Abstract: A surgical apparatus and methods for severing and welding tissue, in particular blood vessels. The apparatus includes an elongated shaft having a pair of relatively movable jaws at a distal end thereof. A first heating element on one of the jaws is adapted to heat up to a first temperature and form a welded region within the tissue, while a second heating element on one of the jaws is adapted to heat up to a second temperature and sever the tissue within the welded region. The first and second heating elements may be provided on the same or opposite jaws. A control handle provided on the proximal end of the elongated shaft includes controls for opening and closing the jaws, and may include an actuator for sending current through the first and second heating elements. The first and second heating elements may be electrically connected in series, and the first heating element may be bifurcated such that it conducts about one half of the current as the second heating element.

Abstract: A router classifies packets assigned to X*Y classes of service into X classes of service supported by the router, each of the X classes of service having Y loss-priority levels. The router maintains a free queue that links available entries of a buffer in which packets are stored. A weighted average depth of the free queue is used to determine whether to retain a given packet. If the weighted average is above a maximum threshold, the packet is retained. If the weighted average is below a minimum threshold, the packet is discarded. If the weighted average is between the two thresholds, a probability of discard that is based on the X*Y classes of service is calculated and compared to a random value to determine whether the packet should be retained.

Abstract: A vessel harvesting system that is suitable for harvesting target vessels such as the saphenous vein or radial artery for cardiac artery bypass graft surgery. The system includes a vessel harvesting tool with an elongated cannula and a plurality of surgical instruments therein for separating the target vessels from the surrounding tissue and side branches. The harvesting tool includes a modular handle unit with a base attached to the elongated cannula and a sled that can adapt the base to various types of vessel severing/securing tools, such as tissue welders, bipolar scissors, and bipolar bisectors. The handle unit may be relatively rigid and integrated with the various tool movement controls to facilitate one-handed operation by a user. A severing/securing tool rotation mechanism may be incorporated within the handle and operated by a thumbwheel or other such mechanism. The vessel harvesting system may also provide distal CO2 insufflation for enhanced maintenance of the operating cavity.

Abstract: A method for forwarding data packets to one of a plurality of servers comprising receiving a data packet from a source, at a data packet forwarding device having a plurality of ports, performing a hashing function using a unique component of the data packet as a seed value for the hash, generating a hash value using the hashing function, looking up a table for an address of one of the plurality of servers using the hashed value as an index to the table, and forwarding the data packet to a server corresponding to the address.

Abstract: An internet service node (ISN) enabling the provision of desired service policies to each subscriber. The ISN may contain multiple processor groups, with each subscriber being assigned to a processor group. The assigned processor group may be configured with the processing rules, which provide the service policies desired, by a subscriber. A port may determine the specific processor group to which received data is to be forwarded. A content addressable memory with masks for individual locations may be implemented to quickly determines the processor group to which received data is to be assigned to. Due to the features of the present invention, an ISN may be able to serve a large number of subscribers efficiently. The ISN may be used at the edge of an access network.

Abstract: A disk drive includes a stop, a head stack assembly and a latch having a latch arm that is movable between a closed position and an open position. The latch includes a first retainer that urges the latch arm toward the open position, and a second retainer that urges the latch arm toward the closed position. The latch includes a mover that contacts the latch arm upon a sufficient shock to the disk drive and causes the latch arm to move to the closed position. The disk drive includes an actuator motor that momentarily urges the head stack assembly against the latch during startup of the disk drive, thereby moving the latch arm to the open position.

Abstract: A content addressable memory (CAM) having a search field, a mask and an output for each CAM location is used to efficiently determine a processor for processing IP packets, with each IP packet being received as a sequence of cells. IP packets may be assigned to a processor (group) based on an examination of the header data, potentially including IP header and other higher layer protocols headers. The search field of a CAM location is pre-stored with header data, and the bit positions to be searched in the location are specified by using a mask. The output of the location identifies the processor group for executing packets with headers matching the search field, with only the bits specified by the mask being compared. When a first cell of an IP packet is received, the header data is provided as an input to the CAM, and the output identifies the processor (group) for executing the IP packet.

Abstract: An internet service node (ISN) enabling the provision of desired service policies to each subscriber. The desired service policies for each subscriber are provided as an input. The desired service policies are translated into processing rules. Each processing rule contains a classifier and associated action. A classifier generally identifies the application data flows to which the action may be applied to provide the desired service policies. The processing rules may be generated dynamically to implement the specified service policies for each subscriber. Each data bit group may be classified to associate with a subscriber and only the processing rules corresponding to the subscriber may be applied to the data bit group to provide the desired services.

Abstract: A router includes a classifier that classifies packets assigned to 2n−m classes of service into 2n classes of service that are supported by the router. The classifier then sets the loss priorities of the respective packets to one of m levels. The router uses a modified weighted random early detection scheme that is based on probabilities of discard associated with the 2n+m classes of service to determine whether to retain or discard particular packets. The router uses a single buffer to store packets directed to all of the various output ports. The available storage locations in the buffer are linked to a free queue and a weighted average depth of the free queue, is used to determined whether or not to retain a given packet. The router compares the weighted average depth of the free queue to maximum and minimum thresholds associated with the particular 2n+m class of service to which the packet is assigned. If the weighted average is above the maximum threshold, the packet is retained.

Abstract: This invention provides an Internet Access Provider (IAP) a simple mechanism to steer users to given Internet services, such as the Web pages, of sponsors. The mechanism allows a sponsor to grant a dial-in user unlimited access to the Internet after the user has first accessed its Internet services. The invention is thus important for any IAP that wants to receive income from sponsors by steering Internet users to their services. In the ultimate case, an IAP could receive all its income from sponsors and thus be able to offer the Internet access for free. The key characteristics of the present invention is that a user is steered to the Internet services of a sponsor based on a sponsor specific called telephone number or a sponsor specific login name.

Abstract: A mounting assembly for securing a disk drive to a frame of a computer is provided herein. The mounting assembly includes three rigid mounts and a single flexible mount. Each rigid mount rigidly secures the drive housing to the frame and prevents degradation of performance of the disk drive. The flexible mount diminishes the level of vibration transferred from the frame to drive housing. Further, the flexible mount facilitates flexing of the drive housing intermediate the flexible mount and the rigid mounts. This reduces the effects of a shock pulse to the disk drive and inhibits head slap between a transducer head and a storage disk.

Abstract: A non-skid wheel brake mechanism includes a wheel body, a shaft part, left and right wheels each with a ring rim. The device includes an outer rim having an oval ring groove having upper and lower half portions. A substantially oval shaped shaft bore extends through the outer rim. A rim bore extends vertically through the outer rim to form an accommodating channel. The accommodating channel is in communication with the shaft bore. The ends of the wheel shaft is secured within the insert bores of the ring rims. An S-shaped spring plate is positioned inside the accommodating channel and extends into the shaft bore against the wheel shaft such that the ring rims are frictionally braked by the lower half portion of the oval ring groove.

Abstract: In a control block design methodology, a control block is designed, synthesized, and laid out. The control block includes one or more storage devices, such as flops. The flops include a header which buffers signals common to the flops and a storage cell for storing data. A flop grouping tool is used to merge flops having the same type of header into a flop having storage equivalent to the merged flops but using a single header. Multiple instances of the header may be deleted from the control block.

Abstract: In a control block design methodology, control block design proceeds without the inclusion of scan functionality until the functional design specifications are met. After meeting the functional design specifications, a scan insertion tool is executed to automatically insert scan functionality. The insertion is performed in such a manner that the functional cells within the control block are not perturbed. Therefore, functional timing may be minimally affected, if at all. In one embodiment, a scan enable buffer is inserted at the end of each row in the control block. Flops (or other scannable storage devices) within the row are connected to the scan enable line provided by the scan enable buffer within the row. Additionally, flops are connected into a scan chain on a row-by-row basis, minimizing the length of the wires connecting the scan chain. If a particular scan chain wire exceeds a length which will meet scan timing requirements, a scan chain buffer can be inserted as well (e.g. at the end of the row).

Abstract: A multicast engine of a shared-memory switching fabric circuit increases the replication rate of data elements destined for multicast connections within a network switch by manipulating address information relating to those elements. The multicast engine cooperates with other components of the switching fabric circuit to minimize the total buffer requirements of the switch by storing only a single copy of each multicast data element in a location of shared memory. Specifically, the engine has a pipelined architecture that provides a multicasting capability for the switching fabric circuit by replicating only an address pointer to that memory location for each destination of the multicast connection.

Abstract: A switch in an asynchronous transfer mode system utilizes an early packet discard (EPD) scheme and discards all but the end-of-packet cell of packets that are expected to prevent other partially transmitted packets from being transmitted through the switch. The switch also utilizes an integrated tail packet discard (I-TPD) scheme and, once a cell of a packet has been discarded for any reason, discards all of the remaining cells of the packet except the end-of-packet cell. Each of the EPD and the I-TPD schemes retain the last cell of a packet in order to maintain packet boundaries. Further, they each set the loss-priority of the end-of-packet cell to high, to increase the likelihood that the cell will be transmitted through the remaining switches in the route to the station to which the packet is directed. When the end-of-packet cell is received, the switch retains the cell unless its maximum queue limit is exceeded, and resets any associated early or tail packet discard flag.