Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for using multiple co-dependent DMA controllers to provide a single set of read and write commands

US6341328B1 · kind B1 · utility

5Cited by
20References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateApr 20, 1999
Grant dateJan 22, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 20, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/28
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A microcomputer incorporates a pair of DMA controllers that are co-dependently operated to read and write common data blocks to two peripheral devices. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, one of the DMA controllers is designated to read a data block from memory, store the data, and then write the data in a single write cycle to each of the two peripheral devices. This DMA controller provides the address and control signals necessary for writing the data to a first of the two peripheral devices, while the other DMA controller provides the address and control signals necessary for writing the data block to a second of the two peripheral devices. As a result, only one read and one write command are required for the data to be written to the two peripheral devices.

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