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US 7,127,540 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for controlling frequency of bus use
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorHoi-jin Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a bus arbitration method and bus arbiter which simultaneously considers fairness and priority and enables fairness and priority to be readjusted by a program, that is, by software, arbitration for ownership of a bus connected to a plurality of bus masters comprises grouping the plurality of bus masters into a plurality of groups and arbitrating the frequency of each bus master's ownership of the bus according to the result of the grouping. It is preferable that each of the plurality of groups has a priority different from the priorities of the others, and in arbitrating the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, arbitration of ownership of the bus by bus masters belonging to the same group is performed according to a round-robin method.
Claims28
A method of arbitrating for ownership of a bus connected to
- a plurality of bus masters, comprising:
- grouping the plurality of bus masters into a plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, and wherein each group of the plurality of groups generates an internal request signal;
- and
- arbitrating ownership of the bus by each bus master according to the grouping, wherein each bus arbitration comprises:
- generating an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master among the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus;
- outputting a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus;
- and
- outputting at least one grant signal from at least one selected internal grant signal.
5 more elements
A method of arbitrating for ownership of a bus, comprising:
- grouping a plurality of bus masters into a plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, and wherein each group of the plurality of groups generates an internal request signal;
- and
- arbitrating the frequency of each bus master owning the bus according to which of the plurality of groups each bus master belongs, wherein each bus arbitration comprises:
- generating an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master among the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus;
- outputting a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus;
- and
- outputting at least one grant signal from at least one selected internal grant signal.
4 more elements
A method of arbitrating for ownership of a bus between a plurality of bus masters in a bus system including the bus, the plurality of bus masters and a bus arbiter which arbitrates the ownership of the bus between the plurality of bus masters all being connected to the bus, the method comprising:
- grouping the plurality of bus masters into a plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, wherein each group of the plurality of groups generates an internal request signal;
- and
- arbitrating ownership of the bus by each bus master according to the group to which each bus master belongs, wherein the ownership of the bus is arbitrated according to a priority method between bus masters of different groups and according to a round-robin method between bus masters belonging to the same group, wherein each bus arbitration comprises:
- generating an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master among the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus;
- outputting a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus;
- and
- outputting at least one grant signal from at least one selected internal grant signal.
4 more elements
A bus arbiter for arbitrating ownership of a bus connected to each of a plurality of bus masters, the bus arbiter comprising:
- a plurality of register blocks, each register block generating an internal request signal;
- and
- a grant signal generation circuit which receives the internal request signal from each of the plurality of register blocks, and, during bus arbitration, outputs a grant signal for granting ownership of the bus to a corresponding bus master in response to a control signal, wherein the plurality of bus masters are grouped into a plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, and wherein each of the plurality of register blocks stores information related to bus masters belonging to a corresponding group, and wherein the grant signal generation circuit generates an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master of the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus, and wherein the grant signal generation circuit outputs a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus.
A bus arbiter comprising;
- a plurality of register blocks, each of which stores information related to a plurality of bus masters belonging to a corresponding one of a plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, and each register block generating an internal request signal;
- and
- a grant signal generation circuit which outputs a grant signal for granting ownership of a bus connected to each of the plurality of bus masters to a corresponding bus master in response to the internal request signal of the corresponding register block, and wherein the grant signal generation circuit generates an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master of the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus, and wherein the grant signal generation circuit outputs a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus.
A bus system comprising:
- a bus;
- a bus arbiter connected to the bus;
- and
- a plurality of bus masters, each of which is connected to the bus and outputs a request signal requesting ownership of the bus to the bus arbiter through the bus,
- wherein the bus arbiter comprises:
- a plurality of register blocks, each of which stores information related to bus masters belonging to a corresponding one of a plurality of groups, the bus masters being grouped into the plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, and each register block generating an internal request signal;
- and
- a grant signal generation circuit which outputs a grant signal for granting ownership of the bus to a corresponding bus master in response to the request signal input from the corresponding bus master, and wherein the grant signal generation circuit generates an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master of the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus, and wherein the grant signal generation circuit outputs a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.