Patent ID: 8219996

Claim:
A computer processor comprising: a hardware resource; requestors configured to request access to said hardware resource; a resource allocator configured to allocate said hardware resource among said requestors; a fairness monitor including a counter, said fairness monitor being coupled to said resource allocator, said fairness monitor configured to: use said counter to track allocations of said hardware resource to said requestors to yield allocation counts representing a comparative allocation; determine whether said comparative allocation is fair, unfair favoring a first requestor, or unfair disfavoring said first requestor; cause said resource allocator to bias said allocating to favor said first requestor in response an indication by said allocation counts that said comparative allocation has transitioned from fair to unfair disfavoring said first requestor while said allocating is unbiased; and cause said resource allocator to continue to bias said allocating in response to an indication by said allocation counts that said comparative allocation has transitioned from unfair disfavoring said first requestor to fair while said allocating is biased favoring said first requestor.