Patent ID: 7353309
Filing Date: 2008-04-01
Classification: G06F,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A bus system comprising: a plurality of node devices interconnected via a bus; and a bus manager device connected to said plurality of node devices via respective bus control lines, wherein said bus manager device receives one or more reservations of transfers of isochronous blocks of data to be transferred by corresponding one or more of said plurality of node devices, in accordance with information on the one or more reservations of transfers of the isochronous blocks of data and with one or more requests for transfers of respective ones of the isochronous blocks of data and regular blocks of data, which requests are provided by one or more of said plurality of node devices, said bus manager device generates a schedule of an operating rate of a bus channel for each of the respective blocks of data, a number of assigned transfers per cycle of the bus channel for each of the respective blocks of data, and a size of a continuously transferred piece of data on the bus channel for each of the respective blocks of data, so that an expected average power consumption of the bus in terms of the bus channel operating rate for one or more transfer cycles is substantially lower, said bus manager device determines assignment of the bus channel to the blocks of data in accordance with the schedule and with the one or more requests for transfers of the respective blocks of data, said bus manager device provides information on the operating rate of the bus channel for each block of data and issues a grant of the bus channel, during a period of time determined in accordance with the size of the continuously transferred piece of data for that block of data and with the operating rate of the bus channel for that block of data, via the bus control line to one of said one or more node devices that transfers that block of data, and wherein the one node device that transfers that block of data maintains the request for transfer of that block of data, until the transfer of that block of data being requested for transfer is completed, and in response to a grant of the bus channel for that block of data that is issued by said bus manager device, the one node device transfers the piece of data of that block of data to another node device at the operating rate of the bus channel during the period of time of the grant of the bus channel, the operating rate being contained in the information received by the one node device.