Patents Examined by Emanuel Todd
  • Patent number: 6622061
    Abstract: The present invention provides for a method and apparatus for correction of overlay control errors. Semiconductor devices are processed based upon control input parameters. The processed semiconductor devices are examined in a review station. The control input parameters are modified in response to the examination of the processed semiconductor devices. New control input parameters are implemented for a subsequent run of the semiconductor device processing step based upon the modification of the control input parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2003
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Anthony J. Toprac, Christopher A. Bode, Richard D. Edwards
  • Patent number: 6618634
    Abstract: A microcomputer system and method of utilizing a repeated reset operation to enter the microcomputer system into different operating modes, particularly a microcomputer system without a keyboard, in which only a reset key is needed to set the required operating mode. The microcomputer system of the present invention comprises: a microcomputer; a memory connected to the microcomputer; a reset key to reset the microcomputer system; and a reset circuit to provide a power on reset pulse required in the microcomputer system or to receive the reset pulse produced by reset key. The microcomputer system checks both a specific memory area content for only a first specific value and a dedicated address content in the memory for a second specific value. If both only the first specific value in specific memory area and the second specific value in dedicated address are present, the microcomputer system is set to an abnormal operating mode. Otherwise, the specific value is written into the dedicated address in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2003
    Assignee: Winbond Electronics Corp.
    Inventor: Bar-Chung Hwang
  • Patent number: 6615338
    Abstract: A Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processor has a clustered architecture including a plurality of independent functional units and a multi-ported register file that is divided into a plurality of separate register file segments, the register file segments being individually associated with the plurality of independent functional units. The functional units access the respective associated register file segments using read operations that are local to the functional unit/ register file segment pairs. In contrast, the functional units access the register file segments using write operations that are broadcast to a plurality of register file segments. Independence between clusters is attained since the separate clustered functional unit/ register file segment pairs have local (internal) bypassing that allows internal computations to proceed, but have only limited bypassing between different functional unit/ register file segment pair clusters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2003
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Marc Tremblay, William Joy
  • Patent number: 6615197
    Abstract: The present invention is a signaling system for the improvement of cognitive performance and intelligence, including: a) a method for improving the human cognitive performance and intelligence through a signaling program, a sequence of signals, that is presented to a person, stored in his/her long term memory, and recalled as control signals to effect periodical changes in the chunk size and number of chunks and the percentage of active units in the model of neural representation, thus reducing internal noise, error rate (ER) and response time (RT); b) a Computerized Auditory Program (CAP), which is a recording of a combination of sequences of computer generated sound signals and verbal instructions and signals, and is used as the signaling program mentioned in a) above; and c) a reinforcement system which uses a sequence of vibratory, visual, auditory, or other types of stimulus pulses that are initially associated with the signaling program, for example CAP in one embodiment, through time-correlated present
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2003
  • Patent number: 6611910
    Abstract: A branch operation is processed using a branch predict instruction and an associated branch instruction. The branch predict instruction indicates a predicted direction, a target address, and an instruction address for the associated branch instruction. When the branch predict instruction is detected, the target address is stored at an entry indicated by the associated branch instruction address and a prefetch request is triggered to the target address. The branch predict instruction may also include hint information for managing the storage and use of the branch prediction information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: Idea Corporation
    Inventors: Harshvardhan Sharangpani, Tse-Yu Yeh, Michael Paul Corwin, Millind Mittal, Kent G. Fielden, Dale Morris, Rajiv Gupta, Michael Schlansker, Mircea Poplingher
  • Patent number: 6611875
    Abstract: A control system for high-speed rule processors used in a gateway system is disclosed. The gateway system employing the current invention can process packets at wire speed by using massive parallel processors, each of the processors operating concurrently and independently. Further, the processing capacities in the gateway system employing the current invention are expandable. The number of packet inspector engines may be increased and all of the engines are connected in a cascade manner. Under the control system, all of the engines operate concurrently and independently and results from each of the engines are collected sequentially through a common data bus. As such the processing speed of packets becomes relatively independent of the complexities and numbers of rules that may be applied to the packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Vikram Chopra, Ajay Desai, Raghunath Iyer, Sundar Iyer, Moti Jiandani, Ajit Shelat, Navneet Yadav
  • Patent number: 6611724
    Abstract: An online monitor that can be permanently attached to a device to be monitored continuously monitors a set of analog signals and initiates data capture over a window of time when a user programmable set of conditions is satisfied. The online monitor includes a digital signal processing unit, a modular, interchangeable, analog signal conditioning base unit that can be tailored to the specific requirements of the process to be monitored and a modular, interchangeable, communication interface unit. The interface unit permits the digital signal processing unit to exchange data with external equipment such as network computers via a number of industry standard communication fieldbus protocols. The online monitor provides the capability to define the trigger condition under which data capture is initiated by comparing a user defined signal to a function of the instantaneous value of another signal or constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: Square D Company
    Inventors: Paul Robert Buda, Larry Alan Dew, Todd Charles Wheaton, Jackie Laverne Winn
  • Patent number: 6611871
    Abstract: A fixed length data processing apparatus has a registration holding unit holding registration information necessary to identify fixed length data that is an object of a processing commonly to transmission routes, and a data processing unit identifying whether received fixed length data is fixed length data that is an object of the processing or not on the basis of at least the registration information in the registration information holding unit to perform a data processing for fault management in the asynchronous communication on the basis of the fixed length data when identifying that the fixed length data is fixed length data that is an object of a processing correspondingly to the transmission route, thereby holding a large volume of information efficiently for identifying fixed length data to process fixed length data with a simple structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Kazuhisa Kada, Hiroshi Murakawa, Shigehisa Sakahara, Hidenori Kiuchi, Hideaki Mochizuki, Ritsuko Okura
  • Patent number: 6609149
    Abstract: A first frame deadline is calculated and attached to an I/O request for prioritizing and retrieving video data frames from a shared disk cluster. Disk adapters queue video data frame requests according to the deadline incorporated in the frame requests. Data frames are transmitted to a requesting end user utilizing the attached deadline time to schedule the frames according to a time priority. Alternatively, a “slack” time is computed and utilized to determine when the first frame and subsequent frames of the requested video data may be retrieved from disk and present in the video server's memory in order to avoid a visible delay in sending that frame to the end user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2003
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Quinto Bandera, David Jones Craft, Wade David Shaw
  • Patent number: 6604126
    Abstract: The present invention is a method of processing and displaying structural plans responsive to emergency tactical situations, the method including the steps of receiving a heterogeneous array of structural plan files, establishing a common specification for displaying structural plans, transforming the heterogeneous array of structural plan files to a standardized plan according to the common specification, receiving a remote request for a structural plan relating to a tactical objective, and responsive to the remote request transmitting the standardized plan to a remote recipient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2003
    Inventors: Richard S. Neiman, Michael Parsons
  • Patent number: 6597362
    Abstract: A massively parallel data processing system consisting of an array of closely spaced cells where each cell has direct output means as well as means for processing, memory and input. The data processing system according to the present invention overcomes the von Neumann bottleneck of uniprocessor architectures, the I/O and memory bottlenecks that plague parallel processors, and the input bandwidth bottleneck of high-resolution displays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2003
    Assignee: Hyperchip Inc.
    Inventor: Richard S. Norman
  • Patent number: 6598087
    Abstract: A virtual printer for transmitting information from one application to another application. In one embodiment, the virtual printer includes a print driver for capturing information, and a communication system for communicating the captured information to a remote system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2003
    Assignee: GE Capital Commercial Finance, Inc.
    Inventors: Walter V. Dixon, III, William D. Smith, II, Melvin K. Simmons
  • Patent number: 6597958
    Abstract: A method for determining the measure of control provided to a process by a control system. The determines process model parameters for a simple and complex model of the process and uses those parameters along with the value of the process variable and the final control element position to predict the off control data. The method also uses the process model parameters to determine the optimal tuning and then forecasts the optimal process performance from the predicted off control data and the determined optimal tuning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2003
    Assignee: ABB Automation Inc.
    Inventor: Kevin D. Starr
  • Patent number: 6591150
    Abstract: A redundant monitoring control system includes at least one monitored control apparatus forming a communication network, and a plurality of monitoring control apparatuses monitoring and controlling the monitored control apparatus. The monitored control apparatus switches a monitoring and control of the monitored control apparatus by a monitoring control apparatus of a working system to a monitoring control apparatus of a backup system in response to a disconnection from the monitoring control apparatus of the working system which is detected when the monitoring control apparatus of the working system fails. The monitoring control apparatus of the backup system recognizes a control operation carried out by the monitoring control apparatus of the working system until the switching, and carries out a remainder of the recognized control operation with respect to the monitored control apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2003
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Masahiko Shirota
  • Patent number: 6591151
    Abstract: A programmable control panel includes handles for executing at least a part of the program sequence, and memory cells for controlling an appliance and for storing software codes. The handles are, particularly, push-buttons and switches. The handles are used for inputting individual functions of an individual operating program sequence. Each of the individual functions is assigned to a specific one of the software codes stored in a specific one of the memory cells. The handles are linked to a specific one of the individual functions and to an associated one of the memory cells. A controller includes memory cells that are permanently assigned to the corresponding push-buttons, and operation of the push-buttons results in specific functions being included in the program sequence of the main program for the household appliance. The control panel can be part of a programmable household appliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2003
    Assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
    Inventors: Lothar Knopp, Frank Böldt
  • Patent number: 6587845
    Abstract: A computational method for the discovery and design of therapeutically valuable bioactive compounds is presented. The method employed has successfully analyzed enzymatic inhibitors for their chemical properties through the use of a neural network and associated algorithms. This method is an improvement over the current methods of drug discovery which often employs a random search through a large library of synthesized chemical compounds or biological samples for bioactivity related to a specific therapeutic use. This time-consuming process is the most expensive portion of current drug discovery methods. The development of computational methods for the prediction of specific molecular activity will facilitate the design of novel chemotherapeutics or other chemically useful compounds. The novel neural network provided in the current invention is “trained” with the bioactivity of known compounds and then used to predict the bioactivity of unknown compounds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2003
    Inventor: Benjamin B. Braunheim
  • Patent number: 6580957
    Abstract: A laser marking apparatus and method for marking the surface of a singulated article such as a semiconductor chip are described herein. Semiconductor chips are fed along inclined, parallel tracks to a laser marking field where they are subsequently marked by a laser beam. As the laser beam is marking chips associated with one track, chips associated with other tracks that have already been marked are replaced by unmarked chips. In this manner, the laser is continually being used to mark semiconductor chips without having to wait for unmarked chips to move to the marking location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2003
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert L. Canella
  • Patent number: 6581090
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the transferring of information on the Internet, comprising: means (40) for storing information, corresponding to information provided at an Internet content provider (60), at respective alternative addresses of said storing means; means (20) for intercepting an information request from an Internet user directed to an Internet content provider; means for determining whether or not the intercepted request is directed to an information content provider having an associated alternative address on said storing means (40); and means for directing the request to said alternative address if such an alternative address exists.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2003
    Assignee: Mirror Image Internet, Inc.
    Inventors: Sverker Lindbo, Peter Löthberg, Paul Vixie
  • Patent number: 6577921
    Abstract: A container tracking system comprises a dispatcher workstation with a graphical user interface and a database. These are used to track the whereabouts of shipping containers in a storage and transfer yard. A mobile unit in the yard is attached to container handling equipment and monitors the container lock-on mechanism. When a container is locked on for a move, the mobile unit starts reporting positions and velocities to the dispatcher workstation over a radio channel. These positions and solutions are computed from a combination of GPS satellite navigation receiver solutions, inertial navigation, and local beacon markers. Reports stop when the container handling equipment unlocks from the container. The database then updates the new position for that container, and the graphical user interface can be used to “see” the container on a yard map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2003
    Inventor: Robert M. Carson
  • Patent number: 6574527
    Abstract: A tiered level cutting system and method that guides a user through the process of selecting an appropriate tool or adapter for specific cutting conditions and/or applications. The cutting system may include a plurality of blocks, one or more sleeves for each block, and a plurality of cutting tools. The method includes the steps of selecting a block for a user's particular operation, optionally, selecting a sleeve based on the selected block, and selecting a cutting tool based on the selected sleeve. The cutting system is selected based upon the type of machinery and cutting environment. The block is selected based upon the particular operation. Operation categories may include severe, heavy, medium and light based upon conditions. The cutting tool is selected based upon the shape and carbide content. The steps can be performed in most any suitable order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Kennametal Inc.
    Inventors: James C. Courtney, Daniel C. Statler, Kenneth J. Topka, Gerald L. Woods