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An internal combustion engine having a plurality of combustion cylinders and a fuel delivery system. The plurality of combustion cylinders are configured to receive a mixture of gasoline and air and combust such mixture, where some of the combustion cylinders are configured to operate in a spark ign

An internal combustion engine having a plurality of combustion cylinders and a fuel delivery system. The plurality of combustion cylinders are configured to receive a mixture of gasoline and air and combust such mixture, where some of the combustion cylinders are configured to operate in a spark ignition mode, with the remaining cylinders being configured to operate in a compression ignition mode. The engine may be configured to operate so that fuel vapor purge is added only to cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode. Alternatively, the engine may be operated in either a first purge mode, in which fuel vapor purge is added only to spark ignition cylinders, or a second purge mode, in which fuel vapor purge is added to spark ignition cylinders and compression ignition cylinders. Additionally, even where purge is added to spark ignition cylinders and compression ignition cylinders, air-fuel control may be based on exhaust sensor data from spark ignition cylinders, without reference to any such data from compression ignition cylinders.

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The invention claimed is: 1. An internal combustion engine, comprising, a gasoline fuel injection system; a plurality of combustion cylinders, each being configured to receive gasoline from the gasoline fuel injection system and combust a mixture of air and gasoline in either a spark ignition mode

The invention claimed is: 1. An internal combustion engine, comprising, a gasoline fuel injection system; a plurality of combustion cylinders, each being configured to receive gasoline from the gasoline fuel injection system and combust a mixture of air and gasoline in either a spark ignition mode or a sparkless homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) mode; and a fuel vapor purge system fluidly coupled to the plurality of combustion cylinders, where the internal combustion engine is configured to operate in a first purge state, in which fuel vapors are permitted to be received from the fuel vapor purge system only into combustion cylinders that are operating in the spark ignition mode, and in a second purge state, in which fuel vapors are permitted to be received from the fuel vapor purge system into combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode and into combustion cylinders operating in the HCCI mode. 2. The engine of claim 1, further comprising an electronic engine controller configured to allocate the combustion cylinders into a first group which is operated in the spark ignition mode, and a second group which is operated in the HCCI mode, and where such allocation is dynamic such that the number of cylinders operating in each ignition mode is variable and changeable over time during operation of the internal combustion engine. 3. The engine of claim 2, further comprising a spark ignition aftertreatment system and a separate compression ignition aftertreatment system. 4. The engine of claim 2, where the spark ignition aftertreatment system includes a spark ignition exhaust manifold, and where the compression ignition aftertreatment system includes a compression ignition exhaust manifold. 5. The engine of claim 2, where the spark ignition aftertreatment system is thermally coupled with an aftertreatment device which is external to the spark ignition aftertreatment system so as to enable heat transfer from the spark ignition aftertreatment system to such external device. 6. The engine of claim 2, where the combustion cylinders are further configured to operate in a spark assist HCCI mode having an air-fuel ratio which is substantially higher than that employed in the spark ignition mode. 7. The engine of claim 2, where the engine is configured to use heat generated by combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode to facilitate compression ignition for cylinders operating in the HCCI mode. 8. The engine of claim 2, where each combustion cylinder includes an exhaust valve mechanism, and where the state of each exhaust valve mechanism is dependent upon the ignition mode in which the associated combustion cylinder is operating. 9. The engine of claim 1, further comprising an electronic engine controller configured to control whether the engine is operated in the first purge state or the second purge state. 10. The engine of claim 1, further comprising an electronic engine controller configured to coordinate control of air-fuel ratios employed within the combustion cylinders, where in the case of fuel vapors added to combustion cylinders operating in the HCCI mode, such control is performed based on exhaust gas sensor data obtained from combustion cylinders receiving purged fuel vapors while operating in the spark ignition mode. 11. The engine of claim 10, where fuel vapors are prevented from being added to cylinders operating in the HCCI mode until exhaust gas sensor data has been obtained from combustion cylinders receiving purged fuel vapors while operating in the spark ignition mode. 12. The engine of claim 1, further comprising multiple fuel vapor purge valves. 13. The engine of claim 12, further comprising a fuel vapor purge valve for each combustion cylinder, each of the fuel vapor purge valves being independently controllable. 14. An internal combustion engine, comprising: a plurality of combustion cylinders configured to receive a mixture of gasoline and air and combust such mixture, where some of the combustion cylinders are configured to operate in a spark ignition mode, with the remaining combustion cylinders being configured to operate in a compression ignition mode; and a fuel delivery system configured to supply gasoline to the combustion cylinders, including a fuel vapor purge system configured to selectively control delivery of fuel vapors to the combustion cylinders, where the fuel vapor purge system is configured to operate in a first mode, in which fuel vapors are supplied only to combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode, and then in a second mode, in which fuel vapors are supplied to all of the combustion cylinders. 15. The engine of claim 14, where when the fuel vapor purge system is operated in the second mode, the fuel delivery system is configured to control gasoline injections to the combustion cylinders operating in the compression ignition mode based on exhaust gas sensor data obtained from the combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode. 16. An internal combustion engine, comprising: a plurality of combustion cylinders configured to receive a mixture of gasoline and air and combust such mixture, where some of the combustion cylinders are configured to operate in a spark ignition mode, with the remaining cylinders being configured to operate in a compression ignition mode; a fuel delivery system configured to supply gasoline to the combustion cylinders, including a fuel vapor purging system configured to selectively control delivery of evaporated fuel vapors from a fuel vapor purge source to the combustion cylinders, where the fuel vapor purging system is configured to operate in a first purge mode in which evaporated fuel vapors are permitted to be drawn from the fuel vapor purge source into less than all of the combustion cylinders. 17. The engine of claim 16, where the fuel vapor purging system is configured so that evaporated fuel vapors are permitted to be drawn from the fuel vapor purge source only into combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode. 18. The engine of claim 16, further comprising an electronic engine controller configured to allocate the combustion cylinders into a first group which is operated in the spark ignition mode, and a second group which is operated in the compression ignition mode, and where such allocation is dynamic such that the number of cylinders operating in each ignition mode is variable and changeable over time during operation of the internal combustion engine. 19. The engine of claim 18, further comprising a spark ignition aftertreatment system and a separate compression ignition aftertreatment system. 20. The engine of claim 18, where the combustion cylinders are further configured to operate in a spark assist compression ignition mode having an air-fuel ratio which is substantially higher than that employed in the spark ignition mode. 21. The engine of claim 18, where the engine is configured to use heat generated by combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode to facilitate compression ignition for cylinders operating in the compression ignition mode. 22. The engine of claim 18, where each combustion cylinder includes an exhaust valve mechanism, and where the state of each exhaust valve mechanism is dependent upon the combustion mode in which the associated combustion cylinder is operating. 23. The engine of claim 16, in which the fuel vapor purging system is configured to selectively operate in either the first purge mode or in a second purge mode, in which evaporated fuel vapors are permitted to be drawn from the fuel vapor purge source into all of the combustion cylinders. 24. The engine of claim 23, where in each of the first and second purge modes, the fuel delivery system is configured to perform closed-loop air-fuel ratio control during purging based on exhaust sensor data obtained from cylinders in the spark ignition mode, and without reference to exhaust sensor data from combustion cylinders in the compression ignition mode. 25. A method of operating an internal combustion engine, comprising: providing gasoline to a plurality of combustion cylinders; operating at least some of the combustion cylinders in a spark ignition mode, in which combustion is initiated by introduction of a spark within the combustion cylinder; operating at least some of the combustion cylinders in a compression ignition mode, in which combustion is initiated by charge compression without aid of a spark; purging fuel vapors and permitting such purged vapors to be received into at least one of the combustion cylinders; and performing closed-loop air-fuel control over quantities of gasoline and air provided to the plurality of combustion cylinders, where such control is performed with reference to exhaust sensor data obtained from cylinders in the spark ignition mode, and without reference to exhaust sensor data from combustion cylinders in the compression ignition mode. 26. A method of operating an internal combustion engine having a plurality of combustion cylinders, comprising: operating at least some of the combustion cylinders in a spark ignition mode; operating at least some of the combustion cylinders in a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) mode; preventing evaporated fuel vapors from a fuel vapor purge source from being added to combustion cylinders operating in the HCCI mode; and dynamically changing, during operation of the combustion engine, how many of the combustion cylinders are operating in the spark ignition mode, and how many of the combustion cylinders are operating in the HCCI mode. 27. The method of claim 26, further comprising permitting evaporated fuel vapors to be drawn from the fuel vapor purge into combustion cylinders operating in the spark ignition mode, and using exhaust gas sensors to gather air-fuel ratio data from such combustion cylinders. 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising permitting evaporated fuel vapors to be drawn from the fuel vapor purge source into cylinders operating in the HCCI mode, and during such purge enablement for the HCCI combustion cylinders, using the air-fuel ratio data to control fuel injections to the combustion cylinders operating in the HCCI mode. 29. The method of claim 26, further comprising, for each of the combustion cylinders, selectively directing exhaust gases from the combustion cylinder to either a first aftertreatment system or a second aftertreatment system, depending on whether the combustion cylinders is being operated in the spark ignition mode or in the HCCI mode.