Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Product assembly or manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-26
2004-02-17
Von Buhr, Maria N. (Department: 2125)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Product assembly or manufacturing
C370S360000, C370S400000, C307S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06694209
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of integrated circuits. More specifically, maintaining compatibility between circuit components when functions are moved from one circuit to another.
2. Prior Art
FIG. 1
illustrates two circuit elements. An integrated circuit, cell
10
and a circuit element
14
having an integrated circuit transceiver
11
and a transformer
12
. Both circuit
10
and element
14
are typically mounted on a printed circuit board and are interconnected by traces on the board represented by the lines
15
,
16
and
17
. More specifically, the cell
10
in one embodiment is a “Neuron®” chip manufactured under license by Toshiba, part no. TMPN 3150/3120. This cell is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,690. Cells are used at nodes in a network having distributed intelligence and, for instance, receives inputs at one node to control an appliance at another node. For the configuration shown in
FIG. 1
, the cells are connected through circuit elements
19
in a network having a twisted pair line as the common link between the nodes. Input and output signals for control of devices are coupled over lines
18
including power for cell
10
.
The transceiver
11
drives a signal onto and receives a signal from the twisted pair
19
through the transformer
12
. Power for the embodiment of
FIG. 1
is shown coupled to the circuit element
14
. (In other embodiments power is obtained directly from the twisted pair
19
in the so-called “phantom fed” configuration.) The circuit element
14
is commercially available and is referred to as a flexible topography transceiver (FTT) from Echelon Corporation, FTT10A, model no. 50051.
At the time the cell
10
and transceiver
11
were initially designed it was cost effective to provide two separate integrated circuits. Now it is more economic to fabricate the transceiver
11
on the same substrate as the cell
10
. However, if this is done existing circuit board designs made to accept the cell
10
and circuit element
14
may not be used. Moreover, in some instances the cell
10
is used without the transceiver
11
and it would appear that two separate parts are required to be stocked if the transceiver is fabricated as part of the cell.
As will be seen, the present invention allows the transceiver to be incorporated within the cell
10
. This is done without any design changes to circuit boards and additionally, allows the newly configured cell to be used with and without the transceiver with the new cell having the same “footprint” as the earlier cell.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An improved combination of a cell and transceiver is described. An integrated circuit having a cell, a transceiver, a multiplexer and a programming circuit incorporated thereon is fabricated. The multiplexer is used to couple two output terminals of the integrated circuit either to a pair of lines from the transceiver or a pair of lines from the cell as a function of a stored state in the programming circuit. A second circuit element is used having a transformer. When the bit in the integrated circuit is set to one state the pair of terminals from the integrated circuits connects the transformer directly to the transceiver providing the same result as shown in FIG.
1
.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4918690 (1990-04-01), Markkula et al.
patent: 4979183 (1990-12-01), Cowart
patent: 5018138 (1991-05-01), Twitty et al.
patent: 5034882 (1991-07-01), Eisenhard et al.
patent: 5113498 (1992-05-01), Evan et al.
patent: 5148144 (1992-09-01), Sutterlin et al.
patent: 5519878 (1996-05-01), Dolin, Jr.
patent: 5548614 (1996-08-01), Stoll et al.
patent: 5844888 (1998-12-01), Markkula et al.
patent: 5942814 (1999-08-01), Sutterlin et al.
patent: 6172984 (2001-01-01), Beyda et al.
patent: 6222853 (2001-04-01), Marttinen et al.
patent: 6337849 (2002-01-01), Smith et al.
Echelon Corporation
Von Buhr Maria N.
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