International Business Machines Corporation

Robert L Cowardin

George J Laurer

William L Talley

Craig W Turner

Danny H Addison

Robert C Lynch

Charles M McCray

Johnnie M Carnes

Albert N Gore, Iii

Yoshinair Toyosato

Shigeji Narisawa

An electronic equipment drawer 20 is aligned with an electrical connector in a tunnel in the horizontal and vertical directions with alignment pins and holes. A screw drive 34 and cam 36 mounted on the drawer engages a tunnel wall and controls insertion into the tunnel to provide proper electrical contact and lock the drawer in place in the tunnel. A bus extender card 25 inserted in a connector 26 centrally located on a mother board 21 is supported by surfaces on a bar 28 extending between end walls 24 of the drawer. The end walls 24 include pairs of channels 31 on opposed walls which support feature cards inserted into connectors mounted on the bus extender card 25.

Serviceable data terminal structure

An electronic equipment drawer is aligned with an electrical connector in a tunnel in the horizontal and vertical directions with alignment pins and holes. A screw drive and cam mounted on the drawer engages a surface of an opening in a wall of the tunnel and controls insertion into the tunnel to provide proper electrical contact and lock the drawer in place in the tunnel. Within the drawer a bus extender card inserted in a connector centrally located on a mother board is supported by surfaces on a bar extending between end walls of the drawer. The end walls include pairs of channels on opposed walls which support feature cards inserted into connectors mounted on the bus extender card.

A method and circuit for finding the beginning of valid coded information from a scanner reading a label such as the Universal Product Code (UPC) label establishes a plurality of counting gates based on a predetermined sequence of discrete signal transitions and counts a plurality of related pulse frequencies during the gating periods under control of the established counting gates. The accumulated counts are compared in a predetermined sequence to determine whether selected counts when compared bear a predetermined relationship to each other and a code generated indicative of the relationship which indicates the beginning of valid label data or invalid label data on a continuous basis.

Label find method and circuit

A circuit for filtering positive and negative glitches (i.e., dropouts and noise spikes) in a pulse-like signal to be processed, utilizes a single timing element which introduces a uniform delay in both the leading and trailing edges of the pulse-like signal, thus eliminating pulse-width distortion of the signal. A single adjustment may be made which has the same effect on both the leading and trailing edges making a uniform adjustment of both delays easily achieved.

Glitch filter circuit

A method and circuit for decoding coded electric signals from a scanner reading a coded label such as the Universal Product Code (UPC) label, establishes a plurality of counting gates based on a predetermined sequence of discrete signal transitions and counts a plurality of related pulse frequencies during the gating periods under control of the established counting gates. The counts are compared in a predetermined sequence to determine the relationship between their magnitudes (e.g., A &lt; B; A &gt; B) and a coded signal generated indicative of the relationship. The said coded signals indicate the value of the coded information.

Decoding method and circuit

A wand suitable for scanning the universal product code (UPC) symbol uses a light emitting diode for illuminating the symbol and a silicon photodetector for receiving the reflected energy. A single optical fiber is coupled to the diode and to a portion of a second single fiber for conducting narrow bandwidth visible light centered about 6,500 A to the terminus of the wand. The reflected light energy from the symbol when it is scanned by the wand is transmitted to the silicon photodetector via the said second single fiber which is also coupled to a third single fiber which conducts the reflected light energy to the silicon detector.

Growing community of inventors

Cary, NC, United States of America

Robert L Cowardin