Patent · US Expired

Priority circuit for channel subsystem having components with diverse and changing requirement for system resources

US4675812A · kind A · utility

48Cited by
8References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 20, 1985
Grant dateJun 23, 1987
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 20, 2005

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/18
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A priority circuit handles requests by three components of a data processing system for access to several resources of the system that can be accessed one at a time on each operating cycle of the system. A logic circuit receives requests by the requesters and grants access to one requester on a priority basis. The logic circuit has means for establishing a particular priority sequence, and the priority circuit includes means for stepping the logic circuit through a cycle of different priority sequences. In a repeating cycle of these steps, each requester is given the highest priority at least once. In a specific embodiment, the stepping means is a counter and a cycle is called a counting cycle. The stepping means is responsive to a control code to establish a particular stepping sequence. In a longer sequence, the lowest priority requester is given the highest priority once and higher priority requesters are given the highest priority several times so that in a complete cycle of steps the requesters have a different relative priority. In shorter cycles, the lowest priority requester is still given highest priority once and the higher priority requesters are given highest priority a…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.