Mechanisms for Priority Control in Resource Allocation

A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having a computer readable program stored thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

• generate and grant a token to a resource allocation group, wherein the resource allocation group comprises one or more requester devices within the data processing system, and wherein the resource allocation group is one of a plurality of resource allocation groups in the data processing system;
• obtain request information from a group of request storage devices, separate from the one or more requester devices and allocated, from a plurality of storage devices, to the resource allocation group and the resource, wherein the group of request storage devices is separated into a first sub-group of high priority request storage devices and a second sub-group of low priority request storage devices;
• select a requester device from the one or more requester devices to receive the token based on the request information obtained from the group of request storage devices;
• and
• grant the token to the selected requester device, wherein the selected requester device uses the token to access a resource.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• a plurality of requester devices coupled to the processor;
• a resource coupled to the plurality of operational units;
• a memory coupled to the processor;
• and
• a plurality of request storage devices coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• generate and grant a token to a resource allocation group, wherein the resource allocation group comprises one or more requester devices, from the plurality of requester devices, and wherein the resource allocation group is one of a plurality of resource allocation groups;
• obtain request information from a group of request storage devices separate from the one or more requester devices and allocated, from the plurality of request storage devices, to the resource allocation group and the resource, wherein the group of request storage devices is separated into a first sub-group of high priority request storage devices and a second sub-group of low priority request storage devices;
• select a requester device from the one or more requester devices to receive the token based on the request information obtained from the group of request storage devices;
• and
• grant the token to the selected requester device, wherein the selected requester device uses the token to access the resource.