Gari L Cheever

US Patent:

62758829, Aug 14, 2001

Filed:

Sep 30, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/941142

Inventors:

Gari L. Cheever - Palo Alto CA
Kal Krishnan - Fremont CA
Robert Frankenberg - Alpine UT

Assignee:

Encanto Networks - Santa Clara CA

International Classification:

G06F 1340

US Classification:

710103

Abstract:

A method and apparatus for providing a hot docking interface for transmitting multimedia data. In one embodiment, a hot docking interface is provided on a computer system and a second hot docking interface is provided on a multimedia device. When the hot docking interfaces are placed in contact with each other, multimedia data may automatically be transmitted between the computer system and the multimedia device. The hot docking feature of the hot docking interfaces allows the multimedia device to be placed in contact with the computer system, when the computer system is powered on, and, in response, data is automatically transferred. No cables, wire, or pin sockets are necessary. Moreover, in one embodiment, the hot docking interface of the computer system will provide power to the hot docking interface of the multimedia device to have the multimedia device transfer the data. Moreover, in one embodiment of the present invention, the hot-docking interfaces are configured to enhance the transmission of multimedia data by transmitting the multimedia data in accordance with the IEEE 1394 standard, published in 1995, sometimes referred to as the FireWire. TM. communication protocol.