International Business Machines Corporation

Manuel Orozco

John Matthew Santosuosso

Alexander Cook

Christopher R Sabotta

Matthew Stephen Doyle

John Richard Dangler

Layne A Berge

Thomas W Liang

Eric L Barsness

David M Koster

Jason J Bjorgaard

Joseph Paul Kuczynski

Alexander J Pogue

Joseph C Schmidt

The present disclosure describes printed circuit board performance evaluation techniques. In some cases, a printed circuit board performance evaluation process may include determining a first set of electrical properties associated with an interface between components of a printed circuit board, where the interface is disposed on an internal or external layer of the printed circuit board. After selective application of a sheet of dielectric material to a portion of a transmission line in the interface, a second set of electrical properties associated with the interface may be determined. The first set of electrical properties may be compared to the second set of electrical properties to evaluate printed circuit board performance. In other cases, the interface may include a trace inductor, and electrical properties of the interface before and after application of a ferrous material may be compared to evaluate printed circuit board performance.

Printed circuit board performance evaluation techniques

A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing tire tread depth and wear patterns monitoring. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is provided with an associated tire to be monitored. A dipole antenna structure is coupled to the RFID tag and routed within a position in the tire tread and routed substantially circumferentially in the associated tire. A resonant frequency of the dipole antenna structure is detected to monitor tire tread wear.

Implementing tire tread depth and wear patterns monitoring with RFID

An optical electromagnetic radiation (EM) emitter and receiver are located upon a printed circuit board (PCB) layer and are optically connected to an optical security pathway that is between a pair of signal traces. A predetermined reference flux is determined, the reference flux being the expected EM transmitted by the optical security pathway and received by the receiver. When the PCB is subject to an unauthorized access thereof (e.g., drilled, sawed, cut, etc.), the optical EM transferred by optical security pathway is altered. An optical monitoring device that monitors the flux of the optical EM received by the receiver detects a change in flux, in relation to the reference flux, and passes a tamper signal to one or more computer system devices to respond to the unauthorized access. For example, one or more cryptographic adapter card or computer system functions or secured crypto components may be disabled.

Secure crypto module including optical security pathway

Systems, methods, and cards utilized for an authentication protection layer for payment card transactions are provided. Aspects include receiving, by a transaction processing terminal, the card for the potential transaction. Obtaining card holder information for the card and transmitting a radio frequency (RF) signal and receiving RFID data from an RFID tag associated with the card. Comparing, by a processor, the card holder information to the RFID data to determine whether to authorize the potential card transaction and authorizing the potential card transaction based at least on a determination that the RFID data corresponds to the card holder information.

Authentication system for payment cards

A method and structure are provided for implementing stub-less printed circuit board (PCB) vias and custom interconnect through laser-excitation conductive track structures. Stub-less printed PCB vias are formed which terminate at desired signal layers by controlled laser excitation without stubs or the need to back-drill to remove such stubs.

Method of implementing stub-less PCB vias

An optical electromagnetic radiation (EM) emitter and receiver are located upon a printed circuit board (PCB) layer and are connected to an optical security pathway. A predetermined reference flux is determined, the reference flux being the expected EM transmitted by the optical security pathway and received by the receiver. When the PCB is subject to an unauthorized access thereof (e.g., drilled, sawed, cut, etc.), the optical EM transferred by optical security pathway is altered. An optical monitoring device that monitors the flux of the optical EM received by the receiver detects a change in flux, in relation to the reference flux, and passes a tamper signal to one or more computer system devices to respond to the unauthorized access. For example, one or more cryptographic adapter card or computer system functions or secured crypto components may be disabled.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to using a set of warning data to manage distributed development of an application in a computing environment. In embodiments, the computing environment may include a distributed computing environment or a stream computing environment. A first portion of the application may be developed by a first user. A second portion of the application may be received by the first user. The second portion of the application may be compiled and developed by a second user. Based on the set of warning data, a curative action for utilization to develop the application may be formulated. The curative action may be carried-out to develop the application.

Warning data management for distributed application development

A deployment manager deploys processing elements of a streaming application in a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) aware manner to reduce memory coherency overhead in a streaming application. The deployment manager is able to utilize information about an application's operators and the architecture of the NUMA nodes to place whole processing elements on a single NUMA node. Where the operators of a processing element would cross NUMA node boundaries, the deployment manager may consolidate the threads of a processing element to place an application's operators on a single NUMA node to increase efficiency of the system.

Deployment of processing elements in non-uniform memory access environments

Aspects of the disclosure relate to managing a set of warning data with respect to an execution phase in a computing environment. In embodiments, the computing environment may include a distributed computing environment or a stream computing environment. The set of warning data may be detected with respect to the execution phase. In embodiments, the set of warning data may be coupled with a computing artifact. In embodiments, the computing artifact may include a compilation which has a computing object in association with the set of warning data. Using the set of warning data, an execution action which pertains to the computing artifact may be determined. In embodiments, the execution action may include a code deployment to a set of computing units, a run-time check modification, or a process attribute modification. The execution action which pertains to the computing artifact may be performed.

Warning data management with respect to an execution phase

A first set of code origination data which corresponds to a first computing object and a second set of code origination data which corresponds to a second computing object may be detected for utilization to develop a streaming application in the stream computing environment. Based on the first and second sets of code origination data, a code assembly arrangement with respect to the first and second computing objects may be determined. Based on the first and second sets of code origination data, a consistent region may be determined to utilize for the code assembly arrangement. The code assembly arrangement may be established, in the consistent region, with respect to the first and second computing objects to develop the streaming application.

Code origination data management for code assembly

A variable checkpoint mechanism in a streams manager checkpoints a streaming application based on periodic time periods for checkpoints. The variable checkpoint mechanism can take a checkpoint before a periodic time period ends when a spike is coming, or can take a checkpoint after the periodic time period ends when there is backpressure in a consistent region of the streaming application. When there is no anticipated spike coming and when there is no backpressure in a consistent region of the streaming application, the checkpoint is performed at the normal end of the periodic time period for checkpoints. In this manner the checkpoint timing of the variable checkpoint mechanism can be adjusted real-time to minimize the negative impact of checkpointing on the performance of the streaming application.

Variable checkpointing in a streaming application with one or more consistent regions

An ophthalmic device is described that includes a frame and an optically active component comprising a bistable dielectric electroactive polymer. The bistable dielectric electroactive polymer changes shape when exposed to a sufficiently strong electric field and does not completely revert to its former shape when the electric field is deactivated. The refractive properties of the ophthalmic devices described herein are adjusted by exposing the devices to electric fields.

Dielectric electro-active polymer contact lenses

Disclosed aspects relate to managing a set of development data for a stream computing environment. A set of development data related to a computing object may be detected. The set of development data may be derived from application development for utilization in the stream computing environment. The set of development data may be established in association with the computing object. A computing artifact which has the computing object in association with the set of development data may be compiled.

Development data management for a stream computing environment

A streaming application processes data by processing tuples via operators. Bottleneck operators are identified. A degree of streaming speed is maintained, even when non-bottleneck operators participate in increased resiliency operations.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Manuel Orozco