Serial compressed bus interface having a reduced pin count

1. A serial compressed bus interface for interfacing with a bus having a single serial data line and at least one control line, comprising:

a serial-to-parallel converter having a data input coupled to said single serial data line and adapted to receive time-division multiplexed serial data from a plurality of data sources, said serial-to-parallel converter having a plurality of parallel output lines for providing thereon packets of said time-division multiplexed serial data in parallel form to a plurality of devices associated with data applications;

enable logic having an input coupled to said at least one control line for receiving a data valid signal that identifies which of said plurality of devices is associated with a particular packet of the time-division multiplexed serial data, said enable logic deriving a signal from said data valid signal to enable said identified device to receive said particular packet in parallel form, as provided by said serial-to-parallel converter; and

a request control circuit adapted to output a request signal that requests said time-division multiplexed serial data for more than one but less than all of said plurality of devices.

2. The serial compressed bus interface according to claim 1 , wherein said request signal requests said time-division multiplexed serial data from a single one of said plurality of data sources.

3. The serial compressed bus interface according to claim 2 , wherein said single one of said plurality of data sources is a single broadcast transponder.

4. The serial compressed bus interface according to claim 1 , wherein said plurality of devices comprises a plurality of data buffers.

5. The serial compressed bus interface according to claim 3 , wherein said single broadcast transponder provides said requested time-division multiplexed serial data as a plurality of video channels.

6. The serial compressed bus interface according to claim 5 , wherein said video channels are simultaneously decoded.

7. A method for transmitting serial compressed data from a plurality of data sources via a bus having a single data line and at least one control line to a plurality of devices associated with data applications, comprising the steps of:

time-division multiplexing the serial compressed data from the plurality of data sources to generate time-division multiplexed serial compressed data comprising packets onto said single data line;

providing to said at least one control line at least one data valid signal that identifies which of said plurality of devices is associated with a particular one of said packets;

converting said particular one of said packets to a packet of parallel data, and outputting said packet of parallel data for receipt by said identified device;

receiving from said at least one control line said at least one data valid signal;

deriving a signal from said at least one data valid signal to enable said identified device to receive said outputted packet of parallel data; and

providing a request signal that requests said time-division multiplexed serial compressed data for more than one but less than all of said plurality of devices.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein said request signal request said time-division multiplexed serial compressed data from a single one of said plurality of data sources.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said single one of said plurality of data sources is a single broadcast transponder.

10. The method according to claim 7 , wherein said plurality of devices comprises a plurality of data buffers.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein said single broadcast transponder provides said requested time-division multiplexed serial compressed data as a plurality of video channels.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein said video channels are simultaneously decoded.