Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Rita M Wisor

Brett B Stewart

Drew Jon Dutton

Douglas D Gephardt

Steven L Belt

A dedicated bus between a central processing unit and a peripheral unit, such as a graphics controller driving a video display, provides enhanced capability in an environment in which signal processing occurs within the central processing unit. The dedicated bus relieves other data buses, such as the PCI bus, of the need to communicate large amounts of data, such as decompressed video data. The resulting system supports high bandwidth transmissions of decompressed video data, enabling high resolution 24 bit full motion video and multiple data stream video.

Processor with decompressed video bus

A data bus for connecting information processing devices is configurable into a plurality of subbusses in order to fully utilize the data bus capacity. The size and data transfer direction of each subbus, as well as the data transfer speed of each subbus, is independent of the other subbusses. Also, the data bus can be reconfigured to meet changing system requirements. A data bus controller is thus provided to accomplish this data bus reconfiguration. The reconfiguration may be accomplished in accordance with one of a plurality of information flow templates which may be stored in a memory. A method of configuring a data bus is also provided wherein information transfer needs of a system are identified and the data bus is configured according to the identified information transfer means. The reconfiguration in accordance with the information transfer needs may be accomplished in accordance with one or more information flow templates which may be stored in a memory. The system may operate in accordance with a self arbitration scheme such that reconfiguration of the system is based on operational experience, such as utilization rates or excess capacity associated with each of the subbusses.

System for dynamically reconfiguring subbusses of data bus according to

A method and apparatus for transferring original data which includes images, between two stations located a distance apart, without actual transmission of the image portion of the data. A library of images are provided at each of the stations. The image to be transferred is processed into a description of the image which allows the reproduction of the image at the receiving end of the transmission using the images contained in the image library in the receiving station.

System for reproducing images utilizing image libraries

A method of allocating bandwidth among a plurality of devices communicatively connected through a data bus provides for determining a data need of at least one of the plurality of devices, allocating portions of the data bus to the devices in response to the data need, and transmitting data between the devices on the allocated portions of the data bus. The portions of the data bus can be subbusses, each comprising at least one bit line. The data need can be based on a measure of fullness of a buffer corresponding to the at least one device. The data need can be provided as feedback from the buffer to a data bus controller which allocates the portions of the data bus. The method can use rules for assigning the subbusses which are stored in a memory. A processor can change the rules to accommodate changing conditions in the data bus. Also provided is a data communication system comprising a dynamically reconfigurable data bus, a data bus controller connected to the dynamically reconfigurable data bus for configuring subbusses of the data bus, a plurality of receiving devices connected to the data bus, and a feedback connection from at least one of the receiving devices to the data bus controller, wherein the data bus controller configures the subbusses in accordance with feedback received over the feedback connection. A memory can be connected to the data bus controller for storing rules for use by the data bus controller in configuring the subbusses. A processor can change the rules to accommodate changing conditions in the data bus.

Reverse data channel as a bandwidth modulator

A data communication system includes an express bus, a plurality of local buses, and a plurality of local/express bridges, each local/express bridge connecting a corresponding local bus to the express bus. A plurality of local/local bridges each connect two corresponding local buses. The plurality of local buses and the plurality of local/local bridges comprise a local path. Also provided is a method of communicating information from a sending communication device to a target communication device, comprising the steps of a) determining if the target communication device is on a local bus corresponding to the sending communication device, b) transferring the information from the sending communication device to the target communication device on the local bus corresponding to the sending communication device if the result of step a) is that the target communication device is on the local bus corresponding to the sending communication device, c) transferring the information from the sending communication device to an express bus if the result of step a) is that the target communication device is not on the local bus corresponding to the sending communication device, d) transferring the information from the express bus to a local bus corresponding to the target communication device, and e) transferring the information from the local bus corresponding to the target communication device to the target communication device.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Rita M Wisor