Abstract: A conjugate pair of intermeshing rotors include helical lobes having helical crests and intervening grooves and are adapted for rotation about parallel axes within a working space of a screw rotor machine. Each rotor has a tip circle, a pitch circle, and a root circle. One rotor of each pair is a female rotor formed such that a major portion of each lobe of the female rotor is located inside the pitch circle of the female rotor. The other rotor is a male rotor formed such that a major portion of each lobe of the male rotor is located outside the pitch circle of the male rotor. The lobes of one rotor follow the grooves of the other rotor to form a continuous sealing line between the pair of rotors. Each of the lobes have a primary flank portion and a secondary flank portion. The primary flank portion of the lobes of the female rotor have a profile formed from at least one ellipse, and the primary flank portion of the lobes of the male rotor have a profile formed from at least one ellipse.

Abstract: A fiberoptic network with an optical supervisory channel in each of the optical fibers interconnecting the nodes of the network is described. Together with IP routers, the optical supervisory channels form a control network over which signaling and control signals are exchanged by which provisioning and restoration operations are performed at each node. To restore connections between the nodes upon a failure of the network, the control network helps to maintain at each node a synchronized database of network connections between the nodes, send messages to other nodes to initiate restoration operations by a node noticing the failure; and recalculate network connections around the failure by each node from a synchronized database at the node.

Abstract: An external cache management unit for use with 3D-RAM and suitable for use in a computer graphics system is described. The unit maintains and tracks the status of level one cache memory in the 3D-RAM. The unit identifies dirty blocks of cache memory and prioritizes block cleansing based on a least used algorithm. Periodic block cleansing during empty memory cycles is provided for, and may also be prompted on demand.

Abstract: A heat dissipating device for a heat generating unit, includes a heat sink placed on the heat generating unit, and two clip members located at opposite sides of the heat sink for securing the heat sink to the heat generating unit. Each clip member includes an operating member movably attached to the heat sink, and a fastening member connected with the operating member. The operating member is movable from a lower position to an upper position to cause the bottom portion of the fastening member to move upwardly via the operating member acting on the fastening member.

Abstract: A heat dissipating device for a heat generating unit, includes a heat sink placed on the heat generating unit, and two clip members located at opposite sides of the heat sink for securing the heat sink to the heat generating unit. Each clip member includes an operating member movably attached to the heat sink, and a fastening member connected with the operating member. The operating member is movable from a lower position to an upper position to cause the bottom portion of the fastening member to move upwardly via the operating member acting on the fastening member.

Abstract: A sample filtering system and method for concurrently filtering sample data for two or more sequential pixels (in a scan-line) are disclosed. The system may include a sample cache, a control register, a read cache controller, and a sample-to-pixel calculation unit. The read cache controller reads a first set of S samples from the sample cache, and outputs a second set of S samples to the sample-to-pixel calculation unit. The second set of samples may have one or more subsets of samples, with each subset of samples selected to cover the filter region for one of the sequential pixels. The sample-to-pixel calculation unit may process each subset separately and concurrently.

Abstract: A curved side oil or fluid separator element for separating liquid or oil from a gas flow has a body portion made of filter media with opposing upper and lower ends. A curved side extends between the upper and lower ends and rotates 360° about a central axis of the body portion to form a curved surface of the body portion. The curved side of the body portion can be any one of a hyperbolically curved side, a circular arc curved side, an elliptically curved side, or any other curve except a straight line, and any combinations of these curves. In one aspect, the curved side of the body portion is adapted for in-out gas flow allowing the gas flow to exit through the curved side to a communicating outlet of a separator housing. In another aspect, the curved side of the body portion is adapted for out-in gas flow for receiving the gas flow through the curved side from a communicating inlet of the separator housing.

Abstract: A system and method for generating pixels for a display device. The system may include a sample buffer for storing a plurality samples in a memory, a sample cache for caching recently accessed samples, and a sample filter unit for filtering one or more samples to generate a pixel. The generated pixels may then be stored in a frame buffer or provided to a display device. The method operates to take advantage of the common samples shared by neighboring pixels in both the x and y directions for reduced sample buffer accesses and improved performance. The method involves reading samples from the memory that correspond to pixels in a plurality of neighboring scan lines, and possibly also to multiple pixels in each of these scan lines. The samples may be stored in a cache memory and then accessed from the cache memory for filtering. The method maximizes use of the common samples shared by neighboring pixels in both the x and y directions.

Abstract: A system for managing the control of a bi-directional data bus between a master unit and a slave unit. The master couples to the slave through a request opcode bus, a reply opcode bus and the data bus. If the master is in a bus driving state (with respect to the data bus) and receives a read request, the master relinquishes bus control and sends a read request through the request opcode bus. The slave unit assumes bus control and sends the requested data through the data bus. If the master is in a bus sensing state and receives a write request, the master sends a last read opcode to the slave via the request opcode bus, and waits for the slave to return a special token through the reply opcode bus. Upon receiving the special token the master unit assumes bus control and performs the write transaction.

Abstract: A graphics system includes a frame buffer, a write address generator, and a pixel buffer. A burst of pixels received from the frame buffer may not be in display order. In one embodiment, a write address generator calculates a write address for each pixel in the burst of pixels output from the frame buffer. The write address corresponds to a relative display order within the burst for each respective pixel. Each pixel in the burst is stored to its write address in the pixel buffer. This way, the pixels in the burst are stored in display order within the pixel buffer.

Abstract: A system and method for packing pixels together to provide a increased fill rate in a frame buffer hardware in the graphics system. The graphics system may be configured to receive and rasterize graphics data at a faster cycle rate than the system's frame buffer memory fill rate. The output from the rasterization hardware may be stored in a FIFO memory that is configured to selectively shift pixels in order to improve fill rate performance. The FIFO memory may be configured to ensure that the pixels meet certain criteria in order to prevent page faults and interleave conflicts that could reduce the fill rate. The FIFO memory may also be configured to remove empty cycles that occur as a result of the pixel packing.

Abstract: A conjugate pair of intermeshing rotors having helical lobes having helical crests and intervening grooves and adapted for rotation about parallel axes within a working space of a screw rotor machine. Each rotor has a tip circle, a pitch circle, and a root circle, one rotor of each pair being a female rotor such that the major portion of each lobe of said female rotor is located inside the pitch circle of the female rotor. The other rotor is a male rotor formed such that the major portion of each lobe of said male rotor is located outside said pitch circle of the male rotor. The lobes of one rotor follow the grooves of the other rotor to form a continuous sealing line between said pair of rotors, each of the lobes having a primary and secondary flank portion, wherein the primary flank portion of said lobes of the female rotor have a profile formed from at least one ellipse and the primary flank portion of the lobes of the male rotor have a profile formed from at least one ellipses.

Abstract: A graphics system may include a frame buffer that includes several sets of one or more memory banks and a cache. The frame buffer may load data from one of the memory banks into the cache in response to receiving a cache fill request. Each set of memory banks is accessible independently of each other set of memory banks. A frame buffer interface coupled to the frame buffer includes a plurality of cache fill request queues. Each cache fill request queue is configured to store one or more cache fill requests targeting a corresponding one of the sets of memory banks. The frame buffer interface is configured to select a cache fill request from one of the cache fill request queues that stores cache fill requests targeting a set of memory banks that is not currently being accessed and to provide the selected cache fill request to the frame buffer.

Abstract: A graphics system may include a frame buffer, a processing device coupled to access data in the frame buffer, a frame buffer interface coupled to the frame buffer, and an output controller configured to assert a request for display data to provide to a display device. The frame buffer interface may receive the request for display data from the output controller and delay providing the request for display data to the frame buffer if the processing device is currently requesting access to a portion of the frame buffer targeted by the request for display data. For example, if the frame buffer includes several memory banks and the request for display data targets a first bank, the frame buffer interface may delay providing the request for display data to the frame buffer if the processing device is currently requesting access to the first bank.

Abstract: A system and method for rasterizing and rendering graphics data is disclosed. Vertices may be grouped to form primitives such as triangles, which are rasterized using two-dimensional arrays of samples bins. Individual samples may be selected from the bins according to different criteria such as memory bank allocation to improve utilization of the system's rendering pipeline. Since the arrays may have more bins than the number of evaluation units in the rendering pipeline, the samples from the bins may be stored to FIFO memories to allow invalid or empty samples (those outside the primitive being rendered) to be removed. The samples may then be filtered to form pixels that are displayable to form an image on a display device.

Abstract: A curved side oil or fluid separator element for separating liquid or oil from a gas flow has a body portion made of filter media with opposing upper and lower ends. A curved side extends between the upper and lower ends and rotates 360° about a central axis of the body portion to form a curved surface of the body portion. The curved side of the body portion can be any one of a hyperbolically curved side, a circular arc curved side, an elliptically curved side, or any other curve except a straight line, and any combinations of these curves. In one aspect, the curved side of the body portion is adapted for in-out gas flow allowing the gas flow to exit through the curved side to a communicating outlet of a separator housing. In another aspect, the curved side of the body portion is adapted for out-in gas flow for receiving the gas flow through the curved side from a communicating inlet of the separator housing.

Abstract: A sample filtering system and method for concurrently filtering sample data for two or more sequential pixels (in a scan-line) are disclosed. The system may include a sample cache, a control register, a read cache controller, and a sample-to-pixel calculation unit. The read cache controller reads a first set of S samples from the sample cache, and outputs a second set of S samples to the sample-to-pixel calculation unit. The second set of samples may have one or more subsets of samples, with each subset of samples selected to cover the filter region for one of the sequential pixels. The sample-to-pixel calculation unit may process each subset separately and concurrently.

Abstract: An external cache management unit for use with a 3D-RAM frame buffer and suitable for use in a computer graphics system is described. The unit may reduce power consumption within the 3D-RAM by performing partial block write-back according to status information stored in an array of dirty tag bits. Periodic level one cache block cleansing is provided for during empty memory cycles.

Abstract: An axial slide valve is provided with an axially extending fluid chamber at each end with one chamber receiving a spring and being acted on by suction pressure and the other chamber coacting with a fixed piston and being acted upon by discharge pressure or the like whereby the slide valve is positioned so as to balance the spring and fluid pressures and thereby the compressor capacity.

Abstract: An axial slide valve is provided with an axially extending fluid chamber at each end with one chamber receiving a spring and being acted on by suction pressure and the other chamber coacting with a fixed piston and being acted upon by discharge pressure or the like whereby the slide valve is positioned so as to balance the spring and fluid pressures and thereby the compressor capacity.