Reconfigurable input/output interface
OwnerSteven Avritch, Richard Poisson +1inventors
InventorsSteven Avritch, Richard Poisson, Ronald Bauer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A reconfigurable interface provides device-specific processing through software rather than hardware. The reconfigurable interface that samples an output from at least one device and converts it to a digital signal. The digital signal can then be processed in any desired manner, such as to extract intelligence or condition the signal. The conversion and the processing are controlled by data in a configuration table, which are easily modified and reconfigured to accommodate different systems and devices. The same reconfigurable interface can be used for any type of device and the devices do not require customized hardware interfaces to communicate with a signal processor.
Claims16
A reconfigurable interface for a system, comprising:
- at least one hardware channel, each hardware channel corresponding with at least one device in the system and having a converter and a signal line for connecting the converter to said at least one device, wherein the converter converts at least one of an input and an output of said at least one device;
- and
- a configuration table containing data that configures said at least one hardware channel to be compatible with said at least one device.
A system, comprising:
- a plurality of devices;
- a signal processor;
- and
- a reconfigurable interface coupled between said plurality of devices and the signal processor, the reconfigurable interface having
- at least one hardware channel, each hardware channel corresponding to one of said plurality of devices and having a converter and a signal line connecting the converter to the device, wherein the converter converts at least one of an input and an output of the device, and
- a configuration table containing data that configures said at least one hardware channel to be compatible with said at least one device;
- and
- a user interface that communicates with the configuration table to allow modification of the data in the configuration table.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.