in the case of propane , a production of electricity of 482 kj is obtained per mole of propane , that is 23 . 6 % of the ncv of propane . the thermal energy that can be recovered on the exchangers will be 1180 kj per mole of propane . the maximum value of the global ncv yield of the heat + electricity production is therefore 81 %. this example is given by way of indication in order to define an order of magnitude of the power produced and the yields . [ 0092 ] fig2 represents a pyrolysis device according to the invention coupled with a high temperature sofc fuel cell 15 . its function is then to transform the fuel into synthesis gas ( co + h 2 ) that is directly useable by fuel cell 15 . this conversion upstream from the cell will be called pre - reforming . it is well known that the conversion yield of sofc fuel cells is improved when they are supplied with synthesis gas ( co + h 2 ) rather than directly by a hydrocarbon . besides the benefit represented by the improved yield , another benefit is related to the length of operation of the sofc fuel cell . in fact , an attempt to avoid the outer reforming would lead to the introduction of hydrocarbon in the anode compartment of fuel cell 15 and to proceed with the inner vapour - reforming using the water formed at the anode . this very elegant solution however comes up against a major difficulty linked to the deposit of carbon in fuel cell 15 . in fact , pyrolysis reactions of the hydrocarbon can not be avoided at working temperatures of sofc fuel cell . these reactions produce solid carbon that accumulates in fuel cell 15 where it perturbs the operation . in order to avoid this problem , it is advisable to have a pre - reformer upstream from fuel cell 15 . in this case , reactor r will play this role . in fact , h 2 is produced during the pyrolysis phase and co during the regeneration phase . the device presents a great many similarities with the case presented above for a pem fuel cell except for the following points : heat exchanger 6 located at outlet 5 is no longer useful since the gases derived from the pyrolyser can be introduced at high temperature in the anode compartment of fuel cell 15 . electrovalves 14 were eliminated since fuel cell 15 accepts co and therefore doesn &# 39 ; t need to be isolated during the regeneration phase . the air flow entering the cathode compartment of fuel cell 15 leaves very hot and is recycled in both directions . electrovalve ev 1 leads the hot air to burner b through duct 8 to maintain the combustion , or to reactor r through duct 13 for the regeneration sequence . the operation of the method during the pyrolysis phase is fairly identical to that described in the example in fig1 when the pyrolyser supplies a pem fuel cell . however , the following differences are noted : fuel cell 15 very well accepts being fed a h 2 + co mixture of gases . the constraint to produce a gas rich in hydrogen and fully exempt of co is no longer required in the present situation . it is therefore possible to expand the choice of fuel to pyrolyse and extend it to ethanol or other oxygenised fuels . during the pyrolysis phase , a mixture of gas rich in hydrogen is produced with possibly a co content . this mixture of gas is extracted from reactor r by duct 5 and is directly sent to the anode compartment of fuel cell 15 . the gas emissions of fuel cell 15 leave at high temperature and are directed towards burner b by duct 7 to finish combustion . this combustion is provided by an additional supply of very hot air brought by duct 8 and removed at the outlet of the cathode compartment of fuel cell 15 . during the regeneration phase , as in the case of coupling with a pem fuel cell , the pulverulent carbon accumulated in reactor r during the pyrolysis sequence should be gasified by oxidation . it should be noted that there is a basic difference here with the case of a pem fuel cell . in fact , in the present case , the mixture of co + co 2 gases produced during regeneration in reactor r can be directly sent to the anode compartment of fuel cell 15 via outlet 5 . therefore , due to the conversion of co in fuel cell 15 , an additional contribution to the production of electricity is obtained . to maximise this contribution , the operating parameters during the regeneration phase should be set so that the ratio α = co / co 2 resulting from the oxidation of carbon is a maximum . the means to maximise this ratio consist of carrying out gentle combustion of the carbon during the regeneration phase in order to stop the reaction at the formation of co , that is mainly : by way of example , a . sofc fuel cell is considered operating with an electrical conversion efficiency of 45 % and is supplied with gases produced during pyrolysis . the reactor is supplied with methane and the pyrolysis reaction produces full conversion of this fuel . with the hydrogen produced , it turns out that this device provides a maximum of 217 kj of electricity per mole of methane , that is 27 % of the ncv of methane . if the co produced during the regeneration phase is also converted into electricity , an additional contribution is added to the electric production of a sofc fuel cell that may reach 127 kj of electricity per mole of methane , that is 16 % of the ncv of methane . the global electric production may thereby in principle reach 344 kj of electricity per mole of methane , that is 43 % of the ncv of methane . the production of heat energy is therefore considerably the same . a system of co - generation operating with methane according to this principle can then produce a considerably equal electrical power and thermal power with a global efficiency ( heat + electricity ) of about 80 %. the same system supplied with propane , from the hydrogen formed , may reach an electric production of 434 kj of electricity per mole of propane , that is 21 % of the ncv of propane . the electric production from the co formed may reach 381 kj per mole of propane , that is 18 . 7 % of the ncv of propane . the global electric production may thereby in principle reach 815 kj of electricity per mole of propane , that is 40 % of the ncv of propane . again in this case , the production of thermal energy is considerably equal to the electric production and the global efficiency ( heat + electricity ) reaches about 80 %. contrary to most of the results obtained with the solutions known to date , it should be noted that the electrical and thermal power given off are more or less the same . the performances announced above assume full pyrolysis and regeneration reactions , which is not the case in reality . it therefore consists of maximum values that it is necessary to try to reach in real conditions . [ 0113 ] fig3 represents a system with two reactors r 1 and r 2 to obtain continuous and no longer cyclic operation . the two reactors are defined by an outer cylindrical wall and by the cylindrical walls of burner b ′. the reactors , like the burner , are respectively enclosed in a top and bottom in the shape of a spherical cap . the reactor - burner unit is placed in a cylindrical heat - insulated sheath 16 intended to facilitate the maintenance of the pyrolysis reactors at high temperature and reduce the heat losses of the system . the operating principles of the double pyrolysis chamber device are much the same as those described above in reference to fig1 and 2 . the existence of two reactors helps one operate in pyrolysis sequence while the other operates in regeneration sequence and vice versa . this means that a reactor producing hydrogen - rich gas produced by pyrolysis and a reactor in regeneration sequence providing the oxidation of carbon is constantly available . burner b ′: located at the centre of the system . it is cylindrical and has a shell ring at the centre enabling the enlargement of the combustion chamber . this shell ring helps house ignition device 10 at the middle of the left side of burner b ′ and the passage of several pipes at the middle of the right side : an evacuation duct 17 collecting the smoke at the top of burner b ′, a duct 18 supplying the burner with fuel at the bottom and a duct 19 supplying the burner with air also at the bottom . a reactor r 1 located at the top part of the device and a reactor r 2 at the bottom : the two reactors r 1 and r 2 are identical . both are connected to a fuel supply duct 20 , an air supply duct 21 and a duct for the evacuation of products 22 . for reactor r 1 , ducts 20 and 21 are placed at the top of the reactor and duct 22 at the bottom just above the ducts for burner b . for reactor r 2 , ducts 20 and 21 are placed at the bottom of the reactor and duct 22 at the top , just below the ducts for burner b ′. the transfer of heat between the hot gases ( fumes ) of burner b ′ and each reactor is provided by high efficiency heat exchange structures 23 of the same type as those mentioned in the examples of fig1 and 2 . the carbon particles produced by the pyrolysis reactions are trapped in reactor r 1 and in reactor r 2 by filters 24 in refractory fibres , for example , in aluminium fibres , located in ducts 22 , on each side of the right side of the shell ring . this double reactor system can be used to constantly supply a pem fuel cell connected in an analogous manner to the case represented in fig1 or a sofc fuel cell connected in an analogous manner to the case represented in fig2 . [ 0123 ] fig4 represents a full circuit incorporating the device in fig3 . here , only the gas supply circuits comprising electrovalves controlled by an electrical control circuit will be described . the supply of pyrolysis chambers ( r 1 , r 2 ) occurs by means of two supply circuits : on for the fuel . it comprises a 3 track valve ev 2 in turn delivering in both reactors , the other for the air . it comprises a 3 track valve ev 3 in turn delivering in both reactors and piloted by the control circuit so as to inject air in the reactor that is not supplied with fuel in order to provoke the combustion of pulverulent carbon derived from the pyrolysis reaction carried out during the previous cycle . both outlet ducts for the gases from the reactors converge towards a set of two 3 track electrovalves , ev 4 and ev 5 , that can send the gases produced during the pyrolysis and during the partial combustion of the carbon , in the fuel cell for electrovalve ev 4 and in the burner for electrovalve ev 5 . the burner is supplied in air by the same supply circuit as the pyrolysis chambers but upstream from electrovalve ev 3 and in fuel via either electrovalve ev 5 as described supra or electrovalve ev 6 controlling the choice of gases derived from the fuel cell or the fuel by an engagement upstream from electrovalve ev 2 . [ 0129 ] fig5 and 7 describe a variant of the device , the object of the invention , consisting of incorporating , before the fuel cell , a hydrogen purification membrane in the circuit for the extraction of gases produced by the pyrolysis . the system can thereby be used as a very pure hydrogen generator . there are two categories of hydrogen permeable membranes that may be used in the system : polymer membranes . they are very extensively used for the purification of hydrogen in industry . such membranes only operate at low temperature , less than 120 ° c ., and can therefore only be used outside of the reactor , after the cooling of the hydrogen - rich gas ( fig5 ), metal membranes . they are very selective membranes consisting of a very hydrogen permeable metal , generally an alloy of palladium . these membranes can be used at high temperature , typically 500 to 550 ° c . they can therefore be integrated either in the high temperature gas circuit ( fig6 ) or in the reactor strictly speaking ( fig7 ). [ 0133 ] fig5 represents a device using a polymer membrane 25 . the device is similar to that in fig1 except for the following points : membrane 25 is sandwiched between heat exchanger 6 and the fuel cell ; the mixture of hydrogen - rich gas extracted from the reactor by duct 5 , then cooled at under 120 ° c . by means of exchanger 6 is sent to the purifier at membrane 25 . it leaves by two channels . the first channel v 1 carries the very pure hydrogen thereby extracted to the pem fuel cell in order to supply it and the second channel v 2 evacuates the residual gases that are recompressed with a heating compressor 26 so as to be recycled with the fuel supplying the pyrolysis reactor by duct 3 . [ 0136 ] fig6 represents a device using a metal membrane 27 made of palladium alloy operating at high temperature . this device is similar to that in fig4 except for the fact that membrane purifier 27 is located in front of heat exchanger 6 . the very pure hydrogen thereby extracted is sent towards the pem fuel cell after being cooled by means of heat exchanger 6 . the residual gases are recompressed by means of compressor 26 in order to be recycled with the fuel supplying the pyrolysis reactor by duct 3 . [ 0137 ] fig7 represents a device presenting a metal membrane 28 placed inside the pyrolysis reactor . this membrane made of palladium alloy operates at high temperature , typically at 500 - 550 ° c . and has the shape of a cylindrical rod . in order to avoid an accumulation of carbon particles in direct contact with the membrane , the latter is protected by a sleeve 29 of refractory fibres , for example an aluminium fabric . the purpose of this sleeve is to keep the carbon particles away from the membrane . it should be noted that pyrolysis reactor r can contain , if necessary , several identical membranes so as to increase the active membrane surface and thereby the flow of hydrogen extracted . it should also be noted that even if a membrane consisting of a cylindrical pencil or a beam of cylindrical rods is one of the possibilities considered , other configurations are also possible . therefore , membranes in the form of plates or a stack of plates can also be considered . the main advantage of placing the membrane inside the pyrolysis reactor is the simplicity of the system since compressor 26 and the fuel circulation loop are not required . the devices represented in fig5 to 7 can be adapted to the case of the double pyrolysis reactor in fig3 . this adaptation does not raise any specific problems . among the applications of the method , we can include the production of co - generation boilers ( heat and electricity ) in the habitat sector as well as recreational vehicles ( camping cars , trailers , . . . ). for home applications , for example single family homes , the power level of a co - generation module will be about 5 kwe + 5 kwth . according to the case , the fuels are : natural gas , propane , domestic fuel , . . . in particular pem and sofc fuel cells offer plans adapted to this type of application . for more powerful installations , such as the urban co - generation for buildings , groups of buildings , hospitals , modules with a power of about 200 kwe + 200 kwth have to be developed . considering the relatively low cost and very developed distribution , natural gas will be the fuel most often used for this application . openings in the field of farm applications are also to be considered . for example , farm greenhouses reveal the need for heat and electricity . it should be possible to use ecological fuels such as ethanol for such applications . an application of the method has a place in the petrochemicals field . in fact , the method is an easy and cheap way to produce synthesis gas ( co + h 2 ) for which there are major uses in the chemistry industry ( manufacture of acetic acid , formic acid , acrylic acid , phosgen , isocyannates , . . . ).	2
referring , now , to fig1 there is shown a multiple - function banking apparatus embodying the principles of this invention . this multiple - function banking system is designed , for example , to function as an automatic over - the - counter service package which includes a plurality of transactions . thus , the system includes such transactions as cash dispensing , cash exchanging , depositing , balance reference and bankbook entry . the front panel of the banking apparatus 10 is provided with a gate 11 which accepts a magnetic card carrying such data as the personal code of a person who is eligible for transactions , an inlet 12 for inserting a bank note , an outlet 13 for issuing a receipt in the case of a transaction without a bankbook , and a rotatable how - to - use instruction display 28 which displays the method of operating the apparatus for each transaction mode of the banking system . the operation panel of the banking apparatus 10 is provided with a display 14 which displays key - entered numerical information , a transaction selection button keyboard 15a by which the customer may select the transaction he wants to do with the bank from among a plurality of , five in the illustrated embodiment , transaction modes , a confirmation button 15b , a ten - key keyboard 16 ( marked 0 to 9 ) for entering the customer &# 39 ; s select number and requested withdrawl amount , a gate 17 for the insertion of a bankbook in the cash dispensing , deposit or entry mode , a confirmation window 18a for confirming the number of e . g . ten - dollar bills ready to be dispensed , another confirmation window 18b for confirming the number of , e . g . fifty - dollar bills , an outlet 19a for dispensing the ten - dollar bills delivered to a window 18a to the customer on depression of button 15b , and an outlet 19b for similarly dispensing the fifty - dollar bills . disposed inside the card gate 11 is a card detecting switch 32 ( fig3 ) which detects the card inserted into the apparatus 10 . preferably , there is arranged in a bankbook gate 17 a shutter device adapted to selectively open and allow the bankbook to enter only when a personal card has been inserted and the bankbook entry mode has been selected by the customer . there also is disposed , either inside or on the backside of apparatus 10 , an operation mode pre - setting switch 25 in which the pattern of available transactions is set according to either the status of the transaction devices and / or a predetermined banking time schedule . before proceeding to a more detailed description of the banking system according to the invention , each transaction mode thereof will be briefly explained . the cash withdrawal mode involves the following sequence of events . first , the customer inserts a magnetic card including data such as his personal code and secret number into the gate 11 . he then inserts his bankbook into the gate 17 if he wants to have a withdrawal amount entered into the bankbook . then , he selects the cash withdrawal mode by means of selection button keyboard 15a . the customer enters his secret number identifying his authority to use the card and the amount he wants to withdraw on the ten - key keyboard 16 . if the key - entered secret number corresponds to his individualized secret number read from the card and the amount he wants to withdraw is not in excess of the outstanding balance in his account , bank notes in a value equivalent to the amount he wants to withdraw are conveyed to the confirmation window 18a and / or 18b . the customer checks to see that the bank notes appearing in the window 18a and / or 18b are in agreement with those he requested and , if the result of this inspection is affirmative , he depresses the confirmation button 15b . in response to this depression of button 15b , the inserted card is returned to the customer through the card gate 11 , the requested bank notes are dispensed through the ten - dollar bill outlet 19a and / or fifty - dollar bill outlet 19b and the bankbook , if it has been entered , is returned to the customer through the bankbook gate 17 . the deposit mode involves the following sequence of events . the customer inserts his card into the card gate 11 and selects the deposit mode on the transaction selection button keyboard 15a . in response to the depression of the correct button , the shutter disposed in the throat of the bankbook gate 17 opens to admit the bankbook . the customer then inserts bank notes in the value which he wants to deposit into the banknote inlet 12 , whereupon the value of the banknotes is displayed on the display 14 . he then enters his secret number by means of keyboard 16 , if necessary . the amount is entered into the bankbook only when the secret number agrees with the number read from the card . the bankbook and the card are then returned to the customer . the exchange mode involves the following sequence of events . the customer inserts his card into the gate 11 and , then , selects the exchange mode on the transaction selection button keyboard 15a . he then inserts a bank note to be exchanged , for example a fifty - dollar - bill , into the banknote inlet 12 . thereupon , the value is displayed on the display 14 and the small changes ( five ten - dollar bills ) are conveyed to the confirmation window 18a . the customer inspects the ten - dollar bills and , if the value represented by these bills is equal to that of the bank note tendered in exchange , he depresses a confirmation button 15b , whereupon the ten - dollar bills are dispensed from dispenser outlet 19a . the balance reference mode involves the following sequence of events . the customer inserts his magnetic card into the card gate 11 and selects the balance reference transaction mode by means of button 15a . then , if the customer desires to check the balance , he enters his secret number on the ten - key board 16 . when the secret number magnetically recorded on the card agrees with the key - input number , the balance of his deposit account is displayed on the display 14 . it may also be so arranged that a slip imprinted with the balance is issued through a receipt issue outlet 13 when the balance is displayed . the card is returned to the customer . the entry mode involves the following sequence of events . the customer selects the entry mode on the transaction selection button keyboard 15 . of course , he must insert his card into the gate 11 beforehand . as the button 15 is depressed , the shutter adjacent the backnote gate 17 opens , thus activating the acceptance of the bankbook . when the bankbook has thus been accepted , the information on any past transactions made without entries in the bankbook , such as automatic transfer transactions , is printed and the updated bankbook is then returned to the customer . the five transaction modes briefly described above are merely illustrative of the variety of banking services which may be rendered by the apparatus and method of this invention and should not be construed as meaning that the invention is limited to those particular transaction modes . referring , now , to fig2 there is shown a block diagram of one embodiment of this invention . in association with a main controller segment 20 , there are provided a magnetic card reader 21 which is disposed behind the card gate 11 and adapted to read the magnetically recorded information , i . e . the secret number or personal code , from the magnetic card , a slip issue device 22 which records each mode of transaction and details of the transaction such as the requested amount of withdrawal or the depositing amount for posting in the bank &# 39 ; s reference and evidence files , an imprinter 23 adapted to prepare and issue to the customer a receipt or evidence slip relevant to the transaction , a bank note dispenser 24 which dispenses bank notes equivalent to the withdrawal amount or exchanged amount into the confirmation window 18a or 18b , an operation mode pre - setting switch 25 which is adapted to change the processable pattern of transactions according to the status of the banking apparatus , a bank note checker 26 which verifies the kind of the bank note ( for example , ten - dollar bill or fifty - dollar bill ) inserted from the inlet 12 , a bankbook printer 27 which prints deposit amounts on the deposit mode or make entries updating the bankbook on the entry mode , a rotatable how - to - use display device 28 disposed on the front panel of the apparatus 10 and adapted to display a how - to - use instruction for each transaction mode , and a customer operating panel 29 which includes a transaction selection keyboard 15a , the confirmation button 15b and the ten - key keyboard 16 . the main controller 20 transmits transaction processing data to a control center through a line controller 30 and a modulator - demodulator 31 and receives input data ( for example , the information not recorded yet in the bankbook ) from the center through the modulator - demodulator 31 and the line controller 30 . fig3 is a detailed block diagram of the main controller 20 . the main controller 20 comprises a micro - processor 201 which performs various operations and control processes , a read - only memory prom 202 which is pre - loaded with the program of this embodiment which is hereinafter described in detailed with reference to the flow diagram of fig5 a random - access memory ram 203 which records and reads transaction process data , an encoder 204 which encodes a output from the operation mode pre - setting switch 25 and provides the micro - processor with the encoded signal , an encoder 205 which encodes an output designating a selected transaction mode from the transaction selection button 15a and provides the micro - processor 201 with the encoded selected transaction mode output signal , a decoder 206 which drives a display 33 , a data bus 207 which transmits transaction data to the micro - processor 201 or distributes micro - processor output data to various parts of the apparatus , a control bus 208 which transmits a control signal for reading and recording functions and an address bus 209 which provides the read - only memory 202 and random access memory 203 with address data and controls a read - out gate of each switch . the data bus 207 and the control bus 208 are connected with the card detecting switch 32 for detecting the card inserted into the gate 11 and the card reader 21 , respectively . to the decoder 206 is applied the information on the transaction mode selected by means of the selection button 15a , and a signal for actuating an available - transaction indicating lamp 33 corresponding to the particular transaction is supplied to the display . the micro - processor 201 includes an arithmetic logic unit alu which performs operations in accordance with the program data stored in the read - only memory 202 , an accumulator a which temporally stores certain data , a flag z which memorizes the fact that the result of an operation by said accumulator a is zero , and a flag c which memorizes the occurrence of a carry - up in accumulator a . now , some operable transaction modes in the event of a local malfunction of the system will be explained . let it now be assumed that a bank note dispenser 24 has failed and ceased to issue bank notes ( i . e . a jam ). then , the cash withdrawal and exchange modes will become unoperable . in the event of a failure of a bank note checker 26 for verifying the kind of an inserted bank note due to a jam or a severed belt , for instance , both the exchange and the deposit modes will become unoperable . if a bankbook printer 27 fails , the cash withdrawal , deposit and entry modes will all become inoperative . in accordance with this invention , a bank employee may pre - set the available transaction modes according to the customer service schedule of the bank , i . e . the transaction modes available to the customer during a certain calendar time of the day . this pre - setting may be conveniently performed by operating the pre - setting switch 25 manually . as an alternative , an automatic detector for detecting a system failure , i . e . a failure of a certain transaction function , may be built into , or associated with , said pre - setting switch so that the system may remain operable with regard to the remainder of the functions , i . e . all the transaction modes offered except the mode or modes affected by such a failure as described above . the principle will now be explained which is involved in the detection of operable transaction modes in the event of a failure . fig4 is a schematic representation of an exemplary set of information stored in the accumulator a . in this example , accumulator a has 8 bits , namely x1 through x8 . the memory of the available transaction modes set by pre - setting switch 25 and the logic state as designated by transaction selection button 15 are shown in tandem for each of understanding . the first bit ( x1 ) of accumulator a stores a logic signal specifying the presence or absence of a withdrawal mode input as selected by the pre - setting switch 25 or selected by the transaction selection switch 15a ; the second bit ( x2 ) similarly stores a logic signal specifying the depository mode ; the third bit ( x3 ) stores a logic signal specifying the exchange mode , the fourth bit ( x4 ) stores a logic signal specifying the balance reference mode ; and the fifth bit ( x5 ) stores a logic signal specifying the bankbook entry mode . thus , each bit specifies a transaction mode by memorizing a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, and also specifies , by memorizing a logic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, that the particular mode is not pre - set or is not selected . now , as the pre - setting switch 25 is actuated to set a pattern indicating that the entire system 10 is valid or normal , an encoder 204 generates a coded signal &# 34 ; 11111000 &# 34 ; and lets the accumulator a store the information that all the modes are valid and available to the customer . fig4 ( a ) shows the logic state of the accumulator a which has memorized this coded signal representing the availability of all the modes . if the bank note checker 26 has failed , the encoder 204 generates a coded signal &# 34 ; 10011000 &# 34 ; meaning that the cash withdrawal , balance reference and bankbook entry modes are still available to the customer and lets the accumulator store that information . fig4 ( b ) shows the logic state of accumulator a in this situation . if the transaction mode pre - setting switch 25 is actuated to set a failure of the bank note dispenser , the encoder 204 generates a coded signal &# 34 ; 01011000 &# 34 ; designating that the deposit , balance reference and entry modes are available to the customer and lets the accumulator a store the information . the logic state of accumulator a in this situation is schematically shown in fig4 ( c ). on the other hand , if the customer actuates the selection button 15a to designate the kind of transaction he desires to consummate with the bank , the encoder 205 generates a coded signal including a logic of &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in the digit corresponding to the transaction he is requesting and lets the accumulator a store the information temporally . the logic states of accumulator a for the modes that may be designated by the transaction selection button 15a are shown in fig4 ( d ) through ( h ). fig5 is a flow diagram illustrating the functioning of an embodiment of this invention . referring , now , to fig1 through 5 , the operation of judging whether any of the multiple functions of the banking apparatus 10 is operable or not is illustrated . if a certain mechanical failure has developed in the banking apparatus , the bank employee in charge of the apparatus may manually set the operable modes by means of the pre - setting switch 25 . as previously discussed , a self - check , self - correction function may be built into the banking apparatus . in the former case , the system 10 warns the employee that something is wrong with the machine . the employee checks the machine and sets the modes which are still operable . for example , if the bank note checker 26 fails to function properly , the cash withdrawal mode , balance reference mode and entry mode are still available , although the deposit and exchange modes are not utilizable . the employee thereupon operates the pre - setting switch 25 to set a first pattern as shown in fig4 ( b ). similarly , when the bank note dispenser 24 has failed , the deposit , balance reference and entry modes are still available , although the cash withdrawal and exchange modes are not available to the customer . therefore , the employee actuates the pre - setting switch 25 to select a second pattern , whereupon the coded signal shown in fig4 ( c ) is read into the accumulator a . he then depresses an initiator button ( not shown ) to allow the following operation to start from step 100 as illustrated in fig5 . in step 101 , the available - mode information encoded by the encoder 204 in accordance with a pattern set by the pre - setting switch 25 is stored into the accumulator a of the micro processor 201 through the data buss 207 . namely , when the entire system 10 is in a normal condition , a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; may be stored in the first bit through the fifth bit ( x1 through x5 ), and the logic status stored in the accumulator a forms the pattern shown in fig4 ( a ). when the bank note checker 26 has failed , the coded signal as shown in fig4 ( b ) is stored into the accumulator a . when the bank note dispenser 24 has failed , the coded signal as shown in fig4 ( c ) is stored into the accumulator a . in step 102 , the available - mode information stored in accumulator a is memorized in a first memory area ( a ) of the random - access memory 203 via the data bus 207 . then , in step 103 , as a card detecting switch 32 detects the insertion of a magnetic card , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is memorized in the eighth bit ( x8 ) of accumulator a through the data bus 207 . in step 104 , an inquiry is made as to whether a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; has been stored in the eighth bit ( x8 ) of accumulator a . if no card has been inserted , the eighth bit ( x8 ) of accumulator a does not carry the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; and the sequence , therefore , returns to step 101 . if , on the other hand , the card has been inserted , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the eighth bit ( x8 ) of accumulator a . therefore , the sequence proceeds to step 105 . in step 105 , magnetically recorded data are read from the card inserted from the card gate 11 and transmitted to the magnetic card reader 21 , the data including the account number and secret number of the customer . this card information is applied to a second memory area ( b ) of said random - access memory 203 through data bus 207 . in step 106 , the available - mode information stored in the first memory area ( a ) of random - access memory 203 is read and stored by accumulator a via data bus 207 . in step 107 , the available - mode information stored in the accumulator a is fed to the decoder 206 via data bus 207 . the decoded signal is supplied to available - mode lamps 33 , whereupon the lamps light up . for example , in the first transaction pattern mentioned above , i . e . the case in which the bank note checker 26 has failed , the lamps displaying the cash withdrawal , balance reference and entry modes are lit up . in step 108 , the customer viewing the display illuminations 33 designates the desired transaction mode by operating the selection button 15a if the particular mode is available . in step 109 , a signal representing the mode so selected by depression of the button 15a is fed to the encoder 205 . the encoder 205 converts the mode - designating signal to a coded signal specifying the mode of transaction so designated . the coded signal is then transmitted to the accumulator a in micro - processor 201 through data bus 207 . thus , when the cash withdrawal mode has been designated by button 15a , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the first bit ( x1 ) of accumulator a ; when the depository mode has been designated , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the second bit ( x2 ); when the exchange mode has been designated , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the third bit ( x3 ); when the balance reference mode has been selected by button 15a , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the fourth bit ( x4 ); or when the designated mode is bankbook entry , the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the fifth bit ( x5 ). in step 110 , the memory bits representing the available modes stored in said first memory area ( a ) of random - access memory 203 are anded with the corresponding memory bits specifying the designated modes in the accumulator a . thus , the results of these logic operations are fed back again to the accumulator a . if the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; has been memorized in said first memory area ( a ) of random - access memory 203 in the bit corresponding to the bit of accumulator a where the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; has been stored , the designated transaction mode is judged to be available to the customer . for this purpose , the sequence proceeds to the next step 111 . in step 111 , the arithmetic logic unit alu inquires if the flag z is &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;. if the flag z is &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, it shows that the customer has not designated any available transaction mode yet via the selection button 15a . therefore , in step 112 the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; is stored in the eighth bit of accumulator a by direct instruction and , in step 113 , this data in the accumulator is fed to the magnetic card reader as a card return instruction signal . in step 114 , the magnetic card reader reads this signal and returns the card to the customer . the sequence now returns to step 101 . incidentally , the yes response to the enquiry in step 111 may be directly applied to step 114 , bypassing steps 112 and 113 . if the flag z is judged to carry the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in step 111 , it shows that the customer has selected one of the available transaction modes on the selection keyboard ( button 15a ). thus , this transaction is processed in the following manner . in step 115 , the data in accumulator a is shifted by one bit . then , in step 116 , enquiry is made if the flag c specifying a carry - up of accumulator a is &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; or not . in other words , enquiry is made as to whether the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; has been stored in the first bit of accumulator a . if a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; has been stored in the first bit of accumulator a and the response to the enquiry in step 116 is affirmative , i . e . there has been a carry - up , the cash withdrawal transaction designated by the customer is executed in step 117 . the function of the cash withdrawal mode has been described hereinbefore . if , in step 116 , the flag c does not carry the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; specifying a carry - up , the data stored in the accumulator a is further shifted to the left by one bit in step 118 . then , in step 119 , enquiry is made as to if the flag c is &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. thus , in step 119 , enquiry is made if the logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; has been stored in the second bit ( x2 ) of accumulator a , and if the response is affirmative , it is fed to step 120 so that the deposit mode is executed . if no logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; exists in flag c in step 119 , the data stored in the accumulator a is shifted to the left by one bit after another to enquire if there has been a carry - up until , finally , the selected transaction is executed . after any of such transactions has been completed , the sequence returns to step 101 . in another embodiment of this invention , there may be provided an additional step between step 101 and each of steps 117 , 129 , 120 , 123 , 126 and 114 , such additional steps enquiring if there is any transaction rendered unavailable by either a malfunction or an instruction from a control center , and according to the response to each such enquiry , the transaction mode pre - setting switch 25 is actuated . thus , in the several embodiments described hereinbefore , if a malfunction or abnormal event takes place in any part of the multiple - transaction apparatus , the unaffected transaction modes still viable can be selectively offered to the customer . thus , a local malfunction does not necessitate a shut - down of the entire apparatus , thus contributing to an improved banking efficiency . moreover , if the transaction requested by the customer is not among the pre - set modes , the transaction is automatically declined by the system , with the result that erratic or unnecessary operations may be avoided . of course , it may also be so arranged that , in the event of such a malfunction , one of the intact transaction modes will be available to the customer . in still another embodiment of this invention , the customer who has found a transaction unavailable may select other transaction modes . in this connection , it is preferable that he be allowed to repeat his designation several times . while in the above embodiments , the available modes are pre - set in the event of a malfunction , it is of course possible that unavailable transaction modes are selectively pre - set . while the embodiments generally shown in fig2 through 5 have been explained mainly in connection with the case in which the pre - setting switch 25 is activated by or in response to a local malfunction of the system , the pre - setting of available transaction modes may be performed in accordance with a predetermined or routine banking time schedule . thus , the switch 25 may be activated either manually by a bank employee or automatically by an instruction signal from a control center . fig6 and 7 show such an embodiment of the invention . in fig6 there is shown a block diagram of a main controller in the particular embodiment . the main controller comprises a clock device 25a for generating a clock signal representing a current time in lieu of the pre - setting switch 25 shown in fig3 and a micro - processor 201a in lieu of the micro - processor 201 shown in fig3 . the micro - processlor 201a comprises a register x storing a standard time , an accumulator a , an arithmetic logic unit alu , a flag z which stores the information that the result of an operation by accumulator a is zero , a flag c which stores a carry - up in accumulator a and a flag s which stores a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; when the result of operation is minus . the main controller further comprises prom 202 , ram 203 , encoders 204 and 205 and busses 207 , 208 and 209 which correspond to the parts designated by like numerals in fig3 . the operation sequence of this embodiment will be described by reference to fig6 and 5 . in a typical situation , an initiator button , not shown , is depressed by a bank employee at 9 o &# 39 ; clock in the morning . in step 151 , the current time from clock 25 is temporally stored in the accumulator a through data bus 206 . in step 152 , a standard time is stored in register x , for example by a direct instruction from outside of the system . the standard time may represent a closing calendar time ( 15 : 00 ) for the full - mode service ( 9 : 00 to 15 : 00 ) or 17 : 00 for service modes other than the deposit mode ( i . e . 9 : 00 to 17 : 00 ). this standard time information is permanently stored in the register x . in step 153 , the standard time is subtracted from the current time stored in the accumulator a and the result of this operation updates the storage of the accumulator a . in this step , if the current time ( t ) is prior to the standard time ( 15 : 00 ), namely 9 & lt ; t & lt ; 15 , and the updated storage of the accumulator a is minus , the alu allows the flag s to store a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. in step 154 , alu enquires if the flag s carries a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; and , if it does , it means that the current time has not reached the standard time as yet . then , in step 155 , a coded signal &# 34 ; 11111000 &# 34 ; representing the availability of all the transaction modes is temporally stored in the accumulator a by a direct instruction . if , on the other hand , the flag s does not carry a logic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, the current time is past the standard time ( 15 & lt ; t & lt ; 17 ) and , therefore , the deposit mode is shut down in accordance with the banking schedule . in step 156 , a coded signal &# 34 ; 10111000 &# 34 ; representing the availability of all the modes but the deposit mode is temporally stored in the accumulator . from step 155 or 156 , the sequence proceeds to the step 102 shown in fig5 and all the subsequent operations are similar to those hereinbefore described by reference to fig5 . it should be understood that while , in the embodiments described hereinbefore , a micro - processor is used in combination with soft ware , the corresponding functions and processes may be performed by means of hardware circuitry . it should also be understood that the above description is merely illustrative of this invention and that many changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the appended claims . thus , for example , the apparatus according to this invention may be further provided with means whereby the pattern of transactions representing a combination of modes processable by the machine prevails over the pattern of transactions manually pre - set by the bank employee when the two patterns happen to be not in agreement .	6
reference will now be made in detail to the example embodiments , which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings . wherever possible , the same reference n umbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts . shipped object location information , as well as other environmental information associated with a shipped object , can be determined more accurately and frequently by including a sensor device with or near a shipped object . a server may store data that links a sensor device with one or more shipped objects , if , for example , one sensor device is placed in a container that includes a plurality of shipped objects . as sensor data is received from the sensor device at the server , the data may be associated with shipped objects associated with the sensor device . a shipped object may be associated with a number of risks , such as , for example , a risk that a shipped object is lost , damaged , or stolen . the location data received from a sensor device helps , for example , to improve handling of risks associated with a shipped object . for example , one or more geofences ( i . e ., selected or defined geographical areas ) may be established . times may be associated with the established geofences , such that , if a sensor device and thus a shipped object ) does not reach or exit a particular geofence by a selected time , a risk may be detected . a number of operations can be performed based on a detected risk . for example . a panic button may be enabled in as user interface . if the panic button is selected , a number of actions may be performed such as , for example transmitting a panic mode indication to the sensor device to alter a reporting time interval of sensor data , notifying one or more parties associated with the shipped object that is associated with the sensor device , disabling any delay of location data about the shipped object that is available in a user interface , and / or creating a customer support case to resolve issues that will arise because of the determined risk . fig1 is a diagram illustrating an example system 100 that may be used for implementing the disclosed embodiments . system 100 includes , among other things , one or more servers 110 , one or more sensor devices 120 , one or more user interfaces 130 , one or more remote devices 140 , and one or more data sources 150 . in some embodiments , as depicted in fig2 , server 110 includes , among other things , one or more processors 210 , memory 220 , and one or more transceivers 230 . processor 210 may be any processor suitable for the execution of a computer program including , by way of example , one or more general purpose microprocessors or special purpose microprocessors . memory 220 may store computer program code that may be executed by the processor 210 . transceiver 230 may facilitate sending data to and receiving data from external sources ( e . g ., via the internet or via a cellular network ). for example , server 110 may be configured to send data to and receive data from a sensor device 120 , a user interface 130 , a remove device 140 , and / or a data source 150 . in some embodiments , memory 220 of server 110 also stores a database . the database may comprise , for example , data regarding the status ( e . g ., data regarding location , acceleration , motion , temperature , pressure , and / or other environmental parameters ) of one or more shipped objects . in some embodiments , as depicted in fig3 , sensor device 120 includes , among other things , one or more sensors 310 , one or more processors 320 , memory 330 , one or more wake - up mechanisms 340 , one or more transceivers 350 , and one or more antennas 360 . sensor ( s ) 310 may measure one or more environmental parameters associated with the sensor device 120 . for example , a sensor 310 may measure acceleration , motion , temperature , pressure , location , and / or other environmental parameters . for example , to sensor 310 may be as gps sensor that measures the gps coordinates associated with sensor device 120 . memory 330 may store computer program code that may be executed by the processor 320 . processor 320 may be configured to monitor sensor ( s ) 310 . processor 320 may , for example , stare monitored sensor data in memory 330 and / or may transmit monitored sensor data via transceiver 350 and antenna 360 . while sensor device 120 is depicted as a single device , sensor device 120 may also be a set of devices that operate in conjunction . for example , a set of devices may include sensors 310 that send monitored sensor data to another device that transmits monitored sensor data via a transceiver 350 and antenna 360 . in some embodiments , sensor device 120 is capable of entering a “ sleep ” mode in which some or all of its components are powered aft or put in a low - power state . wake - up mechanism 340 may receive power in such a sleep mode and may be configured to cause sensor device 120 to resume normal operation upon receiving a signal to exit sleep mode . for example , wake - up mechanism 340 may be connected to a clock ( not shown ), wherein , at a predetermined time determined based on the dock , the wake - up mechanism 340 causes sensor device 120 to resume normal operation . transceiver 350 may facilitate sending data to and receiving , data from external sources ( e . g ., via the internet or via a cellular network ). transceiver 370 may utilize antenna 360 to send and receive data via , for example , a cellular network . in some embodiments , memory 330 stores data regarding the destination for data obtained from sensor ( s ) 310 . sensor device 120 may , for example , be configured to transmit , using transceiver 350 and antenna 360 , data from sensor ( s ) 310 to server 110 . in some embodiments sensor device 120 and server 110 interact directly . however , in other embodiments , any number of intermediary devices may route data sent between sensor device 120 and server 110 . in some embodiments , memory 330 stores a predetermined transmission rate . sensor data from sensor ( s ) 310 may be transmitted , using transceiver 350 and antenna 360 , to server 110 at a rate that corresponds to the predetermined transmission rate . in some embodiments , if data temporarily cannot be sent from sensor device 110 ( e . g ., due to a temporary loss of cellular reception or due to the sensor device 110 being in an “ airplane ” mode in which the transceiver 350 and antenna 360 are turned off ), data from sensor ( s ) 310 may be temporary stored in memory 330 until data can be sent from sensor device 110 , and , optionally , may be sent in a batch to server 110 . in some embodiments , the sensor device 120 is capable of receiving notifications regarding altered modes of operation . for example , sensor device 120 may be notified that it should enter a special mode in which sensor data is transmitted to server 110 at an altered time interval . in some embodiments , sensor device 120 is placed within or near a shipped object . server 110 may store data that associates a shipped object identifier with sensor device 120 . in some embodiments , more than one shipped object may be associated with a single sensor device 120 . thus , as data is received by server 110 from sensor device 120 , the data may be associated with each shipped object that is associated with sensor device 120 . user interface 130 provides a user interface for accessing information regarding shipments . for example , user interface 130 may display a travelled path of a shipped object ( based on a travelled path of sensor device 120 ) based on data stored in server 110 . moreover , use interface 130 may display historical and current alerts associated with a shipped object . for example , in some embodiments , server 110 may send user interface 130 an indication that a potential risk associated with a shipped object is present . the user interface 130 may be configured to display a panic button in response to the potential risk . in some embodiments , a panic button is a selectable visual indication that a panic mode may be entered . thus , a user may select the panic button to cause various actions to occur , described in more detail below . a selection may be received in a number of ways , including , for example , a mouse click , a finger touch ( e . g ., if a user interface is displayed on a touch - sensitive screen ), a textual entry , a spoken command , etc . in some embodiments , user interface 130 is an application that is executed on server 110 . in such embodiments , a user may use a device ( e . g ., a computer , a mobile phone , a laptop , etc .) to access the user interface 130 remotely . in other embodiments , however , user interface 130 could be executed locally on a user &# 39 ; s device . in such embodiments , user interlace 130 may obtain data from server 110 . moreover , user interface 130 may be a single user interface that users ( e . g ., registered senders or receivers of a shipped package ) and administrators ( e . g ., individuals associated with the entity responsible for managing the shipping process ) can access . alternatively , user interface 130 may be two or more user interfaces configured for access by various entities ( e . g ., one user interface that can be accessed by users and another user interface , with greater authorization , that can be accessed by administrators ). system 100 may also include a number of remote devices 140 . for example , a user may provide a phone number for a mobile device to receive alerts . in addition to , or as an alternative to , sending indications of potential risks to user interface 130 , server 110 may send indications of potential risks to remote devices 140 . for example , an indication of as potential risk may be sent to a user &# 39 ; s mobile device , the mobile device may display a panic button , and the user may select the panic button to cause various actions to occur . moreover , server 110 may be configured to send other information to remote devices 140 . for example , server 110 may be configured to send remote devices 140 information in response to a determination that a panic button has been selected . system 100 may also include a number of data sources 150 . a data source 150 may be any source of data other than sensor device 120 , including , for example , a schedule of flights , a weather forecast , traffic data , etc . server 110 may access data sources 150 for a variety of reasons , such as , for example , to determine a travel path to a destination , including alternate travel paths once a shipped object is already in route to a destination , or to calculate an estimated time ardor distance to a location on the travel path . fig4 illustrates an example method 400 for determining a potential risk . method 400 begins with a generation of a time - based geofence ( step 410 ). the term “ geofence ” refers to a selected or defined geographical area . for example , server 110 may store geographical areas surrounding a number of known locations . thus , for example , a geofence may be generated lot a geographical area surrounding an intermediary shipping facility that is on a shipped object &# 39 ; s scheduled travel path . moreover , a geofence can be generated for new locations . for example , a geofence may be generated for an area ( e . g ., 1 mile , 5 miles , 10 miles ) surrounding the destination of a shipped object . a “ time - based geofence ” refers to a geofence that is associated with one or more times . in some embodiments , a time is automatically associated with the generated geofence . for example , a time that is a predetermined amount of time before an estimated delivery time , or an estimated arrival to an intermediary geofence along a scheduled travel path , may be associated with the generated geofence . alternatively , the time associated with a geofence may be selected by as user . for example , as depicted in fig8 , a user may be provided with a menu 800 that enables the user to indicate which geofence a time - based rule will apply to ( e . g ., a destination geofence or an intermediary geofence ), what type of action is associated with the geofence ( e . g ., a shipped object entering a geofence or a shipped object exiting a geofence ), whether to associate the geofence with a time ( e . g ., a time - based event ), and whether the time should be a specific time or a specified number of hours from an event ( e . g ., a specified number of hours after the geofence is created , a specified number of hours after a journey for the shipped object begins , or a specified number of hours after an estimated time of arrival to , or departure from , the geofence ). for example , as depicted in fig9 , a user may be provided with a menu 900 that enables the user to enter a time , a time zone , and a date to associate with a geofence . in some embodiments , a determination is made that sensor device 120 has not satisfied a time based event ( step 420 ). for example , a determination may be made that sensor device 120 has not reached any location within the time - based geofence by the time associated with the time - based geofence . alternatively , for example , a determination may be made that sensor device 120 has not exited an area associated with the time - based geofence by the time associated with the time - based geofence . to determine whether the sensor device 120 has not reached any location within the time - based geofence by the time associated with the time - based geofence , a history of the past locations of the sensor device 120 may be analyzed to determine if any location falls within an area associated with the time - based geofence by the time associated with the time - based geofence . alternatively , for example , each location capture associated with the sensor device 120 may be compared to an area associated with the time - based geofence and a flag may be cleared once a location associated with the sensor device 120 falls within an area associated with the time - based geofence ; a determination may be made as to whether the flag has been cleared at or before the time associated with the time - based geofence . to determine whether the sensor device 120 has not exited an area associated with the time - based geofence by the time associated with the time - based geofence , a history of the past locations of the sensor device 120 may be analyzed to determine if any location falls outside of an area associated with the time - based geofence by the time associated with the time - based geofence . alternatively , for example , each location capture associated with the sensor device 120 may be compared to an area associated with the based geofence and a flag may be cleared once a location associated with the sensor device 120 falls outside an area associated with the time - based geofence ; determination may be made as to whether the flag has been cleared at or before the time associated with the time - based geofence . in some embodiments , a potential risk is determined based on a failure of the sensor device 120 to satisfy the time - based event ( step 430 ). while the above process is explained with reference to one time - based geofence and one - time based event , n are than one time - based geofence used for a shipped object and one that one time - based event may be applied to a time - based geofence . for example , a geofence may be generated and associated with both an expected entrance time and an expected exit time . fig5 illustrates an example method 500 for determining are estimated distance or time to reach a destination or geofence for a shipped object . method 500 begins with a determination of a location of a sensor device 120 associated with the shipped object ( step 510 ). for example , server 110 may store a database which links a shipped object to a particular sensor device 120 being shipped with the shipped object . in some embodiments , sensor device 120 may automatically transmit server 110 its location , for example , at predetermined intervals . in such embodiments , a latest received location may be used . in other embodiments , server 110 may send sensor device 120 a location request and , in response to the location request , may receive a location of the sensor device 120 . in some embodiments , server 110 then calculates a distance and / or time to reach a shipped object &# 39 ; s destination or a geofence before the destination ( step 520 ). for example , server 110 may analyze past shipment data associated with the current location ( e . g ., the origin or an intermediary location determined from the location of the sensor device 120 ) and the destination or geofence location . for example , an estimated time and / or distance between a current location and a destination or geofence location may be determined based on past travel routes used for shipping an object from the current location to the destination or geofence location , based on , for example , an average time and / or distance of the past travel routes . other data may also be utilized to determine an estimated distance and / or time . for example , server 110 may determine from a data source 150 that one or more past travel routes are unavailable ( e . g ., due to road construction or inclement weather ). based on this additional data , some past travel routes may be ignored . alternatively , for example , a weighted average may be calculated by assigning each past travel route a probability associated with the probability that the travel route will be used for the current shipped object . in some embodiments , server 110 then transmits the calculated distance and / or time to user interface 130 ( step 530 ). user interface 130 may enable a user or an administrator to view the estimated distance and / or time for a shipped object to reach a destination or geofence location . fig6 illustrates an example method 600 for implementing a panic button . method 600 begins with a determination of a potential risk associated with a shipped object ( step 610 ). for example , as discussed above , a sensor device 120 may fail to enter or exit a time - based geofence by a particular time and a determination may be made that the sensor device 120 is associated with one or more shipped objects . alternatively , for example , sensor data from sensor device 120 may indicate a risk based on , for example , a high or low temperature , a high or low acceleration , a high or low pressure , or a high or low speed . in some embodiments , the determination of a potential risk is made at the server 110 . in other embodiments , the determination of a potential risk is made at the sensor device 120 . in some embodiments , based on the potential risk , server 110 enables a panic button in the user interface 130 ( step 620 ). in some embodiments , the panic button may only be enabled when a potential risk is received from sensor device 120 and one or more additional conditions are satisfied . the one or more additional conditions may include , for example : the shipped object being high value or the shipped object containing perishable material . however , in other embodiments , a panic button may always be enabled in user interface 130 for one or more users of the user interface 130 . additionally , far example , an administrator may have access to the panic button even without an indication of a potential risk from sensor device 120 . as discussed above , the panic button may be a selectable visual indication that a panic , mode may be entered . a panic button may be selected in a number of ways , including , for example , a mouse click , a finger touch ( e . g ., when a user interlace is displayed on a touch - sensitive screen ), a textual entry , a spoken command , etc . in some embodiments , server 110 receives an indication that the panic button has been selected ( step 630 ). in response to the indication that the panic button has been selected , server 110 may perform a number of actions , either simultaneously or in sequence . for example , server 110 may perform one or more of the following actions : transmit a panic mode indication to sensor device 120 ( step 640 ), notify one or more parties associated with the shipped object ( step 650 ), disable a delay of location data available to the user interface 130 ( step 660 ), and / or create a customer support case ( step 670 ). at step 640 , sensor device 120 may receive the panic mode indication from the server 110 . as discussed above , sensor device 120 may have a predetermined rate of transmitting its location and / or other environmental parameters ( e . g ., battery life , temperature , humidity , pressure , light , acceleration , or motion ) to server 110 . as discussed in more detail below , in response to receiving the panic mode indication , sensor device 120 may increase the rate in which it transmits its location / or other environmental parameters to server 110 for example , for a predetermined amount of or until another indication is received that panic mode has been resolved . in some embodiments , the increased rate is predetermined ( e . g ., twice the rate of when panic mode is not active or as frequently as the device supports transmission ). in other embodiments , the increased rate of location and environmental transmissions is received from server 110 . at step 650 , the parties that are notified of the panic mode indication may include , for example , company security , a legal department , a police department closest to the shipped object &# 39 ; s location , one or more monitoring , or intervention groups , and / or all participants who have signed up to receive notifications regarding a particular shipped object ( e . g ., a shipped &# 39 ; s object &# 39 ; s sender and / or receiver ). to increase security for certain carriers , location data that is displayed in user interface 130 may ordinarily be delayed ( e . g ., by 30 minutes ) when a panic mode is not active . at step 660 , the delay may be removed such that the user interface 130 displays the latest known location data of a shipped object without any intentional delay for a predetermined amount of time or until another indication is received that panic mode has been resolved . at step 670 , a customer support case may be created . a customer support case may be used to ensure that any issues associated with the shipped object are handled and tracked , including , for example , any billing issues that arise by a shipped object being delayed , lost , stolen , or damaged . in some embodiments , a determination may be made that the risk associated with the shipped object has abated ( step 680 ). for example , if the potential risk was associated with a determination that a shipped object has not reached a time - based geofence by a predetermined time , a determination that the risk has abated may occur if the shipped object reaches the time - based geofence . alternatively , or additionally , a determination may be made that the risk associated with the shipped object has abated if the shipped object is found at a secure location . for example , a determination may be made that the risk has abated because the shipped object is located at a known shipping facility and was delayed due to weather . alternatively , or additionally , a determination may be made that the risk associated with the shipped object has abated if a particular button in user interface 130 is selected . in some embodiments , based on the determination that the risk has abated , panic mode is resolved ( step 690 ). for example , any changed settings that were made in steps 640 - 670 may be undone . moreover , while the above process explains a single instance of a panic mode , a given shipped object may be associated with a panic mode more than once . that is , once a panic mode has been resolved , a panic mode may be entered into again . fig7 illustrates an example method 700 for implementing a panic button . method 700 begins with a sensor device 120 reporting sensor data to server 110 at a predetermined time interval ( step 710 ). for example , as discussed above , sensor device 110 may store a predetermined time interval to use during normal operation . in some embodiments , sensor device 120 receives a panic mode indication from server 110 ( step 720 ). based on the panic mode indication , sensor device 120 may alter the time interval at which it reports sensor data ( step 730 ). for example , as discussed above , sensor device 120 may store an altered reporting time interval associated with panic mode or may receive an altered reporting time interval from server 110 . sometime after receiving the panic mode indication , sensor device 120 may receive an indication from server 110 that panic mode has been resolved ( step 740 ). based on the indication that panic mode has been resolved , sensor device 120 may resume reporting sensor data at its predetermined time interval for normal operation ( step 750 ). while various operations are described above as being performed by server 110 , in some alternative embodiments sensor device 120 performs some of or all of the operations described above as being performed by server 110 . for example , a determination that a sensor device 130 has failed to satisfy a time - based geofence may be made by server 110 or by sensor device 120 . embodiments and all of the functional operations described in this specification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry , or in computer software , firmware , or hardware , including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents , or in combinations of them . embodiments can be implemented as one or more computer program products , i . e ., one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a computer readable medium , e . g ., a machine readable storage device , a machine readable storage medium , a memory device , or a machine readable propagated signal , for execution by , or to control the operation of , data processing apparatus . the term “ data processing apparatus ” encompasses all apparatus , devices , and machines for processing data , including by way of example a programmable processor , a computer , or multiple processors or computers . the apparatus can include , in addition to hardware , code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question e . g ., code that constitutes processor firmware , a protocol stack , a database management system , an operating system , or a combination of them . a propagated signal is at artificially generated signal , e . g ., a machine - generated electrical , optical , or electromagnetic signal , which as generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus . a computer program ( also referred to as a program , software , an application , a software application , a script , or code ) can be written in any form of programming language , including compiled or interpreted languages , and it can be deployed in any form , including as a stand - alone program or as a module , component , subroutine , or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment . a computer program does not necessarily correspond to as file in a tile system . a program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other p of rams car data ( e . g ., one or more scripts stored in as markup language document ), in a single file dedicated to the program in question , or in multiple coordinated files ( e . g . files that store one or more modules , sub programs , or portions of code ). a computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network . the processes and logic flows described in this specification ( e . g ., fig4 - 7 ) can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output . the processes and logic flows can also be performed by and apparatus can also be implemented as , special purpose logic circuitry , e . g ., an fpga ( field programmable gats array ) or an asic ( application specific integrated circuit ). while disclosed processes include particular process flows , alternative flows or orders are also possible in alternative embodiments . processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include , by way of example , both general and special purpose microprocessors , and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer , generally , a processor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory or a random access memory or both . the essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data . generally , a computer will also include , or be operatively coupled to , a communication interface to receive data from or transfer data to , or both , one or more mass storage devices for storing data , e . g ., magnetic , magneto optical disks , or optical disks . moreover , a computer can be embedded in another device . information card suitable for embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non - volatile memory including by way of example semiconductor memory devices , e . g ., eprom , eeprom , and flash memory devices ; magnetic disks , e . g ., internal hard disks or removable disks ; magneto optical disks ; and cd rom and dvdrom disks . the processor and the memory can be supplemented by , or incorporated in , special purpose logic circuitry . to provide for interaction with a user , embodiments of the invention can be implemented on a computer having a display device , e . g ., a crt ( cathode ray tube ) or lcd ( liquid crystal display ) monitor for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device , e . g ., a mouse or a trackball , by which the user can provide input to the computer . other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well ; for example , feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback , e . g ., visual feedback , auditory feedback , or tactile feedback ; and input from the user can be received in any form , including acoustic , speech , or tactile input . embodiments can be implemented in a computing system that includes a back end component . e . g ., as a data server , or that includes a middleware component , e . g ., an application server , or that includes a front end component , e . g . a client computer having a graphical user interface or a web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the invention , or any combination of such back end , middleware , or front end components . the components of the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication , e . g ., a communication network . examples of communication networks include a local area network (“ lan ”) and a wide area network (“ wan ”), e . g ., the internet . the computing system can include clients and servers . a client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network . the relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client / server relationship to each other . certain features which , for clarity , are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments , may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment . conversely , various features which , for brevity , are described in the context of a single embodiment , may also be provided in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub - combination . moreover , although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such , one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination , and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination variation of a subcombination . particular embodiments have been described . other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims .	6
in accordance with the present invention , there are provided magnetic metallic glass alloys that are characterized by relatively linear magnetic responses in the frequency region where harmonic marker systems operate magnetically . such alloys evidence all the features necessary to meet the requirements of markers for surveillance systems based on magneto - mechanical actuation . generally stated the glassy metal alloys of the present invention have a composition consisting essentially of the formula co a fe b ni c m d b e si f c g , where m is selected from molybdenum and chromium and &# 34 ; a &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; b &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; c &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; d &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; e &# 34 ;, &# 34 ; f &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; are in atom percent , &# 34 ; a &# 34 ; ranges from about 40 to about 43 , &# 34 ; b &# 34 ; ranges from about 35 to about 42 and &# 34 ; c &# 34 ; ranges from about 0 to about 5 , &# 34 ; d &# 34 ; ranges from about 0 to about 3 , &# 34 ; e &# 34 ; ranges from about 10 to about 25 , &# 34 ; f &# 34 ; ranges from about 0 to about 15 and &# 34 ; g &# 34 ; ranges from about 0 to about 2 . the purity of the above compositions is that found in normal commercial practice . ribbons of these alloys are annealed with a magnetic field applied across the width of the ribbons at elevated temperatures below alloys &# 39 ; crystallization temperatures for a given period of time . the field strength during the annealing is such that the ribbons saturate magnetically along the field direction . annealing time depends on the annealing temperature and typically ranges from about a few minutes to a few hours . for commercial production , a continuous reel - to - reel annealing furace may be preferred . in such cases , ribbon travelling speeds may be set at about one meter per minute . the annealed ribbons having , for example , a length of about 38 mm , exhibit relatively linear magnetic response for magnetic fields up to or more than 8 oe applied parallel to the marker length direction and mechanical resonance in a range of frequencies from about 48 khz to about 66 khz . the linear magnetic response region extending to the level of more than 8 oe is sufficient to avoid triggering most of the harmonic marker systems . the annealed ribbons at lengths shorter or longer than 38 mm evidence higher or lower mechanical resonance frequencies than 48 - 66 khz range . ribbons having mechanical resonance in the range from about 48 to 60 khz are preferred . such ribbons are short enough to be used as disposable marker materials . in addition , the resonance signals of such ribbons are well separated from the audio and commercial radio frequency ranges . most metallic glass alloys that are outside of the scope of this invention typically exhibit nonlinear magnetic response regions below about 8 oe level . resonant markers composed of these alloys accidentally trigger , and thereby pollute , many article detection systems of the harmonic re - radiance variety . there are a few metallic glass alloys outside of the scope of this invention that do show linear magnetic response for an acceptable field range . these alloys , however , contain high levels of molybdenum or chromium , resulting in increased raw material costs and reduced ribbon castability owing to the higher melting temperatures . the alloys of the present invention are advantageous , in that they afford , in combination , extended linear magnetic response , improved mechanical resonance performance , good ribbon castability and economy in production of usable ribbon . apart from the avoidance of the interference among different systems , the markers made from the alloys of the present invention generate larger signal amplitudes at the receiving coil than conventional mechanical resonant markers . this makes it possible to reduce either the size of the marker or increase the detection aisle widths , both of which are desirable features of article surveillance systems . examples of metallic glass alloys of the invention include co 42 fe 40 b 11 si 7 . co 42 fe 40 b 12 si 6 , co 42 fe 40 b 13 si 5 , co 42 fe 40 b 14 si 4 , co 42 fe 40 b 15 si 3 , co 42 fe 40 b 16 si 2 , co 42 fe 40 b 17 si 1 , co 42 , fe 40 b 13 si 3 c 2 , co 40 fe 40 ni 2 b 13 si 5 co 40 fe 38 ni 4 b 13 si 5 , co 41 fe 40 mo 1 b 13 si 5 , co 41 fe 38 mo 3 b 13 si 5 , co 41 fe 40 cr 1 b 13 si 5 , co 41 fe 38 cr 3 b 13 si 5 , and co 43 fe 35 ni 3 b 13 si 4 c 2 , wherein subscripts are in atom percent . the magnetization behavior characterized by a b - h curve is shown in fig1 ( a ) for a conventional mechanical resonant marker , where b is the magnetic induction and h is the applied field . the overall b - h curve is sheared with a non - linear hysteresis loop existent in the low field region . this non - linear feature of the marker results in higher harmonics generation , which triggers some of the harmonic marker systems , hence the interference among different article surveillance systems . the definition of the linear magnetic response is given in fig1 ( b ). as a marker is magnetized along the length direction by an external magnetic field , h , the magnetic induction , b , results in the marker . the magnetic response is relatively linear up to h a , beyond which the marker saturates magnetically . the quantity h a depends on the physical dimension of the marker and its magnetic anisotropy field . to prevent the resonant marker from accidentally triggering a surveillance system based on harmonic re - radiance , h a should be above the operating field intensity region of the harmonic marker systems . the marker material is exposed to a burst of exciting signal of constant amplitude , referred to as the exciting pulse , tuned to the frequency of mechanical resonance of the marker material . the marker material responds to the exciting pulse and generates output signal in the receiving coil following the curve leading to v o in fig2 . at time t o , excitation is terminated and the marker starts to ring - down , reflected in the output signal which is reduced from v o to zero over a period of time . at time t 1 , which is 1 msec after the termination of excitation , output signal is measured and denoted by the quantity v 1 . thus v 1 v o is a measure of the ring - down . although the principle of operation of the surveillance system is not dependent on the shape of the waves comprising the exciting pulse , the wave form of this signal is usually sinusoidal . the marker material resonates under this excitation . the physical principle governing this resonance may be summarized as follows : when a ferromagnetic material is subjected to a magnetizing magnetic field , it experiences a change in length . the fractional change in length , over the original length , of the material is referred to as magnetostriction and denoted by the symbol λ . a positive signature is assigned to λ if an elongation occurs parallel to the magnetizing magnetic field . when a ribbon of a material with a positive magnetostriction is subjected to a sinusoidally varying external field , applied along its length , the ribbon will undergo periodic changes in length , i . e ., the ribbon will be driven into oscillations . the external field may be generated , for example , by a solenoid carrying a sinusoidally varying current . when the half - wave length of the oscillating wave of the ribbon matches the length of the ribbon , mechanical resonance results . the resonance frequency f r is given by the relation where l is the ribbon length , e is the young &# 39 ; s modulus of the ribbon , and d is the density of the ribbon . magnetostrictive effects are observed in a ferromagnetic material only when the magnetization of the material proceeds through magnetization rotation . no magnetostriction is observed when the magnetization process is through magnetic domain wall motion . since the magnetic anisotropy of the marker of the alloy of the present invention is induced by field - annealing to be across the marker width direction , a dc magnetic field , referred to as bias field , applied along the marker length direction improves the efficiency of magneto - mechanical response from the marker material . it is also well understood in the art that a bias field serves to change the effective value for e , the young &# 39 ; s modulus , in a ferromagnetic material so that the mechanical resonance frequency of the material may be modified by a suitable choice of the bias field strength . the schematic representation of fig3 explains the situation further : the resonance frequency , f r , decreases with the bias field , h b , reaching a minimum , ( f r ) min , at h b2 . the signal response , v 1 , detected , say at t = t 1 at the receiving coil , increases with h b2 , reaching a maximum , v m , at h b1 . the slope , df r / dh b , near the operating bias field is an important quantity , since it related to the sensitivity of the surveillance system . summarizing the above , a ribbon of a positively magnetostrictive ferromagnetic material , when exposed to a driving ac magnetic field in the presence of a dc bias field , will oscillate at the frequency of the driving ac field , and when this frequency coincides with the mechanical resonance frequency , f r , of the material , the ribbon will resonate and provide increased response signal amplitudes . in practice , the bias field is provided by a ferromagnet with higher coercivity than the marker material present in the &# 34 ; marker package &# 34 ;. table i lists typical values for v m , h b1 , ( f r ) min and h b2 for a conventional mechanical resonant marker based on glassy fe 40 ni 38 mo 4 b 18 . the low value of h b2 , in conjunction with the existence of the nonlinear b - h behavior below h b2 , tends to cause a marker based on this alloy to accidentally trigger some of the harmonic marker systems , resulting in interference among article surveillance systems based on mechanical resonance and harmonic re - radiance . table i______________________________________typical values for v . sub . m , h . sub . b1 , ( f . sub . r ). sub . min and h . sub . b2 fora conventionalmechanical resonant marker based on glassy fe . sub . 40 ni . sub . 38 mo . sub . 4b . sub . 18 . this ribbon at a length of 38 . 1 mm has mechanical resonancefrequencies ranging from about 57 and 60 khz . v . sub . m ( mv ) h . sub . b1 ( oe ) ( f . sub . r ). sub . min ( khz ) h . sub . b2 ( oe ) ______________________________________150 - 250 4 - 6 57 - 58 5 - 7______________________________________ table ii lists typical values for h a , v m , h b1 , ( f r ) min , h b2 and df r / dh b h b for the alloys outside the scope of this patent . field - annealing was performed in a continuous reel - to - reel furnace on 12 . 7 mm wide ribbon where ribbon speed was from about 0 . 6 m / min . to about 1 . 2 m / min . table ii__________________________________________________________________________values for h . sub . a , v . sub . m , h . sub . b1 , ( f . sub . r ). sub . min , h . sub . b2 anddf . sub . r / dh . sub . b taken at h . sub . b = 6 oe for the alloys outside thescope of this patent . field - annealing was performed in a continuousreel - to - reel furnacewhere ribbon speed was from about 0 . 6 m / min . to about 1 . 2 m / min andribbon temperaturewas about 380 ° c . the annealing field was about 1 . 4 koe appliedacross the ribbon width . composition ( at . %) h . sub . a ( oe ) v . sub . m ( mv ) h . sub . b1 ( oe ) ( f . sub . r ). sub . min ( khz ) h . sub . b2 ( oe ) df . sub . r / dh . sub . b__________________________________________________________________________ ( hz / oe ) a . co . sub . 42 fe . sub . 35 mo . sub . 5 b . sub . 13 si . sub . 5 11 70 4 . 5 59 7 . 5 900__________________________________________________________________________ alloy a shows not only an unacceptable magnetomechanical resonance responses but contains a high level of molybdenum , resulting in increased raw material costs and reduced ribbon castability . the following examples are presented to provide a more complete understanding of the invention . the specific techniques , conditions , materials , proportions and reported data set forth to illustrate the principles and practice of the invention are exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention . glassy metal alloys in the co -- fe -- b -- si -- c series , designated as samples no . 1 to 8 in table iii and iv , were rapidly quenched from the melt following the techniques taught by narasimhan in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 142 , 571 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference thereto . all casts were made in an inert gas , using 100 g melts . the resulting ribbons , typically 25 μm thick and about 12 . 7 mm wide , were determined to be free of significant crystallinity by x - ray diffractometry using cu -- kα radiation and differential scanning calorimetry . each of the alloys was at least 70 % glassy and , in many instances , the alloys were more than 90 % glassy . ribbons of these glassy metal alloys were strong , shiny , hard and ductile . the ribbons were cut into small pieces for magnetization , magnetostriction , curie and crystallization temperature and density measurements . the ribbons for magneto - mechanical resonance characterization were cut to a length of about 38 . 1 mm and were heat treated with a magnetic field applied across the width of the ribbons . table iii lists saturation induction ( b s ), saturation magnetostriction ( λ s ), crystallization temperature ( t c ) of the alloys . magnetization was measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer , giving the saturation magnetization value in emu / g which is converted to the saturation induction . saturation magnetostriction was measured by a strain - gauge method giving in 10 - 6 or in ppm . curie and crystallization temperatures were measured by an inductance method and a differential scanning calorimetry , respectively . table iii______________________________________magnetic and thermal properties of co - fe - b - si - c glassy alloys . curie temperatures of these alloys are above the crystallizationtemperatures and are not listed . composition ( at . %) no . co fe b si c b . sub . s ( tesla ) λ . sub . s ( ppm ) t . sub . c (° c . ) ______________________________________1 42 40 11 7 -- 1 . 56 26 4512 42 40 12 6 -- 1 . 55 26 4563 42 40 13 5 -- 1 . 55 25 4544 42 40 14 4 -- 1 . 55 25 4545 42 40 15 3 -- 1 . 55 25 4546 42 40 16 2 -- 1 . 55 25 4527 42 40 17 1 -- 1 . 55 25 4528 42 40 13 3 2 1 . 57 26 442______________________________________ each marker material having a dimension of about 38 . 1 mm × 12 . 7 mm × 20 μm was tested by a conventional b - h loop tracer to measure the quantity h a and then was placed in a sensing coil with 221 turns . an ac magnetic field was applied along the longitudinal direction of each alloy marker with a dc bias field changing from 0 to about 20 oe . the sensing coil detected the magneto - mechanical response of the alloy marker to the ac excitation . these marker materials mechanically resonate between about 48 and 66 khz . the quantities characterizing the magneto - mechanical response were measured and are listed in table iv for the alloys listed in table iii . table iv______________________________________values of h . sub . a , v . sub . m , h . sub . b1 , ( f . sub . r ). sub . min , h . sub . b2 anddf . sub . r / dh . sub . b taken ath . sub . b = 6 oe for the alloys of table iii heat - treated at 375 ° c . for15 min in a magnetic field of about 1 . 4 koe applied perpendicularto the ribbon length direction ( indicated by asterisks ). alloysno . 1 , 2 and 8 were field annealed in a reel - to - reel anealingfurnace at 380 ° c . with a ribbon speed of about 0 . 6 m / mimute . h . sub . a h . sub . b1 ( f . sub . r ). sub . min h . sub . b2 df . sub . r / dh . sub . balloy no . ( oe ) v . sub . m ( mv ) ( oe ) ( khz ) ( oe ) ( hz / oe ) ______________________________________1 20 415 8 . 0 53 . 5 17 . 0 6102 20 350 9 . 0 52 . 3 16 . 2 6203 21 330 7 . 5 50 . 8 18 . 5 4704 20 375 9 . 0 50 . 5 17 . 2 5405 21 320 8 . 5 51 . 3 18 . 7 4206 21 320 8 . 8 51 . 5 18 . 5 4907 20 330 8 . 5 51 . 0 18 . 2 5508 20 325 9 . 0 54 . 8 17 . 0 550______________________________________ all the alloys listed in table iv exhibit h a values exceeding 8 oe , which make them possible to avoid the interference problem mentioned above . good sensitivity ( df r / dh b ) and large response signal ( v m ) result in smaller markers for resonant marker systems . glassy metal alloys in the co -- fe -- ni -- mo / cr /-- b -- si -- c system were prepared and characterized as detailed under example 1 . table v lists chemical compositions , magnetic and thermal properties and table vi lists quantities characterizing mechanical resonance responses of the alloys of table v . table v______________________________________magnetic and thermal properties of low cobalt containing glassyalloys . t . sub . c is the first crystallization temperature . b . sub . salloy composition ( at . %) ( tes - λ . sub . s t . sub . cno . co fe ni mo cr b si c la ) ( ppm ) (°. c ) ______________________________________1 41 40 -- 1 -- 13 5 -- 1 . 51 24 4632 41 38 -- 3 -- 13 5 -- 1 . 34 20 4673 41 40 -- -- 1 13 5 -- 1 . 51 24 4604 41 38 -- -- 3 13 5 -- 1 . 37 20 4635 40 40 2 -- -- 13 5 -- 1 . 53 27 4566 43 35 3 -- -- 13 4 2 1 . 50 19 4687 40 38 4 -- -- 13 5 -- 1 . 50 23 456______________________________________ table vi______________________________________values of h . sub . a , v . sub . m , h . sub . b1 , ( f . sub . r ). sub . min , h . sub . b2 anddf . sub . r / dh . sub . b taken ath . sub . b = 6 oe for the alloys listed in table v heat - treated at380 ° c . in a reel - to - reel annealing furnace with a ribbon speed of about0 . 6 m / minute . h . sub . b1 ( f . sub . r ). sub . min h . sub . b2 df . sub . r / dh . sub . balloy no . h . sub . a ( oe ) v . sub . m ( mv ) ( oe ) ( khz ) ( oe ) ( hz / oe ) ______________________________________1 18 400 8 . 0 52 . 3 15 . 3 7302 14 270 6 . 0 56 . 3 12 . 4 9403 18 330 8 . 5 52 . 6 16 . 5 7204 16 320 7 . 3 53 . 9 13 . 8 8605 20 250 8 . 0 54 . 7 15 . 2 5906 19 330 8 . 2 56 . 7 16 . 0 5007 20 420 9 . 3 53 . 8 16 . 4 500______________________________________ all the alloys listed in table vi exhibit h a values exceeding 8 oe , which make them possible to avoid the interference problems mentioned above . good sensitivity ( df r / dh b ) and large magneto - mechanical resonance response signal ( v m ) result in smaller markers for resonant marker systems . having thus described the invention in rather full detail , it will be understood that such detail need not be strictly adhered to but that further changes and modifications may suggest themselves to one skilled in the art , all falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the subjoined claims .	6
many aspects of the invention can be better understood with the references made to the drawings below . the components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale . instead , emphasis is placed upon clearly illustrating the components of the present invention . moreover , like reference numerals designate corresponding parts through the several views in the drawings . by way of a quick summary of the invention , the insert is color - coded to a particular broselow ® child size . each insert has a blocking ledge in a certain position such that it provides a stopping point beyond which a vial of medication cannot be pushed , thereby limiting the amount of medication that is delivered to a child . as the vial is depressed , medication flows through the needle and is stopped when the outer edge of the vial contacts the blocking ledge , thereby limiting the amount of medication delivered by the syringe . since the blocking ledges are located at different levels of the insert depending on the correct dosage for a child of that broselow ® color code , all emergency medical personnel have to do is select the proper color and medication from the kit provided . fig1 is a front view of the invention illustrating the basic physical structure of the insert . fig2 is a cross - sectional view , fig3 is a top view and fig4 is a perspective view of the insert shown in fig1 . the insert , generally referenced as 1 , is a cylindrical container with two sections : an insert top portion 2 which has a narrower outside diameter 5 than the second part , an insert bottom portion 4 , which has a larger diameter 6 . this is caused by the fact that the insert top wall thickness 7 has a thinner width than the width of the insert bottom wall thickness 8 . the increase in outside diameter between the insert top 2 and the insert bottom 4 causes a blocking ledge 3 . the insert 1 is placed in a syringe ( in a preferred embodiment , the syringe is a hospira abboject ®), with insert top 2 upright , and a vial of medication is installed by screwing the vial stopper into the syringe over the insert . the vial wall is then pushed down and medication flows through the syringe needle until the vial wall &# 39 ; s progress is stopped by the blocking ledge of the insert hitting a vial lip ( 17 as referenced in other figures ). thus , by adjusting the location of the blocking ledge 3 , the volume of medication delivered can be changed from insert to insert , such that the proper dosage is given to a child of that particular size . the outside diameter of the insert top 2 is small enough to allow a vial wall to slip over it , and the blocking ledge 3 is wide enough to prevent the vial wall from slipping any further down the insert , thereby limiting the amount of medication delivered from the vial through the syringe . fig5 is a cross - sectional view of the insert , syringe , and vial , which are the three basic components , that when used correctly , can provide an error - free dosage to a child . the syringe 9 is a cylindrical container with a needle 29 at one end and an open top . the insert 1 is slid into the open top and nestled at the bottom of the syringe . the vial 10 is a cylinder with a vial wall 13 with a vial wall width 11 , and open top defined by a vial lip 17 , a vial bottom 12 , where the inner sides of the vial wall define a vial internal diameter 22 . inside the cylinder is a quantity of medication 14 , and retaining the medication in the vial is a rubber plunger 15 . after insert 1 is placed within the syringe 9 , the vial is screwed onto the syringe . when properly installed the syringe needle 29 penetrates the rubber plunger 15 that is used to seal the vial of medication . note that as the vial is pushed down , the medication 14 will be directed through the needle 29 until the vial lip 17 hits the blocking ledge 3 . fig6 is a series of drawings showing cross - sectional depictions showing the insert positioning prior to and after installation into a syringe . fig7 is a series of drawings showing cross - sectional depictions showing how the insert appears when placed within the syringe and the vial is being attached . fig8 is a series of cross - sectional views showing the vial bring pressed into the syringe , delivering a dose limited by the step or “ blocking ledge ” in the insert . the insert 1 is slid into the syringe cavity 31 of the syringe 9 until the insert bottom 16 hits the syringe outer chamber bottom 27 . the syringe outer chamber width 26 is wide enough to accommodate the insert bottom wall thickness 8 , such that the insert 1 slides easily into the syringe 9 . the vial 10 is then attached to the syringe 9 . after the vial is installed on the syringe , the vial bottom 12 is pushed toward the blocking ledge 3 , the appropriate amount of medication 14 will flow through the needle 29 , until the vial lip 17 contacts the blocking ledge 3 . when the vial has been fully compressed to the point where the vial lip 17 has hit the blocking ledge 3 , the correct quantity of medication 14 has been properly delivered . the vial 10 is then pressed down . the vial internal diameter 22 is larger than the insert top outer diameter 5 , but less than the insert bottom outer diameter 6 , such that vial lip 17 , cannot be pushed beyond the blocking ledge 3 . thus , a set quantity of medication is injected through the needle 29 in the syringe inner chamber 28 , as the rubber plunger 15 in the vial mates to the syringe inner chamber stopper 30 , such as the medication 14 in the vial is injected up to the point where the vial lip 17 hits the blocking ledge 3 . because the blocking ledges are located at different heights in different colors of inserts , emergency medical personnel can easily pick the appropriate insert by matching it to the appropriate color code of the broselow ® pediatric emergency tape . fig9 is a cross - sectional view of the vial after it has been depressed as far as it will go , thereby limiting the dosage given to the child . the vial 10 has been pushed into the syringe 9 as far as it will go based upon the color of insert that was used . the blocking ledge 3 of the insert has stopped the vial wall 13 from entering the syringe 9 further , thereby limiting the amount of medication 14 , that was injected into the child . the threaded rubber plunger 15 has directed the medication 14 through the needle 29 . fig1 is a perspective view of a series of epinephrine inserts , each color coded to the appropriate “ zone ” of the broselow ® tape . note how the blocking ledge is a different distance “ down ” each insert , so that a particular color of insert will allow the proper dosage of a medication to a child whose height corresponds to the particular broselow ® color “ zone ”. fig1 is a front view of how the invention might appear in an emt &# 39 ; s medication kit , with different color - coded inserts for different medications , with each insert color coded to the appropriate “ zone ” of the broselow ® tape . the medication here , used by way of example , is epinephrine , a common emergency medication . the inserts are color coded to the appropriate broselow ® color zone , such that all an emt needs to do if dealing with a child under emergency circumstances is measure the child with the broselow ® tape and pick out the appropriate insert , then place the insert into the syringe , attach a vial of epinephrine , and depress the vial of epinephrine until the lip of the epinephrine vial hits the blocking ledge of the insert . fig1 is a front view of how the invention might appear in an emt &# 39 ; s medication kit , with different color - coded inserts 3 for different medications , with each insert color coded to the appropriate “ zone ” of the broselow ® tape and the type of medication written on each insert . note how the various color and size - coded inserts can be organized horizontally , or vertically , by either the medication type or the dosage category . it is also envisioned that other inserts or labels can be attached to the vial to provided various types of information , included but not limited to : name and concentration of the medication , amount based upon dosage weight , amount based on dosage volume , calculated amount based on pediatric patient weight , and color - coding based on broselow ® pediatric emergency tape . fig1 is a front view of how the invention might appear in another embodiment of an emt &# 39 ; s medication kit , with different color - coded inserts 3 for different medications , with each insert color coded to the appropriate “ zone ” of the broselow ® tape and the inserts organized by dosage category . it should be understood that while the preferred embodiments of the invention are described in some detail herein , the present disclosure is made by way of example only and that variations and changes thereto are possible without departing from the subject matter coming within the scope of the following claims , and a reasonable equivalency thereof , which claims i regard as my invention . all of the material in this patent document is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the united states and other countries . the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure , as it appears in official governmental records but , otherwise , all other copyright rights whatsoever are reserved .	0
referring to fig1 a recording and reading apparatus of a flexible disk driving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a flexible disk 1 , a flexible disk drive 2 for recording information onto and reading information from the flexible disk 1 , and disk drive control unit 3 for controlling the disk drive 2 in accordance with a host computer 4 . in the disk drive 2 , a magnetic head 10 is connected to a read / write ( r / w ) amplifier 20 which amplifier the analog signal a read out from the flexible disk 1 by the magnetic head 10 and translates it to digital signal b . the digital signal b is supplied to a variable frequency oscillator ( vfo ) 30 and the control unit 3 . the vfo 30 creates first window signal d and second window signal f in accordance with the digital signal b . a switching circuit 70 selects the first or second window signal d or f in response to a read - after - write instruction signal g and supplies the selected window signal j to the control unit 3 . as described later , the first window signal d is supplied to the control unit 3 during the reading operation , and the second window signal f is supplied to the control unit 3 during the read - after - write operation . a write controller 40 of the disk drive 2 receives a digital signal k to be recorded on to the disk 1 and recording instruction l from the control unit 3 . the digital signal k encoded by the frequency modulation ( fm ) is translated to a signal c by the controller 40 and supplied to the r / w amplifier 20 . the r / w amplifier 20 translates the recording signal c to the analog form and amplifies it suitable to record on the disk 1 via the head 10 . if the recording operation is completed , i . e ., the recording instruction l turns off , the write controller 40 sends a reading instruction h to a write detecting circuit 60 . the write detecting circuit 60 also receives an index signal i which is obtained by an optical sensor 80 detecting an index hole 1 &# 39 ; of the disk 1 . the index signal i is obtained every one rotation of the disk 1 . the wire detecting circuit 60 produces the read - after - write instruction signal g in response to the beginning of the reading instruction h ( i . e ., the end of the recording instruction 1 ) until a predetermined number of the pulses of the index signal i are obtained . thus , the read - after - write instruction signal g is produced immediately after the recording operation during a predetermined number of disk rotations . in this embodiment , the read - after - write instruction signal g is produced during two rotations of the disk 1 . the control unit 3 includes a memory 5 for storing the information to be recorded which is sent by the host computer 4 , a recording controller 6 for translating the information to the digital signal k and sending the recording instruction l , a sampling circuit 7 for sampling the data bits of the digital signal b by using the window signal j , and a comparator 8 for comparing the data bit with the information to be recorded which is held in the memory 5 . the result of the comparison is supplied to the recording controller 6 . referring to fig2 and 3 , the information i to be recorded on the disk are stored in the memory 5 . the information i is translated to the fm code form , and then , to the digital signal k ( fig3 ) by the recording controller 6 of the control unit 3 . in the recording mode , which occurs during a period t 1 , the digital signal k is supplied to the write controller 40 together with the recording instruction l . the digital signal k is translated to the signal c of the square waveform , and then , to the analog signal a . the recording medium 1 is magnetized in response to the analog signal a . when the recording operation is completed by one track , the recording instruction l is turned off and the reading instruction h . then , the read - after - write instruction signal g is turned on , as described later , to change into the read - after - write mode indicated by a period t 2 . in this mode , the signal c which had just been recorded is read out . the signal a read - out in the analog form is produced by the magnetic head 10 and translated to the digital signal b . the first and second window signals d and f are produced by the vfo 30 , but only the second window signal f is supplied to the control unit 3 as the window signal j in this mode . the and gate 72 does not have any output during the period of time from t 1 to t 4 . in the period t 1 and t 3 it has no input d , though it is opened by g . in the periods t 2 and t 4 it is closed by g , though its input d is applied . the output of the and gate 72 ( the first window signal d ) is generated only in the period t 5 ( read mode ) when both g and d are present at its inputs . the data bit of the digital signal b in the period t 2 is sampled by the sampling circuit 7 by using the window signal j and compared with the information i still stored in the memory 5 by the comparator 8 . the control unit 3 carries out the read - after - write operation to the even sector of the track in the period t 21 and to the odd sector in the period t 22 . if the data bit of the digital signal b is equal to the information i , the control unit 3 recognizes that the recording operation is correctly completed . if not , the recording controller 6 of the control unit 3 carries out the recording operation for the same information i again on another area of the recording medium 1 . the recording and the read - after - write operation for the next track are carried out in the same manner as indicated by the periods t 3 and t 4 . when the recording and read - after - write operations for all the information to be recorded may be completed , the disk drive 2 is changed into the reading mode , as indicated by the period t 5 . in this mode , the recording instruction l and the read - after - write instruction signal g take the off state and only the reading instruction takes the on state . the reading signal a is produced by the magnetic head 10 and translated to the digital signal b by the r / w amplifier 20 . although both the first and second window signals d and f are created by the vfo 30 , only the first window signal d is sent to the control unit 3 as the window signal j to read the digital signal b . the sampling circuit 7 samples the data bit of the digital signal b by using the window signal j and sends the data bit to the host computer 4 . a more detailed description of the recording and reading apparatus may be obtained by referring to fig4 . there , during the read or read after write mode , the digital signal b is supplied to an one - shot pulse generating circuit 31 and the set terminal of an s - r type flip - flop 35 . the outputs m and n of the circuit 31 and the flip - flop 35 are connected to a phase detector 32 in which the phase difference o between the outputs m and n is detected . the phase difference o is translated to a difference voltage p by a filter 33 and supplied to a variable voltage control oscillator ( vco ) 34 . the vco 34 produces a pulse signal q whose frequency is varied in response to the difference voltage p , which is supplied to a counter 36 . the counter 36 counts the number of pulses in signal q and outputs a count value r from &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; to &# 34 ; 7 &# 34 ;. after the count value r becomes &# 34 ; 7 &# 34 ;, the count value r is returned to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; by the next pulse signal q input to counter 36 . the count value r of the counter 36 is decoded by a decoder 37 having three output signals s , e and e &# 39 ;. the decoder 37 outputs the signal s when the count value r is &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, the signal e when the count value r is &# 34 ; 2 &# 34 ; and the signal e &# 39 ; when the count value r is &# 34 ; 6 &# 34 ;. the signal s is connected to the reset terminal of the flip - flop 35 and a t type flip - flop 38 . the signals e and e &# 39 ; are connected to the set and reset terminals of a flip - flop 50 , respectively . the t type flip - flop 38 changes its output level ( high or low ) every time the signal s is generated , i . e ., every time the count value r returns to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, so that the rectangular first window signal d is produced . the s - r type flip - flop 50 generates a rectangular signal f which takes high level during the period from he signal e to the signal e &# 39 ;, i . e ., while the count value r is &# 34 ; 2 &# 34 ; to &# 34 ; 6 &# 34 ;. the output d of the flip - flop 38 is used as the first window signal . an and gate 51 is connected to the outputs d and f &# 39 ; of the flip - flops 38 and 50 , respectively . the and gate allows the output f &# 39 ; to pass only when the output d is at a high level . the output f of the and gate 51 is used as the second window signal . the first and second window signal d and f are sent to one input terminals of each of and gates 72 and 74 of the switching circuit 70 , respectively . the other input terminal of the and gate 72 is connected to the line of the read - after - write instruction signal g via an invertor 71 while that of the and gate 74 is directly connected to the line of the same . both of the outputs of the and gates 72 and 74 are connected to an or gate 73 whose output j is used for the selected window signal . the write detecting circuit 60 includes a counter 61 and a flip - flop 62 . the counter 61 starts its counting operation when a low level signal h is supplied thereto , and the flip - flop 62 is set and reset when a low level signal is supplied to its set terminal s and reset terminal r , respectively . the set terminal s of the flip - flop 62 is supplied with the h signal which is generated by the inverter 63 from the read instruction signal h . when the instruction signal h turns to a high level , the inverted signal h becomes low and the flip - flop 62 is set to output the read - after - write instruction signal g . the counter 62 is supplied with the index signal i . when the inverted instruction signal h turns to the low level , the counter 61 is reset to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; and starts counting the pulse number of the index signal i . one of the index pulses ( i 1 ), generated simultaneously with the instruction signal h is not counted by the counter 61 . the counter 61 outputs a signal when it counts two pulses , i . e ., the index pulses i 2 and i 3 , which signal is supplied as a reset pulse to the reset terminal r of the flip - flop 62 . this turns the output g of the flip - flop 62 to the low level . accordingly , the read - after - write instruction signal g turns high in response to the generation of the read instruction signal h and keeps the high level for the period from the index pulse i 1 , to the index pulse i 3 , i . e ., for two rotation period of the disk 1 . the read - after - write instruction signal g makes the and gate 74 open to supply the second window signal f to the or gate 73 when its goes high , and the and gate 72 open to supply the first window signal d to the or gate 73 when it goes low . in other words , after the recording operation , the disk drive carries out the read - after - write operation during the two rotations of the disk 1 in which the second window signal f is used to separate the data bits from the digital signal b . after that , if the recording instruction l is not generated , the disk drive can carry out the reading operation in which the first window signal d is used to separate the data bits from the signal . referring to fig5 in the read - after - write operation indicated by the periods t 2 and t 4 in fig2 the recorded data fm &# 39 ; on the recording medium 1 is read by the magnetic head 10 to produce the analog signal a . the analog signal a is translated to the digital signal b by the r / w amplifier 20 which detects the high and low peaks of the signal a . normally , the minimum period between the peaks is 2μ second and the maximum period is 4μ second . the one - shot circuit 31 is triggered by the pulses t n and makes a square wave signal m which maintains the high level in the predetermined period ( 1μ second ). the flip - flop 35 is set by the pulses t n of the signal b and reset by the signal s from the decoder 37 to produce the square wave signal n . the phase detector 32 puts out the voltage o of 2 . 5 v when the high - level period of the signal m is the same as that of the signal n . when the high - level period of the signal m is longer than that of the signal n , the detector 32 puts out the voltage of 0 v during the time that the signal m is higher than the signal n . when the high - level period of the signal n is longer than that of the signal m , the detector 32 puts out the voltage of 5 v during the time that the signal n is higher than the signal m . when the phase detector 32 puts out the voltage 2 . 5 v , the filter 33 puts out the same voltage 2 . 5 v , and heightens and lowers the voltage in response to the output voltage o of the phase detector 32 . the vco 34 translates the voltage 2 . 5 v to the pulse signal q having the pulse interval of 250 nsecond ( corresponding to the frequency of 4 mhz ), and makes the pulse interval shorter or longer when the voltage p beocmes higher or lower than 2 . 5 v , respectively . the count value r is increased by the pulse signal q and returns to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; next to &# 34 ; 7 &# 34 ;. the pulse of the signal s is raised every time the count value r = 0 to make the first window signal d . the pulses of the signals e and e &# 39 ; are raised every time the count value r = 2 and 6 , respectively , to make the second window signal f . accordingly , the high level period ( pulse width ) of the second window signal f is shorter than that of the first window signal d . since the output f &# 39 ; of the flip - flop 50 is gated by the first window signal d , the second window signal f is not turned high level during the low level of the first window signal d . if the data fm is accurately recorded on the medium 1 , the reading signal a shows the waveform as illustrated by a dotted line , and the digital signal b has pulses t 3 &# 39 ; to t 6 &# 39 ;. however , the read - out signal a may be deflected as illustrated by a solid line , due to a defect of the recording medium 1 , mis - recording operation , and so on . in this case , the pulses t 3 to t 6 are shifted in comparison with the pulses t 3 &# 39 ; to t 6 &# 39 ;. for instance , considering the pulse t 3 which is shifted to right on the time chart , the pulse t 3 delays the rising of the signals m and n . since the high level period of the signal m is constant ( 1 μsec ) while that of the signal n is shortened by the signal s , the phase difference is arisen and detected by the phase detector 32 . the phase detector 32 makes the voltages o and p lower and the pulse interval of the vco 34 longer . therefore , the count operation of the counter 36 and output timing of the signals s , e and e &# 39 ; are also delayed to adjust the rising timing and the width of the high level periods ( windows ) w 2 and w 2 &# 39 ; of the first and second window signals d and f . a large peak shift should not be allowed in the read - after - write operation because mis - reading is supposed to be corrected by this operation . at the portion of a data pulse t 5 , the reading signal a is largely deflected from the correct form illustrated by the dotted line . as mentioned above , the window w 3 of the first window signal d for the data pulse t 5 is defined by the pulses s 6 and s 7 of the signal s while the window w 3 &# 39 ; of the second window signal f is defined by the pulses e 6 and e 6 &# 39 ; of the signals e and e &# 39 ;, respectively . if the data pulse t 5 is read by using the window w 3 , the data pulse t 5 is read as &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; as shown in data 1 and the large peak shift of this portion cannot be detected . on the other hand , in the case where the window w 3 &# 39 ; is used in the read - after - write mode , the data pulse t 5 cannot be detected within the window w 3 &# 39 ; so as to read as &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; as shown in data 2 . accordingly , unallowable peak shift is detected by comparing the data 2 with the information to be recorded , and the control unit 3 can re - record the information to another area of the recording medium 1 . as described above , according to the present invention , the second window signal is used to sample the data bit of the digital signal read from the recording medium in the read - after - write operation . the second window signal has narrower window than the first window signal which is used in the reading operation . if the recorded data is confirmed to be correctly recorded on the medium by the read - after - write operation , it is guaranteed that the data bits of the recorded data can be accurately read in the reading operation , even if the peak shift occurs in the reading operation , since the first window signal has a wider window than the second window signal . accordingly , the read - after - write operation is strictly carried out and the recorded information on the recording medium has a high reliability after the read - after - write operation .	6
an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig1 a as one embodiment of aspects of the present invention . in this arrangement , the transmit signal generator 650 outputs u signals to a multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 for electromagnetic transmission , where u is an integer greater than or equal to 1 . a typical frequency of the transmitted signal from the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 can be within , but is not limited to , the frequency range of 1 ghz - 1 thz , and can be a fixed frequency or be frequency modulated . the imaging sensor &# 39 ; s total occupied transmit spectral bandwidth is dependent on the frequency modulation bandwidth , and can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ) in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications . a typical wb bandwidth value can be , but is not limited to , a value greater than 100 mhz . a typical uwb bandwidth value can be , but is not limited to , a value greater than 1 ghz . the reflected signal from an object is received by the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , which outputs v signals to a receiver / down - converter 670 , where v is an integer greater than or equal to 1 . the receiver / down - converter 670 also accepts q signals from the transmit signal generator 650 , where q is an integer greater than or equal to 1 , and outputs one or a plurality of signals each comprising at least one of the frequency or phase difference between components of the transmitted signal and corresponding received reflected signal from an object as an input to a signal processor 690 . the receiver / down - converter 670 can utilize one or a plurality of down - conversion operations in generating the output difference signals . the transmit signal generator 650 can include , but is not limited to , generation of one or a plurality of fixed frequency or frequency modulated signals , intermediate frequency signal generation , local oscillator signal generation , transmit and / or receive gating signal generation , or transmit pulsing signal generation . the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 can include , but is not limited to , a two - dimensional array of spatially separated antennas , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , a conformal array of spatially separated antennas , a three - dimensional array of spatially separated antennas , or one or a plurality of groups of spatially separated antennas with one or a plurality of antennas simultaneously selected for transmission of one or a plurality of signals , wherein at least two adjacent antennas have a distance between them that is different than at least two adjacent antennas in the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 . the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 can include , but is not limited to , a two - dimensional array of spatially separated antennas , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , a conformal array of spatially separated antennas , a three - dimensional array of spatially separated antennas or one or a plurality of groups of spatially separated antennas with one or a plurality of antennas simultaneously selected for reception of one or a plurality of signals , wherein at least two adjacent antennas have a distance between them that is different than at least two adjacent antennas in the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 . according to aspects of the present invention , the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 and the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 are utilized to synthesize an array having more elements than the sum of the elements contained in multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 and the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , for the purpose of reducing the sensor hardware necessary for imaging applications . the term “ thinned ” in this application refers to the utilization of a lower number of physical transmit and receive antenna elements to synthesize an array with a larger number of synthesized or virtual elements than the sum of the physical transmit and receive elements . the term “ imaging ” in this application includes , but is not limited to , multi - dimensional object image construction , detection or identification of objects using , but not limited to , image processing or image recognition techniques , and / or object signatures such as , but not limited to , radar cross - section signatures , angular cross - section signatures , range cross - section signatures , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency response signatures , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency resonance signatures , or polarization signatures . examples of objects that may be detected using imaging techniques can include , but are not limited to , concealed weapons , guns , knives , explosives , contraband , or improvised explosive devices ( ied &# 39 ; s ). signal processor 690 may comprise a single or plurality of individual processors . signal processor 690 may perform , but is not limited to , any single or combination of the functions of signal or image processing , real or complex dft or fft signal processing , cfar threshold detection , spectral peak detection , target peak association , frequency measurement , magnitude measurement , phase measurement , magnitude scaling , phase shifting , spatial fft processing , digital beam - forming ( dbf ) processing , super - resolution processing such as , but not limited to , the use of the multiple signal classification algorithm ( music ) or the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques ( esprit ) algorithm , neural network processing , two - dimensional image processing , three - dimensional image processing , two or three - dimensional image reconstruction processing , microwave or millimeter - wave holography processing , backward - wave reconstruction processing , wavefront reconstruction processing , synthetic aperture radar ( sar ) processing , or kirchoff diffraction integral processing . additional processing techniques used in the above - mentioned functions may include , but are not limited to , windowing , digital filtering , hilbert transform , least squares algorithms , or non - linear least squares algorithms . furthermore , one or a combination of object signature methods can be used to determine the presence or identification of potential threats , weapons or contraband such as , but not limited to , radial cross - section characteristics , angular cross - section characteristics , strength of returns , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency response characteristics , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency resonance characteristics , polarization response characteristics , spectral absorption characteristics , or image shape characteristics , and such signatures may be determined for the entire object or for one or more regions of an object or detection zones . the signal processor may include , but is not limited to , one or more digital signal processors ( dsps ), microprocessors , micro - controllers , electrical control units , or other suitable processor blocks . an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig1 b as another embodiment of aspects of the present invention . the arrangement in fig1 b is similar to the arrangement in fig1 a , except that instead of the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 and multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , a mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b and mechanically scanned thinned receive antenna network 621 b are utilized . the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals , and will not be explained again . in this arrangement , the transmit signal generator 650 outputs u signals to a mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b for electromagnetic transmission , where u is an integer greater than or equal to 1 . a typical frequency of the transmitted signal from the mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b can be within , but is not limited to , the frequency range of 1 ghz - 1 thz , and can be a fixed frequency or be frequency modulated . the imaging sensor &# 39 ; s total occupied transmit spectral bandwidth is dependent on the frequency modulation bandwidth , and can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ) in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications . the reflected signal from an object is received by the mechanically scanned thinned receive antenna network 621 b , which outputs v signals to a receiver / down - converter 670 , where v is an integer greater than or equal to 1 . the receiver / down - converter 670 also accepts q signals from the transmit signal generator 650 , where q is an integer greater than or equal to 1 , and outputs one or a plurality of signals each comprising at least one of the frequency or phase difference between components of the transmitted signal and corresponding received reflected signal from an object as an input to a signal processor 690 . this arrangement utilizes a one - dimensional or multi - dimensional thinned transmit array and a one - dimensional or multi - dimensional thinned receive array , mechanically scanned or dithered in one or more directions for the purpose of sampling different spatial positions for the elements along the mechanically scanned or dithered direction . for example , not meant as a limitation , a one - dimensional azimuth line - array consisting of a transmit array with spacing d and a receive array with spacing different than d and a position where there is no overlap in the azimuth dimension between transmit and receive arrays , is mechanically scanned in the elevation dimension . through spatial sampling at various positions in elevation during the mechanical scanning in that dimension , a two dimensional set of array measurements is achieved and can be utilized for image processing . in another example , not meant as a limitation , a two - dimensional thinned transmit array and a two - dimensional thinned receive array are utilized , where one or both of the arrays utilize positional dithering in one or more directions in order to provide additional spatial sampling positions in the synthesis of a virtual array . the thinned transmit and receive arrays are utilized to reduce the hardware necessary for the imaging sensor , as is the mechanical scanning and spatial sampling along the mechanical scanning path . when the thinned array and mechanical scanning methods are utilized in combination , the sensor hardware required and / or sensor cost can be reduced for applications where the mechanical scan time is acceptable . an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig1 c as an alternate embodiment of aspects of the present invention . the arrangement in fig1 c is similar to the arrangement in fig1 a , except that a processor 690 a provides u output signals to a multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 for electromagnetic transmission , and accepts v input signals from a multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , where u and v are each integers greater than or equal to 1 . the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals , and will not be explained again . a typical frequency of the transmitted signal from the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 can be within , but is not limited to , the frequency range of 1 ghz - 1 thz , and can be a fixed frequency or be frequency modulated . the imaging sensor &# 39 ; s total occupied transmit spectral bandwidth is dependent on the frequency modulation bandwidth , and can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ) in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications . in addition , this arrangement can be mechanically scanned or dithered in one or more directions for the purpose of sampling different spatial positions for the elements along the mechanically scanned or dithered direction . an antenna arrangement with mechanical movement capability is presented in fig1 d as an embodiment of aspects of the present invention . the example of an antenna arrangement with mechanical movement capability shown in fig1 d is for illustration purposes and is not considered a limitation . in this arrangement , a mechanical actuator 601 d provides mechanical movement of a multi - dimensional antenna array 601 c in one or more directions . the arrangement shown in fig1 d can be utilized to provide mechanical movement for a transmit array , a receive array , or both transmit and receive arrays in one or more directions . in addition , the arrangement shown in fig1 d can be utilized to provide mechanical dithering for a transmit array , a receive array , or both transmit and receive arrays in one or more directions . furthermore , the arrangement shown in fig1 d can be utilized to provide mechanical scanning for a transmit array , a receive array , or both transmit and receive arrays in one or more directions . fig2 a illustrates the phase shift in received signals from an object 22 for spatially separated antennas 157 , 158 , 159 , 160 across an array , according to aspects of the present invention . the example of antenna spatial separation shown in fig2 a is for illustration purposes and is not considered a limitation . in this arrangement , k antennas 157 , 158 , 159 , 160 are separated from one another in the axis of object direction ( θ determination as illustrated in fig2 a . the axis of object direction determination can be , but is not limited to , the azimuth or the elevation axis . as can be seen , the received reflected signals from object 22 at angle θ from boresight will generate phase shifts δψ 1 , 2 , δψ 1 , k - 1 , δψ 1 , k between ant 1 and the other antenna elements due to the angle of the reflected rf wavefronts as illustrated . for an antenna array , these received phase shifts can be utilized to determine the direction of an object , and it is the unique spatial position of the elements in the array that allows unique phase sampling of the received signals across the array . the concept of building an array from a set of unique phase length combinations between transmit and receive elements makes it possible for a thinned transmit and thinned receive array to synthesize an array having a larger number of elements than the sum of the transmit and receive array elements , which is termed a “ virtual array ” in the present invention . through selection of various combinations of transmit and receive antenna pairs , a receive antenna array , or virtual array , is synthesized with the number of elements and spacing of elements based upon the number of unique transmit and receive pairs selected and the physical spacing between the elements of these pairs . let the physical transmit antenna elements 140 a , 140 b and receive antenna elements 145 a , 145 b , 145 c , 145 d be spaced in the axis of target direction determination as illustrated in fig2 b . let transmit antenna tx 1 be selected and receive antenna rx 1 be selected simultaneously . during the radar dwell time let the down - converted signals be digitized and stored . then let the receive element rx 2 be selected for the next radar dwell time during which the down - converted signals be digitized and stored . perform the same operations for the elements rx 3 and rx 4 . repeat the above receive antenna selection settings for the next four radar dwell times but with the transmit antenna tx 2 selected instead of the transmit antenna tx 1 . when completed , digitized down - converted signals corresponding to 8 combinations of transmit and receive antenna selections will be stored and can be used for image processing . the 8 combinations of transmit and receive antenna selections can be used to synthesize a receive virtual array 150 of 8 elements with each element having a center - to - center spacing of d as illustrated in fig2 c . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the antenna combination of tx 1 rx 1 be utilized for the received signal reference . then the next antenna combination in the virtual array , which is tx 1 rx 2 in fig2 c , will have a relative amplitude and phase of the received signal with respect to the received signal reference that is equivalent to that of an antenna element being offset by distance d from the reference element as shown . continuing the example , the third element in the virtual array , which is tx 1 rx 3 in fig2 c , will have a relative amplitude and phase of the received signal with respect to the received signal reference that is equivalent to that of an antenna element being offset by distance 2 * d from the reference element as shown . this can be repeated for all the elements in the virtual array . one advantage of using the thinned transmit and thinned receive arrays illustrated in fig2 b is that only 6 antenna elements were needed to synthesize an 8 - element virtual array as shown in fig2 c resulting in a reduction in hardware . for larger one - dimensional or two - dimensional thinned arrays , the hardware savings can be much greater . the example illustrated in fig2 b is for a one - dimensional array where the spacing distance between the transmit and receive elements is utilized in synthesizing a one - dimensional virtual array . for multi - dimensional arrays , the spatial displacement between selected transit and receive element pairs must be used in synthesizing the virtual array element spatial positions rather than the spacing between them as for the one - dimensional array . the spatial displacement is a vector quantity which is composed of the scalar displacement values in each of the dimensions of the multi - dimensional arrays . for example , for two - dimensional transmit and receive arrays , the spatial displacement between a selected pair of transmit and receive elements would include a scalar value for the difference in x coordinates between the elements , and a scalar value for the difference in y coordinates between the elements . it is the set of unique spatial displacements between transmit and receive element pairs that is utilized to synthesize a multi - dimensional virtual array . the thinned array arrangement shown in fig2 b can be modified according to aspects of the present invention . one example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be to utilize a spacing between receive antenna elements that is greater than a spacing between transmit antenna elements . as an example , not meant as a limitation , the antenna elements 140 a , 140 b in fig2 b can be utilized for a receive function , and the antenna elements 145 a , 145 b , 145 c , 145 d can be utilized for a transmit function as part of a thinned array configuration . another example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be to utilize a non - uniform spacing between elements . a two - dimensional , bi - static thinned - array arrangement is presented in fig2 d as one embodiment of aspects of the present invention . in this arrangement , a k by p rx antenna array 168 is illustrated with an element - to - element spacing of d in each axis , and an m by n tx antenna array 165 is illustrated with an element - to - element spacing of k * d in the y - axis and p * d in the x - axis , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , and k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 . in this arrangement , the tx antenna array 165 and rx antenna array 168 are illustrated to be oriented diagonally with respect to each another , where the rows of the tx antenna array 165 span a range in the x - axis that is non - overlapping with the span of the rows of the rx antenna array 168 in the x - axis , and the columns of the tx antenna array 165 span a range in the y - axis that is non - overlapping with the span of the columns of the rx antenna array 168 in the y - axis . whether the arrays are one - dimensional or multi - dimensional , utilizing non - overlapping arrays allows synthesis of a virtual array having an order equal to the multiplication of the orders of the smaller arrays . as an example , using this arrangement , an ( m * k ) by ( n * p ) array having m * n * k * p elements can be synthesized from the unique combinations of transmit and receive elements , resulting in a reduction in sensor hardware . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let m = n = k = p = 3 . for this exemplary arrangement , the synthesized 9 - by - 9 virtual array 210 is illustrated in fig2 e according to aspects of the present invention . in the virtual array 210 , let the antenna combination t 1 , 1 r 1 , 1 be defined as the reference element in the virtual array 210 , and let the received signal for that reference element be defined as the reference signal for the virtual array 210 . the remaining elements of the virtual array 210 have relative spatial displacements from the reference element that correspond to the sum of the relative spatial displacements of the physical transmit and receive element pair with respect to the physical t 1 , 1 r 1 , 1 element pair that represents the reference element in the virtual array 210 . since all the sums of the relative spatial displacements of the physical transmit and receive element pairs with respect to the physical t 1 , 1 r 1 , 1 element pair are unique , the corresponding relative spatial positions in the virtual array 210 with respect to the reference element are unique , resulting in a fully populated virtual array having a number of virtual elements that is far greater than the sum of the physical transmit and receive elements that was used to synthesize it . using that definition of reference element in the virtual array 210 , the antenna combinations indicated in the virtual array 210 will have a relative amplitude and phase of the corresponding received signal with respect to the defined reference signal that is equivalent to that of an antenna element having a physical position relative to the reference element as shown in fig2 e . since many image processing techniques , such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming processing , utilize the relative phase of measurements made between elements in a two - dimensional array , the absolute phase resulting from the positional offset of the rx antenna array 168 relative to the tx antenna array 165 can be non - critical , since it is the relative distances between elements within each array that affects the synthesized virtual array configuration . however , it may be advantageous to have the tx and rx arrays close to one another to avoid other issues that may cause performance degradation , such as , but not limited to , the difference in transmit illumination angles versus reception angles , or performance of the virtual array for imaging objects that are closer than the far - field . the digitized , down - converted signals corresponding to the transmit and receive antenna combinations illustrated in the virtual array in fig2 e can be utilized for object imaging , through the use of image processing techniques well known in the art , such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming ( dbf ) processing , super - resolution processing , such as , but not limited to , the use of the multiple signal classification algorithm ( music ), or the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques ( esprit ) algorithm , spatial fourier transform processing , two - dimensional image processing , three - dimensional image processing , two or three - dimensional image reconstruction processing , microwave or millimeter - wave holography processing , backward - wave reconstruction processing , wavefront reconstruction processing , synthetic aperture radar ( sar ) processing , or kirchoff diffraction integral processing . the examples shown are meant as an illustration of virtual array synthesis techniques , not as a limitation . for example , not meant as a limitation , the distance between elements in each array need not be constant , but can be varied or be given multiple different values by one skilled in the art for advantage . in addition , not meant as a limitation , the spacing between receive array elements can be greater than the spacing between transmit array elements . as an example , not meant as a limitation , the antenna array 168 can be utilized for a transmit function and the antenna array 165 can be utilized for a receive function as part of a thinned array configuration . another example , not meant as a limitation , can be for a transmit array to be a one - dimensional array positioned at an angle or orthogonal to a one - dimensional receive array for the purpose of synthesizing a virtual array without departing from the spirit of the present invention . furthermore , overlapping or intertwined transmit and receive arrays may be utilized to synthesize a virtual array without departing from the spirit of the present invention . other array sizes and configurations can be implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . an antenna arrangement is illustrated in fig3 a as one embodiment of the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 , as one embodiment of the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , as one embodiment of the mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b , and as one embodiment of the mechanically scanned thinned receive antenna network 621 b according to aspects of the present invention . in this arrangement , a plurality of antennas 178 , 179 are connected to the u transmit signals and / or v receive signals as defined in fig1 a - b . the antennas can be arranged in a one - dimensional array , two - dimensional array , a conformal array , or a multi - dimensional array according to aspects of the present invention . the antennas can each have similar characteristics to one another , or can have different characteristics from one another depending on the requirements of the application . in addition , the antennas can have a polarization such as , but not limited to , linear polarization , circular polarization , or dual polarization according to aspects of the present invention . an antenna arrangement is illustrated in fig3 b as another embodiment of the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 , as another embodiment of the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , as another embodiment of the mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b , and as another embodiment of the mechanically scanned thinned receive antenna network 621 b according to aspects of the present invention . in this arrangement , a selector 112 selectively establishes a connection between each of a plurality of antennas 180 , 181 and a common input or output connection depending on whether the selector is used for a transmit or receive application respectively . in this way , this arrangement can be used to sequentially select between a number of antenna elements , and can be utilized to enable electrical sequencing or scanning of antenna arrays . a selector 112 can be used with each or any of the u transmit signals and / or v receive signals as defined in fig1 a - b . selector 112 can be implemented by , but is not limited to , a switch or a combination of switches , variable attenuators , or a combination of switched amplifiers and signal combiners / splitters wherein switching the gain / loss of said amplifiers is used for the selection function and said signal combiners / splitters can be implemented by , but are not limited to , wilkinson combiners / splitters . one advantage of using switched amplifiers and signal combiners / splitters as a selection means is the elimination of the signal loss associated with series selection switches . the antennas can each have similar characteristics to one another , or can have different characteristics from one another depending on the requirements of the application . the antennas can be arranged in a one - dimensional array , two - dimensional array , a conformal array , or a multi - dimensional array according to aspects of the present invention . in addition , the antennas can have a polarization such as , but not limited to , linear polarization , circular polarization , or dual polarization according to aspects of the present invention . an antenna arrangement is illustrated in fig3 c as a further embodiment of the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 , as a further embodiment of the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 , as a further embodiment of the mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b , and as a further embodiment of the mechanically scanned thinned receive antenna network 621 b according to aspects of the present invention . in this arrangement , a plurality of selectors 114 , 116 are used to select between antennas in a plurality of antenna groups . selector 114 selectively establishes a connection between each of the plurality of antennas 183 , 185 in one antenna group and a common input or output connection depending on whether the selector is used for a transmit or receive application respectively . similarly , selector 116 selectively establishes a connection between each of the plurality of antennas 187 , 189 in another antenna group and a common input or output connection depending on whether the selector is used for a transmit or receive application respectively . in this way , this arrangement can be used to sequentially select between a number of antenna elements , and can be utilized to enable electrical sequencing or scanning of antenna arrays . selectors 114 , 116 can be used with each or any of the u transmit signals and / or v receive signals as defined in fig1 a - b . selectors 114 , 116 can be implemented by , but are not limited to , switches or a combination of switches , variable attenuators , or combinations of switched amplifiers and signal combiners / splitters . the antennas can each have similar characteristics to one another , or can have different characteristics from one another depending on the requirements of the application . the antennas can be arranged in a one - dimensional array , two - dimensional array , a conformal array , or a multi - dimensional array according to aspects of the present invention . in addition , the antennas can have a polarization such as , but not limited to , linear polarization , circular polarization , or dual polarization according to aspects of the present invention . in addition , the multi - dimensional thinned transmit antenna network 601 and the multi - dimensional thinned receive antenna network 621 can share one or a plurality of antennas according to aspects of the present invention . furthermore , the mechanically scanned thinned transmit antenna network 601 b and the mechanically scanned thinned receive antenna network 621 b can share one or a plurality of antennas according to aspects of the present invention . an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig4 a as one embodiment of aspects of the present invention . in this arrangement , a signal generated by the signal generator 405 is split by a signal splitter 27 , where one portion of the signal proceeds to an amplifier 30 where it is amplified prior to proceeding to a selector 501 . the selector 501 is used to selectively connect the signal to one of a plurality of an antennas 101 a , 101 b , designated by tx 1 , 1 , tx m , n , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , for transmission in a sequential manner . a signal designated as tx_sel controls which antenna 101 a , 101 b is selected by selector 501 . a typical frequency of the transmission signal can be within , but is not limited to , the frequency range of 1 ghz - 1 thz , and can be a fixed frequency or be frequency modulated . the imaging sensor &# 39 ; s total occupied transmit spectral bandwidth is dependent on the frequency modulation bandwidth , and can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ) in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications . a typical wb bandwidth value can be , but is not limited to , a value greater than 100 mhz . a typical uwb bandwidth value can be , but is not limited to , a value greater than 1 ghz . the arrangement of the antennas 101 a , 101 b can be , but is not limited to , a one - dimensional array , a two - dimensional array , a three - dimensional array , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , or a conformal array . the reflected signal from an object is received by a plurality of receive antennas 102 a , 102 b , designated by rx 1 , 1 , rx k , p , where k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 . the arrangement of the receive antennas 102 a , 102 b can be , but is not limited to , a one - dimensional array , a two - dimensional array , a three - dimensional array , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , or a conformal array . a selector 502 is used to selectively connect one receive antenna at a time with the low noise amplifier 62 where the received signal is amplified prior to being split by splitter 28 . a signal designated as rx_sel controls which antenna 102 a , 102 b is selected by selector , 502 . one of the outputs from splitter 28 is input to mixer 55 , which mixes the signal with the 0 - degree phase output signal from the 90 - degree splitter 77 a , and the other output from splitter 28 is input to mixer 56 , which mixes the signal with the 90 - degree phase output signal from the 90 - degree splitter 77 a , creating in - phase ( i ) and quadrature ( q ) down - converted signals . the i and q down - converted signals are then amplified by amplifiers 65 , 66 and filtered by filters 45 , 46 prior to sampling by a / d converters 340 , 341 . the resulting sampled i and q signals are then input to signal processor 300 for signal processing . the block diagram shown in fig4 a can be modified according to aspects of the present invention . one example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be to not perform complex ( i and q ) signal down - conversion or to perform it digitally in the signal processor , only having one down - converting mixer path to a single a / d converter , and to modify the block diagram accordingly . another example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to use remote signal processing , remote analog - to - digital ( a / d ) conversion , or shared processing and / or a / d conversion with another sensor or system . a further example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to replace one or both of the selectors 501 , 502 with a plurality of switched amplifiers and signal combiners , utilizing the gain / loss of the switched amplifiers to realize an antenna selection and routing function . a yet further example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to utilize any of the antenna networks illustrated in fig3 a - c for any or both of the transmit or receive selectors and antenna functions . another example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to use a plurality of simultaneously selected transmit signals and / or a plurality of simultaneously selected receive signals connected to a plurality of receiver / down - converter circuits . mixers 55 , 56 can be implemented by , but are not limited to , mixers , multipliers , or switches without changing the basic functionality of the arrangement . filters 45 , 46 can be implemented by , but are not limited to , low - pass filters or band - pass filters . signal splitters 27 , 28 can be implemented by , but are not limited to , wilkinson power dividers , passive splitters , active splitters , or microwave couplers . a variety of amplifiers , filters , or other system elements known to those skilled in the art , such as low - noise amplifiers , power amplifiers , drivers , buffers , gain blocks , gain equalizers , logarithmic amplifiers , equalizing amplifiers , switches , and the like , can be added to or deleted from the described arrangement , or the position of existing elements may be modified , without changing the basic form or spirit of the invention . signal processor 300 shown in fig4 a may comprise a single or plurality of individual processors . signal processor 300 may perform , but is not limited to , any single or combination of the functions of signal or image processing , real or complex dft or fft signal processing , cfar threshold detection , spectral peak detection , target peak association , frequency measurement , magnitude measurement , phase measurement , magnitude scaling , phase shifting , spatial fft processing , digital beam - forming ( dbf ) processing , super - resolution processing such as , but not limited to , the use of the music or esprit algorithms , neural network processing , two - dimensional image processing , three - dimensional image processing , two or three - dimensional image reconstruction processing , microwave or millimeter - wave holography processing , backward - wave reconstruction processing , wavefront reconstruction processing , synthetic aperture radar ( sar ) processing , or kirchoff diffraction integral processing . additional processing techniques that can be used with the abovementioned methods may include , but are not limited to , windowing , digital filtering , hilbert transform , least squares algorithms , or non - linear least squares algorithms . furthermore , one or a combination of object signature methods can be used to determine the presence or identification of potential threats , weapons or contraband such as , but not limited to , radial cross - section characteristics , angular cross - section characteristics , strength of returns , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency response characteristics , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency resonance characteristics , polarization response characteristics , or image shape characteristics , and such signatures may be determined for the entire object or for one or more regions of an object . in addition , the object signature methods can utilize complex signal attributes such as amplitude and / or phase . the signal processor may include , but is not limited to , one or more digital signal processors ( dsps ), microprocessors , micro - controllers , electrical control units , or other suitable processor blocks . an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig4 b as another embodiment of the present invention . the arrangement in fig4 b is similar to the arrangement in fig4 a , except for the addition of a transmission pulsing switch 8 , a receiver gating switch 9 , and the omission of amplifiers 62 , 30 for clarity . the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals , and will not be explained again . in this configuration , the tx pulse control signal is used to control the operation of a transmission pulsing switch 8 , pulse modulating the output signal . the rx gate control signal is used to control the operation of the receiver gating switch 9 , which only allows received signals to pass through for down - conversion during specified time periods dictated by the rx gate control signal . through the use of this arrangement of transmit pulsing and receive signal gating , the performance of the sensor can be improved as illustrated in the signal timing example in fig5 . one example of pulsed transmit and gated receiver signal timing for an imaging sensor is shown in fig5 in accordance with aspects of the present invention . the timing diagram shown in fig5 is meant as an example to illustrate the operation and potential benefits of pulsed transmission and gated reception , and is not meant as a limitation . in this example , during the time period τ 1 , the antenna pair consisting of transmit antenna tx 1 , 1 and receive antenna rx 1 , 1 is selected by use of the signals tx_sel and rx_sel , followed by a pulse of the transmit signal by use of the tx pulse control signal , and a subsequent gating of the receiver after some time delay by use of the rx gate control signal . the gating “ on ” time of the receiver corresponding to the “ on ” state of the rx gate control signal as shown in fig5 can be matched to the transmit pulse “ on ” time corresponding to the “ on ” state of the tx pulse control signal as shown in fig5 , and is configured that way for this example . also shown in fig5 is an example of the output envelope of a typical matched filter that could be utilized for filters 45 , 46 in fig4 b in the receiver , and i and q a / d sampling at the peak of the matched filter output envelope that could be utilized by a / d converters 340 , 341 in fig4 b for optimal signal - to - noise - ratio performance . the pulsing of the transmit signal and gating of the received signal allows the sensor to selectively receive object returns in a range zone between a specific minimum range ( rmin ) and maximum range ( rmax ), related to the time delay between transmit pulse and receive gate and the time durations of each , and to reject object returns that occur at ranges less than rmin and ranges greater than rmax . this operation allows rejection of signals such as , but not limited to , signals coupling directly from the transmitter to the receiver , radome returns , near - field clutter , and far - field clutter . in addition , this operation can give the ability to design spatial selectivity to the range of detection for a particular application or scenario , and can be used to eliminate multi - path reflections from near - field objects . a variety of modifications can be made to the sensor timing shown in fig5 by those skilled in the art , such as , but not limited to , the order of antenna pair selection or the number of transmit pulses and receive gates per antenna pair dwell time without changing the basic form or spirit of the invention . an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig6 a as a further embodiment of aspects of the present invention . the arrangement in fig6 a is similar to the arrangement in fig4 a , except for the replacement of signal generator 405 with tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 , the addition of an if frequency reference 70 , and modification of the down - conversion circuitry used to create in - phase ( i ) and quadrature ( q ) signals prior to signal a / d conversion . the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals , and will not be explained again . in this arrangement , one signal generated by the tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 designated by tx is fed to an amplifier 30 where it is amplified prior to transmission . the other signal generated by the tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 , designated by lo , has a frequency which is offset from the frequency of the tx signal by an amount equal to the frequency of if frequency reference 70 , and is fed to the mixer 55 where it is mixed with the received signal output from amplifier 62 ′. a typical frequency used for the if frequency reference 70 can be within , but is not limited to , the frequency range of 1 mhz - 500 mhz . the output signal from mixer 55 is then input to filter 39 , and the output signal from filter 39 is split and input to mixers 85 and 86 . one of the outputs from filter 39 is input to mixer 85 , which mixes the signal with the 90 - degree phase output signal from 90 - degree splitter 77 b , and the other output from filter 39 is input to mixer 86 , which mixes the signal with the 0 - degree phase output signal from 90 - degree splitter 77 b , creating in - phase ( i ) and quadrature ( q ) down - converted signals . the i and q down - converted signals are then filtered by filters 36 , 35 , respectively , prior to sampling by a / d converters 340 , 350 . the resulting sampled i and q signals are then input to signal processor 300 . through the use of this arrangement of intermediate frequency conversion , the noise associated with the down - conversion process can be improved . an imaging sensor arrangement is presented in fig6 b as a yet further embodiment of aspects of the present invention . the arrangement in fig6 b is similar to the arrangement in fig4 a , except for the replacement of selectors 501 , 502 and associated antennas with polarization selectors 510 , 520 , antenna selectors 503 , 504 , 505 , 506 and associated antennas 103 a , 103 b , 104 a , 104 b , 105 a , 105 b , 106 a , 106 b , and the omission of amplifiers 62 , for clarity . the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals , and will not be explained again . in this arrangement , one signal from splitter 27 is input to a polarization selector 510 , which outputs the signal to either selector 503 or 504 according to a control signal designated as tx_pol_sel . the selector 503 is used to selectively connect a transmission signal to one of a plurality of antennas 103 a , 103 b which have a certain polarization , designated by tx - p 1 1 , 1 , tx - p 1 m , n , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , for transmission in a sequential manner . the selector 504 is used to selectively connect a transmission signal to one of a plurality of an antennas 104 a , 104 b which have a polarization different than that of antennas 103 a , 103 b , designated by tx - p 2 1 , 1 , tx - p 2 m , n , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , for transmission in a sequential manner . a typical frequency of the transmission signal can be within , but is not limited to , the frequency range of 1 ghz - 1 thz , and can be a fixed frequency or be frequency modulated . the imaging sensor &# 39 ; s total occupied transmit spectral bandwidth is dependent on the frequency modulation bandwidth , and can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ) in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications . a typical wb bandwidth value can be , but is not limited to , a value greater than 100 mhz . a typical uwb bandwidth value can be , but is not limited to , a value greater than 1 ghz . the arrangement of the antennas 103 a , 103 b can be , but is not limited to , a one - dimensional array , a two - dimensional array , a three - dimensional array , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , or a conformal array , and can have a polarization that is , but not limited to , vertical , horizontal , or circular . the arrangement of the antennas 104 a , 104 b can be , but is not limited to , a one - dimensional array , a two - dimensional array , a three - dimensional array , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , or a conformal array , and can have a polarization that is , but not limited to , linear , vertical , horizontal , or circular . the reflected signal from an object is received by a plurality of receive antennas 105 a , 105 b , designated by rx - p 1 1 , 1 , rx - p 1 k , p , where k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , and a plurality of receive antennas 106 a , 106 b , designated by rx - p 2 1 , 1 , rx - p 2 k , p , where k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 . antennas 105 a , 105 b have the same polarization as antennas 103 a , 103 b , and antennas 106 a , 106 b have the same polarization as antennas 104 a , 104 b . the arrangement of the antennas 105 a , 105 b can be , but is not limited to , a one - dimensional array , a two - dimensional array , a three - dimensional array , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , or a conformal array , and can have a polarization that is , but not limited to , linear , vertical , horizontal , or circular . the arrangement of the antennas 106 a , 106 b can be , but is not limited to , a one - dimensional array , a two - dimensional array , a three - dimensional array , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , or a conformal array , and can have a polarization that is , but not limited to , vertical , horizontal , or circular . a selector 505 is used to selectively connect one receive antenna 105 a , 105 b at a time with one input of polarization selector 520 . a selector 506 is used to selectively connect one receive antenna 106 a , 106 b at a time with the other input of polarization selector 520 . the polarization selector 520 is used , to selectively connect one receiver antenna of a certain polarization and a certain spatial position at a time with the receiver / down - converter circuitry for the sensor in a sequential manner . a signal designated as rx_pol_sel controls which selector 505 , 506 is selected by polarization selector 520 . through the use of this arrangement , the response of objects to signals having multiple polarizations can be sampled and utilized for image processing and / or object identification . the block diagram shown in fig6 b can be modified according to aspects of the present invention . one example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to replace any or all of the selectors 503 , 504 , 505 , 506 , 510 , 520 with a plurality of switched amplifiers and signal combiners , utilizing the gain / loss of the switched amplifiers to realize an antenna selection and routing function . another example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to utilize any of the antenna networks illustrated in fig3 a - c for any or both of the transmit or receive selectors and antenna functions . a further example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to use a plurality of simultaneously selected transmit signals and / or a plurality of simultaneously selected receive signals connected to a plurality of receiver / down - converters . a yet further example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to utilize antenna elements that are dual - polarized , such that selectors 503 , 504 feed only one set of dual - polarized antenna elements , and selectors 505 , 506 feed only one set of dual - polarized antenna elements . another example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to share one or a plurality of antennas between transmit and receive functions . a further example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the sensor architecture to utilize a two - stage down - conversion structure such as illustrated in fig6 a . a variety of amplifiers , filters , or other system elements known to those skilled in the art , such as low - noise amplifiers , power amplifiers , drivers , buffers , gain blocks , gain equalizers , logarithmic amplifiers , equalizing amplifiers , switches , and the like , can be added to or deleted from the described arrangement , or the position of existing elements may be modified , without changing the basic form or spirit of the invention . one example of a two - dimensional , dual - polarized thinned - array is illustrated in fig6 c according to aspects of the present invention . the configuration shown is meant as an illustration of a dual - polarized thinned - array , not as a limitation . in this configuration , a tx arrangement 193 , containing a transmit antenna array having a polarization p 1 and a transmit antenna array having a polarization p 2 , and an rx arrangement 197 , containing a receive antenna array having a polarization . p 1 and a receive antenna array having a polarization p 2 , are positioned diagonally . the polarization p 1 can be , but is not limited to , linear , vertical , horizontal , or circular . the polarization p 2 can be , but is not limited to , linear , vertical , horizontal , or circular . in this arrangement , the tx arrangement 193 and rx arrangement 197 are illustrated to be diagonal to one another , where the rows of the tx arrangement 193 span a range in the x - axis that is non - overlapping with the span of the rows of the rx arrangement 197 in the x - axis , and the columns of the tx arrangement 193 span a range in the y - axis that is non - overlapping with the span of the columns of the rx arrangement 197 in the y - axis . the 3 by 3 element p 1 polarized transmit and receive arrays can synthesize a 9 by 9 p 1 polarized virtual array using the method described in fig2 d & amp ; 2e . similarly , the 3 by 3 element p 2 polarized transmit and receive arrays can synthesize a 9 by 9 p 2 polarized virtual array using the method described in fig2 d & amp ; 2e . utilizing this configuration , each virtual array can be processed separately to generate images of object responses to each of the polarizations . the digitized , down - converted signals can be utilized for object imaging , through the use of image processing techniques well known in the art such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming ( dbf ) processing , super - resolution processing such as , but not limited to , the use of the multiple signal classification algorithm ( music ) or the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques ( esprit ) algorithm , spatial fourier transform processing , two - dimensional image processing , three - dimensional image processing , two or three - dimensional image reconstruction processing , microwave or millimeter - wave holography processing , backward - wave reconstruction processing , wavefront reconstruction processing , synthetic aperture radar ( sar ) processing , or kirchoff diffraction integral processing . the example shown is meant as an illustration of a dual - polarized virtual array synthesis technique , not as a limitation . for example , not meant as a limitation , the distance between elements in each array need not be constant , but can be varied or be given multiple different values by one skilled in the art for advantage . other array sizes and configurations can be implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . according to one aspect of the present invention , the use of multiple selectable polarizations can be used for generation of object polarization signatures and utilized for object detection and / or identification purposes . according to another aspect of the present invention , the angular resolution provided by imaging techniques such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming can provide spatial selectivity for object signatures as well as spatial rejection of other object signatures or clutter signals for improved performance and object identification capability . the object signature methods that can be used with the spatial selectivity methods described to determine the presence or identification of potential threats , weapons or contraband can include , but are not limited to , strength of returns , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency response characteristics , wideband or ultra - wideband frequency resonance characteristics , polarization response characteristics , spectral absorption characteristics , or image shape characteristics . in addition , a combination of object imaging and spatially isolated regional scanning for weapons signatures can be utilized in order to provide additional capability or performance . furthermore , the beam - width or area of the spatially isolated regions utilized for detection of weapons signatures can be different than the resolution utilized for object imaging , and the techniques utilized for object imaging and scanning of spatially isolated regions need not be the same . for example , not meant as a limitation , a high resolution object image can be generated utilizing a two - dimensional image reconstruction technique for the purpose of providing image characteristics for image processing , while a lower resolution spatially isolated beam could be generated by a digital beam - forming process and scanned across areas of the object in order to utilize weapons signature techniques for detection and / or identification of concealed weapons . additionally , the resolution of the image and / or the size of the spatially isolated region can be varied adaptively . furthermore , the area of the spatially isolated region can encompass a part of an object in order to isolate weapons signatures from other parts of the object , or can encompass the entire object in order to isolate weapons signatures from the surroundings of the object . in accordance with one aspect of the present invention , the millimeter - wave imaging techniques and / or weapons signature techniques can be combined with an image generated by another sensor such as , but not limited to , an optical wavelength camera . for example , not meant as a limitation , an optical wavelength image of an object can be enhanced by the addition of indicators added to the optical image at locations where threats or contraband is suspected to be . the indicators can include , but are not limited to , colored shapes where the color indicates threat or confidence level and / or the shape indicates type of threat , text indicating a threat type with an arrow pointing to a location on the object in the optical image , or any combination of these . one benefit of this arrangement is that the optical image can be utilized additionally for identification of the object such as , but not limited to , the identification of a person carrying the concealed threat . another benefit of this arrangement is that if the millimeter - wave image is not shown to the operator , then privacy concerns for the individual being scanned may be avoided . indicator types other than the ones presented can be utilized without departing from the spirit of the present invention . another aspect of the present invention is the utilization of the electrically sequenced or scanned virtual array arrangement for through - wall imaging . for example , not meant as a limitation , the electrically sequenced or scanned virtual array can be utilized to provide a 2d or 3d image of the interior of a room from behind a door or wall of the room . the digital lensing and image reconstruction methods can be adapted to additionally compensate for the characteristics of the medium of the wall or door though which the electro - magnetic waves propagate . one embodiment of signal generator 405 is shown in fig7 a . in this configuration , a frequency controller 410 controls the frequency of a transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator 90 . the embodiment shown in fig7 a represents an open - loop transmit signal generator configuration . the configuration shown is meant as an illustration of a transmit signal generation technique , not as a limitation . other open - loop signal generation techniques can be implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . another embodiment of signal generator 405 is shown in fig7 b . in this configuration , the output of a frequency controller 430 controls the frequency of a transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator 90 . the output signal from the transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator 90 is split by signal splitter 411 , where one portion of the signal is output , and the other portion of the signal is fed back to the frequency controller 430 , where it is used to monitor and adjust the frequency of the transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator 90 , forming a closed - loop transmit signal generator . a further embodiment of signal generator 405 is shown in fig7 c . in this configuration , the output of a phase - locked loop ( pll ) 465 is filtered by loop filter 421 and used to control the frequency of a transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator ( tx vco ) 90 . the pll 465 can be implemented by , but is not limited to , a phase detector , phase - frequency detector , integer - n pll , or fractional - n pll . the output from tx vco 90 is split by splitter 411 , where one portion of the signal is output and the other portion of the signal is frequency divided by n by divider 417 , where n is an integer greater than 1 , and fed back to the pll 465 forming a closed - loop transmit signal generator . a frequency reference 444 is input to the pll 465 , and the pll 465 can be controlled by an external control signal if required . a yet further embodiment of signal generator 405 is shown in fig7 d . in this configuration , the output of a pll 465 is filtered by loop filter 421 and used to control the frequency of a transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator ( tx vco ) 90 . the output from tx vco 90 is split by splitter 411 , where one portion of the signal is output and the other portion of the signal is frequency divided by n by divider 417 , where n is an integer greater than 1 , and fed back to the pll 465 forming a closed - loop transmit signal generator . a direct - digital - synthesizer ( dds ) 482 is input as a frequency reference to the pll 465 . through the control of the output frequency of the dds 482 , the frequency of the tx vco 90 can be controlled . another embodiment of signal generator 405 is shown in fig7 e . the arrangement in fig7 e is similar to the arrangement in fig7 c , except for the use of a frequency multiplier 573 at the output of transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator ( tx vco ) 90 . the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals , and will not be explained again . the use of a frequency multiplier 573 allows the frequency of tx vco 90 to be lower than the output transmit frequency of the signal generator 405 . the arrangement shown in fig7 e can be modified according to aspects of the present invention . one example of such a modification , not meant as a limitation , can be for the frequency reference 444 to be replaced by a dds 482 , such as described in the arrangement of fig7 d . other modifications can be implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . one embodiment of tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 is shown in fig7 f . in this configuration , the output of a pll 465 is filtered by loop filter 421 and used to control the frequency of a transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator ( tx vco ) 90 . the output from tx vco 90 is split by splitter 411 , where one portion of the signal is fed to splitter 412 , while the other portion of the signal is frequency divided by n by divider 417 , where n is an integer greater than 1 , and fed back to the pll 465 forming a closed - loop transmit signal generator . a direct - digital - synthesizer ( dds ) 482 is input as a frequency reference to the pll 465 . through the control of the output frequency of the dds 482 , the frequency of the tx vco 90 frequency can be controlled . the output from splitter 411 is split by splitter 412 , where one portion of the signal is output as the signal designated by tx , while the other portion of the signal is fed to mixer 59 , where it is mixed with an if frequency reference signal . the output from mixer 59 is filtered by filter 426 and output as the signal designated by lo . another embodiment of tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 is shown in fig7 g . in this configuration , the output of a pll 465 is filtered by loop filter 421 and used to control the frequency of a transmit voltage - controlled - oscillator ( tx vco ) 90 . the output from tx vco 90 is split by splitter 411 , where one portion of the signal is output as the signal designated by tx , and the other portion of the signal is frequency divided by n by divider 417 , where n is an integer greater than 1 , and fed back to the pll 465 forming a closed - loop transmit signal generator . a direct - digital - synthesizer ( dds ) 482 is input as a frequency reference to the pll 465 . an if frequency reference is input to the dds 482 as a frequency reference for the dds . a second pll 465 b is filtered by loop filter 421 b and used to control the frequency of a local oscillator voltage - controlled - oscillator ( lo vco ) 90 b . the output from lo vco 90 b is split by splitter 411 b , where one portion of the signal is output as the signal designated by lo , while the other portion of the signal is frequency divided by n by divider 417 b , where n is an integer greater than 1 , and fed back to the pll 465 b forming a closed - loop local oscillator signal generator . a direct - digital - synthesizer ( dds ) 482 b is input as a frequency reference to the pll 465 b . an if frequency reference is input to the dds 482 b as a frequency reference for the dds . the dds 482 b is programmed to have a frequency offset from the dds 482 such that the tx output signal and lo output signal are offset in frequency an amount equal to the if frequency reference frequency . the embodiments shown in fig7 a - g represent examples of signal generation configurations . the configurations shown are meant as an illustration of signal generation techniques , not as a limitation . other signal generation techniques can be implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . fig8 a illustrates a linearly frequency - modulated waveform for use in the transmit signal generator 650 , signal generator 405 or tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 according to aspects of the present invention . this waveform shows a linearly modulated frequency with a period equal to tp . this waveform shown is an example of linear frequency modulation and is not meant as a restriction . the waveform can also comprise , but is not limited to , a repeating pattern of linearly increasing frequency ramps , a repeating pattern of linearly decreasing frequency ramps , or alternating periods of linearly increasing and decreasing frequency ramps . also , periods where the frequency modulation is stopped may be inserted into the abovementioned patterns . furthermore , in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications , the total frequency modulation bandwidth , defined as \| f 2 − f 1 \| in fig8 a , can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ). using the frequency modulation waveform described in fig8 a , object range information may be calculated from the down - converted signals of the architectures shown in fig1 a - c , fig4 a - b and fig6 a - b in the following way . peaks in the down - converted signal spectrum represent returns from objects within the field of view . the frequency of the peaks is proportional to object range and is used to calculate object range . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the arrangement of fig4 a utilize a linearly increasing frequency modulation as shown in fig8 a . let the down - converted signal be sampled & amp ; measured during each coherent measurement interval t p . under these conditions , object range can be calculated by the following equation : r = c · t p 2 · ( f 2 - f 1 ) · ( f b ) ( 1 ) where r is the calculated object range , c is the speed of light in a vacuum , f 2 is the maximum frequency of the linear modulation , f 1 is the minimum frequency of the linear modulation , and f b is the beat frequency in the down - converted signal corresponding to measurements during the coherent measurement interval t p . the object range data calculated using this method can be utilized to generate three - dimensional object images through use with methods well known in the art , such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming angular processing or super - resolution angular processing . another approach to calculating object range data is to use an inverse fast fourier transform ( ifft ) or inverse discrete fourier transform ( idft ), after sampling the down - converted signal , to build an object return range profile . the peaks in the ifft or idft profile represent object returns with range proportional to the peak &# 39 ; s associated time bin . the object range data calculated using this method can be utilized to generate three - dimensional object images through use with methods well known in the art , such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming angular processing or super - resolution angular processing , which will be described in more detail in the following text . fig8 b illustrates a stepped frequency modulation waveform for use in the transmit signal generator 650 , signal generator 405 or tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 according to aspects of the present invention . this waveform shows a linearly stepped frequency pattern with a frequency increasing step sequence period equal to t p . this waveform shown is an example of linearly stepped frequency modulation and is not meant as a restriction . a typical value of δf s can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 100 khz - 100 mhz . a typical value of t s can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 500 nanoseconds ( ns )- 20 microseconds ( μs ). the waveform can also comprise , but is not limited to , a repeating pattern of linearly increasing frequency steps , a repeating pattern of linearly decreasing frequency steps , or alternating periods of linearly increasing and decreasing frequency step patterns . also , periods where the stepped frequency modulation pattern is stopped may be inserted into the abovementioned patterns . in addition , the value of t s may be varied or dithered , or the linearity of the frequency steps with respect to time may be varied by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . furthermore , in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications , the total frequency modulation bandwidth , defined as \| f 2 − f 1 \| in fig8 b can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ). using the frequency modulation waveform described in fig8 b , object range information may be calculated from the down - converted signals of the architectures shown in fig1 a - c , fig4 a - b and fig6 a - b in the following way . peaks in the down - converted signal spectrum represent returns from objects within the field of view . the frequency of the peaks is proportional to object range and is used to calculate object range . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the arrangement of fig4 a utilize a linearly increasing frequency step sequence as shown in fig8 b . let the down - converted signal be sampled & amp ; measured during each coherent measurement interval t p , which for this example also corresponds to the frequency - modulated step sequence period . under these conditions , object range can be calculated by the following equation : r = c · t s 2 · δ ⁢ ⁢ f s · ( f b ) ( 2 ) where r is the calculated object range , c is the speed of light in a vacuum , t s is dwell time of each frequency step , δf s is the difference between adjacent frequency step values in the linear step sequence , and f b is the beat frequency in the down - converted signal corresponding to measurements during the frequency - stepped sequence period t p . the object range data calculated using this method can be utilized to generate three - dimensional object images through use with methods well known in the art , such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming angular processing or super - resolution angular processing . another approach to calculating object range data is to use an inverse fast fourier transform ( ifft ) or inverse discrete fourier transform ( idft ), after sampling the down - converted signal , to build an object return range profile . the peaks in the ifft or idft profile represent object returns with range proportional to the peak &# 39 ; s associated time bin . the object range data calculated using this method can be utilized to generate three - dimensional object images through use with methods well known in the art , such as , but not limited to , digital beam - forming angular processing or super - resolution angular processing which will be described in more detail in the following text . fig8 c illustrates a multiple - slope , linearly frequency - modulated waveform for use in the transmit signal generator 650 , signal generator 405 or tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 according to aspects of the present invention . this waveform shows a linear up - slope frequency modulation during a first time period tp , and a linear down - slope frequency modulation during a second time period tp . this waveform shown is an example of frequency modulation , and is not meant as a restriction . a typical value of tp can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 100 microseconds ( μs )- 100 milliseconds ( ms ). the frequency modulation can also consist of , but is not limited to , a repeating pattern of linear up - slope modulation , a repeating pattern of linear down - slope modulation , an alternating pattern of up - and down - slope modulation , a monotonically increasing frequency over a time period , a monotonically decreasing frequency over a time period , or an alternating pattern of monotonically increasing and decreasing frequency modulation . in addition , one or more blanking periods where the frequency is constant may be inserted within or between the up or down slope periods . furthermore , in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications , the total frequency modulation bandwidth , defined as \| f 2 − f 1 \| in fig8 c can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ). using the frequency modulation waveform described in fig8 c , object information may be calculated from the down - converted signals of the architectures shown in fig1 a - c , fig4 a - b and fig6 a - b in the following way . peaks in the down - converted signal spectrum represent object returns . the frequency of the peaks is proportional to object range , and is used to calculate object range . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the sensor arrangement of fig4 a utilize a frequency modulation according to fig8 c . let the down - converted signal be sampled & amp ; measured during each coherent measurement interval t p , which also corresponds in this example to the frequency up - ramp and down - ramp periods . under these conditions , object range can be calculated by the following equation : r = c · t p 4 · δ ⁢ ⁢ f bw · ( f u + f d ) ( 3 ) where r is the calculated object range , c is the speed of light in a vacuum , t p is the period of the up - ramp or down - ramp of the frequency modulation , δf bw is the total frequency excursion during the coherent measurement interval t p which is equal to \| f 2 − f 1 \| in fig8 c , and f u and f d are the beat frequencies in the down - converted signal corresponding to measurements during the frequency up - ramp and frequency down - ramp periods tp respectively . the doppler frequency shift of the frequency peaks measured across the down - converted signal spectrum is used to calculate object relative velocity . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the sensor arrangement of fig4 a utilize a frequency modulation according to fig8 c . let the down - converted signal be sampled and measured during each coherent measurement interval t p , which also corresponds in this example to the frequency up - ramp and down - ramp periods . under these conditions , object relative velocity can be calculated by the following equation : v = c · ( f d - f u ) 4 · f 0 ( 4 ) where v is the calculated object relative velocity defined as positive for an approaching target , c is the speed of light in a vacuum , f u and f d are the beat frequencies in the down - converted signal corresponding to measurements during the frequency up - ramp and frequency down - ramp modulation intervals t p respectively , and f 0 is the average frequency of the transmitted signal during a coherent measurement period t p . fig8 d illustrates a stepped frequency modulation waveform for use in the transmit signal generator 650 , signal generator 405 or tx & amp ; lo signal generator 407 according to aspects of the present invention . this waveform shows a linearly stepped frequency pattern with a frequency increasing step sequence period and decreasing step sequence period each equal to tp . this waveform shown is an example of linearly stepped frequency modulation and is not meant as a restriction . a typical value of δf s can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 100 khz - 100 mhz . a typical value of t s can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 500 nanoseconds ( ns )- 20 microseconds ( μs ). the waveform can also comprise , but is not limited to , a repeating pattern of linearly increasing frequency steps , a repeating pattern of linearly decreasing frequency steps , or alternating periods of linearly increasing and decreasing frequency step patterns . also , periods where the stepped frequency modulation pattern is stopped may be inserted into the abovementioned patterns . in addition , the value of t s may be varied or dithered , or the linearity of the frequency steps with respect to time may be varied by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . furthermore , in order to achieve adequate range resolution for some applications , the total frequency modulation bandwidth , defined as \| f 2 − f 1 \| in fig8 d can be wideband ( wb ) or ultra - wideband ( uwb ). using the frequency modulation waveform described in fig8 d , object information may be calculated from the down - converted signals of the architectures shown in fig1 a - c , fig4 a - b and fig6 a - b in the following way . peaks in the down - converted signal spectrum represent object returns . the frequency of the peaks is proportional to object range and is used to calculate object range . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the sensor arrangement of fig4 a utilize a linearly increasing frequency step sequence and linearly decreasing frequency step sequence as shown in fig8 d . let the down - converted signal be sampled and measured during each coherent measurement interval t p , which for this example also corresponds to the frequency increasing step sequence period and decreasing step sequence period . under these conditions , object range can be calculated by the following equation : r = c · t s 4 · δ ⁢ ⁢ f s · ( f u + f d ) ( 5 ) where r is the calculated object range , c is the speed of light in a vacuum , t s is dwell time of each frequency step , δf s is the difference between adjacent frequency step values in the linear step sequence , and f u and f d are the beat frequencies in the down - converted signal corresponding to measurements during the frequency increasing sequence and frequency decreasing sequence periods t p , respectively . the doppler frequency shift of the frequency peaks measured across the down - converted signal spectrum is used to calculate object relative velocity . as an example , not meant as a limitation , let the sensor arrangement of fig4 a utilize a linearly increasing frequency step sequence and linearly decreasing frequency step sequence as shown in fig8 d . let the down - converted signal be sampled once per frequency step in each sequence , and measured during each coherent measurement interval t p , which for this example also corresponds to the frequency increasing step sequence period and decreasing step sequence period . under these conditions , object relative velocity can be calculated by the following equation : v = c 2 · ( f 1 + f 2 ) · ( f d - f u ) ( 6 ) where v is the calculated object relative velocity defined as positive for an approaching target , c is the speed of light in a vacuum , f 1 and f 2 are the minimum and maximum frequency steps in the linear sequence during a coherent measurement period t p , and f u and f d are the beat frequencies in the digitized down - converted signal corresponding to the measurements during the frequency up - step sequence and down - step sequence periods t p , respectively . object velocity information can be utilized in a variety of applications according to aspects of the present invention . one application , not meant as a limitation , is to utilize the velocity information of an object in conjunction with its positional information to determine the threat potential for purposes such as , but not limited to , deployment of countermeasures . another application , not meant as a limitation , is to determine if there is object motion as part of a security system . an alternate way to utilize the frequency - modulated data is with three - dimensional image reconstruction techniques well known in the art . according to these techniques , the data sampled at different frequencies is utilized to reconstruct a three - dimensional rendered image using an algorithm such as , but not limited to , a backward - wave reconstruction technique . another way to utilize the frequency - modulated data is with two - dimensional image reconstruction techniques well known in the art for each frequency step in the sequence , then average or combine the two - dimensional rendered images to improve the image characteristics such as , but not limited to , reduction of speckle or noise in the image . fig9 a illustrates an example of timing of thinned - array antenna selection for use with a fixed transmission frequency according to aspects of the present invention . according to this example , unique combinations of transmit and receive antennas in the thinned - array architecture are each selected for a period of time designated by t dw , during which the down - converted signal is sampled and stored . in this example , not meant as a limitation , the transmit array consists of m by n elements , and the receive array consists of k by p elements , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , and k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 . a typical value of t dw can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 100 nanoseconds ( ns ) 100 microseconds ( μs ). after all unique combinations of transmit and receive elements are sequenced through , the sequence is repeated for the duration of the coherent processing time period t p . the stored digital samples of the down - converted signals during this period tp are grouped separately for each unique combination of transmit and receive antennas to create a sequence of time - ordered samples of the down - converted signals for each synthesized array element spatial position , and will be utilized for image processing . alternately , a sequence of samples can be taken for each unique antenna combination period of time t dw before switching to the next unique antenna combination without departing from the present invention . fig9 b illustrates another example of timing of thinned - array antenna selection for use with a linearly frequency - modulated waveform according to aspects of the present invention . according to this example , unique combinations of transmit and receive antennas in the thinned array architecture are each selected for a period of time denoted t dw , during which the down - converted signal is sampled and stored . in this example , not meant as a limitation , the transmit array consists of m by n elements , and the receive array consists of k by p elements , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , and k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 . a typical value of t dw can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 100 nanoseconds ( ns )- 100 microseconds ( is ). after all unique combinations of transmit and receive elements are sequenced through , the sequence is repeated for the duration of the coherent processing time period t p of the linearly frequency - modulated waveform . the stored digital samples of the down - converted signals during this period t p are grouped separately for each unique combination of transmit and receive antennas to create a sequence of time ordered samples of the down - converted signals for each synthesized array element spatial position , and will be utilized for image processing . alternately , the entire linear frequency modulation can be performed and a sequence of samples can be taken for each unique antenna combination period of time t dw and the linear frequency modulation repeated for the next unique antenna combination without departing from the present invention . fig9 c illustrates a further example of timing of thinned - array antenna selection for use with a linearly frequency stepped modulation waveform according to aspects of the present invention . according to this example , unique combinations of transmit and receive antennas in the thinned array architecture are each selected for a period of time denoted t dw , during which the down - converted signal is sampled and stored . in this example , not meant as a limitation , the transmit array consists of m by n elements , and the receive array consists of k by p elements , where m and n are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 , and k and p are non - zero integers whose sum is greater than or equal to 3 . a typical value of t dw can be within , but is not limited to , the range of 100 nanoseconds ( ns )- 100 microseconds ( μs ). after all unique combinations of transmit and receive elements are sequenced through , the sequence is repeated for the duration of the coherent processing time period t p of the stepped frequency modulation waveform . the stored digital samples of the down - converted signals during this period t p are grouped separately for each unique combination of transmit and receive antennas to create a sequence of time ordered samples of the down - converted signals for each synthesized array element spatial position , and will be utilized for image processing . fig9 d illustrates a yet further example of timing of antenna selection for use with a linearly frequency stepped modulation waveform , compatible with image processing methods according to aspects of the present invention . this example is similar to that illustrated in fig9 c , with the exception that the entire set of unique combinations of transmit and receive antennas in the thinned array architecture is sequentially selected and corresponding down - converted signals sampled during each step of the frequency stepped waveform . fig9 e illustrates another example of timing of antenna selection for use with a linearly frequency stepped modulation waveform , compatible with image processing methods according to aspects of the present invention . this example is similar to that illustrated in fig9 c , with the exception that the entire stepped - frequency waveform is repeated for each time period t dw for each unique combination of transmit and receive antennas in the thinned array architecture . fig9 f illustrates an example of a down - converted object return signal and a / d sample timing consistent with the stepped frequency modulation waveform and receiver antenna sequencing method described in fig9 c . the a / d sample values of the down - converted signal are illustrated by the black dots superimposed on the signal , and are labeled aj m , n , p , k , where j is an integer representing the sample number for each of the unique transmit and receive antenna combinations , m and n represent the transmit antenna element index m , n , and p and k represent the receive antenna element index p , k . as can be seen , each successive a / d sample is delayed in time with respect to the preceding a / d sample by a time equal to t dw , and occurs at a different phase on the down - converted object return signal . for image processing methods that utilize complex signal phase , it is advantageous to utilize digitized down - converted signals which have the difference in a / d sample timing between them compensated . the difference in sample timing can be compensated for in the complex frequency domain as a frequency - dependent phase shift . as an example , let each digitized sample sequence ai m , n , p , k of the down - converted signals during the period t p be grouped separately for each corresponding unique transmit and receive antenna combination and ordered in time . let each separate n - sample sequence be processed separately by an n - point complex fft . the difference in sample timing between each antenna combination &# 39 ; s fft sequence can be compensated by applying the phase shift in the following equation to the complex frequency points in the fft sequence : where δψ j is the complex phase shift to be applied the jth complex fft point , f j is the frequency of the jth position in the fft sequence , j is an integer between 1 and n − 1 for an n - point fft sequence , and δt k is the difference in time between the a / d samples in the n - sample sequence . according to one aspect of the present invention , the digital beam - forming ( dbf ) method is presented as one method of image processing . the digital beam - forming method is adapted for use with the architectures illustrated in fig1 a - c , fig4 a - b and fig6 a - b utilizing the digitized fast fourier transformed ( fft ) phase - corrected sequences for each unique combination of transmit and receive antennas in the thinned array architecture , which represent the spatial positions in the synthesized array . once an fft sequence is obtained for each element in this synthesized array , a multitude of array gain patterns can be generated from this set of data , and target range can be determined from the fourier transform profiles calculated for each . one method of digital beam - forming signal processing is to generate array gain beam - patterns through combining of digitally phase shifted or digitally phase shifted and amplitude scaled complex fft data from each synthesized array spatial position . one method of imaging an object is through scanning of these generated beam patterns across the field of view for each range bin , creating a three - dimensional rendering of the object or objects in the field of view . according to another aspect of the present invention , a super - resolution processing method is presented as another method of image processing . the super - resolution processing method is adapted for use with the architectures illustrated in fig1 a - c , fig4 a - b and fig6 a - b utilizing the digitized fast fourier transformed ( fft ) phase - corrected sequences for each of the synthesized antenna positions . in this method , a super - resolution algorithm is used to process the phase of the complex sampled signals . as an example , for a synthesized line - array of k antenna elements , the relation of the phase difference between antenna elements and angular direction of object returns can be expressed by the following equation : where θ j is the direction from boresight in the axis of the array elements of the j th object return , δψ j , b , g is the phase difference corresponding to the j th object return between synthesized antenna spatial positions b and g , d b , g is the distance separating synthesized receive antenna positions b and g in the axis in which target direction θ is to be determined , λ is the average wavelength of the transmitted waveform during a coherent measurement interval , k is an integer greater than or equal to 3 , b is an integer greater than 1 and less than or equal to k + 1 , and g is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to k . since phase differences between receive antenna positions are preserved after down - conversion , the phase differences between the down - converted difference signals corresponding to the synthesized receive antenna positions can be used for δψ . the set of phase measurements between a plurality of synthesized antenna spatial positions can be used as inputs to a super - resolution algorithm , which outputs the maximum likelihood of object return angular positions based upon the set of input data . furthermore , a super - resolution algorithm has the ability to provide angular resolution of object returns within the field of view . one super - resolution algorithm well known in the art is the multiple signal classification algorithm ( music ). another super - resolution algorithm well known in the art is the estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques ( esprit ). although the preceding examples have illustrated one - dimensional and two - dimensional antenna array arrangements , the concepts and methods described can be extended to multi - dimensional arrays such as , but not limited to , multiple one - dimensional arrays arranged in multiple axes , orthogonal line - arrays , conformal arrays or three - dimensional arrays by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . also , although the preceding examples illustrate the use of switching elements to sequentially switch between antenna elements in an array to minimize hardware and cost , multiple parallel receive down - conversion channels can be utilized , as well as combinations of parallel and sequential operation as part of the present invention . additionally , according to aspects of the present invention , a method can be utilized whereby a coarse , lower - resolution imaging mode is used to determine the location of an object rapidly , and a higher - resolution imaging mode is utilized to analyze the object . one way this can be achieved is to utilize a lower number of antenna array elements , or a sub - array of elements , for the lower - resolution imaging to determine the location of objects , and to utilize a higher number of array elements for the higher - resolution imaging where objects are determined to be located . one benefit of such a method can be to reduce the time and processing required to scan an area or volume of space . additionally , according to aspects of the present invention , a method can be utilized whereby two or more sensors are utilized to image a common area or volume , and the sensors are synchronized such that only one sensor transmits at a time . utilizing this method , the images from each sensor can be integrated into a common multi - dimensional view of the common area or volume . furthermore , according to aspects of the present invention , a method is presented whereby the imaging sensor can be utilized to determine if a further action by another sensor or system is deployed . one example , not meant as a limitation , utilizes the imaging sensor to determine the location where a second type of sensor such as , but not limited to , an optical imager or camera should focus . one way the sensor can be utilized is for , but not limited to , detection of movement of one or more objects within the field of view . another example , not meant as a limitation , utilizes the imaging sensor to determine if an object is a threat whereby a countermeasures system can be deployed . the preceding concepts , methods , and architectural elements described are meant as illustrative examples of aspects of the present invention , not as a limitation . different combinations of these concepts , methods , and architectural elements than that described in the preceding figures can be utilized by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention . while certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention , and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described , since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art .	7
with reference to the drawings , like reference characters designate like or similar elements throughout the drawings . now referring to fig1 there is shown a cross - sectional view of a medium ( semiconductor integrated circuit or printed circuit board , or the like ) 8 having a substrate layer 20 , an insulation layer 10 , a first conductor 12 ( also referenced as conductor a ), a conductor 14 ( also referenced as conductor d ) and a conductor 16 ( also referenced as conductor e ) formed in the insulation layer 10 . as will be appreciated , if the medium 8 is printed circuit board , the substrate layer 20 may not be present . fig1 also shows capacitance paths 18 ( illustrated in dotted lines ) between the first conductor 12 and the conductors 14 , 16 . additionally shown in fig1 are the substrate layer 20 ( which may include a conductive layer or other elements ) and capacitance paths between the conductor 12 and the substrate layer 20 . in addition , capacitance paths may exist between the conductor 12 and other elements or materials located proximate ( above , beside , below ) the conductor 12 , but are not shown for convenience . as will be appreciated , as the conductor 12 extends through the medium 8 , many different conductors or elements having different ( and dynamic ) electrical signals thereon will be positioned proximate the conductor 12 . these couple capacitively to the conductor 12 . it is readily understood that the amount of capacitive coupling depends on several factors , including the distance from the conductor 12 , the length of the coupling region , the rate of change of the potential difference between conductor 12 and each proximate conductor , and the dielectric constant ( s ) of the material ( s ) therebetween . the total value of the capacitance is one factor that determines the “ speed ” and / or propagation delay of an electrical signal transmitted along the conductor 12 . as the capacitance increases , the speed decreases ( or propagation delay increases ). therefore , reducing the capacitance that an electrical signal “ sees ” as it propagates along the conductor 12 will increase its speed ( or decrease its propagation delay ). in general terms , a signal on one conductor increasing in voltage while a signal on another conductor decreases in voltage ( resulting in an increase in delta over time ) generates the maximum capacitive effect , while two signals increasing ( or decreasing ) together generates the least capacitive effect . in other words , the capacitive effect is great between non - shielded conductor lines when both signals are active and opposite in direction . this effect remains substantial when one signal is active ( increasing or decreasing ) and the other signal is static ( e . g ., one signal is rising to a logic one and the other signal is held at a logic zero ). now referring to fig2 there is illustrated a circuit 100 having a conductor 120 extending from a first circuit 112 located in a first area 114 of an integrated circuit 100 to a second circuit 116 located in a second area 118 of the integrated circuit 100 . the conductor 120 has a length l , as shown in fig2 . the conductor 120 in accordance with the present invention reduces or decreases the propagation delay time ( increases the speed ) of an electrical signal transmitted along the conductor 120 . as will be appreciated , the circuit 100 may also be any other electrical circuit , including a printed circuit board . accordingly , the description of the present invention with respect to integrated circuits is also applicable to printed circuit boards and the like . in the preferred embodiment , the signal transmitted on the conductor 120 is a clocking signal and the propagation delay of the signal is reduced or decreased , thus increasing the speed of the signal . to obtain most of the benefits and advantages of the present invention , the length l of the conductor 120 should be more than about 250 microns , and preferably about 1000 microns or more . as will be appreciated , when used in an integrated circuit , the length l will most likely be less than 50 , 000 microns , depending on the size of the integrated circuit substrate . the signal ( s ) transmitted on the conductor 120 are generally about 10 mhz or greater and , preferably , about 200 mhz or greater , to obtain the many advantages of the present invention . now referring to fig3 a , there is illustrated a more detailed diagram of the conductor 120 of the present invention . the conductor 120 includes a first conductor 120 a , a second conductor ( or conductive portion ) 120 b extending substantially parallel and along the first conductor 120 a , and a third conductor ( or conductive portion ) 120 c extending substantially parallel and along the first conductor 120 a . the conductors 120 a , 120 b , 120 c are shown extending from the first circuit 112 ( in the first area 114 ) to the second circuit 116 ( in the second area 118 ) ( see also fig2 ). each of the conductors 120 a , 120 b , 120 c are made of any conductive metal or material , preferably of low resistance , including copper , tungsten , aluminum , polysilicon or other material , or combination thereof . it will be understood that due to routing and process constraints and requirements , the additional conductor ( s ) may not run along the conductor 120 a the entire distance l , but instead substantial portions may run along the conductor 120 a . now referring to fig3 b , there is shown a cross - sectional view cut along line a - a of fig3 a . the conductors 120 a , 120 b , 120 c are formed in a insulating layer 200 ( of an integrated circuit or printed circuit board , or the like ). additional layers of substrate may be provided , such as a substrate layer 202 . the conductors 120 b and 120 c are each spaced apart substantially laterally from the conductor 120 a , with the conductor 120 b positioned along one side of the conductor 120 a and the conductor 120 c positioned along the other side of the conductor 120 a . as will be appreciated , using present processes and methods , the width of each of the conductors is generally about 0 . 7 microns and the spacing therebetween is about 0 . 7 microns . however , the width and spacing dimensions may vary , and elements / dimensions in the figure may vary and may not be drawn to scale . it is expected that next generation processes will generate widths on the order of 0 . 2 to 0 . 4 microns , and perhaps even smaller . now referring to fig4 a - 4 c , there are illustrated different configurations or embodiments for electrically connecting the conductors 120 b , 120 c to the main conductor 120 a . in fig4 a , the conductors 120 a , 120 b , 120 c are electrically connected at or near the source end , as illustrated , using a conductive material , such as the material used to fabricate the conductors . it will be understood that the designations “ source ” and “ destination ” are used for convenience and illustrative purposes only , and that the designations could be switched , such that the source end may refer to the first circuit 112 or first area 114 , or the second circuit 116 or second area 118 . moreover , the conductor 120 ( or 120 a ) may be bidirectional , depending on the desired circuitry and functioning of the integrated circuit ( or electrical circuit ). now referring to fig4 b , there is illustrated another configuration or embodiment of the conductor 120 wherein the conductor 120 a is electrically connected at one end to three separate drivers 210 . each driver 210 drives the respective conductors 120 a , 120 b , 120 c . the drivers 210 may include any other type of circuitry , and are not limited to inverters . now referring to fig4 c , there is illustrated yet another configuration or embodiment of the conductor 120 wherein a plurality of switches 220 are used to electrically connect the conductor 120 a to the conductor 120 b , and to electrically connect the conductor 120 a to the conductor 120 c . the switches could also be tri - state devices . it will be understood to those skilled in the art that other circuits and methods may be used to electrically connect the conductor 120 a to the conductors 120 b , 120 c . as shown in fig4 c , the conductors 120 b and 120 c could also be utilized by other circuitry when the conductor 120 a is not active , unused , or when a signal is transmitted whose speed or propagation delay is unimportant . this is accomplished using switches and / or tri - state devices with appropriate control lines , and can be implemented by those skilled in the art . now referring to fig5 a - 5 b , there are shown cross - sectional views of several embodiments of the conductor 120 alternative to the embodiment shown in fig3 a and 3b . in fig5 a , the conductor 120 includes a first conductor 120 a , a second conductor ( or conductive portion ) 120 b extending substantially parallel and along the first conductor 120 a , and a third conductor ( or conductive portion ) 120 c extending substantially parallel and along the first conductor 120 a . the conductors 120 b and 120 c are each spaced apart substantially vertically from the conductor 120 a , with the conductor 120 b positioned along the top side of the conductor 120 a and the conductor 120 c positioned along the bottom side of the conductor 120 a . now referring to fig5 b , there is shown another alternative embodiment of the present invention that includes the features illustrated in fig3 b and 5a . the conductor 120 includes a first conductor 120 a and a plurality of conductors ( or conductive portions ) 120 b , 120 c , 120 d , 120 e , whereby the conductors 120 b , 120 c , 120 d , 120 e each extend substantially parallel and along the first conductor 120 a . the conductors 120 b and 120 c are each spaced apart substantially laterally from the conductor 120 a , with the conductor 120 b positioned along one side of the conductor 120 a and the conductor 120 c positioned along the other side of the conductor 120 a . the conductors 120 d and 120 e are each spaced apart substantially vertically from the conductor 120 a , with the conductor 120 d positioned along the top side of the conductor 120 a and the conductor 120 e positioned along the bottom side of the conductor 120 a . now referring to fig5 c , there is shown yet another alternative embodiment of the present invention . the conductor 120 in includes the conductors 120 b , 120 c , 120 d , 120 e as set forth in fig5 b , and also includes a conductor 120 f , a conductor 120 g , a conductor 120 h , and a conductor 120 i , as shown in fig5 c . now referring to fig6 a - 6 d , there are shown in fig6 a signal waveforms in graphical representation illustrating rise times for a prior art conductor shown in fig6 b , for one embodiment of the present invention shown in fig6 c , and for another embodiment of the present invention shown in fig6 d . in fig6 b , there is shown the prior art conductor 12 with additional conductors 14 and 16 . the width of each conductor 12 , 14 , 16 is about 0 . 7 microns and the spacing therebetween is about 2 . 1 microns . the conductors 14 and 16 are not electrically connected to the conductors 14 and 16 . in fig6 c , there is shown one embodiment of the present invention having the conductor 120 including the conductor 120 a and 120 b . the width of each conductor 120 a , 120 b , 14 , 16 is about 0 . 7 microns and the spacing between the conductors 14 , 120 b and 120 a is about 0 . 7 microns while the spacing between the conductors 120 a and 16 is about 2 . 1 microns . the conductors 120 a and 120 b are electrically connected while the conductors 14 and 16 are not electrically connected to the conductor 120 . in fig6 d , there is shown one embodiment of the present invention having the conductor 120 including the conductor 120 a and 120 b . the width of each conductor 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , 14 , 16 is about 0 . 7 microns and the spacing therebetween is about 0 . 7 microns . the conductors 120 a and 120 b are electrically connected while the conductors 14 and 16 are not electrically connected to the conductor 120 . now referring to fig6 a , there is shown a graph of voltage ( volts ) versus time ( nanoseconds ) comparing simulation results of the present invention with a prior art conductor . an ideal signal waveform for a signal transition from a logic zero ( about 0 volts ) to a logic one ( about 3 . 3 volts ) is identified by reference numeral 600 , and illustrated with an instantaneous rise time . for the prior art conductor illustrated in fig6 b , the waveform of a signal on the conductor 12 is identified by reference numeral 602 , with the conductors 14 and 16 held at a logic zero . as is shown , the prior art conductor 12 has a rise time ( measured at about 90 % of the logic one level of about 3 . 3 volts ) of approximately 0 . 28 nanoseconds due to the capacitive effects of the conductors 14 and 16 on the conductor 12 . now referring to two of the embodiments of the present invention as illustrated in fig6 c and 6d , there is a substantial decrease in the rise time and corresponding decrease in the propagation delay ( or increase in speed ) for the conductor 120 of the present invention . as will be appreciated , the conductor 120 a corresponds to the prior art conductor 12 shown in fig6 b . for the conductor 120 ( including the conductors 120 a and 120 b ) illustrated in fig6 c , the waveform of the signal on the conductor 120 a is identified by reference numeral 604 , with the conductors 14 and 16 held at a logic zero . as is shown , the conductor 120 a has a rise time of approximately 0 . 16 nanoseconds due to the capacitive effects of the conductors 14 and 16 on the conductor 12 . by adding the additional conductor 120 b substantially parallel and along the conductor 120 a , the conductor 120 a is “ shielded ” from some of the capacitive effects of the conductors 14 and 16 on the conductor 120 a . the conductor 120 results in an increase in speed and decrease in rise time ( with a corresponding decrease in propagation delay ) of a signal transmitted on the conductor 120 . for the conductor 120 ( including the conductors 120 a , 120 b and 120 c ) illustrated in fig6 d , the waveform of the signal on the conductor 120 a is identified by reference numeral 606 , with the conductors 14 and 16 held at a logic zero . as is shown , the conductor 120 a has a rise time of approximately 0 . 13 nanoseconds due to the capacitive effects of the conductors 14 and 16 on the conductor 12 . by adding the additional conductors 120 b and 120 c substantially parallel and along the conductor 120 a , the conductor 120 a is “ shielded ” from some of the capacitive effects of the conductors 14 and 16 on the conductor 120 a . the conductor 120 results in an increase in speed and decrease in rise time ( with a corresponding decrease in propagation delay ) of a signal transmitted on the conductor 120 . the decrease / gain in rise time is about 0 . 15 nanoseconds . as shown , the decrease in rise time ( increase in speed ) is greater than a factor of two ( and the corresponding reduction in propagation delay is greater than 50 %). as will be appreciated , the signal on the conductors 120 b and 120 c will have slower rise time in voltage at the end of the conductor line than the conductor 120 a . it will also be understood that the advantages of the present invention are also present for decreases in voltage ( fall time ) and not limited to increases in voltage ( rise time ). the capacitive effect ( which causes delay ) becomes greater as the dimensions of the integrated circuit ( including printed circuit boards ) decreases , and the next smaller generation of integrated circuits will incur a greater capacitive effect from line to line . therefore , the present invention will be of increased benefit for future generation devices , although the present invention and its advantages have been described in the foregoing detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the embodiment ( s ) disclosed but is capable of numerous rearrangements , substitutions and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims .	7
turning now to the drawing , and in particular to fig1 , there is shown a longitudinal section of one embodiment of a chain tensioner according to the present invention , attached to a , not shown , cylinder head ( or engine block ) of an internal combustion engine , for keeping a power transmitting member ( not shown ), such as a chain of a chain drive in a tensioned state . it is to be understood that the principles described in the following description with respect to a chain tensioner are generally applicable to any other type of tensioner which generally follows the concepts outlined here . for convenience and sake of simplicity , fig1 and the following description refer only to those areas of the chain tensioner that form part of the present invention and are necessary for the understanding . the chain tensioner includes a cylinder 1 and a tensioner piston 2 , which is received in the cylinder 1 for axial displacement in the direction of the chain . the cylinder 1 has a bottom 4 for supporting one end of a helical compression spring 3 which biases the piston 2 in a direction of the chain . the piston 2 and the cylinder 1 define together a pressure chamber 5 for hydraulic fluid , e . g . motor oil . the bottom 4 has a passageway 11 which is fluidly connected to the pressure chamber 5 , whereby the flow of hydraulic fluid through the passageway 11 is controlled by a check valve , generally designated by reference numeral 6 and disposed in the cylinder bottom 4 . the check valve 6 cuts a fluid flow , when the pressure in the pressure chamber 5 is greater than a pressure outside of the cylinder 1 , and includes a ball 7 , a hood 8 projecting inwardly from and mounted to the bottom 4 , a spring 9 extending between the ball 7 and the hood 8 , and a ball seat 10 for the ball 7 . formed between the cylinder 1 and the piston 2 is a first leakage gap 12 through which hydraulic fluid can issue out of the pressure chamber 5 , when the piston 2 is moved inwards , whereby the volume of the pressure chamber 5 is reduced . fitted in the piston 2 is a bushing 13 which is formed at its bottom - distal end with an inwardly directed shoulder 19 for supporting the other end of the helical spring 3 . the bottom - distal end of the bushing 13 is configured with a conical wall 20 to define a substantially conical bore , thereby forming a first valve seat 17 for a ball 15 of a valve , generally designated by reference numeral 14 . the valve 14 is arranged in the tensioner piston 2 and includes a valve spring 16 which extends between an inside wall surface of the piston 2 and the ball 15 and biases the ball 15 against the valve seat 17 . the conical wall 20 has formed therein several circumferentially spaced grooves 21 to define a second leakage gap 22 . at a bushing - distal area facing the ball 15 , the piston 2 is formed with a conical wall 23 for defining a second valve seat 18 . the ball 15 is tightly seated against the valve seat 18 , when the ball 15 is moved away from the valve seat 17 against the valve seat 18 . a channel 24 is provided behind the valve seat 18 for communication with the surrounding area of the chain tensioner or atmosphere . while fig1 shows the tensioner piston 2 in a first operative state , in which the piston is moved out , fig2 shows the operative state , in which the piston 2 is moved in . the chain tensioner according to the invention operates as follows : during operation of the chain tensioner , the piston 2 oscillates within the cylinder 1 . when the piston 2 moves inwards , the volume of the pressure chamber 5 decreases so that hydraulic fluid seeps through the leakage gap 12 and the leakage gap 22 . the leakage flow is hereby subdivided in a first partial stream , which is routed between the cylinder 1 and the piston 2 into the surrounding , and a second partial stream , which is conducted between the ball 15 of the valve 14 and the conical wall 20 of the bushing 13 and between the ball 15 and the conical wall 23 of the piston 2 , and ultimately via the channel 24 into the surrounding . this split of the leakage flow is maintained so long as the pressure in the pressure chamber 5 does not drop below a critical lower level so that the ball 15 is held by the valve spring 16 in abutment against the valve seat 17 , with hydraulic fluid migrating through the grooves 21 ( leakage gap 22 ). as soon as the pressure in the pressure chamber 5 reaches a critical upper level as a result of rapid chain knocks , the elevated pressure applies on the ball 15 of the valve 14 a force which is greater than the force applied by the valve spring 16 so that the ball 15 is shifted away from the valve seat 17 to the second valve seat 18 . when abutting against the valve seat 18 , the hydraulic connection between the pressure chamber 5 and the pressureless channel 24 is cut as the valve 14 seals off the leakage gap 22 . thus , the leakage gap 22 is ineffective and the hydraulic fluid can no longer leak through the leakage gap 22 . as a consequence , hydraulic fluid can now only leak through the leakage gap 12 , so that the inward movement of the piston 2 is damped much harder and the piston 2 cannot sink as far as would be the case when both leakage gaps 12 , 22 were open . the harder damping action at greater pressure has the effect that the helical compression spring 3 is able to more rapidly push the piston 2 outwards , whereby the check valve 6 opens to allow intake of hydraulic fluid into the pressure chamber 5 . the chain tensioner according to the invention eliminates collapse of the chain tensioner , a problem experienced by conventional chain tensioners under peak load , when more motor oil is pressed out of the pressure chamber than can be aspirated in the relaxed phase . this problem is encountered in conventional chain tensioners in particular when the leakage gap is too large , thus set for a soft damping action , or at high motor speeds that allow only short intake times for renewed charging of the pressure chamber . when insufficient amounts of motor oil are available in the pressure chamber , a sudden load will cause the piston to move inwards to such an extent as to mechanically strike internal parts . as a result , very high force peaks are experienced in the chain drive , ultimately leading to a destruction of the chain drive . this problem is now eliminated by the chain tensioner according to the present invention . turning now to fig3 , there is shown a longitudinal section of another embodiment of a chain tensioner according to the present invention in a first operative state . in this embodiment , the chain tensioner has a tensioner piston 25 which is configured as hollow sheet metal part . a cylinder 26 is inserted in the hollow piston 25 and defines an interior space 40 which is hydraulically connected with the surrounding of the chain tensioner . the piston 25 and the cylinder 26 demarcate with their confronting surface areas a first leakage gap 27 . a helical compression spring 28 biases the tensioner piston 25 against the , not shown , chain . securely fitted in the cylinder 26 is a bushing 29 . on its bushing - distal end , the cylinder 26 has a bottom 30 . arranged within the interior space 40 of the cylinder 26 in axial alignment with the bushing 29 is a plunger 31 , which is biased by a valve spring 33 of a valve 32 against the bottom 30 . when the plunger 31 bears against the bottom 30 , a first piston stop is defined . the valve 32 is hydraulically connected via a recess 50 in the cylinder bottom 30 to a pressure chamber 35 , which is defined by the tensioner piston 25 and the cylinder 26 . the plunger 31 and the cylinder 25 bound with their confronting surface areas a second leakage gap 36 for seepage of hydraulic fluid out of the pressure chamber 35 . the plunger 31 is formed about its bottom - confronting end face with several , circumferentially spaced notches 37 which ensure a reliable fluid transfer from the pressure chamber 35 to the leakage gap 36 . the plunger 31 is moved away from the stop 34 against a stop 38 by a pressure force , when the pressure in the pressure chamber 35 exceeds a critical upper level . the stop 38 has a seat area 39 which is formed by a piston - confronting end face of the bushing 29 . when the plunger 31 abuts with its end face against the seat area 39 , hydraulic fluid collected in the leakage gap 36 can no longer leak into the interior space 40 of the bushing 29 . thus , only the leakage gap 27 is effective in this situation . the plunger 31 is combined with a check valve 41 to a structural unit , whereby the plunger 31 has a bottom 42 formed with an opening 43 , with the opening - encircling wall of the bottom 42 defining a valve seat 45 for a ball 46 of the check valve 41 . the check valve 41 corresponds otherwise to the configuration of the afore - described check valve 6 of fig1 . when the check valve 41 opens , hydraulic fluid can be aspirated from the interior space 40 via the opening 43 into the pressure chamber 35 . of course , the chain tensioner may also be designed in such a manner that the leakage gap 27 is omitted altogether , and the leakage gap 36 constitutes the only leakage gap . in this case , when the plunger 31 abuts against the second stop 38 , the leakage gap in the second stop 38 is still maintained open to allow migration of hydraulic fluid into the interior space 40 , whereby this leakage gap is smaller than the leakage gap in the first stop 34 . thus , the leakage gap 36 remains open in this case , its size being regulated by the plunger 31 in dependence on the outer diameter of the plunger 31 and the innerdiameter of cylinder 26 . in contrast thereto , when the chain tensioner is provided also with leakage gap 27 between the tensioner piston 25 and the cylinder 26 , the leakage gap 36 is completely closed , when the plunger 31 abuts against the stop 38 . function and mode of operation of the chain tensioner according to fig3 corresponds to the function and mode of operation of the chain tensioner according to fig1 and 2 , so that further description is omitted for the sake of simplicity . while the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a chain tensioner , it is not intended to be limited to the details shown since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention . what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by letters patent is set forth in the appended claims .	5
reference will now be made to various embodiments according to this invention , examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings and will be obvious from the description of the invention . in the drawings , the same reference numbers represent the same or similar elements in the different drawings whenever possible . fig1 is an exemplary embodiment of a message content identifier system ( mcis system ) 100 for a mail service . fig1 illustrates a system layout where a mailer sends electronic messages directly to an e - mail system , in which system filtering takes place as a front end function of the e - mail system . in fig1 , an mcis participating sender or mailer ( mpsm ) 101 enters mcis system 100 by registering with mcis system 100 . during the registration process , mpsm 101 is assigned a participant code or standardized content identifier for identification within mcis system 100 . the mcis participant code , in addition to specifically identifying the industry segment of mpsm 101 and their company , identifies multiple permutations of product type codes or offering codes that are associated with the specific company , so that electronic messages sent by mpsm 101 to mcis system 100 can be accordingly identified . once the registration process is complete , these product codes are provided to mpsm 101 , with the product type permutations , via some electronic communication , such as an e - mail . the registration process and the mcis participant code structure and coding process will be described in greater detail below . before transmitting the electronic message , mpsm 101 embeds the mcis participant code into the electronic messages that are generated and transmits the electronic messages through network 102 to mcis mailer interface 104 . network 102 may be the internet or any type of analog or digital communications network . mcis mailer interface 104 communicates with a core application 120 of mcis system 100 . core application 120 interfaces e - mail system 114 and icrs system 112 and allows the setup of mpsm 101 on e - mail system 114 , using master content id database 122 . master content id database 122 contains the codes that core application 120 interrogates and stores for allocating the participant code to each mpsm 101 , during the registration process . to access the e - mail message transmitted by mpsm 101 , a customer 106 must register with an e - mail system 114 of mcis system 100 . using laptop 108 , customer 106 , through network 110 , logs into an internet customer registration system ( icrs system ) 112 . network 110 may be the internet or any type of digital or analog communications network . with icrs system 112 , customer 106 registers and sets up the e - mail account by making selections for message filtering options . for additional information on icrs system 112 , please refer to u . s . application ser . no . 09 / 809 , 328 filed on mar . 16 , 2001 . in this embodiment of the present invention , the filtering selection could occur when a customer registers or it could be an adjunct feature once the actual mailbox is established . when implemented as an adjunct feature , the filters may be set up within the mailbox itself rather than during the process of obtaining the mailbox . once mpsm 101 is registered as a participating mailer and customer 106 has signed up with mcis system 100 , then when mpsm 101 sends e - mail directly to the front end of e - mail system 114 via network 102 and mcis filter 116 , mcis filter 116 checks the mcis participant code against the preferences that the specific customer has indicated and executes appropriate routing . at this point , mcis filter 116 may either route the electronic message and deliver it to the customer &# 39 ; s mailbox within e - mail system 114 or reject the electronic message and notify mpsm 101 that the message has been rejected . as a third option , mcis filter 116 may deliver the electronic message into a generic pool instead of an identified specific mcis filtered mail folder within the customer &# 39 ; s mailbox . customer 106 would then know that this electronic message did not meet the filtering criteria to be delivered to the mailbox , but it was sorted as it entered the box and was rejected . in any event , feedback is provided to mpms 101 as notification of the outcome of the attempt , either successful or unsuccessful . customer 106 then may enter his e - mail box 118 within e - mail system 114 , using laptop 108 and network 110 , and view the mcis filtered electronic messages , non - filtered electronic messages , or another functional segments of the e - mail box 118 . fig1 as previously described , focuses on the system layout and flow where the mailer is sending electronic messages directly or attempting to send electronic messages directly to customer 106 . fig2 is an alternative embodiment where mpsm 101 may submit electronic files containing physical addresses , and possibly electronic addresses , and message content that contains mcis participant coding . the service provided by this alternative embodiment may be implemented as a separate intermediate service . in this alternative embodiment , a physical address mailing list file 202 is uploaded , using a program , from mpms 101 to an e - address processor 206 . e - address processor 206 will be described in greater detail below . e - address processor 206 queries an icrs customer database 208 . as a result , icrs customer database 208 outputs the customer &# 39 ; s e - address and filtering preferences . icrs customer database 208 contains the data supplied when customer 106 registered and set up the virtual e - addressing account with the mail service and initially recorded the filtering preferences . the query executed by e - address processor 206 may be implemented by several different means . for example , the query may be based on the physical address , codes that are associated with the physical address , the customer &# 39 ; s name , or account numbers associated with the customer . the query uses one or more of the above mentioned components to translate the physical address mailing list file 202 to an electronic address . furthermore , in this alternative embodiment , message content with mcis coding 204 is also uploaded , using a program , to e - addressing processor 206 , where the e - addressing information , message content and the mcis coding are combined and the electronic message is created . the electronic message with the embedded coding is then sent to the mcis filter 116 of fig2 , where the customer preferences are identified . the electronic message is subsequently sent into an e - mail message routing system 210 for delivery into electronic mailbox repository 212 . then , return statistics are sent to mpsm 101 via an e - address status reporting module 214 . before describing , in fig3 , the internal details of e - addressing processor 206 , it is important to emphasize that the filtering executed by mcis filter 116 may be implemented as part of the icrs database query . because the customer preferences may be stored on icrs customer database 208 , the filtering may take place as part of the querying process . the filtering process may also be implemented within e - address processor 206 . the filtering process may be implemented in either fashion , that is , as part of the query of icrs customer database 208 , or by referencing back to the mail merge processor within e - address processor 206 . the mail merge processor provides the function of creating the electronic message and will be discussed in the description of the internals of e - addressing processor 206 . in the case where the message filtering is performed during the querying of icrs customer database 208 , the e - mail message does not have to run through the entire system before the filtering may take place . processing may occur at the icrs customer database 208 to identify those customers that in fact will accept the message content . using this approach , message routing / handling decisions may be made upstream versus downstream in the process , and the message may be delivered directly to the e - mail message routing system 210 for delivery into electronic mailbox repository 212 . fig3 is a block diagram of the internal processes within the e - addressing processor 206 . the numbers used in fig3 correspond to the numbering system that is used in fig2 . fig3 illustrates that physical address mailing list file 202 may be uploaded to an address matching system 302 . in address matching system 302 , the physical addresses are parsed and match codes are constructed for interrogating a match directory , within the address matching system , to obtain a match directory address associated with the input physical address . if a match is obtained , then the zip plus 4 code and all the other associated information contained within the address matching system for the associated physical address is fed into a key generation and e - addressing query function 304 , which in turn feeds a query to icrs customer database 208 . as a result of the database query , an output is provided from the icrs customer database 208 to e - addressing processor 206 . the output is an electronic address mailing list file 306 , which is fed into a mail merge processor 308 . mail merge processor 308 receives message content with mcis coding 204 and creates the electronic message . the resulting electronic message is then transferred to mcis filter 116 , where the customer preferences are identified . the electronic message is subsequently sent into e - mail message routing system 210 for delivery into electronic mailbox repository 212 . the intelligence from within mail merge processor 308 may be returned to the icrs customer database 208 and messages may be tagged with appropriate routing information for historical information tracking . fig4 illustrates the process for applying the participant coding or standard content identifier to the message content . mpsm 101 inputs a message content 402 to a content coding program 404 , where message content 402 is coded with a participant coding or standard content identifier 406 . the participant code or standard content identifier may be inserted into the header section of an electronic message . then , the electronic message is sent to e - mail system 114 via mcis filter 116 . next , fig5 illustrates that the electronic message , including content 402 , participant or standardized content identifier 406 , and a recipient address 502 , is received and submitted to filters 504 . the recipient address 502 may be the customer &# 39 ; s electronic mail box address . filters 504 , in turn , identify the customer &# 39 ; s preferences , which were setup during the registration process , and apply the preferences to participant or standardized content identifier 406 . then , according to the identified preferences that are consistent with the participant or standardized content identifier 406 , the electronic messages are delivered to the appropriate folders . for example , bills are delivered to a folder 510 , secure mail may be delivered to a folder 512 , advertisements may be delivered to a folder 514 , and e - mail may be delivered to a folder 516 . for additional security , security features 506 and 508 are applied before bills and secured mail are delivered to their appropriate folders . the security features ( 506 and 508 ) may be a type of electronic security message , protocol , or handshake used to distinguish between authorized and unauthorized system users . for example , the security features ( 506 and 508 ) may be a fire wall . mcis system 100 provides a standardized method for electronic messages and their content to be identified and subsequently filtered ( accepted or rejected ), based upon on the mcis participant code or standardized content identifier 406 . as described above , mcis participating sender or mailer ( mpsm ) 101 is provided with content coding program 404 ( fig4 ) to provide associated product type identifiers that may be incorporated into mcis system 100 . once established as an mcis system 100 participant , mpsm 101 provides this participant code or standardized content identifier 406 as part of all submitted messages for potential electronic delivery by the mail service or by other private commercial electronic message services licensed by the mail service to provide mcis system messages to their customers . the participant code or standardized content identifier may be implemented with the following mcis code format : the mcis code format is 18 characters in length plus a check digit and is divided into three segments : i . the first six characters ( nnnnnn ) identify the industry segment and is based upon the north america industry classification system ( naics ); ii . the next six characters of the code ( aaaaaa ) specifically identify a company within the industry segment and is based on the address change service ( acs ) participant code , which is describe in the publication of appendix a ( united states postal service , address change service , publication 8 ( july 1998 )); iii . the last six characters ( nnnnnn ) are used to identify a specific product type or offering by a company ; iv . the last digit ( c ) is used to ensure the integrity or accuracy of the preceding 18 characters ; for example , the mcis participant code or standardized content identifier may be 721191brxjkt5011521 . the component parts are : i . 721191 — the naics code that identifies the industry segment for bed - and - breakfast inns ; ii . brxjkt — identifies a specific bed - and - breakfast inn ( e . g ., xyz bed - and - breakfast in anytown , usa ); iii . 501152 — identifies the contents of the messages as being an advertisement for discount offers for rooms booked 60 days in advance for stays during the month of july ; iv . 1 — identifies the check digit that ensures the integrity or accuracy of the preceding 18 characters . fig6 is a flow diagram of a method 600 used by mpsm 101 to send electronic messages to a recipient &# 39 ; s mailbox . to initiate the transfer of information , method 600 starts , the sender applies a standard coding to the message content to be delivered to the recipient , and the recipient specifies the type of content to be received and / or identifies the approved senders . ( stage 602 - 606 ). once the mail service receives the content with the standard coding from mpsm 101 , the mail service reads the standard coding and compares the standard code to the recipient &# 39 ; s preferences ( stage 608 ). the recipient &# 39 ; s preferences specify the content that the recipient wishes to receive and / or identifies the approved senders . ( stage 610 ). if the standard code from mpsm 101 is inconsistent with the recipient &# 39 ; s preferences , the mail service does not route the message content to the recipient &# 39 ; s mailbox , and may notify mpsm 101 of non - delivery . ( stage 614 ). then , the method ends . ( stage 620 ). if the standard code from mpsm 101 is consistent with the recipients specification , the mail service routes the content to the appropriate folder in the recipient &# 39 ; s mailbox , and may notify the sender of the delivery . ( stage 616 and 618 ). then , the method ends . ( stage 620 ). in view of the foregoing , it will be appreciated that the present invention provides a system and method directed to identifying electronic messages based on a message content identifier or participant code . still , it should be understood that the foregoing relates only to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention , and that numerous changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims .	7
as briefly described above , embodiments are directed to dynamic computation of identity - based attributes . with reference to fig1 , one example system for managed code assemblies includes a computing device , such as computing device 100 . computing device 100 may be configured as a client , a server , a mobile device , or any other computing device that interacts with data in a network based collaboration system . in a very basic configuration , computing device 100 typically includes at least one processing unit 102 and system memory 104 . depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device , system memory 104 may be volatile ( such as ram ), non - volatile ( such as rom , flash memory , etc .) or some combination of the two . system memory 104 typically includes an operating system 105 , one or more applications 106 , and may include program data 107 such that data store monitor 120 , attribute computer 122 , and cache 124 can be implemented ( which are discussed below ). computing device 100 may have additional features or functionality . for example , computing device 100 may also include additional data storage devices ( removable and / or non - removable ) such as , for example , magnetic disks , optical disks , or tape . such additional storage is illustrated in fig1 by removable storage 109 and non - removable storage 110 . computer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile , removable and non - removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information , such as computer readable instructions , data structures , program modules , or other data . system memory 104 , removable storage 109 and non - removable storage 110 are all examples of computer storage media . computer storage media includes , but is not limited to , ram , rom , eeprom , flash memory or other memory technology , cd - rom , digital versatile disks ( dvd ) or other optical storage , magnetic cassettes , magnetic tape , magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices , or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computing device 100 . any such computer storage media may be part of device 100 . computing device 100 may also have input device ( s ) 112 such as keyboard , mouse , pen , voice input device , touch input device , etc . output device ( s ) 114 such as a display , speakers , printer , etc . may also be included . computing device 100 also contains communication connections 116 that allow the device to communicate with other computing devices 118 , such as over a network . networks include local area networks and wide area networks , as well as other large scale networks including , but not limited to , intranets and extranets . communication connection 116 is one example of communication media . communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable instructions , data structures , program modules , or other data in a modulated data signal , such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism , and includes any information delivery media . the term “ modulated data signal ” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal . by way of example , and not limitation , communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct - wired connection , and wireless media such as acoustic , rf , infrared and other wireless media . the term computer readable media as used herein includes both storage media and communication media . in accordance with the discussion above , computing device 100 system memory 104 ( and processor 102 , and related peripherals can be used to implement data store monitor 120 , attribute computer 122 , and cache 124 . data store monitor 120 , attribute computer 122 , and cache 124 in an embodiment can be used to implement dynamic computation of identity - based attributes ( described below with reference to fig2 - 3 ). data store monitor 120 can be used for detecting changes to identity - based attributes for structured data in a data store and changes to relationships amongst the structured data . attribute computer 122 can be used for computing in response to a detected change a computed attribute for a query ( that can be an identity function , for example ). cache 124 can be used for persisting the computed attribute and sending the computed attribute in response to a query that be the same ( or substantially similar to ) or different from the query for which the change was detected . fig2 is an illustration of dynamically calculated , identity - based attributes . in an embodiment , an identity - based attribute computation can be directly associated with an attribute chosen to hold the result of the computation . the chosen attribute thus becomes dedicated to the result of the computation , and can be referred to as a “ computed attribute .” the value of a computed attribute typically only changes when the result of the computation itself changes . a straightforward implementation could perform the actual computation on - demand whenever the computed attribute is accessed . however , to improve processing efficiency , another implementation can use a more sophisticated system whereby the result of the computation is cached . while this approach typically requires more physical storage , it typically reduces computational overhead since identity - based attribute computations are normally only executed when the inputs into the computation change . in dynamic computation of identity - based attributes , the values of a computed attribute on a specific object are calculated from the attribute values present on a set of related objects ( which may or may not include the object holding the computed attribute ). in a server implementation , the object holding the computed attribute is called the “ base object ” ( 220 ), and the set of related objects are called “ match objects ” ( 210 , 230 , and 240 ). the base object itself may also be a match object . after the base and match objects have been established , an arbitrary operation over the set of values from all match objects can be performed to produce a resultant set of values for the computed attribute . in general , any mathematical operation can be used for the computation , depending on the amount of flexibility desired for a given scenario . in one embodiment , the operations can be restricted to only allow the relocation of values to different operations . ( in other embodiments operations can be supported that modify the content of individual values , such as arithmetic or string manipulation operators .) the feature of identity - based attribute computations is typically implemented on top of “ normalized ” identity data store . in the embodiment , any value - level transformations are performed before the data enters the normalized identity store . ( in other embodiments value - level transformation operators can be provided .) in the embodiment , the transformation from match object values into computed attribute values is defined by listing the names of one or more attributes from the match objects which thus forms the computed value set . these attributes are called “ value attributes .” thus the result of the computation is the union of all values from all value attributes from all match objects . as illustrated in fig2 , two relationships ( 250 and 260 ) and two value attributes are used to compute five values from the three match objects . thus components used to define a computed attribute for the example comprises two lists . the first is the list of relationships , and the second is the list of value attributes . the definition of ca1 in this example can be given as follows in table i : in the embodiment , the definitions are stored in the dsml schema of the aggregate identity store , using custom xml elements to extend the dsml schema description format . an example extended dsml definition for ca1 can be written as : the example dsml definition does not describe how the relationships are defined . not defining the relationships in the dsml code illustrates an important modularity in the definitions of identity - based attribute computations . the conditions that define a relationship are normally established independently of the computations which use those relationships . the modularity allows the logic for a relationship to be reused in multiple computations . it also potentially allows different parties , with different areas of expertise , to author relationships and computations independently . the modularity of the code can thus offer a significant improvement in system manageability . a relationship can be defined as any set of conditions that can be evaluated to determine the set of match objects for a given base object . in an embodiment , a relationship can be defined by three optional components : a “ filter ” on the match object , a “ filter ” on the base object , and a list of “ search conditions .” a “ filter ” is an arbitrary test that can be applied to a single object to determine if it is a candidate for the relationship . a “ search condition ” is a test that can take as input both the match object and the base object , and determine if the two objects are related according to the specific attribute values on each . a relationship is determined to exist between two objects when the match filter test passes , when the base filter test passes , and when all search condition tests pass . if any of these tests has not been defined for a given relationship , then that test is considered to always pass . the definition of a relationship can be given as follows in table ii : in an embodiment , a “ filter ” is defined as a mathematical combination of boolean operators , conditional operators , constant values , and object attributes . a typical example for a filter might be “ title starts - with ‘ vp ’ and buildingnumber = 22 .” this filter would only pass for objects whose “ title ” attribute has the string prefix “ vp ” and whose “ buildingnumber ” attribute has the numeric value 22 . a “ search condition ” can be primarily defined by two listing attributes , one called the “ base attribute ” and one called the “ match attribute .” a simple search condition is considered to “ pass ” for a given pair of base object and match object when the match attribute on the match object and the base attribute on the base object share at least one value in common . however , there can be three additional options on a search condition that influence the matching logic . the first is an “ inversion ” flag which negates the result of the search condition . in other words , an inverted search condition passes for a given pair of objects usually only if the match attribute on the match object has no values in common with the base attribute on the base object . the second and third options are “ transitivity ” flags which can be independently set on either the match or the base object ( discussed below ). the definition of a search condition can be given as follows in table iii : normally , a search condition directly tests the immediate values of the match attribute against the immediate values of the base attribute . however , if the transitive flag is turned on for either attribute , then the value set that will be tested for that attribute will actually be the “ transitive closure ” of the immediate values of the attribute . the transitive closure operation is usually only defined for attributes of reference type , so it is normally invalid to set this flag for a match or base attribute which is not of a reference type . the actual transitive closure operation typically has the standard mathematical definition : the result is the set of all objects reachable through the specified reference attribute in any number of “ hops .” for example , the standard “ manager ” reference - type attribute can be used . for a given user object , the immediate value of the attribute is a reference to the one person who is that user &# 39 ; s manager . additionally , the transitive closure of this attribute is the entire set of the user &# 39 ; s manager , the user &# 39 ; s manager &# 39 ; s manager , and the like , all the way up the management chain of the user in question . like the computed attribute definitions discussed above , relationship definitions can be stored in an aggregated identity store schema using an extended dsml grammar . an example of a relationship definition in using an extended dsml grammar can be as follows : as noted above , relationship and computed attribute definitions frequently reference other attributes in the identity store schema . according to the given schema , any of these referenced attributes can be themselves computed attributes . thus a computed attribute can be referenced as a value attribute in another computed attribute . a computed attribute can also be used as a match attribute or base attribute in a search condition . additionally a computed attribute could be referenced in the match or base filters of a relationship . these types of nested definitions are allowed to any degree of depth or complexity , such that typically none of the definitions are cyclically related . the dependencies are calculated between the various nested definitions , and calculations are performed in the proper order such that the dependencies are obeyed and all computation results are kept current . fig3 is a top - level illustration of a flow diagram for dynamic computation of identity attributes . in operation 302 , a data store is monitored for changes to identity - based attributes for structured data and changes to relationships amongst the structured data . in operation 304 , a computed attribute is dynamically computed for a first query . the calculation is performed in response to the detected change as detected by the data store monitoring above . the query can be persisted in a cache for replying to queries that are the same or similar to ( sharing some identical components ) the first query . the cache can be implemented in a server . in operation 306 , the information from the computed attribute is provided in response to a second query . in various embodiments , the second query can be the same as , a duplicate of , similar to , different from ( and the like ) as the first query . the second query is received after the computed attribute has been computed . in various embodiments , the information from the computed attribute can be published ( either in conjunction with , or separately from operation 307 ) by exporting the computed result to a connected system . the connected system can then use the exported results to query against the connected systems querying capabilities . the above specification , examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of embodiments of the invention . since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention , the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended .	6
with continued reference to the drawing figures , a sailboat 10 is shown which includes a foredeck 11 , an aftdeck 12 and a stern 13 . a mast 14 extends upwardly from the sailboat to which is secured the luff or front edge 15 of a mainsail 16 . the foot or lower edge 18 of the sail is secured by a plurality of tie lines 19 which extend through grommets 20 which are spaced along the foot of the sail to boom 22 intermediate the tack 23 and the clew 24 . the boom is pivotable with respect to the mast so as to allow the sail angle to change relative thereto depending upon wind direction and the direction of tacking of the sailboat . the pivotable movement of the boom is controlled by a mainsheet 25 which is connected to a traveller 26 slideable along a guide 27 secured adjacent the stern of the boat . the forward portion of the boom is stabilized and guided by a boom vang 28 which is secured at the base of the mast and to a vang hook 29 extending from the bottom of the boom . by playing the line of the mainsheet 25 in and out , the outer end of the boom is caused to pivot from side to side relative to the sailboat . it should be noted that the boom structure on sailboats varies and , in some instances , the foot of the mainsail is only secured to the boom at the tack 23 and clew 24 . in other instances , as opposed to having tie lines for securing the foot of the mainsail to the boom , the sail may be mounted on brackets 32 which slide along a rail 33 which is mounted to and extends outwardly from the upper portion of the boom , as shown in fig5 . the present invention is provided to prevent injury to individuals on the sailboat caused by being hit by the boom as it swings relative to the sailboat . with particular reference to fig2 through 4 , a first embodiment of the present invention is disclosed . in this embodiment , the boom is provided with a protective cushion 40 which consists of an elongated body portion 41 in the form of an open tubular sleeve having a first end 42 which is designed to be positioned adjacent the mast and an outer end 43 which is designed to extend to a point adjacent the outer portion of the boom near the clew 24 . the body portion further includes opposing elongated sides 44 and 45 which are normally spaced from one another by an elongated slot or opening 46 . the cushion 40 is preferably formed of soft resilient material such as a spongy foam rubber . the material may be substantially any material which is capable of resiliently yielding to absorb a great deal of the impact energy when the boom contacts an object including various natural and artificial soft rubbers , soft foams and various fibrous padding and the like which are capable of yielding and then re - assuming their original configuration after impact . in the preferred embodiment , the material should be a minimum of approximately 3 / 4 to 1 inch in thickness . the body is preferably coated on both the inner and outer surfaces with a flexible or pliable water impermeable layer 47 and 48 . as shown in fig3 the body may be pre - formed in a substantially arcuate configuration wherein the inner surface 47 of the body is concave . further , to allow the cushion to compatibly engage the length of the tapering boom , the body may be formed with a converging radius from the mast or inner end 42 to the outer end 43 thereof relative to an elongated axis a -- a defined thereby . in some instances , where the boom structure is not tapered , the cross section defined by the body of the cushion will remain constant throughout its length . as opposed to preshaping the cushion with an arcuate configuration , the cushion may be formed of in a sheet - like configuration having relatively flat front and rear surfaces but which is flexible so as to be wrapped to conform to the outer surface of the boom when attached thereto , as shown in fig1 - 13 . in the embodiment of fig2 through 4 , a plurality of fastening elements in the form of straps 50 are secured adjacent to the side edge 45 by an appropriate adhesive , stitching or hook and loop fasteners . the inner surface of each strap 50 includes a strip of hook and loop fastening materials 51 which are selectively engageable with mating strips of hook and loop fastening materials 52 which are adhesively secured , stitch or applied by hook and loop fasteners , to the body 41 adjacent the elongated side 44 thereof , as shown in fig5 . the straps 50 are pulled tightly so as to urge the opposing sides 44 and 45 into close or contacting relationship to one another , as shown in fig5 . in some instances , due to the structure of the boom , it may be necessary to have a slight spacing or slot , such as 46 , remaining between the elongated sides 44 and 45 to make space for the tie elements which connect the foot of the sail to the boom . in order to allow for the connection of the boom vang 28 with the vang hook 29 , an opening 53 is provided through the body portion of the cushion , as shown in fig3 . it should be noted that other types of fasteners may be utilized to connect or mount the cushion to the boom . for instance , the straps 50 may be separately provided and secured by wrapping entirely about the cushion and united together utilizing conventional fastening elements including hook and loop fasteners , buckles or bayonet type fasteners . also , in addition to forming the body in a single length , it is possible that the cushion may be formed with two or more separate body portions each being secured to the boom along a portion of the length thereof . with specific reference to fig5 through 7 , a further embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in detail . in this embodiment , the boom is shown as being generally rectangular in cross section and is designated at 22 &# 39 ;. as previously discussed , a rail 33 is mounted along the upper surface of the boom to which slidable clips 32 are secured which connect the foot of the mainsail to the rail . in this embodiment , the cushion 60 is defined by a pair of opposing body sections 61 and 61 &# 39 ; each having a first or mast end 62 and an outer end 63 . each section also includes opposite side edges 64 and 65 . as shown in fig7 strips of hook and loop material 66 and 67 are provided along the length of the sections 61 and 61 &# 39 ; adjacent the sides 64 and 65 and along the inner surfaces thereof . in order to mount the body sections 61 and 61 &# 39 ; to the boom , a pair of strips of mating hook and loop fabric fastening materials 68 are adhesively secured in spaced relationship to the upper surface of the boom and a pair of parallel strips of hook and loop fastening material 69 are mounted in spaced relationship along the lower surface of the boom . the body sections 61 and 61 &# 39 ; are mounted so as to completely cover the opposite sides of the boom , as shown in fig4 by securing each of the body sections 61 and 61 &# 39 ; to the boom by connecting the strips 64 with the strips 68 at the top of the boom and the strips 67 with the mating strips 69 on the bottom of the boom . with specific reference to fig8 and 9 , another embodiment of the present invention is disclosed which incorporates features of the previous two embodiments . in this embodiment , the cushion 70 includes a pair of opposing body portions 71 and 71 &# 39 ; which have concave facing inner surfaces 72 and upper and lower elongated edges 73 and 74 . each body portion is pre - formed so that the two bodies may be brought into opposing engagement with the boom 22 , as shown in fig9 . hook and loop strips 75 and 76 are provided on the inner surface adjacent each of the sides of each body portion and mate with hook and loop fastening strips 78 and 79 applied along the length of the boom . in this embodiment , separate straps such as those shown at 50 may also be utilized to mount the sections 71 and 71 &# 39 ; to the boom . with continued reference to fig9 - 13 of the drawing figures , another embodiment of the invention is discussed in greater detail . in this embodiment , the protective cushion 80 is formed as a sheet of soft resilient material having the same characteristics with respect to deformability and impact resistance as discussed above with respect to the previous embodiments . the cushion includes a body portion 81 having opposite end portions 82 and 83 and opposite elongated sides 84 and 85 . in order to mount the flexible sheet to the boom 22 of a sailboat , the inner surface 86 thereof is provided with a pair of generally parallel strips of hook and loop type fastening materials 87 and 88 which extend adjacent each of the sides 84 and 85 . the width of the body between the sides 84 and 85 is sufficient for the body to be wrapped about the sides and bottom of the boom , as shown in fig1 , thereafter being secured by engagement with a pair of generally parallel hook and loop material strips 89 which are adhesively or otherwise secured along the length of the upper portion of the boom . in this embodiment , one of the hook and loop fabric strips 87 or 88 is secured to one of the mating strips 89 on the boom and thereafter the body of the cushion is wrapped about the boom and the other of the hook and loop strips is secured to the other of the hook and loop fabric strips 89 secured to the boom . the present embodiment may also be formed of a sheet of soft resilient material which tapers inwardly along its length to thereby conform to a tapering boom in much the same manner as discussed with the embodiment shown in fig1 - 4 . with the present embodiment , the flexible body may be rolled upon itself , as shown in fig1 , and thereafter secured with a hook and loop fastening strap 90 to a mating pad 91 provided on the outer surface adjacent the opposite end 82 of the sheet so that , when not in use , the cushion may be conveniently and compactly stored . a further embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in fig1 - 17 . in this embodiment , the protective cushion 92 includes a pair of opposing generally flexible padded sections 93 . each of the sections 93 is made of a soft resilient material similar to the materials previously discussed . each section includes an upper elongated edge 95 and lower elongated edge 96 and opposite ends 97 and 98 . a single strip of a hook - and - loop or other type of fastening material 99 is secured along the inner surface 100 . the strip is applied so as to be spaced from both the upper and lower edges 95 and 96 , as is shown in fig1 . to mount the opposing sections 93 to the boom , a pair of mating hook - and - loop or other fastening materials 101 and 102 are applied along the length of the boom and on generally opposite sides thereof and slightly above the center line of the boom . when the strips 99 associated with each section are engaged with the either one of the strips 101 or 102 , the cushioned sections will hang relative to the engaged strips so that the lower edge of the section is suspended below the lower surface of the boom . when it is desired to store the protective cushion 92 , the sections 93 are simply pulled from there engaging relationship with the strips 101 and 102 boom and thereafter folded or rolled for storage . in each of the embodiments of the present invention , it is important that at least the outer surface , and preferably both the inner and outer surface , of each body portion or section of the cushion be coated with a moisture impermeable layer . the moisture resistant layer should be flexible so as to yield together with the material forming the body of the cushion but provide resistance to moisture seeping into the body of the cushion and protect the cushion from destruction from salt water . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of the invention have been presented to illustrate the principles and not to limit the invention to the particular embodiments illustrated . it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by all of the embodiment encompassed within the following claims and their equivalence .	1
the securement arrangement for a seat belt closure , which can be seen in fig1 comprises an anchor piece 10 , which is secured to the vehicle in a not - illustrated manner , to which a closure body retaining assembly 11 is mounted , the closure body retaining assembly 11 being , in turn , connected with a closure body 12 , and the securement arrangement further comprising a closure tongue 13 , to which a not - illustrated seat belt of a three - point seat belt is secured , which is inserted into the closure body 12 . the closure body retaining assembly 11 is u - shaped with two u - forming legs 14 and a closed end 15 , whereby the free ends 21 of the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 are connected with the closure body 12 . a fastening stone 16 is disposed between the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 by means of which the closure body retaining assembly 11 is secured to the anchor piece 10 via a fastening bolt 17 extending through the u - forming legs 14 and the fastening stone 16 . additionally , a compression spring 18 is disposed between the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 and is secured , on one side , to the fastening stone 16 and , on the other side , to the closed end 15 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 , the compression spring 18 biasing the closure body retaining assembly 11 and , thus , as well , the closure body 12 , into the home position toward the left as shown in fig1 in which the fastening stone 16 is in a disposition against a switch element 19 mounted on the closure body retaining assembly 11 . [ 0031 ] fig2 shows features of the afore - described securement arrangement in more detail , including , especially , the feature that the fastening stone 16 comprises a shoulder 20 for guiding of the compression spring 18 . it can be further seen that a retainer 23 is mounted on the closure body retaining assembly 11 for the switch element 19 and , additionally , that a fastening bolt 22 is provided by means of which the closure body 12 is mounted to the ends 21 of the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 . it can be further seen in fig2 as well as in fig3 that longitudinal holes 24 are provided in the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 which have the fastening bolt 17 extending therethrough , so that the closure body retaining assembly 11 , in connection with overcoming the bias exerted thereagainst by the compression spring 18 , is displaceable toward the right as viewed in the figures of the drawings within the bounds of the maneuver or free play room provided by the longitudinal holes 24 . in connection with a locked - together seat belt , so long as the tension imposed on the seat belt due to the loading thereof does not overcome the predetermined bias of the compression spring 18 , the arrangement of the closure body 12 , the closure body retaining assembly 11 , and the anchor piece 10 shown in fig1 - 3 remains as illustrated in which the switch element 19 secured to the closure body retaining assembly 11 is , via the biasing of the compression spring 18 , maintained in a disposition against the fastening stone 16 . in the event that the predetermined biasing force of the compression spring 18 is overcome , the closure body 12 is displaced toward the right , in that the longitudinal holes 24 in the u - forming legs 14 permit a displacement relative to the fixedly secured fastening bolt 17 , in the context of which the switch element 19 is lifted away from the fastening stone 16 and is thereby actuated . an electrical signal is transmitted , as a consequence of the switch actuation , to a control device mounted on the vehicle at which it is decided whether a dedicated airbag device is to be deployed or not . the additional embodiment shown in fig4 and 5 operates according to the same operating principle as the embodiment shown in fig1 - 3 , whereby , in a modification of the embodiment shown in fig1 - 3 , the closed end 15 of the u - shaped closure body retaining assembly 11 extends into a fastening opening 25 formed in an end of the anchor piece 10 . the compression spring 18 , which is again likewise provided , is supported against the closed end 15 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 and its other end is in engagement with the opposing edge of the fastening opening 25 of the anchor piece 10 . as can be seen in fig5 three compression springs 18 arranged adjacent one another provide better stabilization of the connection between the closure body retaining assembly 11 and the anchor piece 10 . to likewise promote such stabilization , tongues 26 extend axially outwardly of the closed end 15 of the closure body retaining assembly which enclose therebetween the anchor piece 10 and thus act as stabilizing guides for the anchor piece 10 . [ 0034 ] fig5 shows closer details of the configuration of the contact . thus , a shoulder 27 is provided on the anchor piece 10 extending in the direction toward the closure body 12 into the housing 28 of the closure body 12 , the shoulder being disposed against a permanent magnet 29 mounted on the closure body 12 which is biased via a spring 30 toward the shoulder 27 of the anchor piece . a hall effect switch 31 is arranged relative to the permanent magnet 29 such that the movement of the permanent magnet 29 relative to the hall effect switch 31 effects the emission of a signal . if , in connection with such movement , the closure body 12 has been displaced from its position as described with respect to fig1 - 2 toward the right against the biasing force of the compression spring 18 , the shoulder 27 on the anchor piece 10 lifts away from the permanent magnet 29 , which has been displaced by the spring 30 . this displacement is sensed by the hall effect switch 31 . the further embodiment shown in fig6 - 8 is distinguished from the two heretofore described embodiments in that solely the closure body 12 is moveably mounted relative to the closure body retaining assembly 11 . the closure body retaining assembly 11 , which , as before , is configured with u - forming legs 14 , corresponds to that shown in the embodiment described with respect to fig4 and 5 with its closed end 15 hooked into the fastening opening 25 of the anchor piece 10 . a tongue 32 extends out of one of the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 and is bent inwardly between the u - forming legs 14 in a manner such that the tongue encloses the end of the anchor piece which extends over the fastening opening 15 of the anchor piece 10 ; this tongue 32 simultaneously serves as a hook for securing the end of a tension spring 33 whose opposing end is secured to the closure body 12 . the displacement of the closure body 12 relative to the closure body retaining assembly 11 is made possible by the provision of longitudinal holes 34 in the ends 21 of the u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 through which extend the fastening bolt 22 , the longitudinal holes providing the required free movement space for the displacement of the closure body 12 relative to the closure body retaining assembly 11 . in the event that the closure body is moved due to the load imposed thereon by the closure tongue 13 from its position shown in fig7 to the right against the biasing force of the tension spring 33 , the fastening bolt 22 mounted on the closure body 12 likewise moves to the right within the longitudinal holes 34 . in the same manner as heretofore described , a switch element comprised of a permanent magnet 29 , a spring 30 , and a hall effect switch 31 can be provided on the closure body 12 to emit signals corresponding to such a displacement , the shoulder 27 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 , which extends in the direction of the closure body 12 into its housing 28 , being in contact against the switch ( fig8 ); to this extent , the relationships with respect to the release of contact operate in the same manner as those described with respect to the additional embodiment described with respect to fig4 and 5 . to provide for better guiding of the closure body 12 on the closure body retaining assembly 11 , the longitudinal holes 34 in both u - forming legs 14 of the closure body retaining assembly 11 comprise different transverse extents , whereby the fastening bolt 22 comprises a correspondingly stepped transverse section corresponding to the transverse extents of both longitudinal holes 34 . in this manner , a step 35 is configured on the fastening bolt 22 on which is disposed the upper u - forming leg 14 having , as viewed in the illustration shown in fig7 the longitudinal hole 34 with the smaller transverse extent , whereby the stepped transverse section 35 of the fastening means guides the upper u - forming leg 14 during displacement of the closure body 12 relative to the closure body retaining assembly 11 . the specification incorporates by reference the disclosure of german priority document 101 63 917 . 1 filed dec . 22 , 2001 . the present invention is , of course , in no way restricted to the specific disclosure of the specification and drawings , but also encompasses any modifications within the scope of the appended claims .	1
fig1 depicts , in a simplified block diagram , a computer system 100 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present system . computer system 100 has central processing unit 110 ( also referenced herein as cpu 110 ), which is a programmable processor for executing programmed instructions stored in memory 108 . memory 108 can also comprise hard disk , tape or other storage media . while a single cpu 110 is depicted in fig1 , it is understood that other forms of computer systems can be used to implement the present system . it is also appreciated that the present system can be implemented in a distributed computing environment having a plurality of computers communicating via a suitable network 119 . cpu 110 is connected to memory 108 either through a dedicated system bus 105 and / or a general system bus 106 . memory 108 can be a random access semiconductor memory for storing application data for processing such as that in a database partition . memory 108 is depicted conceptually as a single monolithic entity but it is well known that memory 108 can be arranged in a hierarchy of caches and other memory devices . fig1 illustrates that operating system 120 may reside in memory 108 as well as trace facility 122 and trace buffer 124 ( also referenced herein as trace history buffer 124 ). trace buffer 124 is a segment of memory 108 used by trace facility 122 for capturing trace data for a running program . the trace buffer 124 is configurable with regard to size ( number of trace records ). it may also be known as a circular buffer due to the nature in which new records overwrite old records after the buffer space has been filled . new data wraps around and replaces old data in a cyclical manner . operating system 120 provides functions such as device interfaces , memory management , multiple task management , and the like as known in the art . cpu 110 can be suitably programmed to read , load , and execute instructions of operating system 120 . computer system 100 has the necessary subsystems and functional components to implement selective program tracing functions such as gathering trace records and historical data as will be discussed later . other programs ( not shown ) comprise server software applications in which network adapter 118 interacts with the server software application to enable computer system 100 to function as a network server via network 119 . general system bus 106 supports transfer of data , commands , and other information between various subsystems of computer system 100 . while shown in simplified form as a single bus , bus 106 can be structured as multiple buses arranged in hierarchical form . display adapter 114 supports video display device 115 , which is a cathode - ray tube display or a display based upon other suitable display technology . the input / output adapter 112 supports devices suited for input and output , such as keyboard / mouse device 113 , and a disk drive unit ( not shown ). storage adapter 142 supports one or more data storage devices 144 , which could comprise a magnetic hard disk drive or cd - rom , although other types of data storage devices can be used , including removable media . adapter 117 is used for operationally connecting many types of peripheral computing devices to computer system 100 via bus 106 , such as printers , bus adapters , and other computers using one or more protocols including token ring , lan connections , etc . as known in the art . network adapter 118 provides a physical interface to a suitable network 119 , such as the internet . network adapter 118 comprises a modern that can be connected to a telephone line for accessing network 119 . computer system 100 can be connected to another network server via a local area network using an appropriate network protocol and the network server that can in turn be connected to the internet . fig1 is intended as an exemplary representation of computer system 100 by which embodiments of the present invention can be implemented . it is understood that in other computer systems , many variations in system configuration are possible in addition to those mentioned here . fig2 is a process flow chart describing the steps in the process of an embodiment of the present system that begins with operation 200 wherein all normal setup activity required to run a program and initialize trace facility 122 of fig1 has been performed . during operation 210 , a program is set into execution mode as would be normal and processing moves to operation 220 wherein tracing of the program is initiated . as trace data is collected during operation 220 , the collection reaches a predetermined point where the data is written out as a trace record into a trace history buffer 124 during operation 230 . trace buffer 124 is typically contained in more volatile storage or memory of the system such as memory 108 of fig1 . during normal activity , trace records fill the trace buffer 124 and overwrite older records causing trace buffer 124 of fig1 to be viewed as a circular buffer . it is circular in the sense that upon filling the buffer , the oldest records are overwritten by newer records in a cyclical manner . each of the trace records has a trace level associated with it such as ‘ fatal ’, ‘ warning ’, or ‘ info ’ or it may be in numeric form such as ‘ 1 ’, ‘ 2 ’, and ‘ 3 ’ or alphanumeric . the number of levels of trace is dependent upon the level of granularity of control desired . the trace levels range between a high and low severity based on impact within the running program . the tracing facility has a configurable overall logging level that is used to determine if a trace record is to be written to a log file ( typically persistent storage such as that of storage device 144 of fig1 ). for example if a trace record is deemed to be at a high enough level , such as ‘ fatal ’, the record may be written out to the log file . the trace record written during operation 230 is then examined during operation 240 to determine if it exceeds an established threshold value . when the trace record level exceeds the threshold , the trace record is written to a persistent log file during operation 250 . otherwise processing reverts to operation 210 wherein tracing of the running program is performed as before . the trace facility 122 also has a configurable history level that is used to determine at what level of severity the content of the trace buffer 124 is caused to be written to the log file . typically this level would be set low such as that of ‘ info ’ so as to capture any history data related to an error condition . having written a trace record in operation 250 , processing moves to operation 260 during which a determination is made regarding existence of a specific trap value . a trap value is a specified value used as a trigger or signal to initiate logging of history data for a specific program activity . such a trap value may be a condition code unique to a program event or process of interest or other suitable programmable indicator . a trap value may be a single value or a multiple of such values , anyone of which would become a trigger value . the trap value is more specific than other trace values that are more suited to classes of program activity . if a trap value has been specified as the target of a trace and that value is encountered in a trace , processing moves to perform the actions of operation 270 wherein the content of trace buffer 124 ( history data ) is written to the log file during operation 270 . otherwise the level of that trace record is compared to a history trace threshold value during operation 265 . if it is determined that the trace record level exceeds the level of the history trace threshold , processing moves to perform the actions of operation 270 just stated . otherwise processing reverts to operation 210 wherein tracing of the running program is performed as before . having written the content of trace buffer 124 ( history data ) to the log file during operation 270 processing moves to operation 280 during which it is determined if trace buffer 124 is in need of resizing . if a resizing requirement is determined during operation 280 , processing moves to operation 285 where the necessary storage is allocated . processing then moves to operation 290 during which trace buffer 124 is reset and cleared . if during operation 280 it was determined that no resizing of trace buffer 124 was required processing would move directly to operation 290 during which trace buffer 124 is reset and cleared . processing then reverts to operation 210 wherein tracing of the running program is performed as before and the steps are repeated as needed . during normal operation when the logging or tracing facility is set to a first level ( less than maximum ), the highest level of trace detail active at that time is recorded to trace buffer 124 . the number of log or trace records stored in trace buffer 124 may be configured based on size of memory allocation available or perhaps number of records desired . when trace facility 122 detects an error and logging or tracing has not been set to a second level ( the maximum ) then the facility may automatically write the contents of trace buffer 124 to a log . the data written to the log provides another level of detail and prior program history needed to diagnose a problem without having to raise the log level and recreate the problem . tracing can be kept at a low level until more detailed information is required at which time tracing is then automatically set to a higher level . variations of providing a trigger value to the tracing facility could come in various forms . the trigger could come from a hardware signal , such as an interrupt or a state machine programmed to monitor trace records to determine heuristically if an event has occurred a specified number of times in absolute terms or occurred a number of times within a specified time interval . the history buffer can be any means providing a capability to store trace data records for future use while having control over the amount or size of storage space consumed . for example if an error is found to be occurring frequently , the trace facility 122 could provide a form of expanded or secondary allocation of storage to capture more data as required . this secondary allocation can also be controlled through known means to avoid total exhaustion of memory 108 . it is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain application of the principle of the present invention . numerous modifications may be made to the system and method for automatically collecting trace detail and history data invention described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention .	6
the present invention provides a hydration bag and a method for manufacturing a hydration bag . in a first embodiment , the flat inventive hydration bag contains an interior space having an osmotic agent contained within . however , the nature and character of the osmotic agent allows for a wide - ranging flexibility of uses for the hydration bag . for example , when the osmotic agent is simply composed of a formulation of sugars and salts , the hydration bag will create an electrolyte solution suitable for drinking or even ( when pre - sterilized ) intravenous administration . the hydration bag can have dehydrated blood components for reconstitution , or even dehydrated food for creation of meals by hydration without the need to boil water in a cooking process . in the first flat bag embodiment designed for single use systems , after sealing the bag with the osmotic agent inside , the outside of the bag can be sprayed with a glycerin solution and allowed to dry . the dried bag or a number of bags can be sealed inside a polyethylene sack . this sack can then be autoclaved to sterilize the contents and the bags will be shelf - stable for years . sealing three sides , adding the osmotic agent , and sealing the fourth side is a preferred method for sealing of the bags . in yet another embodiment ( fig1 ) of the flat hydration bag , one can add plastic stiffener bars ( from about 2 mm to about 5 mm diameter or length ) on the sides of the hydration bag . this makes the solution contact more membrane during the earlier stages of the hydration , and significantly speeds up the process . the spiral wound membrane element comprises a center tube element at the center of the spiral wound element having perforations that communicate with the inside of the membrane envelope . the center tube further comprises a refillable chamber for holding the osmotic agent . preferably , the spiral wound first embodiment is best used for military or backpacking applications . in this application a person would carry a membrane element that could be loaded with osmotic agent , preferably having some nutrient or even medicinal utility and preferably in a powder or syrup form . within 15 minutes this spiral wound embodiment of the inventive hydration bag will begin producing a dilute solution having the nutrient or medicinal function according to the osmotic agent used . for example a nutrient solution is a balanced oral rehydration drink with a concentration of 1 to 3 % solids ( by weight ), and it would be produced at a constant rate for 6 to 12 hours . the size of the hydration bag is according to the desired use and desired degree of portability but is scalable to almost any size . a table of the expected performance versus size is shown below : membrane nutrient total element weight weight size rate fluid / charge 500 g 250 g 30 cm × 0 . 7 liter / hr 7 - 10 liters 6 cm dia 300 g 150 g 20 cm × 0 . 4 liter / hr 3 - 5 liters 6 cm dia a drawing of the device is shown in fig4 and 6 . fig4 shows an end view of the spiral wound membrane element and a side cross - section , while fig6 shows the spiral wound membrane element as it would appear if it were unwound . to operate the spiral wound membrane element , nutrient powder or syrup ( osmotic agent ) is introduced into the osmotic agent chamber through an osmotic agent port . the osmotic agent port is plugged , and the spiral wound membrane element is placed in any available water . the element operation is unhindered by highly turbid dirty water . the available or dirty water comprises a dirty water chamber or bag that is carried or worn is a backpacking embodiment . ambient or available water from a questionable source is used to fill the dirty water spacer through the openings , optionally located on either end . initially water is pulled through the membrane element because during filling of the osmotic agent or nutrient powder , a small amount of the powder migrates from the osmotic agent chamber through the transfer holes into the nutrient channel and comes into contact with the membrane . when the dirty water is introduced , this osmotic agent in the form of a dry powder or syrup hydrates by osmotically pulling water from the dirty water channel across the membrane . a diluted clean ( nutrient ) solution then fills the nutrient channel , and some of the solution enters the osmotic agent chamber , gradually diluting the nutrient there . the device could be used in two ways . firstly , the spiral wound membrane element is loaded with osmotic agent in the form of a nutrient mix ( or one having medicinal value ) and placed in a questionable purity water source overnight . the clean ( nutrient ) solution produced would be collected in a bag and drunk as needed . the second use would be to load the spiral wound membrane element osmotic agent chamber with nutrient solution syrup and put the spiral wound membrane element in a bag as shown in fig5 . in this “ backpacking ” application , dirty water is carried with the user and during the day the nutrient solution fills the nutrient drink section of the bag . the user could drink the solution as it is produced during the day through a tube from the bottom of the bag . the spiral wound membrane element embodiment of the inventive hydration bag can be reused if it is stored in a dilute sterilizer solution . for example , for storage , the spiral wound membrane element is detached from the drink collector bag and placed in a sealed , water - filled container with an initial concentration of iodine , chlorine or sodium metabisulfite below 25 ppm . the sterilizer solution can pass through the membrane to sterilize the entire spiral wound membrane element . upon reuse , the storage water is discarded and very little oxidizer remains in the spiral wound membrane element . as a result , little off - taste is imparted to the later - made nutrient drink . the oxidizer will eventually degrade the membrane , but it expected that at least 50 uses will be obtained . after many uses , the ability of the spiral wound membrane element to keep the sugar from crossing into the dirty water chamber will be degraded and the element will begin to produce less drink . the size of sugar molecules is far smaller than any biological agents so the element will continue to block biological contamination even as its performance degrades . this loss in drink volume produced will indicate a new membrane element is needed . another feature of the spiral wound membrane element embodiment of the inventive hydration bag that helps it avoid fouling is the “ self - flushing ” design of the dirty water channel . during operation , dissolved solids in the dirty water tend to be concentrated in the dirty water channel as water is pulled into the nutrient channel . if the solids are not flushed out they can reduce performance or precipitate in the channel . the spiral wound membrane element embodiment of the inventive hydration bag device avoids this problem because when it is completely immersed in water with its exit tube pointing up ( out of the water it is immersed in ), water in the dirty water channel that becomes concentrated with solids will flow out the bottom of the element . this happens due to the increase in density of the solids - enriched water . a significant , and very desirable feature of the spiral wound membrane element embodiment of the inventive hydration bag is it produces a dilute nutrient solution at a constant rate with a simple - to - operate device . the drink is potentially sterile and good tasting , and the powder or syrup used to load the device is a nutrient that the user needs to ingest in any case . moreover , a 100 g charge of osmotic agent / nutrient , for example , produces 3 - 5 liters of drink that , in most circumstances , is enough for a hiker or soldier for a day . the combined weight of the element and powder to produce drinking water for a week is 1 kg . two factors enabling the steady production of a dilute drink are ( 1 ) the center tube of the spiral wound membrane element has a limited number of holes . this keeps the osmotic agent / nutrient from dissolving quickly and keeps the supply of osmotic agent / nutrient to the osmotic agent / nutrient channel slow and steady . moreover , ( 2 ), to exit , the osmotic agent / nutrient must spiral to the outermost portion of the membrane element and then spiral back in . this is accomplished by putting a plug in the center tube between the nutrient chamber and the exit , and by putting a glue line in the nutrient channel to force the solution spiral outward and back in . the reason for this feature is to only allow the most dilute solution from the element . in the second embodiment of the spiral design , the element has a similar construction as the first embodiment . that is it has a plug in the center tube and a glue line down the center of the membrane envelope which forces fluid flow to spiral to the outside of the element and back in again . however in the second embodiment the dirty water is fed through the element and a nutrient syrup is fed to the outside of the membrane envelope . in this design the syrup is fed continuously and the element is capable of producing more concentrated drink in high volumes . this design would be useful in truck mounted or stationary aid stations for refugee populations , or for mobile kitchens for the military . in a third embodiment illustrated in fig9 the membrane of this embodiment is configured in a plate and frame format instead of a spiral wound format . the membranes used in the inventive hydration bags ( in any configuration ) are hydrophilic , cellulose - ester based membranes with salt rejections in the 80 % to 95 % range when tested as reverse osmosis membrane ( 60 psi , 500 ppm nacl , 10 % recovery , 25 ° c .). preferably , the membranes are asymmetric and are formed by the immersion precipitation process . the membranes are either unbacked , or have a very open backing that does not impede water reaching the rejection layer , or are hydrophilic and easily wick water to the membrane . the flat embodiment hydration bags are preferably formed with the rejection side ( i . e ., non - backed side ) facing towards the inside . this is done so the sugar or other osmotic agents do not need to diffuse through the porous sublayer of the membrane to reach the rejection layer . the flux rates are higher with this configuration than with the membrane rejection layer to the outside . the membrane used in the spiral wound element embodiment is preferably a hydrophilic , cellulose - based membrane cast by the immersion precipitation process . the nominal molecular weight cut - off of the membrane is 100 daltons . the inventive hydration bags remain sterile on the inside after immersion because a preferred asymmetric membrane has a molecular - weight cutoff of 150 to 300 daltons . the smallest infectious microbial agents have a molecular weight over 10 , 000 . the hydration bags might be used as is for iv solution bags as well as drinkable solutions . another method of making the inventive hydration bags is to spray a solid border on the support fabric before casting the membrane on it . the membrane is cast onto a drum . hydration bags are preferably made from a casted membrane made from a hydrophilic membrane material , for example , cellulose acetate , cellulose proprianate , cellulose butyrate , cellulose diacetate , blends of cellulosic materials , polyurethane , polyamides . preferably the membranes are asymmetric , that is the membrane has a thin rejection layer on the order of 10 microns thick and a porous sublayer up to 300 microns thick . for mechanical strength they are in one embodiment cast upon a hydrophobic porous sheet backing , wherein the porous sheet is either woven or non - woven but having at least about 30 % open area . preferably , the woven backing sheet is a polyester screen having a total thickness of about 65 microns ( polyester screen ) and total asymmetric membrane is 165 microns in thickness . preferably , the asymmetric membrane was caste by an immersion precipitation process by casting the cellulose material onto the polyester screen . in a preferred embodiment , the polyester screen was 65 microns thick , 55 % open area . in a second support sheet embodiment , the membrane is cast on a dense hydrophilic material which wicks water easily through it . backings that have this property include , for example , cotton paper and surface modified polypropylene . for bag production , casted asymmetric membrane material had the water in it replaced with glycerin . however , one can use other materials , such as soaps or ethylene glycols or other glycols . however , glycerin is appropriate because it is food grade . the asymmetric membrane is immersed in a glycerin bath and the glycerin , by diffusion , replaces the water . cellulosic membranes are difficult to seal due to the weakness of the porous sublayer and the nonweldability of cellulose . one technique used to weld membrane to windows in polymeric sheets employed a solvent welding step . borders are laid out ( painted on or sprayed on the membrane ) with acrylic solvent by solvent welding to the backed side of the membrane . on a piece of medical - grade pvc , a window is cut out ( about 18 × 25 cm ) and piece of membrane with acrylic borders is radio frequency welded such that the membrane covers the window in the pvc sheet . preferably , the backing side of the membrane is welded to the frame of the window on the pvc sheet . a hydration bag can have either a one - sided membrane or a two - sided membrane . a one - sided hydration bag is designed to float on the surface of water , membrane - side down . a two - sided hydration bag was designed to have a vertical alignment in a body of water , such that the outer membrane surface areas is preferably immersed in the water . for the one - sided hydration bag , a second , solid sheet of pvc is welded ( radio frequency welding process is preferred ) to the first sheet of pvc ( having a window with a membrane attached thereto . preferably the welding of the two pvc sheets is done with a larger , circumferential perimeter weld layer . the outer weld is made such that the membrane / pvc weld is not subject to as much stress . in a two - sided embodiment , the pvc - windowed sheets are welded to each other , again with the pvc / pvc weld in an outer circumferential location . preferably , an osmotic agent is placed within the interior space formed by welding the pvc sheets . in the one - sided 18 × 25 area membrane hydration bag , approximately 100 g of dextrose powder was added as an osmotic agent . another process for producing the inventive hydration bags is to cast the membrane onto a weldable hydrophilic backing . weldable hydrophilic backings include , for example , dense polypropylene nonwoven fabric that has been surface modified with acrylic acid to make it hydrophilic . the membrane for use in the inventive hydration bag is cast so that it does not penetrate the weldable hydrophilic backing . the weldable hydrophilic backing is then be welded to itself or to a pvc window to form the inventive hydration bag according to the embodiments described herein . if it is welded to itself the bag produced will have its membrane face outward , that is the weldable backing material will be inward within the hydration bag . if the membrane having the weldable hydrophilic backing is welded to a window cut within a polymeric sheet ( e . g ., pvc ), the membrane faces inward again and the weldable hydrophilic backing side of the membrane will face outward on this embodiment of the inventive hydration bag . in either case no solvent welding of the membrane is required . the second embodiment inventive hydration bag can be a smaller bag that can be carried by a backpacker or a soldier ( fig5 ) or a larger hydration design spiral - wound element ( fig2 ). the spiral wound membrane element is similar to a conventional spiral wound ro ( reverse osmosis ) element except there is a glue line down the center of the membrane envelope on the permeate side , and there is plug in the center of the permeate tube . the second embodiment inventive hydration bag operates by introducing any water available to what would be the permeate side of the ro element . a syrup ( osmotic agent ) is then introduced to the feed side and osmosis pulls water from the water side of the membrane into the sugar . a small amount of water is continually drained from the element to prevent the build - up of contaminants on the water side of the membrane . fluid moves from the syrup bag to the dilute bag , even though the dilute bag is higher , because of density differences between the dilute and concentrated fluids . as the syrup becomes diluted in the element its density decreases and the column of dilute fluid above the element is higher than the column of syrup . this height difference can be used to set the concentration of the fluid coming out . this setting will be determined during the design phase and will not need to be adjusted in the field . another method of adjusting the rate of osmotic agent being fed to the element is to use a drip system similar to that used in iv applications to supply osmotic agent to the bottom of the element . initial testing of an element with about 0 . 3 m 2 membrane produced 20 ml / min of a 10 % glucose with a 60 % glucose feed at 30 ° c . a 35 cm diameter by 60 cm long spiral wound membrane element produces about 1 liter / min of a 5 to 10 % solution . the application for this system is in relief work where getting water to the site is difficult . the powder in the bag should be primarily a monosaccharide ( e . g ., glucose ) but can contain flavors , salts , vitamins or medicines as desired . the hydration time for a single bag in a horizontal orientation was 1 . 2 l in 7 hrs and 40 min at 16 . 5 ° c . a preferred osmotic agent was sodium chloride = 6 . 21 wt %, potassium chloride = 7 . 92 wt %, trisodium citrate = 10 . 41 wt %, glucose = 58 . 24 wt %, and fructose = 17 . 22 wt %. other osmotic agents ( or hydration formulations ) include , for example , medicines within a dextrose formulation , dehydrated foods , and any other solute that can be hydrated with water . the nutrients form of osmotic agents can be powders or syrups made from the following : fructose , sucrose , glucose , sodium citrate , potassium citrate , citric acid , potassium ascorbate , sodium ascorbate , ascorbic acid , water soluble vitamins , sodium chloride , and potassium chloride . for example , a mixture of 60 % fructose , 10 % potassium citrate , 10 % sodium citrate and 20 % water was tested in the 30 cm element and had performance similar to 80 % fructose - 20 % water nutrient syrup . the preferred osmotic agents that are nutrients include , for example , fructose , glucose , sucrose , sodium citrate , potassium citrate , sodium ascorbate , potassium ascorbate , and other water - soluble vitamins . flavorings and aspartame can be added to improve the taste . this example illustrates the manufacturing of a batch of inventive hydration bags that were used for testing in the subsequent examples . the subsequent examples tested the hydration bag for permeation by various agents , including black pigment - based ink , bacterium escherichia coli , bacteriophage ms2 , bacteriophage m13 mp18 ( a derivative of the f1 coliphage ); purified dna from m13 phage . hydration bags were made from a casted membrane made from cellulose triacetate ester , asymmetric with a polyester screen having a total thickness of 65 microns ( polyester screen ) and total membrane is 165 microns . the asymmetric membrane was caste by an immersion precipitation process by casting the cellulose material onto the polyester screen . the polyester screen was 65 microns thick , 55 % open area . casted asymmetric membrane material had the water in it replaced with glycerin . the asymmetric membrane was immersed in a glycerin bath and the glycerin , by diffusion , replaced the water . borders were laid out ( painted on or sprayed on the membrane ) with acrylic solvent by solvent welding to the backed side of the membrane . on a piece of medical - grade pvc , a window was cut out ( about 18 × 25 cm ) and radio frequency weld the pvc sheet to the membrane such that the membrane the window in the pvc sheet . preferably , the backing side of the membrane was welded to the frame of the window on the pvc sheet . this process was repeated many times for each hydration bag . a hydration bag can have either a one - sided membrane or a two - sided membrane . one - sided hydration bags were used for the tests described below . for the one - sided bag , a second , solid sheet of pvc was welded ( radio frequency welding ) to the first sheet of pvc ( having a window with a membrane attached thereto ). the welding of the two pvc sheets was done with a larger , circumferential perimeter weld layer . the outer weld was made such that the membrane / pvc weld was not subject to as much stress . an osmotic agent was placed within the interior space formed by welding the pvc sheets . in the one - sided 18 × 25 area membrane hydration bag , approximately 100 g of dextrose powder was added as an osmotic agent . this example provides an experiment wherein the inventive hydration bag was tested for permeation through the membrane and structures the inventive hydration bag . the bag was immersed in a suspension of diluted black inkjet ink made from pure carbon - based pigment particles ( cone editions , inc ., bradford , vt .). the diameter of the pigment particles was in the range of 0 . 4 - 1 . 0 μm . the bag was kept immersed in 2 liters of ink for 1 hour and then for 24 hours . approximately 250 ml of water accumulated inside the bag . measuring light absorption of the accumulated water - sugar solution in a beckman spectrophotometer using ink dilutions as controls carried out evaluation of ink permeation . the results are shown in table 1 . this example provides an experiment wherein the inventive hydration bag was tested for e . coli permeation through the membrane and structures the inventive hydration bag . e . coli ( non - pathogenic laboratory strain hb 101 ) was grown in liquid lb medium overnight ( lb medium ( per liter ; in di water ): 10 g trypton ( difco ), 5 g yeast extract ( difco ), 5 g nacl ( sigma ), 1 ml 1n naoh . sterilized in autoclave ). two parallel cell suspensions were diluted to a density of 10 6 and 10 8 bacteria per ml culture in a 4 - liter plastic container . two inventive hydration bags were immersed into the bacterial suspension ; one for 1 hour and the other for 24 hours at room temperature (˜ 21 ° c .). passage of bacteria through the membrane was tested by colony counts on lb - agar plates . the container and liquids with bacteria were disinfected with clorox ® bleach after each experiment . a control experiment was carried out to test if the osmotic formulation water - sugar solution affected in any way viability of the bacteria . for this purpose , a bacterial suspension ( 10 3 cells per ml ) was incubated for 1 hour and 24 hours in the ( tainted ) water - sugar solution produced in the bags , followed by assessing plating efficiency . this example provides an experiment wherein the inventive hydration bag was tested for m3 phage permeation through the membrane and structures the inventive hydration bag . m13 ( strain mp18 ), a known derivative of the non - pathogenic f1 filamentous coliphage , was grown in the non - pathogenic laboratory strain e . coli jm 101 . this phage particle carries a single - stranded dna genome . the phage was produced in the bacterial host by infecting a liquid culture of e . coli in lb medium overnight . bacteria were precipitated by centrifugation and the phage particles were purified from the growth medium by precipitation with polyethylene glycol ( peg ) solution ( 5 ×; in 700 ml h 2 o : 414 g peg 6000 , 12 g dextran sulfate , 99 g nacl .) and re - suspension in the 4 - liter water sample , in which the hydration bags were immersed . phage concentrations were assessed by counting the phage plaques on continuous lawns of e . coli cells in petri dishes . two phage dilutions were used in a 4 - liter plastic container : 10 7 and 10 9 phage particles per ml . two hydration bags were immersed into the phage suspension ; one for 1 hour and the other for 24 hours at room temperature (˜ 21 ° c .). passage of phage through the membrane was tested by infecting a 10 - ml culture of e . coli , followed plaque counts on lb - agar plates in a continuous lawn of e . coli . the container and liquids with bacteria and phages were disinfected with clorox ® bleach after each experiment . these data demonstrated no passage ( permeation ) of the m13 phage through the membrane of the hydration bag . statistical analysis of the data was not needed . this example provides an experiment wherein the inventive hydration bag was tested for ms2 phage permeation through the membrane and structures the inventive hydration bag . these tests were carried out with the ms2 bacteriophage in the same way ( see above ) as the experiments with m13 phage ( example 3 ), except that the phage particle concentrations in the 4 - liter water sample were 10 6 / ml and 10 8 / ml . the results were similar in that no phage particles passage through the membrane was observed . this example provides an experiment wherein the inventive hydration bag was tested for m13 phage permeation through the membrane and structures the inventive hydration bag . the dna of the m13 phage was used in a series of experiments designed to test if an infectious viral dna were able to penetrate through the hydration bag &# 39 ; s membrane . m13 dna is a circular single - stranded molecule of ˜ 7 , 250 nucleotides , which corresponds to a molecular weight of approximately 2 . 4 × 10 6 daltons . in comparison , the double - stranded circular dna of the poliovirus is of 4 , 500 - nucleotide pairs , corresponding to ˜ 3 × 10 6 daltons . phage dna was purified from the phage particles obtained from the e . coli liquid culture supernatant by peg precipitation ( see method in example 4 ). the phage pellet precipitated by peg was re - suspended in 2 ml of te buffer ( 10 mm tris . hcl , ph 7 . 5 ; 1 mm edta ) extracted with 1 ml of buffered phenol , and the dna was precipitated with 3m sodium acetate and dried after washing with 70 % cold ethanol . 2 mg of phage dna was dissolved in 4 liters of test water , and the hydration bags were immersed for 1 hour and 24 hours , consistently to the experimental conditions described in examples 2 - 5 above . the phage dna was collected from 100 ml of water samples from inside and outside the bags by running through a deae - cellulose ion exchange chromatography column ( 1 × 3 cm ). bound dna was eluted in 1 ml 0 . 45 m licl , and used directly to transfect e . coli . phage plaques were formed overnight and counted ( table 4 ). this example illustrates the making of a second embodiment inventive hydration bag having a spiral wound membrane element . the membrane element was a 30 cm by 6 cm diameter membrane having a total area of about 0 . 65 m 2 . the nutrient or osmotic agent was 300 g of an 80 % fructose solution . when immersed in 20 ° c . water the element began producing 1 . 4 bx solution within 10 minutes . the production was steady at 900 to 1000 ml / hour and 1 . 2 to 1 . 4 bx for the first 6 hours . after 24 hours the element had produced 14 liters of solution averaging 1 . 1 bx . this example illustrates the making of a second embodiment inventive hydration bag having a spiral wound membrane element . the membrane element was 16 cm by 6 cm diameter with a membrane having a surface area of about 0 . 3 m 2 . the nutrient / osmotic agent was 140 g of an 80 % fructose solution . when immersed in 20 ° c . water the membrane element began producing 1 . 4 bx solution within 10 minutes . the production was steady at 400 to 450 ml / hour and 1 . 1 to 1 . 4 bx for the first 6 hours . after 24 hours the element had produced 6 liters of solution . this example illustrates the making of a second embodiment hydration bag having a spiral wound membrane element . an element with the following characteristics was constructed : the element was immersed in 25 ° c . water and after 15 minutes began producing a 2 % solution of gatorade ® at a rate of 20 ml / min . the production rate remained steady for 6 hours in which time it had produced 6 . 7 liters with an average strength of a 2 . 2 %. after 20 hours it had produced 12 liters with an average strength of 1 . 7 %.	1
embodiments of the present invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the drawings . [ 0042 ] fig1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a crossbar switch system according to an embodiment of the present invention . as shown in fig1 the system includes eight nodes 0 to 7 , nine cross - bar switches 10 to 18 , a failure processing circuit 20 , and selection circuits 0 - 0 to 0 - 7 , . . . , 7 - 0 to 7 - 7 , 11 - 0 to 11 - 7 , . . . , and 17 - 0 to 17 - 7 . the nodes 0 to 7 are identically constructed and so are the crossbar switches 10 to 18 . each of the cross - bar switches 10 to 18 has eight input ports , eight output ports , an 8 × 8 cross - bar switch unit ( not shown ) and a connection controller ( not shown ) for controlling switching of the input and output ports to the cross - bar switch unit . each port is constructed to input or output data on a per - byte ( 8 - bit ) basis . fig1 is mainly for the purpose of describing the principle of the present invention ; the number of nodes , for example , is not limited to eight , as a matter of course . as for the cross - bar switches and the failure detection , reference is made to jp - a - 11 - 331374 which is incorporated herein by reference thereto . data communicated between any two nodes of the nodes 0 to 7 is transferred from the source node to the destination node by the crossbar switches 10 to 18 . the data width of data communication between two nodes is eight bytes ( 8 × 8 = 64 bits ), by way of example . byte - 0 data of the 8 - byte data output from respective ones of the nodes 0 to 7 is input to the crossbar switch 10 at a respective one of the eight input ports . with regard to cross - bar switch 11 , byte - 0 data and byte - 1 data output from node 0 is input to the selection switch 11 - 0 , the output of the selection switch 11 - 0 is applied to the first input port of the cross - bar switch 11 , byte - 0 data and byte - 1 data output from node 1 is input to the selection switch 11 - 1 , and the output of the selection switch 11 - 1 is applied to the second input port of the cross - bar switch 11 . similarly , byte - 0 data and byte - 1 data output from node 7 is input to the selection switch 11 - 7 and the output of the selection switch 11 - 7 is applied to the eighth input port of the cross - bar switch 11 . in response to a control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 , the selection circuits 11 - 0 to 11 - 7 select one of byte - 0 data and byte - 1 data in the 8 - byte data output from the nodes 0 to 7 and output the selected data to the cross - bar switch 11 . the selection circuits 11 - 0 to 11 - 7 select the byte - 1 data in the absence of a failure and select the byte - 0 data when the crossbar switch 10 fails ( see fig4 described later ). with regard to cross - bar switch 17 , byte - 6 data and byte - 7 data output from node 0 is input to the selection switch 17 - 0 , the - output of the selection switch 17 - 0 is applied to the first input port of the cross - bar switch 17 , byte - 6 data and byte - 7 data output from node 1 is input to the selection switch 17 - 1 , and the output of the selection switch 17 - 1 is applied to the second input port of the cross - bar switch 17 . similarly , byte - 6 data and byte - 7 data output from node 7 is input to the selection switch 17 - 7 and the output of the selection switch 17 - 7 is applied to the eighth input port of the cross - bar switch 17 . the byte - 7 data in the 8 - byte data output from each of the nodes 0 to 7 enters respective ones of the eight input ports of crossbar switch 18 . the data output from the cross - bar switches 10 to 18 is selected by the selection circuits 0 - 0 to 0 - 7 , 1 - 0 to 1 - 7 , 7 - 0 to 7 - 7 and input to the nodes 0 to 7 . the selection circuit 0 - 0 corresponding to node 0 receives as inputs the byte - 0 data output from the first output port of cross - bar switch 10 and the byte - 0 data output from the first output port of cross - bar switch 11 , selects one of these inputs based upon the control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 and outputs the selected data to the node 0 . the selection circuit 0 - 7 corresponding to node 0 receives as inputs the byte - 7 data output from the first output port of cross - bar switch 17 and the byte - 7 data output from the first output port of cross - bar switch 18 , selects one of these inputs based upon the control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 and outputs the selected data to the node 0 . similarly , the selection circuit 7 - 0 corresponding to node 7 receives as inputs the byte - 0 data output from the eighth output port of cross - bar switch 10 and the byte - 0 data output from the eighth output port of cross - bar switch 11 , selects one of these inputs based upon the control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 and outputs the selected data to the node 7 . the selection circuit 7 - 7 selects byte - 7 data , which is output from the eighth output port of cross - bar switch 17 and the eighth output port of cross - bar switch 18 , based upon the control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 and outputs the selected data to the node 7 . on the basis of failure information relating to a failure that has occurred , the failure processing circuit 20 outputs the selection control signal to the selection circuits 0 - 0 to 0 - 7 , 1 - 0 to 1 - 7 , 7 - 0 to 7 - 7 , 11 - 0 to 11 - 7 , 17 - 0 to 17 - 7 . [ 0055 ] fig2 illustrates an example of the internal structure of the node 0 to 7 show in fig1 . each node is composed of four cpus 100 to 103 , a memory controller 104 , a memory 105 and an input / output ( i / o ) controller 106 . each of the cpus 100 to 103 performs memory access and i / o access via the memory controller 104 . in a case where a cpu accesses the memory 105 within its own node , the memory 105 is accessed from the memory controller 104 . however , when a memory within another node is accessed , the access re quest is sent from the memory controller 104 to a memory controller of the other node via a cross - bar switch , thereby accessing the memory within the other node . [ 0058 ] fig3 illustrates the internal structure of the failure processing circuit 20 shown in fig1 . the failure processing circuit 20 outputs the selection control signal to the selection circuits 0 - 0 to 7 - 7 , 11 - 0 to 17 - 7 after the system is restarted , for example , whereby control is performed in such a manner that the faulty crossbar switch is taken out of service and the redundant crossbar switch is placed in service . failure information concerning the crossbar switches 10 to 18 output from a system controller enters a 9 - bit crossbar switch failure information register 200 . each bit of the register 200 holds information as to whether the respective one of the cross - bar switches 10 to 18 is faulty or not . the information from the crossbar switch failure information register 200 is output to a selection - circuit control output circuit 201 . on the basis of this information , the selection - circuit control output circuit 201 outputs a selection control signal to each of the selection circuits 0 - 0 to 7 - 7 , 11 - 0 to 17 - 7 . the information from the crossbar switch failure information register 200 is also output to a multiple - failure detector 202 . if two or more of the crossbar switches 10 to 18 fail , the multiple - failure detector 202 notifies the system controller of the occurrence of multiple failure . [ 0062 ] fig4 illustrates , in table form , which crossbar switches switch each byte of data transferred between nodes when the crossbar switches 10 to 18 fail . under normal conditions in the absence of failure , the data of bytes 0 to 7 are switched by the cross - bar switches 10 to 17 , respectively , as illustrated by the lowermost row of the table in fig4 . if the crossbar switch 10 , for example , develops a failure , the data of bytes 0 to 7 are switched by the crossbar switches 11 to 18 , respectively , as indicated by the second row of the table of fig4 . if any of the cross - bar switches 11 to 18 fails , then , in similar fashion , the data of each byte is switched by a respective one of the cross - bar switches indicated in fig4 while the faulty cross - bar switch is avoided . the operation of this embodiment of the invention will now be described . as shown in fig1 the crossbar switches 10 to 18 are cross - bar switches in a redundant arrangement for effecting communication between nodes . if a failure has not occurred , the crossbar switches 10 to 17 are employed and the crossbar switch 18 is not used . under normal conditions , the byte - 0 data in the 8 - byte data output from each of the nodes 0 to 7 is switched by the cross - bar switch 10 , the byte - 1 data is switched by the cross - bar switch 11 and the byte - 7 data is switched by the cross - bar switch 17 . in a case where the cpu 100 in node 0 accesses the memory within node 1 , which is a remote node , the byte - 0 data in 8 - byte request data is switched by the cross - bar switch 10 and is sent to node 1 . though the byte - 0 data is sent from node 0 to the selection circuit 11 - 0 , the latter responds to the control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 by selecting and outputting its other input , namely the byte - 1 data in the 8 - byte data from node the byte - 0 data output from the cross - bar switch 10 enters the selection circuit 1 - 0 which , in response to the selection control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 , selects the byte - 0 data and outputs this data to the node 1 . if the system develops a failure and it is determined as a result of diagnostic processing executed after the occurrence of the failure that the cross - bar switch 10 is faulty , then , in response to the selection control signal output from the failure processing circuit 20 to the selection circuits after the system is restarted , the cross - bar switch 10 is taken out of service and the items of byte - 0 data , byte - 1 data and byte - 7 data in the 8 - byte data output from nodes 0 to 7 are switched by the cross - bar switches 11 , 12 and 18 , respectively . as for the transfer of data from node 0 to node 1 in this case , the byte - 0 data that was output from node 0 to selection circuit 11 - 0 is selected by the selection control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 and is delivered to the cross - bar switch 11 . the byte - 0 data output from cross - bar switch 11 enters the selection circuit 1 - 0 , and the latter responds to the selection control signal from the failure processing circuit 20 by selecting the byte - 0 data and inputting it to the node 1 . if a failure occurs in any of the cross - bar switches 11 to 18 , each byte of node transfer data is transferred by control similar to that set forth above via the cross - bar switches indicated in fig4 . if two or more of the crossbar switches 10 to 18 fail , then the crossbar multiple - failure detector 202 in the failure processing circuit 20 detects multiple crossbar failure and so informs the system controller . in this case , the system is not restarted and remains down until it is repaired . according to the embodiment described above , each node outputs 8 - byte data , and each selection circuit and each port of the crossbar switches inputs and outputs data in single - byte units . however , the present invention is not limited to this implementation and it goes without saying that an implementation in which data is input and output in word units or bit units may be adopted . further , the present invention is not only ideal for application to a multinode computer system but can be similarly applied to crossbar switches that control the connections between multiple cpus and memories . the meritorious effects of the present invention are summarized as follows . the present invention has a number of advantageous effects , which will now be described . first , in a case where cross - bar switches are provided with redundancy and a cross - bar switch fails , the failure processing circuit controls the selection circuits , which are provided at the inputs and outputs of each of the cross - bar switches , based upon failure information , thereby making it possible to achieve an operation in which the faulty cross - bar switch is avoided after the system is started up . second , it is possible to avoid a situation in which system recovery cannot be achieved until a faulty crossbar switch is repaired . avoiding this situation does not require that all crossbar switches be made redundant . third , in a case where a cross - bar switch is designed to be inserted into and withdrawn from a live wire , it is possible for cross - bar switch components to be replaced on - line . this means that maintenance can be performed without shutting down the system . fourth , when switching is performed in the event of failure of a crossbar switch , the switching takes place between crossbar switches whose data branching inputs are mutually adjacent . as a consequence , the fluctuation in data delay time caused by detouring the data , which is a problem encountered with the system of jp - a - 11 - 331374 described earlier , either does not occur or is so small as to be negligible . this has applications in computer systems that operate at high operating frequencies . as many apparently widely different embodiments of the present invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims . it should be noted that other objects , features and aspects of the present invention will become apparent in the entire disclosure and that modifications may be done without departing the gist and scope of the present invention as disclosed herein and claimed as appended herewith . also it should be noted that any combination of the disclosed and / or claimed elements , matters and / or items may fall under the modifications aforementioned .	7
this invention relates to , and claims , quartz crystals ( as articles of manufacture ) cut at specific calculated angles to the method that is used to select specific angles of cut to obtain quartz plates having desired properties . control devices in radios , cellular telephony , and other modem communications devices demand that shifts in frequency caused by temperature fluctuations be kept to a minimum . one advantage of the new cut angles of the present invention stems from the fact that quartz crystals manufactured according to the present invention exhibit low shifts in natural frequency of resonance as a function of changes in temperature . this invention also describes and claims a method that allows the manufacture of quartz plates that counteract frequency shifts over temperature excursion caused by other electrical components that make up typical oscillator circuits . in addition , this invention enables and claims angles of cut selected for a desired margin of error , which provides for large scale manufacture of quartz plates with greater reproducibility and at lower cost than has traditionally been the case . at the outset , it should be clearly understood that like reference numerals used in the related drawings are intended to identify the same structural elements , portions , or surfaces consistently throughout the several drawing figures , as may be further described or explained by the entire written specification of which this detailed description is an integral part . the to drawings are intended to be read together with the specification , and are to be construed as a portion of the entire “ written description ” of this invention , as required by 35 u . s . c . § 112 . for purposes of this patent , the terms appearing in the description and in the claims are intended to have the following meanings : “ q value ” as used here is a measure of the activity of a crystal relative to the amount of activity ( grid current ) that is produced in an electrical oscillator circuit . φ ′= the phase delay imposed on the wave traversing the crystal face due to resistance by its surroundings . δ = offset value between the idealized wave and the wave with a damping function as used herein , the angle theta ( θ ) refers to an angle of rotation from the z axis and about the x axis such that axes x , y ′ and z ′ are formed . the angle phi ( φ ) refers to an angle of rotation about the z ′ axis , or in the case where theta θ is 0 °, a rotation about the z axis . the first step in improving the existing approximations ( see eq . 1 ) is to address the area of idealized perfectly elastic oscillations . if the idealized case were true , it should be possible to add electrical energy to a quartz crystal causing it to vibrate , and ideally , the crystal should vibrate essentially forever without additional energy input . this is much like the mechanical analogy where a mass attached to a spring is pulled by grasping the mass and stretching the spring , pulling the mass in a direction away from the spring , to add energy to the system and then releasing the mass . in the ideal case the mass will oscillate forever , as in the ideal case no energy is lost in the compression or extension of the spring and there would be no loss of energy to the surroundings . in the case of a vibrating quartz plate , the q value of quartz is very high , therefore it behaves as a very efficient spring having a very high stiffness , thus minimizing losses due to inelastic motion . being finite , losses do occur , but they are a small fraction of the actual energy lost . in the case of quartz , the rate of vibration is high compared to a mechanical spring analog , and so much of the energy is lost as velocity squared proportional damping . this effect , commonly called “ wind resistance ” is found to be important in any projectile or other type motions as the speed of motion increases . in the case of modem quartz chips that are vibrating at frequencies of many megahertz , wind resistance becomes the dominant loss term even though the amplitude of the physical vibration is small and the total mass of atmosphere moved is also very small . adding a loss term ( eq . 3 , which is a basic velocity proportional damping term ) to the conventional equation ( eq . 1 ), where the magnitude of the loss term is proportional to the square of the wave velocity , produces a modified curve ( fig6 ) as compared to the curve ( fig5 ) that was produced using eq . 1 . the dashed line in fig6 is a short segment of the prior graph ( fig5 ) and the solid line is the curve produced by adding the damping term to the traditional mathematical formulation . in this close up view , one can see that not only is the at cut accounted for , but also the sc cut at 34 . 2 °, the it cut at 36 °, the st cut at 42 . 4 ° and the ct cut at 38 . 1 °. additionally , we see not only that the st cut is represented , but why st cut quartz plates are so difficult to manufacture . as shown in fig6 the st cut angle resides on a very steep slope as compared to the at and sc cut angles , so if the st cut is missed by even a small margin , the resulting plates very quickly lose their first order zero temperature coefficient . in the expanded view of the curve ( fig7 ) produced using the modified traditional mathematical formulation ( eq . 2 ) more of the known cuts are also accounted for . the loss term added to the traditional first order approximation of the variation of temperature coefficient with temperature ( eq . 1 ), has the form : equation 1 ( as given in the background section ), equation 2 ( as given in the summary section ), and equation 3 are periodic functions , which means that it is possible to fit the actual behavior of the quartz plate with a number of combinations involving multiples of the frequency term ω with differing values of the other variables . these particular values are used as a close approximation of the description of the actual physical behavior of know cuts and to demonstrate the mathematical form of the damping function . further refinements would increase the accuracy of the fit of the curve to the known cuts , but as a first order approximation , the addition of the basic velocity proportional damping term accounts for much more of the known quartz behavior than does the prior mathematical description alone . to test the model , a trial cut was made in the area close to the gt cut angle of 51 °. the concept being that an ideal commercial cut would have a lower third order coefficient similar to the gt cut , but unlike a plate made using a gt cut where the edges of the blank are vibrating and the center is not vibrating , an ideal commercial cut would vibrate in a shear like mode such that the edges of the quartz plate do not vibrate like the familiar at cut . this would facilitate manufacturability , a key obstacle to the adoption of the gt cut despite its technical advantage of a low frequency deviation over an exceptionally wide temperature range . test cuts in the range of interest produced the results illustrated in fig8 . this experiment shows that reduced frequency deviation can be obtained over a wide temperature range as compared to the industry standard at cut . this reduction in frequency deviation allows the quartz plate to perform temperature compensation functions that are currently required in modern designs . the elimination of these compensation electronics reduces both electronics cost and complexity . conversely , applying the compensation electronics to the new crystal cut would achieve tighter frequency control in a given application . a review of related literature underscores that the currently accepted mathematical interpretation predicts two first order zero temperature coefficient quartz cut angles . when , in actual fact , by experimental practice , more than a dozen first order zero temperature coefficient cuts are known to exist . the discrepancy between the cuts known to exist and the lack of a predictive mathematical structure has lead to the more complete description and mathematical model of this invention . the improved model of this invention allows for faster exploration of potentially commercially successful cut angles and development of those candidate cuts into operating devices . it should be remembered that to uncover the actual behavior of quartz without benefit of the more accurate model of the present invention would entail making trial cuts on both the theta and phi crystal axes in mutual increments of no more than a few minutes of arc . the small step size of the trials is due to the very high rate of change of the temperature coefficient as a function of cut angle . much like the “ needle in a haystack ” analogy , random or widely spaced trial cuts are unlikely to produce successful results . the level of difficulty of discovery of new cuts by experimental trail and error using the conventional mathematical approach as indicated by this analysis is borne out by the fact that the last commercially successful quartz cut , the “ sc ” cut , was patented over twenty two years ago despite the support of a burgeoning electronics industry and the large worldwide demand spurred by the computer , fax and cellular telephony industries . thus , it is seen that the objects of the invention are efficiently obtained . it should be appreciated , however , that the invention is not directed solely to the particular embodiment described herein , but is capable of various modifications , rearrangements , and substitutions should be readily apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention . the foregoing detailed description is an explanation of the preferred embodiment of the present invention , as well as the best mode presently known to the inventor . however , the scope of the invention is not to be limited by the description of the preferred embodiment but rather is defined by the scope of the claims , following which are appended hereto and are hereby included in and made part of this specification by this reference .	8

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