Access control of a resource shared between components

A method for sharing a resource having a plurality of elements between at least first and second components, comprising:

• controlling, with an access controller coupled to said at least first and second components, which of said at least first and second components are able to access which elements of said resource;
• storing a first mask value, wherein access to the element of said resource is controlled based on said first mask value;
• determining which of said first and second components is accessing said resource;
• determining which of the elements of the resource are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said first mask value;
• providing an eviction array indicating the least recently used element of said resource;
• providing a second mask value;
• and
• selecting which bits of said eviction array are used in controlling which of the elements of said cache memory are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said second mask value.

A method for sharing a resource having a plurality of elements between at least first and second components, comprising:

• controlling, with an access controller coupled to said at least first and second components, which of said at least first and second components are able to access which elements of said resource;
• storing a first mask value, wherein access to the element of said resource is controlled based on said first mask value;
• determining which of said first and second components is accessing said resource;
• providing an eviction array indicating the least recently used element of said resource;
• determining which of the elements of the resource are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on an auxiliary mask value;
• and
• selecting which bits of said eviction array are used in controlling which of the elements of said resource are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said auxiliary mask value.

A set of instructions residing in a storage medium, said set of instructions to be executed by a processor to implement a method of sharing a resource having a plurality of elements between at least first and second components, the method comprising:

• controlling, with an access controller coupled to said at least first and second components, which of said at least first and second components are able to access which elements of said resource;
• storing a first mask value, wherein access to the element of said resource is controlled based on said first mask value;
• determining which of said first and second components is accessing said resource;
• and
• determining which of the elements of the resource are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said first mask value;
• providing an eviction array indicating the least recently used element of said resource;
• providing a second mask value;
• and
• selecting which bits of said eviction array are used in controlling which of the elements of said cache memory are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said second mask value.

A set of instructions residing in a storage medium, said set of instructions to be executed by a processor to implement a method of sharing a resource having a plurality of elements between at least first and second components, the method comprising:

• controlling, with an access controller coupled to said at least first and second components, which of said at least first and second components are able to access which elements of said resource;
• storing a first mask value, wherein access to the element of said resource is controlled based on said first mask value;
• determining which of said first and second components is accessing said resource;
• providing an eviction array indicating the least recently used element of said resource;
• determining which of the elements of the resource are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said auxiliary mask value;
• and
• selecting which bits of said eviction array are used in controlling which of the elements of said resource are available for access by the component accessing said resource based on said auxiliary mask value.