Three phase and polarity encoded serial interface
First Claim
1. A method for decoding data, comprising:
- receiving a three-phase signal from each of three conductors of a communication link, wherein the three-phase signal must be transmitted on each of the three conductors in different phases;
deriving a receive clock from transitions between encoding states of the three conductors; and
decoding data from a sequence of encoding states of the three conductors using the receive clock,wherein during a first time interval of a first pair of sequential time intervals, no current flows in a first conductor of the three conductors while a current flows between a second conductor of the three conductors and a third conductor of the three conductors,wherein during a second time interval of the first pair of sequential time intervals;
no current flows in the second conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the third conductor when data to be encoded at a transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a first value, andno current flows in the third conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the second conductor when the data to be encoded at the transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a second value,wherein N encoding states are defined for the communications link, including at least three encoding states defined by flow of current in the three conductors,wherein a change of encoding state to one of N−
1 available encoding states occurs at each transition between sequential time intervals, andwherein N is an integer greater than or equal to six.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A high speed serial interface is provided. In one aspect, the high speed serial interface uses three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. Accordingly, the need for de-skewing circuitry at the receiving end of the interface is eliminated, resulting in reduced link start-up time and improved link efficiency and power consumption. In one embodiment, the high speed serial interface uses fewer signal conductors than conventional systems having separate conductors for data and clock information. In another embodiment, the serial interface allows for data to be transmitted at any speed without the receiving end having prior knowledge of the transmission data rate. In another aspect, the high speed serial interface uses polarity encoded three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. This further increases the link capacity of the serial interface by allowing for more than one bit to be transmitted in any single baud interval.
104 Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A method for decoding data, comprising:
-
receiving a three-phase signal from each of three conductors of a communication link, wherein the three-phase signal must be transmitted on each of the three conductors in different phases; deriving a receive clock from transitions between encoding states of the three conductors; and decoding data from a sequence of encoding states of the three conductors using the receive clock, wherein during a first time interval of a first pair of sequential time intervals, no current flows in a first conductor of the three conductors while a current flows between a second conductor of the three conductors and a third conductor of the three conductors, wherein during a second time interval of the first pair of sequential time intervals; no current flows in the second conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the third conductor when data to be encoded at a transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a first value, and no current flows in the third conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the second conductor when the data to be encoded at the transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a second value, wherein N encoding states are defined for the communications link, including at least three encoding states defined by flow of current in the three conductors, wherein a change of encoding state to one of N−
1 available encoding states occurs at each transition between sequential time intervals, andwherein N is an integer greater than or equal to six. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. An apparatus for decoding data, comprising:
-
means for receiving a three-phase signal from each of three conductors of a communication link, wherein the three-phase signal must be transmitted on each of the three conductors in different phases; means for deriving a receive clock from transitions between encoding states of the three conductors; and means for decoding data from a sequence of encoding states of the three conductors using the receive clock, wherein during a first time interval of a first pair of sequential time intervals, no current flows in a first conductor of the three conductors while a current flows between a second conductor of the three conductors and a third conductor of the three conductors, wherein during a second time interval of the first pair of sequential time intervals; no current flows in the second conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the third conductor when data to be encoded at a transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a first value, and no current flows in the third conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the second conductor when the data to be encoded at the transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a second value, wherein N encoding states are defined for the communications link, including at least three encoding states defined by flow of current in the three conductors, wherein a change of encoding state to one of N−
1 available encoding states occurs at each transition between sequential time intervals, andwherein N is an integer greater than or equal to six. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. An apparatus that decodes data from multiple connectors of a communication interface, comprising:
-
a processing circuit configured to; receive a three-phase signal from each of three conductors of a communication link, wherein the three-phase signal must be transmitted on each of the three conductors in different phases; derive a receive clock from transitions between encoding states of the three conductors; and decode data from a sequence of encoding states of the three conductors using the receive clock, wherein during a first time interval of a first pair of sequential time intervals, no current flows in a first conductor of the three conductors while a current flows between a second conductor of the three conductors and a third conductor of the three conductors, wherein during a second time interval of the first pair of sequential time intervals; no current flows in the second conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the third conductor when data to be encoded at a transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a first value, and no current flows in the third conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the second conductor when the data to be encoded at the transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a second value, wherein N encoding states are defined for the communications link, including at least three encoding states defined by flow of current in the three conductors, wherein a change of encoding state to one of N−
1 available encoding states occurs at each transition between sequential time intervals, andwherein N is an integer greater than or equal to six. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for encoding data, which when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to:
-
receive a three-phase signal from each of three conductors of a communication link, wherein the three-phase signal must be transmitted on each of the three conductors in different phases; derive a receive clock from transitions between encoding states of the three conductors; and decode data from a sequence of encoding states of the three conductors using the receive clock, wherein during a first time interval of a first pair of sequential time intervals, no current flows in a first conductor of the three conductors while a current flows between a second conductor of the three conductors and a third conductor of the three conductors, wherein during a second time interval of the first pair of sequential time intervals; no current flows in the second conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the third conductor when data to be encoded at a transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a first value, and no current flows in the third conductor while a current flows between the first conductor and the second conductor when the data to be encoded at the transition between the first pair of sequential time intervals has a second value, wherein N encoding states are defined for the communications link, including at least three encoding states defined by flow of current in the three conductors, wherein a change of encoding state to one of N−
1 available encoding states occurs at each transition between sequential time intervals, andwherein N is an integer greater than or equal to six. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
Specification