Patent ID: 8478950

Claim:
A data processing circuit, comprising: a plurality of agents, each configured to issue requests; a plurality of queues for queuing the requests, a first one of the agents being coupled to a first one of the queues, said first one of the agents being configured to issue a priority changing command with a defined position relative to pending requests issued by the first one of the agents to the first one of the queues; a request handler; a request concentrator coupled between the queues and the request handler; and an arbiter, coupled to a control input of the request concentrator and configured to make successive selections selecting queues from which the request concentrator will pass requests to the request handler, based on relative priorities assigned to the queues, the arbiter being configured to respond to the priority changing command by changing the priority of the first one of the queues, selectively for a duration while the pending requests up to the defined position are in the first one of the queues.