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:
Oct. 26, 2010
Filed:
Dec. 12, 2006
Alistair Crone Bruce, Stockport, GB;
Alistair Crone Bruce, Stockport, GB;
ARM Limited, Cambridge, GB;
Abstract
An adaptor circuitfor peripheral devicesis provided with a direct memory access manager. This local direct memory access manageris able to autonomously manage data transfers on behalf of its associated peripheral device. A computer program tools used to generate signal interconnectsis used to additionally specify whether a DMA capability is to be provided for a peripheral device, whereupon an adaptor circuitincluding a DMA managercan be included within the signal interconnect. A DMA command signal is added to the interconnect signals being passed around the signal interconnectand enables DMA command/configuration data to be distributed using the existing signal distribution infrastructure and addressed to the associated peripheral deviceof the target local DMA controller. Existing software drivers can issue control information to a main central DMA controller, which then passes this information on to a DMA Capable adaptor circuitto manage the transfer concerned. Thus the present technique can be used without requiring software drivers to be rewritten.