Patent ID: 6868529

Claim:
A method, comprising: a) rolling a vector of request values to form a first rolled vector and a second rolled vector, said first rolled vector having a different amount of rolled request values than said second rolled vector, said request values provided by a plurality of request agents, a position within said first rolled vector being reserved for a request value that was provided by a first request agent, a position within said second rolled vector being reserved for a request value that was provided by a second request; and, b) if said first request agent is eligible for a grant in a round robin grant eligibility hierarchy: extracting a first active request value that is observed in said first rolled vector starting from said position within said first rolled vector and extending in a direction toward a request value provided by a next request agent to be recognized as being grant eligible within said eligibility hierarchy; if said first request agent is not eligible for a grant in said round robin eligibility hierarchy: extracting a first active request value that is observed in said second rolled vector starting from said position within said second rolled vector and extending in a direction toward a request value provided by a next request agent to be recognized as being grant eligible within said eligibility hierarchy.