Analog to digital conversion (ADC)/digital to analog conversion (DAC) compression
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsBehrooz Karimian Kakolaki, Stephen R. Oakes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an embodiment, a system includes an ADC and a compression circuit associated with the ADC. The ADC may be configured to generate samples of an analog signal. The compression circuit may be configured to compress the samples for transmission to a receiving circuit that processes the signal based on the compressed samples. By transmitting compressed samples, the power consumed for transmitting the data to the receiving circuit may be reduced as compared to transmitting the uncompressed samples. The receiving circuit may also be coupled to a DAC and may be configured to transmit compressed samples to be applied to an actuator. A decompression circuit associated with the DAC may be configured to decompress the samples.
Claims19
A system comprising:
- an analog sensor;
- an analog to digital converter (ADC) coupled to the analog sensor and configured to convert an analog output signal of the analog sensor to a first digital signal that comprises a plurality of samples of the analog output signal;
- a compression circuit coupled to the ADC, wherein the compression circuit is configured to:
- compress the first digital signal to generate a first compressed digital signal;
- monitor the plurality of samples in the first digital signal to detect which bits of the plurality of samples are varying from sample to sample;
- dynamically modify a format of the first compressed digital signal responsive to monitoring the plurality of samples, wherein the dynamic modification comprises excluding the unvarying bits from the first compressed digital signal;
- and
- communicate a modification of the format within the first compressed digital signal;
- and
- an integrated circuit coupled to the compression circuit, wherein the integrated circuit is configured to process the first compressed digital signal.
A method comprising:
- sampling an analog input in an analog to digital converter (ADC) to generate a plurality of samples;
- compressing the plurality of samples in a compression circuit, wherein the compressing comprises:
- detecting that a first number of bits of the plurality of samples are varying from sample to sample;
- and
- dynamically modifying a format of the compressed samples responsive to monitoring the plurality of samples, and wherein the compressing comprises communicating a modification of the format to an integrated circuit;
- transmitting only the varying bits as the compressed plurality of samples to the integrated circuit;
- and
- processing the plurality of samples in the integrated circuit.
A system comprising:
- an analog sensor;
- an analog to digital converter (ADC) coupled to the analog sensor and configured to convert an analog output signal of the analog sensor to a first digital signal that comprises a plurality of samples of the analog output signal;
- a compression circuit coupled to the ADC, wherein the compression circuit is configured to:
- compress the first digital signal to generate a first compressed digital signal;
- monitor the plurality of samples in the first digital signal to detect a repeating pattern in the plurality of samples;
- dynamically modify a format of the first compressed digital signal responsive to monitoring the plurality of samples, wherein the format includes a transmission of the pattern and an indication that the pattern is repeating;
- and
- an integrated circuit coupled to the compression circuit, wherein the integrated circuit is configured to process the first compressed digital signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.