Patent ID: 7127540

Claim:
A method of arbitrating for ownership of a bus connected to a plurality of bus masters, comprising: grouping the plurality of bus masters into a plurality of groups according to the frequency of each bus master owning the bus, wherein at least one bus master of the plurality of bus masters is assignable to simultaneously belong to more than one group of the plurality of groups, and wherein each group of the plurality of groups generates an internal request signal; and arbitrating ownership of the bus by each bus master according to the grouping, wherein each bus arbitration comprises: generating an internal grant signal and a bus master selection signal in response to each internal request signal, wherein the bus master selection signal indicates when a bus master among the plurality of bus masters has been granted access to the bus; outputting a notification signal when each bus master in a group of bus masters has been granted access to the bus; and outputting at least one grant signal from at least one selected internal grant signal.