Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Input/output data processing – Input/output command process
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-27
2002-06-25
Meky, Moustafa M. (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/
Input/output data processing
Input/output command process
Reexamination Certificate
active
06412024
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sound board emulation using a digital signal processor.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been a great deal of market demand for audio and video output from computer systems, particularly in the case of personal computer systems known as “PC”s. This has led to the availability of hardware devices for producing audio output in response to commands from a central processing unit (CPU) Such a device may be commonly integrated into a computer system by implementing it on an add-in board, and by coupling the add-in board to a system bus, such as the industry-standard architecture (ISA) or extended ISA (EISA) bus. When coupled to the system bus, the board may be commanded by the CPU, under control of software for producing and playing audio output.
One product for producing audio output is the “Sound Blaster” product, available from Creative Technology, Inc., of Milpitas, Calif. This product, and the interface by which the CPU may command it, has become popular with some segments of the personal computer industry, and its command interface is also commonly used by other devices.
It is desirable for makers of audio-output boards to have the same command interface. Makers of hardware and software for personal computer systems may rely, and will certainly prefer, that any audio-output board have the same command interface. Designer may also wish to avoid multiple versions of a product (designed for compatibility with more than one product's command interface), and may therefore provide a product which uses only one command interface.
One aspect of this common command interface is that it specifies certain named registers that the CPU may access on the audio-output board, either to read values from or to write values into. While this may be an acceptable way for the CPU to command the audio-output board, it is desirable that an audio-output board does not require actual physical registers to implement this aspect of the command interface. For example, an implementation in which these registers are simulated by other physical means may be less expensive, faster, or more easily upgraded.
It is also desirable that an audio-output board does not require an implementation using dedicated hardware for the functions it provides, and may instead be implemented using a digital signal processor (DSP) operating under software control. However, the common command interface described above generally requires that the audio-output board must be immediately responsive to commands from the CPU. This generally requires that the DSP must spend its time watching and waiting for, and responding to, the CPU, and that its additional computing power is therefore wasted.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved audio-output device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides an improved audio-output device that may be coupled to a computer system, in which a DSP operating under software control may emulate a common command interface. The command interface may comprise a set of registers that are made available to the CPU for reading and writing, even if there are no such physical registers available in the device. The DSP may also perform tasks in addition to audio-output, even though the audio-output device may be required to respond immediately to commands from the CPU.
In a preferred embodiment, the audio-output device may comprise a DSP for interpreting and executing commands received from the CPU, a local memory for storing data input to or output from the DSP, a bus-interface (BIF) element for coupling the DSP and memory to a system bus, and a direct memory access (DMA) element for transferring data between the local memory and the system bus. The local memory may comprise an emulation region for emulating a set of named registers the CPU may read from and write into according to the command interface, and a communication region for transmitting messages between the CPU and the DSP.
In a preferred embodiment, the emulation region may be indicated by a base register and a set of offset values, and may comprise a dynamically allocated set of registers for emulating the set of named registers the CPU may read from and write into. The communication region may comprise a set of registers for the BIF to indicate that a message has been received from the CPU for the DSP or is available for the CPU from the DSP. The local memory may also comprise a DMA transfer buffer for transferring data between the local memory and another memory coupled to the system bus.
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Hsu Mark
Le Cornec Yann
Nguyen Julien T.
Meky Moustafa M.
Sigma Designs, Inc.
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