UNIFIED INPUT/OUTPUT CONTROLLER FOR INTEGRATED WIRELESS DEVICES
First Claim
1. An input/output (I/O) controller, comprising:
- a common interface circuit coupled to and shared among one or more function modules; and
wherein said common interface circuit is operative to implement an I/O protocol and provide a common interface between a host and said one or more function modules.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A novel and useful apparatus for and method of a unified IO controller well suited for use in integrated wireless devices incorporating multiple functions. The unified IO controller is operative to provide a single host interface PHY/MAC that is shared among all functions on the controller. The invention provides an IO protocol handler comprising common and unified logic that provides IO access to any function on the device. The common and unified IO PHY interface logic is shared between multiple functions within the same device (e.g., WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth, etc.). This implementation provides optimized hardware partitioning in which common SDIO logic serves multiple functions thereby eliminating the need to provide a protocol handler for each function, reducing pin count, power consumption and die size, since the SDIO protocol handling is implemented in a shared module.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. An input/output (I/O) controller, comprising:
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a common interface circuit coupled to and shared among one or more function modules; and wherein said common interface circuit is operative to implement an I/O protocol and provide a common interface between a host and said one or more function modules. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A multifunction Input/Output (I/O) device, comprising:
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a plurality of function modules; a common I/O interface PHY coupled to and shared among said plurality of function modules; and wherein said common I/O interface PHY is operative to implement an I/O protocol and provide a common interface between a host and said plurality of function modules. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) controller, comprising:
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a common SDIO PHY coupled to and shared among one or more functions; and wherein said common SDIO PHY is operative to implement an I/O protocol and provide a common interface between a host and said one or more function modules. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 32)
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25. A Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) device, comprising:
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a plurality of function modules; a common SDIO PHY coupled to and shared among a plurality of functions; and wherein said common SDIO PHY is operative to implement an I/O protocol and provide a common interface between a host and plurality of functions. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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33. A mobile station, comprising:
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at least one radio transceiver for establishing a communications link to a remote device; a multifunction Input/Output (I/O) device, said multifunction I/O device comprising; a plurality of function modules; a common I/O interface PHY circuit coupled to and shared among said plurality of function modules; and wherein said common I/O interface PHY circuit is operative to implement an I/O protocol and provide a common interface between a host and said plurality of function modules.
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Specification