Portable-PC audio system with digital-audio links to external audio in a docking station
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First Claim
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1. An audio system for a portable personal computer (PC) comprising:
- an internal audio controller for generating internal digital audio;
an internal analog-digital converter for converting internal digital audio from the internal audio controller to analog audio for playing on an internal speaker;
a docking-station connector for connecting the portable PC to a docking station, the docking-station connector containing high-speed digital signals for communicating data, address, and control to an expansion bus in the docking station, the expansion bus for receiving expansion cards to expand functions performed by the portable PC when the portable PC is connected to the docking station through the docking-station connector;
an external digital-audio link, using digital signals in the docking-station connector, for sending the internal digital audio generated by the internal audio controller to the docking station, and wherein digital-audio signals are sent over the external digital-audio link thorough the docking-station connector, whereby digital audio is generated inside the portable PC and transmitted as digital audio signals to the docking station.
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Abstract
A multimedia notebook or laptop personal computer (PC) has an enhanced audio system. An external audio controller in a docking station is connected to the laptop PC'"'"'s audio system using a digital-audio link. The digital-audio link uses digital signals that have high noise immunity. The high noise immunity allows the digital-audio signals to be routed through the inexpensive docking connector, which has many other noisy, high-speed signals. Dedicated, expensive, noise-prone, and difficult-to-connect analog-audio connectors between the laptop PC and the docking station are eliminated. Analog-digital converter audio CODEC'"'"'s are placed in both the docking station and in the laptop PC. A master mixer in the laptop PC mixes digital audio from the external audio controller in the docking station with digital audio from an external audio controller inside the laptop PC. The master mixer also connects to a zoom-video audio port and to an internal PCI bus for storing and retrieving audio clips. Audio from external docking-station sources and from internal sources can be freely mixed with the master mixer connected to local mixers in the audio controllers. Audio can be simultaneously played to both internal and external docking-station speakers.
73 Citations
19 Claims
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1. An audio system for a portable personal computer (PC) comprising:
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an internal audio controller for generating internal digital audio;
an internal analog-digital converter for converting internal digital audio from the internal audio controller to analog audio for playing on an internal speaker;
a docking-station connector for connecting the portable PC to a docking station, the docking-station connector containing high-speed digital signals for communicating data, address, and control to an expansion bus in the docking station, the expansion bus for receiving expansion cards to expand functions performed by the portable PC when the portable PC is connected to the docking station through the docking-station connector;
an external digital-audio link, using digital signals in the docking-station connector, for sending the internal digital audio generated by the internal audio controller to the docking station, and wherein digital-audio signals are sent over the external digital-audio link thorough the docking-station connector, whereby digital audio is generated inside the portable PC and transmitted as digital audio signals to the docking station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
from the portable PC to the docking station, whereby only digital audio signals and not analog audio signals are transmitted to and from the docking station. -
3. The audio system of claim 2 further comprising:
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a master mixer, coupled to the internal audio controller and coupled to the external digital-audio link, for receiving external digital audio from the docking station and mixing the external digital audio with internal digital audio from the internal audio controller to generate composite digital audio, wherein the composite digital audio is mixed from the external digital audio from the docking station and the internal digital audio from the internal audio controller.
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4. The audio system of claim 3 wherein the internal analog-digital converter is coupled to a built-in microphone and to built-in speakers, the internal analog-digital converter converting analog audio from the built-in microphone to digital audio and converting digital audio to analog audio for playing on the built-in speakers.
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5. The audio system of claim 4 wherein the internal audio controller further comprises a music synthesizer for generating the digital audio under program control.
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6. The audio system of claim 5 wherein the internal audio controller further comprises an internal mixer receiving digital audio converted by the internal analog-digital converter from the built-in microphone, the internal mixer also receiving digital audio from the music synthesizer and digital audio from the master mixer, the internal mixer generating a second composite audio stream from microphone, music synthesizer, and master-mixer audio inputs,
the second composite audio stream being sent to the master mixer for further mixing with external audio sources, whereby audio mixing is performed by the internal audio controller and by the master mixer. -
7. The audio system of claim 3 wherein the master mixer is further coupled to an internal bus, the internal bus coupled to storage means for storing digital audio,
whereby the composite digital audio is sent from the master mixer to the internal bus for storage by the storage means. -
8. The audio system of claim 7 wherein the storage means is a hard disk or a main memory.
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9. The audio system of claim 7 wherein the internal bus is a PCI bus and wherein the expansion bus is a PCI bus, and wherein the docking-station connector includes address, data, and control signals for connecting the internal bus to the expansion bus.
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10. The audio system of claim 7 wherein the external digital-audio link through the docking-station connector comprises a serial data-out line and a serial data-in line and a bit clock for synchronizing serial transfer of digital audio,
whereby bi-directional transfer of serialized digital audio signals occurs in the external digital-audio link to the docking station. -
11. The audio system of claim 10 wherein the external digital-audio link comprises five lines using an AC97 protocol and wherein the external digital-audio link connects to an external analog-digital converter in the docking station, the external analog-digital converter being an AC97 CODEC.
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12. The audio system of claim 7 wherein the master mixer is also connected to receive an audio stream attached to video received from a zoom-video port, the master mixer for mixing the audio stream with the external or internal digital audio.
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13. The audio system of claim 7 further comprising:
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a sound-blaster-compatible MPU401 sound controller in the internal audio controller for generating the internal digital audio under program control;
wherein the docking station does not contain a sound-blaster-compatible sound controller, whereby no resource conflicts exist between the internal audio controller and the docking station.
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14. The audio system of claim 7 wherein the docking-station connector for connecting the portable PC to a docking station is located on a rear panel of the portable PC, the rear panel further comprising:
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a serial-port connector;
a parallel-port connector for connecting the portable PC to a printer; and
a video connector for sending video signals to an external CRT display monitor, wherein the rear panel of the portable PC does not contain any analog-audio connectors and wherein analog-audio signals are not transmitted through the docking-station connector.
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15. A portable audio system for a portable personal computer (PC) comprising:
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internal audio controller means for generating digital audio;
internal analog-digital converter means for converting digital audio from the internal audio controller means to analog audio for playing on an internal speaker means;
docking-station connector means for connecting the portable PC to a docking station, the docking-station connector means containing high-speed digital signals for communicating data, address, and control to a bus in the docking station, the bus for expanding functions performed by the portable PC when the portable PC is connected to the docking station through the docking-station connector means;
external digital-audio link means, using digital signals in the docking-station connector means, for sending the digital audio generated by the internal audio controller means to the docking station, and wherein digital-audio signals are sent over the external digital-audio link means thorough the docking-station connector means, whereby digital audio is generated inside the portable PC and transmitted as digital audio signals to the docking station. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
master mixer means, coupled to the internal audio controller means and coupled to the external digital-audio link means, for receiving external digital audio from the docking station and mixing the external digital audio with digital audio from the internal audio controller means to generate composite digital audio, wherein the composite digital audio is mixed from the external digital audio from the docking station and the digital audio from the internal audio controller means.
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17. The portable audio system of claim 16 wherein the external digital-audio link means through the docking-station connector means comprises serial data-out means for serially transmitting data and serial data-in means for serially receiving data and bit clock means for synchronizing serial transfer of digital audio,
whereby bi-directional transfer of serialized digital audio signals occurs in the external digital-audio link means to the docking station. -
18. The portable audio system of claim 17 wherein the internal analog-digital converter means is coupled to a built-in microphone and to built-in speakers, the internal analog-digital converter means for converting analog audio from the built-in microphone to digital audio and for converting digital audio to analog audio for playing on the built-in speakers.
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19. The portable audio system of claim 16 wherein the master mixer means further comprises:
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a zoom-video port receiving ZV audio;
ZV scaling and sampling means, coupled to the zoom-video port, for scaling a volume of the ZV audio and altering a sampling rate of the ZV audio to a sampling rate of the digital audio from the internal audio controller means;
transfer means, coupled to ZV scaling means, for transferring ZV audio to a bus for storage; and
ZV mixing means, coupled to the ZV scaling means and to other mixing means in the master mixer means, for mixing the ZV audio with other audio sources received by the master mixer means, whereby the ZV audio is mixed by the master mixer.
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Specification
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Litigation Data
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Current AssigneeEnhanced Audio Systems, LLC (Equitable IP Corporation)
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Original AssigneeNeomagic Corporation
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InventorsDharmarajan, Krishnan C., Agarwal, Suresh
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Primary Examiner(s)Lee, Ping
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Application NumberUS09/418,170Time in Patent Office916 DaysField of Search700/94, 710/303, 710/304, 710/69, 710/70, 381/119US Class Current700/94CPC Class CodesG06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e...G06F 3/162 Interface to dedicated audi...H04R 2205/021 Aspects relating to docking...
