Patent · US Expired

On-chip interface and DMA controller with interrupt functions for digital signal processor

US5513374A · kind A · utility

28Cited by
29References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateSep 27, 1993
Grant dateApr 30, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 27, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/32
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A single chip digital signal processor (DSP) includes memory mapped resources and an on-chip direct memory access controller (DMAC). The memory mapped resources of the DSP include an on-chip program memory, an on-chip data memory, internal registers and memory mapped external memories and peripheral devices. The DMAC includes separate address and count registers for handling a primary data transfer and two interrupt data transfers. The count registers share the same decrementer and the address registers share the same address computation circuit. The DMAC also has a dedicated interrupt controller for handling interrupts from a host computer and from peripheral devices. The DMAC processes interrupts from the host and two peripheral devices while a primary direct memory access transfer is being performed by the DMAC without having to store address register and count register information in a memory stacking area. As a result, the DMAC can switch from a primary DMA transfer to an interrupt DMA transfer or a host DMA transfer and back without using any instruction cycles for "overhead" associated with storing and restoring registers in a memory stacking area. The DMAC also includes a h…

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