We studied the application of precursor solutions that can be fired into oxides to form a protective layer for AC-type Plasma Display Panel (AC-PDP). Our study of alkoxide and metallic soap as MgO precursors revealed that the crystallinity of MgO films depends on the starting substance. Since the electric discharge characteristics of a panel and the lamination effect of the protective layer depend on precursors, it was confirmed that binders having higher crystallinity provide better characteristics. Our study revealed that a compound-oxide film has high crystallinity. The application of a Ba0.6Sr0.4Gd2O4 formation solution to a binder and the application of a Sr0.6Mg0.4Gd2O4 formation solution to a protective layer both are seemed promising We also found that a double-layer film, made by forming a protective layer of fine MgO powder and a Ba0.6Sr0.4Gd2O4 binder, on top of a protective layer made of fine MgO powder and a MgO binder, provides a luminous efficiency 5.3 times higher than that of sputtered MgO film which is one of candidates for the large panel, and the conventional electron beam evaporation is not suitable for the large panel. We further found that a triple-layer protective film made by forming a thin film of Sr0.6Mg0.4Gd2O4 provides low voltages of 1 V in firing voltage (Vf) and 35 V in sustaining voltage (Vs) compared to the double-layer film and provides a luminous efficiency 5.5 times higher than that of sputtered MgO film. A life test revealed the triple-layer film in particular providing a useful life of more than 10,000 hours. From these findings, we concluded that the compound-oxides which is composed of alkaline-earth-metal and rare-earth-element could be applied effectively to a protective layer for AC-PDP.

It is well known that extracting parallel loops plays a significant role in designing parallelizing compilers. The execution efficiency of a loop is enhanced when the loop can be executed in parallel or partial parallel, like a DOALL or DOACROSS loop. This paper reports on the practical parallelism detector (PPD) that is implemented in PFPC (a portable FORTRAN parallelizing compiler running on OSF/1) at NCTU to concentrate on finding the parallelism available in loops. The PPD can extract the potential DOALL and DOACROSS loops in a program by invoking a combination of the ZIV test and the I test for verifying array subscripts. Furthermore, if DOACROSS loops are available, an optimization of synchronization statement is made. Experimental results show that PPD is more reliable and accurate than previous approaches.

In this paper, we discuss both effective approaches in specification process, formal specification and reuse, and focus on providing an integrated and systematic supportbased on them. Preparing the specification model which mediates an image of the designer and another representation of it in formal method, the designer can specify the target system incrementally and smoothly. As for the specification model, we employ LTS on the early step of specification process because of its understandability for the designer. Moreover, reuse of specification leads to reduction of the cost and time, defining retrieval mechanism of reusable cases from database by mathematically calculating similarity of them. For the reuse mechanism, we define a new concept of similarity on LTS as the criterion of case retrieval, which enables more flexible matching between the besigner's requirement and the existing case than any other traditional schema on LTS, and show the case retrieval algorithm. Integration of two approaches brings us the great improvement of the productivity on system development.

A type of Lienard's equation +µf(x)+x=0, where f(x) is not an even function of x, is studied by Le Corbeiller as a model of various biological oscillations, such as breathing, and called two-stroke oscillators. A distinctive feature of this type of oscillators is that the parameter µ has the upper limit µ0 for the oscillator to have some stable limit cycle. This paper gives a numerical method for calculating this upper limit µ0.

A new prediction method for the effective address is presented. This method works with the buffer named the address prediction buffer, and allows the data cache to be accessed speculatively. As a consequence of the trend toward increasing clock frequency, the internal cache is no longer able to fill the speed gap between the processor and the external memory, and the data cache latency degrades the processor performance. In order to hide this latency, the prediction method is proposed. By this method, the load address is predicted, and the data is fetched earlier than the memory access stage. In the case that the prediction is correct, the latency is hidden. Even if the prediction is incorrect, the performance is not degraded by any miss penalties. We have found that the prediction accuracy is 81.9% on average, and thus the performance is improved by 6.6% on average and a maximum of 12.1% for the integer programs.

For reversal complexity on an off-line Turing machine, which is a Turing machine with a read-only two-way input tape except work-tapes, we can consider two kinds of definition; the first one is a definition in which the number of reversals over the input tape is not counted, and the second one is a definition in which it is counted. Unlike time and space complexities, whether or not there is any difference between these two definitions does not seem to be trivial. In this paper, we will show the following results: (1) let S(n) be any function, and R(n) be an (R(n), S(n)) reversal-space constructible function. Then, DRESPk(R(n), S(n)) IDRESPk+2(R(n) + log(nS(n)), n2R(n)S(n)), (2) let R(n) and S(n) be any functions. Then, NRESPk(R(n), S(n)) INRESPk+1(R(n), n2S(n)), and ARESPk(R(n), S(n)) = IARESPk(R(n), S(n)), where DRESP denotes a deterministic reversal- and space-bounded class under the definition disregarding reversals over the input tape, and IDRESP denotes a deterministic reversal- and space-bounded class under the definition counting it. The suffix k denotes the number of work-tapes. The classes NRESP, INRESP, ARESP and IARESP are also defined similarly for NTMs and ATMs.

A subclass of context-free languages, called pure context-free languages, which is generated by context-free grammar with only one type of symbol (i.e., terminals and nonterminals are not distinguished), is introduced and the problem of identifying from positive data a restricted class of monogenic pure context-free languages (mono-PCF languages, in short) is investigated. The class of mono-PCF languages is incomparable to the class of regular languages. In this paper we show that the class of mono-PCF languages is polynomial time identifiable from positive data. That is, there is an algorithm that, given a mono-PCF language L, identifies from positive data, a grammar generating L, called a monogenic pure context-free grammar (mono-PCF grammar, in short) satisfying the property that the time for updating a conjecture is bounded by O(N3), where N is the sum of lengths of all positive data provided. This is in contrast with another result in this paper that the class of PCF languages is not identifiable in the limit from positive data.

This paper concerns a Petri-net-based model for describing reactive and concurrent systems. Although many high-level Petri nets have been proposed, they are insufficiently practical to describe reactive and concurrent systems in the detail modeling, design and implementation phases. They are mainly intended to describe concurrent systems in the rough modeling phase and lack in several important features (e.g., concurrent tasks, task communication/synchronization, I/O interface, task scheduling) which the most actual implementations of reactive and concurrent systems have. Therefore it is impossible to simulate and analyze the systems accurately without explicitly modeling these features. On the other hand, programming languages based on Petri nets are deeply dependent on their execution environments and not sophisticated as modeling and specification languages. This paper proposes MENDEL net which is a high-level Petri net extended by incorporating concurrent tasks, task communication/synchronization, I/O interface, and task scheduling in a sophisticated manner. MENDEL nets are a wide-spectrum modeling language, that is, they are suitable for not only modeling but also designing and implementing reactive and concurrent systems.

The paper deals with Kleenean functions defined as fuzzy logic functions with constants. Kleenean functions provide a means of handling conditions of indeterminate truth value (ambiguous states) which ordinary classical logic (binary logic) cannot cope with. This paper clarifies a necessary and sufficient condition for a function to be a Kleenean function. The condition is provided with a set of two conditions, and it will be shown that they are independent of each other.

Petri net is a graphical and mathematical modeling tool for discrete event systems. This paper treats analysis problems for Petri nets under the earliest firing rule. Under this firing rule, transitions must fire as soon as they are enabled. Marked Petri nets under the earliest firing rule are called earliest firing systems, for short. First, some relations in analysis problems between the earliest and the normal firing systems are discussed. These problems include deadlock freedom, boundedness, persistency and liveness. Then, relations among three types of reachability are considered from the viewpoint of the earliest firing rule. Since earliest firing systems can simulate register machines, they have equivalent modeling powers to Turing machines. It suggests, however, that most of the analysis problems of earliest firing systems with general net structures are undecidable. In this paper, net structures are restricted to a subclass called dissynchronous choice (DC) nets. It is shown that the reachability problem from an initial marking to dead markings (markings where no transition can fire) in earliest firing DC systems is equivalent to the usual reachability problem of the same systems under the normal firing rule. Then, the result is applied to reachability problems of controlled DC systems in which some transitions in the net have external control input places. It is shown that for systems where every transition in the net has an external control input place, one type of reachability problem is decidable. Lastly, the liveness problem of earliest firing DC systems is considered and it is shown that this problem is equivalent to that of the underlying DC system under the normal firing rule. It is also shown that this liveness problem is decidable.

A minimal siphon (or alternatively a structural deadlock) of a Petri net is defined as a minimal set S of places such that existence of any edge from a transition t to a place of S implies that there is an edge from some place of S to t. The subject of the paper is to find a minimal siphon containing a given set of specified places of a general Petri net.

The printed dipole on a semi-infinite substrate is investigated. The solution is based on the moment method in the Fourier transform domain. We analyze far-field and near-field radiation patterns for a printed dipole. Therefore, we make radiation fields clear.

This letter proposes a map-matching method for automotive navigation systems. The proposed method utilizes the innovation of the Kalman filter algorithm and can achieve more accurate positioning than the correlation method which is generally used for the navigation systems. In this letter, the performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by some simulations.

We report on the formation technique and the first observation of visible light emission from silicon nanoparticles (<10nm) embedded in CaF22 Iayers grown on Si(111) substrates by using codeposition of Si and CaF2. It is shown that the size and density of silicon particles embedded in the CaF2 layer can be controlled by varying the substrate temperature and the evaporation rates of CaF2 and Si. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of Si nanoparticles embedded in CaF2 thin films were investigated. The blue or green light emissions obtained using a He-Cd laser (λ=325nm) could be seen with the naked eye even at room temperature for the first time. It is shown that the PL intensity strongly depends on growth conditions such as the Si:CaF2 flux ratio and the growth temperature. The PL spectra were also changed by in situ annealing process. These phenomena can be explained qualitatively by the quantum size effect of Si nanoparticles embedded in CaF2 barriers.

This paper is concerned with the perfectly matched layer (PML) for a lossy medium in terms of a finite volume time domain (FVTD) method based only on the Cartesian coordinate system. In this point-oriented FVTD method, there are no spatial differences between electric and magnetic fields. We can take account of the inhomogenity of the lossy medium by considering averaged material constants in each rectangular cell. Numerical examples are given for the electromagnetic wave propagation in two-dimensional tunnels with bends and branches.

Quantum Cellular Automaton (QCA), which is one of the candidates for future integrable electron devices, is investigated from the viewpoint of operation temperature. The extended Hubbard model which can extract the physical essence of QCA is used to analyze the inter-cell interaction for a layered cell structure. We found that the operation energy estimated from the energy gap between the ground state and excited states of the layered structure is large enough to allow room temperature operation even if the size of quantum dot is as large as 500. The layered cell structure is found to be suitable for a memory application.

Research in very low-bit rate coding has made significant advancements in the past few years. Most recently, the introduction of the MPEG-4 proposal has motivated a wide variety of a approaches aimed at achieving a new level of video compression. In this paper we review progress in VLBV categorized into 3 main areas. (1) Waveform coding, (2) 2D Content-based coding, and (3) Model-based coding. Where appropriate we also described proposals to the MPEG-4 committee in each of these areas.

This paper presents a three layer over-the-cell (OTC) routing algorithm for standard cells with nonuniform OTC routing capacities in standard cell design. Since the number of available routing tracks on the second metal layer of OTC varies column by column, the proposed OTC routing method can effectively utilize the OTC regions. The proposed router performs two types of OTC routing. For the OTC regions near the channel, it performs planar routing. For the OTC regions far from the channel, it performs H-V routing on the second and third layers. Combining planar and H-V routings, the router can utilize the OTC effectively, that could hardly be achieved by existing algorithms. We also formulate the problem of selecting planar routable nets on the third layer as the maximum weighted planar routable net selection problem with nonuniform routing capacity, and propose an optimal algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed router produces small height layouts as compared to those produced by the routers based on the existing cell model with uniform OTC routing capacity.

This paper presents a novel clock routing method used in constructing an optimal clock tree for embedded array chips by determining the route so as to minimize both delay and skew. The proposed method features constructing a tree by optimal node-pair merging, predicting the upper side balancedtree structure, based on accurate global path or delay estimation. By this method, in the case of the chip with large macro cells, the delay estimation error has been within 10%.

A high-frequency approximate method for calculating the diffraction by a smooth convex surface is presented. The advantage of this method is the validity of it in the caustic region of the creeping rays where the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) becomes invalid. The concept used in this method is based on the Method of Equivalent Edge Currents (EEC), and the equivalent line currents for creeping rays which are derived from the diffraction coefficients of the GTD are used. By evaluating the radiation integral of these equivalent line currents, the creeping ray contribution which is valid within the caustic region is obtained. In order to check the accuracy and the validity of the method, the diffraction problem by a perfectly conducting sphere of radius a is solved by applying the method, and the obtained results are compared with the exact and the GTD solutions. It is confirmed from the comparison that the failure of the GTD near the caustic is removed in this method and accurate solution is obtained in this area for high-frequency (ka8). Furthermore, it is also found that this method is valid in the backward region (0θ90, θ is an observation angle mesuered from an incident direction), whereas not in the forward region (90θ180).