Abstract: An automated software production system is provided, in which system requirements are captured, converted into a formal specification, and validated for correctness and completeness. In addition, a translator is provided to automatically generate a complete, robust software application based on the validated formal specification, including user-interface code and error handling code.

Abstract: A conductive elastomeric and mechanical pin and contact system for creation of a Elastomechanical Connector (1) that combines Mechanical Pins, an Insulator Array with Conductive Elastomeric Memory Material. One embodiment includes mechanical pins (2), installed in an insulator (3), each mechanical pin is topped with conductive elastomeric compound (4). A mechanical pin is used for each connection point, the insulator positions the mechanical pins in an array pattern appropriate to the interconnection requirement. A conductive elastomeric compound is added to each metal pin to create the Z axis electrical coplanality to the mating unit. Another embodiment substitutes a metal plated through hole for the pin and uses elastomeric flex dots on both ends of the through hole.

Abstract: A method for handling data packets in a network element, such as a gateway, said data packets belonging to a set of data packets. Data packets are captured, and captured data packets are processed. Captured data packets are accepted for processing or declined from processing based on said captured data packet and data packets captured prior to said data packet. When at least one captured data packet is processed, a modification command affecting at least said at least one captured data packet is determined, and a list of modification commands is maintained, said list enabling modification of captured data packets. Captured data packets are modified based on said list of modification commands, and data packets are released. It is also possible to process the captured data packets without determining modification commands, and release the data packets without modifying them.

Abstract: A modular, expandable, self-regulating watering system for burial in planters, which do not have access to water pipes nearby for use in watering plants continuously with on the amount of water the plant needs and which can be refilled by relatively infrequent visits. The system is comprised of a plurality of hollow sections each of which has two upper ports and two lower ports, unless there are only two sections in which case only one upper port and one lower port is needed on each section. One section has a fill pipe that extends above the soil level. One section has an air port at the top thereof, or close to the top, which is coupled to an air tube, which is plugged at the other end with a hydrophilic sensor. Expansion sections can be added or subtracted to make the system larger or smaller. All sections are coupled together at their upper ports by flexible hose or tubing, and are coupled together by their lower ports by flexible hose or tubing.

Abstract: The invention relates to distribution of IP traffic between more than one route between a node and an IP network. The invention is concerned with a new method for distribution of connections between a plurality of possible routes for transmission of IP packet traffic between a source node and end nodes, each of the routes being associated with a plurality of IP addresse. According to the invention, a route is selected for a new connection to be established between the source node and an end node for transmission of packet traffic, the selected route is taken into use by translating source IP addresses of packets transmitted from the source node to said end node to an IP address associated with the selected route, and said selection of a route is performed on the basis of predefined criteria. Preferably, the selection of the route is performed on the basis of round trip times measured by a new method using packet replication.

Abstract: A switch, switched architecture and process for transferring data through an FCAL switch is disclosed. The switch uses multiple switch control circuits each coupled to one FCAL [net]work and all connected to a crossbar switch. The switch control circuits are coupled together by a protocol bus for coordination purposes. Local conversations can occur on each FCAL loop and crossing conversations through the switch can occur concurrently. The OPN primitive is used to establish the connection before any data is transferred thereby eliminating the need for buffer memory in the switch control circuits. The destination address of each OPN is used to address a lookup table in each switch control circuit to determine if the destination node is local. If not, the destination is looked up and a connection request made on the protocol bus. If the remote port is not busy, it sends a reply which causes both ports to establish a data path through the backplane crossbar switch.

Abstract: When data is simply input without being aware of describing a program language (e.g., COBOL or FORTRAN), the data input meaning is detected, and software for this data processing is automatically applied and prepared. Various types of worksheets corresponding to the business logic terms and data input positions are stored in a business data file. When an operation unit is operated and data is input to the data input position, the input data is stored as rule setting data. When application data corresponding to the rule setting data is input through the operation unit, a business logic applying section determines the use software in accordance with the corresponding business logic term.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for carrying out synchronous co-division multiple access (SCDMA) communication of multiple channels of digital data over a shared transmission media such as a cable television system coaxial cable, a fiber optic or copper conductor telephone link, terrestial microwave, satellite link, local or wide area network, wireless including cellur network or some combination of these media using suitable interface circuitry. The system includes modems at remote units and a central unit to receive time division multiplexed digital data arranged into timeslots or channels and uses orthogonal codes to encode each channel of multiple data and spread the energy of each channel data over a frame of data transmitted in the code domain. Spreading the data this way makes the system less susceptible to impulse noise.

Abstract: A bidirectional digital data communication system which generate phase coherent upstream clock and carrier signals from recovered downstream clock generated from a master clock in a central unit. The preferred species uses any downstream clock rate and generates a phase coherent upstream clock so long as the two clock rates can be related by the ratio M/N where M and N are integers. One embodiment uses an MCNS downstream and an SCDMA upstream and uses MNCN timestamp messages in the downstream to achieve an estimate of RU frame offset prior to establishing frame alignment using a ranging process. The use of timestamp messages to estimate the offset is aided by a low jitter method for inserting timestamp messages by avoiding straddling of MPEG packet headers with the sync message. Clock slip is detected by counting upstream clock cycles over a predetermined downstream clock interval and the RU transmitter is shut down if slip is detected to prevent ISI interference from misaligned codes.

Abstract: A portable RF transmitter having an audio plug extending therefrom which mates with the earphone or output jack of an audio source such as a portable battery operated CD or tape player and having no external antenna. The portable RF transmitter modulates audio signals from the audio source onto an FM carrier and transmits them to an FM receiver mounted on a headset worn by a user. The RF transmitter uses its own ground circuit and the ground circuit of the audio source as two elements of a short dipole. The two ground circuits are electrically isolated at RF by an RF choke but connected together at audio frequencies by the low impedance of the choke at audio. The choke's leakage inductance also reduces the capacitive reactance of the dipole antenna for better power dissipation. A transformer coupling the RF output to the dipole transforms the impedance of the dipole to a value closer to the output impedance of the RF transmitter.

Abstract: A high speed switching technology suitable for implementing field programmable gate arrays using current mode logic in the high speed data path, and CMOS steering logic outside the high speed data path to enable the high speed switching logic and to implement multiplexer, selector and crossbar switch functions. High speed emitter follower logic compatible with the high speed switching logic for level shifting, buffering, and providing more current sink or source capacity is also disclosed.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein a method and apparatus for distributing high speed clock signals on an integrated circuit while eliminating clock skew. The invention is particularly useful in field programmable gate arrays where the signal paths are defined by the user after the integrated circuit leaves the place of manufacture and enables field programmable gate arrays to operate at clock speeds in excess of 200 MHz, a speed not previously attainable. Clock skew is eliminated by generating differential clock signals at each of four corners of the array from master differential clock signal delivered simultaneously to each of the four corners. The differential clock signals generated at each corner have ramps the rise time of which slightly exceeds the propagation delay of a clock signal traversing the array.

Abstract: A process for production of diamond-like films comprising the steps of physically ablating a source of carbon in the vicinity of a substrate such that a carbon film grows on the substrate through bonding of carbon atoms in graphitic form and aliphatic form; and physically discriminating the carbon film during growth thereof by supressing or etching the graphitic form within the carbon film while permitting the aliphatic form to remain thereby resulting in a diamond-like film.

Abstract: An antenna scanned by frequency variation, comprising: exciter means for producing a plane electromagnetic wave at a given frequency which is variable about a center frequency; and radiating means receiving the plane wave produced by the exciter means and subjecting the plane wave to a plurality of successive reflections, the radiating means including means for allowing a fraction of the plane wave to leak to the outside after each successive reflection in order to enable it to radiate to the outside; the phase shift of the wave between two reflections varying as a function of the frequency of the wave and the set of radiated waves produced in this manner thus having a determined relative phase difference, which is variable as a function of the frequency of the wave generated by the exciter means and which defines transmission having a main lobe whose direction is itself variable as a function of the said frequency.

Abstract: A software program providing a facility for a user to compose a custom active document using tools provided by the program. The active document can be comprised of one or more sheets each of which is composed in a custom manner by the user and each of which can show real time data and the changes therein generated by any complex system. The user can select which real time data is to be displayed, where it is to be displayed and in what format and style it is to be displayed. The user can control the "look" of the active document through full control of the fonts, colors, pen etc. The user may also define alarm limits against which real time data updates are compared as well as scripts of commands to be performed in case an alarm limit is exceeded. Scripts of commands to be performed written by the user may also be invoked from a menu option. The tools provided for a financial analysis embodiment of the invention allow the user to layout each sheet of the active document with: quotes of prices, volume etc.

Abstract: A new type of heater support structure for YIG sphere support rods used in high frequency YIG oscillators and filters. The heater structure employs a rubber O-ring stretched around the perimeter or one or more rubber rods threaded through holes perpendicular to the rod support holes in the heater block and positioned such that the rods deform the rubber and are thereby pressed against a surface of the rod support hole. In alternative embodiments, V-grooves are formed in the heater block to support the rods. The heater block is brass in some embodiments and barium titanate in others. For brass blocks, the rods are beryllium oxide For barium titanate heater blocks, the rods can be either beryllium oxide or barium titanate.

Abstract: A modified driver program for an external hard disk drive for a personal computer which manages a cache in RAM on the motherboard to speed up disk access operations is disclosed. A block of 2000 bytes contiguous to the driver code is reserved at boot time. An "on/off" data byte flag is managed to indicate whether the data in the cache is valid. For read operations of a size less than the size of the cache, a number of sequential blocks of data from the disk are stored in the cache. Any write operation potentially invalidates the cache data so the flag is set "off". On subsequent read operations, if the cache flag is "on", the driver code compares the contents of the cache to the requested data to see if it is stored in the cache. If it is, the data is read from the cache as opposed to the disk thereby speeding up the access.

Abstract: The present invention is a closed-loop cooling system in combination with a thermoelectric heat exchanger whereby heat exchange liquid provides quick and efficient heat exchange with a thermoelectric device and is heated or cooled by passing the heat exchange liquid through an air core heat exchanger by energy efficient pump means. In a cooling system, heated water from the heat exchanger is pumped through an air core heat exchanger and then recirculated through a labyrinthine cooling block in thermal communication with the thermoelectric device. The labyrinth within the cooling block is of low back pressure to minimize the amount of energy required to pump the liquid. The liquid-driven rapid heat exchange and the pumping assures circulation and the closed system assures that the liquid is not wasted or lost. The process is carried out without phase change.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein an integrated scanning tunneling microscope and an integrated piezoelectric transducer and methods for making both. The device consists of one or two arm piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers formed by micromachining using standard integrated circuit processing steps. These cantilevers are attached to the substrate at one area and are free to move under the influence of piezoelectric forces which are caused by the application of appropriate voltages generated by control circuitry and applied to pairs of electrodes formed as an integral part of the bimorph cantilever structure. The electric fields caused by the control voltages cause the piezoelectric bimorphs to move in any desired fashion within ranges determined by the design. The bimorph cantilevers have tips with very sharp points formed thereon which are moved by the action of the control circuit and the piezoelectric bimorphs so to stay within a very small distance of a conducting surface.

Abstract: The converter comprises a transformer having two primary windings; a voltage source having one of its terminals connected to the center tap; and two switches connected in series between the other terminal of the voltage source and a respective one of the primary windings, the switches having stray capacitances that impose a transition time between one of the switches switching OFF and the other switch switching ON. The transformer comprises a magnetic circuit having a gap, and each primary winding has a number of turns that is determined essentially as a function of the level of losses acceptable within the magnetic circuit, the size of the gap then being adjusted, taking account of the number of turns and the operating frequency, in such a manner as to reduce the magnetizing inductance of the transformer to a value such that said transition time is less than a given threshold corresponding to tolerances of the form factor.