Abstract: An apparatus for deterring certain kinds of animals from birdfeeders and birdhouses consists of rotating such avian enclosures at a sufficient speed to deter the undesirable animal. An electronic baffle rotates the avian enclosures at variable speeds for which fast speeds are used to deter animals and slow speeds are used for better viewing of birds. A support suspends the baffle from a tree or mounts the baffle to a pole in the ground. An electronic circuit contained within the baffle senses the animal's presence and controls the speed of a motor that rotates the avian enclosures for a predetermined period of time. Optionally, remote control circuitry may be used in manually deterring animals from the avian enclosures and for better viewing of birds.

Abstract: A clustered computer system includes multiple computer systems (or nodes) on a network that can become members of a group to work on a particular task. Each node includes group state data that represents the status of all members of the group. A group state data update mechanism in each node updates the group state data at acknowledge (ACK) rounds, so that all the group state data in all nodes are synchronized and identical if all members respond properly during the ACK round. Each node also includes a main thread and one or more work threads. The main thread receives messages from other computer systems in the group, and routes messages intended for the work thread to either a response queue or a work queue in the work thread, depending on the type of the message. If the message is a response to a currently-executing task, the message is placed in the response queue. Otherwise, the message is placed in the work queue for processing at a later time.

Abstract: An apparatus and method shares predictive failure information between computer systems in a computer network. The shared predictive failure information allows a requester of a network resource to determine whether the resource will be available to perform the request based on its predictive failure information. According to a first embodiment, predictive failure information is written by each computer system on the network to a common storage that is accessible by one or more other computer systems on the network. When a computer system on the network needs a resource on another system, the requesting computer system can check the predictive failure status of the system that contains the needed resource by reading the predictive failure information in the common storage. If the predictive failure information indicates that the resource may perform the requested function, the requesting computer system issues the request to the resource.

Abstract: An integrated circuit (i.e., chip under test) includes a control and monitor interface that includes on-chip support for one or more network protocols that allow the chip to be directly coupled to a network. The control and monitor interface defines one or more operations that can be performed on the chip. In a system for testing chips under test, the control and monitor interface of all of the chips under test are coupled to a network, which is also coupled to a control and monitor mechanism. When a chip under test receives a message on the network from the control and monitor mechanism to execute an operation, it performs the requested operation, then reports the results. In this manner much of the intelligence regarding the test can be pushed on-chip, rather than having all of the testing intelligence residing in an external tester. This allows some standardization in tests that are performed from one chip under test to the next.

Abstract: A framework for use with object-oriented programming systems provides an expert system shell that executes with a rule set developed by a framework user. The framework includes a condition manager object that keeps track of what conditions are true at any time and a rules compiler that processes the rules so they can be used by the condition manager. The conditions are a set of object classes that are organized into an inheritance hierarchy for use by the condition manager. A detector determines when to set conditions to true. When a condition state is changed, the condition manager realizes that one or more rules might indicate a particular action might now be appropriate. Therefore, the condition manager checks the rules against the conditions each time a condition changes. The expert system developer provides the set of rules and conditions appropriate for the knowledge domain of the expert system under development.

Abstract: An apparatus and method provide simultaneous local and global addressing capabilities in a computer system. A global address space is defined that may be accessed by all processes. In addition, each process has a local address space that is local (and therefore available) only to that process. An address space processor is implemented in software to perform system functions that distinguish between local addresses and global addresses. In the preferred embodiments, the local address space has a size that is a multiple of the size of a segment of global address space. When the hardware indicates a page fault, the address space processor determines whether the address being translated is a local address or a global address. If the address is a local address, the address space processor uses a local directory to process the page fault. If the address is a global address, the address space processor uses a global directory to process the page fault.

Abstract: An apparatus and method allow analyzing the performance of a computer program. The computer program is initially executed according to a predefined set of program execution conditions. As the computer program executes, information for each code segment is logged. Using the logged performance data, a graphical representation of the executed computer program is constructed. A user can then formulate ad hoc queries to analyze any desired performance parameters for the computer program by replaying how the computer program ran using the graphical representation of the executed computer program. The present invention thus allows a user to detect via queries complex performance bottlenecks that are caused by interactions between multiple code segments.

Abstract: Ranked breakpoints are defined in a computer program that allow a debugger to determine whether or not to halt execution of the computer program when a ranked breakpoint is encountered based on the rank of the breakpoint compared to a threshold rank. In a preferred embodiment, the threshold rank is the rank of a RunTo function, and the ranked breakpoints only halt execution of the computer program if their rank is higher than the threshold rank of the RunTo function. The present invention thus provides a mechanism for ignoring some or all breakpoints in a computer program when performing debugger functions, such as a RunTo function.

Abstract: An apparatus and method allow accurately determining properties of an anisotropic material, such as a multilayer printed wiring board, in a non-destructive manner using scanning acoustic microscopy. The apparatus and method includes special signal processing that allows determining the time of flight of an input waveform from a transmitter transducer on one side of the printed wiring board to a receiver transducer positioned on the opposite side of the printed wiring board in a position that opposes the transmitter transducer. The special signal processing includes an auto-correlation function and a cepstrum analysis. Once the time of flight is determined, the velocity of the input waveform may be computed. The Young's modulus and shear modulus for the printed wiring board may then be computed from the velocity of the input waveform. The preferred embodiments allow determining properties of a printed wiring board without the necessity of destructive testing.

Abstract: A safety rail system includes a U-bracket for attaching a safety rail to an existing structural member, and an end stop that allows trolleys to be placed on a rail with one hand and removed with two hands, without any removal of bolts and without using any tools. The end stop is in a first position by the force of gravity that prevents a trolley from coming off the end of the rail. When a trolley is to be placed on the rail or removed from the rail, the end stop is pivoted upwards to allow wheels of the trolley to pass below the end stop. The end stop then returns to its normal, lower position, which prevents a trolley from accidentally coming off the end of the rail.

Abstract: An apparatus and method provide a locking scheme that accommodates different size file locks. A first file lock command, referred to as an M bit file lock command, assumes a lock with a length of M bits. A second lock command, referred to as an N bit file lock command, assumes a lock with a length of N bits, which is less than M bits. A translation mechanism services both M-bit and N-bit file lock commands, and accesses locks that are M bits in length in response to both M-bit and N-bit file lock commands. The address range between 2N and 2M−1 are assigned to one or more corresponding control addresses in the address range of 0 to 2N−1. Locking of any control address using an N bit file lock command results in the address range between 2N and 2M−1 being automatically locked in addition to the addresses specified in the N bit file lock command. This allows translating an N bit file lock command to an M bit lock.

Abstract: An object oriented framework mechanism for customization of object oriented frameworks provides an infrastructure that embodies the steps necessary to customize a selected object oriented framework (referred to herein as an “input framework”). Combining core functions provided by the framework with extensions provided by the framework consumer (i.e., user), results in a framework customization environment. The architecture of the framework allows a user to determine the conditions and parameters that apply to the specific framework customization environment while allowing the user to interact with the framework using an interface that is consistent regardless of the specific combination of parameters specified by the user. The extensible functions allow new framework customization environments to be easily implemented using the framework.

Abstract: An object oriented mechanism and method allow allocating a greater number of objects on a method's invocation stack. Each instruction that creates an object (i.e., allocation instruction) is first analyzed to determine whether it is one of the following three types: no escape, global escape, and arg escape. If an allocation instruction is global escape, the object must be allocated from the heap. If an allocation instruction is no escape, it can be allocated on the method's invocation stack frame. If an allocation instruction is arg escape, further analysis is required to determine whether the object can be allocated on an invoking method's stack or must be allocated from the heap. If the method that contains an arg escape allocation instruction can be inlined into a method from which the lifetime of the object does not escape, the object can be allocated on the invoking method's stack. This inlining can be done for several layers up, if needed and possible.

Abstract: An apparatus and method allow dynamically defining exception handlers in a debugger and breaking only when one of the dynamically-defined exception handlers is called. In this manner a programmer can define special exception handlers referred to herein as debugger exception handlers that correspond to exceptions of interest while debugging, and can thus distinguish between exceptions that are expected (and therefore handled) in a computer program and exceptions that signal a bug in the computer program during debugging.

Abstract: A hole cover device is used to cover all or a portion of an excavation or hole. The hole cover device includes a top plate through which extends a screw mechanism that is coupled to a plurality of movable arms below the top plate. When a hole needs to be covered, the lower portion of the hole cover device (including the movable arms) is placed in the hole, with the top plate resting on the ground around the hole. The screw mechanism that extends above the top plate is then turned, which causes the movable arms below the top plate to extend outwardly until they engage the sides of the hole, making removal of the hole cover device very difficult. The screw mechanism may then be secured using a lock to assure the hole cover device may only be removed by authorized personnel. In a preferred embodiment, the hole cover device is for a circular hole, such as those drilled for fenceposts and electrical power poles, and therefore has a circular top plate with a diameter larger than the hole to be drilled.

Abstract: An apparatus and method allow a user to input alphanumeric information into a video game console by providing a keyboard that may be connected to the video game console. In a first embodiment, the keyboard plugs directly into a video game controller input on the video game console, and generates from the keystrokes on the keyboard video control codes that are compatible with the video game controller input. The video game controller recognizes the video control codes from the keyboard, and interprets the video control codes on the video game controller input as corresponding to keys on the keyboard according to a predefined map. In a second embodiment, an adapter is provided with an output that plugs into the video game controller input on the video game console, and with an input that receives a standard plug from a standard keyboard (such as a PC-compatible keyboard).

Abstract: A framework for use with object-oriented programming systems provides a reusable object oriented (OO) framework for use with object oriented programming systems that provides an information retrieval (IR) shell that permits a framework user to define an index class that includes word index objects and provides an extensible information retrieval system that evaluates a user query by comparing information contained in the user query with information contained in the word index objects that relates to stored documents. The information in word index objects is produced by preprocessing operations on documents such that the documents relevant to the user query will be identified, thereby providing a query result. The information retrieval system user can load documents into the computer system storage, index documents so their information can be subject to a query search, and request query evaluation to identify and retrieve documents most closely related to the subject matter of a user query.