Patent ID: 6892259

Claim:
A method for allocating resources in a computer system, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a request for a transaction on a target device coupled to a computer bus, the target device having a plurality of resources, from an initiator device of a plurality of initiator devices coupled to the computer bus; (b) if no resource of the plurality of resources is available, identifying the initiator device as a priority requester device by determining whether stored identification information of the initiator device exists, and if the stored identification information exists, sending a retry response to the initiator device to retry the request, and if no stored identification information exists, storing identification information of the initiator device, creating the stored identification information; (c) if only one resource of the plurality of resources is available, comparing the stored identification information with identification information of the initiator device and if the stored identification information matches the identification information of the initiator device, allocating the resource and deleting the stored identification information; and (d) if only one resource of the plurality of resources is available comparing the stored identification information with identification information of the initiator device and sending the response to the initiator device to retry the request if the stored identification information differs from the identification information of the initiator device (e) if more than one resource of the plurality of resources is available, allocating an available resource of the plurality of resources to the initiator device and deleting any stored identification information.