US 5,970,234 AGranted

PCI bus arbiter and a bus control system having the same

AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

InventorSung-Kon Jin

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A PCI bus arbiter is provided as an additional PCI bus in PCI peer-to-peer bus bridge system. A bus control system having the PCI bus arbiter is also provided. The bus control system includes bus masters, a first PCI bus bridge, a second PCI bus bridge, an EISA/ISA bus bridge for changing structures of signals from the bus masters to be suitable for corresponding bus, a first arbiter in a main chip set, and a second arbiter for arbitration process. The second arbiter includes an edge detecting state machine which detects whether a PCI bus is accessed by a bus master, and produces a frame-signal which changes a logic state thereof according to an access condition of the PCI bus. The second arbiter may also include a priority resolve state machine which receives the frame-signal and produces priority values which determine an order of bus masters to use the PCI bus, wherein the priority values are changed according to the frame-signal. The second arbiter can include a hand shake state machine which produces and outputs grant-signals to grant authority to use the PCI bus to bus masters according to the priority value.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A bus control method, comprising the steps of:

using a central processing unit, processing and manipulating data being transmitted to a computer system using a first PCI bus, a second PCI bus and an EISA/ISA bus;
using a first PCI bus bridge, changing structure of bus signals from bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus;
using a second PCI bus bridge, changing structure of bus signals from bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus;
using an EISA/ISA bus bridge, changing structure of bus signals from bus masters to be transmitted through the EISA/ISA bus;
using a first arbiter, receiving a first plurality of request signals requesting an authority to use the first PCI bus from the bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus;
using the first arbiter, selecting a first bus master from the bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus;
using the first arbiter, generating a first grant signal to authorize the first bus master to use the first PCI bus;
and
using a second arbiter, receiving a second plurality of request signals requesting an authority to use the second PCI bus from the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus;
using the second arbiter, selecting a second bus master from the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus;
and
using the second arbiter, generating a second grant signal to authorize the second bus master to use the second PCI bus, wherein the second arbiter comprises:
an edge detecting state machine detecting whether the second PCI bus is accessed by a bus master, and generating a frame signal having a logic state in dependence upon an access condition of the second PCI bus;
a priority resolve state machine receiving the frame signal and producing priority values determining an order of bus masters to use the second PCI bus, the priority values being changed according to the frame signal;
and
a hand shake state machine generating and transmitting the second grant signal to grant an authority to use the second PCI bus to the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus according to the priority values.

13 more elements

A bus control system, comprising:

a plurality of bus masters;
a central processing unit for processing and manipulating data transmitted to a computer system using a first PCI bus, a second PCI bus and an EISA/ISA bus;
a first PCI bus bridge for changing structure of bus signals from bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus;
a second PCI bus bridge for changing structure of bus signals from bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus;
an EISA/ISA bus bridge for changing structure of bus signals from bus masters to be transmitted through the EISA/ISA bus;
a first arbiter for receiving a first plurality of request signals requesting an authority to use the first PCI bus from the bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus, for selecting a first bus master from the bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus, and for generating a first grant signal to authorize the first bus master to use the first PCI bus;
and
a second arbiter for receiving a second plurality of request signals requesting an authority to use the second PCI bus from the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus, for selecting a second bus master from the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus, and for generating a second grant signal to authorize the second bus master to use the second PCI bus, wherein the second arbiter comprises:
an edge detecting state machine for detecting whether the second PCI bus is accessed by a bus master, and for generating a frame signal having a logic state in dependence upon an access condition of the second PCI bus;
a priority resolve state machine for receiving the frame signal and for producing priority values determining an order of the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus to use the second PCI bus, the priority values being changed according to the frame signal;
and
a hand shake state machine for generating and for transmitting the second grant signal to grant an authority to use the second PCI bus to the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus according to the priority values.

9 more elements

A PCI bus system, comprising:

a first PCI bus;
a second PCI bus;
a first arbiter for receiving a first plurality of request signals requesting an authority to use the first PCI bus from bus masters to be transmitted through the first PCI bus, and for authorizing a bus master to be transmitted through the first PCI bus to use the first PCI bus;
and
a second arbiter for receiving a second plurality of request signals requesting an authority to use the second PCI bus from bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus, and for authorizing a bus master to be transmitted through the second PCI bus to use the second PCI bus, wherein the second arbiter comprises:
an edge detecting state machine for detecting whether the second PCI bus is accessed by a bus master, and for generating a frame signal having a logic state in dependence upon an access condition of the second PCI bus;
a priority resolve state machine for receiving the frame signal and for producing priority values determining an order of the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus to use the second PCI bus, the priority values being changed according to the frame signal;
and
a hand shake state machine for generating and for transmitting a grant signal to grant an authority to use the second PCI bus to the bus masters to be transmitted through the second PCI bus according to the priority values.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.