System integrating agents having different resource-accessing schemes

A method of managing access to a shared resource by a plurality of data processing agents, the shared resource being accessible by one data processing agent at a time, an interface being provided managing access to said shared resource, the interface comprising arbitration means adapted to arbitrate between requests, issued by said plurality of data processing agents, for access to said shared resource, whereby to select which request will be successful, and at least one of the data processing agents being adapted for making accesses at predetermined times for respective periods of known duration, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a controller associated with said at least one of the data processing agents, the controller being adapted to generate control data indicative of the predetermined times at which the, or each respective, at least one data processing agent outputs requests for access to the shared resource;
• providing a respective buffer associated with the, or each of said, at least one data processing agents;
• providing an anticipatory request-generator arranged to receive control data from said controller and adapted to generate and supply to said interface, at instants earlier than said predetermined times, anticipated access-requests on behalf of said at least one data processing agent;
• adapting the interface to cause data, obtained from said shared resource as a result of an anticipated access-request generated by the anticipatory request-generator on behalf of one of said at least one data processing agents, to be written into the respective buffer associated with said one data processing agent;
• and
• arranging for the, or each respective, at least one data processing agent to access the respective buffer associated therewith at said predetermined times.