SI: Sony?s Single Wire Interface Could Revolutionize Cell Phone Design

[Christopher]

Sony is showing off a new cable they have under development for cell phones, officially called “single wire interface” technology, which dramatically condenses audio, video and power transmission into a single cable. Of course, this applies to flip (aka clam shell) phones, which have fallen behind in popularity in the USA to large screen solitary devices like the iPhone, and various Android handsets. However, in Japan, many people still use flip phones, as you can see on one of their largest cell carriers NTT docomo.

Sony boasts that normal clamshell cell phones can have up to 22 wires to transmit data and power, consisting of a power wire, an audio wire, fifteen misc. wires, and five differential wires. With this new technology, all of that can be transmitted through one differential wire capable of 940Mbps transmission speeds. Could this mean a new revolution in handset design? Amazing to think of the possibilities.

How did they do it? Well, according to the press release,

“Sony developed a unique time division duplex and multiplex method that enable packets of data, including video (display, camera), audio, and control signals to be transmitted over a single cable. Furthermore, Sony has enabled the bi-directional transmission of different signals, such as display and camera signals, by incorporating a mechanism that retains individual synchronization.

The newly-developed hardware is composed of a digital portion that performs multi-level encoding, an analog portion that transmits and receives signals, and another portion that combines signals with DC power or separates signals from DC power. A unique multi-level encoding that has no DC component enables both high speed transmission with limited frequency bandwidth and DC power supply on a single common cable.”

What’s next? Sony is working with a company called ROHM, which has a track record in peripheral tech and they will co-develop and work on the analog portion of the chip. ROHM will then get the IP license for the digital portion of the single wire technology in order to make a chip that has the analog and digital aspects within.

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