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. 13, 1997
Filed:
Apr. 04, 1996
William T Krein, San Jose, CA (US);
Charles M Flaig, Cupertino, CA (US);
James D Kelly, Aptos, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
To optimize system bus utilization in a computer system, a bus coordinator is included in the computer system to coordinate the transfer of information signals on the bus. Each time a source node wishes to transfer information to a destination node, the source node sends a request to the coordinator along with the identification of the destination node. Upon receiving this request, the coordinator determines whether the destination node has capacity to receive information signals. If the destination node has capacity, then the coordinator grants control of the system bus to the source node to allow the source node to send information signals to the destination node via the system bus. Otherwise, the source node is denied control of the system bus until the destination node has capacity to receive information signals. By granting control of the system bus to a source node only when the destination node has capacity to receive information signals, the coordinator ensures that no system bus time is wasted on unsuccessful information transfers. Thus, bus utilization is optimized.