Patent · US Expired

Reliable and redundant control signals in a multi-master system

US6970961B1 · kind B1 · utility

6Cited by
7References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 2, 2001
Grant dateNov 29, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 30, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/2007
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A network device includes redundant buses, redundant master controllers, and slave controllers. Each of the master controllers connects to a corresponding one of the buses. One of the master controllers acts as an active master and the other master controllers act as standby masters. The active master commences a bus cycle that includes an address interval and a data interval, provides a destination address on the corresponding bus during the address interval, and transmits or receives a command or data during the data interval. The slave controllers connect to the bus, detect commencement of the bus cycle, sample the destination address from the bus a predetermined amount of time after commencement of the address interval, and transmit or receive a command or data during the data interval.

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