1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bridging device between two different interfaces, and more particularly, to a bridging device with power-saving function between two different interfaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, between two different interfaces, a bridging device is essential to be in charge of transforming the signal between two different interfaces. For example, when a Serial Advance Technology Attachment (SATA) hard drive is connected to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface of a computer for transmitting data, a bridging device is essential for transforming the signal of the SATA interface to be the signal of the USB interface or transforming the signal of the USB interface to be the signal of the SATA interface. More particularly, it is necessary to connect the bridging device between the SATA hard drive and the USB interface of the computer. However, when the conventional bridging device is only connected to the USB interface of the computer but not connected to the SATA hard drive, the conventional bridging device still remains operating, causing unnecessary energy consumption.
The present invention provides a bridging device with power-saving function. The bridging device comprises a first interface, a first physical layer processing device, a second interface, a second physical layer processing device, and a controller. The first interface is utilized for coupling a first external device complying with the first interface. The first physical layer processing device is utilized for coupling to the first external device through the first interface. The first external device receives a device request signal through the first physical layer processing device and accordingly transmits a device response signal through the first physical layer processing device. The second interface is utilized for coupling to a second external device complying with the second interface. The second physical layer processing device is utilized for coupling to the second external device through the second interface. The controller is coupled between the first and the second physical layer processing devices for transmitting the device request signal with a first predetermined frequency to the first physical layer processing device in order to receive the device response signal. When the controller determines that the first interface is not coupled to the first external device, the controller turns the second physical layer processing device off.
The present invention further provides a bridging device with power-saving function. The bridging device comprises card interfaces, a controller, an insert/remove determination device, a physical layer processing device, and an interface. The card interfaces are utilized for coupling to corresponding cards and providing a plurality of corresponding insert/remove detection signals. A number of the card interfaces can be one or more. The controller is coupled to the card interfaces for accessing the cards in order to exchange and transform data of the cards. The insert/remove determination device is coupled to the card interfaces for receiving the insert/remove detection signals and accordingly generating a control signal. The physical layer processing device is coupled to the controller for physical layer processing of the data transformed from the controller. The physical layer processing device is selectively turned off according to the control signal. The interface is coupled to the physical layer processing device for coupling to an external device and transmitting a signal processed by the physical layer processing device.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
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The interface IF1, for example, is a SATA interface. The interface IF2, for example, is a USB interface.
As described above, the interface IF1 is a SATA interface. Therefore, the physical layer processing device 120 is utilized for processing the signal from the physical layer of the SATA interface. The interface IF2 is a USB interface. Hence, the physical layer processing device 130 is utilized for processing the signal from the physical layer of the USB interface.
The controller 110 is utilized for transforming the signal processed by the physical layer processing device 120 and then transmitting the transformed signal to the physical layer processing device 130 so that the physical layer processing device 130 can output the signal complying with the IF2 (USB) interface.
The controller 110 transmits a device request signal SQ with a predetermined frequency FP1 to the physical layer processing device 120 so as to know if the interface IF1 is coupled to any device complying with the interface IF1 (In the condition described above, the device can be a SATA hard drive Y). If the interface IF1 is coupled to the SATA hard drive Y, then the SATA hard drive Y generates a device response signal SR. The device response signal SR is then transmitted through the interface IF1 and the physical layer processing device 120 to the controller 110 so as to notify the controller 110 that a SATA hard drive Y is coupled to the interface IF1. On the contrary, if the interface IF1 is not coupled to the SATA hard drive Y, then the physical layer processing device 120 does not generate the device response signal SR. If the controller 110 has not received any device response signal SR for a predetermined period, the controller 100 determines that there is no device coupled to the interface IF1.
When the controller 110 determines that the interface IF1 is coupled to a device (for example, the SATA hard drive Y), the controller 110 still transmits the device request signal SQ with the predetermined frequency FP1 to continuously query if the device still exists, or determines if the device still exists according to the correctness of the response during the normal operation. On the contrary, when the controller 110 determines that the interface IF1 is not coupled to the device (for example, the SATA hard drive Y), the controller reduces the frequency of generating the device request signal SQ, for example, to the predetermined frequency FP2, wherein the frequency FP2 is lower than the frequency FP1. For example, if the controller 110 does not receive any device response signal SR after transmitting the device request signal SQ for predetermined number of times, the controller 110 determines that no device is coupled to the interface IF1. In this way, when no device is coupled to the interface IF1, it can reduce the frequency of the device request signal SQ for saving the power consumption of the bridging device 100.
In addition, the controller 110, depending on if any device is coupled to the interface IF1, also generates a control signal SC to control the operation of physical layer processing device 130 (normal operation or stop). When the controller 110 determines that there is a device coupled to the interface IF1 (for example, the SATA hard drive Y), the control signal SC generated by the controller 110 turns on the physical layer processing device 130 so that the physical layer processing device 130 enters normal operation mode. On the contrary, when the controller 110 determines that no device is coupled to the interface IF1 (for example, the SATA hard drive Y), the control signal SC generated by the controller 110 turns off the physical layer processing device 130 for saving power consumed by the physical layer processing device 130. In such condition, when no device is coupled to the interface IF1, it can turn off the physical layer processing device 130 for saving the power consumption of the bridging device 100.
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Furthermore, it is noticeable that the interfaces IF1 and IF2 are not limited to SATA or USB interfaces described above. The interface IF2 can be any interface supporting hot-plug, for example, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface, SATA interface, External Serial Advance Technology Attachment (ESATA) interface, Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) interface and so on. The interface IF1 can be any transmission interface, for example, Recommended Standard 232 (RS-232) interface, parallel port (printer port) interface, Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) interface, USB interface, and so on.
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The bridging device 400 comprises a controller 410, an insert/remove determination device 420, a physical layer processing device 430, an interface IF2 and a plurality of card interfaces MIF1˜MIFN.
The interface IF2 can be any interface supporting hot-plug, for example, PCIe interface, SATA interface, ESATA interface, USB interface or PCMCIA interface. The card interfaces MIF1˜MIFN can be any interface with the insert/remove detection mechanism, for example, Compact Flash Card (CF) interface, Secure Digital (SD) interface, Memory Stick Card (MS) interface, extreme Digital (XD) interface, Smart Media Card (SMC) interface, Multimedia Card (MMC) interface or IC card interface. All the card interfaces MIF1˜MIFN have a characteristic: when no card is inserted, the insert/remove detection signal SI/R with the logic “1” is sent out; on the contrary, when a card is inserted, the insert/remove detection signal SI/R with the logic “0” is sent out. For example, when the card interface MIF1 is not inserted with a card, the insert/remove detection signal SI/R with the logic “1” is sent out (represents no insertion or remove); on the contrary, when the card interface MIF1 is inserted a card, the insert/remove detection signal SI/R with the logic “0” is sent out (represents insertion). According to the different design of the card interface, the insert/remove detection signal SI/R can represents insertion and removal by the opposite logic value.
The controller 410 is coupled to each of the card interfaces MIF1˜MIFN, the insert/remove determination device 420 and the physical layer processing device 430. The controller 410 is utilized for accessing each card M1˜MN in order to exchange and transform the data as required. More precisely, the controller 410 accesses data D1˜DN stored in the coupled cards through the card interfaces MIF1˜MIFN, then transforms and transmits the received data D1˜DN to the physical layer processing device 430 for the signal processing of the physical layer. The physical layer processing device 430 then processes the data received from the controller 410 for generating the signal complying the protocol of the interface IF2 (the USB interface) and transmitting out the compliant signal through the interface IF2.
The insert/remove determination device 420 is coupled to each of the card interfaces MIF1˜MIFN, the controller 410 and the physical layer processing device 430. The insert/remove determination device 420 is utilized for receiving each of the insert/remove detection signals SI/R1˜SI/RN and accordingly transmitting the control signal SC to the controller 410 and the physical layer processing device 430. When any one of the insert/remove detection signals SI/R1˜SI/RN represents that a card is inserted, the insert/remove determination device 420 transmits the control signal SC representing “turn on” to the controller 410 and the physical layer processing device 430. On the contrary, when all the insert/remove detection signals SI/R1˜SI/RN represent no card insertion (means removal), the insert/remove determination device 420 transmits the control signal SC representing “turn-off” to the controller 410 and the physical layer processing device 430. Besides, the insert/remove determination device 420 can be realized with the logic gate(s). More particularly, the insert/remove determination device 420 can be embodied by an OR gate for realizing the required function.
When the controller 410 receives the control signal SC representing “turn-off”, it means that the bridging device 400 is not coupled to any card at the time. Thus, the controller 410 enters the suspend/sleep mode for saving power consumption. However, according to the user's requirement, the controller 410 also can decide not to enter sleep mode when receiving the control signal SC representing “turn-off”. On the contrary, when the controller 410 receives the control signal SC representing “turn-on”, it means that the bridging device 400 is coupled to the card at the time. As a result, the controller 410 enters the normal operation mode for accessing the data stored in the coupled card.
When the physical layer processing device 430 receives the control signal SC representing “turn-off”, it means that the bridging device 400 is not coupled to any card at the time. Therefore, the physical layer processing device 430 is turned off for saving power consumption. On the contrary, when the physical layer processing device 430 receives the control signal SC representing “turn-on”, it means that the bridging device 400 is coupled to at least a card. Thus, the physical layer processing device 430 is turned on for physical layer processing of the signal received from the controller 410 so as to generate the signal complying the interface IF2 (the USB interface) and transmitting the generated signal out through the interface IF2.
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Furthermore, according to the design of the bridging device 400, the number of the card interface is not limited to be plural. In other words, the bridging device 400 can be designed to have only one card interface as desired. In such condition, the insert/remove determination device 420 is not the essential device. The controller 410 and the physical layer processing device 430 receive the insert/remove detection signals SI/R directly from the card interface so as to determine if the controller 410 should enter sleep mode and the physical layer processing device 430 should be turned off.
In summary, by means of the bridging device of the present invention, when one of the ends of the bridging device is not coupled to the corresponding external device, the physical layer processing device is effectively turned off or the controller of the bridging device enters sleep mode for reducing the power consumption, which provides convenience.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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097137909 | Oct 2008 | TW | national |