A technique for generating analog waveforms includes combining a desired, in-band signal with a randomizing, out-of-band signal at an input of a DAC, operating the DAC to generate DAC output based on a combination of the desired signal and the randomizing signal, and filtering the DAC output to pass the desired signal while removing the randomizing signal.

An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) includes a front end latch stage coupled to latch Gray code (GC) outputs of a GC generator in response to a comparator output. A signal latch stage is coupled to latch outputs of the front end latch stage. A GC to binary stage is coupled to generate a binary representation of the GC outputs latched in the signal latch stage. First inputs of an adder stage are coupled to receive outputs of the GC to binary stage. Outputs of the adder stage are generated in response to the first inputs and second inputs of the adder stage. A pre-latch stage is coupled to latch outputs of the adder stage. A feedback latch stage is coupled to latch outputs of the pre-latch stage. The second inputs of the adder stage are coupled to receive outputs of the feedback latch stage.

An analog-to-digital converter is provided which is configured to output an n-bit signal in response to an analog input signal. n is greater than 1. The converter comprises n comparators, where each comparator is configured to output one bit of the n-bit signal and comprising a first input and a second input. A first comparator is configured to receive the analog input signal at its first input and a reference value at its second input and to output the first, most significant bit of the n-bit signal. For the remaining comparators, an i-th comparator, is configured to output an i-th bit, the analog-to-digital converter comprises a respective i-th input device. The i-th input device is configured to selectively provide one of 2.sup.i−1 reference values to one of the first or second input of the i-th comparator and the analog input signal to the other one of the first or second input of the i-th comparator, such that the n-bit signal is a Gray code representation of the analog input signal.

A method for determining a length of a span of electrically conductive material, comprising a first voltage measurement across the entire span, and a second voltage measurement across a constant-length segment of the span. The dual measurements allow the calculation of the span length in a manner that is robust to many disturbances including ambient temperature, material temperature, and material stress and fatigue.

A multi-instance time-interleaving (TI) system and method of operation therefor. The system includes a plurality of TI devices, each with a plurality of clock generation units (CGUs) coupled to an interleaver network. Within each TI device, the plurality of CGUs provides a plurality of clock signals needed by the interleaver network. A phase detector device is coupled to the plurality of TI devices and configured to determine any phase differences between the clock signals of a designated reference TI device and the corresponding clock signals of each other TI device. To determine the phase differences, the phase detector can use a logic comparator configuration, a time-to-digital converter (TDC) configuration, or an auto-correlation configuration. The phases of the clock signals of each other TI device can be aligned to the reference TI device using internal phase control, retimers, delay cells, finite state machines, or the like.

A length measuring instrument for measuring length with a measure includes: a measure on which a code is printed, a plurality of patterns each allotted to a different number being arranged, each of the patterns having digits to which an N-notation number (N being 3 or greater) is allotted, each of the digits having a different color corresponding to the allotted numerical value, the patterns being arranged in ascending order or descending order, a Hamming distance between patterns adjacent to each other in an array direction being 1, an amount of change in numerical value at the same digit between the adjacent patterns being 1 in the code; a reading unit that optically reads patterns printed on the measure; and a measuring unit that measures a length of a measurement target from a result of the reading by the reading unit.

A multi-instance time-interleaving (TI) system and method of operation therefor. The system includes a plurality of TI devices, each with a plurality of clock generation units (CGUs) coupled to an interleaver network. Within each TI device, the plurality of CGUs provides a plurality of clock signals needed by the interleaver network. A phase detector device is coupled to the plurality of TI devices and configured to determine any phase differences between the clock signals of a designated reference TI device and the corresponding clock signals of each other TI device. To determine the phase differences, the phase detector can use a logic comparator configuration, a time-to-digital converter (TDC) configuration, or an auto-correlation configuration. The phases of the clock signals of each other TI device can be aligned to the reference TI device using internal phase control, retimers, delay cells, finite state machines, or the like.

A computer system and method for sequencing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), to determine the order of the different nucleotides in a genomic sequence or sequence fragment. An alignment system employs a direct “brute force” Hamming distance calculation between a read sequence and a reference genome. The alignment system is configured to compare directly a set of DNA fragments to a reference genome in a short period, and with the higher probability of accuracy than similar comparison systems given the same number of clock cycles. Each DNA fragment is compared with a reference genome for the entire length of the latter using arrangements of memory cells for storing read sequences and inverse complements of the read sequences, shift registers for streaming the reference genome, and circuitry for calculating and summing the distance between the reference, the read sequence, and the inverse complement in parallel. Both digital and analog implementations are described.

A multi-instance time-interleaving (TI) system and method of operation therefor. The system includes a plurality of TI devices, each with a plurality of clock generation units (CGUs) coupled to an interleaver network. Within each TI device, the plurality of CGUs provides a plurality of clock signals needed by the interleaver network. A phase detector device is coupled to the plurality of TI devices and configured to determine any phase differences between the clock signals of a designated reference TI device and the corresponding clock signals of each other TI device. To determine the phase differences, the phase detector can use a logic comparator configuration, a time-to-digital converter (TDC) configuration, or an auto-correlation configuration. The phases of the clock signals of each other TI device can be aligned to the reference TI device using internal phase control, retimers, delay cells, finite state machines, or the like.

A 3D input system and an angle encoder are disclosed. The 3D input system comprises a computing device and one or more position sensing gloves. The position sensing glove comprises a plurality of angle encoders each installed thereon at a location about a finger joint. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is installed on the glove. A firmware uses data from the angle encoders and IMU to calculate fingertip positions in a 3D space. The firmware generates keystrokes on a virtual keyboard based on the fingertip positions. The angle encoder comprises a first and a second components rotatable with respect to each other, and an encoder pattern comprising codewords for indicating the angle between the first and second components. The encoder pattern comprises a set of base encoder channels coded with a conventional Gray code, and a set of Booster channels for improving the resolution of angle measurement.