Patent ID: 8117370

Claim:
An integrated circuit (IC) for a handheld computing unit to facilitate docking to an extended computing unit in one of a plurality of docking modes, the IC comprises: a processing module; on-chip memory; one or more block input/output (I/O) interfaces for coupling to one or more off-chip block I/O devices; one or more character I/O interfaces for coupling to one or more off-chip character I/O devices when active; a main memory interface for coupling to off-chip main memory; a baseband processing module coupled to convert outbound data into an outbound symbol stream and to convert an inbound symbol stream into inbound data; a radio frequency (RF) section coupled to convert the outbound symbol stream into an outbound RF signal and to convert an inbound RF signal into the inbound symbol stream; a processing module interface for coupling the processing module to an off-chip connection structure, wherein, when the handheld computing unit that includes the IC is docked to the extended computing unit in the one of a plurality of docking modes, the off-chip connection structure couples the handheld computing unit to the extended computing unit wherein, when the IC is in a remote mode of the one of the plurality of docking modes with respect to the extended computing unit, the one or more character I/O interfaces are active and the processing module interface is inactive, when the IC is in the docked mode of the one of the plurality of docking modes, at least one of the one or more character I/O interfaces is inactive and the processing module interface is active; and when the IC is in a quasi docked mode of the one of the plurality of docking modes, the IC establishes an RF communication path with the extended computing unit and at least one of the one or more block I/O interfaces are active; and an IC bus structure coupled to the processing module, the on-chip memory, the one or more block I/O interfaces, the one or more character I/O interfaces, the main memory interface, and the baseband processing module.