Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a first layer, first and second active areas disposed on the first layer; a trench disposed between the first and second active areas, an insulating oxide that fills the trench to a level below a surface of the first and second active layers, and a nitride cap disposed on top of the insulating oxide so that the first and second active areas can be cleaned without damaging the insulating oxide. A top surface of the nitride cap in regions adjacent to the first and second active areas in aligned with a top surface of the first and second active areas, a top surface of the nitride cap in a center region of the nitride cap is stepped below the top surface of the adjacent regions, and a void is formed between the top surface regions adjacent to the first and second active areas.

Abstract: A method of deploying a software application on the Internet cloud that is failure-tolerant includes identifying those aspects of a software application that need to be persisted in the event of failure, and those aspects of the application that do not need to be persisted, and deploying the application where aspects that need to be persisted are deployed to persistent storage and aspects that aspects that do not need to be persisted are deployed ton non-persistent virtual partitions, where when a virtual partition or an application component fails, an instance of the application is recreatable from those application aspects that were deployed to persistent storage.