Abstract: A new high-speed digital interface for transmitting video information over various transmission media including terminated copper wires such as twisted-pair wires and fiber optical cable is described. The significance of this new interface is that (1) it only uses a small number of data channels with all timing and control data embedded in data transmission, (2) it uses a transition controlled binary DC balanced coding for reliable, low-power and high-speed data transmission, (3) it uses low-swing differential voltage which minimizes EMI, and (4) it can be implemented in low-cost scaleable CMOS technology as a megacell or standard IC. The high-speed digital interface incorporates a method and apparatus for producing a transition-controlled, DC-balanced sequence of characters from an input sequence of data bytes. The bits in each of the data bytes are selectively complemented in accordance with the number of logical transitions in each data byte in order to produce selectively complemented data blocks.

Abstract: A system and method for sending multiple data signals over a serial link comprises an embedding unit and a removing unit coupled by a serial line. The embedding unit preferably receives a plurality of data streams, encodes the data streams and then merges the encoded data into a serial stream that is output across a serial line to the removing unit. The removing unit receives a serial stream of data, decodes the serial stream, and then separates the decoded serial stream into separate streams thereby reconstructing the streams input to the embedding unit. The encoding and transmission by the embedding unit and the receipt and decoding by the removing unit are completely transparent, the signals output by the removing unit are identical in timing and data content to the signals input to the embedding unit. The present invention also includes a method for transmitting a plurality of data streams over a signal line, and a method for generating a plurality of data streams from a serial sequence.