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. 13, 2005
Filed:
Sep. 20, 2004
Donald M. Gray, San Francisco, CA (US);
Agha Zaigham Ahsan, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Donald M. Gray, San Francisco, CA (US);
Agha Zaigham Ahsan, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Systems for servicing the data and memory requirements of system devices. A DMA engine that includes a data reservoir is provided that manages and arbitrates, the data requests from the system devices. An arbitration unit is provided that only allows eligible devices to make a data request in any given cycle to ensure that all devices will be serviced within a programmable time period. The data reservoir contains the data buffers for each channel of each device. A memory interface ensures that sufficient data for each channel is present in the data reservoir by making requests to a system's memory based on an analysis of each channel. Based on this analysis, a request is either made to the system's main memory, or the channel waits until it is evaluated again in the future. Each channel is thereby guaranteed a response time.