rat Polymers as additives for the separation of oil and water phases in emulsions and dispersions By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 08:00:00 EST Oil-water dispersions and emulsions derived from petroleum industry operations are demulsified and clarified using anionic polymers. Formation of such oil-water dispersion and emulsions is inhibited and mitigated using the anionic polymers. The anionic polymers comprise: A) 2-80% by weight of at least one C3-C8 α,β-ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer; B) 15-80% by weight of at least one nonionic, copolymerizable α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer; C) 1-50% by weight of one or more of the following monomers: C1) at least one nonionic vinyl surfactant ester; or C2) at least one nonionic, copolymerizable α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer having longer polymer chains than monomer B), or C3) at least one nonionic urethane monomer; and, optionally, D) 0-5% by weight of at least one crosslinker. Full Article
rat Manufacturing method of glass substrate for magnetic disk, magnetic disk, and magnetic recording / reproducing device By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 10 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT A manufacturing method of a glass substrate for a magnetic disk is provided whereby nano pits and/or nano scratches cannot be easily produced in polishing a principal face of a glass substrate using a slurry containing zirconium oxide as an abrasive. The manufacturing method of a glass substrate for a magnetic disk includes, for instance, a polishing step of polishing a principal face of a glass substrate using a slurry containing, as an abrasive, zirconium oxide abrasive grains having monoclinic crystalline structures (M) and tetragonal crystalline structures (T). Full Article
rat Method and apparatus for fluid dispersion By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 08:00:00 EDT A microfluidic method and device for focusing and/or forming discontinuous sections of similar or dissimilar size in a fluid is provided. The device can be fabricated simply from readily-available, inexpensive material using simple techniques. Full Article
rat Data processing apparatus and method for controlling data processing apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A data processing apparatus includes multiple processing means that are connected in a ring shape via corresponding communication means respectively. Each communication means includes a reception means for receiving data from a previous communication means, and a transmission means for transmitting data to a next communication means. Connection information is assigned to each of the reception means and the transmission means. The communication means, when receiving a packet that has same connection information as one assigned to its reception means, causes the corresponding processing means to perform data processing on the packet, sets the connection information assigned to its transmission means to the packet, and transmits the packet to the next communication means, and when receiving a packet that has connection information that is not same as one assigned to its reception means, transmits the packet to the next communication means without changing the connection information of the packet. Full Article
rat Indirect designation of physical configuration number as logical configuration number based on correlation information, within parallel computing By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT A computing section is provided with a plurality of computing units and correlatively stores entries of configuration information that describes configurations of the plurality of computing units with physical configuration numbers that represent the entries of configuration information and executes a computation in a configuration corresponding to a designated physical configuration number. A status management section designates a physical configuration number corresponding to a status to which the computing section needs to advance the next time for the computing section and outputs the status to which the computing section needs to advance the next time as a logical status number that uniquely identifies the status to which the computing section needs to advance the next time in an object code. A determination section determines whether or not the computing section has stored an entry of configuration information corresponding to the status to which the computing section needs to advance the next time based on the logical status number that is output from the status management section. A rewriting section correlatively stores the entry of the configuration information and a physical configuration number corresponding to the entry of the configuration information in the computing section when the determination section determines that the computing section has not stored the entry of configuration information corresponding to the status to which the computing section needs to advance the next time. Full Article
rat Methods and apparatus for storing expanded width instructions in a VLIW memory for deferred execution By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2015 08:00:00 EDT Techniques are described for decoupling fetching of an instruction stored in a main program memory from earliest execution of the instruction. An indirect execution method and program instructions to support such execution are addressed. In addition, an improved indirect deferred execution processor (DXP) VLIW architecture is described which supports a scalable array of memory centric processor elements that do not require local load and store units. Full Article
rat Information processing apparatus for restricting access to memory area of first program from second program By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A processor determines whether a first program is under execution when a second program is executed, and changes a setting of a memory management unit based on access prohibition information so that a fault occurs when the second program makes an access to a memory when the first program is under execution. Then, the processor determines whether an access from the second program to a memory area used by the first program is permitted based on memory restriction information when the fault occurs while the first program and the second program are under execution, and changes the setting of the memory management unit so that the fault does not occur when the access to the memory area is permitted. Full Article
rat Virtualization support for branch prediction logic enable / disable at hypervisor and guest operating system levels By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A hypervisor and one or more guest operating systems resident in a data processing system and hosted by the hypervisor are configured to selectively enable or disable branch prediction logic through separate hypervisor-mode and guest-mode instructions. By doing so, different branch prediction strategies may be employed for different operating systems and user applications hosted thereby to provide finer grained optimization of the branch prediction logic for different operating scenarios. Full Article
rat Multiprocessor system, multiprocessor control method, and multiprocessor integrated circuit By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT In a multiprocessor system, in general, a processor assigned with a larger amount of tasks is apt to perform a larger amount of communication with other processors assigned with tasks, than a processor assigned with a smaller amount of tasks. Thus in order for each processor to be able to perform the routing process efficiently, tasks are assigned such that, when there are a first processor and a second processor, the number of processors each assigned with one or more tasks and directly connected with the second processor being smaller than the number of processors each assigned with one or more tasks and directly connected with the first processor, the amount of tasks assigned to the first processor is equal to or larger than the amount of tasks assigned to the second processor. Full Article
rat Data processing method and apparatus for prefetching By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A data processing device includes processing circuitry 20 for executing a first memory access instruction to a first address of a memory device 40 and a second memory access instruction to a second address of the memory device 40, the first address being different from the second address. The data processing device also includes prefetching circuitry 30 for prefetching data from the memory device 40 based on a stride length 70 and instruction analysis circuitry 50 for determining a difference between the first address and the second address. Stride refining circuitry 60 is also provided to refine the stride length based on factors of the stride length and factors of the difference calculated by the instruction analysis circuitry 50. Full Article
rat Data mover moving data to accelerator for processing and returning result data based on instruction received from a processor utilizing software and hardware interrupts By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Efficient data processing apparatus and methods include hardware components which are pre-programmed by software. Each hardware component triggers the other to complete its tasks. After the final pre-programmed hardware task is complete, the hardware component issues a software interrupt. Full Article
rat System, method and computer program product for recursively executing a process control operation to use an ordered list of tags to initiate corresponding functional operations By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for controlling a process using a process map. These mechanisms and methods for controlling a process using a process map can enable process operations to execute in order without necessarily having knowledge of one another. The ability to provide the process map can avoid a requirement that the operations themselves be programmed to follow a particular sequence, as can further improve the ease by which the sequence of operations may be changed. Full Article
rat System and method for communicating with sensors/loggers in integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) tags By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A system and method is disclosed for communicating with sensors/loggers in integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. An RFID reader uses a Communicate With Data Logger Command to communicate with a data logger in an RFID tag. The RFID reader performs data access processes using an Index Register and a Data Register of the RFID tag. The RFID reader selects one of (1) Index Read access (2) Index Write access (3) Data Write access (4) Data Read access with parity and (5) Data Read access with cyclic redundancy check (CRC). The RFID tag performs the requested data access and then performs an error detection process. Full Article
rat Generating hardware events via the instruction stream for microprocessor verification By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A processor receives an instruction operation (OP) code from a verification system. The instruction OP code includes instruction bits and forced event bits. The processor identifies a forced event based upon the forced event bits, which is unrelated to an instruction that corresponds to the instruction bits. In turn, the processor executes the forced event. Full Article
rat Automated generation of two-tier mobile applications By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The disclosure generally describes computer-implemented methods, software, and systems for creating and using two-tier mobile applications. A computer-implemented method includes identifying at least a portion of a database to be associated with a mobile application, retrieving a set of metadata associated with the at least a portion of the identified database, automatically generating a set of mobile application source code for directly accessing the at least a portion of the database based on the set of retrieved metadata, and compiling the set of mobile application source code into a distributable mobile application, the distributable mobile application configured to directly access the identified database associated with the mobile application. In some instances, the identifying, retrieving, generating, and compiling operations are performed at design time, while at runtime, the mobile application is executable by a mobile device and, during runtime execution, can request database-related information directly from the identified database. Full Article
rat Identifying differences between source codes of different versions of a software when each source code is organized using incorporated files By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An aspect of the present invention identifies differences between source codes (e.g. of different versions of a software), when each source code is organized using incorporated files. In one embodiment, in response to receiving identifiers of a first and second source codes (each source code being organized as a corresponding set of code files), listings of the instructions in the first and second source codes are constructed. Each listing is constructed, for example, by replacing each incorporate statement in the source code with instructions stored in a corresponding one of code files. The differences between the first and second source codes are then found by comparing the constructed listings of instructions. Full Article
rat System for generating readable and meaningful descriptions of stream processing source code By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An information processing system, computer readable storage medium, and method for automatically generating human readable and meaningful documentation for one or more source code files. A processor of the information processing system receives one or more source code files containing source code artifacts (SCA) and infers semantics therefrom based on predefined rules. The processor, based on the inferred semantics, extracts documentation from another source code file. The extracted documentation and the inferred semantics are used to generate new human readable and meaningful documentation for the SCA, such new documentation being previously missing from the SCA. The generated new documentation is included with the SCA in one or more source code files. Full Article
rat System and method for generating software unit tests simultaneously with API documentation By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A system and method may generate unit tests for source code concurrently with API documentation. The system may receive a source code file including several comments sections. Each comments section may include a description of a source code unit such as a class, method, member variable, etc. The description may also correspond to input and output parameters the source code unit. The system and method may parsing the source code file to determine a source code function type corresponding to the unit description and copy the unit description to a unit test stub corresponding to the function type. A developer or another module may then complete the unit test stub to transform each stub into a complete unit test corresponding to the source code unit. Additionally, the system and method may execute the unit test and generate a test result indication for each unit test. Full Article
rat Information editing apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An information editing device is provided with an object storage portion 11 in which a character string object or image object is stored, a placement information storage portion 12 that stores placement area designation information that sets two or more placement areas that do not overlap each other for respectively placing the objects, and that correspond to the objects, an object output portion 13 that outputs, into placement areas that are set based on the placement area designation information, each of the objects corresponding to the respective placement areas, an input receiving portion 14 that receives a deletion instruction or a modification instruction for at least one of the objects output by the object output portion 13, and a placement modification portion 15 that, according to the deletion instruction or modification instruction, modifies the placement area of the object such that the placement area is placed without overlapping. Full Article
rat Electronic system with system modification control mechanism and method of operation thereof By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An electronic system and method of operation thereof includes: a control unit for receiving a patterned signal; a recognizer module, coupled to the control unit, for recognizing an unique trigger from the patterned signal; an operation module, coupled to the recognizer module, for detecting an operational mode from the unique trigger; and a change module, coupled to the operation module, for configuring a system state change of a memory sub-system based on the operational mode. Full Article
rat Firmware update method and apparatus of set-top box for digital broadcast system By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 03 Nov 2015 08:00:00 EST A firmware update method and apparatus of a set-top box for a digital broadcast system is provided. A firmware update method of a set-top box for a digital broadcast system includes determining whether a newly received Code Version Table (CVT) following a public CVT which has been previously received and stored is the public CVT or a filtering CVT; and updating, when the newly received CVG is the filtering CVT, the firmware of the set-top box with a filtering firmware indicated by the filtering CVT. Full Article
rat Separation of isomeric menthol compounds By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The invention relates to a process for rectificative separation of compositions of matter containing diastereomers of 2-isopropyl-5-methylcyclohexanol by using ionic liquids as extractants. Full Article
rat Process for isolating crystallized 2,2,4,4 tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutanediol (TMCD) particles utilizing pressure filtration By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for isolating 2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutanediol (TMCD) solids from an isolated feed slurry formed in a TMCD process comprising TMCD, a liquid phase, and impurities by (a) treating the isolated feed slurry in a product isolation zone to produce an isolated TMCD product wet cake, a mother liquor, and impurities; wherein the product isolation zone can comprise at least one rotary pressure drum filter. Full Article
rat Reduced energy alcohol separation process having controlled pressure By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The present invention is directed to processes for the recovery of ethanol from a crude ethanol product obtained from the hydrogenation of acetic acid using a low energy process. The crude ethanol product is separated in one or more columns. At least one of the columns is operated at a controlled pressure to enhance separation of ethanol and organics. In one embodiment, there are at least two columns that operate at controlled pressures. Full Article
rat Esterification process using extractive separation to produce feed for hydrogenolysis By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Disclosed herein are processes for alcohol production by reducing an esterification product, such as ethyl acetate. The processes comprise esterifying acetic acid and an alcohol such as ethanol to produce an esterification product. The esterification product may be recovered using an extractive separation. The esterification product is reduced with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst to obtain a crude reaction mixture comprising the alcohol, in particular ethanol, which may be separated from the crude reaction mixture. Full Article
rat Protected aldehydes for use as intermediates in chemical syntheses, and processes for their preparation By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A para-methoxy protected benzaldehyde useful in preparation of treprostinil, and of formula: (Formula (1)) is prepared by subjecting to Claisen re-arrangement a substituted benzaldehyde of formula (1a): (Formula (Ia)) to form the m-hydroxy-substituted benzaldehyde of formula (1b): (Formula (Ib)) and then reacting compound (1b) with a p-methoxybenzyl (PMB) compound to form a PMB-substituted benzaldehyde of formula (1). Full Article
rat Apparatus for coproducting ISO type reaction products and alcohols from olefins, and method for coproducting them using the apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The present invention relates to an apparatus for coproducting iso-type reaction product and alcohol from olefin, and a method for coproducting using the apparatus, in which the hydroformylation reactor provides a sufficient reaction area due to the broad contact surface area between the olefin and the synthesis gases that are the raw materials by a distributor plate installed in the reactor, and the raw materials can be sufficiently mixed with the reaction mixture due to the circulation of the reaction mixture so that the efficiency of the production of the aldehyde is excellent; and also the hydrogenation reactor suppresses the side reaction so that the efficiency for producing aldehyde and alcohol are all increased, and also iso-type reaction product and alcohol can be efficiently co-produced. Full Article
rat Energy efficient method and apparatus for the extraction of lower alcohols from dilute aqueous solution By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The present invention relates to the energy efficient and selective extraction of dilute concentrations of C2-C6 alcohols from an aqueous solution using liquid phase dimethyl ether. Full Article
rat Process for production of hexamethylenediamine from carbohydrate-containing materials and intermediates therefor By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Processes are disclosed for the conversion of a carbohydrate source to hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and to intermediates useful for the production of hexamethylenediamine and other industrial chemicals. HMDA is produced by direct reduction of a furfural substrate to 1,6-hexanediol in the presence of hydrogen and a heterogeneous reduction catalyst comprising Pt or by indirect reduction of a furfural substrate to 1,6-hexanediol wherein 1,2,6-hexanetriol is produced by reduction of the furfural substrate in the presence of hydrogen and a catalyst comprising Pt and 1,2,6-hexanediol is then converted by hydrogenation in the presence of a catalyst comprising Pt to 1,6 hexanediol, each process then proceeding to the production of HMDA by known routes, such as amination of the 1,6 hexanediol. Catalysts useful for the direct and indirect production of 1,6-hexanediol are also disclosed. Full Article
rat Process for heat integration in the hydrogenation and distillation of C3—C20-aldehydes By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The present invention relates to a process for heat integration in the preparation of saturated C3-C20-alcohols, in which a hydrogenation feed comprising at least one C3-C20-aldehyde is hydrogenated in the presence of a hydrogen-comprising gas in a hydrogenation zone and a discharge is taken off from the hydrogenation zone and subjected to distillation in at least one distillation column to give a fraction enriched in saturated C3-C20-alcohols. Full Article
rat Polymer recovery process in the filtration of polyether polyols By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A filtration method is disclosed for recovering purified polyether polyol comprising the steps of providing an aqueous solution of a polyether polyol containing an alkali metal catalyst residual formed from a transesterification process utilizing an alkali metal catalyst, contacting the aqueous solution with a stoichiometric excess of magnesium sulfate, magnesium sulfite or a combination thereof to form a second aqueous solution, wherein said stoichiometric excess is based on the amount of said alkali metal catalyst residual. Water is removed from the second aqueous solution at a temperature above a set limit of said polyether polyol to produce a dehydrated slurry containing a polyether polyol phase substantially free of residual alkali metal and a precipitated solid phase comprising sulfate and/or sulfite salts of the alkali metal catalyst, magnesium hydroxide, and excess magnesium sulfate and/or sulfite, wherein the particle size distribution of said precipitated solid phase is controlled to minimize the amount of particles therein that are smaller than 3 microns. The dehydrated slurry is then passed through a filtration system to separate the polyether polyol phase from the precipitated solid phase. Full Article
rat Product recovery process in the filtration of polyether polyols By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An improved method for recovering a purified polyether polyol comprising the steps of providing an aqueous solution of a polyether polyol containing an alkali metal catalyst residual formed from a transesterification process, contacting the aqueous solution with a stoichiometric excess of magnesium sulfate to form a second aqueous solution, removing water from said second aqueous solution at a temperature above the melt temperature of said polyether polyol to produce a dehydrated slurry containing a molten polyether polyol phase essentially free of residual alkali metal and a precipitated solid phase comprising sulfate and/or sulfite salts of the alkali metal catalyst, magnesium hydroxide, and excess magnesium sulfate and/or sulfide, passing the dehydrated slurry of through a filtration system comprising a filtration press to separate the molten polyether polyol phase from the precipitated solid phase, wherein the filtration press is treated with a filter aid that is essentially free of transition metal oxide content, separating the molten polyether polyol phase substantially free of water, residual alkali metal catalyst and transition metal contaminants from the precipitated solid phase and recovering polyether polyol from the separated polyether polyol phase. Full Article
rat Method for operating an internal combustion engine By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for operating an internal combustion engine in which a speed-based feature of the internal combustion engine, which is correlated with an indicated mean effective pressure of the fuel, is determined during the warm-up of the internal combustion engine and an ideal fuel quantity, which is to be injected into at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine during the warm-up, is ascertained therefrom. Full Article
rat Method, apparatus and computer program for determining the location of a user in an area By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Apparatus for orientating a user in a space wherein the space comprises a plurality of zones of which only certain zones constitute functional zones wherein each functional zone includes a first type device containing information relating to the position of the zone in the space and wherein the first type device is reactive to the presence of a second type device associated with the user to provide the user with the information to determine the orientation of the user in the space. A method of orientating the user within the space and guiding the user toward one or more features in the space is also disclosed. Full Article
rat Dive computer incorporating stored dive site information By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Dive computers in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed that store information concerning a dive site. The stored information can be accessed during the dive to provide information concerning such things as points of interest and/or hazards. One embodiment of the invention includes a processor, memory connected to the processor, a pressure transducer connected to the processor and configured to measure depth, and a display connected to the processor. In addition, the memory contains factual information concerning a dive site, and the processor is configured to display at least a portion of the stored factual information concerning the dive site via the display. Full Article
rat Apparatus for estimating travel path of a vehicle By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus for estimating a travel path of a vehicle is mounted on the vehicle; and includes: an object detection device that detects an object lying ahead of the vehicle; a stationary object detection device that determines whether a detected object is a stationary object; a device that calculates an approximate straight line indicating a path of the stationary object from the temporal positional data for the stationary object projected on two-dimensional coordinates using a vehicle position as a starting point; a device that calculates a orthogonal line which passes through a midpoint in the temporal positional data for the stationary object and goes straight with respect to the approximate straight line on the two-dimensional coordinates; and a device that calculates a vehicle turning radius from an intersection point where the orthogonal line intersects with a x axis. Full Article
rat Navigation system with fuzzy routing mechanism and method of operation thereof By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method of operation of a navigation system includes: receiving an origin and a destination; receiving a route keyword for routing between the origin and the destination; identifying a via point matching the route keyword; calculating a keyword group locale based on the via point within a group distance threshold from a keyword group center; and calculating a travel route from the origin to the destination traversing the keyword group locale for displaying on a device. Full Article
rat Navigation system and methods for generating enhanced search results By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A navigation system and various methods of using the system are described herein. Search query results are refined by the system and are prioritized based at least in part upon sub-search categories selected during the searching process. Sub-searches can be represented by graphical icons displayed on the user interface. Full Article
rat Method and apparatus for mapping buildings By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus and method for determining an Absolute Location of an indoor stationary object, the method comprising: receiving a distance between an indoor stationary object and one or more predetermined spots; determining a location of stationary object relative to one of the predetermined spots; receiving an Absolute Location of one of the predetermined spots; determining an Absolute Location of the stationary object; and storing the Absolute Location of the stationary object with description information of the stationary object. Full Article
rat Vehicle control apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 08:00:00 EDT Disclosed is a vehicle control apparatus which can prevent the deterioration of drivability. The ECU can set a control accelerator opening degree to be converted when a control permission condition is established. The control accelerator opening degree is equal to or larger than an accelerator lower limit which is larger than an idle determination value for determining an automatic stopping of an engine by an eco-run. The control accelerator opening degree thus set can prevent the drivability from being deteriorated without the automatic stopping of the engine being caused even if the accelerator opening degree is converted to reduce the torque of the engine with the establishment of the control permission condition. Full Article
rat Vehicle notification sound emitting apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 10 Nov 2015 08:00:00 EST A vehicle notification sound emitting apparatus is basically provided with a first sound emitting device, a second sound emitting device and a notification sound control device. The first sound emitting device emits a first intermittent notification sound inside a cabin interior of a vehicle. The second sound emitting device emits a second intermittent notification sound outside of the cabin interior of the vehicle. The notification sound control device operates the first and second sound emitting devices to separately emit the first and second intermittent notification sounds in at least a partially overlapping pattern in response to occurrence of a vehicle condition to convey a same type of vehicle information to both inside and outside of the cabin interior of the vehicle. The notification sound control device includes a cabin interior-exterior notification sound synchronizing section that is configured to synchronize the first and second intermittent notification sounds. Full Article
rat Vehicle event recorder systems and networks having integrated cellular wireless communications systems By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 01 Dec 2015 08:00:00 EST Vehicle event recorder systems are arranged to be in constant communication with remote servers and administrators via mobile wireless cellular networks. Vehicle event recorders equipped with video cameras capture video and other data records of important events relating to vehicle use. These data are then transmitted over special communications networks having very high coverage space but limited bandwidth. A vehicle may be operated over very large region while maintaining continuous communications connections with a remote fixed server. As such, systems of these inventions may be characterized as including a mobile unit having: a video camera; a microprocessor; memory; an event trigger; and mobile wireless transceivers, and a fixed network portion including: mobile wireless cellular network, a protocol translation gateway, the Internet and an application-specific server. Full Article
rat Method and apparatus for alignment optimization with respect to plurality of layers By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method of patterning a plurality of layers of a work piece in a series of writing cycles in one or a plurality of write machines, the workpiece being deviced to have a number of N layers and layers of the workpiece having one or a plurality of boundary condition(s) for pattern position, the method comprising the steps of: determining the boundary conditions of layers 1 to N, calculating deviations due to the boundary conditions and calculating a compensation for the deviation of the first transformation added with the assigned part of the deviation due to the boundary conditions. Full Article
rat Integrating multiple FPGA designs by merging configuration settings By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT This disclosure relates generally to field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Some implementations relate to methods and systems for transmitting and integrating an intellectual property (IP) block with another user's design. The IP developer can design the IP block to include both a secret portion and a public portion. The IP block developer can send or otherwise provide the IP block to another IP user without disclosing the functional description of the secret portion of the IP block. In some implementations, the IP developer provides the public portion to the IP user at the register-transfer-level (RTL) level, as a hardware description language (HDL)-implemented design, or as a synthesizable netlist. In some implementations, the IP developer provides the secret portion of the IP block to the user in the form of programming bits without providing an HDL, RTL, or netlist implementation of the secret portion. Full Article
rat Verification module apparatus for debugging software and timing of an embedded processor design that exceeds the capacity of a single FPGA By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A plurality of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), high performance transceivers, and memory devices provide a verification module for timing and state debugging of electronic circuit designs. Signal value compression circuits and gigabit transceivers embedded in each FPGA increase the fanout of each FPGA. Ethernet communication ports enable remote software debugging of processor instructions. Full Article
rat Method and apparatus for creating and managing waiver descriptions for design verification By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods are provided to facilitate automated creation and management of design rule checking or DRC waiver descriptions. Embodiments include receiving a plurality of first checksums corresponding to respective first geometric element violations waived in association with a block of an integrated circuit design, the first checksums being based on a first version of at least one design verification rule and/or of the block, receiving a second checksum corresponding to a second geometric element violation associated with the block, the second checksum being based on a second version of the design verification rule and/or of the block, determining whether the second checksum corresponds to at least one of the first checksums, and, if the second checksum does not correspond to at least one first checksum, generating a waiver request for the second geometric element error. Full Article
rat Semiconductor device design method and design apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A relationship between distance from a back bias control section which outputs a control signal for controlling a back bias of a transistor and an amount of noise in the control signal outputted from the back bias control section is found. An increase of jitter corresponding to the amount of the noise in a clock transmitted on a clock path connected to a circuit section (IP macro) is found on the basis of the relationship between the distance from the back bias control section and the amount of the noise. The circuit section and the clock path are placed on the basis of the increase of the jitter and an allowable jitter value for the circuit section. Full Article
rat Method and system for three-dimensional layout design of integrated circuit elements in stacked CMOS By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method includes providing a design of a semiconductor device such as a stacked CMOS device comprising a plurality of circuit elements to be assigned into a layout of a plurality of tiers, and identifying at least one first type of circuit element within the plurality of circuit elements based on at least one predetermined criterion. Each respective one of the at least one first type of circuit element is to be assigned to a respective designated one of the plurality of tiers. The method further includes dividing the remainder of the plurality of circuit elements into at least two groups of circuit elements based on circuit density, and assigning the at least one first type of circuit element and the at least two groups of circuit elements to respectively different ones of the plurality of tiers of the semiconductor device. Full Article
rat System and method for integrated transformer synthesis and optimization using constrained optimization problem By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for designing a transformer in an integrated circuit includes receiving one or more desired characteristics of the transformer from user input and iteratively determining a design solution for the transformer through one or more simulations and modifications using a rule-set. The method combines the one or more desired characteristics with other preset characteristics of the transformer or the integrated circuit. A first model of the transformer is defined with typical load impedances and simulated having the combined characteristics to determine performance. Results of the simulation are processed to calculate performance with the load impedances specified by the user. The results are further processed to obtain a mathematical model that includes tuning capacitors. The first and subsequent models are modified by drawing on a rule-set of expert knowledge relating to general dependency of at least one design criterion, such as a physical, geometrical or performance characteristic, with another design criterion. Full Article
rat Generating guiding patterns for directed self-assembly By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 12 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Aspects of the invention relate to techniques of generating guiding patterns for via-type feature groups. A guiding pattern may be constructed for a via-type feature group that comprises two or more via-type features in a layout design. A backbone structure may then be determined for the guiding pattern. Based on the backbone structure and a self-assembly model, simulated locations of the two or more via-type features are computed. The simulated locations are compared with targeted locations. If the simulated locations do not match the targeted locations based on a predetermined criterion, the simulated locations adjusted to derive modified locations. Using the modified locations, the above operations may be repeated until the simulated locations match the targeted location based on a predetermined criterion or for a predetermined number of times. Full Article