Abstract: A data management system for file and database management including a design control system suitable for use in connection with the design of integrated circuits and other elements of manufacture having many parts which need to be developed in a concurrent engineering environment with inputs provided by users and or systems which may be located anywhere in the world providing a set of control information for coordinating movement of the design information through development and to release while providing dynamic tracking of the status of elements of the bills of materials in an integrated and coordinated activity control system utilizing a control repository which can be implemented in the form of a database (relational, object oriented, etc.) or using a flat file system.

Abstract: An information managing device capable of systematically managing object data of more than one kind using a single database, having an object managing unit for storing the object data of more than one kind in general format, and a filter managing unit for storing a filter which specifies a specific format for each kind of object data. When the object data are registered, a control unit converts the object data the user has inputted in its specific format into those in general format to store the converted object data into the object managing unit. On the other hand, when the object data are retrieved, the control unit converts the object data in general format into those in specific format using the filter of the same kind as the desired object data.

Abstract: Apparatus is described for allocating the resources of a parallel computer. The computer is divided into a plurality of processor arrays, a plurality of host computers are provided, and the host computers and the arrays are interfaced by an interconnection means that can connect any host computer to any one or more of the arrays. A specific connection means comprises a plurality of first multiplexers, one for each array, for writing data from any host computer to any array; a plurality of second multiplexers, one for each host computer, for reading from any array to any host computer; and control means for controlling the multiplexers so as to connect the host computers and arrays as desired by the users. The control means comprises a status register which specifies the connections between the host computers and the processor arrays as specified by the users.

Abstract: An Internet system for delivering information about products from the source of those products, typically the manufacturer, to those who need that information, such as product resellers and consumers. The system employs a product code translator, which may be implemented by one or more servers accessed via the Internet. The product code translator stores cross-references between product codes and the address of Internet resources which provide information about the products designated by the codes. Web pages produced by online resellers may display lists of products in response to search requests from customers, and provide the customer with detailed information about any listed product by incorporating links to the product information made available by the participating manufacturers using the cross-referenced addresses provided by the product code translator.

Abstract: A telecommunications system is required by a system operator to have a high availability, especially in so far as central processing is concerned, as failure of this can render a significant portion of the system inoperative. A telecommunications system has connected to an interface at least two remotely attached computing platforms, each computing platform being arranged to receive, process and provide a response to each functional request from the interface, the system responding to the first response received from the computing platforms. The computing platforms may provide high availability, while themselves being low availability devices.

Abstract: A method and system for registration, authorization, and control of access rights in a computer system. Access rights of subjects on objects in a computer system are controlled using parameterized role types that can be instantiated into role instances equivalent to roles or groups. The required parameters are provided by the subject of the computer system, e.g. by a person, a job position, or an organization unit. Furthermore, relative resource sets are instantiated into concrete resource sets and individual resources by using the same parameter values as for instantiating the role types. Authorization and control of access rights include capability lists providing the access rights of the subjects on the objects of a computer system on a per subject basis. Furthermore, access control lists are derived from capability lists, so that access rights of the subjects on the respective objects are provided.

Abstract: A system and method for content-based search and retrieval of visual objects. A base visual information retrieval (VIR) engine utilizes a set of universal primitives to operate on the visual objects. An extensible VIR engine allows custom, modular primitives to be defined and registered. A custom primitive addresses domain specific problems and can utilize any image understanding technique. Object attributes can be extracted over the entire image or over only a portion of the object. A schema is defined as a specific collection of primitives. A specific schema implies a specific set of visual features to be processed and a corresponding feature vector to be used for content-based similarity scoring. A primitive registration interface registers custom primitives and facilitates storing of an analysis function and a comparison function to a schema table. A heterogeneous comparison allows objects analyzed by different schemas to be compared if at least one primitive is in common between the schemas.

Abstract: A method for a multidimensional search for a close neighbor of an input vector, amongst a first set of reference vectors, comprises the prior determination of a first set of hyperplanes in the space containing the reference vectors, then selection of a first hyperplane from the first set, formation of a second set of reference vectors, by eliminating reference vectors which are on the other side of the first hyperplane selected, compared with the input vector, formation of a second set of hyperplanes, by eliminating the said first hyperplane, reiteration, a predetermined number of times, of the selection and formation operations, taking, as the first set of reference vectors and as the first set of hyperplanes, respectively, the second sets formed previously, and searching for the closest neighbor of the input vector in the second set of reference vectors.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for enabling a programmer to create an application program with an object-oriented notebook control is described. Platform independent, object-oriented notebook and notebookPage classes comprised of a plurality of methods and variables are detailed from which a notebook control object is constructed and manipulated to represent the paradigm of a notebook. The notebook control object receives data from mouse and keyboard events and organizes it into a dual dimensional vector including folders and pages. An improved method of mouse selection of components is depicted. An improved method of drawing involving offscreen graphic images is summarized.

Abstract: In an information management system, individual entity information items related to one another are assigned unique identifiers. A smaller number of pointers are used to define high, low, front and rear-rank links among the entity information items. In an entity management table are placed records having a pointer to an entity information item and an identifier of the entity information item. In a structure management table are placed records representing types of the entity information items and having pointers to high, low, front and rear-rank records. There is further provided an identifier management table that relates the types of the entity information items to the identifiers. Use of these tables permits data retrieval in four directions of upward, downward, forward and rearward.

Abstract: The invention concerns a relational data base control system stored in a first storage unit (11) controlled in accordance with a first relational access logic, and including at least a series of records, each of the records being associated with an object including at least one variable and at least one method used to affect the value of at least one of the variables, data retrievals and/or modifications being made solely on the objects in accordance with a second object oriented access logic, the system comprising:a second temporary object storage unit (15);a control unit (14) including an automatic command generator unit (113) to be used in the data base according to the first access logic starting from commands corresponding to the second access logic;a data transfer unit (16) transferring data in each direction between the first storage unit (11) and the second storage unit (15), data transfers between the first and the second storage units (15) being controlled by the automatic command generator unit (11

Abstract: On-line electronic books are stored in remote storage devices and accessible through a server or other type of interface device. A bookcase is created and stored in a local storage device. Appropriate electronic links are supplied in order to access an electronic book from the bookcase. The bookcase provides a library metaphor that allows a user to organize the online books in a manner that has meaning and utility to the user.

Abstract: A method and apparatus in which category classes express information content categories that are defined based on object-oriented programming. The information items that are to be collected for each category are set as properties, and an information acquisition method or information process and treatment method is described for each property. After a request input from a user has been converted into a request input format that the system can understand, the request input is classified into category classes, searching is performed, and the information items the system outputs are displayed using the properties of the classes to which the request input belongs. Information searching and collection is accomplished on the basis of the contents described by the methods, and the information is output as comprehensive information in accordance with the request input of the user.

Abstract: A information retrieval system wherein design and content are separated. Within a section of a title, a designer can layout pages with controls that define areas for content to be inserted into the pages. Two commonly used controls in the system are a static story control, wherein a preselected story is statically placed on a page in the area defined by the control, and a dynamic story control, wherein the designer defines search objects to retrieve stories. An information retrieval (IR) server indexes and searches stories in titles. Indexing takes place when a title is released to the network by a publisher workstation. The IR server interrelates title, section and story objects by their globally unique identifiers and creates a routing table which is used to locate objects across multiple database partitions. The IR search service is requested in two different ways at customer runtime. The first way is the resolution of the search objects to retrieve matching stories.

Abstract: The present invention provides a document processing apparatus, word extracting apparatus, word extracting method and storage medium for storing a word extracting program, capable of appropriately presenting effective associate words to the user. A retrieving element executes retrieval of documents based on a retrieval condition inputted through a retrieval condition inputting element. A keyword designating element designates an arbitrary word among the words included in the retrieved documents as an associate-word-searching word and designates other words as candidates for an associate word. A simultaneous appearance probability calculating element calculates a simultaneous appearance probability of the associate-word-searching word and one of the candidates for the associate word in any of the retrieved documents. A first independent appearance probability calculating element obtains an independent appearance probability of the associate-word-searching word in each of all documents.

Abstract: An abstract manager system (12) and method for managing an abstract database (40) are provided. The abstract manager system (12) may be implemented using a computer that includes a mass storage device (44) and a processor (34). The processor (34) is responsive to one or more computer files stored in the mass storage device (44) such as an abstract manager program (32). The processor (34) is responsive to generate an abstract manager input form (96) and to receive input abstract information in the abstract manager input form (96). The processor (34) is also responsive to generate a record in an abstract database (40) that includes the input abstract information and to generate a file, such as an abstract file of abstract files (42), that includes the input abstract information.

Abstract: A method and a system for accessing data in a computer-based data processing system is described. The method comprises the steps of initiating and maintaining data access nodes in a variable access structure. Each access node is provided with references to other access nodes and/or to data items representing an object, each data item carrying only the amount of information which is relevant for its purpose. The data items or the references are provided with a time parameter thus enabling version control and the possibility to handle static or slowly changing data and frequently changed and updated data in a corresponding manner. The access nodes comprise access control parameters for access control from a safety point of view as well as for enabling different views of the access structure and underlying data and objects.

Abstract: Apparatus, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed that optimize a programmed loop that stores pointer variables in an array in a card-marked heap. These methods also optimize garbage collection operations on these pointer variables. Instead of implementing a write-barrier in the body of a programmed loop, the loop is parameterized. This parameterization is associated with the pointer array stored in the heap. This parameterization specifies the first and last modified elements in the array. It further specifies the stride (which indicates how many elements are skipped to reach the next modified element of the array). The parameterization is modified by successive loops that access the array. During a garbage collection operation, the array's parameterization is used to optimize the process of locating modified elements in the array.

Abstract: A hierarchical data structure is created in dynamic memory that is dynamically expanded or modified during run-time operations of the computer system. Information about the devices is loaded from a definition block into the hierarchical data structure. The information is a byte stream of data that is translated and stored as hierarchical information, such as device objects, data objects, and control method objects. These objects are hierarchically nested within the hierarchical data structure. A device object identifies a corresponding device in the computer system. The hierarchy formed between device objects represents the hierarchical I/O connections within the computer system. A data object identifies configuration and hardware dependency information associated with a corresponding device. A control method object is an executable reference for controlling a corresponding device.

Abstract: A computer program product comprising at least one controller to enable a processor to perform incremental changes in storage and retrieval. The at least one controller comprises an incremental storage adaptor for enabling the processor to store a change associated with a base file, rather than modifying the base file by the change and storing the result as a new file. An incremental retrieval adaptor is included for enabling the processor to merge the change with the base file thereby forming a logical new file. The incremental retrieval adaptor can perform the merging in response to a call from an application running on the processor or another processor, and the incremental retrieval adaptor then provides or otherwise makes the logical new file available to the application.