Advance polling bus arbiter for use in multiple bus system

Claim 1

A bus arbitration system for providing advance transfer signals in a multisystem computer network, comprising: a plurality of system units each, having an independent local bus address and predetermined priority number, asserting a bus request signal upon desiring to perform a bus transfer operation; an intersystem bus link coupled between one of said plurality of system units and a remote bus for performing off-bus transfers; a local system bus coupled to said plurality of system units for receiving said bus request signals; and a polling bus arbiter, comprising: bus request receiving means coupled to said plurality of system units for receiving said bus request signals from said local system bus; target means for receiving a target bus address signal from said system units asserting a bus request signal simultaneously with receiving of said bus request signal by said bus request receiving means; means for comparing said target bus address to said local bus address of each of said plurality of system units; means for prioritizing said bus request signals according to said predetermined priority numbers of said system units asserting said bus request signals; first signalling means for signalling a bus grant status signal to a system unit asserting a bus request signal prioritized by said prioritizing means; and second signalling means for signalling said intersystem bus link of an impending bus transfer through said intersystem bus link by said system unit upon determination by said comparing means that said target bus address matches an address of a remote bus to which said intersystem bus link is connected; wherein system bus arbitration and providing advance transfer signals to the intersystem bus link take place in a single bus cycle, thus saving time.