Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for ensuring that queries presented to a database are safe thus providing solutions to both undecidability and lack of effective syntax issues. In a one aspect of the invention, a method for use in a database system includes obtaining an original query entered by a user. The invention then provides for pre-processing the query before submittal to a database engine associated with the database system wherein a result of the pre-processing operation is to ensure that a query provided to the engine is safe. Safety has a different meaning depending on the application. For example, safety may include ensuring that a query will return an output with finite results or it may include ensuring that certain geometric properties in the query are preserved in the output.

Abstract: A method of built-in self-testing field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) including the programmable logic blocks, the programmable routing networks and the programmable input/output cells or boundary ports at the device, board or system level includes testing the programmable logic blocks, reconfiguring a first group of he programmable logic blocks to include a test pattern generator and an output response analyzer, and configuring the programmable routing network into groups of wires under test. This step is followed by generating test patterns propagated along the wires under test and comparing the outputs utilizing the output response analyzer. Based on the result of the comparison a pass/fail test result indication is routed to the associated boundary port. The results from a plurality of output response analyzers can be compared utilizing an iterative comparator in order to reduce the number of boundary ports required during testing.

Abstract: A system detects the presence of NTSC co-channel interference and enables NTSC comb-filtering when the NTSC signal is detected. The system comb-filters the baseband signal to generate a filtered baseband signal, and accumulates the noise power of the baseband and filtered baseband signals. The noise power of the baseband and filtered baseband signals is compared by forming a difference between the two noise powers, and the system detects the NTSC signal when the difference exceeds a threshold T. The threshold T is related to a product of a signal power of the baseband signal and a minimum carrier to noise ratio for the ATSC system.

Abstract: An apparatus for establishing an operating parameter for a power supply device having an output includes: (a) a first signal source; (b) a second signal source; (c) a third signal source; and (d) a state device. The first signal source is controllable for generating a programming signal. The second signal source generates a load indicating signal and is connected with the power supply. The third signal source generates an offset signal. The state device has a first input and a second input and changes state when the first input has a predetermined relationship with the second input. The first input is determined by relative values of the programming signal and the offset signal. The second input is related with the output. The power supply device shuts down when the state device changes state.

Abstract: The invention is a method for forming semiconductor devices from a substrate having a non-planar surface. An anti-reflection coating is formed between the substrate and photoresist layer to alleviate the problems caused by non-uniform reflection at the substrate surface during exposure of the photoresist layer. Three-layer and two-layer stacks are described for use with UV and i-line exposure.

Abstract: The present invention provides a heat sink that, in an advantageous embodiment, includes a spine having a width with first and second opposing sides that are oriented to be abnormal to the substrate when the heat sink is mounted on the substrate. The heat sink further includes an electronic device support leg that extends generally transverse from the first side and that is configured to support a heat generating electrical component thereon. Alternative embodiments of the present invention may include a plurality of such electronic device support legs. A plurality of cooling fins are also included in the present invention, extending from the second side. Moreover, each of the plurality of cooling fins has a depth that is substantially less than the width of the heat sink, which give this unique heat sink an exceptional cooling efficiency. In particular advantageous embodiments, the depth to width ratio of the fins and spine, may range from about 1 to 5 or 1 to 10, respectively.

Abstract: In a distributed network of processors, a method for completing update transactions using update transaction timers after failure of one processor. Failed slave processors are updated with other slave processors using a record of the last completed database update transaction at each processor prior to failure and using a journal in the master processor that records steps of database update transactions generated by the master database processor.

Abstract: An electro-optic device which includes a mirror array attached to a base substrate is disclosed. The mirror array comprises a substrate having a plurality of spaced-apart mirrors with underlying cavities (each having a diameter at least about the same size as that of the overlying mirror) formed therein. The base substrate includes a plurality of electrodes as well as a plurality of electrical interconnections. The mirror array is attached to the base substrate so that each mirror of the array as well as a cavity are supported above a set of electrodes. Each mirror of the mirror array rotates relative to the major plane of the substrate in response to an electrical signal. The application of an electrical potential to each mirror relative to at least one electrode of the set of electrodes causes the desired rotation (depending on the magnitude of the electrical potential) up to an angle of about 20 degrees.

Abstract: This invention relates to an arrangement for efficiently providing an up to date neighbor list for base stations serving a wireless cellular telecommunications call. The neighbor list is required by a mobile station measuring signal strengths of signals for surrounding base stations in order to locate base stations from which the mobile station can receive strong signals. When one base station receives a revised neighbor list from another base station, it receives a revised neighbor list from another base station, it receives a time stamp identifying when that revised neighbor list was created. Thereafter, when a request for data from a base station is transmitted, it is transmitted with that time stamp; no neighbor list is returned if the time stamp matches the time stamp stored with the neighbor list of the base station receiving the request.

Abstract: A heating/cooling apparatus for electronic components of a wireless base station is described. The apparatus includes a heat exchanger having a material-filled chamber and a plurality of extrusions. The chamber is located adjacent to the electronic components. A heater is provided within the chamber. The material within the chamber, which is preferably a liquid, serves to conduct heat from the electronic components to the extrusions. The heater serves to heat the material within the chamber, which in turn conducts that heat to the electronic components, when heat is required to maintain operation of the components with prescribed parameters.

Abstract: Many potential applications of CVD diamond film require the ability to remove a predetermined quantity of material from a surface of the film. We have discovered that such removal is advantageously accomplished by contacting the surface of the polycrystalline diamond film with a metal selected from Fe, Ni, Mn and Ti (preferably Fe and Mn, most preferably Mn), and maintaining the metal-contacted diamond film at a temperature in the range 600-1100° C. (preferably 800-1000° C.) without relative lateral motion between the film and the metal, for an effective time for removal of the quantity of material, exemplarily less than 100 hours. The metal can be in any appropriate form, e.g., a deposited layer, (including a patterned layer), a foil, or powder. We have also discovered that the local thermal conductivity of CVD diamond films typically increases with distance from the lower surface of an as-grown film.

Abstract: A flip-flop having one or more stages (e.g., a master stage and a slave stage in a master-slave flip-flop, or a single stage as in a latch), at least one stage having a driver coupled at its input and output to a feedback path with a gated inverter having embedded preset and/or clear logic. By embedding the preset/clear logic in the feedback path, the driver can be implemented using a simple inverter. Moreover, the preset and/or clear functionality can be added without adversely affecting either the setup time or the clock-to-Q propagation time of the flip-flop.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for allowing a user of a wireless station to screen incoming calls by presenting to the user a displayed text generated by a speech-to-text converter, the text corresponding to the initial portion of a message that the caller is leaving on the called party's voice mail system. Advantageously, the called party can screen calls, not only by caller identification, which may or may not be present, but also by the specifics of the message that the caller is planning to leave for the called party. Advantageously, using this arrangement, the caller need not know that the called customer could have answered the call, a disadvantage with arrangements such as call waiting, in which there is a brief exchange before a connection is either established, or not established, to the interrupting party.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of automatic delay compensation for use in data transmission, particularly in optical communication systems. The invention presents an inter-coding, real-time automated delay compensation method that minimizes the effects of polarization and inter-symbol interference without expensive dispersion compensation fiber in each data transmission channel. The invention is a simple-to-use, cost effective, single-wavelength method of delayed signal alignment with coarse and fine tuning that while conserving half of the power used to transmit wavelength information in conventional WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) systems.

Abstract: A method of effectuating a change in the operation of a portable communication device such as a laptop or palmtop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a cellular telephone. The device can communicate with a remote host or server using one of two or more different communication arrangements. Various signals indicative of the environment in which the device is operating are monitored, to anticipate or predict a change or transition from one communication arrangement to the other. If the change is determined to be both imminent and significant, the operation change is effected substantially simultaneously, by changing parameters in the transport and/or application protocol layer in the device.

Abstract: For a transmission system in which (a) a received sequence of symbols is processed by an inner decoder followed by an outer decoder and (b) the inner decoder is capable of providing to the outer decoder more than one output sequence corresponding to the received sequence, the decoded sequence released by the outer decoder is screened for errors undetected by the outer decoder, if a predetermined criterion is satisfied.

Abstract: Interleaving of forward-link paging or traffic channels is performed by implementing closed-form expressions that are equivalent to the table-based processing specified in the cdmaOne telecommunication specification. The implementation can be in either hardware or software or a combination of both. For each cdmaOne forward-link paging or traffic channel, the closed-form expression relates each un-interleaved symbol position to a corresponding interleaved symbol position, which is used to generate an interleaved symbol stream from the un-interleaved symbol stream. In one hardware implementation, the forward-link interleaver of the present invention has an address generation unit made from a modulo counter, a multiplier, and an adder.

Abstract: Apparatus for retaining an attenuator element between two optical fiber connector ferrules. The apparatus is typically formed with the front side of a buildout cap and comprises a sleeve housing including front and rear ends, and a passage that extends from a first opening formed in the front end of the housing to a second opening formed in the rear end of the housing. Inside the passage are inner flanges formed adjacent each of the housing openings. Formed at the front end of the housing is a top notch and an opposed bottom notch. The top notch joins an attenuator element travel slot that extends from the top notch to an end point adjacent the rear end of the sleeve housing. Typically, the apparatus includes a ferrule sleeve adapted to receive and support the attenuator element within said sleeve housing. In use an attenuator element is first placed within the ferrule sleeve and the sleeve placed within the sleeve housing.

Abstract: A DAC system provides an expanded SFDR when compared to the SFDR of an individual DAC(s) that makes up the DAC system. The DAC system uses a clipping arrangement which receives the digital input signal and provides an amplitude-limited signal and resulting signal distortion to a first DAC for digital input signals whose amplitudes would result in an insufficient SFDR for the first DAC. By amplitude-limiting the digital input signal, the amplitude of the digital input signal is effectively reduced or “clipped,” thereby improving the SFDR performance for the first DAC. The signal distortion resulting from the amplitude adjustment is routed to a second DAC. The first DAC converts the amplitude-limited digital signal to an analog signal with an expanded SFDR due to the lower amplitude of the adjusted digital signal. The second DAC receives the signal distortion which can be viewed as the clipped amplitude portion of the digital input signal.

Abstract: An optical connector (20) includes a ferrule assembly (22) which is adapted to be received in a plug frame (70). The ferrule assembly is held in the plug frame by a cable retention assembly (40) which is adapted to be secured to said plug frame. A leading end of the plug frame is symmetrical in an end cross-section which is normal to a longitudinal axis of the connector. After the ferrule assembly has been assembled to the plug frame, the direction of any eccentricity of the plug passageway or of an optical fiber terminated by the ferrule assembly is determined. Then the plug frame is assembled to a housing of a grip (90) such that the direction of eccentricity is aligned with a key (92) of the grip. The plug frame is capable of being assembled to the grip notwithstanding the rotational orientation of the plug frame with respect to the grip.