Method of and apparatus for controlling bidirectional streams of isochronous data flowing between an application and a bus structure

• US 7,103,700 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2003
• Issued: 09/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Shima, Hisato, Smyers, Scott D., Fairman, Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Myers, Paul R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHAN, RAYMOND NGAN
• Application Number:
  US10/430,666
• Publication Number:
  US 20030217199A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,219 Days
• Field of Search: 710305-315, 710 4- 7, 710 36- 43, 710/29, 710/31, 710/65, 710/105
• US Class Current: 710/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40058 Isochronous transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40071 Packet processing; Packet format adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific network H04N21/2381, H04N21/4363, H04N21/4381; packet switches H04L49/00; intermediate storage or scheduling H04L49/90

Abstract

An isochronous data pipe provides a bi-directional path for data between an application and a bus structure. The isochronous data pipe includes the ability to send, receive and perform manipulations on any isochronous stream of data, including data on any number of isochronous channels. The isochronous data pipe is a programmable sequencer that operates on the stream of isochronous data as it passes through the isochronous data pipe. The isochronous data pipe is programmed by an application to perform specific operations on the stream of data before the data is either transmitted across the bus structure or sent to the application, thereby pre-processing and manipulating the data before it is delivered to its destination. The operations are performed on both the packet header and the data field of the data packet. The isochronous data pipe can be stopped and started on the occurrence of specific events. In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the isochronous data pipe is programmed to send and receive both isochronous and asynchronous data, including generating requests and appropriate packet headers.

Claims

1. A method of controlling streams of data between an application and a bus structure comprising:

a. receiving a stream of data from a source selected from the application and the bus structure thereby forming a received stream of data;

b. obtaining a series of at least one operation codes regarding the received stream of data; and

c. generating an output stream of data by converting the received stream of data into the output stream of data by executing the series of operation codes.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the received stream of data is an isochronous stream of data.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the received stream of data is one of an isochronous stream of data and an asynchronous stream of data.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 further comprising determining a channel number for the received stream of data, wherein the series of operation codes is obtained from a memory address corresponding to the channel number of the received isochronous stream of data.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3 further comprising determining if the received stream of data is an isochronous stream of data or an asynchronous stream of data.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the bus structure is an IEEE 1394 standard bus structure.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the series of operation codes is obtained from a memory address corresponding to the channel number if the received stream of data is an isochronous stream of data and from a memory address corresponding to asynchronous data if the received stream of data is asynchronous stream of data.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the bus structure is an IEEE 1394 standard bus structure.

9. An apparatus for controlling bidirectional streams of data between an application and a bus structure comprising:

a. means for receiving a stream of data from a source selected from the application and the bus structure and forming a received stream of data;

b. means for obtaining a series of at least one operation codes regarding the received stream of data; and

c. means for generating an output stream of data coupled to the means for obtaining for converting the received stream of data into the output stream of data by executing the series of operation codes.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein if the received stream of data is received from the application, the output stream of data is provided to the bus structure, and if the received stream of data is received from the bus structure, the output stream of data is provided to the application.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 further comprising a memory coupled to the means for obtaining and configured for coupling to the application for storing the series of operation codes.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein the received stream of data is an isochronous stream of data.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 further comprising means for determining coupled to the means for receiving for determining if the received stream of data is an isochronous stream of data or an asynchronous stream of data.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the series of operation codes stored at a memory address corresponding to a channel number on which the received stream of data is transmitted.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 14 wherein the bus structure is an IEEE 1394 standard bus structure.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein the series of operation codes is stored at a memory address corresponding to a channel number on which the received stream of data is transmitted if the received stream of data is an isochronous stream of data and at a memory address corresponding to asynchronous data if the received stream of data is an asynchronous stream of data.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 wherein the bus structure is an IEEE 1394 standard bus structure.