Patent ID: 8001334

Claim:
A method in a multi-port memory device for sharing banks of memory, the method comprising: receiving a request on a first port to access one of a plurality of banks of memory in a memory device having a plurality of ports; determining if the requested bank of the plurality of banks of memory is available, wherein determining if the requested bank of memory is available includes determining to which of a plurality of options bank access control is set, the plurality of options for bank access control including priority-based control, no control, and control by configuration; if the requested bank is available, granting to the first port access to the requested bank of memory; and upon granting access to the first port, providing an indication to other ports that the requested bank of memory is reserved by the first port; wherein: when the bank access control is set to control by configuration, then determining if the requested bank of memory is available including inspecting configuration data related to the requested bank of memory, and when the bank access control is set to priority control, then determining if the requested bank of memory is available comprises determining the priority of the first port relative to the other ports of the multi-port memory device.