Patent ID: 8027592

Claim:
A method for generating an infrared (IR) signal, comprising: generating a carrier clock signal and a data clock signal, wherein the data clock signal frequency is less than or equal to the carrier clock signal frequency; loading into a buffer a plurality of instructions to be performed in sequential order, each said instruction for producing an element in an encoded data sequence and including corresponding values indicating an on or off value for modulating the carrier clock signal and information corresponding to a pulse duration value; and executing each instruction in the sequential order by performing: applying the corresponding pulse duration value to a control circuit that permits the modulation only for a length of time indicated by the pulse duration value as measured using the data clock signal; modulating the carrier clock signal with the corresponding on or off value for the indicated length of time; and providing the modulated carrier clock signal to an IR emitter, wherein each instruction further comprises validity information indicating whether that instruction is valid, and the method further comprises: providing the validity information to the control circuit; determining whether the validity information for an instruction indicates the instruction is invalid; and disabling modulation of the carrier clock signal if the validity information indicates an invalid instruction.