Patent · US Active

DMA engine

US8527671B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
4References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateDec 21, 2009
Grant dateSep 3, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 18, 2031

Classification

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

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of accessing a slave device from a circuit including a central processing unit, a data transfer engine, and an interface to the slave device. In one embodiment, the method includes: executing code on the central processing unit to set up the data transfer engine to access the slave device; and based on the set-up, operating the data transfer engine to supply a read request word to a transmit buffer of the interface for transmission to the slave device, and, after return of a corresponding response word to a first-in-first-out receive buffer of the interface, to disable the first-in-first-out receive buffer from receiving any further data such that the last word therein is assured to be the response word. The method further includes using an underflow mechanism of the first-in-first-out receive buffer to determine the last word therein and hence determine the response word.

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