Systems and methods for playback of detected timing events

• US 20120176172A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Keysight Technologies Singapore (Holdings) Pte. Limited. (Keysight Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ANUE Systems (Keysight Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Webb, Charles A. III, Ott, Christopher C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,788,867 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 327/164
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/025 for functions having two-valued amplitude, e.g. Walsh functions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/0321 Waveform generators, i.e. devices for generating periodical functions of time, e.g. direct digital synthesizers G06F1/0314, G06F1/035 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for playback of detected timing events with detected phase variations. Disclosed signal generation embodiments can be used to generate digital signals having desired phase variation. Disclosed event detection circuitry can be used to generate event timing data representing one or more phase variations in detected events. The disclosed signal generation embodiments can utilize the event timing data to playback detect events along with the measured phase variations. Further, the signal generation circuitry and the event detection circuitry can be implemented in different devices or can be implemented in the same device.

Claims

1. A system for playback of detected timing events, comprising:

event detection circuitry configured to receive an event occurrence signal and to output event timing data associated with detected events, the event timing data representing at least one phase variation associated with a detected event; and

signal generation circuitry configured to receive the event timing data and to output event playback signals, the event playback signals representing a playback of the detected event including the at least one phase variation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the signal generation circuitry comprises:

waveform generator circuitry configured to generate a digital pattern representing a digital signal having the at least one phase variation, the waveform generator circuitry being configured to output the digital pattern as multi-bit parallel data; and

serializer circuitry having the multi-bit parallel data as an input and having a bit stream as an output, the bit stream being single-bit serial data representing the digital signal having the at least one phase variation.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the event detection circuitry comprises:

serializer circuitry having a digital signal pattern as an input and having a bit stream as an output, the digital signal pattern being multi-bit parallel data and the bit stream being single-bit serial data;

logic circuitry having the bit stream as an input and having the event occurrence signal as inputs, the logic circuitry being configured to modify the bit stream based upon the event occurrence signal to produce a modified bit stream, the modified bit stream being single-bit serial data;

deserializer circuitry having the modified bit stream as an input and having a modified digital signal pattern as an output, the modified digital signal pattern being multi-bit parallel data; and

event timing detector circuitry configured to compare a predicted digital signal pattern to the modified digital signal pattern to determine when an event occurred within the modified digital signal pattern and to output the event timing data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the event detection circuitry comprises:

reference clock generator circuitry having a reference clock signal as an output,

deserializer circuitry coupled to the reference clock signal and having the event occurrence signal as an input, the deserializer circuitry being configured to output multi-bit parallel data representative of the event occurrence signal at an output rate based upon a rate of the reference clock signal, the deserializer circuitry being further configured to sample the event occurrence signal at a rate faster than the output rate; and

event timing detector circuitry coupled to receive the multi-bit parallel data and configured to determine when an event occurred within the multi-bit parallel data and to output event timing data representative of when the event occurred within the multi-bit parallel data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the event detection circuitry and the signal generation circuitry are configured within a single device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the event detection circuitry is included in a first device and the signal generation circuitry is included in a separate second device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first device is configured to communicate the event timing data to the second device.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a first data storage device within the first device and a second data storage device within the second device, each of the first and second data storage devices being configured to store the event timing data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the detected event is associated with a phase variation in a digital clock signal.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the detected event is associated with a phase variation in a network communication signal.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a phase change processor configured to receive the event timing data and to process the event timing data for use by the signal generation circuitry.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the phase change processor is configured to apply one or more filters to the event timing data.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the phase change processor is configured to adjust phase variations represented by the event timing data.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the phase change processor is configured to adjust a signal format represented by the event timing data.

15. A method for playback of detected timing events, comprising:

receiving event timing data representing at least one phase variation associated with a detected event; and

generating event playback signals representing a playback of the detected events including the at least one phase variation.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the generating step comprises:

generating a digital pattern representing a digital signal having the at least one phase variation;

outputting the digital pattern as multi-bit parallel data; and

serializing the multi-bit parallel data to generate a bit stream of single-bit serial data representing the digital signal having the at least one phase variation.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising detecting events within an event occurrence signal and outputting event timing data representing at least one phase variation associated with detected events.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the detecting step comprises:

outputting a digital signal pattern as multi-bit parallel data;

serializing the multi-bit parallel data to generate a bit stream of single-bit serial data;

modifying the bit stream using logic circuitry having the bit stream and the event occurrence signal as inputs to generate a modified bit stream of single-bit serial data;

deserializing the modified bit stream to generate a modified digital signal pattern as multi-bit parallel data;

comparing a predicted digital signal pattern to the modified digital signal pattern to determine when an event occurred within the modified digital signal pattern; and

generating the event timing data.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the detecting step comprises:

receiving the event occurrence input signal;

generating a reference clock signal;

using deserializer circuitry coupled to the reference clock signal to output multi-bit parallel data representative of the event occurrence signal at an output rate based upon a rate of the reference clock signal, the deserializer circuitry sampling the event occurrence signal at a rate faster than the output rate;

determining when an event occurred within the multi-bit parallel data; and

generating the event timing data.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the detecting and generating steps are performed within a single device.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the detecting step is performed within a first device and the generating step is performed within a second device.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising communicating the event timing data from the first device to the second device.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the detected event is associated with a phase variation in a digital clock signal.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the detected event is associated with a phase variation in a network communication signal.

25. The method of claim 15, further comprising utilizing a phase change processor to process the event timing data prior to the generating step.