Single chip wireless communication integrated circuit

• US 20070010285A1
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Gallitzin Allegheny LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Dominik
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/553.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0202 Portable telephone sets, e.g. cordless phones, mobile phones or bar type handsets constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. of speakers or microphones H04M1/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724

Abstract

A multi-mode wireless device on a single substrate includes an analog portion and a digital portion integrated on the single substrate. The analog portion includes a cellular radio core; and a short-range wireless transceiver core. The digital portion integrated on the substrate includes a reconfigurable processor core coupled to the cellular radio core and the short-range wireless transceiver core, the reconfigurable processor adapted to handle a plurality of wireless communication protocols. The digital portion also includes a high-density memory array core coupled to the reconfigurable multi-processor core.

Claims

1. A integrated circuit comprising:

an analog portion including;

a cellular radio core; and

a short-range wireless transceiver core coupled to the cellular radio core; and

a digital portion including;

a reconfigurable processor core coupled to the cellular radio core and the short-range wireless transceiver core to handle a plurality of wireless communication protocols; and

a router coupled to the reconfigurable processor core, the cellular radio core, and the short-range wireless transceiver core, the router to transmit data packets in parallel simultaneously via the cellular radio core and the short-range wireless transceiver core.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the reconfigurable processor core includes one or more reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the integrated circuit is formed on a single substrate including the analog portion and the digital portion.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the reconfigurable processor core includes multiple programmable processors and multiple dedicated processors configured to handle a plurality of wireless communication protocols.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the router further comprises an engine to track the destinations of the data packets.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 5, wherein the router is to send the data packets in parallel through a primary and a secondary communication channel, wherein the primary communication channel comprises a short-range channel and the secondary communication channel comprises a cellular channel.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 1, further comprising a radio sniffer.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 7, wherein the router is to determine an optimal transmission medium based on information from the radio sniffer.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the digital portion further comprises a memory including a volatile array and a non-volatile array.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the router is to reuse a filter and a decoder for the plurality of wireless communication protocols.

11. A system comprising:

a processor;

a multi-mode wireless integrated circuit coupled to the processor, the integrated circuit comprising;

an analog portion including;

a cellular radio core; and

a short-range wireless transceiver core; and

a digital portion including;

a reconfigurable processor core coupled to the cellular radio core and the short-range wireless transceiver core, the reconfigurable processor core including multiple programmable processors and multiple dedicated processors configured to handle a plurality of wireless communication protocols; and

a router coupled to the reconfigurable processor core, the cellular radio core, and the short-range wireless transceiver core to transmit data packets in parallel simultaneously via the cellular radio core and the short-range wireless transceiver core; and

an output device coupled to the processor to output video information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the multiple programmable processors include one or more digital signal processors (DSPs).

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the multiple programmable processors include one or more reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the router further comprises an engine to track the destinations of the data packets.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the router is to send the data packets in parallel through a primary and a secondary communication channel.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the output device comprises a liquid crystal display.

17. A method comprising:

communicating data packets via a cellular radio medium using a system including a multi-mode wireless integrated circuit having a substrate including a cellular radio core, a short-range wireless transceiver core, and a processor core; and

communicating at least some of the data packets in parallel simultaneously via a short-range wireless medium and the cellular radio medium using the multi-mode wireless integrated circuit of the system.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising communicating the data packets via a local area connection using an ethernet port of the system.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising primarily communicating the data packets via a primary communication channel and periodically communicating the data packets via a secondary communication channel.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising communicating the data packets via the short-range wireless medium while in a wireless local area network and communicating the data packets via the cellular radio medium while outside the wireless local area network.