Patent
Computer system implementing hot docking and undocking capabilities by employing a local bus arbiter idle stats in which the arbiter is parked on a first input/output bus portion
Richard S. Lin,David J. Maguire,James R. Edwards,David J. DeLisle +3 more
- 16 Feb 1999
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TL;DR: In this paper, a portable computer and docking station are physically coupled via a shared PCI bus and an expansion connector, and a local arbiter is placed into an idled state by either the operating system (through system BIOS) or by the microcontrollers.
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Abstract: A method for hot docking and hot undocking a portable computer and a docking station. The portable computer and docking station are physically coupled via a shared PCI bus and an expansion connector. Varying length pins in the expansion connector generate docking and undocking handshaking signals used by microcontrollers in the portable computer and docking station. The portable computer and docking station are functionally connected via low onresistance switches located in the portable computer. Following a docking event, closure of the switches connects the portion of the shared PCI bus in the docking station with the PCI bus in the portable computer. When the switches are open, the PCI busses are functionally isolated. Both the portable computer and the docking station also include a local arbiter for arbitrating and granting bus control requests from devices coupled to the shared PCI bus. These local arbiters may be placed into an idled state by either the operating system (through system BIOS) or by the microcontrollers. The arbiters are idled during docking and undocking events in order to inhibit bus cycles on the PCI bus, thereby preventing cycles from being lost. Following completion of a hot docking or undocking event, Plug-and-Play system reconfiguration is carried out so that all system resources may be recognized and properly utilized by the operating system.
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Citations
Patent
Media player system
Anthony M. Fadell,Stephen Paul Zadesky,John Benjamin Filson +2 more
- 18 Mar 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, an object of the present invention is to provide a media player system, which consists of docking station (178), docking station that allows media player (174) to communicate with other media devices, and a wireless media device system (404) that includes one or more media devices that can receive (404A) wirelessly connecting the hand held media player and the information that can send information over a wireless connection.
913
Patent
Accessory authentication for electronic devices
Jonathan Jake Rubinstein,Anthony M. Fadell,Jesse Lee Dorogusker,Adler Mitchell,John Archibald +4 more
- 13 Dec 2005
TL;DR: In this article, improved techniques to control utilization of accessory devices with electronic devices are disclosed, which can use cryptographic approaches to authenticate electronic devices, namely, electronic devices that interconnect and communicate with one another.
256
Patent
System and method for detection of an accessory device connection status
Eric Michael Lunsford,Steven C. Lemke,Neal A. Osborn,Francis James Canova,Scott R. Johnson +4 more
- 28 Oct 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a portable computer that determines whether an accessory device is actively connected to it by detecting a signal on the signal line to determine whether the communication device is connected to the portable computer.
190
Patent
Method and system for authenticating an accessory
Donald J. Novotney,John Benjamin Filson,David Tupman,Gregory T. Lydon +3 more
- 26 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a method, system, and connector interface for authenticating an accessory is presented, which allows the accessory to access the media player during authentication operation; if the authentication operation fails, the accessory is locked out from any further access to the media players.
122
Patent
Method and System For Allowing A Media Player To Transfer Digital Audio To An Accessory
Paul Holden,Daniel R. Fletcher,Barry Twycross,John Archibald,Donald J. Novotney,John Benjamin Filson,David Tupman +6 more
- 26 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a method and system for allowing a media player to transfer digital audio to an accessory is disclosed, which consists of sending a play command to the media player, returning information about the media players, and providing digital audio based upon the information of the media devices.
90
References
Patent
Portable computer and docking station having an electromechanical docking/undocking mechanism and a plurality of cooperatively interacting failsafe mechanisms
Dennis J. Boyle,Matt Herron,David Blakely,Mary Johnson,James J. Halicho,Brian D. Howard +5 more
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TL;DR: The first embodiment of the present invention comprises a fully functional portable computer with central processing unit, hard disk drive data storage, and liquid crystal display and a docking station having at least a floppy disk drive, video random access memory and video controller.
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Patent
Portable computer system for docking to an expansion base unit
Brian V. Belmont
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Abstract: A notebook computer system for docking to a motorized expansion base unit Before the actual docking event occurs, the notebook computer system communicates with the expansion base unit via a sense signal, which is provided by the notebook computer to indicate the power state of the notebook computer If the expansion base unit determines that the notebook computer is in a proper state for docking, it activates its motor to load the notebook computer Once docked, the notebook computer runs a resource conflict check routine to determine if resource conflicts occur A fatal conflict occurs when the resource requirements of bus devices connected to the expansion base unit conflict with the resource requirements of a video controller or hard disk drive connected to the notebook computer When such a fatal conflict occurs, the notebook computer issues a software eject request to expansion base unit In response, the expansion base unit undocks the notebook computer A non-fatal conflict occurs when the resource requirements of the expansion base unit devices conflict with the resource requirements of PCMCIA cards inserted into the PCMCIA slots of the notebook computer Unlike the case of a fatal conflict, the notebook computer responds to a non-fatal conflict by disabling the offending devices in the expansion base unit
97
Patent
Bus master arbitration circuitry having improved prioritization
Randy M. Bonella,Maria L. Melo +1 more
- 20 Jan 1995
TL;DR: In this article, an arbiter allows retried requests to have high priority in subsequent arbitrations by not changing priority on a granted, but aborted, access to the bus and yet prevents the aborted requestor from thrashing the bus by masking its bus request signal until the data is available.
91
Patent
Docking station for a portable computer
Matt Herron,David Blakely +1 more
- 15 Oct 1992
TL;DR: The first embodiment of the present invention comprises a housing for a docking station for use with a portable computer as mentioned in this paper, which provides the portable computer with increased display and data storage capabilities.
71
Patent
An apparatus and method for achieving hot docking capabilities for a dockable computer system
Douglas D. Gephardt,Scott Swanstrom +1 more
- 23 Feb 1995
TL;DR: In this article, a docking agent is able to assert bus ownership or bus mastership over the system bus by disabling clock signals to it, and the docking agent also removes bus ownership requests, interrupt requests, and DMA requests from the station bus and system bus.
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