Abstract: A process for assembling a rigid-flex printed circuit board (PCB) is presented. During operation, the process receives rigid-flex PCBs that are to be coupled together, wherein a rigid-flex PCB includes flexible PCBs coupled to rigid PCBs. The process then places the PCBs onto a carrier which is configured to: align the PCBs so that bond regions located on the flexible PCBs overlap with bond regions located on corresponding flexible PCBs, and apply pressure to the overlapped bond regions. The process then sends the carrier through a reflow oven which reflows solder on the PCBs so that the components become mechanically and electrically coupled to the PCBs. The temperature profile generated by the reflow oven and the pressure applied by the carrier cures and sets an anisotropic conductive film located in the bond regions so that the overlapped flexible PCBs become mechanically and electrically coupled together.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that automatically generates an input sequence for a circuit design using mutant-based verification. During operation, the system receives a description of the circuit design. Next, the system determines a target value for a control signal in the description and a mutant value for the control signal. The system then determines if an input sequence exists for the circuit design that stimulates the control signal to the target value and causes the effects of the target value and the effects of the mutant value to reach an observation point in the circuit such that the effects of the target value and the effects of the mutant value differ at the observation point. If such an input sequence exists, the system then simulates operation of the circuit design using the input sequence. During simulation, the system generates two sets of signal outputs for the circuit design.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing static power consumption of a processor. During operation, the system receives a signal indicating that instruction execution within the processor is to be temporarily halted. In response to this signal, the system halts an instruction-processing portion of the processor, and reduces the voltage supplied to the instruction-processing portion of the processor. Full voltage is maintained to a remaining portion of the processor, so that the remaining portion of the processor can continue to operate while the instruction-processing portion of the processor is in reduced power mode.

Abstract: A system that facilitates high-speed data transfer between integrated circuit chips. The system contains a first integrated circuit chip, which includes a capacitive receiver and an electrical-to-optical transceiver. The capacitive receiver receives a capacitively coupled voltage signal transmitted from a corresponding capacitive transmitter located on a second integrated circuit chip and converts the capacitively coupled voltage signal into an electrical signal. The electrical-to-optical transceiver converts the electrical signal to an optical signal and transmits the optical signal to an optical device through optical coupling.

Abstract: Automated design process and method with set of syntactic elements compensates for inability to represent voltage island connection of multi-rail cells in RTL source files in traditional design process which inhibits development of design automation methods and causes hardship and risk of failure to simulate, synthesize, perform physical design or formally verify a semiconductor chip design implemented with multi-rail.

Abstract: The present invention provides a small form factor, pluggable ONU, which includes a bi-directional optical transceiver configured to transmit optical signals to and receive optical signals from an OLT. The ONU further includes an ONU chip coupled to the optical transceiver and configured to communicate with the OLT. Also included is a pluggable interface configured to electrically interface between the ONU chip and a piece of subscriber premise equipment (SPE). The ONU includes a power management module to provide power to the ONU chip and the optical transceiver, using power delivered from the SPE through the pluggable interface. The ONU is enclosed a small form factor enclosure, thereby allowing the pluggable ONU to be directly plugged into the SPE and providing an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) uplink to the SPE without requiring an separate power supply.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that implements a tax service that is configurable for local jurisdictions by an expert in the field, such as a tax professional, who may have little or no knowledge of computer programming. The system operates by receiving a request from a subscriber, wherein servicing the request involves calculating taxes for one or more local jurisdictions. Tax rules for a local jurisdiction can be fed into a tax rule base that is used by a tax engine that is configured to use these externally specified rules in performing tax computations. Next, the system uses the tax engine to calculate taxes for each local jurisdiction, and subsequently uses the results of the calculations in servicing the request.

Abstract: Verification of a design for a multi-voltage circuit which defines a plurality of iso-voltage rail blocks, and which comprises voltage state information for the iso-voltage-rail blocks. Verification includes generating cross-over information regarding a cross-over signal between two iso-voltage-rail blocks, identifying the voltage state relationship between the two iso-voltage-rail blocks based on the voltage state information, and verifying the validity of the cross-over signal based on the determined voltage state relationship.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that efficiently performs an accuracy-check computation for Newton-Raphson divide and square-root operations. During operation, the system performs Newton-Raphson iterations followed by a multiply for the divide or square-root operation. This result is then rounded to produce a proposed result. Next, the system performs an accuracy-check computation to determine whether rounding the result to a desired precision produces the correct result. This accuracy-check computation involves performing a single pass through a multiply-add pipeline to perform a multiply-add operation. During this single pass, a Booth encoding of an operand in a multiply portion of the multiply-add pipeline is modified, if necessary, to cause an additional term for the accuracy-check computation to be added to the result of the multiply-add operation.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a system that facilitates executing a memory barrier (membar) instruction in an execute-ahead processor, wherein the membar instruction forces buffered loads and stores to complete before allowing a following instruction to be issued.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates temporarily increasing the operating frequency of an electronic circuit, such as a computer system, beyond a maximum sustainable operating frequency. Upon receiving a request to operate at a higher frequency, the system determines the thermal energy level of a cooling system for the circuit. If the thermal energy level is below a threshold level for the thermal capacity of the cooling system, the system increases the operating frequency of the circuit to a frequency that is greater than the maximum sustainable operating frequency for a period of limited duration. This period of limited duration is short enough to ensure that a temperature increase, caused by increasing the operating frequency, does not raise the operating temperature of the circuit above a maximum operating temperature.

Abstract: A system and method for virtualizing a hardware device node for a network interface circuit or other device. In a clone driver's configuration file, multiple virtual or clone nodes are defined. Their major numbers match the major number of the driver, but a virtual node's minor number for a Style 2 driver is calculated from the hardware driver's major number and the instance or port number of the corresponding hardware node. By creating multiple clone nodes, multiple paths through the protocol stack are created. Each one can be configured differently (e.g., for different MTU sizes), and each may be assigned a different address (e.g., MAC address). The separate addresses may be registered with hardware filters to filter incoming packets at the hardware level. A traffic classifier created in the device driver manages each virtual node's association with a hardware filter.

Abstract: A system and method for load-balancing routing of a computation within a multiprocessor system. The computation includes multiple branches of execution, not just a linear sequence of steps, and thus cannot be efficiently routed by existing minimum-delay routing schemes. The cost of a single step of the computation is calculated, possibly using a ratio of outgoing data rates from the step to the incoming data rate. That cost may then be scaled for different branches of execution of the computation leading to or from that single step. For example, the calculated cost may be multiplied by each branch's probability of being executed.

Abstract: A system for paying and filing employment tax operates by updating a set of electronic templates such that the electronic templates are compatible with current formats of associated governmental agencies, receiving financial information associated with a user, selecting an electronic template from the set of electronic templates, and merging the financial information with the electronic template to produce a document. This financial information includes employment-tax information that has a format that is compatible with payroll-accounting software, and the electronic template is compatible with a submission format of a governmental agency. Next, the system submits the document to the governmental agency.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a display that emits circularly-polarized light. This display includes a display mechanism that emits linearly-polarized light and a layer placed in the path of the linearly-polarized light. The layer receives the linearly-polarized light on one surface, converts the linearly-polarized light to circularly-polarized light, and then emits the circularly-polarized light from another surface. By emitting circularly-polarized light, the display reduces the perceived distortion found at some angles when the display is viewed through a linearly-polarizing filter.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for preventing incorrect lighting changes in a daylight-harvesting system, which controls the output of a lighting system based on the presence of daylight and/or other light sources to reduce energy usage. During operation, the system measures a first light level using a first sensor. Next, the system measures a second light level for a different field-of-view using a second sensor. When the system detects through the first sensor a change in the first light level, the system determines from the second sensor whether the second light level has also changed. If the first sensor and the second sensor both detect a change (in the same direction) in the measured light levels, the system adjusts the light output of the lighting system to maintain target light levels for the area.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that automatically inserts account-data into a tax-form. During operation, the system receives account-data at a server from a data-provider. The system also receives a tax-form at the server from an application. Next, the system automatically analyzes the account-data to determine a data-map which maps the account-data to the tax-form without assistance from a user. Finally, the system inserts the account-data into the tax-form by applying the data-map to the account-data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for distributing a database join operation across a plurality of processing nodes. The database join operation is performed between a first table having M1 rows and a second table have M2 rows and involves forming M1×M2 combinations of rows from the first and second tables. The method includes allocating across the plurality of processing nodes the M1×M2 combinations of rows from the first and second tables. Each of the M1×M2 combinations is present on one of the nodes, and each node stores combinations corresponding to a subset of the M1 rows from the first table and a subset of the M2 rows from the second table. The method further comprises performing for each processing node the join operation in respect of all combinations of rows allocated to that processing node and collating results across all the processing nodes to complete the join operation.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates testing object-oriented programming (OOP) methods. During operation, the system receives a request from a client at a test-automation framework to execute a test case for the OOP methods. In response to the request, the system executes the test case in the test-automation framework. (Note that in this system, a class that includes the OOP methods inherits from an originally intended parent class, and calls to a test class are made via reflection.) The system then determines an outcome of executing the test case. Finally, the system reports the outcome of executing the test case.

Abstract: A notification engine manages subscriptions of applications to data events in a file-sharing environment. A subscription includes a data event recovery time stamp indicating the time when a first change to subscribed data objects occurred of which an application was not aware. When the data event occurs on a computer, the engine finds applications subscribed to that data event and sets the time stamp in the subscriptions for non-local applications to the current time if the data event recovery time stamp is clear. An application that was not notified of the data event that occurred on another computer learns about the data event when it is called back. The application uses a data event recovery time stamp indicated in the callback to issue a query for a current version of subscribed data objects to which data events occurred at or after the time indicated in the time stamp.