Abstract: A signal communication device for use within a computer includes a set of optical fibers configured to form an optical computer bus between a set of computer sub-system elements of a computer. A set of input optical connector cards are connected to the set of optical fibers. Each of the input optical connector cards includes a transmitting dynamic bandwidth allocator responsive to an optical bus clock signal operating at a multiple of a computer system clock signal such that a set of bus time slots are available for each computer system clock signal cycle. The transmitting dynamic bandwidth allocator allows a light signal to be applied to the optical computer bus during a dynamically assigned bus time slot. In this way, the optical computer bus bandwidth can be dynamically allocated to different computer sub-system elements during a single computer system clock signal cycle.

Abstract: A burn-in system for integrated circuits (ICs) generates thorough input stimuli from within the burn-in chamber. A very high node-toggle percentage within the IC being exercised is achieved, similar to that of a dynamic burn-in oven, even though the burn-in system of this invention has a cost and complexity similar to that of a static burn-in oven. This provides a cost-effective and reliable way to reduce the infant mortality of the ICs being exercised, or to estimate the longevity of the batch of ICs from which they came. The input-stimuli generator is based on a special-purpose burn-in controller IC. To better withstand the environmental stress within the burn-in chamber, the burn-in controller IC is fabricated using a robust IC technology, is operated at its nominal supply voltage and includes continuous fault tolerance features (such as self-test and/or voting). It is fully programmable to allow the same burn-in controller to be used with a variety of types of ICs being exercised.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for driving a plurality of addressable elements consist of driving and selectively enabling one or more addressable elements arranged as an M.times.N array using two drivers. A first and a second driver are used to drive first and second signals at slightly different frequencies on a first and a second display conductor. A plurality of pixels, coupled between the first and second display conductors, is addressed according to a pixel location in which the first signal is approximately in phase with the second signal. The pixel scan rate is proportional to the difference between the first and second signal frequencies. The first and second conductors may contain a plurality of delay elements and tap-off points. Conducting lines may be terminated by their characteristic impedance to prevent any reflection of the traveling signals.

Abstract: The present invention provides an elegant and compact way to provide mechanisms for invocation of objects by client applications and for argument passing between client applications and object implementations, which reduce the memory space required for the client-side stubs, without the client application or the operating system knowing the details of how these mechanisms work. Moreover, these mechanisms function in a distributed computer environment with similar ease and efficiency, where client applications may be on one computer node and object implementations on another. Additionally the invention is independent of the particular C++ compiler used for generation of the stub code. The mechanism used to reduce this memory space comprises a stub generator (called "CONTOCC"), a data base of client-side stub description files and a stub-interpreter which knows how to read these client-side stub description files. CONTOCC reads interface definition language ("IDL") files and generates corresponding C++ files.

Abstract: A control block clock distribution network includes a logic circuit, one or more nth-level buffers, and a (n-1)th-level buffer that drives the one or more nth-level buffers. The logic circuit includes a predefined area containing substantially only clocked logic elements. The number of clocked logic elements in the predefined area is constrained to be less than or equal to a predetermined maximum number. The one or more nth-level buffers are located within the predefined area, whereas the (n-1)th-level buffer is located outside of the predefined area. Each nth-level buffer receives the clock signal outputted by the (n-1)th-level buffer and provides a clock signal to a predetermined number of the clocked logic elements within the predefined area Because the predefined area has known dimensions, the length of the clock line from the (n-1)th buffer to the nth-level buffers is known to within a range.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of securing access to a service manager for the administration of services residing on multiple service host computers from an administration server computer is described. A user identifier, such as a user name, and a corresponding password are provided to the service manager. The user identifier is associated with a system administrator having administrative access to the services. The service manager authenticates the user by comparing the user identifier and password against a list of user identifiers and corresponding passwords stored in a persistent memory. A list of services to which the system administrator has administrative access is derived from the data in persistent memory. When the system administrator makes a request to administer one or more services from the list of services, the administrator's access control is verified at the service host computers on which the requested services reside by examining access control data in the persistent memory.

Abstract: A communication appliance with a desktop unit and a secondary unit. The desktop unit includes an outer casing, bottom feet, openings in the outer casing for control elements, a plurality of heat-producing electronic components and at least one speaker. The bottom feet extend from a bottom of the outer casing and support the outer casing on a surface such that the bottom of the outer casing is spaced from the surface. The control elements are used for operating the communication appliance. The outer casing includes a plurality of cooling slots for cooling electronic components found in the interior of the communication appliance so that a fan or other external device is not needed.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and method for repairing or improving the behavior of a tunable circuit of an integrated circuit (IC) when a target parameter exceeds a predetermined range due to a design and/or fabrication problem. The tunable circuit includes one or more tuning controllers for tuning a corresponding number of target circuits. Each tuning controller includes one or more registers and an optional decoder. Each target circuit includes a tunable portion and a functional portion. The functional portion can have one or more of a wide variety of functions including but not limited to logical gates, buffers, signal generators and amplifiers. The selectable parameters of the tunable circuit include timing delays, trip voltages, rise/fall times and/or output impedances. When a circuit designer wishes to tune the target parameter, an appropriate tuning pattern is latched into registers of the tuning controller.

Abstract: A data cache unit associated with a processor, the data cache unit including a first non-blocking cache receiving a data access from a device in the processor. A second non-blocking cache is coupled to the first non-blocking cache to service misses in the first non-blocking cache. A data return path coupled to the second non-blocking cache couples data returning from the second non-blocking cache to both the first non-blocking cache and the device generating the access to the first non-blocking cache.

Abstract: A method and apparatus that allows flexibility in failure diagnosis, so that a single failure event received by a failure analysis system can affect the availability of different resources in different ways. The described embodiment also allows the dependency between resources to be "relaxed" in certain circumstances. Each failure event in the failure diagnosis system is processed in accordance with dependency logic that describes the strength of the dependencies between various system resources and further determines the precedence if there are multiple dependencies between resources. The dependency logic further determines whether a resource depended on by the current resource is internal or external, e.g., if the resource depended on is inside or outside firewall. The dependency logic also includes a precondition, describing the circumstances in which a dependency between two resources will be found to exist.

Abstract: A context-dependent, multiply binding name resolution system. A name resolver is provided, connected to either a requester's system or a receiver's system, or both. Requests to a given service or domain name are resolved to the appropriate IP address. The intended recipient of the request is resolved based upon a combination of one or more predetermined criteria, including: information about the sender (e.g. geographical location, specific requester identity, etc.); information about the intended recipient (e.g. load balance at the receiver, type of service, etc.); information contained within the request itself (e.g. type of service requested); or other information (time of day, date, random selection of recipient, e.g.). The system is implemented in hardware and/or software, and the resolution criteria can be made interdependent or independent.

Abstract: A Quality of Service (QoS) method and mechanism enable allocation of a QoS to a flow on a network in a dynamic environment in response to detection of a new instance of an entity associated with a flow on the network. A binding is determined between the flow and the entity which is based on at least one parameter of the flow. A QoS definition is maintained in a directory service of the network. The QoS definition includes at least one configuration rule for the flow. A QoS definition for the entity is accessed, which QoS definition binds the flow with a QoS. Configuration rules of the QoS definition are applied to the flow to configure the flow. The detection of a new instance of an entity could be in response to a flow event or in response to a directory event resulting, for example, from a login event.

Abstract: A multi-level cache and method for operation of a multi-level cache generating multiple cache system accesses simultaneously. Each access request includes an address identifying a memory location having data that is a target of the access. A insertion pointer inserts each access request into an entry in a memory scheduling window. Each entry is marked as valid when that entry is ready to be applied to a first cache level. A picker picks valid entries from the memory scheduling window by pointing to the picked entry and applying the address therein to the first cache level. The picking occurs in a free-running mode regardless of whether the accesses hit in the first cache level. A second cache level receives accesses that have missed in the first cache level. A resource monitor in the second cache level determines when a predetermined number of resources are committed to servicing the accesses that have missed in the first cache level.

Abstract: A test to detect a predetermined condition in a remotely monitored computer system is created by selecting, via interactions between a user and a graphical user interface, at least one system parameter from a list of available system parameters where each of the system parameters represents a hardware or software component of the remotely monitored computer system. The user selects, via interactions with the graphical user interface, at least one operator from a plurality of operators to operate on the at least one system parameter. The user connects the at least one operator and the at least one system parameter to generate a graphical representation of the test.

Abstract: A process for obtaining a copy of a data object is disclosed. A location-independent identifier associated with the desired data object is obtained, for example, from a primary file that requires a copy of the data object. Using the location-independent identifier associated with the desired object, a cache is interrogated to determine whether a copy of the data object is cached. If the data object is cached, a copy of the cached data object is obtained from the cache. If the data object is not cached, a network call is performed obtain a new copy of the data object.

Abstract: An intuitive graphical user interface is based upon a geographic map structure, and includes a system for controlling remote external electronic devices. In the defined graphical user interface, each space of the geographic map structure is rendered on a touch screen display as a graphic image of a geographic space. Within each space are colored cartoon-like icons called "objects" which can be selected and manipulated by the user. Certain objects, referred to as portals, transport the user from one space to another space when Selected. Other objects, referred to as buttons, perform associated actions or functions when Selected. The graphical user interface is displayed on a hand-held display device used to control remote devices. Each remote electronic device transmits a user interface program object that defines a graphical user interface to the display device.

Abstract: The present invention pertains to a system and method for performing remote object invocation. A object-oriented computing system includes a number of independent computing nodes that are interconnected via a communications link. The nodes represent client and/or server computers that do not share memory. Each node includes a number of domains having separate address spaces. Each domain includes one or more threads of execution that invoke one or more objects. The object's method can reside in the same domain as the requesting thread, in a different domain within the same node, or in a different domain in another node. A file descriptor is used to represent those objects whose methods reside in a different domain than the requesting thread. A file descriptor is a protected kernel entity that enables a thread to invoke an object. A thread can only access those objects for which it has received an associated file descriptor.

Abstract: An embodiment consistent with the present invention includes a method and apparatus for distributing multicast data. The method may be performed by a data processor and comprises the steps of forming a multicast repair tree including a sender, a plurality of heads, and a plurality of receivers, wherein at least one head is associated with the sender and at least one receiver is associated with the head; sending, by a sender to the plurality of heads and the plurality of receivers, a plurality of multicast messages at a data rate; receiving, by the sender from one of the plurality of heads, a congestion status associated with a receiver of the head; and slowing the data rate, by the sender, in accordance with the congestion status.

Abstract: A representation of the state of a computer, based on diagnostic data of the computer, is built by extracting system information from the diagnostic data and building a component based representation of the computer using the extracted system information. A static tree definition of a computer system is provided which is formed by element types in a fixed hierarchical relationship. A plurality of token types are provided, each of the token types being associated with one of the element types. The token types are component based data types. Respective segments of the incoming data that are defined by respective token types are identified and stored as tokens in a token data base. Each of the tokens has a value field holding a value associated with the element and a parent field referring to an element with which the token is associated.