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:
May. 02, 2006
Filed:
Dec. 12, 2003
Timothy Dorr, Lancaster, MA (US);
Stephen Strickland, Marlboro, MA (US);
Timothy Dorr, Lancaster, MA (US);
Stephen Strickland, Marlboro, MA (US);
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus is described for controlling accesses to a shared resource. An arbitration mechanism uses a register, accessible by each device sharing the resource. The register may be written by the device to request access to the resource, and read by the device to determine whether access to the resource has been granted. Advantageously, the register includes an override bit, which may be used by either device to override the peer device's request for the shared resource. In addition, the register includes a reset bit that may be used to reset arbitration logic controlling the access to the shared logic. The register is used by a straightforward arbitration mechanism that includes only IDLE and GRANT states for each device coupled to the shared resource. Such an arrangement provides a low cost method of controlling accesses to a shared resource.