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PCMCIA interface card coupling input devices such as barcode scanning engines to personal digital assistants and palmtop computers

  • US 5,671,374 A
  • Filed: 04/25/1995
  • Issued: 09/23/1997
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/29/1994
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An interface circuit, said interface circuit for coupling an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters to a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector which is coupled to a system bus of said host computer via a PC card having a PCMCIA bus connector which mates with the PCMCIA bus connector of said host computer, comprising:

  • on a PC card;

    an input port for receiving said electrical signals from said input device;

    a PCMCIA bus connector;

    a decoder circuit coupled to said input port so as to receive said electrical signals, said decoder circuit for decoding said electrical signals to generate one or more alphanumeric characters and for notifying said host computer when at least one successful decoding operation has occurred and at least one alphanumeric character resulting from decoding operations is available on said PC card for access by said host computer; and

    an interface circuit having hardware and software components on both said PC card and within said host computer, and coupled to said decoder circuit on said PC card and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card and coupled to said PCMCIA connector of said host computer, said interface circuit for facilitating coupling said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be passed to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors and for controlling operations of said host computer to retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said PCMCIA bus connectors in response to receiving notification of a successful decoding operation.

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