The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 16, 1995
Filed:
Oct. 16, 1992
Marty L Long, Meas, AZ (US);
James Ward, Gilbert, AZ (US);
VLSI Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An input/output (I/O) controller uses a single transceiver to service multiple I/O ports in a small computer system, such as an IBM PS/2 computer. Arbitration logic controls the access of the ports to the transceiver, and once the arbitration logic directs one of the ports to the transceiver, all other I/O devices are locked out until the transfer to or from the current I/O device is complete. Once the current transfer is complete, the arbitration logic then goes back to arbitrating, looking for the next I/O device that needs service. The associated circuitry to implement the arbitration and control logic is much smaller than the circuitry required for an additional transceiver, resulting in a lower system cost.