Lucent Technologies Inc.

Agere Systems Inc.

Agere Systems Guardian Corp.

Kevin Joseph Lynch

James T Clee

Raul A Aguilar

James Edward Guziak

Farrukh Amjad Latif

James Guziak

Daniel J Devine

An apparatus for controlling access to a PCI bus includes a plurality of USB host controllers, each capable of being connected to a respective USB port. A plurality of PCI cores are each coupled to respective ones of the USB host controllers. A PCI arbiter is coupled to each of the PCI cores. The PCI arbiter is capable of arbitrating multiple requests for the PCI bus, each request initiated by a communication from a respective one of the plurality of USB ports. Full-rate USB data transfer capability is provided between the PCI bus and each of the USB ports. The PCI arbiter receives a plurality of requests for the PCI bus from the PCI cores. A FIFO queue within the PCI arbiter stores a respective record corresponding to each of the PCI cores. A next one of the records is read from the FIFO queue. PCI bus access is granted to the PCI core identified in the next record. The apparatus may include a first plurality of USB ports, each coupled to a respective one of the USB host controllers. A breakout box may be coupled to the first plurality of USB ports. The breakout box is remotely positionable from the first plurality of USB ports. The breakout box includes a second plurality of USB ports, so that full-rate USB data transfer capability is provided between the PCI bus and each one of the second plurality of USB ports.

Method and system for shared bus access

An apparatus and method which provide increased data flow through a compute platform by optimizing data flow between an external device and the internal circuitry without the need for user intervention. A port router is provided which includes a controller switch, a port switch, and one or more connections between the controller switch and the port switch. The controller switch, the port switch and the one or more connections are adapted to provide dynamic re-routing of connections between the port switch inputs and the controller switch outputs. A method is also provided for dynamically routing ports to internal circuitry of a compute platform. The method includes providing a configurable switching circuit, querying the configurable switching circuit to determine a default topology, computing an optimized topology upon the occurrence of a change of the data flow through the configurable switching circuit, suspending operation and effecting re-routing between the interface ports and the internal circuitry based on the optimized topology, and resuming IO operations through the configurable switching circuit. The method and apparatus may be applied to personal computer systems, information appliances, set-top boxes, cable modems, game consoles, smart appliances, handheld computers, palm-sized computers, embedded control systems, workstations, servers and the like.

Port router

An IO controller device and method for controlling data flow, the method including determining a desired configuration for the IO controller, reprogramming the IO controller to allow for processing of one or more descriptor lists, modifying the configuration of the IO controller to reflect the addition or deletion of one or more virtual controllers, re-enumerating the IO controller, and processing a descriptor list for each of the IO controller and the one or more virtual controllers. The integrated circuit device for use as an IO controller includes a system bus interface, a programmable list processor and a port router. The integrated circuit device is adapted for reconfiguration to add or delete one or more virtual controllers. The virtual controllers provide substantially the full bandwidth supported by the integrated circuit device. The IO controller device and apparatus may be applied to personal computer systems, information appliances, set-top boxes, cable modems, game consoles, smart appliances, handheld computers, palm-sized computers, embedded control systems, workstations, servers and the like.

Method and device for controlling data flow through an IO controller

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Slatington, PA, United States of America

Kevin Joseph Lynch