Abstract: The invention as disclosed is a recoverable tethered optical fiber buoy and winch assembly that is mounted to the back of the sail or the back of an aft non-moving surface of an underwater vehicle and housed in a configuration to provide very little additional drag to the underwater vehicle when the assembly is not deployed. The invention provides a capability to connect ocean surface visual or radio frequency sensors to an underwater mobile platform with a very high data rate link that is retrievable.

Abstract: A distributed cache management system that minimizes invalid cache notification events is provided. A cache management system in a sending device processes outgoing cache notification events by adding information about the source server's clock. A cache management system in the receiving device then uses this information to adjust event information once the event is received.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is described for enabling a single sensor to indicate a greater quantity of information about a sensed event, or the occurrence of many different types of events. A sensor system employs a number of individual sensors with single-use indication means (such as an explosive charge). Each individual sensor is equipped with a chronometer. The sensors are programmed to transmit information through their single-use indication means at specific times with each specific time being indicative of a particular type of event or of specific information about an event. A central monitor chronologically records all sensor indications and compares indication times to a schedule of time keyed information to determine the nature of each sensor indication.

Abstract: A method and system for providing a match on a selected event in performance monitoring of a processing system, the processing system including at least one performance monitor counter (PMC) is disclosed. The method and system comprises initializing the at least one PMC and controlling counting in the at least one PMC based upon the nth occurrence of a match to a specified address, where n is grater than or equal to one.

Abstract: A street sweeper for cleaning municipal streets and commercial parking lots uses a single engine with a modified torque converter on the automatic transmission. The torque converter is designed to lock up or engage higher than on a standard torque converter. This increases the horsepower and torque output of the engine for driving the sweeping apparatus without propelling the vehicle at speeds too high for the sweeping function. As engine rotational speeds increase further, the modified torque converter engages fully and drives the vehicle at desired road speeds.

Abstract: A saturation select apparatus and method are implemented. Late stage logic blocks in an adder are provided which combine saturation select control signals with sum generating signals. A first saturation select control is asserted in response to an unsigned saturated instruction, and a second saturation select control is asserted in response to a signed saturated instruction. If either select control is asserted, each logic block outputs a corresponding bit of a respective saturation value. In response to a modulo mode instruction, both select control signals are negated, and each logic block outputs a corresponding bit of the arithmetic operation (sum or difference) implemented by the instruction.

Abstract: An apparatus for saturation detection and a method therefor are implemented. Selection circuitry selects a data value signal for outputting between an output from an adder receiving a pair of input operands, and a plurality of saturation value signals. Each input operand may include a plurality of subvector operands of a preselected data type, each data type has having a corresponding length. The selection circuitry selects the data value signal in response to a plurality of second signals. The second signals are generated from carry-out signals from the subvector operands, and first signals that are generated using instruction information for the executing instruction. The second signals may be generated by logically combining the first signals with carry propagate, carry generate and carry-out signals from carry lookahead logic receiving the subvector operands as input.

Abstract: Data stream touch instructions are software-directed asynchronous prefetch instructions that can improve the performance of a system. Ideally, such instructions are used in perfect synchronization with the actual memory fetches that are trying to speed up. In practical situations, it is difficult to predict ahead of time all side effects of these instructions and memory access latency/throughput during execution of any large program. Incorrect usage of such instructions can cause degraded performance of the system. Thus, it is advantageous to measure the performance of such instructions.

Abstract: An apparatus for compare and maximum/minimum and a method therefor are implemented. Selection circuitry selects a data value signal for outputting between an a pair of vector operands and “true” and “false” comparison value signals for the corresponding operand data type. Each input operand may include a plurality of subvector operands of a preselected data type, each data type has having a corresponding length. The selection circuitry selects the data value signal in response to a plurality of second signals. The second signals are generated from carry-out signals from the subvector operands, and first signals that are generated using instruction information for the executing instruction. The second signals may be generated by logically combining the first signals with carry propagate, carry generate and carry-out signals from carry lookahead logic receiving the subvector operands as input.

Abstract: An assembly for use in a fiber administration system that retroactively adds a fiber location trace ability to the fiber administration system. The assembly includes an improved connector module that has a receptacle formed near a plurality of optical connector ports. An upgrade tracing module is provided that fits into the receptacle and attaches to the connector module. The upgrade tracing module contains a plurality of lights. When the upgrade tracing module is connected to the connector module, the lights of the upgrade tracing module or oriented near each of the optical connector ports. The upgrade tracing module connects to the systems controller of the fiber administration system through the connector module. As such, the systems controller of the fiber administration system is capable of selectively lighting the lights and identifying a specific optical connector port.

Abstract: A street sweeper for cleaning municipal streets and commercial parking lots uses a single engine with a modified torque converter on the automatic transmission. The torque converter is designed to lock up or engage higher than on a standard torque converter. This increases the horsepower and torque output of the engine for driving the sweeping apparatus without propelling the vehicle at speeds too high for the sweeping function. As engine rotational speeds increase further, the modified torque converter engages fully and drives the vehicle at desired road speeds.

Abstract: A device for cleaning contact lenses, which device comprises a first chamber (1) provided with draining means (3,8), a second chamber (2) adapted to be fluidly communicable with the first chamber (1), a lens holder (20) adapted to be inserted in the first chamber (1) and agitating means (22-28) adapted to agitate the lens holder, wherein the device further comprises a valve (5) adapted to control fluid flow between the first chamber (1) and the draining means (3,8) and between the first (1) and second chambers (2). The valve (5) can be automatically controlled.

Abstract: A crossbar is implemented within multimedia facilities of a processor to perform vector permute operations, in which the bytes of a source operand are reordered in the target output. The crossbar is then reused for other instructions requiring multiplexing or shifting operations, particularly those in which the size of additional multiplexers or the size and delay of a barrel shifter is significant. A wide shift operation, for example, may be performed with one cycle latency by the crossbar and one additional layer of multiplexers or a small barrel shifter. The crossbar facility thus gets reused with improved performance of the instructions now sharing the crossbar and a reduction in the total area required by a multimedia facility within a processor.

Abstract: A crossbar is implemented within multimedia facilities of a processor to perform vector permute operations, in which the bytes of a source operand are reordered in the target output. The crossbar is then reused for other instructions requiring multiplexing or shifting operations, particularly those in which the size of additional multiplexers or the size and delay of a barrel shifter is significant. A wide shift operation, for example, may be performed with one cycle latency by the crossbar and one additional layer of multiplexers or a small barrel shifter. The crossbar facility thus gets reused with improved performance of the instructions now sharing the crossbar and a reduction in the total area required by a multimedia facility within a processor.

Abstract: Current software technology entails writing application programs in a high level language intended to facilitate portability to different computer processor platforms. Because the program is portable, the resulting object code is not tailored to run as efficiently as possible on the particular computer processor platform. Manually tuning a specific application program may be done, but it is time consuming and is rarely done by the end user. The disclosed invention provides an automated method of tuning application programs to execute more efficiently.

Abstract: A lockable quick release mechanism is provided having a cam lever threaded onto a shaft which extends through and beyond a barrel nut, fitted in the cam lever so that it will provide interference with a padlock when locked. The cam lever has a lock hole for the padlock, and a curvature which, when locked, will stop the cam lever from being rotated more than a few degrees due to interference with the fork blade. A cam follower is provided on the shaft and has anti-rotation tabs, which fit into the clevis of the cam lever, and which engages the camming surface of the cam lever thereby preventing the cam lever from being rotated in the locked position due to the amount of friction between the cam follower and the fork tip. The cam follower is always biased by a spring against the camming surface to prevent a fork blade from being mis-positioned between the cam follower and the camming surface.

Abstract: A performance monitor implementing a plurality of counters counts several events to provide an instruction fetch bandwidth analysis, a cycles per instruction (CPI) infinite and finite analysis, an operand fetch bandwidth analysis, an instruction parallelism analysis, and a trailing edge analysis. Such analyses are performed on the performance of a data processing system in order that the designer may develop an improved processor architecture.

Abstract: A crossbar is implemented within multimedia facilities of a processor to perform vector permute operations, in which the bytes of a source operand are reordered in the target output. The crossbar is then reused for other instructions requiring multiplexing or shifting operations, particularly those in which the size of additional multiplexers or the size and delay of a barrel shifter is significant. A vector pack instruction with saturation detection, for example, may be performed with one cycle latency by the crossbar and a correction multiplexer for substituting saturated values. The crossbar facility thus gets reused with improved performance of the instructions now sharing the crossbar and a reduction in the total area required by a multimedia facility within a processor.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus to descreen a halftoned picture takes into account the actual distribution of black or colors on the print without the need for scanning printed images but, rather, using only the printing decision matrix and the printer characteristics. For the purpose of laser printing, or more generally for reproduction on any printing device with a limited number of printing levels, a color or grayscale image has to be transformed into an array of printing decisions at each pixel of the output image. Sometimes this array is the only available representation of the original image. One may desire to reconstitute a good approximation of the original grayscale image from this array, for instance to print the picture on a printer with different characteristics from the printer for which the array was originally prepared, or to display it on a high resolution monitor. The method and apparatus to solve this problem in a way which take precise account of printer characteristics is described.