Communications: electrical – Visual indication
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-18
2001-06-05
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Visual indication
C340S815690, C340S635000, C345S084000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243020
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of displaying status information of conditions in a system, and more particularly, to method and apparatus for driving a display having a plurality of discrete display elements, such as an LED display.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Many electronic systems, such as data networks, have displays that indicate the status of conditions in the system. In the example of data networks, such as Ethernet networks, the display is used to indicate the status of certain conditions, such as whether there is activity at a certain port of a network switch, whether there is transmit or receive activity at a port, or the indication of a collision of data frames. In other types of systems, such as telephonic communication devices, displays may be used to indicate the status of battery power, the signal strength, activity on the line, etc. One of the most common display devices in electronic systems is a light emitting diode (LED) display.
A relatively complex system, such as a network switch, may have a large number of conditions that are of interest to a user or a manager of the system. For example, in a multiport switch, having n ports, and m different conditions for each of the ports, displaying each of the conditions for each of the ports would require a display of n x m LED elements. An exemplary number of ports is 26 ports, and an exemplary number of conditions are six different conditions when the network switch is an Ethernet network switch, for example. In order to display each of the six different conditions for each of the 26 ports, a total of 156 LEDs would be needed on the front panel of the network switch. Outfitting a switch with such a large number of LED elements would make the front panel unduly large, difficult to read, and unnecessarily expensive.
In most instances, a user or a manager is interested in only a subset of the different conditions of the system. For example, in an Ethernet network, although there may be available status information related to the conditions of the link, full-duplex, receive, transmit, collision, etc., a manager may only be interested in information regarding the collision and the activity on ports of the network. A manager of another network may only be interested in the transmit and receive activity on the network ports. With prior art devices, users and managers are forced to use a network switch that displays information on all of the conditions, which is unreasonable as described earlier, or attempt to purchase a network switch which provides the status of the desired conditions. This quandry made it difficult for a manager or user from employing a switch with a relatively small number of LEDs, but still receive the information regarding the system conditions that the manager or user particularly desires.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
There is a need for a method and apparatus for driving a display, such as an LED display, in a manner that uses a relatively low number of display elements, yet is flexible to display the status of a desired subset of conditions from a plurality of conditions of the system.
This and other needs are met by an embodiment of the present invention which provides a method of driving a display having a plurality of discrete display elements, such as LED display elements. In this method, each display element displays the status of one of a plurality of conditions in the system. The system may be, for example, an Ethernet network switch. Rather than driving the same set of conditions in each switch, the present invention allows the user to identify for which conditions in the system will status be displayed. For example, the user or manager identifies two conditions out of six possible conditions in the system. Rather than displaying the status for all six conditions in the system, only the status for the two identified conditions will be displayed. In a multiport switch, for example, the two conditions selected may be displayed for each of the different ports of the switch, or for a selected subset of the ports of the switch.
The selection of the conditions in the system for which the status is to be displayed is stored as a display configuration. A register in the switch may be used for storing the display configuration, for example. During operation, the status of the plurality of conditions in the system are stored in a memory. However, the status for only those conditions identified by the stored display configuration are retrieved from the memory. The individual display elements are then driven so that each will display the status for a different one of the conditions identified in the stored display configuration. Hence, with the present invention, a smaller number of individual display elements, such as LED elements, are required since a relatively small number of identified conditions are being displayed. Since the user or manager is able to select for which conditions a status is to be displayed, the user is provided with all of the information that user has considered important.
The earlier stated needs are also met by another embodiment of the present invention which provides a multiport switch that receives status information on a plurality of conditions in a packet switched system. The switch comprises a register programmable to store a display configuration identifying the conditions in the system for which the status is to be displayed, and a state machine that collects the status of only the conditions in the system that are identified in the stored display configuration and generates an output data signal comprising the collected status.
The multiport switch of the present invention has the advantage of allowing a user or manager to configure the switch to drive a display to show the status of conditions in which the user or manager is most interested. This customizability of the switch permits a single switch to be used in a variety of differently configured networks, in which the conditions of interest are different from network to network. Furthermore, a lower number of display elements are needed to display the conditions of interest, since display elements are not wasted on conditions that are not of interest. This makes the display smaller, more cost-effective, and more user friendly since it is less complex.
The earlier stated needs are also met by another embodiment of the present invention which provides a packet switched system comprising a plurality of end stations and a multiport switch coupled to the end stations through switch ports. The multiport switch receives status information on a plurality of conditions in the system. The switch includes a register programmable to store a display configuration identifying the conditions in the system for which the status is to be displayed, and a display interface with a state machine that collects the status of only the conditions in the system that are identified in the stored display configuration and generates an output data signal comprising the collected status. A multiple element display is coupled to the display interface to receive the output data signal and generate a display of the status information of the conditions in the system that are identified in the stored display configuration.
The earlier stated needs are also met by another embodiment of the present invention which provides a display arrangement for displaying the status of a selected subset of conditions from a plurality of conditions in a system. The arrangement comprises a register programmable to store a display configuration identifying the conditions in the system for which the status is to be displayed, and a display interface that receives status information on a plurality of conditions in the system. The display interface includes a state machine that collects the status of only the conditions in the system that are identified in the stored display configuration and generates an output data signal comprising the collected status. A multiple element display is coupled to the display interface to receive the ou
Kerstein Denise
Lam Ian
Simmons Philip
Advanced Micro Devices , Inc.
Hofsass Jeffery
La Anh
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