Back to results
US 7,613,400 B2Granted
Multi-level optical data communication circuit
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsHengju Cheng, Peter Kirkpatrick
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A driver circuit is coupled to an optical waveguide transmitter. The driver circuit has a current generator that is in series with the transmitter, and a current robbing circuit is coupled to the transmitter. The current robbing circuit is to divert first and second amounts of current from the transmitter, in accordance with predetermined values of first and second bit streams, respectively, in which data is received to be transmitted. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
Claims10
An optical data communication circuit comprising:
- an optical waveguide transmitter;
- and
- a driver circuit coupled to the optical waveguide transmitter, the driver circuit to receive transmit data in first and second bit streams, the driver circuit having a current generator coupled in series with the transmitter to set a baseline current that determines the highest level of light output from the transmitter, and a current robbing circuit coupled to the transmitter, the current robbing circuit to divert first and second amounts of current from the transmitter in accordance with predetermined values of the first and second bit streams, respectively.
A computer system comprising:
- an electronic equipment enclosure;
- an optical point to point data bus;
- first and second data processing elements installed in the enclosure, the first and second data processing elements being coupled to different ends of the optical point to point data bus;
- and
- each of the data processing elements being coupled to its end of the point to point bus by a respective driver circuit that is coupled to an optical waveguide transmitter, the driver circuit to drive the transmitter with a multi-level coded current signal in which each symbol to be transmitted is represented by any one of three or more different signal levels, the driver circuit having a current generator coupled in series with the transmitter to set a baseline current that determines the highest level of light output from the transmitter, and a current robbing circuit coupled to the transmitter, the current robbing circuit to divert first and second amounts of current from the transmitter in accordance with predetermined values of first and second bit streams, respectively.
2 more elements
A data routing device comprising:
- a data processing subsystem to process data traffic routed by the device;
- and
- a local area network (LAN) optical cable interface coupled to the data processing subsystem, the interface having a driver circuit coupled to an optical cable transmitter, the driver circuit to drive the transmitter with a multi-level coded current signal in which each symbol to be transmitted is represented by any one of three or more signal levels, the driver circuit having a current generator coupled in series with the transmitter to set a baseline current that determines the highest level of light output from the transmitter, and a current robbing circuit coupled to the transmitter, the current robbing circuit to divert first and second amounts of current from the transmitter in accordance with predetermined values of first and second bit streams, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.