Patents by Inventor Michael Alex

Michael Alex has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20090208312
    Abstract: A plant (1;20) for transferring cargo (23) to and from a ship (24), said plant comprising an elevated rail structure (2) and a crane unit (3) where the elevated rail structure (2) is arranged on one side of the ship (24) and comprises a longitudinal rail (6) which extends essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the ship and where the crane unit is arranged to transfer a load or a group of loads to and from said ship, is supported by said longitudinal rail and is displaceable along said longitudinal rail. The crane unit furthermore comprises a boom (10) and a trolley (21) where the boom of said crane unit extends essentially perpendicular to the longitudinal rail such that one end of the boom extends over the ship; and where the boom of said crane unit comprises a transverse rail (13) which extends in a direction which is essentially transverse to the longitudinal rail and essentially parallel to the centre line of the boom.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2007
    Publication date: August 20, 2009
    Applicant: APM Terminals Management B.V.
    Inventors: Angelo De Jong, Laurids Uglvig, Anders Kjeldsen, Michael Alex Jordan
  • Publication number: 20080096174
    Abstract: A tutorial generation unit (100) is introduced for explaining to a user multimedia management behavior of a multimedia item management system (130) arranged to manage multimedia items (164, 166, 168, 169) according to user preferences by means of at least one multimedia management rule (MMR).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2005
    Publication date: April 24, 2008
    Applicant: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS, N.V.
    Inventors: Maarten Peter Bodlaender, Michael Alex Van Hartskamp
  • Publication number: 20080028300
    Abstract: The present invention automates the publishing of financial, legal, and governmental documents and any other publications that are structured and require compliance with corporate or external standards and may share content elements. It gives users control in an always-on, familiar environment: the Internet. Due to its virtual document architecture and ability to operate over the Internet and intranets, the system facilitates collaborative work and traces accountability. The key concept behind automating publishing is to control scheduling and costs by better content management. The present invention handles document content as small, reusable components, down to the paragraph and table cell level. The interface helps users assemble documents from these version-controlled components with automated support. The system applies context and filtering criteria stored with each component to locate and apply content fragments to a current document.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2004
    Publication date: January 31, 2008
    Inventors: Michael Alex Krieger, Becky Cartine, Loren Davie, David Napolitan, Amy Smith, Kathie Brown, Scott C. Kelly
  • Publication number: 20070230000
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for quantifying stress and damage in magnetic heads. A change in a performance parameter of a magnetic recording head is characterized. The head is stressed by loading it onto and flying it over a rough zone of the recording medium. A post-stress read-back signal is read from the bit pattern written on the recording medium using the head subsequent to the stressing of the head. A performance parameter of the head is calculated using the post-stress read-back signal. The performance parameter of the head calculated using the post-stress read-back signal is compared to a performance parameter of the head calculated using a pre-stress read-back signal to characterize a change in performance of the head resulting from the stressing of the head.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Publication date: October 4, 2007
    Inventors: Michael Alex, Li Tang
  • Patent number: 7216205
    Abstract: Transferring cache line ownership between processors in a shared memory multi-processor computer system. A request for ownership of a cache line is sent from a requesting processor to a memory unit. The memory unit receives the request and determines which one of a plurality of processors other than the requesting processor has ownership of the requested cache line. The memory sends an ownership recall to that processor. In response to the ownership recall, the other processor sends the requested cache line to the requesting processor, which may send a response to the memory unit to confirm receipt of the requested cache line. The other processor may optionally send a response to the memory unit to confirm that the other processor has sent the requested cache line to the requesting processor. A copy of the data for the requested cache line may, under some circumstances, also be sent to the memory unit by the other processor as part of the response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2007
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Christopher Alan Greer, Michael Alex Schroeder, Gary Belgrave Gostin
  • Patent number: 7196860
    Abstract: An apparatus and method write data to a storage medium, and subsequently automatically refresh the data to avoid loss of the data due to spontaneous thermal degradation. The apparatus and method may check whether an indicator (also called “refresh indicator”) if saved contemporaneous with writing of the data satisfies a predetermined condition indicating that the data needs to be refreshed. If so, a “refresh” operation is performed, wherein the to-be-refreshed data is read from and written back to the same storage medium. The refresh indicator can be any parameter that indicates a need to refresh the data prior to occurrence of one or more soft errors. In one example, the apparatus and method read the data back contemporaneous with writing of the data, and measure an amplitude of a readback signal and store, as the refresh indicator, a predetermined fraction (e.g. half) of the measured value (i.e., a threshold number). When a current value of the amplitude falls below the stored value, the data is refreshed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: Komag, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael Alex
  • Publication number: 20060066971
    Abstract: To ameliorate the effects of ATE in a HDD, tracks that are potential victim tracks of an aggressor track by virtue of the victim tracks being exposed to a magnetic field associated with a write of the aggressor track are preemptively rewritten after an empirically-determined number of writes to the aggressor track, with the empirically-determined number of writes being selected to ensure that the cumulative effects of aggressor writes do not rise to the level that would be expected to result in a significant amount of lost data on the victim tracks. Alternatively, potential victim tracks can be scanned for error rates and if any error rates violate a threshold, the victim tracks can be rewritten when the disk is idle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2004
    Publication date: March 30, 2006
    Inventors: Michael Alex, Hideki Zaitsu
  • Publication number: 20040047062
    Abstract: An apparatus and method write data to a storage medium, and subsequently automatically refresh the data to avoid loss of the data due to spontaneous thermal degradation. The apparatus and method may check whether an indicator (also called “refresh indicator”) if saved contemporaneous with writing of the data satisfies a predetermined condition indicating that the data needs to be refreshed. If so, a “refresh” operation is performed, wherein the to-be-refreshed data is read from and written back to the same storage medium. The refresh indicator can be any parameter that indicates a need to refresh the data prior to occurrence of one or more soft errors. In one example, the apparatus and method read the data back contemporaneous with writing of the data, and measure an amplitude of a readback signal and store, as the refresh indicator, a predetermined fraction (e.g. half) of the measured value (i.e., a threshold number).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2003
    Publication date: March 11, 2004
    Inventor: Michael Alex
  • Patent number: 6628466
    Abstract: An apparatus and method write data to a storage medium, and subsequently automatically refresh the data to avoid loss of the data due to spontaneous thermal degradation. The apparatus and method may check whether an indicator (also called “refresh indicator”) if saved contemporaneous with writing of the data satisfies a predetermined condition indicating that the data needs to be refreshed. If so, a “refresh” operation is performed, wherein the to-be-refreshed data is read from and written back to the same storage medium. The refresh indicator can be any parameter that indicates a need to refresh the data prior to occurrence of one or more soft errors. In one example, the apparatus and method read the data back contemporaneous with writing of the data, and measure an amplitude of a readback signal and store, as the refresh indicator, a predetermined fraction (e.g. half) of the measured value (i.e., a threshold number).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2003
    Assignee: Komag, Inc
    Inventor: Michael Alex
  • Publication number: 20030007269
    Abstract: An apparatus and method write data to a storage medium, and subsequently automatically refresh the data to avoid loss of the data due to spontaneous thermal degradation. The apparatus and method may check whether an indicator (also called “refresh indicator”) if saved contemporaneous with writing of the data satisfies a predetermined condition indicating that the data needs to be refreshed. If so, a “refresh” operation is performed, wherein the to-be-refreshed data is read from and written back to the same storage medium. The refresh indicator can be any parameter that indicates a need to refresh the data prior to occurrence of one or more soft errors. In one example, the apparatus and method read the data back contemporaneous with writing of the data, and measure an amplitude of a readback signal and store, as the refresh indicator, a predetermined fraction (e.g. half) of the measured value (i.e., a threshold number).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2002
    Publication date: January 9, 2003
    Inventor: Michael Alex
  • Patent number: 6429984
    Abstract: An apparatus and method write data to a storage medium, and subsequently automatically refresh the data to avoid loss of the data due to spontaneous thermal degradation. The apparatus and method may check whether an indicator (also called “refresh indicator”) if saved contemporaneous with writing of the data satisfies a predetermined condition indicating that the data needs to be refreshed. If so, a “refresh” operation is performed, wherein the to-be-refreshed data is read from and written back to the same storage medium. The refresh indicator can be any parameter that indicates a need to refresh the data prior to occurrence of one or more soft errors. In one example, the apparatus and method read the data back contemporaneous with writing of the data, and measure an amplitude of a readback signal and store, as the refresh indicator, a predetermined fraction (e.g. half) of the measured value (i.e., a threshold number).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2002
    Assignee: Komag, INC
    Inventor: Michael Alex
  • Publication number: 20020080508
    Abstract: An apparatus and method write data to a storage medium, and subsequently automatically refresh the data to avoid loss of the data due to spontaneous thermal degradation. The apparatus and method may check whether an indicator (also called “refresh indicator”) if saved contemporaneous with writing of the data satisfies a predetermined condition indicating that the data needs to be refreshed. If so, a “refresh” operation is performed, wherein the to-be-refreshed data is read from and written back to the same storage medium. The refresh indicator can be any parameter that indicates a need to refresh the data prior to occurrence of one or more soft errors. In one example, the apparatus and method read the data back contemporaneous with writing of the data, and measure an amplitude of a readback signal and store, as the refresh indicator, a predetermined fraction (e.g. half) of the measured value (i.e., a threshold number).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 1999
    Publication date: June 27, 2002
    Inventor: MICHAEL ALEX
  • Patent number: 5616218
    Abstract: A method for selectively choosing the magnetic properties of a sputter deposited recording layer of a magnetic recording medium comprises sputtering a target of metal underlayer material onto a substrate to deposit an underlayer film and selectively collimating the sputtered underlayer particles to vary the arrival energy and angular distribution of the sputter particles striking the substrate to selectively establish the orientation of the crystals making up the underlayer film. A magnetic metal film is then sputter deposited upon the underlayer film to form a magnetic recording layer, the magnetic metal film having a crystal texture and recording properties affected by the orientation of the crystals in the underlayer film. The magnetic properties of the magnetic recording layer are chosen by selectively collimating while sputter depositing the underlayer material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 1, 1997
    Assignees: Matereials Research Corporation, Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Michael Alex