Patent ID: 6795875
Filing Date: 2004-09-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An audio/video processing system comprising:an audio processing module disposed to process audio data and to provide first requests over a first data channel; a second processing module disposed to process data and to provide second requests over a second data channel; and a direct memory access (DMA) engine that is external to and shared by the audio processing module and the second processing module for receiving the first and second requests over the first and second data channels, the DMA engine comprising: a centralized data reservoir divided into a plurality of device memory buffers, with one or more device memory buffers being allocated to the audio processing module and one or more device memory buffers being allocated to the second processing module, in order to consolidate buffer requirements for the audio processing module and the second processing module within the centralized data reservoir and an arbitration mechanism disposed to arbitrate the first and second data requests, wherein said arbitration mechanism arbitrates said data requests from said audio processing module and said second processing module on a per module basis regardless of the number of requests made by said audio processing module or by said second processing module.