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:
Sep. 10, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1999
Stephen J. O'Connor, Mountain View, CA (US);
Robert L. Bailey, La Selva Beach, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
An arbiter arbitrates between PCI agents within an ASIC. The ASIC interfaces with an external PCI bus. In operation, the arbiter receives request signals from the PCI agents, and in response thereto, generates a single external request signal. Once the grant is received by the ASIC, the arbiter will route it to a selected PCI agent. The selected agent then gains access to the PCI bus and all other agents are locked out until the transaction is completed. The arbiter is implemented in such a way that there is a minium delay between the generation of the request by any agent and the request sent out by the ASIC. This is performed by ORing all requests.