Author: claimsbot

What is claimed is:

1. In a computational system wherein a value of a lock is encoded to identify (i) a set of one or more transactions that own the lock and (ii) respective one or more modes in which such transactions own the lock, and wherein at least some locks of equal value are represented using a same shared lock state, a method of performing bulk delegation of locks from one or more delegator transactions to one or more delegatee transactions, the method comprising:
traversing a data structure encoding the shared lock states; and
for each shared lock state of the data structure encoding having an owner set that includes at least one of the delegator transactions, removing from the owner set each of the delegator transactions, and adding thereto each of the delegatee transactions.
2. A method, as recited in claim 1,
wherein the shared lock states include a respective owner set per lock mode such that each owner set encodes a set of the transactions that owns the lock in the respective lock mode.
3. A method, as recited in claim 2,
wherein the removing and the adding are performed for each of the owner sets that include at least one of the delegator transactions.
4. A method, as recited in claim 1,
wherein the set of the shared lock states is at least partially encoded in an associative table of shared lock states (TSLS).
5. A method, as recited in claim 4,
wherein at least a subset of the shared lock states that represent locks owned by a single owner is encoded separately from the table of shared lock states (TSLS).
6. A method, as recited in claim 4,
wherein at least a frequently used subset of the shared lock states is encoded separately from the table of shared lock states (TSLS).
7. A method, as recited in claim 1, wherein the bulk delegation is one of:
a one-to-many bulk delegation;
a many-to-one bulk delegation; and
a many-to-many bulk delegation.
8. A method, as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
selecting a subset of the locks for the bulk delegation based at least in part on a mode or modes in which the subset of the locks is held.
9. In a computational system wherein at least some lock states are shared amongst transactions, a method of implementing a bulk delegation of locks from one or more delegator transactions to one or more delegatee transactions, the method comprising:
scanning an encoding of shared lock states; and
for each shared lock state encoding having at least one associated owner set that includes one of the delegator transactions, removing from the associated owner set each of the delegator transactions and adding thereto each of the delegatee transactions.
10. A method, as recited in claim 9,
wherein at least some of the shared lock state encodings have plural associated owner sets, each corresponding to a respective mode in which a corresponding lock can be owned.
11. A method, as recited in claim 2,
wherein the removing and the adding are performed for each of the plural owner sets that include one of the delegator transactions.
12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:
prior to the removing and adding, validating the bulk delegation based at least in part on ignore conflicts relationships amongst the delegatee transactions.
13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:
prior to the removing and adding, validating the bulk delegation based, at least in part, on ignore conflicts relationships amongst the delegates transactions and between the delegatee transactions and otherwise incompatible-mode owners of locks, which would remain after completion of the bulk delegation.
14. The method of claim 9,
wherein the locks are held or owned in modes that at least include read and write modes.
15. The method of claim 9,
wherein the locks are held or owned in modes selected from a set of lock modes; and
wherein at least some individual ones of the lock modes encompass other ones of the lock modes based on a precedence relation.
16. The method of claim 9,
wherein the encoding of shared lock states includes an associative search data structure.
17. The method of claim 16,
wherein at least some frequently used lock states are encoded apart from the associative search data structure.
18. The method of claim 16,
wherein at least some single owner lock states are encoded apart from the associative search data structure.
19. The method of claim 9,
wherein the locks are delegated from a single delegator transaction to plural delegatee transactions.
20. The method of claim 9,
wherein the locks are delegated from plural delegator transactions to a single delegatee transaction.
21. The method of claim 9,
wherein the locks are delegated from plural delegator transactions to plural delegates transactions.
22. A transaction processing system that supports bulk delegation of locks, the transaction processing system comprising:
a lock manager that associates locking capabilities with transactions and that allows specification of certain conflicts between locking capabilities to be ignored; and
an encoding of shared lock states, the lock manager implementing a bulk delegation operation by scanning the shared lock states and, for each shared lock state having an associated owner set that includes one of the delegator transactions, removing from the associated owner set each of the delegator transactions and adding thereto each of the delegatee transactions.
23. The transaction processing system of claim 22:
wherein at least some of the shared lock states have plural associated owner sets corresponding to respective lock modes; and
wherein the removing and adding are performed on each of the owner sets that include at least one delegator transaction.
24. The transaction processing system of claim 22,
wherein the transaction processing system implements a nested transaction model; and
wherein the bulk delegation operation is employed to support creation, commitment or abortion of a sub-database.
25. The transaction processing system of claim 22,
wherein the lock manager validates a bulk delegation request based, at least in part, on ignore conflicts relationships amongst the delegatee transactions.
26. The transaction processing system of claim 22, wherein the lock manager:
verifies that, for each type of conflict between lock modes, a set of transactions with which a particular delegatee transaction can ignore conflicts is a super-set of the set of transactions with which the delegator transactions can ignore conflicts; and
if at least one to-be-delegated lock is held in a write mode by at least one of the delegator transactions, further verifies that each of the delegatee transactions can ignore conflicts with each other.
27. A lock manager that implements a bulk delegation operation by validating a bulk delegation request based, at least in part, on ignore conflicts relationships amongst delegatee transactions, and for a validated bulk delegation request, by (i) scanning an encoding of shared lock states and (ii) for each shared lock state having an associated owner set that includes a delegator transaction, removing therefrom each of the delegator transactions and adding thereto each delegatee transactions.
28. The lock manager of claim 27, embodied as software executable in an transaction processing environment that associates locking capabilities with transactions and that allows specification of certain conflicts between locking capabilities to be ignored.
29. A computer program product encoded in one or more computer readable media and comprising:
definition of a data structure instantiable in memory to represent plural locks having identical lock values using a single shared lock state encoding;
lock manager instructions executable by a processor to associate locking capabilities with transactions, to specify certain conflicts between locking capabilities to be ignored, to manage the shared lock state encoding, and to implement a bulk delegation of locks from one or more delegator transactions to one or more delegatee transactions, the bulk delegation scanning the shared lock state encoding and, for each shared lock state having an associated owner set that includes one of the delegator transactions, removing therefrom each of the delegator transactions and adding thereto each of the delegatee transactions.
30. The computer program product of claim 29,
wherein the lock manager instructions validate a bulk delegation request based, at least in part, on ignore conflicts relationships amongst the delegatee transactions.
31. The computer program product of claim 29,
wherein the one or more computer readable media are selected from the set of a disk, tape or other magnetic, optical or electronic storage medium and a network, wireline, wireless or other communications medium.
32. An apparatus comprising:
means for representing plural locks having identical lock values using a single shared lock state encoding; and
means for delegating in bulk locks from one or more delegator transactions to one or more delegatee transactions based, at least in part, on ignore conflicts relationships amongst the delegatee transactions.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

I claim:

1. A voltage regulating circuit, comprising:
an input for receiving an unregulated voltage;
a reference-voltage generator connected to said input and providing a reference voltage;
an in-phase element having a control input and an output carrying a regulated voltage; and
an error amplifier having an input side connected to said reference-voltage generator and coupled to said output of said in-phase element and having an output side connected to said control input of said in-phase element;
said in-phase element including a first transistor and a second transistor each having a control input permanently connected to said control input of said in-phase element and a controlled path, and wherein said controlled path of at least one of said first and second transistors is disconnectibly connected to said output of said in-phase element.
2. The voltage regulating circuit according to claim 1 in combination with a semiconductor memory device.
3. The voltage regulating circuit according to claim 1, wherein said in-phase element comprises at least one fusible link coupling said output of said in-phase element to said controlled path of said second transistor.
4. The voltage regulating circuit according to claim 1, wherein said first and second transistors are p-channel field-effect transistors.

1. A delay-line interferometric demodulator comprising:
a beam-splitter surface;
at least two reflective surfaces positioned so as to reflect back circularly to the beam-splitter surface along a substantially common optical path a transmission beam and a reflection beam produced by an input beam incident on the beam-splitter surface, said transmission and reflection beams producing respective separate output beams 180 degrees out of phase after interference therebetween; and
an optical delay element along an optical path of at least one of said transmission beam and reflection beam.
2. The demodulator of claim 1, further including a thermal phase tuner to tune a phase of the delay-line interferometric demodulator.
3. The demodulator of claim 2, further including a compensator to compensate for a thermal drift in the phase tuner.
4. The demodulator of claim 1, wherein said at least two reflective surfaces are three reflective surfaces, each positioned at a 45-degree angle with respect to said transmission and reflection beams as they propagate though their respective circular optical paths.
5. The demodulator of claim 4, wherein said beam-splitter surface and a parallel reflective surface are incorporated in an optical structure, and two reflective surfaces are incorporated in a right-angle prism.
6. The demodulator of claim 5, further including a thermal phase tuner to tune a phase of the delay-line interferometric demodulator.
7. The demodulator of claim 6, further including a compensator to compensate for a thermal drift in the phase tuner.
8. The demodulator of claim 5, further including an upfront beam splitter dividing said input beam into two parallel beams directed into the optical structure, thereby providing two delay-line interferometric demodulators.
9. The demodulator of claim 8, further including a thermal phase tuner to tune a phase in each of said delay-line interferometric demodulators.
10. The demodulator of claim 9, further including a compensator to compensate for a thermal drift in said thermal phase tuner in each of said delay-line interferometric demodulators.
11. A method for demodulating optical signals interferometrically, the method comprising the following steps:
splitting an input beam containing said optical signals into a reflection beam and a transmission beam with a beam-splitter surface;
reflecting said reflection beam and transmission beam with at least two reflective surfaces positioned so as to reflect back circularly said transmission beam and reflection beam to the beam-splitter surface along a substantially common optical path, said transmission and reflection beams producing respective separate output beams 180 degrees out of phase after interference therebetween; and
delaying at least one of said transmission beam and reflection beam along said substantially common optical path.
12. The method of claim 11, further including the step of phase tuning a phase of at least one of said transmission beam and reflection beam.
13. The method of claim 12, further including the step of compensating for a thermal drift in a phase tuner utilized for said phase tuning step.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein said at least two reflective surfaces are three reflective surfaces, each positioned at a 45-degree angle with respect to said transmission and reflection beams as they propagate though their respective circular optical paths.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein said beam-splitter surface and a parallel reflective surface are incorporated in an optical structure, and two reflective surfaces are incorporated in a right-angle prism.
16. The method of claim 15, further including the step of phase tuning a phase of at least one of said transmission beam and reflection beam.
17. The method of claim 16, further including the step of compensating for a thermal drift in a phase tuner utilized for said phase tuning step.
18. The method of claim 15, further including the step of dividing said input beam into two parallel beams directed into the optical structure, thereby providing two delay-line interferometric circuits.
19. The method of claim 18, further including the step of phase tuning a phase of at least one of said transmission beam and reflection beam.
20. The method of claim 19, further including the step of compensating for a thermal drift in a phase tuner utilized for said phase tuning step.

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 merchandising system, comprising:
a consumer product; and
at least one of the consumer product, packaging for the consumer product, and advertisement material pertaining to the consumer product comprising:
a) indicia andor an image that relates or is analogous to an attribute andor targeted benefit of the consumer product; and
b) an optical waveguide for illuminating at least a portion of the indicia andor image.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the optical waveguide is defined by a multi-layer polymeric film comprising a first polymer layer having an index of refraction that is higher than that of a second polymer layer.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the optical waveguide is defined by a multi-layer polymeric film comprising:
a) a first planar polymer layer having an index of refraction that is higher than that of a second planar polymer layer; and
b) at least one optical element;
wherein light projected into the first planar polymer layer in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the first planar polymer layer is guided through the first planar polymer layer by internal reflection, and wherein the at least one optical element is capable of altering a wavefront form or energy distribution of the light.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the optical waveguide is sufficiently flexible to assume a non-planar configuration when affixed to the at least one of the consumer product, packaging for the consumer product, and advertisement material pertaining to the consumer product.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the optical waveguide comprises a first polymer layer having at least one optical element formed therein for operating on light in a predetermined manner, the first polymer layer having at least two sides and a second polymer layer having at least two sides wherein one of the at least two sides of the first polymer layer is disposed adjacent to one of the at least two sides of the second polymer layer, the first polymer layer having a first index of refraction, the second polymer layer having a second index of refraction, the first index of refraction being higher than the second index of refraction, wherein light projected into the first polymer layer in a direction substantially parallel to the first and second sides of the first polymer layer will be guided through the first polymer layer by internal reflection.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the indicia andor image comprises a photograph or illustration of mammalian keratinous tissue.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the indicia andor image comprises a photograph or illustration of at least a portion of a human face.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer product is marketed for changing the appearance andor condition of a substrate or environment to which it is applied.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of mammalian keratinous tissue, clothing, textiles, hard surfaces, architectural surfaces, furniture, appliances, vehicles, personal andor home decor and accessories, and teeth.
10. The system of claim 8, wherein the consumer product is marketed for at least one of: cleaning the substrate, brightening the substrate, whitening the substrate and lightening the substrate.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer product is a beauty care product.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the beauty care product is marketed for one or more of the following: improving the appearance of fine lines or wrinkles, diminishing discoloration, reducing yellow appearance of skin, reducing redness of skin, improving skin texture, improving skin tone,combating manifestations of aging, and promoting defined or luminous skin appearance.
13. The system of claim 1, wherein the indicia andor image and the micro-optic structure are included in a label that is associated with the at least one of the consumer product, packaging for the consumer product, and advertisement material pertaining to the consumer product.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the label is removably affixed to the at least one of the consumer product, packaging for the consumer product, and advertisement material pertaining to the consumer product.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the removably affixed label can be affixed to a substrate after it is removed from the at least one of the consumer product, packaging for the consumer product, and advertisement material pertaining to the consumer product.
16. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer product comprises a skin care active.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the skin care active is selected from the group consisting of hydroquinone, arbutin, sugar amines, kojic acid, mulberry extract, licorice extract, hexamidine, n-acyl amino acid compounds, vitamin C or a derivative thereof, vitamin B3 or a derivative thereof, panthenol, vitamin E acetate, n-acetyl glucosamine, ascorbyl glucoside, retinyl propionate, organic sunscreens, metal oxide sunscreens, glycerol, petrolatum, caffeine, salicylic acid, vitamin B6, glycosyl hesperidin, phytosterol, cetyl pyridinium chloride, thiotaine, carnosine, hexanediol, tetrahydrocurcumin, peptide, dehydroacetic acid, green tea extract, and zinc pyrthione.
18. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer product comprises an exfoliation agent, an optical brightner, a bleaching agent, an anti-oxidantradical scavenger, an anti-inflammatory agent, an anti-microbial agent, an anti-acne agent, an anti-dandruff agent, a tanning agent, a UV protection agent, andor an anti-cellulite agent.
19. The system of claim 1, wherein advertisement material pertaining to the consumer product comprises the indicia andor image and the micro-optic structure, and wherein the advertisement material is selected from the group consisting of point-of-sale devices andor materials, coupons, mailers, periodical advertisement documents, product brochures, product inserts, product displays, shelf talkers, billboards, posters, buses, outdoor seating, and combinations thereof.
20. The system of claim 1, wherein consumer product is selected from the group consisting of dentifrice, floss, toothbrushes, mouth rinses, gum care, tooth whitening products, detergents, fabric conditioners, dish care products, household cleaners, bleach, vehicle care, fabric and home cleaning implements, architectural surface treatment products, pet care, mammalian wipes, and toweling.