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:
Apr. 01, 2008
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2006
Frederic Schumacher, Aix-en-Provence, FR;
Frederic Schumacher, Aix-en-Provence, FR;
Atmel Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A serial network controller contains control logic to analyze and determine a duration of a proper frame time slot. A number of data fields in a transmission is ascertained from an identifier field supplied in a header field. The number of data fields plus a margin for data framing overhead is calculated to determine the frame time slot duration. A timer is programmed with the calculated frame time slot duration. The timer is clocked at each bit period of the transmission until the calculated duration of the frame time slot is reached. At the frame time slot value, a transmit ready flag is unmasked, allowing termination of the frame with a proper margin. By managing frame time slot calculation, timer operations, and interrupt handling, the control logic relieves a microprocessor core and other system resources from network timing details. The control logic frees system resources for other applications.