Patent ID: 8261100

Claim:
A power adapter to provide power to a device, comprising: an input port configured to receive power from a power source; a regulator configured to convert the received power from the power source; an output port configured to deliver power from the regulator to the device; and a programmable microprocessor configured to communicate digitally with a communication module associated with the device to determine power requirements of the device, the power requirements of the device being determined based on power adapter-maintained information stored in a memory associated with the microprocessor and device information communicated to the programmable microprocessor from the device via the communication module, wherein the regulator is configured to convert the power from the power source in accordance with the determined power requirements of the device, and wherein the power adaptor communicates digitally with the device using a packet layer protocol via a packet consisting of a 1 byte transmission start segment, a 4 byte vendor/manufacturer identifier segment, a 1 byte message type segment, a payload segment, a 2 byte checksum segment and a 1 byte transmission end segment.