All The Claims

1. An information display device comprising:
a receiver configured to receive, from one or more devices, information indicating power consumption of one or more spaces in which electronic devices can be installed andor one or more electronic devices; and
a display controller configured to display animations corresponding to the power consumption of the one or more spaces andor one or more electronic devices, such that differences in the power consumption among the one or more spaces andor one or more electronic devices are displayed as differences in animation speeds.
2. The information display device of claim 1, wherein the display controller is configured to display the differences in the power consumption as differences in rotating speeds.
3. The information display device of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to receive, from the one or more devices, information indicating power consumption of one or more branched breakers of a distribution board, the one or more branched breakers corresponding to one or more partitioned spaces of an inner space of a building andor one or more outlets each connected to an electronic device.
4. The information display device of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to receive the information through a communication network.
5. The information display device of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to receive the information from a measuring instrument through a communication network, and the one or more animations correspond to the power consumption of one or more branched breakers corresponding to one or more partitioned spaces of an inner space of a building andor one or more outlets each connected to an electronic device.
6. The information display device of claim 5, wherein the one or more branched breakers correspond to the one or more partitioned spaces of the inner space of the building, and wherein power consumption as a reference of an animation speed differs between animation(s) indicating the power consumption of the one or more electronic devices and the animation(s) indicating the power consumption of one or more branched breakers.
7. The information display device of claim 1, wherein the display controller is configured to display the one or more animations together with a numerical value corresponding to the respective power consumption, and to only display animation and not to display a numerical value for at least one of the one or more electronic devices.
8. The information display device of claim 1, wherein the display controller is configured to make an initial position of the animation(s) constant.
9. The information display device of claim 1, wherein differences in the power consumption among the one or more spaces andor one or more electronic devices are displayed as differences in color.
10. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium including programmed instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform:
receiving, from one or more devices, information indicating power consumption of one or more spaces in which electronic devices can be installed andor one or more electronic devices; and
displaying animations corresponding to the power consumption of the one or more spaces andor one or more electronic devices, such that differences in the power consumption among the one or more spaces andor one or more electronic devices are displayed as differences in an animation speed.
11. A display system comprising:
a measuring device configured to measure power consumption of one or more of a plurality of electronic devices or one or more of a plurality of spaces; and
an information display device configured to communicate with the electronic devices or the measuring device, wherein
the information display device comprises
a receiver configured to receive information indicating the power consumption of the one or more of the electronic devices or to receive information indicating the power consumption of the one or more of the spaces from the measuring device; and
a display controller configured to display animation indicating the power consumption of the one or more of the spaces or the one or more of the electronic devices, and to display a difference in the power consumption as a difference in an animation speed.
12. The display system of claim 11, wherein the display controller is configured to display the difference in the power consumption as a difference in a rotating speed of display information to be animated.

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. Reformer unit for generating hydrogen from a starting material comprising a hydrocarbon-water mixture, having:
a. a reactor vessel (1) comprising a combustion chamber;
b. a feed line (2) for feeding a heat absorbing starting material into the reactor vessel (1);
c. a heat exchanger (3) in said combustion chamber, said heat exchanger (3) in the form of a coaxial heat exchanger having an outer tube (3a) and an inner tube (3b), said outer tube (3a) connected to the starting-material feed line (2), said starting material in tube (3a) in thermal communication with a flue gas in said combustion chamber, said inner tube (3b) connecting to a reformer space (6) to receive a reformate, said starting material in tube (3a) in thermal communication with reformate in said inner tube (3b);
d. a further heat exchanger (5), which is connected to the outer tube (3a) of the heat exchanger (3) and is arranged around the reformer space (6);
e. a line (8) which is connected to the heat exchanger (5) and has at least one outlet opening for feeding starting material in gaseous form into the reformer space (6), with a catalyst unit arranged therein which can be heated by a burner (7) in said combustion chamber, wherein combustion at the burner results in generation of the flue gas;
f. at least one discharge line (9) for discharging the reformate which has been formed in the reformer space (6) to the inner tube (3b) of the heat exchanger (3), which at the other end is connected to a shift reactor (4); and
g. a product discharge line (11) for the product gas which has been discharged from the shift reactor (4), and at least one discharge line (12) for the flue gas from the reactor vessel (1).
2. Reformer unit according to claim 1, characterized in that the heat exchanger (3) which is connected to the starting-material feed line (2) is a countercurrent heat exchanger, which has a hollow-cylinder block with two hollow cylinders, which have the same axial length but different diameters and are fitted into one another, and a spiral tube for receiving a heat-absorbing fluid, the spiral tube being arranged in the cylindrical annular gap between the two hollow cylinders, and the spiral tube bearing tightly against the outer or inner wall of these hollow cylinders, the cylindrical annular gap between the hollow cylinders being closed off at both ends by an annular closure plate, and in each case at least one feed or discharge for the fluids passed in countercurrent into the spiral tube or the cylindrical annular gap being present in the closure plates.
3. Reformer unit according to claim 1, characterized in that the heat exchanger (3) which is connected to the starting-material feed line (2) is arranged around the shift reactor (4), which is designed as a low-temperature shift reactor.
4. Reformer unit according to claim 1, characterized in that the line (8) has a plurality of outlet openings or a gap for feeding the gaseous starting material into the reformer space (6).
5. Reformer unit according to claim 1, characterized in that the product discharge line (11) is connected to a unit for purifying the product gas, preferably for reducing the CO content in the product gas.
6. A process for generating hydrogen from gaseous hydrocarbons, comprising providing a starting material comprising a hydrocarbon-water mixture into a reformer unit according to claim 1.
7. The process of claim 6, further comprising:
a. providing the starting material into the outer tube (3a) of the countercurrent heat exchanger (3) arranged in a preheating region in the reactor vessel (1),
b. providing preheated starting material from the outer tube (3a) of the countercurrent heat exchanger (3) to a heat exchanger (5) arranged in the reformer region for further heating,
c. providing the further heated starting material from the heat exchanger (5) to a reformer space (6) with a catalyst unit arranged therein and with a burner (7) which heats the catalyst unit and produces a flue gas,
d. providing the flue gas to the exterior of outer tube (3a) of the countercurrent heat exchanger (3) for preheating of the starting material,
e. providing the reformate discharged from the reformer space (6) via a discharge line (9) to the inner tube (3b) of the countercurrent heat exchanger (3) for preheating of the starting material,
f. providing the reformate from the inner tube (3b) of the countercurrent heat exchanger (3) to a shift reactor (4), and
g. discharging a product gas from shift reactor (4) from the reactor vessel (1).
8. The process of claim 7, wherein the shift reactor (4) is a low-temperature shift reactor.

1. A slave device for use in a microprocessor system, comprising:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus; and
a controller processor that executes a program for controlling the processing on the slave device in response to an access request from a master device.
2. The slave device of claim 1, wherein the program that the controller processor executes converts between a communications protocol to be used by a master device for access requests to the slave device and a communications protocol for the slave device’s hardware resources.
3. The slave device of claim 1, wherein the program that the controller processor executes:
generates native readable data for use by resources of the slave device in response to commands and data received from a master device for slave device operations.
4. A slave device for use in a microprocessor system, comprising:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus; and
a programmable processor that is programmed to configure the communications protocol to be used by the slave device.
5. The slave device of claim 4, wherein the programmable processor is programmed to carry out one or more of the data processing functions carried out by a master device in relation to accesses to the slave device.
6. The slave device of claim 4, wherein the slave device also acts as a master device.
7. The slave device of claim 4, wherein the programmable processor is programmed to execute a respective slave device part of a matched set of software that controls the communications protocol to be used between a master device and the slave device.
8. A microprocessor system comprising:
a slave device comprising:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus; and
a programmable processor; and

a master device comprising:
a programmable processor; and
an interface configured to communicate access requests for slave resources to the slave device via a communications bus;

wherein:
the slave device and the master device each execute respective parts of a matched set of software that controls the communications protocol to be used between the master device and the slave device.
9. A method of configuring a slave device for a microprocessor system, which slave device comprises:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus; and
a programmable processor that can be programmed to configure the communications protocol to be used by the slave device; the method comprising:
programming the programmable processor of the slave device to configure the format of communications that can be accepted by the slave device from a master device to access the slave device’s resources.
10. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to execute a respective slave device part of a matched set of software that controls the communications protocol to be used between a master device and the slave device.
11. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to be able to accept communications under two or more different communications protocols at the same time, wherein one of the communications protocols uses communication formats unreadable to the internal hardware resources of the slave device.
12. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to carry out one or more of the data processing functions normally carried out by a master device in relation to accesses to the slave device.
13. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to carry out some or all of the intermediate operations necessary to place commands and data from an application on the master device requiring slave resources in a format suitable for the hardware resources on the slave device.
14. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device so as to transfer slave device driver processing functions from a master device to the slave device.
15. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to allow a master device to send slave device commands and data to the slave device using higher level descriptions of the data and commands.
16. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to accept commands and data at an immediate stage between native readable slave hardware resource commands and data and raw or near raw slave device driver API calls.
17. The method of claim 9, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to be able to accept raw or near raw slave device driver API calls.
18. A method of configuring a microprocessor system comprising a slave device and a master device;
the slave device comprising:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus; and
a programmable processor; and

the master device comprising:
a programmable processor; and
an interface configured to communicate access requests for slave resources to the slave device via a communications bus;

the method comprising:
programming the programmable processors of the slave device and the master device respectively to each execute respective parts of a matched set of software that controls the communications protocol to be used between the master device and the slave device.
19. The method of claim 18, comprising programming the programmable processor of the slave device to offload some of the master device’s normal slave device driver functions andor other routines to the slave device.
20. A method of operating a slave device in a microprocessor system, the slave device comprising:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus;
and a controller processor;
the method comprising:
the controller processor of the slave device controlling processing on the slave device in response to an access request from a master device.
21. The method of claim 20, comprising: the controller processor converting between a communications protocol to be used by a master device for access requests to the slave device and a communications protocol for the slave device’s hardware resources.
22. The method of claim 21, comprising the controller processor:
determining whether data received from a master device is native readable data; and
when it is determined that the data received from a master device is native readable data, passing that data to the relevant slave device resource; and
when it is determined that the data received from a master device is not native readable data, generating native readable data from data and commands received from the master device.
23. A computer program product comprising computer software code stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium for performing, when the software code is run on a data processor, a method of operating a slave device in a microprocessor system, the slave device comprising:
one or more internal resources;
an interface configured to couple the slave device to a communications bus via which the internal resources of the slave device may be accessed by a master device by addressing those resources via the bus; and
a controller processor;
the method comprising:
the controller processor of the slave device controlling processing on the slave device in response to an access request from a master device.
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 manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising steps of:
forming a substrate; and
forming a first dielectric layer on the substrate in an atomic layer deposition (ALD) chamber, wherein the formed substrate is kept in vacuum before forming the first dielectric layer.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising steps of:
providing a modular track connected with a substrate-forming chamber for forming the substrate and connected with the ALD chamber;
keeping the modular track, the substrate-forming chamber and the ALD chamber in ultra-high vacuum; and
providing a surface-reconstruction chamber connected with the modular track.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising steps of:
performing a surface reconstruction process to the substrate in the surface-reconstruction chamber; and
providing a second dielectric layer on the substrate in the surface-reconstruction chamber prior to forming the first dielectric layer.
4. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of forming the first dielectric layer includes a sub-step of
depositing the first dielectric layer on the substrate to a first thickness of 0.5\u02dc1.5 nm, and the method further comprises steps of:
performing a vacuum annealing treatment at a temperature in a range of 300 to 700\xb0 C. in the surface-reconstruction chamber after depositing the first dielectric layer to the first thickness; and
further depositing the first dielectric layer to a second thickness in the ALD chamber.
5. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising steps of:
controlling a first pressure ranged from 10\u22129 to 10\u221211 Torr in the modular track; and
controlling a second pressure ranged from 10\u22126 to 10\u221211 Torr in the substrate-forming chamber.
6. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising steps of:
providing a metal deposition chamber connected with the modular track via a buffer chamber; and
providing a metal layer on the first dielectric layer in the metal deposition chamber.