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US 6,748,475 B1Granted
Programmable serial port architecture and system
AssigneeAnalog Devices, Inc.
InventorJørn Sørensen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An interface device presents a generic serial input/output (I/O) port, whose function is programmable according to a stored sequence of instructions executed by a programmable state machine. The instructions cause the programmable state machine to define operation of the serial I/O port according to a standard or other predetermined set of serial I/O communication parameters.
Claims17
In a system including a system bus, an interface device, including a programmable serial port, connected to the system bus and separate from any data processor, the interface device comprising:
- a bus interface connected to the system bus;
- a programmable state machine (PSM) connected to and responsive to the bus interface that sequences through an instruction set received from the bus interface;
- and
- a serializer connected to the PSM and to the bus interface, and having a serial I/O port, the serializer programmable by the PSM to transfer data between the bus and the I/O port according to a selected one of a plurality of serial protocols.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- providing data from a system bus to a bus interface connected to the system bus;
- and
- programming a programmable state machine (PSM) outside of a general-purpose processor to cause the data provided to the bus interface to be transmitted serially from a serial I/O port in accordance with a particular one of a plurality of serial communication protocols.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.