Tuner for cable, satellite and broadcast applications
View Patent ↗A tuner includes, in part, one or mixers, one or more filters, one or more variable gain stages, one or more analog to digital converters, and a baseband processor. Each filter is responsive to an associated mixer's output signal. Each variable gain stage is responsive to an associated filter's output. Each analog-to-digital converter is adapted to convert the output signal of an associated variable gain stage to a digital signal. The baseband processor is responsive to the digital signal supplied by the analog-to-digital converter(s). The baseband processor is further configured to supply a signal to be demodulated by a processing unit external to the integrated circuit. The baseband processor performs no or a fraction of the required demodulation functions. The processing unit may be a central processing unit or a graphical processing unit.
1. An integrated circuit comprising:
at least one mixer;
at least one filter responsive to the at least one mixer's output signal;
at least one variable gain stage responsive to the at least one filter's output;
at least one an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert to a digital signal an analog signal generated by the at least one variable gain stage; and
a baseband processor responsive to the analog-to-digital converter, said baseband processor configured to supply a signal to be demodulated by a processing unit external to the integrated circuit.
2. The integrated circuit of claim 1 further comprising:
a digital interface responsive to the baseband processor's output signal.
3. The integrated circuit of claim 2 wherein said processing unit is a central processing unit.
4. The integrated circuit of claim 2 wherein said processing unit is a graphical processing unit.
5. The integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein said processing unit performs an entire set of required demodulation operations.
6. A system comprising:
at least one mixer;
at least one filter responsive to the mixer's output signal;
at least one variable gain stage responsive to the at least one filter's output;
at least one an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert to a digital signal an analog signal generated by the at least one variable gain stage;
at least one baseband processor responsive to the at least one analog-to-digital converter, said baseband processor configured to supply a signal to be demodulated;
a digital interface responsive to the baseband processor's output signal; and
a processing unit resident on a host system and adapted to perform a first plurality of demodulation operations on a signal supplied by the digital interface.
7. The tuner of claim 6 wherein said processing unit is a central processing unit.
8. The tuner of claim 6 wherein said processing unit is a graphical processing unit.
9. The tuner of claim 6 wherein said processing unit is further adapted to perform a second plurality of demodulation operations.
10. The tuner of claim 6 wherein said first plurality of demodulation operations comprise an entire set of demodulation operations.
11. A method of processing a received RF signal, the method comprising:
generating an intermediate frequency analog signal from the RF signal;
filtering the analog signal;
controlling a gain of the filtered analog signal;
converting the filtered gain-controlled analog signal to a digital signal;
performing baseband signal processing operations on the digital signal, said baseband signal processing not to include demodulation operations; and
performing a first plurality of demodulation operations on the baseband processed signal using a host processor.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
performing a second plurality of demodulation operations on the baseband processed signals using the host processor.
13. The method of claim 11 wherein said processor is a central processing unit.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein said processor is a graphical processing unit.
15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
supplying the baseband processed signal to the host processor via a USB interface.
16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
supplying the baseband processed signal to the host processor via a PCI Express interface.