US 2004/0177187 A1 · System and method for arbitrating access on a bus

Abstract

A system and method of arbitrating access on a bus includes a bus, a bus expander, a boot module, and a management module. The bus expander includes an access engine, a first bus interface, a second bus interface, and a plurality of general purpose input/output ports. The boot module couples with a first segment of the bus and communicatively couples to the bus expander via the first bus interface. The management module couples with a second bus segment of the bus and communicatively couples with the bus expander via the second bus interface. The boot module and the management module make one or more access requests for one or more devices interfaced with the general purpose input/output ports of the bus expander thereby allowing the modules to communicate with the devices. The access engine arbitrates the access requests made by the modules to prevent bus hang conditions.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An information handling system comprising:

at least one bi-directional bus;
a bus expander associated with the bus, the bus expander including an access engine, a first bus interface, a second bus interface, and a plurality of general purpose input/output ports;
a boot module operably coupled to a first segment of the bus, the boot module operable to communicatively couple to the bus expander via the first bus interface;
a management module operably coupled to a second segment of the bus, the management module operable to communicatively couple to the bus expander via the second bus interface;
and
the access engine operable to arbitrate between one or more common access requests from the boot module and the management module.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for arbitrating access on a bus

Life of this patent

System and method for arbitrating access on a bus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20