Arbiter Circuit Latency Reduction via Successive Request Granting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional arbiter devices experience increased latency due to frequent changes in active input ports during resource request arbitration, particularly in scenarios where multiple requests are simultaneously received, leading to inefficient resource allocation.
Innovation Solution
An arbiter device with multiple input ports, a credit register unit to store credit information for each port, and an arbiter circuit that selects and grants resource requests based on credit information, ensuring a predetermined number of successive requests are granted to each port, thereby reducing frequent changes and minimizing latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If Round Robin arbitration is used to grant resource requests in alternating fashion to multiple input ports, then fairness in resource allocation is improved, but the frequency of active input port changes increases leading to increased latency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-determining the number of successive resource requests to be granted to each input port before arbitration begins. The arbiter circuit uses stored indicator values to know in advance how many consecutive requests each port should receive, eliminating the need for frequent switching decisions and reducing latency associated with master changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamics by making the arbitration behavior adaptable based on stored indicators for each input port. The system dynamically adjusts the number of successive requests granted to each port according to pre-stored values, allowing flexible resource allocation while maintaining optimal performance by reducing unnecessary port switches.
2Adaptability or versatility
If frequent changes of active input port are made to serve multiple requests, then resource allocation flexibility is improved, but latency increases due to master access changes
Solution Approach 1:
The arbiter circuit performs preliminary action by pre-storing indicator values that define the exact number of successive requests each input port should receive. This pre-planning allows the system to maintain flexibility in resource allocation while avoiding unnecessary port changes, thereby reducing latency caused by master access transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies continuity of useful action by granting a predetermined number of successive resource requests to each selected input port without interruption or switching. This continuous granting of requests to the same port eliminates latency associated with changing active ports, while the predetermined indicators ensure flexible and fair overall resource allocation.
Data Source
AI summary
An arbiter device arbitrating resource requests received at a plurality of input ports is proposed, which comprises an arbiter circuit that selects an input port to which a resource request is to be granted and successively grants a number of resource requests received at the selected input port.