Reliable and scalable network technologies are desired to meet the emerging demand for multimedia communication. Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a key technology and its importance is widely recognized. An ATM layer service category, Available Bit Rate (ABR), was specified at the ATM Forum in 1996. ABR is intended to meet the requirements of non-real-time applications that assume best effort data transportation. It has distinctive features compared to other ATM layer categories. We proposed Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for ABR that allow applications to use ABR capability directly. The API is now a part of the ATM Forum specification. In this paper, we describe the background and necessity of ABR APIs and explain the primitives for them in detail. In addition to having common API primitives for requesting bandwidth or delay requirements during connection setup, ABR APIs can exchange feedback information during communication. Applications for such APIs are addressed and their effectiveness is shown by demonstrating simulation for the TCP-ABR interworking for a backbone ABR network. Finally, a migration scenario for utilizing such APIs is proposed.

Disk-zoning technique has been widely adopted to increase disks capacities. As a result of disparity of capacities of inner and outer zones, the data transfer rates of the outer zones of a zoned-disk are higher than the inner zones that post a great challenge for zoned-disk based multimedia playback. In this paper, we study the data placement problem of VBR (variable bit rate) videos on zoned-disks. Our objective is to minimize video server buffer size and simultaneously to maximize disk utilization subject to the zone constraints of disk. We introduce the CRT (constant read time) method that allocates each user a constant time period in every service round to retrieve a variable-sized disk block. The CRT method can be formulated as constrained combinatorial problems that its optimum solution can be obtained by employing dynamic programming. Two heuristics are also explored to reduce time and space complexities. According to experiment results, the heuristic algorithms obtain near optimum solutions with shorter computation time.

We present iterative round-robin matching for an input and output buffered switch with multiple switching planes. The suggested algorithm is based on iSLIP and consists of request, grant and accept steps. The pointer update scheme of iSLIP is altered in the suggested algorithm to enhance the switch performance. Simulation results under Bernoulli traffic show the suggested algorithm is more appropriate than iSLIP for cell scheduling of input and output buffered switches.

Boundary Constraints of VLSI floorplanning require a set of blocks to be placed along the boundaries of the chip. Thus, this set of blocks can be adjacent to I/O pads for external communication. Furthermore, these blocks are kept away from the central area so that they do not form blockage for internal routing. In the paper, we devise an algorithm of VLSI floorplanning with boundary constraints using a Corner Block List (CBL) representation. We identify the necessary and sufficient conditions of the CBL representation for the boundary constraints. We design a linear time approach to scan the conditions and formulate a penalty function to punish the constraint violation. A simulated annealing process is adopted to optimize the floorplan. Experiments on MCNC benchmarks show promising results.

The optical structure of a conventional backlight illumination system used for transmissive LCD of a mobile terminal is investigated. A structured LGP based on the total internal reflection is designed and fabricated. The LGP is characterized by optical micro-deflectors (MD) and micro-reflectors (MR). The guided light inside the LGP is reflected on the MR elements and directed toward the MD elements. The coming light ray is refracted on the MD element and as a result the ray is deflected on the LGP. The emergent light on the LGP has a wide zenith angle due to the LGP surface normal. A prism sheet whose function is based on the total internal reflection is set on the LGP. The emanated light from the LGP is reflected on the surface of the prism structure and redirected toward the surface normal. The illumination cone of the novel backlight is limited to horizontal range of 17 degrees and vertical range of 11 degrees. The illumination cone on the novel structure can be shaped by optical designs of the MD and MR elements. The peak brightness on the novel backlight structure is 1.44 times that of the conventional one. In this backlight structure, only one TIR prism sheet is used and a thickness reduction of about 250 µm is achieved.

A priming effect is studied for a three-electrode, surface-discharge AC-PDP, which has stripe barrier ribs of 0.22 mm pitch. It was found that by keeping the interval between the reset and address pulses within 24 µs, the data pulse voltage can be reduced while the data pulse width can be narrowed due to the priming effect. By adopting the primed addressing technique to the PDP, the data pulse voltage was reduced to 20 V when the data and scan pulse widths were 1 µs. Alternatively, the data pulse width could be narrowed to 0.33 µs when the data pulse voltage was 56 V. 69% of the TV field time could be assigned for the display periods with 12 sub-fields, assuring high luminance display.

A plasma display panel (PDP) represents gray levels by the pulse number modulation technique that results in undesirable dynamic false contours on moving images. Among the various techniques proposed for the reduction of dynamic false contours, the optimization of the subfield pattern can be most easily implemented without the need for any additional dedicated hardware or software. In this paper, a systematic method for selecting the optimum subfield pattern is presented. In the proposed method, a subfield pattern that minimizes the quantitative measure of the dynamic false contour on the predefined test image is selected as the optimum pattern. The selection is made by repetitive calculations based on a genetic algorithm. Quantitative measure of the dynamic false contour calculated by simulation on the test image serves as a criterion for minimization by the genetic algorithm. In order to utilize the genetic algorithm, a structure of a string is proposed to satisfy the requirements for the subfield pattern. Also, three genetic operators for optimization, reproduction, crossover, and mutation, are specially designed for the selection of the optimum subfield pattern.

Layout design for analog circuits has historically been a time consuming, error-prone, manual task. Its complexity results not so much from the number of devices, as from the complex interactions among devices or with the operating environment, and also from continuous-valued performance specifications. This paper addresses the problem of device-level placement for analog layout in a non-traditional way. Different from the classic approaches--exploring a huge search space with a combinatorial optimization technique, where the cells are represented by means of absolute coordinates, being allowed to illegally overlap during their moves in the chip plane--this paper advocates the use of non-slicing topological representations, like (symmetric-feasible) sequence-pairs, ordered- and binary- trees. Extensive tests, processing industrial analog designs, have shown that using skillfully the symmetry constraints (very typical to analog circuits) to remodel the solution space of the encoding systems, the topological representation techniques can achieve a better computation speed than the traditional approaches, while obtaining a similar high quality of the designs.

Rectangular/circular-to-radial waveguide tra-nsformers through a ring slot have been proposed for the feeder of radial line slot antennas (RLSAs) in millimeter wave application. Rotating electric modes are excited by a set of ring slot and perturbation dog bone slot. Basic operation is observed in 12 GHz band. Concentric array radial line slot antennas fed by these transformers are fabricated and the antenna gain of 26.9 dBi with the efficiency more than 60% is measured. The applicability for millimeter wave is verified for 38 GHz band RLSA fed by the rectangular waveguide. The measured gain of the antenna is 22.5 dBi with the efficiency of 53% with the diameter of 46mm and 26.4 dBi with 61% with the diameter of 66mm.

This paper proposes a multisegment dielectric resonator (MSDR) placed on a slotline for millimeter-wave filter applications. The MSDR structure, including a rectangular dielectric lump and a thin low-dielectric insert, is quite useful for adjusting the coupling between the slotline mode and the resonant mode, leading to improve the filter performances. In addition, by tuning dimensions of the MSDR, a sharp and clear notch response can be designed in the transmission parameter. We have demonstrated the filter characteristics both theoretically and experimentally, and showed the practical procedure for the design of MSDR filters.

In the theory of average-case NP-completeness, Levin introduced the polynomial domination and Gurevich did the average polynomial domination. Ben-David et al. proved that if P-samp (the class of polynomial-time samplable distributions) is polynomially dominated by P-comp (the class of polynomial-time computable distributions) then there exists no strong one-way function. This result will be strengthened by relaxing the assumption from the polynomial domination to the average polynomial domination. Our results also include incompleteness for average polynomial-time one-one reducibility from (NP,P-samp) to (NP,P-comp). To derive these and other related results, a prefix-search algorithm presented by Ben-David et al. will be modified to survive the average polynomial domination.

This paper describes the numerical analysis for terahertz electromagnetic-wave oscillation/detection properties of plasma-wave field-effect transistors (PW-FET's) and their applications to future smart photonic network systems. The PW-FET is a new type of the electron device that utilizes the plasma resonance effect of highly dense two-dimensional conduction electrons in the FET channel. By numerically solving the hydrodynamic equations for PW-FET's, the plasma resonance characteristics under terahertz electromagnetic-wave absorption are analyzed for three types of FET's; Si MOSFET's, GaAs MESFET's, and InP-based HEMT's. The results indicate that the InP-based sub-100-nm gate-length HEMT's exhibit the most promising oscillation/detection characteristics in the terahertz range with very wide frequency tunability. By introducing the PW-FET's as injection-locked terahertz-frequency-tunable oscillators and terahertz mixers, a new idea of coherent heterodyne detection utilizing terahertz IF (intermediate-frequency) bands is proposed for the future smart photonic network systems that enable real-time adaptive wavelength routing for add-drop multiplexing. The plasma resonance of PW-FET's by means of different frequency generation based on direct photomixing is also proposed as an alternative approach to injection-locked terahertz oscillation. To realize it, virtual carrier excitations by the polariton having photon energy lower than the bandgap of the channel is a possible mechanism.

Cost down of millimeter wave components, especially antenna duplexer, is a key for spreading millimeter wave communication systems. An excellent cost-performance antenna duplexer is proposed. It consists of two E-plane filters and a wave-guide circulator. The performance fluctuations due to manufacturing accuracies are studied by simulations and experiments. These results are very useful for cost-down of the practical duplexer without performance degradation.

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ), i.e., structures consisting of two ferromagnetic layers (FM1 and FM2), separated by a very thin insulator barrier (I), have recently attracted attention for their large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) which appears when the magnetization of the ferromagnets of FM1 and FM2 changes their relative orientation from parallel to antiparallel in an applied magnetic field. Using an ultrahigh vacuum magnetron sputtering system, a variety of MTJ structures have been explored. Double Hc magnetic tunnel junction, NiFe/Al2O3/Co and FeCo/Al2O3/Co, were fabricated directly using placement of successive contact mask. The tunnel barrier was prepared by in situ plasma oxidation of thin Al layers sputter deposited. For NiFe/Al2O3/Co junctions, the maximum TMR value reaches 5.0% at room temperature, the switching field can be less than 10 Oe and the relative step width is about 30 Oe. The junction resistance changes from hundreds of ohms to hundreds of kilo-ohms and TMR values decrease monotonously with the increase of applied junction voltage bias. For FeCo/Al2O3/Co junctions, TMR values exceeding 7% were obtained at room temperature. It is surprising that an inverse TMR of 4% was observed in FeCo/Al2O3/Co. The physics governing the spin polarization of tunneling electrons remains unclear. Structures, NiFe/FeMn/NiFe/Al2O3/NiFe, in which one of the FM layers is exchange biased with an antiferromagnetic FeMn layer, were also prepared by patterning using optical lithography techniques. Thus, the junctions exhibit two well-defined magnetic states in which the FM layers are either parallel or antiparallel to one another. TMR values of 16% at room temperature were obtained. The switching field is less than 10 Oe and step width is larger than 30 Oe.

Web caching has become an important problem when addressing the performance issues in Web applications. The expiration time of the Web data item is useful a piece of information for performance enhancement in Web caching. In this paper, we introduce the notion of the effective reference probability that incorporates the effect of expiration time for Web caching. For a formal approach, we propose the continuous independent reference model extending the existing independent reference model. Based on this model, we define formally the effective reference probability and derive it theoretically. By simply replacing the reference probability in the existing cache replacement algorithms with the effective reference probability, we can take the effect of expiration time into account. The results of performance experiments show that the replacement algorithms using the effective reference probability always outperform existing ones. In particular, when the cache fraction is 0.05 and data update is comparatively frequent (i.e., the update frequency is more than 1/10 of the reference frequency), the performance is enhanced by more than 30% in LRU-2 and 13% in Aggarwal's method. The results show that the effective reference probability significantly enhances the performance of Web caching when the expiration time is given.

We studied a three-wave coupling process occurring in microwave power transmission (MPT) experiment in the ionospheric plasma by performing computer experiments with one-dimensional electromagnetic PIC (Particle-In-Cell) model. In order to examine the spatial variation of the coupling process, we continuously emitted intense electromagnetic wave from an antenna located at a simulation boundary. In the three-wave coupling, a low-frequency electrostatic wave is excited as the consequence of a nonlinear interaction between the forward propagating pump wave and backscattered one. In the computer experiments, low-frequency electrostatic bursts are discontinuously observed in space. The discontinuity of the electrostatic bursts is accounted for by the local electron heating due to the bursts and associated modification of the wave dispersion relation. In a case where the pump wave propagates along the geomagnetic field Bext, several bursts of Langmuir waves are observed. Since the first burst consumes a part of the pump wave energy, the pump wave is weakened and cannot trigger the three-wave coupling beyond the region where the burst occurs. Since the dispersion relation of the Langmuir wave is variable due to the local electron heating by the burst, the coupling condition eventually becomes unsatisfied and the first interaction becomes weak. Another burst of Langmuir waves is observed at a different region beyond the location of the first burst. In the case of perpendicular propagation, the upper hybrid wave, one of the mode branches of the electron cyclotron harmonic waves, is excited. Since the dispersion relation of the upper hybrid wave is less sensitive to the electron temperature, the coupling condition is not easily violated by the temperature increase. As a result, the three-wave coupling periodically takes place in time and eventually the transmission ratio of the microwaves becomes approximately 20% while almost no attenuation of the pump waves is observed after the first electrostatic burst in the parallel case.

Coupling between two slot antennas on an infinite ground plane and radiation patterns on a finite ground plane are calculated. We introduce a parasitic wire between slot antennas to reduce coupling. Two typical cases with a monopole or a half-loop are considered in this paper. Numerical results show that the reduction of 13.9 dB is obtained by adjusting a monopole height to about a quarter wavelength of the operating frequency. Also a properly adjusted parasitic half-loop reduces the coupling coefficient by 24 dB. Radiation patterns of the antennas on a 365 mm 465 mm ground plane at 1.5 GHz are calculated where the diffracted fields are taken into account. It is found that the parasitic elements little affect the antenna patterns around the +z-axis that is perpendicular to the ground plane although the reduction of coupling between slot antennas is obtained.

When we search from a huge amount of documents, we often specify several keywords and use conjunctive queries to narrow the result of the search. Though the searched documents contain all keywords, positions of the keywords are usually not considered. As a result, the search result contains some meaningless documents. It is therefore effective to rank documents according to proximity of keywords in the documents. This ranking is regarded as a kind of text data mining. In this paper, we propose two algorithms for finding documents in which all given keywords appear in neighboring places. One is based on plane-sweep algorithm and the other is based on divide-and-conquer approach. Both algorithms run in O(n log n) time where n is the number of occurrences of given keywords. We run the algorithms on a large collection of html files and verify its effectiveness.

Feasibility of a color shutter using ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer panel and a field sequential ultra high-resolution CRT with the color shutter as a color field-switching device was studied. The color shutter consists of ferroelectric liquid crystal polymer panels and color polarizers. First, evaluation indices of the color shutter, such as the color gamut, the average transmittance and the white chromaticity shift, were formulated, and the simulation of evaluation indices was examined, where the spectral transmittance characteristics of the polarizer were changed in steps. It was indicated that there was a tradeoff between the color gamut and the average transmittance of the color shutter, and the shutter configuration that provides 0.096 (63% to NTSC) color gamut and 4.3% average transmittance was selected based on the simulation results. Next, the three-line simultaneous scanning method of the monochrome CRT was improved so that the disturbance due to the raster modulation was eliminated by averaging the distribution of beam luminance apparently. To confirm results of the study, the prototype of 21-inch screen size was produced, and the following display characteristics was obtained: luminance of 71 cd/m2, contrast ratio of 146:1 and color gamut of 0.096 (63% to NTSC) under the standard room lighting environment.

In this paper, a high-speed PLA based on dynamic array logic circuits with latch sense amplifiers is presented. The present circuit consists of logic cell arrays, dual-rail bit-lines, latch sense amplifiers, and control blocks. By using a charge sharing scheme and latch sense amplifiers, voltage swings of the bit-lines are reduced compared to the conventional circuits, thus a high-speed and low-power operation is achieved. The present array logic configuration can realize any logic function expressed in the sum-of-products form by using PLA structure. As an application of the proposed PLA, a 32-bit binary comparator is designed and implemented in a 0.6-µm double-poly triple-metal CMOS process. Results of HSPICE simulation show a better performance compared to the conventional circuits. Functional testing using electron beam probing shows that the present circuit operates correctly.