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Distributed switching and telephone conferencing system

  • US 5,276,678 A
  • Filed: 06/18/1990
  • Issued: 01/04/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/18/1990
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A digital conference circuit arrangement for combining audio information from plural sources, comprising:

  • a plurality of user ports each adapted to transmit and receive audio signals from sound reproducing apparatus, each said user port including a digital word combining circuit for summing plural digital words to achieve a composite digital word;

    a common TDM bus for interconnecting each user port, said TDM bus including a time slot assigned to each user port, ones of said time slots carrying digital words representative of audio signals, and address information identifying the user ports; and

    each said user port including a processor and programmable support circuits, said processor being programmed to establish a conference by transmitting on the TDM bus on an assigned time slot addresses of all the other ports to participate in the conference, and in response to an acknowledgement received in other time slots of the TDM bus, said process programs said support circuits with time slot information so that digital words of the other ports participating in the conference are coupled to said digital word combining circuit to achieve said composite digital words, and said support circuits converting the composite digital words to audio sounds and coupling the audio sounds to the sound reproducing apparatus.

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