Abstract: A system for endoscopic suturing is provided having an endoscope, such as a gastroscope, with a distal end locatable in the body of a patient and a flexible shaft extending to the distal end, a flexible accessory tube coupled to the endoscope to flex relative to the endoscope's shaft, and a tip coupled to the shaft of the endoscope having an opening through which one end of the accessory tube is received. Tissue suturing and suture securing instruments are provided each having a sufficiently flexible shaft locatable through the accessory tube.

Abstract: An optical-disc player having a reader and a controller. The reader derives out-of-band information from surface marks of an optical disc, where the controller controls operations of the reader based on the derived information. The controlled operations may involve the reading and rendering of embedded data of the optical disc. For example, a person writes the words “Spanish” and “widescreen” on the surface of a DVD with a marker and inserts the DVD in a DVD player. The DVD player scans the surface of the DVD and sends the resulting image data to an optical character recognition (OCR) module. The OCR module outputs a text file containing the words “Spanish” and “widescreen” to a controller (e.g., Microsoft HDi runtime). In response, the controller sets the playback language to Spanish and the screen format to widescreen.

Abstract: Described embodiments provide a method of transferring, by a media controller, data associated with a host data transfer between a host device and a storage media. A buffer layer module of the media controller segments the host data transfer into one or more data transfer segments. Each data transfer segment corresponds to at least a portion of the data. The buffer layer module allocates a number of physical buffers to a virtual circular buffer for buffering the one or more data transfer segments. The buffer layer module transfers, by the virtual circular buffer, each of the data transfer segments between the host device and the storage media through the allocated physical buffers.

Abstract: A receiver circuit is provided on an integrated circuit. The receiver circuit includes first and second power supply terminals, a ground supply terminal, a resistive element coupled between the first and second power supply terminals, and a receiver biased between the second power supply terminal and the ground supply terminal. The receiver draws a bias current through the resistive element, which varies as a positive function with a voltage on the second power supply terminal. The voltage on the second power supply terminal varies as an inverse function of the bias current.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention provide apparatuses, systems and methods for heat assisted magnetic recording. For example, an apparatus is disclosed that includes a signal generator operable to generate laser trigger pulses at the transition rate of the magnetic write data signal, a variable delay element operable to control an alignment between the laser pulse control signal and the magnetic write data signal, a phase difference detector operable to control the variable delay element, a triggerable pulse generator circuit operable to generate a laser pulse control signal based on the laser trigger pulses, a magnetic write head operable to record data to a magnetic storage medium under control of the magnetic write data signal, and a laser diode operable to heat the magnetic storage medium under control of the laser pulse control signal.

Abstract: A method of reducing total power dissipation for logic cells includes selecting a distribution of logic cells corresponding to at least one path, computing a dynamic to static power ratio for each logic cell in the distribution of logic cells and ranking the dynamic to static power ratio for each logic cell into a lower group, a middle group and an upper group of logic cells. Additionally, the method includes swapping the lower group of logic cells and the upper group of logic cells for a reconfigured middle group of logic cells and verifying path timing for the reconfigured middle group of logic cells. Methods of reducing total power dissipation using Boolean equations and for logic cell sets are also provided.

Abstract: A method for affecting film growth on a substrate during a deposition process includes steps of: applying a first voltage or current to a first zone of a chuck adapted to hold the substrate in position, the film growth on at least a portion of the substrate proximate the first zone being affected as a function of a level of the first voltage or current; and applying a second voltage or current to a second zone of the chuck, the film growth on at least a portion of the substrate proximate the second zone being affected as a function of a level of the second voltage or current.

Abstract: A system and method for reducing overall connection latencies in a SAS expander is disclosed. The SAS expander includes a plurality of ports and a route lookup table configured for providing a central resource for routing information for the ports. The SAS expander also includes a plurality of connection history caches (CHCs) associated with the ports, each CHC is configured for storing at least one successfully established connection record. Upon receiving a connection request at a particular port, that particular port may determine whether a matching connection record for the connection request is stored in its corresponding CHC. If the matching connection record is stored in its corresponding CHC, a connection may be established in response to the connection request based on the matching connection record. However, if no matching connection record is found in its corresponding CHC, the connection may be established utilizing the route lookup table.

Abstract: A lighting apparatus comprising a first lighting assembly comprising at least one lower light source configured to cast light over at least a near field and a second lighting assembly comprising at least one upper light source configured to cast light over at least a far field, the second lighting assembly mounted above the first lighting assembly.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for updating parity information in a RAID 6 system wherein only one parity block is read during each write operation. Both parity blocks may be updated from the new data, the data being overwritten and either of the old blocks of parity information. A method for load balancing in a RAID 6 system using this method is also disclosed.

Abstract: A method and controller device for upgrading firmware in a virtualized storage environment having a virtual machine manager, guest virtual machines and a storage device. The method includes downloading a new firmware solution bundle to a first logical area of the storage device, and installing the new firmware containing the virtual machine manager and guest virtual machines. The installation includes moving the solution bundle to a scratch area carved out of a P-cache area in the storage device, extracting the new firmware, copying the new firmware to the first logical area, marking the first logical area as the Active area, and marking the second logical area as the Staging area. The method also includes rebooting the virtualized storage environment with the installed new firmware, committing to the new firmware if the installation is successful, and rolling back the firmware version from the new firmware to the current firmware if the installation is not successful.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for pseudo asynchronous testing of receive paths in serializer/deserializer (SerDes) devices. A SerDes device is tested by applying a source of serial data to a receive path of the SerDes device during a test mode. The receive path substantially aligns to incoming data using a bit clock. A phase is adjusted during the test mode of the bit clock relative to the source of serial data to evaluate the SerDes device. The source of serial data may be, for example, a reference clock used by a phase locked loop to generate the bit clock. The phase of the bit clock can be directly controlled during the test mode, for example, by a test phase control signal, such as a plurality of interpolation codes that are applied to an interpolator that alters a phase of the bit clock.

Abstract: A system may include multi-tenant electronic storage for hosting a plurality of applications having heterogeneous Input/Output (I/O) characteristics, relative importance levels, and Service-Level Objectives (SLOs). The system may also include a management interface for managing the multi-tenant electronic storage, where the management interface is configured to receive a storage resource arbitration policy based on at least one of a workload type, an SLO, or a priority for an application. The system may further include control programming configured to receive an association of a particular I/O stream with a particular application generating the I/O stream, where the association of the I/O stream with the application was determined by analyzing at least one I/O characteristic of the I/O stream, and determine at least one of a cache size or a caching policy for the application based on the association of the I/O stream with the application and the storage resource arbitration policy.

Abstract: Methods and structure for providing methods and structure for recovering errors in a hardware controller after an overwrite event, such as the detection of another error. In this regard, a link layer of the hardware controller is configured with a register that persistently stores errors until a processor can address them. The link layer is adapted to establish a connection between an initiator and a target and detect errors associated with the connection. As each detected error is overwritten by a subsequently detected error, the link layer register persistently stores the detected errors associated with the connection for recovery after the detected error has been overwritten in the link layer at least until the error can be handled.

Abstract: A method for conveying private or enhancement information in a compressed bit stream comprising the steps of (A) generating a compressed bit stream in response to a first data stream and a plurality of encoding choices and (B) controlling the encoding choices in response to a second data stream comprising one or both of the private information and the enhancement information.

Abstract: Described embodiments provide a system for assembly of structured documents having at least a memory, a processor, and a circuit. The memory stores documents. The processor identifies a template for generating a document. The template defines fields having a specified position and length within the document. The processor stores characters based on data associated with fields to locations of memory associated with the fields. Based partly on the text and length of the field, the processor stores indicators for portions of fields to be removed from the document. An indicator includes one or more specified character values, which may include a first byte value indicative of a start-of-heading character, and a second of byte value indicative of a number of characters to be removed. A circuit accesses the document from the memory and removes portions of fields based on the indicators to generate a portion of an assembled document.

Abstract: A method for controlling a pointing icon in a computer, including the steps of (A) establishing a wireless connection between a pointing device and the computer, (B) generating directional information through one or more three dimensional movements of the pointing device, (C) transmitting the directional information from the pointing device to the computer and (D) translating the directional information into movements of the pointing icon on a screen of the computer using a device driver program stored on the computer.

Abstract: A software-based RAID system is provided that enables configuration conflicts to be detected and resolved between a PD that is logically present but physically missing, and a PD that is physically and logically present. In accordance with the invention, a determination is made as to whether such a configuration conflict exists, and if so, the logically-present, but physically missing, reference identifier associated with the PD is remapped to a port number that currently is not in use.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising a control circuit, a driver circuit and a write head. The control circuit may be configured to generate a plurality of control signals in response to a data input signal. The driver circuit may be configured to generate a differential write control signal in response to the plurality of control signals. The driver circuit may receive the plurality of control signals through a flexible bus. The driver circuit may be located remotely from the control circuit. The write head may be configured to write information by physically moving above one of a plurality of tracks on a disk in response to the write control signal. The driver circuit may be configured to move along with the write head.

Abstract: Described embodiments provide a media controller that determines the size of a cache of data being transferred between a host device and one or more sectors of a storage device. The one or more sectors are segmented into a plurality of chunks, and each chunk corresponds to at least one sector. The contents of the cache are managed in a cache hash table. At startup of the media controller, a buffer layer module of the media controller initializes the cache in a buffer of the media controller. During operation of the media controller, the buffer layer module determines a number of chunks allocated to the cache. Based on the number of chunks allocated to the cache, the buffer layer module updates the size of the of the cache hash table.