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:
Aug. 03, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 17, 1997
Victor K Pecone, Austin, TX (US);
Jay R Lory, Austin, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
A computer system is provided wherein a bus master generates a signal indicative of the type of cycle it plans to initiate when requesting bus ownership. Other bus masters may be configured to generate similar cycle-type signals. A bus arbiter samples each master's unique cycle type signal during the request phase, and further receives information regarding the status of various target resources. Based upon the cycle type signals from requesting masters and upon the target resource information, the bus arbiter determines whether a master is planning to access an unavailable target resource. A master that is planning to access an unavailable target resource will be denied access of the bus. Accordingly, other masters intending to initiate cycles to available target resources may be granted ownership of the bus. As a result, target termination retry cycles may be avoided, and bus bandwidth and overall system performance may be improved.