Loading patent…
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsJames Scott, Nicolas Villar, Michael David Hazas, Stephen Edward Hodges
Estimating the term…
An automatic addressing protocol for a shared bus is described. In an embodiment, devices connected in a chain by a shared bus are also connected by an independent electrical connection between each pair of neighboring devices. A protocol is used over the independent electrical connections which is independent of that used on the shared bus. Devices in the chain receive at least one device ID from an upstream neighbor via the independent electrical connection and either use this received ID as their ID or use the received ID to compute their ID. Where the device has a downstream neighbor, a device then transmits at least one device ID to the downstream neighbor via the independent electrical connection and this transmitted ID may be their ID or an ID generated based on their ID, for example, by incrementing the ID by one. The process is repeated by devices along the chain.
A method of automatically assigning addresses to devices connected by a shared bus and by an independent electrical connection between neighboring devices, the method comprising:
A device comprising:
A chain of devices wherein each device in the chain is connected by a shared bus and pairs of neighboring devices in the chain are connected by independent electrical connections, and wherein at least one device in the chain is adapted to:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.