Patent · US Expired

Methods and architectures for overlapped read and write operations

US5925118A · kind A · utility

32Cited by
10References
39Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 11, 1996
Grant dateJul 20, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 11, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/364
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A communication system and method of communicating including a slave function connected to a master function by a single address bus, a write data bus and a read data bus so as to allow for overlapping multiple cycle read and write operations between the master function and the slave function. Preferably the communication system includes a plurality of slave functions connected to a master function by the single address bus, the write data bus and the read data bus. A plurality of master functions may be connected to the slave functions through a bus arbiter connected to the plurality of master functions by an address bus, a write data bus and a read data bus for each master function. The bus arbiter receives requests for communication operations from the plurality of master functions and selectively transmits the communication operations to the slave functions. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the master function and the slave function are further connected by a plurality of transfer qualifier signals which may specify whether the operation is a read or a write operation, the size of the transfer, the direction of the transfer or the type of transfer so as to fu…

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