Abstract: A method for synchronizing the data between two separate computer systems is described. In a first aspect of the invention, the method includes the step of identifying each record stored in the memory of the first computer system that is intended to be synchronized. The records are identified with a unique identification indicia and an indicia that indicates the last time that the record was altered. Using the time of the last synchronization information, each of the selected records that was added to or deleted from one of the computer systems since the last synchronization is identified and added to or deleted from the other computer system. Further, each of the records that was modified on one computer system is modified on the other. If conflicting actions have occurred on the two computer systems, then the conflicts are handled in accordance with a predetermined protocol.

Abstract: A method for measuring surface topography characterized by making multiple scans of the surface with a laser scanning unit and utilizing the multiple scans to create representations of the surface's topography. The surface topography data can also be used to calculate the compressive or tensile stress caused by a thin film applied to the surface of a semiconductor wafer. The apparatus of the present invention scans a laser beam across a surface in an x direction, and detects displacements of a reflected portion of the laser beam in a z direction. A pair of photodetectors are used to translate z direction displacements of the reflected beam into analog signals which are digitized and input into a microcomputer for analysis. The multiple scans of the surface are preferably accomplished by placing the workpiece on a pedestal which can be rotated to various angular positions.

Abstract: A dynamic vertical solids separator acts as a dynamic filter to produce a clarified supernate sample for use in measuring the net electrokinetic charge demand of finely divided particles suspended in the slurry. The dynamic vertical solids separator first removes silt by simple solids separation, and then promotes rapid agglomeration of particles by first directing the slurry across serrated floc plates and then discharging the slurry upward through a venturi. Above the venturi a dynamic sample pool forms, within which the clarifying action occurs. The clarified supernate forms above the sample pool with a visible boundary separating the two. The clarified supernate can be fed to a streaming current detector for measuring the net electrokinetic charge demand of finely divided particles suspended in the slurry, or the position of the boundary can be measured as an indication of the concentration of finely divided particles suspended in the slurry.

Abstract: A Thermal Ball Lead Integrated Package (Thermal BLIP) having improved thermal performance over prior art BLIPs is described. The BLIP combines ball and lead technologies to increase the interconnect density of the package but has relatively poor heat extraction capabilities. The Thermal BLIP is particularly well suited for high power and pin count integrated circuit devices. In an embodiment of the present invention, a heat sink is attached to the top surface of the die and extends through the package molding such that it is exposed to the ambient environment. Since the heat sink is integrated into the molding, the package size and footprint is not increased thereby limiting the cost increase of the package. This arrangement enables the use of high power devices in dense circuit board applications.

Abstract: A device for detecting torque applied to a rotary shaft. The device has a sensing piece made of a magnetostrictive material and opposite ends for mounting the sensing piece on the rotary shaft. A primary coil is located around the rotary shaft for supplying magnetic flux to the sensing piece. A secondary coil is located around the rotary shaft for sending an electromotive force induced by the magnetic flux of the sensing piece. The electromotive force is measured to determine the torque applied to the shaft.

Abstract: Disclosed is an IC structure providing conductive lines for routing within a semiconductor substrate immediately below the level of the active IC devices. These "buried" conductive lines are insulated from each other by dielectric regions formed as an insulating plane immediately below the active devices and resembling a conventional silicon on insulator (SOI) structure. Within this plane, however, the buried conductive lines provide routes between various active device elements to form some circuit connections such as intracell connections for a gate array. Thus, the buried conductive lines replace some routing from the metallization/dielectric layer stack on top of the active region.

Abstract: Ferroelectric materials are disclosed as reversible holographic recording media (25) for use in two-photon recording systems. The ferroelectric materials disclosed herein provide long-lived electronic states intermediate the ferroelectric material's valence and conduction bands. These intermediate states have a sufficiently long life (on the order of 1 to 100 milliseconds) that low-power continuous wave ("cw") lasers (1) can be used to record interference patterns on them. Thus, two-photon holographic recording systems are also disclosed which do not require high-power, short pulse length, mode-locked or Q-switched lasers. Rather, the disclosed holographic recording systems employ visible and near IR cw lasers such as diode lasers.The disclosed two-photon holographic recording systems provide for absorption of a first photon which excites electrons of holographic recording media to an intermediate state.

Abstract: The present invention provides a reconfigurable programmable logic device (PLD) that saves its own programmed state without the use of an external memory device or without additional control logic on the PLD. A non-volatile memory cell is incorporated with each SRAM cell in the PLD to form a configuration memory cell. The non-volatile memory cells store the programmed states of the associated SRAM cells even after termination of power to the system. Each non-volatile memory cell then restores the configured state of its associated SRAM cell upon system power-up by "mapping" its contents to the SRAM cell. The non-volatile memory cell may be implemented either by an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory cell ("EPROM") or an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory cell ("EEPROM").

Abstract: A semiconductor memory device capacitor is disclosed which has a trench capacitor portion provided in a semiconductor substrate and a fin capacitor portion provided above the substrate. The trench capacitor portion includes (i) a trench extending from an upper surface of the semiconductor substrate downwardly into the substrate, and (ii) an electrically conductive trench electrode provided interior to the trench. And the fin capacitor portion includes (i) a fin electrode having a body portion and two or more electrically conductive fins extending outwardly from the body portion, (ii) a fin dielectric layer conformally coating the two or more electrically conductive fins, and (iii) a cell electrode surrounding and in intimate contact with the two or more electrically conductive fins.

Abstract: Disclosed are positive electrodes containing active-sulfur-based composite electrodes. The cells include active-sulfur, an electronic conductor, and an ionic conductor. These materials are provided in a manner allowing at least about 10% of the active-sulfur to be available for electrochemical reaction. Also disclosed are methods for fabricating active-sulfur-based composite electrodes. The method begins with a step of combining the electrode components in a slurry. Next, the slurry is homogenized such that the electrode components are well mixed and free of agglomerates. Thereafter, before the electrode components have settled or separated to any significant degree, the slurry is coated on a substrate to form a thin film. Finally, the coated film is dried to form the electrode in such a manner that the electrode components do not significantly redistribute.

Abstract: Computer systems and computer implemented methods are provided for managing memory in a database management system. The computer memory is partitioned into a plurality of buffer caches, each of which is separately addressable. One buffer cache is set aside as a default buffer cache, while the other buffer caches are reserved for specific data objects meeting certain predefined criteria. Those objects meeting the predefined criteria are stored in reserved buffer caches where they are likely to remain for a relatively long period of time (in comparison to data objects stored in the default buffer caches). A buffer cache may have a plurality of memory pools, each of which contains multiple storage blocks. The storage blocks in a given memory pool are identically sized, while the storage blocks in one memory pool are sized differently from the storage blocks in another memory pool.

Abstract: A linear differential amplifier with improved voltage swing is disclosed. The linear differential amplifier corrects for an error voltage inherent in differential pair amplifiers, without hindering the available voltage swing, and thus, is particularly suited for low-voltage applications. The differential amplifier includes an input differential amplifier for receiving an input voltage difference to be amplified; a distortion correction differential amplifier for producing an error correction amount; and an output differential amplifier for receiving the input voltage difference and the error correction amount, amplifying the input voltage difference to produce an output voltage, and correcting the output voltage in accordance with the error correction amount. Also disclosed is a method for improving available voltage swing of a differential amplifier when amplifying an input voltage difference.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for inputting data to an active application program running on a computer system includes the steps of displaying the image of a recognition keypad on a screen of the computer system, the keypad being adapted to receive user inputs; analyzing the user inputs to the recognition keypad; and inputting data to an application program running on the computer system based upon the analysis of the user inputs. The recognition keypad includes at least one button and a recognition area having at least two recognition modes. Preferably, the user inputs include inputs from a pointing device, and the recognition modes include a command mode and a character mode. The user preferably enters characters and gestures to the recognition area, and the buttons are preferably modifier buttons operative to modify the entered characters and gestures based on the current recognition mode.

Abstract: An improved discrete multi-tone transmission scheme is describe that contemplates encoding digital data and modulating the encoded data onto a discrete multi-tone signal having a total bandwidth of at least 1.6 MHz. In some embodiments bandwidths of 8 MHz or more are provided. The modulation system is capable of dynamically updating the subcarriers used and the amount of data transmitted on each subcarrier during transmission in order to accommodate real time changes in the line quality over particular subcarriers. In one preferred embodiment of the invention the multi-tone encoding and modulation is done in substantial compliance with the ATIS North American Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines standard. However, additional subchannels (such as a total of 512 subchannels) may be used and/or subchannel bandwidths of greater than 4.3125 kHz may be used.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for storing and retrieving data from a queue implemented on a computer system. A queue memory structure is allocated in a memory device, the queue including a a last-in-fast-out (LIFO) and a first-in-first-out (FIFO). A data element is atomically added to the LIFO when the data element is enqueued to the queue structure, and a data element is atomically removed from the FIFO when the data element is to be dequeued from the queue, thus preventing concurrent processes from disordering the data in the queue. When the FIFO becomes empty, the LIFO is converted to a new FIFO, and this new FIFO is stored in place of the old (empty) FIFO. In one embodiment, a lock is set and the LIFO is converted to a new FIFO only when the lock is previously determined to be clear to prevent additional dequeuers from interrupting a dequeuing process. A high-priority data element can be atomically added to a head list that stores the data element at the front of the queue memory structure.

Abstract: An improved software license management system in accordance with the present invention is disclosed. A license server initializes a license database by receiving a package license description that includes component license descriptions for component software products in a package. Licenses for software products are also received, and license records are created in the license database for components and suite packages, where each record includes a number of licenses available to be checked out. A client computer system can request a license for a component product in a package. A license is granted to the client when the client is allowed to receive the license according to a license policy. When a component license is checked out, a linked suite license is also automatically checked out. No other client thus may use a component license linked with the suite license record unless another suite license is checked out.

Abstract: A method for formatting paragraphs on a screen of a computer system including the steps of: a) entering a word on a screen of a computer system using a pointing mechanism; b) finding an associated paragraph, if any, that the word is to be associated with; c) adding the word to the associated paragraph, if one exists; and d) starting a new paragraph with the word if there is not a closely related exiting paragraph. A newly-entered word can be added to an associated paragraph in basically four ways. The word can be added in a new line at the top of the paragraph, in a new line at the bottom of the paragraph, at the end of an existing line, or between words of an existing line. After a word has been entered, the text within the paragraph is repositioned as desired by the user, either implicitly or through an explicit command. For example, the words within a paragraph can be caused to "reflow" so that they are aligned between the left and right margins of the paragraph.

Abstract: Rare earth doped ferroelectric materials are disclosed as reversible holographic recording medium (25) for use in two-photon recording systems. Such rare earth elements provide long-lived electronic states intermediate the ferroelectric material's valence and conduction bands. In some cases, these rare earth intermediate states have a sufficiently long life that low-power continuous wave ("cw") lasers (1) can be used to record interference patterns on them. Thus, two-photon holographic recording systems are also disclosed which do not require high-power, short pulse length, mode-locked or Q-switched lasers. Rather, the disclosed holographic recording systems employ cw lasers such as diode lasers. The rare earth dopants include praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, and thulium. These dopants provide ions having 4f excited states that give rise to absorptions in the near infra-red and visible spectral regions and typically have lifetimes on the order of 0.1 to 1 milliseconds.

Abstract: An integrated circuit structure including a conductive layer, a first dielectric layer overlying the conductive layer, a second dielectric layer overlying both the first dielectric layer and the conductive layer and a planarizing layer overlying the second dielectric layer. The conductive layer has a lateral dimension which is greater than a corresponding lateral dimension of the first dielectric layer. Thus the conductive layer and the first dielectric layer form a stepped, pyramidal shaped island. As a result of the stepped, pyramidal shape, the overlying planarizing layer forms with a more planar upper surface than if the sidewall of the island had a vertical profile. In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the conductive layer is formed from tungsten-silicide, and both of the dielectric layers are either silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.

Abstract: A method is provided for accurately determining the propagation delay of a gate under consideration in a static timing analyzer. This is accomplished by determining both the output load and input rise time of the gate under consideration. These values are then compared with a load versus rise time grid having previously determined values of propagation delay (points) for specified combinations of load and input rise time. These points are then used to interpolate a value of propagation delay for the gate under consideration by an interpolation technique that accounts for at least one of the following non-linear effects: the feed forward capacitance of a gate, soft switching, gate resistance, source and drain resistance, and/or other non-linear effects. The method accounts for each non-linear effect by imparting a corresponding component to propagation delay only in that range of output load and input rise time for which that non-linear effect is most pronounced.