Patent ID: 7620745

Claim:
A method for transferring data between a memory and peripheral units, the method comprising: assigning priorities to the data to be transferred based on the respective type of data, wherein the respective type of data comprise management data, voice data, video data, and user data; transferring the data by direct memory access (DMA) control between the memory and the peripheral units in conformity with the priorities assigned in each case, wherein assigning the priorities and transferring the data by DMA control in conformity with the priorities assigned in each case are performed independently for data transferred from the peripheral units to the memory and for data transferred from the memory to the peripheral units; informing the DMA control of the priority for data to be transferred from a peripheral unit to the memory by the relevant peripheral unit, while informing the DMA control of the priority for data to be transferred from the memory to a peripheral unit by a processor cooperating with the DMA control; wherein if data to be transferred with a higher priority than the data currently being transferred occur, interrupting the transferring of the data currently being transferred, in order first to transfer the data with the higher priority; and wherein if several data blocks are assigned a same high priority simultaneously for transfer in the same transfer direction, guaranteeing a minimum delay for transfer of the several data blocks having the same high priority.