Appeal No. 1998-3326 Page 3
Application No. 08/498,819
The appellants’ microcomputer features a built-in SIO
circuit. The SIO circuit uses a counter to count a basic
input clock signal. Via switches and a gate, the counter
supplies a transfer clock signal to an SIO register.
Responsive to an external signal from another microcomputer on
a data bus, an initialization circuit comprising flip-flops
resets the counter. Because the initialization circuit
immediately resets the counter in response to a change in the
external signal, delay in detection of the start bit on the
bus is decreased and timing between the microcomputers is
synchronized.
Claim 9, which is representative for our purposes,
follows:
9. A microcomputer comprising:
a serial I/O register for performing data
conversion;
a built-in serial input-output circuit
comprising a resettable counter for counting a basic
clock signal and supplying a transfer clock signal
to the serial input-output register; and
flip-flop circuits responsive to an external
signal for resetting said counter circuit.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007