Patent ID: 6901468

Claim:
A bus arbitration method for granting access to a common bus having coupled thereto a plurality of candidates desiring access to such bus, one of such candidates being granted access to such bus in accordance with the a method comprising: granting default access to the bus to a predetermined one of the candidates or, in the absence of such default granting; granting access to the bus to one of the candidates in accordance with predetermined priority criteria, such grant being modified when a plurality of such candidates request the bus, such grant to the bus then being such that the one of the candidates requesting the bus having the highest priority in the predetermined priority criteria not be granted the bus if such candidate was the recipient of the previous bus grant and with each one of the requesting plurality of candidates having a predetermined independent “wait count limit” indicating that such requesting one of the plurality of candidates has waited for n assertions of a grant to the bus to other requesting candidates without being granted the address bus, where n is a predetermined integer, and wherein if one of such candidate's “wait count limit” is reached, such candidate receives the bus grant, except that if plural requesting candidates simultaneously reach their respective “wait count limit”, then the bus grant will be granted in accordance with the predetermined priority criteria; wherein when multiple candidates are requesting the bus, the “highest priority” requesting candidate will not be granted the bus if such candidate was the recipient of the previous address bus grant; and wherein the bus arbitration includes determining whether or not one of the candidates has requested two consecutive transfers by asserting a double-access request for the bus.