US5448554A — Data communication system based on a serial bus a…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 240 words

A monitor station for use in a system which includes a single channel serial bus and a plurality of stations acting as transmitters and/or receivers, at least one of the plurality of stations being a master station and at least one of the plurality of stations being a slave station, the monitor station including a) clock means for timing bits or nibbles thereof; b) means, responsive to the clock means, for downloading bits sourced from both the master station and the slave station, from the serial bus; c) means for recreating at least a portion of a frame structure present on the serial bus and for reorganizing the bits downloaded, by the downloading means, into a reconstituted frame, i) which reconstituted frame is the same as at least a portion of a frame transmitted on the serial bus, ii) which frame structure A) includes a start signal, address signals, further signals and control signals, and B) supports an in-frame dialog between the master and slave stations, in that it contains both read information from and write information for the master station, iii) which means for recreating includes a frame buffer for storing relevant parts of the reconstituted frame; and c) means for inspecting and monitoring any bit stored in the frame buffer; whereby the monitor station collects data from both the master station and the slave station; operates on a bit level; does not affect data on the serial bus.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 240 words

A monitor station for use in a system which includes a single channel serial bus and a plurality of stations acting as transmitters and/or receivers, at least one of the plurality of stations being a master station and at least one of the plurality of stations being a slave station, the monitor station including a) clock means for timing bits or nibbles thereof; b) means, responsive to the clock means, for downloading bits sourced from both the master station and the slave station, from the serial bus; c) means for recreating at least a portion of a frame structure present on the serial bus and for reorganizing the bits downloaded, by the downloading means, into a reconstituted frame, i) which reconstituted frame is the same as at least a portion of a frame transmitted on the serial bus, ii) which frame structure A) includes a start signal, address signals, further signals and control signals, and B) supports an in-frame dialog between the master and slave stations, in that it contains both read information from and write information for the master station, iii) which means for recreating includes a frame buffer for storing relevant parts of the reconstituted frame; and c) means for inspecting and monitoring any bit stored in the frame buffer; whereby the monitor station collects data from both the master station and the slave station; operates on a bit level; does not affect data on the serial bus.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 32 words

A data communication system comprising at least one master station; at least one slave station; a monitor station as claimed in claim 1; and a serial bus for communicating between the stations.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 66 words

A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said frame buffer comprises first and second sections that each accommodate all relevant parts of at least one frame, and said monitor station has control means for controlling the first section in a read mode, to provide data to a host, and the second section in a write mode, to receive data from said means for downloading bits.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 67 words

A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said sections are separate, fixed physical sections controlled alternatingly in said read and write modes, so that in a first time the first section is in the read mode and the second section is in the write mode and in a second time the section is in the read mode and the first section is in the write mode.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 46 words

A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said first and second sections are fixed in said read mode and said write mode, respectively, and comprise copy means for, between reception of contiguous frames, executing a fast copy from the second section to the first section.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 63 words

A system as claimed in claim 2, said monitor station furthermore comprising masked comparator means for comparing an unmasked part from any frame communicated on said bus with one or more corresponding standard part's contents, and gating, responsive to the comparator means, for gating contents of the frame buffer to a test data processing means, when the comparator means gives an "equal" signal.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 38 words

A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said test data processing means comprises data display means for displaying test evaluation data produced by said test data processing means in response to the contents of the frame buffer.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 16 words

A system in claim 7, wherein said data display means displays said test evaluation data symbolically.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 27 words

A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said clock means times bits at instants according to a timing scheme that differs from any standard station interface's.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 69 words

(thrice amended) A monitor station as claimed in claims 2 wherein said frame buffer comprises first and second sections that each accommodate all relevant parts of at least one frame, said monitor station has control means for alternatively controlling the first section in a read mode, to provide data to a host, and the second section in a write mode, to receive data from the means for downloading bits.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 29 words

A monitor station as claimed in claim 2 wherein said clock means times bits at timing instants according to a timing scheme that differs from any standard station interface's.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 63 words

A system as claimed in claim 1, said monitor station furthermore comprising masked comparator means for comparing an unmasked part from any frame communicated on said bus with one or more corresponding standard part's contents, and gating means, responsive to the comparator means, for gating contents of the frame buffer to test data processing means, when the comparator means gives an "equal" signal.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 15 words

A monitor station as claimed in claim 1 wherein said gating means is software controlled.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 21 words

A monitor station as claimed in claim 1 for use with a single-channel serial bus with D 2 B protocol realised.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 225 words

A data communications system comprising a single channel serial bus a plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations, physically coupled to the bus, for intercommunicating multibit messages in the form of bus signals organized in finite frames, each frame including a contiguous sequence of signal spaces containing a start signal, address signals, further signals, control signals, and an acknowledge bit and each frame supporting an in-frame dialog which comprises both write information and read information related to one of said plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations which is acting as a master station, a monitor station for emulating an uncommitted receiver station with respect to a source of a first frame, which source can either be the master station or another one of said plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations which is acting a slave station, said monitor station comprising a) a bus interface physically coupled to said serial bus to receive said first frame at a bit level; and b) a frame buffer coupled to said bus interface to receive said first frame including the acknowledge bit unconditionally from said bus interface and for storing relevant parts of said frame, and c) means for inspecting and monitoring any bit stored in the frame buffer; whereby said monitor station does not affect data on the bus; said monitor station monitors both sides of the in-frame dialog.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 225 words

A data communications system comprising a single channel serial bus a plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations, physically coupled to the bus, for intercommunicating multibit messages in the form of bus signals organized in finite frames, each frame including a contiguous sequence of signal spaces containing a start signal, address signals, further signals, control signals, and an acknowledge bit and each frame supporting an in-frame dialog which comprises both write information and read information related to one of said plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations which is acting as a master station, a monitor station for emulating an uncommitted receiver station with respect to a source of a first frame, which source can either be the master station or another one of said plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations which is acting a slave station, said monitor station comprising a) a bus interface physically coupled to said serial bus to receive said first frame at a bit level; and b) a frame buffer coupled to said bus interface to receive said first frame including the acknowledge bit unconditionally from said bus interface and for storing relevant parts of said frame, and c) means for inspecting and monitoring any bit stored in the frame buffer; whereby said monitor station does not affect data on the bus; said monitor station monitors both sides of the in-frame dialog.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 209 words

A monitor station for use with a data communications system comprising a single channel serial bus physically coupled to a plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations for intercommunicating multibit messages in the form of bus signals organized in finite frames each frame including a contiguous sequence of signal spaces containing a start signal, address signals, further signals, control signals and an acknowledge bit, and each frame supporting an in-frame dialog which comprises both write information and read information related to one of said plurality of transmitters and/or receiver stations which is acting as a master station, said monitor station comprising: a) a bus interface physically coupled to said serial bus to receive said first frame at a bit level from either the master station or one of said plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations which is acting as a slave station; and b) a frame buffer coupled to said bus interface to receive said first frame including the acknowledge bit unconditionally from said bus interface and for storing relevant parts of said frame, and c) means for inspecting and monitoring any bit stored in the frame buffer; whereby said monitor station does not affect data on the bus; and said monitor station monitors both sides of the in-frame dialog.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 209 words

A monitor station for use with a data communications system comprising a single channel serial bus physically coupled to a plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations for intercommunicating multibit messages in the form of bus signals organized in finite frames each frame including a contiguous sequence of signal spaces containing a start signal, address signals, further signals, control signals and an acknowledge bit, and each frame supporting an in-frame dialog which comprises both write information and read information related to one of said plurality of transmitters and/or receiver stations which is acting as a master station, said monitor station comprising: a) a bus interface physically coupled to said serial bus to receive said first frame at a bit level from either the master station or one of said plurality of transmitter and/or receiver stations which is acting as a slave station; and b) a frame buffer coupled to said bus interface to receive said first frame including the acknowledge bit unconditionally from said bus interface and for storing relevant parts of said frame, and c) means for inspecting and monitoring any bit stored in the frame buffer; whereby said monitor station does not affect data on the bus; and said monitor station monitors both sides of the in-frame dialog.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1998-09-04	1999-03-06	1999-09-05	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2002-09-04	2003-03-06	2003-09-05	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2006-09-04	2007-03-06	2007-09-05	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Data communication system based on a serial bus and a monitor station for use with such system

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