METHOD TO MINIMIZE THE NUMBER OF IRQ LINES FROM PERIPHERALS TO ONE WIRE

摘要

A master device is provided which is coupled to a shared single line interrupt request (IRQ) bus and a control data bus. The master device group slave devices coupled to the shared single line IRQ bus into one or more groups, where each group is associated with a different IRQ signal. The master device then monitors the IRQ bus to ascertain when an IRQ signal is asserted by at least one slave device. The master device then identifies a group to with which the IRQ signal is associated. The slave devices for the identified group are then scanned or queried by the master device to ascertain which slave device asserted the IRQ signal on the IRQ bus. Each group uses a distinguishable IRQ signal to allow the master device to ascertain which group to query or scan.