Variable length arbitration

摘要

In one embodiment, a method determines a plurality of categories for requests for a shared resource being shared by a plurality of entities. A request for the resource is received from an entity in the plurality of entities. The method determines a category in the plurality of categories for the received request. If the received request is determined to be in a first category, the method dispatches the received request to a first arbitration scheme configured to determine an arbitration decision in a first time cycle. If the received request is determined to be in a second category, the method dispatches the received request to a second arbitration scheme configured to determine an arbitration decision in a second time cycle of a different length from the first time cycle.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
determining a plurality of categories for requests for a shared resource being shared by a plurality of entities; receiving a plurality of requests for the resource from the plurality of entities; determining a category in the plurality of categories for each of the plurality of requests; providing a first set of requests and a second set of requests from among the plurality of requests, wherein the first set of requests is determined to be in a first category and the second set of requests is determined to be in a second category; dispatching the first set of requests to a first arbitration scheme, wherein the first arbitration scheme implements a first arbitration algorithm configured to use a first number of clock cycles to determine a first arbitration decision, wherein the first number of clock cycles corresponds to a first amount of time used by the first arbitration scheme to determine the first arbitration decision, and wherein the first arbitration decision identifies a first request to be granted from among the first set of requests; and dispatching the second set of requests to a second arbitration scheme, wherein the second arbitration scheme implements a second arbitration algorithm configured to use a second number of clock cycles to determine a second arbitration decision, wherein the first number of clock cycles and the second number of clock cycles are different, wherein the second number of clock cycles corresponds to a second amount of time, different from the first amount of time, used by the second arbitration scheme to determine the second arbitration decision, and wherein the second arbitration decision identifies a second request to be granted from among the second set of requests.