Silicon Image Gmbh

Other

Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation

Paul Daniel Wolf

Eric N Lee

Albert M Scalise

Seung Ho Hwang

James D Lyle

John D Banks

Michael G Lavelle

Gyudong Kim

Russel A Martin

Min-Kyu Kim

Jano D Banks

Gijung Ahn

Stephen J Keating

Duane P Siemens

Keewook Jung

Ken-Sue Tan

Rainer Zwing

William Conrad Altmann

Baegin Sung

Adrian Sfarti

William Sheet

Michael Schumacher

Norbert N Eigeldinger

David J Woolgar

Ian Michael Simmons

Long Van Pham

Vladimir Grekhov

Duane Siemens

Michael Anthony Schumacher

An emergency breakaway system having an integral electrical testing system for confirming the functionality of a trailer's electric brake solenoids and electric lights includes housing enclosure having interface screen, a testing battery, and a testing controller. The trailer electrical system testing device is operative to replace a conventional emergency breakaway system, supplying the emergency breakaway functionality while also enabling real time, on demand testing of the trailer's electric brakes and lights. An integrated activation routine causes electricity to be supplied directly to the electric brakes in periodic, on/off intervals, thereby operating the electric brakes intermittently, for a predetermined time period. The activation routine thus allows a user to walk around the trailer and listen for activation of the electric brake solenoids as well as check and verify the functionality of the brake components.

Emergency breakaway system having an integral electrical testing system

A new portable, self-contained device for testing the full cycle of trailer light modes without additional manual actuation by the user and for identifying where and what type of specific error occurred, if any are detected. The inventive device generally comprises a compact portable housing with a fixedly attached handle and a removable housing top. Within the compact portable housing is a self-contained, rechargeable 12 volt power source to power all functionality over a sustained period of time. Also within the compact portable housing is a light mode control means that allows the device to cycle through multiple light modes for testing, and an error detection analysis means that indicates where and what type of fault is detected. The outside surface of the compact portable housing contains an on/off switch means, a light mode selector switch to select from individual light modes or a cycle mode that rotates through all light modes at a predetermined interval, and fault detection indicators to indicate when, where, and what type of fault has been detected. Attached to a side of the housing is a connection port for connecting the device to a trailer light wiring harness.

Trailer light tester

A method is disclosed to determine the topology of a network comprising a master node and one or more slave nodes interconnected using unidirectional data connections. The master node makes available data to succeeding nodes, and a slave node reads data from a preceding node, the read data comprising information of a path from master node to the slave node. A further method is disclosed to configure the path by sending data from the slave node to all nodes on the path via bi-directional data connections between nodes.

Determining and configuring a communication path in a network

A system including a receiver, a TMDS link (or other serial link), and a transmitter configured to transmit K-bit video words (typically, encoded 8-bit video words) over the link. In typical embodiments, the transmitter is configured to pack a sequence of N-bit video words, where N&#x2260;K (e.g., N=10, 12, or 16, when K=8) into a sequence of K-bit fragments, encode the fragments, and transmit the encoded fragments. The transmitted data are indicative of a sequence of M-fragment groups, and the transmitter is typically configured also to transmit over the link packing phase data indicative of the phase of the most recently transmitted fragment. Other aspects are transmitters and receivers for use in such a system and methods implemented by any such transmitter, receiver, or system.

Method and system for transmitting or receiving N-bit video data over a serial link

In some embodiments, a device includes a bus, a parallel source, and a parallel sink. The parallel source is to provide parallel groups of signals including video signals to the bus, wherein the bus has a number of lanes that is fewer than a number of signals used to represent a pixel such that pixels are represented in more than one of the parallel groups. The parallel sink is to receive the parallel groups of signals from the bus, wherein the parallel sink includes a signal extractor to separate at least a portion of the groups of signals into multiple channels, and encoder and serializer circuits to encode and serialize the separated signals. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Parallel interface bus to communicate video data encoded for serial data links

Method and system for transmitting N-bit video data over a serial link

A communication system including a transmitter, a receiver, and a TMDS-like link, in which video data and auxiliary data (typically including timing data associated with other auxiliary data) are transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver, or in which video data are transmitted over the link from the transmitter to the receiver, and auxiliary data (typically including timing data associated with other auxiliary data) are transmitted from the receiver to the transmitter. In typical embodiments the auxiliary data include one or more streams of audio data. Other aspects are transmitters and receivers for use in such a system, methods for sending auxiliary data and video data over a TMDS-like link, methods for transmitting and recovering clocks for auxiliary data transmitted over such a link, methods for synchronizing auxiliary data transmitted over such a link with video data transmitted over such a link, and methods for generating clocks having frequency closely matching the rate at which the auxiliary data are transmitted over such a link.

Method and apparatus for sending auxiliary data on a TMDS-like link

A communication system including a transmitter, a receiver, and a serial link, in which encoded data (e.g., encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data) are transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. The serial link can but need not be a TMDS or TMDS-like link. In typical embodiments, alternating bursts of encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data are transmitted over each of one or more channels of the link. Other aspects of the invention are transmitters for use in encoding data for transmission over a serial link, and methods for sending encoded data over a serial link. In accordance with the invention, the data to be transmitted are encoded using a subset (sometimes referred to as a selected set of code words) of a full set of code words. The selected set of code words is selected such that each stream of encoded data (comprising only such code words) transmitted over a serial link has a bit pattern that is less susceptible to inter-symbol interference ('ISI') during transmission than is the bit pattern determined by a conventionally encoded version of the same data (comprising not only the selected set of code words but also other members of the full set). In general, the best choice for the selected set of code words selected from a full set of binary code words depends on the particular coding implemented by the full set. Typically, the selected set of code words includes words whose serial patterns (during transmission) have fewer contiguous zeros and ones (and thus are less susceptible to ISI during transmission) than do those code words in the full set that are not selected. In preferred embodiments in which the bits of the selected set of code words are transmitted over a serial link as sequences of rising and falling voltage transitions, the bit pattern of each transmitted stream of the selected set of code words implements DC balancing to limit the voltage drift over time.

Encoding method and system for reducing inter-symbol interference effects in transmission over a serial link

A communication system including a transmitter, a receiver, and a TMDS-like link, in which video data and auxiliary data are transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver, or in which video data are transmitted over the link from the transmitter to the receiver and auxiliary data are transmitted from the receiver to the transmitter (or from the transmitter to the receiver and also from receiver to the transmitter), a transmitter or receiver for use in such a system, and methods for sending auxiliary data and video data over such a link, synchronizing such auxiliary data with such video data, and generating clocks having frequency closely matching the rate at which the auxiliary data are transmitted. Typically, the auxiliary data include one or more streams of audio data. In some embodiments the transmitter transmits a video clock to the receiver over a video clock channel, at least one of the transmitter and receiver transmits at least one stream of auxiliary data to the other one of the transmitter and the receiver, and at least one of the transmitter and the receiver transmits over the video clock channel at least one auxiliary clock for the auxiliary data.

Method and apparatus for synchronizing auxiliary data and video data transmitted over a TMDS-like link

A system in which encoded data (e.g., encoded video and auxiliary data) are transmitted over a serial link. Other aspects of the invention are transmitters for use in encoding data for transmission over a serial link, receivers for receiving such data, and methods for sending encoded data over a serial link. Source data to be transmitted are encoded using a subset of a full set of code words. The subset consists of preferred code words. Disjoint clusters of code words in the full set are predetermined. Each cluster includes one or more of the preferred words, and optionally also at least one additional code word that is similar to a preferred word of the cluster in the sense that it is likely to be generated as a result of probable bit errors in transmission, or transmission and decoding, of such preferred word. Each preferred word of a cluster is indicative of a single source data value. Each received code word in a cluster is mapped to the source data value determined by each preferred word of the cluster.

Method and system for reducing inter-symbol interference effects in transmission over a serial link with mapping of each word in a cluster of received words to a single transmitted word

A communication system including a transmitter, a receiver, and a serial link, in which encoded data (e.g., video, audio, and optionally also other auxiliary data) are transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. The serial link can but need not be a TMDS or TMDS-like link. In typical embodiments, packets of encoded audio data are transmitted over each of one or more channels of the link during data islands between bursts of encoded video data, a pixel clock is transmitted over the link, and the receiver regenerates a clock for the audio data using time code data in the packets and the pixel clock. Other aspects of the invention are transmitters for transmitting encoded data and a pixel clock over a serial link, receivers for receiving such data and pixel clock and performing audio clock regeneration, and methods for transmitting encoded data and a pixel clock over a serial link and performing clock regeneration using the transmitted data and pixel clock.

Method and apparatus for regenerating a clock for auxiliary data transmitted over a serial link with video data

A communication system including a transmitter, a receiver, and a serial link, in which encoded data (e.g., video, audio, and optionally also other auxiliary data) are transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. The serial link can but need not be a TMDS or TMDS-like link. In typical embodiments, packets of encoded audio data are transmitted over each of one or more channels of the link during data islands between bursts of encoded video data. Other aspects of the invention are transmitters for use in encoding data for transmission over a serial link, receivers for receiving such data, and methods for sending encoded data over a serial link.

Method and system for video and auxiliary data transmission over a serial link

Growing community of inventors

San Carlos, CA, United States of America

Paul Daniel Wolf