CN100382066C - audio control system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides an audio control system with hot plug function and a method thereof, which effectively solve the defect that the known audio control system with high-resolution audio specification can not carry out hot plug and fixed circuit and improve the convenience of users and the time utilization efficiency. The audio control system at least comprises an audio controller, a first audio coder/decoder and a second audio coder/decoder. The audio controller has a first reset signal and a second reset signal, the first audio codec is coupled to the audio controller and receives the first reset signal, and the second audio codec is coupled to the audio controller and receives the second reset signal. The audio controller can selectively enable the first reset signal or the second reset signal to achieve the hot plug function.

Description

Audio Control System and Method

technical field

The present invention relates to an audio control system and method, and in particular to a high definition audio specification (High Definition Audio Specification) audio control system and method.

Background technique

With the popularity of computers, the demand for multimedia computers is getting higher and higher, so that most computers are equipped with sound effect devices for sound output and input. However, the internal operation of the computer is a digital signal, and the sound is an analog signal. Therefore, the audio device for sound output and input must have an analog signal that converts the digital signal into a sound, and converts the sound of the analog signal into a computer. The ability to accept digital signals, this is what is known as an Audio Codec/Decoder (CODEC). On the other hand, the audio codec/decoder is controlled by the audio controller (Audio Controller) to cope with the application of multiple audio codec/decoders in the computer system.

The currently known technology is for example the AC'97 audio system standard proposed by Intel (Intel). ) is improved to avoid the analog signal being interfered by the digital signal of the computer system, thereby improving the audio quality.

Please refer to FIG. 1 . FIG. 1 is a known audio control system, which is an audio control system referring to the high-resolution audio specification proposed by Intel Corporation. The audio control system of the high-resolution audio specification is not compatible with the AC'97 audio system, and the link protocol (Link protocol) and operation method of the two are different from each other. Among them, AC'97 can only support up to six channels in the 48KHz/20bit mode, while the high-resolution audio specification can support up to eight channels in the 192KHz/32bit mode, which has better audio quality. The detailed content about the high-resolution audio specification can be obtained from the website of Intel Corporation, and will not be repeated here.

In FIG. 1 , an audio control system 100 includes an audio controller 10 , an audio encoder/decoder 12 , an audio encoder/decoder 14 and an audio encoder/decoder 16 . The audio controller 10 controls the audio encoder/decoder 12 , the audio encoder/decoder 14 and the audio encoder/decoder 16 through the reset signal RST, the sequence data output signal SDOUT, the synchronization signal SYNC and the clock signal CLK. The audio controller 10 and the audio encoder/decoder 12 also communicate with each other through the sequence data input signal SDI0. Similarly, the audio controller 10 communicates with the audio encoder/decoder 14 through the serial data input signal SDI1, and the audio controller 10 communicates with the audio encoder/decoder 16 through the serial data input signal SDI2.

The audio controller 10 resets the audio encoder/decoder 12, the audio encoder/decoder 14 and the audio encoder/decoder 16 at the same time when the power is turned on through the reset signal RST, and then performs the connection procedure (connect) in sequence. frame), the turnaround program (turnaround frame) and the addressing program (address frame) enable the audio controller 10 to correctly distinguish and control the audio coder/decoder 12, the audio coder/decoder 14 and the audio coder/decoder 16.

It should be noted that since the reset signal RST of audio codec 12, audio codec 14 and audio codec 16 shares the same circuit, as long as any audio codec needs to be Reset operation, all audio codecs will be reset together due to the reset operation of any audio codec/decoder. Once all audio codecs are reset due to the reset operation of any audio codec/decoder, users will not be able to directly perform hot plug and play. In the current situation that most of the computer interface devices support hot plugging, it is very inconvenient to use, and each reset operation also makes the time utilization efficiency low.

Furthermore, due to the reset signal sharing circuit, the audio controller 10 and the audio coder/decoder 12, the audio coder/decoder 14 and the audio coder/decoder 16 must be designed as fixed circuits, and the individual audio coders cannot be arbitrarily / After the decoder is unplugged, it can be used immediately after plugging it back in again.

Therefore, in order to solve the shortcomings of the audio control system with known high-resolution audio standards that cannot be hot-swapped and fixed circuits, and to improve user convenience and time utilization efficiency, it has become an important technical issue.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the purpose of the present invention is to provide an audio control system and method to effectively solve the shortcomings of the audio control system with known high-resolution audio specifications that cannot be hot-swapped and fixed circuits, and improve user convenience. and time efficiency.

According to the above purpose, the present invention proposes an audio control system, including at least: an audio controller, which generates a first reset signal and a second reset signal; at least two transmission circuits, to respectively transmit the first reset signal signal and the second reset signal; the first audio codec is coupled to the audio controller, and receives the first reset signal via the corresponding transmission circuit; and the second audio codec is coupled to the audio A controller, and receives the second reset signal via the corresponding transmission circuit; wherein, the audio controller selects to enable the first reset signal or the second reset signal.

The present invention further proposes an audio control method, which is applicable to an audio control system having an audio controller, a first audio coder/decoder and a second audio coder/decoder, and the audio controller is respectively coupled via at least two transmission circuits To the first audio coder/decoder and the second audio coder/decoder, the audio control method includes the following steps: the audio controller generates a first reset signal and a second reset signal; the audio controller selectively enabling one of the first reset signal or the second reset signal; and transmitting the enabled first reset signal or the second reset signal to the first audio code via the corresponding transmission circuit /decoder or this second audio codec to reset it.

In order to make the above-mentioned purpose, features, and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, a preferred embodiment will be described in detail below together with the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a known audio control system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the audio control system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the audio control method of the present invention.

[Description of main component labels]

10, 20: Audio Controller

12, 14, 16, 22, 24, 26: audio codec/decoder

100, 200: audio control system

CLK: clock signal

RST, RST0, RST1, RST2: reset signal

SDI0, SDI1, SDI2: sequence data input signal

SDOUT: Sequence data output signal

SYNC: synchronization signal

Detailed ways

Please refer to FIG. 2 , which shows a block diagram of an audio control system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The audio control system 200 includes an audio controller (Audio Controller) 20, an audio coder/decoder (Audio CODEC) 22, an audio coder/decoder 24, and an audio coder/decoder 26. The audio controller 20 controls the audio encoding/decoding with the serial data output signal SDOUT, the synchronization signal SYNC (for example, the operating frequency is 48KHz, depending on the support status of the audio codec/decoder) and the clock signal CLK (for example, the operating frequency is up to 24MHz) device 22, audio encoder/decoder 24 and audio encoder/decoder 26. In addition, the audio controller 20 controls the audio encoder/decoder 22 , the audio encoder/decoder 24 and the audio encoder/decoder 26 respectively with the reset signal RST0 , the reset signal RST1 , and the reset signal RST2 . The sequence data output signal SDOUT is used to transmit data, the synchronization signal SYNC is used to control the synchronization of data and commands, and the clock signal CLK is used as a reference for system operation. The audio controller 20 and the audio encoder/decoder 22 also communicate with each other through the sequence data input signal SDI0. Similarly, the audio controller 20 communicates with the audio encoder/decoder 24 through the serial data input signal SDI1, and the audio controller 20 communicates with the audio encoder/decoder 26 through the serial data input signal SDI2.

Wherein, the audio controller 20 can respectively control the corresponding audio codec/decoder 22, audio codec/decoder 22 and audio codec device 24 and audio codec/decoder 26. Since different reset signals use different circuits to connect to the corresponding audio codecs, when the power is turned on or the warm boot is turned on, the reset signal RST0, reset signal RST1 and reset signal RST2 can be respectively enabled (Assert ), enable at the same time, or disable all of them, so as to reset the audio encoder/decoder 22, the audio encoder/decoder 24 and the audio encoder/decoder 26. Then, the reset signal RST0 , the reset signal RST1 , and the reset signal RST2 are de-asserted (De-Asserted) for subsequent procedures.

When it is particularly necessary to reset a single audio codec/decoder, for example, when only the audio codec/decoder 24 is reset, the audio codec/decoder 24 can be reset with the reset signal RST2 alone without resetting the audio codec/decoder. The codec 22 and the audio codec 26 are reset. Then, the reset signal RST0 , the reset signal RST1 and the reset signal RST2 are all deactivated to perform subsequent procedures.

Therefore, the audio controller 20 can selectively enable the reset signal RST1 , the reset signal RST2 , and the reset signal RST3 to determine which audio encoder/decoder is to be activated.

In other words, when any interface device is unplugged and plugged back in again, the audio controller 20 can individually reset the audio codec corresponding to the plugged-in interface device, such as the audio codec 24 configuration operation without affecting other audio codecs.

After disabling the reset signal RST0, the reset signal RST1 and the reset signal RST2, the audio controller 20 performs a connection procedure (connect frame) to the audio coder/decoder 22, the audio coder/decoder 24 and the audio coder/decoder 26 ) and a turnaround frame to initialize the audio encoder/decoder 22, the audio encoder/decoder 24 and the audio encoder/decoder 26. Then, an address frame is performed to address the audio encoder/decoder 22, the audio encoder/decoder 24, and the audio encoder/decoder 26. The addressed audio encoder/decoder 22 , audio encoder/decoder 24 and audio encoder/decoder 26 can be controlled by the audio controller 20 . Wherein, if the audio encoder/decoder 22 , the audio encoder/decoder 24 or the audio encoder/decoder 26 has completed the addressing procedure, the aforementioned addressing procedure does not take effect.

To put it simply, the audio control system of the present invention allows the user to directly perform hot-swapping of the interface device without changing the current usage habits, thereby improving the convenience of use and the efficiency of time utilization.

Furthermore, since the audio control system of the present invention can be hot-swappable, the flexibility of circuit design is improved, and the audio codec/decoder can be placed in any interface device, and then connected to the audio controller when needed. It is beneficial to improve the breadth of product application.

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which shows a flow chart of an audio control method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is applicable to the audio control system shown in FIG. 2 . For simplicity, the audio encoder/decoder 22 is omitted. Description of the operation of the associated signal.

In step 310, when only the audio coder/decoder 24 needs to be reset, enable the first reset signal RST1 and disable the second reset signal RST2, so that only the audio coder/decoder 24 receives the enable After the first reset signal RST1, the audio encoder/decoder 26 receives the disabled second reset signal RST2.

In step 320 , the first reset signal RST1 and the second reset signal RST2 are deactivated, and then in step 330 a connection procedure and a rotation procedure are performed to initialize the audio encoder/decoder 24 .

Next, an addressing procedure is performed at step 340 to address the audio codec/decoder 24 . The addressed audio encoder/decoder 24 can be controlled by the audio controller 20 .

It should be noted that the audio control system of the present invention can be applied not only to computers (including personal computers, notebook computers, and tablet computers, etc.), but also to handheld devices with audio playback functions (such as mobile phones, music Media players and digital video recorders.. etc.) and home appliances (such as TVs, audio-visual phones... etc.) are also possible applications. In addition, the audio control system and method of the present invention still meet the requirements of high-resolution audio standards.

The audio control system and method of the present invention effectively solve the disadvantages that the known high-resolution audio standard audio control system cannot be hot-swapped and fixed circuit, and improve user convenience and time utilization efficiency.

In summary, although the present invention has been disclosed above with a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may make various modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Changes and modifications, so the protection scope of the present invention should be defined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (9)

1. An audio control system comprising at least: an audio controller, the audio controller generates a first reset signal and a second reset signal; at least two transmission circuits for respectively transmitting the first reset signal and the second reset signal; a first audio codec coupled to the audio controller, and receives the first reset signal via the corresponding transmission circuit; and a second audio codec coupled to the audio controller, and receives the second reset signal via the corresponding transmission circuit; Wherein, the audio controller selects to enable the first reset signal or the second reset signal. 2. The audio control system according to claim 1, wherein the audio controller enables the first reset signal and disables the second reset signal. 3. The audio control system according to claim 1, wherein the audio controller does not enable the first reset signal and the second reset signal. 4. The audio control system according to claim 1, wherein the audio controller enables the first reset signal and the second reset signal. 5. The audio control system according to claim 1, wherein the audio control system is an audio control system conforming to the high-resolution audio standard. 6. An audio control method, applicable to an audio control system having an audio controller, a first audio coder/decoder and a second audio coder/decoder, the audio controller is respectively coupled to the audio controller via at least two transmission circuits For the first audio coder/decoder and the second audio coder/decoder, the audio control method includes the following steps: The audio controller generates a first reset signal and a second reset signal; the audio controller selectively enables one of the first reset signal or the second reset signal; and Transmitting the enabled first reset signal or the second reset signal to the first audio encoder/decoder or the second audio encoder/decoder via the corresponding transmitting circuit to reset them. 7. The audio control method according to claim 6, after resetting the first audio coder/decoder or the second audio coder/decoder, further comprising the following steps: The first reset signal and the second reset signal are disabled. 8. The audio control method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of: Execute the connection procedure and the rotation procedure to initialize the first audio codec and the second audio codec. 9. The audio control method according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of: Executing an addressing program for addressing the first audio codec and the second audio codec.

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