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Apparatus and method for peripheral device control with integrated data compression

  • US 5,715,477 A
  • Filed: 12/04/1996
  • Issued: 02/03/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/11/1995
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A computer system having a host computer and a peripheral device, comprising:

  • a CPU in the host computer;

    a memory in the host computer;

    a data compression engine in the host computer;

    a data port at the host computer connecting the host computer to the peripheral device over a data link;

    a bus system in the host computer connecting the CPU, the memory, the data compression engine, and the data port;

    control routines stored in the host computer and executable by the CPU for processing and sending a stream of data to the data port;

    a data-receiving interface in the peripheral device for receiving the stream of data from the connected computer in a compressed form;

    a state machine in the peripheral device having inputs for monitoring status from sensors of the peripheral device and outputs for providing such as start and ready signals;

    receiving circuitry in the peripheral device connected to the data-receiving interface and to the state machine;

    a data handling and decompression pipeline circuit in the peripheral device connected to the receiving circuitry; and

    a data serializer in the peripheral device connected to the data handling and decompression pipeline circuit and to an output port to data-using elements of the peripheral device;

    wherein the CPU in the host computer, executing the control routines stored in the host computer, selects data to go to the peripheral device, compresses the data using the data compression engine, temporarily stores the compressed data in the memory, and retrieves and sends the compressed data slice by slice to the data interface on demand by an interrupt signal from the data interface; and

    wherein the receiving circuitry latches data words from the data receiving interface, and provides the data words to the data handling and decompression pipeline circuit on receipt of ready signals from the state machine; and

    wherein the data handling and decompression circuitry decompresses the incoming data stream and provides a resulting decompressed data stream to the data serializer, and wherein the data serializer provides the serialized data stream to the output port.

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