Method and apparatus for avoiding deadlock in a computer system with two or more protocol-controlled buses interconnected by a bus adaptor

摘要

A method and an apparatus to avoid a deadlock in a computer system with several busses connected by a bus adapter. If units of different busses of the computer system simultaneously start operations for which more than one bus is needed, it may come to a deadlock. By introducing a BUS SUSPEND signal to one of the busses and adapting the bus-protocol to honor this signal at distinct time slots, deadlock situations are avoided.