Arbiter circuit for crossbar
AssigneeAruba Networks, Inc.
InventorShiro Suzuki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An example arbiter circuit for a crossbar may include request circuits corresponding respectively to ingress ports of the crossbar; grant circuits corresponding respectively to egress ports of the crossbar; a request register; and a grant register. Each of the request circuits may be to request a connection between its corresponding ingress port and a target by writing an encoded identifier of the target to the request register. Each of the grant circuits may be to grant a connection between its corresponding egress port and one of the ingress ports by writing an encoded identifier of the ingress port to the grant register.
Claims20
An arbiter circuit for a crossbar, comprising:
- request circuits corresponding respectively to ingress ports of the crossbar;
- grant circuits corresponding respectively to egress ports of the crossbar;
- a request register;
- and
- a grant register,
- wherein each of the request circuits is to request a connection between its corresponding ingress port and a target by writing a connection request comprising an encoded identifier of the target to the request register, and
- each of the grant circuits is to grant a connection between its corresponding egress port and one of the ingress ports by writing an encoded identifier of the request circuit that corresponds to the ingress port to the grant register.
An arbiter circuit for a crossbar, comprising:
- request circuits corresponding respectively to ingress ports of the crossbar, the request circuits being arranged in multiple request sections;
- grant circuits corresponding respectively to egress ports of the crossbar, arranged in multiple grant sections;
- multiple request registers, one for each of the grant sections;
- and
- multiple grant registers, one for each of the request sections;
- wherein each of the request circuits is to request a connection between its corresponding ingress port and a target by writing a connection request comprising an encoded identifier of the target to each of the request registers, and
- each of the grant circuits is to grant a connection between its corresponding egress port and one of the ingress ports by writing an encoded identifier of the request circuit that corresponds to the ingress port to each of the grant registers.
A method of arbitrating a crossbar, the method comprising:
- causing request circuits, which correspond respectively to ingress ports of the crossbar, to request connections by writing connection requests to a request register, the connection requests each comprising an encoded identifier of a connection target;
- causing grant circuits, which correspond respectively to egress ports of the crossbar, to identify which of the connection requests are relevant to which of the grant circuits based on the encoded identifiers of the connection targets stored in the request register;
- causing each of the grant circuits to determine whether to grant any of the connection requests that are relevant to the respective grant circuit;
- causing the grant circuits to grant connection requests by writing grant messages to a grant register, the grant messages each comprising an encoded identifier associated with the request circuit whose connection request is being granted;
- causing the request circuits to identify which of the request circuits have had their connection request granted based on the encoded identifiers associated with the request circuits stored in the grant register;
- and
- causing the crossbar to establish connections based on the granted connection requests.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.