Showing papers on "Serial port published in 2000"

Independent remote computer maintenance device

Abstract: A remote maintenance device for monitoring and controlling a host computer and its operating system. The device is fully independent of the host computer's hardware and peripherals (including local power, network, and telephony) and fully independent of the host operating system. The remote maintenance device uses a wireless modem (GSM) or wireless IP (packet) interface to provide commands from a remote technician to the remote maintenance device. The wireless communication link also transfers data to a remote technician who can then diagnose problems. The host computer may be reset and the power toggled on and off without affecting the maintenance-device's operation because of an onboard battery. The maintenance devices accesses the host's operating system and BIOS via serial ports, I2C, ethernet, and similar communication connections. Host system monitoring includes connecting to and capturing the temperature sensing, fan speeds, voltage sensors, serial port I/O for low-level text and IP access to the BIOS, operating system and boot logs, keyboard/video capture and control, LAN access for testing local connectivity, secondary “back door” IP access, and other peripherals. This device is totally unaffected by failure of the CPU, motherboard, power supply, physical room power, UPS power availability, and the network. In addition, the maintenance device interfaces with, but is not affected by, I/O cards, external network switches and hubs, and local physical Internet or telephony lines, and various adapter cards. Separate operating software is used to operate the independent maintenance device which separates it from software corruption on the host computer.

Computer system for statistical multiplexing of bitstreams

Abstract: A PC-type computer has a system bus (e.g., a PCI bus) configured with a main CPU board, a statistical multiplexing (stat-mux) board, and a plurality of video/audio encoder boards, each configured to receive and compress a corresponding video/audio stream. The stat-mux board performs statistical multiplexing on the different compressed bitstreams to transmit multiple bitstreams over individual shared communication channels. Although each of the boards is configured to the system bus, each encoder board has a digital signal processor (DSP) with a synchronized serial interface (SSI) output port that is directly connected to an SSI input port on a DSP on the stat-mux board (which, in one embodiment, has four such DSPs each with six such SSI input ports). As such, (up to 24) compressed video/audio bitstreams generated on the various encoder boards can be transmitted directly to the stat-mux board without having to go through the system bus. In this way, the computer system can provide statistical multiplexing of low-latency video/audio bitstreams without having to suffer the processing delays associated with conventional transmission over PCI system buses.

Cooling module and related control circuits useful therefor incorporating a communication port for receiving digital command signals to control module

Abstract: A cooling module includes, for certain embodiments, a brushless DC fan and integral fan control circuitry which independently implements a self-contained start and run motor control loop and also includes a communications port to accept commands from a host processor and to provide status and other data in response to queries from the host processor. In one embodiment, a fan module interfaces with a two-wire serial bus, such as an I2C bus or SMbus, and accepts commands and provides status and data in a serial digital format. A variety of commands such as on/off, and various speed control settings may be received from the host system, and the actual speed of the fan may be reported back when queried by the host system. In some embodiments a temperature within or near the fan housing or of the air flow through the fan may be reported back when queried. The entire fan control circuit may preferably be incorporated within the fan housing, including a serial interface and power terminals for the fan, resulting in a compact four-wire interface for the fan module.

Element management system for a digital subscriber line access multiplexer

Abstract: An access multiplexer (10) for a digital subscriber line (DSL) communications network, having element management system (EMS) capability, is disclosed. A host computer (17) is coupled to the DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) (10) over a serial interface (27, 28). A controller (25) of the DSLAM includes an EMS agent for receiving command control and information request messages from the host computer (17) over the serial interface (27, 28). The EMS agent issues signals to a software process, such as the DSL channel manager in response to such messages, and generates replies to the host computer (17) over the serial interface (27, 28) upon execution of the requested operation. The controller (25) also operates in response to command control and information request messages initiated at user computers (U) that reside on a network (14). A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent executed by the controller (25) receives SNMP messages over the network (14), and initiates the execution of a method routine to obtain the requested information or effect the corresponding control. As a result, both a local host computer (17) and also users on a network (14) may monitor, manage, and control the operation of the DSLAM (10).

Scalable data collection and computing apparatus

Abstract: A method and apparatus for collecting and distributing information to and from a computing element that is quickly scalable at the installation to varying types and numbers of signals. Standard sized modules (10) containing a generalized set of computation, discrete I/O, analog I/O, serial I/O, adaptable I/O, etc., or any combination thereof, provide the building blocks that can be attached to each other to provide the desired combination of functions. These modular components are mated to each other through a simple serial interface providing the inter-module communication interface and local power requirements. The modules are quickly stacked together and snapped in place in a manner supporting severe environmental conditions.

Serial interface unit

Abstract: A serial interface unit having an input shift register adapted to receive a serial input data from a serial data stream, and a destination request module The input shift register converting the serial input data into a parallel input data The input shift register in communication with at least two processors and the destination request module The destination request module in communication with one of the at least two processors in response to an input shift register status signal and a processor designation signal, the selected processor adapted to receive the parallel input data

An Internet application for home automation

Abstract: Describes an Internet application that allows local and remote monitoring and control of a home. The application adopts an object-oriented philosophy, in which every home automation device is represented by an object. This leads to an integrated view of the home, with a common look-and-feel across all the devices, while supporting various methods of actuation and sensing. The application runs on a PC with a Web server. The user interface is implemented through a standard browser using common HTML pages or Java applets. The interaction with the home control system(s) is done through specific hardware or standard PC interfaces such as the serial port or USB, or by LAN. The application offers a powerful way of controlling and programming the behavior of the home, using scripts. For the common user, a simpler version of a script - a scenario - may be used. A scenario consists of a set of devices in a particular state and can be activated directly by the user, by a time stimulus or by any event in the home.

Terminal emulator for interfacing between a communications port and a kvm switch

Abstract: A method and system for converting the output of a communications port (210) (eg, a serial port or a USB port) into video signals (120) representing the output of a terminal The system is interposed between the communications port and a set of two or more inputs to a keyboard (122), video and a mouse (124) switch Upon receiving characters from the communications port (210), the system interprets the characters as terminal emulation commands and internally generates a representation of what a resulting terminal screen would look like From that internal (digital) representation, the system produces analog outputs (20) representing the terminal screen The analog outputs are applied to the video input of the KVM switch such that the terminal output can be viewed on the monitor attached to the KVM switch (74)

USB device controller

Abstract: A device controller for connecting a function engine that supports an application to a packet-switched serial bus to which a host device is connected. The interface device includes a serial interface engine for transferring packets between the serial bus and the function engine and an interfacing device that employs a plurality of state machines in a device configuration module. The state machines of the device configuration module operate to configure the interfacing device and make that configuration known to the host. Additionally, for each interface of the function engine that is a group of state machines, at least one of which transfers data between the serial interface engine and the function engine. In one embodiment the serial bus is the USB and the configuration module conforms to the configuration protocol of the USB. As an additional aspect of the invention multiple configurations are supported by the device configuration module. These multiple configurations are user-selectable configurations that can only be changed at configuration time. Once configured the device controller maintains the configurations through out its operation until reset and re-configured. Multiple configurations are provided to minimize the number of different device controllers needed in inventory and to provide a single, flexible device for various controller applications.

Digital serial communication device testing and its implications on automatic test equipment architecture

Abstract: The rapid deployment of Gigabit differential signal I/O buffers in ASICs and other ICs for systems such as SONET, Firewire, Ethernet, and Fiber Channel is presenting several challenges for testing. At the present time, testing the functionality of these ICs can only be done by using expensive stand-alone bit-error-rate test sets. The excessive test time and cost makes this approach impossible for volume production. On the other hand, the industrial trend for higher level of integration means that Gigabit serial ports can be used as a standard I/O macro for any IC. There is an urgent need for Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) manufacturers to design multi-port, differential instruments and integrate them into test systems, including control software. In this article, as an extension to the challenges that we listed in the 1999 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, we will discuss the impact on ATE architecture in order to accommodate multi-Gb/s serialcom tests, such as embedded clock recovery circuit testing, asynchronous testing, jitter generation/tolerance/transfer testing etc. We will describe what it takes to extend a conventional ATE's capability for testing multiple Giga-bit-per-second (Gb/s) SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer), and how the throughput can be improved.

Microcomputer which can execute a monitor program supplied from a debugging tool

Abstract: A microcomputer comprises a serial interface for receiving a debugging program applied thereto from a debugging tool, a register for holding an instruction code included with the debugging program, which is applied to the microcomputer via the serial interface, and a central processing unit or CPU for executing the instruction code held by the first register to debug the microcomputer. The microcomputer can further comprise a buffer for holding one or more instruction codes supplied thereto from the register. The CPU can execute each of the plurality of instruction codes held by the buffer. Preferably, the serial interface is a JTAT (Joint Test Action Group) interface.

Programmable command-line interface API for managing operation of a network device

Abstract: A method of managing a network device, includes providing a command-line interface application programming interface (CLI-API) compatible with a command-line interface (CLI) of the network device, receiving instructions from an application that calls one or more routines in the CLI application programming interface, and generating at least one command in response to receiving instructions from the application wherein the at least one command is compatible with the CLI of the network device. An apparatus includes a remote serial command-line interface (RS-CLI) device having a storage device capable of storing instructions, a network port capable of being connected to the network and capable of processing a network protocol stack in addition to receiving the instructions, a serial port capable of processing a serial protocol and capable of being connected to the non-application enabled network device, and a processor capable of processing instructions stored in the storage area of the RS-CLI device.

Single phase bi-directional electrical measurement systems and methods using ADCs

Abstract: An analog to digital converter system includes first and second delta sigma converters, a calculation engine, and a serial interface on a single chip. The calculation engine is configured to calculate energy, power, rms current and voltage for single phase 2 or 3 wire power meters. Voltage and current are measured with a shunt or transformer, and a divider or transformer, respectively. The serial interface is bidirectional for communication with a microprocessor or controller, and provides a fixed width programmable frequency output proportional to energy. The digital converter system is user system calibratible.

Hand-held digital moisture meter with memory and communications

Abstract: A moisture meter ( 1 ) has an LCD display ( 8 ) driven by a digital microcontroller ( 50 ) which generates digital moisture reading data. Readings are stored as discrete records in files. The microcontroller ( 51 ) stores a library of material data and automatically compensates signals from a capacitive/impedance sensor circuit ( 51 ) according to both stored material parameter values and sensed temperature. Users may edit the parameter values. A non-removable cover ( 4 ) is used at the final stage of production to configure the meter for the nature of interfacing (such as serial port interfacing) required.

Facilitating communications port sharing

Abstract: An application program is configured to communicate with a particular type of peripheral through a computer serial port. During times when no device is connected, the application program monitors the serial port to detect when a new device is connected. The application program then determines whether the peripheral of the type with which the application program is designed to communicate. If it is not, the application program displays a prompt, offering to relinquish the serial port for use by another program.

Conservation of power in serial modem

Abstract: A serial modem (14) having a phase-locked loop (22), a central processing unit (20), a serial buffer (26) and a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) (28), wherein the serial buffer (26) and the UART (28) are connected to a host device (10) via an asynchronous serial interface (32). The central processing unit (20) enters a sleep mode when data is not being received. A start bit s received at a predetermined baud rate via the asynchronous serial interface (32). An interrupt is activated to start a wake-up transition at the central processing unit (20) upon receipt of the start bit. A series of bits following the start bit is sampled and stored in the serial buffer (26) until the central processing unit (20) is enabled. After the central processing unit (20) is enabled, a remainder of the series of bits are sampled and stored at the UART (28).

Method of updating a system environmental setting

Abstract: A fault tolerant computer system for obtaining and displaying, or updating the status of server components through a remote interface and either a local or remote client machine without intervention of the server operating system software. The remote machine accesses the server by use of a dial-in modem connection, while the local machine accesses the server by a local serial connection. The components that can be monitored include, but are not limited to, the following: Power Supplies, Temperatures, Fans, Processors, I/O Groups, I/O Canisters, Serial Numbers, and Revisions.

Serial interface for a battery management system

Abstract: A serial communication method and system is provided for use with a battery management system. The system includes a port capable of sending and receiving pulses over a single conductor, serial interface logic compatible with a serial protocol and capable of generating and detecting signals on the port and communicating the signals with an internal bus in the battery management system wherein each signal in the serial protocol is defined by a specific number of pulses. In the serial protocol, a zero signal corresponds to a sequence of two pulses, a one signal corresponds to a sequence of three pulses, an acknowledge signal corresponds to a sequence of four pulses, and a start signal corresponds to a sequence of five pulses.

Host to modem interface

Abstract: An apparatus for and a method of interfacing a host to a modem. Data is transferred between the host and the modem via a serial interface. The modem provides the physical layer implementation functions (i.e., transmission and reception functions) in addition to providing low level MAC layer function processing. Functions provided include collision detection, back-off algorithm according to a programmed back-off time, conditional transmission, automatic retransmissions and ACK/NACK packet generation and processing. This serves to eliminate any stringent access timing constraints usually placed on the host processor resulting in reduced cost and complexity of the host.

Serial bus for connecting two integrated circuits with storage for input/output signals

Abstract: A host adapter integrated circuit that contains data transfer modules has a serial port that uses a single serial port pin to communicate with a slave serial port input-output integrated circuit that interfaces to various resources that are included in a support circuit. The serial port forms a packet from each byte of information to be transferred from a module to the slave device by adding a start bit before the byte, followed by a parity bit at the end of the byte and followed by a stop bit. After transmitting the packet, the serial port waits for an acknowledge packet from the slave serial port input-output integrated circuit, for example for two clock cycles after transmission of the packet. For synchronous operation, a common oscillator drives the clock signal on the slave serial port input-output integrated circuit and host adapter integrated circuit. The serial port pin in the host adapter integrated circuit is connected to a shifter circuit in the serial port that serially clocks data from the serial port pin and passes the data parallelly to a bus in the host adapter integrated circuit and vice versa.

Integrated circuit and method of operation of such a circuit employing serial test scan chains

Abstract: The present invention provides a technique for operating an integrated circuit comprising a plurality of circuit elements, with a plurality of serial test scan chains, each being coupled to a different one of the circuit elements. A scan chain selector is responsive to a specified scan chain specifying value to select a corresponding one of the plurality of test scan chains. A scan chain controller is also provided which has a serial interface for receiving signals from outside of the integrated circuit, the scan chain controller comprising an instruction decoder for decoding scan chain controller instructions received from the serial interface. In accordance with the present invention, the decoder is responsive to a first scan chain controller instruction to specify a pre-determined scan chain specifying value and a second scan chain controller instruction for decoding by the decoder. The provision of such a first scan chain controller instruction enables the efficiency of the testing procedure to be improved.

Download system for consumer electronic devices

Abstract: A system for reprogramming a consumer electronic device includes a consumer electronic device (CED) having a CED processor and a CED memory and a CED serial port connected to the processor, the memory storing CED processor instructions and CED data. The system also includes a download module having a download processor and a download memory and a download serial port connected to the download processor. The CED processor periodically applies a signal to the CED serial port. When the download serial port is connected to the CED serial port to make a serial connection and the download processor receives one of the periodic signals from the CED processor, the download processor initiates the download of one or more of download instructions and download data from the download memory to the CED memory over the serial connection.

Peripheral memory device for a wireless phone and methods of implementing and using same

Abstract: A wireless telephone unit includes a serial interface to which memory stick units can be selectively connected. Each memory stick unit includes a serial interface, data register and memory unit. By using one or more memory sticks for auxiliary data storage, the wireless telephone unit can provide a host of functions not available with conventional wireless phones. For example, the wireless telephone unit and memory stick combination may provide expanded contact and schedule information storage that is easily transferred between phones. The wireless telephone unit may also become a personal audio device providing music or other audio programming that is recorded on a memory stick unit.

Serial data transmission via a bus system

Abstract: The present invention relates to a passive component (11) for a bus system, such as a field bus system for instance, with a bus interface (21) for the connection to a bus, a serial interface (22) for serially reading out and in data, a data memory (24) with an output area (25) for storing data that is read in via the bus interface (21) and is to be read out via the serial interface (22) and an input area (26) for storing data that is read in via the serial interface and is to be read out via the bus interface. The inventive component also comprises a control device (23) for controlling data transmission and data storing. Detection means (27, 28) for detecting the state of the output area and the input area and for providing corresponding state information are provided. Data are read into the output area and are read out from the input area via the bus interface and on the basis of said state information when the bus system is connected. The present invention also relates to a corresponding active component (10) for exchanging data with such a passive component (11). The invention further relates to a method for reading out and in data into or from a bus system which comprises such a passive component (11) and such an active component (10).

Method and apparatus for linking images and reports at remote view station

Abstract: A scanner is programmed with the capability to send images via a parallel port and report data via a serial port to a remote device, both images and report data being identified by the same study identifier. In particular, the images are sent out an Ethernet port in DICOM format, while the report data is sent out an RS232 port in ASCII format. The scanner preferably includes memory storing a frame of image data belonging to a study and report data belonging to said study; a parallel port; a serial port; and a computer programmed to perform the following steps: joining a study identifier with the frame of image data; sending the frame of image data and the study identifier in a first format out the parallel port; joining the study identifier with the report data; and sending the report data and the study identifier in a second format out the serial port.

Portable high speed communication device peripheral connectivity

Abstract: The invention relates to a Host Computer system, which receives information from the Internet, rasterizes it, compresses it and transmits it to a portable device which decompresses the image to display it on a screen. The Host Computer may also transmit to another computer outfitted with a modem. The Host Computer which contains an operating system, has a variety of peripheral device driver software installed to enable interacting with these peripheral devices via a parallel port, serial port, USB port, or other types of ports. Hence, when a peripheral device related command is executed, data is sent from the peripheral device driver software to the selected port on the Host Computer and is intercepted by another software unit, which may compress this data and subsequently diverts it to the portable device via modem. The particular type of peripheral device dedicated to the peripheral device driver software in the Host Computer is connected to the portable device or computer, and the compressed data received is decompressed by the portable device or computer and sent to the corresponding port. This method allows the user to interface with a wide variety of peripheral devices at portable locations without the need for peripheral device driver software installed at the remote location.

Method and apparatus for connecting two-wire serial interface and single-wire serial interface with high transmission speed

Abstract: A two-wire interface having a receive wire and a transmit wire is coupled for communication with a single-wire serial interface to provide for relatively high-speed data transmission. In one aspect, controllable buffers are coupled to the transmit and receive lines of the two-wire serial interface. The outputs from the two buffers are coupled to a commnon line which is also coupled to the single line of the single-wire interface. The transmit buffer and/or read buffer and/or transmission from the single-wire interface are controlled, e.g., such as using control signals provided by software, such that the transmit buffer from the two-wire interface is enabled only when transmission from the single-wire interface is disabled and transmission from the single-wire interface is permitted only when the transmit buffer of the two-wire interface is disabled. By this type of system, it is possible to avoid coupling which involves a pull-up transistor and the like, avoiding lengthening the rise time or fall time of signals and providing the potential for relatively high data transmission rates such as 1 Mbps or more.

Device and method for detecting data communication property

Abstract: A baud rate detector detects baud rate of received serial data based on an AT command included in the serial data. A character discriminator detects parity type and data format of the serial data based on the AT command in the serial data. An information relay 16 sets the baud rate, the parity type and the data format to a register in a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter). A clock generator generates a clock signal for data reception and supplies the clock signal to the UART.

Digital copying machine and digital copying machine system

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To build up a system with high flexibilities by employing a high-speed serial interface for an internal interface. SOLUTION: To a mother board 101 that controls the entire digital copying machine 100, a laser write control section 102 that controls a write laser to write an image on a photoreceptor, a scanner control section 103 that controls a scanner, and a panel control section 105 that controls an operation panel by which a user enters an operation instruction are connected directly by using a serial cable via a high-speed serial interface.

Terminal equipment for control and control system and recording medium with its program recorded

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a control system capable of updating the control program of a programmable logic controller(PLC) from a remote place although it is possible to divert conventional control program preparation software which can be outputted only to a serial port. SOLUTION: In terminal equipment 9, when a control program generating part 92 generates a control program specific to the device kind, and tries to output it to a serial port, a serial port emulator receives the control program instead of the serial port, and instructs an Internet communication processing part 91 to transmit instruction data indicating the control program and a PLC 3 at the destination of transfer to a preliminarily decided control host computer 7. At the time of receiving the instruction data through the Internet 8, the control host computer 7 transmits the control program through a graphic control panel 5 or a serial cable 4 to the PLC 3. COPYRIGHT: (C)2001,JPO