ES DVD Players 2005, Version 4.0 Page 6
High quality digital Audio Transmission System (HATS) The design of the i.LINK® interface is exceptional because communicating
six streams of 2.8224 MHz digital samples raises extreme challenges.
Conveying 1-bit signals at such high data rates and synchronizing the signals
with the other component's master clock would normally expose the signal to the
time-base errors called jitter. These errors translate directly into time-based
distortion of the audio waveform.
The connection from the DVP-NS9100ES to the STR-DA7100ES receiver
overcomes this challenge with the High quality digital Audio Transmission
System (HATS). HATS uses "command-based rate control of isochronous data
flow" to solve the problem. The system incorporates three principal elements.
1. Variable-speed transmission from the player.
2. Buffer memory in the receiver.
3. Command signals from the receiver to the player, controlling
transmission speed.
The receiver continually monitors the amount of audio data in its buffer
memory. When the buffer memory reaches its lower limit, the receiver
commands the player to increase data transmission speed. When the buffer
memory reaches its upper limit, the receiver commands the player to decrease
transmission speed. And when the buffer memory is between the upper and
lower limits, the receiver commands the player to transmit at normal speed.
With Sony® HATS, audio data flows from the player to the receiver's
buffer memory, according to rate control commands from the receiver.
Reproduction in the receiver achieves the full time base accuracy of the
receiver's quartz crystal master clock.
In this way, HATS makes it unnecessary to synchronize a jitter-prone
signal with the receiver master clock. Instead, the buffer memory outputs a jitter-
DVP-NS9100ES STR-DA7100ES