Abstract:
The integrated circuit package according to the present invention comprises: a plurality of functioning units operable to perform processing on input data and output a result of the processing; a plurality of antenna units each of which is positioned to (i) receive radio-transmitted data from at least another one of the plurality of antenna units by radio and (ii) transmit data to at least another one of the plurality of antenna units by radio; a first switching unit operable to selectively connect output of a first functioning unit, which is one of the plurality of functioning units, and a first antenna unit, which is one of the plurality of antenna units; and a second switching unit operable to selectively connect a second antenna unit, which is positioned to receive the radio-transmitted data from the first antenna unit by radio, and input of a second functioning unit different from the first functioning unit.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an integrated circuit package including multiple functioning units, in particular to a technology for linking the multiple functioning units by radio connections. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     At present, in system LSIs (Large Scale Integration) and other integrated circuit packages including multiple functioning units, the respective functioning units are generally linked by wired connections. 
     However, there is a problem that, as the number of the functioning units becomes greater, the wiring increases in length as well as complexity and comes to occupy much of the area in the integrated circuit, which results in an increase in the size of the circuit. 
     In order to solve this problem, studies have been made on intra-chip radio communication where the functioning units in an integrated circuit package are linked by radio connections. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     For example, it is considered to set up an integrated antenna unit including small antennas and a feed circuit together with each functioning unit, and to link the functioning units by radio connections using radio waves to which some specific directivity have been assigned in order to avoid radio interference. 
     However, in this case, a radio communication path among the functioning units is fixed due to the positions of the functioning units as well as the positions and directivity of the antenna units each set up together with the respective functioning units. This may lead to restrictions on the degrees of freedom in designing an integrated circuit. 
     Accordingly, the present invention aims at offering an integrated circuit package capable of flexibly changing a radio communication path among the functioning units. 
     In order to accomplish the above objective, the integrated circuit package according to the present invention comprises: a plurality of functioning units operable to perform processing on input data and output a result of the processing; a plurality of antenna units each of which is positioned to (i) receive radio-transmitted data from at least another one of the plurality of antenna units by radio and (ii) transmit data to at least another one of the plurality of antenna units by radio; a first switching unit operable to selectively connect output of a first functioning unit, which is one of the plurality of functioning units, and a first antenna unit, which is one of the plurality of antenna units; and a second switching unit operable to selectively connect a second antenna unit, which is positioned to receive the radio-transmitted data from the first antenna unit by radio, and input of a second functioning unit different from the first functioning unit. 
     The integrated circuit package with the above structure enables data, which is output from at least one of the functioning units, to be input to a desired functioning unit via one of the antenna units by switching connection/disconnection between the antenna units and functioning units, in other words, it is capable of changing a radio communication path among the functioning units, which provides the degrees of freedom in designing an integrated circuit. 
     Here, in the above integrated circuit package, each of the plurality of antenna units may include an antenna having directivity in a specific direction. Additionally, the integrated circuit package further comprises a switching configuration unit operable to store property information indicating the directivity of each antenna, positional information indicating a position of each of the plurality of antenna units, and data flow information indicating a flow of data among the plurality of functioning units. The switching configuration unit directs the first and the second switching units to perform the selective connections based on the property information, the positional information and the data flow information. 
     According to the structure, since each antenna unit has specific directivity, the integrated circuit package of the present invention is capable of statically or dynamically switching connection/disconnection between the functioning units and antenna units based on the positional information, property information and data flow information so that radio waves transmitted from the respective antennas do not crosstalk with each other. In addition, the dynamic switching allows space in the same direction to be used for a radio communication path among multiple functioning units. 
     Here, in the above integrated circuit package, the plurality of functioning units may be implemented by a programmable logic device. 
     Herewith, when each functioning unit is reconfigured, the radio communication path can also be changed in response to the reconfiguration. 
     Here, in the above integrated circuit package, the plurality of antenna units may be disposed at outer edges of where the plurality of functioning units is disposed. 
     Herewith, it is possible to minimize incidents of radio waves transmitted from the respective antenna units passing over each functioning unit, which reduces the chance of the radio waves exerting an adverse effect on the functioning units. On the other hand, this prevents each functioning unit from being a hindrance on the radio communication path. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate a specific embodiment of the invention. In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic layout of an integrated circuit package  1  in plane view; 
         FIG. 2  shows an example of an information table; 
         FIG. 3  shows a structure of a switching unit  11 ; 
         FIG. 4  shows a data flow among functioning units in video coding processing; 
         FIG. 5  shows a flow of data transmitted by radio in the video coding processing; 
         FIG. 6  shows a data flow among the functioning units in video decoding processing; 
         FIG. 7  shows a flow of data transmitted by radio in the video decoding processing; and 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic partial cross section of the vicinity of an antenna unit  21  in the integrated circuit package  1 . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described below with the aid of the drawings. 
     1. Structure 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic layout of an integrated circuit package  1  in plane view. 
     The integrated circuit package  1  comprises a switching configuration unit  2 , functioning units  3  to  8 , switching units  11  to  16  and antenna units  21  to  32 . 
     The integrated circuit package  1  is an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), and reconfigures the function details of each functioning unit  3  to  8  by getting connected to an external device such as a PC (Personal Computer) and loading configuration data therefrom. 
     The switching configuration unit  2  is internally provided with memory (not shown in the figure), in which an information table as shown in  FIG. 2  is stored. 
       FIG. 2  shows an information table in which each switching unit provided in the integrated circuit package  1  corresponds to a functioning unit and antenna units whose connection states (i.e. connected or disconnected) can be changed by the switching unit, and positional information and directional information of each of the antenna units. 
     The information table shown in  FIG. 2  indicates, for example, that the connection state of the functioning unit  3  with each of the antenna units  21  and  22  can be changed by the switching unit  11  while the antenna directivity of the antenna unit  21  is in the x direction (a direction to the right in  FIG. 1 ). 
     When the integrated circuit package  1  is connected to the external device, the switching configuration unit  2  accepts input of configuration information for configuring switching of the connection and disconnection between the respective functioning units and antenna units from the external device, stores the configuration information in the memory, and transmits, to each switching unit linked by wire, a connection-state-switch directing signal that directs switching of the connection/disconnection between a functioning unit and its corresponding antenna units based on the configuration information and the information table. 
     The switching unit  11  is connected to the antenna units  21  and  22  and the functioning unit  3  by wire. 
     The switching unit  12  is connected to the antenna units  23  and  24  and the functioning unit  4  by wire. 
     The switching unit  13  is connected to the antenna units  25  and  26  and the functioning unit  5  by wire. 
     The switching unit  14  is connected to the antenna units  27  and  28  and the functioning unit  6  by wire. 
     The switching unit  15  is connected to the antenna units  29  and  30  and the functioning unit  7  by wire. 
     The switching unit  16  is connected to the antenna units  31  and  32  and the functioning unit  8  by wire. 
       FIG. 3  shows a structure of the switching unit  11 . 
     The switching unit  11  is composed of switch circuits  41  to  45 . 
     Each of the switch circuits  41  to  43  is a circuit for performing switching between two modes—on and off, while each of the switch circuits  44  and  45  is a circuit for performing switching over three modes—connected to an output terminal of the functioning unit  3 , connected to an input terminal of the functioning unit  3 , and disconnected from both terminals. 
     For example, when a connection-state-switch directing signal is send from the switching configuration unit  2  to the switching unit  11  so as to transmit the output of the functioning unit  3  from the antenna unit  21  by radio, the switching unit  11  connects the switch circuit  45  to the output terminal of the functioning unit  3  and sets the switch circuit  41  to the “on” mode. 
     The switching units  12  to  16  have the same structure as the switching unit  11  above, and therefore their descriptions are omitted here. 
     The antenna units  21  to  32  respectively have antennas each having specific directivity. The direction of an arrow in each antenna unit shown in  FIG. 1  represents the antenna directivity of the antenna unit. 
     The antenna units  21  and  22 , whose connection states with the functioning unit  3  can be respectively changed by the switching unit  11 , are positioned close to the functioning unit  3 . 
     The antenna units  23  and  24 , whose connection states with the functioning unit  4  can be respectively changed by the switching unit  12 , are positioned close to the functioning unit  4 . 
     The antenna units  25  and  26 , whose connection states with the functioning unit  5  can be respectively changed by the switching unit  13 , are positioned close to the functioning unit  5 . 
     The antenna units  27  and  28 , whose connection states with the functioning unit  6  can be respectively changed by the switching unit  14 , are positioned close to the functioning unit  6 . 
     The antenna units  29  and  30 , whose connection states with the functioning unit  7  can be respectively changed by the switching unit  15 , are positioned close to the functioning unit  7 . 
     The antenna units  31  and  32 , whose connection states with the functioning unit  8  can be respectively changed by the switching unit  16 , are positioned close to the functioning unit  8 . 
       FIG. 8  is a schematic partial cross section of the vicinity of the antenna unit  21  in the integrated circuit package  1 . 
     The antenna unit  21  comprises antennas  83   a  and  83   b  and a feed circuit  84 . 
     The antennas  83   a  and  83   b  are long conductor strips, and are formed within an insulating layer  81 , parallel to each other in a direction perpendicular to the main surface of the integrated circuit package  1 . That is to say, they are so-called microstrip antennas. 
     The feed circuit  84  is formed in a silicon layer  82 , and supplies power to the antenna  83   a  to be thereby a radiating element while supplying no power to the antenna  83   b  to be thereby a wave director. Herewith, the antenna unit  21  obtains the antenna directivity in the x direction (a direction to the right in  FIGS. 1 and 8 ). 
     The antenna units  22  to  32  all have the same structure as the antenna unit  21  above, although each having different directivity, and therefore their descriptions are omitted here. 
     Note that the antenna units  23  and  29  respectively have the antenna directivity in the direction of ±x (directions to the right and left in  FIG. 1 ), which is achieved by switching the directivity of a pair of two antennas by supplying power to one of the two and not to the other. 
     2. Operations 
     Here is described an example of specific operations of the integrated circuit package  1 . 
     The integrated circuit package  1  loads configuration data from the external device to thereby reconfigure the respective functioning units  3  to  8  into functioning units performing the following processes, and conducts video coding/decoding processing: the functioning unit  3  into a functioning unit performing image input filtering; the functioning unit  4  into a functioning unit performing image output filtering; the functioning unit  5  into a functioning unit performing motion detection/motion compensation; the functioning unit  6  into a functioning unit performing quantization/dequantization; the functioning unit  7  into a functioning unit performing variable length coding/variable length decoding; and the functioning unit  8  into a functioning unit performing discrete cosine transform (referred to hereinafter as “DCT”)/inverse discrete cosine transform (“IDCT”). 
       FIG. 4  shows a data flow among the functioning units in the video coding processing. 
     First, the functioning unit  3  performs a filtering process for improving image quality of coding target video data that is input from an outside source (Step S 1 ). Data, after the filtering process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  5  by radio. 
     Then, the functioning unit  5  performs a motion detection process on images contained in the filtering-processed data (Step S 2 ). Data, after the motion detection process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  8  by radio. 
     The functioning unit  8  performs a DCT process on difference data obtained by the motion detection process (Step S 3 ). Data, after the DCT process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  6  by radio. 
     The functioning unit  6  performs a quantization process on transformation coefficient data obtained by the DCT process (Step S 4 ). Data, after the quantization process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  7  by radio. 
     The functioning unit  7  performs a variable length coding process on the quantized transformation coefficient data after the quantization process (Step S 5 ). 
     The user creates configuration information for the video coding processing based on the data flow from Steps S 1  to S 5  described above, and inputs this to the switching configuration unit  2  via an external device. 
     The input configuration information is, specifically speaking, information indicating that output data of the functioning unit  3  is to be input to the functioning unit  5 , output data of the functioning unit  5  is to be input to the functioning unit  8 , output data of the functioning unit  8  is to be input to the functioning unit  6 , and output data of the functioning unit  6  is to be input to the functioning unit  7 . 
     The switching configuration unit  2  transmits the following connection-state-switch directing signals to the respective switching unit  11 ,  12 ,  13 ,  15  and  16  based on the input configuration information and the pre-stored information table. The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  11  is for connecting the output of the functioning unit  3  to the antenna unit  21  and disconnecting the input and output of the functioning unit  3  from the antenna unit  22 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  12  is for disconnecting the input and output of the functioning units  4  from both the antenna units  23  and  24 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  13  is for connecting the input of the functioning unit  5  to the antenna unit  25  and connecting the output of the functioning unit  5  to the antenna unit  26 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  16  is for connecting the input of the functioning unit  8  to the antenna unit  32  and connecting the output of the functioning unit  8  to the antenna unit  31 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  15  is for connecting the input of the functioning unit  7  to the antenna unit  29 . 
     Additionally, the switching configuration unit  2  alternately transmits, to the switching unit  14  at a predetermined timing, a connection-state-switch directing signal for connecting the input of the functioning unit  6  to the antenna unit  27  and a connection-state-switch directing signal for connecting the output of the functioning unit  6  to the antenna unit  27  so that the connections between the input and output of the functioning unit  6  and the antenna unit  27  are dynamically switched. 
       FIG. 5  shows a flow of data transmitted by radio in the video coding processing. Dotted arrows in the figure represent a flow of data among the functioning units. 
     Next is described the video decoding processing. 
       FIG. 6  shows a data flow among the functioning units in the video decoding processing. 
     First, the functioning unit  7  performs a variable length decoding process on a variable length coded bitstream, which is input from an outside source, to obtain coding parameters and quantized transformation coefficient data (Step S 11 ). Data, after the variable length decoding process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  6  by radio. 
     Then, the functioning unit  6  performs a dequantization process on the quantized transformation coefficient data obtained by the variable length decoding process (Step S 12 ). Data, after the dequantization process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  8  by radio. 
     The functioning unit  8  performs an IDCT process on a transformation coefficient obtained by the dequantization process (Step S 13 ). Data, after the IDCT process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  5  by radio. 
     The functioning unit  5  performs a motion compensation process for acquiring decoded images from difference image data obtained by the IDCT process and reference images (Step S 14 ). Data, after the motion compensation process, is transmitted to the functioning unit  4  by radio. 
     The functioning unit  4  performs a filtering process on the decoded images obtained by the motion compensation process in order to improve the image quality (Step S 15 ). 
     The user creates configuration information for the video decoding processing based on the data flow from Steps S 11  to S 15  described above, and inputs this to the switching configuration unit  2  via an external device, as in the case of the above-mentioned video coding processing. 
     The input configuration information is, specifically speaking, information indicating that output data of the functioning unit  7  is to be input to the functioning unit  6 , output data of the functioning unit  6  is to be input to the functioning unit  8 , output data of the functioning unit  8  is to be input to the functioning unit  5 , and output data of the functioning unit  5  is to be input to the functioning unit  4 . 
     The switching configuration unit  2  transmits the following connection-state-switch directing signals to the respective switching unit  11 ,  12 ,  13 ,  15  and  16  based on the input configuration information and the pre-stored information table. The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  11  is for disconnecting the input and output of the functioning unit  3  from both the antenna units  21  and  22 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  12  is for connecting the input of the functioning unit  4  to the antenna unit  23  and disconnecting the input and output of the functioning units  4  from the antenna unit  24 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  15  is for connecting the output of the functioning unit  7  to the antenna unit  29  and disconnecting the input and output of the functioning unit  7  from the antenna unit  30 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  16  is for connecting the input of the functioning unit  8  to the antenna unit  31  and connecting the output of the functioning unit  8  to the antenna unit  32 . The connection-state-switch directing signal transmitted to the switching unit  13  is for connecting the input of the functioning unit  5  to the antenna unit  26  and connecting the output of the functioning unit  5  to the antenna unit  25 . 
     Additionally, the switching configuration unit  2  alternately transmits, to the switching unit  14  at a predetermined timing, a connection-state-switch directing signal for connecting the input of the functioning unit  6  to the antenna unit  27  and a connection-state-switch directing signal for connecting the output of the functioning unit  6  to the antenna unit  27  so that the connections between the input and output of the functioning unit  6  and the antenna unit  27  are dynamically switched. 
       FIG. 7  shows a flow of data transmitted by radio in the video decoding processing. Dotted arrows in the figure represent a flow of data among the functioning units. 
     As has been described, the integrated circuit package  1  is capable of flexibly changing a radio communication path among the functioning units. 
     3. Additional Particulars 
     It goes without saying that the present invention is not confined to the above-mentioned embodiment, and the following is also included in the present invention. 
     [1] The present invention is applicable not only to FPGAs but also to other programmable LSIs, or to nonprogrammable, common LSIs. In addition, the present invention may be applied to only part of the integrated circuit package. 
     [2] When a new technology for integrated circuits that takes over the current semiconductor technology is introduced as a result of progress in the semiconductor technology or by semiconductor-derived technologies, the present invention can be applied to an integrated circuit package in which functional blocks are integrated by using such a newly launched technology. 
     [3] According to the above embodiment, data which is output from the functioning unit  3  can be input to the functioning unit  8 . Specifically speaking, this is achieved by: connecting the output of the functioning unit  3  to the antenna unit  21  by the switching unit  11 ; connecting the antenna units  24  and  26  to one another by the switching unit  13 ; and connecting the antenna unit  32  and the input of the functioning unit  8  by the switching unit  16 , or, alternatively, by: connecting the output of the functioning unit  3  to the antenna unit  22  by the switching unit  11 ; connecting the antenna units  28  and  27  by the switching unit  14 ; and then connecting the antenna  31  to the input of the functioning unit  8  by the switching unit  16 . 
     [4] Although microstrip antennas are used in the above embodiment, directional antennas having other structures may be applied, instead. 
     [5] Although, in the above embodiment, the integrated circuit package  1  loads the configuration data in response to a direction from an external device, such as a PC, the present invention is not confined to this case. For example, the integrated circuit package  1  may internally have a control function to load the configuration data, and may load the configuration data from an external memory storing it, according to the control function. 
     Although the present invention has been fully described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, unless such changes and modifications depart from the scope of the present invention, they should be constructed as being included therein.