Abstract: LBIST and weighted LBIST tests are performed simultaneously on different portions of the tested object. This new test methodology and design change achieves the same test coverage and test time as the traditional test strategy with dramatic power reduction during test. It can be applied at wafer, chip, MCM, and system levels of test. Most importantly, it does not need new tools for support. Current test software will work as it does with the traditional test strategy. Scheduling the LBIST and weighted LBIST tests in the same test session reduces the overall power consumption because weighted LBIST testing consumes much less power than flat LBIST testing. In the same test session, if some parts of the logic is tested using weighted LBIST while the others were tested using LBIST, the power consumed by the circuit element at any given time is reduced.

Abstract: Morphing is performed without self-intersection in a vector space, for the outlines for various types and shapes of figures. The morphing is performed by apparatus containing an outline extractor, for receiving two target figures for the morphing process and for extracting a set of outlines for each of the target figures; an outline tree generator and an outline tree arrangement unit, for retaining one specific outline of each of the two sets of outlines and for deleting the other outlines; an outline editor, for performing a smoothing process for the two outlines for the target figures that are retained by the outline tree arrangement unit in order to prevent self-intersection during the morphing process; and a sequence generator and a morphing viewer, for performing the morphing process in response to the progress made by the smoothing process performed by the smoothing processor.

Abstract: A power supply to be tested is placed in a vacuum chamber; the power supply is turned on and gas pressure in the chamber is reduced. As the gas pressure is reduced below 1 atmosphere, the breakdown voltage decreases; when the breakdown voltage decreases to the value of the applied voltage, arcing occurs as long as the applied voltage is greater than a minima. When a site arcs, the site is noted; the power supply is removed from the vacuum chamber; the arc site is conformally coated and the coated cured. Thereafter, the power supply is returned to the vacuum chamber and the test process repeated until the power supply no longer arcs. Thus the partial pressure test can identify the sites that have a possibility of arcing in the field and the design of the power supply modified by use of one or more conformal coatings or by otherwise changing the configuration of the power supply.

Abstract: The power supply of equipment being tested for common mode noise problems is connected to a source of power with the power and neutral input terminals of the power supply isolated from the power ground. Recorded common mode noise signals are then inserted between the power supply's neutral input terminal and power ground to produce problem conditions. When the cause of the problem conditions are identified, steps are taken to eliminate the condition.

Abstract: A lighting source, such as a light emitting diode (LED), is incorporated into the shaft of the pointing device. There is a light shield over the exposed top of the pointing device preferably, backed with a conically shaped reflecting surface to direct the light outwardly and horizontally across the keyboard. The light is activated in a laptop by opening the cover to raise the pointing device to its normal operating position. The lighting function may be disabled when the pointer is raised if there is sufficient ambient lighting.

Abstract: A test probe head has a plurality of electrically conducting wire members held in place in a frame by movable plates. The wire members are threaded through apertures in the plates and the plates are moved relative to each other to bend the wires to thereby hold the wires in position in the frame. The wires are used to make physical contact with both a support substrate for the test probe head and an integrated circuit under test. The physical contact of the wires with both the substrate and the integrated circuit provides electrical connections between the pads in the support substrate and those on the integrated circuit to perform the testing of the integrated circuit. With this arrangement, there is no bonding of the wires to the pads of the support substrate. The elimination of the bonding to the pads of the support substrate eliminates a major cause of probe head failures.

Abstract: A smart card, (a type of credit card containing storage capacity and processing ability preferably in the form of a microprocessor), is used to store an electronic ticket provided from the service provider's computer system to the customer's computer over an insecure communications line. Upon the request for a ticket from the customer's computer, the service provider's system transmits a ticket loading request token TLR to the customer's computer to be loaded into a smart card of the customer. The smart card responds to the ticket loading request token TLR by producing a ticket loading token TL containing a hash of the ticket loading request token TLR; the smart card's identifier TID; a secret number GC and ticket loading token TL′ from the previous transaction of the smart card. The hash signal is attached to the ticket loading token TL′ from the previous transaction and shipped back to the ticket provider.

Abstract: A multimedia terminal having a host processor, an audio and video encoder, a system time clock, and a multiplexer is provided. The encoders input elementary stream of data into the multiplexer. The multiplexer is comprised of a mux processor, a FIFO which buffers the elementary stream of data, and a mux logic circuit which preprocesses the elementary stream of data in accordance with an encoder/decoder protocol.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display cell includes a voltage amplification function therein for driving the cell with an AC voltage. The cell includes gate lines running in a first direction, a source line running in a second direction different from the first direction, a switching means which is turned on and off by a voltage applied to a first gate line so as to supply a voltage from the source line, a fixed capacitance capacitor is connected to the source line via said switching means, and a variable capacitance capacitor is connected to the source line via said switching means in parallel to said constant capacitor. The variable capacitor is connected to a second gate line which is independent of the first gate line, and the capacitance of the variable capacitor changes according to the voltage applied thereto through a second gate line.

Abstract: A level shifting circuit operating at low power with minimal signal delays. The circuit employs high capacitance diodes to shift signals from a first signal level to a second higher or lower signal level. The capacitance is obtained by either providing a discrete capacitor shunt across the diode or by using diode connected transistors. Diode connected transistors are biased to provide the necessary capacitance. A pair of high capacitance diode level shifters is used as a differential pair level shifter by connecting the reference resistors to a common reference potential.

Abstract: This single voltage controlled oscillator for a PLL circuit has two control loops: a low noise ration is maintained by a main loop; while a wide frequency capture range is ensured by a sub-loop controlled by a one-chip microcomputer. The main control loop is a low gain loop with a narrow capture range that compares the phase of the output of the PLL circuit with the phase of a horizontal synchronous video signal supplied to a LCD display. The sub-loop is a high gain loop with a broad frequency range that includes a processor that monitors the lock on the main loop. When the lock is broken, the processor increments or decrements the voltage supplied to this sub-loop in one or more steps until the lock is reestablished, and the PLL circuit is again operating within the narrow capture range of the low gain loop.

Abstract: To optimize collective data movement recognition in a parallel distributed system a data movement set is formed into a data structure where access regularity is efficiently used with respect to problems, and processor expression independent of the number of processors in the parallel distributed system is introduced. By using the data structure and the processor expression, the data movement set is calculated for each dimension of an array, and the collective data movement is extracted when constructing data movement from the data movement set of each dimension.

Abstract: A rod-shaped device for spatial data acquisition includes a shank (1) with at least two separated, substantially identical marker field structures (3, 4) on the surface of the shank (1). The marker field structures (3, 4) are resolvable for imaging purposes by an optical position and orientation determination system for determining the position and orientation of an object in space. That system includes imaging apparatus (5) with a field of vision containing the rod-shaped device to capture position data of the rod shaped device. A computer (6) connected to the image apparatus receives the position data and calculates the position and orientation of the object in space.

Abstract: The invention generally relates to the technical field of devices using the effect to emit electrons out of a solid into vacuum due to high electric field strength. Such devices are usually called field emission devices. The invention relates more specifically to the structure of a field emission device, to the method of fabricating a field emission device, and to the use of a multitude of field emission devices in the technical field of flat panel displays. The inventive structure of a field emission device (15) comprises an individual series resistor for each electron emitting tip (1), wherein the series resistor is formed by the tip (1) itself. The tip (1) comprises a body (9) of a first material with high resistivity and an at least partial coating (7) of a second material with low work function, wherein the body (9) of the first material forms the series resistor and the coating (7) of the second material provides for electron emission.

Abstract: A fine-positioning apparatus for a scanning probe microscope includes magnetic solenoid actuators for each of the x, y and z scanning axes of the microscope. The sample is mounted on the coil of one of the actuators for movement of the sample in the z direction while the tunnelling probe is attached to two other solenoid actuators for movement of the probe in the x and y directions.

Abstract: Specifically, a central queue based packet switch, illustratively an eight-way router, that advantageously avoids deadlock and an accompanying method for use therein. Specifically, each packet switch (25.sub.1) contains input port circuits (310) and output port circuits (380) inter-connected through two parallel paths: a multi-slot central queue (350) and a low latency by-pass; the latter cross-point switching matrix (360). The central queue has one slot dedicated to each output port to store a message portion ("chunk") destined for only that output port with the remaining slots being shared for all the output ports and dynamically allocated thereamong, as the need arises. Only those chunks which are contending for the same output port are stored in the central queue; otherwise, these chunks are routed to the appropriate output ports through the cross-point switching matrix.

Abstract: In a method and system for speech recognition in the case of languages containing compound words only components of compound words are stored in a language model. Only these components are handled in the vocabulary.In recognizing possible compound words separate processing paths are set up for the corresponding components of compound words and for possible individual words, in which specific language model statistics are calculated. The basis for the language model statistics is the breakdown of the probabilities, in which the context and the constituents of a compound word are taken into account separately. For this, use is made of the fact, known from linguistics, that grammar-determining components of a compound word are, as a rule, to be found at the end of the compound word, where this constituent of the compound word provides information on gender, case and number of the compound word.The invention is particularly suitable for real-time speech recognition in discrete and continuous dictation.

Abstract: Image processing apparatus is disclosed for splitting, for subsequent storage or processing by OCR apparatus, character images in digital form comprising connected characters, the image processing apparatus extracts an image skeleton from an input image and represents the topology of the image skeleton in a first data structure; generates, from the first data structure, second data structures representing the topologies of the results of possible splits of the input image skeleton; evaluates the second data structures and selects one of the possible splits to thereby split the input image.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display, and its manufacturing process, are provided in which antistatic measures are taken in the manufacturing process to prevent the occurrence of static failure before the formation during that process of the short ring. On a glass substrate 2, gate lines 46 are formed. The gate lines 46 are disconnected to form a discharge gap 50 with projections 52 and 54 on both sides of the gap 50. The discharge projections 52 and 54 are positioned substantially at the center of the edges of the disconnected portion of the gate lines 46. A gate insulation film 56 is formed on the gate lines 46 and in the discharge gap 50. Two through holes 58 are made in the gate insulation film 56 in the vicinity of the discharge projections 52 and 54 of each gate line 46. A metal wiring layer 48 is formed on the gate insulation film 56 so as to fill in the through holes 58 where the discharge gap is no longer necessary.

Abstract: A field effect transistor and a piezoelectric sensor are positioned between layers of silicon and aluminum to function as a bimetallic electromechanical transducer. The transducer can be used in atomic force microscopy or as an actuator, a chemical sensor, or an oscillator.