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US 5,513,334 AGranted
Memory device with switching of data stream modes
AssigneeMicrochip Technologies, Inc.
InventorSamuel E. Alexander
Life of this patent
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AssigneeMicrochip Technologies, Inc.
InventorSamuel E. Alexander
Estimating the term…
An I.sup.2 C bus-compatible, serial EEPROM device is used in applications involving storage and serial transmission of configuration and control information for an intelligent peripheral device with which the EEPROM device is associated, for communication on a bus to a host device adapted to control the peripheral device. The EEPROM device has a memory array for storing data representing the configuration and control information. Two modes of data transmission are supported by the EEPROM device, and are alternately and selectively established according to whether data stored in the EEPROM array is to be read only, by sequential output onto the bus, or the array is also to be allowed to be written to. The arrangement ultimately allows intelligent interaction between the host device and the peripheral device. A separate clock line supplements the usual clock line and data line of an I.sup.2 C bus to support the distinct and different modes, with clocking by the respective clock line for the established mode. A controlled multiplexer selectively connects the input clock according to a predetermined logic level transition on one of the two clock lines.
An I.sup.2 C bus-compatible, serial, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) device for storage and serial transmission of configuration information for an intelligent peripheral device with which the EEPROM device is to be associated, for communication of the information on a bus to a host device, comprising:
A method of transmitting a stream of data representing configuration information for an intelligent peripheral device from a programmable data memory device associated with the peripheral device, for communication on a bus to a host device, comprising the memory device-implemented steps of:
A memory device adapted to be programmed to store predetermined data in a memory army of the device for defining the configuration of an associated peripheral device to a host device coupled for communication with said memory device and adapted to control said peripheral device, the memory device comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.