US 11,853,249 B2
Physical interface module
Jérôme Perrine, Romanel sur Morges (CH); Hervé Goupil, Villars sous Yens (CH); and Maurice Van Riek, Belmont (CH)
Assigned to NAGRAVISION S.A., Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne (CH)
Filed by Nagravision S.A., Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne (CH)
Filed on Jun. 3, 2015, as Appl. No. 14/729,196.
Claims priority of application No. 14173326 (EP), filed on Jun. 20, 2014.
Prior Publication US 2015/0370751 A1, Dec. 24, 2015
Int. Cl. G06F 13/42 (2006.01); G06F 13/38 (2006.01); G06F 13/40 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 13/4252 (2013.01) [G06F 13/385 (2013.01); G06F 13/4068 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system-on-chip, comprising:
a communications module that includes at least a processor, the communications module being configured to selectively communicate with a peripheral module of an external device using at least one of a first communications protocol or a second communications protocol, the first communications protocol being a standard protocol and the second communications protocol being a non-standard protocol, wherein the non-standard protocol is a proprietary protocol for a solution vendor;
a physical layer having a plurality of electrical connections configured to connect the communications module and the peripheral module of the external device, the physical layer using a same plurality of electrical connections to selectively operate according to the first communications protocol or the second communications protocol, wherein the second communications protocol is different from the first communications protocol and the second communications protocol provides faster communication in a communication bus linking the processor of the communications module and the peripheral module than the first communications protocol;
the processor configured to:
select between the first communications protocol and the second communications protocol based at least on a protocol selection signal; and
cause the communications module to reconfigure one or more of the plurality of electrical connections of the physical layer to communicate with the peripheral module of the external device through the physical layer using the selected first communications protocol or second communications protocol; and
a detector configured to monitor, based on a connection of the peripheral module of the external device to the physical layer, the plurality of electrical connections to detect one or more use cases of the plurality of electrical connections and to provide the protocol selection signal based on at least one predetermined parameter associated with detecting the one or more use cases involving the plurality of electrical connections.