Method and apparatus for connecting HDMI devices using a serial format

• US 8,108,567 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2009
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Bohm, Christian Willibald
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Ilwoo
• Application Number:
  US12/612,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20100321573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 710/14
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0693 Calibration of display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2352/00 Parallel handling of streams of display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/045 using multiple communication channels, e.g. parallel and serial
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/12 Use of DVI or HDMI protocol in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4305 Synchronising client clock from received content stream, e.g. locking decoder clock with encoder clock, extraction of the PCR packets arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter by comparing receiver clock with transmitter clock H04L7/0012; arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter wherein the receiver takes measures against momentary loss of synchronisation H04L7/0083
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43635 HDMI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/38 Transmitter circuitry for the transmission of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for providing serialized HDMI data from an HDMI source to an HDMI sink. An HDMI transmitter may include inputs including control inputs, a deserializer, and a parser. The inputs may receive serialized HDMI data from an HDMI data source. A deserializer may deserialize the serialized HDMI data received on each of the respective inputs and outputting parallel data for each of the inputs. A parser may parse the parallel data output from the deserializer from each of the respective inputs into serial video data at a first clock rate and audio data at a second clock rate. Control inputs of the transmitter may be set to a first mode in which from the deserializer is caused to bypass the parser, and the parallel data is output from the HDMI transmitter.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transferring high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) standard-compliant data from a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) data source, comprising:

a first electrical interface to an HDMI data source for receiving HDMI-compliant data from the HDMI data source;

an HDMI receiver device having input pins coupled to the first electrical interface and output pins, the receiver device having a diagnostic mode that outputs HDMI signals including audio data in a parallel format and a run time mode that outputs HDMI video signals in a first format and audio data in a second format, wherein the first format is different from the second format;

a second electrical interface coupling an output pin to a serial cable, and

means to engage the receiver device'"'"'s diagnostic mode in a runtime environment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a serializer configured to:

serialize the HDMI signals output from the receiver device, while in diagnostic mode, into a serial bit stream, and

output the serial bit stream to the serial cable.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a sink connector for connecting the serial cable to an HDMI sink, wherein the sink connector comprises:

a deserializer for deserializing the serial bit stream into a parallel bit stream of merged audio, video and auxiliary data, clock signal and other signals;

a data expander for expanding the merged audio, video and auxiliary data and clock signal with other signals to separate the audio, video and auxiliary data and clock signal;

a clock generator for restoring the clock signal into a clock signal suitable for processing the audio, video and auxiliary data; and

a transmitter for converting the audio, video and auxiliary data using the restored clock signal into transition minimized differential signals and an HDMI clock signal and transmitting the transition minimized differential signals and an HDMI clock signal to an HDMI sink.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the serial cable is selected from one of a single optical fiber, a wireless communication path, and a wire.

5. An HDMI transmitter comprising:

inputs for receiving serialized HDMI data from an HDMI data source;

a deserializer for deserializing the serialized HDMI data received on each of the respective inputs and outputting parallel data for each of the inputs,

a parser for parsing the parallel data output from the deserializer from each of the respective inputs into serial video data at a first clock rate and audio data at a second clock rate; and

control inputs for setting the transmitter to a first mode in which from the deserializer is caused to bypass the parser, and the parallel data is output from the HDMI transmitter.

6. The transmitter of claim 5, further comprising:

a clock input for receiving an HDMI clock signal that is passed to the outputs of the transmitter.

7. The transmitter of claim 6, further comprising:

a serializer for serializing the parallel data output from the HDMI transmitter into a serial bit stream, wherein a clock signal derived from the HDMI clock signal is embedded in the serial bit stream; and

outputting the serialized data to a transmission medium.

8. The transmitter of claim 5, further comprising:

a data merger for incorporating auxiliary data into the parallel data output from the parser.

9. A method for providing high definition multimedia interface standard data, the method comprises:

receiving transition minimized differential signaling (TMDS) data in a multiple channel serialized format and one channel of clock data from a high definition multimedia interface standard data source;

deserializing the multiple channels of TMDS data using a frequency determined from the clock data using a receiver set having a plurality of run time mode settings, wherein the plurality of run time mode settings include first run time mode settings and second run time mode settings;

combining the multiple channels of deserialized TMDS data to form a single serialized bitstream, the single serialized bitstream having the clock data embedded therein;

transmitting the single serialized bitstream sequence over a communication medium;

deserializing the single serialized bitstream sequence received from the communication medium;

reformatting the deserialized data into multiple channels of TMDS data and restoring the clock signal to a TMDS clock; and

sending out the TMDS data using the restored TMDS clock to a high definition multimedia interface standard sink.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the combining comprises:

merging data from other data sources into the single serialized bitstream.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the merging comprises:

receiving Consumer Electronic Control data, Display Data Control data, hot plug detect, user data or a combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first run time mode setting is a diagnostic mode setting in which the pin settings are different from the second run time mode setting.