Patent ID: 7562171

Claim:
A method of interfacing two components of a computing system, wherein the method comprises: providing a pair of unidirectional, point-to-point buses to transmit data between a master bus controller of a computing system and a slave bus controller of a processor unit of the computing system absent bus selection arbitration, wherein the pair of unidirectional, point-to-point buses comprises a unidirectional, point-to-point output bus to transmit data from the master bus controller to the slave bus controller and a unidirectional, point-to-point input bus to transmit data from the slave bus controller to the master bus controller, wherein the master bus controller initiates a transmission of the data between the master bus controller and the slave bus controller, the master bus controller being coupled to a component of the computing system, and the slave bus controller being coupled to a component of the processor unit of the computing system; providing means for transmitting a command packet, comprising a command, an address and any data, the address being associated with data pertaining to the command, from the master bus controller to the slave bus controller on the unidirectional, point-to-point output bus; providing means for determining by the slave bus controller whether the slave bus controller can accept the command; and providing means for transmitting during a first input bus signaling interval one of an acknowledgement (ACK) signal or a non-acknowledge (NACK) signal from the slave bus controller to the master bus controller via the unidirectional, point-to-point input bus responsive to the slave bus controller receiving a first output bus signaling interval comprising command and control information for the command packet on the unidirectional, point-to-point output bus and before the slave bus controller receives a subsequent output bus signaling interval comprising data of the command packet on the unidirectional, point-to-point output bus, wherein the acknowledge (ACK) signal is transmitted if the determining indicates that the slave bus controller can accept the command packet and the not-acknowledge (NACK) signal is transmitted if the determining indicates that the slave bus controller can not accept the command packet.