1. A reader for mechanical actuation of fluids within a test cartridge comprising:
a first plunger having a first plunger tip at its front end, a first yoke at its back end, and being rotatable about a fulcrum, wherein the first plunger tip is configured for alignment with a first fluidic pouch on said test cartridge;
a second plunger having a second plunger tip at its front end, a second yoke at its back end, and being rotatable about a fulcrum, wherein the second plunger tip is configured for alignment with a second fluidic pouch on said test cartridge;
a first eccentric cam disposed on a camshaft and rotatably mated with the first yoke;
a second eccentric cam disposed on said camshaft and rotatably mated with the second yoke;
a first clutch disposed on said camshaft and coupled to said first eccentric cam; and
a second clutch disposed on said camshaft and coupled to said second eccentric cam,
wherein said first clutch engages said camshaft with a first direction of rotation of said camshaft and said second clutch engages said camshaft with a second direction of rotation opposite the first direction.
2. The reader of claim 1, further comprising a worm gear attached to a DC motor and to said camshaft.
3. The reader of claim 1, further comprising a wrap spring attached to each eccentric cam.
4. The reader of claim 1, further comprising one or more screws for applying drag to said camshaft.
5. The reader of claim 1, further comprising parallel plungers wherein the separation between said plungers is greater that about 3 mm and less than about 3 cm.
6. The reader of claim 1 further comprising at least one additional independent actuator for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
7. The reader of claim 1, wherein rotational motion of said camshaft causes oscillation of at lease one of said plunger tips.
8. The reader of claim 1, further comprising two additional independent actuators for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
9. The reader of claim 1, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrical elements within said test cartridge.
10. The reader of claim 1, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrochemical sensors within said test cartridge.
11. The reader of claim 1, that is a handheld portable instrument.
12. The reader of claim 1, that is a battery-powered instrument.
13. The reader of claim 1, that is a blood testing instrument.
14. A reader for mechanical actuation of fluids within a test cartridge, comprising a plurality of plungers each with a plunger tip at a front end and a yoke at a back end, wherein each plunger is attached to a fulcrum, each yoke mates with an eccentric cam having a camshaft, each eccentric cam has a clutch that only engages with one direction of rotation of said camshaft; and each plunger tip is configured to align with one of a plurality of fluidic elements on a test cartridge.
15. The reader of claim 14, further comprising a worm gear attached to a DC motor and to said camshaft.
16. The reader of claim 14, further comprising a wrap spring attached to each eccentric cam.
17. The reader of claim 14, further comprising one or more screws for applying drag to said camshaft.
18. The reader of claim 14, further comprising parallel plungers wherein the separation between said plungers is greater that about 3 mm and less than about 3 cm.
19. The reader of claim 14, further comprising at least one additional independent actuator for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
20. The reader of claim 14, wherein rotational motion of said camshaft causes oscillation of at least one of said plunger tips.
21. The reader of claim 14, further comprising two additional independent actuators for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
22. The reader of claim 14, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrical elements within said test cartridge.
23. The reader of claim 14, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrochemical sensors within said test cartridge.
24. The reader of claim 14, that is a handheld portable instrument.
25. The reader of claim 14, that is a battery-powered instrument.
26. The reader of claim 14, that is a blood testing instrument.
27. A reader for mechanical actuation of fluids within a test cartridge, comprising a first plunger and a second plunger each having a plunger tip at a front end and a yoke at a back end, wherein each plunger is attached to a fulcrum, each yoke mates with an eccentric cam and each eccentric cam mates with a separate motorized camshaft, and wherein said first plunger tip is configured for alignment with a first fluidic pouch on a test cartridge and said second plunger tip is configured for alignment with a second fluidic pouch on said test cartridge.
28. The reader of claim 27, further comprising multiple worm gears attached respectively to separate DC motors and to said respective camshafts.
29. The reader of claim 27, further comprising one or more screws for applying drag to each of said camshafts.
30. The reader of claim 27, further comprising parallel plungers wherein the separation between said plungers is greater that about 3 mm and less than about 3 cm.
31. The reader of claim 27, further comprising at least one additional independent actuator for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
32. The reader of claim 27, wherein rotational motion of said camshaft causes oscillation of at least one of said plunger tips.
33. The reader of claim 27, further comprising two additional independent actuators for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
34. The reader of claim 27, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrical elements within said test cartridge.
35. The reader of claim 27, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrochemical sensors within said test cartridge.
36. The reader of claim 27, that is a handheld portable instrument.
37. The reader of claim 27, that is a battery-powered instrument.
38. The reader of claim 27, that is a blood testing instrument.
39. A reader for mechanical actuation of fluids within a test cartridge, comprising a plurality of plungers each with a plunger tip at a front end and a yoke at a back end, where each plunger is attached to a fulcrum, each yoke mates with an eccentric cam with a camshaft attached to a separate motor; and each plunger tip is configured to be aligned with one of a plurality of fluidic elements on a test cartridge.
40. The reader of claim 39, further comprising multiple worm gears attached respectively to separate DC motors and to said respective camshafts.
41. The reader of claim 39, further comprising one or more screws for applying drag to each of said camshafts.
42. The reader of claim 39, further comprising parallel plungers wherein the separation between said plungers is greater that about 3 mm and less than about 3 cm.
43. The reader of claim 39, further comprising at least one additional independent actuator for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
44. The reader of claim 39, wherein rotational motion of said camshaft causes oscillation of at least one of said plunger tips.
45. The reader of claim 39, further comprising two additional independent actuators for actuation of fluids within said test cartridge.
46. The reader of claim 39, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrical elements within said test cartridge.
47. The reader of claim 39, further comprising an electrical connector for contacting electrochemical sensors within said test cartridge.
48. The reader of claim 39, that is a handheld portable instrument.
49. The reader of claim 39, that is a battery-powered instrument.
50. The reader of claim 39, that is a blood testing instrument.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for saving power in a memory subsystem that uses memory access idle timer to enable low power mode and memory scrub operation of a memory scrub engine within the memory subsystem of a computing system, the method comprising the steps of:
the computing system determining that the memory subsystem is switched out of low power mode due to a memory scrub operation; and
in response to the said determining step, the computing system bypassing an idle timer of the memory subsystem such that the memory subsystem is returned to the low power mode upon completion of the memory scrub operation, wherein the computing system bypasses the low power mode of the idle timer, if the only reason the computing system transitioned to non-idle mode is to perform background scrubbing of memory of the computing system, and wherein, the memory controller of memory maintains a the scrub flag that it clears every time a new non-scrub operation is performed into memory operations queue of the computing system.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computing system sets a scrub flag of the memory subsystem to a high state if the memory subsystem is in low power mode and the memory subsystem performs the memory scrub operation, and wherein the computing system clears the scrub flag to a low state if the memory subsystem performs an operation that is not the memory scrub operation.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the computing system bypasses the low power mode of an idle timer if the memory subsystem is idle and the scrub flag is set to the high state.
4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the computing system starts the idle timer and waits for expiration of the idle timer before entering low power mode, if the memory subsystem is idle and the scrub flag is clear to the low state.
5. The method according to claim 2, the scrub flag is a single latch of the memory subsystem.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory subsystem includes a monitoring circuit that detects when the memory subsystem is idle, and wherein the memory subsystem is idle if there are no operations in one or more memory locations of the memory subsystem.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory scrub operation is performed by a memory engine of the memory subsystem.