Abstract: An arrangement for permitting callers to make speed dialing calls away from their home telephone. A speed dialing list is maintained for those who subscribe to this service for a particular telephone line. When the caller who normally uses that line and makes use of his/her speed dialing feature from that line, and is away from his/her telephone, speed dialing service can be obtained if the call is a calling card, or credit/debit card telephone call. Such calls are routed initially to a switch for serving such calls. This switch then queries a calling card or credit card data base to obtain either a number corresponding to the caller's speed calling number, or to obtain an identification of the switch which contains that caller's speed dialing list. The caller is identified by his/her calling card, or credit/debit card number.

Abstract: An optical attenuator is disclosed that utilizes the concept of destructive and constructive interference to enhance the ability to attenuate the light signal sent between an optical transmitter and an optical receiver. Rather than completely blocking out a portion of the light signal or utilizing a membrane coated with a partially reflecting material, the present invention utilizes a very high reflectivity coating on divided surfaces, and controls the relative distances between each of the divided surfaces and the optical transmitter/receiver.

Abstract: A lithographic process for device fabrication in which a pattern is transferred from a mask into an energy sensitive material by projecting charged particle (e.g. electron beam) radiation onto the mask is disclosed. The pattern on the mask is divided into segments. The radiation transmitted through the mask and incident on the layer of energy sensitive material transfers a continuous image of the segmented mask pattern into the energy sensitive material. The images of each segment are joined together to form the continuous image by seam blending techniques. The seam blending techniques employ duplicate pattern information on segments for which the images are joined together. The image of the duplicate pattern information from a first segment is overlapped with the image of the duplicate pattern information from the second segment to blend the seams together.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to an SRAM cell layout having a compact architecture and short local bit-lines. The SRAM cell layout has an improved aspect ratio wherein the vertical dimension of the cell is reduced relative to the horizontal dimension of the cell. The resulting additional horizontal space permits the use of an additional vertical metal channel. The SRAM cell layout uses this additional vertical metal channel to add one or more global bit-lines. With the addition of global bit-lines, the communications between SRAM cells on a SRAM device is not limited to conventional one pair of vertical bit-lines. Therefore, the conventional vertical bit-lines may be segmented into shorter local bit-lines. These local bit-lines have shorter length and have reduced capacitance and resistance. The reduced capacitance and resistance in turn improve the performance of the SRAM device.

Abstract: Hardware-software co-synthesis is the process of partitioning an embedded system specification into hardware and software modules to meet performance, power, and cost goals. Embedded systems are generally specified in terms of a set of acyclic task graphs. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a co-synthesis algorithm, called COSYN, starts with periodic task graphs with real-time constraints and produces a low-cost heterogeneous distributed embedded system architecture meeting these constraints. The algorithm has the following features: 1) it allows the use of multiple types of processing elements (PEs) and inter-PE communication links, where the links can take various forms (point-to-point, bus, local area network, etc.

Abstract: The amount of information that must be transmitted from an Internet server to a user's computer or workstation when the user requests an Internet object, for example, by clicking on a URL in a web browser application, is reduced using a cache-based compaction technique in which the requested object is encoded in the server using information relating to similar objects that were previously supplied to the user. Similar objects available in both a client side cache and a server side cache are selected by comparing the URL of the requested object to the URL's of stored objects. Differential encoding is performed in the server such that the server transmits to the client information indicative of the differences between the requested object and the reference (similar) objects available in the server cache. A corresponding decoding operation is performed in the client, using the encoded version and reference objects available in the client cache.

Abstract: A method for forming a gate dielectric for use in ultra-thin integrated circuit environments includes forming a nitride layer under conditions effective to introduce defects in the nitride layer. The nitride layer is formed so as to have a defect density which is sufficiently large to provide a low interfacial trap density, particularly after annealing, and thus eliminate the charge trap problems associated with traditional nitride layers. This nitride layer can be used in, for example, ON or ONO structures, which can themselves be employed as a gate dielectric. The ON and ONO structures are preferably formed under low temperature and low pressure conditions to more effectively control oxide and nitride formation. This allows for the formation of gate dielectrics that are less than 10 nm in thickness. Moreover, these ultra-thin dielectrics can be formed in a single furnace cluster.

Abstract: An electronic apparatus having a heat pipe that is thermally bonded to plates to internal and external enclosures. The electronic apparatus is located in a heat dissipative external enclosure. The electronic apparatus having at least one unit contained in a thermally conductive internal housing providing RF isolation and mounted on a wall of the external enclosure in thermal contact therewith. The electronic apparatus also having a heat pipe having a first plate bonded to its evaporator and a second plate bonded to its condenser, both bonds being thermally conductive. The first plate being mounted by fixings in thermal contact with the internal housing, the second plate being mounted by fixings in thermal contact with the wall of the external enclosure at a position lower, in use, than the first plate. This allows the heat pipe to be easily removed. This also allows the inner housing to maintain RF isolation.

Abstract: The present invention concerns the efficient use of the radio spectrum in wireless communications. Channel occupancy data and channel availability data concerning a specific base station and its neighbors are used to assign frequency channels to mobile units and/or base stations. The channel occupancy and availability data may be located at a base station or at a mobile switching center. Channels are preferably assigned as channel pairs.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling the selectivity function in a holographic memory system that permits more rapid location and retrieval of holographically stored data. The system and method direct a reference beam through a filter such as, for example, an aperture, to bandwidth limit the beam before the beam illuminates a holographic optical element having stored therein a hologram of a reference beam.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for an ATM network for determining an allowed cell rate without the introduction of oscillations by using a average cell rate of all virtual circuits. Each ATM switch may be configured to calculate an allowed cell rate (ACR) for each connection between adjacent ATM switches along the virtual circuit and to relay this information back to a source using a BRM cell.

Abstract: A printed wiring board including a first solder mask covering a portion of a first conductor pad. The inner perimeter of the first solder mask extends radially inward of the outer perimeter of the first conductor pad so that a portion of the first connector pad proximate its outer perimeter is covered by the first solder mask. The inner perimeter of the first solder mask is radially outward of the inner perimeter of the first connector pad so that a portion of the first connector pad proximate the inner perimeter of the first connector pad is left exposed. In addition, the printed wiring board may include a second solder mask that covers a portion of a second connector pad. The second solder mask configured with respect to the second connector pad similar to that of the first solder mask with respect to the first connector pad. Alternatively, or in addition to the second connector pad, the printed wiring board may include a conductor path of which at least a portion is covered by a second solder mask.

Abstract: An inexpensive cable is utilized to permit multiple identical shelves in a bay of interface units to be wired for a plurality of signals by utilizing conventional twenty-five pin wiring. Hand-wired dedicated cables normally used for routing alarm signals are avoided. Printed wiring backplanes are utilized for connecting the common signals together and for permitting appropriate connections for the plurality of individual signals to be connected to the appropriate interface units positioned in the bay. The backplanes have an identical pattern so that the interface units can be used interchangeably.

Abstract: In order to minimize the adverse effects of RF signal nonlinearities during amplification, especially the deleterious effects of signal clipping which may cause uncontrolled out-of-band emissions known as “spectral regrowth”, the specification relates to a device and a method for intentionally distorting a radio frequency (RF) signal in a “tailored manner”, prior to the amplification of the RF signal. The device monitors the amplitude of a RF signal at the inlet of a “tailored” distorter. A modifying signal waveform is generated whenever the amplitude of the monitored RF signal is greater than a threshold value. The RF signal is delayed to account for signal processing time associated with the generation of the modifying signal waveform. The generated modifying signal waveform is then summed with the delayed RF signal, thereby forming an intentionally distorted version of the original RF signal. The distorted signal is conveyed to a RF signal amplifier for amplification.

Abstract: The scaleable OFDM system according to the principles of the present invention provides increased flexibility and adaptability by providing scaling of the operating parameters and/or characteristics for the OFDM system. For example, control circuitry can scale the bit rate by scaling of the OFDM symbol duration, the number of carriers and/or the number of bits per symbol per carrier. Scaleability permits the scaleable OFDM system to operate in various communications environments requiring various operating parameters and/or characteristics. By scaling the operating parameters and/or characteristics of the OFDM system when control circuitry determines that different operating parameters and/or characteristics are necessary or advantageous, the control circuitry can dynamically change the operating parameters and/or characteristics, thereby providing compatibility or the desired performance.

Abstract: The present invention teaches a system and method to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio of systems transmitting parallel channels. Examples of such systems are Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) and Orthogonal Code Division Multiplex (OCDM), also known as multi-code CDMA. Both systems have the disadvantage of a large peak-to-average power (PAP) ratio, which degrades the efficiency of the power amplifier of the transmitter. The present invention reduces the PAP problem by canceling the large signal peaks through subtraction of an appropriate reference function. That is, a time shifted and scaled reference function is subtracted from the sampled signal, such that each subtracted reference function reduces the peak power of at least one signal sample. In accordance with the present invention, an appropriate reference function with approximately or exactly the same bandwidth as the transmitted signal is selected.

Abstract: An AC tuning signal is injected into an LC tank circuit oscillator through an impedance (either reactive, inductive, capacitive and/or resistive) to tune the phase and/or frequency of the LC tank circuit oscillator. A negative resistance is included in parallel with the LC tank circuit oscillator to compensate for losses in the LC tank circuit, and a bias signal is provided to power the operation of the LC tank circuit. The AC tuning signal may be injected into the LC tank circuit using capacitors, resistors, FET or bipolar transistors, and/or inductors. Multiple LC tank circuit oscillators may be used to provide stable multiplied or divided frequencies. In this case, the output of one LC tank circuit oscillator may be used to tune another LC tank circuit oscillator. In another embodiment, the nominal frequency of the LC tank circuit oscillator may be adjusted using a varactor or other voltage-controlled element in the LC tank circuit oscillator under the control of, e.g.

Abstract: The present invention provides an RF model that characterizes the scattering hostility in an RF environment through a set of parameters. The parameters essentially provide a description of the amount of multipath that an RF signal would incur if it were to travel in the RF environment. Thus, such an RF model can be used to predict the amount of signal degradation that a given RF signal would experience when transmitted from any point in the RF environment. As a result, the RF model can be used to determine whether a given RF signal, if transmitted from a given point in an RF environment, could be received by a receiver located at another point in the RF environment. Advantageously, the RF model can characterize the scattering hostility in an RF environment without being programmed with volumes of environmental information.

Abstract: An article for directing optical signals among optical waveguides is disclosed. The article comprises a plurality of mirror elements that are mechanically and electrically interconnected to form a reflective surface. The reflective surface is deformable upon application of a voltage. Optical signals delivered from a source waveguide may be directed to different destination waveguides as the reflective surface is deformed. The plurality of mirror elements is actuated by a single actuator.

Abstract: A method of admitting and routing switched virtual circuit requests in a network first finds a set of routing paths on which a requested VC may be routed by using a two step process. The method uses a cost function based on a parameter related to the number of hops in a subset of VC connections previously made in the network to determine potential routing paths on which the VC can be routed at a cost below a specified threshold. The method next checks to determine which potential routing paths comprise links and nodes with sufficient resources to accommodate the request. Paths satisfying both steps are output as a set of routing paths and then a second criterion is used to select a path from the set on which to route the request. In a distributed routing system, the inventive method uses a local network state to determine the cost function and the set of routing paths.