Computer system with improved transition to low power operation

Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Intrasystem connection – Bus access regulation

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

713320, G06F 1338

Patent

active

06070215&

ABSTRACT:
A computer system includes a South bridge logic device that monitors the FLUSHREQ signal and masks that signal when the CPU transitions the computer to a low power mode of operation. Once masked, the FLUSHREQ cannot be asserted to the North bridge and the conflict between attempts by the CPU and an ISA device to run cycles on the PCI bus is avoided. The South bridge also masks all requests to run cycles on the PCI bus that are not originated by the CPU. The South bridge includes a programmable control register and a PCI arbiter. When a control bit is set in the register, the PCI arbiter waits for FLUSHREQ to be deasserted and then masks FLUSHREQ. The PCI arbiter preferably also disables PCI arbitration by masking all non-CPU. Only the CPU can run PCI cycles when the non-CPU requests are masked. The programmable control register also includes a masking status bit that is set when both the FLUSHREQ and non-CPU request signals are masked by a request mask state machine. The computer system may also include a laptop computer docked to an expansion base with a South bridge included in the computer and the expansion base.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5634073 (1997-05-01), Collins et al.
patent: 5644734 (1997-07-01), Hong
patent: 5717873 (1998-02-01), Rabe et al.
patent: 5764924 (1998-06-01), Hong
patent: 5764933 (1998-06-01), Richardson et al.
patent: 5778235 (1998-07-01), Robertson
patent: 5862358 (1999-01-01), Ervin et al.
patent: 5898888 (1999-04-01), Guthrie et al.
patent: 5906659 (1999-05-01), Derrick et al.
VLSI Digital Signal Processors by Vijay K. Madisetti (Georgia Institute of Technology) Chapter 3, pp. 61-63; Butterworth-Heinemann.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Computer system with improved transition to low power operation does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Computer system with improved transition to low power operation, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Computer system with improved transition to low power operation will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1918786

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.