High-speed starvation-free arbiter system, rotating-priority arbiter, and two stage arbitration method
US7120714B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 27, 2003 |
| Grant date | Oct 10, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 22, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/364
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A two-stage arbiter system comprises a first-stage arbiter to grant a request to one of a plurality of requestors in accordance with a first arbitration scheme and a second-stage arbiter to grant one of the remaining requests in accordance with a second arbitration scheme. The first arbitration scheme may be a fast arbitration scheme such as a fixed-priority scheme, and the second arbitration scheme may be a rotating priority-based arbitration scheme or a least-recently-granted arbitration scheme. The first-stage arbiter may operate in a first pipelined stage, and the second-stage arbiter may operate in a second pipelined stage. Two-stage arbitration may help improve access of lower-priority requestors in a pipelined system. In one embodiment, a rotating-priority arbitrator includes a pseudo-random number generator to generate an amount for rotating priorities prior to arbitration. The rotating-priority arbiter may use either a counter or linear-feedback shift register to rotate priorities of requests.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.