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. 06, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 06, 1995
Vladimir Lhotak, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Riaz A Moledina, Woodside, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc, Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is a method and system for reducing delays due to a stream of digital data processing requests to a function specific hardware circuit. The system includes a first hardware stage implemented to perform the given function and a second parallel software code stage implemented to perform the same function. The hardware stage employs circuitry to implement the function whereas the software stage performs the function using software code including function specific processor instructions. The system also includes an arbitration stage that routes the data values to either of the hardware or software stages depending on the availability of the hardware stage and in accordance to pre-defined arbitration rules.