Patent ID: 8307126

Claim:
A control device having an output pin expansion function, comprising: a control unit for generating a strobe signal, a multi-bit data stream, a clock signal and an enable signal, wherein the control unit has first, second, third, and fourth output pins for outputting the strobe signal, the multi-bit data stream, the clock signal and the enable signal, respectively; a shift register unit having a strobe signal input pin, a data input pin, a clock signal input pin, an enable signal input pin, and a plurality of data output transmission pins to output multi-bit data derived from the multi-bit data stream, wherein the strobe signal input pin, the data input pin, the clock signal input pin, and the enable signal input pin are connected to the first to fourth output pins of the control unit, respectively, and the shift register unit receives the enable signal through the enable signal input pin so as to shift and store each bit of the multi-bit data stream received through the data input pin according to the clock signal, and further receives the strobe signal through the strobe signal input pin so as to output the multi-bit data stream in parallel through the plurality of data transmission pins; a memory connected to the control unit; and software programs stored in the memory for controlling the control unit, wherein the software program counts a number of pulses of the clock signal received by the shift register unit, and the control unit generates the strobe signal when the count of said number of pulses of the clock signal is equal to a predetermined number of bits of the multi-bit data stream, and wherein the control unit changes a level of the strobe signal so as to enable the shift register unit to output the multi-bit data when the count of said number of pulses of the clock signal is equal to the predetermined number of bits of the multi-bit data stream.