Patent ID: 6105094
Filing Date: 2000-08-15
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A computer system having a shared resource access controller, comprising:a shared resource being a system secondary bus that couples to a system primary bus over a bus-to-bus bridge;a first type device coupled to the shared resource;a second type device coupled to the shared resource; andan arbitrator unit coupled between the first type device and the second type device, the arbitrator unit includes an asynchronous access grant buffer unit to retain access requests from the first type device before access is requested from the shared resource, the arbitrator unit being capable of granting exclusive access to the second type device that is coupled to the shared resource and preventing the first type device from being granted exclusive access to the shared resource while the access requests from the first type device remain in the asynchronous access buffer unit, wherein the arbitrator unit prevents the first type device from exclusive access to the shared resource for at least a duration of time after the second type device has completed an associated second type shared resource transaction.