Abstract: A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for morphing an object from one class to another in an object oriented computing environment implemented by a relational database. Object morphing functionality is provided by first defining object classes, class attributes, class relationships, objects, object attributes and object relationships as tables of data in the relational database. In response to user input representing a request to reassign one of the objects from one class to another, a class identifier corresponding to the object in the database tables is changed. The object's edge relationships with other objects are then checked for continued validity and an error message is generated if any such edge relationships are no longer valid. If the object's edge relationships are valid, the attributes of the object are modified to reflect the new class assignment.

Abstract: A wireless communication terminal is configured for enabling a user to receive and transmit video images as well as receive and transmit audio or speech signals associated with the user of the terminal and another user at, for example, a remote location. The received video image is obtained from a video image signal received over a radio frequency communications link established between the wireless communication terminal and a cellular base station. This received video image is displayed in a video image display conveniently associated with the wireless communication terminal. The transmitted video image signal may be that of the user of the terminal, of a scene within the field of view of the video camera or of text either coupled to the terminal through one of many well known data interfaces, or an image of text as captured by the camera.

Abstract: A portable purge system for transporting materials, such as semiconductor wafers used in the manufacture of ICs, comprises a carrier having compartments for releasably receiving and enclosing the materials therein. The carrier is flooded with an inert gas such as nitrogen so as to adsorb the nitrogen on the surface of the materials, dilute contaminants, and purge the contaminants from the carrier. The carrier and the flooding means are mounted in a transport case. A humidifier is connected to the flooding means so that the materials will adsorb water and thereby further resist adsorption of hydrocarbon contaminants.

Abstract: A switching fabric has input ports, output ports, buffers and at least one switch processor, which determines the available capacity of links at a switch and communicates this information to other switches in a network on a periodic basis. Based on this knowledge, the switch processor of the present invention determines if the necessary number of contiguous time slots in a time frame are available for the call in question. The routing method of the present method uses the periodically updated bandwidth usage to determine a route from a source switch to a destination switch. By utilizing periodic updates of bandwidth usage and assigning contiguous time slots, time slot availability becomes predictable and cell streams travel jointly along the same route, which in turn eliminates cell loss and jitter.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using shallow trench isolation is provided, wherein a plurality of protrusions are formed in the exposed surface of the mask layer overlying the active area of the device. The protrusions are preferably formed by forming a photo-resist layer on the surface of the mask layer and patterning the photo-resist layer such that the photo-resist layer defines a plurality of protrusion areas and a depression area within the defined active area. A portion of the mask layer is removed in the defined depression area to form a plurality of protrusions in the mask layer. Thereafter, a dielectric layer is deposited on the exposed surface of the mask layer and in the shallow trench and evenly planarized.

Abstract: An improved process for holography is provided, in which the reference beam used for storage and readout has a correlated phase content. In particular, it was found that reference beams having random phase content limited the attainable storage density and the accuracy of readout of stored holograms due to uncontrolled fluctuations in the correlation selectivity. By contrast, a reference beam having correlated phase content provides accurate shift selectivity, the ability to tailor the reference beam spectrum to minimize crosstalk between neighboring holograms, and mitigation of limitations inherent in the holographic system or holographic medium. Improved storage density and readout accuracy are thereby attained.

Abstract: A battery having a top wall, a bottom wall, a pair of end walls and a pair of side walls includes a pair of recesses disposed within one of the battery walls. Battery post contacts are disposed within the recesses. The battery post contacts do not extend beyond the recesses. A stand includes a pair of stand post contacts which are adapted for mating with the battery post contacts within the battery recesses.

Abstract: A system for, and method of, calculating a capacity of a rechargeable battery having an initial terminal voltage and a battery power supply incorporating the system or the method. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a dummy load couplable to the battery to initiate a battery discharge cycle of a given discharge rate and (2) a controller, coupled to the dummy load, that periodically collects, and generates an accumulation of, terminal voltage samples during the battery discharge cycle until the terminal voltage reaches a predefined terminating level, the capacity being a function of a magnitude of the accumulation.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for porting a mobile directory number of a subscriber from a donor wireless service provider to a recipient wireless service provider with minimum interruption to the subscriber's wireless communication service. In one embodiment, the present invention is accomplished by creating an entry for the wireless terminal in the recipient wireless service provider's home location register and a temporary pointer in the donor wireless service provider's home location register, wherein such temporary pointer will cause the donor wireless communication system to route or forward any call intended for the wireless terminal being ported to the recipient wireless communications system for completion in well-known fashion. When the porting process is complete, the temporary pointer is removed or deactivated in the donor wireless service provider's home location register.

Abstract: A secondary active clamp for a power converter, a method of actively clamping energy of the power converter and a power converter employing the clamp or the method. The power converter has a primary switching circuit coupled to a primary winding of an isolation transformer and a rectifier coupled to a secondary winding of the isolation transformer. In one embodiment, the clamp includes (1) an inductor coupled in series with a freewheeling diode of the rectifier and (2) a series-coupled capacitor and clamping switch coupled in parallel with the inductor. The series-coupled capacitor and clamping switch cooperate with the inductor to mitigate adverse effects of a reverse recovery phenomenon associated with the rectifier and to effect substantially zero voltage switching of a power switch of the primary switching circuit.

Abstract: A preferred embodiment incorporates base and cap members that are matable to each other to form, in a mated configuration, a cavity therebetween, that is sized and shaped to receive an optical integrated circuit therein. The base member includes a first latch post, with a first latching surface arranged between its proximal end and its distal end. The cap member includes a second latch post, with a second latching surface and an area of failure arranged between its proximal end and its distal end. The latching surfaces are arranged so that, as the base and cap members are urged toward the mated configuration, the latching surfaces retain the members in the mated configuration. Additionally, the second latch post is configured so that, as the members are urged apart, the second latch post structurally fails at the area of failure, thereby allowing the cap member to be removed from the base member.

Abstract: A single-poly flash memory cell has a control device, a switch device, and an erase device, all of which share a common polysilicon floating gate which is designed to retain charge in the programmed memory cell. The memory cell is erased by applying an erase voltage to the tub of the erase device to cause tunneling across the oxide layer separating the floating gate from the rest of the erase device structure. Since a typical tub-to-source/drain breakdown voltage (e.g., 15 volts) is greater than a typical erase voltage (e.g., 10 volts), the memory cell can be safely erased without risking the junction breakdowns that are associated with other prior art single-poly memory cell designs for deep sub-micron technologies (e.g., 0.25-micron and lower).

Abstract: For use in a power system having a power train, a rectifier having an input and an output and a method of controlling the rectifier. The rectifier comprises: (1) switching circuitry coupled between the input and the output, the switching, circuitry adapted to operate in selected one of (a) a bidirectional mode of operation and (b) an unidirectional mode of operation to rectify substantially alternating current at the input to produce substantially direct current at the output; and (2) control circuitry coupled to a control input of the switching circuitry, the control circuitry capable of sensing a characteristic of the power system and transitioning the switching circuitry between the bidirectional mode and the unidirectional mode as a function of the characteristic thereby to prevent substantial reverse power flow through the rectifier.

Abstract: A method of forming a multi-layered dual-polysilicon structure that forms a polysilicon gate prior to formation of an ion implantation barrier and that requires fewer steps, is more economical, and permits fabrication of more compact semiconductor circuits and devices than prior art methods.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for increasing the effective processing speed of a parallel decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) by combining block processing and look-ahead techniques in the selection (multiplexing) stage. The present invention extends a parallel DFE by using look-ahead techniques in the selection stage to precompute the effect of previous blocks on each subsequent block, and to thereby remove the serial output dependency. The parallel DFE includes a multiplexor tree structure that selects an appropriate output value for each block and precomputes the effect of previous blocks on each subsequent block. A multiplexing delay algorithm on the order of logN is employed to resolve the output dependency and thus speeds up parallel block processing DFEs. The disclosed DFE architecture can be combined with pipelining to completely eliminate the critical path problem. Pipelining reduces the required critical path timing to one multiplexing time.

Abstract: A multi-input comparator determines a minimum or maximum signal value in a given set of signal values. In an illustrative embodiment, a multi-input comparator includes a number of interconnected inversion circuits, with each of the inversion circuits having an input node associated therewith. The input node of each of the inversion circuits is coupled to an output of at least one of the other inversion circuits. As a result, after activation of the inversion circuits, the voltages at the input nodes are indicative of the relative magnitude of the signal values previously applied thereto. The inversion circuits may be constructed using, for example, single-inverter or multiple-inverter building blocks. Additional inputs can be provided by replicating the corresponding single-inverter or multiple-inverter blocks.

Abstract: A multi-wavelength optical cross-connect switch architecture incorporates a plurality of wavelength-selective optical cross-connect (WSXC) switch fabrics that receive multi-wavelength input signals distributed by one or more optical slicers and generate multi-wavelength output signals that are combined by a plurality of optical combiners. The WSXC fabrics employ fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as wavelength-selective elements. Using this architecture, the number of multi-wavelength channels carried by each WSXC is reduced from the number of channels present in each multi-wavelength input signal. In addition, the wavelength spacing between adjacent channels carried by each WSXC is increased over the spacing between adjacent channels in each multi-wavelength input signal.

Abstract: For use with an integrated circuit having a substrate and an insulator coupled to the substrate, a micromagnetic device and method of manufacturing therefor. In one embodiment, the micromagnetic device includes an adhesive coupled to the insulator and a ferromagnetic core, coupled to the adhesive that forms a bond between the insulator and the ferromagnetic core, having an anisotropic property.

Abstract: A wireless data communication system is operable in a power saving mode wherein stations are synchronized to be in an awake state to receive synchronizing messages (TIM, PSYNC) and traffic indicator information and are changed to a doze state if they are not to receive data messages. In one embodiment all stations (20) communicate via a base station access point (16), which broadcasts synchronizing messages (TIM) at regular intervals identifying stations (20) that are to receive data messages. In another embodiment all stations (220) communicate directly with one another, one station assumes the role of a master station and broadcasts synchronizing messages (PSYNC), and stations (220) desiring to transmit data messages transmit traffic indicator messages (PTIM) to the appropriate destination stations (220), in a synchronized awake period just before the next synchronizing message (PSYNC) is expected to arrive.

Abstract: A “cluster mobile switching center” (cMSC) is arranged to perform the switching and control functions of a conventional mobile switching center (MSC), including, if desired, the additional functions of a conventional visitor location register (VLR). The cMSC is implemented on distributed processors using modular software. Advantageously, a specific instance of middleware, known as Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), is used as the communications middleware. Functionally, the cMSC is arranged to have two classes of servers: (1) Interworking managers (IMs) that act as gateways and provide interfaces to external network elements, and (2) core servers that perform call processing (registration, location updates, incoming and outgoing call processing) functions and communicate with each other using CORBA. IMs terminate standard protocols with the external elements and use CORBA to communicate with the core servers.