Patent Publication Number: US-2007099466-A1

Title: Information processing apparatus and electronic device system

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-317742, filed Oct. 31, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
     BACKGROUND  
      1. Field  
      One embodiment of the invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an electronic device system having a contact for data communication interface, which can be driven by the power supplied from the outside.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      When a notebook computer is used indoors, generally an external power supplied through an AC adaptor is used. At the same time, a USB mouse may be used by connecting to a USB connector provided in the computer.  
      In this case, the AC adaptor and the USB mouse have to be individually connected to the computer, which is troublesome.  
      Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-201204 discloses a cell phone which is driven by the secondary battery charged by using the DC output supplied from a USB terminal. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
      A general architecture that implements the various feature of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.  
       FIG. 1  is an exemplary perspective view showing an example of the structure of a notebook-sized personal computer and a relay adaptor (electronic device) having a USB hub function and an AC adaptor function, as the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention;  
       FIG. 2  is an exemplary view showing the structure of a connector provided in a computer side and a plug provided in a cable side;  
       FIG. 3  is an exemplary view showing the plug having an ordinary power feeding electrode only;  
       FIG. 4  is an exemplary block diagram showing the system structure of a computer and a relay adaptor;  
       FIG. 5  is an exemplary block diagram showing the system structure of the computer and the relay adaptor;  
       FIG. 6  is an exemplary view showing the connector having a terminal for transmitting DVI;  
       FIG. 7  is an exemplary perspective view showing one example of the structure of the notebook-sized personal computer, the relay adaptor, and the external display as an information processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention;  
       FIG. 8  is an exemplary block diagram showing the system structure of the computer and the relay adaptor; and  
       FIG. 9  is an exemplary block diagram showing the structure of the relay adaptor having a power communication function. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      Various embodiments according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to one embodiment of the invention, an information processing apparatus includes a body, and a connector provided in the body and including a power receiving terminal and a contact for a data communication interface, the connector exclusively be connected to a first plug and the second plug, the first plug having a first power feeding electrode connectable to the power receiving terminal, and the second plug having a second power feeding electrode connectable to the power receiving terminal and a signal terminal connectable to the contact.  
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view showing one example of the structure of a notebook-sized personal computer and a relay adaptor (electronic device) having a USB hub function and an AC adaptor function as the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the invention.  
      The computer  10  is connected to the relay adaptor  200  through one cable  210 . This cable includes a DC power line for supplying power to the computer and a USB line for connecting the computer to a USB hub function. Generally, two cables are required: one for supplying a DC power to a computer and the other for connecting the computer to the USB hub. The system of this embodiment, however, has only one cable to do both DC power supply and USB signal transmission.  
      A power plug  211  is connected to an AC outlet (power line receptacle), to supply the AC power to the relay adaptor  200 . A USB mouse  212  is also connected to the relay adaptor  200 .  
      The structure of a connector provided in the side of a computer  10  and a plug provided in the side of the cable  210  will be described referring to  FIG. 2 . The plug (second plug) of the cable  210  has a cylindrical ground electrode  301 , a power feeding electrode  302 , and a USB signal pin  303  as a signal terminal. The USB signal pin  303  is provided two terminals for DataNegative and for DataPositive.  
      The power feeding electrode  302  is provided inside the cylindrical ground electrode  301 . The end face of the power feeding electrode  302  is inside the end face of the ground electrode  301 . The USB signal pin  303  is provided outside the cylindrical ground electrode  301 . The end face of the USB signal pin  303  is inside the end face of the power feeding electrode  302 .  
      The connector of the computer has a ground terminal  312  to be connected to the ground electrode  301 , a power receiving terminal  311  to be connected to the power feeding electrode  302 , and a USB signal contact  313  to be connected to the USB signal pin  303 .  
      When the plug is put into the computer  10 , first the ground electrode  301  is connected to the ground terminal  312 , then the power feeding electrode  302  is connected to the power receiving terminal  311 , and finally the USB signal pin  303  is connected to the USB signal contact  313 . Thus, connections are established in this order, hence to stabilize the operation of the computer.  
      It is also possible to insert a plug (first plug) having only the ordinal power feeding electrode  302  with no USB signal pin, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , into the connector of the computer side.  
      This time, the system structure of the computer  10  and the relay adaptor  200  will be described referring to  FIG. 4 .  
      As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the computer includes a CPU  111 , a north bridge  112 , a main memory  113 , a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)  114 , a south bridge  119 , a BIOS-ROM  120 , a hard disk drive (HDD)  122 , an embedded controller/keyboard controller IC (EC/KBC)  124 , and the like.  
      The CPU  111  is a processor provided in order to control the operation of this computer  10 , running the operating system (OS) and various application programs loaded from the hard disk drive  122  to the main memory  113 .  
      The CPU  111  also executes the BIOS (Basic Input output system) program stored in the BIOS-ROM  120 . The BIOS-ROM  120  is a program for controlling the hardware.  
      The north bridge  112  is a bridge device which connects the local bus of the CPU  111  to the south bridge  119 . The north bridge  112  incorporates a memory controller which access-controls the main memory  113 . It also has a function of conducting communications with the GPU  114  through the AGP (Accelerated Graphics port) bus.  
      The GPU  114  is a display controller which controls a LCD  17  used as a display monitor of this computer  10 . This GPU  114  has a video memory (VRAM), and produces video signals forming display images to be displayed on the LCD  17  of the display unit  12 , from the display data written in the video memory by the OS/application programs.  
      The south bridge  119  controls the respective devices on a LPC (Low Pin Count) bus. It incorporates an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) controller, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) controller, and a USB controller so as to control the hard disk drive (HDD)  122 .  
      The embedded controller/keyboard controller IC (EC/KBC)  124  is a one-chip microcomputer into which an embedded controller for managing the power and a keyboard controller for controlling a keyboard (KB)  13  and a touch pad  16  are integrated. This embedded controller/keyboard controller IC (EC/KBC)  124  has a power on/off function of turning the computer  10  on/off in cooperation with a power controller  125  according to a user&#39;s operation of a power button  14 .  
      The power controller  125  produces a system power to be supplied to each component of the computer  10 , using the external power (DC power) supplied from the relay adaptor  200 . It also produces a system power to be supplied to each component of the computer  10 , using an incorporated battery  125 A of this controller.  
      The relay adaptor  200  has an AC/DC converter  201  which converts the AC voltage entered from the power plug  211  into the DC voltage (Direct Current signal). The D/C voltage converted by the AC/DC converter  201  is supplied to the USB hub  202  as the communication unit and also to the computer  10  as the external power.  
      A contact to the DVI interface may be provided within the connector so that one cable can transmit the USB data, supply the external power to the computer  10 , and transmit the video signals to it. In this case, as illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the GPU  114  can supply the video signals to the connector and the relay adaptor  200  has to be provided with a DVI connector  221 .  
      For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 6 , the connector of the computer is provided with the power feeding terminal  311 , two signal contacts  313 A and  313 B for USB Data Negative and USB Data Positive, and two second contacts  316 A and  316 B for video signal transmission according to the DVI standard. Although the video signals according to the DVI standard need a three-channel data link connection and a six-channel data link connection depending on the display area of the corresponding display, this embodiment uses a channel of parallel-to-serial converted signals so as to realize a 3/6 channel data link connection by one or two lines.  
      As illustrated in  FIG. 7 , this structure enables the DVI cable  222  to connect the external display  300  and the relay adaptor  200 , hence to route the cables neatly.  
      When the communication speed of the USB interface speeds up, the video signals can be transmitted by using the USB I/F. In this case, as illustrated in  FIG. 8 , the computer  10  is provided with a converter  150  for converting the video signals in order to transit the same signals through the USB. Further, the relay adaptor  200  is provided with the connector  221  of the DVI interface for video signal transmission and a converter  203  which converts the USB signals into the DVI transmission signals.  
      A modem of power line communication may be provided within the relay adaptor and the computer  10  may be connected to a network by using the USB interface. The structure with the power line communication modem provided within the relay adaptor is shown in  FIG. 9 .  
      As illustrated in  FIG. 9 , the power plug  211  is connected to the AC outlet (power line receptacle)  230  and connected to the power line  240  in the house. A coupler (CT)  206  has a function of dividing the signals supplied from the power plug  211  into the high frequency component and the alternating current component of the power. The high frequency component is supplied to the modem  207  and the alternating current component is supplied to the AC/DC converter  201 . The coupler  206  has a function of supplying the signals output from the modem  207  to the power line  240  through the power plug  211 .  
      The modem  207  has a function of converting the signals supplied from the coupler  206  into the signals in accordance with the physical layer/MAC (Medium Access Control) layer defined in the USB standard and a function of converting the signals supplied from the computer  10  into the signals in accordance with the physical layer/MAC layer of the power line communication. The power controller  208  controls the current amount supplied to the USB hub.  
      The computer  10  can be started and returned from a suspended state by the USB device side connected to the relay adaptor.  
      According to the above-mentioned system, since only one cable has to be connected for external power supply and connection taking along a USB device, the connection work becomes easy and in the transition from the mobile state to the AC adaptor connecting environment, a plurality of connectors don&#39;t have to be connected to the system, hence to improve the user&#39;s convenience.  
      While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.