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(11) | EP 0 430 405 A3 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Digital switcher for routing signals |
| (57) A digital switcher routes signals at rates up to or more than 300 MHz between switcher
inputs and outputs. The switcher includes an array of n rows and m columns of modules linking n groups of switcher inputs and m groups of switcher outputs. Each module consists of a primary switching unit (A1)
for selectively coupling individual ones of its outputs to ones of its inputs and
a number of individually-controllable, regenerative, two-input selector switches (A2).
The primary and selector switches are controlled by a controller (20). The selector
switch outputs form the module outputs. Each selector switch has an input connected
to an associated output of the primary switching unit in the same module, and the
other connected to an associated output of a module in the previous row of the array
(apart from those in the first row). The switcher outputs are derived from the outputs
of the last row of modules. To route a signal from a switcher input to a selected switcher output, the appropriate primary switching unit to which that switcher input is fed links its corresponding input to the selected one of its outputs. The regenerative selector switches in that module and in modules in subsequent rows then cascade the signal from that module through the subsequent rows to the selected switcher output. |