Telecom adapter for interfacing computing devices to the analog telephone network

Abstract

A telecommunications adapter interfaces computing devices to the analog telephone network, achieving a tightly integrated digital telecommunications link with the analog telephone network. The telecommunications adapter takes advantage of certain host resources including, preferably, the computer's signal processor, the computer's power supply and a computer/peripheral serial interface. System cost for digital communications over the analog network is therefore reduced. Furthermore, the telecommunications adapter is able to accept and deliver a digitized representation of the analog (voice) data stream in real time, supporting both existing and future voice-band communications technologies. Finally, the invention facilitates rapid and inexpensive adaptation to the various international telephone standards. Instead of replacing an entire modem, a relatively inexpensive satellite processor (i.e., the telecom adapter) may be replaced instead. Data stream synchronization is achieved between the digital data stream and a time-driven DSP task list within the computer. Wide-area communications data streams--either data or voice--obtained from analog telephone lines may therefore be conveniently manipulated and blended into the computer's sound facilities, for example.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.