Abstract: A chassis divides vertically, with front and rear sections of the chassis joined immediately adjacent a midplane printed circuit board that supports interconnectivity of electronic circuits. Wiring within the chassis is eliminated through directed connections of all components to the midplane. Minimal hardware is required for securing the front and rear sections together, and therefore accessing the midplane for assembly and service is convenient. All components except the midplane are installed and removed from either the front or rear of the chassis without opening or disassembling the chassis. The chassis layout and features facilitate effective cooling of the components in the chassis.

Abstract: A shared storage distributed file system is presented that provides applications with transparent access to a storage area network (SAN) attached storage device. This is accomplished by providing clients read access to the devices over the SAN and by requiring most write activity to be serialized through a network attached storage (NAS) server. Both the clients and the NAS server are connected to the SAN-attached device over the SAN. Direct read access to the SAN attached device is provided through a local file system on the client. Write access is provided through a remote file system on the client that utilizes the NAS server. A supplemental read path is provided through the NAS server for those circumstances where the local file system is unable to provide valid data reads. Consistency is maintained by comparing modification times in the local and remote file systems.

Abstract: A spiral-wound tip is presented for use on a walking assistance device, a robotic arm or digit, or other device needing a slip-resistant point of contact with its environment. The tip is constructed by winding a sheet of rubber or other elastic material into a spiral plug. The plug can be mounted within a hole at the extremity of a device. Alternatively, the sheet can be wrapped around the exterior of the extremity. The lamina of the spiral-wound plug separate upon impact with an object, increasing the gripping power of the tip.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for configuring multiple first programmable logic devices from a single memory includes a microprocessor, and a second programmable logic device containing the interface logic for the first programmable device and the microprocessor. The present invention allows multiple FPGAs to be programmed from a single memory structure under the control of the microprocessor thereby using fewer components than systems dedicating a separate memory to each FPGA. A communications port allows new configurations to be downloaded to the microprocessor memory. In addition, the present invention can be used in combination with standard systems with each FPGA having its own memory, with the microprocessor being able to select between the central microprocessor memory and the local memory for programming each FPGA.

Abstract: A blood conditioning device having a housing with a helical blood acceleration section which includes a helical flow path for impressing centrifugal forces on the entrained bubbles in the blood to concentrate them towards the center of the flow path, a bubble pick off tube aligned with the centerline of the acceleration section which collects and recirculates the bubbles to the cardiotomy reservoir upstream of the device during operation, and a blood filtration section to intercept the flow of particles in the blood.

Abstract: A method and apparatus includes a retainment face, which with a rear boundary define a channel. The channel has a first and second opening that enable a tie to be threaded through the channel and around a data cable to secure it in place.

Abstract: A method and system is presented for a digital licensing scheme that separates the license from the digital file containing the copyrightable material. According to the present invention, the files can be downloaded from any server, and transferred from user to user, even after the file has been licensed. The present invention utilizes producer software running on a vendor's computer, server software running on a computer provided by the license provider, and player software operating on the user's computer. Digitally encrypted communication streams keep communications between the producer software, the license provider, and the player software confidential. A software component running on the user's computer checks to make sure that the appropriate product license has been purchased. This is accomplished by comparing the product ID in the product license with the product ID contained in the product file.

Abstract: A switch segments variable length frames into cells for transmission over a cell-based switch fabric and handles rate differences between the input data rate and the switch fabric data rate. The fabric handles multiple cell packets by maintaining a switch path until a certain number of cells are transmitted as indicated in a length field in the first data cell. The first cell contains a full data payload, and a length field value sufficient to handle a maximum length frame. Subsequent cells can contain less than a full data payload, with the number of valid bytes in the cell being indicated in the length field. The last cell used to segment the frame contains an end of frame indicator. The indicator signals the destination port side of the switch to terminate the packet path in the switch fabric prematurely—before the number of cells indicated in the first data cell.

Abstract: A method and apparatus that recognizes a portion of an address that would be unrecognizable to an intended associated switch or device and manipulates the portion of the address to make it recognizable. The apparatus and method manipulates a discontinuous address to provide the appearance to the associated device, switch or peripheral, that the address is continuous. This provides additional address capacity such that a new address is created within the switch itself for routing data within the switch. All or a portion of the switches in network are preassigned a chassis address, and each chassis also has a specific switch address that is different from the preassigned chassis address. An address adaptor provides translation of addresses and mapping within a switch so that in the event of a port failure, affected frames can be redirected from the failed port by employing the described translation and mapping operations.

Abstract: A system and method distribute licenses for copyrighted material separate from the copyrighted material itself. A producer or “vendor” of copyrighted material registers the material with a License Provider. The License Provider returns an encryption code for the producer to attach to the materials which are in digital form. The vendor distributes that material to one or more users who purchase a license from the License Provider. The license includes an encryption key to decrypt the file containing the materials. The system and method incorporate security measures to prevent unlicensed use and distribution of the materials.

Abstract: A system for testing and monitoring the operation of telephone systems uses a call trace method for capturing messages associated with a phone call. The system can provide an indication as to the time a particular triggering signaling message (e.g., IAM or RLC message) was detected on a link. The present system assembles SS7 signaling messages in real-time. Time stamps are employed in triggers to identify past messages stored in a buffer that are related to the phone call.

Abstract: A method and system for bootstrapping a processor from a volatile memory device connected to the processor is disclosed. The first processor is bootstrapped from flash device. The reset lines of the second processor are asserted. The boot code for the second processor is loaded from the flash device into the volatile memory device. The reset lines of the second processor are de-asserted, wherein the processor then boots from the boot code stored in the volatile memory device. The same boot-strapping method can be extended to multi-drop systems where number of secondary processor can be more than one. A switchable means for the second processor to boot from volatile memory as described or from flash memory. A method also describes a mechanism to boot from synchronous volatile memory devices.

Abstract: A storage router and related method are presented for combining multiple host frames, such as Fibre Channel frames, together into a single datagram for tunneling transmission over an IP or similar network. The storage router operates by storing incoming host frames in a host frame buffer. When there is sufficient data in the buffer, multiple host frames are batched together, compressed, and converted into an IP datagram. The number of host frames to be batched together can be established through a variety of tests, including total bytes of data, number of frames, or through a time-out mechanism. The network layer then fragments the datagram into data link level frames, such as 1500 byte Ethernet frames. When the datagram arrives at the final destination, the segmented datagram is reconstructed, decompressed, and the multiple host frames are then extracted and passed on to the recipient host frame network.

Abstract: Data cells are described containing an entity identifier (“O”), an entity type (“E”) an attribute type (“A”), and an attribute value (“V”). Cells with identical O and E values constitute a cell set. Pairs of synapse cells relate cell sets, each synapse cell having O and E values of one cell set and A and V values equal to the E and O values of the other cell set. Cell generations store information about attributes, entities, relationships, constraints, and default data formats in the same cell listing as the cells containing the actual real-world data. As a result, the data in a data cell can be considered self-identifying. The present invention also provides a way to normalize data using data pool cell sets. The data cells themselves can be stored in multiple, co-existing storage trees that are specialized for increased data query efficiency.

Abstract: A system and method for obtaining prints or other services from a digital camera uses a camera and a transceiver module, each having unique identifiers that are stored in a database stored on a remote print routing server. To obtain the service, the user couples the camera to the transceiver module and requests an image service, such as by pressing a button. The transceiver module sends image files and a request for prints to the routing server. The routing server confirms that the request is authorized by querying its database to determine if the camera identifier is authorized for use with the transceiver module. Provided the service request is authorized, the routing server sends the image files to a print center. The service request is coupled with shipping and billing information, such that the print center is able to ship prints to the shipping address and bill the appropriate account.

Abstract: An intravascular catheter with micro spines that penetrate arterial wall to delivery drug or mechanical injury to the vessel wall inducing a “stent” like healing process in the vessel.

Abstract: A fiber channel backplane configuration is capable of modular expansion, e.g., from 64 ports to 128 ports or 256 ports by a simple operation. The backplane includes connectors that provide permanent and jumper/vertical connections to support 64 user port switch in a single chassis. For a 128 port switch, two 64 port chassis are used. In the 128 port configuration, the connectors are configured to provide permanent and jumper/vertical connections to make intra-chassis and inter-chassis connections between the fabric switch and fabric input/output boards. Using jumper plugs, the jumper connectors provide vertical connections between the fiber input/output boards and fiber switch boards of two chassis. For a 256 port switch configuration, four 64 port chassis assemblies are used. The connectors are configured to provide each switch with permanent, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal connections to the fiber input/output boards of each of the four chassis.