Distributed arbitration apparatus and method for shared bus
US4920486A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 23, 1987 |
| Grant date | Apr 24, 1990 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 23, 2007 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/378
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Each user of an intercommunicastion bus is associated with a distinct channel of an arbitration bus and maintains a priority record indicating its current priority status against each other user. During a contention interval each user then seeking to use the intercommunication bus bids for use of it by transmitting a bus request signal and makes an analysis of the signals to ascertain if it has a dominating priority for initiating a transaction on the bus, and access is granted accordingly. During the use-signal interval a user then using the intercommunication bus transmits an in-use signal used to up-date priority records with the effect of giving the last using user lowest priority. For transactions which require a response from a user other than the one initiating the transaction, a second round of bidding is conducted to determine whether any user is qualified to respond and if so which will be enabled to do so. When the response bidding shows no bidders the system immediately initiates bidding for a new transaction.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.