Patent ID: 8175171

Claim:
A transmitter for use in a variable-length serial burst data transmission system having the transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter and the receiver being connected by at least two data transmission lines and a burst start line, the transmitter comprising: a dual-rail encoder that during transmitting variable-length serial transmit data made up of binary digits, encodes the transmit data into transmit data symbols, the transmit data symbols each associated with each piece of transmit data in advance, inserts an identification symbol for identifying the transmit data symbols from one another between the transmit data symbols to produce inserted transmit data, encodes the inserted transmit data to produce encoded transmit data, and transmits the encoded transmit data via the two data transmission lines to the receiver, and during non-transmit, transmits a non-transmit symbol representing a non-transmit state via the two data transmission lines to the receiver; and a burst start signal receiving part that receives a burst start signal via the burst start line from the receiver, the burst start signal indicating a start of burst transmission of the variable-length serial transmit data; wherein the dual-rail encoder transmits the identification symbol to the receiver at the start of the burst transmission, and performs the burst transmission of the variable-length serial transmit data in response to the burst request signal receiving part receiving the burst start signal from the receiver in accordance with the transmitted identification symbol.