Granted Patent B2

US 7,480,753 · App. 11/412,431 · Granted Jan 20, 2009

Assignee: Standard Microsystems Corporation

Abstract

Claims (131)

1. A serial bus hub, comprising:

a plurality of upstream logics, each for sending and receiving information to and from a respective host controller;

a plurality of downstream logics each for sending and receiving information to and from a respective serial bus device;

a plurality of ports, wherein a first plurality of ports is each configured to couple to respective host controller, and wherein a second plurality of ports is each configured to couple to respective peripheral devices;

wherein the serial bus hub is configurable to allow a first upstream logic to connect to any of various subsets of the plurality of downstream logics and a second upstream logic to connect to any of various subsets of the plurality of downstream logics;

wherein the plurality of ports comprise a first port of the plurality of ports coupled to the first upstream logic, and a second port of the plurality of ports coupled to a first downstream logic;

wherein the serial bus hub is configurable to switch the first upstream logic and the first downstream logic with respect to the first port and the second port, respectively.

2. The serial bus hub of claim 1 ,

wherein to switch the upstream and downstream logics, the serial bus hub is configurable to decouple the first port from the first upstream logic, decouple the second port from the first downstream logic, and couple the second port to the first upstream logic.

3. The serial bus hub of claim 2 ,

wherein to switch the upstream and downstream logics, the serial bus hub is further configured to couple the first port to the downstream logic.

4. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub is further configured to:

automatically detect a switching condition with respect to the first upstream logic and/or the second downstream logic; and

switch the first upstream logic and/or the first downstream logic in response to the automatic detection.

5. The serial bus hub of claim 4 ,

wherein the automatic detection is based on a change in impedance at one or more of the plurality of ports.

6. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub is configured to switch the upstream logic and/or the downstream logic in response to a user invoked switching condition.

7. The serial bus hub of claim 1 ,

wherein after the first upstream logic is switched from the first port to the second port, a device coupled to the second port is configured to control other serial bus devices coupled to respective other ports of the serial bus hub, wherein each of respective other ports is coupled to respective downstream logic.

8. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein in a first configuration, the first upstream logic is configured to connect to a first subset of downstream logics and the second upstream logic is configured to connect to a second subset of downstream logics, wherein in a second configuration, the first upstream logic is operable to connect to a third subset of downstream logics and the second upstream logic is operable to connect to a fourth subset of downstream logics, wherein the third subset is different than the first and second subsets, and wherein the fourth subset is different than the first and second subsets.

9. The serial bus hub of claim 8 , wherein the first and second subsets and the third and fourth subsets overlap.

10. The serial bus hub of claim 1 ,

wherein each of the plurality of downstream logics are associated with a port of the plurality of ports, and wherein the serial bus hub is further configured to switch the first upstream logic and downstream logic between the first port and the respective port associated with the downstream logic.

11. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in a peripheral device.

12. The serial bus hub of claim 11 , wherein a plurality of devices is coupled to the plurality of ports, wherein a subset of the plurality of devices comprise one or more of:

one or more devices internal to the peripheral device; and

one or more devices external to the peripheral device.

13. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in a cell phone.

14. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in a portable music player device.

15. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in an external housing, and wherein the serial bus hub is configured to attach to a system as a first device of the plurality of devices to provide serial bus communication between the system and the plurality of devices.

16. The serial bus hub of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of devices comprises one or more of:

one or more cell phones;

one or more portable music player devices;

one or more computers;

one or more printers;

one or more hard-drives;

one or more digital cameras;

one or more memory mediums;

one or more audio devices;

one or more keyboards;

one or more mice;

one or more joysticks;

one or more uninterrupted power supplies (UPS);

one or more additional serial bus hubs;

one or more Ethernet devices;

one or more Bluetooth devices;

one or more storage devices;

one or more video devices; and

one or more communication converter devices.

17. The serial hub of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus hub comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 hub.

18. A serial bus hub, comprising:

a plurality of ports configured to couple to a plurality of devices, wherein a first port is coupled to first upstream logic for controlling a first subset of devices and a second port is coupled to second upstream logic for controlling a second subset of devices; and

switching logic configured to perform port reversal by coupling a third port of the plurality of ports to the first upstream logic for controlling the first subset of devices, wherein before switching, the third port is coupled to downstream logic and the first port is coupled to the upstream logic, and wherein after switching, the upstream logic is no longer coupled to the first port and the downstream logic is no longer coupled to the third port;

wherein the switching logic is further configured to change the configuration of the serial bus hub to change members of the first subset of devices and/or the second subset of devices.

19. The serial bus hub of claim 18 ,

wherein the switching logic is further configured to perform port reversal for any two respective ports of the plurality of ports.

20. The serial bus hub of claim 18 ,

wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in a peripheral device.

21. The serial bus hub of claim 18 ,

wherein the switching logic is further configured to:

automatically detect a switching condition with respect to the upstream logic and/or the downstream logic; and

switch the upstream logic and/or the downstream logic in response to the automatic detection.

22. The serial bus hub of claim 18 ,

wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in an external housing, and wherein the serial bus hub is configured to attach to a system as a first device of the plurality of devices to provide serial bus communication between the system and the plurality of devices.

23. The serial bus hub of claim 18 , wherein the plurality of devices comprises one or more of:

one or more cell phones;

one or more portable music player devices;

one or more computers;

one or more printers;

one or more hard-drives;

one or more digital cameras;

one or more memory mediums;

one or more audio devices;

one or more keyboards;

one or more mice;

one or more joysticks;

one or more uninterrupted power supplies (UPS);

one or more additional serial bus hubs;

one or more Ethernet devices;

one or more Bluetooth devices;

one or more storage devices;

one or more video devices; and

one or more communication converter devices.

24. The serial bus hub of claim 18 ,

wherein the serial bus hub is a root serial bus hub.

25. The serial hub of claim 18 , wherein the serial bus hub comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 hub.

26. A method, comprising:

receiving input to a serial bus hub, wherein the serial bus hub comprises a plurality of ports for connecting to a plurality of devices, and wherein the input specifies a change in control of at least a subset of the plurality of devices by a first device coupled to a first port to control of the at least a subset of the plurality of devices by a second device coupled to a second port, wherein, prior to the input, the first device is configured to act as a host controller for the second device;

switching upstream logic from the first port to the second port, wherein after said switching, the second device is configured to act as the host controller for the first device;

wherein the serial bus hub further comprises one or more additional upstream logics coupled to one or more respective ports of the plurality of ports, and wherein the serial bus hub allows a plurality of host controllers to control respective subsets of the plurality of devices;

changing the configuration of the serial bus hub to allow the plurality of host controllers to control other respective subsets of the plurality of devices.

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein the serial bus hub comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 hub.

28. The method of claim 26 , wherein said switching the upstream logic comprises:

decoupling the upstream logic from the first port;

decoupling downstream logic for sending and receiving information to and from the second device via the second port as a serial bus device; and

coupling the upstream logic to the second port.

29. The method of claim 28 , further comprising:

coupling the downstream logic to the first port for sending and receiving information to and from the first device via the first port as the serial bus device.

30. The method of claim 26 ,

wherein the serial bus hub is comprised in a peripheral device.

31. The method of claim 26 , further comprising:

automatically detecting a switching condition with respect to the upstream logic; and

wherein said switching the upstream logic is performed in response to the automatic detection.

32. The method of claim 26 ,

wherein the serial bus hub is an external serial bus hub.

33. The method of claim 26 , wherein the plurality of devices comprise one or more of:

one or more cell phones;

one or more portable music player devices;

one or more computers;

one or more printers;

one or more hard-drives;

one or more digital cameras;

one or more memory mediums;

one or more audio devices;

one or more keyboards;

one or more mice;

one or more joysticks;

one or more Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS);

one or more additional serial bus hubs;

one or more Ethernet devices;

one or more Bluetooth devices;

one or more storage devices;

one or more video devices; and

one or more communication converter devices.

34. The method of claim 26 , wherein the method further comprises:

switching one of the one or more additional upstream logics and/or the upstream logic with a downstream logic to change control relationships among the plurality of devices.

35. A serial bus hub, comprising:

upstream logic for sending and receiving information to and from a host controller;

downstream logic for sending and receiving information to and from a serial bus device;

a plurality of ports configured to couple to a plurality of devices, including a first port of the plurality of ports coupled to the upstream logic, and a second port of the plurality of ports coupled to the downstream logic; and

switching logic configured to switch the upstream logic and the downstream logic with respect to the first port and the second port respectively, and wherein the switching logic is configured to switch the upstream logic and/or the downstream logic in response to a user invoked switching condition received after the serial bus device is coupled to the downstream logic.

Assignments (17)

Continuity (1)