1. A method of identifying one or more conflicts of interest between a principal and an agent, the method comprising:
determining that the agent has performed a covered action on behalf of the principal;
determining an existence of at least one covered interest for the agent;
associating, with at least one processor, the at least one covered interest with the covered action if it is determined that the at least one covered interest exists.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
outputting, an indication that the at least one covered interest represents a potential conflict of interest between the principal and the agent.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication comprises an out-of-document alert that is provided to a user in a notification separate from a document displayed to the user.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:
providing the out-of-document alert to the user in response to detecting an occurrence of the covered action.
5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:
providing the out-of-document alert to the user at a specified time andor at periodic time intervals.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication comprises an in-document alert embedded in a document displayed to a user.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the in-document alert comprises at least one visual indication of the potential conflict of interest.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one visual indication comprises highlighting at least one link in the document to indicate the potential conflict of interest.
9. The method of claim 6, wherein associating the at least one covered interest for the agent with the covered action is performed in response to displaying the document to the user.
10. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication is output in accordance with at least one configuration parameter selected by a user.
11. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication comprises conflict of interest information for a plurality of agents andor a plurality of covered actions.
12. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
associating with the indication, third party commentary related to a quality of the data in the indication.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the indication comprises at least some of the third party commentary.
14. A method of identifying one or more potential conflicts of interest between a principal and an agent, the method comprising:
receiving at least one query to identify the one or more potential conflicts of interest;
aggregating, with at least one processor, information from a plurality of data sets based, at least in part, on information in the at least one query and metadata associated with the information in the plurality of data sets; and
outputting an indication of the aggregated information, wherein the indication represents the one or more potential conflicts of interest between the principal and the agent.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one query specifies an identifier for the principal, an identifier for the agent, at least one covered action, at least one covered interest, andor a date range used to select information from the plurality of data sets.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein the agent is a corporate agent comprising a first plurality of individuals andor the principal is a corporate principal comprising a second plurality of individuals.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the metadata associated with the information in the plurality of data sets identifies at least one principal-agent relationship.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one principal-agent relationship is specified by one or more tags associated with the information in the plurality of data sets.
19. The method of claim 14, wherein aggregating information from the plurality of data sets comprises associating at least one covered interest for the agent with at least one covered action for the agent.
20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
receiving conflict of interest metadata manually entered by an author of a document; and
wherein the indication of aggregated information is output based, at least in part, on the manually entered metadata.
21. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
displaying at least one search interface to a user, wherein the at least one search interface comprises one or more fields configured to enable the user to specify information for the at least one query; and
generating the at least one query based, at least in part, on the information specified by the user in the at least one search interface.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one search interface comprises a Boolean interface.
23. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one search interface comprises a faceted search interface.
24. The method of claim 21, wherein the faceted search interface comprises a decision tree interface.
25. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:
determining that the agent has performed a covered action on behalf of the principal;
determining an existence of at least one covered interest for the agent;
associating the at least one covered interest with the covered action if it is determined that the at least one covered interest exists.
26. A computer system comprising:
at least one processor programmed to:
receive at least one query to identify the one or more potential conflicts of interest;
aggregate, with the at least one processor, information from a plurality of data sets based, at least in part, on information in the at least one query and metadata associated with the information in the plurality of data sets; and
output an indication of the aggregated information, wherein the indication represents the one or more potential conflicts of interest between the principal and the agent.
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 of estimating a thermal state of a transient thermal system, comprising:
developing a model for estimating a temperature on a surface of a semiconductor chip in a transient thermal system in which heat is generated by executing instructions in a microprocessor formed on said surface of said semiconductor chip;
measuring a temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip and a temperature of a heat sink formed on said semiconductor chip, by using a plurality of sensors deployed on said heat sink and at first locations on said surface of said semiconductor chip; and
combining an output of said model and an output of said plurality of sensors to estimate a temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at second locations on said surface of said semiconductor chip which are other than said first locations.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: using said estimated temperature at said second locations to estimate a peak-temperature of the surface of the semiconductor chip.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said temperature of said surface of said chip comprises a plurality of temperatures distributed over an entire surface of said chip.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said temperature of said surface of said chip comprises a temperature of a local region of a surface of said chip.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
selectively estimating a temperature of an entire surface of said chip, or a temperature of a local region of said surface of said chip.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
predicting a future temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip based on an instruction stream which is to be processed in said microprocessor.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
using a temperature map of said thermal state which is shared by functional units of said system including a dynamic thermal management unit to rebalance a workload of said thermal system.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein an internal temperature of said transient thermal system varies over time.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein said system comprises a heat flux which is spread into orthogonal and in-plane components.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein said temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at said second locations is estimated in response to quanta of energy released in said microprocessor.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
executing instructions in a microprocessor unit formed on said semiconductor chip,
wherein an increase in temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at said second locations due to heat generated by said executing said instructions is estimated.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein said temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at said second locations is estimated based on in-plane spreading and orthogonal spreading of heat in said semiconductor chip.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of sensors comprises an array of sensors.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein said temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at said second locations is estimated in the presence of an inaccurate parameter of the thermal system.
15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
predicting said thermal state of said transient thermal system based on said estimated temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at said second locations.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein said predicting said thermal state of said transient thermal system comprises predicting said thermal state of said transient thermal system in real time.
17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
using a temperature map of said thermal state which is shared by functional units of said system including a distributed cooling system, thereby to manage a cooling capability of said cooling system.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:
selectively shifting said cooling capability of said cooling unit to a location of said system requiring increased cooling.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein said selectively shifting said cooling capability of said cooling unit comprises shifting said cooling capability based on an anticipated cooling need.
20. An apparatus for estimating a thermal state of a transient thermal system, comprising:
a model developer for developing a model for estimating a temperature on a surface of a semiconductor chip in a transient thermal system in which heat is generated by executing instructions in a microprocessor formed on said surface of said semiconductor chip;
a plurality of sensors deployed on a heat sink formed on said semiconductor chip and at first locations on said surface of said semiconductor chip, for measuring a temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip and a temperature of said heat sink; and means for combining an output of said model and an output of said plurality of sensors to estimate a temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at second locations on said surface of said semiconductor chip which are other than said first locations.
21. A signal-bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform a method of estimating a thermal state of a transient thermal system, said method comprising:
developing a model for estimating a temperature on a surface of a semiconductor chip in a transient thermal system in which heat is generated by executing instructions in a microprocessor formed on said surface of said semiconductor chip;
measuring a temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip and a temperature of a heat sink formed on said semiconductor chip, by using a plurality of sensors deployed on said heat sink and at first locations on said surface of said semiconductor chip; and
combining an output of said model and an output of said plurality of sensors to estimate a temperature of said surface of said semiconductor chip at second locations on said surface of said semiconductor chip which are other than said first locations.