Qualcomm Incorporated

Michael Egnoah Birenbach

James Norris Dieffenderfer

Thomas Andrew Sartorius

Richard Gerard Hofmann

Rodney Wayne Smith

Martyn R Shirlen

Richard Alan Moore

Stephen G Geist

Gregory Lee Brookshire

Efficient techniques are described for identifying active interrupt requests to improve performance and reduce power requirements in a processor system. A method to identify active sampled interrupt requests begins with scanning groups of the sampled interrupt requests one group at a time to identify an active interrupt request in any scanned group. A group of interrupt requests is an M/R priority of N sampled interrupt requests, M is the number of priority levels, and R is a resource sharing factor. A group selection circuit is updated to a new group in response to having identified an active interrupt request to improve the latency in processing high priority interrupt requests. Also, groups having active interrupt requests may be identified by early detection or look ahead circuitry. The scanning of groups of interrupt requests may be stopped until the next interrupt request sample point has been reached to reduce power utilization.

Methods and apparatus for resource sharing in a programmable interrupt controller

A processor provides two-level interrupt servicing. In one embodiment, the processor comprises a storage device and an interrupt handler. The storage device is configured to store an interrupt identifier corresponding to an interrupt request. The interrupt handler is configured to recognize the interrupt request, initiate a common interrupt service routine responsive to recognizing the interrupt request and subsequently initiate an interrupt service routine corresponding to the stored interrupt identifier.

Two-level interrupt service routine

Growing community of inventors

Cary, NC, United States of America

Michael Egnoah Birenbach