Apparatus and methods for two-dimensional compaction of object collections defines an initial set of unrefined objects and an initial compaction direction. One by one, each unrefined object is taken from the unrefined object configuration and placed within a refined configuration. Both unrefined and refined configurations possess profiles along which the selected object is placed. Pruning rules select which locations to investigate more closely, by eliminating those positions that clearly do not...

The invention provides fast generation of flag signals for devices such as a first-in first-out buffers by looking ahead and predetermining flag signals for future possible states of the device. Predetermining flag signals does not delay flag output because the required calculations are completed before the flag signal is needed. The flag signal can be changed when needed as quickly as a multiplexer can switch from an old flag signal to a predetermined flag signal. The switching time of a multip...

A computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool simulates physical floor-planning of electronic components to be placed and interconnected on both sides of a printed circuit board (PCB). Initially components are placed in a raw portion of the PCB, until an evaluator determines where to re-place selected components in refined portions on both sides of the PCB. The evaluation process is repeated until all components are selected from the raw portion and re-placed in a refined portion. During evaluation, a...

The invention provides fast generation of flag signals for devices such as a first-in first-out buffers by looking ahead and predetermining flag signals for future possible states of the device. Predetermining flag signals does not delay flag output because the required calculations are completed before the flag signal is needed. The flag signal can be changed when needed as quickly as a multiplexer can switch from an old flag signal to a predetermined flag signal. The switching time of a multip...

A composite solid electrolyte comprising a mixture of a solid ionically conductive powder and an ionically conductive polymeric material wherein said polymeric material provides a network for containing said solid ionically conductive powder, and a method for producing the electrolyte is disclosed.

A stamping toy with sound and lighting effect which comprises an ornamental seat, a main body mounted at the bottom of the ornamental seat, a bottom cap mounted at the bottom of the main body, a spring within the ornamental seat, a circuit board mounted at the bottom of the spring, a light emitting body, a plurality of batteries and a conductive spring being provided on the top of the circuit board, an isolation annular rim mounted at the bottom of the circuit board, a voice emitter (buzzer) mou...

A solid polymeric electrolyte comprising a continuous network of crosslinked polyethylene oxide containing an ionic conducting phase which includes a metal salt and a dipolar aprotic solvent.

A system and method for testing the placement of logic circuits on a regularly repeated array of integrated devices includes a base array memory, a basis memory, a floor plan memory, an array class memory, a logic cell index memory, a legal location index map memory, a legal location table memory and an engine. The system creates an array class for each type of device that is fabricated on the base array. The engine then tests each location of a basis of each array class for the legality of plac...

A hybrid block matching prediction and transform based n dimensional signal sequence encoder, including an encoder motion estimator, having a cost function. A first embodiment includes an entropy-based cost function. A second embodiment includes a fast block matching search (motion estimation) method to learn the results from neighboring blocks and perform a large range search with only a small number of points to visit. A third embodiment includes a method to dynamically adjust the cost functio...

A computer-automated tool re-positions an instance relative to another instance along a given dimension. First, positions of both instances along the given dimension are determined. Then, a modified position is determined for one instance according to a convex function, which defines a global minimum solution between the initial instance positions.