Apparatus and method for exchanging status information between boards
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorJae-Young Park
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for exchanging information between printed circuit board assemblies of the present invention are disclosed. According to the invention, the number of address pins are assigned according to the amount of information to be exchanged between the boards. In a preferred embodiment, where data is transferred in 8 bit words, the amount of data that can be transferred using an address bits is given by 8×2n. Thus, more status information can be exchanged with fewer edge pins. The duplication function between boards can so be more effectively implemented.
Claims38
An apparatus for exchanging information between circuits, comprising:
- first and second circuits having a same construction and configured to exchange first and second information based on respective address signals, each of the circuits further configured to latch the information received from the other circuit through a respective clock signal;
- and
- a connecting unit configured to couple the first and second circuits to enable transmission and reception of the first and second information to take place between the first and second circuits, wherein the connecting unit includes a number of edge pins for carrying the first and second information between the first and second circuits and wherein the number of edge pins is less than a total number of bits in each of the first and second information.
An apparatus for exchanging information between circuits, comprising:
- first and second circuits having a same construction and configured to exchange first and second information based on respective address signals, each of the circuits configured to latch the information received from the other circuit through a respective clock signal;
- and
- a connecting unit configured to couple the first and second circuits to enable a transmission and reception of the first and second information to take place between the first and second circuit;
- a first signal generator configured to assign address connection points and a clock connection point according to the information of the first circuit and further configured to generate a first address signal and a first clock signal;
- a first information transmitting unit configured to buffer the first address signal, the first clock signal and the information of the first circuit corresponding to the first address signal for transmission to the second circuit;
- a first information receiving unit configured to receive information of the second circuit, the second address signal and a second clock signal;
- and
- a first array configured to output the first information, and further configured to compare the second information to the first information.
A method for exchanging status information between circuits comprising:
- transmitting first status information of a first circuit to a second circuit, wherein the first status information corresponds to a first address signal;
- receiving second status information corresponding to a second address signal from the second circuit in a first array;
- comparing the first and second status information to determine at least one of a third status information of the first circuit and a fourth status information of the second circuit;
- and wherein each of the first, second, third, and fourth status information comprises at least one of active and standby status.
A method for exchanging information between circuits, comprising:
- transmitting first status information of a first circuit to a second circuit, wherein the first status information corresponds to a first address signal;
- receiving second status information corresponding to a second address signal from the second circuit in a first array;
- and
- comparing the first and second status information to determine at least one of a third status information of the first circuit and a fourth status information of the second circuit, wherein transmitting the first status information comprises:
- generating the first address signal at prescribed intervals;
- associating the first information to the generated first address signal;
- and
- generating a first clock signal timed so that the first information can be latched in the second circuit.
A method for exchanging status information between first and second boards, comprising:
- receiving a status information from the first board;
- assigning periodically an address signal and a clock signal to the status information;
- transmitting the assigned status information to the second board through a plurality of edge pins, and wherein the status information is timed to the clock signal so that the status information can be latched by the second board.
A method for exchanging status information between first and second boards, comprising:
- generating periodically an address signal at prescribed intervals;
- generating a clock signal;
- assigning consecutively the status information of the first board to the generated address signal;
- and
- timing the assigned status information to the generated clock signal and transmitting the timed status information to the second board through a plurality of edge pins.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.