Abstract: A voltage regulator is provided. The voltage regulator comprises a first voltage-controlled current regulator having a first power input and at least one additional voltage-controlled current regulator having at least one other power input. The first and the at least one additional voltage-controlled current regulators have first and second current paths, respectively, and a common output node. The voltage regulator also includes an error amplifier that is responsive to the common output node. The error amplifier further has an output. The output of the error amplifier provides a common feedback signal to the first and the at least one additional voltage-controlled current regulators so as to establish selected currents drawn by the first and the at least one other power inputs and provided to the common output node.

Abstract: A monitoring circuit is provided. The monitoring circuit can be used to monitor signals in a cable network. The monitoring circuit includes first and second stages. The first stage has an input and an output. The input is coupled to an external circuit. The first stage scales a voltage received at its input. The second stage is coupled to the output of the first stage. The second stage has a high input impedance and a low output impedance. The second stage buffers a signal at the output of the first stage to an output of the second stage.

Abstract: A circuit and method for synchronizing a service clock at a destination node with a service clock at a source node for circuit emulation service over a packet network. The method includes receiving data packets from a source node at at least one port of the destination node. At the destination node, the method removes from the data packets residual time stamp (RTS) values that were created at the source node based on at least the service clock at the source node. RTS values are stored in memory at the destination node. The method determines a majority count and a minority count of RTS values over a period of time from the RTS values stored in memory. The method further uses the majority and minority counts to set the frequency of a service clock at the destination node for use in receiving data packets.

Abstract: A ring switch for a ring network is provided. The ring switch includes at least one ring port that is coupleable to transport data packets in a ring network. Further, the ring switch includes at least one local port that is coupleable to at least one local area network. The ring switch also includes at least one address table that tracks the addresses of network devices associated with each port of the ring switch based on source addresses of data packets received at the ports of the ring switch. Data packets received at the at least one ring port that are not destined for a network device associated with any of the at least one local ports of the ring switch are switched to another ring switch coupled to the at least one ring port based on the at least one address table without the use of a token or encapsulating the packet.

Abstract: A lawn mower blade includes a mulching blade and a discharge blade which operate in combination. Both the mulching blade and the discharge blade have primary and secondary cutting surfaces. Optional cut-out regions provided in both blades reduce the total weight of the lawn more blade. A third cutting surface can be provided in both blades by sharpening the trailing edge of the cut-out region. The primary cutting surface of the mulching blade resides on a first horizontal cutting plane, while the primary cutting surface of the discharge blade resides on a second horizontal cutting plane which is elevated above the first horizontal cutting plane of the mulching blade.

Abstract: Undesirable vibrations are controlled in a mechanical structure by confining the vibrations to one or more specified areas of the structure and then dissipating the confined energy by damping. Vibration confinement is achieved using a confinement device which effectively applies both translational and torsional forces to the structure. The strength of the translational and torsional forces, and the position of the confinement device are chosen to select a vibrational energy confinement region. Damping elements are concentrated in the vibration confinement region to dissipate the confined vibrational energy. Judicious selection of the confinement region permits the structure to avoid the transfer of vibrational energy to particularly sensitive portions of the structure, or to direct vibrational energy to a portion of the structure. Optimization procedures are presented for designing structures having optimized placement and selection of the vibration confinement device and damping devices.