Patent ID: 6789182
Filing Date: 2004-09-07
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
In an apparatus for collecting events relating to a physical system, an event collection card is configured to receive events from the physical system, the event collection card comprising:a time stamp clock configured to provide a time stamp when each event is received; an event memory configured to store the received events; a sync interface unit configured to receive a sync signal; a sync control unit configured to synchronize the time stamp clock to the sync signal received by the sync interface; and a collection control unit configured to time stamp the collected events according to the time stamp clock synchronized to the sync signal, and for storing the time stamped events in the event memory, wherein the event collection card is configured to send the collected events to a host computer for processing, the event collection card further comprising: a bus interface unit connected to an event collection bus and configured to receive the events and forward the received events to the collection control unit over the event collection bus; a processing unit connected to a local bus and configured to send the collected events to the host computer; and a bus isolation unit configured to allow the event collection bus and the local bus to operate in parallel.