MODEM USING BATCH PROCESSING OF SIGNAL SAMPLES

• US 20020122474A1
• Filed: 09/25/1998
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: HINDIE, AMIR, LEINFELDER, KARL
• Granted Patent: US 6,625,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/222
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/34 Amplitude- and phase-modulated carrier systems, e.g. quadrature-amplitude modulated carrier systems

Abstract

A communications modem, having a processor, interacts with an analog to digital converter and with a digital to analog converter (codec) and does batch processing of samples from the communications line and batch processing of samples from the host to be applied to the communications line. The batch processing lowers the processing rate needed for the modem processor.

Claims

1. A modem comprising:

a. an analog to digital converter for sampling an analog signal on a communications line and providing line sample values at an output; and

b. a processor, receiving the output of said analog to digital converter, and processing batches of line sample values at one time into one or more symbols.

2. The modem of claim 1 in which the processor receives digital sample values from an application, processes batches of digital sample values and passes them to a digital to analog converter for conversion into an analog signal to be applied to said communications line.

3. The modem of claim 2 in which the processing of line sample values samples is under control of a receive sequencer.

4. The modem of claim 2 in which the processing of digital sample values occurs under control of a transmit sequencer.

5. The modem of claim 2 in which the processing of line sample values and of digital sample values occurs respectively under control of a receive sequencer and a transmit sequencer.

6. The modem of claim 5 in which said receive sequencer and transmit sequencer share state information using a common data area.

7. The modem of claim 1 in which the processor is a digital signal processor.

8. The modem of claim 7 in which said processor is configured to process multiple streams.

9. The modem of claim 8 in which said processor handles a separate stream for each of the receive sequencer and the transmit sequencer.

10. A method of operating a modem having a processor, comprising the steps of:

a. repeatedly sampling signal levels on an analog line;

b. storing a plurality of signal level samples; and

c. processing a plurality of signal level samples with each processor access to the stored signal level samples.

11. The method of claim 10, in which the step of processing comprises converting signal samples into communications symbols.

12. The method of claim 11, in which the modem interprets communications symbols into digital information to be provided to an application.

14. The method of claim 13, in which the step of processing comprises converting representations of communications symbols into digital sample values to be applied to a communications line.

16. The communications system of claim 15, in which said modem converts communications symbols into digital signals to be provided to a host.

17. The communications system of claim 16 in which said modem receives digital signals from said host and converts them into analog signals to be provided to said communications line connected to said modem.

13. A method of operating a modem having a processor, comprising the steps of:

a. receiving digital information from an application;

b. converting the digital information into representations of communications symbols;

c. storing said representations; and

d. processing a plurality of stored representations with each processor access to stored representations.

15. A communications system comprising:

a. a communications network; and

b. at least two computers connected to said network by respective communications lines, at least one of which comprises a modem, having a processor, receiving the output of an analog to digital converter which samples a communications line connected to said modem producing line sample values, and processing batches of line sample values at one time into one or more communications symbols.

18. A computer program product, comprising:

a. a memory medium; and

b. a computer program stored on said memory medium, said computer program comprising instructions for repeatedly sampling signal levels on an analog line, storing a plurality of signal level samples and processing a plurality of signal level samples with each processor access to the stored signal level samples.

19. A method of operating a modem having a processor, comprising the steps of:

a. receiving digital information from an application;

b. converting the digital information into representations of communications symbols;

c. storing said representations; and

d. processing a plurality of stored representations with each processor access to stored representations.