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:
Oct. 01, 1996
Filed:
Nov. 30, 1994
Patrick M Bland, Austin, TX (US);
Daniel R Cronin, III, Lake Worth, FL (US);
Richard G Hofmann, Cary, NC (US);
Dennis Moeller, Boca Raton, FL (US);
Lance M Venarchick, Boca Raton, FL (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A bridge interface for buses in a computer system has a direct memory access (DMA) controller that controls memory transfers in the computer system. The DMA controller has a pair of cascaded DMA controller chips that provide a plurality of DMA channels. A multiplexer circuit receives memory address signals from the DMA controller chips. The memory address signals are received in both a shifted form and an unshifted form at the multiplexer inputs. By selection of the shifted or the unshifted memory address at the multiplexer, either even or odd addresses are produced at the multiplexer output for each DMA channel, thereby selectively providing 8-bit or 16-bit memory accesses. The control of the multiplexer is programmable for each DMA channel, providing dynamic configuration of the DHA channels as either 8-bit or 16-bit channels.