Asic expansion module for PDA

• US 7,076,590 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2004
• Issued: 07/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sakamoto, Kiyomi
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham, John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): King, Justin
• Application Number:
  US10/885,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20040260410A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: 710/301, 710/66, 710/72, 710/305, 320/41, 600/300, 714/235
• US Class Current: 710/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203

Abstract

Once attached to a slot of a personal digital assistant, a card module executes an application-specific program and transmits a result obtained thereby to the personal digital assistant. The thus received execution result is outputted from an output part. Accordingly, the output part can be provided for shared use among several card modules for output of the execution result.

Claims

1. A module attachable to data terminal equipment, said module comprising:

a first storage operable to store an application-specific program;

a first processing unit operable to execute the application-specific program stored in said first storage;

a first data transmission path operable to transfer an execution result from said first processing unit; and

a first communications controller operable to communicate control information for controlling a capacity of said first data transmission path with the data terminal equipment, wherein

said first communications controller is operable to send an inquiry as to a transfer capacity, from the module to the data terminal equipment, of the data terminal equipment, register the transfer capacity returned from the data terminal equipment, adjust a capacity for transferring the execution result based on the registered transfer capacity, and transfer the execution result of the adjusted capacity to the data terminal equipment.

2. The module according to claim 1, wherein a capacity of said first data transmission path is a bit width, a frequency bandwidth, or a data rate of said first data transmission path.

3. The module according to claim 1, wherein a capacity of said first data transmission path is a number or length of packets transferred therethrough.