Patent · US Expired

Arbitration circuit for arbitrating requests from multiple processors

US6029219A · kind A · utility

13Cited by
4References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 25, 1998
Grant dateFeb 22, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 25, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/362
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A round robin arbitration circuit arbitrating N requests has a register storing one of N values, a priority encoder selecting one of N priority patterns according to the value in the register and assigning priorities to the requests based on the selected priority pattern, thereby conducting arbitration between the requests, a circuit updating the value in the register among the N values in a predetermined order synchronously with the arbitration, and a circuit updating the value in the register among the N values in the predetermined order at regular intervals that are asynchronous with the arbitration. At the regular intervals that are asynchronous with the arbitration, a jump is made in the predetermined updating order of the values to be set in the register. Accordingly, even if live-lock occurs, it will be solved when such a jump is made to make the number of priority patterns disagree with the number of requests issued in a loop.

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