Patent ID: 7299311

Claim:
An apparatus for arbitrating for access to a resource group between a plurality of agents, comprising: a programmable mapping module that, for each of the agents, selectively couples a respective arbitration handshake signal of the agent to one or more of a plurality of arbitration ports responsive to a respective programmable weight for the agent, wherein the one or more arbitration ports to which the agent is coupled corresponds in number to the respective programmable weight; a selection module coupled to the arbitration ports of the mapping module, wherein the selection module selects one of the arbitration ports in response to a priority ranking of the arbitration ports, and one of the agents having the respective arbitration handshake signal that is selectively coupled by the programmable mapping module to the selected one of the arbitration ports is granted access to the resource group; and a ranking module coupled to the selection module, wherein the ranking module provides the priority ranking of the arbitration ports and updates the priority ranking in response to the selection module selecting the one of the arbitration ports.