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:
May. 19, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 21, 1997
Jelle Hoekstra, Eindhoven, NL;
Bernard Van Steenbrugge, Eindhoven, NL;
U.S. Philips Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
In a local communication system comprising a number of devices (14,16) interconnected by a first data bus (20) supporting a first set of communication protocols, and at least one further device (10) connected to a second bus (12) not supporting those protocols, a gateway device (18) is provided linking the first and second data buses enabling communications therebetween. The first set of protocols specifies a maximum time for response by a first device to a request sent by a second device. When a request is sent from a device (14) on the first bus to the further device (10), the gateway (18) times the request and, if no response is received from the further device within the specified maximum response time, the gateway (18) generates and sends a temporary response to the requesting device (14). The system may comprise two or more clusters of devices, each being linked to the further bus (12) by respective gateway devices (18,22).