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US 7,248,597 B2Granted
General purpose input/output controller
AssigneeNVIDIA Corporation
InventorJason Seung-Min Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention permits an I/O port to be used with a variety of different I/O devices, regardless of their device type implementation, such as tri-state I/O devices, pull-up I/O devices, or pull-down I/O devices. Thus, one set of pins may be used for various different I/O devices.
Claims26
An electronic device having a configurable port for connecting with a variety of interface device types, comprising:
- a register for storing one or more sets of configuration data each set of configuration data corresponding to a particular interface device type that may be connected to the electronic device;
- and
- a multiplexer for conforming a data signal in accordance with the configuration data associated with a particular interface device type connected to the electronic device, wherein
- a controller controls the operation of the configurable port, the controller being associated with a register set for controlling the operation of the configurable port, and wherein
- the register set includes a first register for indicating whether the port is configured as a general purpose interface port or as a special purpose interface port to support a particular device connected with the port, a second register for configuring the port to transmit an output signal to the device connected with the port, a third register for indicating data representing the output signal to be transmitted to the device connected with the port, and a fourth register for indicating data representing an input signal that is received from the device connected with the port.
2 more elements
An electronic device having a configurable port for connecting with a variety of interface device types, comprising:
- means for storing one or more sets of configuration data each set of configuration data corresponding to a particular interface device type that may be connected to the electronic device;
- and
- means for conforming a data signal in accordance with the configuration data associated with a particular interface device type connected to the electronic device, wherein a controller controls the operation of the configurable port, the controller being associated with a means for controlling the operation of the configurable port, and
- wherein the controlling means includes
- a means for indicating whether the port is configured as a general purpose interface port or as a special purpose interface port to support a particular device connected with the port,
- a means for configuring the port to transmit an output signal to the device connected with the port,
- a means for indicating data representing the output signal to be transmitted to the device connected with the port, and
- a means for indicating data representing an input signal that is received from the device connected with the port.
5 more elements
A method for configuring a port to connect with a variety of interface device types, comprising the steps of:
- storing one or more sets of configuration data relating to the variety of interface device types that may be connected to an electronic device, each set of configuration data corresponding to a particular interface device type;
- configuring the port to interface with a particular one of the variety of interface device types including the steps of configuring and enabling signaling for the configurable port of the electronic device, and controlling input and output signaling for the configurable port;
- in response to enabling the port to transmit data to the connected device, conforming an output data signal in accordance with the configuration data associated with the particular interface device type connected to the electronic device;
- and
- in response to enabling the port to receive data from the connected device, receiving an input data signal and translating the input data signal in accordance with the configuration data associated with the particular interface device type connected to the electronic device,
- wherein the configuring step further includes providing a register set for controlling the operation of the configurable port, wherein the register set includes a first register for indicating whether the port is configured as a general purpose interface port or as a special purpose interface port to support a particular device connected with the port, a second register for configuring the port to transmit an output signal to the device connected with the port, a third register for indicating data representing the output signal to be transmitted to the device connected with the port, and a fourth register for indicating data representing an input signal that is received from the device connected with the port.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.