KEYBOARD USING A HIGH-SPEED MULTIPLEXED SERIAL CONNECTION AND INCORPORATING I/O DEVICE

Abstract: In a personal computer system, the omnipresent keyboard connection is "souped up" by applying to the connection a known high-speed multiplexed serial connection protocol. Peripheral devices are then incorporated into the keyboard, thereby minimizing cable and desktop clutter while providing a full feature set. Examples of peripheral devices that may be included in the keyboard include a PC Card<TM> or Card Bus<TM> slot, a smart card read/write unit, speakers, microphones, etc. Consumers may thereby be afforded a greater degree of choice, since keyboard models are generally easier than computer models to make, ship, and inventory.

Description: 7/50027 PCMJS97/11793 KEYBOARD USING A HIGH-SPEED MULTIPLEXED SERIAL CONNECTION AND INCOPORATING I/O DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to computer I/O for personal computers. 2. State of the Art Personal computing is presently in a state of flux as personal computers having computing power rivaling the mainframe computers of not many years ago become widely available at affordable prices. Available computing power has passed the threshold required for many computationally intensive tasks, making possible multimedia, or media-rich, computing without the need for expensive hardware. Because of strong consumer demand, opportunities for computer hard¬ ware and software companies have seldom seemed brighter, and personal comput¬ ing appears to have nearly taken on the status of a national obsession. The usefulness of personal computers, however, depends on the ability to connect to the computer varied peripheral devices including keyboard, mouse, dis¬ play, printer, scanner, disk drive, modem, speakers, a microphone, etc. A typical computer is provided with specific connectors for many of these devices as well as general-purpose connectors that may serve any of a wide variety of devices. Despite the desirability of such expansion capabilities, the result is often a maze of cables and a crowded, visually distracting work area. To avoid this situation, com¬ puter makers are continually exercising trade-offs between what to include internal to the computer and what to provide external connections for. Still, as the breath¬ taking pace of innovation in personal computers continues, considerable difficulty remains in providing connections to the computer in order to achieve an attractive trade-off between functionality on the one hand and simplicity on the other. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention address the foregoing problem by first recognizing that the one connection already present in the bulk of all desktop systems is a key¬ board connection. The present invention, generally speaking, "soups up" the omni¬ present keyboard connection by applying to the connection a known high-speed multiplexed serial connection protocol. Peripheral devices are then incorporated into the keyboard, thereby minimizing cable and desktop clutter while providing a full feature set. Examples of peripheral devices that may be included in the key¬ board include a PC Card™ or Card Bus™ slot, a smart card read/write unit, speak¬ ers, microphones, etc. Consumers may thereby be afforded a greater degree of choice, since keyboard models are generally easier than computer models to make, ship, and inventory. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The present invention may be further understood from the following description in conjunction with the appended drawing. In the drawing: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a computer keyboard including an i/o device; and Figure 2 is a hardware block diagram of the keyboard of Figure 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to Figure 1, a perspective view is shown of a keyboard 100 in accordance with one aspect of the invention. In an illustrated embodiment, the keyboard 100 does not differ substantially from a conventional keyboard in the arrangement or feel of the keys. Keys are arrayed in three principle areas of the keyboard, including a "QUERTY" area 101, a function-key area 103, and a numeric keypad area 105. In operation as a keyboard therefore, the keyboard 100 may be indistinguishable from a conventional keyboard. Unlike a conventional keyboard, however, the keyboard 100 incorporates additional features that further enhance its operation and increase its value and util¬ ity. Although multiple such features are illustrated in Figure 1 for purposes of illus- tration, a given keyboard may include from only one such feature to many such features, depending on the particular model of the keyboard. Along an edge of a keyboard housing 107 may be located one or more slots (109, 111) to receive record-bearing media. These media may include, for exam¬ ple, a PC Card™ or Card Bus™ Card, a smart card, a credit card or other card pro¬ vided with a magnetic stripe, etc. Of particular advantage is a slot for receiving a hybrid card reader capable of reading both a smart card and a magnetic card and housed in the form of a PC Card. Various aspects of such a hybrid card reader are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents, incoφorated herein by reference: 5,331,138, 5,375,037 and 5,625,534. On a top surface of the keyboard 100, above the function keys, for exam¬ ple, there may be provided a speaker grill 113, to accommodate one or more com¬ puter speakers, and a microphone 115. Referring to Figure 2, a hardware block diagram is shown of the keyboard of Figure 1. A serial port protocol engine 203 is coupled to a serial port connector 201 of the keyboard. The serial port protocol engine 203 may realize any of a num¬ ber of high-speed serial interconnect standard that provide for multiple simulta¬ neous digital data streams, including GeoPort™, Universal Serial Bus™ (USB.), etc. Further details concerning the GeoPort High Speed Serial Interface Protocol may be found in U.S. Patent 5,515,373, incorporated herein by reference. The pro¬ tocol engine may range in complexity from simple to complex. In one embodi¬ ment, the protocol engine is simple and easily realized. The data from the different devices is packetized (i.e., placed in "envelopes") and distinguished using different headers (i.e., different "address labels"). Within the computer, the data may be sorted out and processed appropriately (no aspect of which forms part of the present invention). The serial port protocol engine 203 is coupled to an I/O controller 205. The I/O controller 205 includes circuitry to satisfy the particularized I/O requirements of each I/O device within the keyboard, and may be realized as an Application- Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), for example. As described previously, the I/O devices may include, in addition to conventional keyboard logic 207, a PC Card™ or Card Bus™ socket 213, a smart card read/write unit 215, a magnetic stripe reader 217, a speaker 221, a microphone 223, etc. The speaker and the microphone are preferably connected to the I/O controller through a sound chip 219, such as an audio codec. It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essen¬ tial character thereof. The presently disclosed embodiments are therefore consid¬ ered in all respects to be illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalents thereof are intended to be embraced therein.

Claims: What is claimed is: 1. A computer keyboard, comprising: means for multiplexing digital data relating to multiple distinct I/O devices into a single serial data stream; an I/O controller coupled to the means for multiplexing; and multiple distinct I/O devices coupled to the I/O controller, one of the multiple I/O devices being keyboard logic. 2. The apparatus of Claim 1, wherein another of said multiple distinct I/O devices is one of the following: an IC card slot, a smartcard reader, and a mag¬ netic card reader. 3. A computer system, comprising: a serial port; and coupled to the serial port, a computer keyboard, the computer key¬ board including keyboard logic and at least one other distinct I/O device, and means for multiplexing digital data relating to the multiple distinct I/O devices into a single serial data stream. 4. The apparatus of Claim 3, wherein said at least one other distinct I/O device includes one of the following: an IC card slot, a smartcard reader, and a magnetic card reader. 5. A method of communicating between a computer and multiple peripheral devices, comprising the steps of: providing multiple peripheral devices within a keyboard enclosure; multiplexing digital data relating to the multiple distinct I/O devices into a single serial data stream; and inputting the single serial data stream to a serial port of the com- b puter. 6. The method of Claim 5, wherein said multiple distinct I/O devices includes keyboard logic. 7. The method of Claim 6, wherein said multiple distinct I/O devices includes one of the following: an IC card slot, a smartcard reader, and a magnetic card reader.

Inventors: URE MICHAEL J, URE, MICHAEL, J.
Applicants: URE MICHAEL J, URE, MICHAEL, J.
Application year: 1997
Main classification: G06F
IPC codes: G06F3, G06F13