Patent ID: 10628355

Abstract:
An apparatus and method are provided for processing burst read transactions. The apparatus has a master device and a slave device coupled to the master device via a connection medium. The master device comprises processing circuitry for initiating a burst read transaction that causes the master device to issue to the slave device, via the connection medium, an address transfer specifying a read address. The slave device is arranged to process the burst read transaction by causing a plurality of data items required by the burst read transaction to be obtained based on the read address specified by the address transfer, and by performing a plurality of data transfers over the connection medium in order to transfer the plurality of data items to the master device. The slave device has transfer identifier generation circuitry for generating, for each data transfer, a transfer identifier to be transmitted over the connection medium to identify which data item in the plurality of data items is being transferred by that data transfer. The master device has buffer circuitry to buffer data items received by the plurality of data transfers, and to employ the transfer identifier provided for each data transfer to cause the plurality of data items to be provided to the processing circuitry in a determined order irrespective of an order in which the data items are transferred to the master device via the plurality of data transfers. This can significantly reduce the overhead required to manage the supply of the data items to the processing circuitry in the required determined order.