Patent ID: 6633939
Filing Date: 2003-10-14
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method of arbitration between a plurality of n units seeking access to a resource by expressing respective requests and respective priorities, access of said units to said resource being regulated according to grants identified by means of the arbitration method, the arbitration method comprising:comparing between one another said respective priorities, generating, for each pair of said units comprising in general a unit x and a unit y with respective priorities Px and Py, a selection signal at a high level if the result of the operation Px>=Py is true; generating, for said pairs of said units, respective cross-request signals req_arb(selxnoty, req_x, req_y, req_x_y, req_y_x) â€ƒwhere selxnoty is the aforesaid selection signal; req_x is the request coming from the unit x; req_y is the signal coming from the unit y; and req_x_y and req_y_x are, respectively, the outputs of the function req_x AND (selxnoty OR NOT req_y) and of the function req_y AND ((NOT selxnoty) OR (NOT req_x)); and generating the grant for an ith unit as a logical product of all the aforesaid cross-request signals req_i_z with z ranging from 1 to n, excluding the case of z=i.