Patent · US Expired

Variable-length, high-speed asynchronous decoder circuit

US6865668B1 · kind B1 · utility

18Cited by
2References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 30, 1998
Grant dateMar 8, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 30, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N19/61
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

There is disclosed a decoder circuit (20) for decoding input data coded using a variable length coding technique, such as Huffman coding. The decoder circuit (20) comprises an input buffer (100), a logic circuit (150) coupled to the input buffer (100), and an output buffer (700) coupled to the logic circuit (750). The logic circuit (750) includes a plurality of computational logic stages for decoding the input data, the plurality of computational logic stages arranged in one or more computational threads. At least one of the computational threads is arranged as a self-timed ring, wherein each computational logic stage in the ring produces a completion signal indicating either completion or non-completion of the computational logic of the associated computational logic stage. Each completion signal is coupled to a previous computational logic stage in the ring. The previous computational logic stage performs control operations when the completion signal indicates completion and performs evaluation of its inputs when the completion signal indicates non-completion.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.