International Business Machines Corporation

Beat Eugen Weiss

Simeon Furrer

Wolfgang H Schott

Francois Abel

Fritz R Gfeller

Pedro E Coronel

Mark Alfred Lantz

Jens Jelitto

Hugo Eric Rothuizen

Andreas Christian Doering

Hong Linh Truong

Walter Hirt

Ronald Peter Luijten

Urs Hunkeler

Dietrich G Maiwald

Mauro Spreafico

Burkhard Ringlein

Luzius Kronig

Heinz Richard

Provided are a computer program product, device, system, and method for compensating for a nonlinear deformation field of a tape of a tape storage system. In one embodiment, a head beam of a tape head module of a tape drive employing active skew-based TDS compensation, is segmented into linear segments which are pivotally coupled to each other. Each linear beam segment carries a portion of the transducer array of the tape head module to form a tape head module segment. The pivot angle between a pair of pivotally coupled head module segments of the tape head may be controlled by a controllable pivot actuator to provide an independently adjustable skew angle for each module segment with respect to the direction of travel of tape. As a result, it is believed that registration between the transducers of each module segment and data tracks of the tape may be improved.

Segmented tape head

Methods are provided for configuring a reconfigurable hardware device to execute a user application. Such a method includes providing static shell logic on the device. The static shell logic is controlled by a primary management core for managing operation of the device, and has a predetermined hardware interface. The method includes configuring on the device, via the primary management core, dynamic shell logic for implementing dynamically-selected shell functionality. The dynamic shell logic includes a secondary management core, adapted to communicate with the primary management core via the hardware interface, for managing operation of the dynamic shell logic. The method further comprises configuring on the device, via the primary management core, application logic, having an interface with the dynamic shell logic, for executing the user application. The secondary management core uploads to the primary management core dynamic code to adapt the primary management core for use with the dynamic shell logic.

Configuration of hardware devices

An electronic circuit card comprises a printed circuit board with electronic components. The electronic components comprise drivers for transmitting transmit (TX) signals and receivers for receiving receive (RX) signals, according to several groups of interface signals. There is further provided a connector edge, arranged at an edge of the card, and configured to allow the card to be connected to an external connector. This connector edge comprises two subsets of symmetric pins on respective (opposite) sides thereof. The drivers and the receivers are connected to the pins, for respectively conveying the TX signals and the RX signals. Pins are assigned such that, for each of the several groups of supported interface signals, any pin (of any of the subsets) connected to transmit TX signals is located opposite a pin (of the other subset) connected to receive RX signals. Pairs of consecutive pins (on each side) typically come in differential pairs.

Electronic circuit card with connector edge having alternated TX and RX pins assignment

A data network includes a plurality of source nodes, at least one sink node, and at least one intermediate node, wherein routing of a reverse message from the sink node to a source node via at least one intermediate node is performed by the intermediate node using reverse path routing information data comprising a combination of source routing information data and transparent bridging information data, wherein the reverse path routing information data is constructed during propagation of a forward message from the source node to the sink node via the intermediate node.

Method for routing of messages within a data network

Packets are periodically transmitted by a plurality of radio beacons deployed at known positions over a location estimation area. Monitoring is conducted for incoming packets. Upon receipt of a packet from a kone of the beacons, received signal strength, RSSI, is measured at each of the antenna outputs, the packet is decoded to obtain the unique identifier and the unique sequence number, and the received signal strength at each of the antenna outputs is spatially averaged. The measuring, decoding, and spatial averaging are repeated for additional packets from the kone of the beacons during a pre-defined time window T. The plurality of spatially averaged received signal strengths are temporally averaged over the pre-defined time window T, to obtain a spatially and temporally averaged value of received signal strength. The distance dfrom the apparatus to the kone of the beacons is approximated based on the spatially and temporally averaged value of received signal strength. The approximate distance dis designated as {circumflex over (d)}. This is repeated for the K beacons that have successfully transmitted packet(s) during the pre-defined time window, k=1 to K. The location of the object is estimated as an approximate intersection of spheres with radii {circumflex over (d)}. Each sphere is centered at the known position of the kone of the beacons.

Estimating location using multi-antenna radio receiver

An apparatus and method is disclosed for efficiently sensing and tracking objects in an indoor environment by simultaneously measuring the object movement with an inertial navigation system and a reference location positioning system. By combining the measurements obtained with accelerometers, gyroscopes, angle estimators and the reference system using an extended Kalman filter based approach, a position estimate is obtained with high reliability and precision accuracy. Improvement in performance is obtained by the incorporation of dynamic mode switching and forward-backward smoothing in the location position estimator.

Apparatus and method for measuring the accurate position of moving objects in an indoor environment

The invention relates to a conversion of a pulse modulated signal to a radio frequency signal enabling use of applications and protocols designed for wireless optical links on radio frequency channels. The method comprises receiving the pulse modulated input signal, decoding the received pulse modulated input signal into a decoded data bit-stream, encoding the decoded data bit-stream into a recoded data bit-stream, under use of the recoded data bit-stream modulating a radio frequency signal, and transmitting the modulated radio frequency signal. In the receiver path a received radio frequency signal is converted to a pulse modulated output signal by the steps of demodulating the received radio frequency signal into a demodulated data bit-stream, decoding the demodulated data bit-stream into a received data bit-stream, encoding the received data bit-stream into a pulse modulated output signal, and forwarding the pulse modulated output signal.

Method and apparatus for converting optical signals to radio channels

The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for adjusting gain setting, receiver clock frequency, and symbol timing in an OFDM radio receiver. The method is based on the reception of a preamble with known periodic training sequences transmitted prior to user data over the radio channel. By computing a periodicity metric, an inner receiver detects the presence of periodic signals in the received data sequence, provides means to set the Variable Gain Amplifier VGA gain in the radio frontend, and estimates frequency offsets between the transmit and receive clock. Matched filters are used to determine the symbol timing. A finite-state-machine schedules various tasks during the receiver startup.

Acquisition and adjustment of gain, receiver clock frequency, and symbol timing in an OFDM radio receiver

Disclosed are optical transmitter and transceiver modules for data communication. Such a transceiver module comprises an array of light emitting diodes mounted on a mounting base ( ) being arranged in a regular and symmetrical manner in a dome-shaped housing ( ). This housing ( ) comprises diffusor means for source enlargement. In addition to the transmitter part consisting of said diodes, the transceiver module comprises a receiver. The receiver has four photodiodes ( ) arranged below the mounting base ( ). These photodiodes are tilted and face in different directions to receive light from all around the module. The photodiodes are protected by a thin wire mesh ( ) which serves as Faraday cage to reduce electro magnetic interference. A substrate ( ) for electronic circuitry in SMD-Technology is situated underneath the photodiodes ( ).

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Edlibach, Switzerland

Beat Eugen Weiss