CN1284058C - Wired and wireless dual-purpose network add-on card - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a kind of wire and wireless network dual-purpose add-on card used in a computer, the computer has the first connection end, and the add-on card has: the second connecting end is used for connecting the first connecting end in a pluggable mode so as to receive the information data transmitted by the computer; the access control circuit is electrically connected with the second connecting end and can convert the information data transmitted by the second connecting end into wireless network format data and wired network format data; and a network connection circuit. The network connection circuit includes: an antenna circuit for transmitting the signal corresponding to the wireless network format data to a wireless network in a wireless manner; and a connection circuit for transmitting the signal corresponding to the wired network format data to a wired network through a network transmission line.

Description

Wired and wireless dual-purpose network add-on card

technical field

The invention relates to an add-on card for a computer, in particular to an add-on card which can be used for a computer and has both wired and wireless networking functions.

Background technique

In the modern information society, everyone can quickly and efficiently access network resources through the unlimited network, so that information, experience and knowledge can be quickly exchanged and accumulated, and promote the development of society as a whole. Coupled with the vigorous development of electronic technology in recent years, portable computers (such as notebook computers) that are light in size and easy to carry are becoming more and more popular. Information companies are also committed to developing technologies and devices that allow portable computers to connect to the Internet. Users of portable computers can connect to the Internet anytime and anywhere, so that network resources can be closer to every aspect of the user's life.

In order to flexibly increase the additional functions of the portable computer, the portable computer will be provided with slots; as long as an additional card with special functions is inserted into the slot of the portable computer, the functions of the portable computer can be additionally expanded. For example, general notebook computers have PCMCIA (personal computer memory card international association) slots, which can be used with additional cards of corresponding specifications to expand the functions of the notebook computer. Of course, through special design, the add-in card can also be used to expand the network connection function of the portable computer. In the known technology, there are two types of additional cards (or network cards) used to connect to the Internet. One is a network card for wired Internet access, which enables a portable computer to be connected to the network in a wired manner through a network transmission line. Network; one is a wireless network card that enables a portable computer to connect to the network in a wireless manner such as radio waves or infrared rays.

With the popularization and progress of network construction, whether it is wired Internet access or wireless Internet access, it has been quite fast and convenient. Among them, wired Internet access has high data exchange speed, data security is easy to maintain, and wired network infrastructure is relatively complete; wireless Internet access has high mobility, even if a portable computer often changes locations, or even is moving, it can also communicate with the network. Stay connected. However, in the known technology, the network card only has a single function of wired or wireless Internet access. If the user wants to make the portable computer fully equipped with wired and wireless Internet access functions, he will prepare two network cards at the same time, and it will take up more time. The two expansion card slots of the portable computer greatly limit the expansion function of the portable computer; No additional slots are available.

Contents of the invention

Therefore, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide an add-on card with complete wired and wireless Internet access functions, so as to overcome the disadvantages of the known technology.

According to the above purpose, the present invention provides a dual-purpose wired and wireless add-on card for a computer, the computer includes:

a shell;

a first connecting end, arranged on the housing;

This add-in card contains:

The second connection end is used to connect to the first connection end in a pluggable manner, so that the first connection end can receive information data from the computer;

An access control circuit, electrically connected to the second connection end, capable of converting the information data transmitted from the second connection end into wireless network format data and wired network format data;

a wireless signal circuit, electrically connected to the access control circuit, for modulating the wireless network format data into a wireless transmission signal; and

A network connection circuit, the network connection circuit includes:

An antenna circuit, connected to the wireless signal circuit, used to convert the wireless transmission signal into a wireless network signal in the form of radio waves and transmit it wirelessly, so that the wireless network signal can be transmitted to a wireless network;

a connection circuit, connected to the access control circuit, for converting the wired network format data into a wired network signal; and

A network transmission line, connected to the connection circuit, is used to transmit the wired network signal to a wired network.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an add-in card of the present invention used in a portable computer.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the add-on card in FIG. 2 .

Fig. 3 is a schematic outline diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the embodiment in FIG. 3 .

Detailed ways

Please refer to Figure 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an add-on card 10 applied to a computer (especially a portable computer) 12 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The portable computer 12 can be a notebook computer, and the casing 13 is provided with a recessed slot 14; the slot 14 can be a PCMCIA standard slot, and a first connecting terminal 16A is provided therein. The add-on card 10 of the present invention is then matched with the specification of the slot 14, and one end is provided with the second connection end 16B corresponding to the first connection end 16A; ); and the network transmission line 18 of the wired network is also provided with a corresponding insertion end 20A. Insert the insertion end 20A into the connection end 20B, and the add-on card 10 can be connected to the wired network through the network transmission line 18 .

Please refer to Figure 2. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the configuration and operation of the add-in card 10 and the portable computer 12 . When the add-on card 10 is inserted into the slot 14 of the portable computer 12, the first connection terminal 16A and the second connection terminal 16B can be electrically connected to exchange signals. The add-in card 10 of the present invention is provided with an access control circuit MAC1 , a volatile memory M1 , a non-volatile memory M2 , a wireless signal circuit 24 and a network connection circuit 28 . The wireless signal circuit 24 is provided with a base frequency circuit 26A, an intermediate frequency circuit 25B and a radio frequency circuit 26C; the network connection circuit 28 is provided with an antenna circuit ANT1 and a connection circuit PHY1. The access control circuit MAC1 is electrically connected to the second connection terminal 16B, and can exchange data with the portable computer 12 through the first connection terminal 16A. kind of operation. The volatile memory M1 can be a random access memory (RAM), which provides a temporary memory space for the operation of the access control circuit MAC1; the non-volatile memory M2 can be a flash memory (flashmemory), used for The method stores the necessary information for the operation of the access control circuit, such as the physical address data necessary for the add-in card as a network card, so as to identify the add-in card 10 in the network. The base frequency circuit 26A, intermediate frequency circuit 26B and radio frequency circuit 26C in the wireless signal circuit 24 can modulate the data sent by the access control circuit MAC1 into base frequency, intermediate frequency and radio frequency signals respectively, and are electrically connected to the radio frequency circuit 26C The antenna circuit ANT1 can transmit the radio frequency signal wirelessly. In contrast, if the antenna circuit ANT1 receives a radio frequency wireless signal, the radio frequency circuit 26C, the intermediate frequency circuit 26B and the base frequency circuit 26A in the wireless signal circuit 24 will also demodulate the signal respectively, and finally return data in the form of a bit stream. To the access control circuit MAC1. In other words, through the access control circuit MAC1 , the wireless signal circuit 24 and the antenna circuit ANT1 , the add-on card 10 can support the wireless network connection function.

On the other hand, the connection circuit PHY1 in the network connection circuit 28 is also electrically connected to the access control circuit MAC1, the connection circuit PHY1 can encode the data sent by the access control circuit, and pass the connection terminal 20B 1. The plug-in terminal 20A transmits the encoded signal to the network transmission line 18 so as to connect to the network in a wired manner. Correspondingly, if there is an encoded signal transmitted through the network transmission line 18, the connection circuit PHY1 will also decode it into corresponding data and send it back to the access control circuit MAC1. In other words, through the access circuit MAC1 , the connection circuit PHY1 , and the network transmission line 18 , the add-in card 10 of the present invention can additionally support the wired network connection function. In addition, the connection circuit PHY1 can also detect the electrical characteristics of the signals on the network transmission line 18 to check whether there is a signal collision on the network transmission line 18 (that is, when a signal is sent on the network transmission line 18, there is also a signal to be transmitted). For example, the IEEE 802.3 standard commonly used in wired area networks uses the electrical characteristics of the carrier on the network transmission line to detect signal collisions (i.e. CSMA/CD, Carrier Sensitive Multiple Access/Collusion Detection, Carrier Sensitive Multiple Access and Collision Detection ). The detection result of the connection circuit PHY1 will be sent back to the access control circuit MAC1, and the access control circuit MAC1 will determine the operation of data transmission according to the detection result (such as retransmitting the collision signal after a period of time after the collision).

The situation in which the present invention operates can be described as follows. When the user wants to use the portable computer 12 to connect to the Internet through the add-in card 10 of the present invention and transmit a data to the network, the data can be transmitted to the access terminal 16A through the first connection terminal 16B and the second connection terminal 16B. Control circuit MAC1. According to a certain network transmission protocol, the access control circuit MAC1 will add a header (Header) before the data, and the header will include information such as the physical address of the add-on card 10 and the physical address of the receiver; In addition, the access control circuit MAC1 will also calculate an error check code according to the content of the data, and append it to the data; in this way, the data will be packaged into a network format data. Because the network transmission protocol of the wired network and the wireless network may be different (for example, the wireless network transmission protocol also stipulates that relevant authentication information should be added to ensure the data security in the wireless network transmission), the access control circuit MAC1 can be used as needed Encapsulate the data into wireless network format data 32A conforming to the wireless transmission protocol (for transmission to the wireless network); or wire network format data 32B conforming to the wire transmission protocol for transmission to the wired network.

As mentioned above, the data to be transmitted to the wireless network 30A will be encapsulated into the wireless network format data 32A by the access control circuit MAC1 (for example, encapsulated according to the transmission protocol of the wireless area network IEEE802.11), and the wireless network The format data 32A is transmitted to the wireless signal circuit 24 in the form of a bit stream, and is modulated into a radio frequency transmission signal 36 suitable for wireless transmission by the base frequency circuit 26A, the intermediate frequency circuit 26B and the radio frequency circuit 26C in the wireless signal circuit 24 , and the antenna circuit ANT1 can convert the radio frequency transmission signal 36 into a radio wave form wireless network signal 40A and transmit it, so as to transmit data to the wireless network 30A. In contrast, if the antenna circuit ANT1 receives a network signal in the form of radio waves from the wireless network 30A, the antenna circuit ANT1 will also convert it into a wireless transmission signal 38 in electronic form, and demodulate it into a wireless network through the wireless signal circuit 24 The formatted data 34A is sent back to the access control circuit MAC1. Because the wireless network format data received by the wireless network 30A should also be packaged according to the wireless network transmission protocol, the access control circuit MAC1 can take out the data content packaged in the wireless network format data 34A, and the additional card 10 The second connection terminal 16B transmits back to the portable computer 12 through the first connection terminal 16A, so that the portable computer 12 can also receive the information data from the wireless network 30A, thereby achieving the purpose of wireless networking.

On the other hand, if the data is to be transmitted to the wired network 30B, the data will be packaged into the wired network format data 32B (for example, according to the transmission protocol of the wired network IEEE802.3), and transmitted to the wired network in the form of bit stream. Line circuit PHY1. The connection circuit PHY1 encodes it into a wireless network signal 40B, and transmits the wireless network signal 40B to the wired network 30B through the network transmission line 18 . In contrast, if a network signal is transmitted to the connection circuit PHY1 through the network transmission line 18, the connection circuit PHY1 can decode it into a network reception signal 34B. The packetized information data in the network receiving signal 34B will be taken out by the access control circuit MAC1, and sent back to the portable computer 12 through the second connection terminal 16B and the first connection terminal 16A. In this way, the portable computer 12 can access the resources of the wired network 30B. In a word, through the control of the access control circuit MAC1, the add-in card 10 of the present invention can provide wired and wireless networking functions, and expand the wired and wireless networking functions of the portable computer 12 .

Please refer to Figure 3. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an add-in card 50 according to another embodiment of the present invention. The major difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment is that the add-in card 50 is divided into a first part 51A and a second part 51B which are pluggable and separate or combined. Similar to the configuration of the previous embodiment, the first component 51A has a second connection terminal 56B for connecting with the first connection terminal 16A in the socket 14 of the portable computer 12 (only a part is shown in FIG. 3 ). The second component 51B also has a connection end 60B for matching with the insertion end 60A of the transmission line 58 so that the network transmission line 58 can be connected to the second component 51B in a pluggable manner. In addition to the above configuration similar to the previous embodiment, the first part 51A and the second part 51B are respectively provided with corresponding transmission ends 53A and 53B; when the transmission ends 53A and 53B are combined with each other, the first part 51A and the second part 51B can be combined with each other.

Please continue to refer to Figure 4. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the add-in card 50 working with the portable computer 12 . The access control circuit MAC2, the volatile memory M3, the non-volatile memory M4, the base frequency circuit 66A, the intermediate frequency circuit 66B and the radio frequency circuit 66C in the wireless signal circuit 64 in the add-on card 50, the antenna circuit ANT2 in the network connection circuit 68 Both the connection circuit PHY2 and the functional block with the same name in the add-on card 10 have the same function; The major difference between the add-on card 50 and the add-on card 10 is that each functional block is divided into a first part 51A and a second part 51B that can be combined separately. In the add-in card 50, the network connection circuit 68 is disposed in the second part 51B; other related circuits are disposed in the first part 51A. The transmission terminals 53A, 53B of the first component 51A and the second component 51B are respectively provided with first sub-transmission terminals 55A, 55B and second sub-transmission terminals 57A, 57B. The wireless signal circuit 64 in the first part 51A can be electrically connected to the antenna circuit ANT2 in the second part 51B through the first sub-transmission terminals 55A, 55B; the access control circuit MAC2 in the first part 51A can also be connected through the second The sub-transmission terminals 57A, 57B are electrically connected to the connection circuit PHY2 in the second component 51B. In this way, when the first part 51A is connected to the second part 51B, the access control circuit MAC2 can control the wireless signal circuit 64 and the antenna circuit ANT2 to connect to the wireless network 30A; Transmission line 58 is connected to wired network 30B. In this embodiment, the network connection circuit 68 is separately provided in the detachable second component 51B. The advantage of this configuration is that the user can replace the network connection circuit as needed. Because of the different constructions around the network, sometimes it is necessary to use different power antenna circuits or different types of network transmission lines, so that the corresponding network connection circuits will also be different; for example, antenna circuits and network transmission lines with different powers will be different. Impedance matching and related circuit design and so on. In the separate design of this embodiment, different network connection circuits can be designed in different second parts, and the user can flexibly only need to replace the second part equipped with different network connection circuits to match the original first part. To meet the requirements of different network peripheral constructions, the additional card of the present invention is used for wired and wireless Internet access. In addition, the antenna ANT2 can also adopt a detachable design, so that the antenna circuit ANT2 can be directly removed and replaced from the second component.

In the known technology, the add-on card used to expand the Internet access function can only have a single wired or wireless networking function, which cannot meet the requirements of the modern information society for accessing network resources. In contrast, the add-on card in the present invention can expand the wired and wireless Internet access functions of the computer at the same time only by using a single slot of the computer, fully meeting the needs of multiple network connections and resource access.

The above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made according to the scope of the patent application of the present invention shall fall within the scope of the patent of the present invention.

Claims (12)

1. dual-purpose additional card of wire and wireless network that is used in a computer, this computer package contains:

One housing;

One first link is arranged on this housing;

This additional card includes:

Second link is used for being connected in this first link in pluggable mode, so that receive the information data that this computer transmits by this first link;

One access-control scheme is electrically connected in this second link, and the information data that this second link can be transmitted is converted to wireless network formats data and cable network formatted data;

One wireless signal circuit is electrically connected in this access-control scheme, and being used for this wireless network formats data-modulated is a wireless transmission signal; And

One network connecting circuit, this network connecting circuit includes:

One antenna circuit is connected in this wireless signal circuit, is used for this wireless transmission signal being converted to the wireless network signal of an electric wave form and launching wirelessly, so that this wireless network signal is transferred to a wireless network;

One wired circuit is connected in this access-control scheme, is used for this cable network formatted data is converted to the cable network signal; And

One Network transmission line is connected in this wired circuit, is used for this cable network signal is transferred to a cable network.

2. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this antenna circuit can receive the signal that this wireless network transmits with wireless mode and be converted to a wireless transmission signal; This wireless signal circuit can be demodulated into this wireless transmission signal one wireless network formats data; And this access-control scheme can be converted to these wireless network formats data corresponding information data and transfer to this computer.

3. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this wired circuit can receive the signal that this cable network transmits via this Network transmission line and be converted to a cable network formatted data; This access-control scheme can be converted to this cable network formatted data corresponding information data and transfer to this computer.

4. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that other includes a non-volatility memorizer, is used for storing the required data of this access-control scheme running.

5. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that other includes a volatile storage, required data when being used for temporary this access-control scheme running.

6. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this network connecting circuit is to be connected in this access-control scheme in pluggable mode.

7. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this antenna circuit is to be connected in this network connecting circuit in pluggable mode.

8. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that the form of this wireless network signal meets the regulation of IEEE 802.11.

9. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that the form of this cable network signal meets the regulation of IEEE 802.3.

10. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this access-control scheme is that this information data that transmits via second link is added that a header is to form these wireless network formats data and cable network formatted data.

11. additional card as claimed in claim 10 is characterized in that, this header includes a physical address corresponding to this additional card.

12. additional card as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this access-control scheme will add that a check code is to form these wireless network formats data and cable network formatted data via the information data that second link transmits.

Images