Method and circuit for interleaving, serializing and deserializing camera and keypad data
A system for interleaving high speed data and slower data that is serialized and delivered to a microprocessor. The typical source of the high speed data is a camera and the source of the slower data is a keyboard. The high speed data and the slower data, illustratively, are interfaced with a micro-processor in a parallel fashion. The present invention mirrors the parallel interface to the microprocessor, and mirrors the parallel interface to the sources of the high speed (camera) and slower (keypad) data. The present system formats parallel data from the sources and passes that data in serial form, typically with a clock, on a flexible cable that joins two sections of many cell phones or other hand held devices.
1. In a system having a processor connected to a keyboard and to a camera through a flexible cable that is subject to stress during system operation, the camera providing a high speed data output and a horizontal synchronization signal, the improvement comprising:
a first interface that receives parallel high speed data from said camera,
a second interface that receives parallel slower speed data from said keyboard,
a controller and data multiplexer that forms an interleaved sequence of the high speed camera data and slower speed keyboard data, the slower speed keyboard data being passed during the camera's horizontal synchronization signals;
when the camera is passing no data, the controller and data multiplexer generates artificial or pseudo horizontal synchronization signals wherein keyboard data may be passed during the artificial or pseudo horizontal synchronization signals; and
a serializer that receives the interleaved time sequence of parallel data from the multiplexer and outputs the interleaved sequence of parallel data in a serial data fashion at a single data rate over a single data line in said cable together with a single serial clock over another line.
2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a cable coupled to the serializer, wherein the cable carries the serialized data and a clock;
a deserializer coupled to the cable and arranged to receive the serialized data and the clock and output combined parallel data;
a demultiplexer that receives the combined parallel data and separates the parallel high speed camera data from the slower speed keyboard data;
a high speed data regeneration circuit that sends parallel high speed camera data to a microprocessor; and
a slower data regeneration circuit that sends parallel slower speed keyboard data to the microprocessor.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the high speed and slower speed data regeneration circuits mirror the operations and responses of circuits that generate the high speed and slower data.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first and the second interfaces mirror the operations and responses of a micro-processor.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the source of the high speed data is a camera and the source of the slower speed data is a keypad or keyboard.
6. A process for transmitting data between a processor and a keyboard and a camera through a cable that is subject to stress during operation of the system, the camera providing a high speed data output and horizontal synchronization signals, the improvement comprising:
receiving parallel high speed data from said camera,
receiving parallel slower speed data from said keyboard;
interleaving keyboard data with camera data, the keyboard data being passed during horizontal synchronization signals;
when the camera is passing no data, generating artificial or pseudo horizontal synchronization signals and passing keyboard data during the artificial or pseudo horizontal synchronization signals; and
receiving the interleaved time sequence of parallel data from the multiplexer and outputting the interleaved sequence of parallel data in a serial data fashion at a single data rate over a single data line in said cable together with a single serial clock over another line.
7. The process of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:
carrying the interleaved serialized data and the single serial clock on separate lines in a cable;
receiving and deserializing the serialized data with the clock;
outputting parallel data from the deserializer;
separating the parallel data from the deserializer into parallel high speed data and the parallel slower speed data;
presenting the parallel high speed data to a microprocessor;
presenting the parallel slower speed data to a microprocessor.
8. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of presenting the parallel high speed and slower speed data to a microprocessor minors the operations and responses of circuits that generate the high speed and slower speed data.
9. The process of claim 6 , wherein the step of receiving the parallel high speed and the slower speed data mirrors the operations and responses of a micro-processor.