Priority requestor accelerator

Abstract

A system for accelerating the granting of prioritized memory requests to a multi port memory system of a data processing system is disclosed. The priority requestor accelerator system detects the fact that one remaining requestor is in the priority memory system. The priority system logic is cleared out before the end of the normal requestor cycle. This allows the acceptance of a new set of requestors to be presented to the priority circuits at that time rather than waiting until presentation of the final request. Thus, the accelerator detects that the requestors from a previous requesting snap are on their last cycle. This allows a preclearance of the lower ranks as the priority circuit finishes its last cycle. The new requests are then loaded and the priority inputs are snapped shut beginning a new set of cycles. The overall operation happens as if the priority circuit is just moving from one requestor to another that is already in residence after the snap. Without this acceleration, a full memory cycle would have been lost with each reloading of the priority register.