Patents Represented by Attorney Meyertons Hood Kivlin Kowert & Goetzel, P.C.
  • Patent number: 8332729
    Abstract: A system for automatic lane failover includes a first device coupled to a second device via a serial communication link having a plurality of a communication lanes. The devices may communicate by operating the link in a normal mode and a degraded mode. During normal mode operation, the devices may send frames of information to each other via the serial communication link. Each frame of information may include a number of data bits and a number of error protection bits. In response to either device detecting a failure of one or more of the communication lanes, the first device may cause the serial communication link to operate in a degraded mode by removing the one or more failed communication lanes. In addition, each device may reformat and send the frame of information on the remaining communication lanes with fewer data bits and the same number of error protection bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Ramaswamy Sivaramakrishnan, Sebastian Turullols, Stephen E. Phillips
  • Patent number: 8330601
    Abstract: Three dimensional RF tag signatures may be obtained from a three dimensional RF tag or multiple two or three dimensional RF tags so that information in addition to presence information may be obtained. In one embodiment, a three dimensional RF tag having two or more power coils disposed in non-coplanar planes enables the coils to experience different levels of excitation from an electromagnetic field. This information may be transmitted along with the RF tag response to enable the orientation of the RF tag relative to an RF tag reader to be determined. In another embodiment, multiple RF tags (either standard RF tags or three dimensional RF tags) may be used on a given article and a response signature from the article as a whole may be recorded. The three dimensional response signature thus collected may be compared with previous versions of the response signature to determine if the article has been altered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Apple, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Ashwood Smith, Delfin Y. Montuno, Abel Dasylva
  • Patent number: 8325590
    Abstract: A communications system comprising a base station, and a plurality of terminals served by that base station which may include an ad-hoc network of terminals. Information from the base station or transmitting terminal is transported to the receiving terminals in the form of symbols in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed format. Each terminal has means for measuring a channel dispersion and rate of phase variation corresponding to multipath signal reception for that terminal and for reporting that dispersion and variation measure to the transmitting station. In response to the channel dispersion and phase change measurements, the base station or transmitting terminal is arranged to provide, for groups of terminals having a similar channel dispersion, respective symbol and prefix lengths on the basis of the dispersion measurement of that group of terminals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: John Hudson
  • Patent number: 8325179
    Abstract: A system and method for visualizing images in a three-dimensional context. The method involves receiving user input specifying a polyline in a given cartographic reference system. The polyline is displayed in a 2D window. A set of geometry data is generated based on the polyline and a user-specified vertical range. The geometry data set represents a folded object in three-dimensional space, where the folded object has one fold for each knee point in the polyline. A 3D virtual world is rendered to obtain a rendered image. The rendering action includes rendering the geometry data set using a given image as texture. The rendered image is displayed in a 3D window, where the displayed rendered image visually represents the given image as being painted onto the folded object in the three-dimensional space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventors: Donald J. Murray, Stuart L. Smith
  • Patent number: 8326804
    Abstract: Various embodiments of a computer system and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer system includes a backup application coupled to interconnected storage resources. The backup application creates a database of storage resources, wherein each database entry corresponds to one or more storage resources and is associated with one or more user-defined attributes describing the suitability of the associated resources for a backup operation. The backup application creates and stores a configuration of storage resources for a backup operation. Each storage resource is selected based on a value of an associated attribute. The storage resources may include logical unit numbers (LUNs), mount points providing access to LUNs, and hosts having physical access or network access through other hosts to mount points. An attribute specifies that the associated storage resources are either required or preferred for a backup operation. The database and configuration are created at backup application run time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Symantec Corporation
    Inventors: Stephan Gipp, Jeremy Swift
  • Patent number: 8325922
    Abstract: A security zone key is used to secure data traffic/control messages in a multi-hop wireless relay network. In one embodiment, the security zone key is generated by a base station and passed to relay stations and optionally mobile stations that are to be associated with the security zone. A given base station may implement multiple security zones on the wireless network. The members in each zone share a unique group security association. One or more connections may be assigned to a particular security zone. Data traffic/control messages directed to relay stations in a security zone are processed using the security zone key to enable all relay nodes within the security zone to verify the authenticity of the management message and optionally decode the messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sheng Sun, Guo Qiang Wang
  • Patent number: 8327280
    Abstract: A system and method for visually indicating one or more problems in a graphical program. The graphical program may be programmatically analyzed to discover a problem (or potential problem) in the graphical program. The problem found during the programmatic analysis of the graphical program may then be visually indicated on a display device. Visually indicating the problem may comprise visually indicating one or more objects in the graphical program to which the problem corresponds. Visually indicating the graphical program object(s) may comprise displaying information or altering the appearance of the object(s) in order to call the user's attention to the object(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventor: Darren M. Nattinger
  • Patent number: 8325680
    Abstract: The present invention solves communication disruption problems during the hand-off transition period by using a pre-handoff registration of a new foreign agent on behalf of the mobile node The pre-handoff registration message should: (1) identify itself as a pre-hand off registration message, (2) indicate direction of traffic for the pre-handoff registration time period, and (3) specify a lifetime or time period when the pre-handoff registration request will continue to be considered valid The local mobility anchor will accept traffic using the pre-handoff registration care-of address depending on the directionality indicator, but the communication traffic to or from the mobile node will not be disrupted during the transition period. Because the care-of address for the mobile node on the new foreign network can be used to direct communication traffic to or from the mobile node during this transition time period, no disruption of service will be encountered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ahmad Muhanna, Mohamed Khalil, Barnaba Barnowski, Eric Parsons, Khosrow Saboorian
  • Patent number: 8327310
    Abstract: A software tool and method for analyzing the reliability or failure rate of an integrated circuit (IC) are disclosed. The IC may include a plurality of circuit designs, and the software tool and method may aid a designer of the IC in determining a reliability rating of the IC based on reliability ratings of transistors or other circuit devices used in the circuit designs. In particular, the IC may include one or more circuit designs that have multiple instances within the IC (i.e., the same circuit design is instantiated multiple times), and the software tool and method may take into account the multiple instances when determining the reliability rating of the IC.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Antonietta Oliva, Gregory S. Scott, Edgardo F. Klass, Vincent R. von Kaenel
  • Patent number: 8322664
    Abstract: A support device is provided for supporting one or more objects above a ground surface. The device includes a QO body portion and location means associated with the body portion to allow location and/or engagement of one or more objects with the device in use. The body portion has at least one compartment defined therein for containing strengthening means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Bridgeshire Packaging Limited
    Inventor: Robert Booth
  • Patent number: 8326452
    Abstract: System and method for sortation of picked inventory into individual orders in an order fulfillment process, for example order fulfillment processes in materials handling facilities. Collections of items picked from inventory for multiple orders are stowed to locations at a stow and sortation station. The items for a particular order may be stowed to two or more different locations, and items for two or more orders may be stowed to one location; no particular location is assigned to or reserved for each order. Thus, no space is allocated or reserved for incomplete orders at the station. When all items for a particular order are stowed to locations at the station, the order may be picked from the various locations at the station and placed into order receptacles. The order receptacles may be shipping containers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Irina M. Somin, Eric Young
  • Patent number: 8327044
    Abstract: A PIO transaction unit includes an input buffer, a response buffer, and a control unit. The input buffer may receive and store PIO write operations sent by one or more transactions sources. Each PIO write operation may include a source identifier that identifies the transaction source. The response buffer may store response operations corresponding to respective PIO write operations that are to be transmitted to the transaction source identified by the source identifier. The control unit may store a particular response operation corresponding to the given PIO write operation in the response buffer prior to the given PIO write operation being sent from the input buffer. The control unit may store the particular response operation within the response buffer if the given PIO write operation is bufferable and there is no non-bufferable PIO write operation having a same source identifier stored in the input buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Sanjay Mansingh
  • Patent number: 8324987
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention provide a filter having at least one first filter, each first filter being a band-reject type filter having a first set of filter parameters that are a function of a first material used to fabricate the at least one first filter, and at least one second filter, each second filter having a second set of filter parameters that are a function of a second material used to fabricate the at least one second filter, each second filter being one of a band-reject type filter and a band pass type filter. The at least one first filter and the at least one second filter are then cascaded together to form the filter. The first material and the second material are different materials. The cascaded filter has a new third set of filter parameters that are a function of both the first material and the second material. Other embodiments of the invention include a method for fabricating the filter and a method of filtering using such a cascaded filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Chun-Yun Jian
  • Patent number: 8327242
    Abstract: Methods for Error Correction Code (ECC) decoding include producing syndromes from a set of bits, which represent data that has been encoded with the ECC. An Error Locator Polynomial (ELP) is generated based on the syndromes. At least some of the ELP roots are identified, and the errors indicated by these roots are corrected. Each syndrome may be produced by applying to the bits vector operations in a vector space. Each syndrome is produced by applying vector operations using a different basis of the vector space. The ELP may be evaluated on a given field element by operating on ELP coefficients using serial multipliers, wherein each serial multiplier performs a sequence of multiplication cycles and produces an interim result in each cycle. Responsively to detecting at least one interim result indicating that the given element is not an ELP root, the multiplication cycles are terminated before completion of the sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Micha Anholt, Naftali Sommer, Gil Semo, Tal Inbar
  • Patent number: 8325857
    Abstract: The present invention employs hierarchical modulation to simultaneously transmit information on different modulation layers using a carrier RF signal. Initially, first data to be transmitted is assigned to a first modulation layer and second data is assigned to a second modulation layer. In one embodiment of the present invention, the first and second data are assigned based on reliability criteria. The first and second modulation layers are hierarchical modulation layers of the carrier RF signal. Once assigned, the first data is transmitted using the first modulation layer of the carrier RF signal and the second data is transmitted using the second modulation layer of the carrier RF signal. In one embodiment of the present invention, information may be transmitted to one end user using one modulation layer, and information may be transmitted to a different end user using a different modulation layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ming Jia, Jianglei Ma, Peiying Zhu, Wen Tong, Curt Dodd
  • Patent number: 8316698
    Abstract: Determining a repairing form of a defect at or close to an edge of a substrate. The defect may be scanned with a scanning probe microscope to determine a three-dimensional contour of the defect. The defect may be scanned with a scanning particle microscope to determine the shape of the at least one edge of the substrate. The repairing form of the defect may be determined from a combination of the three-dimensional contour and the shape of the at least one edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: NaWoTec GmbH
    Inventor: Michael Budach
  • Patent number: 8320553
    Abstract: The present invention provides for echo cancellation circuitry and variable rate encoding circuitry to cooperate with one another to effectively provide comfort noise in an effective and efficient manner. The echo cancellation circuitry will use far-end signals to generate estimated echo signals, which correspond to the actual echo signals appearing in near-end signals. The estimated echo signals are essentially subtracted from the near-end signals in an effort to remove the actual echo signals from the near-end signals. The echo cancellation circuitry will monitor any residual echo signals in the resulting processed near-end signals and provide residual echo control signals that are indicative of whether the residual echo signals should be replaced with comfort noise. The residual echo control signals are used at least in part by the variable rate encoding circuitry to determine the encoding rate to use for encoding different portions of the processed near-end signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Yue, Rafi Rabipour
  • Patent number: 8321647
    Abstract: Multipage preparation commands for non-volatile memory systems are disclosed. The multipage preparation commands supply data that can be used to prepare a non-volatile memory device for forthcoming multipage program operations. A host controller can use the commands ahead of a multipage program operation to optimize usage of a multipage program command. The non-volatile memory device can use the commands to configure the non-volatile memory in preparation for a subsequent operation, such as changing a command order or using the most optimized command set for the subsequent operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Vadim Khmelnitsky, Nir Jacob Wakrat, Tahoma Toelkes, Daniel Jeffrey Post, Anthony Fai
  • Patent number: 8321352
    Abstract: Various techniques for software license inventory and asset management are disclosed. A fingerprint may be generated and associated with various copies of software applications installed on a software licensee's computer systems. Upon generation, each fingerprint may be stored in a license information database system along with relevant license information for that copy of the software application. A software inventory tool may then be used to collect fingerprints on installed copies of software applications and provide these fingerprints to the license information database system to obtain the corresponding license information. The output of the software inventory tool may be used by a licensee to comply with software license agreements and/or efficiently allocate information technology resources. Methods and systems that provide and process secured, dynamic and persistent tagging of software deployments and usage are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Symantec Corporation
    Inventors: Kannan Rameshkumar, David D. Wright
  • Patent number: 8319590
    Abstract: Device for prevention against explosion of an on load tap changer on an electrical transformer, the on load tap changer including a tank and a cover, the tank including a cooling liquid. The prevention device includes a rupture element provided with tearing zones and with folding zones upon rupture, said rupture element being able to break open when the pressure inside the tank exceeds a predetermined ceiling, at least a support member supporting the rupture element, said support member supporting a duct downstream the rupture element, the support element being distinct from the cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012