Method and apparatus for transmitting data
View Patent ↗A semiconductor device comprising interface logic for transmitting data bursts across an interface. The interface logic is arranged to transmit bursts of data across the interface such that the start of a burst of data is substantially aligned with a symbol interval (SI) boundary. The interface logic is further arranged to apply an offset to the SI boundary at the start of the burst of data.
1. A semiconductor device comprising:
interface logic for transmitting data bursts across an interface, the interface logic being arranged to transmit bursts of data across the interface, wherein the start of a burst of data is substantially aligned with a symbol interval (SI) boundary, and to apply an offset to the SI boundary at the start of successive bursts of data after the burst of data, wherein the offset to the SI boundary is relative to other transmitted bursts, wherein the interface logic is arranged to apply an offset of (+/−N*UI) to the SI boundary at the start of the burst of data, where unit interval (UI) equals a unit interval, and N equals (K−1), where K equals the number of unit intervals in one symbol interval.
2. The semiconductor device of claim 1 wherein the interface logic is arranged to apply a substantially random offset to the SI boundary at the start of each burst of data.
3. The semiconductor device of claim 1 wherein the interface logic is arranged to apply an offset to the SI boundary at the start of a burst of data in accordance with an offset sequence.
4. The semiconductor device of claim 1 wherein the interface logic comprises timing logic arranged to generate an SI timing signal in accordance with which the transmission of each burst of data is substantially aligned, and the timing logic is further arranged to apply an offset to the SI timing signal at the start of a burst of data.
5. The semiconductor device of claim 4 wherein the timing logic comprises divider logic arranged to receive a unit interval (UI) timing signal, the divider logic is further arranged to receive an SI value and to divide the UI timing signal by the received SI value to generate the SI timing signal.
6. The semiconductor device of claim 5 wherein the timing logic further comprises offset generation logic arranged to generate an offset value, wherein the offset value is applied to a default SI value, the resulting SI value being provided to the divider logic for generating the SI timing signal.
7. The semiconductor device of claim 6 wherein the offset generation logic is arranged to generate a substantially random offset value.
8. The semiconductor device of claim 6 wherein the offset generation logic is arranged to generate an offset value in accordance with a predetermined offset sequence.
9. The semiconductor device of claim 1 wherein the interface logic comprises dither logic arranged to receive a unit interval (UI) timing signal and to offset a transition between a sleep/stall state and a start of a burst of data by integer multiples of unit intervals.
10. The semiconductor device of claim 9 wherein the dither logic is further arranged to generate a symbol interval (SI) timing signal, substantially synchronised to the offset transition between the sleep/stall state and a start of a burst data, and to provide the SI timing signal to other components within the interface logic.
11. The semiconductor device of claim 9 wherein the dither logic is arranged to offset the transition between the sleep/stall state and a start of a burst of data by a substantially random multiple of unit intervals.
12. The semiconductor device of claim 9 wherein the dither logic is arranged to offset the transition between the sleep/stall state and a start of a burst of data in accordance with a predetermined offset sequence.
13. A semiconductor device comprising:
interface logic for transmitting data bursts across an interface, the interface logic being arranged to transmit bursts of data across the interface wherein the start of a burst of data is substantially aligned with a symbol interval (SI) boundary, and to apply an offset to the SI boundary at the start of successive bursts of data after the burst of data, wherein the offset to the SI boundary is relative to other transmitted bursts wherein the interface logic is arranged to a offset of (+/−N*UI) to the SI boundary at the start of the burst of data, where unit interval (UI) equals a unit interval, and N equals (K−1), where K equals the number of unit intervals in one symbol interval, and wherein the interface logic is arranged to encode data to be transmitted across the interface using 8b/10b encoding, and a symbol interval (SI) is substantially equal to ten unit intervals (UIs).
14. The semiconductor device of claim 1 wherein the interface comprises a MIPI DigRF interface.
15. The semiconductor device of claim 14 wherein the semiconductor device comprises one of a baseband integrated circuit (BBIC) or an RF (Radio Frequency) integrated circuit (RFIC).
16. A wireless communication device comprising a semiconductor device adapted according to claim 1 .
17. A method for transmitting data across an interface, the method comprising:
transmitting bursts of data across the interface, wherein the start of a burst of data is substantially aligned with a symbol interval boundary;
applying an offset to the SI boundary at the start of successive bursts of data after the burst of data, wherein the offset to the SI boundary is relative to other transmitted bursts; and
applying an offset of (+/−N*UI) to the SI boundary at the start of the burst of data, where unit interval (UI) equals a unit interval, and N equals (K−1), where K equals the number of unit intervals in one symbol interval.
18. The semiconductor device of claim 1 wherein the interface logic includes:
a data storage to store data received at the interface logic; and
a line driver coupled to the data storage and to the interface, the line driver to transmit the data stored in the data storage in the data bursts across the interface.