Apple patent involves pair crossover on serial bus
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jul 15, 2008 at 9:29am
An Apple patent (number 7401173) for a method and apparatus for automatic detection and healing of signal pair crossover on a high performance serial bus has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The invention relates to data communications. In particular, the present invention relates to automatic detection of signal pair crossover on a high performance serial bus system.
An automatic crossover and healing process is disclosed for the P1394b standard. In particular, a crossover process is disclosed which comprises coupling the transmitting logic of a PHY to TPA, and coupling the receive logic of a PHY to TPB. The inventor is Colin Whitby-Strevens.
Here’s Apple’s background on the invention: “The IEEE 1394-1995 standard has revolutionized the consumer electronics industry by providing a serial bus management system that featured high speeds and the ability to ‘hot’connect equipment to the bus; that is, the ability to connect equipment without first turning off the existing connected equipment. Since its adoption, the IEEE 1394-1995 standard has begun to see acceptance in the marketplace with many major electronics and computer manufacturers providing IEEE 1394-1995 connections on equipment that they sell.
“However, as technologies improved, the need to update the IEEE 1394-1995 standard became apparent. A new standard is being proposed at the time of the filing of this application, herein referred to as the P1394b standard. Improvements such as higher speeds and longer connection paths will be provided. It is contemplated at the time of this filing that cable lengths of up to 100 meters may be possible using the P1394b standard. Furthermore, the connections between 1394 devices may be established using wiring previously installed in buildings compliant with appropriate regulatory codes.”
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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