Patent ID: 7760768

Claim:
A system for transferring a signal to a channel, comprising: a storage unit dedicated to the channel for storing source identification information of a plurality of predetermined sources, the source identification information indicating an order of priority of the plurality of predetermined sources for access to the channel; a plurality of selection circuits for receiving input signals from at least one of the plurality of predetermined sources and the source identification information of the plurality of predetermined sources from the storage unit, each of the selection circuits receives source identification information for one of the plurality of predetermined sources and each of the selection circuits selects one of the plurality of input signals in response to the source identification information for the one of the plurality of predetermined sources wherein the plurality of selection circuits receive the source identification information for the plurality of predetermined sources in order of priority such that a first selection circuit of the plurality of selection circuits receives source identification information for a highest-priority source; and a circuit for checking outputs of the selection circuits and forwarding selected input signals to the channel, wherein the storage unit stores the source identification information in a long bit sequence in an order of priority and stores the source identification information for the highest-priority source in the most significant bits of the storage unit.