Abstract: For use with a power converter having an input, first and second capacitors and first and second switches, a mode selection circuit, having selectable modes of operation, a method of configuring a power converter, and power converter employing the mode selection circuit and method are provided. In one embodiment, the mode selection circuit may function in two modes of operation. In a first mode, based upon an input voltage, the mode selection circuit is adapted to couple the first and second capacitors and the first and second switches together as a half-bridge converter. In a second mode, based upon the input voltage, the mode selection circuit is adapted to couple the first switch and the first capacitor together as a forward-flyback converter and to further couple the second capacitor and the second switch as a clamp thereto. In another embodiment, the first mode is a high voltage mode, in response to a high input voltage and the second mode is a low voltage mode, in response to a low input voltage.

Abstract: The invention provides improved processing of image data and other types of signal data by representing the signal data in such a way that, when separated into packets, all packets are of approximately the same importance. As a result, if some of the packets are, for example, randomly lost in a lossy packet network, the resulting degradation in a reconstructed version of the signal is substantially uniform regardless of which packets are lost. A given image or other signal may be separated into packets using an energy equalization process, a signal whitening process, or other suitable technique. The invention may be utilized in conjunction with data transmission over a wide variety of lossy packet networks, and may be used with raw or compressed image data, as well as video, audio, speech and other types of signal data. Moreover, the invention can be used to facilitate the processing of signal data in multiresolution storage applications.

Abstract: A mounting assembly includes a metallic base member, such as a wall of an enclosure. A threaded stud is fused to the base member. A threaded collar engages the threaded stud and provides a threaded recess for receiving a mounting fastener. The mounting assembly is well-suited for supporting electronic items within an enclosure in a weather-tight or water-proof manner because the mounting assembly requires no seals for an environmental barrier.

Abstract: A write driver circuit for selectively controlling a direction of write current flow through a magnetic head having an inductive coil includes a source of first and second write currents. A forward drive switch directly sinks the first write current and sinks the second write current through the coil in a first direction. A reverse drive switch directly sinks the second write current and sinks the first write current through the coil in a second direction opposite the first direction. A control circuit operates the forward and reverse drive switches so that write current flows through the coil in a selected direction. An overshoot reduction circuit may be provided to reduce write current overshoot through the coil. An active subcircuit generates a compensation signal based on a voltage across the head exceeding a predetermined threshold. The first and second write currents are adjusted in response to the active subcircuit based on the compensation signal.

Abstract: A telephone operates as a time server for synchronizing an appliance or peripheral by accessing a time service over telephone lines to obtain an accurate geographic time for the telephone, and by transmitting a synchronizing pulse to the appliance at a predetermined time to set the time function of the appliance.

Abstract: The specification describes thin film transistor integrated circuits wherein the TFT devices are field effect transistors with inverted structures. The interconnect levels are produced prior to the formation of the transistors. This structure leads to added flexibility in processing. The inverted structure is a result of removing the constraints in traditional semiconductor field effect device manufacture that are imposed by the necessity of starting the device fabrication with the single crystal semiconductor active material. In the inverted structure the active material, preferably an organic semiconductor, is formed last in the fabrication sequence.

Abstract: The present invention provides a semiconductor device, formed on a semiconductor wafer, comprising a tub, first and second active areas, and an interconnect. In one aspect of the present invention, the tub is formed in the substrate of the semiconductor wafer and first and second active areas are in contact with the tub. In one advantageous embodiment, the interconnect is formed in the tub and is in electrical contact with the first and second active areas. The interconnect extends from the first active area to the second active area to electrically connect the first and second active areas.

Abstract: The invention provides a software instrumentation tool operative to control the execution of a target program, and to execute user-specified instrumentation actions upon occurrence of corresponding user-specified events during target program execution. Advantageously, the instrumentation tool permits the instrumentation actions to be implemented without modification of the target program code, and can be used to provide any desired type of instrumentation on any target program. In an illustrative embodiment, the instrumentation tool includes a frontend portion which provides a creation graphical user interface (GUI) to the tool, and a backend portion which controls execution of the target program and executes the user-specified actions. The frontend portion also includes, for a given target program, a created GUI which is created by a user for providing selected instrumentation functions for the given target program.

Abstract: A method for determining the endpoint in a chemical mechanical polishing operation used for polishing a metal-containing material. An acidic polishing slurry is used to oxidize the metal and the oxidized metal is included in an effluent slurry stream. The effluent slurry stream is directed into a vessel which forms an electrochemical cell. The component activity of the effluent slurry stream is monitored within the electrochemical cell by measuring the electric potential across the electrodes of the electrochemical cell. When the measured electric potential changes, indicating a change in the composition of the effluent slurry, endpoint is indicated.

Abstract: In a system for simulcasting digitally modulated and analog FM signals over the same FM frequency band, the effect of the analog FM signal on the digitally modulated signal in the simulcast is calculated and canceled from the latter signal before its transmission. As a result, the digital transmission is free from interference from the analog FM signal. Moreover, the digital transmission is achieved by adaptively inserting a time varying number of carriers modulated by digital data into the FM band. The carriers are selected frame by frame to control their interference with the analog FM signal. In accordance with the invention, the carriers are selected in a predetermined order, and in a preferred embodiment grouped contiguously with one another in the FM band. As a result, the rate of control information required to identify the inserted carriers to a receiver is advantageously low.

Abstract: A delivery time differential is computed between an intended transmission time of a cell and a time that the same cell is successfully transmitted on a multiple access network. The delivery time differential is communicated from the client terminal, where it is initially calculated, to the host terminal side, which utilizes the delivery time differential to compensate for the time distortions resulting from multiple end-user devices accessing shared bandwidth on the multiple access network.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing visualization of performance of a distributed network. The method provides a user interface allowing easy visualization of the performance together with methods and apparatus for determining the distance from a client to a server in the network, for determining a service provider domain, for determining network congestion level, for determining bottleneck throughput, for determining bottleneck location, for determining page retrieval time and for automatically restarting a page under predetermined conditions.

Abstract: Layered Video Multicast with Retransmissions (LVMR) is a system for distributing video content using layered coding over the Internet. The two key contributions of the system are (1) improving the quality of reception within each layer by retransmitting lost packets given an upper bound on recovery time and applying an adaptive playback point scheme to help achieve more successful retransmission, and (2) adapting to network congestion and heterogeneity using a hierarchical rate control mechanism. A hierarchical rate control system and method is disclosed for regulating the flow of video information in a network by establishing subnet agents for each subnet, and by establishing intermediate agents for each domain. The subnet agents gather information concerning add-layer experiments conducted by receivers in a subnet, and the information is provided to intermediate agents of the domains for regulating data traffic.

Abstract: The specification describes a method for attaching semiconductor components to a substrate wafer by solder bump bonding using gold tin eutectic solder bumps. The process involves first forming solder stacks by blanket evaporation of a stack layer comprising a first layer of gold, a layer of tin and a second layer of gold, and patterning the stack layer by lift-off to form individual solder stacks. Attachment is effected by reflow of the solder stacks to bump bond the components to the substrate wafer. The quality of the bump bond is improved by annealing the multilayer stack, prior to reflow, to diffuse tin toward the stack surface.

Abstract: Distributed precomputation techniques for determining primary and/or restoration paths in an optical or electrical network. The invention provides a number of partially and fully asynchronous distributed precomputation algorithms which may be implemented, for example, by the nodes of an all-optical network, in which network links are constrained in terms of optical signal wavelength and failure isolation. A given distributed precomputation algorithm may include a first phase in which paths are allocated for capacity demands to the extent possible without resolving contentions, and a second phase in which contentions between demands for the same capacity are resolved.

Abstract: A system and method to measure channel quality in terms of signal to interference plus noise ratio for the transmission of coded signals over fading channels in a communication system. A Viterbi decoder metric for the Maximum Likelihood path is used as a channel quality measure for coherent and non-coherent transmission schemes. This Euclidean distance metric is filtered in order to smooth out short term variations. The filtered or averaged metric is a reliable channel quality measure which remains consistent across different coded modulation schemes speeds. The filtered metric is mapped to the signal to interference plus noise ratio per symbol using a threshold based scheme. Use of this implicit signal to interference plus noise ratio estimate is used for the mobile assisted handoff in a cellular system, power control and data rate adaptation in the transmitter.

Abstract: Fabrication of an optoelectronic device is enhanced by using a focused ion beam to prepare one or more of the device's facet surfaces. In particular, a facet may be oriented at a nearly arbitrary angled with respect to the waveguide within the device by controlling the orientation between the focused ion beam source and the device waveguide. Such facets are useful as antireflection and refractive beamsteering surfaces.

Abstract: A digital answering machine, electronic voice mail system, or any other voice messaging system integrating both non-speech data such as caller ID information or graphical or pictorial images together with associated speech data in common memory such that only one message table is necessary. The integrated common memory is divided into sectors, and each sector is divided into pages which each contain both speech and non-speech data. A single message table is associated with each corresponding set of speech and non-speech data, and includes an offset value indicating the beginning address of the speech data stored just above its associated non-speech data in the first linked page. The offset value is variable to provide an elastic non-speech data buffer to accommodate variable length non-speech data such as would be required by the various caller ID standards throughout the world.

Abstract: An integrated circuit, e.g. an AC '97 conforming audio codec, includes a digital filter and gain module including multiple channels of gain control and multiple channels of digital filtering. A gain control module includes an overflow check of data samples requiring differing lengths of clamping. Each channel of the digital filter includes a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter. The digital filtering is implemented largely in hardware independent of the number of channels required and/or independent of the required order of the filtering. Thus, filter channels can be added or additional filtering implemented merely by increasing the clock speed without changing the digital filter design. The FIR filter is capable of being reset each frame to prevent a DC buildup at internal nodes. The IIR filter performs a plurality of 2nd order biquadratic equations in an overall average of as few as four clock cycles per 2nd order biquad.

Abstract: A mobile unit deployed in a wireless telecommunications system includes a network mute feature. Activation of the network mute feature initiates a signaling protocol in which a network mute activation request is extended by the mobile unit to a serving base station. Deactivation of the network mute feature also requires the mobile unit to generate a signal which is extended to the serving base station. Advantageously, the network mute feature not only mutes the microphone of the mobile unit but also eliminates disruptive noise associated with wireless transmissions.