Abstract: The invention relates to a process for depositing a metal on a material. The process comprises the steps of: immersing the material in deposition solution comprising the metal; inducing a material vibration in the deposition solution having a frequency corresponding to a resonance frequency of the material; including a solution vibration in the deposition solution in a direction non-parallel to the material vibration, said solution vibration having a frequency corresponding to the a resonance frequency of the deposition solution, whereby said metal is deposited onto the material. This process results in deposition of metal from the plating bath on the material in a controlled and substantially uniform thickness.

Abstract: A communications interface on a data path between a plurality of data channels and a single communications port on a processor. The communications interface controls data as it passes on a receive path from the plurality of data channels to the single communications port and on a transmit path from the single communications port to the plurality of data channels and is adapted to use a memory to buffer the data when necessary. The communications interface (i) adds a channel identifier, which identifies to which data channel the data relates, to the data on the receive path so that the processor will be able to determine to which data channel the data relates and (ii) removes a channel identifier from the data on the transmit path so that the data will leave the communications interface in the same format in which it was received.