IP Library Granted Patent US 7,075,996
Granted Patent B2
US 7,075,996 · App. 09/792,546 · Granted Jul 11, 2006

Symbol-based signaling device for an electromagnetically-coupled bus system

Assignee: Intel Corporation
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 7,075,996
App. No.
09/792,546
Granted
Jul 11, 2006
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present invention provides a chipset for transferring data through an electromagnetically coupled bus system. The chipset includes a modulator, a matching circuit and a demodulator. The modulator modifies a clock to encode multiple bits in a complementary pair of symbols. The matching circuit modifies the clock signal to generate a complementary pair of reference signals that is transmitted with the complementary symbol pair, and the demodulator decodes a second set of bits from selected properties of a complementary pair of transferred symbols.

Claims (25)

1. An apparatus comprising:

a modulator to modify a clock signal responsive to a first plurality of bits to generate a complementary pair of symbols, wherein the modulator includes two or more modulators from a group consisting of a phase modulator, a pulse-width modulator, a rise-time modulator, and an amplitude modulator to modify the clock signal;

a first matching circuit to modify the clock signal to generate a complementary pair of reference signals to be transmitted with the complementary pair of symbols; and

a demodulator coupled to the modulator to decode a second plurality of bits from selected properties of a complementary pair of transferred symbols.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first matching circuit includes a circuitry to impose a delay on the clock signal comparable to a delay associated with the two or more modulators.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the demodulator comprises two or more demodulators from a group consisting of a phase demodulator, a pulse-width demodulator, arise-time demodulator, and an amplitude demodulator.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising a recovery circuit to recover the complementary pair of reference signals received with the complementary pair of transferred symbols.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the recovery circuit includes a second matching circuit to adjust a response of the recovery circuit to better match a response of the demodulator.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , further comprising a second calibration circuit to adjust timing of the second plurality of bits to the clock signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the demodulator includes a circuit to recover a pair of edges from the complementary pair of transferred symbols.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a termination device that is activated if the apparatus receives the complementary pair of transferred symbols.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a first calibration circuit coupled to the termination device to adjust the termination device for process, temperature or voltage variations in the apparatus.

10. An apparatus to transfer data on a multi-drop bus comprising:

a signal generator to provide a signal edge in a symbol period; a modulator to generate a symbol from the signal edge, responsive to a first plurality of bits; and

a demodulator to recover a second plurality of bits from a transferred symbol provided in response to the generated symbol, wherein the first plurality of bits includes a phase bit and width bits, and the modulator includes a phase modulator to modify a position of the signal edge in the symbol period, responsive to the phase bit, and the modulator includes a pulse-width modulator to generate a second edge at a position in the symbol period indicated by the width bits.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising a matching circuit to generate a reference symbol from the signal edge, the reference symbol having a delay comparable to a delay associated with the generated symbol.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the symbol is a pair of complementary symbols, the reference symbol is a pair of complementary reference symbols, and the transferred symbol is a pair of complementary transferred symbols.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the apparatus further comprises a calibration circuit to adjust timing of the second plurality of bits responsive to a clock signal that drives the signal generator.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the modulator includes two or more modulators from a group consisting of an amplitude modulator, the phase modulator, the pulse-width modulator, and a rise-time modulator.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a modulator to translate a data request into a sequence of complementary symbol pairs, each symbol pair representing a plurality of bits using two or more modulators from a group consisting of an amplitude modulator, a phase modulator, a rise-time modulator and a pulse-width modulator; and

a receiver coupled to the modulator to recover data from a sequence of transferred complementary symbol pairs.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , further comprising a signal generator to provide a clock signal for modulation by the modulator.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising a strobe generator to generate a sequence of complementary strobe pairs from the clock signal for transmission with the sequence of complementary symbol pairs.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , further comprising a clock recovery circuit to recover the clock signal from the complementary strobe pairs associated with the transferred complementary symbol pairs.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 23, 2001
From: SIMON, THOMAS D.; AMIRTHARAJAH, RAJEEVAN; MARKETKAR, NANDU J.; KNIGHT, THOMAS F., JR.
To: INTEL CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 011574/0611 →
Continuity (3)
Continuation 0971424400 · Nov 15, 2000
Continuation In Part 0931828700 · May 25, 1999
Related Publication 20010006538A1 · Jul 5, 2001