All The Claims

1. A massively multiplayer game management service comprising:
a scheduling module configured to establish a message receiving period and a game data aggregation period;
a message receiving module configured to, during the message receiving period that overlaps at least part of the game data aggregation period, receive a message from one or more of a plurality of player clients, the message including a game space location identifier and an execution time that follows the game data aggregation period; and
a message sending module configured to send game data, aggregated in a game space location corresponding to the game space location identifier, to the one or more of the plurality of player clients upon occurrence of the execution time specified in the message.
2. The service of claim 1, further comprising an aggregating module configured to, during the game data aggregation period, aggregate player data received from the plurality of player clients, for each of the plurality of player clients the player data including a selected game space location identifier, and the player data being aggregated to a game space location corresponding to the selected game space location identifier to generate game data.
3. The service of claim 1, wherein the message receiving module is further configured to, at any time not during the message receiving period, reject the message received from the one or more of the plurality of player clients.
4. The service of claim 1, wherein the scheduling module is configured to establish the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period based on game logic.
5. The service of claim 4, wherein the game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a selected player client.
6. The service of claim 5, wherein the execution time varies based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client by the message receiving module.
7. The service of claim 5, wherein the scheduling module is configured to establish the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client.
8. The service of claim 4, wherein the game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a plurality of player clients.
9. The service of claim 1, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game.
10. The service of claim 1, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game only during a game mode where a selected player client does not drive game logic.
11. A method for scheduled execution of messages to drive a massively multiplayer game comprising, at a game management service:
establishing a message receiving period and a game data aggregation period;
during the message receiving period that overlaps at least part of the game data aggregation period, receiving a message from one or more of a plurality of player clients, the message including a game space location identifier and an execution time that follows the game data aggregation period; and
sending game data aggregated in a game space location corresponding to the game space location identifier to the one or more of the plurality of player clients upon occurrence of the execution time specified in the message.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:
at any time not during the message receiving period, rejecting the message received from the one or more of the plurality of player clients.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period are established based on game logic.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a selected player client.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein establishing comprises establishing the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a plurality of player clients.
17. The method of claim 11, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game only during a game mode where a selected player client does not drive game logic.
19. A method for scheduled execution of messages to drive a massively multiplayer computer game comprising, at a game management service:
establishing a game data aggregation period and a request message receiving period;
sending a question message to a plurality of player clients, the question message including a plurality of selectable game space location identifiers;
receiving an answer message from at least some of the plurality of player clients, each answer message including a selected game space location identifier of the plurality of selectable game space location identifiers;
during the game data aggregation period, aggregating the selected game space location identifiers received from the at least some of the plurality of player clients to game space locations corresponding to the selected game space location identifiers to generate game data;
during a request message receiving period that overlaps at least part of the game data aggregation period, receiving a request message from one or more player clients, the request message including a requested game space location identifier and an execution time that follows the game data aggregation period; and
sending game data aggregated in a game space location corresponding to the requested game space location identifier to the one or more player clients upon occurrence of the execution time specified in the request message.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein establishing comprises establishing the game data aggregation period and the request message receiving period based on game logic that is driven by one or more messages received from a selected player client, and the execution time varies based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client.

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

We claim:

1. A memory configuration, comprising:
a centrally disposed connection area having:
four side edges including longitudinal sides; and
connecting pads;

address lines;
cell arrays having side edges;
said cell arrays:
adjoining said connection area;
disposed on each of said four side edges of said connection area in a closed ring around said connection area;
each having a matrix-like memory with decoders each connected to at least one of said address lines;
each having at least two side edges adjoining side edges of two other ones of said cell arrays; and
each subdivided in a longitudinal direction into a first cell subarray and a second cell subarray;

said connecting pads electrically connected to said cell arrays;
each of said first and second cell subarrays having:
longitudinal sides adjoining said connection area and another one of said cell arrays; and
a decoder disposed at right angles to one of said longitudinal sides adjoining one of the group consisting of said connection area and said another one of said cell arrays;

each of said cell arrays having two mutually adjoining decoders disposed in a center of one of said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
a first of said decoders connected to first of said address lines disposed parallel to said longitudinal direction in said first cell subarray, and
a second of said decoders connected to second of said address lines disposed parallel to said longitudinal direction in said second cell subarray.
2. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said decoders of each of said cell arrays include row decoders and column decoders each connected to said address lines.
3. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said decoder of each of said first and second cell subarrays is one of the group consisting of a row decoder and a column decoder.
4. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area is rectangular and has four corner areas;
said cell arrays are each rectangular;
each of said four side edges of said connection area have a respective length;
four of said cell arrays adjoin a respective one of said four side edges of said connection area and each of said four cell arrays have a side edge with a length equal to said respective length of each of said four side edges;
others of said cell arrays are respectively disposed in each of said four corner areas; and
an overall area defined by said connection area and said cell arrays is rectangular.
5. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has transverse sides;
said connecting pads include connecting pad rows;
a first row, a second row, a third row, and a fourth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said transverse sides of said connection area;
a fifth row and a sixth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
said first and second rows and said third and fourth rows are respectively disposed on a given line and are disposed at a predefined distance from one another; and
said fifth row and said sixth row are respectively disposed centrally with respect to said first and third rows and said second and fourth rows.
6. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has transverse sides;
said connecting pads include connecting pad rows;
a first row, a second row, a third row, and a fourth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said transverse sides of said connection area;
a fifth row and a sixth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
said first and second rows and said third and fourth rows are respectively disposed on a given line and are disposed at a predefined distance from one another; and
said fifth row and said sixth row are respectively disposed between said first, second, third, and fourth rows.
7. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has transverse sides;
said connecting pads include connecting pad rows;
a first row, a second row, a third row, and a fourth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said transverse sides of said connection area;
a fifth row and a sixth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
said first and second rows and said third and fourth rows are respectively disposed on a given line and are disposed at a predefined distance from one another; and
said fifth row and said sixth row are respectively disposed between said first and third rows and said second and fourth rows and said longitudinal edges of said connection area.
8. The memory configuration according to claim 1, including peripheral circuits for operating said cell arrays, said peripheral circuits connected to said cell arrays and disposed in said connection area.
9. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has a given size and a given form; and
each of said cell arrays has size substantially equal to said given size and a form substantially equal to said given form.
10. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said cell arrays is subdivided into two cell subarrays.
11. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said connection area is twice as long as said connection area is wide.
12. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said cell arrays is twice as long as said at least one cell array is wide.
13. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said connection area and said cell arrays are twice as long as they are wide.

1. A process for treating coal, comprising:
heating coal in a chamber by (a) direct heat provided by an oxygen-deficient sweep gas flowed through the chamber and brought into contact with the coal, and (b) by indirect heat applied externally to the chamber, said heating of the coal being sufficient to cause volatile components of coal to be released into the sweep gas, the volatile components including condensable hydrocarbons,
selecting a ratio of direct heat and indirect heat applied to the coal to increase the proportion of condensable hydrocarbons in the sweep gas to 15% or more; and
treating the sweep gas to recover condensable hydrocarbons of the coal,
wherein coal is continuously supplied into one supply end of a chamber and removed from another discharge end of the chamber, and the sweep gas is continuously supplied into the same supply end of the chamber and removed from the discharge end of the chamber in co-current flow; and
wherein the log mean temperature differential between the sweep gas and the coal from the supply end to the discharge end is from about 300\xb0 F. to about 400\xb0 F.
2. The process of claim 1 wherein the proportion of heat supplied to the coal by the sweep gas is less than 40% of the total heat supplied to the coal.
3. The process of claim 1 wherein the proportion of heat supplied to the coal by the sweep gas is about one-third of the total heat supplied to the coal.
4. The process of claim 1 wherein the temperature differential between the sweep gas and the coal at the supply end of the chamber is from about 650\xb0 F. to about750\xb0 F.
5. The process of claim 1 wherein the temperature differential between the sweep gas and the coal at the discharge end of the chamber is from about 100\xb0 F. to about200\xb0 F.
6. The process of claim 1, wherein the chamber is a rotary retort and the average velocity of the sweep gas is less than about 900 feet per minute.
7. The process of claim 1, wherein the chamber is a rotary retort, and the sweep gas is continuously supplied into one end of the retort and removed from another end of the retort, and wherein the average gaseous residence time within the retort is less than about one second.
8. The process of claim 7, wherein the average gaseous residence time within the retort is within a range of from about 0.2 second to about one second.
9. The process of claim 1, wherein, upon introduction to the chamber, the sweep gas has a temperature from about 1200\xb0 F. to about 1800\xb0 F.
10. The process of claim 1, wherein the sweep gas has a specific heat of about 0.39BTUlb-F.
11. The process of claim 1, wherein the sweep gas removed from the chamber includes a concentration of coal fines reduced to about 4.5 wt % or less.
12. The process of claim 11, further comprising passing the sweep gas stream through a mechanical gasfines filter to further reduce the coal fines by up to 95%.
13. The process of claim 1, further comprising raising the temperature of the coal within the chamber to a temperature from about 1200\xb0 F. to about 1500\xb0 F. for removal of organic sulfur.
14. The process of claim 1, wherein the sweep gas composition includes carbon dioxide and water, together comprising at least 80% by weight of the composition, and includes not more than 2% oxygen by volume.
15. The process of claim 1, wherein the sweep gas supplied into the chamber has an emissivity within a range of from about 0.5 to 0.7.
16. The process of claim 1, wherein coal is continuously supplied into one end of the chamber and removed from another end of the chamber, the sweep gas is continuously supplied into one end of the chamber and removed from another end of the chamber, and the mass ratio of the sweep gas to the coal supplied to the chamber is less than about 0.50.
17. The process of claim 1, wherein the condensable hydrocarbons comprise 25% to 75% of the volatile components of coal.
18. The process of claim 17, wherein condensing the condensable hydrocarbons further comprises separating the hydrocarbons into fractions by boiling point in a downstream absorption system.
19. The process of claim 2, wherein the less than 40% proportion of heat supplied by the sweep gas enables reduced sweep gas volume, the process further comprising condensing the condensable hydrocarbons in a downstream absorption system of reduced size commensurate with the reduced sweep gas volumes.
20. Coal char produced by the process of claim 1 further comprising a mercury content reduced by about 80% relative to feed coal.
21. Coal char produced by the process of claim 1 further comprising an organic sulfur content of about 45% less than an organic sulfur content in feed coal.
22. A process for treating coal, comprising:
heating coal in a chamber by (a) direct heat provided by an oxygen-deficient sweep gas flowed through the chamber and brought into contact with the coal, and (b) by indirect heat applied externally to the chamber, said heating of the coal being sufficient to cause volatile components of coal to be released into the sweep gas, the volatile components including condensable hydrocarbons,
selecting a ratio of direct heat and indirect heat applied to the coal to increase the proportion of condensable hydrocarbons in the sweep gas to 15% or more; and
treating the sweep gas to recover condensable hydrocarbons of the coal,
wherein coal is continuously supplied into one supply end of a chamber and removed from another discharge end of the chamber, and the sweep gas is continuously supplied into the same supply end of the chamber and removed from the discharge end of the chamber in co-current flow; and
wherein the temperature differential between the sweep gas and the coal at the discharge end of the chamber is from about 100\xb0 F. to about 200\xb0 F.
23. The process of claim 22 wherein the proportion of heat supplied to the coal by the sweep gas is less than 40% of the total heat supplied to the coal.
24. The process of claim 22 wherein the proportion of heat supplied to the coal by the sweep gas is about one-third of the total heat supplied to the coal.
25. The process of claim 22 wherein the log mean temperature differential between the sweep gas and the coal from the supply end to the discharge end is from about 300\xb0 F. to about 400\xb0 F.
26. The process of claim 22, wherein the chamber is a rotary retort and the average velocity of the sweep gas is less than about 900 feet per minute.
27. The process of claim 22, wherein the chamber is a rotary retort, and the sweep gas is continuously supplied into one end of the retort and removed from another end of the retort, and wherein the average gaseous residence time within the retort is less than about one second.
28. The process of claim 27, wherein the average gaseous residence time within the retort is within a range of from about 0.2 second to about one second.
29. The process of claim 22, wherein, upon introduction to the chamber, the sweep gas has a temperature from about 1200\xb0 F. to about 1800\xb0 F.
30. The process of claim 22, wherein the sweep gas has a specific heat of about 0.39BTUlb-F.
31. The process of claim 22, wherein the sweep gas composition includes carbon dioxide and water, together comprising at least 80% by weight of the composition, and includes not more than 2% oxygen by volume.
32. The process of claim 22, wherein the sweep gas supplied into the chamber has an emissivity within a range of from about 0.5 to 0.7.
33. The process of claim 22, wherein the condensable hydrocarbons comprise 25% to 75% of the volatile components of coal.
34. The process of claim 33, wherein condensing the condensable hydrocarbons further comprises separating the hydrocarbons into fractions by boiling point in a downstream absorption system.
35. Coal char produced by the process of claim 22 further comprising a mercury content reduced by about 80% relative to feed coal.
36. Coal char produced by the process of claim 22 further comprising an organic sulfur content of about 45% less than an organic sulfur content in feed coal.

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 identifying the originator of a message transmitted between a client and a server system, said method comprising the steps of:
modifying a message to be transmitted during a session between a client and a server system to include a session identification flag and a session identifier corresponding to an originator of the session on the server system and allowing the originator of the session to be uniquely identified among originators of sessions on the server system;
transmitting the message between the client and the server system;
checking the transmitted message for the session identification flag;
determining, in response to matching the session identification flag with a predefined value, that a valid session identifier has been included as a new portion of the transmitted message during the modification, the new portion available for extraction at a pre-established location within the transmitted message; and
extracting the session identifier of the transmitted message at the pre-established location to determine the originator of the message,
wherein if the appended session identifier in the transmitted message is not valid, processing the transmitted communication packet according to one or more predetermined rules for transmitted packets without valid session identifiers.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of modifying the message comprises the step of re-computing a control portion of the message to reflect the inclusion of the session identification flag and the session identifier.
3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of:
removing the session identification flag and the session identifier from the transmitted message; and
re-computing the control portion of the message to reflect the removal of the session identification flag and the session identifier.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of modifying the message comprises appending the session identification flag and the session identifier at an end of the message.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of modifying the message further comprises at least one of changing the session identifier for each communication or changing the session identifier at a predetermined interval.
6. A method of identifying the originator of a communication packet transmitted between a client and a server in a clientserver system, said method comprising the steps of:
appending a session identifier and a security tag to the communication packet, the session identifier uniquely identifying the client in the clientserver system;
determining, in response to matching the security tag with a predefined value, that a valid session identifier has been appended to form a new portion of the communication packet, the session identifier available for extraction at a pre-established location within the communication packet ; and
extracting the session identifier from the pre-established location to determine the originator of the transmitted communication packet,
wherein if the session identifier in the transmitted message is not valid, processing the transmitted communication packet according to one or more predetermined rules for transmitted packets without valid session identifiers.
7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of:
establishing a common security tag in the client and server, wherein the step of appending the session identifier includes appending the common security tag to the communication packet to be transmitted between the client and the server such that a presence of the common security tag in the transmitted communication packet indicates that the session identifier is valid.
8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of appending the session identifier and the common security tag to the communication packet comprises the step of re-computing a control portion of the communication packet to be transmitted to reflect the inclusion of the common security tag and the session identifier, the method further comprising the steps of:
removing the common security tag and the session identifier from the transmitted communication packet; and
re-computing the control portion of the transmitted communication packet to reflect the removal of the common security tag and the session identifier.
9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
encrypting the communication packet to be transmitted after the step of appending the session identifier and the common security tag; and
decrypting the transmitted communication packet prior to the steps of determining the originator of the transmitted communication packet, removing the common security tag and the session identifier, and re-computing the control portion of the transmitted communication packet.
10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
encrypting the communication packet to be transmitted prior to the step of appending the session identifier and the common security tag; and decrypting the transmitted communication packet after the step of re-computing the control portion of the transmitted communication packet.
11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of:
setting a length of the common security tag greater than a predetermined length to reduce or substantially eliminate falsely authenticated session identifiers.
12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the length of the security tag is set to a length in the range of about 8 to 64 bits long.
13. A computer system for identifying the originator of a message, comprising
a server; and
a client operationally connected to the server, the client and server being configured to transmit one or more messages there between during a session, each of the messages to be transmitted being modified by one of the client or the server to include a session identification flag and a session identifier. the client and server being further configured such that:
the modified message is transmitted to the remaining one of the client and the server;
the session identification flag of the transmitted message is checked by the remaining one of the client and the server to validate the session identifier;
the remaining one of the client and the server determines, in response to matching the session identification flag with a predefined value, that a valid session identifier has been included as a new portion of the transmitted message during the modification, the new portion available for extraction at a pre-established location within the transmitted message; and
the session identifier of the transmitted message is extracted from the pre-established location to determine the originator of the transmitted message, the session identifier corresponding to an originator of a session on the server system and allowing the originator of the session to be uniquely identified among originators of sessions on the server system,
wherein if the session identifier in the transmitted message is not valid, processing the transmitted communication packet according to one or more predetermined rules for transmitted packets without valid session identifiers.
14. The computer system according to claim 13 further comprising a network gateway disposed operationally between the client and server and providing access to the server such that the server is remotely accessible by the client.
15. The computer system according to claim 14 further comprising:
an encrypting unit disposed on one side of the network gateway to encrypt the message to be transmitted.
16. The computer system according to claim 15, further comprising: a decrypting unit disposed on another side of the network gateway to decrypt the transmitted message.
17. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the message is processed sequentially such that either the message to be transmitted is encrypted by the encrypting unit and then modified and the transmitted message is read and then decrypted by the decrypting unit or the message to be transmitted is modified and then encrypted by the encrypting unit and the transmitted message is decrypted by the decrypting unit and then read.
18. The computer system according to claim 14, wherein the network gateway includes a database to validate the session identifier by checking a user identifier, if the session identifier is not valid, the computer system forces the user to log in prior to accessing the server and if the session identifier is valid, the computer system retrieves an associated user identifier and the server processes the transmitted message.
19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including computer program instructions which cause a computer system including at least a client and a server to implement a method of identifying the originator of a message transmitted between the client and the server, said method comprising the steps of:
modifying a message to be transmitted during a session between the client and the server to include a session identification flag and a session identifier, the session identifier being assigned corresponding to the originator of the session on the server system and allowing the originator of the session to be uniquely identified among originators of sessions on the server system;
re-computing a control portion of the message to reflect the inclusion of the session identification flag and the session identifier;
transmitting the message between the client and the server;
checking the transmitted message for the session identification flag;
determining, in response to matching the session identification flag with a predefined value, that a valid session identifier has been included as a new portion of the transmitted message during the modification, the new portion available for extraction at a pre-established location within the transmitted message;
extracting the session identifier of the transmitted message from the pre-established location to determine the originator of the message;
removing the session identification flag and the session identifier from the transmitted message; and
re-computing the control portion of the message to reflect the removal of the session identification flag and the session identifier.
20. A method of identifying the originator of a message transmitted between a client and a server, comprising:
modifying, by a processor, a message to be transmitted during a session between a client and a server to include a session identification flag and a session identifier, the session identifier being assigned corresponding to the originator of the session on the server system and allowing the originator of the session to be uniquely identified among originators of sessions on the server system;
re-computing, by the processor, a control portion of the message to reflect the inclusion of the session identification flag and the session identifier;
transmitting the message between the client and the server;
checking the transmitted message for the session identification flag;
determining, in response to matching the session identification flag with a predefined value, that a valid session identifier has been included as a new portion of the transmitted message during the modification, the new portion available for extraction at a pre-established location within the transmitted message;
extracting the session identifier of the transmitted message from the pre-established location to determine the originator of the message;
removing the session identification flag and the session identifier from the transmitted message; and
re-computing, by the processor, the control portion of the message to reflect the removal of the session identification flag and the session identifier.