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. 06, 2002
Filed:
May. 04, 1999
Richard Gerard Hofmann, Cary, NC (US);
Peter Dean LaFauci, Holly Springs, NC (US);
Dennis Charles Wilkerson, Durham, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Methods, arbiters, and computer program products determine if a request for an idle bus in a dual bus data processing system is being blocked by one or more pending requests for the other bus. In this circumstance, any such pending request for the other bus is masked by the arbiter so that the request for the idle bus can be granted. Consequently, a more efficient utilization of the dual bus architecture is achieved. In an illustrative embodiment, a bus request is received for a first one of the dual busses. If the address and control busses are unavailable to allow the request to be granted, then an inquiry is made regarding the status of a pending request for the second one of the dual busses that has gained control of the address and control busses. In particular, it is determined whether a primary request has been granted and a secondary request has been pipelined for the second one of the dual busses. If a primary request has been granted and a secondary request has been pipelined, then the priority of the pending requests for the second one of the dual busses are examined. If the priority of the pending requests for the second one of the dual busses are at least as high as the currently pending request for the first one of the dual busses, then these requests are masked so that they no longer appears to be pending, which allows the request for the first one of the dual busses to be granted.