Method and apparatus for providing a high-speed communications link between a portable device and a docking station

A portable device comprising:

• a circuit board (CB) having a substrate and a plurality of electrical conductors formed on or in the substrate;
• one or more integrated circuits (ICs) mounted on the CB, said one or more ICs having one or more electrical contact pads that are electrically coupled to one or more of the electrical conductors of the CB, wherein at least one of said one or more ICs includes a serializer/deserializer (SerDes) component that converts parallel bits into a serial bit stream;
• a central processing unit (CPU) IC mounted on the CB, the CPU IC having one or more electrical contact pads that are electrically coupled to one or more of the electrical conductors of the CB;
• and
• at least one high-speed serial input/output (I/O) port configured to interface the portable device with a high-speed serial communications link that interfaces the portable device with a high-speed serial I/O port of a docking station if the portable device is docked on the docking station, the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station comprising at least one serializer/deserializer (SerDes) component, wherein if the portable device is docked on a docking station, bits that are destined for one or more peripheral devices connected to one or more peripheral device I/O ports of the docking station are sent as a serial bit stream over the high-speed serial communications link from the high-speed serial I/O port of the portable device to the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station.

An apparatus for interfacing one or more peripheral devices connected to a docking station with a portable device that is docked on the docking station, the apparatus comprising:

• a docking station comprising:
• a circuit board (CB) having electrical circuitry thereon for communicating with one or more peripheral devices via one or more peripheral device input/output (I/O) ports of the docking station and for communicating via at least one high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station;
• a housing, wherein the docking station CB is secured within the housing;
• and
• at least one serializer/deserializer (SerDes) component connected to the electrical circuitry of the CB;
• and
• a portable device comprising:
• a circuit board (CB) having a substrate and a plurality of electrical conductors formed on or in the substrate, the portable device CB having a plurality of I/O ports, at least one of the I/O ports of the CB being a high-speed serial I/O port;
• one or more integrated circuits (ICs) mounted on the portable device CB, said one or more ICs having one or more electrical contact pads that are electrically coupled to one or more of the electrical conductors of the portable device CB, wherein at least one of said one or more ICs includes at least one serializer/deserializer (SerDes) component that converts parallel bits into a serial bit stream;
• a central processing unit (CPU) IC mounted on the portable device CB, the CPU IC having one or more electrical contact pads that are electrically coupled to one or more of the electrical conductors of the portable device CB;
• and
• at least one high-speed serial input/output (I/O) port;
• and
• a high-speed serial communications link that links the high-speed serial I/O port of the portable device to the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station, wherein bits that are output from one or more of the ICs of the portable device and that are destined for a peripheral device connected to one or more of the peripheral device I/O ports of the docking station are output from the high-speed serial I/O port of the portable device CB as a serial bit stream onto the high-speed serial communications link, sent over the high-speed serial communications link to the docking station, received at the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station, sent from the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station to the SerDes component of the docking station, and converted by the SerDes component of the docking station into parallel bits, and wherein electrical circuitry of the docking station CB causes one or more of the parallel bits to be sent to one or more of the peripheral devices connected to one or more of the peripheral device I/O ports of the docking station.

A method for communicating bits over a high-speed serial communications link between a portable device and a docking station, the method comprising:

• providing a docking station having at least a first serializer/deserializer (SerDes) component, one or more peripheral device input/output (I/O) ports and at least one high-speed serial I/O port;
• providing a portable device having at least a central processing unit (CPU) IC, one or more other ICs and at least one high-speed serial I/O port;
• providing the one or more ICs with a second serializer/deserializer (SerDes) component that converts parallel bits into a serial bit stream;
• providing a high-speed serial communications link between the high-speed serial I/O port of the portable device and the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station;
• in the portable device, converting parallel bits destined for one or more peripheral devices connected to one or more of the peripheral device I/O ports of the docking station into a serial bit stream with the second SerDes component and outputting the serial bit stream via the high-speed serial I/O port of the portable device onto the high-speed serial communications link;
• inputting the serial bit stream communicated over the high-speed serial communications link to the docking station via the high-speed serial I/O port of the docking station;
• providing the serial bit stream to the first SerDes component of the docking station;
• and
• in the first SerDes component of the docking station, deserializing the serial bit stream and sending one or more of the deserialized bits to one or more of the peripheral devices connected to one or more of the peripheral device I/O ports of the docking station.