Serial line circuit, an apparatus implemented with a serial line circuit, and method thereof

A serial line circuit comprising:

• a bus;
• a plurality of isolators interposed between two portions of the bus;
• a first component coupled to the bus, the first component to transfer information via a first isolator of the plurality of isolators;
• and
• a second component coupled to the bus, the second component to transfer sampled information over the bus via a second isolator of the plurality of isolators, the first component to receive serial data bits, multiplex the received serial data bits by forming data frames each including a plurality of overhead bits along with a serial bit of the received serial data bits, and to transfer the overhead bits along with the serial bit to the second component over the bus via the first isolator, the overhead bits including a serial port number to identify a serial line connector to receive the serial bit corresponding to the overhead bits.

An electronic device comprising:

• a plurality of serial port connectors;
• and
• a serial line circuit coupled to the plurality of serial port connectors, the serial line circuit comprises
• a first programmable component,
• a second programmable component in communication with the plurality of serial port connectors,
• a bus coupled to the first programmable component and the second programmable component,
• a first isolator situated along the bus, the first isolator to receive a serial data bit preceded by control information from the first programmable component for transfer to the second programmable component, and
• a second isolator situated along the bus, the second isolator to receive a sampled data bit preceded by control information from the second programmable component for transfer to the first programmable component,
• wherein the first programmable component of the serial line circuit comprises a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to multiplex serial data received from a plurality of serial Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitters (UARTs) and to transfer at least the control information and the serial data bit of the serial data over the bus via the first isolator.

An electronic device comprising:

• a plurality of serial port connectors;
• and
• a serial line circuit coupled to the plurality of serial port connectors, the serial line circuit comprises
• a first programmable component,
• a second programmable component in communication with the plurality of serial port connectors,
• a bus coupled to the first programmable component and the second programmable component,
• a first isolator situated along the bus, the first isolator to receive a serial data bit preceded by control information from the first programmable component for transfer to the second programmable component, and
• a second isolator situated along the bus, the second isolator to receive a sampled data bit preceded by control information from the second programmable component for transfer to the first programmable component,
• wherein the first programmable component of the serial line circuit to receive serial data bits including the serial data bit, to multiplex the received serial data bits by forming data frames, one of the data frames including a serial port number along with the serial data bit, and to transfer the serial port number along with the serial data bit to the second programmable component over the bus via the first isolator.

A method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of serial data bits;
• multiplexing the plurality of serial data bits in order to transfer the serial data bits over an interconnect through a single isolator, the multiplexing comprises generating control information for each serial data bit of the plurality of data bits and transferring the control information along with a corresponding serial data bit immediately after each other, and a transmission rate of the interconnect exceeds a transmission rate of at least one interconnect providing the corresponding serial data bit by a factor of at least one-hundred;
• recovering each of the plurality of serial data bits;
• and
• determining a serial port connector for each of the plurality of serial data bits for routing to the serial port connector.