Abstract: A system and method for estimating a channel spectrum. The method includes: (a) receiving an input signal from a channel, where the input signal includes one or more major echoes and zero or more minor echoes introduced by the channel; (b) identifying the one or more major echoes present in the input signal; (c) identifying the minor echoes from a filtered autocorrelation function of the input signal in response to a determination that there is only one major echo; (d) identifying the minor echoes from a filtered power spectrum of the input signal in response to a determination that there is more than one major echo; (e) computing a channel spectrum estimate from the major echoes and minor echoes; where the channel spectrum estimate is usable to remove at least a portion of the one or more major echoes and one or more minor echoes from the input signal.

Abstract: A method for analog transmission of a video signal from a video source to a video sink is provided. The video signal contains a sequence of frames with a first image resolution and a first image frequency at the video source. The sequence of frames is converted to a sequence of image segments having a second image resolution that is lower than the first image resolution, and an image frequency that is higher than the first image frequency. The sequence of image segments is transmitted from the video source to the video sink, and a sequence of frames having the first image resolution is reconstructed at the video sink, the first image resolution is higher than the image resolution of a frame according to a video standard, and the second image resolution is equal to the image resolution of a frame or field according to the said video standard.

Abstract: A fast video encoder (100) and method (500) for selecting (809) Inter macro-block mode or intra macro-block mode is provided. The method can include estimating (502) a rate-distortion cost (801) of a plurality of predictors (203) for coding a video (201), selecting (504) a predictive coding mode for the video based on a minimization of the rate-distortion cost, and coding (505) the image using a predictive mode associated with the minimum rate-distortion cost. The rate-distortion cost can be estimated across Intra macro-block modes and Inter macro-block modes for reducing a computational complexity. Rate-Distortion costs can be terminated early (524) based on statistical information (522) across a plurality of predictors for increasing an encoding speed. A fast estimation of the rate-distortion cost associated with the Intra macro-block mode for making inter/intra macro-block mode decision in a video coding system by exploiting the coding statistics across prediction modes is presented.

Abstract: In a high-efficiency encoder which performs motion-compensation prediction, an intra-field is set every n fields. The presence of a scene change is detected. When a scene change occurs, a reference picture of motion-compensation prediction is switched, or the field immediately after the scene change is set as an intra-field.

Abstract: A video transcoding method is provided for transcoding a first signal stream compressed by a first coding scheme to a second signal stream compressed by a second coding scheme. The method employs an adaptive frame rate and a joint temporal-spatial rate control technique, such that the overall quality of compressed MPEG video can be significantly enhanced when the transcoding is controlled in the joint temporal (picture or frame rate) and spatial (quantization) domains. One embodiment considers transcoding from high bit rate video with larger image size (e.g. 4CIF/4SIF, CIF) coded by one coding technique, e.g., MPEG-2 to a lower bit rate video with smaller image size (e.g. CIF, QCIF) coded by the same or another coding technique, e.g., MPEG-4.

Abstract: The present invention discloses the video coding method using image data skipping. Said method detects whether the encoded macro-block has to be skipped and terminated by a likelihood ratio test prior to mode decision. Therefore, the computation burden such as motion estimating and compensating can be properly eliminated. In one embodiment, the skipping likelihood ratio is composed of the encoded block and its predictions associated with the skipping displacement. While the decision threshold adapts according to the mode decision and detection statistics, the false detection and rate-distortion are substantially preserved.

Abstract: A video processing system 100 is provided with video encoding device 10 and video decoding device 20. The video encoding device 10 implements backward interframe prediction from a temporally subsequent frame and outputs information indicating that an option to eliminate use of a decoded image of the temporally subsequent frame was chosen. The video decoding device 20 eliminates use of the decoded image of the frame on the basis of this information, in conjunction with input of the information for eliminating use of the decoded image of the temporally subsequent frame.

Abstract: The calculation processing amount of encoding processing is reduced while suppressing a decrease in encoding efficiency. An encoding method includes the steps of generating predicted image data from an image of a predetermined reference frame; generating differential image data from a difference between the predicted image data and image data of one frame of the input image data; performing discrete cosine transformation processing and quantization processing for the differential image data for generating encoded image data; performing variable-length encoding processing for the encoded image data for generating an encoded stream; and performing reference frame update determination processing in which a correlation between the image of the reference frame and the image of the one frame is determined for deciding whether or not the one frame is to be used as a new reference frame.

Abstract: An image search method may include: determining a quadrant of a predicted motion vector; calculating a tilt value of a first reference frame and a tilt value of a second reference frame using the predicted motion vector; deciding a search area for uneven hexagon search in response to the quadrant of the predicted motion vector and the calculated tilt values; performing the uneven hexagon search with respect to the decided search area; and/or comparing a result of the performed uneven hexagon search with a threshold value to determine termination of the uneven hexagon search. The second reference frame is earlier-in-time relative to the first reference frame.

Abstract: An apparatus generally having a reference memory and a motion estimation circuit is disclosed. The reference memory may store reference samples used in a motion estimation of a current block beyond a boundary of a picture. The motion estimation circuit may (i) buffer the reference samples as copied from the reference memory, the reference samples as buffered residing both (a) inside the boundary and (b) inside a search window of the motion estimation, (ii) shift a sub-set of the reference samples to align with a corner of a sub-window, the sub-window being (a) completely within the search window and (b) at least partially outside of the boundary, (iii) fill an empty portion of the sub-window with copies of the reference samples within the sub-set and (iv) generate difference values by comparing the current block against the reference samples within the sub-window a plurality of times.

Abstract: A system and method for effectively encoding and decoding electronic information includes an encoding system with a tiling module that initially divides source image data into data tiles. A frame differencing module then outputs only altered data tiles to various processing modules that convert the altered data tiles into corresponding tile components. A quantizer performs a compression procedure upon the tile components to generate compressed data according to an adjustable quantization parameter. An adaptive entropy selector then selects one of a plurality of available entropy encoders to most effectively perform an entropy encoding procedure to thereby produce encoded data. The entropy encoder may also utilize a feedback loop to adjust the quantization parameter in light of current transmission bandwidth characteristics.

Abstract: A method and system for embedding an electronic watermark directly in an MPEG stream is provided. An intra-macroblock of an I-frame or of a P or B-frame is detected in an MPEG stream, and following the detection of an intra-macroblock of the I-frame or of the P or B-frame, data for one macroblock are extracted from the MPEG stream and buffered. An embedding pattern is embedded in the buffered macroblock without changing the length of VLC, and the resultant macroblock is returned to the MPEG stream. More specifically, a DC factor is extracted from the buffered macroblock, and a pseudorandom number is generated to produce an embedding pattern. Then, whether the bit length of the DC factor will not be changed by embedding the obtained embedded pattern is determined. When the bit length of the DC factor not be changed, the embedding pattern is embedded in the buffered macroblock. When the bit length will be changed, whether ½ of the embedding pattern can be embedded is determined.

Abstract: A method of encoding, transmitting and decoding data over a wireless medium, including, selecting a number of bits N representing a symbol, creating a set of at least 2 to the power of N equal sized codewords with a larger number of bits than N, representing the 2 to the power of N possible combinations of N bit symbols, receiving a stream of data, replacing every N bit symbol from the stream of data with its representative codeword from the created set, transmitting the codewords using a faster transmission bit rate such that the transmission time allocated for each codeword is substantially the same as the time duration required to transmit the original bits it replaced.

Abstract: The present invention is an improvement to previously known systems for controller area networks and the method of communicating across such networks. The system and method introduces interpolated time markers to provide higher resolution bit container, for communicating data bits across the data bus of a three-wire controller area network. The interpolated time markers allow devices on a controller area network to effectively double tie amount of bandwidth available for communication and can in some cases even further increase the bandwidth beyond a factor of two.

Abstract: A method and system for recursively detecting MIMO signals is provided. The method may include receiving an RF vector signal comprising a plurality of transmitted subcarriers and determining an estimate of the received RF vector signal in a recursive manner on a per symbol or even a per sample basis. The method may also include normalizing a plurality of the transmitted subcarriers utilizing at least one subcarrier normalizer before performing the recursive algorithm. A systolic array may be used to process the multi-antenna received data in parallel and the state variables of the systolic array may be stored to a memory before processing the next subcarrier. The receiver and transmitter may be part of a MIMO system, where a beam-forming matrix may be communicated from the receiver to the transmitter, and the signals may conform to an OFDM standard.

Abstract: An efficient channel estimation system and method provides good performance under high Doppler conditions and is suitable for OFDM systems such as DVB-T. A number of different pilot interpolations techniques enable the estimation of channel for the OFDM systems. For 2k and 4k modes, the channel is estimated using the preceding symbol, the present symbol, and two succeeding symbols. For an 8k mode, only one future symbol is used to estimate the channel.

Abstract: Each transmitter is assigned a time-only pilot code, a frequency-only pilot code, or a time-frequency pilot code to use for pilot transmission. The pilot codes may be pseudo-random, orthogonal, and/or cyclic-shift codes. To obtain a channel estimate for a transmitter using a time-frequency pilot code composed of a time-only code and a frequency-only code, a receiver multiplies a set of received symbols for each symbol period with a set of code values for the frequency-only code to obtain a set of detected symbols and performs an IDFT on the set of detected symbols to obtain an initial impulse response estimate. The receiver performs code matching on multiple initial impulse response estimates derived for multiple symbol periods with the time-only code to obtain a final impulse response estimate for the desired transmitter. The receiver retains the first L channel taps and zeroes out remaining channel taps, where L is the expected channel length.

Abstract: A method of processing an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplex (OFDM) signal having a plurality of data carriers and a plurality of unused carriers is disclosed. The method comprises transforming an original frequency-domain OFDM signal into a time domain signal and simulating the effect of a non-linear amplifier on the time-domain signal to provide a potentially distorted time domain signal. The potentially distorted time domain signal is transformed into a potentially distorted frequency domain signal and at least some of any values of the data carriers in the potentially distorted frequency domain signal are restored with corresponding values from the original frequency domain signal. At least some of the unused carriers in the at least partially restored frequency domain signal are scaled with a scaling factor.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for providing a relay service in an OFDM mobile communication system are provided, in which symbol synchronization is acquired from a received OFDM signal, an OFDM signal is acquired using the symbol synchronization, and a relay signal is reconfigured by removing a cyclic prefix from the acquired OFDM signal, amplifying the relay signal, and transmitting the relay signal.

Abstract: A soft symbol decoder for use in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) system. The decoder generates soft symbol values for a digital signal that represents a number of source bits. The source bits are transmitted as symbols in corresponding to points in a signaling constellation. Soft metrics are determined by searching for all possible multi-dimensional symbols that could have been transmitted. The method includes transmitting a sample of the multi-dimensional symbol using K transmit antennas. The multi-dimensional symbol is represent-able as a complex, K-dimensional vector x. Each vector component of vector x represents a signal transmitted with one of the K transmit antennas. After transmission through a communication channel, a sample corresponding to the transmitted sample is received. The received sample is represented by a complex, N-dimensional vector y, where N is the number of receive antennas in the MIMO system.

Abstract: A wireless network infrastructure that adapts frame parameters of concurrent interfering and MIMO transmission and receptions in response to dynamically varying channel conditions. The channel conditions are determined by number of associated wireless end point devices within a cell, their capabilities, anticipated bandwidth usage, QOS (Quality Of Service) demands, priority of service and idle states, cell overlap interferences, near-far interferences and noises. The wireless network infrastructure consists of an access point that is adapted to transmit concurrent interfering transmissions, using a multiple input/multiple output scheme. The access point responds to the dynamically varying channel conditions by adapting the frame parameters of the concurrent interfering transmissions and parameters of multiple input/multiple output schemes.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing feedback implemented in a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprises estimating a channel matrix. The effective channel is calculated and a precoding matrix is selected. Feedback bits are generated and transmitted.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device and method for optimal estimation of the distortion caused by the transmission medium by means of the sequential emission of pairs of quadrature complementary sequences, estimating the frequency spectrum of a transmission channel allows obtaining information of considerable interest to analyze its characteristics or correcting the distortion effects introduced in a communication system. This invention describes a new method for extracting said characteristics generating a transmission preamble using complementary sequences, which allows upon reception identifying the distortion caused in each of the I/Q phases of a quadrature modulation system on the transmitted symbols, canceling the phase distortion effects caused by the medium and reducing the equalization of the channel to a single equalizing baseband filter identical for both I2/Q2 phases.

Abstract: 8VSB-compatible DTV broadcasting that employs outer coding of a sort in which interleaved data and outer coding parity are inner coded by the ? trellis code encoder is improved. This is done by recoding each nibble of the interleaved data and outer coding parity in accordance with an anti-Gray code before being inner coded by the ? trellis code encoder. Accordingly, in the DTV receiver an adjacent-bin error during data slicing may generate a double-bit error in a nibble as received, but this is reduced to a single-bit error after the nibble is recoded in accordance with a Gray coding procedure. In one example of such recoding, 10 and 11 nibbles of the interleaved data and outer coding parity are recoded to 11 and 10 nibbles respectively, but the 00 and 01 nibbles are not recoded. In another example of such recoding, 00 and 01 nibbles of the interleaved data and outer coding parity are recoded to 01 and 00 nibbles respectively, but the 10 and 11 nibbles are not recoded.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for dynamic phase equalization in a communication channel. A transmitter history module stores a plurality of bits from a data stream that is transmitted through the communication channel. A transmitter detection module detects a pre-transition bit of a first value that is preceded in the data stream by at least one bit of the first value and followed by a transition bit with a second value. A driver module transmits the data stream by driving the communication channel. A transition module pre-drives the communication channel to the second voltage of the transition bit during a bit time interval of the pre-transition bit.

Abstract: A multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) communications system is provided for conveying signals over a MIMO channel. The system includes a precoder for precoding a signal based upon a uniform channel decomposition scheme. The system further comprises a transmitter in communication with the precoder for conveying the precoded signal over a subchannel of the MIMO channel.

Abstract: An apparatus for splitting a signal and a video device using the same are disclosed. The apparatus includes a first splitting unit to split an inputted broadcast signal into a first broadcast signal and a second broadcast signal, and to supply the first broadcast signal to a first broadcast signal processing element, and a second splitting unit to split the second broadcast signal into a third broadcast signal and a fourth broadcast signal, and to supply the third broadcast signal to a second broadcast signal processing element. With this construction, the apparatus can distribute and provide a broadcast signal with a noise figure (NF) lower than that of other broadcast signals, to an element, which requires a broadcast signal with a low noise figure.

Abstract: A transceiver at one end of a variable data rate, time division duplex (TDD), adaptively modulated, point-to-point radio link transmits one or more pulses at different amplitude levels during a settling period of the transceiver's power amplifier. The highest level of the pulses is set to a level higher than the mean level of an OFDM symbol in a transmit burst immediately following the transmitted pulses, and is incrementally increased with each successive burst. A second transceiver at the opposite end of the link receives the transmitted pulses as time domain samples, normalizes the samples, and performs a cross correlation of the samples corresponding to the received pulses. When the cross correlation indicates that the power amplifier is operating at a maximal power level with regard to the amplifier linearity and the modulation mode and coding rate currently in use, the incremental increase of the transmission power ceases.

Abstract: A plurality of differential encoders encodes a plurality of parallel data bit streams. XOR gates interleave the outputs of the differential encoders forming a single high speed differentially encoded bit stream with a data rate that is the sum of the data rate of the parallel data bit streams. The high speed data stream provides a single differentially encoded input to a differential phase shift keying modulator that generates symbols for a high speed optical communication system.

Abstract: In a wireless receiver that receives an electric signal that has undergone digital modulation, a sample-hold circuit converts a wireless modulated signal, which is a continuous time signal, to a discrete time signal, and the frequency band is converted and selected by means of a band-pass filter. A demodulation circuit carries out demodulation based on the instantaneous value of the voltage amplitude of the modulated signal. A shut-down circuit further effects adaptive control of the circuit shut-down time to minimize the circuit activation time while ensuring that the demodulation error rate of the demodulated baseband signal satisfies a value stipulated by the communication standard.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for determining the sampling instant of a clock signal (ti) for a circuit for determining symbols (Se) from a digitized signal (sd, S) which is coupled to at least one quadrature signal pair of a modulation method (QAM), wherein the digitized signal is converted to polar signal coordinates (R, ?) with a radial component (R). In order to implement an optimization of the sampling instant independently of the frequency or phase offset of the carrier control on which the symbols depend, it is proposed that the rate-of-occurrence distribution of the signals over the radii, which are assigned to the modulation method within the complex plane, be considered at different sampling phases (?i, ?i2) as the quality value (G, G*), and that the better quality value be selected from among the multiple rate-of-occurrence determinations. The variation of the sampling phase assigned to this value is subsequently employed to correct the sampling clock signal (ti).

Abstract: In a radio reception apparatus compatible with adaptive modulation, based on a received IQ signal processed by a reception processing unit, a determining unit calculates EVM that corresponds to a magnitude of shift-off between a true symbol point and the received symbol point. The calculated EVM is averaged and thereafter applied to a control unit. The control unit compares the applied EVM with a prescribed threshold value, and determines with high accuracy, switching among a plurality of modulation methods having different multi-value numbers.

Abstract: A receiver has a determination unit to determine a channel profile of received radio signals, the channel profile specifying the distribution of the received radio signals over a plurality of transmission paths, a selection unit to select sections of the channel profile, a calculation unit to calculate coefficients by using the selected sections of the channel profile, and an equalizer to equalize the received radio signals by using the calculated coefficients.

Abstract: A signaling scheme employs transmitted reference pulses having varying phase. The phase of the reference pulses may be varied in a random manner or in accordance with a data stream. In some aspects a transmitter modulates the phase of the reference pulses to encode an additional data stream in a transmitted reference signal. In some aspects these techniques are employed in a heterogeneous network including coherent and non-coherent receivers. In some aspects these techniques may be employed in an ultra-wide band system.

Abstract: An estimated current phase error is used to control the oscillation frequency of a voltage controlled oscillator used to control the timing of sampling operations performed by an analog to digital converter (ADC). The current phase error is calculated by a recursive computation using a previous phase error in order to eliminate noise effects from the current phase error.

Abstract: A method for performing Viterbi decoding using a reduced trellis memory is provided that includes dividing a block of data into a plurality of segments. A feed-forward process is performed on each of the segments to generate a trellis for each of the segments. A traceback process is performed on each of a plurality of overlapping segment pairs, each segment pair comprising a first segment and a second segment, to generate a traceback result for the first segment and a traceback result for the second segment. The traceback result for the second segment is discarded to generate a decoder output based on the traceback result for the first segment.

Abstract: Systems and methods for performing joint demodulation using a Viterbi equalizer having an adaptive total number of states are disclosed. Generally, a method includes joint demodulating a desired signal and none or more interfering signals with a Viterbi equalizer having an adaptive total number of states based on channel impulse response (CIR) coefficients associated with a desired signal ant the one or more interfering signals.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for tracking a signal comprises correlating a digital signal with a code using a hypothesis at a plurality of frequencies and at least one delay to produce correlation results, measuring an energy value of the correlation results, adjusting at least one of the frequency or delay in response to the measured energy value to form the hypothesis.

Abstract: Exemplary embodiments of this invention substantially reduce self-interference between antennas of a multi-antenna electronic device using IRC without basing interference-minimizing effects (e.g., the covariance matrix) on attributes of the received signal. In one, non-limiting exemplary embodiment, a method includes: determining, based on at least one property, a covariance matrix for interference rejection combining (IRC), wherein the covariance matrix is determined prior to reception of a signal for which the IRC is to be used; receiving the signal; and utilizing the determined covariance matrix with the IRC to reduce self-interference of the received signal. In another exemplary embodiment, a method includes: determining at least one temporal property of self-interference for a signal prior to reception of the signal; receiving the signal; and utilizing the determined at least one temporal property to reduce self-interference of the received signal.

Abstract: An arrangement and method in a communication system such as an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) radio receiver for reducing the impact of interference from an intermittent interfering signal transmitted by an interfering system which may be co-located with the OFDM system or may be remotely located. Each OFDM symbol in a received OFDM signal includes a guard interval (GI), a middle portion, and a last portion identical to the GI. The arrangement determines which portion of each OFDM symbol is contemporaneous with the interfering signal and time-shifts a fast Fourier transform (FFT) window in the OFDM receiver to minimize or eliminate FFT processing of samples of the OFDM symbol that are contemporaneous with the interfering signal, thereby minimizing the impact of the interfering signal.

Abstract: Provided are an apparatus for receiving multi-band signals of multiple modes and a method thereof. The apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) pre-processing unit for receiving and pre-processing a RF input; a low noise amplifier (LNA) coupled to the RF pre-processing unit; an in-phase/quadrature-phase (IQ) frequency down-converter coupled to the LNA; a low pass filter (LPF) coupled to the IQ frequency down-converter; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the LPF; a complex frequency down-convertor for changing a digital local oscillation frequency based on a variation of center frequency of multi-mode baseband IQ signals converted in the ADC and converting multi-mode baseband IQ signals into baseband IQ signals of each mode; a variable digital filter for low-pass filtering the baseband IQ signals of each mode based on digital filter coefficients for filtering through a predetermined bandwidth; and a baseband signal processor for demodulating the baseband IQ signals of each mode.

Abstract: In a first aspect of the invention, a first method is provided for aligning signals from a first receiver located in a first clock domain to a second receiver located in a second clock domain. The first method includes the steps of creating a programmable delay element between the first and second receivers, and selectively adding delay via the programmable delay element to the signals until the signals are aligned. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a clock data recovery system for resampling a clock signal according to an incoming data signal. The clock data recovery system comprises a clock generator for generating the clock signal and a phase adjustment unit for generating sampling phases dependent on a phase adjustment control signal. It also comprises a data sampling unit operable to generate a stream of input samples and an edge detector for generating therefrom an internal early signal and an internal late signal. A phase adjustment control unit is disposed for generating under use of the early signal and the late signal the phase adjustment control signal. The phase adjustment control unit is feedable with an external early/late signal and/or comprises an output for delivering an export early/late signal.

Abstract: The present invention is to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit device provided with a sufficient margin to variations of input waveforms. For example, the semiconductor integrated circuit device is provided with a clock and data determination circuit receiving an input data signal and a clock signal and outputting a recovered data signal, a first phase comparison signal and a second phase comparison signal and a clock signal generating circuit generating the clock signal with a phase corrected based on the first phase comparison signal and the second phase comparison signal. The clock and data determination circuit latches the input data signal in synchronization with the clock signal using a plurality of thresholds as determination reference and generates two kinds of candidates composed of combination of a recovered data signal and phase comparison signals by processing a latch result.

Abstract: A data synchronization apparatus is provided. The data synchronization apparatus comprises a first-in first-out buffer (FIFO buffer), a control circuit and a phase-locked loop (PLL). The FIFO buffer receives and stores a plurality of data and provides a FIFO adjustment signal according to the number of the data stored in the FIFO buffer. The data stored in the FIFO buffer are sent out to an external device at a clock rate derived from a master clock signal. The control circuit provides a PLL adjustment signal according to the FIFO adjustment signal. The PLL provides the master clock signal and adjusts the frequency of the master clock signal in response to the PLL adjustment signal.

Abstract: In phase locked loop, a phase detector detects a phase difference between a first clock signal and a second clock signal and output a first output signal based on the detected difference. A charge pump generates a control voltage in response to the first output signal from the phase detector. A voltage-controlled oscillator generates the second clock signal. A controller controls the control voltage such that the phase difference between the first clock signal and the second clock signal is increased in response to a burn-in test mode signal.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for automatically acquiring a serial data stream clock. The method receives a serial data stream with an unknown clock frequency and coarsely determines the clock frequency. The frequency is coarsely determined by (initially) selecting a high frequency first reference clock (Fref1), and counting the number of data transitions in a first time segment of the serial data stream at a plurality of sample frequencies equal to Fref1/n, where n is an integer ?1. The count for each sampling frequency is compared to the count for Fref1 (n=1). Next, the highest sampling frequency (n=x) is determined, which has a lower count than Fref1, and the coarse clock frequency is set to Fc1=Fref1/(x?1).

Abstract: A phase difference detector having concurrent fine and coarse capabilities is enabled by synchronizing operations of the coarse phase detector to operations of the fine phase detector. In one embodiment, clusters of fine timing markers are generated by delay stages of a delay locked loop (DLL) that is locked onto a regulated frequency source. The K'th one of every cluster of J fine timing markers is designated as a coarse marker. A first timing means determines which of J fine markers in a first cluster is closest to a rising edge of a reference signal. A second timing means determines which of J fine markers in a second cluster is closest to a rising edge of a follower signal. A third timing means determines how many coarse markers separate the rising edges of the reference and follower signals. The first through third timing means operate in parallel.

Abstract: An apparatus for generating thermonuclear microexplosions includes a first pulsed high-voltage source configured for transmission of a first high-voltage pulse at a first high current. A second pulsed high voltage source is configured for transmission of a second high-voltage pulse at a potential higher than that of the first high-voltage pulse at a second high current having a magnitude less than that of the first high current. An inner transmission line is in electrical contact with the first pulsed high-voltage source, the inner line having a tapered end. An outer transmission line is disposed over the inner line and in electrical contact with the first pulsed high-voltage source. A deuterium-tritium mixture is disposed between the inner transmission line and the outer transmission line, the deuterium-tritium mixture having a tapered end spaced apart from the tapered end of said inner transmission line.

Abstract: In a chemonuclear fusion in which hydrogen ions of nuclear stopping power energy of a few keV per nucleon, that is, deuteron or proton beam are implanted into a liquid target of molten metal lithium, the reaction rate is increased by about 1011 times by thermodynamic force in the liquid. For putting chemical nuclear fusion to practical use, there is needed to increase the reaction rate by further increasing the thermodynamic force.