Patent ID: 7143219

Claim:
A system for controlling access to a plurality of resources based on at least one individual request received from at least one requestor seeking access to said resources, comprising: a priority register configured to receive each individual request and determine a priority for said request and transmit said request to a priority appropriate path; a first high priority arbiter receiving and arbitrating among highest priority requests in a round robin manner to determine a high priority suggested grant vector, wherein a predetermined quantity of request vector slots are allocated to lower priority requests, said first higher priority arbiter having an ability to generate a lower priority indication; a second lower priority arbiter receiving and arbitrating among lower priority requests in a round robin manner to determine a lower priority suggested grant vector; and grant circuitry connected to said first high priority arbiter and said second lower priority arbiter, said grant circuitry configured to receive high priority suggested grant vectors and lower priority suggested grant vectors and configured to pass the high priority suggested grant vector unless said grant circuitry receives the lower priority indication from the first higher priority arbiter, whereby the grant circuitry passes the lower priority suggested grant vector.