Intel Corporation

Nader Raygani

David I Poisner

James P Kardach

Neil W Songer

John William Horigan

Sung-Soo Cho

Debra T Cohen

Jim S Cheng

Seyed Yahay Sotoudeh

A computer system that implements a direct memory access (DMA) request passing protocol. The computer system may comprise a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus that includes an electrical interface as specified by a PCI Local Bus standard. The PCI bus is coupled to at least one DMA agent and a DMA controller. The DMA agent issues DMA requests to the DMA controller using the electrical interface of the PCI bus. According to one embodiment, a system I/O controller receives the DMA requests and passes them on to the DMA controller, which arbitrates the DMA requests and passes back a grant to the system I/O controller. The system I/O controller uses the electrical interface of the PCI bus to pass the grant to the DMA agent. The same DMA request passing protocol may be implemented in any bus having an electrical interface that specifies a unique request signal line for each bus agent of the bus.

Method and apparatus for handling bus master and direct memory access

Method and apparatus for handling bus master channel and direct memory

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Nader Raygani