Sony Electronics Inc

Other

Michael Polatnick

O F Morgan

David L Rossmere

Andrew Leary

Each of the signal processing units of a digital signal processing system is provided with a programmable timing delay unit having identical programming interface to control the signal timing of its signal processing circuitry. Additionally, a central timing unit is provided to the digital signal processing system to provide signal timing control inputs to the programmable timing delay units. Furthermore, a routing switcher is provided to the digital signal processing system to control configuration of the signal path, i.e. the order in which the signal is processed by all or a subset of the signal processing units of the digital signal processing system. As a result, the individual signal processing units are relieved the burden of providing circuitry for timing control, delay equalization and timing derivation. Furthermore, the timing offsets for the individual signal processing units may be easily recomputed for any signal path, thereby improving the reconfiguration flexibility of the digital signal processing system.

Method and apparatus for controlling signal timing of cascaded signal

A flexible computer controlled non-linear transform generator is disclosed which employs a random access memory (RAM) lookup table (LUT) having programmable controlled address and data paths and an address multiplexer which is programmed to dynamically control LUT loading and live data transformation. A MASK register is programmed to dynamically modify the number of banks of memory in the LUT, an ADDRESS SELECT register is programmed to set the access mode of for the LUT--either random access mode, auto-increment mode, or live data mode, a BIT WIDTH register is programmed to set the width of the data stored in the LUT, and a BASE ADDRESS register is programmed with the starting address for loading the LUT in auto-increment mode. During live data transformation, a digitized input signal is used to address the LUT, while the contents of the LUT at the addressed location provides a digitized output signal according to a predefined transfer function. During LUT loading, transform data for different transfer functions may be stored in different banks of the LUT. Thereafter during live data transformation, the transform generator's transfer function can be quickly changed by reprogramming the MASK register to switch LUT banks.

Flexible computer controlled non-linear transform generator

A general purpose video special effects system and method is provided which utilizes at least one video rate RAM which has stored in it pre-computed data which is stored at addresses determined by all possible values of the video inputs to be utilized. Each special effect has a pre-computation which is accomplished by a threaded interpretive code technique operating on a parameter stack to facilitate the speed of computation. By the use of more than one video rate RAM, the effect may be changed on a line-by-line basis or even faster. Special effects are stored using a 'composition of functions' technique that allows the same special effect to be pre-computed for changing bit widths or positions of input and output channels. Special effects can be built by using or combining functions provided. New functions can be defined by the operator by composition of standard or previously created functions.

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Oakland, CA, United States of America

Michael Polatnick