Patent ID: 8028116

Claim:
A data transfer apparatus for transferring data between a system bus and a local bus, a processor being connected to the system bus, said data transfer apparatus comprising: an associative memory; and a controller being connected between the system bus and the local bus, the controller controlling data input/output of the associative memory; wherein the controller stores data that is being transferred between first and second devices connected to the system bus in the associative memory and when a device connected to the local bus requests data and the requested data is stored in the associative memory, the requested data in the associative memory is read out from the associative memory and provided to the device connected to the local bus via the local bus instead of the system bus; and wherein the data that is being transferred between the first and second devices connected to the system bus is stored in the associative memory by the controller before the data request is made by the device connected to the local bus.