Provided herein is a digital communications bus suitable for automotive applications, along with bus controllers and sensors that use the bus and its associated communication methods. One illustrative sensor includes: a clock signal generator; a bus interface coupled to differential signal conductors to detect periodic synchronization pulses from a bus controller; and a controller that aligns a clock signal from the clock signal generator with the periodic synchronization pulses. The bus interface sends digital data between the periodic synchronization pulses to the bus controller using the clock signal to control symbol transitions.

A method of recovering a clock and data from an input data signal including an embedded clock, the method including generating a recovery clock signal from the input data signal based on a first window signal; detecting a unit interval corresponding to one bit of the input data signal based on the recovery clock signal; delaying a signal synchronized with the recovery clock signal based on the unit interval; and generating the first window signal based on the delayed signal.

A method of recovering a clock and data from an input data signal including an embedded clock, the method including generating a recovery clock signal from the input data signal based on a first window signal; detecting a unit interval corresponding to one bit of the input data signal based on the recovery clock signal; delaying a signal synchronized with the recovery clock signal based on the unit interval; and generating the first window signal based on the delayed signal.

A serial transmitter that outputs one symbol every unit interval (UI) from a data source is presented. The serial transmitter includes a serial output port that outputs one symbol every unit interval (UI) from a data source. The serial transmitter also includes a plurality of driver segments that jointly drive the serial output port. Each driver segment is configured to use one of N phases of a sampling clock to serialize and transmit data from the data source. Different sets of the driver segments are configured to use different phases of the sampling clock for serializing and transmitting data, the sampling clock being a half-rate clock having a period of two UI.

A first communication device receives an analog receive signal via a communication medium. An ADC of the first communication device converts the analog receive signal to a digital receive signal. Logic circuitry of the first communication device detects a plurality of timing signals from a second communication device based on analyzing the digital receive signal. The logic circuitry adjusts a sampling phase of the ADC in connection with at least some of the timing signals so that the ADC is using different sampling phases when different ones of the timing signals are detected. The logic circuitry determines timing information based on the detection of the plurality of timing signals when the ADC is using different sampling phases when different ones of the timing signals are detected. The first communication device determines a time of flight between the first communication device and the second communication device based on the timing information.

A method of communicating between nodes in a network where a node receives a sequence of symbols that will form a packet on a first communications channel and has a planned packet that it would send on a second communications channel. A destination is encoded into an arbitration portion of a header sequence of the packet, the header sequence comprising a sequence of symbols. The transmission on the second communications channel is as per the planned packet, for as long as the symbols of the planned packet match the symbols being received on the first channel. An arbitration decision is made when the symbols do not match, with the node either continuing to send the rest of the planned packet, or the rest of the packet being received on the first communications channel.

Disclosed is a baud rate tracking and compensation apparatus comprising: a clock generating component generating a clock; a sampling circuit sampling a reception signal according to the clock and thereby generating a sampled result, and the sampling circuit generating a transition notification signal when the sampled result indicates a transition of the reception signal; a clock counting circuit counting cycles of the clock between a first transition of the reception signal and a second transition of the reception signal according to the clock and the transition notification signal; a bit counting circuit counting bit(s) between the first transition and the second transition according to the clock and a bit cycle; and a calculation circuit dividing the number of the cycles by the number of the bit(s) to obtain a calculation value, and then updating the bit cycle according to the calculation value.

In a device and a method for monitoring a clock signal of a position measuring device, which is connected to sequential electronics via a data transmission channel, and the data transmission channel has a data line, via which data signals are transmittable from an interface unit of the position measuring device to an interface unit of the sequential electronics, the interface unit of the position measuring device including a pulse generation unit, by which a test pulse is able to be generated based on the time pattern of the clock signal, and is transmittable via the data line to the interface unit of the sequential electronics. The interface unit of the sequential electronics includes a pulse measuring unit, by which a pulse duration of the test pulse in the time pattern of a clock signal of the sequential electronics is measurable in a functionally reliable manner and by which a measured value representing the pulse duration is able to be output to a control unit for analysis.

Systems, methods, and apparatuses are discussed that enable robust, high-speed communication of sensor data. One example system includes a sensor bus, an electronic control unit (ECU), and one or more sensors. The ECU is coupleable to the sensor bus and configured to generate a synchronization signal, and is configured to output the synchronization signal to the sensor bus. The one or more sensors are also coupleable to the sensor bus, and at least one sensor of the one or more sensors is configured to sample sensor data in response to the synchronization signal and to output the sampled sensor data to the sensor bus.

A data transmission method includes, detecting an incoming link training sequence that is transmitted from an upstream transmitter, generating a marker indicating a timing location of a word included in the incoming link training sequence, generating a self link training sequence based on a local reference clock, adjusting a time difference in the incoming link training sequence and the self link training sequence, and retransmitting an incoming bit stream based on the self link training sequence being matched to the incoming link training sequence.