Abstract: A mass spectrometer sample input interface comprises a desolvation apparatus defining a desolvation pathway along which a desolvation gas flows, in a direction from upstream to downstream, the desolvation pathway having a desolvation pathway portion; and an ion pathway apparatus for defining an ion pathway for analyte solution droplets to follow, the ion pathway leading into the mass spectrometer, the ion pathway including an ion pathway portion that follows the desolvation pathway portion.

Abstract: A system and method of distributed metadata searching is disclosed. The present invention permits an extension of the searching and retrieval functions of existing Internet web search engines by utilizing computational resources embodied in user computer systems and search browsers. By distributing the searching and scanning functions to the user level, the present invention reduces the computational and communications burden on Internet web search engines and crawlers, resulting in lower computational resource utilization by Internet search engine providers. Given the exponential growth rate currently being experienced in the Internet community, the present invention provides one of the few methods by which complete searches of this vast distributed database may be performed.

Abstract: A method and a system are presented for generating differentially compressed output from binary sources. Given two versions of the same file as input streams, a compact encoding of one of the input streams is generated, by representing it as a set of changes with respect to the other input stream. Algorithms for differencing files requiring time linear in the size of the input and a constant amount of space for execution are presented. In addition, advanced techniques for improving existing differencing algorithms are developed and applied to previous methods. These techniques allow algorithms to increase their efficiency without a loss of compression and to accept arbitrarily large inputs without sacrificing correctness or degrading the compression data rate. The differential compression methods provide a computationally efficient compression technique for applications that generate versioned data.

Abstract: A data storage facility provides a remote copy operation that copies data write updates from a primary data store to a remote site by identifying which bytes in a block update have changed and sending only the changed bytes from the primary data store to the remote site. An exclusive-OR (XOR) logic operation is used to identify the changed bytes by XOR'ing the original data block with the changed block. Data compression can then be used on the XOR data block to delete the unchanged bytes, and when the compressed block is sent to the remote site, only the unchanged bytes will be sent, thereby reducing the bandwidth needed between the primary store and the remote site.

Abstract: A cache management system determines stack distance by determining the stack reuse distance, less the number of duplicate pages in the system trace. The stack reuse distance is defined as the number of references between the first reference to a datum and the next reference to the same datum. The stack reuse distance can be easily calculated by maintaining a count of data references in a stream. The system also recognizes that the number of duplicate pages in a cache can be approximated in a probabilistic manner, thereby improving the efficiency of the cache analysis. Stack distance can be approximated during normal system operation and stack analysis can be performed in a dynamic manner for optimal cache tuning in response to data reference workloads. Thus, the cache miss ratio curve is generated either from a system trace in an off-line mode, or in real time during normal system operation.

Abstract: Circuitry is provided for detecting threshold crossings of an input signal which is generally sinusoidal or otherwise periodic, but which is subject to either high-frequency noise which would cause erroneous multiple threshold crossings, or low-frequency noise which would cause erroneous failure to detect a threshold crossing. Two detection elements detect the crossing of two different threshold values and produce detection signals reflecting whether the input signal is above or below their thresholds. For noisy input signals, these detection signals may be bouncy. High- and low-true versions of the detection signals are logically combined to produce a first signal which is active only while the input signal moves in one direction, and is masked from the active state while the input signal moves in the other direction. Likewise, a second signal is produced which is active the opposite way. The first and second signals set and reset a latch, whose output state represents the threshold crossing.

Abstract: A method and system for receiving CIMT encoded data transmitted in simplex mode. The receiver (12) is adapted to receive a stream of digital data and analyze successive portions thereof to identify a predetermined pattern of data. The receiver (12) outputs the received digital data in response to a detection of the predetermined pattern of data and, in the alternative, outputs other data in response to a failure to detect the predetermined pattern of data. In the illustrative embodiment, the stream of digital data is transmitted as conditional invert master transition encoded simplex data. The receiver (12) includes a CIMT decoder (16) which analyzes the input data to identify a master transition therein. The receiver (12) uses a local clock to analyze successive portions of the received data stream and word alignment logic to identify a master transition therein.

Abstract: A structure is provided for a user-manipulable input device, such as an in-keyboard, joystick-type device, for allowing a user to provide input to a computer graphical user interface (GUI). The structure includes a user-manipulable, articulating member, and a plurality of stationary, electrically conductive sensors. The articulating member also has an electrically conductive member. The physical disposition of the articulating member and the sensors provides narrow gaps, across which are measurable capacitances. As the user manipulates the articulating member, the capacitances change in value. Circuitry produces signals related to the capacitances, and the signals are processed, according to a transfer function, to generate GU I input signals. The sensors are preferably sensing electrodes, incorporated into a circuit board. The articulating member is preferably a cone-shaped member, having a conductive surface which faces the sensors.

Abstract: The rapid growth of thick thermally grown oxide layers on silicon wafers is described herein. By patterning and etching a plurality of pillars on the surface of the silicon wafer, oxide growth is primarily lateral and not vertical, enabling it to proceed much faster. In other embodiments, the pillars are fabricated with an oxygen barrier on their top surface, preventing oxide growth on the top of the pillars and resulting in an oxide layer with a more planar upper surface.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for producing verified signatures on documents such as checks and affidavits. Initially, a customer who is to obtain a verified signature, at some point in time, registers with a signatory authority, and a secret key, having public and private components, is established uniquely for that customer. When a document requires a verified signature, the customer presents the document and proof of his/her identity, such as a preprogrammed computer-interfacable card, to a signature system. Typically, such a system is to be available at an institution, such as an office, bank, or post office, where such services will routinely be used. The system accesses the archive of the private portion of the customer's key, and generates an encoded signature based, in part, on the content of the document. Accordingly, when a recipient of the document later wishes to verify the signature, the recipient uses the customer's public key to decode the signature.

Abstract: A system for rejecting second and subsequent copies of an informationally-equivalent card or badge asserted into a client/server system by processing only those cards having transaction histories recorded thereon by comparison matching a history recorded in a central repository and then rewriting the history on the card and in the repository. The rewritten histories include the current transaction. Counterfeit cards, informationally equivalent to the original card prior to the transaction update of the original card, will be rejected when asserted into the system since their histories mismatch that recorded in the repository.

Abstract: A piezoelectric keyswitch for providing tactile response comprises a bimorphic piezoelectric element anchored at its edge, and a keypad mounted on the bimorphic piezoelectric element spaced from the anchored edge so that depression of the keypad flexes the element to generate an electrical signal. A drive circuit responds to the electrical signal to provide a drive signal to bend the piezoelectric element to provide upward tactile feedback to the keypad.

Abstract: A multi-tiered indexing method is disclosed for a partitioned table in a parallel or distributed database system. A Local Index is created and maintained for each partition of the table and a Coarse Global Index is created and maintained. The Coarse Global Index identifies the indexed partition(s) by partition identifiers (PIDs) and associates the individual Index Key Values with their target partitions so that an access request with a highly partition-selective search predicate on the Index Key can be quickly and easily directed to the target partition(s) for processing. An index maintenance locking protocol is also disclosed which handles the insertion and deletion of index entries and assures the consistency between the Local Index entries and the Coarse Global Index entries during concurrent index accesses by different transactions.

Abstract: A computationally and storage efficient method and means for correcting errors and erasures in linear cyclic coded data, especially Reed-Solomon codes, in which erasure values are ascertained exclusively as a function of syndromes and derived error location polynomials without recourse to computation of intermediate error or erasure values.

Abstract: A keyboard apparatus is provided for small and lightweight computers and the like. Keyswitches and a keyboard assembly comprise a sheet member having a plurality of key faces fixed thereon in a conventional keyboard arrangement. A plurality of cutouts are provided in the sheet member, partially surrounding each key face. Two living hinge members are provided in the sheet member, preferably at opposite sides of the cutout. Each living hinge member includes a base section, an intermediate section, and a key face section. The former two and the latter two sections each interface at a living hinge. Depressing the key face causes the key face sections of each of the hinge members to pivot about the living hinges to operate a corresponding set of electrical contacts, indicating operation of the key. The multiple hinge members provide stability to the downward motion of the key face, providing goood functionality and tactile feel.

Abstract: A join optimizer and method for a relational database management system including a data processor, a stored database, and a plurality of database relations, wherein one or more of the relations are retrieved by the processor by means of query commands by performing a plurality of join operations on the relations, the system employing a general purpose heuristic algorithm which excludes or defers Cartesian products as late in the join sequence as possible, the method includes the steps of determining, in association with the execution of, or preferably prior to executing the general purpose algorithm, whether tables referenced in a query command includes a hub table and at least two encoding tables related to the hub table and, when the query command references a hub table and at least two encoding tables, determining the best access plan for the hub table, determining whether the best access plan utilizes an index used to access the hub table and, if so, constructing a plan to join the encoding tables as Car

Abstract: A method, system, and data structure are provided which facilitate matrix multiplication with advantageous computational efficiency. The invention, as variously implemented as a processing system, method, or data structure in a recording medium such as a memory, has applicability to numerous fields, including linear programming, where a great deal of multiplication of large, sparse matrices is performed. The method of the invention includes the steps of creating a first submatrix block from non-zero terms of a sparse matrix, such that all of the terms within a given column of the submatrix block are form a respective column of the sparse matrix, creating a corresponding second index submatrix block of the same dimensions as the first block, such that each term of the second block identifies the position of the corresponding term of the first block within the sparse matrix, in terms of a row and column index.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for supporting video browsing over a communication network such as the Internet/World Wide Web. A graphical user interface is provided through a client software tool such as a Web browser. A client/user selects a video data object stored at a remote server. A set of points within the object are displayed at the client's graphical user interface display, as representations, preferably thumbnail images, of the points within the object. The user selects an interval defined by the representations, preferably the interval between two temporally adjacent representations. Responsive to this selection, a new set of points, falling within the selected interval, are chosen, and representations of those points are generated and displayed. By doing so repeatedly, the user can easily browse through the video data object, and quickly and easily zero in on a desired portion of the video data object.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for performing the process known as "data mining" on a database of raw data records having common data elements, to obtain categorical cluster rules as to what elements of the data tend to occur in common in multiple records. Initial values are assigned to the elements. In an iterative process, the associated value for each given one of the elements is recalculated based on the values of other elements which occur in records together with the given element. Thus, the associated values will tend to grow for elements occurring together in multiple records. Those common occurrences of elements in multiple records represent categorical cluster rules the owner of the data is likely to want to know about. Thus, these rules may be identified based on the growth of the associated values for the records.

Abstract: A user-manipulable in-keyboard pointing device is provided, for use in portable electronic apparatus such as laptop computers, for allowing the user to move a symbol, such as a cursor, around a GUI display. For small laptops whose displays close over their keyboards, such as in clamshell fashion, the device protects the display surface from smearing or abrasion from physical contact with the user-manipulable device. The device includes a post, rigidly coupled to motion sensors for producing motion signals, responsive to user manipulation, the post having a head-and-shoulder contour. The device further includes a resilient fingertip grip cap that fits over the head of the post. The grip cap has a shape which provides two cooperative arrangements for fitting onto the post. The first configuration, which is for normal use, has the cap projecting above the post by a first height.