REUSE OF DIGITAL INTERFACE FOR MULTIPLE COMPONENTS

• US 20090060011A1
• Filed: 08/27/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Deutschland GmbH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Hanke, Andre, Adler, Bernd
• Granted Patent: US 8,958,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0822 according to predefined selection scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0264 Arrangements for coupling to transmission lines duplexing arrangements H04L5/14; line equalisers, line build-out devices H04L25/03878
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0292 Arrangements specific to the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

In one embodiment, a circuit can selectively adjust a current for driving a load. The circuit includes a sensor configured to measure a magnetic field associated with the current and provide a sensor voltage representative thereof. A control circuit is configured to selectively adjust the current as a function of the sensor voltage and a time-varying voltage threshold. Other methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A circuit for communicating a digital baseband signal, comprising:

first receiver circuitry for providing first application data;

second receiver circuitry for providing second application data;

a frame buffer configured to selectively receive the first application data or the second application data as a function of a control signal, and to facilitate the presentation of the selectively received data to a digital baseband processor via a common digital interface.

2. The circuit of claim 1, where the first receiver circuitry comprises diversity receiver circuitry configured to analyze signals from several independent fading paths.

3. The circuit of claim 1, where the second receiver circuitry is configured to communicate global positioning data.

4. The circuit of claim 3 where the first receiver circuitry is configured to analyze signals from several independent fading paths.

5. The circuit of claim 4, where the first and second receiver circuitry share circuit elements.

6. The circuit of claim 1, where the control signal is selectively asserted as a function of whether the first application data is received at the first receiver circuitry or the second application data is received at the second receiver circuitry.

7. The circuit of claim 6, where if both first and second application data are received concurrently, the control signal is asserted as a function of a priority between the first application data and the second application data.

8. The circuit of claim 1, where the circuit further comprises:

third receiver circuitry configured to provide third application data to the frame buffer.

9. The circuit of claim 8, where the frame buffer has at least one FIFO associated with the selectively received data and at least another FIFO associated with the third application data.

10. The circuit of claim 9, where the frame buffer is configured to manage the FIFOs to send packets of data over the common interface to the digital baseband processor.

11. The circuit of claim 9, where the frame buffer is configured to send header information in packets associated with the selectively received data to distinguish between the first application data and the second application data.

12. The circuit of claim 8, where the first receiver circuitry, the second receiver circuitry, the third receiver circuitry, and the frame buffer are formed within a single integrated circuit that can be coupled to the digital baseband processor via the common digital interface.

13. A communication device, comprising:

a digital baseband processor that includes transmit data pins for transmitting digital application data and receive data pins for receiving digital application data; and

a radio frequency circuit configured to receive several types of application data, and at a given time selectively provide one of the several types of application data to the receive data pins, and at another given time selectively provide another of the several types of application data to the receive data pins.

14. The communication device of claim 13, where the one of the several types of application data comprises global positioning system data.

15. The communication device of claim 13, where the another of the several types of application data comprises diversity data from a diversity receiver.

16. The communication device of claim 15, where the one of the several types of application data comprises global positioning system data.

17. The communication device of claim 13, where the radio frequency circuit comprises:

first receiver circuitry configured to provide a first type of application data;

second receiver circuitry configured to provide a second type of application data; and

a frame buffer configured to selectively receive the first or second type of application data as a function of a control signal, and to facilitate the presentation of the selectively received data to the digital baseband processor via the receive pins.

18. The circuit of claim 17, where the circuit further comprises:

third receiver circuitry configured to provide cellular data to the frame buffer.

19. The circuit of claim 18, where the cellular data can be stored in the frame buffer in parallel with either the first or second application data, but not with both the first and second application data.

20. A method for communicating with a baseband IC over a digital interface, comprising:

receiving several types of application data on a communication device;

selecting one of the several types of application data and presenting at a first time the one type of application data to the baseband IC over receive data pins of the digital data interface;

selecting another of the several types of application data and presenting at a second time the another type of application data to the baseband IC over the receive data pins of the digital data interface.

21. The circuit of claim 20 where the one type of application data is related to global positioning data.

22. The circuit of claim 20 where the another type of application data relates to diversity signals from several independent fading paths.

23. The circuit of claim 22 where the one type of application data is related to global positioning data.

24. A communication device, comprising:

a digital baseband processor that includes transmit data pins for transmitting digital application data and receive data pins for receiving several types of digital application data; and

means for selectively providing at a first time one of several types of application data to the receive data pins and at another given time selectively providing another of the several types of application data to the receive data pins.

25. The communication device of claim 24 further comprising:

means for selectively providing at a third time a third type of application data to the receive data pins.

26. The communication device of claim 25, where the communication device comprises a radio subscriber unit.

27. The communication device of claim 24, where the one type of application data is diversity data and the another type of application data is global positioning data.

28. The communication device of claim 27, where the third type of application data is cellular data.