Patent · US Expired

Bus protocol for locked cycle cache hit

US5787486A · kind A · utility

68Cited by
16References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 15, 1995
Grant dateJul 28, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 15, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0888
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus and method are provided for maintaining lock characteristics while providing selective access to a cache during lock cycles. To guarantee that only one master accesses memory at a time, locked cycles are always passed to the internal arbitration unit of the memory controller, even if they are cache hits. If the local bus is not granted or cannot be guaranteed that it will be granted the bus for the locked cycle, the cycle is cancelled.

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