DIGITAL DATA REPRODUCING SYSTEM

Abstract: A digital data reproducing system which carries out quantization by the frequency over the transmission rate with respect to waveform distortion created by a group delay caused by ghost and repeater or the like when digital informa­ tion signals are received to thereby perform waveform equali­ zation, and which carries out interpolation computation to thereby enable data reproduction about equivalent to that quantized by an ideal sampling timing, thus realizing entire digitization of the data reproducing system.

Description: This invention relates to a data reproducing system for digital information signals superposed on television signals. Recently, in television broadcasting, digital signals, such as teletext signals, still image signals and facsimile signals, have been superposed on television signals so as to be transmitted, thereby having commenced various service. On the other hand, the signal processing unit for broadcasting equipment has made progress in digitization, integration, and size-reduction. As disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application JP-A-5566184 the conventional data reproducing system for the teletext signal comprises a waveform shaping circuit, a slicing circuit, a sampling circuit, a bit sync signal sampling circuit, a frequency multiplier circuit, a crystal oscillation exciter circuit, and a clock generator circuit. The bit sync signal sampling circuit samples the bit sync signal (clock run-in signal) from the teletext signal. The frequency multiplier circuit doubles the bit sync signal to be a signal of 5.73 MHz equal to the transmission clock frequency of the teletext signal, the signal of 5.73 MHz exciting a crystal of 5.73 MHz in the crystal oscillation exciter circuit, and thereafter continuing the excitation for one horizontal time period. The output of the exciter circuit is waveform-shaped in the clock generator circuit so as to be outputted as the sampling clock. Also, the television signal binary-coded by the waveform shaping circuit and slicing circuit is outputted in synchronism with the sampling clock to thereby reproduce data of the teletext signal. The television signal, however, is subjected to group delay distortion by ghost images or repeaters during the transmission to receivers, whereby the teletext signal is distorted to largely increase an error rate during the data reproduction in the data reproducing circuit. To cope with the above, a waveform equalizing circuit is used to equalize the waveform of an input signal to the data reproducing circuit, which comprises a plurality of waveform equalizing circuits having different characteristics respectively, and selects the waveform equalizing characteristic by switching the circuits corresponding to the distortion of input signal. The above-mentioned construction, however, is difficult to realize the optimum waveform equalizing characteristic with respect to the waveform distortion generated by a transmission line, because the waveform equalizing circuits are limited in number, and also are inconvenient to automatization because of the switching. On the other hand, as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application JP-A-56166674, there is a waveform equalizing circuit using a transversal filter, which comprises a signal delay element, a signal multiplier, a signal adder, and a tap coefficient correction circuit. The transversal filter comprises a signal delay element, a signal multiplier, and a signal adder circuit. The tap coefficient correction circuit controlling the transmission characteristic of the transversal filter to be of reverse characteristic corresponding to the distortion in the input signal. The conventional data reproducing circuit provided with the waveform equalizing circuit as above has the following problems: (1) The sampling clock is generated only by the bit sync signal of 16 bits, whereby it is difficult to design and adjust a circuit for generating a stable sampling clock for one horizontal time period. (2) The bit sync signal for deciding the sampling clock indicates the accurate sampling information after waveform-equalizing the input signal. When the waveform equalizing circuit is digitized, at first the signal must be sampled and quantized, but for the above reason, the accurate sampling timing is not obtainable before the waveform equalization. An object of the invention is to provide a digital data reproducing system which digitaly performs the waveform equalizing and data reproduction with respect to a digital information signal,such as the teletext signal, superposed on the television signal, thereby improving reliability of the system and realizing size-reduction, non-adjustment and low manufacturing cost. Another object of the invention is to provide a digital data reproducing system which varies a delay time of a delay element constituting a digital filter used as waveform equalizing means and has an offset register, thereby to improve the waveform equalizing capability. The digital data reproducing system of the invention comprises; first clock generating means having a frequency higher than f Hz for producing a first clock, assuming that a transmission rate of an input digital information signal is represented by f b.p.s.; means in synchronism with the first clock for quantizing the digital information signal; means for waveform-equalizing the quantized signal; means for computing phase interpolation with respect to an output of the waveform equalizing means; means for generating a second clock necessary to decode an output of the phase interpolation computing means to obtain a data string; means for detecting from the output signal of the waveform equalizing means a phase difference between an ideal sampling phase and the phase of the first clock from the output of said waveform equalizing means; and interpolation-and-clock control means which transmits a phase interpolation information to the phase interpolation computing means on the basis of an output from the phase difference detection means and which transmits an information for generating the second clock to the second clock generating means. The aforesaid construction will quantize the digital information signal not predictable by the sampling timing by the clock of frequency higher than the transmission rate, and apply waveform-equalization to the digital information signal. Thereafter, the phase interpolation is carried out to reproduce the data string equivalent to that when quantized by the ideal sampling timing, thereby enabling all the signal processings to be digitized so as to realize improved reliability, non-adjustment and large-scale integration, in turn size-reduction and low manufacturing cost of the system. These and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a digital data reproducing system of the invention; Fig. 2 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of a transversal filter; Figs. 3 (A) - (C) are diagrams showing the teletext signal during one horizontal time period and the operation of an offset register; Figs. 4 (A), (B) are shows tap coefficient rows when the transversal filter is switched of its tap intervals, Figs. 5 (A) - (E) are diagrams showing the operation of a phase interpolation computing circuit; Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the phase interpolation computing circuit; Fig. 7 is a circuit diagram showing a modified embodiment of the phase interpolation computing circuit; Figs. 8 (A) - (D) are vector diagrams showing the phase interpolation computation; Fig. 9 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a phase detector, and Fig. 10 is a diagram showing the operation of the phase detector. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 designates an A/D converter, 2 designates a first clock generator, 3 designates a waveform equalizer comprising a digital filter, 4 designates a phase interpolation computing circuit, 5 designates a phase difference detection circuit, 6 designates a clock-and-interpolation control circuit, 7 designates a second clock generator, and 8 designates a signal decoding circuit. Explanation will be given on operation of the digital data reproducing system for the teletext signal superposed on the television signal. The first clock generator 2 generates a first clock of frequency F Hz to satisfy the following relation (1) with respect to a transmission rate f b.p.s. (where f = 5.737272 x 10⁶ for example) of the teletext signal: F > f ..................... (1) The A/D converter 1 quantizes the input signal in synchronism with the first clock, and the waveform equalizer 3 carries out waveform-equalization with respect to a distortion of the input signal. An output of the waveform equalizer 3 is applied to the phase interpolation computing circuit 4 and phase difference detection circuit 5 which detects a phase difference between an ideal sampling phase and the sampling phase by the first clock, and outputs the phase difference information to the clock-and-interpolation control circuit 6. The detection of phase difference for the signal such as the teletext signal having a bit sync signal is performed by using this bit sync. The clock interpolation control circuit 6 outputs the interpolation control information to the phase interpolation computing circuit 4 and the clock control information to the second clock generator 7 according to the phase information. The phase interpolation computing circuit 4 carries out phase shift computation with respect to the output signal of waveform equalizer 3 according to the interpolation control information, thereby obtaining an input signal about equivalent to the sampling signal which would be obtained with the ideal sampling timing. While the second clock generator 7 generates the second clock according to the clock control information, so that the signal decoding circuit 8 generates the teletext signal data from the second clock and the output of the phase interpolation computing circuit 4. Next, explanation will be given of an embodiment of a waveform equalizer composed of a digital filter. Referring to Fig. 2, reference numeral 9 designates an offset register, 10, 11, 12 and 13 designate signal multipliers, 14, 15, 16 and 17 designate signal adding circuits, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 designate signal delay elements, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 designate switches, 31, 32, 33 and 34 designate basic blocks comprising the signal multipliers, signal adding circuits and signal delay elements, and 35 designates a transversal filter comprising a plurality of pairs of the basic blocks. Next, explanation will be given on operation of the basic block 32. The input signal is given to all the signal multipliers. The output of the signal multiplier 11 is given to the signal adding circuit 15 and added to the output of the basic block 31 of the front stage. The output of the signal adding circuit 15, after decision by the switch 28 as to whether the signal delay elements 20 and 21 are selected or only the element 20 is selected, is outputted to the basic block 33 of the following stage. The offset register 9 offsets the dc component generated by the transversal filter with respect to the basic block 34. Next, explanation will be given on operation of the offset register 9, for example, when the input signal is the teletext signal. Referring to Fig. 3-(A), the teletext signal within one horizontal time period is shown, in which a pedestal level Lp generally becomes a zero level, but in order to effectively carry out computation within the A/D conversion range represented by S or within the number of limited bits of the transversal filter, the pedestal level is often offset so that the offset voltage is V₁ as shown. Fig. 3-(B) is a view exemplary of tap gains of the transversal filter, showing that the gains at the delay times t = 0 and t = n are 1 and 1/2 respectively. Fig. 3-(C) shows the output signal when the teletext signal is given to the transversal filter having the tap gains shown in Fig. 3-(B). As seen from Fig. 3-(C), the teletext signal passes through the transversal filter so as to be newly added with the dc component to result in that the offset voltage becomes 1.5 V₁ and leads to an overflow within the transversal filter. Hence, the offset register offsets the dc component to enable effective computation by avoiding the overflow in the transversal filter. In addition, the transversal filter of the embodiment of the invention comprises the basic blocks connected in series, whereby it is possible to add with ease many basic blocks by connecting the switch 26 to the a-terminal. Next, explanation will be given on the characteristic of making variable the delay time for the signal delay element as to a case where the frequency of quantization is made to be 2f Hz, two times the transmission rate f b.p.s. of digital information signal. Fig. 4-(A) shows the tap coefficient series when all the switches are changed over to make the tap interval of the transversal filter twice (1/f) the sampling interval (1/2f). Fig. 4-(B) shows the tap coefficient series when all the switches are changed to equalize the tap interval of the transversal filter to the sampling interval. In Figs. 4-(A) and 4-(B), the axes of abcissa represent the timing axes and the axes of ordinate the tap coefficients respectively, and references M o , ---, M j-1 , M j , M j+1 ---, N o , ---, N 2j-1 , N 2j and N 2j+1 represent values of the coefficients respectively. In a case where the waveform equalization is carried out, a coefficient may be required at an intermediate portion of the tap interval depending on distortion in the signal waveform. If the number of taps is infinite, it is possible to cope with such waveform distortion, but actually, the number of taps is limited by restriction on hardware so that the waveform equalization capability is deteriorated in the high frequency of the amplitude frequency characteristic. Therefore, for the waveform distortion which does not require a large tap coefficient at the intermediate portion of the tap interval, but requires the coefficient at the tap position where the delay time is longer caused by ghost or the like, the waveform equalization is carried out by switching the tap interval to be 1/f as shown in Fig. 4-(A). On the contrary, in a case where a large coefficient is required at the intermediate portion of the tap interval, the tap interval is switched to be 1/2f, thereby carrying out the waveform equalization. Thus, the tap interval is switched to make possible the effective waveform equalization by the limited number of taps. In addition, this invention is not limited to the aforesaid digital transversal filter carrying out the waveform equalization, but a digital filter of any construction may be used. Also, the signal delay elements and switches are not limited to the aforesaid construction, but need only be so constructed that the delay time can be switched to the delay of one clock and of two clocks. The delay time may be switched not to all the taps, but separately to the individual tap. Next, explanation will be given on the phase interpolation computation at the phase interpolation computing circuit 4 in accordance with Fig. 5. In Fig. 5-(A), the teletext signal and the timing for quantization by A/D converter 1 is shown, in which the quantization timing is represented by the mark "X" and the ideal sampling timing by the mark "O". The first clock frequency to decide the quantization timing is 3/2 times (8,59098 MHz) the transmission rate (5,727272M b.p.s.) of teletext signal. Fig. 5-(B) shows the relation between the ideal sampling phase and the quantization timing, in which a circle represents one cycle period of signal of about 2.86 MHz: the maximum transmission frequency component of the teletext signal. In this case, the ideal sampling is carried out on the axis Y. In addition, the quantization timing by the A/D converter 1 is shown by the mark "X" corresponding to Fig. 5-(A). Since the first clock, as above-mentioned, is made 3/2 times the transmission rate of teletext signal, the quantization points, as shown in Fig. 5-(B), exist at three points and the ideal sampling points exist at two points with respect to one cycle period of signal of about 2.86 MHz. Also, the quantization points by the A/D converter 1 are discriminated as phases a, b and c every three quantization points and the ideal sampling points as phases P and q every two sampling points. As seen from Fig. 5-(B), the phase a lags by  relative to the phase P, the phase b leads by (60-) relative to the phase q. Hence, when the filter of phase characteristic as shown in Fig. 5-(C) is used, the signal of phase a is phase-shifted to be identical with the signal of phase P. Fig. 5-(E) shows the relation between the output of phase interpolation computing circuit 4, the first clock, and the second clock, the second clock showing that the signals of phases a and b among the output signals of phase interpolation computing circuit 4 are effective as the reproduced data. As seen from the above, even when the ideal sampling timing and quantization timing of data after the waveform equalization are different from each other, the phase inter polation computing circuit 4 carries out the phase shift computation, hereby the signal about equivalent to that when quantized by the ideal timing, is obtainable. Referring to Fig. 6, an embodiment of the phase interpolation computing circuit is shown, in which reference character DL designates each digital signal delay circuit, M designates each digital multiplier circuit, reference numeral 40 designates a signal adding circuit, these circuits constituting a transversal filter 41, and 42 designates a tap coefficient table to generate a plurality of pairs of tap coefficients (m-3 to m 0 to m 3 ). The tap coefficient table 42 sets therein a necessary number of tap coefficients for example, the tap coefficients of the characteristic in Fig. 5-(D) obtainable of the phase shift characteristic required by the transversal filter 41 by means of the transmission rate of the input digital information signal, first clock frequency, phase difference detection accuracy of phase difference detection circuit 5 in Fig. 1, and signal interpolation errors allowable by the phase interpolation computing circuit 4, the tap coefficients being selected on the basis of interpolation control information from the clock-and-interpolation control circuit 6 in Fig. 4 so as to be the tap coefficients at the transversal filter 41. In Fig. 4, the transversal filter is exemplary as the filter for carrying out signal phase shift computation, but the number of taps and circuitry of the filter are not limited to Fig. 6, but may be of other filter construction or other circuitry when having the phase shift function of the objective signal. Fig. 7 is a circuit diagram of a modified embodiment of the phase interpolation computing circuit, in which reference numeral 57 designates a delay circuit, 51, 52 and 53 designate change-over switches, 54 and 55 designate multipliers of multiplying factor of 1/2 respectively, and 56 designates an adder. Referring to Fig. 8, the switches 51, 52 and 53 are changed over by the interpolation control information, whereby two input signals a and b adjacent to each other are subjected to phase interpolation computation by a signal ratio shown in Figs. 8-(A), 8-(B), 8-(C) and 8-(D). Fig. 8-(A) represents no phase interpolation computation, Fig. 8-(B) represents the phase interpolation computation carried out for a and b by the signal ratio of 1:1/2, Fig. 8-(C) the same by 1:1, and Fig. 8-(D) in case by 1/2:1. Next, explanation will be given on operation of the phase difference detection circuit 5 as to a case where the quantization is carried out by the frequency of 2f Hz, twice the transmission rate f b.p.s. of the given digital information signal. Referring to Fig. 9, an embodiment of the phase differ ence detection circuit 5 is shown, in which reference numerals 60 and 61 designate delay circuits, 62 and 63 designate absolute value circuits respectively, 64 designates an EX-OR gate, 65, 66 and 67 designate subtractors respectively, 68 designates a switch, and 69 and 70 designate multipliers of multiplying factors of 1/4 and 1/2 respectively. In Fig. 10, four sampling points a, b, a' and b' for one cycle period of bit sync signal of the digital information signal, the four sampling points having phase differences of 90° from each other. Reference characters c and c' designate ideal sampling points, ₁ and ₂ designate the phase difference between c and a, and c and b. In addition, a and b will hereinafter be used as the sampling data. In Fig. 9, the absolute value of input signal is obtained by the absolute value circuit. The EX-OR gate 64 outputs the sign information of two adjacent sampling data a and b among the input signals to the clock-and-interpolation control circuit 6. The subtractor 65 obtains a difference |a| - |b| between the absolute values |a| and |b| and the result thereof is outputted the magnitude information to the clock-and-interpolation control circuit 6. The magnitude information and sign information obtained as above are shown in Table 1 (A). Also, the switch 68 is changed over to select a smaller one of absolute values |a| and |b| from the difference |a| - |b| of the absolute values. A difference value between the smaller selected value and the absolute value of ∥a| - |b∥ /4 and that between the difference value |a| - |b| of absolute values and the smaller value are outputted to the clock-and-interpolation control circuit 6. The magnitude information obtained as above is shown in Table 1 (B). The magnitude information and sign information detect a phase difference between the phases of sampling data a and b and the ideal sampling phase. In the aforesaid circuitry, the multiplying factor is not limited to 1/2 or 1/4, and also other circuitry may be used when the phase difference is detectable.

Claims: A digital data reproducing system comprising: a first clock generation means(2) for producing a first clock of a frequency larger than f Hz when the transmission rate of an input digital information signal is represented by f b.p.s.; means (1) for quantizing said input digital information signal in synchronism with said first clock; means (3) for equalizing the waveform of the quantized signal; means (4) for carrying out phase interpolation computation with respect to an output of said waveform equalizing means; means (7) for generating a second clock necessary for decoding an output of said phase interpolation computation means to obtain a data string; means (5) for detecting a phase difference between an ideal sampling phase and the phase of the first clock, from the output of said waveform equalizing means; and interpolation-and-clock control means(6)for transmitting phase interpolation information to said phase interpolation computation means(4)according to an output of said phase difference detection means and transmitting information for generating the second clock to said second clock generating means (7). The digital data reproducing system according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of said first clock is 2 f Hz or more. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 1, wherein said waveform equalizing means (3) is a digital filter. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein said waveform equalizing means (3) is provided with a circuit for offsetting a dc component. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 3, wherein said waveform equalizing means (3) is a transversal filter (35) comprising multipliers (10-13) adders (14-17) and delay circuits (18, 19, 27;24, 25, 30). A digital data reproducing system according to claim 5, wherein the delay time of said delay circuits (18, 19, 27;24, 25, 30) is selected by switches (27-30). A digital data reproducing system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein said delay circuits (18, 19, 27; 24, 25, 30) can be switched between a one clock delay and a two clock delay. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein a delay time of each one of said delay circuits (18, 19, 27;24, 25, 30) is controlled individually. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the delay times of all of said delay circuits (18, 19, 27;24, 25, 30) are controlled uniformly. A digital data reproducing system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said phase interpolation computation means (4) comprises a digital filter (41) and means (42) for storing a plurality of sets of tap coefficients of said digital filter. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 10, wherein said phase interpolation computation means (4) comprises a first multiplier (M) given a quantized input signal string, a delay circuit (L) to delay said input signal string by one clock, a second multiplier (M) given an output of said delay circuit (L), and an adding circuit (40) for adding the outputs of said first and second multipliers. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 10, wherein said phase interpolation computation means (4) comprises: a first multiplier (54, 51) for multiplying one of two adjacent signals of said input signal string by factor of 1 or 1/2; a second multiplier (55, 52, 53) for multiplying the other of said two adjacent signals by a factor of 1, 1/2 or 0; and an adding circuit (56) for adding outputs of said first and second multipliers, said factors of said first and second multipliers being selected by an output from said control circuit. A digital data reproducing system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said phase difference detection means (5) detects a phase difference from said first clock according to the magnitude relation between two signals in a bit sync signal. A digital data reproducing system according to claim 13 , wherein said phase difference detection means (5) comprises a multiplier circuit to multiply signs of two adjacent signals in said bit sync signal of the input signal string, a first absolute value circuit (62) for obtaining the absolute values of said two signals, a second absolute value circuit(63) for obtaining the absolute value of a difference between the absolute values of said two signals, a selecting circuit (68) to select a smaller absolute value of the absolute values of said two signals, a first comparator circuit(67)to compare magnitudes of 1/4 of the output of said second absolute circuit(63)with the output of said selecting circuit (68), and a second comparator circuit(66)to compare magnitudes of the output of said second absolute value circuit(63) with 1/2 of the output of said selecting circuit(66),so, that the output of said multiplying circuit, the outputs of said first and second comparator circuits, and the magnitude information of said first comparator circuit are outputted to said interpolation-and-clock control circuit. A digital data reproducing system according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein said phase difference detection means (5) detects a phase difference from said first clock from a byte sync signal.

Inventors: KOBO, KAZUO, MOROTOMI, NORIAKI, SATO, TAKESHI
Applicants: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Application year: 1985
Main classification: H04N7
IPC codes: H04N7