CN113890771B

CN113890771B - Device and method for reducing power consumption of active cable

Info

Publication number: CN113890771B
Application number: CN202111442354.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈婷; 江辉; 周新亮; 程煜烽; 徐亮; 田进峰
Original assignee: Everpro Technologies Wuhan Co Ltd
Current assignee: Everpro Technologies Wuhan Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-30
Filing date: 2021-11-30
Publication date: 2022-03-18
Anticipated expiration: 2041-11-30
Also published as: CN113890771A

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an active cable and a method thereof. The active cable includes a plurality of transmission channels, each of the transmission channels including at least front-end circuitry, and the apparatus includes: one or more signal detection units connected with the output end of the front-end circuit and used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit or not so as to generate a corresponding detection result; and one or more first control units which are connected with the signal detection unit and used for controlling the opening or closing of the corresponding transmission channels according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable. By using the scheme disclosed by the invention, the power consumption of the active cable can be reduced, and the flexible design and the functional expansion of the active cable are facilitated.

Description

Device and method for reducing power consumption of active cable

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of active cable technology. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus, method, and active cable apparatus and computer-readable storage medium for reducing power consumption of an active cable.

Background

An active cable typically includes connectors at both ends and a copper wire or optical cable connecting the two connectors to enable transmission of data signals (e.g., video data and audio data) for display of the data signals. In an application scenario, there is power consumption as long as the active cable is powered on. Common active cables include, for example, display Interface ("DP") active cables and High Definition Multimedia Interface ("HDMI") active cables. Taking an HDMI active Cable as an example, in an HDMI compatibility test, for a system that does not support a Power for Cable Assemblies ("PCA"), when high-speed signal transmission is performed normally, only 45mA current can be taken at 5V voltage, and when high-speed signal transmission is not accessed, only 5mA current can be obtained at 5V voltage, which is a challenge for the design of an active Cable.

For high-bandwidth transmission supporting HDMI2.1, especially for high-bandwidth long-distance transmission of HDMI2.1, in order to guarantee transmission performance, it is usually adopted to add, for example, a pre-emphasis or equalizer circuit to an HDMI active cable. However, this causes an increase in the power consumption of the active cable. Currently, although the PCA function is proposed and the source supporting this function can provide currents exceeding 45mA to the HDMI compliant active cable, the support of this function also increases the power consumption of the active cable. In addition, there is a method of reducing the power consumption of the cable by monitoring and analyzing sideband information such as the PCA function, which increases the difficulty of design. Therefore, how to effectively reduce the power consumption of the active cable becomes a technical problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

To at least partially solve the technical problems mentioned in the background, the solution of the present disclosure provides a solution for reducing power consumption of an active cable. By using the scheme disclosed by the invention, the power consumption of the active cable can be effectively reduced, and the compatibility of the active cable is improved. To this end, the present disclosure provides solutions in a number of aspects as follows.

In one aspect, the present disclosure provides an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an active cable, the active cable including a plurality of transmission channels, each of the transmission channels including at least a front-end circuit, and the apparatus comprising: one or more signal detection units connected with the output end of the front-end circuit and used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit or not so as to generate a corresponding detection result; and one or more first control units which are connected with the signal detection unit and used for controlling the opening or closing of the corresponding transmission channels according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable.

In one embodiment, in controlling to open or close the corresponding transmission channel according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit, one or more of the first control units are further configured to: responding to the output signal of the output end of the front-end circuit, and controlling to open a corresponding transmission channel; or controlling to close the corresponding transmission channel in response to the absence of the output signal at the output end of the front-end circuit.

In another embodiment, wherein the active cable is a high definition multimedia interface active cable, the high definition multimedia interface active cable comprises four transmission channels, each of the transmission channels further comprising a high speed transmission circuit and an output circuit, wherein: the signal detection unit is connected with the output end of the front-end circuit of any one transmission channel except the fourth transmission channel and is used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit of any one transmission channel except the fourth transmission channel connected with the signal detection unit so as to generate a corresponding detection result; and the first control unit is used for controlling the four transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the apparatus further comprises a second control unit, wherein: each signal detection unit in the plurality of signal detection units is connected with the output end of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel and is used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit so as to generate a corresponding detection result; each first control unit in the plurality of first control units is correspondingly connected with each signal detection unit and is used for controlling a high-speed transmission circuit and/or an output circuit which is used for opening or closing a corresponding transmission channel according to a detection result generated by the correspondingly connected signal detection unit; and the second control unit is connected with the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel and is used for controlling the signal detection units corresponding to other transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the apparatus further comprises a second control unit, wherein: each signal detection unit in the plurality of signal detection units is connected with the output end of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel and is used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit so as to generate a corresponding detection result; the first control unit is connected with the signal detection units and used for controlling the opening or closing of the high-speed transmission circuits and/or the output circuits on the four transmission channels according to detection results generated by the signal detection units; and the second control unit is connected with the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel and is used for controlling the signal detection units corresponding to other transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel.

In yet another embodiment, in controlling to turn on or off the high-speed transmission circuits and the output circuits on the four transmission channels according to the detection results generated by the plurality of signal detection units, the first control unit is further configured to: and responding to the output signals of the output ends of at least two front-end circuits, and controlling to open the four transmission channels.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the active cable is a display interface active cable, the display interface active cable comprises four transmission channels, and each of the transmission channels further comprises a high speed transmission circuit and an output circuit, and the apparatus further comprises a second control unit, wherein: each signal detection unit in the plurality of signal detection units is connected with the output end of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel and is used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit so as to generate a corresponding detection result; each first control unit in the plurality of first control units is correspondingly connected with each signal detection unit and is used for controlling a high-speed transmission circuit and/or an output circuit which is used for opening or closing a corresponding transmission channel according to a detection result generated by the correspondingly connected signal detection unit; and the second control unit is connected with the signal detection unit on the first transmission channel and used for controlling the signal detection units corresponding to other transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit on the first transmission channel connected with the second control unit.

In another aspect, the present disclosure also provides an active cable device comprising: an active cable; and an apparatus according to the preceding embodiments and for reducing active cable power consumption.

In yet another aspect, the present disclosure also provides that the active cable includes a plurality of transmission channels, each of the transmission channels including at least a front-end circuit, and the method includes: detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit and generating a corresponding detection result; and controlling to open or close the corresponding transmission channel according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable.

In yet another aspect, the present disclosure also provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions of program instructions for reducing power consumption of an active cable, which when executed by one or more processors, implement various embodiments as previously described.

According to the scheme, the signal detection unit is added to detect whether the output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit or not and generate a corresponding detection result, and then the first control unit controls the opening or closing of part of or all transmission channels according to the detection result, so that the power consumption of the active cable when the signal is not transmitted can be reduced. Further, the second control unit is added to control the on or off signal detection unit, so as to improve the power saving degree of the active cable when the signal transmission is not performed. In addition, the embodiment of the disclosure also opens all transmission channels when detecting that there is an input signal in at least two transmission channels through the signal detection unit, which can effectively avoid increasing power consumption due to mistaken opening of the transmission channels caused by interference signals such as crosstalk or noise.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will become readily apparent from the following detailed description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, several embodiments of the disclosure are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation, and like or corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and in which:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary schematic diagram illustrating an active cable;

fig. 2 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an HDMI active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is another exemplary diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an HDMI active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a further exemplary diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an HDMI active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is an exemplary schematic diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing DP active cable power consumption according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of an active cable device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an

Fig. 8 illustrates an example flow diagram of a method for reducing power consumption of an active cable in accordance with an embodiment of this disclosure.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the embodiments described in this specification are only some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provided to facilitate a clear understanding of the aspects and to comply with legal requirements, and not all embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments disclosed in the specification without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary schematic diagram illustrating an active cable 100. As shown in fig. 1, the active cable 100 may include two connectors 101 with electronics 102 disposed within each connector 101. Further, the two connectors 101 are connected by a copper wire or an optical cable to realize data signal (e.g., audio signal, video signal) transmission. In one implementation scenario, within the aforementioned connector 101, through different types of electronic devices 102, for example, a front-end circuit, a high-speed transmission circuit, and an output circuit may be configured, so that a data signal is sequentially output through the aforementioned front-end circuit, high-speed transmission circuit, and output circuit. The aforementioned front-end circuitry may provide termination matching (i.e., impedance matching) for reception by the high-speed transmission circuitry. Then, the received data signal can be subjected to processing such as amplification by the high-speed transmission circuit, and the processed data signal can be output via an output circuit. In some embodiments, the active cable may include a plurality of transmission channels, for example, each of the DP active cable and the HDMI active cable may include four transmission channels, and the transmission channels in the embodiments of the present disclosure refer to high-speed signal transmission channels unless otherwise specified. Each of the transmission channels of the DP active cable and the HDMI active cable includes a front-end circuit, a high-speed transmission circuit, and an output circuit.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary structure of an apparatus 200 for reducing power consumption of an active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 2, the apparatus 200 may include one or more signal detection units 201 and one or more first control units 202. The foregoing signal detection unit 201 and the first control unit 202 will be described in detail below.

As can be seen from the foregoing, each transmission channel of an active cable may include front-end circuitry. In one embodiment, the signal detection unit 201 may be connected to an output terminal of a front-end circuit of the active cable, and configured to detect whether an output signal is present at the output terminal of the front-end circuit, so as to generate a corresponding detection result. In one implementation scenario, a signal detection unit (e.g., fig. 3) may be connected to an output end of the front-end circuit of a transmission channel to detect whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit of the transmission channel and generate a corresponding detection result. In another implementation scenario, a signal detection unit (e.g., fig. 4 or fig. 5) may be connected to an output end of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel, respectively, to detect whether an output signal exists at an output end of the front-end circuit of the corresponding transmission channel and generate a corresponding detection result. In some embodiments, the signal detection unit may be an Alternating Current (AC) signal detection unit, and the signal detection unit may include, but is not limited to, a rectification-based peak detection circuit or a pulse-based peak detection circuit.

In one embodiment, the first control unit 202 is connected to the signal detection unit and configured to control the corresponding transmission channel to be turned on or off according to a detection result generated by the signal detection unit, so as to reduce power consumption of the active cable. In an application scenario, the detection result generated by the signal detection unit may be an output such as a high level signal or a low level signal. Specifically, when the first control unit responds to the output signal (i.e. the detection result outputs a high level signal) at the output end of the front-end circuit, the first control unit controls to start the transmission channel. When the first control unit responds to the output end of the front-end circuit without an output signal (namely, the detection result outputs a low level signal), the first control unit controls to close the transmission channel.

In one implementation scenario, a first control unit may be connected to a signal detection unit to control to turn on or turn off all transmission channels according to a detection result of the signal detection unit (e.g., fig. 3). In another implementation scenario, one signal detection unit may be correspondingly connected to each of the plurality of first control units to control the corresponding transmission channel to be turned on or turned off according to a detection result of the corresponding signal detection unit (e.g., fig. 4). In addition, one first control unit can be connected with a plurality of signal detection units to control the opening or closing of all transmission channels (for example, fig. 5) according to the detection result of the signal detection units, so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable.

In some embodiments, the first control switch may be implemented by, for example, a digital circuit or an analog circuit, and may further include a logic circuit to perform a logic judgment according to a detection result of the signal detection unit to control to turn on or off all or part of the transmission channels. For example, when the signal detection unit is a high level signal, the logic thereof judges as "1", thereby controlling to open or close all or part of the transmission channel. On the contrary, the optional function includes that when the signal detection unit is a low level signal, the logic thereof judges as "0", thereby controlling to close or open all or part of the transmission channel. For another example, when the signal detection units of more than 1 channel are high level signals, the logic thereof is judged to be "1", thereby controlling to turn on or off all or part of the transmission channels. On the contrary, the optional function includes that when the signal detection units of less than 2 channels are low level signals, the logic thereof judges as "0", thereby controlling to close or open all or part of the transmission channels.

As can be seen from the above description, the embodiment of the present disclosure controls to turn on or off a part of or all of the transmission channels by detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit, so that the transmission channel without the input signal is in a sleep state, and thus the power consumption of the active cable can be reduced.

From the foregoing, active cables may include, but are not limited to, HDMI active cables and DP active cables. The foregoing DP active cable and HDMI active cable will be described in detail below, respectively.

For an HDMI active cable, it may include four transmission channels, and the four transmission channels are different in different transmission modes. For example, in Transition Minimized Differential Signaling ("TMDS") mode, the four transmission channels of an HDMI active cable may include one Clock channel (TMDS Clock) and three Data channels (TMDS Data 0-Data 2). In Fixed Rate Link ("FRL") mode, the four transmission channels of the HDMI active cable are FRL lane 0-lane 3, which correspond to TMDS Data 0-Data 2 and TMDS Clock channels in TMDS mode, respectively. It is to be understood that the FRL mode may employ a three-lane (3-lanes) mode or a four-lane (4-lanes) mode, wherein the fourth transmission lane (FRL lane 3) has no signal transmission in the three-lane (3-lanes) mode. The fourth transmission channel FRL lane3 without signal corresponds to the fourth transmission channel (TMDS Clock) in TMDS mode. As previously described, each transmission channel of an HDMI active cable may include a front-end circuit, a high-speed transmission circuit, and an output circuit. Based on this, the embodiment of the present disclosure may control to turn on or turn off the corresponding transmission channel by detecting whether there is an output signal at the output end of the front-end circuit on any one transmission channel except the fourth transmission channel. The power consumption of the HDMI active cable can be reduced through the following several implementation manners.

In one implementation scenario, a signal detection unit may be connected to an output terminal of the front-end circuit of any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel (i.e., TMDS Clock or FRL lane 3) for detecting whether an output signal is present at an output terminal of the front-end circuit of any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel connected thereto and generating a corresponding detection result. And then, connecting a first control unit with the signal detection unit to control the four transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit so as to reduce the power consumption of the HDMI active cable. As will be described in detail later in connection with fig. 3.

In another implementation scenario, each of the plurality of signal detection units may be connected to an output of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel and configured to detect whether an output signal is present at the output of the front-end circuit to generate a corresponding detection result. Furthermore, each first control unit in the plurality of first control units is correspondingly connected with each signal detection unit and used for controlling the high-speed transmission circuit and/or the output circuit of the corresponding transmission channel to be switched on or switched off according to the detection result generated by the correspondingly connected signal detection unit. In this scenario, a second control unit may be further provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure, where the second control unit may be connected to the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel, and is configured to control to turn on or turn off the signal detection unit corresponding to the other transmission channel according to a detection result generated by the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel connected to the second control unit, so as to reduce power consumption of the HDMI active cable. In some embodiments, since the front-end circuit also increases power consumption, the second control unit may further control to turn on or turn off the front-end circuits corresponding to other transmission channels to reduce power consumption. As will be described in detail later in connection with fig. 4.

In yet another implementation scenario, each of the plurality of signal detection units may be further connected to an output of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel and configured to detect whether an output signal is present at the output of the front-end circuit to generate a corresponding detection result. Furthermore, the first control unit is connected with the signal detection units and used for controlling the high-speed transmission circuits and/or the output circuits on the four transmission channels to be switched on or switched off according to detection results generated by the signal detection units. Similar to the implementation scenario described above, in this scenario, a second control unit may be connected to the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except for the fourth transmission channel, and is configured to control, according to a detection result generated by the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except for the fourth transmission channel connected to the second control unit, to turn on or turn off the signal detection unit and the front-end circuit corresponding to the other transmission channel, so as to reduce power consumption of the HDMI active cable. As will be described in detail later in connection with fig. 5.

For a DP active cable, it may also include four transmission channels DP lane 0-lane 3, each also including front end circuitry, high speed transmission circuitry, and output circuitry. In one implementation scenario, each of the plurality of signal detection units may also be connected to an output end of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel, and configured to detect whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit to generate a corresponding detection result. It is understood that the DP active cable can operate in single channel mode (1-lane), dual channel mode (2-lanes), and quad channel mode (4-lanes), i.e., only the first channel is used for data transmission, or the first and second channels are used for data transmission, or all four channels are used for data transmission. Therefore, in order to ensure that the DP active cable can detect the output signal when operating in the single channel mode, the second control unit in the embodiment of the present disclosure should be connected to the signal detection unit on the first transmission channel, and is configured to control to turn on or turn off the front-end circuit and the signal detection unit corresponding to the other transmission channel according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit on the first transmission channel connected to the second control unit, so as to reduce the power consumption of the DP active cable. As will be described in detail later in connection with fig. 6.

Fig. 3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an HDMI active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that fig. 3 is an embodiment of the apparatus 200 of fig. 2, as described above, and therefore the description made above with respect to fig. 2 applies equally to fig. 3.

As shown in FIG. 3, the HDMI active cable may include four transmission channels, which may be the Clock channels TMDS Clock and TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 in TMDS mode. In one exemplary scenario, the four transmission channels may also be transmission channels FRL lane 0-FRL lane3 in FRL mode. Further, each transmission channel includes a front-end circuit 301, a high-speed transmission circuit 302, and an output circuit 303.

Further shown is a signal detection unit 201, the signal detection unit 201 being connected to an output of the front end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane 0. Further, the signal detection unit 201 is connected to a first control unit 202. In this implementation scenario, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that there is an input signal (i.e. logic determination result is "1") at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0, the first control unit 202 controls to turn on all transmission channels, i.e. the transmission channel TMDS Clock and the transmission channel TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 or the transmission channel FRL lane 0-FRL lane 3. Conversely, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that there is no input signal (i.e., the logic determination result is "0") at the output terminal of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0, the first control unit 202 controls to turn off all the transmission channels, i.e., the transmission channels TMDS Clock and TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 or the transmission channels FRL lane 0-FRL lane 3.

In some embodiments, the first control unit 202 may turn on or off the transmission channel by controlling the high-speed transmission circuit 302 and/or the output circuit 303 of the TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0 to turn on or off the transmission channel. For other transmission channels TMDS Clock and transmission channels TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or transmission channels FRL lane 1-FRL lane3, the first control unit 202 can turn on or off the aforementioned transmission channels by controlling to turn on or off its front-end circuit 301, high-speed transmission circuit 302 and output circuit 303.

As can be seen from the description of fig. 3, when it is detected that an output signal is present on any one of the transmission channels other than the transmission channel TMDS Clock or the transmission channel FRL lane3, all the transmission channels are turned on for signal (data) transmission. Optionally, when it is detected that no output signal exists on any one of the transmission channels except the TMDS Clock or the FRL lane3, all the transmission channels are closed, so that the HDMI active cable enters a sleep mode, thereby reducing power consumption of the active cable.

Fig. 4 is another exemplary diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an HDMI active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that fig. 4 is another embodiment of the apparatus 200 of fig. 2, as described above, and therefore the description made above with respect to fig. 2 applies equally to fig. 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, the HDMI active cable may include four transmission channels, which may be Clock channels TMDS Clock and TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 in TMDS mode. In one exemplary scenario, the four transmission channels may also be transmission channels FRL lane 0-FRL lane3 in FRL mode. Further, each transmission channel includes a front-end circuit 301, a high-speed transmission circuit 302, and an output circuit 303. Further shown are a plurality of signal detecting units 201 and a plurality of first control units 202, each of the signal detecting units 201 being connected to a transmission channel TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 and a transmission channel TMDS Clock or transmission channels FRL lane 0-FRL lane 3. Further, each signal detection unit 201 is connected to a corresponding first control unit 202. Further, a second control unit 401 is shown, the second control unit 401 being connected to the signal detection unit 201 at the output of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane 0.

In this implementation scenario, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that there is an input signal (i.e. the logic determination result is "1") at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0, the second control unit 401 first controls to turn on the front-end circuit 301 and the signal detection unit 201 on the other transmission channels TMDS Clock and the transmission channels TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or the transmission channels FRL lane 1-FRL lane3 to detect whether there is an input signal on the other transmission channels. Then, the high-speed transmission circuit 302 and the output circuit 303 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0 are controlled to be turned on via the first control unit 202 to turn on the first transmission channel. Further, after the signal detection units 201 on other transmission channels are turned on, when it is detected that there is an output signal at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 correspondingly connected, the first control unit 202 correspondingly connected to the other transmission channels controls to turn on the high-speed transmission circuit 302 and the output circuit 303 of the corresponding transmission channel, so as to turn on the corresponding transmission channel. Taking the transmission channel TMDS Data 1/FRL lane1 as an example, when the signal detection unit 201 on the transmission channel TMDS Data 1/FRL lane1 detects that there is an output signal at the output terminal of the front-end circuit 301. The high speed transmission circuit 302 and the output circuit 303 of the transmission channel are controlled to be turned on by the first control unit 202 of the transmission channel TMDS Data 1/FRL lane1 to turn on the transmission channel TMDS Data 1/FRL lane 1.

In one embodiment, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that no input signal is present at the output of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0 (i.e., the logic determination result is "0"), the first transmission channel is turned off by controlling the turning off of the high-speed transmission circuit 302 and/or the output circuit 303 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0 via the first control unit 202. Meanwhile, the second control unit 401 controls to turn off the front-end circuits 301 and the signal detection units 201 on the other transmission channels TMDS Clock and transmission channels TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or transmission channels FRL lane 1-FRL lane 3.

Based on the above description of FIG. 4, it can be seen that the embodiment of the present disclosure first detects that there is an output signal on any one of the transmission channels except the transmission channel TMDS Clock or the transmission channel FRL lane3, and then detects whether there is an output signal on the other transmission channel TMDS Clock and the transmission channel TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or the transmission channel FRL lane 1-FRL lane 3. Then, the control turns on the transmission channel where the output signal exists, and the control turns off the transmission channel where the output signal does not exist, so that the transmission channel (for example, the transmission channel FRL lane 3) which does not perform data transmission enters the sleep mode, thereby being capable of reducing the power consumption of the active cable.

Fig. 5 is a further exemplary diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing power consumption of an HDMI active cable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that fig. 5 is yet another embodiment of the apparatus 200 of fig. 2, as described above, and thus the description made above with respect to fig. 2 applies equally to fig. 5.

As shown in FIG. 5, the HDMI active cable may include four transmission channels, which may be Clock channels TMDS Clock and TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 in TMDS mode. In one exemplary scenario, the four transmission channels may also be transmission channels FRL lane 0-FRL lane3 in FRL mode. Further, each transmission channel includes a front-end circuit 301, a high-speed transmission circuit 302, and an output circuit 303. Further shown are a plurality of signal detecting units 201 and a first control unit 202, each of the signal detecting units 201 being connected to a transmission channel TMDS Data0-TMDS Data2 and a transmission channel TMDS Clock or transmission channels FRL lane 0-FRL lane 3. Further, each signal detection unit 201 is connected to the first control unit 202. Further, a second control unit 401 is shown, the second control unit 401 being connected to the signal detection unit 201 at the output of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane 0.

In this implementation scenario, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that there is an input signal (i.e. the logic determination result is "1") at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0, the second control unit 401 first controls to turn on the front-end circuit 301 and the signal detection unit 201 on the other transmission channels TMDS Clock and the transmission channels TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or the transmission channels FRL lane 1-FRL lane3 to detect whether there is an input signal on the other transmission channels. When the signal detection units 201 on other transmission channels detect that an output signal exists at the output end of at least one correspondingly connected front-end circuit 301, the first control unit 202 controls to turn on the high-speed transmission circuits 302 and the output circuits 303 of the four transmission channels, so as to control to turn on all the transmission channels. Optionally, when the signal detection unit 201 on another transmission channel detects that no output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 connected correspondingly, the first control unit 202 controls to close the high-speed transmission circuits 302 and the output circuits 303 of the four transmission channels, so as to control to close all the transmission channels. In some embodiments, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that there is no input signal (i.e. the logic determination result is "0") at the output of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel TMDS Data 0/FRL lane0, the front-end circuit 301 and the signal detection unit 201 on the other transmission channels TMDS Clock and transmission channels TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or transmission channels FRL lane 1-FRL lane3 are controlled to be turned off via the second control unit 401.

Based on the above description of FIG. 5, it can be seen that the embodiment of the disclosure first detects that there is an output signal on any one of the transmission channels except the transmission channel TMDS Clock or the transmission channel FRL lane3, and then detects whether there is an output signal on the other transmission channel TMDS Clock and the transmission channel TMDS Data1-TMDS Data2 or the transmission channel FRL lane 1-FRL lane 3. And when detecting that at least one output signal exists on other transmission channels (namely at least two channels exist and have input signals), controlling to start all the transmission channels. This can effectively avoid making other transmission channels open by mistake because of signal crosstalk or interference such as noise, and then increase the consumption of active cable.

Fig. 6 is an exemplary schematic diagram illustrating an apparatus for reducing DP active cable power consumption according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that fig. 6 is yet another embodiment of the apparatus 200 of fig. 2, as described above, and thus the description made above with respect to fig. 2 applies equally to fig. 6.

As shown in fig. 6, the DP active cable may include four transmission lanes, DP lane 0-DP lane 3. Further, each transmission channel includes a front-end circuit 301, a high-speed transmission circuit 302, and an output circuit 303. Further shown are a plurality of signal detection units 201 and a plurality of first control units 202, each signal detection unit 201 being connected to a corresponding one of the transmission channels DP lane 0-DP lane 3. Further, each signal detection unit 201 is connected to a corresponding first control unit 202. Furthermore, a second control unit 401 is shown, which second control unit 401 is connected to the signal detection unit 201 at the output of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel DP lane 0.

In this implementation scenario, when the signal detection unit 201 detects that there is an input signal at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 of the first transmission channel DP lane0 (i.e. the logic determination result is "1"), the second control unit 401 first controls to turn on the front-end circuits 301 on the other transmission channels DP lane 1-DP lane3 and the signal detection unit 201 to detect whether there is an input signal on the other transmission channels. Next, the high-speed transmission circuit 302 and the output circuit 303 which turn on the first transmission channel DP lane0 are controlled via the first control unit 202 to turn on the first transmission channel. When the signal detection unit 201 on the other transmission channel detects that there is an output signal at the output end of the front-end circuit 301 correspondingly connected, the first control unit 202 correspondingly connected to the other transmission channel controls the high-speed transmission circuit 302 and the output circuit 303 of the corresponding transmission channel to be turned on, so as to turn on the corresponding transmission channel. That is, only the transmission channel with the input signal is turned on, and the transmission channel without the input signal enters the sleep mode, so that the electric energy consumption of the DP active cable is reduced.

In one embodiment, the disclosed embodiments also provide an active cable device, such as that shown in fig. 7.

Fig. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example structure of an active cable device 700 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7, the active cable apparatus 700 may include an active cable 701 (i.e., the active cable 100 shown in fig. 1) and the apparatus 200 for reducing power consumption of the active cable of the embodiment of the present disclosure. The apparatus 200 may comprise one or more signal detection units 201 and one or more first control units 202. In some embodiments, the apparatus 200 may further comprise a second control unit 401. The aforementioned active cable 701 may include a plurality of transmission channels, for example, each of the DP active cable and the HDMI active cable may include four transmission channels, and each transmission channel may include a front-end circuit, a high-speed transmission circuit, and an output circuit. In one implementation scenario, the signal detection unit 201 may be connected to an output terminal of a front-end circuit of the active cable, and configured to detect whether an output signal is present at the output terminal of the front-end circuit to generate a corresponding detection result. Then, the first control unit 202 controls to open or close all or part of the transmission channels according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit. Further, the second control unit 401 can control the front-end circuit and the signal detection unit for turning on or off the transmission channel, so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable. Specifically, reference may be made to the contents described in fig. 2 to fig. 6, and the present disclosure is not repeated herein.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example flow diagram of a method 800 for reducing power consumption of an active cable in accordance with an embodiment of this disclosure. As shown in fig. 8, at step S802, the presence of an output signal at the output of the front-end circuit is detected and a corresponding detection result is generated. In one embodiment, the presence of an output signal at the output of the front-end circuit may be detected by a signal detection unit, e.g. a rectification-based peak detection circuit or a pulse-based peak detection circuit, and a corresponding detection result generated. Based on the obtained detection result, at step S804, the corresponding transmission channel is controlled to be turned on or off according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit, so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable. Taking the HDMI active cable as an example, when it is detected that an output signal exists on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth channel, for example, all transmission channels are controlled to be turned on. Otherwise, controlling to close all transmission channels so as to enable the HDMI active cable to enter a sleep mode, thereby reducing the power consumption of the active cable. In some embodiments, when it is detected that an output signal exists in any one of the transmission channels except the fourth channel, it may be detected whether an output signal exists in another transmission channel, so as to correspondingly control to turn on the transmission channel in which the output signal exists or to turn off the transmission channel in which the output signal does not exist, thereby reducing power consumption of the active cable. In addition, when detecting that an output signal exists on any one transmission channel except the fourth channel, the method can control to start all the transmission channels when detecting that at least one output signal exists on other transmission channels. Otherwise, controlling to close all transmission channels so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable.

From the above description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art will also appreciate that embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by software programs. The present disclosure thus also provides a computer program product. The computer program product may be used to implement the method for reducing power consumption of an active cable described in conjunction with fig. 8 of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that while the operations of the disclosed methods are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that these operations must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the illustrated operations must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Rather, the steps depicted in the flowcharts may change the order of execution. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions.

It should be understood that when the claims of the present disclosure, and when the terms first, second, third, fourth, etc. are used in the specification and drawings, they are used only to distinguish one object from another, and not to describe a particular order. The terms "comprises" and "comprising," when used in the specification and claims of this disclosure, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description of the disclosure herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used in the specification and claims of this disclosure, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the term "and/or" as used in the specification and claims of this disclosure refers to any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items and includes such combinations.

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure are described above, the descriptions are only examples for facilitating understanding of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope and application scenarios of the present disclosure. It will be understood by those skilled in the art of the present disclosure that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure, and that the scope of the disclosure is to be limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus for reducing power consumption of an active cable, the active cable including a plurality of transmission channels, each of the transmission channels including at least front-end circuitry, and the apparatus comprising:

one or more signal detection units connected with the output end of the front-end circuit and used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit or not so as to generate a corresponding detection result; and

and the one or more first control units are connected with the signal detection unit and used for controlling the opening or closing of the corresponding transmission channels according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein in controlling to turn on or off the corresponding transmission channel according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit, one or more of the first control units are further configured to:

responding to the output signal of the output end of the front-end circuit, and controlling to open a corresponding transmission channel; or

And controlling to close the corresponding transmission channel in response to the absence of the output signal at the output end of the front-end circuit.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the active cable is a high definition multimedia interface active cable comprising four transmission channels, each of the transmission channels further comprising a high speed transmission circuit and an output circuit, wherein:

the signal detection unit is connected with the output end of the front-end circuit of any one transmission channel except the fourth transmission channel and is used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit of any one transmission channel except the fourth transmission channel connected with the signal detection unit so as to generate a corresponding detection result;

and the first control unit is used for controlling the four transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the apparatus further comprises a second control unit, wherein:

each signal detection unit in the plurality of signal detection units is connected with the output end of the front-end circuit of each transmission channel and is used for detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit so as to generate a corresponding detection result;

each first control unit in the plurality of first control units is correspondingly connected with each signal detection unit and is used for controlling a high-speed transmission circuit and/or an output circuit which is used for opening or closing a corresponding transmission channel according to a detection result generated by the correspondingly connected signal detection unit; and

the second control unit is connected with the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel, and is used for controlling the signal detection units corresponding to the other transmission channels to be turned on or turned off according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit on any one of the transmission channels except the fourth transmission channel.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the apparatus further comprises a second control unit, wherein:

the first control unit is connected with the signal detection units and used for controlling the opening or closing of the high-speed transmission circuits and/or the output circuits on the four transmission channels according to detection results generated by the signal detection units; and

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein in controlling to turn on or off the high-speed transmission circuits and the output circuits on the four transmission channels according to the detection results generated by the plurality of signal detection units, the first control unit is further configured to:

and responding to the output signals of the output ends of at least two front-end circuits, and controlling to open the four transmission channels.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the active cable is a display interface active cable, the display interface active cable includes four transmission channels, and each of the transmission channels further includes a high speed transmission circuit and an output circuit, and the apparatus further includes a second control unit, wherein:

the second control unit is connected with the signal detection unit on the first transmission channel and used for controlling the signal detection units corresponding to other transmission channels to be opened or closed according to the detection result generated by the signal detection unit on the first transmission channel connected with the second control unit.

8. An active cable device comprising:

an active cable; and

the apparatus of any of claims 1-7, and for reducing active cable power consumption.

9. A method for reducing power consumption of an active cable, the active cable comprising a plurality of transmission channels, each of the transmission channels comprising at least front-end circuitry, and the method comprising:

detecting whether an output signal exists at the output end of the front-end circuit and generating a corresponding detection result; and

and controlling to open or close the corresponding transmission channel according to the corresponding detection result so as to reduce the power consumption of the active cable.

10. A computer readable storage medium comprising program instructions for reducing power consumption of an active cable, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the method of claim 9 to be implemented.