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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsGregory E. Beers, James A. Brewer, Paul R. Habermehl, James M. Stafford
Estimating the term…
A system and method makes use of the line-in, line-out connectors for each right and left stereo channel of an audio card to provide a communications network. The distributed computers are connected in a master/slave configuration. All of the slave systems have the line-in ports, and the line-out ports, connected together. The master system line-out is connected to each slave system line-in port, and the slave system line-out ports are connected to the master line-in port, for each channel. A communications protocol is provided wherein the master system allows audio and data information to be simultaneously transferred between the master and slave systems. The master provides a clock signal and performs arbitration in order to facilitate the information transfer.
A computer network including a master system having a first audio card and multiple slave systems each having substantially identical second audio cards, comprising:
A method of communicating audio information and data information between a master computer system having a first audio card and multiple slave computer systems each having substantially identical second audio cards, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.