Methods and architectures for overlapped read and write operations

摘要

A communication system and method of communicating including a slave function connected to a master function by a single address bus, a write data bus and a read data bus so as to allow for overlapping multiple cycle read and write operations between the master function and the slave function. Preferably the communication system includes a plurality of slave functions connected to a master function by the single address bus, the write data bus and the read data bus. A plurality of master functions may be connected to the slave functions through a bus arbiter connected to the plurality of master functions by an address bus, a write data bus and a read data bus for each master function. The bus arbiter receives requests for communication operations from the plurality of master functions and selectively transmits the communication operations to the slave functions. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the master function and the slave function are further connected by a plurality of transfer qualifier signals which may specify whether the operation is a read or a write operation, the size of the transfer, the direction of the transfer or the type of transfer so as to further facilitate multiple cycle transfers with a single address specified on the single address bus.