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:
Feb. 23, 1999
Filed:
May. 15, 1997
Charles E Molnar, Webster Groves, MO (US);
Ian W Jones, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An arbiter circuit having a plurality of mutual exclusion (MUTEX) elements is disclosed. Each of the MUTEX elements is coupled to receive a different combination of request signals and their complements and grant signals and their complements fed back from the output of the arbiter circuit. At any point in time, only one of the plurality of MUTEX elements is selected based on the current state of the grant signals. The selected MUTEX element is used to arbitrate and grant one user exclusive access to a shared resource among the one or more users requesting exclusive access to the shared resource. All the other MUTEX elements in the arbiter circuit are disabled and are inactive during this time. After issuing the grant signal, the selected MUTEX element is disabled and a new MUTEX element responsible for issuing the next grant signal is selected based the new state of the grant signals.