Patent ID: 7567592

Claim:
In a system having a linking unit coupling a multimedia source device arranged to provide multimedia source data to a multimedia display device by way of a plurality of multimedia data packets transmitted at a link rate (LR) over the linking unit, a method of determining a multimedia clock rate (MMC) using the link rate comprising: expressing a master frequency (MF) in terms of a set of MF exponents that includes at least a first exponent MF 1 having a value MF 1 , a second exponent MF 2 having a value MF 2 , a third exponent MF 3 having a value MF 3 , and a fourth exponent MF 4 having a value MF 4 ; expressing the multimedia clock rate (MMC) as a subset of the master frequency (MF) using a set of MMC exponents that includes at least an exponent A having a value A, an exponent B having a value B, an exponent C having a value C, and an exponent D having a value D, wherein the value A≦ the value MF 1 ; the value B≦ the value MF 2 , the value C≦ the value MF 3 , and the value D≦ the value MF 4 ; expressing the link rate (LR) as a subset of the master frequency (MF) using a set of LR exponents that includes at least an exponent A′ having a value A′, an exponent B′ having a value B′, an exponent C′ having a value C, and an exponent D′ having a value D′, wherein the value A′≦ the value MF 1 ; the value B′≦ the value MF 2 , the value C′≦ the value MF 3 , and the value D′≦ the value MF 4 ; and determining the multimedia clock rate (MMC) using the set of MMC exponents and the set of LR exponents; and using the MMC to display an image on the multimedia display device.