Electronic Device And A Method For Arbitrating Shared Resources
An electronic device is provided comprising a plurality of first shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ) and a plurality of arbiter units (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) each for performing an arbitration for at least one of the plurality of shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ). The communication between the arbiter units (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) is performed on an asynchronous basis, and the data communication between the first shared resources is performed on an asynchronous basis. Each arbiter unit (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) is adapted for sending a first token (T) to at least one neighboring arbiter unit (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ), and for receiving a second token (T) from at least one neighboring arbiter unit (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) to implement a first global notion of time.
1 . Electronic device, comprising:
a plurality of first shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ); and
a plurality of arbiter units (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) each for performing an arbitration for at least one of the plurality of first shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 );
wherein communication between the arbiter units (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) is performed on an asynchronous basis, and data communication between first shared resources is performed on an asynchronous basis; and
wherein each arbiter unit (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) is adapted for sending a first token (T) to at least one neighboring arbiter unit (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ), and for receiving a second token (T) from at least one neighboring arbiter unit (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) to implement a first global notion of time.
2 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the arbiter units (AAU 1 -AAU 4 ) are adapted to send and receive the first and second tokens (T) to implement a global arbitration scheme for providing a required end-to-end quality of service for all of the first shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ).
3 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , further comprising
a plurality of ports (OPCU, IPCU);
an asynchronous interconnect means (IM, NOC) being a first shared resource (SR 1 -SR 4 ) for coupling the plurality of ports (OPCU, IPCU);
wherein the interconnect means (IM, NOC) comprises a plurality of interconnect units (NI, R) each being a second shared resource, and a plurality of arbiter units each for performing an arbitration for at least one of the plurality of second shared resources and for sending a first token (T) to at least one neighboring arbiter unit, and for receiving a second token (T) from at least one neighboring arbiter unit to implement a second global notion of time within the interconnect means (IM, NOC).
4 . Electronic device according to claim 3 ,
the arbiter units serve to implement a global arbitration scheme for providing a required end-to-end quality of service between the plurality of ports.
5 . Electronic device according to claim 1 ,
wherein at least one of the first shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ) is a communication resource, a storage resource, and/or a computation resource.
6 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
arbiter units (AAC 1 -AAC 4 ) perform based on a Time Division Multiple Access scheme, based on a rate-controlled arbitration or based on a dead-line arbitration.
7 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the arbiter units (AAC 1 -AAC 4 ) or the first and/or second shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ) comprise D-type ports.
8 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the arbiter units (AAC 1 -AAC 4 ) or the first and/or second shared resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ) comprise P-type ports.
9 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the arbiter units (AAC 1 -AAC 4 ) or the first and/or second resources (SR 1 -SR 4 ) comprise S-type ports.
10 . Electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein
the interconnect unit (NI, R) is a second shared resource and comprises network interface (NI), routers (R), bridges, and/or busses.
11 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first shared resources comprise network interface (NI), routers (R), bridges, and/or busses.
12 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
one of the first shared resources is a memory and the arbiter unit is a memory controller.
13 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
one of the first shared resources is a computation unit and the arbiter unit is a task scheduler for hardware or software multi-threading.
14 . Electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein
the first and second global notion of time are the same
15 . Electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein
the second global notion of time is multiple or divisor of the first global notion of time.
16 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the first and second token (T) indicate the passing of logical time based on non-zero increment, the increment being static or dynamically varying.
17 . Electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
the data communication is combined with a synchronization communication.
18 . Method for arbitrating shared resources within an electronic device having a plurality of first shared resources by performing a plurality of arbitrations for at least one of the plurality of first shared resources, comprising the steps of:
sending a first token to at least one neighboring arbitration, and
receiving a second token from at least one neighboring arbitration to implement a first global notion of time;
wherein communication between arbitrations is performed on an asynchronous basis, and wherein data communication between shared resources is performed on an asynchronous basis.
19 . (canceled)