Patent ID: 6665760
Filing Date: 2003-12-16
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A system comprising:(A) a plurality of hardware resources, the plurality of hardware resources being divided into groups of hardware resources; (B) a common resource, the common resource being coupled to the plurality of hardware resources; and (C) an arbiter, the arbiter being coupled to the plurality of resources, the arbiter controlling which of the plurality of hardware resources has priority to access to the common resource, the arbiter including a group shifting arbiter and a level shifting arbiter, the group shifting arbiter being configured to shift priority among the groups of hardware resources, and the level shifting arbiter being configured to separately shift priority among the hardware resources within each of the groups; and wherein each of the plurality of hardware resources is assigned to a priority level, the priority level determining the group in which the hardware resource is included, wherein at least one priority level of a plurality of available priority levels is an unassigned priority level to which none of the hardware resources are assigned, wherein the unassigned priority level defines an empty group, wherein all of the available priority levels have access intervals during which a group of hardware resources assigned to the respective priority level has access to the common resource, and wherein an access interval of the empty group is passed to another one of the groups of hardware resources.