Abstract: Various embodiments provide mechanisms that mitigate organizational exposures when evaluating and choosing computer applications, enhancements, and modifications thereto. Some embodiments provide technological solutions that allow for rapid application prototyping, deployment, evaluation, testing, and the act of going live in a production environment. Some such embodiments provide applications including content and data, in the form of virtual appliance templates, that is pre-installed, pre-configured, pre-tested, and pre-loaded in a very rapid manner. Some embodiments may further allow for cloning of the instantiated application to another virtual computing environment, and utilization from that location on forward looking basis.

Abstract: Various embodiments provide mechanisms that mitigate organizational exposures when evaluating and choosing computer applications, enhancements, and modifications thereto. Some embodiments provide technological solutions that allow for rapid application prototyping, deployment, evaluation, testing, and the act of going live in a production environment. Some such embodiments provide applications including content and data, in the form of virtual appliance templates, that is pre-installed, pre-configured, pre-tested, and pre-loaded in a very rapid manner. Some embodiments may further allow for cloning of the instantiated application to another virtual computing environment, and utilization from that location on forward looking basis.

Abstract: This rim fits inside any regulation basketball rim thus decreasing the area that the ball fits through. The “swish shot” rim causes one to shoot swishes (having the ball go through the hoop without touching the rim). It will also help develop arch on the ball and overall increases accuracy in shooting—especially shooting foul shots and “jump” shots. This is the rim you practice on until you can consistently make your shots. This will increase your shooting percentage tremendously on the regulation rim. Note —takes less than 5 minutes to attach or detach to a regulation rim.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved input/output (I/O) circuit that comprises a pair of buffers, a voltage reference circuit that provides first and second reference voltages to the buffers respectively, and a detection circuit. The detection circuit detects whether a supply voltage is below a switching voltage, which is a pre-selected value between operating ranges of two pre-defined supply voltages, e.g., 3.3V and 5V, respectively. If the supply voltage is below the switching voltage, the detection circuit controls the voltage reference circuit to set the first and second reference voltages to first and second predetermined values, e.g., a ground level and the supply voltage, respectively. In this way, the large signal swings of the signals output by the buffers can be substantially maintained. Therefore, high speed operations can be achieved.

Abstract: A configurable universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) facilitates efforts to upgrade UART functionality in the field and replace older UART devices. In one example embodiment, an integrated circuit includes a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter configured and arranged to operate in one of a plurality of modes, with each mode being selectable in response to mode-selecting data. The integrated circuit device includes an interface circuit electrically connected to the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter and adapted to present the mode-selecting data to the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter. The integrated circuit device also includes a selection circuit adapted to enable the mode-selecting data to pass from the interface circuit to the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved input/output (I/O) circuit that comprises a pair of buffers, a voltage reference circuit that provides first and second reference voltages to the buffers respectively, and a detection circuit. The detection circuit detects whether a supply voltage is below a switching voltage, which is a pre-selected value between operating ranges of two pre-defined supply voltages, e.g., 3.3V and 5V, respectively. If the supply voltage is below the switching voltage, the detection circuit controls the voltage reference circuit to set the first and second reference voltages to first and second predetermined values, e.g., a ground level and the supply voltage, respectively. In this way, the large signal swings of the signals output by the buffers can be substantially maintained. Therefore, high speed operations can be achieved.

Abstract: A configurable universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) facilitates efforts to upgrade UART functionality in the field and replace older UART devices. In one example embodiment, an integrated circuit includes a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter configured and arranged to operate in one of a plurality of modes, with each mode being selectable in response to mode-selecting data. The integrated circuit device includes an interface circuit electrically connected to the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter and adapted to present the mode-selecting data to the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter. The integrated circuit device also includes a selection circuit adapted to enable the mode-selecting data to pass from the interface circuit to the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter.

Abstract: Only the value of the least-significant bit, or of some of the less-significant bits is used in order to test an analog-to-digital converter in an integrated circuit. The information concerning the differential and the integral non-linearity can be determined from the values of said less-significant bit. Furthermore, the functionality of the analog-to-digital converter is tested by counting the number of changes of the least-significant bit and by comparing this number with the value formed by the other bits.