Ring bus for sharing resources among multiple engines

Abstract

An electronic system including modules connected in a ring network is provided. The modules communicate via ring interfaces. The ring interfaces are connected by inter-module links that include a control bus and combined address and data bus. The ring interfaces send and receive single-cycle transactions. The control bus signals the type of transaction and the source and destination modules. The ring interfaces forward transactions to their destinations and may send new transaction when a cycle is empty. Each read operation uses a read request transaction containing an address that is responded to with an acknowledgment transaction that includes the requested data. Each write operation uses two write requests, one containing an address and one containing data. The destination module signals completion of the write operation by sending an acknowledgment transaction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.