Patent ID: 8601192

Claim:
An arbitration system comprising: one or more arbitration devices including a first arbitration device, each of the arbitration devices including: a first receiving unit operable to receive one or more resource use request commands from a plurality of devices; an arbitration unit operable, when the first receiving unit receives a set of two or more resource use request commands during each of a plurality of predetermined cycles, to evaluate a priority of each resource use request command in the set and to select from the set a first resource use request command having a highest priority and a second resource use request command having a second highest priority; an output unit operable to output the first resource use request command and the second resource use request command selected by the arbitration unit to an external destination during each of the predetermined cycles; and a second receiving unit operable to receive a resource use response signal that includes information identifying a resource use request command, wherein upon receipt of the resource use response signal by the second receiving unit, the arbitration unit is operable to remove the resource use request command identified by the resource use response signal from the set from which the first resource use request command and the second resource use request command are selected, wherein the arbitration system further comprises: a third receiving unit operable to receive the first resource use request command and the second resource use request command output by the first arbitration device and a resource use request command from one or more devices; a final arbitration unit operable, for a set of resource use request commands received by the third receiving unit during each of the predetermined cycles, to evaluate a priority of each resource use request command in the set and to select from the set a top priority resource use request command having a highest priority; a final output unit operable to output, during each of the predetermined cycles, the top priority resource use request command selected by the final arbitration unit; a resource use request command receiving unit operable to receive the top priority resource use request command output by the final output unit; a fourth receiving unit operable to receive a resource use response signal; and a resource use response signal output unit operable, when the resource use request command receiving unit receives the top priority resource use request command, to output a resource use response signal including information identifying the top priority resource use request command to the second receiving unit and the fourth receiving unit, and wherein upon receipt of the resource use response signal by the fourth receiving unit, the final arbitration unit is operable to remove the resource use request command identified by the resource use response signal from the set from which the top priority resource use request command is selected.