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:
Dec. 11, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1998
Jonathan M. Watts, Folsom, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for arbitrating for access to a group of shared resources that are communicating with multiple requesters over a shared communications link while minimizing latency and maximizing link utilization is applicable to any situation where more than one device communicates with more than one resource over a single communication link and where the cycle time of the resource is greater than the time the link is needed for the transfer by the resource. The invention maintains information about the state of the shared resources. This allows the provision of an arbitration algorithm that uses the shared communications link more efficiently. A shared resource typically requires some set-up time before transferring its data and also requires some recovery time after its data are transferred before another request may be processed. The invention provides careful selection of the sequence in which requests are serviced which allows one resource to set-up while another resource is still transferring data, and which allows the first resource to complete its recovery while the second resource is transferring data.