DMA controller, system on chip comprising such a DMA controller, method of interchanging data via such a DMA controller

A system on chip comprising:

• a local memory;
• a central processing unit;
• a processing module;
• and
• a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller that includes:
• a first interface structured to interface with the local memory of the system on chip and operable to pass first data to and from the local memory, said first data associated with an indication to the local memory of an address in the local memory;
• a second interface structured to interface with the central processing unit of the system on chip, said DMA controller operable to perform, in response to a command from the central processing unit, operations for writing and reading second data in the local memory via the first interface;
• a third interface structured to interface with the processing module, said third interface being at least one of:
• operable to transmit to the processing module third data read via the first interface in the local memory, the transmission from said third interface based at least in part on receipt of at least one first command from the central processing unit, and the transmission not being associated with a prior indication to the processing module, by the DMA controller, of a first storage address of said third data;
• and
• operable to receive fourth data from the processing module and further operable to transmit to the local memory the received fourth data via the first interface, said reception of the fourth data based at least in part on receipt of at least one second command from the central processing unit, and the reception not being associated with a prior indication to the processing module, by the DMA controller, of a second storage address of said fourth data;
• and
• a fourth interface structured to interface with a memory external to the system on chip, said DMA controller operable to perform operations to write and read fifth data in the external memory via the fourth interface.

A data interchange method, comprising:

• reading data from a local memory of a system on chip using a first interface of a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller of the system on chip, said reading being associated with an indication to the local memory of an address in the local memory;
• at least one of the following two steps:
• transmitting from a second interface of the DMA controller to a data processing module the data read from the local memory, the transmitting based at least in part on receipt of at least one first command from a central processing unit of the system on chip, and the transmitting not being associated with an indication, to the data processing module by the DMA controller, of the address of said data in the local memory, and;
• receiving at the second interface data transmitted by the data processing module and supplying via the second interface to the first interface the received data in order to write the received data to the local memory, said receiving of the data transmitted by the data processing module based at least in part on receipt of at least one second command from the central processing unit, and said receiving of the data transmitted by the data processing module not being associated with a prior indication to the data processing module, by the DMA controller, of a storage address of said data;
• reading data from an external memory using a third interface of the DMA controller, the external memory being external to the system on chip;
• and
• transmitting the data read from the external memory to the data processing module via the local memory of the system on chip.

A system, comprising:

• an external memory;
• and
• a system on chip coupled to the external memory, the system on chip including:
• a local memory;
• a central processing unit;
• a processing module;
• and
• a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller that includes:
• a first interface structured to interface with the local memory of the system on chip and operable to pass data to and from the local memory, said data associated with an indication to the local memory of an address in the local memory;
• a second interface structured to interface with the central processing unit of the system on chip, said DMA controller operable to perform, in response to a command received from the central processing unit, operations for writing and reading the data in the local memory via the first interface;
• and
• a third interface structured to interface with the processing module, said third interface being at least one of:
• operable to transmit to the processing module the data read via the first interface in the local memory, the transmission from said third interface based at least in part on receipt of at least one first command from the central processing unit, and the transmission not being associated with an indication to the processing module, by the DMA controller, of a storage address of said data;
• and
• operable to receive the data delivered by the processing module and to transmit to the local memory the received data via the first interface, the reception of the data delivered by the processing module by the third interface based at least in part on receipt of at least one second command from the central processing unit, and the reception of the data delivered by the processing module not being associated with a prior indication to the processing module, by the DMA controller, of the storage address of said data;
• and
• a fourth interface structured to interface with the external memory, said DMA controller being designed to perform operations to write and read data in the external memory via the fourth interface.