Mechanisms for arbitrating among packets in one or more co-packaged integrated circuits

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by an arbitration circuit of an integrated circuit that comprises a plurality of agent circuits configured to transmit packets on a communication fabric of the integrated circuit, a first command-data packet and a first command packet during a first arbitration cycle, wherein the first command-data packet includes a command and data, and the first command packet includes a command without data;
• based on an immediately preceding arbitration cycle to the first arbitration cycle having no winning packet, the arbitration circuit selecting, in accordance with a non-least-recently-granted (non-LRG) arbitration scheme, one of the first command-data packet and the first command packet as a winning packet to transmit on the communication fabric of the integrated circuit;
• transmitting, by the arbitration circuit, the selected packet;
• receiving, by the arbitration circuit, a second command-data packet and a second command packet during a second arbitration cycle;
• and
• based on an immediately preceding arbitration cycle to the second arbitration cycle having a winning packet, the arbitration circuit selecting, in accordance with an LRG arbitration scheme, one of the second command-data packet and the second command packet to transmit on the communication fabric.

An integrated circuit, comprising:

• a communication fabric;
• and
• a plurality of agent circuits coupled to the communication fabric and configured to transmit packets to read and write data with respect to a memory;
• wherein the communication fabric includes:
• a plurality of queues configured to store ones of the packets, including command-data packets and command packets, wherein a command-data packet includes a command and data, and a command packet includes a command without data;
• and
• an arbitration circuit configured to arbitrate among packets stored in the plurality of queues to transmit on the communication fabric, wherein the arbitration circuit is configured to transmit data of a given command-data packet as a plurality of beats on the communication fabric, wherein the plurality of beats defines a minimum cadence at which the command-data packets are transmittable on the communication fabric, and wherein the arbitration circuit is configured to select, as a winning packet for a particular arbitration cycle, a command-data packet to maintain the minimum cadence even in the event that the most recently selected packet was another command-data packet.