Methods and Systems for Low-power and Pin-efficient Communications with Superposition Signaling Codes

• US 20130010892A1
• Filed: 07/05/2011
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kandou Labs, SA
• Original Assignee: Kandou Technologies SA
• Inventors: Cronie, Harm, Shokrollahi, Amin
• Granted Patent: US 9,401,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/296
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0276 Arrangements for coupling common mode signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0282 Provision for current-mode coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/49 using code conversion at the transmitter; using predistortion; using insertion of idle bits for obtaining a desired frequency spectrum; using three or more amplitude levels ; Baseband coding techniques specific to data transmission systems spectral shaping H04L25/03828
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/4917 using multilevel codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/06 Demodulator circuits; Receiver circuits

Abstract

A communication system uses a bus to transmit information, by receiving signals and mapping them to a second set of signals representing codewords of a superposition signaling code, and transmitting the second set of signals. The superposition signaling code can comprise more than one layer. The pin-efficiency can be larger than 1. The system may encode bits into a codeword of a superposition signaling code that is defined by two basis vectors of predetermined size and then have two encoders for permutation modulation codes defined by the basis vectors. The bits of information are divided into a first part representing a predetermined number of bits and a second part representing a predetermined number of bits, with the parts provided to the respective encoding circuits and their outputs combined by a superposition.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting information over a communication bus, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of signals representing the information;

mapping the first set of signals to a second set of signals wherein the second set of signals represents a codeword of a superposition signaling code; and

providing the second set of signals for transmission over the communication bus.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the superposition signaling code comprises two, three or four layers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the pin-efficiency is larger than 1.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the pin-efficiency is larger than 1.5.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping comprises generating indexes into a basis vector and storing index values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping includes combining a plurality of secondary codewords to form the codeword of the superposition signaling code, wherein the plurality of secondary codewords are combined as voltages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping includes combining a plurality of secondary codewords to form the codeword of the superposition signaling code, wherein the plurality of secondary codewords are combined as currents.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping includes combining a plurality of secondary codewords to form the codeword of the superposition signaling code, wherein the plurality of secondary codewords are combined as a result of wiring connections.

9. A method for encoding a predetermined number, k, of bits of information into a codeword of a superposition signaling code that is defined by a first basis vector of predetermined size, n₁, and a second basis vector of predetermined size, n₂, the method comprising:

providing a first encoder for a permutation modulation code defined by the first basis vector;

providing a second encoder for a permutation modulation code defined by the second basis vector;

receiving a first set of signals representing the k bits of information;

dividing the signals into a first part and a second part whereas the first part represents a predetermined number of k1 bits and the second part represents a predetermined number of k2 bits;

providing the first part to the first encoding circuit;

providing the second part to the second encoding circuit;

combining the output of the first encoding circuit and the output of the second encoding circuit by a superposition.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the superposition signaling code has a pin-efficiency of at least 1.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the superposition signaling code has a pin-efficiency of at least 1.6.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the combining is performed by superimposing currents in the wires of the bus.

13. A communication system for transmitting a codeword from a superposition signaling code comprising:

a communication bus with n independent signal paths for signal transmission;

means of generating the codeword from the superposition signaling code; and

means of transmitting the codeword from the superposition signaling code the communication bus.

14. The communication system of claim 13, wherein the communication system transmits with a pin-efficiency of 1.

15. The communication system of claim 13, wherein the communication system transmits with a pin-efficiency of 1.6.

16. The communication system of claim 13, further comprising:

an input for receiving signals from the communication bus;

means for generating a representation from the signals for the codeword transmitted on the communication bus; and

means for inferring information from the representation of the codeword from the superposition signaling code.