Patent ID: 7076582
Filing Date: 2006-07-11
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: arbitrating for a bus having a plurality of agents distributed along the bus by driving an arbitration signal onto a signal line of the bus in response to a first edge of a clock signal during a drive portion of a clock cycle; sampling the arbitration signal by one or more agents in response to a second edge of the clock signal that commences an evaluate portion of the same clock cycle; evaluating the sampled arbitration signal following the second edge of the clock signal during the evaluate portion of the clock cycle to determine a winning agent; precharging the signal line at a plurality of precharge points along the signal line to perform rapid precharging at relatively even rate along the signal line during the evaluate portion of the clock cycle; and driving an address or data signal onto the bus by the winning agent of an arbitration at a beginning edge of a next clock cycle during a drive portion of the next clock cycle.