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:
Mar. 30, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 11, 1996
Gordon A Charles, Palo Alto, CA (US);
C-Cube Microsystems, Milipitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing memory arbitration which allows multiple hardware functions implemented in a single ASIC to utilize a single shared memory unit or multiple shared memory units. The memory arbitration technique establishes a priority among multiple memory access requesters and is particularly well-suited for use in a set top box processing system. A plurality of memory access requests are received from a plurality of processing elements in a set top box processing system. The processing elements include a transport stream demultiplexer, a host central processing unit and a graphics processor. The processing elements are permitted to access a shared memory in accordance with an established priority. The established priority assigns a higher priority to the graphics processor than to the host central processing unit, and may be in the order of graphics processor, transport stream demultiplexer, and central processing unit.