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:
Jul. 13, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 10, 1997
Werner Soell, Schonaich, DE;
Dieter Wendel, Schonaich, DE;
Friedrich-Christian Wernicke, Holzgerlingen, DE;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The invention relates to a circular buffer containing a sequence of entries, and in particular to determining a sequential priority among entries which both fulfill a given condition and are contained in said sequence. This problem is not straightforward, because said sequence of entries may wrap-around in said circular buffer, which means that said sequence of entries extends beyond the last entry position of the buffer. According to the invention, first, a number of virtual entry positions, which is at least equal to the number of real entry positions in the buffer, is added to the non-occupied part of the buffer. In a second step, each entry which fulfills the given condition blocks a certain number of adjacent entries, including said virtual entries. One entry will remain which is not blocked, and which also fulfills the given condition. This entry is the entry with sequential priority.