The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 02, 1997
Filed:
Jul. 20, 1995
James C Steele, Chandler, AZ (US);
Gary D Hicok, Mesa, AZ (US);
David R Evoy, Tempe, AZ (US);
Gary A Walker, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Joseph A Thomsen, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Lonnie C Goff, Tempe, AZ (US);
VLSI Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An I/O holdoff mechanism is used to compensate for I/O device inputs being fed through a latency introducing bus. A system includes one or more I/O devices connected through a serial bus to a controller device. Each I/O device includes at least one request pin which is connected to a peripheral device. A serializer in the I/O device responds to a voltage transition occurring on any request pin of the I/O device by forwarding, in a packet over the serial bus, an indicator. The indicator indicates a current voltage on the request pin of the I/O device on which the voltage transition occurred. The controller device includes a deserializer and a bus controller. The deserializer receives the first packet and outputs a signal which indicates a current value for the voltage on the indicated request pin. The deserializer includes a busy output which indicates when the deserializer is busy and when the deserializer is idle. The bus controller responds to a request from a host system for a current value on a first request pin of the I/O device by forwarding to the host system a current value for a voltage on the indicated request pin, as indicated by the deserializer, when the deserializer is not busy. When the deserializer is busy, the bus controller responds to the request from the host system for the current value on the first request pin of the I/O device by waiting for the deserializer to become idle. Upon the deserializer becoming idle, the bus controller forwards to the host system the current value for the voltage on the indicated request pin.