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. 01, 1998
Filed:
Dec. 13, 1996
Tai Anh Cao, Austin, TX (US);
Tom Tein-Cheng Chiu, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a driver/receiver pair connected as a repeater circuit which simultaneously transmits and receives information on multiple connected transmission lines. Transceiver circuits are provided which are mirror images of one another to perform the repeater function of the present invention. Each transceiver in the repeater circuit includes a non-inverting buffer stage which produces a signal swing less than the typical Vdd to ground which is typical for common CMOS inverters. The limited swing provides a variable reference input to a differential receiver element. This receiver looks at the incoming signal, and the signal being transmitted from the repeater to determine if the incoming signal is logical '1' or logical '0'. This is done on each side of the repeater since the actual voltage level on the wire at the repeater terminal is a composite of the signal received by the repeater and the signal being transmitted by the repeater. By using the repeater, the data rate is doubled and the transmission distance is increased when compared to simplex unidirectional operation.